EIGHTY  YEARS'  PROGRESS 


OF 


A  FAMILY  RECORD 

OF  AMERICAN  INDUSTRY,  ENERGY  AND  ENTERPRISE: 

SHOWING 

THE  VARIOUS  CHANNELS  OF  INDUSTRY  AND  EDUCATION  THROUGH  WHICH  THE 

PEOPLE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  HAVE  ARISEN  FROM  A  BRITISH 

COLONY  TO  THEIR  PRESENT  NATIONAL  IMPORTANCE; 

GIVING,  IN    AN    HISTORICAL   FORM, 

THE   VAST   IMPROVEMENTS  MADE   IN   AGRICULTURE,  CULTIVATION  OF   COTTON,  SUGAR, 

'  COMMERCE,    TRAVEL    AND   TRANSPORTATION,    STEAM     ENGINE,    MANUFACTURE    OF 

COTTON,   WOOLEN,    SILK,  PAPER,     FIRE-ARMS,    CUTLERY,    HATS,    CARRIAGES 

AND   COACHES,   PLATED   WARE,  LEATHER,    BOOTS   AND   SHOES,   CLOCKS 

AND   WATCHES,   PINS,    REPINED    SUGAR,    GLASS,    INDIA    RUBBER, 

FISHING    BUSINESS,    FUR  AND     FUR     TRADE,    HUMANITARIAN 

INSTITUTIONS,   ETC.,    ETC. 

WITH  A  LARGE  AMOUNT  OF  STATISTICAL  INFORMATION, 

• 

SHOWING  THE  COMPARATIVE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  DIFFERENT  STATES  WITH  EACH  OTHER,  AND, 
TO  SOME  EXTENT,  THIS  COUNTRY  WITH  OTHER  NATIONS. 

BY  EMINENT  LITERARY  MEN, 

WHO    HAVE    MADE    THE    SUBJECTS   OF   WHICH    THEY    HAVE   WRITTEN    THEIR    SPECIAL    STUDY.    , 

EXTENSIVELY  EMBELLISHED  WITH  STEEL  AND  ELECTROTYPE  PLATE  ENGRAVINGS, 

EXECUTED  BY  THE  FIRST  ARTISTS  IN  THE    COUNTRY,  ILLUSTRATING  THE   PROGRESS  OF  THE  VARIOUS 

INTERESTS    TREATED    OF. 


BY  A.GKE!NTS  ONLY. 
VOL.  I. 

HARTFORD,  CONN.: 

PUBLISHED    BY    L.    STEBBIUSTS. 

1867. 


Six 

THIS  Bill  entitles  tlu 
Bearer  to  Tecctvp. 
SIX  SPANISH  WILLED 
DOLLARS,  or  the 
ue  thereof  inuOLD 
ILVm-aworcHn?  to 
aKesoJuiion  of  COAT- 


THIS   ENGRAVING  SHO"WS    THE  BEST 


0f 


in  %  te  0f  %  gntmtitn 


THB  FANCY  TITLB  1'AOK  ENGRAVED  BT 


THE  NEW  YORK  BANK  NOTE  COMPANY,  50  WALL  STREET,  N.  Y., 

SHOWS  THE  PERFECTION   TO   WHICH   THE   ART  HAS   ATTAINED. 

THIS  IS  ONLY  A  FAIR  SAMPLE  OF  THE  GREAT  IMPROVEMENT  IN  NEARLY  EVERY  BRANCH 

OF  INDUSTRY. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  siity-six, 

BY    L.    STEBBINS, 

In  the  office  of  the  Clerk  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Southern  District 

of  New  York. 


fflFTOF 

Bancroft 
LIBRARY 


SUBJECTS  AND  AUTHORS. 


PROGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURE: 

Giving  an  account  of  the  early  settlement  of  this  country,  with  the  attendant  hardships 
aud  privations ;  early  modes  of  cultivating  the  soil ;  rapid  advance  of  settlements ;  im 
provements  in  Agricultural  Implements ;  in  breeds  of  Stock,  as  Horses,  Cattle,  Sheep, 
Swine,  Poultry,  and  Bees ;  Cultivation  of  Wheat,  Corn,  Rye,  Buckwheat,  Barley,  Po 
tatoes  ;  various  kinds  of  Grasses ;  Hops,  Flax,  Hemp,  Tobacco,  Silk,  Fruits,  &c. ;  the 
Lumber  Business,  together  with  a  large  amount  of  statistical  matter. 

By    CHARLES    L.    FLINT, 

Secretary Massachusetts  Board  of  Agriculture  •  Author  of  "Grasses"  "Forage 
Plants,"  "Milch  Cows  and  Dairy  Farming"  cfec.,  &c. 


CULTIVATION  OF  COTTON: 

Its  importance  in  Commerce,  Cheap  Lands,  Labor,  &c.,  &c. 

By  PROF.  C.  F.  McCAY,  late  of  Columbia  College,  S.  C. 


STEAM  ENGINE, 

Its  invention,  various  improvements,  manufacture,  and  uses,  with  reference  to  its  influence 
upon  the  industry  of  the  country,  in  its  application  to  manufactures. 

By  J.   C.   MERRIAM, 

Editor  and  Proprietor  of  the  " American  Engineer" 


COMMERCE   AND  TRADE, 

Colonial  Trade,  Imperial  Restriction,  Emancipation  of  Inhabitants,  Changed  Interest, 
Manufactures,  Course  of  Trade,  Speculation,  Revulsion,  Bankrupt  Law,  English  Free1 
Trade,  Revolution  in  France,  Farmers,  Gold,  Ships,  Tonnage,  Navigation  Laws,  &c. 


IMPROVEMENTS   IN   THE    MEANS    OF   TRAVEL   AND 

TRANSPORTATION, 

Including  Common  Roads,  Turnpikes,  M'Adam,  Plank,  and  Railroads,  River  and  Ocean 
Steamers ;  giving  a  history  of  their  origin,  progress,  and  influence  upon  the  growth  of 
the  country ;  their  extent,  construction,  cost,  &c. 

861319 


SUBJECTS    AND    AUTHORS. 


MANUFACTURES 

Of  Cotton,  "Woollen,  Paper,  Leather ;  Boots  and  Shoes,  Fire- Arms,  Cutlery,  Carriages  and 
Coaches,  Clocks  and  Watches,  Electro-plated  Ware,  Pins,  Refined  Sugars,  Silk,  Fire- 
Proof  Safes,  Bank-Locks,  Glass,  India-Rubber,  Sewing  Machines,  Musical  Instruments : 
showing  the  various  improvements  made  by  machinery  and  other  means  of  manufacture, 
the  extent  of  operations  and  value  of  productions,  <fec.,  &c. 

BUILDING,    BUILDING    MATERIALS,    FISHING    INTERESTS,    AND    FLOUR 

MILLS. 

By  THOMAS    P.   KETTELL, 

For  many  years  Editor  of  Hunt's  "Merchants'  Magazine"  and  Author  of 
various  Statistical  Works,  "History  of  the  Great  Rebellion"  dec. 


PREFACE 


IT  has  been  said  that  history,  as  generally  written,  is  but  an  account  of  the 
wars  and  contentions  by  which  dynasties  have  striven  for  the  mastery  of  na 
tions.  It  imparts  little  or  no  information  in  respect  to  the  social  condition  or 
material  progress  of  the  people  themselves.  It  is  true  that  the  means  of  pre 
serving  such  information  have  never  before  existed  in  the  shape  of  those  print 
ing  facilities  which  at  this  day  place  every  variety  of  intelligence  within  the 
reach  of  the  poorest  classes.  These  facilities  are  themselves  among  the  won 
ders  that  have  attended  the  progress  of  the  American  people  during  the  past 
eighty  years.  In  that  period  a  nation  has  been  born,  and  grown  to  unexam 
pled  power  and  place  among  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

Inasmuch,  however,  as  that  the  nature,  the  institutions,  and  the  administration 
of  the  American  nation  are  different  from  all  others,  so  must  its  history  be  in 
an  entirely  different  style.  If  there  are  no  regal  intrigues  to  chronicle  or  mili 
tary  exploits  to  recount,  there  are  more  lasting  triumphs  in  every  useful  science 
to  record.  If  we  have  no  Alexander,  or  Caesar,  or  Bonaparte,  or  Wellington, 
to  shine  on  the  stormy  pages  of  our  history,  we  have  such  names  as  Franklin, 
"Whitney,  Morse,  and  a  host  of  others,  to  shed  a  more  beneficent  lustre  on  the 
story  of  our  rise.  The  means  by  which  a  few  poor  colonists  have  come  to  excel 
all  nations  in  the  arts  of  peace,  and  to  astonish  the  people  of  Europe  with  their 
achievements  through  the  development  of  their  inventive  genius,  are  true  sub 
jects  for  a  history  of  the  United  States.  Such  a  history  is  now  for  the  first  time 
presented  to  the  American  people.  In  its  preparation  no  pains  or  expense  has 
been  spared  in  the  view  of  making  it  perfectly  reliable,  and  it  is  believed  that  a 
work  has  been  produced  which  will  be  standard  on  the  subject. 

When  the  War  of  Independence  was  finished,  the  American  people,  free  on 
their  own  soil,  turned  their  quick  intellect  and  undivided  attention  to  the  great 
object  of  improvement,  material  and  mental,  and  they  have  wrought  out  re 
sults  that  have  become  not  only  the  admiration  but  the  exemplar  of  all  nations. 
The  great  genius  of  the  people  manifested  itself  in  the  invention  of  labor-saving 
machinesj  because  labor  was  scarce  and  dear.  The  steam  engine  was  adopted, 


V\  PREFACE. 

improved,  and  applied  to  every  branch  of  labor.  It  was  applied  to  navigation, 
to  locomotion,  and  to  manufacturing  in  all  its  branches,  great  and  small.  In 
ventions  were  introduced  in  all  possible  branches  of  manufacturing  by  which 
labor  was  saved.  It  is  probable  that  one  man  now  produces  as  much  by  the 
aid  of  machines  as  one  hundred  did  formerly.  In  other  words,  that  inventive 
genius  has  increased  manufacturing  production  a  hundredfold.  At  the  same 
time  a  vast  continent  has  been  settled ;  and  here  again  has  inventive  genius 
supplied  machinery  as  a  substitute  for  farm  laborers,  and  one  man  may,  by  their 
aid,  harvest  a  large  surplus  above  his  family  wants.  These  machines  have  be 
come  the  models  for  Europe.  This  vigor  of  production  has  enabled  the  con 
struction  of  as  many  miles  of  railroads  as  all  Europe  put  together. 

The  telegraph  has  been  invented  for  transmission  of  intelligence,  and  more 
miles  of  it  used  than  in  all  Europe. 

In  ship-building,  the  American  improvements  have  outstripped  the  boasted 
wooden  walls  of  old  England,  and  given  the  model  to  the  world.  Their  active 
enterprise  has  won  the  foremost  rank  in  foreign  commerce,  and  covered  the  in 
land  waters  with  more  steam  tonnage  than  all  other  nations  possess. 

The  cities  of  America  have  sprung  up  with  magic  growth,  and  increased  with 
marvellous  vigor.  There  is  no  example  in  history  where  so  many  large  cities 
have  been  built  in  a  similar  period. 

In  producing  a  carefully  written  history  of  all  these  events,  a  vast  amount  of 
labor  and  research  has  been  gone  through  to  collate  reliable  statistical  matter. 
Every  effort  has  been  used  to  place  the  results  in  a  clear  and  attractive  view,  so 
as  to  make  the  reader  master  of  every  branch  of  the  subject,  and  enable  him  to 
speak  understandingly  of  his  country's  triumphs.  To  this  end  a  great  expense 
has  been  incurred  for  engravings  illustrative  of  the  various  industries; 

It  is  believed  that  the  work  now  offered  to  the  public  is  the  most  complete 
history  of  a  nation's  progress  ever  written. 

The  reader  should  ever  bear  in  mind  that  the  work  does  not  come  down  later 
than  1860,  except  in  a  few  cases,  it  may  cover  a  portion  of  1861.  There  is  also 
a  brief  description  of  the  Iron-clads  and  Monitors  of  a  later  date. 


CONTENTS. 


AGRICULTURE. 

INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS 19 

First  Settlers 19 

James  River  Settlement,  Virginia 19 

Plymouth  Colony 19 

Stock  of  early  Settlers 20 

Introduction  of  Clover  in  England,  1633 20 

Beef  and  Mutton,  same  date 20 

Early  Agricultural  Implements 20 

Customs  of  the  Indians 21 

Indians'  method  of  clearing  Forests 21 

Indians  instruct  the  English  how  to  cultivate 

Corn 21 

Indians'  mode  of  storing  Corn 21 

First  sight  of  Ships 22 

Low   condition    of   Agriculture    before  the 

Revolution 22 

Raisings  and  Huskings  of  early  times 22 

Early  Settlers  manufacture  their  Garments. .  22 

Courtship  and  Marriage 23 

Number  of  Newspapers 23 

Prejudice  against  housing  and  milking  Cows 

in  Winter 23 

Emigrating    "West    meaning    "Western   New 

York 24 

ASSOCIATED  AND  LEGISLATIVE  EFFORT 24 

Letter  of  "Washington  to  Sir  John  Sinclair. .  24 

South  Carolina  Agricultural  Society 25 

Massachusetts          do               do     25 

First  Agricultural  Exhibition  in  1809 25 

Effects  of  Agricultural  Societies 26 

IARM  IMPLEMENTS 26 

Jack  at  all  Trades 27 

Ploughs  in  Virginia  in  1617 27 

Thirty-seven   Ploughs  in  Massachusetts  in 

1637..  27 


PAQB 

"Wooden  Forks 27 

Description  of  Ploughs „ 30 

Modern  Improvements  in  Ploughs 30 

Ten  Millions  saved  in  Ploughing 30 

First  Patent  for  Cast  Iron  Ploughs 31 

Thomas  Jefferson  on  Ploughs 31 

Massachusetts  Plough  Manufactories 31 

The  Harrow,  Cultivator,  Grubbers,  &c 32 

Sickle  and  Cradle 32 

Reapers  and  Mowers 33 

Horse  Rake 36 

Malthus  on  Population 36 

Trial    of    American,    English,  and    French 

Threshing  Machines 36 

RAISING  OF  STOCK 37 

First  Stock  imported 37 

Crossing  of  different  Breeds  of  Cattle 38 

Fodder  for  Cattle  in  Virginia 38 

Cattle  in  Illinois  in  1682  . . . : 39 

Stock  Raising  in  England 39 

Large  Prices  for  Improved  Stock 40 

Hereford  and  Devon  Breeds 40 

Methods  of  improving  the  Breeds  of  Cattle . .  41 

Milch  Cows 42 

Kentucky,  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois  Cattle .  47 

18,378,907  head  of  Cattle  in  1850 47 

Animals  slaughtered  in  1850  worth  $111,703- 

142 47 

Importing  Choice  Stock 48 

Ohio  Company  for  importing,  Capital  $9,200.  48 

Short  Horns,  Jerseys,  Ayrshires 49 

Value  of  Cattle  in  Ohio  in  1857,  $11,315,560  50 
Average  number  Ibs.  Butter  per  Cow  in  differ 
ent  states 51 

Average  number  Ibs.  Cheese 51 

Number  of  Cows  per  inhabitant 51 

Stock  Raising  in  Southern  States 52 


via 


CONTENTS. 


HORSES 52 

Roads,  Mails  at  four  miles  per  hour 52 

Speed  desired  in  Horses 52 

First  Horses  imported  by  Columbus 53 

"Wild  Horses  Descendants  of  Spanish  Breeds  53 

Demand  for  Fast  Horses 53 

The  Morgan  and  Black  Hawk 54 

Horseback  Riding  in  the  South 54 

Number  of  Horses  m  1850, 4,336,719,  not  in 
cluding  Cities  and  Large  Towns 54 

SHEEP 59 

First  Imported  Sheep 59 

Wool  Two  Dollars  per  pound 59 

The  Dog  Law 60 

Tennessee  Wool  takes  the  Premium  at  the 

World's  Fair 60 

Great  Britain  produces  275,000,000  Ibs.  Wool 

annually 60 

Wool  of  the  South,  West  and  North 63 

SWINE  AND  PORK 63 

First  Swine  imported 63 

Improvement  in  Breeds  of  Swine 64 

Native  Hogs  of  the  West 64 

Swine  of  the  South,  West  and  North 65 

Manner  of  killing  Hogs 65 

Pork  Packing 66 

Lard  Oil 67 

Quantity  of  Pork  packed  in  Cincinnati  for 

twenty-seven  years 67 

Number  of  Hogs  killed  in  Western  States. .  67 

PRODUCTS  OF  THE  SOIL 68 

Indian  Corn 68 

Indian  Mythology 68 

Early  Exports  of  Corn 69 

Increased  Exports  of  Corn  since  ]  820 70 

Corn  produced  in  France  and  Russia 70 

1,000,000,000  bushels  Cora  in  1855 70 

Corn  exported  from  1851  to  1858 71 

England  imports  $225,000,000  worth  of  Grain  71 

WHEAT 72 

Samples  of  Wheat  sent  to  Holland  in  1626 ..  72 

Damage  to  Wheat  by  Blast,  Insects,  &c 73 

Raising  Wheat  in  New  England 73 

Exports  of  Wheat  and  Flour 74 

French  Settlements  in  the  West 74 

Soldiers  of  the  Revolution  settle  in  Illinois. .  75 

Chicago  Grain  Depot 75 

Grain  Store-houses  of  lUinois  Central  Rail 
road  ijg 

Agricultural  Products  Sixteen  Hundred  Mil 
lions  annually 75 

Agricultural  Interests  four-fifths  of  Taxes  in 

New  York  State 77 

Wheat  produced  South,  West  and  North. .  77 


PAGE 

Wheat  in  California 77 

PRODUCTION  OF  OTHER  GRAINS 77 

Rye,  Oats,  Buckwheat 78 

Buckwheat  raised  South,  West  and  North. .  78 

Clover  and  Grass  seed 79 

POTATOES 79 

PEAS  AND  BEANS 79 

GRASS  AND  HAY  CROP 79 

Timothy  found  by  Mr.  Herd  in  a  Swamp, 
taken  to  Maryland  and  Virginia  by  Timothy 

Hanson 80 

Value  of  Hay  Crop 80 

Hay  consumed  per  head  of  Cattle  in  differ 
ent  States 80 

CULTURE  OF  FRUIT 81 

First  Apples  in  this  Country 81 

First  Horticultural  Society 81 

The  Nurseries  of  Western  New  York 82 

Orchards  in  the  South 82 

Peaches  in  the  South 82 

Fruit  in  California 83 

Wine  in         do      83 

Imports  of  Fruits  which  may  be  grown  in 

California 83 

Thousand  Dollars  worth  of  Pears  on  one  acre  84 

Orchard  Products  of  1850 84 

Fruit  Books 84 

Pears  imported  from  France  in  1851 84 

CULTURE  OF  TOBACCO 85 

Columbus  presented  with  a  Cigar 85 

French  Revenue  from  Tobacco 85 

Tobacco  at  Forty  Cents  per  pound 86 

Exports  of  Tobacco 86 

Tobacco  raised  South,  West  and  North 87 

Manufacture  of  Cigars 87 

CULTURE  OF  HOPS 88 

Hops  introduced  as  early  as  1828 88 

Hops  Raised  South,  West  and  North 89 

FLAX  AND  HEMP 89 

Quantity  raised  South,  West  and  North 90 

CULTURE  OF  SILK 90 

BEE  CULTURE 90 

POULTRY 90 

LUMBER  BUSINESS 91 

Great  Variety  of  Trees 91 

New  Settlers 91 

The  Lumbermen  in  the  Forest 92/ 

Rafting  Business 93 

Lumbering  in  Maine 94 

Kinds  of  Lumber 94 

The  way  Lumber  is  sold 9; 

Lumbering  at  Green  Bay 9j 

Chicago  Lumber  Market gfc 

AGRICULTURAL  LITERATURE y 


CONTENTS. 


IX 


Essays  by  Jared  Elliot 97 

The  American  Farmer 97 

Various  Agricultural  Papers 98 

Agricultural  Books 98 

Agricultural  Colleges 99 

Chemistry  in  aid  of  Agriculture 99 

Guano  as  a  Fertilizer 100 

Tvo  Million  Tons  Guano  from  Chincha  Islands  100 

THE  PROSPECT  OF  AGRICULTURE  is  THE  COUNTRY  101 

Comparison  with  other  Countries 101 

Number  of  Farms  in  the  United  States 102 

Remarks  of  Daniel  Webster 102 

COTTON  CULTURE. 

Capital  and  Labor. 103 

Early  Exports  of  Produce 104 

Labor  in  Comparison  with  Europe 105 

Cotton  great  Export  Article 10G 

Trade  with  Brazil 107 

Cotton,  Rice  and  Tobacco  South 107 

PRODUCTION  AND  PRICES  OF  COTTON 108 

Machinery  for  Spinning  Cotton 108 

Steam  Engine  Important  in  Cotton  Manufac 
turing  '. 109 

Early  Manufactures  in  England 109 

Cotton  Trade  of  France 109 

Comparative  Consumption  of  Cotton 110 

Cotton  found  by  Columbus 110 

Sea  Island  Cotton Ill 

Whitney  Cotton  Gin Ill 

Vexatious  Law  Suits 113 

Increase  of  Cotton  from  1820  to  1830 114 

Prices  of  Cotton  decline 114 

Decline  in  Shipping  Tonnage  of  Charleston . .   114 

Rice  Culture... 115 

Railroads  in  the  South 115 

Cotton  Factories  in  the  South 115 

MONOPOLY  OF  THE  MARKET — SLAVE  LABOR....   116 

Limit  of  Sea  Island  Cotton 116 

Cotton  in  various  Countries 117 

Paper  read  before  the  Society  of  Arts 118 

Experiment  with  American  Cotton  in  India.   118 

Picking  Cotton 119 

Slave  Labor 119 

Humanity  of  the  Master 119 

Maine  Liquor  Law  among  Slaves 120 

Ploughing  in  February 120 

Cultivating  Cotton 121 

Distribution   of   Labor   among  Whites  and 

Blacks 121 

Slaves  Marry  and  are  given  in  Marriage. ...  121 

Cotton  and  Gold  support  high  Tariff 122 

Northern  Furniture  in  Southern  Houses 122 

Northern  Books  do  do        ...  123 


SUGAR  CULTIVATION  AND  CONSUMPTION. 

Cane  first  introduced  in  Louisiana 127 

Five  kinds  of  Caoe 127 

Mode  of  Cultivating 128 

Sugar  Mills 128 

Quantity  Sugar  produced  per  acre 129 

Consumption  of  Sugar  in  the  United  States.  .  129 

MAPLE  SUGAR 130 

COMMERCE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

COLONIAL  TRADE,  &c 132 

Rapid  Development 132 

Early  Settlers  and  Imperial  Government. . . .  133 

Colonists  forbidden  to  Coin  Money 133 

Early  Manufactures 133 

The  Colonies  forbidden  to  Manufacture ....  133 
Report  of  Parliamentary  Committee  on  Co 
lonial  Manufactures  and  Trade 133 

West  India  and  American  Rum 135 

Imports  and  Exports  of  1770 136 

Burdens  of  the  Colonies 137 

The  Revolutionary  War 137 

Paper  Currency 138 

Trade  with  Great  Britain  from  1784  to  1790.  138 

Insurrection  in  St.  Domingo 139 

Stephen  Girard 139 

Jay's  Treaty 139 

Table  Imports  and  Exports  from  1790  to  1807  140 
Mr.  Hamilton,  Secretary  of  Treasury,  Report  141 

Table  of  Exports 141 

American  Manufactures. 142 

Table  of  Tonnage,  Exports  and  Imports, 

from  1808  to  1820 142 

The  Embargo 143 

National  Debt  at  close  of  the  War  of  1812 ..  143 
Increase  of  Population,  Wealth,  &c.,  from  1791 

to  1820 144 

CHANGED  INTERESTS,  MANUFACTURES,  &c 144 

Table  of  Imports  and  Exports  from  1821  to 

1839 145 

Capital  employed  in  Cotton  Manufacture  in 

1830 147 

Table  Imports  and  Exports  from  1831  to  1840  147 

Large  Fire  in  New  York  in  1835 148 

Two  Hundred  Millions  sent  West  to  start 

Banks 151 

The  Panic  of  1837 151 

United  States  Bank 151 

United  States  Bankrupt  Law 152 

Table  of  Imports  and  Exports  from  1841  to 

1850 153 

Famine  in  Ireland 153 

French  Silks  in  Tricolors 154 


CONTENTS. 


Gold  discovered  at  Capt.  Suiter's  Fort 154 

Nine  millions  Gold  received  from  California 

in  1850 154 

Exportation  of  Gold  depreciating 154 

Six  hundred  million  dollars  of  Gold  receiv 
ed  from  California  from  1850  to  1860 155 

Emigrants  bring  in  $251,805,400  Gold  from 

1850  to  1860 155 

Five  hundred  million  dollars  expended  in 

land  operations  from  1850  to  1860 155 

Failure  of  Corn  crops  in  Europe 155 

Table  of  Exports  and  Imports  from  1851  to 

1860 156 

Wheat  crop  of  1850  equal   to   22,000,000 

barrels  flour 156 

Exports     of    Agriculture    from    1850    to 

1856 156 

Table  of  Exports  for  periods  of  ten  years. .    157 

The  area  of  Great  Britain 157 

Lands  sold  and  given  for  public  works 157 

Quantities  of  Corn  and   Pork   exported  to 

Great  Britain  from  1840  to  1858 158 

Imports  of  Cotton  from  India 158 

Internal  production  of  wares 159 

Value   of    Manufactures   and   Agricultural 

productions 159 

The  firms  in  business  in  1857 159 

Exchanges  at  the  Clearing  House,  New  York  160 

Growth  of  the  U.  S 160 

Ships — Tonnage — Navigation  Laws 161 

Two  ships  to  do  the  work  of  one 161 

Vessels  built  in  the  several  Provinces  in 

1771 163 

Bounties  on  Fisheries 162 

Tables  showing  tonnage  of  Shipping  from 

1789  to  1858 163 

Cotton  as  Freighting 163 

Measure  of  tonnage 163 

Effect  of   Mexican  and  English  wars  in 

China  on  trade 163 

Favorable  treaty  between  the  United  States 

and  China 164 

Caleb   Gushing  robbed  of  his  Baggage  on 

his  way  home  from  China  vid  Mexico. . .   164 
British  and  French  Expedition  from  Varna 

to  the  Crimea 164 

First  arrival  of  a  Steamer  from  England  . .   164 
Table  showing  the  different  Lines  of  Steam 
ers  between  Europe  and  U.  S 164 

Table  showing  the  number  and  names  of 

Ocean  Steamers  lost 165 

Growth  of  Steam  service  in  the  interior  . .   165 

Keel-boats  on  the  Ohio  Eiver 165 

First  sea-going  Brig  built  on  the  Ohio  River  165 


First  Steamboat  built  for  the  Ohio  River.  . .   165 

Territory  drained  by  the  Ohio 166    ; 

Opening  of  Erie  Canal  in  1825 166 

Table  showing  the  number,  kinds,  &c.,  of 

Vessels  navigating  the  Lakes  in  1858. . .  166 
Losses  of  Screw  Propellers  from  1848  to 

1856 166 

Lake  Cities,  their  rapid  growth .• . .  •   166 

Lopez  Propeller 167 

Ship-building  at  the  Lake  ports  for  Liver 
pool  167 

Ship-building,  Clipper  model 167 

Tonnage  owned  in  U.  S.  in  1860 168 

Table   of   National   Exports  from  1800  to 
1860 168 

TRAVEL  AND  TRANSPORTATION. 

EARLY  ROADS,  POST  ROADS,  &c 171 

Gen.  Washington  as  an  Engineer 173 

Stock  of  Dismal  Swamp  Canal 173 

Statistics  of  Mail  Service  from  1791  to  1859.    174 

Country  Roads 175 

Charcoal      do 176 

Plank          do 175 

Turnpike      do 176 

Macadam     do 176 

Roads  in  Ohio 177 

Cumberland  Road 177 

COASTERS,  STEAMBOATS.  CANALS 178 

Sloop  experiment 178 

Fulton's  Steamer  Clermont 179 

The  first  Steamer  Hell  Gate 179 

Progressive  speed  of  Steamers  from  1811  to 

I860 iso 

Flat  Boats  on  the  Mississippi 181 

First  Steamboat  on  the  Ohio 181 

Time  of  passage  from  New  Orleans  to  St. 

Louis  reduced  from  120  to  3  days 183 

Increase  of  Steam  Tonnage  on  the  Western 

Rivers  from  1842  to  1860 183 

Ground  broken  for  the  Erie  Canal 184 

Early  Canal  Projects 185 

Loss  of  Water  in  Canals  by  leakage 186 

Transportation  from  Buffalo  to  New  York, 

$100  per  Tun.  .1 ise 

Increase  of  Steam  Tonnage  on   the  Lakes 

from  1841  to  1860 187 

Opening  of  Lumber  Trade  of  Western  Neij 

York 188 

List  of  Ohio  Canals 188 

John  Q.  Adams  and    Charles  Carroll    turn 

first  earth  for  Canals 139 

List  of  Important  Canals 190 


CONTENTS. 


Total  receipts  from  New  York  Canals 190 

EARLY  RAILROADS,  LAND  GRANTS,  &c 191 

First  Railroad  in  the  United  States 192 

Massachusetts  "Western  Railroad 193 

Process  of  Railroad  Building 195 

Cost  per  mile  of  Running  Locomotives 196 

Earnings  of  New  York  Central  Railroad  from 

1853  to  1859 198 

Erie  Railroad  chartered 201 

Receipts  and  Expenditures  of  Erie  Railroad.   202 
Pennsylvania.  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroads.   203 

Georgia  Railroads 205 

Illinois  Central  Railroad 205 

Land  Department  of  Illinois  Central  Railroad  207 
Table  showing  the  Land  Grants  to  the  sev 
eral  States.. 207 

Railroads  from  Maine  to  Louisiana,  with  the 

names  of  different  Corporations 208 

Michigan  Railroads 208 

Missouri  Railroads 209 

RAILROADS  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES  PROJECTED.  209 
Length  and  miles  completed,  with  the  Capital 

paid  in  and  Funded  Debt 209 

Miles  of  Canals  and  Railroads  for  transporta 
tion  of  Coal 220 

Miles  of  Railroad  in  use  for  transportation  of 

Cotton,  with  number  Bales  of  Cotton 220 

Railroads  entering  Chicago 221 

Tonnage  of  the  five  great  East  and  "West 

Transportation  Lines 221 

New  York  and  Philadelphia  Stages 222 

City  Railroads 223 

Number  miles  of  Railroads  in  the  world,  with 
the  cost  per  mile  in  each  country 224 

STEAM. 

HISTORY  OP  THE  STEAM  ENGINE 227 

First  Steam  Engines  in  America 227 

Robert  Fulton,  Oliver  Evans,  Watt 228 

Horse  Power  of  Steam  Engines 228 

High  and  Low  Pressure 229 

First  adoption  of  the  Crank  for  the  Steam 

Engine   229 

English  and  American  Steamers 232 

Description  of  the  Steam  Engine 233 

STEAMBOATS 234. 

John  Fitch 234 

Steamboats  on  the  Ohio  River 239 

Steamboats  on  the  Lakes 239 

The  Propeller 240 

The  Adriatic 241 

First  use  of  Coal  for  Steamers 241 

Explosion  of  the  Boiler  of  Steamboat  "Wash 
ington 242 


Tonnage  of  Steam  Vessels  of  United  States . .  243 

LOCOMOTIVES 243 

First  experiments 244 

First  Locomotive  built  in  America •  245 

Export  of  Locomotives 246 

Cost  of  Locomotives 247 

Great  speed  of  a  Locomotive 249 

Time  saved  in  England  by  Railroad  Travel 
ling  in  comparison  with  Stages 250 

Dummy  Engines 250 

STATIONARY  ENGINE 252 

Rotary  Engine 253 

Corliss  Engine 254 

Portable  Engine 255 

Steam  Saw  Mills 256 

Description  of  Steam.  ...    256 

Brooklyn  Water  Works  Engine 258 

STEAM  PUMPS 258 

Fire  Engines 259 

MISCELLANEOUS 263 

Use  of  Steam  in  Farming. 264 

Steam  in  Manufacturing 266 

CONCLUSION 268 

Caloric  Engines 270 

Experiments  of  United  States  Government 
on  the  Expansion  of  Steam 272 

COTTON  MANUFACTURES. 

ORIGIN — HAND- WORK — INVENTIONS 274 

Hand  Carding 275 

The  first  Spinning  Jenny 275 

First  Carding  Machine 276 

First  Power  Loom 276 

First  Calico  Printing  in  England 276 

The  American  Invention  of  Mr.  Perkins 277 

Early  Importations  of  Cotton  into  Great  Bri 
tain 277 

Dates  of  Important  Inventions  in  Cotton  Ma 
chinery 27T 

MANUFACTURE  IN  AMERICA 280 

First  Cotton  Mills  in  Rhode  Island 280 

The  number  of  Cotton  Mills  in  1809 281 

The  first  Mill  in  the   world  combining  all        (' 
branches  of  Cotton  Manufacture,  establish 
ed  in  Waltham,  Mass 282 

The  beginning  of  Lowell 282 

Statistical  Table  of  Cotton  Mills  in  1831 283 

do  do  do        1850 285 

INVENTIONS,  MODE  OP  MANUFACTURE,  PRINTING, 

&c 286 

The  meaning  of  Staple  as  applied  to  Cotton. .   286 

Description    of  Calico  Printing 283 

Statistics  of  Cotton  Manufacture  in  the  United 
States,  from  1809  to  1860 290 


CONTENTS. 


PAPER:    ITS  MANUFACTURE. 


MATERIALS — PROGRESS  . 


291 

First  Paper  Mill  in  Massachusetts 292 

Importations  of  Rags  into  the  United  States 

from  1846  to  1857 292 

Rags  consumed  in  the  United  States,  Great 

Britain  and  France 293 

f    Mummy  Wrappers  used  for  Paper 293 

Water  Mark 294 

INVENTIONS — MANUFACTURE 295 

Fourdrinier  Machine.  „ 295 

Names  and  Dimensions  of  Paper 296 

Description  of  Manufacture 296 

Statistics  of  Manufacture 298 

WOOLLEN  MANUFACTURES. 

CARDING — WEAVING — FELTING 300 

Value  of  Manufactures  from  1810  to  1850. .  300 

Machines  for  making  Cards 301 

Manufacture  of  Worsted 301 

Dyeing  Cloths 304 

Felting 305 

Carpets 306 

Quantity  of  Carpeting  made  in  Massachusetts 
and  New  York  in  1855 308 

CLOTHING  TRADE 309 

Statistics  "for  1850 309 

Large  Manufactories 310 

Statistics  of  Woollen  Manufactures  in  1850  ..311 
Manufactures  of  Massachusetts,   New  York 

and  Maine 312 

Imports  of  Cloths 312 

Imports  of  Wool,  total  consumption 313 

Shoddy,  description  of 313 

LEATHER. 

TANNING— BOOTS  AND  SHOES 316 

Leather  Manufacture  in  1850 316 

Different  kinds  of  Hides 31' 

Disposition  of  Hides  brought  into  Ne  w  York .   318 

Description  of  Tanning 319 

Time  required  for  Tanning  different  Hides. . .   322 
Number  and  value  of  Boots  and  Shoes  man 
ufactured  in  Massachusetts 

Pegging  Machines 32£ 

Statistics  of  Leather  Trade  of  New  York 
for  1855 326 

FIRE-ARMS. 

COLT'S  REVOLVERS 32 

The  Match-lock  and  Flint-lock 32 

Colt's  Inventions .  33 


Colt's  Fire-Arms  at  the  World's  Fair 331 

Colt's  Manufactory 332 

Sharpe's  Rifle  and  Pistol  332 

Stafford  and  Whitney  Arms 333 

United  States  Armories 334 

Dahlgren  Gun 335 

Comparative  Strength  of  Iron  and  Bronze. ..   335 

Process  of  Casting 335 

Method  of  Proving 336 

Naval  Warfare 337 

Large  Gun  for  Harbor  Defence 337 

The  Floyd  Gun 337 

Powder  used 338 

CUTLERY. 

UNITED  STATES  INDUSTRY — AXES 339 

European  System 339 

Shears  at  Seven  Cents  per  dozen 340 

Table  Cutlery  manufactured  in  the  United 

States  by  Machinery 340 

Grinding  and  Polishing 340 

Butcher  and  Shoe  Knives,  Forks 341 

Axe  Manufacture 341 

Statistics  of  Cutlery  and  Edge  Tools  for  1850 .  342 

FURS  AND  FUR  TRADE. 

Trade  with  the  Indians 343 

Hudson's  Bay  Company 343 

John  Jacob  Astor  in  Fur  trade 344 

Exports  of  Fur  for  1850 345 

List  of  Prices  of  various  Furs 346 

Prices  of  different  kinds  per  set 347 

Felting  of  Fur 347 

HATS. 

EARLY  HISTORY — IMPROVEMENTS 348 

The  London  Hatters 348 

Early  Fashions 348 

Hat  Business  in  New  York 349 

Monopoly  of  Machinery 349 

Silk  Hats 350 

Finishing 350 

INDIVIDUAL  INDUSTRIES. 

Introductory  Remarks 353 

BUILDINGS  AND  BUILDING  MATERIALS 353 

Number  and  value  of  Dwellings  in  the  United 

States  in  1798  and  1850 354 

Dwellings  as  per  population 354 

Supposed  value  of  Buildings  in  1870 355 

Improvements,  Fixtures 355 


CONTENTS. 


Xlll 


PAGE 

Lumber  Business 356 

Machinery  used  in  Building 357 

Lumber  Trade  East,  West  and  South 357 

Brick  Making 358 

Lime 358 

Stone 359 

Ship  Building 359 

Statistics  of  House  and  Ship  Building 360 

CARRIAGES  AND  COACHES 360 

New  York  Omnibus 360 

Kinds  of  Timber  used 361 

Description  of  Messrs.  G.  &  D.  Cook  &  Co.'s 

Manufactory 361 

Carriage  and  Car  Manufactories  in  New  York  362 

Express  Wagons 367 

Statistics  for  1850 368 

CLOCKS  AND  WATCHES 368 

Alfred  the  Great  uses  Candles  as  Time-pieces  368 

Connecticut  Clocks 369 

Terry,  Thomas,  Jerome,  and  others 369 

Barnum  in  the  Clock  Business 370 

Exportation  of  Clocks 370 

Roxbury  Watch  Factory 370 

Watches  made  by  Machinery  at  Waltham.. .  371 

ELECTRO- PLATING 372 

Description  of  the  Process 372 

FISHERIES 377 

Venice  founded  by  Fishermen 378 

Holland  and  England,  do 378 

Yankee  Fishermen 378 

Fishing  Bounties 378 

Cod,  Mackerel,  Herring  and  Halibut  Fishing  378 

Oyster  Trade 384 

Whale  Fishery. 385 

Seal  Fishery 385 

Statistics  of  Fishing  Trade 386 

ICE 386 

Use  of  Ice  by  the  Ancients 386 

General  uses  of  Ice 387 

Massachusetts  in  the  Ice  Trade 387 

Exports  of  Ice  388 

Gathering  Ice  in  Houses 388 

Use  of  Ice  in  the  East  Indies — Incident  re 
lated  by  Edward  Everett 389 

Pi*S 389 

Pin  Manufacture  in  State  Prisons 390 

Pin  Machines _  390 

Manufactory  at  Waterbury 390 

REFINED  SUGAR ^  391 

Consumption  of  Sugar  per  head  of  popula 
tion  in  United  States,  Great  Britain,  France, 

and  Germany _  391 

Beet  Sugar  in  France .  392 

Introduction  of  Machinery. , 392 


Annual  Value  of  Candies 392 

SILK 393 

Early  Culture  of  Silk  in  America 393 

Morus  Multicaulis  Speculation 394 

Imports  of  Raw  Silk 395 

FIRE- PROOF  SAFES  AND  SAFE  LOCKS 395 

First  Imports  of  Safes 396 

Spontaneous  Combustion  of  a  Safe 396 

Wilder's,  Marvin's,  and  other  Safes 397 

Bank  Locks  at  the  World's  Fair 398 

GLASS  MANUFACTURE 398 

Various  uses  of  Glass 398 

Glass  of  remote  antiquity 399 

Early  manufacturing  in  England 399    ' 

First  Glass  Works  in  America 399 

Materials  for  Glass  400 

Description  of  Manufacture 401 

American  Inventions  for  Grinding  Glass ....   403 

Silvering  Glass 404 

Enamelled  Glass 405 

INDIA- RUBBER  AND  ITS  MANUFACTURE 406 

Countries  producing  it,  gathering,  &c 406 

Goodyear's  experiments 410 

Belting  and  Hose  Manufacture 411 

Rubber  Car  Springs 411 

Statistics  of  the  Trade 412 

SEWING  MACHINES 413 

Elias  Howe,  Jun.,  Lock-stitch 413 

Three  classes  of  Machines 414 

Mr.  Wilson's  improvement 419 

Description  of  Wheeler  and  Wilson's  Machine  419 
Singer  &  Co.'s  Machines,  description  of  their 

Manufactory 421 

Grover  &  Baker  Machines 424 

Finkle  &  Lyon's  Machines 425 

Number  Machines  made  under  Howe's  patent  426 
Comparison  between  Hand  and  Machine  Sew 
ing 426 

Various  uses  of  Machines,  Statistics,  &c 428 

Comparative  Statistics  of  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States 430 

MILLS 43  ! 

Product  of  Flour  and  Grist  Mills 431 

Number  of  Flour  Mills  in  1840  and  1850 . . .  432 
Descriptions  of  Mills 432 

MUSICAL  INSTRUMENTS 434 

HUMANITARIAN  AND  CORRECTIVE  INSTI 
TUTIONS. 

Prisons  and  Prison  Discipline 435 

Auburn  Prisons 436 

The  Silent  System 437 

Great  Britain  and  Germany,  Prisons  in 438 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Massachusetts,  Prisons  in 438 

Hospitals  for  the  Insane 440 

Efforts  of  the  Friends  in  Pennsylvania 441 

Statistics  of  Hospitals  in  the  United  States  .  444 

BELIEF  OF  THE  POOR •.  445 

Statistical  Tables 447 

Hospitals 449 

Statistical  Table 450 

Pauperism  in  the  City  and  County  of  New 

York— Statistical  Table 451 

Dispensaries 452 


Statistical  Table 453 

Nurseries  and  Foundling  Hospitals 454 

Homes  and  Asylums  for  the  Aged  and  Infirm  454 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


1,  ON  the  Mississippi,  ....  (Steel plate.) 

2,  Fancy  Title, (Steel  plate.) 

3,  Continental  Bills, 2 

4,  The  Beginning,  . 17 

6,  The  Aborigines, 18 

6,  Farming  Tools  of  1790, 28 

7,  Farming  Tools  of  1860, 29 

8,  Excelsior  Mower, 33 

9,  Wheeler's  Patent  Reaper, 34 

10,  Landing  at  Jamestown,  .  (Steel  plate,)  37 

'll,  Milch  Cow, 43 

12,  Short-horn  Bull, 43 

13,  Jenny,  Devon  Cow, 44 

14,  Devon  Bull,  Tecumseh, 45 

15,  Ayrshire  Bull, 46 

16,  Petersham  Morgan, 55 

17,  Trotting  Childers, 56 

J8,  Cotswold  Sheep, 57 

19,  Improved  Kentucky  South  Downs,  .  .  58 

20,  Southern  Pine-woods  Hog, 61 

21,  Western  Beech-nut  Hog, 61 

22,  Improved  Suffolk, 61 

23,  Improved  Essex, 62 

24,  Berkshire  Hog, 62 

25,  The  Pasture, (Steel  plate,)  83 

26,  Cotton  cleaning  by  hand, 112 

27,  Cotton  Gin, 112 

28,  Picking  Cotton, 125 

29,  Gathering  Sugar  Cane, 126 

30,  Commerce, 131 

31,  Clipper  Ship, 149 

32,  Wall  street, (Steel  Plate,)  159 

33,  Bridle  Path, 171 

34,  Stage  Coach, 171 

35,  Canal, 171 


36,  Railroad, 171 

37,  Captain  Bunker's  Sloop,   (Steel  plate?)  180 

38,  Flat  Boat  on  the  Mississippi, 182 

39,  Mississippi  River  Steamer, 182 

40,  First  Locomotive  on  Mohawk  Valley 

Road, 194 

41,  Hudson  River  Steamboat, 194 

42,  Emigrating  at  the  present  time,    ....  198 

43,  Emigrating  in  1805, 199 

44,  Second  experimental  Boat  of  J.  Fitch,  226 

45,  The  first  Steamboat  ever  built  to  car 

ry  passengers, 226 

46,  The  first  Propeller  ever  built, 235 

47,  Oliver  Evans'  Orkuter  Amphibolus, .  .  235 

48,  The  machinery  of  Fulton's  first  boat,  ^36 

49,  The  North  River,  off  Claremont, 236 

50,  The  Adriatic, 237 

51,  Amoskeag  Locomotive  works, 247 

62,  Silsby's  Fire  Engine, 261 

53,  Caloric  Engine, 262 

54,  Hand  Loom, 278 

55,  Power  Loom,    278 

56,  Spinning  by  hand 279 

57,  Mule  Spinner,    279  • 

58,  Hand  Carding, 299 

59,  Colt's  Sporting  Rifle, 329 

60,  Colt's  Military  Rifle, 329 

61,  Colt's  new  Model  Revolver, 329 

62,  Colt's  Revolving  Pistol  with  Carbine 

Breech  attached, 329 

63,  Colt's  Holster  Pistol, 329 

64,  Colt's  Revolving  Shot  Gun,    330 

65,  Colt's  Military  or  Revolving  Rifle, ...  330 

66,  Iron-clads  and  Monitors, (Steel 

plate,) 338 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


67,  View   of  Chickering  &   Sons'   Piano 

Forte  Manufactory, 352 

68,  Wagons  of  1810, 363 

69,  Wagons  of  1820, 363 

70,  Wagons  of  1825, 363 

71,  First  Elliptic  Spring  Wagon, 363 

72,  Jagger, 363 

73,  Gazelle, 363 

74,  English  Pheaton, 364 

75,  Box  Jump  Seat, 364 

76,  World's  Fair  Buggy, 364 

77,  Eureka  Jump  Seat, 304 

78,  Child's  Seat  Drop  Front, 364 

79,  Crescent  City, 364 

80,  Lawrence   Brett, 364 

81,  Loop  Calash, 364 

82,  Doctor's  Phaeton, 365 

83,  Full  Top  Cabriolet, 365 

84,  Champion, 365 

85,  Prince  of  Wales, 365 

86,  Dayton  Brett, 365 

87,  City  Coupe, 365 

88,  Brewster  Calash  Coach, 365 

89,  Coup  Rockaway, 365 

90,  Premium  Top, 366 

91,  View  of  G.  &  D.  Cook,  &  Go's  Works,  366 

92,  Castors, 373 

93,  Cake  Dish, 373 

94,  Oyster  Dish,    373 

95,  Toast  Fork, 373 

96,  Meat  Dish, 374 

97,  Cups, 374 

98,  Goblets, 374 

99,  Tea  Set, 375 

100,  Dish  Covers, 375 

101,  Coffee  Pot, 375 

102,  Urn, .  375 


103,  Tea  Set  and  Tray, 376 

104,  Spoon  and  Fork  Case, 376 

105,  Whale  Fishery, 379 

106,  Cod  Fishery, 380 

107,  The  Great  Callender  Machine, 407 

108,  Ficus  Elastica,— Rubber  Plant, 407 

109,  Cutting  Rubber, 407 

110,  Machine  for  Washing  Rubber, 408 

111,  India  Rubber  Grinding  Mill, 408 

112,  Past, 413 

113,  Present, 413 

114,  Lock  Stitch, 413 

115,  Wheeler  &  Wilson's  Sewing  Machine 

ready  for  work, 415 

116,  Front  View, 415 

117,  View  with  Cloth  Plate  removed,  ....  415 

118,  Section  IV,  showing  Lock  Stitch,  ...  416 

119,  Section  V, 416 

120,  Section  VI, 416 

121,  Cloth  Plate  reversed, 416 

122,  Feed  Bar, 416 

123,  Hemmer, 41 G 

124,  Singer's  Sewing  Machine  No.  2,  ....  417 

125,  Family  Machine, 417 

126,  Transverse  Shuttle  Machine, 417 

127,  Machine  in  Cabinet  Case, 417 

128,  Hand  Sewing  by  Candle  Light, 418 

129,  Finkle  &  Lyon's  Family  Sewing  Ma 

chine,  418 

130,  Large  Manufacturing  Machine, 418 

131,  Medium  Machine, 418 

132,  The  Chain  Stitch, 424 

133,  The  Shuttle  and  Lock  Stitch, 424 

134,  View  of  Grover  &  Baker's  Warehouse,  427 


EIGHTY  YEAES' 


AGRICULTURE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


I  SUPPOSE  it  will  be  conceded  that  agri 
culture  is  the  largest  and  most  important  in 
terest  of  this  country.  It  is  my  purpose  to 
trace  its  progress  from  the  time  of  the  es 
tablishment  of  the  first  settlements  upon 
these  shores,  but  more  especially  during  the 
last  hundred  years.  If  I  mistake  not,  a 
sketch  of  its  history  will  be  found  to  possess 
much  that  is  interesting,  useful,  and  in 
structive. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  dwell  upon  the  con 
dition  of  America  at  the  time  when  it  was 
first  settled  by  Europeans.  The  charac 
ter  and  the  objects  of  the  men  who  proposed 
to  establish  a  home  here,  are  already  familiar 
to  the  mind  of  every  intelligent  person. 
They  left  countries  which  were  considerably 
advanced  in  civilization,  and  better  cultivated, 
probably,  than  any  others,  at  that  time,  on 
the  globe,  with  the  exception,  possibly,  of  the 
Chinese  empire.  They  came  to  settle  down 
in  circumstances  wholly  new  to  them,  with 
a  climate  and  soil  unlike  any  which  they 
had  known  before.  They  were  to  begin  life 
anew,  as  it  were,  where  their  previous  ex 
perience  could  afford  them  little  or  no  aid, 
in  a  wilderness  which  was  to  be  subdued  by 
their  own  hands,  in  the  midst  of  a  thousand 
obstacles. 

With  the  exception  of  some  extensive 
tracts  of  prairie,  chiefly  confined  to  the  great 
west,  then  wholly  unknown  and  inaccessible, 
there  was  no  large  extent  of  territory  which 
was  not  covered  with  the  primeval  forest, 
though  here  and  there  a  partially  cultivated 
opening  occurred,  which  was,  or  had  been, 
occupied  by  the  Indians.  They  were,  there 
fore,  to  start  anew;  to  acquire,  painfully 
2 


and  laboriously,  that  practical  knowledge  of 
their  new  situation,  for  the  details  of  which 
no  previous  training  could  have  fitted  them. 
When  we  consider  the  hardships  they  had 
to  encounter,  especially  that  portion  of  them 
who  had  to  endure,  year  after  year,  the  rigor 
of  a  northern  winter,  we  cannot  wonder  that 
their  progress  in  farming  was  slow. 

It  is  true,  the  different  colonies,  as  they 
were  originally  established,  had  a  somewhat 
different  experience.  The  winters  of  Vir 
ginia  were  less  severe  than  those  of  New 
England.  The  settlers  on  the  James  river 
suffered  less,  probably,  than  those  further 
north,  but  all  had  to  undergo  many  priva 
tions  which  are  unknown  to  an  old  and  im 
proved  country.  All  were  surrounded  by 
a  howling  wilderness,  by  savage  men,  by 
wild  beasts  ready  to  prey  upon  their  live 
stock,  or  destroy  their  crops.  In  these  re 
spects  the  circumstances  of  the  settlers  in  all 
parts  of  the  country  were  nearly  the  same. 

Let  us  look,  for  a  moment,  at  the  condition 
of  things  in  the  Plymouth  colony,  and  we 
can  gather  therefrom  a  pretty  correct  idea 
of  that  in  the  other  settlements.  For  many 
months  after  the  arrival  of  the  pilgrims  at 
Plymouth,  they  had  no  beasts  of  burden, 
and  when  at  last  a  few  cows  were  brought 
over,  they  were  poorly  fed  on  the  coarse 
wild  grasses,  and  they  often  died  from  ex 
posure  and  want  of  proper  food,  or  fell  a 
prey  to  the  wolves  or  the  Indians.  Owing 
to  the  difficulties  and  expense  of  importa 
tion,  the  price  was  so  high  as  to  put  them 
beyond  the  reach  of  many,  even  in  moder 
ate  circumstances.  In  the  colony  of  the 
Massachusetts  Bay,  a  red  calf  soon  came  to 


20 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


be  cheaper  than  a  black  one,  on  account  of 

the  greater  liability  to   be  mistaken  for  a 

deer  and  killed  by  the  wolves.     When  cows 

were   so  high   as  to.  sell,  in  1636,  at  from 

.  ^ysnty-five  to  thirty;  pounds  sterling,    and 

'oxen    at  forty    pounds  (a  pair,    a    quart    of 

new  milk  cculd  he  .'bought  for  a  penny,  and 

fou*-  «vrgs  at  iLesto'ee<prfce. 

It  is  important  to  bear  in  mind  that  the 
cattle  of  that  day,  even  in  England,  were 
not  to  be  compared  with  the  beautiful  ani 
mals  now  to  be  seen  there.  The  ox  of  that 
day  was  small,  ill-shaped,  and  in  every  way 
inferior  to  the  ox  of  the  present  time. 
The  sheep  has,  since  then,  been  improved 
to  an  equal,  or  even  greater  extent,  both  in 
form  and  size,  and  in  the  fineness  and  value 
of  its  wool.  The  draught-horse,  so  service 
able  on  the  farm,  long  the  pride  of  London, 
and  now,  to  an  almost  equal  extent,  of  most 
of  our  large  cities,  was  not  then  known. 
It  is  difficult  to  appreciate  fully  the  changes 
which  the  increased  attention  to  agriculture 
has  effected  in  our  domestic  animals,  even 
within  the  last  half  century. 

But  when  we  consider  that  no  attention 
whatever  was  paid  to  the  culture  of  the 
grasses ;  that  very  few,  if  any,  of  the  vegeta 
bles,  now  extensively  cultivated  as  food  for 
stock,  were  then  introduced  there  ;  that  the 
introduction  of  red  clover  into  England  did 
not  take  place  till  1633  ;  of  sainfoin,  not  till 
1651 ;  of  yellow  clover,  not  till  1659 ;  and  of 
white,  or  Dutch  clover,  not  till  the  year 
1700;  and  that  the  form,  size,  and  perfec 
tion  of  animals  depend  largely  upon  a  full 
supply  of  food  and  good  care  when  young, 
we  shall  cease  to  wonder,  when  we  are  told 
by  the  highest  authority,  that  during  the 
early  part  of  the  last  century  the  average 
gross  weight  of  the  neat  cattle  brought  for 
sale  to  the  Smithfield  market  was  not  over 
three  hundred  and  seventy  pounds,  and  that 
of  sheep,  twenty-eight  pounds;  while  the 
average  weight  of  the  former  is  now  over 
eight  hundred  pounds,  and  of  the  latter,  over 
eighty  pounds. 

It  is  a  fact  worthy  of  note  in  this  con 
nection,  as  it  throws  much  light  upon  the 
early  farming  in  this  country,  that  the  ex 
tensive  and  practical  cultivation  of  the  nat 
ural  grasses  originated  here  ;  or,  at  least,  was 
introduced  here  long  before  it  was  into 
England.  The  necessities  of  our  rigorous 
climate,  indeed,  compelled  attention  to  this 
branch  of  husbandry  very  soon  after  the  set 
tlement,  while  the  climate  of  England  ad 


mitted  a  greater  degree  of  reliance  on  the 
wild  luxuriance  of  nature. 

The  cattle  that  first  arrived,  in  1624,  were 
kept  through  the  long  winters  on  poor  and 
miserable  swale  hay,  or  more  frequently  on 
the  salt  hay  cut  from  the  marshes,  and  death 
from  starvation  and  exposure  was  no  uncom 
mon  occurrence,  the  farmer  sonjetimes  los 
ing  his  entire  herd.  The  treatment  of  an 
imals  now  as  they  were  treated  during  the 
whole,  or  nearly  the  whole,  of  the  first 
century  of  the  colony,  would  subject  the 
owner  to  prosecution  for  cruelty.  This 
treatment  was,  in  part,  no  doubt,  owing  to 
the  poverty  of  the  settlers,  but  more,  proba 
bly,  to  the  ideas  and  practices  in  which  they 
had  been  early  trained  in  a  different  climate. 

Besides,  on  account  of  the  high  price  of 
cattle  at  that  period,  and  the  risks  to  which 
they  were  exposed,  it  is  not  probable  that 
the  settlers  selected  the  best  specimens  then 
to  be  found  in  England.  There  is  no  evi 
dence  that  they  were  at  all  particular  in  this 
respect.  Nor  was  the  difficulty  of  procur 
ing  agricultural  implements  the  least  of  the 
obstacles  to  the  successful  pursuit  of  farm 
ing.  A  few,  no  doubt,  were  brought  over, 
from  time  to  time,  from  the  mother  coun 
try,  but  all  could  not  obtain  them  in  this 
way  ;  while  the  only  metal  to  be  had  was 
made  of  bog  ore,  very  brittle,  and  liable  to 
break  and  put  a  stop  to  a  day's  work.  Most 
were  made  of  wood,  and  those  imported 
were  extremely  rude  in  construction,  being 
very  heavy  and  unwieldy, and  having  compar 
atively  little  fitness  for  the  purpose  for  which 
they  were  designed.  The  process  of  casting 
steel  was  not  discovered  till  the  middle  of 
the  last  century,  and  then  it  was  kept  a 
secret  in  Sheffield  for  some  years.  The 
number  and  variety  of  implements  have 
been  infinitely  increased,  as  we  shall  see, 
even  within  the  last  half  century,  to  meet 
the  wants  of  a  more  advanced  state  of  ag 
riculture,  to  which,  indeed,  these  mechanical 
improvements  have,  in  their  turn,  largely 
contributed. 

Indian  corn,  pumpkins,  squashes,  potatoes, 
and  tobacco,  were  plants  which  few  of  the 
early  colonists  had  ever  seen  previous  to  their 
arrival  here,  but  necessity  taught  them  their 
value,  and  they  were  not  slow  in  adopting 
the  Indian  methods  of  cultivating  them. 
As  the  general  cultivation  among  the  colo 
nies  continued  much  the  same  for  many 
years,  with  slight  modifications,  on  the  in 
troduction  of  the  European  implements,  it 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


21- 


may  not  be  inappropriate  to  turn  our  atten 
tion,  for  a  moment,  to  the  agriculture  of  the 
natives. 

Most  of  the  hard  work  among  the  Indians, 
it  is  Avell  known,  fell  to  the  lot  of  the 
women,  with  the  assistance,  sometimes, 
of  the  old  men  and  little  boys.  Among 
their  thankless  tasks  was  that  of  farming, 
which  they  carried  on  to  an  extent  quite  re 
markable,  when  we  consider  the  rudeness  of 
the  implements  with  which  they  had  to 
Avork,  and  the  circumstances  in  which  they 
were  placed.  They  had  no  art  of  manufac 
turing  metal,  and,  of  course,  could  have  no 
suitable  contrivances  for  tilling  the  ground. 
Their  cultivation  Avas  not  so  rude,  however, 
as  one  would  naturally  suppose.  They  made 
a  kind  of  hoe  by  tying  the  shoulder-blade 
of  a  moose,  bear,  or  deer,  to  a  stick  or  pole, 
and  managed  to  do  much  of  the  work  with 
that. 

The  land,  when  selected,  was  cleared  by 
keeping  up  a  fire  around  the  foot  of  each 
tree  till  its  bark  was  so  burned  that  it  would 
die.  Then  they  planted  their  corn.  When 
a  tree  fell,  it  was  burned  into  pieces  of  such 
length  that  they  could  be  rolled  into  a  heap 
and  burned  to  ashes.  In  this  way,  by 
degrees,  a  piece  covered  with  wood  was 
wholly  cleared.  An  industrious  woman 
could  burn  off  as  many  dry,  fallen  logs  in  a 
day  as  a  strong  man  could,  at  that  time,  cut 
with  an  axe  in  two  or  three.  They  used  a 
stone  axe,  made  much  in  the  same  manner 
as  the  hoe  above  described,  to  scrape  the 
charred  surface  of  the  logs  and  hasten  the 
burning.  This  mode  of  clearing  was  pretty 
common  among  the  natives  in  different  parts 
of  the  country.  Sometimes  the  tree  was 
first  girdled  with  the  axe  and  thus  killed, 
allowed  to  become  dry,  and  then  burned  by 
kindling  a  fire  around  it,  as  above  described. 
Several  of  these  stone  axes,  of  different 
sizes,  are  now  in  my  possession. 

The  Indians  taught  the  settlers  to  select 
the  finest  ears  of  corn  for  seed,  to  plant  it 
at  a  proper  time,  to  weed  it,  and  to  hill  it. 
They  were  accustomed  to  dig  small  holes 
four  feet  apart,  with  a  clumsy  instrument 
resembling  the  one  described,  which  was 
made,  not  unfrequently,  of  a  large  clam 
shell.  Those  living  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
sea-shore  put  into  each  hole  a  horse-shoe 
crab  or  two,  or  a  fish,  upon  which  they 
dropped  four,  and  sometimes  six  kernels  of 
corn,  and  covered  it  with  the  implement 
with  which  they  had  dug  the  hole.  The  use 


of  fish  in  the  hill  as  a  fertilizer  was  common,- 
also,  in  the  interior.  Beans  were  planted 
with  the  corn  after  it  had  come  up,  and 
grew  up  supported  by  it. 

Great  attention  was  paid  to  the  protection 
of  their  crops  from  weeds,  while  the  corn 
was  carefully  guarded  from  destruction  by 
insects  and  birds.  To  prevent  loss  by  the 
latter,  a  small  watch-house  was  erected  in  the 
midst  of  a  field  of  corn,  in  which  one  of  the 
family,  often  the  eldest  child,  slept,  and 
early  in  the  morning  rose  to  watch  the  birds.' 
It  was  their  universal  custom,to  hill  the  corn, 
often  from  one  to  two  feet  high,  for  its  sup 
port,  and  spots  are  often  seen  at  the  present 
day  which  were  evidently  cultivated  by 
them.  The  colonists  very  generally  imitated 
this  custom,  and  rl  has  been  continued  down 
to  our  own  times  in  many  parts  of  the  coun 
try.  The  men  planted  and  cured  their  tobac 
co,  which  was,  ordinarily,  the  only  plant  they 
worked  upon,  the  women  managing  all  the 
rest. 

This  brief  sketch  of  the  farming  of  the 
Indians  would  not  be  complete  without  an. 
allusion  to  their  mode  of  storing  grain  fof 
their  winter  supply.  Large  holes  were  dug 
in  the  earth,  and  the  sides  carefully  lined 
with  bark ;  this  Avas  also  the  work  of  the 
women.  The  corn  and  the  beans,  after 
being  dried  in  the  sun,  or  on  rocks  or  flakes 
over  a  fire,  Avere  thrown  into  these  holes,  and 
then  they  Avere  covered  up  level  Avith  the 
surface  of  the  ground.  They  Avere  thus  pre 
served,  if  necessary,  through  the  winter. 
These  excavated  barns  Avere  carefully  con 
cealed  by  the  Avomen  from  their  lazy  hus 
bands  and  sons,  lest  they  should  discover 
and  eat  up  their  contents ;  yet,  with  all  the 
care  they  could  take,  the  hogs  of  the  colo 
nists  often  unhinged  their  barn-doors,  and 
helped  themselves  to  the  golden  treasure. 
History  says  that  one  of  these  Indian  barns 
Avas  discovered  by  the  pilgrims  at  Truro,  at 
a  time  Avhcn  their  store  of  provisions  Avas  so 
reduced  as  to  contain  but  five  kernels  of 
corn  to  each  individual. 

They  sometimes  made  additional  provis 
ion  for  winter  by  means  of  large  boxes  of 
Avicker-Avork,  or  bags  or  sacks  of  Kemp, 
Avhich  Avere  filled  and  kept  in  the  wigwam 
for  the  more  immediate  Avants  of  the  family. 
They  had,  of  course,  little  or  no  occasion  to 
cut  grass,  though  it  greAV  in  abundance  along 
the  marshes  and  the  rivers,  and  in  places 
which  had  been  cleared  for  cultivation.  It 
was  of  a  coarse  quality,  and  served  the  colo- 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


nists  a  good  turn  till  they  resorted  to  the 
cultivation  of  better. 

We  may  imagine  the  surprise  of  the  na 
tives  at  the  first  sight  of  a  plough.  They 
could  not  understand  so  complicated  a  ma 
chine.  They  wanted  to  see  it  work;  and 
when  it  tore  up  more  ground  in  a  day  than 
they,  with  their  clam-shells,  could  scrape  up 
in  a  month,  and  they  saw  the  colter  and  the 
share  to  be  of  iron,  they  told  the  ploughman 
if  he  was  not  the  devil  himself,  he  was  very 
much  like  him. 

The  first  sight  of  a  ship,  it  is  recorded, 
had  excited  their  wonder  even  to  a  greater 
extent.  To  them  it  was  a  floating  island ; 
its  masts  were  nothing  but  trees ;  its  sails 
were  clouds;  its  discharge  of  guns  was 
thunder  and  lightning ;  but  as  soon  as  the 
thunder  and  lightning  ceased,  they  pushed 
off  their  canoes  to  go  and  pick  strawberries 
on  the  island ! 

This  cursory  glance  at  the  early  surround 
ings  of  the  settlers  of  the  country,  will  en 
able  us  the  better  to  comprehend  the  diffi 
culties  in  the  way  of  making  rapid  progress. 
When  poor  and  miserable  cattle,  poor  and 
miserable  implements,  poor  and  miserable 
ideas  of  farming  were  the  best  of  every  thing 
they  had,  we  can  well  imagine  that  little  was 
done  which  was  not  forced  upon  them  by 
the  pressure  of  necessity.  Their  wants  were 
too  many,  and  required  too  vigorous  exer 
tions  to  provide  what  was  indispensable,  to 
admit  of  their  spending  time  to  experiment 
or  seek  out  new  principles  to  be  applied  to 
practical  farming.  As  long  as  new  lands 
could  be  had  almost  for  the  asking,  it  was 
not  to  be  expected  that  they  would  till  them 
very  thoroughly.  The  soil  was  rich  in 
mould — the  accumulation  of  ages — and  did 
not  require  very  careful  cultivation  to  se 
cure  an  abundant  return.  But  years  of  con 
stant  cropping  exhausted  its  productiveness, 
when  other  lands  were  taken  to  subject  to 
the  same  process.  The  farmer  raised  wheat 
year  after  year  on  the  same  land,  till  the  soil 
became  too  poor,  and  then  he  planted  corn  ; 
and  when  it  would  no  longer  grow  corn,  he 
sowed  barley,  or  rye,  and  so  on  to  beans. 

Agriculture,  so  far  as  any  real  improve 
ment  was  concerned,  was,  therefore,  natural 
ly  enough,  in  a  state  of  extreme  depression 
for  more  than  a  century  and  a  half  after  the 
establishment  of  colonies  in  various  parts  of 
the  country.  There  were  few  intelligent  cul 
tivators  previous  to  the  Revolution,  and  there 
was  no  spirit  of  inquiry  to  give  a  charm  to 


farm  labor.  It  was  performed  as  an  evil 
which  must  be  endured  from  stern  necessity. 
Hard  work  was  the  order  of  the  day.  The 
forests  were  to  be  cleared,  the  buildings  for 
shelter  erected,  the  stone  walls  to  be  laid, 
and  little  time  or  inclination  was  left  for 
the  "  humanities"  of  life. 

The  inhabitants  of  country  towns,  a  hun 
dred  years  ago,  most  of  whom  were,  of 
course,  engaged  in  tilling  the  soil,  seldom 
visited  even  their  neighboring  towns,  and 
many  a  farmer  and  farmer's  son  did  not  leave 
his  own  township  from  one  year's  end  to  an 
other.  The  liberalizing  influence  of  social 
intercourse  was  unknown  and  unappreciated, 
unless  the  village  tavern  and  the  frequent 
glass  might  be  considered  as  forming  an  ex 
ception,  while  it  afforded  an  opportunity,  of 
which  most  men  availed  themselves,  of  form 
ing  new  acquaintances  and  talking  over  the 
stale  gossip  of  the  neighborhood,  or  indulg 
ing  in  the  ribald  jest. 

People  for  some  miles  around  turned  out 
to  a  "  raising,"  as  the  erection  of  a  frame 
building  was  termed,  and  a  merry  time  it 
was,  where  the  flip  and  the  cider  flowed  like 
water.  On  a  more  limited  scale,  the  "  husk- 
ings"  brought  together,  also,  a  pretty  large 
neighborhood,  when  the  same  favorite  drinks 
did  much  to  enliven  a  long  autumn  evening, 
the  whole  being  followed  by  a  sumptuous  re 
past  of  pumpkin  pies,  etc.,  continued  into  the 
small  hours  of  the  night.  Then  the  "spin 
ning  bees"  afforded  a  time  for  talk,  and  song, 
and  riddle.  Election  day  often,  however, 
brought  the  people  from  a  greater  distance. 

No  butcher  drove  up  to  the  farmer's  door, 
with  his  ever  fresh  supply  of  meats,  to  give  va 
riety  to  the  daily  and  homely  fere ;  no  ba 
ker,  with  his  jingling  bells,  travelled  his 
rounds  on  stated  days  to  relieve  the  monot 
ony  of  the  housewife's  toil.  Salted  meats 
were  the  almost  universal  food  from 
autumn  till  spring,  and  often  from  spring 
till  autumn,  though  now  and  then  a  sheep 
or  a  lamb  fell  a  victim  to  the  necessity  for 
change.  No  cottons,  no  calicoes,  no  ging 
hams,  no  linens,  no  flannels  loaded  the 
counters  of  the  village  store,  to  be  had  at  a 

• 

sixpence,  or  a  ninepence,  or  a  quarter  a 
yard.  The  farmer,  and  the  farmer's  family, 
wore  homespun,  and  the  spinning-wheel  and 
the  huge  timber  loom  were  a  part  of  nearly 
every  household  furniture,  and  their  noise 
was  rarely  silenced.  If  linens  were  wanted, 
the  flax  was  sown,  and  weeded,  and  pulled, 
and  rotted,  and  broken,  and  swingled — for  all 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


23 


of  which  processes  nearly  a  year  was  re 
quired  before  the  fibre  was  ready  for  spin 
ning,  and  bleaching  on  the  grass,  and  making 
and  wearing.  If  woollens,  the  sheep  were 
sheared,  and  the  wool  dyed  and  got  in  read 
iness,  and  months  were  often  required  before 
it  could  be  got  into  shape  for  wearing. 
Courtships  were,  therefore,  of  longer  dura 
tion  than  many  of  them  now-a-days,  and  two 
years  was  about  as  soon  as  the  betrothed 
farmer's  daughter  could  get  ready  to  go  to 
keeping  house.  Not  unfrequently  the  flax 
had  to  be  sown  as  the  preliminary  step,  and 
to  pass  through  all  its  forms  of  transition  in 
to  cloth  and  garments.  With  our  present 
facilities  for  manufacturing  by  machinery 
every  conceivable  variety  of  fabric,  and 
that,  too,  in  the  shortest  space  of  time,  it  is 
impossible  to  appreciate  fully  the  state  of 
things  among  all  classes  of  society  a  century 
ago.  Even  the  old  processes  of  curing  and 
preparing  flax,  and  the  variety  of  fabrics 
made  from  it,  have  undergone  an  entire 
change.  Processes  which  then  required 
many  months  to  complete,  are  now  wholly 
avoided  by  the  more  perfect  and  economical 
ones  at  present  known  and  in  constant  use. 

Owing  to  the  imperfect  provision  for 
schools  for  the  great  body  of  the  people,  the 
boy  was  trained  up  to  a  narrow  routine  of 
labor,  as  his  fathers  had  been  for  a  century 
before.  He  often  affected  to  despise  all  in 
telligent  cultivation  of  the  soil,  and  not  only 
scrupulously  followed  the  beaten  track,  but 
was  intolerant  of  all  innovation,  simply  be 
cause  it  was  innovation.  Very  few  of  the 
rural  population  of  that  day  saw  a  newspa 
per  or  a  journal  of  any  kind.  There  were 
not,  probably,  a  dozen  published  in  the 
whole  country  a  century  ago.  There  was 
not  one  in  New  England  at  the  beginning  of 
the  last  century,  and  but  four  in  1750,  and 
these  had  an  extremely  small  circulation  be 
yond  the  limits  of  the  metropolis. 

Obstinate  adherence  to  prejudice  of  any 
kind  is  now  generally  regarded  as  a  mark 
of  ignorance  or  stupidity.  A  century  ago, 
the  reverse  was  the  case.  In  many  a  small 
country  town  a  greater  degree  of  intelli 
gence — except  on  the  part  of  the  parson  and 
the  doctor — than  was  possessed  by  his  neigh 
bors,  brought  down  upon  the  possessor  the 
ridicule  of  the  whole  community.  If  he 
ventured  to  make  experiments,  to  strike  out 
new  paths  of  practice  and  adopt  new  modes 
of  culture;  or  if  he  did  not  plant  just  as 
many  acres  of  corn  as  his  fathers  did,  and 


that,  too,  in  "the  old  of  the  moon;"  if  he 
did  not  sow  just  as  much  rye  to  the  acre, 
use  the  same  number  of  oxen  to  plough,  and 
get  in  his  crops  on  the  same  day ;  or  if  he 
did  not  hoe  as  many  times  as  his  father  and 
his  grandfather  did — if,  in  fine,  he  did  not 
wear  the  same  kind  of  homespun  dress  and 
adopt  the  same  religious  views  and  preju 
dices,  he  was  shunned  in  company  by  the 
old  and  young,  and  looked  upon  as  a  vision 
ary.  He  knew  nothing  of  a  rotation  of 
crops.  The  use  and  value  of  manures  were 
little  regarded.  Even  so  late  as  within  the 
memory  of  men  still  living,  the  barn  was 
sometimes  removed  to  get  it  out  of  the  way 
of  heaps  of  manure  by  which  it  was  sur 
rounded,  because  the  owner  would  not  go  to 
the  expense  of  removing  these  accumula 
tions  and  put  them  upon  his  fields.  The 
swine  were  generally  allowed  to  run  at  large; 
the  cattle  were  seldom  or  never  housed  at 
night  during  the  summer  and  fall  months ; 
the  potato  patch  often  came  up  to  the  very 
door,  and  the  litter  of  the  yard  seldom  left 
much  to  admire  in  the  general  appearance 
of  things  about  the  barn  or  the  house. 
Farmers  thought  it  necessary  to  let  their 
cattle  run  at  large  very  late  in  the  fall,  and  to 
stand  exposed  to  the  severest  colds  of  a  win 
ter's  day,  "  to  toughen."  It  was  the  com 
mon  opinion  in  the  Virginia  colony,  that 
housing  and  milking  cows  in  the  winter 
would  kill  them.  Orchards  had  been  plant 
ed  in  many  parts  of  the  country,  but  the 
fruit  was,  as  a  general  thing,  of  an  inferior 
quality,  and  used  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of 
making  cider. 

This  is  no  picture  drawn  from  the  imagi 
nation.  It  is  strictly  and  literally  true  of 
the  farming  of  the  country  as  a  whole,  a 
century  ago,  though  it  should  be  remarked 
that  a  slightly  modified  state  of  things  ex 
isted  in  localities  widely  distant.  But  with 
some  differences  in  detail,  it  will  be  found  to 
be  consonant  with  historical  facts. 

It  would  be  extremely  interesting,  were  it 
in  our  power,  to  support,  by  accurate  sta 
tistics,  this  general  view  of  the  condition  of 
farming  during  the  last  century,  but,  unfor 
tunately,  no  reliable  statistics  were  taken  till 
the  year  1790,  and  then,  chiefly  to  ascertain 
the  number  of  the  population,  with  special 
reference  to  the  distribution  of  the  represen 
tation,  or  the  political  power  of  the  several 
states.  We  are,  therefore,  wholly  destitute 
of  statistical  information  of  the  products  of 
farming  industry  during  the  last  century; 


24 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


nor  was  it  till  the  fourth  decennial  census,  in 
1820,  that  the  population  was  divided  ac- 
-.cording  to  industrial  pursuits,  so  that  we 
have  no  means  of  ascertaining  even  the 
number  engaged  in  the  occupation  of  farm 
ing.  We  only  know  that  the  general  esti 
mate  of  the  population  at  the  time  of  the 
Revolution,  which  fixed  it  at  three  millions, 
was  considerably  too  high. 

The  occurrence  of  the  Revolution,  and  the 
•period  immediately  succeeding,  very  natu 
rally  brought  men  of  all  pursuits  and  from 
all  parts  of  the  country  more  frequently  and 
closely  together,  and  gave  all  classes,  and 
farmers  among  the  rest,  a  more  general 
knowledge  of  what  was  passing  in  the  world 
around  them.  Intercommunication  became 
more  easy  and  frequent,  and  had  its  influence 
upon  the  masses  of  the  people.  In  the  latter 
part  of  the  last  century  many  left  the  sea 
board  and  removed  to  the  interior  to  avoid 
the  inconvenience  arising  from  the  difficul 
ties  between  this  and  the  mother  country, 
and  for  other  reasons ;  more  attention  began 
to  be  paid  to  agriculture.  Emigration  from 
the  east  began  to  set  toward  the  so-called 
inexhaustible  west,  which  at  that  time  meant 
central  or  western  New  York. 

Up  to  this  point  our  survey  of  the  con 
dition  of  agriculture  has  necessarily  been 
general.  No  one  branch  of  farming  had 
made  any  marked  and  perceptible  progress. 
It  has  been  said  that  a  good  strong  man 
,  could  have  carried  all  the  implements  in  use 
on  the  farm,  except  the  cart  and  old  clumsy 
harrow,  upon  his  shoulders,  fifty  years  ago, 
and  we  know  that  many  a  year  occurred 
when  grain,  and  even  hay,  had  to  be  imported 
from  England  to  keep  the  people  and  the 
cattle  from  starvation.  Hereafter,  it  will  be 
more  convenient  to  trace  the  progress  of  the 
different  branches  of  farm  industry,  and  the 
means  brought  to  bear  in  the  development 
and  improvement  of  agriculture,  in  a  more 
distinct  and  separate  manner,  in  order  that 
we  may  get  a  clearer  idea  of  the  relative 
progress  and  influence  of  each.  And  first, 
of  the  origin  and  growth  of 

ASSOCIATED    AND    LEGISLATIVE    EFFORT. 

One  of  the  characteristic  features  of  the 
farming  of  the  present  day,  is  the  extent 
to  which  associated  effort  is  brought  to  bear 
upon  all  its  details,  by  way  of  exhibitions, 
premiums,  clubs  for  discussion,  and  the  pub 
lication  of  reports  for  wide  and  gratuitous 
distribution.  This  enormous  power  of  mind 


upon  mind,  by  means  of  association  or  social 
intercourse,  is  of  comparatively  recent  ori 
gin  in  this  country.  It  can  scarcely  date 
back  to  the  beginning  of  the  present  centu 
ry,  though  the  necessity  of  it  had,  even 
then,  become  impressed  upon  the  minds  of 
patriotic  and  public-spirited  men. 

On  the  20th  of  July,  1794,  Washington, 
then  president  of  the  United  States,  ad 
dressed  a  letter  to  Sir  John  Sinclair,  in  which 
he  says :  "  It  will  be  some  time,  I  fear,  before 
an  agricultural  society,  with  congressional 
aid,  will  be  established  in  this  country.  We 
must  walk,  as  other  countries  have,  before 
we  can  run ;  smaller  societies  must  prepare 
the  way  for  greater;  but,  with  the  lights 
before  us,  I  hope  we  shall  not  be  so  slow  in 
maturation  as  older  nations  have  been.  An 
attempt,  as  you  will  perceive  by  the  enclosed 
outlines  of  a  plan,  is  making  to  establish  a 
state  society  in  Pennsylvania  for  agricultural 
improvements.  If  it  succeeds,  it  will  be  a 
step  in  the  ladder ;  at  present,  it  is  too  much 
in  embryo  to  decide  upon  the  result."  And 
again,  in  his  annual  address  on  the  7th  De 
cember,  1796,  when  he  met  for  the  last  time 
the  two  houses  of  Congress,  he  said :  "  It 
will  not  be  doubted  that,  with  reference  to 
either  individual  or  national  welfare,  agricul 
ture  is  of  primary  importance.  In  propor 
tion  as  nations  advance  in  population,  and 
other  circumstances  of  maturity,  this  truth 
becomes  more  apparent,  and  renders  the  cul 
tivation  of  the  soil  more  and  more  an  object 
of  public  patronage.  Institutions  for  pro 
moting  it  grow  up,  supported  by  the  public 
purse ;  and  to  what  object  can  it  be  dedica 
ted  with  greater  propriety  ?  Among  the 
means  which  have  been  employed  to  this 
end,  none  have  been  attended  with  greater 
success  than  the  establishment  of  boards, 
composed  of  proper  characters,  charged  with 
collecting  and  diffusing  information,  and  en 
abled,  by  premiums  and  small  pecuniary 
aids,  to  encourage  and  assist  a  spirit  of  dis 
covery  and  improvement. 

"  This  species  of  establishment  contrib 
utes  doubly  to  the  increase  of  improvement, 
by  stimulating  to  enterprise  and  experiment, 
and  by  drawing  to  a  common  centre  the  re 
sults,  everywhere,  of  individual  skill  and  ob 
servation,  and  spreading  them  thence  over 
the  whole  nation.  Experience,  accordingly, 
has  shown  that  they  are  very  cheap  instru 
ments  of  immense  national  benefit." 

Some  few  individuals,  even  before  this 
date,  had  felt  the  necessity  for  some  such  ac- 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


25 


tion  as  would  lead  to  the  development  of 
the  agricultural  resources  of  the  country, 
and  as  the  result,  the  South  Carolina  Agri 
cultural  Society  had  been  established  in 
1784,  and  still  exists.  The  Philadelphia 
Society  for  the  Improvement  of  Agriculture 
was  formed  in  the  same  year,  or  the  year 
after,  followed  by  a  similar  association  in 
New  York  in  1791,  which  was  incorporated 
in  1793.  The  Massachusetts  Society  for 
Promoting  Agriculture  was  incorporated  in 
1792,  and  soon  after  commenced  the  publi 
cation  of  a  series  of  papers  known  as  the 
Agricultural  Repository,  which,  for  sound 
good  sense  and  judicious  suggestion,  chal 
lenges  comparison  with  any  similar  series 
ever  published.  It  should  be  stated,  how 
ever,  that  the  prime  movers  in  the  formation 
of  these  societies  were  not  men  actually  en 
gaged  in  fanning,  though  many  of  them  were 
owners  of  fine  estates.  The  mass  of  farmers 
were  not,  as  yet,  fully  prepared  for  this  pro 
gressive  effort,  and  all  the  agricultural  teach 
ings  of  educated  and  scientific  men  prove  un 
availing,  unless  the  people  themselves,  the 
actual  tillers  of  the  soil,  are  prepared  to  re 
ceive  and  profit  by  their  teachings.  Many 
years  elapsed  after  these  early  efforts  were 
made,  before  the  habit  of  reading  became 
sufficiently  common  among  the  masses  of 
practical  farmers  to  justify  the  expectation 
that  any  general  benefit  would  arise  from  the 
annual  publication  of  the  transactions  of 
these  societies. 

There  was  little  or  no  disposition  in  the 
community  to  examine  the  subject,  and  they 
failed  to  excite  any  spirit  of  emulation  in 
the  public  mind.  The  improvements  pro 
posed  fell  almost  dead  upon  the  people,  who 
rejected  "book  farming"  as  impertinent  and 
useless,  and  knew  as  little  of  the  chemistry 
of  agriculture  as  of  the  problems  of  astron 
omy.  A  quarter  of  a  century,  however,  ef 
fected  some  change,  and  in  1816  the  Massa 
chusetts  society  held  its  first  exhibition,  at 
Brighton,  at  which  a  list  of  premiums  was 
offered,  and  a  ploughing  match  instituted, 
not  so  much  with  the  object  of  improving 
the  plough  as  to  try  the  strength  and  docil 
ity  of  the  oxen.  But  the  plough-maker  hap 
pened  to  be  there,  and  to  have  his  eyes 
open ;  and  since  that  day,  an  amount  of 
knowledge  has  been  brought  to  bear  upon 
this  implement  sufficient  to  bring  it  very 
near  perfection. 

The  first  national  society  established  with 
this  specific  object  in  view,  is  believed  to 


have  been  the  Columbian  Agricultural  So 
ciety  for  the  Promotion  of  Rural  and  Do 
mestic  Economy,  organized  at  a  convention 
held  in  Georgetown,  D.LC.,  on  the  28th  No 
vember,  1809  ;  and  the  first  agricultural  ex 
hibition  in  this  country  was,  probably,  one 
held  by  that  society  in  Georgetown,  on  the 
10th  of  May,  1810,  when  large  premiums 
were  offered  for  the  encouragement  of  sheep 
raising,  etc.  In  the  October  following,  in 
the  same  year,  Elkanah  Watson  exhibited 
three  merino  sheep  under  the  great  elm  tree 
in  Pittsfield,  Mass.,  which  was  the  germ  of 
the  Berkshire  County  Agricultural  Society, 
whose  regular  exhibitions  began  the  year 
following,  and  are  believed  to  have  been  the 
first  county  exhibitions  ever  instituted  in 
this  country.  To  show  the  feeling  with  re 
gard  to  what  was,  at  that  time,  considered  an 
innovation,  in  a  strictly  farming  community, 
the  projector  of  that  society  encountered  the 
opposition  and  ridicule  of  all  classes  of  so 
ciety,  from  the  moment  the  proposition  was 
made.  It  was  viewed  by  many  with  con 
tempt.  Gradually,  however,  the  feelings  of 
the  people  were  enlisted  in  its  favor,  premi1 
urns  were  offered  and  awarded,  and  a  large 
concourse,  from  all  parts  of  the  county,  in 
creasing  rapidly  from  year  to  year,  showed 
clearly  that  something  had  reached  the  heart 
of  the  community. 

But  though  this  was  the  first  county  exhi 
bition,  so  far  as  I  am  informed,  it  was  not 
the  first  county  society  that  was  formed. 
The  Kenncbec  Agricultural  Society  was  in 
stituted  at  Augusta  in  1800  and  incorporar 
ted  in  1801,  being  the  second  society  incor-r 
porated  within  the  limits  of  Massachusetts,  tQ 
which  Maine,  at  that  time,  belonged.  A 
voluntary  association  of  the  Middlesex  hus 
bandmen  had  also  been  formed  in  1794,  and 
incorporated  in  1803,  under  the  name  of  the 
Western  Society  of  Middlesex  Husband 
men. 

These  were  some  of  the  early  efforts  iq 
this  direction,  and  though  they,  like  other 
similar  attempts,  met  with  some  opposition  on 
the  part  of  the  very  class  they  were  intended 
to  benefit,  the  increasing  intelligence  of  the 
people  very  soon  enabled  them  to  live  it 
down.  Now  we  have  more  than  a  thousand 
similar  associations,  all  striving,  by  the  offer 
of  premiums,  and  by  bringing  together  the  best 
products  of  the  farm  and  the  garden,  to  enr 
courage  improvement  and  stimulate  enter 
prise.  Almost  every  state  in  the  Union  has 
its  state  society,  and  almost  every  county, 


26 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


and,  in  some  of  the  states,  every  county, 
has  its  county  organization.  And  what 
is  the  result  ?  It  is  well  known  that  by  far 
the  largest  and  most  valuable  part  of  our 
practical  knowledge  is  that  which  is  got  in 
our  intercourse  with  our  fellow  men,  with 
those  who  are  engaged  in  the  same  pursuits 
and  have  the  same  interests  as  ourselves. 
The  farmer  has,  therefore,  gained,  and 
is  gaining  a  vast  amount  of  information, 
much  of  which  he  can  apply  to  advantage  on 
his  farm.  Emerging  from  his  naturally  iso 
lated  position,  he  has  become  a  more  social 
being.  More  frequent  contact  with  others, 
by  way  of  competition,  has  stimulated  men 
tal  activity.  Contrast  him  now  with  his 
father  on  the  same  farm  half  a  century  ago, 
and  see  if  there  is  not  some  improvement 
that  can  be  traced  to  the  social  influences  of 
the  agricultural  clubs  and  societies. 

In  addition  to  these  societies,  most,  if  not 
all  of  which  are  encouraged  by  the  several 
states  in  a  substantial  manner,  there  exist,  in 
some  of  the  states,  boards  of  agriculture,  or 
ganized  as  departments  of  the  state  govern 
ment,  and  having  a  general  supervision  of 
the  societies,  receiving  their  official  returns, 
and  publishing  an  abstract  of  the  most  valu 
able  papers  presented,  for  general  distribu 
tion. 

I  do  not  think  it  is  claiming  too  much 
for  the  agricultural  societies  throughout  the 
country,  to  say  that  the  general  spirit  of  in 
quiry  in  relation  to  farm  improvements,  and 
much  of  the  enterprise  manifested  by  farm 
ers  of  the  present  day,  is  due  to  their  efforts. 
The  most  impartial  judgment  would,  in  fact, 
go  much  further  than  this,  and  say  that  a 
large  proportion  of  the  actual  improvement 
that  has  been  made  in  farm  stock,  farm  im 
plements,  and  farm  products,  may  be  traced, 
directly  or  indirectly,  to  the  influence  of  the 
agricultural  associations  of  the  country. 

To  appreciate  this  influence  it  is  only  nec 
essary  to  consider  the  immense  facilities 
which  a  well-conducted  exhibition  gives,  not 
only  to  the  agricultural  mechanic  for  mak 
ing  known  the  nature  and  value  of  his  im 
provements,  but  to  the  farmer  for  becoming 
acquainted  with  them.  Many  an  invention 
would  have  slumbered  in  oblivion,  or  enjoy 
ed  only  a  limited  and  local  fame,  had  it  not 
been  for  the  multitudes  brought  together  at 
the  state,  county,  and  town  fairs,  which,  it 
will  thus  be  seen,  furnish  a  most  admirable 
medium  of  communication,  both  to  the-  me 
chanic  and  the  fanner,  making  it  for  the  in 


terest  of  both  to  attend  and  avail  themselves 
of  the  facilities  offered  them.  Thus  a  great 
public  interest  is  served,  notwithstanding  the 
individual  mechanic  or  inventor  may  have 
his  own  interest  chiefly  at  heart. 

And  what  is  true  with  regard  to  agricul 
tural  implements,  is  true  to  nearly  an  equal 
extent  of  every  thing  else  brought  for  exhibi 
tion  to  the  fairs  of  the  societies.  A  farmer 
sees  fruits  that  he  knew  nothing  of,  and 
could  not  obtain  otherwise.  He  knows  who 
presented  them,  secures  the  same  for  his  own 
farm,  and  within  five  years  can  present  as 
good  samples  himself.  He  sees  animals 
brought  to  a  degree  of  perfection  of  which 
he  had  never,  perhaps,  conceived.  Thought 
is  excited.  He  asks  himself  whether  they 
are  more  profitable  than  his  own ;  procures 
them,  perhaps,  and  thus  an  improved  stock 
is  disseminated  over  the  country  to  take  the 
place  of  that  which  is  inferior,  but  which 
costs  the  individual  nearly  or  quite  as  much 
to  keep  as  that  more  valuable  and  profitable. 

I  need  not  enlarge  upon  this  point. 
Enough  has  been  said,  I  think,  to  show  that 
the  modern  system  of  associated  effort  is  a 
most  decided  progressive  movement ;  but  let 
us  trace  out  more  in  detail  some  of  its  re 
sults.  And  first,  in  the  multiplication  and. 
improvement  of 

FARM    IMPLEMENTS. 

There  is,  perhaps,  no  branch  of  farm  econ 
omy  in  which  the  progress  of  improvement 
has  been  so  apparent  and  unquestionable,  as 
that  made  in  the  implements  of  agriculture 
during  the  last  half  century.  It  might  al 
most  be  said  that  progress  in  agriculture  it 
self  may  be  measured  by  an  increased  de 
mand  for  new  and  better  implements,  as  the 
advance  in  civilization  is  shown  by  a  greater 
demand  for  comforts  and  luxuries  by  the 
people. 

There  was  a  time,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the 
history  of  American  farming,  when  labor 
was  cheap,  when  strong  limbs  and  the  power 
of  endurance  were  the  requisites  chiefly 
sought  for  in  the  hired  man,  and  when  his 
labor  was  paid  for  as  so  much  brute,  physi 
cal  force.  Intelligent  labor,  skill,  and 
thought  found  higher  rewards  in  other  call 
ings,  and  the  practical  fanner  was  thought 
to  be  sufficiently  well  informed  if  he  was 
able  to  hold  plough,  to  mow,  to  sow,  and  to 
reap.  The  labor — the  physical  force  neces 
sary  to  carry  on  the  operations  of  the  farm — - 
could  be  obtained  very  easily  in  those  days, 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


27 


and  it  was  natural  that  farmers  should  be 
satisfied  with  the  limited  variety  of  imple 
ments  then  in  use.  The  isolated  position 
in  which  they  were  placed,  their  limited  op 
portunities  for  travel  and  observation,  the 
difficulties,  in  fact,  of  getting  about  among 
people  engaged  in  the  same  pursuits,  all 
helped  to  strengthen  prejudice  and  foster  a 
repugnance  to  try  new  and  unused  imple 
ments,  or  to  strike  out  into  new  fields  of  ex 
periments.  Besides  these  obstacles  in  the 
way  of  improvement,  the  progress  then  made 
in  the  various  branches  of  mechanics  was 
extremely  limited,  and  the  adoption  of  new 
and  improved  implements  must  follow,  of 
course,  in  the  wake  of  mechanical  invention. 
The  few  rude  and  imperfect  implements  in 
use  at  an  early  day  were,  for  the  most  part, 
of  home  manufacture,  or  made  by  the 
neighboring  blacksmith,  who  had  a  thousand 
other  things  to  make  at  the  same  time. 
There  was  little  idea  of  a  division  of  labor. 
Jack  at  all  trades  was  good  at  none. 

As  early  as  1617,  some  ploughs  were  set 
to  work  in  the  Virginia  plantation,  but  in 
that  year  the  governor  complained  to  the 
company  that  the  colony  "  did  suffer  for 
want  of  skilful  husbandmen,  and  means  to 
set  their  ploughs  on  work ;  having  as  good 
ground  as  any  man  can  desire,  and  about 
forty  bulls  and  oxen,  but  they  wanted  men 
to  bring  them  to  labor,  and  iron  for  the 
ploughs,  and  harness  for  the  cattle.  Some 
thirty  or  forty  acres  we  had  sown  with  one 
plough,  but  it  stood  so  long  on  the  ground 
before  it  was  reaped,  it  was  most  shaken,  and 
the  rest  spoiled  with  the  cattle  and  rats  in 
the  barn."  This  complaint  had  some  effect, 
for,  in  1648,  a  cotemporary  resident  says: 
"  We  have  now  going  near  oipon  a  hundred 
and  fifty  ploughs,"  and  they  were  drawn  by 
oxen. 

It  is  recorded  that  in  1637  there  were  but 
thirty-seven  ploughs  in  the  colony  of  Massa 
chusetts  Bay.  Twelve  years  after  the  land 
ing  of  the  pilgrims,  the  farmers  about  Bos 
ton  had  no  ploughs,  and  were  compelled  to 
break  up  the  bushes  and  prepare  for  cultiva 
tion  with  their  hands,  and  with  rude  and 
clumsy  hoes  or  mattocks.  It  was  the  cus 
tom,  in  that  part  of  the  country,  even  to  a 
much  later  period,  for  any  one  owning  a 
plough  to  go  about  and  do  the  ploughing 
for  the  inhabitants  over  a  considerable  extent 
of  territory.  A  town  often  paid  a  bounty 
to  any  one  who  would  buy  and  keep  a 
plough  in  repair  for  the  purpose  of  going 


about  to  work  in  this  way.  The  massive  old 
wooden  plough  required  a  strong  and  well- 
fed  team  to  move  it  through  the  soil,  a 
heavy,  muscular  man  to  press  it  into  the 
ground,  another  to  hold,  and  another  to  drive. 
We  may  judge,  therefore,  of  the  economy 
of  the  Avork  it  performed.  What  was  true 
of  the  early  period  of  the  settlement,  was 
true,  to  nearly  an  equal  extent,  for  a  hundred 
and  fifty  years,  so  far  as  the  implements  and 
the  processes  of  farming  are  concerned.  All 
these  last  were  traditional,  handed  down 
from  sire  to  son,  and  adhered  to  in  the 
strictest  manner.  The  implements  consisted 
almost  wholly  of  the  plough,  the  spade,  a 
clumsy  wooden  fork,  and  now  and  then  a 
harrow.  I  have  in  my  possession  two  of 
these  wooden  forks,  made,  and  in  use,  at 
least  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  in  the 
Massachusetts  colony.  They  were  regarded 
as  curious  for  their  antiquity  in  the  youth 
of  the  grandfather  of  the  donor,  who  died 
some  years  ago,  upward  of  ninety  years  of 
age.  That  would  date  them  back  nearly 
two  centuries,  perhaps. 

At  this  time,  the  ploughs  used  among  the 
French  settlers  in  Illinois  were  made  of 
wood,  with  a  small  point  of  iron  tied  up 
on  the  wood  with  straps  of  raw-hide.  The 
beams  rested  on  an  axle  and  small  wooden 
wheels,  the  whole  drawn  by  oxen  yoked  to 
the  ploughs  by  the  horns,  by  means  of  a 
straight  yoke  attached  by  raw  leather  straps, 
with  a  pole  extended  from  the  yoke  back  to 
the  axle.  The  plough  was  very  large  and 
clumsy,  and  no  small  one  was  used  by  them 
to  plough  among  the  corn  till  after  the  war 
of  1812.  The  carts  they  used  had  not  a 
particle  of  iron  about  them. 

During  the  last  century,  the  old  "  Carey 
plough"  was  more  extensively  used  in  the 
Atlantic  states  than  any  other  pattern,  though 
the  particular  form  of  this  instrument  varied 
almost  as  much  as  the  number  of  small  man 
ufacturers  or  blacksmiths  who  made  it. 
The  Carey  plough  had  a  clumsy  wrought 
iron  share,  a  land-side  and  standard  made  of 
wood,  a  wooden  mould-board,  often  plated 
over,  in  a  rough  manner,  with  pieces  of  old 
saw-plates,  tin,  or  sheet  iron.  The  handles 
were  upright,  and  were  held  by  two  pins ; 
a  powerful  man  was  required  to  hold  it, 
and  double  the  strength  of  team  now  com 
monly  used  in  doing  the  same  kind  of  work. 

The  "bar-side  plough,"  or  the  "bull 
plough,"  was  also  used  to  some  extent.  A 
flat  bar  formed  the  land-side,  and  a  big 


30 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


clump  of  iron,  shaped  a  little  like  the  half 
of  a  lance  head,  served  as  a  point,  into  the 
upper  part  of  which  a  kind  of  colter  was 
fastened.  The  mould-board  was  wooden, 
and  fitted  to  the  irons  in  the  most  bungling 
manner.  The  action  might  be  illustrated  by 
holding  a  sharp-pointed  shovel  back  up,  and 
thrusting  it  through  the  ground. 

In  the  southern  states,  the  "shovel 
plough"  was  in  general  use  down  to  a  very 
recent  date,  and  is,  indeed,  to  some  extent,  at 
the  present  day.  It  was  made  of  a  rough- 
hewn  stick  for  a  beam,  with  another  stick 
framed  in,  upon  the  end  of  which  a  piece  of 
iron,  shaped  somewhat  like  a  shovel,  sharp- 
pointed,  was  fastened.  The  two  rough  han 
dles  were  nailed  or  pinned  on  to  the  sides 
of  the  beam,  having  a  wooden  prop,  with  a 
draft  iron,  or  a  raw-hide  loop,  at  the  forward 
end  of  the  beam 

Generally  speaking,  it  might  be  said  that 
the  ploughs  used  in  this  country  a  century 
ago,  were  not  very  unlike  those  used  by  the 
old  Romans  before  the  Christian  era,  and  by 
some  of  the  people  of  southern  Europe  even 
at  the  present  day.  They  were  not  unfre- 
quently  nor  inaptly  termed  the  "  hog 
plough,"  on  account,  probably,  of  their  pro 
pensity  to  root  into  and  out  of  the  ground. 
And  in  describing  the  plough,  an  adequate 
idea  of  all  other  kinds  of  farm  implements — 
the  variety,  as  we  have  seen,  being  extreme 
ly  small — is  clearly  enough  conveyed.  These 
old-fashioned  wooden  ploughs  continued, 
with  little  or  no  improvement,  till  after  the 
beginning  of  the  present  century. 

By  far  the  greater  part  of  the  draught  of  the 
plough,  or  strength  of  team  required,  is  due 
to  friction  in  the  soil.  The  cutting,  raising, 
and  turning  over  of  the  turf  add  compara 
tively  little  to  the  draught,  though,  it  is  true, 
the  friction  itself  is  somewhat  increased  by 
the  weight  of  the  plough,  and  this  weight  is, 
of  course,  increased  by  the  weight  of  the 
furrow-slice  as  it  is  lifted  from  its  bed. 
Hence,  the  draught  of  the  plough  is  but  slight 
ly  increased  by  an  increase  of  speed,  since 
the  friction  is  not  increased,  but  remains 
nearly  the  same  on  the  bottom  of  the  fur 
row,  on  the  land-side,  and  between  the  fur 
row-slice  and  the  mould-board,  whether  the 
motion  be  fast  or  slow.  Modern  improve 
ments  have  aimed,  therefore,  to  overcome 
the  friction  and  resistance  by  an  improv 
ed  construction  of  the  mould-board  and 
by  the  use  of  better  materials,  for  it  is 
now  well  established,  by  practical  exper 


iment,  that  the  draught  depends  less  on  the 
weight  of  the  plough  itself,  than  on  its  con 
struction.  The  draught  does  not  increase  in 
proportion  to  an  increase  of  weight,  and 
hence,  though  some  still  object  to  the  mod 
ern  plough,  as  compared  with  the  models  in 
use  fifty  years  ago,  on  account  of  their  being 
heavier,  yet  it  is  a  common  remark  that  the 
draught  is  easier,  and  th'ey  require  much  less 
strength  of  team  to  do  the  same,  or  a  far 
better  work. 

The  excessive  friction  of  the  old-fashioned 
bull  plough  was  the  great  objection  to  it. 
It  was  constructed  awkwardly  enough,  in  the 
first  place,  but  the  form  of  the  mould-board 
was  especially  defective,  and  this  it  was  that 
required  such  great  strength  of  team.  It 
did  pretty  fair  work,  no  doubt,  on  light  and 
easy  soils,  but  the  share  and  the  mould-board 
were  so  attached,  as  to  make  the  wedge  too 
blunt,  which,  of  course,  made  the  friction 
excessive.  It  broke  and  crumbled  the  fur 
row-slice,  in  places,  and  was  not  calculated 
to  turn  a  flat  furrow.  But  the  action  of  the 
old  plough  was  not  uniform,  some  furrows 
being  set  too  much  on  the  edge,  while  oth 
ers  were  laid  quite  flat.  It  was  not  its 
weight  so  much  as  its  form  that  needed  im 
provement.  Its  construction  not  being 
based  on  such  principles  as  to  make  it  of 
easy  draught,  it  was  more  difficult  to  hold, 
more  easily  thrown  out  of  the  ground,  and 
required  constant  watchfulness  on  the  part 
of  the  ploughman.  It  was  difficult  to  culti 
vate  to  any  depth  without  the  help  of  one 
or  two  men  to  ride  on  the  beam  to  "  hold 
down."  The  mould-board  was  frequently 
shod  with  iron,  as  we  have  seen,  to  diminish 
the  friction  and  prevent  wear ;  but  it  was  in 
strips,  and  uneven,  and  the  desired  effect 
was  not  always  produced. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  changes 
and  modifications  made  in  the  mould-board 
within  the  last  forty  years,  have  effected  such 
improvements  as  to  enable  the  farmer  to  do 
a  much  greater  amount  of  better  work,  with 
far  less  expenditure  of  strength,  and  to  reap 
larger  crops  as  the  result,  while  the  original 
cost  of  the  implement  is  less  than  it  former 
ly  was.  The  saving  to  the  country  from 
these  improvements  alone,  within  the  last 
twenty-five  years,  has  been  estimated  at  no 
less  than  $10,000,000  a  year  in  the  work  of 
teams,  and  $1,000, 000  in  the  cost  of  ploughs, 
while  the  aggregate  of  the  crops  has  been 
increased  by  many  millions  of  bushels. 

These  improvements  in  the  form  of  the 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


31 


mould-board  will  be  understood,  when  we 
consider  that  one  side  of  the  furrow-slice,  as 
soon  as  it  is  cut,  begins  to  rise  gradually, 
till,  as  the  plough  advances,  it  is  turned  en 
tirely  over.  The  mould-board  should  be  so 
constructed  as  to  offer  the  least  possible  re 
sistance  as  it  moves  along,  and  to  run  as 
far  as  possible  without  clogging,  to  which 
the  old  plough  was  especially  liable,  the 
lines  of  its  mould-board  being  concave,  in 
stead  of  convex  or  straight,  according  to  the 
rules  more  recently  laid  down  requiring  the 
"board  to  be  composed  of  straight  Jines  in 
the  direction  of  its  length,  with  continually 
increasing  angles  to  the  line  of  the  furrow ; 
and  these  last  lines  are  severally  straight, 
convex,  and  concave."  Ransome,  after  the 
most  mature  study  of  this  implement,  says : 
"  Although  no  one  form  of  mould-board  will, 
or  can  be  applicable  to  every  variety  of  soil 
and  circumstance,  there  is  no  description  of 
soil  for  which  a  perfect  mould-board  may 
not  be  made  by  this  rule  in  some  of  its  mod 
ifications." 

Such  was  the  condition  of  things  with  re 
gard  to  this,  and  most  other  farm  imple 
ments,  at  the  close  of  the  last  and  beginning 
of  the  present  century,  or  till  within  the  last 
forty  or  fifty  years. 

The  first  patent  for  a  cast  iron  plough  in 
this  country,  is  believed  to  have  been  that 
of  Charles  Newbold,  of  Burlington,  N.  J., 
in  1797.  This  patent  combined  the  mould- 
board,  share,  and  land-side,  all  cast  together. 
It  was  so  great  and  manifest  an  improvement 
on  the  old  wooden  plough,  that  Peacock,  in 
his  patent  of  1807,  paid  the  original  inven 
tor  of  the  plough  of  1797  the  sum  of  $500 
for  the  privilege  of  copying  some  parts  of  it. 

A  cast  iron  mould-board  had  been  invent 
ed  in  Scotland,  it  is  proper  to  remark,  as 
early  as  1740,  by  James  Small,  but  he  still 
continued  to  use  the  wrought  iron  share, 
cast  iron  not  being  used  in  its  construction 
till  1785.  Small  established  a  plough  man 
ufactory  in  1 763,  and  becoming  familiar  with 
the  manufacture  of  cast  iron,  not  long  after 
ward,  he  conceived  the  idea  of  making  pat 
terns  of  the  principal  parts  of  the  plough. 
But  whether  the  American  inventor  had  a 
knowledge  of  the  existence  of  these  ploughs 
is  not  known. 

Such  was  the  extreme  importance  of  this 
implement,  as  to  command  the  attention  of 
scientific  men  in  studying  to  improve  its 
form  and  construction,  and,  in  1798,  Thomas 
Jefferson  applied  himself  to  the  task,  and 


wrote  a  treatise  on  the  form  of  the  mould- 
board,  discussing  it  on  scientific  principles, 
calculating  mathematically  its  exact  form  and 
size,  and  especially  its  curvature,  with  a  view 
to  lessen  its  friction.  I  have  seen  hi|  orig 
inal  manuscript  of  this  essay,  containing  his 
drawings,  etc.,  now  in  the  possession  of  a 
gentleman  of  Boston.  Since  his  time,  such 
an  amount  of  scientific  and  practical  skill 
has  been  brought  to  bear  upon  this  imple 
ment,  as  to  leave  little  to  suggest.  But  it 
should  be  stated  that  the  successive  improve 
ments  were  not  readily  adopted  by  the  mass 
of  farmers.  Their  introduction  was  far 
slower  than  that  of  an  improved  implement 
would  be  at  the  present  time,  though  the 
prejudice  against  the  use  of  new  inventions 
has  not  yet  wholly  disappeared.  Many  a 
farmer,  clinging  to  the  old  wooden  plough, 
asserted  that  cast  iron  poisoned  the  ground, 
and  spoilt  the  crops.  Still,  the  modern 
styles  gradually  gained  ground,  as  real  im 
provements  always  will.  In  one  respect  we 
have  especially  improved,  and  that  is  the 
adaptation  of  our  ploughs  to  the  different 
kinds  of  soil  on  which  they  are  to  be  used. 
When  attention  was  first  directed  to  the  im 
provement  of  this  implement  during  the  lat 
ter  part  of  the  last  century,  the  principles  of 
ploughing  were  not  so  well  understood  as  at 
the  present  day.  The  work  was  neither  so 
carefully  done  nor  so  critically  examined, 
and,  consequently,  the  want  of  different 
forms  of  the  plough  adapted  to  the  varieties 
of  surface  and  of  soil  was  not  so  much  felt  as 
now,  when  nearly  every  farmer  sees  that  he 
cannot  produce  directly  opposite  effects  with 
the  same  implement.  In  another  respect, 
also,  custom  has  changed  as  much  as  the 
forms  of  the  plough  itself,  for  while  a  half 
century  ago  it  was  made  by  the  blacksmith 
in  nearly  every  small  town  in  the  country, 
it  is  now  made  in  large  establishments  by 
those  who  devote  themselves  exclusively  to 
the  business,  and  these  establishments  have 
gradually  diminished  in  number,  while  the 
aggregate  number  of  ploughs  has  largely  in 
creased.  In  the  single  state  of  Massachu 
setts,  for  example,  there  were,  in  1845,  no 
less  than  seventy-three  plough  manufacto 
ries,  making  annually  61,334  ploughs  and 
other  agricultural  implements,  while  in  1855 
there  were  but  twenty-two  plough  manufac 
tories,  making  152,686  ploughs,  valued  at 
$707,175.86.  Up  to  the  year  1855  there 
had  been  no  less  than  three  hundred  and 
seventy-two  patents  issued  from  the  Patent 


32 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


Office  at  Washington,  for  changes  and  im 
provements  on  this  implement. 

I  need  not  dwell  upon  the  wonderful  per 
formances  of  the  steam  plough,  the  practical 
and  successful  operation  of  which  is  one  of 
the  proudest  triumphs  of  modern  agricul 
tural  mechanics  and  engineering.  I  need 
not  dwell  on  the  vastly  increased  facilities  it 
will  give  for  developing  the  resources  of  the 
west,  through  whose  almost  boundless  prai 
ries  it  will  run  unobstructed,  like  a  thing  of 
life. 

The  harrow  naturally  follows  the  plough, 
and  is  equally  indispensable.  It  has,  prob 
ably  undergone  fewer  changes  and  modifica 
tions,  if  we  except  those  made  within 
the  last  ten  years,  than  any  other  of  our 
farm  implements,  most  of  the  forms  of  the 
modern  harrow  in  use  bearing  a  close  resem 
blance  to  those  of  the  ancients,  as  illustrated 
on  medals  and  sculptures.  The  old  harrow, 
and  that  used  by  our  fathers  till  within  the 
memory  of  men  still  living,  was  made  of 
wood,  of  simple  bars  and  cross-bars  furnish 
ed  with  teeth.  More  recently  the  material 
used  has  been  of  iron,  with  teeth  commonly 
pointed  with  steel,  and  this  has  partly  obvi 
ated  the  objections  made  to  this  implement 
on  account  of  its  great  weight,  which  re 
quired  too  slow  a  motion  on  the  part  of  the 
team. 

A  light,  sharp-toothed  harrow,  moved 
quickly  over  the  ground,  accomplishes  far 
the  best  work  in  preparing  the  soil  for  the 
reception  of  seed.  So  important  is  it  that 
this  implement  should  be  rapidly  moved, 
that  the  work  of  the  same  implement,  drawn 
sluggishly  over  the  ground,  or  moved  more 
rapidly,  differs  very  widely  in  its  results.  A 
certain  amount  of  weight  is  very  important, 
it  is  true,  and  this  weight  differs  according 
to  circumstances ;  but  it  is  desirable  to  have 
it  in  the  most  compact  form.  The  recent 
improvements,  by  which  a  complete  rotatory 
motion  is  secured,  together  with  a  certain 
degree  of  flexibility  gained  by  pieces  of 
framework  hinged  together  so  that  any  part 
of  the  implement  can  be  lifted  or  moved 
without  disturbing  the  operation  of  the  rest, 
seem  to  leave  little  to  desire  in  respect  to 
this  important  farm  implement.  This  is  a 
case,  as  well  as  that  of  the  plough,  of  most 
decided  improvement  in  an  implement  of 
very  ancient  date,  handed  down  to  us,  in 
fact,  from  remote  antiquity. 

As  specimens  of  important  labor-saving 
implements  of  modern  invention  and  con 


struction,  we  may  mention  a  large  class 
known  as  horse-hoes,  grubbers,  cultivators, 
drills,  seed-sowers,  and  others  of  like  char 
acter.  The  seed-sowers  and  drills  scatter 
the  seed  more  uniformly  than  it  could  pos 
sibly  be  done  by  hand  ;  dropping  also,  when 
it  is  desired,  any  concentrated  or  pulverized 
manure,  and  covering  the  rows.  All  the 
implements  named,  of  which  there  is  an 
infinite  variety  of  forms,  are  most  marked 
and  decided  improvements  on  manual  labor, 
which  Avas  required  by  our  forefathers  for 
the  same  processes. 

Another  large  class  of  implements,  among 
the  most  important  of  modern  inventions, 
are  the  various  kinds  of  harvesters,  particu 
larly  the  reapers  and  the  mowers. 

Many  of  our  grain  crops,  like  wheat,  bar 
ley,  and  oats,  come  to  maturity  at  nearly  the 
same  time.  Wheat  is  liable  to  sprout  in 
moist  weather,  and  barley  to  become  dis 
colored  if  allowed  to  stand  too  long.  The 
work  of  harvesting  by  the  old  method  was 
necessarily  slow  and  protracted.  Previous 
to  the  introduction  of  the  reaper,  very  large 
quantities  of  our  most  valuable  grain  were 
annually  lost,  owing  to  the  impossibility  of 
harvesting  it  properly  and  at  the  proper 
time.  It  is  not,  therefore,  too  much  to  say, 
that  the  successful  introduction  of  the 
reaper  into  our  grain  fields  has  added  many 
millions  of  dollars  to  the  value  of  our  an 
nual  harvest,  not  only  by  enabling  us  to  se 
cure  the  whole  product,  but  also  by  making 
it  possible  for  the  farmer  to  increase  the  area 
of  his  cultivated  fields,  with  a  certainty  of 
being  able  to  gather  in  his  whole  crop. 

The  sickle,  which  was  in  common  use  for 
harvesting  the  grain  crop  till  the  introduc 
tion  of  the  cradle,  and,  in  fact,  till  a  very 
recent  date,  was  undoubtedly  as  old  as  Tubal 
Cain.  No  one  who  has  had  a  practical  ex 
perience  of  its  use,  bending  over  in  the  most 
painful  position  from  "  early  morn  till  dewy 
eve,"  can  fail  to  appreciate  the  immense  sav 
ing  of  human  muscle,  and  of  slow  and 
wearisome  hand  labor,  by  the  introduction 
and  use  of  the  reaper. 

It  would  have  been  an  astonishing  evidence 
of  stupidity  on  the  part  of  the  ancients,  who 
relied  mainly  on  wheat  and  the  other  smaller 
grains,  had  they  not  tried,  at  least,  to  replace 
the  sickle  by  something  better.  This  they 
did,  for  it  is  recorded  that  the  farmers  of 
Gaul  used  a  simple  reaper,  not  long  after  the 
time  of  Christ.  Pliny  asserts  that  the  in 
habitants  of  that  country  fixed  a  series  of 


AGRICULTURE    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


35 


knives  into  the  tail-end  of  a  cart,  and  this 
being  propelled  through  the  grain,  clipped 
off  the  ears  or  heads,  and  thus  it  was  har 
vested. 

Many  efforts  were  made  in  England  and 
Scotland,  at  the  beginning  of  the  present 
century,  to  accomplish  the  same  result,  but 
with  no  great  success.  In  the  year  1833, 
Schnebley,  of  Maryland,  obtained  a  patent  on 
a  machine  for  reaping  grain ;  but  that  of 
Obed  Hussey,  of  Baltimore,  patented  in  the 
same  year,  has  not  only  been  successfully 
and  somewhat  extensively  used  from  that 
time  to  this,  in  the  western  states,  but  has 
furnished  the  basis  for  the  most  successful 
models  in  this  country,  among  the  most 
noted  of  which  are  those  of  McCormick,  of 
Virginia,  and  Manny  &  Atkins,  of  Illinois. 

The  American  reaping  machines  have  been 
brought  to  a  high  state  of  perfection  within 
the  last  ten  years.  They  have  already  a 
world-wide  reputation.  Their  superiority 
is  generally  acknowledged,  and  the  credit 
of  having  for  the  first  time  made  the  prin 
ciples  applicable  to  such  machinery  prac 
tically  useful,  undoubtedly  belongs  to  our 
own  ingenious  mechanics.  Five  years  ago 
the  American  machines  were  brought  to  trial 
at  the  exhibition  at  Paris,  in  competition 
with  the  world. 

This  trial  took  place  in  a  field  of  oats 
about  forty  miles  from  the  city,  each  ma 
chine  having  about  one  acre  to  cut.  Three 
machines  were  entered  for  the  first  trial,  one 
American,  one  English,  and  a  third  from 
Algiers,  all  at  the  same  time  raking  as  well 
as  cutting.  The  American  machine  did  its 
work  in  twenty-two  minutes,  the  English  in 
sixty-six,  and  the  Algerian  in  seventy-two. 
At  a  subsequent  trial  on  the  same  piece, 
when  three  other  machines  were  entered,  of 
American,  English,  and  French  manufacture, 
respectively,  the  American  machine  cut  its 
acre  in  twenty-two  minutes,  while  the  two 
others  failed.  The  successful  competitor  on 
this  occasion,  "  did  its  work  in  the  most  ex 
quisite  manner,"  says  a  French  journal, 
"  not  leaving  a  single  stalk  ungathered,  and 
it  discharged  the  grain  in  the  most  perfect 
shape,  as  if  placed  by  hand,  for  the  binders. 
It  finished  its  piece  most  gloriously." 

The  contest  was  finally  narrowed  down  to 
three  machines,  all  American.  Two  ma 
chines  were  afterward  converted  from  reap 
ers  into  mowers,  one  making  the  change  in 
one  minute,  the  other  in  twenty.  Both 
performed  their  task  to  the  astonishment 
3 


and  satisfaction  of  a  large  concourse  of  spec 
tators,  and  the  judges  themselves  could  not 
restrain  their  enthusiasm,  but  cried  out 
"  Good,  good,  well  done,"  while  the  people 
hurrahed  for  the  American  reaper,  crying 
out,  "  That's  the  machine,  that's  the  ma 
chine  !"  "  All  the  laurels,"  says  the  report 
of  a  French  agricultural  journal,  "  we  are 
free  to  confess,  have  been  gloriously  won  by 
Americans,  and  this  achievement  cannot  be 
looked  upon  with  indifference,  as  it  plainly 
foreshadows  the  ultimate  destiny  of  the  new 
world !" 

And  so  with  the  mowing  machines.  The 
hay  crop  of  the  country  cannot  be  estimated 
at  less  than  a  hundred  millions  of  dollars  a 
year.  It  must  be  gathered  at  a  season  when 
labor  is  to  be  obtained  with  difficulty,  and 
at  even  higher  than  the  usual  price  of 
wages,  and  when  the  weather  is  often  fickle 
and  precarious,  generally  oppressively  hot, 
making  the  task  doubly  irksome  and  un 
healthy.  But  besides  this,  many  acres  of 
grass  on  our  ordinary  farms  ripen  at  about 
the  same  time,  which,  if  allowed  to  stand  too 
long,  will  decrease  in  quantity  and  value  of 
hay  which  might  otherwise  have  been  made 
from  it.  By  the  use  of  the  mowing  machine 
it  can  be  secured  and  saved  most  quickly, 
easily,  and  cheaply. 

Mowing  is,  at  best,  one  of  the  severest  of 
the  labors  of  the  farm,«iotwithstanding  the 
efforts  of  poets  and  other  writers  to  make  us 
believe  it  is  all  fun.  It  calls  into  play 
nearly  every  voluntary  muscle  in  the  body, 
requiring  not  only  the  more  frequent  and 
regular  movements  of  these  muscles,  but,  on 
account  of  the  twisting  motion  of  the  body, 
an  unusually  great  exertion  of  muscular 
power.  Nor  does  it  require  any  small 
amount  of  skill  to  become  a  good  mower, 
since  it  is  proverbial  that,  unless  the  boy 
becomes  accustomed  to  the  scythe,  and 
learns  while  young,  he  can  never  become  a 
skilful  mower.  It  is  not  at  all  surprising, 
therefore,  that  mechanical  ingenuity  should 
have  been  directed  to  shorten  and  lighten 
this  severe  operation. 

The  first  mowing  machine  which  met 
with  any  success  in  this  country,  is  believed 
to  have  been  that  of  William  Manning,  of  New 
Jersey,  patented  in  1831,  and  which  met 
with  a  limited  success  more  than  twenty 
years  ago.  In  1834  appeared  the  Ambler 
patent,  simple  in  its  construction,  with  a 
cutter  bar  of  wrought  iron,  and  a  single 
smooth-edged  knife,  operated  by  means  of  a 


36 


AGRICULTURE    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


crank  which  gave  it  a  vibratory  motion.  It 
was  used  in  1835  and  1836.  A  few  other 
efforts  were  made  about  that  time,  and  met 
with  some  slight  success,  but  it  was  not  till 
a  recent  date  that  the  machine  was  con 
structed  in  a  manner  to  give  a  confident 
hope  of  its  ultimate  and  complete  success. 
That  hope  has  been  fully  realized,  and  the 
mower  is  one  of  the  grandest  agricultural 
inventions  of  modern  times.  Like  all  other 
inventions,  it  was  adopted  by  the  farmer 
with  his  usual  caution,  but  its  triumph  has 
been  so  complete,  that  its  utility  and  its 
economy  are  almost  universally  admitted, 
and  the  number  manufactured,  and  the  sales 
to  farmers,  have  been  immense,  and  are  even 
now  rapidly  increasing  every  year.  As  an 
evidence  of  this,  McCormick  is  reported  to 
have  sold  no  less  than  four  thousand  of  his 
reapers  to  the  farmers  around  Chicago,  for 
the  single  harvest  of  1860,  and  other  manu 
facturers  have  no  doubt  met  with  similar 
encouragement. 

Contrast  also  the  slow  process  of  raking 
hay  by  the  common  hand  rake,  with  the 
rapid  and  easy  method  of  gathering  it  with 
the  horse  rake,  accomplishing  with  great  ease 
to  a  single  man  who  drives,  the  labor  of  at 
least  ten  men  with  the  old  hand  rake. 
With  a  common  revolving  rake,  from  twenty 
to  twenty-five  acres  a  day  may  be  gathered 
up,  and  sixteen  acres  a  day  have  been  raked 
with  the  simplest  form.  What  a  security  on 
the  approach  of  a  storm,  when  the  farmer 
would  be  comparatively  helpless  with  nothing 
but  the  common  rake  to  rely  on  ! 

But  what  shall  we  say  of  the  modern 
threshing  machine  as  compared  with  the 
flail  ?  Who  does  not  well  remember  its 
familiar  sound,  and  that  beautiful  description 
of  Cowper — 

"  Thump  after  thump  resounds  the  constant  flail, 
That  seems  to  swing  uncertain,  and  yet  falls 
Full  on  the  destined  ear  "  ? 

<  Only  think  of  the  difference  in  the  results. 
A.t  the  trial  of  threshing-machines  at  the 
Paris  exhibition,  the  victory  was  won  by  an 
American  machine,  and  during  the  opera 
tion,  to  ascertain  the  comparative  rapidity 
of  threshing,  six  men  were  engaged  in 
threshing  with  flails,  who  in  one  hour 
threshed  sixty  litres  of  wheat.  In  the  same 
time 

i    Pitt's  American  machine  threshed  T40  litres, 
Clayton's  English    "  "          410     " 

Duvoir's  French      "  "          250     " 

Pinet's        "  "  "          150     " 


and  a  French  journal,  in  speaking  of  the 
trial,  said  :  "  This  American  machine  liter 
ally  devoured  the  sheaves  of  wheat.  The 
eye  cannot  follow  the  work  which  is  effect 
ed  between  the  entrance  of  the  sheaves  and 
the  end  of  the  operation.  It  is  one  of  the 
greatest  results  Avhich  it  is  possible  to  at 
tain.  The  impression  which  this  spectacle 
produced  on  the  Arab  chiefs  was  profound." 

At  the  great  fair  in  New  York,  in  1853, 
a  machine  was  exhibited  which  not  only 
threshed  and  winnowed  the  wheat,  but  meas 
ured  it,  placed  it  in  bags  ready  forthe  market, 
and  recorded  accurately  the  number  of  bush 
els,  and  all  by  one  continuous  operation. 

These  vast  and  acknowledged  improve 
ments  in  harvesting  and  threshing  grain  will 
be  seen  to  be  of  the  utmost  importance, 
when  it  is  considered  that  we  annually  raise 
about  two  hundred  millions  of  bushels  of 
wheat,  and  of  rye,  barley,  and  oats  over  one 
hundred  millions,  and  that  the  resources  of 
the  country  may  be  developed,  by  the  use 
of  machinery,  to  an  extent  far  beyond  the 
reach  of  present  calculation. 

The  reaper,  the  thresher,  and  the  mower 
are  types  of  the  ever  restless  and  progress 
ive  spirit  of  the  age.  They  point  out  to  us 
a  glorious  future,  in  which  they  will  accom 
plish  for  us  and  for  our  country  triumphs 
grander  than  the  triumphs  of  arms,  for  they 
will  develop  the  means  of  supporting  the 
millions  of  human  beings  which  the  imple 
ments  of  war  can  only  destroy. 

Could  the  learned  Malthus — who  proclaim 
ed  the  gloomy  theory  that  war,  famine,  and 
pestilence  were  checks,  designed  by  an  all- 
wise  Being  to  keep  down  the  increase  of 
population  to  a  level  with  the  means  of  sus 
tenance — now  rise  up  from  his  sleep  of  death 
and  see  the  population  of  England  more 
than  doubled  since  his  day,  and  that  of  this 
country  multiplied  many  times,  while  the 
people  are  better  fed,  and  better  clothed, 
with  less  labor  and  less  suffering,  with  the 
possibility  of  a  famine  wholly  and  •  forever 
removed,  he  might  change  his  shameful 
doctrine,  and  adopt  a  more  cheerful  and 
hopeful  view  of  the  providence  of  God. 
With  an  immense  multiplication  of  the  hu 
man  species  in  all  civilized  countries  which 
have  been  devoted  to  the  arts  of  peace  and 
the  development  of  their  material  resources, 
a  bountiful  Father  has  sent  us  a  superabun 
dance  of  food,  instead  of  famine,  and  has 
taught  us  to  rely  on  the  exhaustless  bounty 
of  the  fruitful  earth,  and  upon  his  beneficent 


^•'•m  « 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


37 


promise  that  seed  time  and  harvest  shall 
never  fail  to  supply  the  daily  wants  of  his 
children. 

But  with  all. the  progress  which  we  have 
made  in  improving  the  implements  of  the 
farm,  we  have  not  reached  perfection.  No 
bound  is  set  to  human  ingenuity,  and  further 
means  may  yet  be  devised  to  shorten  labor 
and  increase  the  products  of  the  soil. 

We  cannot  hope,  nor  is  it  desirable,  to 
avoid  labor.  This  is  not  the  object  of  im 
proved  machinery ;  but  to  make  labor  more 
attractive,  agreeable,  and  productive ;  to 
bring  into  subjection  the  rude  forces  of 
nature,  and  make  them  do  our  bidding  and 
increase  our  stores ;  to  redeem  thousands  of 
acres  now  lying  waste  from  wildness  and  des 
olation,  and  to  make  our  country  the  gran 
ary  of  the  world — these  are  triumphs  we 
may  hope  to  gain  from  the  introduction  and 
use  of  improved  machinery,  and  in  this  view 
the  subject  commends  itself  to  the  attention 
of  the  highest  intellect,  and  opens  a  field  for 
the  labors  of  the  noblest  philanthropy. 

PROGRESS    IN    THE    RAISING    OF    STOCK. 

Allusion  has  already  been  made,  incident 
ally,  to  the  character  of  the  cattle  from  which 
the  early  importations  into  this  country 
must,  for  the  most  part,  have  been  drawn. 

The  first  animals  that  arrived  in  any  part 
of  the  present  territory  of  the  United  States 
were  probably  those  taken  to  the  colony  on 
the  James  river,  in  Virginia,  previous  to  the 
year  1609,  the  exact  date  of  their  arrival 
not  being  known.  Several  cows  are  known 
to  have  been  carried  there  in  1610,  and  dur 
ing  the  following  year,  1611,  no  less  than 
one  hundred  head  arrived  there  from  abroad. 

It  is  probable  that  those  first  introduced 
there  were  brought  over  by  the  earliest  ad 
venturers,  and  others  came  from  the  West 
Indies.  It  is  well  known  that  some  of  their 
cattle  came  from  Ireland.  Those  from  the 
West  Indies  were  the  descendants  of  cattle 
brought  to  America  by  Columbus  in  his 
second  voyage,  in  1493.  I  have  seen  it  as 
serted  that  so  important  was  it  considered 
that  the  cattle  introduced  into  the  infant 
colony  should  be  preserved  and  allowed  to 
increase,  that  an  order  was  issued  forbidding 
the  killing  of  domestic  animals  of  any  kind, 
on  pain  of  death  to  the  principal,  burning 
of  the  hand  and  cropping  the  ears  of  the 
accessory,  and  a  sound  whipping  of  twenty- 
four  hours  for  the  concealer  of  a  knowledge 
of  the  facts.  Such  encouragement  being 


given  to  the  raising  of  stock,  it  is  not  sur 
prising  to  find  the  number  of  cattle  in  Vir 
ginia  in  1620  amounting  to  about  five  hun 
dred  head;  and  in  1639,  to  thirty  thousand ; 
while  from  the  fact  that  in  1648  the  number 
had  been  reduced  to  twenty  thousand,  we 
may  infer  that  the  restrictions  on  killing 
them  had  been  removed.  Many  also  had 
been  sent  to  New  England. 

The  first  cattle  that  were  introduced  into 
the  Plymouth  colony,  anfl  undoubtedly  the 
earliest  brought  into  New  England,  arrived 
at  Plymouth,  in  the  ship  Charity,  in  1624. 
They  were  imported  by  Governor  Winslow 
for  the  colony,  and  consisted  of  three  heifers 
and  a  bull.  A  division  of  the  stock,  which, 
appears  to  have  been  held  in  common,  was 
made  in  1627,  when  one  or  two  are  described 
as  black,  black  and  white,  others  brindle  ;  an 
evidence  that  there  was  no  uniformity  of 
color.  These  animals  were  to  remain  in  the 
hands  of  individuals  receiving  them  for  ten 
years,  they  to  have  the  produce,  while  the 
old  stock  Avas  still  to  be  owned  by  the  col 
ony  in  common.  Twelve  cows  were  sent  to 
Cape  Ann  in  1626,  and  in  1629  thirty  more, 
while  in  1630  about  a  hundred  animals  were 
imported  for  the  "governor  and  company 
of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  in  New  England." 
These  cattle  were  kept  at  Salem. 

In  the  meantime,  the  first  importation 
was  made  into  New  York  from  Holland  by 
the  Dutch  West  India  Company, .  and  the 
foundation  laid  for  a  valuable  race  of  ani 
mals.  The  number  in  all  introduced  was 
one  hundred  and  three,  consisting  of  horses 
and  cattle  for  breeding.  The  company  fur 
nished  each  tenant  with  four  cows,  four 
horses,  some  sheep  and  pigs,  for  the  term  of 
six  years,  when  the  number  of  animals  re 
ceived  was  to  be  returned,  their  increase 
being  left  in  the,  hands  of  each  farmer. 
Then  the  cattle  belonging  to  the  company 
were  distributed  among  those  who  were  un 
able  to  buy  stock. 

And  so,  for  the  settlements  along  the 
Delaware,  cattle  were  introduced  by  the 
Swedish  West  India  Company  in  1627.  It 
will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  before  the  close 
of  the  year  1630,  the  number  of  horned 
cattle  in  all  the  colonies  must  have  risen, 
by  natural  increase  and  by  the  importations 
above  named,  to  several  thousands. 

And  then,  in  1631,  1632,  and  1633,  sev 
eral  importations  were  made  into  what  ii 
now  New  Hampshire,  by  Captain  John 
Mason,  who,  with  Gorges,  procured  the 


38 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


patent  of  large  tracts  of  land  in  the  vicinity 
of  Piscataqua  river,  and  immediately  formed 
settlements  there.  The  prime  object  of 
Mason  was  to  carry  on  the  manufacture  of 
potash,  and  for  this  purpose  he  employed 
the  Danes  ;  and  it  was  in  his  voyages  to  and 
from  Denmark  that  he  procured  many  Dan- 
lab  cattle,  chiefly  for  the  purposes  of  draught. 
They  were,  undoubtedly,  considerably  larger 
than  the  average  of  the  cattle  of  England  at 
that  day,  of  a  uniformly  light  yellow  color, 
and  made  very  fine  oxen  for  labor.  They 
soon  became  widely  diffused  over  the  whole 
region,  and  are  said  to  have  remained,  with 
a  great  degree  of  purity  of  blood,  or  little 
intermixture,  down  to  the  year  1 820.  Traces 
of  them  can  be  found  even  at  the  present 
day.  They  were,  no  doubt,  large  and  coarse 
animals,  and  well  adapted  to  endure  the 
severity  of  the  climate  and  the  hardships  to 
which  they  were  subjected  in  the  lumbering- 
operations  of  that  new  .colony.  They,  un 
questionably,  did  much  to  lay  the  foundation 
of  the  "  native"  stock  of  New  England,  over 
which  they  spread  in  the  course  of  a  very 
few  years,  and  became  mixed  with  the  cattle 
imported  into  Salem  and  Plymouth,  and 
probably,  to  some  extent,  with  the  Dutch 
cattle  already  alluded  to ;  perhaps,  also,  with 
the  black  cattle  of  Spain  and  Wales,  and 
subsequently  with  the  long-horns  and  the 
short-horns,  most  or  all  of  which  crosses 
were  accidental,  or  the  result  of  individual 
convenience  or  other  local  circumstances. 
From  them  the  working  oxen  of  New  Eng 
land  derive  much  of  their  character  and 
reputation  for  strength,  hardihood,  quick 
ness,  and  docility. 

Now  we  find  the  sources  from  which  the 
native  cattle  of  this  country  sprang.  The 
early  importations  into  Virginia  were  origi 
nally  derived,  mainly,  probably,  from  Eng 
land  ;  some  were  from  the  black  cattle  of 
Spain,  though  the  importation  of  1611 
probably  came  from  England ;  the  cattle  of 
the  Plymouth  colony  came  from  the  coast 
of  Devonshire ;  those  brought  into  New 
York  from  the  island  of  Texel,  on  the  coast 
of  Holland,  and  were  mostly,  without  doubt, 
the  black  and  white  Dutch  cattle ;  those  on 
the  Delaware  were  brought  from  Sweden  ; 
those  in  New  Hampshire  were  the  large, 
yellow  Danish  cattle ;  and  as  the  earlier  im 
portations  were  the  most  extensive  that 
were  made  for  many  years,  these  various 
stocks  were  crossed,  and  thus  formed  the 
original  stock  of  the  country. 


There  is  sufficient  evidence  to  show  that 
they  were  interchanged  between  the  colo 
nies  to  some  extent,  at  an  early  day.  Some 
of  the  Virginia  cattle  were  early  sent  to 
New  England,  while  others  found  their  way 
to  Virginia  through  Pennsylvania,  so  that 
the  mixture  was  great  and  inevitable.  Of 
the  mode  of  keeping  cattle  in  the  Virginia 
colony,  Glover,  a  cotemporary,  in  the  His 
torical  Register,  says  :  "  All  the  inhabitants 
give  their  cattle  in  winter  is  only  the  husks 
of  their  Indian  corn,  unless  it  be  some  of 
them  that  have  a  little  wheat  straw,  neither 
do  they  give  them  any  more  of  these  than 
will  serve  to  keep  them  alive ;  by  reason 
whereof  they  venture  into  the  marshy  grounds 
and  swamps  for  food,  where  very  many  are 
lost."  And  Clayton,  another  equally  high 
authority,  says,  "that  they  neither  housed 
nor  milked  their  cows  in  winter,  having  a 
notion  that  it  would  kill  them.'1'1  And  still 
another,  a  Swedish  traveller,  Kalm,  more 
recently,  1749,  in  speaking  of  the  James 
river  colony,  says:  "They  make  scarce 
any  manure  for  their  corn  fields,  but  when 
one  piece  of  ground  has  been  exhausted  by 
continual  cropping,  they  clear  and  cultivate 
another  piece  of  fresh  land,  and  when  that 
is  exhausted  proceed  to  a  third.  Their  cat 
tle  are  allowed  to  wander  through  the 
woods  and  uncultivated  grounds,  where  they 
are  half  starved,  having  long  ago  extirpated 
almost  all  the  annual  grasses  by  cropping 
them  too  early  in  the  spring,  before  they 
had  time  to  form  their  flowers  or  to  shed 
their  seeds."  The  poorness  of  pasturage 
and  want  of  food  had  caused  the  cattle  to 
diminish  in  size  from  one  generation  to 
another,  till  they  had  become  stunted  and 
small,  and  were  not  improperly  termed  "  lit 
tle  runts,"  or  "natives." 

In  color,  the  natives,  as  already  indicated, 
are  exceedingly  various.  Crosses  of  the  Den- 
marks  with  the  Spanish  and  Welsh  would 
naturally  have  made  a  dark  brindlc  ;  crosses 
of  the  Denmarks  and  the  Devons  often  made 
a  lighter  or  yellowish  brindle  ;  while  the 
more  recent  importations  of  Jerseys  and 
short-horns  have  generally  produced  a  beau 
tifully  spotted  progeny.  The  prejudice  in 
favor  of  deep  red,  which  was  long  the  fa 
vorite  color  of  New  England,  is  fast  giving1 
way  to  more  variegated  colors. 

In  the  year  1553,  some  Portuguese  had 
taken  cattle  to  Newfoundland  and  Nova 
Scotia,  while  in  1604,  a  Frenchman  had  in 
troduced  the  small  French  cattle  into  Acadia, 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


39 


from  whence,  in  1608,  they  were  carried  to 
Canada,  and  from  there  several  animals  were 
taken  into  what  is  now  known  as  the 
"American  Bottom,"  in  Illinois,  in  1682, 
where  they  increased  rapidly.  The  first 
cattle  imported  into  Carolina  were  obtained 
in  England  in  1670,  and  we  find  that  the 
Indians  on  the  Red  River  in  Louisiana  had 
cattle  as  early  as  1690.  The  first  importa 
tion  into  Georgia  was  made,  so  far  as  we 
are  informed,  in  1732,  followed  by  others  in 
1735. 

In  1750  the  keeping  of  stock  had  assumed 
some  importance  in  certain  localities,  par 
ticularly  in  the  older  eastern  settlements, 
where  it  had  become  comparatively  safe 
from  molestation,  for  it  is  known  that  some 
large  farmers  in  Rhode  Island  kept  as  many 
as  one  hundred  cows  and  upward,  and  the 
sale  of  thirteen  thousand  pounds  of  cheese 
from  one  farm  is  recorded,  and  in  one  case 
seventy-three  cows  produced  ten  thousand 
pounds  of  butter  in  five  months,  or  an  aver 
age  of  very  nearly  a  pound  a  day  to  a  cow, 
which,  for  that  length  of  time,  must  be  re 
garded  as  a  good  yield. 

It  will  be  borne  in  mind  that  up  to  this 
time,  and  in  fact  for  nearly  half  a  century 
later,  no  well-directed  efforts  at  improve 
ment  had  been  made  even  in  England  ;  but 
at  that  time  some  localities  there  possessed 
classes  or  races  of  animals  peculiar  to  them 
selves,  whose  merits  had  begun  to  attract 
attention,  though  there  was  no  general  in 
terest  in  the  subject  before  the  days  of 
Bakewell,  who  "  sat  in  the  huge  chimney 
corner  of  a  log  kitchen,  hung  round  with 
the  finest  joints  of  his  dried  oxen,  preserved 
as  specimens  of  proportions ;  a  tall,  stout, 
broad-shouldered  man,  of  brown,  red  com 
plexion,  clad  in  a  brown,  loose  coat  and 
scarlet  waistcoat,  leather  breeches,  and  top 
boots,"  and  demonstrated  what  could  be 
done  by  attention  to  true  physiological  laws 
in  the  breeding  of  cattle.  The  choice  of 
breeds  and  obtaining  good  crosses  were 
nowhere  thought  of  previous  to  his  time. 
In  fact,  before  the  cultivation  of  the  natural 
and  artificial  grasses  and  the  introduction  of 
the  turnip  and  other  root  crops,  the  farmer 
/  had  comparatively  little  control  over  the 
frames  of  his  cattle.  He  was  obliged  to 
give  them  such  food  as  he  had,  or  rather 
they  were  obliged  to  take  such  as  they 
could  get,  which,  on  a  vast  majority  of  the 
farms,  both  of  England  and  the  American 
provinces,  at  that  time,  was  what  would 


now  be  considered  pretty  hard  fare.  Hard 
seasons  and  the  want  of  winter  feeding  and 
shelter  were  obstacles  vastly  more  difficult 
to  overcome  then  than  now. 

Those  who  should,  "  during  the  space  of 
one  year,  keep  the  greatest  weight  of  horned 
cattle,"  got  the  premiums  offered  by  the 
London  Society  of  Arts,  rather  than  those 
who  should  exhibit  the  greatest  degree  of 
improvement  in  their  animals.  But  with 
the  increase  and  abundance  of  good  food, 
the  tide  of  improvement  set  in,  and  size 
began  to  be  the  grand  aim  of  the  earlier 
graziers,  and  the  production  of  enormous 
monstrosities  was  the  result.  Now  Bake- 
well,  a  man  of  remarkable  sagacity  and  close 
observation,  steps  in  and  establishes  a  new 
system  of  animal  development.  With  him 
mere  size  was  no  object.  He  wanted  to 
build  up  a  breed  which  should  give  the 
greatest  amount  of  saleable  beef  for  the 
amount  of  food  consumed,  having  the  best 
parts  bearing  a  larger  proportion  to  the 
offal  than  what  was  usually  found.  Small- 
ness  of  bone,  and  tendency  to  fatten  and 
mature  early,  he  thought  indispensable  in 
cattle  bred  for  the  shambles.  Up  to  his 
day,  both  in  England  and  America,  it  had 
been  customary  to  keep  oxen  till  they  were 
seven  or  eight  years  old,  before  they  were 
fatted  for  the  butcher.  He  travelled  over 
England,  Ireland,  and  Holland  to  find  ani 
mals  adapted  to  his  purposes.  "  The  old 
notion  was,"  says  Arthur  Young,  "that  where 
you  had  large  bones  there  was  plenty  of 
room  to  lay  the  flesh  on.  This,  Mr.  Bake- 
well  has  proved  to  be  a  mistake.  He  asserts 
the  smaller  the  bones,  the  truer  will  be  the 
make  of  the  beast,  the  quicker  she  will 
fatten,  and  her  weight  will  have  a  larger 
proportion  of  valuable  meat."  The  greatest 
physiologists  have  shown,  upon  the  highest 
scientific  principles,  that  the  formation  of  a 
large  bony  system  is  the  result  of  defective 
nutrition. 

Other  breeders,  stimulated  in  part  by 
Bakewcll's  efforts,  and  the  wide  and  honora 
ble  reputation  he  achieved,  immediately  en 
tered  the  field  of  competition,  and  Chaplin 
became  the  champion  of  the  Lincolnshire 
sheep,  as  Bakewell  of  the  Leicesters ;  and  the 
brothers  Charles  and  Robert  Colling  direct 
ed  their  efforts  to  improving  the  short-horns, 
as  Bakewell  the  long-horns  ;  while  the  Duke 
of  Bedford,  Quartly,  and  others,  not  to  be 
outdone,  espoused  the  claims  of  the  Devons, 
and  Benjamin  Toinkins  those  of  the  Here- 


40 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


fords.  So  successful  were  these  enterprising 
breeders,  both  in  preserving  purity  of  blood 
in  their  stock,  and  in  extending  the  reputa 
tion  of  their  several  herds,  that  at  Charles 
Colling's  sale  on  the  llth  of  October, 
1810,  Comet  was  bid  off  at  1,000  guineas, 
or  $5,000,  and  many  other  animals  about 
as  high  in  proportion  ;  the  forty-eight  head 
sold,  including  considerable  young  stock, 
bringing  no  less  than  $35,579.  The  cow 
Lily,  sired  by  Comet,  brought  410  guineas, 
or  $2,050 ;  the  bull  Petrarch,  also  by 
Comet,  sold  for  365  guineas,  or  $1,825,  and 
the  calf  Cecil  for  130  guineas,  or  $650. 
There  were  seventeen  cows,  eleven  bulls, 
seven  bull  calves,  seven  heifers,  and  five 
heifer  calves,  for  which  this  successful  breeder 
received  an  average  of  $741  a  head.  That 
sale,  and  that  of  Robert  Colling  in  1818, 
that  of  Lord  Spencer  in  1846,  that  of  the 
Bates,  or  Kirkleavington  herd  in  1850,  that 
of  Lord  Ducie  two  years  later,  and  some 
still  more  recent  and  extensive  sales,  are  the 
marked  eras  in  the  history  of  the  short-horns 
in  England,  and  it  was  through  these  sales, 
and  the  universal  enthusiasm  awakened  by 
them,  that  the  short-horns  have  become  more 
widely  spread  over  Great  Britain,  and  more 
generally  fashionable  than  any  other  breed. 

Tomkins  began  with  the  Herefords  in 
a  small  way  about  the  year  1766,  and  at  his 
decease  in  1819,  his  whole  herd,  consisting 
of  fifty-two  animals,  including  twenty-two 
steers,  and  varying  in  age  from  calves  to 
two-year-olds  and  upward,  was  sold  at  auc 
tion,  and  brought  an  aggregate  of  $23,368, 
or  over  $445  a  head ;  one  bull  sold  to  Lord 
Talbot  for  $2,943,  while  several  cows  brought 
from  $1,000  to  $1,200  a  head. 

Both  these  breeds  are  celebrated  for  early 
maturity.  Either  of  them  may  be  prepared 
for  market  at  two  or  three  years  of  age,  far 
better  than  the  old  style  of  cattle  could  be 
at  five,  six,  and  seven  years,  and  be  of  nearly 
equal  weights.  I  have  mentioned  these  facts 
to  show  how  it  was  that  the  average  weight 
ol  cattle  sold  in  the  Smithfield  market  in 
creased  from  370  pounds  in  1 710,  to  over 
800  pounds  at  the  present  time.  A  select 
committee  of  the  House  of  Commons,  in  a 
report  printed  in  1795,  after  a  full  investiga 
tion,  stated  that  since  the  year  1732,  their 
neat  cattle  had,  on  an  average,  increased  in 
weight  and  size  at  least  one-fourth,  or 
twenty-five  per  cent.,  which  would  fix  the 
average  weight  in  1795  at  about  462  pounds. 
The  average  age  had  formerly  been  over  five 


years.  In  1830,  owing,  in  a  large  measure, 
to  the  enthusiasm  which  had  been  created, 
commencing  first  by  the  efforts  of  indi 
viduals,  and  radiating  out  through  tlie  com 
munity  in  every  direction,  the  average 
weight  had  increased  to  656  pounds,  an  in 
crease,  in  twenty-five  years,  of  more  than 
forty  per  cent,  in  weight,  while  the  average 
age  had  been  reduced  to  four  years  instead 
of  five.  What  a  contrast !  A  saving  of  one 
whole  year's  consumption  of  forage,  and  an 
increase  of  forty  per  cent,  in  the  profitable 
results,  in  the  course  of  a  quarter  of  a  cen 
tury  !  But  since  then  the  average  age  has 
been  still  further  reduced,  and  the  average 
weight  a  good  deal  increased. 

Such  being  the  striking  results  in  England, 
it  is  not  surprising  that  when  an  interest 
was  awakened  in  the  improvement  of  our 
agriculture,  a  desire  Avas  felt  by  intelligent 
breeders  to  avail  themselves  of  the  advan 
tages  which  had  already  been  gained  abroad. 
Importations  began,  and  a  more  systematic 
course  of  breeding  was  adopted ;  at  first,  by 
a  very  limited  number  of  enterprising  far 
mers,  till,  within  the  last  twenty  years,  that 
number  has  rapidly  increased,  and  the  re 
sults  have  become  more  marked  and  percep 
tible. 

It  may  be  remarked  in  passing,  that  two 
modes  of  improvement  were  open  to  the 
farmer  and  breeder,  either  of  which,  appar 
ently,  promised  good  results.  The  first 
was  to  select  from  among  our  native  cattle 
the  most  perfect  animals  not  known  or  sus 
pected  to  belong  or  to  be  related  to  any  of 
the  well-established  breeds,  and  to  use  them 
as  breeders.  This  mode  of  improvement  is 
simple  enough  if  adopted  and  carried  on 
with  animals  of  any  known  race  or  breed, 
and,  indeed,  it  is  the  only  course  of  improve 
ment  which  preserves  the  purity  of  blood. 
This  was  chiefly  the  course  adopted  in  Eng 
land  by  Bakewell  with  the  long-horns,  by 
the  Collings  and  others  with  the  short-horns, 
by  Tomkins,  Price,  and  others,  with  the 
Herefords,  and  by  the  Duke  of  Bedford  and 
others  with  the  Devons.  Had  they  resorted 
to  any  other,  they  would  have  run  the  risk 
of  a  total  failure  and  ruin  of  those  valuable 
races.  Their  object  was  not  to  build  up  a 
new  breed  by  crossing,  so  much  as  to  im 
prove  and  perfect  the  races,  already  valuable, 
which  were  to  be  found  in  particular  localities 
or  counties,  which  gave  them  thei-r  name. 

But  our  circumstances  were  entirely  dif 
ferent.  We  had  no  race  and  no  breed  of 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


41 


cattle  among  us.  The  term  race,  properly 
understood,  applies  only  to  animals  of  the 
same  species,  possessing,  besides  the  general 
characteristics  of  that  species,  other  charac 
teristics,  which  they  owe  to  the  influence  of 
soil,  climate,  nourishment,  and  habits  of  life 
to  which  they  have  long  been  subjected  by 
man,  and  which  they  transmit  with  certainty 
to  their  progeny,  and  it  is  essential  that  they 
should  have  possessed  these  characteristics 
from  a  time  to  which  "  the  memory  of  man 
runneth  not  to  the  contrary."  The  term 
breed,  on  the  other  hand,  applies  to  a  family 
of  animals  built  up  by  a  long  series  of  care 
ful  breeding,  till  certain  desired  character 
istics  become  fixed,  capable,  and  sure  of 
being  transmitted.  As  might  be  supposed, 
the  characteristics  and  peculiarities  of  races 
are  more  inherent,  more  fixed  and  strongly 
marked  than  those  of  families,  or  breeds 
built  up  artificially.  But  in  general  the 
characteristics  of  both  races  and  breeds 
are  so  permanent,  and  so  well  marked,  that 
if  an  individual  supposed  to  belong  to  any 
one  of  them  were  to  produce  an  offspring 
not  possessing  them  or  possessing  them  only 
in  part,  with  others  not  belonging  to  the 
race  or  breed,  it  would  be  just  ground  for 
suspecting  a  want  of  purity  of  blood. 

This  being  the  acknowledged,  and  only 
proper  sense  and  use  of  these  terms,  it  fol 
lows  that  no  grade  animals,  and  no  animals 
not  possessing  fixed  peculiarities  or  charac 
teristics  which  they  share  with  all  other  ani 
mals  of  the  class  of  which  they  are  a  type, 
and  which  they  are  capable  of  transmitting 
with  certainty  to  their  descendants,  can  be 
recognized  by  breeders  as  belonging  to  any 
one  distinct  race,  breed,  or  family. 

The  term  "  native,"  or  "  scrub,"  is  applied 
to  a  vast  majority  of  our  American  cattle, 
which,  though  born  on  the  soil,  and  thus  in 
one  sense  natives,  do  not  constitute  a  breed, 
race,  or  family.  They  do  not  possess  char 
acteristics  peculiar  to  them  all,  which  they 
transmit  with  any  certainty  to  their  off 
spring,  either  of  form,  size,  color,  milking,  or 
working  properties.  It  does  not  follow,  to 
be  sure,  that  because  an  animal  is  made  up 
of  a  mixture  of  blood,  almost  to  infinity,  he 
may  not  be,  as  an  individual  animal,  and  for 
specific  purposes,  one  of  the  best  of  the  spe 
cies  ;  and  for  particular  purposes  individual 
animals  might  be  selected  from  among  those 
commonly  called  "natives"  in  New  England, 
and  "scrubs"  at  the  south  and  west.equal,  and 
perhaps  superior,  to  any  among  the  families 


produced  by  the  most  skilful  breeding,  not 
withstanding  the  fact  that  they  have  sprung 
from  a  great  variety  of  cattle  procured  at 
different  times  on  the  continent  of  Europe, 
in  England,  and  in  the  Spanish  West  Indies, 
brought  together  without  any  regard  to  fixed 
principles  of  breeding,  but  from  individual 
convenience,  and  by  accident ;  but  it  is  true 
that  our  native  cattle  possess  neither  the  size, 
the  symmetry,  nor  the  early  maturity  of  the 
short-horns ;  they  do  not,  as  a  general  thing, 
possess  the  fineness  of  bone,  the  beauty  of 
form  and  color,  nor  the  activity  of  the  Dev- 
ons  or  the  Herefords ;  nor  do  they  possess 
that  uniform  goodness  and  quantity  of  milk 
of  the  Ayrshires,  nor  the  surpassing  richness 
of  milk  of  the  Jerseys  ;  but  above  all  they  do 
not  possess  the  power  of  transmitting  the 
many  good  qualities,  which  they  often  pos 
sess  in  an  extraordinary  degree,  to  their  off 
spring,  which  is  a  characteristic  of  all  well- 
established  breeds. 

Now,  to  build  up  a  breed,  or  family,  on 
such  a  foundation,  in  the  mode  already  indi 
cated,  requires  great  experience  in  selection, 
a  quick  and  sure  eye,  and  judgment  of  the 
true  points  in  stock,  a  mind  eminently  un 
prejudiced,  and  a  patience  and  perseverance 
perfectly  indefatigable  and  untiring.  It  is 
absolutely  necessary,  also,  to  pay  special  at 
tention  to  the  calves  thus  produced — to  fur 
nish  them  at  all  times,  summer  and  winter, 
with  an  abundant  supply  of  nutritious  food, 
and  to  regulate  it  according  to  their  growth. 

Few  men  could  be  found  either  capable  or 
willing  to  undertake  the  herculean  task  of 
building  up  a  new  breed  in  that  way  from 
grade  stock.  A  prominent  and  almost  insu 
perable  objection  would  meet  them  at  the 
very  outset,  that  it  would  require  a  long  se 
ries  of  years — longer  than  the  natural  life 
of  most  men — to  arrive  at  any  very  satisfac 
tory  results,  from  the  fact  that  no  two  ani 
mals,  made  up,  as  our  "  native"  cattle  are,  of 
such  a  variety  of  elements  and  crosses,  could 
be  found  sufficiently  alike  to  produce  their 
kind.  The  principle  that  like  produces  like 
is  perfectly  true,  and  in  the  well-known 
breeds  it  is  not  difficult  to  find  two  animals 
that  will  be  sure  to  transmit  their  own  char 
acteristics  to  their  offspring ;  but  with  two 
animals  which  cannot  be  classed  with  any 
breed,  the  defects  of  an  ill-bred  ancestry  will 
be  liable  to  appear  through  several  genera 
tions  to  thwart  and  disappoint  the  expecta 
tions  of  the  breeder. 

The  second  method  is  more  feasible,  and 


42 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


that  is,  to  select  animals  from  races  already 
improved  and  well-nigh  perfected,  to  cross 
with  our  cattle,  selecting  such  animals  from 
the  well-established  breeds  as  are  best  calcu 
lated  for  the  special  purposes  for  which  we 
want  them.  If  our  object  is  to  improve 
stock  for  the  dairy,  taking  such  only  as  be 
long  to  a  race  distinguished  for  dairy  qual 
ities  ;  or,  if  resort  must  be  had  to  other 
breeds  less  remarkable  for  such  qualities, 
such  only  as  have  descended  from  large  and 
generous  milkers.  We  ought  to  be  able  to 
rely  with  some  confidence  upon  getting  the 
qualities  which  we  seek.  Milking  or  dairy 
qualities  do  not  belong  to  any  one  breed  or 
race  exclusively,  though,  as  they  depend 
mainly  on  structure  and  temperament,  which 
are  hereditary  to  a  considerable  extent,  they 
are,  themselves,  transmissible.  In  almost 
every  breed  we  can  find  individual  milkers 
which  greatly  surpass  the  average  of  the 
cows  of  the  same  family,  and  from  such, 
many  suppose  good  crosses  may  be  expected 
without  much  regard  to  other  circumstances. 
It  is  not  accidental  good  qualities  that  we 
want,  so  much  as  those  which  are  surely 
transmissible.  We  do  not  want  to  breed 
from  an  animal — a  cow  for  instance — that  is 
an  exception  to  the  rule  of  her  race  or  fam 
ily.  A  good  calf  from  her  would  be,  to  a 
•  great  extent,  the  result  of  chance.  We 
cannot  expect  nature  to  go  out  of  her  course, 
to  give  us  a  good  animal,  if  we  violate  her 
known  laws  as  developed  by  our  knowledge 
of  physiological  structure. 

Such  are  a  few  of  the  considerations 
which,  no  doubt,  led  the  early  importers  of 
the  modern  improved  foreign  stock  to  make 
an  effort  on  our  native  and  grade  cattle. 
What  has  been  the  result  ?  It  can  be  clearly 
shown  that  there  has  been  a  large  increase 
in  the  number  of  the  cattle  of  the  country. 
Of  that  there  could,  of  course,  be  no  ques 
tion,  since  this  increase  would  naturally  fol 
low  from  an  addition  of  new  territory  and 
the  more  perfect  development  of  the  agricul 
tural  resources  of  the  country.  But  I  think 
it  can  be  clearly  shown,  also,  that  there  has 
been  a  positive  improvement  in  the  intrinsic 
qualities  of  the  common  stock  of  the  coun 
try  as  a  whole.  I  am  far  from  detracting 
from  the  merits  of  our  native  cattle.  They 
are  far  better  than  could  have  been  expected 
from  the  loose  manner  in  which  they  were 
"made  up."  Many  of  them  have  great 
merit,  and  individual  animals  are  to  be  found 
among  them,  as  already  remarked,  which 


would  be  hard  to  beat  by  any  pure  bred  an 
imals.  As  working  oxen,  the  native  cattle 
of  New  England  are  unsurpassed  by  any  in 
the  known  world,  and  they  have  the  reputa 
tion  of  being  so,  both  in  other  parts  of  this 
country  and  in  Europe,  where  their  qualities 
are  known.  But  they  have  their  defects, 
and  it  is  useless  to  blind  our  eyes  to  them. 

I  expect,  therefore,  to  be  able  to  show 
that  some  actual  progress  has  been  effected 
upon  the  common  stock  of  the  country. 
But  to  what  is  this  progress  owing?  Is  it 
merely  that  which  is  due  to  better  keeping, 
both  summer  and  winter?  I  have  already 
intimated  that  the  treatment  the  cattle  of 
the  country  received  during  the  most  of  the 
last  century  was  far  from  being  calculated 
to  improve  them,  scarcely,  even,  to  keep 
them  on  foot.  Even  so  late  as  1841,  Mr. 
Colman  asserted  that  the  general  treatment 
of  cows  at  that  time,  in  New  England,  would 
not  be  an  inapt  subject  of  presentment  by  a 
grand  jury.  I  was  cognizant  of  the  manner 
in  which  the  stock  was  kept  in  many  a  coun 
try  town  at  that  time,  and  I  am  strongly  in 
clined  to  agree  with  him  ;  and,  judging  from, 
the  well-known  anxiety  of  those  who  enter 
milch  cows  now  for  premiums  at  the  fairs,  to 
show  that  their  yield  has  been  enormous, 
and  that  they  have  lived  upon  little  or  noth 
ing,  one  would  suppose  their  keeping  was 
not  much  improved,  even  yet. 

But,  as  compared  Avith  the  last  century 
and  the  earlier  part  of  this,  there  has  been  a 
vast  improvement  in  the  shelter,  mode  of 
feeding,  and  the  general  treatment,  and  this 
has,  of  course,  had  its  effect  in  increasing 
their  milking  qualities  and  their  appearance. 
But,  apart  from  this,  there  can  be  little 
doubt,  I  think,  that  there  has  been  a  positive 
improvement  in  our  stock  as  a  whole ;  that 
is,  the  general  average  of  the  stock  of  New 
England  is  better  than  it  was  forty  or  fifty 
years  ago.  There  were  individual  animals 
then,  among  the  native  or  common  stock  of 
the  country,  whose  yield  of  milk  was  quite 
remarkable,  and  would  be,  at  the  present 
day,  and  among  the  best  stock  of  the  present 
time ;  but  we  cannot,  and  ought  not  to  rea 
son  from  individuals,  but  from  the  general 
average  stock  of  the  country. 

These  remarks  have  special  reference  to 
the  stock  kept  in  the  eastern  and  older 
sections  of  the  country — those  parts  where 
the  herds  are  small,  and  kept  not  so  much 
for  raising  for  beef  as  for  their  other  prodr 
ucts,  as  milk,  butter,  cheese,  and  laboc. 


MILCH    COW. 

Kngravcd  for  C.  L.  Flint's  "Treatise  on  Milch  Cows  and  Dairy  Panning.' 


SHORT-HORN    DULL.        DOUBLE    DUKE. 

Owned  by  the  Harvest  Club,  Springfield,  Mass.     From  Flint's  Sixth  Annual  Report 


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AGRICULTURE    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


47 


In  the  great  west,  where  the  cattle  are,  and 
have  for  some  years,  been  kept  to  supply 
the  stalls  in  our  eastern  markets,  and  where, 
after  all,  as  compared  with  other  sections 
and  other  objects,  early  maturity  and  a  ten 
dency  to  fatten  are  of  transcendant  impor 
tance,  no  one  could  be  so  blind  to  the  facts 
as  to  deny  that  there  has  been  a  vast  and 
most  gratifying  progress  even  in  the  intrinsic 
qualities  of  the  stock.  Every  car-load  of 
those  splendid  Kentucky,  Ohio,  Indiana,  and 
Illinois  cattle  shows  this  in  a  manner  not  to 
be  mistaken.  Compare  them  with  the  class 
of  animals  formerly,  and  even  now  in  some 
sections,  to  be  found  at  the  west,  and  more 
commonly  at  the  east,  and  mark  the  con 
trast.  The  one  is  thrifty,  grows  rapidly,  fats 
easy,  and  is  ready  at  a  very  early  age  for  the 
market,  while  from  an  eighth  to  a  quarter 
part  of  the  cost  of  labor  and  of  keeping, 
which  must  be  incurred  every  year  in  rais 
ing  such  a  class  of  animals  as  the  other,  is 
wholly  lost  from  misapplication. 

In  1850,  there  were  18,378,907  head  of 
cattle  in  the  United  States,  of  which  over 
six  millions  (6,385,094)  were  milch  cows, 
nearly  two  millions  (1,700,744)  were  work 
ing  oxen,  and  ten  millions  (10,293,069) 
other  cattle,  not  including  horses,  sheep, 
or  swine ;  and  the  value  of  animals  slaugh 
tered  amounted  to  the  vast  sum  of  more  than 
one  hundred  and  eleven  millions  of  dollars 
($111,703,142).  Now  if  by  the  keeping 
of  better  stock  we  add  to  their  value  and 
the  profit  derived  from  them,  without  in 
creasing  the  cost,  we  make,  of  course,  an 
absolute  gain  on  the  receipts  from  the  same 
amount  of  capital  invested.  A  distinguished 
breeder  places  this  in  a  clear  light  as  fol 
lows  :  "  Suppose  that  the  eighteen  millions 
of  neat  cattle  now  in  the  United  States,  by 
the  infusion  of  better  breeds  among  them 
generally,  should,  in  their  earlier  maturity 
and  increased  product  of  milk  and  flesh, 
w-ith  an  equal  consumption  of  food,  and  by 
a  moderately  increased  amount  of  care,  pro 
duce  an  additional  profit  of  one-fifth,  or  only 
twenty  per  cent. — certainly  a  moderate  es 
timate — the  annual  value  of  such  improve 
ment  will  be  that  which  is  derived  from  an 
additional  invested  capital  of  thirty  millions 
of  dollars;  a  vast  sum  in  the  aggregate  of 
our  agricultural  wealth."  This  is  a  true 

O 

statement  now,  and  it  applied  with  still 
greater  force  when  the  spirit  of  improvement 
began. 

But  to   return    to    the    importation    of 


modern  improved  stock  from  abroad  for  the 
specific  purpose  of  improving  the  stock  of 
this  country.  In  the  year  1783,  three  gen 
tlemen  of  Baltimore — Messrs.  GofF,  Ringold, 
and  Patton — sent  to  England  for  superior 
cattle;  and,  in  1785,  a  bull  from  this  impor 
tation  was  taken  to  Kentucky,  followed,  not 
long  after,  by  another  lot  of  the  same  im 
portation.  A  half-breed  bull  was  taken  to 
the  same  section  about  the  year  1804,  and 
is  said  to  have  greatly  improved  the  stock 
of  that  state.  Some  of  the  cattle  of  that 
early  importation  were  commonly  called  the 
"  milk  breed,"  and  others  the  "  beef  breed." 
For  a  long  time  they  went  by  the  name  of 
the  "  Patton  stock."  The  beef  breed  were, 
probably,  long-horns —  large,  coarse,  and 
rough  animals,  but  slow  in  maturing.  The 
others  are  said  to  have  been  short-horns. 
Others  were  also  taken  from  Virginia  to 
Kentucky,  but  none  of  them  were,  probably, 
pure  bloods,  although  the  Patton  stock 
gained  a  wide  and  deserved  reputation. 

In  1817,  Colonel  Sanders,  of  Kentucky, 
sent  for  twelve  head  of  the  best  that  could 
be  found  in  England.  Six  of  them  were 
short-horns,  or  Teeswaters.  Two  of  these 
short-horns  were  also  imported  for  Kentucky 
in  1818.  These  various  importations,  com 
mencing  with  the  first  high-bred  animals 
taken  to  the  west  in  1785,  were  the  pioneers; 
and  though  the  pedigree  of  some  of  them 
could  not  be  given,  they  not  only  infused 
superior  blood  into  the  stock  of  that  region, 
but  excited  a  spirit  of  emulation  among  the 
farmers  there  which  had  an  exceedingly 
salutary  effect.  There  is  little  doubt  that 
some  of  the  best  cattle  in  southern  Ohio 
owe  their  origin  to  the  early  imported  ani 
mals  of  Kentucky. 

A  few  short-horns  were  brought  into 
Westchester  county,  New  York,  as  early  as 
1792  and  1796.  They  were  kept  pure  for  some 
years,  but  finally  became  scattered,  leaving 
their  descendants  in  that  section  to  this  day. 
Other  importations  into  New  York  were 
made  as  early  as  1816  and  1822.  In  July, 
1818,  a  short-horn  bull,  widely  known  as 
"  Coalebs,"  and  a  heifer,  "  Flora,"  were  im 
ported  into  Massachusetts  by  Mr.  Coolidge, 
and  sold,  in  1820,  to  Colonel  Samuel  Jaqucs, 
of  Somerville.  From  "  Coelebs,"  by  select 
ing  superior  native  cows,  Colonel  Jaques 
succeeded  in  raising  a  fine  milking  stock, 
long  known  as  the  "  Creampots."  "  Flora  " 
had  fourteen  calves  between  1819  and  1833, 
ten  of  which  were  by  "  Coelebs."  The  same 


48 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


year  (1818),  also,  Gorham  Parsons,  of 
Brighton,  Massachusetts,  imported  a  pure 
breed  short-horn  bull,  called  "  Fortunatus," 
or  "  Iloldcrness,"  and  his  descendants  were 
widely  disseminated  through  New  England. 
Another  short-horn  bull  was  brought  into 
Massachusetts  by  Theodore  Lyman,  of  Bos 
ton,  from  whence  he  was  shortly  after  sent 
to  Maine;  and,  in  1825,  Mr.  W.  Pierce,  of 
Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  imported  a 
Celebrated  short-horn,  "  Nelson,"  and  the 
cow  "  Symmetry,"  the  parents  of  the  great 
ox  "  Americus,"  so  large  as  to  be  taken  about 
on  exhibition,  for  which  purpose  he  was 
afterward  taken  to  England. 

It  was  also  in  1818  that  Stephen  Wil 
liams,  of  Northboro',  Mass.,  imported  the 
famous  bull  "  Young  Denton,"  the  sire  of 
many  very  excellent  grade  animals,  the 
heifers  proving  fine  milkers.  Many  other 
fine  short-horns  were  taken  into  Massachu 
setts  after  the  year  1820,  but  though  they 
left  some  superior  grades,  they  were  not  ap 
preciated  by  the  farmers  generally,  and  at 
tention  was  gradually  directed  to  other 
breeds.  New  England,  as  a  whole,  is  not 
the  place  for  short-horns.  They  do  better 
on  more  luxuriant  pastures.  Besides,  they 
are  not  well  adapted  to  the  wants  of  the 
small  dairy  farmer,  especially  since  the 
modern  improvements  of  this  justly  cele 
brated  breed  have  taken  all  the  milk  out  of 
them.  For  a  region  better  adapted  to  rais 
ing  beef,  and  on  naturally  rich  feed,  they 
are  unsurpassed  for  beauty  and  symmetry  of 
form,  for  size  and  early  maturity,  and  con 
sequently  for  the  profits  they  yield  to  the 
breeder  and  the  grazier. 

In  1824,  Mr.  Powell,  of  Philadelphia,  com 
menced  the  importation  of  short-horns,  and 
continued  to  breed  them  with  great  enter 
prise  and  success  for  many  years.  He  had 
frequent  sales,  some  of  his  stock  going  into 
Kentucky,  others  to  Ohio,  and  elsewhere. 

But  the  great  impulse  given  to  the  im 
portation  of  short-horns,  was  the  formation 
of  the  Ohio  Company  for  Importing  English 
Cattle,  in  1834.  The  sum  of  $9,200  was 
subscribed  in  shares  of  $100  each,  and  agents 
sent  abroad,  who  returned  with  nineteen 
head,  selected  from  the  herds  of  celebrated 
breeders,  arriving  in  October  of  that  year. 
They  were  kept  together  under  the  care  of 
an  agent,  and  the  number  was  increased  by 
other  importations  till  1836,  when  they 
were  sold  at  public  auction  and  scattered 
extensively  over  Ohio.  A  dividend  of  $280 


per  share  was  immediately  declared  on  the 
ninety-two  shares,  amounting  to  $25,760. 
The  following  year  they  made  another  ex 
tensive  importation,  which  sold  rapidly  and 
well.  Immense  benefits  have  resulted  from 
these  efforts. 

The  sketch  given  above  of  some  of  the 
earlier  importations  of  short-horns,  has  been 
somewhat  extended  for  the  purpose  of  show 
ing  the  gradually  increasing  and  extending 
interest  and  enterprise  in  breeding,  but  since 
1 840,  importations  of  this  magnificent  breed 
have  so  far  multiplied,  that  it  would  be  out 
of  place  to  attempt  to  follow  them.  The 
cream  of  the  finest  and  most  celebrated 
herds  in  England  has  been  taken  to  this 
country,  without  regard  to  cost.  Fabulous 
prices  have  been  asked,  and  five  and  six 
thousand  dollars  for  a  single  animal  have,  in 
some  cases,  been  paid,  to  which  was  added 
the  cost  of  transportation.  So  successful, 
indeed,  have  the  more  recent  efforts  been, 
that  England  has  sent  over  here  to  buy 
short-horns  from  us ;  and  so  admirably  adapted 
to  stock  raising  is  the  climate  of  Kentucky, 
that  this  fine  breed  has  been  improved  there 
to  such  an  extent,  that  very  few  of  the  last 
150  cows  selected  from  among  the  best  in 
England,  could  win  the  prizes  from  those 
born  and  bred  on  our  native  soil. 

These  superior  animals  are  not  all  held  in 
the  hands  of  a  few.  They  are  within 
the  reach  of  thrifty  farmers,  who  are  now 
awake  to  the  profit  of  raising  cattle  that 
will  make  as  much  beef  at  two  or  three 
years  old,  as  a  native  at  double  that  age. 

It  is  proper  to  refer  very  briefly  to  the 
efforts  made  at  various  times  to  introduce 
and  experiment  with  the  other  well-estab 
lished  English  breeds,  and  the  success  which 
has  attended  these  efforts. 

In  1817,  the  Hon.  Henry  Clay,  of  Ken 
tucky,  made  an  attempt  to  introduce  the 
Herefords  into  that  state,  by  the  purchase 
of  two  bulls  and  two  heifers,  at  a  cost  of 
£105,  or  about  $500.  This  was  the  first 
well  authenticated  importation  of  this  breed 
of  any  note.  The  Herefords  belong  to  the 
class  of  middle-horned  cattle,  and  were  in 
digenous  to  certain  districts  of  England, 
where  they  were  known  as  far  back  as  tra 
dition  extends.  They  have  undergone  con 
siderable  changes  within  the  last  hundred 
years,  commencing  with  the  efforts  of  Tom- 
kins,  already  alluded  to — not  however,  by 
means  of  crosses  with  other  races,  but  by 
careful  and  judicious  selections. 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


49 


In  point  of  symmetry  and  beauty  of  form, 
the  well-bred  Herefords  may  be  classed 
with  the  improved  short-horns,  arriving,  per 
haps,  a  little  slower  at  maturity,  though  re 
markably  inclined  to  take  on  fat.  They 
never  attain  to  such  weights,  but  they  gen 
erally  arrive  at  the  Smithfield  market  at 
two  or  three  years  old,  and  so  highly  is 
their  beautifully  marbled  beef  esteemed,  that 
it  is  eagerly  sought  by  the  butchers  at  a 
small  advance,  pound  for  pound,  over  the 
short-horn.  Weighing  less  than  the  short 
horns,  they  yield  a  larger  weight  of  tallow, 
which  is  one  reason  of  the  preference  for 
them.  The  short-horn  produces  more  beef 
at  the  same  age  than  the  Hereford,  but  con 
sumes  more  food  in  proportion. 

They  have  never  been  bred  for  milking 
or  dairy  qualities,  and  no  farmer  would  think 
of  resorting  to  them  for  that  purpose. 

In  1824,  Admiral  Coffin,  of  the  royal 
navy,  presented  the  Massachusetts  Society 
for  Promoting  Agriculture,  a  Hereford  bull 
and  heifer,  bred  by  Sir  J.  G.  Cottrel  from 
the  Tomkins  stock.  The  bull  was  kept  by 
the  Hon.  J.  C.  Bates,  of  Northampton,  Mass., 
and  left  a  numerous  progeny,which  was  very 
highly  esteemed  in  that  neighborhood.  The 
largest  importation  into  this  country  was 
that  of  Messrs.  Corning  and  Sotham,  of  Al 
bany,  N.  Y.,  in  1840,  consisting  of  five  bulls 
and  seventeen  cows  and  heifers.  Other  im 
portations  of  the  same  breed  were  added  to 
this  herd  in  subsequent  years.  The  Hon. 
L.  A.  Dowley,  of  Boston,  imported  several 
animals  of  the  same  breed  in  1852,  apart  of 
which  were  kept  for  some  time  on  the  State 
Farm  at  Westboro',  Mass.,  and  were  after 
ward  sold  to  Mr.  John  Merryman,  of  Bal 
timore  Co.,  Md.,  who  has  one  of  the  largest 
and  finest  herds  of  Herefords  in  the  country. 

It  will  be  readily  seen  from  the  character 
istics  of  the  race,  as  stated  above,  that  they 
would  be  ill  adapted  to  the  wants  of  New 
England  farmers  as  a  general  thing.  They 
are  profitable  for  the  grazier ;  though,  in  a 
country  of  extreme  fertility,  like  many  parts 
of  the  west,  and  capable  of  bringing  the 
short-horns  to  their  highest  development  and 
perfection,  they  might  not,  on  the  whole,  be 
able  to  compete  successfully  with  them. 

The  importation  of  Devons  into  this 
country  has  been  more  numerous.  Indeed, 
there  are  some  who  assert  that  the  native 
cattle  of  New  England  owe  their  origin 
chiefly  to  the  Devons,  since  the  cattle  first 
brought  into  the  Plymouth  colony  arc  pretty 


well  known  to  have  been  shipped  on  the 
Devonshire  coast.  But  that  they  were  any 
thing  like  the  modern  Devons  there  is  little 
evidence ;  they  certainly  have  very  few  of 
the  highest  characteristics  of  that  race  left. 
The  general  impression  has  arisen  mainly 
from  The  fact  that  many  of  the  native  cattle 
of  New  England  are  red,  and  that  is  the 
favorite  color. 

However  this  may  be,  the  improved  North 
Devon  is  a  very  different  animal  from  any 
that  could,  at  that  day,  have  been  procured 
on  the  coast  of  Devonshire,  or,  in  fact,  any 
where  else.  This  race  dates  further  back 
than  its  history  goes.  It  has  long  been 
bred  for  beef,  and  for  the  working  qualities 
of  its  oxen,  which,  perhaps,  excel  all  other 
races  in  quickness,  docility,  and  beauty,  and 
the  ease  with  which  they  are  matched.  But 
as  milkers  the  North  Devon  cows  do  not  ex 
cel,  nor  indeed  do  they  equal,  some  of  the 
other  breeds. 

Some  years  ago  a  valuable  importation 
was  made  by  Mr.  Patterson,  of  Baltimore, 
Md.,  who  has  bred  them  with  special  refer 
ence  to  developing  their  milking  qualities, 
and  now  they  would  be  remarkable  as  dairy 
stock  as  compared  with  any  other  pure 
breed,  but  they  are  very  different  animals 
from  the  common  modern  improved  Devons, 
the  dairy  qualities  of  which  have  been  very 
much  disregarded. 

The  North  Devons  were  also  imported  by 
the  Massachusetts  Society  for  Promoting 
Agriculture,  and  were  kept  together  for  some 
time,  and  then  disposed  of.  So  far  as  size 
is  concerned,  they  are  better  adapted  to  New 
England  farms  than  cither  the  short-horns  or 
the  Herefords,  while  the  form  and  color  are 
so  beautiful  as  to  make  them  admired  by 
many.  But  the  milking  qualities  having 
been  to  a  considerable  extent  bred  out  of 
them,  especially  those  more  recently  im 
ported,  we  have  little  to  gain  by  preferring 
them  over  our  native  stock.  They  are  good 
for  beef,  for  which  purpose  they  are  chiefly 
raised  in  their  native  country,  but  the  pro 
duction  of  beef  throughout  most  of  the  older 
sections  of  the  country  is  an  entirely  secon 
dary  object.  They  are  good  for  labor,  on  ac 
count  of  their  quickness  and  ease  of  motion, 
but  New  England  has  equally  good  working 
oxen  in  its  natives.  They  give  rich  milk, 
but  the  Jerseys  give  richer. 

The  Ayrshires  and  the  Jerseys  are,  and 
have  for  a  long  time  been  bred  with  special  ' 
reference  to  the  dairy.     The  former,  though 


50 


AGRICULTURE    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


a  comparatively  recent  breed,  were  early  im 
ported  into  this  country,  and,  I  think,  have, 
as  a  whole,  proved  very  satisfactory,  partic 
ularly  as  giving  valuable  crosses  with  our 
common  stock.  Grade  Ayrshires  are  among 
the  best  animals  for  the  use  of  small  and 
dairy  farms,  and  the  cross-breds  are,  for  all 
practical  purposes,  equal  to  the  pure  breds. 

One  of  the  cows  originally  imported  by 
John  P.  Gushing,  of  Massachusetts,  gave  in 
one  year  3,864  quarts  of  milk,  beer  measure, 
being  an  average  of  over  ten  quarts  a  day 
for  the  year  ;  and  the  first  Ayrshire  cow  im 
ported  by  the  Massachusetts  Society  for 
Promoting  Agriculture,  in  1837,  yielded 
sixteen  pounds  of  butter  a  week  for  several 
weeks  in  succession  on  grass-feed  only.  Our 
climate  is  not  so  favorable  to  the  production 
of  milk  as  that  of  England  and  Scotland. 
No  cow,  imported  after  having  arrived  at 
maturity,  could  be  expected  to  yield  as  much 
under  the  same  circumstances,  as  one  bred 
On  the  spot  where  the  trial  is  made,  and  per 
fectly  acclimated.  The  Ayrshire  cow  gen 
erally  gives  a  larger  return  of  milk  for  the 
food  consumed  than  a  cow  of  any  other 
breed. 

Within  the  last  ten  years  the  Jerseys 
have  been  extensively  imported  into  this 
country  by  the  Massachusetts  Society  for 
Promoting  Agriculture,  and  by  many  in 
dividuals  in  New  England,  New  York,  and 
Maryland.  They  have  their  place  among 
us,  but  it  is  not  on  the  majority  of  our 
farms.  They  give  richer  milk,  and  that 
with  greater  uniformity,  than  any  other 
known  breed,  but  the  quantity  is  usually 
small,  which  would  not  do  for  the  milk 
dairyman.  They  are  usually  small  in  body, 
and  rather  large  consumers.  On  a  dairy 
farm  devoted  exclusively  to  the  making  of 
butter,  an  infusion  of  Jersey  blood  is  highly 
desirable.  One  or  two  Jerseys  in  a  herd  of 
twenty  will  often  make  a  perceptible  differ 
ence  in  the  quantity  and  richness  of  butter. 
For  gentlemen  in  the  vicinity  of  cities,  who 
keep  but  one  or  two  cows  to  supply  their 
own  table,  they  are  also  especially  adapted. 

They  have  consequently  multiplied  rapid 
ly  in  the  vicinity  of  cities  on  the  Atlantic 
seaboard.  In  1853  there  were,  for  instance, 
but  about  seventy-five  pure-bred  Jerseys  in 
Massachusetts;  now  they  number  several 
hundred,  while  the  grades  are  innumerable, 
many  of  them  proving  to  be  very  fine. 

The  influence  which  the  introduction  of 
superior  foreign  stock  has  exerted,  has  not 


been  confined  to  their  own  intrinsic  merits, 
nor  to  the  actual  improvement  which  they 
have  effected  by  means  of  crossing  upon  the 
common  stock  of  the  country.  It  has  led 
to  better  treatment  of  native  stock,  partly 
by  increasing,  to  some  extent,  the  interest 
in  cattle  and  the  knowledge  of  their  wants 
and  requirements,  and  partly  from  the  fact 
that  there  was  a  general  disposition  among 
the  mass  of  farmers  to  say  that  if  the  natives 
were  kept  as  well,  they  would  outstrip  the 
fancy  stock. 

But  still  the  improvement  in  the  common 
stock  of  the  eastern  and  middle  states,  or 
those  portions  devoted  to  the  dairy  and 
other  stock  interests  than  the  raising  of 
beef,  over  and  above  what  can  be  ascribed  to 
better  treatment,  has  been  small  compared 
with  what  it  has  been  in  those  states  de 
voted  more  exclusively  to  grazing.  During 
the  past  ten  or  twelve  years,  for  example,  the 
live  stock  of  Ohio  has  increased  in  valuation 
— according  to  the  official  returns  made  to  the 
state  auditor — more  than  two  hundred  per 
cent.,  while,  in  the  same  time,  no  class  of 
stock  has  increased  in  numbers  one  hundred 
per  cent.  A  part  of  this,  to  be  sure,  may 
be  fairly  ascribed  to  an  increased  demand 
for  stock,  and  a  consequent  higher  value,  but 
there  can  be  no  question  that  intrinsically 
better  animals  have  superseded  the  inferior 
native  stock  to  a  considerable  extent.  The 
number  of  horned  cattle  in  that  state,  in 
1836,  was  372,866,  valued  at  $2,982,928. 
In  1846  the  number  had  increased  to  920,- 
995  head,  and  the  valuation  to  $7,527,123. 
In  1850  the  number  was  1,103,811,  and  the 
valuation  Si  1,3 15,560.  In  1857  the  number 
was  1,655, 41 5,  and  the  valuation  was  $2 1,662,- 
223.  The  ratio  of  increase  in  value  has  been 
greatly  accelerated  since  the  means  of  commu 
nication  by  railway  have  so  greatly  increased 
the  facilities  for  information.  When  the  first 
great  importation  and  sale  was  made,  in 
1834-6-7,  it  was  not  accessible  to  the  mass  of 
cattle  breeders,  and  acquired  more  of  a  local 
than  a  general  reputation.  What  is  true  of  Ohio 
is  true  to  nearly  an  equal,  if  not  even  greater 
extent  of  most  of  the  other  western  states. 

While  speaking  of  the  different  objects 
for  which  cattle  are  kept  in  various  parts  of 
the  country,  it  may  be  interesting  to  com 
pute  the  actual  products,  per  cow,  in  butter, 
and  cheese  in  the  several  sections.  Accord 
ing  to  the  census  of  1850,  the  average  num 
ber  of  pounds  of  butter  produced  per  cow,  per 
annum,  in  the  various  states,  was  as  follows : — 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


51 


Ibs.  per  cow. 

Florida 5 

Texas 10 

Georgia 13 

South  Carolina.  ..15 
North  Carolina.  ..18 

Alabama 18 

Arkansas.. 19 

Mississippi 20 

Tennessee 33 

Missouri 34 

Virginia 34 

Rhode  Island 34 

Kentucky 39 

Louisiana 41 

Illinois..  ..42 


Ibs.  per  cow. 

Maryland 43 

Indiana 45 

Iowa 47 

Delaware 50 

"Wisconsin 56 

Massachusetts..  ..G2 

Ohio 63 

Maine 69 

Michigan 70 

New  Hampshire.. 7 3 

Connecticut 75 

Pennsylvania. . .  .75 

New  Jersey 79 

Vermont 83 

New  York. 85 


Some  of  the  states,  like  New  York,  for  in 
stance,  sell  vast  quantities  of  milk  in  its 
natural  state,  and  yet  the  quantity  of  butter 
per  cow  will  be  found  to  be  large  compared 
with  those  states  where  cattle  are  kept  more 
especially  for  beef.  To  conclude  that  the 
stock  of  Kentucky,  Illinois,  or  Ohio  is  infe 
rior  to  that  of  New  York  because  the  yield 
of  butter  per  cow  is  inferior,  would  be  pre 
mature.  The  objects  for  which  the  stock  of 
those  states  is  kept  are  different,  and  for 
the  purposes  of  grazing,  the  cattle  of  the 
western  states  may  be  far  better  adapted 
than  any  other  would  be. 

Let  us  now  see  what  is  the  amount  of 
cheese  annually  produced  per  cow  in  the 
several  states.  In  some  of  them  it  appears 
to  be  innnitesimally  small.  The  list  stands 
as  follows,  beginning  with  a  hundredth  part 
of  a  pound: — 


Ibs. 

Louisiana 

South  Carolina. . 

Maryland 

Alabama 

Georgia 

Delaware 

Florida 

Arkansas 

Texas 

North  Carolina . . 

Tennessee 

Kentucky 

Missouri 

Virginia 


per  cow.  Ibs.  per  cow. 

.01  Indiana 2.25 

.02  Illinois 4.00 

.04  Iowa 4.00 

.13  "Wisconsin 6.00 

.14  Mississippi 10.00 

.16  Rhode  Island. .  .11.00 

.24  Maine 18.00 

.30  New  Jersey 30.00 

.40  New  Hampshire.31.00 

.43  Ohio 36.00 

.70  New  York 53.00 

.88  Massachusetts.  ..54.00 

.89  Vermont 59.00 

1.37  Connecticut 62.00 


Vermont  produced  more  cheese  than  all 
other  states  put  together  except  New  York, 
Ohio,  Maine,  Connecticut,  Massachusetts, 
and  New  Hampshire,  and  that,  too,  from 
146,128  cows.  The  total  number  of  pounds 
of  cheese  produced  in  the  United  States,  as 
shown  in  the  census  of  1850,  was  105,535,- 
219,  or  about  four  and  a  half  pounds  to  each 
individual  of  the  whole  population.  The 
export  for  that  year  was  10,361,189  pounds, 


which  left  for  consumption  in  this  country, 
not  far  from  four  pounds  for  each  individual. 
If  we  suppose  the  consumption  to  be  equal 
in  all  the  states,  it  would  appear  that  only 
seven  of  the  states  produce  their  own  cheese ; 
these  are  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont, 
Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  New  York,  and 
Ohio.  If  now  we  consider  the  proportion 
of  the  number  of  cows  kept  in  the  various 
states  to  the  population,  it  will  throw  addi 
tional  light  on  the  mode  and  object  of  keep 
ing  stock ;  for  while,  in  many  of  the  states, 
the  products  in  milk,  butter,  and  cheese  are 
husbanded  with  the  greatest  care,  the  farms 
are  comparatively  small,  and  the  number  of 
cows  an  individual  can  keep  and  manage  is 
limited,  in  others  a  large  number  are  kept  and 
allowed  to  roam  over  the  heavy  and  luxuri 
ant  pastures,  to  grow  and  fatten,  no  account 
whatever  being  made  of  their  dairy  prod 
ucts. 

The  number  of  cows  per  individual  was 
as  follows,  stated  in  decimals  : — 


Maine 

New  Hampshire. . 

Vermont 

Massachusetts .... 
Rhode  Island. . . . 

Connecticut 

New  York 

New  Jersey 

Delaware 

Maryland 

Virginia 

North  Carolina-. . . 
South  Carolina . . . 
Georgia 


.22  Alabama 29 

.29  Florida 83 

.46  Mississippi 35 

.13  Louisiana 20 

.13  Texas 1.01 

.23  Kentucky 25 

.30  Tennessee 24 

.24  Arkansas 44 

.21  Missouri 33 

.14  Ohio 27 

.22  Indiana .28 

.25  Illinois 34 

.28  Iowa 24 

.36  Wisconsin. .          .   .21 


The  products  from  stock  might  be  stated 
in  another  interesting  point  of  view  as  fol 
lows  :  The  northern  states,  comprising  New 
England,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Penn 
sylvania,  with  166,358  sq.  miles,  and  a  popu 
lation  of  8,626,852,  keeping  2,058,604  milch 
cows,  produced,  according  to  the  last  census, 
251,593,899  pounds  of  butter  and.  cheese, 
valued  at  $25,159,389.  They  kept,  also, 
494,280  oxen,  and  1,834,297  other  cattle, not, 
of  course,  including  horses,  sheep,  or  swine. 
At  the  same  time  the  western  states,  com 
prising  Ohio,  Michigan,  Illinois,  Indiana, 
Wisconsin,  Iowa,  California,  Minnesota,  and 
the  territories,  with  an  area  of  1,918,216  sq. 
miles  and  a  population  of  4,900,369,  had 
1,363,253  milch'  cows,  and  manufactured 
98,266,884  pounds  of  butter  and  cheese, 
valued  at  $9,826,688.  They  had  also  341,- 
883  oxen,  and  2,236,056  other  cattle.  The 
southern  states,  comprising  Delaware,  Mary- 


52 


AGRICULTURE 


THE    UNITED    STATES. 


land,  Virginia,  North  and  South  Caro 
lina,  Georgia,  Florida,  Mississippi,  Alabama, 
Louisiana,  Texas,  Arkansas,  Tennessee,  Ken 
tucky,  and  Missouri,  with  851,448  sq.  miles 
and  a  population  of  9,664,656,  had  2,963,- 
237  milch  cows,  and  manufactured  68,634,- 
224  pounds  of  butter  and  cheese,  valued  at 
$6,863,422.  They  also  had  2,835,358  oxen, 
and  5,632,717  other  cattle.  These  aggre 
gates  are  computed  by  Mr.  Kettell,  the  au 
thor  of  a  valuable  treatise  on  Southern 
Wealth  and  Northern  Profits,  New  York, 
1860,  and  they  show  that,  contrary  to  the 
opinion  quite  prevalent  in  some  of  the 
northern  states,  the  south  is  largely  en 
gaged  in  raising  and  keeping  stock,  an  in 
terest  which  might,  indeed,  be  very  greatly 
extended,  owing  to  the  unrivalled  advan 
tages  of  climate. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  the  number  of  milch 
cows  and  oxen  Avas  not  given  in  the  census 
of  1840.  We  have,  consequently,  no  accu 
rate  details  with  regard  to  the  increase  of 
particular  classes  of  stock ;  but  we  know 
that  the  rate  of  increase  during  that  decade 
was  about  twenty  per  cent.  The  aggregate 
number  of  neat  cattle  was  given  in  1840  at 
14,971,586,  and  in  1850  at  17,778,907. 
The  amount  of  butter  produced  in  1850 
was  313,266,962  pounds,  and  that  of  cheese 
105,535,219  pounds;  neither  of  which  were 
given  in  1840  as  separate  items.  We  had, 
in  1850,  about  two  millions  of  working 
oxen,  or  more  accurately,  1,700,744;  and  of 
other  cattle,  16,078,163.  The  amount  in 
vested  in  neat  stock,  it  will  thus  be  seen, 
cannot  be  less  than  two  hundred  millions  of 
dollars  at  the  present  time. 

A  branch  of  farming  involving  so  vast  an 
amount  of  capital  cannot  be  considered  of 
small  importance.  Its  development  is  worthy 
to  command  the  highest  intelligence  and  the 
most  consummate  skill,  and  its  rewards  are 
ample  and  encouraging. 


HORSES. 


That  the  horses  in  this  country  have  un 
dergone  a  vast  change  and  improvement  dur 
ing  the  last  century — or,  rather,  during  the 
last  half  century — there  can  be  no  reasonable 
doubt  in  the  mind  of  any  one  who  will  take 
the  trouble  to  investigate  the  history  of  this 
animal.  A  simple,  though  complete  change 
of  the  principal  uses  to  which  horses  are 
put,  would  naturally  have  produced  a  change 
in  the  horses  themselves,  without  any  well- 
directed  effort  at  breeding.  For,  as  we  have 


seen  in  our  previous  sketch  of  the  condition 
of  things  during  the  last  century,  which  con 
tinued  with  slight  local  modifications  even 
into  the  present  century,  the  chief  means 
of  carrying  on  our  inland  business,  including 
a  vast  amount  of  heavy  transportation,  was 
the  horse.  The  roads  were  in  a  most 
wretched  condition,  compared  with  the  ad 
mirable  roads  of  the  present  day,  except,  of 
course,  those  in  the  more  thickly  settled  por 
tions  around  the  larger  centres  of  popula 
tion.  They  were  seldom  built  of  any  thing 
but  the  natural  soil  thrown  up  from  the  sides, 
and  often  not  this.  The  forest  was  felled, 
and  the  ground  left  for  many  a  thousand 
miles  without  the  precaution  of  making  any 
side  ditches  at  all,  and  over  such  a  pathway 
the  freight  of  a  great  part  of  the  country 
was  to  be  moved,  in  wagons  made  so  as  to 
be  capable  of  the  hardest  usage.  Over  such 
roads  light  carriages  would  have  been  com 
paratively  useless,  and  a  speed  now  seen 
every  day,  would  have  been  unsafe  for  them. 
The  mail  contracts  over  a  very  large  part  of 
the  country  were  made  at  a  speed  lower  than 
four  and  five  miles  an  hour,  and  heavily 
loaded  teams,  and  heavy  mail  and  passen 
ger  coaches,  kept  the  roads  for  a  considera 
ble  part  of  the  year  in  a  state  not  calculated 
to  encourage  fast  driving.  The  farmer  had 
to  haul  his  produce  often  long  distances  to 
market,  and  needed  a  heavy  kind  of  horse. 
Now  he  has  a  market  almost  at  his  very 
door.  The  long  line  of  lumbering  teams 
is  rarely  seen.  The  old  mail  coach  has  little 
left  to  do.  As  many  horses  are  now  re 
quired,  and  even  more  than  before,  but  their 
work  is  very  different.  The  vast  improve 
ments  in  agricultural  implements  have  also 
lightened  the  labors  of  the  horse.  Our 
wagons  are  of  lighter  construction,  our 
ploughs  run  easier,  our  lands  are  freer  from 
rocks  and  stumps,  and  quick,  hardy  horses 
often  take  the  place  of  oxen,  and  of  the 
larger,  heavier,  and  much  slower  horses  of 
half  a  century  ago. 

The  farmer  or  the  country  gentleman  who 
is  accustomed  to  ride  in  the  cars  at  the  rate 
of  thirty  or  forty  miles  an  hour,  would  not 
be  satisfied  to  step  out  of  them  and  have  to 
travel  at  the  rate  of  five  or  six  miles  an  hour. 
So  that  the  purposes  for  which  horses  are 
now  wanted  are,  as  a  general  thing,  very  dif 
ferent  from  what  they  used  to  be.  Speed, 
which  was  formerly  little  required,  is  now 
considered  an  indispensable  requisite  in  a 
good  horse,  and  though  our  horses  are  made 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


53 


up,  as  we  shall  see,  of  almost,  if  not  quite 
as  great  a  variety  of  blood,  and  with  as  little 
regard  to  the  true  principles  of  breeding,  as 
our  native  cattle,  yet  they  are,  in  many  re 
spects,  distinct  from  all  other  horses.  They 
possess,  in  many  sections  of  the  country,  a 
surpassing  degree  of  speed  and  power  of 
endurance,  the  result,  in  part,  of  the  altered 
condition  of  things,  and  greatly,  also,  of 
more  attention  to  breeding  and  training. 

The  first  horses  taken  from  Europe  to  the 
•western  continent,  were  brought  over  by 
Columbus  in  his  second  voyage,  in  1493, 
and  the  first  introduced  into  any  part  of  the 
territory  now  comprised  within  the  United 
States,  were  brought  over  and  landed  in 
Florida  by  Cabega  de  Vaca,  in  1527.  These 
numbered  forty-two,  but  all  perished  for 
some  cause  or  other  soon  after  their  arrival. 
The  horses  found  wild  on  the  plains  of 
Texas  and  the  western  prairies  are,  probably, 
descendants  of  the  fine  Spanish  horses  aban 
doned  by  De  Soto  on  the  failure  of  his  expe 
dition  and  the  return  of  his  disheartened  ad 
venturers.  In  1604,  a  French  lawyer,  M. 
L'Escarbot,  brought  over  horses  to  Acadia, 
and  from  there  the  French,  who  extended 
their  settlements  into  Canada  in  1608,  took 
the  horses  which,  probably,  laid  the  founda 
tion  of  what  are  now  known  as  Canadian 
ponies,  having,  no  doubt,  lost  much  of  their 
original  size  by  the  severity  of  the  climate 
and  limited  summer  forage.  Though  degen 
erated  in  size,  they  still  show  traces  of  Nor 
man  blood,  from  which  they  probably  sprang. 

In  1609  six  mares  and  a  horse  were  taken 
to  the  settlement  at  Jamestown,  in  Virginia, 
and  in  1657  the  exportation  of  horses  from 
that  colony  was  strictly  prohibited.  In 
1629-30  horses  were  introduced  into  the 
colony  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  by  Iliggin- 
son.  These  were  brought  from  Leicester 
shire,  in  England.  The  Dutch  West  India 
Company  had  imported  horses  from  Flan 
ders,  probably,  into  New  York,  in  1625,  and 
it  is  thought  by  some  that  the  Conestogas 
derive  their  origin  from  this  source.  The 
French,  who  settled  in  Illinois  in  1682,  had 
many  Canadian  horses,  which  were  allowed 
to  run  on  the  extensive  "  ranges"  in  their 
vicinity. 

Thus  we  see,  in  part,  the  varied  sources 
from  which  the  native  horses  of  this  country 
came.  To  these  were  wadded,  from  time  to 
time,  in  the  middle  and  southern  states,  more 
or  less  of  thorough-bred,  or  racing  stock, 
•which  essentially  modified  the  stock  with 


which  it  became  mixed.  The  horses  of 
New  England,  especially  of  Vermont  and 
Massachusetts,  have  been  used  chiefly  as 
roadsters  and  for  general  utility.  They  pos 
sess  the  most  admirable  qualities  of  power, 
speed,  and  endurance,  and,  for  quick  work 
and  travel  on  the  road,  they  are  unsurpassed 
by  any  horses  in  the  world.  Low,  in  his 
"  History  of  Domestic  Animals,"  says  of  the 
people  of  this  country :  "  They  prefer  the 
trot  to  the  paces  more  admired  in  the  old 
continent,  and,  having  directed  attention  to 
the  conformation  which  consists  with  this 
character,  the  fastest  trotting  horses  in  the 
world  are  to  be  found  in  the  United  States." 
Among  the  changes  which  have  been 
effected  within  the  last  fifty  years  in  the 
horses  of  New  England,  on  which  the  high 
encomium  given  by  Prof.  Low  is  chiefly 
based,  none,  certainly,  have  been  more  mark 
ed  than  the  increase  of  speed.  Fast  trotting 
was  scarcely  known  in  the  time  of  the  old 
"Justin  Morgan,"  nor  was  the  speed  of  the 
horse  considered  of  any  special  money  value 
till  the  invention  of  the  modern  light  buggy 
and  the  improvement  of  the  roads,  already 
alluded  to.  This  quality  has  now  become 
essential  to  the  convenience  and  comfort  of 
nearly  all  classes  of  society.  Most  people 
want  a  horse  to  go  off  easily  at  the  rate  of 
eight,  ten,  or  twelve  miles  an  hour,  and  the 
horses  that  do  it  are  now  very  common, 
whereas  formerly,  they  were  only  the  very 
rare  exception  to  the  general  rate  of  speed. 
A  demand  very  soon  creates  a  supply,  and 
the  farmer  who  breeds  horses  knows  his 
own  interest  well  enough  to  study  the  tastes 
of  the  community,  and  to  breed  accordingly. 
In  point  of  speed,  therefore,  there  can  be  no 
question  that  a  very  great  increase  has  been 
attained  by  careful  breeding,  particularly 
within  the  last  twenty  years.  In  other 
points  some  improvement  has  been  made, 
such  as  general  good  qualities  of  style,  ac 
tion,  temper,  form,  constitution,  and  endur 
ance.  The  aggregate  money  value  has  been 
greatly  increased,  because  the  number  of 
fast  horses  and  the  general  average  of  in 
trinsic  good  qualities  in  horses  has  been  in 
creased,  and  these  command  their  value. 
But,  perhaps,  the  tendency  has  been  to  con 
gregate  the  best  horses  in  the  cities  and 
large  towns,  and  to  draw  them  from  the 
country.  Few  farmers  want  to  keep  a  horse 
for  farm  and  general  purposes,  that  will 
bring  from  two  or  three  to  five  hundred  dol 
lars. 


54 


AGRICULTURE    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


Two  distinct  varieties  of  horses  are  now, 
and  have  for  the  last  few  years  been  favorites 
for  the  road.  Neither  of  these  can  have  any 
pretensions  to  the  claim  of  being  a  distinct 
race,  though  they  have  both  become  distinct 
families,  well  known  under  their  respective 
names.  The  peculiarities  of  both  are  so 
well  marked,  as  not  to  deceive  the  practised 
eye.  Of  these,  the  Morgan  has  been  alluded 
to,  as  deriving  its  name  from  the  owner  of 
the  founder  of  the  family,  or  the  old  "  Justin 
Morgan,"  foaled  in  West  Springfield,  Mass., 
in  1793.  The  sire  of  this  remarkable  stal 
lion  is  supposed  to  have  been  "  True  Briton," 
a  half  thorough-bred.  The  old  "Justin 
Morgan  "  soon  went  to  Vermont,  1795,  and 
there  laid  the  foundation  of  the  Morgans  of 
that  state,  producing  the  celebrated  "  Bul 
rush,"  "  Woodbury,"  and  "  Sherman  "  Mor 
gans,  all  of  which  added  vastly  to  the  wealth 
of  the  breeders  and  farmers  of  that  section. 
The  descendants  of  these  horses  have  been 
spread  far  and  wide.  The  "  Justin  Morgan  " 
was  a  small  horse,  only  about  fourteen  hands 
high,  and  Aveighing  only  about  nine  hundred 
and  fifty  pounds.  The  Morgan  horse  of  the 
present  day  is  of  somewhat  larger  size,  and 
usually  varies  from  nine  hundred  and  fifty 
to  ten  hundred  and  fifty  pounds.  He  is  re 
markable  for  compactness  of  form,  strength, 
and  docility ;  and  for  the  infinite  variety  of 
purposes  for  which  the  New  England  horses 
are  wanted,  is  probably  unsurpassed.  He  is 
much  sought  after  for  use  on  the  road,  and 
in  omnibuses,  hacks,  and  lighter  carriages. 

The  other  family,  also  widely  known,  not 
only  in  New  England,  but  throughout  the 
country,  is  the  Black  Hawk.  The  foun 
der  of  this  family  was  a  horse  of  that  name, 
celebrated  for  transmitting  his  qualities  to 
his  offspring,  as  well  as  for  his  great  speed 
as  a  trotter.  He  was  kept  in  Vermont  till 
his  death  in  1856,  at  the  age  of  twenty-three 
years.  As  roadsters,  the  Black  Hawks  are 
often  very  excellent,  possessing  a  high  and 
nervous  style  of  action,  an  elastic  step,  and 
a  symmetrical  and  muscular  form.  It  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  those  two  classes  of 
horses  have  added  many  millions  of  dollars 
to  the  value  of  the  horses  of  this  country. 
They  infused  a  new  spirit  into  the  business 
of  breeding  in  New  England,  and  had  an 
effect  on  the  enterprise  of  the  farming  com 
munity,  similar  to  that  which  the  introduc 
tion  of  short-horns  had  on  the  general  im 
provement  of  the  stock  of  the  western  states. 

The  style  of  horse  which  has  been  most 


imported  and  bred  in  the  southern  states, 
especially  in  Maryland  and  Virginia,  is  quite 
different.  The  cavaliers  cultivated  and  en 
couraged  the  sports  of  the  turf,  and  the 
thorough-bred  was  early  introduced,  and 
bred  with  much  enterprise.  Good  saddle 
horses,  which  in  New  England  are  compara 
tively  rare,  are  very  common  at  the  south, 
where  the  manly  and  healthful  exercise  of 
horseback-riding  has  for  a  long  time  been 
almost  universally  practised,  both  as  a  pas 
time  and  a  common  mode  of  travelling. 
The  interest  in  breeding  thorough-bred 
horses  has  been  kept  up  in  Kentucky,  also, 
and  some  of  the  most  renowned  running 
horses  of  this  country  hail  from  that  state. 

There  is  a  difference  of  opinion  among 
good  judges  of  horses,  as  to  whether  the 
cross  of  the  thorough-bred  horse  on  the 
common  horse  of  the  country  would  effect 
any  improvement  when  viewed  from  the 
stand-point  of  general  utility.  For  special 
purposes,  as  for  the  production  of  good  sad 
dle  horses,  the  value  of  this  cross  would,  no 
doubt,  be  conceded.  But  the  gait  most 
highly  prized  and  most  desirable  for  gen 
eral  utility  is  the  trot,  and  the  mechanical 
structure  best  adapted  to  trotting  and  run 
ning  is  quite  different.  At  the  same  time 
it  must  be  admitted,  I  think,  that  some  of 
our  best  trotters  have  had  strong  infusions 
of  thorough-bred  blood.  Some  say,  how 
ever,  that  the  form  of  the  thorough-bred  has 
been  changed,  and  so  far  as  compactness, 
muscle,  and  endurance  are  concerned,  degen 
erated.  This  is  an  opinion  merely,  which 
would  apply  with  greater  force  to. the  gen 
eral  average  of  thorough-breds  or  racers  in 
England  than  in  this  country.  The  experi 
ment  is  undergoing  full  and  fair  trial  in  New 
England  at  the  present  time. 

The  Conestoga  is  a  large  and  very  heavy 
breed  of  horses,  often  met  with  in  the  mid 
dle  states,  and  used  mostly  for  the  purposes 
of  slow  draught  in  the  drays  of  our  large 
towns  and  cities. 

But  while  it  is  evident  that  the  intrinsic 
value  of  our  American  horses  has  been  vast 
ly  improved,  their  aggregate  number  has 
also  been  greatly  increased  during  the  last 
fifty  years.  Unfortunately,  the  census  of 
1840  did  not  take  an  account  of  horses  by 
themselves,  and  we  cannot  tell,  with  exact 
ness,  the  ratio  of  increase  from  that  time 
to  1850,  when  the  number  of  horses,  exclu 
sive  of  those  of  large  cities  and  large  towns, 
which  were  not  returned,  was  4,336,719. 


I 
I 


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OQ       CS 

B     H 

1  % 


II 


3    o 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


59 


The  number  of  horses,  mules,  and  asses,  in 
1840,  was  4,335,669,  while  the  aggregate 
number  of  these  classes  in  1850  was  4,896,- 
050,  that  of  mules  and  asses  being  559,331. 
Why  the  number  of  horses  owned  in  the 
many  large  cities  of  the  country,  and  consti 
tuting  no  small  item  of  the  national  wealth, 
was  not  included  in  the  returns,  I  am  not 
fully  informed.  From  the  numbers  stated 
above,  it  appears  that  there  is  about  one 
horse  to  every  five  persons  in  the  United 
States.  New  York  had  one  horse  to  seven 
inhabitant^ ;  Pennsylvania  one  to  six  and 
six-sixteenths ;  Ohio  one  to  four ;  Kentucky 
one  to  three  free  inhabitants.  In  Ohio  and 
the  new  states  of  the  north-west,  the  increase 
in  the  number  of  horses  kept  pace  with  that 
of  the  population.  In  the  other  states, 
owing  partly,  probably,  to  the  multiplication 
of  railroads,  the  increase  was  in  a  somewhat 
slower  proportion.  The  number  of  horses 
in  the  United  States  is  more  than  three 
times  as  large  as  in  Great  Britain. 

The  south,  by  the  last  census,  had  2,044,- 
377  horses;  the  west  had  1,220,703;  and 
the  north  had  1,073,639. 

SHEEP. 

Another  branch  of  farming  which  has 
been  subject  to  more  or  less  vicissitude,  is 
that  of  sheep  husbandry.  The  first  sheep 
imported  into  this  country  were,  probably, 
those  taken  into  Virginia  in  1609.  They 
came  from  England,  and  thrived  so  well 
that  in  1648  they  had  increased  to  three 
thousand. 

About  the  year  1625,  some  sheep  were 
introduced  into  New  York  by  the  Dutch 
West  India  Company.  These  came  from 
Holland,  and,  together  with  others  which  ar 
rived  in  1630,  proved  to  be  too  much  of  a 
temptation  to  dogs  and  wolves,  for  it  is 
stated  that  in  1643  there  were  not  more 
than  sixteen  sheep  in  the  whole  colony. 

Sheep  were  brought  into  the  Plymouth 
colony,  and  that  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay, 
very  soon  after  the  settlement.  They  were 
kept  on  the  islands  in  Boston  harbor  as 
early  as  1633,  and  in  1635  the  number  of 
sheep  in  the  New  Hampshire  settlement, 
near  Portsmouth,  was  ninety-two.  In  1652 
the  number  of  sheep  in  and  around  Boston 
had  largely  increased,  since  there  were  fy\\r 
hundred  in  Charlestown.  In  1660  they  were 
introduced  upon  the  island  of  Nantucket,  and 
the  raising  of  wool  grew  up  to  be  of  some 
importance  there. 


Sheep  husbandry,  in  the  earlier  history  of 
the  country,  was  carried  on  very  differently, 
for  the  most  part,  from  what  it  has  been 
more  recently.  There  were  few  extensive 
flocks,  but  in  the  days  of  homespun  it  was 
very  common  for  the  farmer  to  keep  a  num 
ber  sufficient  for  home  consumption.  In 
fact,  it  was  almost  a  matter  of  necessity. 
But  the  old  native  sheep  was  a  coarse,  long- 
legged,  and  unprofitable  animal.  The  first 
fine-woolled  sheep  introduced  into  the  coun 
try  were  those  brought  from  Spain  by  Mr. 
Wm.  Foster,  of  Boston,  in  1793.  He 
speaks  of  them  as  follows : — 

"  In  April,  1793,  on  returning  from  Cadiz, 
where  I  had  been  passing  several  years,  I 
brought  out  an  original  painting,  by  Mu- 
rillo,  and  three  merino  sheep — two  ewes 
and  a  ram — the  export  of  which,  at  that 
time,  was  severely  prohibited,  and  attended 
with  much  difficulty  and  risk.  We  had  a 
long  passage — seventy-five  days — and  the 
sheep  were  in  a  dying  condition.  Fortu 
nately,  there  was  on  board  a  Frenchman, 
that  had  been  with  the  Spanish  shepherds, 
who  cured  them  by  administering  injections. 
Being  about  to  leave  this  country  for  France, 
soon  after  my  arrival  in  Boston,  I  presented 
these  sheep  to  Mr.  Andrew  Craigie,  of  Cam 
bridge,  who,  not  knowing  their  value  at  that 
time,  '  simply  ate  them,'  as  he  told  me  years 
after,  when  I  met  him  at  an  auction,  buying 
a  merino  ram  for  $1,000." 

Another  small  importation  of  merinos  was 
made  in  1802,  and  again  in  1809  or  1810, 
about  which  time  a  complete  merino  fever 
ran  through  the  whole  farming  community, 
which  had  its  day,  and  then  subsided. 

The  embargo  of  1808  led  many  to  turn 
their  attention  to  wool  growing,  and  fine 
wool  soon  rose  to,  the  high  price  of  $1.50 
and  $2.00  a  pound.  In  1809-10,  no  less 
than  3,650  merinos  were  imported  and  dis 
tributed  throughout  the  United  States.  The 
importance  of  these  early  importations  can 
hardly  be  overestimated.  They  furnished 
our  woollen  manufactories  with  the  raw  ma 
terial  at  a  time  when  it  would  have  been  ex 
tremely  difficult  to  obtain  it  from  abroad. 

In  the  ten  years  from  1840  to  1850,  the 
sheep  of  the  United  States  increased  two  and  a 
half  millions,  and  numbered  about  twenty -two 
millions,  or  more  accurately,  21,723,220. 
But  in  New  England  there  was  a  remark 
able  falling  off  from  3,811,307  in  1840,  to 
2,164,452  ~in  1850,  making  a  loss  of  forty- 
five  per  cent.,  while  in  the  five  sea-board 


60 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


states  of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsyl 
vania,  Delaware,  and  Maryland,  the  decrease 
was  twenty-two  per  cent.  The  increase  was 
chiefly  in  the  southern  and  western  states. 
The  production  of  wool  steadily  increased, 
for  in  1840  we  raised  35,802,114  pounds, 
valued  at  $11,345,318;  in  1850  we  raised 
52,516,959  pounds,  worth  $15,755,088  ;  and 
in  1855  we  raised  61,560,379  pounds,  worth 
623,392,944,  being  a  gain  of  forty-six  per 
cent.  But  as  some  evidence  of  improve 
ment,  it  may  be  stated  that  the  average 
weight  of  fleece  increased  from  1.84  pounds 
in  1°840,  to  2.43  in  1850. 

Since  the  opening  of  the  great  railway 
lines  to  the  west,  two  prominent  causes  have 
operated  to  diminish  the  number  of  sheep, 
and  attention  to  this  branch  of  farming,  in 
New  England.  One  was,  that  previous  to 
that  time,  we  had  rushed  into  fine  wools,  or 
merino  sheep,  almost  worthless  for  the  mar 
ket.  When,  therefore,  the  competition  of 
the  great  west  was  let  in  upon  us,  with  the 
facilities  for  transporting  wool,  we  had  little 
left  but  a  parcel  of  carcasses  worth  about  as 
much  as  so  many  cats. 

Massachusetts  cannot  and  ought  not  to 
attempt  to  raise  wool,  which  can  be  brought 
from  Ohio,  and  in  fact  from  the  extreme  west, 
or  from  Texas,  at  about  a  cent  a  pound 
freight.  And  so,  instead  of  changing  the 
breed,  and  raising  the  south-downs,  or  the 
cotswold,  or  some  other  adapted  to  the  mar 
ket,  the  farmer  discarded  sheep  altogether, 
thinking  they  didn't  pay,  and  the  kind  of 
sheep  he  had  did  not. 

Another  reason  was  the  extreme  annoy 
ance  of  dogs,  which  would  often  destroy 
the  profit  of  a  whole  year  in  a  single  night. 
We  are  not,  therefore,  surprised  to  find  that 
the  number  of  sheep  in  Massachusetts  de 
clined  from  378,226  in  1840,  to  188,651  in 
1850,  and  to  145,215  in  1855.  This  last 
evil  has  now  been  remedied  in  some  of  the 
eastern  states,  Massachusetts  taking  the  lead, 
by  a  law  designed  for  the  protection  of 
sheep  against  dogs,  which  offers  great  induce 
ments  for  entering  again  upon  the  business 
of  sheep  raising,  and  many  are  now  availing 
themselves  of  it.  Growing  mutton  and  lamb 
for  the  market  at  any  thing  like  the  present 
high  prices  of  those  articles  in  the  eastern 
market,  is  one  of  the  most  profitable,  and  at 
the  same  time  agreeable  branches  of  farm 
ing.  Our  provision  markets  must  be  sup 
plied  from  a  nearer  source  than  the  prairies 
of  the  west;  and  in  this  particular  the 


eastern  farmer  need  fear  no  competition. 
And  the  same  holds  good  to  a  great  extent 
along  the  Atlantic  coast,  or  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  great  markets. 

In  the  meantime  the  capacities  and  the 
adaptation  of  the  climate  of  the  south  for 
the  raising  of  wool  are  being  more  and  more 
appreciated,  and  that  section  is  growing 
more  wool.  It  has  been  shown  by  the  expe 
rience  of  the  last  ten  years,  that  by  proper 
attention  to  breeding,  the  hilly  portions 
even  of  the  extreme  south  may  be  profita 
bly  devoted  to  the  production  of  wool.  At 
the  World's  Fair  at  London,  in  1851,  the 
fleece  that  commanded  the  highest  premium 
for  the  fineness  and  beauty  of  staple,  was 
grown  in  Tennessee.  Germany,  Spain,  Sax 
ony,  and  Silesia  were  there  in  strong  and 
honorable  competition.  "  Nature,"  says  the 
owner  of  the  premium  fleece,  "  gave  me  the 
advantage  in  climate,  but  the  noble  lords  and 
wealthy  princes  of  Europe  did  not  know  it, 
neither  did  my  own  countrymen  know  it, 
until  we  met  in  the  Crystal  Palace  of  Lon 
don,  before  a  million  of  spectators.  While 
their  flocks  were  housed  six  months  in  the 
year,  to  shelter  them  from  the  snow  of  a 
high  latitude,  and  were  fed  from  the  grana 
ries  and  stock-yards,  mine  were  roaming 
over  the  green  pastures  of  Tennessee, warmed 
by  the  genial  influence  of  a  summer  sun  ;  the 
fleece  thus  softened  and  rendered  oily  by  the 
warmth  and  green  food,  producing  a  fine, 
even  fibre." 

So  that  whether  it  be  north  or  south,  east 
or  west,  sheep  are,  on  the  whole,  the  most 
valuable  of  the  domestic  animals  kept  on 
our  farms,  on  account  of  their  small  cost 
and  large  returns,  especially  since  they  are 
well  known  to  improve  the  land  on  which 
they  graze.  The  total  product  of  wool  in 
the  United  States,  as  shown  by  the  census  of 
1850,  was  52,516,959  pounds.  The  amount 
had  increased  in  nineteen  years,  or  from 
1832,  only  5,599,633  pounds,  and  that,  too, 
with  a  high  duty  on  wool  ranging  from  four 
cents  a  pound,  and  forty  per  cent,  ad  valo 
rem,  to  thirty  per  cent,  ad  valorem.  But 
in  Great  Britain  the  production  was  275- 
000,000  pounds — an  increase  in  twenty-two 
years,  with  a  duty  to  protect  and  encourage 
the  wool-grower,  of  163,376,271  pounds. 
The  value  of  wool  imported  into  this  coun 
try  in  1850  was  $1,681,691,  while  the  value 
of  this  article  exported  that  year  was  $22,- 
778,  so  that  the  excess  of  value  of  imported 
over  that  exported  was  $1,658,913,  all  of 


SOUTHERN  PINE  WOODS  HOO. 


WESTERN  BEECH  NUT  HOG. 


IMPROVED  SUFFOLK. 


IMPROVED   ESSEX. 


BEBKSHIRE  HOG. 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


63 


which  might,  and  ought  to  have  been  saved 
to  the  country.  But  while  we  imported  so 
large  an  amount  of  foreign  wool,  the  value  of 
woollen  manufactured  articles  imported  was 
no  less  than  $16,259,649.  The  value  of 
such  articles  exported  by  us  was  only  $171,- 
300,  leaving  an  excess  of  imported  woollen 
articles,  of  the  enormous  sum  of  $16,088,- 
349.  Putting  this  and  that  together, we  find 
the  value  of  raw  and  manufactured  wool  im 
ported  in  1850  over  that  exported,  $17,747,- 
262.  The  value  of  raw  wool  manufactured 
in  New  England  in  1850  was  $16,055,233, 
and  the  number  of  pounds  used  was  43,1 18,- 
059.  Probably  the  census  of  1860  will 
show  a  very  considerable  improvement  -over 
that  of  1850.  The  immense  facilities  for 
wool-growing  in  Texas,  and  some  other 
localities,  were  not  sufficiently  known  to  be 
appreciated  ten  years  ago. 

Let  us  see  where  the  wool  we  did  raise  in 
1850  was  actually  produced.  The  south, 
including  Maryland,  Delaware,  the  District 
of  Columbia,  Virginia,  North  Carolina, 
South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Louisiana, 
Florida,  Texas,  Missouri,  Mississippi,  Ken 
tucky,  Tennessee,  and  Arkansas,  comprising 
an  area  of  851,448  sq. miles  and  a  population 
of  9,664,656,  raised  6,821,871  sheep,  and 
12,797,829  pounds  of  wool,  valued  at  $3,- 
839,348. 

The  west,  comprising  Ohio,  Michigan,  Il 
linois,  Indiana,  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  California, 
Minnesota,  and  the  territories,  having  an  area 
of  1,918,216  sq.  miles  and  a  population  of  4,- 
900,369,  had  7,396,331  sheep,  and  produced 
17,675,129  pounds  of  wool,  valued  at  $5,- 
302,538. 

The  north,  comprising  New  England,  New 
York,  New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania,  an 
area  of  166,358  sq.  miles  and  a  population  of 
8,626,852  souls,  had  7,505,018  sheep,  and 
raised  21,972,082  pounds  of  wool,  valued  at 
$6,591,624. 

To  conclude,  therefore,  we  have  made 
some  decided  progress,  both  in  the  numbers 
and  in  the  intrinsic  value  of  our  flocks. 
The  number  of  skilful  breeders  is  increasing, 
and  the  different  sections  of  the  country  un 
derstand  better  the  capacity  and  adaptation  of 
their  own  localities  for  the  production  of 
mutton  and  lambs  for  the  market,  or  the 
growing  of  wool  for  the  manufacturer. 

SWINE,  AND  THE  PORK  BUSINESS. 

Few  animals  are  so  susceptible  of  change 
and  improvement  in  the  hands  of  the  skilful 


breeder  as  the  hog.  This  animal  comes  to 
maturity  in  so  much  less  time  than  the 
horse  or  the  cow,  and  increases  with  so  much 
greater  rapidity,  as  to  offer  larger  induce 
ments  to  improve  and  perfect  it. 

Ferdinand  de  Soto  probably  brought  the 
first  swine  into  this  country,  in  1538.  These 
came  from  Cuba,  and  were  landed  in  Flor 
ida.  They  were  probably  descended  from 
some  brought  over  by  Columbus  in  1493. 
The  Portuguese,  it  is  well  known,  brought 
swine  into  Nova  Scotia  and  Newfoundland 
as  early  as  1553,  where  they  rapidly  multi 
plied. 

The  London  Company  imported  swine  in 
to  Virginia  in  1609.  They  increased  so 
fast,  that  in  1627  the  colony  was  in  danger 
of  being  overrun  with  them,  while  the  In 
dians  fed  on  pork  from  the  hogs  that  had 
become  wild  from  running  at  large  in  the 
woods. 

Meantime,  they  were  introduced  into  the 
Plymouth  colony  in  1624,  by  Gov.  Winslow, 
and  into  New  Netherlands — now  New  York 
— in  1625,  by  the  Dutch  West  India  Com 
pany.  In  all  the  colonies,  as  well  as  in  the 
French  settlements  in  Illinois,  they  were  al 
lowed  to  run  at  large  with  considerable  free 
dom,  and  fed  on  mast,  though  it  was  soon 
found  that  pork  fed  on  Indian  corn  was  much 
sweeter  .than  that  mast-fed. 

It  is  not  probable  that  any  special  atten 
tion  was  paid  to  breeding,  with  reference  to 
improving  this  animal,  till  near  the  close  of 
the  last  century.  The  first  improvements 
effected  that  excited  any  considerable  inter 
est,  seem  to  have  been  produced  by  a  pair 
of  pigs  sent  from  W^oburn  Abbey  by  the 
Duke  of  Bedford  to  General  Washington. 
Parkinson,  the  Englishman  to  whom  they 
were  entrusted  for  delivery  to  the  general, 
was  dishonest  enough  to  sell  them  on  his  ar 
rival  in  this  country.  They  were  long  known 
as  the  Woburn,  and,  in  some  sections,  as  the 
Bedford  hog,  and  were  originated  by  a  for 
tunate  cross  of  the  Chinese  and  the  large 
English  hog.  There  is  no  doubt  they  were 
splendid  animals,  with  many  fine  points,  small 
bones,  deep,  round  barrel,  short  legs,  feeding 
easily,  and  maturing  early,  and  often  weighing 
at  a  year  or  a  year  and  a  half  old,  from  four 
to  seven  hundred  pounds,  with  light  offal,  and 
the  first  quality  of  flesh.  They  were  mostly 
white — somewhat  spotted.  They  were  very 
common  at  one  time  in  Maryland,  Delaware, 
and  Virginia,  and  were  bred  somewhat  exten 
sively  by  Gen.  Ridgeley,  of  Hampton — a  fine 


64 


AGRICULTURE    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


country  seat  in  Baltimore  county,  Md. — who 
sent  a  pair  of  them  to  Col.  Timothy  Pick 
ering,  of  Hamilton,  Mass.,  who  bred  them 
till  they  became  quite  noted  over  a  wide  ex 
tent  of  country.  They  are  now  extinct.  It 
is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  Byfield  breed 
originated  in  the  same  way,  by  a  cross  of 
the  Chinese  and  the  common  hog,  bred  by 
Gorham  Parsons,  in  Byfield,  Mass.  This 
breed  became  famous,  and  was  very  much 
sought  after  for  many  years,  and  is  even  now 
found  in  Ohio. 

Previous  to  the  introduction  of  the  Wo- 
burn  hog,  the  classes  of  swine  that  had  pre 
vailed  in  the  eastern  and  middle  states  were 
coarse,  long-legged,  large-boned,  slab-sided, 
and  flab-cared,  an  unprofitable  and  an  un 
sightly  beast,  better  calculated  for  subsoiling 
than  for  filling  a  pork  barrel.  An  effort  had 
been  made  to  improve  them,  about  fifty 
years  ago,  and  before  the  valuable  breeds 
above  alluded  to  had  become  generally 
known,  by  the  introduction  of  an  animal 
commonly  called,  at  that  time,  the  grass-fed 
hog,  which  appeared  about  the  time  of  the 
introduction  of  merino  sheep,  and  were 
often  sneered  at  as  the  "merino  hog." 
Chancellor  Livingston  took  very  great  pains 
to  disseminate  them,  if,  indeed,  he  did  not 
originally  import  them.  They  are  said  to 
have  been  an  exceedingly  well-formed  beast, 
with  small  heads,  round  bodies,  compact 
and  well  made,  legs  short  and  small-boned, 
spotted  in  color,  with  a  kind  of  dusky  white 
on  a  black  ground.  As  they  were  looked 
upon  as  an  innovation,  they  had  to  encoun 
ter  the  force  of  public  sentiment,  but  their 
intrinsic  good  qualities  finally  prevailed,  and 
they  became  popular. 

Since  that  period  the  introduction  of  many 
varieties  of  superior  hogs,  both  from  Europe 
and  Asia,  has  effected  a  very  marked  im 
provement  in  the  common  hog  of  the  present 
day,  though  it  has  been  a  too  frequent  prac 
tice  to  breed  indiscriminately.  A  pure 
breed,  like  the  Suffolk,  the  Berkshire,  or  the 
Essex,  may  be  used  to  cross  for  a  specific 
purpose,  but  the  pure  breed  ought  again 
and  constantly  to  be  resorted  to,  or  the  re 
sult  will  be  likely  to  be  unsatisfactory.  It 
requires  great  skill  and  judgment  to  breed 
judiciously,  and  it  ought  to  be  made  a  spe 
cial  branch  of  farming  to  a  greater  extent 
than  it  usually  is,  in  order  to  insure  the 
preservation  and  perpetuation  of  purity  of 
blood. 

It  is  well  settled  that  neither  the  eastern 


nor  the  middle  states  can  compete  success 
fully  with  the  west  in  the  raising  of  swine 
and  the  production  of  pork  on  a  large  scale. 
The  cost  of  grain  in  those  sections  of  the 
country  would  prevent  it.  A  limited  num 
ber  of  hogs  can  be  kept  to  advantage  in  a 
section  of  small  farms,  sufficient  to  consume 
and  thus  economize  the  refuse  of  the  dairy 
and  other  farm  products,  that  would  other 
wise  be  liable  to  waste,  but  beyond  this,  the 
keeping  of  swine  is  not  only  not  profitable, 
but  an  absolute  bill  of  expense. 

But  in  Ohio,  Kentucky,  Illinois,  Indiana, 
and  other  states  where  corn  can  be  raised 
with  little  labor,  and  in  unlimited  quantities, 
the  cost  of  pork  is  trifling  compared  with 
the  keeping  of  swine  in  the  eastern  states. 
The  raising  and  packing  of  pork  has,  there 
fore,  very  naturally  grown  up  in  the  western 
states,  and  vast  quantities  are  exported  from 
there  every  year,  including  pigs  on  foot,  by 
railway,  slaughtered  and  sent  off  in  the 
whole  carcass,  and  in  hams,  shoulders,  and 
sides,  smoked,  and  in  the  shape  of  barrelled 
pickled  pork. 

The  native  hogs  of  the  west — that  is,  the 
descendants  of  those  taken  there  by  the 
earlier  settlers,  and  common  there  till  within  a 
very  recent  period — were  admirably  calcula 
ted  for  the  primitive  condition  of  civiliza 
tion  in  which  they  were  placed.  They  were 
well  calculated  to  shirk  for  themselves,  as 
they  had  to  do,  and  became  as  fleet  as  the 
deer,  while  their  strength  of  head,  neck,  and 
tusks  enabled  them  to  fight  any  wild  beast  of 
the  forest,  and  withstand  any  extent  of  ex 
posure  to  the  weather.  They  were  diamet 
rically  opposite  in  every  prominent  good 
quality  to  the  improved  swine  of  the  present 
day.  Instead  of  speed  and  fleetness  of  foot, 
the  farmer  wants  sluggishness  in  his  hogs ; 
instead  of  coarse,  rawny  bones,  he  wants 
fine,  small-boned  animals ;  and  instead  of  a 
thick,  hard  coat,  he  wants  a  fine  head,  thin 
coat,  ready  fattening  qualities,  and  general 
thriftiness.  And  so  the  Suffolks  became  the 
favorites,  and  produced  many  most  excellent 
crosses  with  the  old  natives.  In  other  parts 
of  Ohio,  where  improvement  has  taken 
place,  the  Byfield,  the  Chester  County,  the 
Berkshire,  the  China,  the  Irish  Grazier,  or 
some  other  of  the  many  excellent  improved 
breeds  have  been  introduced,  and  effected  a 
great  and  perceptible  change.  The  western 
farmer  wants  greater  size  than  he  finds  in 
the  pure  Suffolk  or  the  pure  bred  Essex, 
but  he  also  wants  most  of  the  excellent 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


65 


qualities  which  a  cross  of  these  breeds  on 
the  large  and  coarser  natives  produces. 

It  is  a  somewhat  singular  fact,  that  accord 
ing  to  the  last  census,  the  number  of  swine 
kept  in  the  United  States  exceeds  that  of 
sheep  by  nearly  ten  millions ;  that  of  the 
former  being  over  thirty  millions,  or  30,354,- 
213,  while  that  of  the  latter  was  21,723,220. 
In  point  of  numbers,  Tennessee  takes  the 
lead  of  all  the  states,  having  no  less  than 
3,104,800,  while  her  number  of  sheep  was 
only  811,591.  Kentucky,  at  the  same  time, 
had  2,891,163  swine,  and  1,102,091  sheep. 
Indiana  is  ahead  of  Ohio  in  the  number  of 
swine,  the  former  having  2,263,776,  to  1,- 
964,770  in  the  latter.  The  geographical 
distribution  of  the  aggregate  number  of 
swine  in  the  country  was  as  follows :  The 
south,  embracing  the  states  mentioned  on  a 
previous  page,  had  20,808,948 ;  the  west 
had  6,874,996,  and  the  north  had  2,670,- 
469. 

But  no  one,  with  a  simple  knowledge  of 
the  aggregate  number  of  swine,  would  form 
an  adequate  idea  of  the  enormous  extent  to 
which  the  business  of  raising  and  packing 
pork  for  exportation  has  grown  up  within 
the  last  few  years,  and  it  is  important  to 
look  at  the  statistics  of  this  business,  espe 
cially  as  it  is  carried  on  at  the  west.  And 
as  Cincinnati  is  the  largest  pork  market  in 
the  United  States,  and  indeed  in  the  world, 
not  even  excepting  Cork  and  Belfast,  it  will 
be  interesting  to  state  in  brief  the  manner 
in  which  the  business  is  conducted  there, 
from  which  the  mode  of  management  in  the 
other  large  cities  of  the  west  may  be  ob 
tained.  The  following  facts  are  gathered 
chiefly  from  statistics  published  by  Mr.  Cist, 
>f  Cincinnati. 

The  slaughter  houses  are  in  the  outskirts 
<f  the  city,  fifty  by  one  hundred  and  thirty 
f  et  each  in  extent,  the  frames  boarded  up 
vith  movable  lattice-work  at  the  sides,  ordi- 
nirily  kept  open  to  admit  the  air,  but  shut 
diring  intense  cold,  so  that  the  hogs  may 
net  be  frozen  so  stiff  as  not  to  be  cut  up  to 
acvantage.  Each  establishment  employs  as 
mjiy  as  one  hundred  hands,  selected  for  their 
strngth  and  activity. 

nhe  hogs  being  confined  in  adjoining 
pen,  are  driven,  about  twenty  at  a  time,  up 
an  nclined  bridge,  opening  into  a  square 
rooi  at  the  top  just  large  enough  to  hold 
then.  As  soon  as  the  door  is  closed,  a  man 
entes  from  an  inside  door,  and  with  a  ham- 
merwreighing  about  two  pounds,  fixed  to  a 


long  handle,  knocks  each  hog  down  by  a 
single  blow  between  the  eyes.  In  the  mean 
time,  a  second  adjoining  apartment  is  being 
filled  with  as  many  more.  A  couple  of  men 
seize  the  stunned  hogs,  and  drag  them 
through  the  inside  door  to  the  bleeding  plat 
form.  Here  each  gets  a  cut  in  the  throat 
with  a  sharp-pointed  knife,  and  the  blood 
falls  through  the  lattice  floor.  After  bleed 
ing  a  minute  or  two,  they  are  slid  off  this 
platform  into  the  scalding-vat,  about  twenty 
feet  long,  six  feet  wide,  and  three  feet  deep, 
kept  full  of  water  heated  by  steam,  the  tem 
perature  being  easily  regulated.  As  the 
hogs  are  slid  into  one  end  of  this  vat,  they 
are  pushed  along  slowly  by  men  standing  on 
each  side  with  short  poles,  turning  them 
over  so  as  to  get  a  uniform  scalding,  and 
moving  them  onward  so  that  each  will  reach 
the  other  end  of  the  vat  in  about  two  min 
utes  from  the  time  it  entered.  Ten  hogs  are 
usually  passing  through  this  scalding  process 
at  the  same  time,  being  constantly  received  in 
at  one  end,  and  taken  out  at  the  other,  where 
there  is  a  contrivance  for  lifting  them  out  of 
the  water  two  at  a  time,  by  one  man  opera 
ting  a  lever  which  raises  them  to  the  scrap 
ing  table,  five  feet  wide  and  twenty-five  feet 
long,  with  eight  or  nine  men  on  each  side, 
and  usually  as  many  hogs  on  it  at  the  same 
time,  each  pair  of  men  performing  a  sepa 
rate  part  of  the  Avork  of  removing  the  bris 
tles  and  hair;  the  first  two  take  off  only 
those  bristles  which  are  worth  saving  for  the 
brush  makers,  taking  only  a  double  handful 
from  the  back  of  each  hog,  which  are  depos 
ited  in  a  box  or  barrel  close  at  hand.  The 
hog  slides  on  to  the  next  two,who  with  scrap 
ers  remove  the  hair  from  one  side,  then  turn 
it  over  to  the  next  two,  who  scrape  the  other 
side;  the  next  scrape  the  head  and  legs; 
the  next  shave  one  side  with  sharp  knives ; 
the  next  shave  the  other ;  the  next  do  the 
same  to  the  head  and  legs.  Each  pair  of  men 
have  to  do  their  part  of  the  work  in  twelve 
seconds,  or  at  the  rate  of  five  hoys  a  minute, 
for  three  or  four  hours  at  a  time  !  When 
the  hog  arrives  at  the  end  of  this  table,  all 
shaved  smooth,  another  pair  of  men  put  in  a 
gainbril  stick  and  swing  the  hog  off  on  the 
wheel,  which  is  about  ten  feet  in  diameter, 
revolving  on  a  perpendicular  shaft  extending 
from  the  floor  to  the  ceiling,  the  height  of 
the  wheel  being  about  six  feet  from  the  floor. 
Around  its  outer  edge  are  placed  eight  large 
hooks,  about  four  feet  apart,  on  which  the 
hogs  are  hung  to  be  dressed. 


66 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


As  soon  as  the  liog  is  swung  from  the  ta 
ble  to  one  of  these  hooks,  the  wheel  turns 
one-eighth  of  its  circuit,  and  brings  the  next 
hook  to  the  table,  and  carries  the  hog  a  dis 
tance  of  four  feet,  where  a  couple  of  men 
dash  it  with  clean  cold  water  and  scrape  it 
down  with  knives  to  remove  any  loose  hair 
or  dirt  that  it  may  have  brought  along  off  the 
table.  Then  it  moves  again  and  carries  the 
hog  four  feet  further,  where  another  man 
cuts  it  open  in  a  single  second  and  removes 
the  larger  intestines,  or  such  as  have  no  fat 
on  them  worth  saving,  and  throws  them  out 
at  an  open  doorway  at  his  side  ;  another 
move  of  four  feet  carries  it  to  another  man, 
who  lifts  out  the  rest  of  the  intestines,  the 
heart,  liver,  etc.,  and  throws  them  upon  a 
large  table  behind  him,  where  four  or  five 
men  are  engaged  in  separating  the  fat  and 
other  valuable  parts ;  another  move  and  a 
man  dashes  a  bucket  of  clean  water  inside 
and  washes  off  all  the  filth  and  blood.  This 
completes  the  cleaning,  and  each  man  has  to 
do  his  part  of  the  work  in  just  twelve  sec 
onds,  as  there  are  only  five  hogs  hanging  on 
the  wheel  at  the  same  time,  and  this  number 
are  removed  and  as  many  more  added  every 
minute.  The  number  of  men  inside,  not  in 
cluding  the  drivers  outside,  is  fifty,  so  that 
each  man  in  effect  kills  and  dresses  a  hog 
every  ten  minutes  of  working  time,  or  forty 
in  a  day.  At  the  last  move  of  the  wheel  a 
strong  fellow  shoulders  the  hog,  and  another 
removes  the  gambril  stick,  and  backs  it  off' 
to  the  other  part  of  the  house,  where  it  is 
hung  up  for  twenty-four  hours,  to  cool,  on 
hooks,  in  rows  on  each  side  of  the  beams  just 
over  a  man's  head,  where  there  is  space  and 
hooks  for  2,000  hogs,  or  a  full  day's  work  at 
killing.  The  next  day  they  are  taken  oft'  by 
teams  to  the  packing  houses. 

The  hauling  of  the  hogs  from  the  slaughter 
to  the  packing  houses  is  of  itself  a  great  busi 
ness,  keeping  more  than  fifty  of  the  largest 
class  of  wagons  employed,  each  loading  from 
sixty  to  one  hundred  and  ten  hogs  at  a  load. 
They  are  unloaded  and  piled  up  near  the 
scales  in  rows  as  high  as  possible.  Another 
set  of  hands  is  engaged  in  carrying  them  to 
the  scales,  where  they  are  weighed  singly. 
From  the  scales  they  are  taken  to  the  blocks, 
where  the  head  and  feet  are  first  struck  off 
with  such  precision  that  no  blow  requires  to 
be  repeated.  The  hog  is  then  divided  into 
three  parts,  separating  the  ham  and  shoulder 
ends  from  the  middle,  when  these  are  again 
divided  into  single  hams,  shoulders,  and 


sides.  The  leaf  lard  is  then  torn  out,  and 
every  piece  distributed  with  the  exactness 
and  regularity  of  machinery  to  its  appro 
priate  pile.  The  tenderloins — about  two 
pounds  to  a  hog — are  sold  to  the  sausage 
makers.  The  shoulders  and  hams  thus  cut, 
undergo  further  trimming  to  get  them  into 
shape,  and  are  sorted  for  their  appropriate 
markets.  When  lard  is  high,  the  packer 
trims  so  close  as  sometimes  to  make  the  en 
tire  shoulder  into  lard.  If  the  pork  is  in 
tended  to  be  shipped  off"  in  bulk,  or  to  be 
smoked,  it  is  piled  in  great  masses  and  cov 
ered  with  fine  salt,  at  the  rate  of  fifty  pounds 
of  salt  to  two  hundred  pounds  of  meat.  If 
otherwise,  the  pork  is  packed  in  barrels  with 
coarse  and  fine  salt. 

The  different  classes  of  cured  pork  are 
made  up  of  different  sizes  and  conditions  of 
hogs ;  the  finest  and  fattest  make  clear  and 
mess  pork,  and  the  rest,  prime  pork  or  ba 
con.  According  to  the  inspection  laws, 
clear  pork  is  to  be  put  up  of  the  sides,  with 
the  ribs  out,  and  none  but  the  largest  class 
of  hogs  can  receive  this  brand.  Mess  pork 
is  made  up  of  all  sides,  with  two  rumps  to 
the  barrel.  Pork  of  lighter  weights  may 
pass  as  prime.  The  shoulders,  two  joles, 
and  sides — enough  to  fill  up  the  barrel — 
constitute  prime  pork. 

The  mess  pork  is  used  for  the  commercial 
marine  and  the  United  States  navy.     The 
prime  is  usually  packed,  also,  for   ship  use 
and  the  southern  markets ;  while  the  clear 
pork  goes  out  to  the  cod  and  mackerel  fish 
eries.     Bulk  pork  is  intended  either  for  im-/ 
mediate  use  or  smoking.     That  for  immedi< 
ate  use  is  sent  off  in  flat  boats  to  the  lowe/ 
Mississippi ;  but  the  great  mass  is  sent  t> 
the  smoking  houses,  each  of  which  can  cuife 
from  175,000  to  500,000  pounds  at  a  time. 
The  bacon  is  sold  to  the  iron  manufactir- 
ing  regions  of  Pennsylvania,  Kentucky,  aid 
Ohio,  the  fisheries  of  North  Carolina,  May- 
land,  and  Virginia,  and  to  the  coast,  or  MS- 
sissippi   region   above    New    Orleans.      Of 
500,000    hogs    cut   up,    the    produce    till 
be   about    180,000    barrels    of    pork,   {5,- 
000,000   pounds  of  bacon,  and  16,500)00 
pounds  of  lard.     The  lard  is  shipped  fojthe 
Havana  market,  where  it  is  extensively  jtsed 
for  cooking,  and  takes  the  place  of  butlfr  to 
a  great  extent.     Large  quantities  of  if  are 
also  shipped  to  England  and  France. 

One  establishment  is  devoted  to  till  put 
ting  up  of  hams  and  the  trying  out  of  ffease 
from  the  rest  of  the  hog,  and  its  opeitions 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


67 


reach  from  thirty-five  to  forty  thousand  hogs 
in  one  season.  The  entire  carcasses,  except 
the  hams,  are  put  into  large  tanks,  and  sub 
jected  to  steaming  at  the  rate  of  seventy 
pounds  to  the  square  inch,  which  reduces 
the  whole  to  the  same  consistency,  and  every 
bone  to  powder.  The  fat  is  drawn  off  by 
cocks,  and  the  rest  taken  off  for  manure. 
The  great  masses  of  heads,  ribs,  back-bones, 
feet,  and  other  trimmings  cut  up  at  different 
pork  houses,  arc  subjected  to  the  same  pro 
cess,  to  extract  every  particle  of  grease. 
This  concern  turned  out,  in  one  season, 
3,600,000  pounds  of  lard,  five-sixths  of 
which  was  No.  1.  It  is  refined  as  well  as 
steamed  by  the  process,  and  comes  out  of 
extreme  purity  and  beauty.  Six  hundred 
hogs  a  day  pass  through  these  tanks.  Be 
sides,  there  are  a  large  number  of  lard  oil 
factories  in  Cincinnati — thirty  or  forty,  at 
least — which  do  an  immense  business.  One 
of  them  has  manufactured  into  lard  oil  and 
stearine,  140,000  pounds  a  month  all  the 
year  round.  11,000,000  pounds  of  lard 
were  run  into  lard  oil  in  one  year,  making 
24,000  barrels  of  lard  oil,  of  forty  or  forty- 
two  gallons  each,  which  was  sent  to  the 
Atlantic  cities  to  be  used  as  such,  or  in  the 
adulteration  of  sperm  oil ;  much  of  it,  also, 
being  sent  to  France  to  be  used  in  the  adul 
teration  of  olive  oil,  the  cost  of  which  it 
very  much  reduces.  The  skill  of  French 
chemists  enables  them  to  incorporate  from 
65  to  70  per  cent,  of  this  miserable  lard  oil 
with  that  of  the  olive. 

Then  the  star  candle  factories  take  the 
stearine,  subject  it  to  hydraulic  pressure,  and 
arc  prepared  to  manufacture  30,000  pounds 
of  star  candles  a  day.  More  than  3,000,000 
of  pounds  of  this  stearine  have  been  made 
in  one  year  into  star  candles  and  soap  in 
these  factories. 

Then  the  soap  manufactories  take  up 
the  offal,  try  out  the  grease,  and  make 
100,000  pounds  of  ordinary  soap  a  week, 
to  say  nothing  of  an  immense  quantity  of 
finer  soap,  soft  soap,  etc.  The  glue  factory 
uses  up  the  hoofs  of  the  hogs.  Then  come 
the  bristle  dressing  establishments,  employ 
ing  a  hundred  hands  preparing  bristles  for 
the  eastern  markets.  Then  come  the  prus- 
siate  of  potash  establishments,  using  up  the 
hair  part  of  the  hoofs  and  other  offal,  making 
vast  quantities  of  prussiate  of  potash  for  the 
use  of  the  print  factories  of  New  England, 
where  it  is  wanted  for  coloring  purposes, 
while  the  blood  of  the  hog  is  manufactured 


into  Prussian  blue.     Thus  every  part  of  the 

hog  is  economized,  no  part  being  lost. 

The  following  table  shows  the  number  of 

hogs   packed    in   Cincinnati  each   year  for 

twenty-seven  years : — 

1833 85,000     1847 250,000 

1834 123,000     1848 475,000 

1835 162,000     1849 410,000 

1836 123,000     1850 393,000 

1837 103,000     1851 334,000 

1838 182,000     1852 352,000 

1839 190,000     1853 361,000 

1840 95,000     1854 421,000 

1841 160,000     1855 356,786 

1842 220,000     1856 405,396 

1843 250,000     1857 344,512 

1844 240,000     1858 446,677 

1845 196,000     1859 382,826 

1846 205,000     1860 

But  in  addition  to  this,  there  are  very 
many  other  points  where  the  business  is  car 
ried  on  extensively,  but  in  a  similar  manner 
to  that  described  above. 

The  magnitude  of  this  business  will  ap 
pear  more  striking  and  important  when  it  is 
considered  what  a  vast  amount  of  labor  it 
requires  and  creates,  furnishing  employment 
to  thousands,  at  a  season  when  their  regular 
work,  in  many  cases,  would  naturally  cease. 
Think  of  the  coopers,  not  only  in  and  around 
the  large  cities,  but  all  over  a  great  section 
of  country,  making  lard  kegs,  pork  barrels, 
and  bacon  hogsheads  in  winter,  many  of  them 
working  their  farms  in  summer.  Then  the 
vast  number  who  must  be  busy  in  getting  out 
staves,  and  hoop-poles,  and  headings,  which 
is  also  winter  work.  All  these  various  occu 
pations,  including  the  more  immediate  op 
erations  of  slaughtering  and  packing  in  the 
city  of  Cincinnati  alone,  give  wort;  proba 
bly  to  at  least  ten  thousand  men,  who,  if  it 
were  not  for  the  pork  business,  would  be 
earning  comparatively  little  during  fully  one- 
third  of  the  year.  And  this  in  and  around 
one  city,  and  the  adjacent  country  towns. 
But,  as  already  intimated,  other  states  are 
largely  engaged  in  the  same  pursuits,  as  the 
following  table,  showing  the  number  of  hogs 
killed  and  packed  during  the  last  two  years 
previous  to  the  present,  will  indicate  : — 

No.  of  hogs  killed  in             1857-8.  1S58-9. 

Ohio 610,060  624,109 

Kentucky 372,609  377,117 

Indiana 441,885  407,636 

Illinois 463,577  596,136 

Missouri 176,386  155,774 

Tennessee 42,875  65,172 

Iowa 85,583  158,217 

Wisconsin 16,000  32,702 

2,208,975  2,416,863 


68 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


An  increase  of  over  10^  per  cent.,  or  in  all, 
of  227,888  hogs  packed. 

In  the  above  statistics  of  stock  of  va 
rious  kinds,  no  account  has  been  taken  of 
the  enormous  increase  of  domestic  animals 
of  all  kinds  in  California  during  the  last  ten 
years,  which  will  be  found  to  be  vastly 
greater  than  most  people  have  any  idea  of. 
The  number  of  milch  cows  in  that  state,  at 
the  present  time,  is  but  little  short  of  three 
hundred  thousand,  or  about  one  to  every  two 
inhabitants,  while  the  increase  of  horses, 
oxen,  sheep,  and  swine  has  been  equally  as 
tonishing.  When  it  is  considered  that  the 
state  is  scarcely  yet  eleven  years  old,  and  that 
its  agricultural  .resources  are  almost  wholly 
undeveloped  as  compared  with  its  capacities 
for  improvement  and  production,  some  idea 
may  be  formed  of  the  aggregate  agricultural 
wealth  which  it  is  destined  to  add  to  the 
country. 

We  have  thus  alluded  briefly  to  the  vari 
ous  classes  of  live  stock  in  the  United  States, 
and  shown  its  progressively  increasing  value, 
and  we  find  the  sum  total  of  all  classes  to 
be  nearly  five  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of 
dollars  ($544,180,516),  while  the  value  of 
slaughtered  animals  was  about  one  hundred 
and  twelve  millions,  or  more  accurately  $111,- 
703,142.  If  to  this  we  should  add  the  value 
of  farm  implements  and  machinery,  and  that 
of  the  farms  themselves,  we  find  the  whole 
investment  to  amount  to  about  four  billions 
of  dollars,  or  $3,962,353,395,  in  the  year 
1850,  while  local  or  state  statistics,  and  the 
previous  ratio  of  increase,  would  indicate  a 
large  increase  upon  that  sum  for  the  present 
time  ;  and  the  question  naturally  arises,  what 
is  the  annual  income  from  this  vast  capital 
invested  in  farming,  and  the  labor  which  is 
a  necessary  incident  to  it  ? 

Let  us  refer  to  the  leading  products  for  a 
satisfactory  reply : — 

PRODUCTS    OF    THE    SOIL. 

In  a  range  of  latitude  extending  almost 
from  the  tropics  to  the  regions  of  frost  and 
snow,  we  should  naturally  expect  to  find  a 
great  variety  of  climate,  and  the  products 
more  especially  adapted  to  it.  And  such  is 
the  case.  The  products  of  our  agriculture  are 
infinitely  varied,  and  all  the  great  staples 
form  a  most  important  part  in  promoting  the 
national  prosperity.  But  if,  among  them  all, 
one  can  be  said  to  hold  pre-eminence  over 
the  rest,  the  palm  must  be  yielded  to  the 


golden  corn,  rearing  its  imperial  form  and 
tasselled  banner  high  over  all  its  compeers, 
and  founding  its  claim  to  royalty,  as  the 
prince  of  cereals,  by  the  universality  of  its 
uses  and  its  intrinsic  importance  to  mankind. 

Its  flexibility  of  organization  is  truly 
wonderful;  for  while  it  grows  best  on  moist, 
rich  soils,  and  with  great  heats,  there  are  va 
rieties  of  it  which  can  be  raised  at  the  height 
of  more  than  eight  thousand  feet  above  the 
level  of  the  sea.  The  warmest  regions  of 
the  torrid  zone  produce  it  in  abundance, 
while  the  short  summers  of  Canada  have 
varieties  adapted  to  them  which  arrive  at 
maturity  with  almost  the  same  certainty  as 
those  under  a  hotter  sun  and  a  longer  season. 

INDIAN  CORN,  therefore,  as  being  the  great 
staple  crop  of  the  country,  demands  our  first 
attention. 

This  plant  is  of  American  origin.  It  was 
found  in  cultivation  among  the  aborigines 
of  the  country  at  the  time  of  its  discovery 
by  Columbus.  It  is  referred  to  by  the  old 
est  historians  of  Peru.  It  has  been  found 
growing  wild  in  various  parts  of  Central 
America,  and  Ilumboldt,  who  must  be  re 
garded  as  the  most  eminent  authority,  says  : 
"It  is  no  longer  doubted  among  botanists  that 
Maize,  or  Turkish  corn,  is  a  true  American 
grain,  and  that  the  old  continent  received  it 
from  the  new." 

It  is  well  known  that  Indian  corn  entered, 
in  some  form  or  other,  into  the  mythology 
and  the  religious  ceremonies  of  the  Indians, 
both  of  North  and  South  America*  long 
before  they  were  disturbed  by  the  appear 
ance  and  approach  of  civilization.  School- 
craft  mentions  an  interesting  allegory  of  the 
Ojibwas,  which  has  since  been  clothed  with 
an  unusual  fascination  by  the  graceful  lan 
guage  of  Longfellow. 

A  young  man  went  out  into  the  woods  to 
fast,  at  the  period  of  life  when  youth  is  ex 
changed  for  manhood.  He  built  a  lodge  of 
boughs  in  a  secluded  place,  and  painted  his 
face  of  a  sombre  hue.  By  day  he  amused 
himself  in  walking  about,  looking  at  the  va 
rious  shrubs  and  wild  plants,  and  at  night  he 
lay  down  in  his  bower,  from  which,  being  open, 
he  could  look  up  into  the  sky.  He  sought  a 
gift  from  the  Master  of  Life,  and  he  hoped  it 
would  be  something  to  benefit  his  race.  On 
the  third  day  he  became  too  weak  to  leave 
the  lodge,  and  as  he  lay  gazing  upward  he 
saw  a  spirit  come  down  in  the  shape  of  a 
beautiful  young  man,  dressed  in  green,  and 
having  green  plumes  on  his  head,  who  told 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


69 


him  to  arise  and  wrestle  with  him,  as  this 
was  the  only  way  in  which  he  could  obtain 
his  wishes.  He  did  so,  and  found  his 
strength  renewed  by  the  effort.  This  visit 
and  the  trial  of  wrestling  were  repeated  for 
four  days,  the  youth  feeling  at  each  trial 
that,  although  his  bodily  strength  declined, 
a  moral  and  supernatural  energy  was  impart 
ed,  which  promised  him  the  final  victory. 
On  the  third  day  his  celestial  visitor  spoke 
to  him.  "  To-morrow,"  said  he,  "  will  be  the 
seventh  day  of  your  fast,  and  the  last  time  I 
shall  wrestle  Avith  you.  You  will  triumph 
over  me  and  gain  your  wishes.  As  soon  as 
you  have  thrown  me  down,  strip  off  my 
clothes  and  bury  me  on  the  spot,  in  soft, 
fresh  earth.  When  you  htive  done  this, 
leave  me,  but  come  occasionally  to  visit  the 
place,  to  keep  the  weeds  from  growing. 
Once  or  twice  cover  me  with  fresh  earth." 
lie  then  departed,  but  returned  the  next 
day,  and,  as  he  had  predicted,  was  thrown 
down.  The  young  man  punctually  obeyed 
his  instructions  in  every  particular,  and  soon 
had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  the  green  plumes 
of  his  sky  visitor  shooting  up  through  the 
ground.  He  carefully  weeded  the  earth, 
and  kept  it  fresh  and  soft,  and  in  due  time 
was  gratified  at  beholding  the  mature  plant, 
bending  with  its  golden  fruit,  and  gracefully 
waving  its  green  leaves  and  yellow  tassels  in 
the  wind.  He  then  invited  his  parents  to 
the  spot  to  behold  the  new  plant.  "  It  is 
Mondamin,"  replied  his  father,  "  it  is  the 
spirits'  grain."  Tradition  says  they  imme 
diately  prepared  a  feast,  and  invited  their 
friends  to  partake  of  it ;  and  that  this  is  the 
origin  of  Indian  corn. 

However  this  may  be,  AVC  knoAv  that  the 
first  attempt  by  the  English  to  cultivate  it 
within  the  present  limits  of  the  United 
States,  was  made  on  James  river,  in  Virginia, 
1608  or  1609.  They  adopted  the  mode  of 
culture  in  practice  by  the  Indians,  as  given 
on  a  preceding  page.  A  year  or  two  after, 
it  is  said  they  cultivated  in  all  as  many  as 
thirty  acres.  The  pilgrims  found  it  in  culti 
vation  by  the  Indians  around  Plymouth,  and 
immediately  began  its  cultivation,  manuring 
it  Avith  alewives.  As  early  as  1621,  Gov. 
Winslow  visited  the  Nemaskct  Indians,  at 
Middleboro',  Mass.,  who  fed  him  on  mazium. 

The  cultivation  of  this  important  grain 
was,  then,  fairly  begun  at  the  very  first  settle 
ment  of  the  country,  and  it  has  been  con 
tinued  with  slight  modification,  but  con- 

o  ' 

stantly  extending  and  increasing  in  its  ag 


gregate  product,  down  to  the  present  time. 
It  is  a  remarkable  fact  shoAvn  by  a  compari 
son  of  the  censuses  of  1840  and  1850,  that  the 
product  largely  increased  during  the  ten 
years,  in  nearly  every  state  of  the  Union, 
and  in  no  state  did  it  retrograde.  In  New 
England  it  increased  50  per  cent,  in  that 
time,  and  its  increase  since  has  been  quite  as 
great,  if  not  even  greater,  than  previous  to 
1850. 

Among  the  earlier  exports  of  the  country 
AVC  find  frequent  mention  of  the  number  of 
bushels  of  Indian  corn,  sho\ving  that  a  con 
siderable  surplus  was  produced  in  many  lo 
calities  a  century  ago.  Thus,  the  amount  ex 
ported  from  South  Carolina  in  1748  was 
39,308  bushels,  and  in  1754,  16,428  bush 
els.  The  amount  shipped  from  Savannah  in 
1655  was  600  bushels,  and  in  1770,  13,598 
bushels.  And  so  North  Carolina  exported 
no  less  than  61, 580  bushels  as  early  as  1753. 
Virginia  for  several  years  previous  to  the  Rev 
olution  exported  600,000  bushels  a  year, 
and  from  the  port  of  Norfolk  alone,  341,- 
984  bushels  in  the  year  1791  ;  while  in  1795 
the  amount  from  that  port  reached  442,075 
bushels.  At  the  same  time  the  amount  sent 
from  City  Point,  Virginia,  in  1791  was  21,- 
180  bushels,  including  meal,  and  in  1795, 
33,358  bushels. 

The  amount  shipped  from  Philadelphia  in 
1752  Avas  90,740  bushels,  and  in  1767  there 
Avere  exported  from  there  60,206  bushels. 
In  1771  it  reached  259,441  bushels,  and  in 
1796  it  amounted  to  179,094  bushels,  in  ad 
dition  to  223,064  barrels  of  Indian  meal. 

There  Avere  2,510  bushels  shipped  from 
Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  in  1776;  and  in  1777, 
1,915  bushels;  which  amount  increased  in 
1778  to  5,306  bushels;  while  in  1779,  the 
export  amounted  to  3,097.  The  export  of 
this  grain  from  the  same  place  was  6,711 
bushels  in  1780,  and  5,587  bushels  in 
1781. 

But  previous  to  the  first-mentioned  date 
(1776),  this  grain  was  on  several  occasions 
imported  into  Portsmouth,  and  up  the  Pis- 
cataqua  river,  to  the  extent,  in  1765,  of 
6,498  bushels,  owing,  probably,  to  a  severe 
drought  in  the  year  previous,  and  the  spring 
of  1765,  which  seriously  affected  the  corn 
crop.  And  again,  in  1769  the  import  to  that 
section  amounted  to  4,097  bushels,  followed 
in  1770  by  16,587  bushels.  During  that 
year  there  was  a  "  very  melancholy  dry  time," 
in  July  and  August ;  a  drought  of  such  se 
verity  that  there  was  little  prospect  of  corn. 


70 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


The  worms  had  done  much  injury  in  the 
spring,  and  a  "  very  uncommon  sort  of  worm, 
called  the  canker  worm,  ate  the  corn  and 
grass  all  as  they  Avent,  above  ground,  which 
cut  short  the  crops  in  many  places."  And 
again,  in  1772  the  pastures  all  dried  up,  and 
there  was  very  little  corn,  and  all  kinds  of 
grain  suffered  very  much ;  so  that  the  amount 
of  corn  imported  into  Portsmouth  and  vi 
cinity  was  4,096  bushels  in  that  year. 

But  the  total  amount  of  Indian  corn  ex 
ported  from  the  colonies  in  1770  was  578,- 
349  bushels.  In  1791  it  amounted  to  2,064,- 
936  bushels,  including  351,695  bushels  of 
Indian  meal.  In  1800  the  aggregate  num 
ber  of  bushels  exported  was  2,032,435,  in 
cluding  338,108  bushels  of  meal ;  while  in 
1810  the  export  of  this  grain  was  only  140,- 
996  bushels,  of  which  86,744  bushels  were 
in  the  form  of  Indian  meal. 

The  product  of  Indian  corn,  as  may  be 
gathered  from  the  amount  exported,  had 
never  reached  any  thing  like  the  figures 
which  it  has  attained  within  the  last  thirty 
years.  This  was  not  owing  merely  to  the 
fact  that  the  avenues  to  the  great  west  were 
not  then  opened — though,  of  course,  they 
have  vastly  multiplied  the  market  facilities 
for  this  and  other  products — but  chiefly  to 
the  fact  that  the  real  advantages  of  cultiva 
ting  this  as  a  staple  or  reliable  crop,  were 
not  then  appreciated  as  they  are  now.  Add 
to  this  the  fact  that  it  was  comparatively 
little  used  as  human  food  in  any  part  of 
Europe,  and  we  have  a  reason  sufficient  to 
account  for  the  fact  that  the  product  was 
comparatively  small.  The  inland  farmer  had 
no  market  for  it,  the  cost  of  transportation 
of  so  bulky  a  product  prevented  him  from 
teaming  it  to  any  great  distance,  and  the  lo 
cal  demand  was  so  limited  that  there  was  no 
object  in  raising  much  more  than  was  abso 
lutely  needed  for  home  consumption. 

In  the  year  1816  the  crop  of  Indian  corn  was 
'  very  generally  cut  off  throughout  the  north 
ern  states  by  frequent  and  severe  frosts,  so 
that  as  a  cultivated  crop  it  fell  into  disrepute 
in  many  sections,  and  was  cultivated  less  for 
some  years,  by  individual  farmers,  till  its  in 
trinsic  importance  as  a  sure  and  reliable  crop 
brought  it  gradually  into  favor.  At  the  time 
it  was  first  included  in  the  United  States  cen 
sus,  in  1840,  the  aggregate  yield  of  the  coun 
try  was  377,531,875,  or  nearly  four  hundred 
millions  bushels.  In  1850  it  had  reached 
within  a  fraction  of  six  hundred  millions, 
being  returned  as  592,071,104,  occupying 


31,000,000  of  acres.  The  value  of  this 
enormous  crop  was  $296,034,552.  This 
was  a  gain  of  57  per  cent.,  or  214,539,- 
229  bushels,  while  the  increase  of  popula 
tion  during  the  same  period  was  only  35 
per  cent.  According  to  the  estimate  of 
the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  the  crop  of 
Indian  corn  in  1855  was  between  seven  and 
eight  hundred  millions,  or  nearly  double  that 
of  1 840.  But  this  estimate  was  entirely  too 
low,  the  crop  being  the  largest  and  best  that 
year  that  had  ever  been  raised  in  the  coun 
try,  and  amounting,  at  least,  to  1,000,000,000 
bushels,  and  its  value,  at  a  low  estimate,  was 
$400,000,000. 

We  see,  therefore,  on  reference  to  the 
census,  that  this  crop  formed  about  three- 
sixteenths  of  the  whole  'agricultural  product 
of  the  country  in  1850,  and  that  the  propor 
tion  of  improved  land  devoted  to  corn  was 
.333,  while  the  number  of  bushels  to  each 
person  in  the  country  was  25.53.* 

From  the  amounts  of  corn  stated  above,  as 
raised  in  1840  and  in  1850,  it  will  be  seen 
that  we  had  a  very  large  surplus  over  and 
above  what  we  needed  for  home  consump 
tion  ;  though  it  must  be  evident  that  vast 
quantities  are,  and  must  be  required  to  feed 
to  the  large  number  of  cattle  and  swine, 
which  we  have  seen  are  annually  prepared 
for  the  shambles.  It  appears  from  official 
statistics  that  the  exportation  of  Indian 
corn  has  rapidly  increased  since  1820,  Avhen 
it  amounted  to  only  607,277  bushels,  valued 
at  $261,099,  and  131,669  barrels  of  Indian 
meal,  valued  at  $345,180,  making  an  aggre 
gate  of  $616,279.  In  1830-1  the  number 
of  bushels  of  corn  exported  from  the  coun 
try  Avas  571,312,  valued  at  $396,617,  and 
207,604  barrels  of  Indian  meal,  valued  at 
$595,434.  In  1840-1  the  number  of  bush 
els  of  corn  exported  Avas  535,727,  Aralued  at 
$312,954,  with  232,284  barrels  of  meal, 
Avorth  $682,457. 

But  in  1845-6  the  amount  rose  to  1,826,- 
068  bushels,  valued  at  $1,186,663  ;  and  from 
that  in  1846-7  to  16,326,050  bushels  of  corn, 
worth  $14,395,212.  The  next  year,  1847-8, 
it  reached  nearly  six  millions  of  bushels  ;  and 
in  1848-9  to  upward  of  thirteen  millions, 
valued  at  $7,966,369. 


.  *  France  produced  in  1826  but  17,280,000  bush 
els,  while  in  1847  she  produced  33,400,000  bush 
els — being  an  increase  of  nearly  100  per  cent, 
in  twenty  years.  Russia  produced  16,000,000  of 
bushels  in  1860. 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


71 


The  amount  of  Indian  corn  and  Indian 
meal  exported  from  the  country  from  1851 
to  1858  may  be  seen  as  follows  : — 


1851, 
1852, 
1853, 
1854, 
1855, 
185G, 
1857, 
1858, 


Bush,  of 

corn. 

3,420,811 
2,627,075 
2,274,909 
7,768,816 
7,807,585 
10,292,280 
5,505,318 
4,766,145 


Value. 

$1,762,549 
1,540,225 
1,374,077 
6,074,277 
6.961,571 
7,622,565 
5,184,666 
3,259,039 


Bbls.  ofln- 
di;in  meal. 
203.622 
181,106 
212,118 
257,403 
267,208 
293,607 
267,504 
237,637 


Vnlue. 
$622,866 

574,380 

709,974 

1,002,976 

1,237,122 

1,175,688 

'957,791 

877,692 


The  amount  of  exports  is,  of  course,  reg 
ulated  very  much  by  foreign  demand.  If 
breadstuff's  are  scarce  in  Europe  and  prices 
high,  they  are  immediately  shipped  from 
this  country  to  take  advantage  of  the  mar 
ket.  If  the  reverse  is  the  case,  and  prices 
are  low,  our  surplus  is  kept  at  home.  It  is 
but  a  few  years  since  the  foreign  demand  for 
breadstuff's  began  to  any  extent.  Now  and 
then  would  occur  a  year  of  unusual  scarcity, 
to  be  sure,  but  it  was  rare  to  find  any  exten 
sive  demand  year  after  year  for  our  surplus 
products.  The  increase  of  population  be 
yond  the  point  of  capacity  to  produce,  in 
Great  Britain  and  the  continent  of  Europe, 
now  gives  the  bread  question  an  importance 
paramount  to  all  others  with  the  European 
statesman,  and  it  is  having  and  will  have  a 
powerful  influence  on  our  agriculture.  Con 
sumption  has  overtaken  production — got  be 
yond  it,  in  fact,  in  some  of  the  countries  of 
Europe — and  henceforth  importation  must 
supply  an  ever  increasing  demand,  since, 
however  much  the  agricultural  production 
of  western  Europe  may  increase  by  the  im 
proving  condition  of  its  agriculture,  it  can 
not  hereafter  keep  up  with  the  natural  in 
crease  of  population,  which,  at  the  present 
time,  in  Great  Britain,  is  at  the  rate  of  a 
thousand  per  day.  This  crowding  popula 
tion  will  appear  in  its  true  light,  in  an  agri 
cultural  point  of  view,  when  it  is  considered 
that  if  the  United  States  and  its  territories 
were  as  thickly  populated  as  Great  Britain, 
they  would  contain  about  750,000,000  of 
people,  a  number  nearly  equal  to  the  whole 
population  of  the  globe. 

The  year  1824,  it  is  asserted  by  some,  was 
the  turning  point  at  which  consumption 
overtook  and  exceeded  production  in  Eng 
land.  Since  that  time  the  agricultural  pro 
duction  of  Great  Britain  has  been  vastly  in 
creased  by  the  improvement  of  agriculture 
and  live  stock ;  but  great  and  perceptible  as 
improvement  has  been,  it  has  not,  and  can 


not  fully  supply  its  overgrown  population. 
The  famine  in  Ireland  in  1847,  causing  the 
loss  of  half  a  million  of  lives  by  starvation, 
and  the  political  revolution  which  soon  fol 
lowed  on  the  continent  in  1848,  growing  out, 
to  a  great  extent,  of  a  short  supply  of  food, 
are  fresh  in  the  minds  of  every  one. 

Now  this  surplus  of  population  and  the 
consequent  permanent  demand  for  the  pro 
ductions  of  our  soil  are  of  comparatively 
recent  date,  and  we  have  hardly,  even  yet, 
begun  to  realize  their  importance  and  the  in 
fluence  which  they  are  hereafter  to  exert  in 
developing  the  resources  of  our  soil.  It  was 
only  a  century  ago  (1756)  when  D'Anque- 
ville,  a  political  economist  of  France,  said: 
"  England  could  grow  corn  enough  in  one 
year  to  supply  herself  for  four."  Now, 
though  she  has,  at  least,  three  times  as  much 
land  under  cultivation  as  then,  and  though 
the  yield  of  her  products  to  the  acre  has 
been  more  than  doubled,  yet  she  imports 
food  in  the  shape  of  corn,  wheat,  oats,  meal, 
and  flour  to  the  extent  of  more  than  £45,- 
000,000,  or  8225,000,000.  Now,  though 
western  Europe  has  been  supplied,  to  a  large 
extent,  from  Russia  and  other  parts  cf  the 
world,  it  is  becoming  more  and  more  evident 
that  it  has  got  to  look  more  and  more  to  this 
country  for  its  supplies,  and  this  fact  is 
recognized  by  many  of  the  leading  journals 
and  statesmen  of  Europe,  as,  for  instance, 
the  Mark  Lane  Gazette,  which  says  :  "  One 
fact  is  clear,  that  it  is  to  western  America 
that  we  must,  in  future,  look  for  the  largest 
amount  of  cereal  produce." 

It  was  fortunate,  therefore,  for  the  pros 
perity  of  the  country,  and  especially  for  the 
prosperity  of  its  agriculture,  constituting  by 
fur  the  largest  and  most  important  interest, 
that  just  about  the  time  when  a  more  exten 
sive  demand  for  its  surplus  products  grew  up 
in  Europe,  the  means  were  provided  for 
throwing  this  surplus  into  good  markets. 

After  the  triumphant  termination  of  the 
war  of  the  Revolution,  the  importance  of 
developing  the  material  resources  of  the 
country  impressed  itself  upon  the  minds  of 
far-seeing  statesmen.  Washington  himself 
projected  a  canal,  extending  up  the  Potomac, 
to  connect  the  great  west — then  compara 
tively  uninhabited — with  the  Atlantic  coast, 
and  though  the  enterprise  was  premature, 
and  the  requisite  capital  could  not,  at  that 
time,  be  procured,  it  shows  the  grand  con 
ception  of  his  noble  mind,  and  that  he  fore 
saw  the  vast  importance  which  the  agricul- 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


ture  of  that  great  country  was  destined  to 
assume.  But  that  state  of  things  could  not 
always  remain  in  a  country  rapidly  recover 
ing  from  the  stagnation  of  a  long  protracted 
struggle  for  independence,  and  the  events 
of  a'second  war  showed  most  clearly  the  ne 
cessity  of  increased  facilities  of  intercommu 
nication.  Then  we  had  no  canals  to  speak 
of,  and  no  good  roads.  The  great  extent  of 
sea  coast,  the  magnificent  bays,  and  the 
mighty  rivers  which  intersected  the  country 
were  the  chief  means  of  industrial  inter 
course,  and  these  could  be  blockaded,  crush 
ing  our  commerce  and  bankrupting  individ 
uals,  to  the  serious  injury  of  the  whole  coun 
try.  Then  DeWitt  Clinton  conceived  the 
project  of  connecting  the  waters  of  the 
Hudson  with  those  of  Lake  Erie,  by  a  canal 
so  vast  in  extent  as  to  strike  everybody  with 
astonishment.  President  Madison  went  so 
far  as  to  express  the  opinion  that  it  could 
not  be  accomplished,  even  with  the  treasures 
of  the  whole  federal  government.  But  Clin 
ton  persisted,  and  in  1825,  eight  years  from 
the  time  it  was  begun,  a  canal  of  three  hun 
dred  miles  in  extent,  costing  over  $9,000,000, 
bore  the  produce  of  the  west  to  the  New 
York  market. 

The  success  of  this  grand  enterprise  stim 
ulated  other  improvements  of  a  similar  char 
acter,  and  opened  up  sources  of  wealth,  the 
mere  enumeration  of  which  would  appear  to 
be  fabulous.  Railroads  soon  followed,  anni 
hilating  distance,  as  it  were,  and  bringing 
the  growing  centres  of  trade  into  close  com 
munication.  We  now  have  nearly  30,000 
miles  of  railroads,  forming  a  complete  net 
work  all  over  the  country.  At  the  time  of 
the  Revolution,  the  great  state  of  Ohio  was 
a  wild  forest  that  had  rarely  been  penetrated 
by  any  white  man,  except,  perhaps,  the  ad 
venturous  hunter.  In  1 800  she  had  but  lit 
tle  over  40,000  inhabitants.  Now  railroads 
connect  her  many  large  and  prosperous 
cities  and  her  innumerable  villages,  and  take 
the  produce  of  her  fertile  farms  to  the  sea 
board  markets. 

These  means  of  communication  are  of  so 
recent  date,  that  any  prediction  of  their  ulti 
mate  results  in  developing  the  agricultural 
resources  of  these  states  would  be  prema 
ture.  Indeed,  the  capacity  for  the  produc 
tion  of  human  food,  which  is  still  compara 
tively  undeveloped  in  that  section,  can  hard 
ly  be  estimated.  The  progress  within  the  last 
twenty  years  has  been  so  rapid  and  unprec 
edented,  as  to  appear  altogether  marvellous. 


But  Indian  corn,  though  by  far  the  most 
important  product,  is  not  the  only  great  sta 
ple  production  of  the  country,  and  we  turn 
our  attention  to 

WHEAT. 

The  wheat  crop  of  the  country  is  scarcely 
less  important  than  that  of  Indian  corn,  and, 
in  some  respects,  itr  is  even  more  important. 
This,  like  the  other  grains,  was  cultivated  in 
this  country  at  a  very  early  date,  having 
been  sown  by  Gosnold,  on  the  Elizabeth 
Islands,  on  the  southern  coast  of  Massachu 
setts,  as  early  as  1602,  at  the  time  he  first 
explored  that  coast.  In  1611  it  seems  to 
have  been  first  cultivated  in  Virginia,  and  so 
much  did  it  commend  itself  to  the  early  set 
tlers,  that  in  1648,  if  history  is  to  be  relied 
on,  there  were  several  hundred  acres  in  that 
colony.  It  soon  fell  into  disrepute,  howev 
er,  as  a  staple  crop,  for  the  cultivation  of 
tobacco  was  found  to  pay  better,  and  for 
more  than  a  hundred  years  it  was  compara 
tively  little  cultivated.  Premiums  were 
offered  to  encourage  its  culture,  but  they 
were  not  sufficient  to  check  the  growing  at 
tention  to  tobacco. 

It  is  certain  that  wheat  had  been  cultiva 
ted  by  the  Dutch  colony  of  the  New  Neth 
erlands,  for  it  is  recorded  that  samples  of 
this  grain  were  taken  to  Holland  in  1626,  to 
show  what  could  be  done  in  the  new  coun 
try. 

It  is  not  certain  that  it  was  cultivated  in 
the  Plymouth  colony  immediately  upon  its 
settlement,  though  it  is  highly  probable  that 
not  more  than  a  year  or  two  would  have 
been  allowed  to  pass  before  so  important  a 
plant  would  have  received  its  due  attention. 
In  1629,  wheat  and  other  grains  for  seed 
were  ordered  from  England,  and  in  1631 
there  arrived  a  vessel  with  thirty-four  hogs 
heads  of  wheat  flour. 

The  culture  of  wheat  was  undoubtedly 
commenced  almost  simultaneously  with  the 
settlement  of  the  country,  but  it  seems  never 
to  have  attracted  any  very  great  attention 
for  more  than  a  century,  Indian  corn  and 
potatoes  being  more  relied  upon  for  subsist 
ence.  It  was  never  raised  in  New  England, 
in  early  times,  with  so  much  success  as  it 
has  been  during  the  present  century.  As 
early  as  1663,  it  was  found  to  be  very  sub 
ject  to  blast  and  mildew.  Early  in  July  of 
that  year,  "the  best  wheat,"  says  an  old 
manuscript  diary  that  I  have  consulted,  "  as 
also  some  other  grain,  was  blasted  in  many 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


73 


places,  so  that  whole  acres  were  not  worth 
reaping.  We  have  had  much  drought  the 
last  summer  (16C2),  and  excess  of  wet  sev 
eral  other  springs,  but  this  of  blasting  is  the 
first  so  general  and  remarkable  that  I  yet 
heard  of  in  New  England." 

But  this  blasting  is  frequently  "  heard  of" 
afterward,  for  the  very  next  year  (1664)  the 
wheat  was  very  generally  blasted,  "  and  in 
sundry  towns  scarce  any  left."  And  the 
blast  returned  again  in  1665  and  1666  with 
great  severity.  This  explains  why  it  never 
became  a  prominent  crop  in  New  England. 
There  never  was  a  time  in  the  history  of  this 
section  of  the  country  when  it  was  a  sure 
and  reliable  crop,  unless  it  be  the  present, 
with  our  improved  modes  of  culture,  our 
better  knowledge  of  proper  modes  of  tillage, 
deep  ploughing,  and  thorough  drainage.  I 
have  no  patience  to  read  the  cant  which  is 
constantly  paraded  in  the  papers  of  this  and 
other  countries  about  the  exhausted  soils  of 
New  England.  How  often  do  we  see  it 
stated  that  they  are  "run  out,"  .that  they  won't 
bear  wheat,  and  the  return  of  the  census  of 
1850  is  compared  with  that  of  1840  to  show 
an  enormous  falling  off,  as  if  it  were  owing 
to  the  fact  that  it  is  impossible  to  grow 
wheat.  It  is  not  so.  As  good  crops  can  be 
and  are  grown  in  Massachusetts  now  as 
there  ever  were.  It  is  as  safe  a  crop  now  as 
it  ever  was,  and  as  profitable.  But  "  the 
census  shows  a  falling  off,"  is  constantly 
sounded  over  the  country,  till  people  are  led 
to  believe  it  cannot  be  raised  on  account  of 
the  impoverished  condition  of  the  soil.  The 
census  does  show  a  decline  of  this  crop  in 
New  England  between  1840  and  1850,  and 
a  large  one.  But  the  wheat  crop  was  injured 
in  1849 — that  being  the  year  on  which  the 
statistics  of  the  crops  of  1850  are  returned 
— to  a  degree  wholly  unprecedented,  not 
only  in  New  England,  but  in  several  of  the 
largest  wheat-growing  states.  The  returns, 
therefore,  made  in  June,  1850,  do  not  cor 
rectly  indicate  the  usual  quantity  of  grain 
grown  in  the  United  States.  Nor  will  the 
census  of  1860  give  anything  like  an  ade 
quate  idea  of  the  magnificent  crop  of  wheat 
produced  in  that  year  (1860)  throughout  the 
northern,  middle,  and  western  states. 

But  wheat  is  subject  to  many  losses  by  in 
sects,  rust,  smut,  frost,  drought,  storms,  and 
other  casualties,  as  well  as  poverty  of  the 
soil.  In  some  recent  years  it  has  been  very 

f-eatly  damaged  in  central  and  western  New 
ork,  and  in  Ohio,  by  the  wheat  fly;  in 


other  years,  the  weevil.  When  the  former, 
the  wheat  fly,  makes  its  appearance,  there  is 
no  known  remedy  but  to  discontinue  the 
culture  of  wheat  in  that  locality  till  it  dis 
appears.  After  a  time,  the  culture  of  wheat 
may  be  resumed  with  a  reasonable  hope  of 
freedom  from  this  pest.  This  is  one  reason 
of  the  little  attention,  comparatively,  paid 
to  the  culture  of  this  crop  in  New  England 
for  the  last  few  years.  The  farmers  in  many 
localities  are  resuming  its  culture  again.  I 
know  many  and  many  a  magnificent  field 
of  wheat  in  Massachusetts  this  year  (1860), 
that  Avill  average  twenty-five,  thirty,  and 
thirty-five  bushels  to  the  acre,  of  as  full  arid 
fair  a  kernel  as  ever  grew ;  and  many  an 
acre  in  Massachusetts  has  averaged  over  forty 
bushels  this  year.  It  is  the  opinion  of  many 
practical  farmers  that  they  can  raise  thirty- 
five  bushels  of  wheat  as  easy  as  fifty  bushels 
of  corn  to  the  acre.  But  the  census  of 
1860  will  not  return  the  full  crop. 

There  were  other  reasons  for  the  falling  off 
than  the  impoverishment  of  the  soil.  A 
part  of  these  have  been  alluded  to,  and  are 
to  be  found  in  the  comparative  uncertainty 
of  the  crop ;  but  a  more  direct  and  important 
cause  was  the  opening  of  direct  railroad 
communication,  and  the  cheap  freight  sys 
tem,  with  the  west.  The  farmer  could  pro 
duce  other  crops  for  the  market  which  paid 
well,  and  it  was  better  for  him  to  buy  flour 
than  to  raise  it.  He  could  not  compete 
with  the  west  in  raising  wheat,  but  lie  could 
in  raising  milk  for  the  market,  in  raising 
fruit — which  finds  a  ready  sale  at  his  door — 
in  raising  vegetables,  which  the  multiplica 
tion  of  manufacturing  villages  in  his  neigh 
borhood  created  a  demand  for.  And  so  his 
industry  was  merely  turned  into  another 
channel  for  a  time,  and  very  wisely  too. 

During  the  last  century  considerable 
quantities  of  wheat  were  raised  along  the 
Hudson  and  the  Mohawk,  and  in  New  Jer 
sey  and  Pennsylvania ;  and,  as  we  have  seen 
in  the  case  of  Indian  corn,  the  exports  were 
somewhat  respectable  in  years  of  scarcity  in 
Great  Britain,  France,  Spain,  Portugal,  and 
the  West  Indies,  even  previous  to  1723.  In 
1750  New  Jersey  took  the  lead  of  all  the 
colonies  in  growing  wheat. 

The  amount  of  flour  exported  from  New 
York  in  1749-50,  was  6,721  tons,  besides 
many  bushels  of  grain  ;  in  1756  it  was  80,000 
barrels.  The  amount  exported  from  New 
Jersey  in  1751  was  6,424  barrels.  The 
amount  shipped  from  Philadelphia  in  1752 


74 


AGRICULTURE    Itf    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


was  125,960  barrels,  and  86,500  bushels  of 
wheat.  In  1771  the  export  of  flour  from 
that  place  was  252,744  barrels,  and  in  1772, 
284,827  barrels;  in  1784,  201,305  barrels; 
in  1787,  193,720  barrels;  in  1791,  315,785 
barrels.  Virginia,  for  some  years  prior  to 
the  Revolution,  exported  about  800,000 
bushels  of  wheat.  The  aggregate  amount 
of  flour  exported  from  the  United  States  in 
1791  was  619,681  barrels,  and  1,018,339 
bushels  of  wheat.  In  1800  the  export 
amounted  to  653,052  barrels,  and  26,853 
bushels  of  wheat.  In  1810  the  export  was 
798,431  barrels  of  flour,  and  325,024  bush 
els  of  wheat. 

Considering  the  unfavorable  season  of 
1849,  we  are  not  surprised  to  find  that  the  in 
crease  of  the  wheat  crop  during  the  ten 
years  from  1840  to  1850  was  but  15  per 
cent.  It  is  possible  that  with  a  good  wheat 
year  in  1849,  the  rate  of  increase  would 
have  appeared  to  keep  pace  with  that  of  In 
dian  corn.  In  the  eastern  states,  as  we  have 
seen,  it  declined;  in  the  middle  states  it  was 
nearly  stationary,  the  increase  being  little 
over  15  per  cent.  The  aggregate  num 
ber  of  bushels  in  1840  was  84,823,272  ;  in 
1850  it  was  100,485,944. 

It  is  quite  probable  that  changes  have  tak 
en  place  in  the  soils  and  productiveness  of 
some  sections  of  the  older  states,  owing  to 
careless  and  ignorant  management.  In  a 
new  and  very  sparsely  populated  country, 
where  each  man  had  to  rely  mainly  upon 
himself  for  every  thing  he  had,  it  could 
hardly  have  been  otherwise.  I  am  satisfied, 
however,  that  a  reaction  has  fairly  begun, 
that  more  attention  is  paid  to  the  manage 
ment  of  farms,  that  more  intelligence  and 
skill  are  brought  to  bear  upon  agriculture, 
which  statistics  will  eventually  show. 

But  by  far  the  most  extensive  and  aston 
ishing  changes,  in  an  agricultural  point  of 
view,  are  those  presented  to  us  in  the  rise 
and  development  of  the  west,  whose  almost 
illimitable  fields  are  the  wonder  and  admira 
tion  of  modern  times.  The  "  west "  is,  in 
deed,  in  the  understanding  of  most  people, 
an  imaginary  and  movable  line.  Fifty  or 
sixty  years  ago  it  was  understood,  in  the 
eastern  states,  to  be  somewhere  in  central  or 
western  New  York,  and  the  difficulty  of 
reaching  it  exceeded  in  magnitude  that  of 
visiting  the  most  remote  corner  of  Kansas, 
now.  This  line  has  been  moving  west  with 
the  advance  of  civilization  ever  since.  It 
now  comprises  several  of  the  largest  and 


most  prosperous  states  of  the  Union,  and  is 
destined  to  rank  as  the  granary  of  the 
world. 

The  first  foothold  that  modern  agriculture 
got  in  this  vast  field  was  secured  in  the  same 
year  of  the  founding  of  Philadelphia,  1682, 
when  white  settlements  were  made  in  the 
southern  part  of  what  is  known  as  the  "Amer 
ican  bottom,"  a  tract  of  country  extending 
for  about  a  hundred  miles  in  length — from 
Alton,  twenty  miles  above  St.  Louis,  down  to 
Chester,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Kaskaskia 
river — by  five  miles  in  width.  This  region 
lies  in  Illinois,  and  forms  the  eastern  border 
of  the  Mississippi  river.  Here,  far  removed 
from  eastern  civilization,  a  bold  and  hardy, 
but  honest  and  peaceable  company  of  French, 
from  Canada,  and  from  France  itself,  estab 
lished  the  old  villages  of  Kaskaskia,  Prairie 
du  Rocher,  St.  Philip,  Cahokia,  etc.,  chiefly 
for  the  purpose  of  opening  a  fur  trade  with 
the  Indians.  A  part,  probably  at  least  half, 
of  the  settlers,  however,  finding  the  soil  ex 
ceedingly  rich,  devoted  themselves  to  the 
cultivation  of  land,  and  the  country  for  a  con 
siderable  extent  around  these  villages  soon 
became  productive  of  wheat  and  other  nec 
essaries  of  life. 

This  was  the  first  settlement  beyond  the 
Alleghany  mountains,  and  preceded  by  a 
whole  century  the  first  settlements  of  Ken 
tucky  and  Tennessee.  For  a  hundred  and 
fifty  years  those  farmers  lived  in  peace  and 
harmony  with  the  natives.  They  were  not, 
to  be  sure,  very  skilful  in  the  art  of  agricul 
ture.  It  was  but  rudely  pursued  at  that 
time  in  the  mother  country.  The  imple 
ments  used  in  farming,  even  in  the  best  cul 
tivated  regions  of  Europe,  were  then  ex 
tremely  rude  as  compared  with  those  of  the 
present  day  ;  but  here,  in  this  remote  out- 
skirt  of  civilization,  they  were  far  more  rude 
and  uncouth  than  those  used  by  farmers  who 
had  greater  facilities  for  making  them. 

But  notwithstanding  this  rude  and  imper 
fect  culture,  so  great  was  the  fertility  of  the 
virgin  soil  to  which  it  was  entrusted,  the 
wheat  grew  luxuriantly,  and  they  often  had 
a  surplus,  useless  and  comparatively  worth 
less  to  them,  since  the  expense  of  getting  it 
to  market  exceeded  its  value  when  it  had 
arrived  there.  Who  would  be  expected  to 
make  improvements  in  farming  under  such 
circumstances  ?  With  the  demand  for  home 
consumption  supplied  with  but  trifling  labor, 
with  no  inducements  beyond  a  supply  of 
their  own  limited  wants,  they  could  not  be 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


75 


expected  to  exhibit  the  enterprise  and  thrift 
of  farmers  having  greater  interests  at  stake. 
But  they  went  further,  and  entertained  the 
same  prejudice  against  any  new  notion,  and 
repugnance  to  any  change,  as  that  cherished 
at  the  same  time  in  the  older  colonies.  The 
old-established  practice  was  good  enough 
for  them,  and  they  clung  to  it  with  a  tenac 
ity  worthy  of  a  better  cause. 

The  cultivation  of  Indian  corn  was  not 
introduced  among  these  early  western  far 
mers  till  long  after  they  established  themselves 
in  that  region — not,  indeed,  till  after  Louisi 
ana  had  become  a  part  of  our  national  ter 
ritory;  but  then,  it  took  the  place  of  wheat 
to  a  considerable  extent,  it  being  thought  a 
more  reliable  crop,  while  the  stalks  furnished 
a  more  valuable  winter  fodder  for  cattle. 
When  once  introduced,  it  was  cultivated  on 
the  same  land  year  after  year,  for  many 
years  in  succession,  a  practice  which  was 
continued  in  that  section  till  a  very  recent 
date.  Instead  of  linens  and  woollens,  which 
were  mostly  worn  at  the  same  period  among 
the  country  people  at  the  sea-board,  these 
farmers  usually  raised  a  small  patch  of  cot 
ton,  and  made  their  own  garments,  often 
using,  also,  the  skins  and  furs  of  wild  beasts. 
These  latter  became  so  important,  as  to  be 
used  as  the  currency  in  business  negotiations, 
a  deer-skin  being  of  the  highest  kind,  and 
serving  as  the  unit. 

Thus  lived  these  quiet  colonists,  without 
change,  and  with  slight  improvements,  from 
one  generation  to  another,  poor  but  inde 
pendent,  with  food  enough,  cattle  and  hogs 
enough,  few  wants  to  supply,  clinging  with 
inveterate  tenacity  to  old  customs,  and  re 
sisting  innovations,  till  the  time  of  the  ces 
sion  of  the  country  east  of  the  Mississippi 
by  France  to  England,  in  1763,  at  which 
time  the  colony  was  at  the  height  of  its 
prosperity.  The  horses  they  raised  were 
the  small  Canadians,  said  by  some  to  have 
been  derived  from  the  pure  Arabian,  and 
obtained  originally  through  Spain.  They 
were  very  hardy,  more  so  than  the  American 
horses  of  that  time,  and  were  rarely  crossed 
with  any  other  race  ;  but  little  or  no  care 
was  taken  of  them  for  more  than  a  hundred 
years,  and  they  were  allowed  to  run  on  the 
range  without  grain.  Their  cattle  were 
small,  with  black  horns,  derived  also  from 
Canada.  The  French  kept  large  numbers 
of  fowls,  usually  had  excellent  gardens,  and 
cultivated  some  fruit,  among  which  were 
some  valuable  varieties  of  pears  and  apples. 

5 


That  section  of  country  being  conquered 
and  taken  from  England  in  the  Revolution, 
not  a  few  of  the  American  soldiers,  finding 
the  country  so  fertile,  remained  and  settled 
there ;  and  it  is  said,  that  at  least  three- 
fourths  of  the  Americans  who  had  settled  in 
Illinois  previous  to  the  war  of  1812,  had 
served  as  soldiers  in  the  Revolution. 

After  the  Revolution,  in  fact,  numerous 
settlements  were  made,  till,  in  1817,  the 
state  was  admitted  into  the  Union.  After 
that  period,  farms  and  farmers  increased 
more  rapidly  than  they  had  hitherto  done, 
and  the  production  of  wheat  and  Indian 
corn  rapidly  increased.  The  cradle  soon 
took  the  place  of  the  sickle.  In  1830  the 
first  successful  steam  flour  mill  was  erect 
ed,  and  gave  a  new  impulse  to  the  raising 
of  wheat.  Up  to  this  time,  comparatively 
few  cultivated  meadows  were  to  be  found, 
and  the  wild,  coarse  grasses  of  the  prairies 
and  river  bottoms  were  chiefly  relied  upon 
for  winter  fodder  for  horses  and  cattle.  Of 
course,  when  cattle  are  running  at  large,  but 
little  improvement  can  take  place  in  the 
breed,  and  but  little  had  actually  been  at 
tempted  in  this  direction.  But  now  the 
spirit  of  improvement  began  with  renewed 
vigor,  and  we  shall  see  how  rapidly  the  agri 
cultural  resources  of  that  great  state  have 
been  developed  within  the  last  quarter  of  a 
century. 

What  applies  to  this  particular  state, 
will  apply  with  nearly  equal  truth  to  almost 
the  whole  of  the  great  north-west.  The  prog 
ress  of  agriculture  in  Illinois  and  the  ad 
joining  states  cannot  be  better  illustrated 
than  by  referring  to  the  rise  and  growth  of 
the  city  of  Chicago,  which  has  now  become 
the  greatest  primary  grain  depot  in  the 
world,  its  exports  being  nearly  twice  as  great 
as  those  of  St.  Petersburg,  and  exceeding 
those  of  Galatz  and  Ibrail  combined,  by  up 
ward  of  five  millions  of  bushels  a  year. 

In  1829,  Chicago  may  be  said  to  have  had 
no  existence.  It  was  then  laid  out,  and  the 
sale  of  lots  took  place  in  the  autumn  of  that 
year.  In  184Q  it  contained  but  447  inhab 
itants.  In  1845  its  population  had  grown  to 
12,088,  and  in  1850  that  number  had  doub 
led,  and  the  population  amounted  to  28,269. 
In  1855  it  had  increased  to  88,509,  and  in 
1860  to  109,263. 

The  pre-eminence  of  Chicago  as  a  grain  de 
pot  is  due  in  part  to  its  geographical  position, 
but  to  a  great  extent,  also,  to  the  great  facili 
ties  for  receiving,  warehousing,  and  shipping 


AGRICULTURE    IX    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


grain.  Her  immense  warehouses  are  erected 
on  the  river  and  its  branches,  and  railroad 
tracks  run  in  the  rear  of  them,  so  that  a 
train  of  loaded  cars  may  be  standing  at  one 
end  of  a  large  elevating  warehouse,  and 
while  its  load  is  being  raised  by  elevators 
at  the  rate  of  from  7,000  to  8,000  bushels 
per  hour,  at  the  other  end  the  same  grain 
may  be  running  into  vessels,  and  be  on 
its  way  to  Buffalo,  Montreal,  or  Liverpool 
within  six  hours'  time.  The  Illinois  Central 
railroad  grain  warehouse  can  discharge 
twelve  cars  loaded  with  grain,  and  at  the 
same  time  load  two  vessels  with  it,  at 
the  rate  of  24,000  bushels  per  hour.  It 
can  receive  grain  from  twenty-four  cars 
at  once,  at  the  rate  of  8,000  bushels  per 
hour.  And  numerous  other  immense  grain 
houses  can  do  the  same  thing.  Grain  can, 
therefore,  be  handled  with  wonderful  dis 
patch  as  well  as  with  cheapness.  The 
warehouse  alluded  to,  that  of  the  Illinois 
Central  railroad,  is  capable  of  storing  700,- 
000  bushels  of  grain.  It  can  receive  and 
ship  65,000  bushels  in  a  single  day,  or 
it  can  ship  alone  225,000  a  day !  But  this 
is  only  one  of  the  magnificent  grain  ware 
houses,  and  there  are  many  others,  some  of 
which  arc  of  nearly  equal  capacity,  and  in 
the  aggregate  they  are  capable  of  storing 
3,395,000  bushels.  They  can  receive  and 
ship  430,000  bushels  in  ten  hours,  or  they 
can  ship  alone  1,340,000  bushels  in  ten 
hours,  and  follow  it  up  the  year  round.  In 
busy  seasons  these  figures  are  often  doubled 
by  running  nights. 

The  amount  of  capital  in  grain  warehouses 
alone  exceeds  three  millions  of  dollars,  to 
say  nothing  of  a  large  amount  of  capital  in 
vested  in  other  incidental  means  of  conduct 
ing  this  immense  business. 

The  amount  of  wheat  shipped  from  Chi' 
cago  in  1853  was  1,680,999  bushels;  of  In 
dian  corn,  2,780,253  bushels ;  and  the  amount 
of  oats,  1,748,493  bushels.  The  amount  of 
wheat  shipped  from  there  in  1857  was  10,- 
783,292  bushels;  of  Indian  corn,  the  same 
year,  6,814,615  bushels;  and  of  oats,  416,- 
778  bushels.  The  shipment  of  flour  has 
kept  constantly  increasing.  In  1853  it  was 
131,130  barrels  ;  in  1854  it  was  224,575  bar 
rels  ;  in  1855  it  was  320,312  barrels  ;  in  1856, 
410,989  barrels;  and  in  1857,  489,934  bar 
rels. 

The  shipment  of  all  kinds  of  grain,  and 
flour  as  grain,  in  1854  amounted  to  12,902,- 
320  bushels;  in  1855,  to  16,633,813  bush 


els;  in  1856,  to  21,583,291  bushels;  and  in 
1857,  to  18,032,678  bushels.  In  1860  the 
shipments  are  estimated  to  amount  to  at 
least  from  thirty  to  forty  millions  of  bush 
els.  In  the  first  eight  months  of  this  year 
(1860)  they  amounted  to  over  twenty -one 
millions ! 

It  is  to  be  considered  that  the  agriculture 
of  the  region  which  feeds  the  warehouses  of 
Chicago  is  but  yet  in  its  infancy.  The  re 
sources  and  the  capacity  for  production  are 
still  to  a  very  great  extent  undeveloped.  The 
country  is  still  sparsely  settled,  compared 
with  the  older  states,  and  the  operations  of 
agriculture  are  carried  on  under  great  disad 
vantages,  with  a  great  scarcity  of  labor,  and 
in  many  cases  a  want  of  capital. 

The  reader  will  now  be  able  to  appreciate, 
to  some  extent,  the  vast  importance  of  the 
improvements  in  agricultural  implements  and 
machinery,  which  have  already  been  de 
scribed  on  a  preceding  page  as  having  been 
made  within  the  last  twenty  years.  With 
the  implements  and  processes  in  use  within 
the  memory  of  most  men,  it  would  be  im 
possible  to  attain  such  magnificent  results  in 
the  way  of  agricultural  produce.  There  are 
at  the  present  time,  in  the  city  of  Chicago, 
some  five  or  six  large  manufactories  engaged 
in  making  and  selling  agricultural  imple 
ments  and  machinery,  each  employing  from 
one  hundred  to  three  hundred  hands,  besides 
other  large  establishments  at  Rockford,  Free- 
port,  Alton,  and  many  other  places,  employ 
ing  throughout  the  state  more  than  ten  thou 
sand  persons.  There  are  at  least  a  dozen 
reaper  and  mower  manufactories,  and  other 
establishments  devoted  to  making  threshers, 
cultivators,  ploughs,  drills,  etc.,  and  the  de 
mand  for  these  improved  machines  is  rapidly 
increasing. 

But  Chicago  is  only  one  of  the  great  cen 
tres  for  the  receipt  of  agricultural  produce 
directly  from  the  farmer,  and  St.  Louis,  Cin 
cinnati,  Cleveland,  Buffalo,  Rochester,  and 
many  other  large  points  might  be  mentioned, 
of  nearly  equal  importance,  to  say  nothing 
of  many  of  the  large  grain-dealing  cities  of 
the  south,  like  Richmond,  for  instance. 

In  view  of  these  facts  we  can  realize  that 
agriculture  produces,  as  was  estimated  in 
1854  by  the  superintendent  of  the  census, 
more  than  sixteen  hundred  millions  of  dol 
lars  a  year ;  and  that  in  the  state  of  New 
York,  where  "the  assessed  value  of  the  real 
estate  is  eleven  hundred  millions  (1,107,272,- 
715)  of  dollars,  notwithstanding  the  enor- 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


mous  wealth  of  the  metropolis,  the  agricul 
tural  interest  -pays  four-fifths  of  the  taxes." 

Of  the  aggregate  number  of  bushels  of 
wheat  returned  by  the  census  of  1850,  and 
which,  as  has  been  intimated,  gives  an  ex 
ceedingly  inadequate  idea  of  the  ordinary 
produce  of  this  grain,  the  south,  embrac 
ing  the  states  mentioned  on  a  preceding 
page,  produced  27,878,815  bushels,  valued 
at  825,090,933;  the  west  produced  41,- 
394,545  bushels,  valued  at  $37,255,088  ;  and 
the  north  produced  30,761,941  bushels, 
valued  at  $27,865,746. 

The  crop  of  wheat  of  the  present  year  is 
probably  the  largest  by  far  ever  raised  in 
this  country,  and  will  not  probably  fall  short 
of  230,000,000  of  bushels.  With  the  sur 
plus  of  last  year  still  on  hand  AVC  shall  have 
nearly  70,000,000  of  bushels  for  exportation 
to  foreign  countries. 

What  has  been  said  in  speaking  of  the 
exports  of  Indian  corn,  may  be  said,  also,  of 
wheat,  that  the  amount  sent  abroad  is  reg 
ulated  very  much  by  the  extent  of  the  de 
mand  there.  The  surplus  of  this  grain — that 
is,  the  amount  that  can  be  spared  for  ship 
ment  to  foreign  ports,  over  and  above  what 
is  required  for  home  consumption — is  as  elas 
tic  as  India-rubber.  If  Europe  wants  our 
wheat,  or  our  flour,  and  is  compelled  to  pay 
good  prices,  either  from  a  short  crop,  a  dis 
turbed  state  of  political  affairs,  or  any  other 
cause,  it  is  impossible  to  set  bounds  to  our 
surplus,  because  the  more  she  wants,  the 
more  we  have  to  spare,  and  the  less  Europe, 
or  any  foreign  country  wants,  the  less  we 
have  to  export.  If  little  wheat  is  wanted 
abroad,  it  is  used  more  freely  at  home,  and 
the  balance  is  stored  for  future  use.  If  large 
quantities  of  it  are  required  abroad,  less  will 
be  used  at  home,  the  people  resorting  to  In 
dian  corn  and  meal  to  a  large  extent.  The 
amount  of  export  is,  therefore,  regulated  by 
the  price.  If  foreign  countries  are  willing, 
or  are  compelled  to  pay  for  it,  we  can  supply 
them  to  any  extent  under  any  ordinary 
circumstances.  The  export  in  1846  was 
13,268,175  bushels;  in  1847,  12,309,972; 
in  1848  it  reached  26,312,431  bushels,  un 
der  the  stimulus  of  the  high  prices  conse 
quent  upon  famine  in  Ireland;  in  1849  it 
fell  off  to  10,366,417,  and  again,  in  1850,  to 
8,656,982  bushels,  when  it  began  to  increase 
again,  and  amounted  in  1851  to  13,948,499, 
and  in  1852  to  18,680,686  ;  in  1853  it  was 
18,958,993  bushels,  and  in  1854  no  less  than 
27,000,000 ! 


In  the  statement  of  the  above  staple  crops, 
little  or  no  credit  is  given  to  the  productions 
of  California,  which  was  admitted  into  the 
Union  on  the  9th  of  September,  1850.  At 
that  time  it  was  not  generally  thought  to 
rank  anywhere  as  an  agricultural  state.  Its 
wheat  crop  was  returned,  in  1850,  at  only 
17,228  bushels;  its  Indian  corn  at  only 
12,236  bushels;  and  its  other  agricultural 
products  in  proportion.  In  1852  the  wheat 
crop  of  that  state  was  less  than  300,000 
bushels,  and  the  imports  of  flour  in  1853 
were  no  less  than  500,000  bushels;  it  sold, 
at  times,  as  high  as  fifty  dollars  a  barrel.  In 
1859  the  wheat  crop  was  more  than  6,000,- 
000  of  bushels,  while  the  crop  of  1860  very 
greatly  exceeded  that,  so  that  many  a  ship 
load  was  exported  to  South  America,  Aus 
tralia,  China,  and  even  to  New  York  and 
Liverpool. 

The  corn  crop  of  California  has  increased 
in  like  manner  since  1852,  when  it  amount 
ed  to  only  about  60,000  bushels.  It  was 
over  1,000,000  bushels  in  1860!  The  bar 
ley  crop  is  double  now  what  it  was  in  1852  ; 
and  the  oats,  which  then  were  worth  less 
than  $100,000,  are  worth  this  year  nearly 
$2,000,000.  Then  only  about  a  hundred 
thousand  acres  were  under  cultivation  in  the 
whole  state  ;  now  the  number  of  acres  is 
nearer  a  million  and  a  half.  Then,  nobody 
thought  the  state  would  ever  be  able  to  raise 
even  its  own  flour.  Now,  with  less  than  a 
fortieth  part  of  her  lands  under  cultivation, 
she  is  exporting  flour  to  foreign  countries. 
California  could  probably  support  a  popula 
tion  of  twenty  millions  under  a  full  develop 
ment  of  her  agricultural  resources. 

PRODUCTION    OF    OTHER    GRAINS. 

RYE  is  not,  at  the  present  time,  so  exten 
sively  used  for  food  as  formerly.  The  amount 
grown  is,  therefore,  comparatively  small. 
Rye  was  introduced  and  cultivated  in  all  the 
colonies  at  the  earliest  periods  of  their  set 
tlement,  and  its  meal  was  mixed  with  Indian 
meal  for  the  making  of  bread,  in  New  Eng 
land,  as  early,  certainly,  as  1648,  and  per 
haps  even  as  early  as  1630,  and  that  custom 
became  very  common.  The  export  of  this 
grain  has  never  been  very  extensive,  and 
since  the  demand  for  wheat  has  been  so 
much  increased,  its  extent  of  cultivation  has 
diminished  rapidly. 

In  1796,  no  less  than  50,614  barrels  of 
rye  meal  were  exported  from  Philadelphia, 
and  in  1801  the  United  States  exported 


AGRICULTURE    IX    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


392,276  bushels  of  rye.  In  1812  the  ex 
port  was  only  82,705  bushels. 

The  aggregate  product  of  rye,  as  returned 
in  the  census  of  1840,  was  less  than  nine 
teen  millions  of  bushels,  or  18,645,567,  and 
this  fell  off,  in  1850,  to  14,188,813  bushels, 
a  decrease  of  4,456,744.  The  use  of  rye 
for  the  purpose  of  distillation  and  the  man 
ufacture  of  malt  liquors  is  much  less  now 
than  formerly,  and  this  accounts  for  the  fall 
ing  off  in  its  cultivation.  It  is,  however,  a 
profitable  crop  in  New  England,  and  a  yield 
of  from  forty  to  fifty  bushels  to  the  acre  is 
by  no  means  uncommon,  while  the  straw  is 
in  such  demand,  in  many  sections,  as  to  en 
hance  very  materially  its  value  as  a  crop. 

OATS. — The  culture  of  the  oat  is  more  ex 
tensive  than  that  of  rye.  It  was  introduced 
into  the  colonies  immediately  after  their  set 
tlement  by  Europeans,  having  been  sown  by 
Gosnold,  on  the  Elizabeth  Islands,  as  early 
as  1602,  and  cultivated  to  greater  or  less  ex 
tent  from  that  time  to  the  present.  But 
though  much  more  extensively  produced 
than  rye,  its  consumption  as  food  for  ani 
mals  is  so  great  in  this  country,  that  it  has 
never  formed  any  considerable  article  of  ex 
port,  though  an  average  of  about  70,000 
bushels  was  shipped  for  some  years  previous 
to  1820. 

The  yield  of  this  crop  in  1840  was  re 
turned  as  123,071,341  bushels,  and  in  1850 
it  had  increased  to  146,584,179  bushels,  a 
gain  of  23,512,838  bushels. 

The  geographical  distribution  of  this  crop 
was  as  follows : — 

The  south  raised  49,891,107  bushels,  val 
ued  at  $17,459,035;  the  west  produced 
37,122,771  bushels,  valued  at  $12,992,971; 
and  the  north  produced  59,570,301  bushels, 
valued  at  $20,817,175.  Oats  are  grown  in 
all  the  states,  but  by  far  the  largest  yield 
was  in  New  York  and  Pennsylvania.  The 
crop  of  oats  for  1860,  in  New  England,  was 
larger  and  more  abundant  than  was  ever  be 
fore  known,  unless,  possibly,  that  of  1816 
was  an  exception.  It  is,  probably,  at  least 
30  or  40  per  cent,  above  the  average, 
growing  with  a  luxuriance  which  was  a  sub 
ject  of  universal  remark  among  farmers. 

BARLEY,  like  the  other  grains  already 
mentioned,  was  sown  on  the  first  settlement 
of  the  colonies,  having  been  first  cultivated 
by  Gosnold  as  early  as  1602,  on  the  Eliza 
beth  Islands,  on  the  Massachusetts  coast,  and 
by  the  settlers  at  Jamestown,  in  Virginia,  in 
1611,  where,  however,  it  soon  gave  way  to 


the  more  lucrative  production  of  tobacco. 
Samples  of  it  were  sent  from  the  Dutch  col 
ony  at  New  York  in  1626.  Good  crops  of 
it  were  raised  in  the  colony  of  the  Massa 
chusetts  Bay  as  early  as  1630 ;  and  in  1796 
the  principal  agricultural  product  of  the  state 
of  Rhode  Island  was  barley. 

But  this  crop  has  never  gained  root  to 
any  extent  in  this  country,  either  as  a  desir 
able  product  for  home  consumption  or  for 
foreign  export.  Its  chief  use  has  been  for 
malting  and  distillation. 

The  census  of  1840  returned  the  product 
of  barley  as  4,161,504  bushels,  and  this  had 
increased  in  1850  to  5,167,015  bushels,  a 
gain  of  1,005,511  bushels.  It  has  doubtless 
increased  some  since,  but  not  so  as  to  be 
come  a  crop  of  any  great  importance  in  a 
national  point  of  view. 

By  far  the  largest  portion  of  the  crop  of 
1850  was  raised  in  the  northern  states,  which 
returned  no  less  than  4,166,611  bushels,  val 
ued  at  $3,747,650;  while  the  west  raised 
only  842,402,  valued  at  $754,161,  and  the 
south  but  161,907  bushels,  which  was  val 
ued  at  $145,716. 

BUCKWHEAT. — This  grain  has  never  been 
cultivated  to  any  great  extent  in  this  coun 
try,  though  it  was  introduced  into  the  col 
ony  at  Manhattan  Island  by  the  Dutch 
West  India  Company,  and  raised  there  as 
early  as  1625  or  1626.  Its  culture  was  con 
tinued  by  the  Dutch  to  some  extent,  and 
they  used  it  as  provender  for  horses.  It 
was  also  cultivated  by  the  Swedes,  who  set 
tled  along  the  Delaware  in  New  Jersey  and 
Pennsylvania. 

Not  being  extensively  cultivated,  it  has 
not,  of  course,  entered  much  into  our  com 
merce,  though  it  has  been  shipped,  to  some 
extent,  in  the  shape  of  flour.  The  quantity 
returned  by  the  census  of  1840  was  7,291,- 
743  bushels.  This  had  increased  in  1850  to 
nearly  nine  millions,  or  8,956,912  bushels,  a 
gain,  in  the  ten  years,  of  1,665,169  bushels. 
It  is  probable  that  the  next  census  will  re 
turn  the  crop  of  1859  as  upward  of  eleven 
millions  of  bushels,  with  a  value  of  about 
$4,500,000. 

The  geographical  distribution  of  the  crop 
of  1850  was  very  nearly  as  follows: — 

The  south  raised  405,357  bushels,  valued 
at  $202,678  ;  the  west  raised  1,578,578  bush 
els,  valued  at  $789,289;  the  north  raised 
6,971,667  bushels,  valued  at  $3,485,833. 

The  cultivation  of  buckwheat  has  the 
effect  to  cleanse  the  land,  which  has  been 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


one  reason  for  its  increase,  while  the  price  it 
commands  makes  it  a  profitable  crop. 

CLOVER  AND  GRASS  SEED. — In  connection 
•with  the  smaller  grains  should  be  mentioned 
the  production  of  clover  seed,  and  that  of 
the  various  grasses,  which,  in  some  sections, 
has  become  an  item  of  some  importance. 

The  census  of  1850  returned  the  amount 
of  clover  seed  produced  as  408,978  bushels. 
Of  this,  Pennsylvania  raised  by  far  the 
largest  quantity  of  any  one  state,  and  Ohio 
came  next. 

The  amount  of  grass  seed  raised  was  416,- 
831  bushels,  and  in  this  product  New  York 
took  the  lead  of  all  the  states,  exceeding 
the  next  highest  producer,  New  Jersey,  by 
more  than  thirty  thousand  bushels. 

Of  the  clover  and  grass  seeds  together,  the 
south  raised  123,517  bushels,  valued  at 
$370,551  ;  the  west  raised  142,764  bushels, 
valued  at  $428,292  ;  and  the  northern  states 
raised  619,501  bushels,  valued  at  $1,858,503. 

THE    POTATO. 

The  potato  is  more  universally  cultivated 
in  this  country  than  any  other  crop,  except, 
perhaps,  that  of  Indian  corn.  At  what  time 
it  was  first  introduced,  as  a  cultivated  plant, 
into  the  American  colonies,  is  not  known, 
but  it  was,  no  doubt,  soon  after  the  settle 
ment.  It  is  mentioned  among  the  seed  or 
dered  for  the  Plymouth  colony,  as  early,  cer 
tainly,  as  1G29,  but  it  was  not  recognized, 
probably,  as  an  indispensable  crop,  till  near 
the  middle  of  the  last  century,  when  it  ap 
pears  to  have  been  very  widely  known  and 
esteemed.  As  many  as  700  bushels  were 
exported  from  South  Carolina  in  1747,  and 
in  1796  no  less  than  9,004  bushels  were 
shipped  from  Philadelphia. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  sweet  potato  was 
first  introduced,  and  came  to  be  regarded  as 
a  delicacy  in  England,  and  the  allusions  to 
the  potato  by  the  earlier  English  writers  who 
mention  this  plant,  refer  to  the  sweet,  and 
not  to  the  common  potato. 

It  has  formed  a  somewhat  important  arti 
cle  of  export,  though  by  no  means  to  be 
compared,  in  this  respect,  with  wheat  and 
Indian  corn.  We  exported  in  1821-2  about 
129,814  bushels,  valued  at  $45,758.  In 
1844-5  the  export  amounted  to  274,216 
bushels,  valued  at  $122,926,  and  exportation 
has  continued,  to  some  extent,  every  year 
since  then.  The  number  of  bushels  of  po 
tatoes  returned  by  the  census  of  1840  was 
108,298,000,  In  1850,  owing  to  the  preva 


lence  of  the  disease,  it  fell  off  to  104,056,- 
044  bushels,  of  which  38,268,148  bushels 
were  sweet  potatoes.  The  crop  may  now 
amount  to  125,000,000  bushels. 

PEASE  AND  BEANS. — Though  not  entering 
extensively  into  the  commercial  interests  of 
the  country,  the  product  of  pease  and  beans 
is  still  important,  both  from  its  extent  and 
value  for  home  consumption. 

Beans  are  said  to  have  been  first  cultivated 
by  Capt.  Gosnold,  on  the  Elizabeth  Islands, 
as  early  as  1602.  They  appear  to  have  been 
cultivated  by  the  Dutch,  at  Manhattan,  in 
1644,  and  about  the  same  time  in  Virginia. 
But  it  is  well  known  that  beans  were  culti 
vated  by  the  natives,  long  before  their  intro 
duction  by  the  whites,  and  it  is  probable 
that  pease  were,  also. 

In  the  year  1755,  the  amount  of  pease 
exported  from  Savannah  was  400  bushels, 
and  in  1770,  601  bushels.  The  amount  ex 
ported  from  Charleston  in  1754  was  9,162 
bushels.  North  Carolina  exported  10,000 
bushels  in  1753. 

The  total  amount  exported  annually  from 
the  United  States  for  twenty  years  previous 
to  1817,  was  90,000  bushels,  while  the  beans 
annually  exported  during  the  same  period 
amounted  to  from  thirty  to  forty  thousand 
bushels. 

The  census  of  1850  returned  the  amount  of 
pease  and  beans  as  9,219,901  bushels.  The 
value  of  these  crops  exceeded  $16,000,000. 

THE  GRASS  AND  HAY  CROP. 

Owing  to  the  necessity  that  exists  through 
out  all  the  northern  portion  of  the  United 
States  to  stall-feed  the  stock  from  three  to  six 
months  of  the  year,  the  grass  and  hay  crop  as 
sumes  there  an  importance  which  it  has  not 
in  the  more  southern  portions  of  the  country. 

I  have  alluded,  briefly,  on  a  preceding 
page,  to  the  fact  that,  at  the  time  of  the 
early  settlement  of  the  colonies,  na  attention 
had  been  paid  in  the  mother  country  to  the 
cultivation  of  either  the  natural  or  the  arti 
ficial  grasses.  Attention  to  this  branch  of 
farming  was  gradually  forced  upon  the  set 
tlers  of  the  more  northern  portions  of  the 
country.  For  want  of  sufficient  and  suita 
ble  winter  nourishment,  the  cattle,  which 
were  scarce  and  expensive,  were  often  found 
dying  of  starvation,  notwithstanding  the 
efforts  made  to  secure  a  supply  of  salt  hay 
from  the  many  marshes  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  Plymouth  and  the  Massachusetts,  as  well 
as  the  Dutch  and  Swedish  colonies. 


80 


AGRICULTURE    IX    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


It  was,  no  doubt,  many  years  before  it 
became  possible,  in  the  nature  of  things,  to 
provide  full  supplies  for  their  cattle,  and  it 
was  not  unfrequcntly  the  case,  even  after  the 
culture  of  grasses  was  introduced,  that  the 
cattle  were  obliged  to  browse  in  the  woods 
in  a  long  and  hard  struggle  for  life,  owing  to 
the  loss  of  crops  by  drought  and  imperfect 
cultivation. 

The  cultivation  of  timothy,  the  most  im 
portant  and  valuable  of  the  forage  grasses, 
was  not  introduced,  according  to  Jared 
Eliot,  who  wrote  in  1750,  till  a  few  years 
previous  to  that  date,  having  been  found  by 
one  Herd,  in  a  swamp  near  Piscataqua.  He 
propagated  it  till  it  was  taken  to  Maryland 
and  Virginia  by  Timothy  Hanson,  after 
whom  it  is  most  frequently  called.  The 
well-known  orchard  grass  was  cultivated  as 
early  as  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  for 
we  know  it  was  introduced  from  Virginia 
into  England  in  1*764,  or  thereabout.  The 
June,  or  Kentucky  blue  grass,  was  probably 
indigenous,  and  sprung  up  in  the  pathway 
of  the  settlers,  as  it  does  now,  wherever  the 
footstep  of  civilization  penetrates.  But  it 
was  not  till  a  recent  date  that  the  general 
culture  and  improvement  of  the  grasses  re 
ceived  the  attention  it  deserved. 

The  grasses  spring  up  almost  spontane 
ously  in  many  localities,  it  is  true,  other- 
erwise  the  settlers  would  have  suffered  far 
more  severely  than  they  did.  From  the 
time  when  the  great  mandate  went  forth, 
even  before  the  creation  of  man,  "  Let  the 
earth  Jbring  forth  grass,"  it  has  been  a  law 
of  nature  to  clothe  the  earth  with  verdure  as 
soon  as  the  advance  of  civilization  lets  in 
the  light  upon  the  soil  by  the  first  clearings 
of  the  pioneer  settler. 

The  progress  made  in  the  cultivation  of 
grasses  and  the  production  of  hay  has  been 
greater  within  the  last  half  century  than 
ever  before.  This  will  appear,  especially 
when  we  consider  the  improvement  in  the 
means  of  cultivating  and  harvesting  the 
crop.  The  culture  of  clover  had  been  com 
menced,  in  some  parts  'of  the  country,  pre 
vious  to  that  time,  but  it  had  not  established 
itself  in  the  farmer's  favor  to  any  very  great 
extent,  and  the  indigenous  grasses  were  chiefly 
relied  on,  while  the  seed  used  in  many  parts 
of  the  country  was  that  which  had  fallen 
from  the  hay-mow,  foul,  of  course,  and  full 
of  weeds. 

According  to  the  census  of  1840,  the  hay 
crop  of  the  United  States  was  10,248,108 


tons.  In  1850  it  was  13,838,642  tons,  an 
increase  of  3,590,533  tons.  The  hay  crop 
of  the  present  year  cannot  be  less  than 
15,000,000  tons,  with  a  value  certainly  not 
less  than  $150,000,000.  To  this  is  to  be 
added  the  value  of  the  grass  crop,  which,  is 
not  less  than  that  of  the  hay,  and  we  have 
an  annual  production  of  at  least  $300,000,- 
000,  an  amount  nearly  equal  to  all  the  other 
agricultural  products  of  the  country,  except 
ing  wheat  and  Indian  corn. 

The  production  of  hay  is,  to  a  certain  ex 
tent,  a  tax  upon  the  fanner  imposed  by  the 
severity  of  climate.  In  a  mild  climate  and 
short  winters,  the  necessity  for  curing  hay 
in  any  considerable  quantities  is  avoided. 
Less  hay  is  made,  of  course,  at  the  south 
than  at  the  north.  The  same  number  and 
size  of  cattle  would  require  less  artificially 
prepared  fodder  in  a  mild  climate  than  in  a 
severe  one.  Maine,  for  instance,  raised 
755,889  tons  of  hay,  and  kept  385,115  head 
of  cattle  and  horses,  consuming  about  two 
tons  a  head  on  an  average.  Illinois,  with 
601,952  tons  of  hay,  kept  1,190,264  head 
of  cattle  and  horses,  using  but  little  over 
half  a  ton  per  head  ;  while  Alabama,  which 
made  only  32,685  tons  of  hay,  kept  915,911 
head  of  cattle,  the  proportion  being  but  one 
ton  of  hay  to  thirty  head  of  cattle.  There 
is,  it  is  true,  some  compensation  in  this,  as  in 
most  other  things,  and  that  is  the  extreme 
difficulty  of  growing  the  ordinary  natural 
grasses  in  a  southern  latitude,  on  account  of 
the  severe  drouths.  It  is  almost  impossible 
to  produce  a  fine,  close,  permanent  turf  south 
of  the  39°  of  latitude,  and  considerable 
quantities  of  cured  hay  are  taken  from  the 
northern  and  eastern  ports  to  most  of  the 
southern  ports  every  year. 

There  is,  also,  another  most  important 
compensation  in  the  greater  facility  afforded 
by  the  wintering  of  cattle  for  economizing 
manure,  and  thus  keeping  up  the  fertility  of 
the  soil.  For  example,  tobacco  culture  is 
said  to  have  impoverished  the  soil  of  Vir 
ginia.  One  reason  for  it  was,  that  keeping 
comparatively  few  cattle,  and  never  housing 
them,  but  rather  "  browsing"  them  from  one 
year's  end  to  another,  there  was  no  pos 
sibility  of  saving  and  making  a  great  quan 
tity  of  manure.  Till  the  introduction  of 
guano,  it  was  extremely  difficult  to  get  ma 
nure  for  the  tobacco  field,  and  exhaustion 
was  inevitable.  In  Massachusetts,  on  the 
Other  hand,  there  is  no  crop  that  a  wheat  or 
corn  crop  will  follow  so  well  as  that  of  to- 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


81 


bacco,  for  the  reason  that  the  grower,  know 
ing  the  requirements  of  the  plant,  manures 
it  very  highly,  as  he  easily  can,  and  the  soil, 
instead  of  being  exhausted  from  year  to 
year,  is  actually  growing  richer.  Increasing 
the  hay  crop,  therefore,  notwithstanding  its 
cost,  enables  the  farmer  to  keep  more  stock 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  more  manure, 
and  more  manure  enables  him  to  keep  up 
the  fertility  of  the  land. 

We  are  not  surprised,  therefore,  to  find 
the  geographical  distribution  of  the  crop  as 
returned  in  1850  as  follows  : — 

The  north  produced  9,473,605  tons,  val 
ued  at  §;94,73G,050 ;  the  west  produced 
3,227,253  tons,  valued  at  $32,272,530;  the 
south  produced  1,137,784  tons,  valued  at 
$11,377,846. 

There  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that 
the  quality  of  hay  made  now,  over  that 
usually  made  in  former  times  in  this  country, 
has  been  improved,  to  say  nothing  more  of 
the  vastly  improved  facilities  for  harvesting- 
it.  More  correct  ideas  are  entertained  of  the 
extent  and  mode  of  curing  it,  and  the  quality 
is  improved  in  proportion  as  a  higher  knowl 
edge  is  brought  to  bear  upon  it. 

THE    CULTURE    OF    FRUIT. 

The  establishment  of  state  and  county 
agricultural  societies,  and  of  stated  exhibi 
tions,  in  which  the  products  of  the  orchard 
and  the  garden  had  a  prominent  place,  in 
troduced  a  new  era  in  the  culture  of  fruit. 
The  early  settlers  made  some  attempts  to 
introduce  apples  and  pears,  some  bringing 
"with  them  the  seeds  of  these  fruits,  with  the 
supposition,  no  doubt,  that  they  should  have 
the  like  again. 

The  first  apples  raised  in  this  country 
were,  probably,  from  trees  planted  on  Gov 
ernor's  Island,  iu  the  harbor  of  Boston, 
from  which,  on  the  10th  of  October,  1639, 
ten  fair  pippins  were  brought,  "  there  being 
not  one  apple  or  pear  tree  planted  in  any 
part  of  the  country,  but  upon  that  island." 
Governor  Endicott  had  on  his  farm  in  Salem, 
now  in  Danvers,  in  1640,  the  first  nursery 
of  young  fruit  trees  that  was  ever  planted  in 
this  country ;  and  it  is  related  that  he  sold 
five  hundred  apple  trees  for  two  hundred 
and  fifty  acres  of  land,  or  at  the  rate  of  two 
trees  for  an  acre — a  good  bargain  for  the 
purchaser,  if  he  took  good  care  of  his  trees. 

But  the  cultivation  of  fruit  was  extremely 
rare  in  the  early  history  of  the  country. 
Indeed,  it  could  hardly  be  said  to  have  been 


cultivated  at  all,  as  a  part  of  the  produce  of 
the  farm,  till  a  comparatively  recent  date. 
At  the  close  of  the  Devolution,  and,  in  fact, 
at  the  end  of  the  last  century,  it  would  have 
been  impossible  to  have  found  in  the  whole 
country  the  number  and  varieties  of  good 
fruits  Avhich  might  now  be  found  in  a  single 
good  farming  town.  There  were  orchards 
of  seedling  apples,  and  many  of  them  were 
far  better  than  none,  but  that  is  nearly  all 
that  can  be  said  for  them.  They  were 
raised  chiefly  for  the  making  of  cider. 
Most  of  the  favorite  varieties  of  the  present 
day  had  then  no  existence  ;  and  if  any  very 
superior  apple  had  existed  in  any  isolated 
locality,  it  could  not,  from  the  very  nature 
of  things,  have  become  generally  known  and 
appreciated,  for,  as  we  have  seen,  the  bar 
riers  which  separated  the  rural  population 
of  that  day  were  so  great  as  often  to  leave 
them  in  ignorance  of  what  was  passing, 
even  in  a  neighboring  town.  A  seedling 
equal  to  the  Baldwin  apple  might  have  re 
mained  unknown  twenty  miles  off  from  the 
beginning  to  the  end  of  the  last  century. 
Apples  were  apples,  and  all  apples  were  fit 
to  make  cider,  and  that  was  enough. 

It  was  regarded  as  absurd  for  any  but  a 
young  man  to  set  out  trees ;  and  when  a 
man  of  seventy  began  to  plant  an  orchard, 
the  idea  was  so  ludicrous  as  to  subject  him 
to  the  ridicule  of  the  whole  neighborhood. 

But,  during  the  first  quarter  of  the  pres 
ent  century,  many  large  orchards  were 
planted  in  different  parts  of  the  country, 
still  with  particular  reference  to  the  pro 
duction  of  cider.  The  fruit  crop  of  the  coun 
try  was  of  so  little  importance  as  not  to  have 
been  thought  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  collec 
tion  of  our  national  statistics,  even  so  late 
as  1830;  now  it  amounts  to  considerably 
over  thirty  millions  of  dollars  a  year,  and  is 
fast  growing  to  be  one  of  the  most  important 
products  of  the  country,  the  annual  sales 
numbering  hundreds  of  thousands  of  bar 
rels. 

The  oldest  horticultural  society  in  the 
United  States  was  founded  only  about  thirty 
years  ago  (1829).  For  some  years  such  asso 
ciations  were  few  and  feeble,  on  account  of 
the  Avant  of  sufficient  public  interest  in  the 
subject.  Fruit  of  the  choice  varieties  was 
a  luxury  which  could  be  enjoyed  only  by 
the  wealthy.  Now  there  is  scarcely  a  cot 
tage  in  a  country  town  or  village  which  has 
not  its  grape  vines,  or  its  apple  or  pear  trees. 
The  public  no  longer  ridicule  the  man  who 


82 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    9»ATES. 


plants  choice  trees,  with  the  hope  of  enjoy 
ing  their  fruit.  Modern  science,  in  this 
direction,  secures  speedy  returns. 

The  American  Pomological  Society  was 
established  in  1848,  and  since  then  kindred 
societies  have  been  established  in  several  of 
the  states,  and  are  exerting  no  small  degree 
of  influence.  It  is  scarcely  twenty-five  years 
since  two  or  three  small  nurseries  in  the 
vicinity  of  our  large  cities,  occupying  not 
over  five  hundred  acres  in  the  whole  coun 
try,  supplied  the  wants  of  the  United  States 
and  the  Canadas.  Now  there  exist  more 
than  a  thousand  nurseries ;  and  in  one 
county  of  New  York  alone — that  of  Mon 
roe — there  are  between  three  and  four 
thousand  acres,  producing  every  year  more 
than  8500,000  worth  of  trees ;  while  there 
are  sold  every  year,  in  the  whole  country, 
from  fifteen  to  twenty  millions  of  trees, 
with  a  value  of  $5,000,000.  It  is  estimated 
that  the  nurseries  of  Onondaga,  and  the 
neighboring  counties  of  New  York,  contain 
at  this  moment  at  least  fifty  millions  of 
trees  for  sale.  These  figures  give  but  an  in 
adequate  idea  of  the  actual  present  extent 
of  this  great  business  of  the  country,  but 
they  are  sufficient  to  indicate  the  wide-spread 
interest  in  the  cultivation  of  fruit  among 
the  people. 

It  is  a  gratifying  fact  that  our  native  fruits 
are  appreciated  as  they  deserve.  Of  the 
thirty-six  varieties  of  apples  recommended 
by  the  American  Pomological  Society  for 
cultivation,  thirty  are  natives;  of  the 
fourteen  varieties  of  plums,  ten  are  natives ; 
and  so  are  more  than  half  the  pears  and  all 
of  the  strawberries.  It  is  not  many  years 
since  all  the  strawberries  in  our  markets 
grew  wild  and  were  brought  from  the  fields, 
when  not  a  single  variety  had  been  produced 
by  hybridization  in  America.  Last  year  a 
single  cultivator  in  Massachusetts  grew  them 
at  the  rate  of  160  bushels  per  acre,  and  sold 
them  at  the  rate  of  $1,300  per  acre  ;  while 
others,  in  Connecticut  and  other  states,  did 
even  better  than  that,  from  seedling  varieties. 
The  fruit  crop  of  Massachusetts  was  officially 
returned  in  1845  at  $744,000;  while  in 
1855  it  amounted  to  $1,300,000;  and  in 
1860  to  upward  of  $2,000,000;  and  the  in 
crease  in  many  other  parts  of  the  country 
has  been  in  a  similar  or  even  greater  propor 
tion.  In  the  fall  and  winter  of  1858-59, 
there  were  exported  from  the  port  of  Bos 
ton  alone  no  less  than  120,000  barrels  of 
apples,  mostly  Baldwins.  The  product  of 


fruit  for  1860  is  larger,  by  200  per  cent., 
probably,  than  it  ever  was  before.  The 
two  or  three  preceding  years  were  com 
paratively  bad  fruit  years,  and  in  the  mean 
time  thousands  of  young  trees  have  come 
into  bearing  which  never  bore  before. 
The  crop  of  1860  is,  therefore,  wonderfully 
large,  and  of  unsurpassed  excellence. 

The  climate  of  the  southern  states  has 
often  been  stated  to  be  unfavorable  to  the 
.growth  of  our  common  staple  fruits,  except 
peaches,  figs,  oranges,  and  the  like  ;  but  ex 
perience  has  shown  that  it  is  not  so.  There 
is  one  orchard  in  Mississippi  of  15,000  pear 
trees,  another  in  Georgia  of  9,500 ;  and  in 
other  sections,  where  the  effort  has  been 
made,  success  has  almost  invariably  attended 
it.  It  is  true,  the  pomology  of  the  south  is 
in  many  respects  peculiar.  The  mistake 
has  been  in  selecting  northern  varieties,  in 
stead  of  seedlings  of  the  south  and  other 
native  varieties,  many  of  which  are  found  to 
exist,  and  to  be  superior  in  size,  flavor,  and 
beauty,  while  in  keeping  qualities  they  are 
not  inferior  to  good  northern  varieties. 

The  south  can,  therefore,  raise  apples  in 
large  quantities,  and  of  a  very  high  quality, 
by  the  selection  and  proper  cultivation  of 
varieties  adapted  to  its  soil  and  climate. 
The  few  earnest  and  intelligent  pomologists 
who  have  had  long  experience  there,  rank 
the  apple  as  the  surest  and  most  reliable  of 
all  fruits  except  the  grape.  So  far,  compar 
atively  little  attention  has  been  given  to  the 
culture  of  the  apple  and  the  pear  by  the 
mass  of  southern  planters  ;  partly,  no  doubt, 
from  an  impression  that  such  fruits  were  not 
suited  to  that  locality ;  but  the  experience 
of  the  most  intelligent  horticulturists  in 
that  part  of  the  country  has,  I  think,  fully 
established  its  practicability,  especially  for 
the  native  southern  winter  varieties.  And 
so  of  the  pear.  Very  many  of  the  favorite 
varieties  at  the  north  grow  and  bear  well  at 
the  south,  either  as  standards  or  dwarfs,  in 
a  deep,  mellow,  well  tilled  soil,  care  being 
taken  to  train  the  top  of  the  tree  low  and 
spreading,  so  as  to  shield  the  trunk  and  the 
root  from  the  too  fierce  rays  of  the  sun. 
And  as  to  the  peach,  it  is  at  home  at  the 
south,  and  grows  in  the  highest  degree  of 
perfection.  One  grower  in  that  part  of  the 
country  sends  north  from  seven  to  ten 
thousand  dollars  worth  of  peaches  every 
year  before  they  are  ripe  in  the  middle 
states. 

Now  if  such  are  known  to  be  the  results 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


83 


of  only  ten,  fifteen,  and  twenty  years  of  en 
terprise  in  this  branch  of  rural  economy, 
what  may  we  not  anticipate  when  the  vast 
number  of  young  trees  planted  in  the  mid 
dle  and  eastern  states  within  the  last  five 
years,  come  into  bearing?  If  any  one  is 
disposed  to  feel  disheartened  at  the  prospect 
of  sales,  or  fear  the  market  will  be  glutted, 
let  him  take  courage  in  the  fact  that  the  de 
mand  is  ever  on  the  increase,  not  only  from 
the  multiplication  of  consumers,  but  from 
the  fact  that  there  is  a  growing  conviction 
that  fruifc  is  the  most  healthful  food.  The 
exportation  of  fruits,  particularly  of  apples, 
is  rapidly  increasing.  But  that  the  present 
comparative  abundance  has  not  diminished 
the  profits  of  fruit-growing,  the  Fruit-Grow 
ers'  Society  of  Western  New  York  state 
through  a  committee  that  three  white  Do 
yenne  pear-trees,  owned  by  Mr..  Phinney,  of 
Canandaigua,  one  of  them  small,  produce 
annually  from  $50  to  $60  worth  of  fine 
fruit,  while  an&ther  of  the  same  variety, 
in  the  same  place,  seventy  years  old,  has  not 
failed  of  a  good  crop  for  forty  years,  and  has 
averaged  twenty  bushels  a  year  for  twenty 
years,  which  have  been  sold  on  the  tree 
for  $60  a  year.  This  one  tree  has  pro 
duced  for  the  New  York  market  $3,750 
worth  of  peat's.  Three  large  trees  of  the 
same  kind,  owned  by  another  individual, 
yielded  in  1854  eleven  barrels,  which  sold 
for  $137. 

Then,  too,  we  are  to  include  the  luxuriant 
growth  of  fruits  in  California,  now  becoming 
celebrated  as  a  fruit-growing  region.  Five 
years  ago  the  apple-trees  in  that  state  scarcely 
numbered  a  hundred  thousand;  now,  in 
1860,  there  are  more  than  a  million  trees  in 
bearing.  Peach-trees  then  numbered  only  a 
hundred  and  seventy  thousand ;  now,  there 
are  more  than  a  million  and  a  half.  Pear- 
trees  have  increased  in  five  years  from  twenty 
thousand  to  three  hundred  thousand ;  apri 
cots,  from  four  thousand  to  a  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  trees  ;  plums,  from  ten  thou 
sand  to  a  hundred  and  thirty  thousand ;  and 
grape  vines,  from  three  hundred  thousand  in 
1855,  to  eight  millions  in  1860!  The  num 
ber  of  vines  more  than  doubled  in  two  years 
from  1856  to  1858.  A  popular  writer  says 
the  growth  on  the  grape-vines  the  last  year 
would  make  one  long  green  creeper  that 
would  reach  from  San  Francisco  clear  across 
the  continent,  and  then  over  the  sea  to  Eng 
land.  "  Who  knows,"  says  he,  "  but  what 
Englishmen  will  yet  suck  their  wines  from 


California  cellars  ?  At  the  rate  we  are  going 
on,  somebody  has  got  a  great  deal  of  wine- 
drinking  to  do,  to  use  up  the  California  pro 
duction  of  ten  years  hence.  But  people 
must  make  up  their  minds,  or  their  palates, 
to  like  still  wines  that  are  at  once  fiery  and 
sour,  if  they  intend  to  patronize  California 
vineyards,  and  rejoice  in  the  plenty  and 
cheapness  of  our  products;  for  our  grapes 
insist  on  being  sweeter  than  the  best  grapes 
of  which  foreign  wines  are  made.  They 
contain  20  per  cent,  of  sugar  against  13 
11-100  per  cent,  in  foreign-grown  specimens, 
while  the  proportion  of  free  acid  is  much 
less.  As  a  consequence,  there  is  15  per 
cent,  of  alcohol  in  our  light  wine,  which  is 
double  what  is  detected  in  the  European 
light  wines,  and  nearly  as  much  as  is  con 
tained  in  the  stronger  ports,  sherries,  and 
Madeiras."  The  value  of  the  grape  crop 
two  years  ago  (1858),  amounted  to  $1,000,- 
000,  and  it  amounts  now,  probably,  to  over 
$8,000,000. 

The  culture  of  the  vine  in  California  is  very 
simple,  and  gives  astonishing  profits.  An  acre 
in  ordinary  calculation  is  enough  for  a  thou 
sand  vines  ;  and  each  vine  in  full  bearing  will 
produce  a  gallon  of  wine.  The  average 
of  well-managed  vineyards  is  often  much 
greater,  and  two  or  three  gallons  to  a  vine  is 
no  uncommon  product.  A  good  man,  with 
a  horse  and  plough,  and  at  work  only  about 
eight  days  in  the  year,  can  tend  from  eight 
to  ten  acres  of  vines.  The  grape  flourishes 
in  all  parts  of  California,  but  the  counties 
of  Los  Angeles,  San  Bernardino,  and  San 
Diego  are,  perhaps,  the  most  noted,  though 
the  Napa  valley,  and  many  other  localities, 
are  about  equally  suited  to  it.  The  capabili 
ties  of  the  three  counties  above  named,  for 
the  production  of  the  grape,  are  ascertained 
to  be  equal  to  100,000,000  vines,  or  more 
than  100,000,000  gallons  of  wine  a  year! 

About  650  vessels  leave  the  Mediterranean 
for  this  country  every  year,  loaded  with  figs, 
lemons,  oranges,  limes,  almonds,  and  the 
products  of  the  vine,  the  whole  amounting 
to  about  seven  and  a  quarter  millions  of 
dollars.  Time  will  show  that  California  can 
easily  produce  all  these  products  of  an  oqual 
quality,  and  in  abundance  sufficient  to  sup 
ply  the  whole  country,  and  still  have  a  sur 
plus  for  her  own  consumption*  That  this 
statement  is  by  no  means  extravagant,  is 
evident  from  the  fact  that  the  growth  of  the 
grape  during  the  last  three  years  surpasses 
any  thing  ever  known  in  the  most  highly 


84 


AGRICULTURE    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


favored  regions  of  the  Rhine,  Italy,  or 
France. 

A  pear-grower  of  Roxbury,  Mass.,  has  one 
acre  devoted  to  this  fruit,  the  oldest  trees 
being  about  twenty  years  old,  but  more  than 
half  of  them  young.  From  two  trees,  the 
Dix  and  Bourns  Diel,  he  has  taken  more 
than  one  hundred  dollars  worth  a  year,  and 
from  the  whole  acre  more  than  a  thousand 
dollars  a  year.  Another  prominent  pear-or- 
chardist  in  Brighton,  Mass.,  commenced 
operations  in  1841  with  eight  trees  on  the 
ground.  He  has  now  1,200  trees,  set  out  in 
different  years,  more  than  half  of  them  since 
1854.  Since  that  time  he  has  received  from 
five  to  six  hundred  dollars  a  year  for  his 
crop,  and  says  that  if  he  had  confined  him 
self  to  a  judicious  selection  of  varieties,  his 
crop  would  now  bring  him  over  $2,000  a 
year. 

These  are,  of  course,  special  cases,  but  in 
stances  of  a  similar  kind  might  be  multiplied 
almost  indefinitely,  showing  that  where  good 
judgment  and  skill  are  used,  success  is  com 
paratively  sure.  No  other  country  offers 
such  opportunities  to  the  scientific  pomol- 
ogist,  or  to  the  fanner,  for  the  growth  of 
apples  and  pears,  and  it  is  not  probable  that 
the  supply  will  reach  the  demand  for  many 
years  to  come. 

Nor  has  the  culture  of  the  cranberry,  and 
other  smaller  fruits,  been  neglected.  The 
practical  cultivation  of  the  cranberry  is  of 
very  recent  date,  having  commenced  on  Cape 
Cod,  where  several  hundred  acres  of  culti 
vated  plants  are  now  in  profitable  bearing 
condition.  Its  culture  is  rapidly  extending 
to  other  parts  of  the  country,  where  suitable 
lands  exist. 

The  census  of  1840,  the  first  to  take  note 
of  the  extent  and  value  of  the  orchard  and 
garden  products  of  the  country,  makes  the 
fruit  crop  of  that  year,  or  rather  of  1839,  to 
be  $7,256,904,  in  addition  to  124,734  gallons 
of  domestic  wine.  The  census  of  1850  states 
the  amount  of  orchard  products  at  $7,723,- 
186,  and  221,249  gallons  of  domestic  wine, 
showing  an  increase  of  only  $466,282  in  the 
value  of  fruit,  and  96,515  gallons  of  wine. 
This  was  thought  by  some  to  be  too  low,  but  it 
should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  interest  in 
fruit  culture,  now  so  very  general  and  wide 
spread,  h%i  hardly  begun  in  1840,  and 
though  it  rapidly  increased,  so  that  young 
orchards  had  very  greatly  multiplied  all  over 
the  country  in  1850,  they  had  not  then  come 
into  full  bearing.  Nor  was  the  manufacture 


of  wine  any  thing  like  so  extensive  as  it  has 
since  become.  The  census  of  I860  will 
present  us  with  far  more  gratifying  results/ 

It  is  perfectly  proper  to  ascribe  a  large 
proportion  of  the  increase  of  orchards  and 
fruits,  and  of  the  interest  manifested  in  them, 
which  for  the  last  ten  years  has  been  wholly 
without  a  precedent  in  this  country,  to  the 
influence  of  the  agricultural  exhibitions,  and 
to  the  multiplication  of  the  valuable  treatises 
and  periodicals  on  the  subject,  calling  the 
attention  of  the  people  to  the  vast  amounts 
of  money  which  had  been  spent  yearly  in 
importing  grapes,  wines,  figs,  prunes,  raisins, 
currants,  and  even  pears,*  from  foreign 
countries,  all  of  which  might  be  raised  here 
equally  well,  and  to  the  inexhaustible  treas 
ures  which  were  within  the  reach  of  every 
landholder;  all  that  was  wanting  being  the 
proper  exertion  to  develop  them.  For  several 
years  Hovey's  Magazine  of  Horticulture  was 
the  only  periodical  exclusively  devoted  to 
the  garden  and  the  orchard,  and  that  was 
confined  chiefly  to  the  few  who  gave  their 
attention  especially  to  fruit  culture.  Previous 
to  the  appearance,  in  1845,  of  Downing's 
"  Fruit  and  Fruit  Trees  of  America,"  Man 
ning's  "Book  of  Fruits"  and  Rcnwick's 
"American  Orchardist"  were  the  only  popu 
lar  works  which  had  any  considerable  circu 
lation,  the  admirable  treatises  of  Coxe,  Prince, 
and  a  very  few  others,  being  confined  chiefly 
to  professed  horticulturists  and  nurserymen. 
Downing's  work  was,  in  fact,  the  first  that  had 
a  quick  and  extensive  circulation  among  the 
people.  It  appeared  just  at  the  time  when 
the  want  of  such  a  work  began  to  be  widely 
felt ;  while  he  had  the  immense  advantage  of 
the  information  which  had  been  industriously 
accumulated  by  the  Massachusetts  and  the 
London  horticultural  societies,  and  by  the 
labors  of  some  of  the  most  noted  horticultu 
rists  in  the  country,  who  had  been  constant 
ly  experimenting  and  importing  new  fruits, 
multiplying  seedlings,  and  improving  the 
nomenclature  of  varieties. 

Then  appeared  Thomas'  "American  Fruit 
Culturist,"  a  valuable  popular  work  after 
Downing's  plan,  and  Cole's  "  American  Fruit 
Book,"  a  storehouse  of  valuable  information, 
in  such  small  compass  as  to  come  within  the 
easy  means  of  every  one.  All  these  works 
contributed  largely  to  diffuse  a  more  correct 


*  So  recently  as  1851  a  considerable  quantity  of 
pears  were  actually  imported  from  France  by  the 
New  York  confectioners. 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


85 


taste,  and  to  excite  a  wide-spread  interest  in 
the  subject ;  and  they  are  entitled  to  great 
credit  as  being,  in  some  measure,  the  pio 
neers  in  this  department. 

But  yet,  though  many  grand  results  have 
already  been  obtained,  the  science  of  pomol 
ogy  is  still  in  its  infancy,  and  far  greater 
results  may  be  confidently  expected  hereafter. 

From  the  progress  in  the  cultivation  of 
fruits,  which  has  been  styled  by  some  the 
poetry  of  farming,  let  us  turn  to  the 

CULTURE    OF    TOBACCO. 

No  sooner  had  Columbus  landed  on  the 
island  of  Cuba,  in  1492,  than  a  gentlemanly 
chief  very  politely  offered  him  a  cigar.  From 
that  day  to  this  the  plant  has  grown  rapidly 
in  favor,  and  from  being  the  solace  of  the 
roaming  savage  of  America,  it  has  become  a 
luxury,  universal  as  the  habitation  of  the 
globe.  It  has  been  truly  remarked  that 
every  country  or  tribe  of  human  beings  has 
had,  from  time  immemorial,  its  own  peculiar 
narcotic,  either  aboriginal  or  imported',  and 
that  the  universal  instinct  of  the  human  race 
has  led,  somehow  or  other,  to  the  universal 
supply  of  this  want  or  craving ;  as,  for  in 
stance,  tobacco  in  America  and  its  islands ; 
the  thorn  apple,  cocoa,  tobacco,  and  hemp 
in  South  America ;  hops  and  tobacco  in 
Europe  ;  hemp  in  Africa  ;  aminita,  opium, 
betel-nut,  and  tobacco  in  Asia  ;  showing  that 
it  is  natural  for  man,  after  supplying  the  ne 
cessities  of  life  by  food,  to  desire  to  multiply 
his  enjoyments,  intellectual  and  animal,  and 
for  the  time  to  exalt  them;  and  we  cannot 
ascribe  so  universal  a  habit,  increasing  with 
the  growth  of  population,  to  mere  whim  or 
fancy  for  self-indulgence.  It  is,  perhaps,  a 
necessity  imposed  by  nature,  and  second 
only  to  that  greater  necessity,  the  satisfaction 
of  the  craving  of  hunger. 

Certainly,  the  extent  to  which  it  is  culti 
vated,  occupying  so  large  a  proportion  of  the 
best  arable  lands  of  some  countries,  which 
are  equally  adapted  to  wheat ;  its  great  im 
portance  in  a  commercial  point  of  view,  and 
the  variety  of  ways  in  which  it  is  em 
ployed  to  gratify  the  senses,  present  a  strik 
ing  feature  in  the  history  of  the  human  race. 

"  Thy  quiet  spirit  lulls  the  lab'ring  brain, 
Lures  back  to  thought  the  flights  of  vacant  mirth, 
Consoles  the  mourner,  soothes  the  couch  of  pain, 
And  breathes  contentment  round  the  humble  hearth ; 
While  savage  warriors,  soften'd  by  thy  breath, 
Unbind  the  captive  hate  had  doom'd  to  death." 

It  has  steadily  pushed  its  way  in  the  face 


of  every  opposition  which  ridicule,  prejudice, 
legislative  prohibition,  threats  of  excommu 
nication,  and  every  conceivable  persecution 
could  bring  against  it,  simply  because  nature 
demanded  its  use  in  some  form  or  other. 
The  celebrated  Locke  took  a  more  rational 
view,  and  said,  "  Bread  or  tobacco  may  be 
neglected,  but  reason  at  first  recommends 
their  trial,  and  custom  makes  them  pleasant." 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  "the  most  high  and 
mightie  prince,"  James  L,  by  the  grace  of 
God  king  of  Great  Britain,  "  a  slave  to  vices 
which  could  not  fail  to  make  him  an  object 
of  disgust,"  took  a  different  view  of  the  prev 
alent  practice,  and  wrote  a  "Couriterblaste  to 
Tobacco,"  stigmatizing  its  use  as  "  A  custom 
loathsome  to  the  eye,  hateful  to  the  nose, 
harmful  to  the  brain,  dangerous  to  the  lungs, 
and  in  the  black,  stinking  fume  thereof 
nearest  resembling  the  horrible  Stygian  smoke 
of  the  pit  that  is  bottomless."  Every  thing 
which  is  really  and  truly  founded  in  nature 
and  reason,  however  mysteriously,  will 
ultimately  prevail,  whoever  sets  himself  up 
to  oppose  it ;  and  the  progress  of  the  culture 
and  use  of  this  plant  is  an  instance  of  it. 
King  James  wrote  in  1616,  and  in  1624 
Pope  Urban  VIII.  published  a  decree  of  ex 
communication  against  all  in  the  church 
who  took  snuff;  and  in  1634  smoking  tobacco 
was  prohibited  in  Russia  under  penalty  of 
having  the  nose  cut  off;  and  in  Transylvani^ 
the  penalty  for  growing  this  plant  was  a  corn* 
fiscation  of  the  farmer's  whole  property ;  and 
even  so  recently  as  17 19  the  senate  of  Stras- 
burg  forbade  the  cultivation  of  it,  from 
the  fear  of  its  diminishing  the  culture  of 
corn.  But  "  they  manage  things  better  in 
France,"  and  the  far-sighted  Richelieu  im 
posed  upon  it  a  duty,  very  small  at  first, 
which  continued  till  1674,  when  the  govern 
ment  of  Louis  XIV.  increased  the  duty,  and 
made  the  culture  and  trade  in  tobacco  a 
monopoly,  and  granted  it  to  an  individual 
for  six  years,  in  consideration  of  the  payment 
to  the  government  of  the  large  sum  of  $145,- 
000.  Inl720the  consideration  was  increased 
more  than  1 00  per  cent.,  and  in  177 1  it  amount 
ed  to  $5,500,000  a  year.  In  1844  the  rev 
enue  from  tobacco  alone  yielded  the  French 
government  the  enormous  sum  of  $20,000,- 
000,  and  it  has  since  constantly  increased  on 
an  average  from  half  a  million  to  a  million 
dollars  a  year.  So  much  for  Richelieu ;  and 
it  must  be  admitted,  even  by  the  most  prej 
udiced  opponents  of  tobacco,  that  this  policy 
was  more  sensible  than  that  of  his  neighbors 


86 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


who  mutilated,  and  some  of  whom  cut  off 
the  heads  of  all  smokers. 

The  English  first  saw  it  cultivated,  and 
smoked  in  "clay  pipes,  by  the  Indians  of  Vir 
ginia,  in  1585,  and  it  was  probably  intro 
duced  into  England  by  Raleigh,  as  early  as 
1586.  In  1615,  the  gardens,  fields,  and 
streets  of  Jamestown,  Virginia,  were  planted 
with  tobacco,  and  it  became  not  only  the 
great  staple,  but,  according  to  Bancroft,  the 
chief  currency  of  the  colony,  and  in  1622 
the  product  was  60,000  pounds.  During 
the  next  twenty  years  it  doubled,  and 
amounted  to  120,000  pounds,  and  since 
1689  the  produce  of  Virginia  alone  has  in 
creased  to  twice  as  many  millions  of  pounds. 
The  introduction  of  tobacco  culture  into 
the  Dutch  colony  of  New  York  took  place 
as  early  as  1646,  and  it  sold  then  at  forty 
cents  a  pound.  The  "Company  of  the 
West"  introduced  it  into  Louisiana  in  1718. 
Previous  to  the  revolutionary  war  its  culture 
had  extended  into  Maryland,  the  Carolinas, 
Georgia,  and  Louisiana,  and  nearly  all  Europe 
was,  at  that  time,  supplied  from  the  Ameri 
can  colonies.  Since  that  time  the  cultiva 
tion  has  greatly  extended  in  this  country, 
not  only  into  neAV  states  and  territories,  but 
in  the  aggregate  amount  raised.  The  quan 
tity  exported  has  also  very  largely  increased. 
The  amount  consumed  in  Great  Britain  alone 
exceeds  35,000,000  pounds,  and  that,  too,with 
a  duty  of  about  seventy-five  cents  a  pound. 

The  annual  export  from  the  colonies  for 
ten  years  previous  to  1709  was  28,868,666 
pounds.  From  1744  to  1776  the  exports 
of  tobacco  averaged  40,000,000  pounds 
a  year.  The  tobacco  exported  from  Vir 
ginia  in  1758  is  said  to  have  been  no  less 
than  75,000  hogsheads,  and  from  that  time 
till  the  Revolution,  the  amount  averaged 
55,000  hogsheads  a  year.  About  30,000 
hogsheads  were  shipped  from  City  Point,  in 
Virginia,  in  1791,  and  in  1795  the  amount 
fell  to  9,475  hogsheads.  There  were  export 
ed  from  North  Carolina  100  hogsheads  in 
1753,  while  from  Georgia,  in  1722,  there 
were  shipped  176,732  hogsheads.  South 
Carolina  exported  2,680  hogsheads  in  1783, 
and  4,294  in  1795.  The  quantity  exported 
from  Philadelphia  in  1796  was  3,437  hogs 
heads. 

According  to  the  census  of  1840,  the 
amount  raised  in  the  United  States  was  219,- 
163,319  pounds.  The  census  of  1850  re 
turned  but  199,752,655  pounds,  showing  a 
decrease  of  19,410,664  pounds.  There  has, 


no  doubt,  been  a  considerable  increase  in  its 
production  throughout  the  country,  notwith 
standing  an  apparent  falling  off  as  shown  by 
the  census.  The  crop  is  liable  to  many  cas 
ualties — to  damage  by  insects,  hail,  drought, 
frosts,  or  an  otherwise  bad  season  at  harvest 
ing — so  that  the  product  of  any  one  year, 
like  that  of  1849,  on  which  the  returns  of  the 
last  census  were  based,  cannot  be  taken  as  a 
fair  annual  average.  So  great  is  the  demand 
for  home  consumption  and  for  foreign  export 
ation,  that  the  profits  of  tobacco  are  usually 
very  great,  operating  as  a  constant  stimulus 
to  a  more  extended  culture. 

Of  the  amount  returned  by  the  last  cen 
sus,  Virginia  raised  56,893,218  pounds,  and 
Kentucky  55,501,196  pounds,  making,  to 
gether,  more  than  half  of  all  that  was  raised 
in  the  United  States.  But  since  1849  the 
use  of  guano  has  become  far  more  extensive 
than  it  had  previously  been,  and  the  yield 
of  this  ravenous  crop  on  the  lands  said  to 
have  become  exhausted  from  long-continued 
culture,  has  been  very  greatly  enlarged  in 
consequence.  In  the  meantime,  its  cultiva 
tion  has  gradually  been  extending  north 
ward,  and  the  produce  of  Connecticut  and 
Massachusetts  has  been  much  increased. 
The  produce  of  the  latter  state  has,  proba 
bly,  been  more  than  quadrupled  within  the 
last  five  years. 

Tobacco  is  usually  called  an  exhausting 
crop.  This  depends  very  much  upon  the 
kind  and  quantity  of  manure  used.  If  the 
mineral  constituents  taken  from  the  soil,  and 
represented  in  the  ash  of  the  plant,  are  sup 
plied  by  judicious  cultivation,  there  is  little 
difficulty  in  cultivating  and  producing  large 
crops,  and  it  is  a  common  remark  of  the 
best  farmers  along  the  Connecticut  river,  that 
wheat  or  any  other  crop  will  follow  tobacco, 
even  better  than  most  other  crops,  for  the 
reason  that  the  high  manuring  for  tobacco 
keeps  the  land  in  good  heart.  But  the 
planters  in  Virginia  cultivated  it  for  many 
years  in  succession  on  the  same  lands,  with 
out  supplying  a  sufficiency  of  manure.  The 
land,  of  course,  must  feel  the  loss  in  time, 
and  the  yield,  previous  to  the  introduction  of 
guano,  had  dwindled  down  in  many  locali 
ties  so  as  not  to  pay  the  producer.  Every 
,ton  of  tobacco,  perfectly  dried,  carries  off 
some  three  or  four  hundred  weight  of  these 
most  important  mineral  substances,  and  it 
should  be  the  aim  of  the  farmer  to  supply 
them  liberally,  if  he  expects  a  liberal  reward 
in  an  abundant  harvest. 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


The  geographical  distribution  of  the 
product,  the  amount  of  which  has  already 
been  stated,  was  nearly  as  follows :  The 
south  raised  185,023,906  pounds,  valued 
at  $18,505,390.  The  west  raised  12,358,- 
879  pounds,  valued  at  $1,236,886.  The 
north  raised  2,383,208  pounds,  valued  at 
$238,320. 

In  this  connection,  it  would  be  a  matter 
of  no  small  interest  to  ascertain,  if  possible, 
the  number  of  hands  the  cultivation,  curing, 
and  the  various  processes  of  manufacture 
give  employment  to.  It  is,  unquestionably, 
very  large  in  this  country,  but  the  census 
docs  not  appear  to  state  it.  In  the  city  of 
Hamburg  (Germany)  alone,  this  manufac 
ture  gives  employment  to  upward  of  10,- 
000  persons,  and  it  supplies  150,000,000 
cigars  a  year,  with  a  value  of  $2,000,000 
— a  matter  of  no  small  importance.  Ham 
burg  imports  from  Havana  and  Manilla 
about  18,000,000  cigars  a  year;  and, 
with  its  own  production,  the  aggregate 
number  is  168,000,000  "cigars.  153,000,- 
000  of  these  are  exported,  and  the  re 
mainder,  or  15,000,000,  are  consumed  in 
that  city ;  giving  40,000  as  the  daily  con 
sumption,  in  a  population  of  45,000  male 
adults.  The  consumption  of  tobacco  in 
England  in  1821,  with  a  population  of  21,- 
282,960,  was  no  less  than  15,598,152  pounds, 
or  12  ounces  per  head  of  the  entire  popula 
tion.  In  1831,  with  a  population  of  24,- 
410,439,  the  consumption  reached  19,533,- 
841  pounds,  or  13  ounces  per  head.  In 
1841,  with  a  population  of  27,019,672,  the 
consumption  was  22,309,360  pounds,  or  13i 
ounces  per  head.  And  in  1851,  popula 
tion  27, 452, 692, the  consumption  of  tobacco 
was  28,062,841  pounds,  or  17  ounces  per 
head,  showing  a  steady  increase.  In  France 
the  consumption  amounts  to  18k  ounces  per 
head,  nearly  half  of  which  is  in  the  form 
of  snuff.  The  consumption  of  Denmark,  in 
1848,  amounted  to  70  ounces  per  head,  or 
4i  pounds.  In  Belgium,  it  averages  at  the 
present  time  about  73d  ounces  per  head. 
The  average  consumption  of  tobacco  by  the 
whole  human  race  of  1,000,000,000,  is  70 
ounces  a  head,  the  quantity  consumed  being 
2,000,000  tons,  or  4,480,000,000  pounds. 
"  The  annual  production  of  tobacco  weighs 
as  much,"  says  a  popular  writer  on  this  sub 
ject,  "as  the  wheat  consumed  by  ten  mil 
lions  of  Englishmen ;  and  its  money  value 
is  as  great  as  that  of  all  the  wheat  consumed 
in  Great  Britain." 


But  as  it  is  estimated  that  the  earth  is 
capable  of  supporting  a  thousand  times 
more  people  than  at  present  exist,  the  large 
consumption  of  this  plant  need  not  alarm 
those  who  eschew  it,  especially  as  the  con 
sumption  of  tea  and  coffee,  thought  by  some 
to  be  equally  deleterious,  is  even  greater  and 
more  universal. 

That  the  lands  of  Virginia  should  have 
become  impoverished  from  long-continued 
cropping,  without  a  supply  of  manure,  is  not 
a  matter  of  surprise,  when  we  consider  the 
length  of  time  in  which  that  process  was 
going  on,  and  that,  instead  of  consuming 
the  product  on  the'  ground,  or  in  the  neigh 
borhood,  it  was  mostly  exported  for  con 
sumption  to  foreign  countries  ;  but  it  is  not 
the  fact  that  the  soils,  now  said  to  be  im 
poverished,  were  ever  so  rich  as  the  prairies 
and  river  bottoms  of  many  sections  of  the 
west,  with  which  they  arc  so  often  compared. 
Still,  the  tendency  of  farming  in  a  sparse 
population  is  to  deterioration,  from  the  very 
fact  that  the  bulk  of  farm  produce  must  be 
sent  oft'  the  farm  in  exchange  for  other  com 
modities.  The  most  profitable  farming,  in 
the  long  run,  is  that  which  combines  various 
kinds  of  produce,  a  considerable  propor 
tion  of  which  must  of  necessity  be  con 
sumed  on  the  farm  itself,  or  at  least  near 
home.  Where  the  population  is  sparse, 
and  there  is  no  demand  at  home  for  farm 
produce,  the  farmer  is  compelled  to  raise 
such  articles  as  will  bear  distant  transporta 
tion,  and  follow  this  course  year  after  year. 
He  cannot,  if  he  would,  grow  the  articles 
which  would  be  the  least  exhausting  to  his 
land.  The  Virginia  tobacco  planter  of  the 
last  century  and  the  early  part  of  the 
present,  had  no  means  of  restoring  the  fer 
tility  of  his  soils  by  supplying  the  vast 
amount  of  mineral  constituents  which  the 
constant  cropping  and  removal  by  transpor 
tation  took  away  from  his  farm.  He  could 
not,  or  would  not  keep  much  stock  to  sup 
ply  sufficient  manure  ;  and  if  he  kept  stock, 
the  winters  were  mild,  and  they  were  never 
housed  and  so  managed  as  to  produce  much 
manure.  Cattle  allowed  constantly  to  run 
at  large,  and  browse  in  the  woods  summer 
and  winter,  would  do  little  to  prevent  the 
deterioration  of  the  soil.  It  would  have 
been  better  for  the  land  if  the  planter  had 
been  obliged  to  cultivate  and  cut  grasses 
for  winter  fodder,  and  then  keep  up  his 
stock  to  consume  it.  The  Belgian  proverb 
is  everywhere  true :  "  No  grass,  no  cattle  ; 


88 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


no  cattle,  no  manure  ;  no  manure,  no  crops." 
The  worst  effect  of  a  system  of  exchange 
of  agricultural  products  with  other  nations, 
by  which  we  receive  their  manufactured 
goods,  which  possess  great  value  in  propor 
tion  to  their  bulk  and  the  raw  material  con 
sumed  in  them,  is  that  we  send  off  annually  to 
them  thousands  of  tons  of  the  highest  fer 
tilizing  elements,  which  nature  requires 
should  be  again  returned  to  the  land  in  the 
form  of  manure.  But  we  are  sending  off 
$35,000,000  worth  of  breadstuffs,  and  other 
products,  like  tobacco,  in  addition,  which  in 
themselves  must  of  necessity  draw  largely 
upon  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  while  we  do 
not  pretend  to  make  an  adequate  return  of 
fertilizing  substances  to  it. 

Other  nations,  like  England,  for  instance, 
importing  thirty  millions  worth  of  bread- 
stuffs,  have  the  benefit  of  their  consump 
tion,  in  addition  to  which  they  are  constantly 
importing  manures  of  every  description. 
While  we  are  constantly,  and  without  stint, 
shipping  off  a  continual  stream  of  the  most 
valuable  manures  concentrated  in  the  form  of 
our  cotton,  our  tobacco,  our  wheat,  and  In 
dian  corn,  they,  with  ceaseless  care,  are  hus 
banding  the  fertility  which  these  naturally 
carry  along  with  them,  and  adding  vast 
quantities  of  guano,  bones,  phosphates,  etc. 
They  reap  the  harvest  in  soils  growing  richer 
and  richer.  We  may  make  individual  profits, 
which  go,  for  the  most  part,  into  the  hands 
of  middle  men,  and  leave  our  farms  to  reap 
the  shadow. 

The  inevitable  tendency  of  exchanging  the 
produce  of  the  soil  for  manufactured  articles 
has  always  been,  and  always  will  be,  to  im 
poverish  the  nation  that  does  it,  unless  there 
is  care  and  forethought  enough  to  import  an 
amount  of  fertilizing  substances  equal  to 
what  we  send  away ;  and  this  cannot  be. 
The  farmer  himself  does  not  want  it  so.  If 
he  sends  wheat  enough  to  half  feed  a  foreign 
mechanic  or  operative  in  the  city  of  Sheffield 
or  Manchester,  he  would  infinitely  rather 
sell  him  enough  to  feed  him  in  full  nearer 
home  ;  and  it  would  be  better  for  him  and 
for  the  nation  to  have  it  so. 

CULTURE  OF  HOPS. 

^  Of  the  crops  which  still  remain  to  be  men 
tioned,  and  which  help  make  up  the  ag 
gregate  of  the  products  of  American  agricul 
ture,  that  of  the  hop  forms  no  unimportant 
item,  since,  besides  the  quantity  required  for 
export,  which,  to  be  sure,  is  not  very  large, 


it  enters  more  or  less  into  the  consumption 
of  almost  every  family  in  the  country. 

This  plant,  like  many  others,  dates  its  in 
troduction  to  this  country  almost  back  to  its 
first  settlement ;  for  we  read  in  the  records 
of  the  colony  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  that 
"  hop  rootes"  were  ordered  by  the  governor 
and  company  as  early  as  1628  or  1629,  and 
though  it  was  for  many  years  cultivated  only 
on  a  very  limited  scale  for  family  consump 
tion,  yet  no  doubt  it  has  continued  as  one  of 
the  cultivated  plants  of  the  country  from 
that  day  to  this.  It  was  introduced  and  cul 
tivated  by  the  Dutch  colony  of  New  York 
as  early  as  1646,  and  it  is  known  to  have 
been  brought  into  Virginia  previous  to  1648. 
In  1657  its  culture  was  encouraged  by  legis 
lative  enactments. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  present  century, 
the  amount  cultivated  in  New  England  was 
extremely  limited.  Thirty  thousand  pounds, 
perhaps,  comprised  the  entire  crop  of  that 
section,  increasing  some  years  to  fifty  thou 
sand.  The  mode  of  picking  and  drying  was 
objectionable  and  defective.  The  hops  were 
picked  in  clusters,  with  the  stems  and  leaves 
often  thrown  in  ;  while  the  drying  was  uni 
versally  done  with  wood,  and  when  taken 
from  the  kiln  they  were  "  brown  as  a  leg  of 
bacon  and  about  as  much  smoked." 

The  first  use  of  charcoal  for  drying  hops 
in  this  country  was  probably  in  1791,  when 
it  was  tried,  only  on  a  very  limited  scale,  at 
the  suggestion  of  a  Scotch  brewer,  and  pro 
duced  the  most  beautiful  kiln  of  hops  that 
had  ever  been  dried  in  America.  It  was 
owing  to  this  improvement  in  the  picking 
and  drying  that  the  demand  for  the  article 
rapidly  increased,  soon  doubled  and  tripled, 
and  slips  or  cuttings  to  form  new  plantations 
soon  rose  to  exorbitant  prices.  It  had  been 
the  universal  custom,  previous  to  that  time, 
to  pack  the  hops  in  round  bags,  without  any 
uniformity  in  length  or  size,  and  they  were 
trodden  clown  with  the  feet  in  a  rude  man 
ner.  The  consequence  was  that  the  tops 
were  bruised  and  broken,  causing  great  loss 
in  the  strength  and  value  of  the  hops  by 
evaporation  of  the  essential  juices  of  the 
plant^  its  most  valuable  properties,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  impossibility  of  packing  closely 
for  transportation.  The  use  of  square  bales 
was  introduced  in  1797,  or  the  year  after, 
and  the  use  of  screws  in  packing  was  then 
commenced.  The  superiority  of  this  mode 
soon  became  so  apparent,  that  it  was  gener 
ally  adopted  not  long  after.  Previous  to  this 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


89 


time,  also,  difficulties  not  unfrequently  arose 
between  merchants,  from  the  fact  that  old 
and  refuse  hops  were  found  mixed  in  with 
the  good  ones,  while  no  proper  distinction 
was  made  between  the  different  grades  or 
qualities.  Vexatious  lawsuits  sometimes  re 
sulted  from  these  circumstances,  and  the 
price  of  good  hops  was  naturally  lower  than 
it  otherwise  would  have  been.  The  legisla 
ture  of  Massachusetts,  to  remedy  these  evils 
so  far  as  they  existed  in  that  section  of  the 
country,  created  the  office  of  inspector- 
general  of  hops  in  the  year  1806.  It  was 
the  first  movement  of  the  kind  in  the  coun 
try,  and,  so  far  as  I  am  informed,  the  first 
of  the  kind  in  the  Avorld. 

But  there  were  no  precedents  for  classify 
ing  hops,  and  some  system  Avas  to  be  adopt 
ed.  Some  hop  dealers  and  many  hop  grow 
ers  were  opposed  to  a  high  standard  of  in 
spection.  Many  difficulties  of  a  personal 
nature  had  to  be  encountered ;  but,  owing  to 
the  conscientious  use  of  the  "  first-sort" 
brand,  the  hops  raised  in  that  part  of  the 
country  soon  became  noted  as  the  best  by 
far  in  the  United  States.  By  adopting  a 
high  standard  of  inspection,  the  growers 
were  soon  brought  to  improve  their  hops,  in 
order  to  bring  them  up  to  the  "  first  sort," 
and  the  facts  and  character  of  such  an  official 
inspection  becoming  immediately  known  in 
Europe,  those  who  sent  orders  from  there 
required  hops  of  Massachusetts  inspection, 
and  they  in  consequence  commanded  a  cent 
or  two  on  a  pound  more  than  those  of  any 
other  state.  It  is  for  the  interest  both  of 
the  grower  and  the  dealer  that  the  truth 
should  be  stamped  on  every  bale. 

The  profit  of  raising  hops  must,  of  course, 
depend  largely  upon  the  foreign  demand, 
and  as  that  is  extremely  fluctuating,  the  price 
of  this  crop  is  fluctuating  and  uncertain. 
The  consequence  has  been  a  decline  in  the 
cultivation,  in  some  sections  of  the  country, 
while  in  others  it  has  largely  increased.  As 
an  instance  of  the  fluctuation  of  prices  and 
the  foreign  demand,  it  may  be  stated  that 
the  exportation  in  1849-50  amounted  to 
1,275,455  pounds,  valued  at  $142,692; 
while  the  very  next  year,  1850-51,  it  fell 
off  to  110,360  pounds,  valued  at  $11,636, 
only. 

It  may  be  stated,  however,  that  notwith 
standing  the  great  fluctuations,  the  crop  in 
creased  from  1,238,502  pounds  in  1840,  to 
3,497,029  pounds  in  1850;  showing  a  gain 
of  2,258,527  pounds. 


The  geographical  distribution  of  this  crop, 
as  returned  by  the  last  census,  was  as  fol 
lows  : — 

The  south  raised  33,780  pounds,  valued 
at  $5,067. 

The  west  raised  194,961  pounds,  valued 
at  $29,244. 

The  north  raised  3,268,215  pounds,  val 
ued  at  $490,232.  New  England  raised  707,- 
743  pounds,  and  New  York  2,536,299.  Bal 
ance  raised  in  other  states,  252,987  pounds. 
The  crop  of  1855  was  estimated  by  the  sec 
retary  of  the  treasury  as  nearly  five  millions 
of  pounds. 

CULTURE    OF   FLAX   AND    HEMP. 

Like  most  of  the  crops  already  mentioned, 
both  flax  and  hemp  were  introduced  into  the 
colonies  very  soon  after  the  settlement  of  the 
country.  Flax  was  taken  to  Holland  from 
the  Dutch  settlement  of  Manhattan  Island, 
or  New  York,  as  early  as  1626.  The  gov 
ernor  and  company  of  the  Massachusetts 
Bay,  in  New  England,  also  ordered  both 
flax  and  hemp  seed  in  1628,  if  not,  indeed, 
as  was  probably  the  case,  at  an  earlier  date. 
Hemp  was  very  soon  abandoned,  as  the  land 
was  not  found  strong  enough  for  it. 

Hemp  and  flax  were  raised  in  Virginia 
prior  to  the  year  1648,  as  we  read  of  their  be 
ing  woven  and  spun  there ;  and  bounties 
were  offered  for  the  culture  of  hemp  in  1651, 
and  of  flax  in  1657  ;  but  the  culture  fell  off 
as  soon  as  the  bounties  were  discontinued. 

But  flax  was  pretty  generally  cultivated  in 
small  quantities  for  home  consumption,  in 
most  parts  of  the  country.  It  was  not  only 
raised,  but  manufactured  at  home,  and  form 
ed  a  most  important  article  in  the  domestic 
economy  of  the  days  of  homespun.  In  1745, 
some  Irish  emigrants  arrived  in  Massachu 
setts,  and  established  an  improved  mode  of 
manufacturing  linen  and  other  "  spinnino1- 
work,"  and  they  met  with  some  success. 
Manufactories  were  established  in  Salem, 
Mass.,  for  making  sail-cloth,  as  early  as 
1790. 

In  1751  no  less  than  14,000  pounds  of 
hemp  were  exported  from  New  Jersey,  and 
the  next  year,  1752,  the  amount  of  flax- 
seed  exported  from  Philadelphia  was  70,- 
000  bushels.  This  amount  rose,  in  1767, 
to  84,658  bushels;  and  in  1771  to  110,- 
412  bushels.  New  York  exported  12,528 
hogsheads  of  this  seed  in  the  year  1755. 
The  total  amount  exported  from  the  Ameri 
can  colonies  in  1770  was  312,612  bushels. 


90 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


In  1791  the  United  States  exported  292,- 
460  bushels  of  flax-seed;  in  1800  the  ex 
port  was  289,684  bushels,  and  240,579  bush 
els  in  1810.  The  culture  of  these  crops 
grew  up  more  rapidly  at  the  west,  and  ex 
tensive  factories  were  established  for  the 
manufacture  of  cordage,  bagging,  etc.,  in 
Louisville,  Lexington,  Frankfort,  and  other 
places  in  Kentucky,  as  early  as  1 810.  Hemp, 
in  fact,  has  become  a  staple  crop  in  the  west. 

According  to  the  census  of  1840,  about 
97,251  tons  of  flax  and  hemp  were  raised. 
In  1850  the  two  products  were  returned 
separately  as  34,871  tons  of  hemp,  7,709,- 
676  pounds  of  flax,  and  562,312  bushels  of 
flax-seed.  The  decrease  in  the  aggregate 
growth  of  fibre  was  thus  shown  to  be  about 
56,000  tons.  The  total  value  of  both  crops 
does  not  vary  much  from  five  millions  of 
dollars. 

Of  the  crop  returned  in  1850,  the  distri 
bution  was  as  follows  :  — 

The  south  raised  34,673  tons  of  hemp, 
worth  about  $3,833,376;  and  4,768,198 
pounds  of  flax,  worth  $476,619. 

The  west  raised  150  tons  of  hemp,  and 
1,330,859  pounds  of  flax;  worth  $133,085. 

The  north  raised  443,370  tons  of  hemp, 
worth  $22,178;  and  1,717,419  pounds  of 
flax,  worth  $171,742. 

THE    CULTURE    OF    SILK. 

The  cultivation  and  manufacture  of  silk 
has  never  been  extensively  carried  on  in 
this  country,  though  introduced  at  a  very 
early  date — as  early,  in  fact,  as  the  first  set 
tlement  of  Virginia.  James  I.  showed  a  de 
sire  to  favor  this  branch  of  industry,  equalled 
only  by  his  antipathy  to  the  growth  of  to 
bacco.  It  did  not  succeed  at  first,  however, 
and  in  1651  another  spasmodic  effort  was 
made  to  revive  it,  but  it  was  to  little  effect, 
and  it  never  prospered  there. 

Silk  culture  was  commenced  in  Louisiana 
by  the  Company  of  the  West,  in  1718.  It 
was  introduced  into  Georgia  in  1732.  A 
special  act  of  Parliament  was  required  to 
keep  up  the  interest  in  it,  in  1749,  exempt 
ing  the  producer  from  paying  duties,  etc. 

Connecticut  began  the  raising  of  silk  in 
1760,  and  in  1783  the  legislature  of  that 
state  passed  an  act,  granting  a  bounty  on 
mulberry  trees  and  the  production  of  silk. 

About  the  year  1830  an  excitement  was 
got  up  by  interested  speculators,  which  was 
so  adroitly  managed  that  it  became  general 
over  the  country,  till  it  died  under  the  name 


of  the  "  Morus  Multicaulis"  fever,  in  1845. 
Even  under  the  encouragement  of  the  gov 
ernment,  all  the  raw  silk  Georgia  could  ex 
port  in  1750  was  118  pounds;  in  1765  it 
was  only  138  pounds;  in  1770,  290  pounds. 
The  census  of  1840  returned  the  amount  of 
silk  cocoons  at  61,552  pounds;  and  this 
quantity  had  fallen  off  in  1850  to  10,843 
pounds  ;  being  a  decrease  of  46,789  pounds 
in  ten  years. 

BEE    CULTURE. 

The  production  of  honey  and  the  man 
agement  of  bees  receives  comparatively  lit 
tle  attention  in  this  country.  So  little,  in 
deed,  as  hardly  to  be  worthy  of  mention 
among  the  products  of  our  national  agricul 
ture  ;  and  yet  they  form  an  important  item 
in  the  domestic  economy  of  many  a  house 
hold,  and  ought  to  receive  all  the  attention 
they  deserve. 

The  amount  of  beeswax  and  honey  re 
turned  by  the  census  of  1850  was  14,853,- 
790  pounds.  It  is  hoped  that  greater  results 
will  appear  from  this  delightful  occupation 
than  it  is  possible  at  the  present  time  to  re 
cord. 

The  distribution  of  the  production  of 
honey  and  wax,  as  returned  by  the  last  cen 
sus,  was  as  follows : — 

The  southern  states,  including  also  Ken 
tucky  and  Missouri,  produced  7,964,760 
pounds,  which  were  valued  at  $1,194,714. 

The  western  states  produced  3,401,078 
pounds,  valued  at  $510,140. 

The  northern  states  produced  3,487,290 
pounds,  valued  at  $523,093. 

POULTRY    AND    EGGS. 

The  value  of  the  poultry  kept  in  the  Unit 
ed  States,  and  the  production  of  eggs,  con 
stitutes  a  much  larger  item  of  our  agricul 
tural  economy  than  is  generally  supposed. 
The  value  of  poultry,  according  to  the  census 
of  1840,  was  no  less  than  $12,176,170.  This 
sum,  great  as  it  appears,  has  been  increased 
to  some  twenty-five  millions  of  dollars.  The 
city  of  New  York  alone  pays  about  two 
millions  of  dollars  a  year  for  eggs.  And  so  the 
other  large  cities  require  a  supply  in  propor 
tion. 

The  keeping  of  poultry,  therefore,  is  by 
no  means  an  insignificant  item  in  the  prod 
ucts  of  our  agriculture,  though  for  some 
reason  or  other  the  last  census  failed  to  take 
cognizance  of  it. 

It  may  be  doubted  whether  the  introduc- 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


91 


tion  of  foreign  varieties  of  fowls  effected  an 
improvement  in  the  common  stock  of  the 
country.  The  excitement  produced  by  de 
signing  men  may  have  had  the  effect  to 
increase  the  interest  and  knowledge  in  this 
branch  of  husbandry,  which,  so  far,  may  be 
set  down  as  a  positive  benefit  to  the  country, 
but  further  than  that,  it  is  difficult  to  say 
what  benefit  resulted  from  it.  For  a  time, 
indeed,  the  number  of  fowls  was  very  largely 
increased,  but  the  product  of  eggs  did  not 
increase  in  proportion. 

The  keeping  of  poultry,  like  that  of  bees, 
may  be  set  down  as  among  the  means  of 
making  the  farm  attractive,  in  addition  to 
the  actual  profit  which  may  be  derived  from 
keeping  a  limited  number  of  choice  fowls, 
and  the  production  of  eggs  for  family  use. 

THE    LUMBER    BUSINESS. 

The  growth  and  preparation  of  lumber 
does  not,  perhaps,  come  strictly  within  the 
range  of  what  is  understood  by  agricultural 
products.  But  the  primary  operations  in 
volved  are  to  a  large  extent  undertaken  by 
farmers,  as  a  part  of  winter's  work,  and 
lumber  forms  no  unimportant  item  in  the 
clearing  up  and  the  preparation  of  land  for 
tillage.  It  is,  therefore,  proper  enough  to 
allude  to  it  in  connection  with  the  progress 
of  our  agriculture. 

Volney  represented  the  surface  of  this 
country  as  one  vast  forest,  diversified,  oc 
casionally,  by  cultivated  intervals.  Since  his 
time  the  woodman's  axe,  guided  by  a  ruth 
less  hand,  has  reversed  the  picture  to  some 
extent,  but  still  the  number  and  variety 
of  our  forest  trees  abundantly  testify  the 
bounty  of  nature. 

Originally,  indeed,  an  almost  unbroken 
forest  covered  a  large  proportion,  not  only 
of  this  country,  but  of  the  whole  continent. 
The  Indian  tribes  were  far  less  populous 
than  is  generally  supposed;  and  if  we  except 
the  prairie  lands  of  the  valley  of  the  Missis 
sippi,  but  a  small  portion  of  the  surface 
of  our  present  territory  was  destitute  of 
timber  trees. 

"  Then  all  this  youthful  paradise  around, 

And  all  the  broad  and  boundless  mainland,  lay 
Cooled  by  the  intqrrninable  wood,  that  frowned 
O'er  mount  and  vale,  where  never  summer  ray 
Glanced  till  the  strong  tornado  broke  its  way 
Through  the  gray  giants  of  the  sylvan  wild; 

Yet  many  a  sheltered  glade,  with  blossoms  gay, 
Beneath  the  showering  sky  and  sunshine  mild, 
Within  the   shaggy  arms  of  that  dark  forest 
[  smiled." 

6 


It  was  stated  by  Michaux  that  there  were 
in  the  United  States  one  hundred  and  forty 
species  of  forest  trees  which  attain  a  greater 
height  than  thirty  feet,  while  in  France 
there  were  only  eighteen  of  the  same  de 
scription.  An  English  traveller,  writing  of 
this  country,  says :  "  I  was  never  tired  of 
the  forest  scenery  of  America,  although  I 
passed  through  it  from  day  to  day.  The 
endless  diversity  of  foliage  always  prevents 
it  from  being  monotonous."  But  the  sur-' 
passing  beauty  which  the  forests  add  to  our 
natural  scenery  is  not  to  be  compared  with 
the  solid  advantages  which  are  derived  from 
the  immense  variety,  as  well  as  the  quantity 
of  their  timber. 

The  forest  scenery  of  this  country  be 
yond  the  Alleghany  mountains,  and  from 
them  to  the  Mississippi  river,  has  been 
invaded  to  a  less  extent  than  in  the  older 
settled  portions,  and  there  are  still  vast 
tracts  remaining  uncleared.  Trees  of  gigan 
tic  height  and  dimensions,  standing  in  the 
richest  mould,  which  has  been  accumulating 
for  ages,  and  surrounded  with  a  luxuriance 
of  vegetation  very  rarely  seen  in  the  eastern, 
states,  carry  the  mind  back  to  a  period  long 
anterior  to  the  discovery  of  the  country, 
and  fill  the  beholder  with  awe  by  their 
grandeur. 

To  these  forests,  as  they  once  stood,  over 
a-  large  portion  of  the  country,  we  have  beea 
indebted  for  much  of  our  growth  and  pros 
perity  as  a  nation  !  How  much  do  we  not 
owe  to  one  species  of  these  majestic  trees — 
the  white  pine  ?  Michaux  observed  that 
throughout  the  northern  states,  except  in 
the  large  capitals,  seven-tenths  of  the  houses 
are  of  wood,  of  which  seven-tenths,  three- 
quarters  are  of  white  pine.  He  might  have 
said  nine-tenths  were  built  of  wood,  ar.d 
come  within  the  truth,  though  at  the  time 
he  visited  this  country,  fifty  years  ago,  many 
houses  had  been  constructed,  to  a  great  ex 
tent,  of  hard  wood. 

The  new  settlers  had  to  enter  and  fell  the 
forests,  and  burn  and  clear  their  lands  as  a 
preliminary  preparation,  and  thousands  of 
acres  were  thus  brought  under  culture,  the 
timber  being  of  too  little  value  to  pay  for 
saving.  It  was  in  vain  that  statutes  were 
passed  a  hundred  years  ago  and  more,  to 
prevent  the  cutting  of  trees  suitable  for  ship 
timber.  Private  rights  could  not  be  invaded 
in  the  colonies,  and  down  the  forests  came. 
The  value  of  the  forests  for  timber  during 
the  time  of  limited  and  scattered  population' 


92 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


was  but  little,  and  it  could  not  be  transport 
ed  to  great  distances. 

The  lumber  business,  therefore,  did  not 
grow  up  to  any  great  magnitude  and  im 
portance  till  a  comparatively  recent  period 
in  any  part  of  the  country.  Not,  in  fact, 
till  the  great  centres  of  population  began  to 
feel  new  life  from  our  growing  commerce, 
creating  a  more  extensive  demand  for  build 
ing  purposes,  and  for  ship-building.  When 
this  period  arrived,  after  the  war  of  1812 
and  the  conclusion  of  peace,  the  lumber 
business  began  to  extend  itself  into  Maine 
and  other  regions  then  comparatively  un 
settled,  especially  in  the  vicinity  of  large 
streams  giving  easy  access  to  the  sea-board 
or  to  lake  navigation.  The  mode  of  pro 
ceeding  will  be  more  clearly  understood 
from  the  following  description  of  the  de 
tails  of  operations,  prepared  by  a  gentleman 
residing  in  the  lumber  regions  of  Maine. 
The  logging  camp  is  very  much  the  same  in 
all  the  more  northern  sections  of  the  United 
States,  from  the  timber  regions  of  the  St. 
Johns  to  the  pineries  of  Wisconsin,  and  a 
detail  of  the  winter  operations  of  one  will 
apply,  with  slight  modification,  to  them  all. 
I  may  remark,  in  passing,  that  I  have  my 
self  lived  some  winters  in  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  extensive  logging  operations  in 
Maine,  and,  in  fact,  been  engaged  in  them 
to  some  extent,  and  am  familiar  with  them. 

When  a  lumberer  has  concluded  to  log 
on  a  particular  tract,  the  first  step  is  to  go 
with  a  part  of  his  hands  and  select  suitable 
situations  for  building  his  camps.  In  mak 
ing  this  selection,  his  object  is  to  be  near 
as  possible  to  the  best  clumps  of  timber  he 
intends  to  haul,  and  to  the  streams  into 
which  he  intends  to  haul  it.  He  then  pro 
ceeds  to  build  his  camps  and  to  cut  out  and 
clear  out  his  principal  roads  The  camps 
are  built  of  logs,  being  a  kind  of  log-houses. 
They  are  made  about  three  feet  high  on  one 
side,  and  eight  or  nine  on  the  other,  with 
a  roof  slanting  one  way.  The  roof  is  made 
of  shingles  split  out  of  green  wood  and  laid 
upon  rafters.  The  door  is  made  of  such 
boards  as  can  be  manufactured  out  of  a  log 
with  an  axe.  Against  the  tallest  side  of  the 
camp  is  built  the  chimney — the  back  being 
formed  by  the  wall  of  the  camp,  and  the 
sides  made  of  green  logs,  piled  up  for  jams, 
about  eight  feet  apart.  The  chimney  seldom 
rises  above  the  roof  of  the  camp  ;  though 
some  who  are  nice  in  their  architectural 


notions  sometimes  carry  it  up  two  or  three 
feet  higher.  It  is  obvious  from  the  con 
struction  that  nothing  but  the  greenness  of 
the  timber  prevents  the  camp  from  being 
burned  up  immediately  ;  yet  the  great  fires 
that  are  kept  up  make  but  little  impression* 
in  the  course  of  the  winter  upon  the  back 
or  sides  of  the  chimney.  A  case,  however, 
happened  within  a  year  or  two,  where  a 
camp  took  fire  in  the  night  and  was  con 
sumed,  and  the  lumberers  in  it  burned  to 
death.  Probably  the  shingle  roof  had  be 
come  dry,  in  which  case  a  spark  would 
kindle  it,  and  the  flames  would  spread  over 
it  in  a  moment.  Parallel  to  the  lower  sido 
of  the  building,  and  about  six  feet  from  it, 
a  stick  of  timber  runs  on  the  ground  across 
the  camp.  The  space  between  this  and  the 
lower  wall  is  appropriated  to  the  bedding, 
the  stick  of  timber  serving  to  confine  it  in 
its  place.  The  bedding  consists  of  a  layer 
of  hemlock  boughs  spread  upon  the  ground, 
and  covered  with  such  old  quilts  and  blank 
ets  as  the  tenants  can  bring  away  from 
their  homes.  The  men  camp  down  to 
gether,  with  their  heads  to  the  wall  and 
their  feet  toward  the  fire.  Before  going  to 
bed  they  replenish  their  fire — some  two  or 
more  of  them  being  employed  in  putting  on 
such  logs  as  with  their  handspikes. they  can 
manage  to  pile  into  the  chimney.  As  the 
walls  of  the  building  are  not  very  tight,  the 
cool  air  plays  freely  around  the  head  of  the 
sleeper,  making  a  difference  of  temperature 
between  the  head  and  the  feet  not  altogether 
agreeable  to  one  unused  to  sleep  in  camps. 
A  rough  bench  and  table  complete  the  furni 
ture  of  the  establishment.  A  camp  very 
similar,  though  not  so  large  in  dimensions, 
is  built  near  for  the  oxen  ;  on  the  top  of 
this  the  hay  is  piled  up,  giving  warmth 
while  it  is  convenient  for  feeding. 

A  large  logging  concern  will  require  a 
number  of  camps,  which  will  be  distributed 
over  the  tracts,  so  as  best  to  accommodate 
the  timber.  One  camp  serves  generally  for 
one  or  two  teams.  A  team,  in  ordinary 
logging  parlance,  expresses,  not  only  the  set 
of  four  or  six  oxen  that  draw  the  logs,  but 
likewise  a  gang  of  men  employed  to  tend 
them.  It  takes  from  three  or  four  to  seven 
or  eight  men  to  keep  one  team  employed — 
one  man  being  employed  in  driving  the  cat 
tle,  and  the  others  in  cutting  down  the  trees, 
shaping  them  into  logs,  barking  them,  and 
cutting  and  clearing  the  way  to  each  tree. 
The  number  of  hands  required  is  inversely 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


93 


to  the  distance  the  logs  are  to  be  hauled ; 
that  is,  most  hands  are  required  when  the 
distance  is  shortest,  because  the  oxen,  re 
turning  more  frequently,  require  their  loads 
to  be  prepared  more  expeditiously.  Having 
built  their  camps,  or  while  building  them, 
the  main  roads  are  to  be  cut  out.  These  run 
from  the  camps  to  the  landing  places,  or 
some  stream  of  sufficient  size  to  float  down 
the  logs  on  the  spring  freshet.  Other  roads 
are  cut  to  other  clumps  of  timber.  They  are 
made  by  cutting  and  clearing  away  the  un 
derbrush,  and  such  trees  and  old  logs  as  may 
be  in  the  way,  to  a  sufficient  width  for  the 
team  of  oxen,  with  the  bob-sled  and  timber 


pointed  to  the  office  of  cook.  Salt  pork  and 
flour  bread  constitute  the  regular  routine  of 
the  meals,  varied  sometimes  with  salt  fish 
or  salt  beef.  Potatoes  are  used  when  they 
can  be  obtained.  Now  and  then,  perhaps, 
when  the  snow  is  deep,  they  catch  a  deer, 
and  live  on  venison.  The  men  are  employed 
through  the  day  in  cutting  the  timber  and 
driving  the  teams.  In  the  evening  some 
take  care  of  the  oxen ;  some  cut  wood  for 
the  fire  ;  then  they  amuse  themselves  with 
stories  and  singing,  or  in  other  ways,  until 
they  feel  inclined  to  turn  in  upon  the  uni 
versal  bed.  On  Sundays  the  employer  claims 
no  control  over  their  time,  beyond  the  tak- 


on  it,  to  pass  conveniently.     The  bob-sled  is   ing  care  of  the  cattle,  the  fire,  and  the  cook- 


made  to  carry  one  end  of  the  timber  only,  the 
other  drags  upon  the  ground,  and  the  bark 


is  chipped  oft',  that  the  log  may  slip  along 
more  easily.  The  teams  proceed  to  the 
woods,  when  the  first  snows  come,  with  the 
hands  who  are  not  already  there,  and  the 
supplies.  The  supplies  consist  principally 
of  pork  and  flour  for  the  men,  and  Indian 
meal  for  the  oxen ;  some  beans,  tea,  and 
molasses  are  added.  Formerly  hogsheads 
of  rum  were  considered  indispensable,  and  I 
have  before  me  a  bill  of  supplies  for  a  log 
ging  concern  of  three  teams  in  1827-28,  in 
which  I  find  one  hundred  and  eighty  gallons 
of  rum  charged ;  but  of  late  very  few  re 
spectable  lumberers  take  any  spirits  with 
them,  and  the  logging  business  is  conse-  j  dividual 
quently  carried  on  with  much  more  method,  leave  the 
economy,  and  profit.  The  pork  and  flour 
must  be  of  the  first  quality.  Lumberers  are 
seldom  content  to  take  any  of  an  inferior 
sort ;  and  even  now,  when  flour  is  twelve 


ing.    On  this  day  they  do  their  washing  and 
mending  ;  some  employ  themselves,  besides, 


dollars  a  barrel,  they  are  not  to  be  satisfied 
with  the  coarser  breadstuff's.  Hay  is  pro 
cured  as  near  to  the  camps  as  possible ;  but 
as  most  of  the  timber  lands  are  remote  from 
settlements,  it  is  generally  necessary  to  haul 
it  a  considerable  distance ;  and  as  it  must 
be  purchased  of  the  nearest  settlers,  they 
are  enabled  to  obtain  very  high  prices. 
From  twelve  to  twenty  dollars  per  ton  is 
usually  paid.  When  the  expense  of  haul 
ing  it  to  the  camp  is  added,  the  whole  cost 
is  frequently  as  high  as  thirty  dollars  a  ton, 
and  sometimes  much  higher.  Owners  of 
timber  lands  at  a  distance  from  settlements 
may  make  a  great  saving  by  clearing  up  a 
piece  of  their  land,  and  raising  their  own 
hay.  Some  one  of  the  hands,  who  has  not 
so  much  efficiency  in  getting  timber  as  skill 
in  kneading  bread  and  frying  pork,  is  ap- 


m  seeking  timber,  and  some  in  hunting 
partridges,  while  some  remain  in  the  camp 
and  read  the  Bible.  They  remain  in  the 
woods  from  the  commencement  of  sledding, 
some  time  in  December,  until  some  time  in 
March,. in  the  course  of  which  month  their 
labors  are  usually  brought  to  a  close  by  the 
snow,  it  becoming  too  shallow  or  too  deep. 
If  there  are  heavy  thaws  the  snow  runs  off, 
not  leaving  enough  to  make  good  hauling. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  gets  to  be  four 
or  five  feet  deep,  the  oxen  cannot  break 
tnrough  it  to  make  the  path  which  it  is  nec 
essary  to  form  in  order  to  get  at  each  in- 
tree.  The  men  and  teams  then 
woods.  Sometimes  one  or  two 
remain  to  be  at  hand  when  the  streams  open. 


know  one  who  last  winter  staid  by  himself 
in  the  woods,  fifteen  or  twenty  miles  from  the 
nearest  habitation,  for  the  space  of  twenty- 


eight  days,  during  which  time  ho  earned  $203 
by  getting  in  timber  with  his  axe  alone,  be 
ing  allowed  for  it  at  the  same  rate  per  thou 
sand  that  the  lumberers  were  in  getting  it  in 
with  their  teams.  He  found  some  berths  in 
the  banks  of  the  stream,  where  all  that  was 
necessary  was  to  fell  the  tree  so  that  it  should 
fall  directly  upon  the  water,  and  there  cut  it 
into  logs  to  be  ready  for  running.  When  the 
streams  are  opened,  and  there  is  sufficient 
freshet  to  float  the  timber,  another  gang, 
called  "river  drivers,"  takes  charge  of  it. 
It  is  their  business  to  start  it  from  the  banks, 
and  follow  it  down  the  river,  clearing  off 
what  lodges  against  rocks,  pursuing  and 
bringing  back  the  sticks  that  run  wild  among 
the  bushes  and  trees  that  cover  the  low 
lands  adjoining  the  river,  and  breaking  up 
jams  that  form  in  narrow  or  shallow  places. 


94 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


A  jam  is  caused  by  obstacles  in  the  river 
catching  some  of  the  sticks,  which  in  their 
turn  catch  others  coming  down ;  and  so  the 
mass  increases  until  a  solid  dam  is  formed, 
which  entirely  stops  up  the  river,  and  pre 
vents  the  further  passage  of  any  logs.  These 
jams  are  most  frequently  formed  at  the  top 
of  some  fall ;  and  it  is  often  a  service  that 
requires  much  skill  and  boldness,  and  is  at 
tended  with  much  danger,  to  break  them 
up.  The  persons  who  undertake  it  must 
go  on  the  mass  of  logs,  work  some  out  with 
their  pick  poles,  cut  some  to  pieces,  attach 
ropes  to  others  to  be  hauled  out  by  the 
hands  on  shore,  and  they  must  be  on  the 
alert  to  watch  the  moment  of  the  starting  of 
the  timber,  and  exercise  all  their  activity  to 
get  clear  of  it  before  they  are  carried  off  in 
its  tumultuous  rush.  Some  weeks,  more  or 
less,  according  to  the  distance,  spent  in  this 
way,  bring  the  timber  to  the  neighborhood 
of  the  saw-mills.  A  short  distance  from 
Oldtown,  on  the  Penobscot,  there  is  a  boom 
established,  extending  across  the  river,  for 
the  purpose  of  stopping  all  the  logs  that 
come  down.  It  is  made  by  a  floating  chain 
of  logs,  connected  by  iron  links,  and  sup 
ported  at  suitable  distances  by  solid  piers, 
built  in  the  river ;  without  this  it  would  be 
impossible  to  stop  a  large  part  of  the  logs, 
and  they  would  be  carried  on  the  freshet 
down  the  river,  and  out  to  sea.  The  boom 
is  owned  by  an  individual,  who  derives  a 
large  profit  from  the  boomage,  which  is 
thirty-five  cents  per  thousand  on  all  logs 
coming  into  it.  The  boom  cost  the  present 
owner  about  $40,000.  He  has  offered  it 
for  sale  for  $45,000.  It  is  said  the  net  in 
come  from  it  some  years  is  $15,000.  Here 
all  the  logs  that  come  down  the  Penobscot 
are  collected  in  one  immense  mass,  covering 
many  acres,  where  is  intermingled  the  prop 
erty  of  all  the  owners  of  timber  lands  in  all 
the  broad  region  that  is  watered  by  the 
Penobscot  and  its  branches,  from  the  east 
line  of  Canada,  above  Moosehead  Lake,  on 
the  one  side,  to  the  west  line  of  New  Bruns 
wick  on  the  other.  Here  the  timber  remains 
till  the  logs  can  be  sorted  out  for  each  owner, 
rafted  together,  and  floated  to  the  mills  or 
other  places  below. 

Rafting  is  the  connecting  the  logs  togeth 
er  by  cordage,  which  is  secured  by  pin 
driven  into  each  log,  forming  them  into 
bands,  like  the  ranks  of  a  regiment.  This 
operation  is  performed  by  the  owner  of  the 
voom.  The  ownership  of  the  timber  is  as- 


ertained  by  the  marks  which  have  been 
chopped  into  each  log  before  it  left  the 
woods,  each  owner  having  a  mark,  or  combi 
nation  of  marks,  of  his  own.  When  the 
boom  is  full,  only  the  logs  lowest  down  can 
be  got  at ;  and  the  proprietors  of  other  logs 
must  wait  weeks,  sometimes  months,  before 
they  can  get  them  out,  to  their  great  incon 
venience  and  damage.  After  the  logs  are 
rafted  and  out  of  the  boom,  a  great  part  of 
them  are  lodged  for  convenience  in  a  place 
called  Pen  Cove,  which  is  a  large  and  secure 
basin  in  the  river,  about  two  miles  below  the 
boom.  From  this  cove  they  can  be  taken 
out  as  they  are  wanted  for  the  mills  below. 
While  in  the  boom  and  at  other  places  on 
the  river,  they  arc  liable  to  great  loss  from 
plunderers.  The  owners  or  drivers  of  logs 
will  frequently  smuggle  all  that  come  in  their 
way,  without  regard  to  marks.  The  owners 
or  conductors  of  some  of  the  mills  on  the 
river  are  said  to  be  not  above  encouraging 
and  practising  this  species  of  piracy.  In 
deed,  timber  in  all  its  stages  seems  to  be  a 
fair  object  for  plunderers,  from  the  petty 
pilferer  who  steals  into  the  woods,  fells  a 
tree,  cuts  it  into  shingles,  and  carries  it  out 
on  his  back,  to  the  comparatively  rich  owner 
of  thousands  of  dollars. 

When  the  logs  have  been  sawn  at  the 
mills,  there  is  another  rafting  of  the  boards, 
which  are  floated  down  the  river  to  Bangor, 
to  be  embarked  on  board  the  coasters  for 
Boston.  In  this  process  they  are  subject  to 
much  injury :  first,  by  the  mode  of  catch 
ing  them  as  they  come  from  the  mill  sluices, 
the  rafters  making  use  of  a  picaroon,  or  pole, 
with  a  spike  in  the  end  of  it,  which  is  re 
peatedly  and  unmercifully  driven  into  the 
boards,  taking-  out,  perhaps,  a  piece  at  each 
time ;  secondly,  by  the  holes  made  by  the 
pins  driven  into  the  boards  in  rafting  ;  and, 
thirdly,  by  the  rocks,  and  rapids,  arid  shal 
lows  in  the  river,  breaking  the  rafts  to  pieces 
and  splitting  up  the  boards  as  they  de 
scend.  These  inconveniences  will  be  partly 
remedied  by  the  railroad  now  in  operation, 
unless  other  inconveniences  in  the  use  of  it 
should  be  found  to  overbalance  them.  The 
kinds  of  timber  brought  down  our  rivers  are 
pine,  spruce,  hemlock,  ash,  birch,  maple, 
cedar,  and  hackmatack.  Far  the  greater 
part  of  it  is  pine.  The  lumberers  make 
about  six  kinds  of  pine,  though  they  do  not 
agree  exactly  in  the  classification,  or  in  the 
use  of  some  of  the  names.  The  most  com 
mon  division  is  into  pumpkin-pine,  timber- 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


95 


pine,  sapling,  bull-sapling,  Norway,  and  yel 
low,  or  pitch-pine.  The  pumpkin -pine  stands 
pre-eminent  in  the  estimation  of  the  lumber 
ers,  because  it  is  the  largest  tree,  and  makes 
fine,  large,  clear  boards.  They  are  soft, 
and  of  a  yellowish  cast.  The  timber-pine 
and  saplings  are  the  most  common.  The 
former  is  generally  preferred,  as  being  larger 
and  more  likely  to  be  sound ;  yet  the  sap 
lings  are  said  to  make  the  harder  and 
more  durable  boards.  The  common  sapling 
grows  in  low  lands,  generally  very  thick,  but 
much  of  it  is  apt  to  be  rotten.  The  bull- 
sapling  is  larger  and  sounder,  grows  on  high 
land,  and  is  mixed  with  hard  wood.  The 
Norway  pine  is  a  much  harder  kind  of  tim 
ber  than  the  others.  It  is  seldom  sawn  into 
boards,  though  it  makes  excellent  floor 
boards  ;  but  it  is  generally  hewn  into  square 
timber. 

I  will  conclude  with  some  remarks  upon 
the  different  modes  of  operating  made  use 
of  by  owners  of  timber.  There  are  three. 
One  is  for  the  owner  to  hire  his  men  by  the 
month,  procure  teams,  and  furnish  them  with 
equipments  and  supplies.  A  second  is  to 
agree  with  some  one  or  more  individuals  to 
cut  and  haul  the  timber,  or  cut,  haul,  and 
run  it,  at  a  certain  price  per  thousand  feet. 
The  third  way  is  to  sell  the  stumpage  out 
right  .'  that  is,  to  sell  the  timber  standing. 
The  first  mode  is  seldom  adopted,  unless  the 
owner  of  the  timber  is  likewise  a  lumberer, 
and  intends  to  superintend  the  business  him 
self.  The  second  mode  is  very  common.  It 
is  considered  the  most  saving  to  the  owners, 
because  the  lumberer  has  no  inducement  to 
select  the  best  timber,  and  leave  all  that  is 
not  of  the  first  quality ;  to  cut  down  trees 
and  take,  and  leave  others  to  rot  that  are 
not  quite  so  good,  but  may  be  worth  haul 
ing.  Its  inconveniences  are,  that,  as  the 
object  of  the  lumberer  is  to  get  as  large 
a  quantity  as  possible,  he  will  take  trees 
that  are  not  worth  so  much  as  the  cost  of 
getting  them  to  market,  and  which,  besides 
being  of  little  value  themselves,  render  the 
whole  lot  less  saleable  by  the  bad  appearance 
they  give  it.  The  owner,  too,  is  subject  to 
all  the  losses  that  may  happen  in  running 
the  logs  down  the  river.  Very  frequently 
he  is  obliged  to  make  a  contract  to  have  the 
timber  cut  and  hauled  to  the  landing-places, 
and  another  to  have  it  run  down  ;  for  the 
river-drivers  are  a  distinct  class  from  the 
lumberers.  Most  of  them,  indeed,  are  lum 
berers  ;  yet  it  is  but  a  small  part  of  the  lum 


berers  that  are  river-drivers.  A  great  part 
of  the  lumberers  are  farmers,  who  must  be 
on  their  farms  at  the  season  of  driving,  and, 
therefore,  cannot  undertake  any  thing  but 
the  cutting  and  hauling.  They  are  paid  for 
the  number  of  thousand  feet  they  deposit  at 
the  landing-places ;  and  the  logs  being  sur 
veyed,  or  scaled,  as  they  are  hauled,  their 
object  is  to  get  as  many  thousand  feet  as 
possible  on  the  landing-places ;  while  the 
river-drivers  may  be  very  careless  about  get 
ting  them  all  down,  and  the  owner  may  nev 
er  receive  the  whole  quantity  he  has  paid  for 
cutting  and  hauling.  In  operating  in  this 
mode,  the  owner  usually  furnishes  the  sup 
plies,  provisions,  etc.,  and  the  lumberer  pro 
cures  the  teams  and  hires  the  men.  The 
owner,  commonly,  does  not  bind  himself  to 
pay  before  the  logs  go  to  market,  and  he 
frequently  makes  a  contract  for  his  supplies 
on  the  same  condition,  in  which  case  he  has 
to  pay  from  twenty-five  to  thirty-three  per 
cent,  more  for  his  goods  than  he  would  deal 
ing  on  cash  or  common  credit.  Sometimes, 
when  there  is  no  freshet,  the  logs  do  not  go 
down  until  the  second  year ;  and  then  the 
trader  and  lumberer  both  suffer  for  want  of 
their  pay. 

The  third  mode  is  by  far  the  simplest 
and  easiest  for  the  owner.  He  avoids  all 
trouble  of  furnishing  supplies,  of  watching 
the  timber  on  the  river,  and  of  looking  out 
for  a  market.  But  he  must  have  a  man  of 
some  capital  to  deal  with,  as  he  furnishes 
his  own  teams  and  supplies,  and  pays  the 
men,  receiving  very  heavy  advances.  The 
purchaser  of  it  has  no  interest  to  cut  the 
timber  savingly,  and  he  sometimes  makes 
dreadful  havoc  among  the  trees,  leaving  a 
great  deal  of  valuable  stuff  on  the  ground  to 
rot.  And  if  he  selects  only  the  best  trees  in 
a  berth,  much  of  the  timber  left  standing 
may  be  lost,  because  no  one  will  afterward 
want  to  go  into  that  berth  from  which  all 
the  best  trees  have  been  culled.  It  is  com 
mon  now  to  employ  a  man  to  pass  the  win 
ter  in  the  camps,  living  alternately  at  one  or 
another,  for  the  purpose  of  scaling  the  logs, 
keeping  a  correct  account  of  them,  and  see 
ing  that  the  timber  is  cut  according  to  the 
contract. 

But,  after  all,  there  is  almost  always  found 
to  be  a  considerable  difference  between  tim 
ber  cut  by  the  thousand  and  that  which 
is  cut  on  stumpage.  Each  mode  has  its  troub 
les;  but  I  think  that  owners  at  a  distance 
will  manage  their  concerns  with  least  vexa- 


96 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


tion  by  selling  the  stumpage,  provided  that 
they  have  honest  men  to  deal  with. 

It  might  be  mentioned  in  connection  with 
the  above  interesting  statement,  that  the  pri 
mary  object  in  the  settlement  of  Maine  was 
to  engage  in -the  lumber  business.  Agricul 
ture  was  originally  secondary  to  that  busi 
ness,  and  grew  up  of  necessity,  in  connection 
with  it.  The  same  may  be  said  of  some 
parts  of  New  Hampshire.  Mason  and  Gorges 
procured  their  grant,  embracing  a  large  tract 
above  Portsmouth,  Dover,  etc.,  for  the  pur 
poses  of  lumbering  and  the  manufacture  of 
potash.  It  was  common  in  Maine  for  a 
lumberman  to  work  at  farming  in  summer, 
and  cut  and  haul  lumber  in  the  winter. 

A  brief  description  of  lumbering  at  Green 
Bay,  in  the  northern  part  of  Wisconsin,  will 
be  interesting  in  this  connection. 

"  A  logging  camp  in  the  winter,"  says  a 
resident  of  Green  Bay,  "is  an  exhilarating 
scene.  The  great  trees  falling  here  and 
there,  with  a  thundering  sound ;  the  fine, 
strong  teams  moving  off  to  the  river  with 
their  loads,  and  hurrying  back  with  empty 
sleds  ;  the  songs  and  shouts  of  the  jolly,  red- 
shirted  lumbermen  ;  the  majestic  forest  sce 
nery,  standing  out  so  handsomely  in  the 
clear  air  of  northern  winter,  make  up  a  pan 
orama  that  is  worth  going  a  day's  journey 
to  see.  Finally,  the  snow  fades  out  before 
the  spring  sun.  It  goes  first  from  the  log 
ging  road,  because  there  it  has  been  most 
worn  ;  and  then  the  lumbermen  make  ready 
for  the  'running,'  and  wait  impatiently  for 
the  breaking  up  of  the  stream  and  the 
coming  of  the  freshet.  If  they  are  a  long 
way  up  the  stream,  this  is  a  matter  of  great 
anxiety,  for,  perhaps,  the  rise  will  not  be 
sufficient,  and  their  logs  will  lie  over  till 
another  year.  One  firm  on  the  Oconto  got 
logs  as  high  up  as  ninety  miles  from  the 
mouth.  If  the  water  is  high,  the  logs  come 
down  by  thousands  upon  thousands,  rushing, 
clogging  up,  breaking  away  again,  piling 
upon  each  other,  and  requiring  the  constant 
efforts  of  the  drivers  to  keep  them  on  the  go. 
Sometimes,  when  an  obstruction  occurs,  a 
few  logs  form  a  'jam,'  and  those  coming  after 
them,  with  terrific  force,  are  piled  up  in  rude 
masses,  till  one  not  familiar  with  it  would 
think  the  whole  enterprise  hopelessly  ended, 
for  there  seems  no  possibility  of  ever  extri 
cating  the  mass,  perhaps,  of  a  thousand  logs. 
But  a  single  man,  with  an  iron-shod  hand 
spike,  goes  upon  the  jam  carefully,  looking 


with  a  practised  eye  here  and  there,  until  he 
discovers  one  log  which  is  the  key  to  the 
whole  problem.  Prying  cautiously,  he  loos 
ens  it,  and  then  makes  his  way  as  quick  as 
possible  to  the  shore  again.  The  confused 
mass  begins  to  settle,  the  head  logs  start ; 
and  then,  all  at  once,  down  stream  they  go 
once  more,  with  the  old  speed,  like  a  herd 
of  countless  buffaloes  stamping  along  the 
prairie.  The  logs  reach  the  mill  in  April  or 
May,  and  the  sawing  commences  on  the 
arrival  of  the  '  head  of  the  drive.'  " 

In  the  absence  of  accurate  statistics,  which 
ought  to  have  been  furnished  by  the  last 
census,  it  is  not  possible  to  give  a  detailed 
statement  of  the  full  extent  of  the  lumber 
business  of  the  country ;  and  hence,  any 
information  on  the  subject  must  necessarily 
come  far  short  of  giving  an  adequate  idea  of 
its  vastness,  and  of  the  progress  which  the 
last  few  years  have  witnessed  in  its  develop 
ment.  But  we  know  that  the  export  of 
lumber  from  the  United  States  has  risen 
from  $1,822,077  in  1821  to  five  millions  in 
1853  ;  we  know  that,  during  the  four  years 
from  1850  to  1853  inclusive,  the  value  of 
lumber  exported  was  nearly  twenty  millions 
of  dollars ;  we  know  that  the  amount  of 
lumber  received  at  Chicago  alone  in  one 
year  (1857)  was  no  less  than  459,639,198 
feet,  besides  upward  of  eighty  millions  of 
laths.  Chicago,  indeed,  as  a  lumber  market, 
stands  pre-eminent,  and  its  rise  and  progress 
as  such  is  little  less  remarkable  than  its 
growth  as  a  grain  market.  The  banks  of 
the  rivers  are  loaded  for  several  miles  with 
vast  piles  of  lumber,  shipped  to  that  city 
from  the  extensive  pine  forests  of  Michigan, 
Wisconsin,  and  Canada;  while  the  capital 
invested  in  this  trade  is  immense.  The  ves 
sels  alone  which  are  engaged  in  carrying  the 
lumber  which  finds  its  market  there,  did  not 
cost  less  than  a  million  and  a  half;  and  the 
number  of  hands  employed  in  one  way  and 
another  is  not  less  than  ten  thousand. 

Here  are  some  of  the  receipts  of  lumber 
in  that  city  :  — 

Lumber. — Feet.  Shingles.  Lath. 

1847,  32,118,225  12,148,500  5,655,700 

1848,  60,009,250  20,000,000  10,250,109 

1849,  73,259,553  39,057,750  19281,733 

1850,  100,364,779  55,423,750  19,809,700 

1851,  125,056,437  60,338,250  27,583,475 

1852,  147,816,232  77,080,500  19,759,670 

1853,  202,101,098  93,483,784  39,133,116 

1854,  228,336,783  98,061,250  32,431,550  '. 

1855,  306,553,467  158,770,860  46,487,550   , 

1856,  456,673,169  135,876,000  79,235,120 

1857,  459,639,198  131,832,250  80,130,000 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


97 


This,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind,  is  the 
business,  in  this  particular  trade,  of  only  one 
city.  Many  other  cities  and  large  towns 
might  be  named,  which,  for  extent  of  opera 
tions,  would  compare  favorably  with  it. 

The  city  of  Boston  receives  from  the 
southern  states  lumber  to  the  value  of  a 
million  of  dollars  a  year,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  immense  quantities  which  she  receives, 
also,  from  the  north  and  east,  and  from 
Nova  Scotia. 

In  what  has  been  said  above,  reference 
has  been  had  exclusively  to  the  procuring  of 
lumber  for  the  purposes  of  building.  The 
vast  amount  required  for  fuel  has  not  been 
considered,  but  if  that  could  be  taken  into 
account  it  would  form  an  item  of  amazing 
importance,  not  only  as  ministering  to  the 
comfort  of  millions  of  people,  but  in  a  com 
mercial  and  business  point  of  view.  There 
was  a  time,  and  that  quite  recently,  when 
serious  apprehensions  were  felt  on  account 
of  the  rapid  disappearance  of  the  woodlands 
of  New  England  and  the  older  northern 
states,  lest  they  should,  at  no  distant  day, 
fail  altogether  to  furnish  a  sufficient  supply. 
The  multiplication  of  railroads,  and  their 
great  consumption  of  wood,  had  raised  the 
prices  to  such  an  extent  that  the  farmer 
could  not  wait  for  his  young  woodlands  to 
grow,  and  thousands  of  acres  were  every 
year  cut  off  to  meet  this  demand.  The  in 
troduction  of  coal  into  general  use  in  the 
cities  and  large  towns,  and  the  resort  to  that 
by  many  of  the  leading  lines  of  railway, 
has  now  relieved  us  from  any  cause  for  alarm, 
and  the  forests,  even  of  Massachusetts,  are 
now,  it  is  believed,  on  the  increase. 

To  this  is  to  be  added  an  increasing  taste 
for  the  cultivation  of  forest  trees,  which  in 
time  will  make  a  very  perceptible  improve 
ment  in  the  natural  scenery  of  the  country. 

PROGRESS    OF    AGRICULTURAL    LITERATURE. 

The  improvement  and  increase  of  the 
agricultural  literature  of  the  country  might 
very  properly  have  been  treated  of  in  the 
early  part  of  this  chapter,  as  among  the 
means  or  the  causes  of  the  progress  which 
"has  been  made  in  the  development  of  our 
agricultural  wealth,  to  which  it  has  contrib 
uted  nearly  as  much,  perhaps,  as  the  agri 
cultural  societies  themselves.  I  have,  how 
ever,  preferred  to  reserve  it  for  this  position, 
for  the  reason  that  it  may  with  equal  pro 
priety  be  said  to  have  grown  out  of  a  de 


mand  for  information  incident  to  the  gen 
eral  spirit  of  inquiry  which  the  association 
of  effort  produced  in  the  public  mind,  and 
especially  since  it  has,  for  the  most  part, 
grown  up  within  the  last  twenty  years,  or 
long  subsequent  to  the  formation  of  many 
of  the  agricultural  societies. 

If  we  except  the  "Essays  on  Field  Hus 
bandry,"  by  the  Rev.  Jared  Eliot,  of  Connect 
icut,  prepared  as  early  as  the  middle  of  the 
last  century,  and  the  valuable  papers  sub 
mitted  to  the  Massachusetts,  the  New  York, 
and  the  Pennsylvania  Agricultural  Societies, 
and  published  by  them  about  the  beginning 
of  the  present  century,  we  cannot  be  said 
to  have  had  any  agricultural  literature,  till 
within  the  memory  of  many  men  still  living. 
None,  in  fact,  till  within  the  last  twenty  or 
thirty  years.  The  "  Essays  on  Field  Husband 
ry,"  considering  the  time  when  they  were 
written,  were  certainly  a  remarkable  contri 
bution  to  the  agricultural  literature  of  the 
country,  filled  with  the  most  judicious  ad 
vice,  and  worthy  of  republication,  both  as  a 
part  of  the  history  of  our  agriculture  and 
for  their  own  intrinsic  merits.  But,  as  al 
ready  remarked  on  a  former  page,  the  book 
was  far  in  advance  of  the  farming  commu 
nity  of  that  time,  and  it  is  not  probable  that 
it  had  many  readers.  The  papers  published 
by  the  Massachusetts  Society  for  Promoting 
Agriculture,  commenced  as  early  as  1796, 
were  among  the  most  valuable  that  have 
ever  appeared  in  this  country.  They  are 
embraced  in  a  series  of  ten  octavo  volumes, 
called  the  "Agricultural  Repository,"  and 
extend  over  a  period  of  thirty  years,  dis 
cussing  many  questions  which  agricultural 
chemistry  and  other  kindred  sciences  have 
since  definitively  settled  and  explained,  but 
containing  much  useful  information  on  a 
great  variety  of  subjects  connected  with 
practical  agriculture.  The  agricultural  li 
brary  connected  with  my  office  is  one  of 
the  most  valuable  and  extensive  in  the 
country,  but  I  regard  the  "  Agricultural 
Repository"  as  among  the  most  valuable 
series  in  it. 

The  farming  community  gradually  "  took 
to  reading."  The  American  farmer  was 
commenced  in  Baltimore,  Maryland,  in  1819, 
and  is  believed  to  have  been  the  first  strictly 
agricultural  periodical  started  in  the  coun 
try.  It  was  sold  in  1829  for  twenty  thou 
sand  dollars,  which,  at  that  time,  was  a  very 
large  price  for  an  agricultural  paper.  It  has 
beeu  regularly  published  up  to  this  time, 


98 


AGRICULTURE 


THE    UNITED    STATES. 


and  is  still  in  a  flourishing  condition,  with  a 
good  circulation. 

The  Agricultural  Intelligencer  was  estab 
lished  in  Boston  in  1820,  but  for  some  rea 
son  or  other,  probably  for  want  of  sufficient 
support,  was  discontinued,  and  the  New 
England  Farmer  was  begun  in  1822  by 
Thomas  G.  Fessenden.  This  journal,  an 
eight  page  quarto,  was  continued  with  a 
varying  fortune  till  1846,  when  it  died,  but 
another  of  the  same  name,  an  octavo  monthly 
and  folio  weekly,  sprang  up,  and  is  still  in  the 
full  tide  of  success.  The  New  York  Farmer 
was  established  soon  after  the  New  England 
Farmer,  and  was  continued  for  several  years 
by  Mr.  Samuel  Fleet,  then  sold  to  Mr.  D.  K. 
Miner,  who  engaged  the  services  of  Mr. 
Henry  Colman  as  editor,  till  the  journal 
died,  and  is  no  more.  In  1831,  Mr.  Luther 
Tucker,  one  of  the  oldest  agricultural  editors 
of  the  country,  established  the  Genesee  Far 
mer,  at  Rochester,  N.  Y.  At  the  end  of  the 
first  year  it  had  but  six  hundred  subscribers. 
But  Mr.  Tucker  persevered,  until,  in  1839, 
the  subscription  reached  19,000. 

In  the  meantime,  Judge  Buel  had  estab 
lished  the  Cultivator,  at  Albany,  in  1833,  and 
at  his  death,  in  1839,  Mr.  Tucker  purchased 
that  journal  of  his  heirs,  and  removed  to 
Albany,  uniting  the    Genesee   Farmer   and 
the    Cultivator   which    is    still   in    a    very 
flourishing  condition,  having  exerted  a  long- 
continued  and  wide-spread  influence.     The 
place  made  vacant  by  the  removal  of  the 
Genesee  Farmer   from    Rochester   was  soon 
filled   by  the   New  Genesee  Farmer,  soon 
after  which  the  first  word  of  the  title  was 
dropped,  and  as  the   Genesee  Farmer  it  is 
still  published,  and  has  a  wide  circulation. 
The    American    Agriculturist,    establishec 
about  the  year  1842,  was  continued  with  some 
success  for  some  years,  till  its  subscription 
list  became  reduced  to  a  few  hundreds,  when 
it  passed  into  new  hands,   felt  the  infusion 
of  younger  blood,  and  in  less  than  five  years 
the   subscription   has   risen   to  upward    of 
fifty  thousand.     The  Farmers'   Cabinet  was 
published   some  years  in   New  York  city 
under  the  editorship  of  J.  S.  Skinner,  who 
first   established   the  American  Farmer,  a 
Baltimore.     Mr.   Skinner,    in  1848,  started 
the  Plough,  Loom,   and  Anvil,   which  was 
continued  till  quite  recently.     The  Maim 
Farmer  was  established  about  the  year  1832 
and  has  exerted  a  good  influence. 

Many   other    agricultural    journals    hav< 
been  started  within  the  last  five   or    ten 


ears,  and  have  received  a  generous  patron- 
ge  from  the  farming  community,  among 
hich  ought  to  be  mentioned  the  Rural 
New  Yorker,  with  a  very  wide  circulation ; 
Jhe  Country  Gentleman,  published  in  con 
nection  with  the  Cultivator,  at  Albany;  the 
Ohio  Farmer,  of  very  wide  influence  and 
arge  circulation ;  the  Michigan  Farmer,  at 
Detroit;  the  Valley  Farmer,  at  St.  Louis; 
the  Wisconsin  Farmer,  at  Madison ;  the 
North-  Western  Farmer,  at  Dubuque ;  the 
Southern  Planter,  at  Richmond ;  the  Cali 
fornia  Farmer,  at  Sacramento  ;  the  Home 
stead,  at  Hartford,  Connecticut — all  exceed 
ingly  valuable  and  well  conducted  papers  ; 
the  Working  Farmer,  in  New  York  city, 
and  many  others  with  which  I  am  less  famil- 

V  There  are  in  the  northern  and  western 
states  more  than  twenty-five  journals,  most 
of.  which  are  weekly,  devoted  almost  exclu 
sively  to  agriculture  and  horticulture,  and 
the  aggregate  circulation  of  these  is  not  less 
than  250,000  copies.  There  are  also  in 
the  southern  states,  some  six  or  eight  similar 
publications  devoted  to  agriculture,  whose 
aggregate  circulation  is  not  less  than  thirty- 
five  thousand  copies.  These  facts  are  ex 
ceedingly  important  with  reference  to  the 
present  condition  of  our  agriculture,  since 
they  indicate  a  wide-spread  spirit  of  inquiry 
and  intelligence  among  farmers,  which  must 
necessarily  have  an  important  influence  on 
the  future  development  of  this  great  in 
terest. 

Besides  the  large  number  and  wide  circu 
lation  of  the  journals  devoted  to  agriculture, 
there  is  a  good  demand  for  agricultural 
books,  and  many  of  the  standard  works 
published  in  Europe  have  been  republished 
in  this  country,  including  Stephens'  "  Book 
of  the  Farm,"  Thaer's  "  Principles  of  Agri 
culture,"  Johnston's  "  Agricultural  Chemis 
try,"  and  many  other  European  works  of 
established  reputation.  These  foreign  works 
were  soon  followed  by  American  treatises 
on  landscape  gardening,  fruits,  animals, 
draining,  dairy  farming,  and,  in  fact,  on  sub 
jects  covering  the  whole  ground  of  farm 
economy,  more  or  less  perfectly.  Many  of 
these  treatises  and  republications  have  had  a 
wide  circulation.  The  "Modern  Horso 
Doctor"  has  sold  to  the  extent  of  more 
than  twenty  thousand  copies,  "Youatt  and 
Martin  on  Cattle"  over  ten  thousand, 
"Youatt  on  the  Horse"  over  twenty-five 
thousand,  and  many  others  in  a  similar  pro 
portion. 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


99 


In  addition  to  these  facilities  for  informa 
tion,  many  of  the  states  have  established 
township  and  district  libraries,  by  means  of 
which  the  choicest  works  on  all  subjects  are 
brought  within  the  reach  of  all,  the  poor  as 
•well  as  the  rich.  In  these  libraries  are  gen 
erally  included  a  fair  proportion  of  agricul 
tural  works. 

This  system  was  initiated  by  New  York 
in  1837,  by  making  an  appropriation  of  two 
hundred  thousand  dollars  a  year  for  three 
years,  and  subsequent  annual  grants  of  over 
fifty  thousand  dollars.  Massachusetts  fol 
lowed  the  example  of  New  York  in  1839, 
and  more  recently  Michigan  passed  a  law 
giving  each  township  the  sum  of  fifty  dol 
lars  annually  for  this  purpose.  Indiana 
adopted  the  same  policy  in  1854,  and  Ohio 
in  1857,  the  former  appropriating  $300,000 
for  two  years,  and  the  latter  $80,000  an 
nually.  Illinois  and  other  western  states 
have  also  adopted  a  similar  course. 

These  measures  are  properly  regarded  as 
well  calculated  to  diffuse  information,  and 
promote  not  only  agricultural  improvement, 
but  the  general  welfare  of  the  community. 
To  this  should  be  added  the  fact  that  most 
states  publish  annually  an  abstract  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  county  agricultural  so 
cieties  for  general  gratuitous  distribution. 
Many  of  the  states  produce  volumes  of  great 
value.  Ohio  distributes  from  twenty  to 
thirty  thousand  copies.  Massachusetts  pub 
lishes  ten  thousand  copies,  and  Maine  as 
many  more.  These  various  instrumentalities 
are  now  in  constant  activity,  and  are  exerting 
an  immense  influence. 

Allusion  should  also  be  made  to  the 
establishment,  in  some  of  the  states,  of  agri 
cultural  colleges,  where  special  attention  is 
to  be  given  to  the  various  sciences  which 
bear  directly  or  indirectly  upon  practical 
agriculture.  Michigan  was  the  first  to  lead 
off  in  this  direction ;  a  liberal  endowment 
was  granted  by  the  state.  New  York,  Mary 
land,  and  other  states  soon  followed  ;  but  the 
results  of  these  institutions  are  not  yet  at 
tained,  nor  can  they  at  present  be  fully 
appreciated,  since  time  only  can  prove  their 
value  and  their  efficiency. 

This  brief  survey  of  the  growth  of  the 
facilities  for  information  upon  agricultural 
subjects  and  the  appliances  brought  to  bear 
upon  the  instruction  of  the  young  farmer, 
will  sufficiently  indicate  the  rapidity  of  the 
progress  which  has  been  made  in  this  par 
ticular  direction  within  the  last  ten  or 


twenty  years,  and  justify  the  hope  and  ex 
pectation  of  the  most  splendid  results  in  the 
future. 

It  ought  not  to  be  overlooked,  in  this 
connection,  that  there  has  been  a  most  de 
cided  progress  within  the  last  twenty  years 
in  agricultural  chemistry  and  kindred  sci 
ences.  This  progress  has  been  made  not 
wholly  and  strictly  by  scientific  men  in  our 
own  country,  but  scientific  discoveries  in 
agriculture  are  the  property  of  the  intelli 
gent  farmer  everywhere,  and  those  made 
abroad  have  had  a  material  and  important 
influence  in  promoting  the  advancement  of 
practical  agriculture  among  us. 

The  labors  of  Arthur  Young  and  Sir 
Humphry  Davy  were  exceedingly  valuable, 
but  they  bear  the  same  relation  to  more  re 
cent  investigations  that  the  labors  of  the 
pioneer  in  the  western  forest  do  to  those  of 
the  sons  who  till  the  soil  and  reap  the  har 
vests  for  which  the  father  had  prepared  the 
way.  The  former  did  more  than  any  other 
man  to  stir  up  the  agricultural  mind  of  his 
country.  The  latter  was  the  first  to  give 
principles  to  practice,  and  he  announced  the 
new  philosophy  in  these  words :  "  Vegetables 
derive  their  component  principles — which 
are,  for  the  most  part,  hydrogen,  carbon, 
oxygen,  and  nitrogen — either  from  the  at 
mosphere  by  which  they  are  surrounded,  or 
from  the  soil  in  which  they  grow.  The  proc 
ess  of  vegetation  appears  to  depend  upon 
the  perpetual  assimilation  of  various;  substan 
ces  to  the  organs  of  the  plant,  in  conse 
quence  of  the  exertion  of  their  living  and 
of  their  chemical  affinities." 

The  conversion  of  inorganic  bodies  into 
gases,  and  the  assimilation  of  gases  by  or 
ganic  structures,  formed  the  basis  for  a  new 
starting  point,  and  had  never  before  been  an 
nounced.  Carbonic  acid  had  been  discov 
ered  by  Black  in  1752.  Dr.  Rutherford 
called  attention  to  nitrogen  in  1772,  and 
Priestley  discovered  oxygen  in  1774,  and  ob 
tained  it  from  the  leaves  of  plants;  and 
when  Davy  appeared  with  a  series  of  inves 
tigations  more  intimately  connected  with 
agriculture,  the  properties  of  air  and  water 
had  not  long  been  known.  But  little  prog 
ress  had  been  made  in  vegetable  anatomy. 
Most  of  all  that  is  known  with  regard  to  the 
organs  of  plants— their  mode  of  growth  by 
food  taken  from  the  air,  from  water,  from 
manure,  and  from  the  soil  by  transmuting 
processes  of  wonderful  delicacy — has  been 
discovered  within  the  last  fifty  years.  Since 


100 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


Davy's  time,  the  processes  of  chemical  anal 
ysis  have  been  vastly  improved,  and  abstract 
chemistry  itself  has  grown  up  to  a  science 
of  inestimable  importance,  which  it  had  not 
in  his  day.  The  accumulation  of  scientific 
facts  is  the  work  of  time,  and  it  was  not  till 
1840  that  Liebig  prepared  his  report  on  the 
progress  of  agriculture  for  the  British  Asso 
ciation  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  and 
opened  a  new  world  of  thought  and  study, 
awakened  the  attention  of  practical  farmers 
to  the  importance  of  applying  the  results  of 
chemical  investigations,  and,  in  some  re 
spects,  essentially  modified  the  practice  of 
all  civilized  countries. 

Liebig  said,  in  his  "Organic  Chemistry,"  that 
"  to  manure  an  acre  of  land  with  forty  pounds 
of  bone  dust,  is  sufficient  to  supply  three 
crops  of  wheat,  clover,  potatoes,  turnips,  etc., 
with  phosphates,  but  the  form  in  which  they 
are  restored  to  the  soil  does  not  appear  to  be 
a  matter  of  indifference.  For  the  more  finely 
the  bones  are  reduced  to  powder,  and  the 
more  intimately  they  are  mixed  with  the  soil, 
the  more  easily  they  are  assimilated.  The 
most  easy  and  practical  mode  of  effecting 
their  division  is  to  pour  over  the  bones,  in 
the  state  of  fine  powder,  half  of  their  weight 
of  sulphuric  acid,  diluted  with  three  or  four 
parts  of  water."  The  leading  idea  in  this 
and  other  propositions  of  Liebig  opened  the 
way  for  the  whole  system  of  artificial  manur 
ing,  which  has  extended  so  far  in  modern 
times.  Previous  to  that  time,  the  fanner 
had  confined  himself  to  the  use  either  of  a 
compost  of  animal  and  vegetable  materials, 
or  of  other  simple  substitutes,  as  ashes,  salt, 
soot,  or  something  of  the  kind ;  but  not  in 
accordance  with  any  fixed  principles  derived 
from  reasoning  or  the  results  of  observation, 
but  simply  because  experience  had  shown 
them  to  be  beneficial.  Liebig's  idea  was 
that  sulphuric  acid,  the  vitriol  of  commerce, 
would  make  the  neutral  phosphate  of  lime 
soluble,  and  give  it  a  powerful  action  in  the 
soil.  For  the  subsequent  discovery  and  use 
of  mineral  phosphates  we  are  indebted  to 
the  same  source,  the  development  and  appli 
cation  of  the  views  first  advanced  by  Liebig. 
Immediately  after  the  announcement  of 
his  propositions,  experiments  were  instituted 
with  such  satisfactory  results  that  manufac 
tories  were  established  in  England,  and  the 
importation  of  bones  from  Germany,  the 
United  States,  and  South  America,  became  of 
great  importance  to  commerce  as  well  as  to 
agriculture  ;  while  the  earnest  researches  of 


scientific  men  soon  discovered  the  most  ap 
proved  formulas  for  the  manufacture  of  su 
perphosphate  of  lime,  and  other  concentra 
ted  artificial  manures.  The  best  methods 
of  preparing  these  substances  were  thus  made 
known  both  by  scientific  and  practical  men. 

The  advantage  of  these  discoveries  cannot 
be  disputed,  for  though  the  farmer  may  be 
liable  to  be  deceived  in  the  purchase  of  a 
particular  kind  of  superphosphate,  yet  there 
is  no  longer  any  doubt  of  its  great  value  as 
a  fertilizer,  when  properly  made ;  while  its 
introduction  rendered  substances  previously 
of  little  worth,  easily  and  quickly  available 
for  the  nourishment  of  plants,  and  hence 
very  valuable. 

It  was  these  investigations  that  made 
known  the  value  of  guano  as  a  fertilizer. 
This  substance  has  come  into  use  since  the 
year  1840,  when  twenty  casks  were  landed 
in  England,  where  it  was  soon  found  to  be  a 
most  valuable  manure.  So  great  was  the 
confidence  immediately  inspired  in  its  value 
as  a  means  of  increasing  the  products  and 
renovating  the  soil  of  the  country,  that  the 
very  next  year,  1841,  seven  vessels  were  em 
ployed  to  convey  1,733  tons  from  the  Chin- 
cha  Islands  to  England,  and  the  number  in 
creased  in  1842  to  forty-one  British  and 
three  foreign  vessels,  and  the  amount  im 
ported  to  13,094  tons.  Before  the  close  of 
1844,  no  less  than  29,000  tons  were  import 
ed  into  that  country  from  the  coast  of  Peru, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  many  thousand  tons 
which  came  from*  the  Ichaboe  and  other 
guano  islands  at  that  time  discovered.  In 
1855,  no  less  than  210,000  tons  were  sold  in 
England,  being  an  increase  of  twenty  per 
cent,  on  the  consumption  of  1854,  which 
was  at  least  twenty  per  cent,  over  that  of 
1853.  From  1841,  the  date  of  the  extraction 
of  guano,  to  any  extent,  from  the  Chincha 
Islands,  to  the  end  of  1856,  the  quantity 
removed  from  those  islands  alone  reached 
the  enormous  figure  of  two  millions  of  tons, 
and  the  aggregate  amount  of  sales  in  that 
time  was  $100,263,519.  From  the  com 
mencement  of  1851  to  the  end  of  1858, 
there  were  imported  into  the  United  States 
and  used,  no  less  than  673,412  tons.  As  a 
means  of  renovating  many  of  the  tobacco 
and  cotton  worn  lands  of  the  southern  states, 
guano  must  be  regarded  as  a  valuable  addi 
tion  to  the  sources  of  fertility  made  known 
by  modern  science. 

A  thousand  other  facts  might  be  mention 
ed  to  show  that  science  has  done  much  for 


AGRICULTURE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


101 


agriculture,  arid  that  there  has  been  no  small 
degree  of  progress  already  made,  while  in 
vestigation  and  experiment  are,  at  the  pres 
ent  time,  being  pushed  with  such  vigor  as 
to  promise  far  more  valuable  and  tangible 
results  in  future. 

THE     PROSPECTS      OF     AGRICULTURE     IN     THIS 
COUNTRY. 

Having  given  some  of  the  features  of  ag 
ricultural  progress  in  the  preceding  pages,  it 
is  proper  to  say,  in  conclusion,  that  the  pres 
ent  is  but  the  dawn  of  a  new  era — an  era 
of  improvements  of  which  we  cannot  yet 
form  an  adequate  conception.  The  scientific 
discoveries,  the  mechanical  inventions,  the 
general  spirit  of  inquiry,  and  the  wide-spread 
intelligence  which  have  been  alluded  to,  in 
dicate  that  a  greater  application  of  the  mind 
to  the  labors  of  the  hand  distinguishes  the 
present  generation  over  all  preceding  times 
in  a  manner  which  those  only  can  appre 
ciate  who  will  look  back  and  consider  the 
past — the  slow  growth  of  new  ideas  and 
new  practices,  the  struggles  with  prejudice, 
ignorance,  the  want  of  markets,  and  the 
want  of  means,  all  of  which  contributed  to 
depress  American  agriculture  fifty  years 
ago,  and  to  keep  it  at  a  point  wretchedly 
low,  compared  even  with  what  it  is  at  the 
present  time.  We  have  seen  not  only  the 
calling,  but  the  men  who  live  by  it  gradu 
ally  rising  in  dignity,  in  self-respect,  and  the 
respect  of  mankind.  It  is  an  imperative  law 
of  society  that  educated  mind  and  educated 
labor  will  take  its  position  above  uneducated ; 
in  proportion  as  the  farmer  of  to-day  is  bet 
ter  educated  and  more  intelligent  than  the 
farmer  of  half  a  century  ago,  the  former 
would  naturally  stand  above  the  latter  in  the 
general  estimation  of  the  community.  But 
in  many  other  respects  the  farmer  of  the  pres 
ent  day  is  far  in  advance  of  his  forefathers. 
His  labor  is  easier,  and  his  mental  activity  is 
consequently  greater.  The  same  amount  of 
manual  labor  produces  more,  and  the  farmer 
has  time  for  the  culture  of  the  mind  and  the 
social  virtues,  as  well  as  the  farm,  and  agri 
culture  holds  a  position  of  pre-eminence  un 
known  at  any  former  period. 

These  changes  we  have  seen  in  our  own 
day,  and  we  know  that  a  higher  develop 
ment  of  our  agricultural  wealth  must  go 
hand  in  hand  with  an  increase  of  population, 
if  there  were  no  other  stimulus  to  its  growth. 
Now,  if  we  consider  the  immense  area  of  the 
United  States,  and  the  facilities  for  the  ex 


pansion  of  our  population,  the  mind  itself  is 
incapable  of  fixing  limits  to  the  increase  tff 
this  grand  interest,  already  involving  a  great 
er  amount  of  the  W3alth  of  the  country  than 
any  other,  produaipg  Annually  to  tlic  /a'ue 
of  more  than  sixteen  hundred  millions  of 
dollars,  and  capable  of  a  hundred-fold  great 
er  development  than  that  which  it  has  al 
ready  attained. 

The  original  area  of  the  country  was  but 
820,680  sq.  miles,  till  the  purchase  of  Lou 
isiana,  in  1803,  brought  an  addition  of  899,- 
579  more,  and  the  acquisition  of  Florida,  in 
1819,  an  addition  of  66,900  square  miles. 
The  annexation  of  Texas  gave  us  318,000, 
and  that  of  Oregon  308,052,  to  which  is  to 
be  added  the  territory  acquired  by  the 
treaty  with  Mexico,  of  522,955  square  miles, 
and  we  have  at  the  present  time  the  vast  ex 
tent  of  nearly  three  millions  of  square  miles, 
or  2,936,166. 

It  is  expected  that  the  census  of  1860 
will  show  that  the  population  is  somewhat 
over  thirty  millions;  possibly  it  may  be 
thirty-three  millions.  The  annual  increase 
since  1790  has  been  four  times  as  great  as 
that  of  Russia,  six  times  as  great  as  that  of 
Great  Britain,  nine  times  as  great  as  that  of 
Austria,  and  ten  times  as  great  as  that  of 
France  ;  and  if  the  ratio  of  increase  in  our 
population  from  1840  to  1850  should  con 
tinue  to  1890,  we  shall  have  a  population 
of  one  hundred  and  seven  millions.  The 
density  of  population  in  1 850  was  less  than 
eight  persons  to  the  square  mile,  or,  more  ac 
curately,  7.90.  That  of  the  New  England 
states  was  less  than  forty -two  (41.94)  to  the 
square  mile.  That  of  the  middle  states  was 
about  fifty -eight  (57.79),while  Texas  and  Cal 
ifornia  had  less  than  one  to  the  square  mile. 
If  we  had  the  density  of  population  to  be 
found  in  Spain,  it  would  give  us  two  hun 
dred  millions ;  if  that  of  France,  it  would 
give  us  five  hundred  millions ;  if  that  of 
Belgium  (402),  it  would  give  us  eleven  hun 
dred  and  eighty  millions. 

The  area  of  the  Pacific  slope  of  this 
country  is  786,002  square  miles,  or  26.09 
per  cent,  of  the  whole  territory  of  the  Unit 
ed  States.  The  area  of  the  Atlantic  slope, 
proper,  is  514,416  square  miles,  a  ratio  of 
only  17.52  to  the  whole.  The  area  of  the 
gulf  region  is  325,537  square  miles,  or 
11.09  per  cent,  of  the  whole;  that  of  the 
northern  lake  region  is  112,649  square 
miles,  or  only  3.83  per  cent.,  while  that  of 
the  Mississippi  valley  and  the  region  wateiv 


102 


AGRICULTURE    IN   THK    UNITED    STATES. 


ed  and  .drained  .by.its  tributaries  is  1,217,- 
562'  square  miles,,  qr  4i,.4"7  per  cent,  of  the 
•whole,  or  more  t  thau  two-fifths  of  our  na 
tional  ie/rttbr/."  tl  I  «V*  •  •  • 

*  The  number  of  Tarms  and  plantations  in 
the  United  States  in  1850  was  1,449,075, 
and  the  number  of  acres  of  improved  land 
in  farms,  113,032,614.  In  1860  there  were 
over  two  millions  of  farms,  and  the  number 
of  acres  of  improved  land  was  163,261,389. 
The  unimproved  land  in  farms,  in  1850,  was 
180,528,800  acres,  and  this  had  increased, 
by  the  taking  up  of  new  lands  in  1860,  to 
246,508,244  acres.  The  cash  value  of  farms, 
in  1850  amounting  to  $3,271,575,420,  had 
risen  in  1860  to  $6,650,872,507;  or,  in 
other  words,  while  the  farming  lands  had 
increased  fifty  per  cent,  in  average,  their 
value,  from  the  greater  density  of  popula 
tion,  and  improved  methods  of  cultivation, 
had  doubled. 

The  domestic  animals  of  the  farm  num 
bered  as  follows  at  the  dates  specified ;  the 
last  column  being  estimated  by  the  Agricul 
tural  Department : — 

June,  1850.  June,  1860.  Jan.,  1S66. 

Horses 4,336,719          6,115,458  6.691,220 

Asses  and  Mules 559,331          1,129,553  1,054,337 

Milch  Cows 6,385,094          8,728.862  ) 

Working  Oxen 1,700,694          2,240,075  V  26,935,616 

Other  Cattle 10, 293,069  14,67 1 ,400  \ 

Sheep 21,723,220  23,317,756  41.253,652 

Swine 30,354,213  32,555,267  28,845,003 

The  value  of  all  the  live  stock  in  1850 
was  reckoned  at  $544,180,516.  In  1860  it 
had  a  little  more  than  doubled,  being 
$1,107,490,216.  In  January,  1866,  their 
value  had  nearly  doubled  again,  though, 
owing  to  the  extraordinary  demand  of  the 
war,  their  numbers  had  not  greatly  increased, 
except  sheep,  which  had  risen  from  twenty- 
three  millions  to  forty-one  millions.  The 
estimated  value  of  the  .live  stock  of  the 
country  in  January,  1866,  according  to  data 
furnished  by  the  Agricultural  Department, 
was  $2,171,283,799. 


The  value  of  the  crops  of  any  particular 
year  are  ascertained  with  difficulty  and  only 
approximately.  In  1866,  those  of  twenty- 
two  of  the  northern  states  were  reported  by 
the  Agricultural  Department  as  having  been, 
in  1863,  $955,764,322  ;  in  1864,  $1,504,- 
543,690;  and  in  1865,  $1,047,360,167. 
During  these  years  the  crops  of  the  south 
ern  states  were  greatly  disturbed  by  the 
war,  and  comparatively  little  of  their  great 
staples — cotton,  rice,  and  sugar — were  plant 
ed.  The  aggregate  value  of  the  crops  of  an 
average  year  for  the  whole  country  will  cer 
tainly  not  fall  below  $2,000,000,000. 

The  agricultural  productions  of  the  Pacific 
slope,  though  differing  somewhat  from  those 
of  the  Atlantic  states,  are  fast  rivalling  them 
in  proportionate  value.  The  long  dry  sea 
son,  while  it  prohibits  some  crops,  is  favor 
able  to  others,  and,  by  the  very  general  intro 
duction  of  irrigation,  the  production  of  wheat, 
of  a  peculiar  but  highly  nutritious  character, 
of  the  grape  and  other  fruits,  and  of  immense 
root  crops,  is  already  surpassing  that  of  the 
farming  lands  of  the  east.  The  vintage  of 
California  already  supplies  a  large  portion  of 
the  wine  consumed  in  the  United  States,  and 
its  wheat  is  largely  exported.  The  state  is 
also  devoting  great  attention  to  silk  culture. 

Texas  and  the  western  portion  of  the  Gulf 
region,  on  the  other  hand,  proves  to  be  the 
finest  grazing  country  in  the  world,  and  its 
millions  of  cattle  and  sheep  will  ere  long 
supply  the  markets  of  the  continent.  With 
a  variety  of  climate  which  enables  its  agri 
culturists  to  cultivate  all  the  productions 
of  the  temperate,  and  most  of  those  of  the 
semi-tropical  zone,  there  is  a  boundless  future 
of  prosperity  for  the  agriculturist  of  the 
United  States  to  look  forward  to,  and  he 
may  well  hope  and  expect  that  his  country 
will,  at  no  distant  day,  furnish  to  the  world 
in  rich  profusion  whatever  of  the  products 
of  agriculture  they  may  need. 


COTTON  CULTURE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ABUNDANCE  OF  LAND— HIGH  WAGES  OP 
LABOR  DEPENDENT  ON  COTTON  AND 
GOLD. 

THE  high  prices  of  labor  in  our  country, 
and  the  large  profits  of  capital,  have  been  re 
marked  from  the  earliest  period  of  our  his 
tory.  Adam  Smith,  in  his  "Wealth  of  Na 
tions,"  proposed  an  explanation  of  these  two 
peculiarities,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that 
his  keen  insight  discovered  their  true  cause 
in  the  abundance  and  cheapness  of  good 
laud.  The  large  products  of  our  rich  virgin 
soil,  purchased  from  the  Indians  at  a  mere 
nominal  price,  enabled  the  farmer  to  oft'er 
high  wages  to  the  laborer,  and  large  interest 
to  the  capitalist.  The  owner  of  the  land, 
who  was  generally  a  laborer  himself,  paid  no 
rent,  and  had  made  but  a  small  outlay  to 
purchase  his  farm,  so  that  nearly  the  whole 
of  his  product  was  the  reward  of  labor.  If 
he  could  find  a  poor  man  who  had  not  means 
enough  to  purchase  and  stock  a  farm,  he 
could  afford  to  offer  him  high  wages,  because 
he  would  be  himself  more  than  paid  by  his 
increased  products.  These  high  wages  soon 
enabled  the  hired  laborer  to  become  a  land- 
proprietor  himself,  and  both  were  then  com 
petitors  in  the  market  for  all  the  labor  that 
could  be  hired.  This  competition  forced  the 
rate  of  wages  as  high  as  their  abundant 
crops  authorized  them  to  pay.  The  artisans 
of  the  towns  were  tempted  from  their  shops 
by  the  large  reward  offered  for  their  labor  in 
the  country ;  and  the  few  who  remained  at 
their  trades  asked  high  prices  for  their  work. 
These  they  readily  obtained,  for  their  only 
competitors  were  across  the  sea.  three  thou 
sand  miles  distant,  with  slow  and  irregular 
communication,  so  that  the  foreign  mechanics 
could  not  force  those  who  were  here  to 
reduce  their  prices  to  the  standard  of 
the  old  world.  Thus,  in  the  town  and 
the  country,  in  mechanical  as  well  as  agri 
cultural  labor,  a  high  rate  of  wages  was 


kept  up  by  the  abundance  and  cheapness  of 
good  land. 

As  capital  is  an  aid  to  labor,  by  enlarging 
its  products,  the  rate  of  interest  is  high 
where  labor  is  productive.  The  distrust  of 
capitalists  who  were  separated  from  us  by 
the  wide  Atlantic,  and  their  ignorance  of  our 
pursuits,  and  means,  and  credit,  prevented 
them  from  entering  into  competition  with 
the  capitalists  here,  so  that  they  easily  ob 
tained  all  the  borrower  was  able  to  pay. 
This  was  a  very  high  rate,  because  the 
money  was  of  great  advantage.  Whether  the 
farmer  borrowed  it  to  buy  more  lands,  or 
ploughs,  or  stock,  or  the  mechanic  to  en 
large  his  powers  of  production  by  new  ma 
chines,  or  tools,  or  materials,  both  were  able 
to  pay  a  large  per-centage,  on  account  of  the 
profits  of  their  increased  business.  Thus 
cheap,  rich  lands  not  only  advanced  the  rate 
of  wages,  but  of  interest  also. 

This  explanation  was  satisfactory  during 
all  the  period  of  our  colonial  history.  It 
was  still  plausible  after  the  war  of  Indepen 
dence,  for,  although  our  population  had  ad 
vanced  into  the  interior,  and  the  price  of 
lands  along  the  sea-board  had  risen  so  that  the 
products  of  the  soil  were  charged,  before 
they  could  be  exported,  with  rent  or  with 
the  cost  of  inland  transportation,  leaving  a 
smaller  portion  of  the  proceeds  for  the  share 
of  the  laborer,  the  wars  in  Europe  con 
nected  with  the  French  Revolution  increased 
the  demand  for  breadstuff's,  and  maintained 
them  at  high  prices.  Our  neutral  position 
gave  us  the  carrying  trade  between  the  bel 
ligerents,  and  this  required  a  large  number 
of  American  ships.  These  being  built  of 
timber  procured  from  our  abundant  forests, 
brought  large  returns  to  the  laborer.  The 
trees  that  were  felled  and  converted  into 
ship-timber  cost  nothing,  or  but  a  trifie ;  so 
that  the  whole  value  of  the  timber  consisted 
of  wages  only,  and  the  cost  of  transporta 
tion  to  the  sea-port.  As  this  distance  was 
short,  nearly  the  whole  was  wages. 


NOTE.  It  is  not  supposed  people  will  indorse  some  of  the  sentiments  advanced  in  this  Article — they  nre  such  ns  should  he 
expected  from  a  ^oiithern  source.  Professor  McCay  is  one  of  the  most  ahle  writers  of  the  South;  is  not  a  po  itkian,  so  iar  ns  we 
know,  and  has  procured  a  very  instructive  and  valuable  Article,  it  being  written  before  the  wnr,  will  ever  remain  one  of  tlie  mo<t 
jinparlnil  and  faithful  descriptions  of  the  Cotton  interest,  and  exposition  of  the  views  of  the  people  of  the  Pouth,  on  the  system  of 
laiior  under  which  the  jrreat  staple  is  cultivated,  to  be  found  on  lecord.  We  tbiuk  it  will  be  perused  with  much  interest  by  the 
general  reuder. — Publts/ier. 


104 


COTTOH      CULTURE. 


Thus,  even  to  the  war  of  1812,  our  rich, 
cheap  lands  were  the  source  of  our  pros 
perity,  and  the  explanation  propose.d  by  Dr. 
Smith  for  the  high  rate  of  wages  and  of  in 
terest  prevailing  here  was  still  satisfactory. 
But  when  peace  was  restored,  in  1815,  and 
the  immense  armies  of  the  different  states 
of  Europe  were  returned  to  their  homes  to 
become  producers  instead  of  consumers ; 
when  the  several  countries  encouraged  their 
own  shipping  and  their  own  farmers  by  re 
storing  their  usual  prohibitions  and  restric 
tions,  the  advantages  we  possessed  before 
the  war  were  very  much  lessened.  Our 
country  had  by  this  t\me  become  more  popu 
lous.  Lands  along  the  sea-board  had  risen  in 
price ;  the  people  had  penetrated  the  inte 
rior  ;  the  distant  transportation  had  become 
a  heavy  burden  to  the  producer ;  and  thus, 
at  the  very  same  time  that  the  European  de 
mand  was  lessened,  and  the  price  depressed, 
our  ability  to  supply  the  demand  with  profit 
was  decreased.  The  money  value  of  our 
products  was  diminished,  and  the  laborer's 
share  in  this  value  was  at  the  same  time  less 
ened.  The  usefulness  of  our  cheap  lands 
was  decreased,  and  their  advantages  were 
less  and  less  experienced. 

If  we  come  down  to  recent  times,  our  ad 
vantages  have  not  improved.  Our  country 
has  become  larger.  The  region  of  cheap 
land  is  beyond  the  Alleghanies.  We  must 
take  a  journey  of  a  thousand  miles  from  New 
York,  crossing  the  Ohio  and  the  Wabash, 
passing  Indiana  and  Illinois,  before  we  reach 
the  country  of  cheap  lands.  The  grain  that 
is  brought  down  the  Hudson  from  Albany 
has  been  carried  more  than  three  hundred 
miles,  in  the  Erie  canal,  from  Buffalo,  and 
more  than  a  thousand,  by  vessels  on  the  lakes, 
from  Chicago,  and  thither  from  the  interior  of 
Illinois  by  railroad.  There  the  land  on 
which  it  was  produced  is  worth  ten,  twenty, 
fifty  dollars  per  acre.  Now,  however  cheap 
the  transportation  by  railroad  and  on  the 
lakes,  the  canal,  and  the  river,  the  freight 
must  be  a  large  per-centage  of  the  sales  at 
New  York.  The  rent  of  land  in  Illinois  is 
also  to  be  deducted,  leaving  but  a  small  bal 
ance  to  be  finally  paid  the  laborer  who  has 
produced  it.  We  must  go  hundreds  of  miles 
further  to  reach  the  region  of  cheap  land, 
and  then  the  increased  cost  of  transportation 
will  neutralize  the  advantage  of  procuring 
land  at  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  per  acre. 

Now,  will  the  cheap  lands  of  Iowa,  and 
Wisconsin,  and  Nebraska,  explain  our  high 


rates  of  wages  ?  In  colonial  times  the  prod 
uct  was  made  along  the  Atlantic,  and  nearly 
the  whole  price  at  Philadelphia  went  to  the 
laborer.  Now,  a  large  per-centage  must  be 
deducted  for  the  two  thousand  miles'  carriage 
by  land,  lake,  canal,  and  river,  and  the  la 
borer's  share  is  small.  The  truth  is,  the 
pioneer  is  poorly  paid ;  he  is  struggling  hard 
for  a  mere  pittance.  His  receipts  are  small, 
and  he  can  give  but  a  small  price  for  the 
hireling  he  employs  to  assist  him  on  his 
farm.  He  is  no  longer  the  cause  of  high 
wages  through  the  whole  breadth  of  the 
land.  His  influence  and  empire  have  ceased. 

Besides,  our  country  has  increased  in 
population  so  largely,  that  the  foreign  de 
mand  for  flour  and  other  products  of  our 
lands  will  not  pay  for  a  tithe  of  our  neces 
sary  wants,  which  must  be  supplied  from 
abroad.  Our  people  have  increased  in  wealth, 
and  their  wants  for  wines,  and  silks,  and  other 
luxuries,  cannot  be  paid  for  by  the  export  of 
flour  and  grain,  and  the  products  of  our  for 
ests.  If,  besides  agricultural  productions,  we 
are  forced  to  export  manufactures  to  pay  for 
our  foreign  supplies,  the  price  of  labor, 
which  is  the  main  element  in  the  cost  of 
manufactures,  must  at  once  fall  to  the  Euro 
pean  standard. 

If,  then,  we  had  cheap  lands  even  on  the 
Atlantic,  we  could  not  pay  for  our  present 
large  supplies  of  foreign  goods,  so  that  these 
could  not  maintain  our  high  rates  for  wages 
and  interest ;  much  less  are  they  able  to  do 
it  when  they  are  thousands  of  miles  from  the 
coast. 

A  reference  to  the  history  of  our  foreign 
commerce  will  illustrate  the  principles  we 
have  been  referring  to.  When  our  general 
government  was  first  formed,  our  population 
was  less  than  four  millions  ;  of  these  ninety- 
five  per  cent,  were  along  the  Atlantic  slope, 
their  average  distance  from  the  coast  being 
less  than  a  hundred  miles.  Our  average  do 
mestic  exports  for  the  five  years  from  1790 
to  1794,  were  less  than  twenty-two  millions  of 
dollars.  Of  these,  flour  alone  averaged  more 
than  800,000  barrels,  and  wheat  more  than 
1,200,000  bushels;  making  a  value  of  more 
than  six  millions  of  dollars.  Other  products 
of  the  farm  and  the  forest  made  up  nearly  the 
whole  of  the  balance.  Now  when  lands 
were  cheap,  and  near  to  the  seaports  ;  when 
the  forests  bordering  on  the  coast  were  not 
yet  thinned  or  cut  down,  the  laborer  had  a 
rich  and  abundant  harvest,  and  high  wages 
could  be  maintained  by  our  cheap  lands. 


ABUNDANCE  OF  LAND WAGES  OF  LABOR  DEPENDENT  ON  COTTON  AND  GOLD.   105 


Ten  years  later,  our  population  had  risen 
to  five  millions,  of  which  ninety  per  cent,  yet 
occupied  the  Atlantic  slope.  Our  domestic 
exports  had  risen  to  forty  millions  for  the  five 
years  after  1 800  ;  and  of  these,  flour  alone 
amounted  to  eight  millions  and  a  half,  its 
average  price  being  $8.40,  and  the  number 
of  barrels  exceeding  a  million.  The  demand 
for  our  agricultural  products  was  now  large 
and  the  price  high;  so  that  the  imports 
could  yet  be  paid  for  by  the  products  of  our 
lands  and  our  forests.  These  were  still  near 
the  coast,  and  nearly  all  their  proceeds  be 
longed  to  the  labor  that  produced  them. 

In  1810  our  population  had  increased  to 
V, 000, 000,  of  which  80  per  cent,  were  on 
this  side  of  the  Alleghanies.  For  the  next 
two  years  which  preceded  the  war,  our  ex 
ports  of  domestic  produce  reached  $43,- 
000,000,  of  which  flour  constituted  one- 
fourth,  the  number  of  barrels  exceeding 
1,1 00,000,  and  the  average  price  being  $9.66. 
Other  products  of  our  lands,  yet  cheap  and 
near  the  coast,  made  up  a  large  portion  of 
the  means  we  used  to  pay  for  our  foreign 
supplies,  and  up  to  this  time  it  maybe  justly 
said  that  high  wages  were  sustained  by  the 
abundance  of  our.  fertile  lands. 

But  what  a  change  in  1820.  The  people 
had  increased  to  10,000,000,  40  per  cent,  of 
whom  had  their  homes  across  the  mountains. 
Our  exports  of  domestic  produce  were  over 
$50,000,000,  and  the  whole  demand  for  flour 
did  not  average,  for  the  five  years  after  1820, 
1,000,000  barrels,  and  that  at  only  $5.68 
per  barrel.  While  the  products  of  our 
lands  had  to  be  brought  much  further  to 
market,  the  amount  demanded  for  foreign 
countries,  and  the  prices  they  gave  for  them, 
had  -declined.  It  was  the  same  with  the 
products  of  the  forest.  For  the  ten  years 
after  the  war  they  were  less  than  for  the  ten 
years  before.  The  first  were  much  nearer 
the  sea,  and  for  the  last  we  gave  more  labor 
and  received  less  money.  The  efficiency  of 
cheap  lands  to  pay  for  our  imports  was 
gone,  and  their  power  to  keep  up  prices  de 
parted  also. 

If  we  come  down  to  1 850,  our  population  had 
reached  23, 000,000,  of  whom  only  54  percent, 
were  along  the  Atlantic.  The  centre  of  the  ag 
ricultural  population  had  receded  from  the  sea 
board  and  crossed  the  mountains.  The  grain 
produced  along  the  coast  was  all  wanted  at 
home.  New  England  did  not  produce  her  own 
supplies.  The  city  of  New  York  contained  a 
half  million  of  people,  who  could  not  be  fed 


by  the  surplus  of  the  empire  state.  The 
coal  and  iron  districts  of  Pennsylvania  had 
become  better  markets  for  grain  and  flour 
than  Philadelphia.  Populous  cities  had 
risen  in  the  west,  and  all  these  intercepted 
the  supplies  of  food  that  were  to  be  sent 
abroad  for  the  purchase  of  our  imports. 
The  only  flour  that  could  be  exported  had 
to  be  carried  from  five  to  fifteen  hundred 
miles.  The  foreign  demand  was  no  greater 
than  it  had  been  fifty  years  before,  and  our 
exports  only  reached  1,000,000  of  barrels, 
while  $163,000,000  were  needed  to  pay  for 
our  imports.  The  other  products  of  the 
west  were  small,  and  so  were  those  of  the 
forest.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  cheap 
lands  could  no  longer  furnish  the  supplies 
to  pay  for  our  imports,  much  less  could  they 
keep  up  the  price  of  labor  above  the  foreign 
standard.  The  advantages  furnished  by 
nature  in  the  early  history  of  our  country 
had  ceased,  and  we  were  thrown  on  other 
resources,  to  keep  up  the  prosperity  and 
progress  of  our  people. 

But  this  prosperity  has  not  ceased. 
There  has  been  no  step  backward  in  our 
career.  The  high  prices  of  labor  and  of 
capital  have  been  sustained,  and  the  onward 
progress  of  our  country,  in  power,  wealth, 
and  greatness,  has  never  received  the  slight 
est  check. 

That  labor  is  still  higher  than  in  Europe, 
is  abundantly  evident.  We  import  a  large 
amount  of  cotton  goods ;  the  importer  pays 
the  expenses  of  transportation  across  the 
sea,  and  a  duty  of  24  per  cent,  at  the  custom 
house,  and  yet  sells  his  goods  at  the  same 
price  with  the  American  manufacturer  who 
has  bought  his  raw  material  at  a  lower  price 
than  the  foreign  producer.  There  is  no  ex 
planation  of  this  possible,  except  that  labor 
and  capital  are  higher  in  this  country  than 
in  Europe.  The  iron  ore  of  Pennsylvania 
is  as  good  and  abundant  as  in  England  ; 
fuel  and  limestone  are  as  cheap,  and  as  near 
to  the  beds  of  ore ;  but  the  English  iron  is 
not  only  imported  under  heavy  duties,  but 
carried  into  the  interior,  and  sold  in  the  very 
neighborhood  of  the  American  furnaces. 
These  two  manufactures  have  long  been 
favored  by  the  protection  of  government. 
Under  the  device  of  specific  duties  and 
minimums,  the  tariff  for  a  while  amount 
ed  to  a  prohibition  on  many  of  these 
goods.  On  all  it  was  very  large  and  bur 
densome.  The  manufacturers  have  had 
time  and  opportunity  to  learn  and  introduce 


106 


COTTON    CULTURE. 


all  the  improvements,  and  skill,  and  knowl 
edge  that  would  facilitate  and  cheapen  their 
production ;  they  have  had  enterprise,  and 
capital,  and  energy  to  manage  and  direct 
them ;  and  there  is  no  possible  explanation 
of  the  continued  import  of  these  articles  to 
the  amount  of  millions  and  tens  of  millions 
of  dollars  every  year,  unless  labor  and  capi 
tal  were  dearer  here  than  in  England. 

Perhaps  a  more  striking  proof  that  wages 
are  higher  here  than  in  Europe  may  be  found 
in  the  immense  emigration  into  the  United 
States  from  foreign  countries.  The  principal 
motive  of  these  emigrants  is  to  improve  their 
condition.  The  Irish  laborers  who  rejoiced 
in  the  old  country  at  having  meat  once  a 
week,  are  here  able  to  place  it  on  their  tables 
three  times  a  day  ;  to  whet  their  appetites 
with  as  much  whiskey  as  they  may  wish;  to 
enjoy  comforts  and  luxuries  they  never 
dreamed  of  abroad ;  and  to  send  back  to 
the  parents,  and  brothers,  and  sisters  they 
left  behind,  millions  of  dollars  every  year, 
that  they  also  may  come  here  and  partici 
pate  in  the  same  prosperity.  The  Germans 
bid  adieu  to  their  homes  and  fatherland  that 
they  love  so  well,  and  come  over  by  tens  of 
thousands  to  buy  land,  and  build  fine  barns, 
and  lay  up  treasures  for  old  age  or  for  their 
children ;  while  in  their  own  country  they 
would  have  been  poor  and  humble  peasants 
all  their  lives. 

This  high  price  of  wages  is  of  the  utmost 
importance.  It  is  the  source  of  our  rapid 
increase  in  wealth  and  greatness,  and  the 
exact  measure  of  our  prosperity.  It  belongs 
not  merely  to  the  day  laborer  who  works 
with  his  hands,  but  to  the  artisan  who  has 
skill,  and  to  the  man  of  talent  who  has 
brains.  The  superintendent  and  the  master 
manufacturer,  as  well  as  the  weaver,  receive 
high  wages ;  the  captain  of  the  ship  as  well 
as  the  sailor ;  the  merchant  as  well  as  his 
porter ;  and  as  industry,  enterprise,  and  tal 
ent  earn  higher  rewards  here  than  in  any 
other  country,  the  workman  is  inspired 
with  new  zeal,  his  aims  and  aspirations  are 
raised,  wealth  accumulates  with  greater 
rapidity,  and  every  thing  that  makes  a  coun 
try  prosperous  and  powerful  is  developed 
with  a  quicker  growth. 

If,  then,  it  is  a  fact  that  wages  are  higher 
here  than  in  Europe ;  if  this  is  a  fact  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  the  prosperity  and 
greatness  of  our  country,  the  question  recurs, 
How  is  this  high  rate  of  wages  sustained  ? 
If  not  by  cheap  lands,  what  other  advantage 


have  we  ?  the  gift  of  nature  or  our  own 
arrangement,  by  Avhich  we  are  able  to  have 
an  active  commerce  with  all  the  world,  and  a 
free  interchange  of  commodities  with  every 
country,  and  yet  to  sustain  a  higher  price  for 
labor  and  capital  than  the  other  nations  with 
whom  we  trade  ? 

The  only  way  to  keep  up  the  rates  of  wages 
and  of  money  higher  than  in  Europe,  is  to 
produce  some  articles  here  that  are  in  large 
demand  abroad,  for  which  we  have  peculiar 
advantages,  so  that  we  can  make  them 
cheaper  than  other  countries,  in  spite  of  our 
high  price  for  labor  and  our  high  interest  for 
money. 

Such  an  article  we  have  in  cotton.  It  is 
of  prime  necessity,  and  in  large  demand 
abroad,  because  it  furnishes  the  cheapest  ma 
terial  for  clothing,  and  for  other  purposes  of 
civilized  life  ;  it  is  produced  here  under  such 
favorable  circumstances  that  we  can  supply 
this  demand  at  a  fair  profit  to  ourselves  ;  this 
profitable  production  being  sustained  by  the 
favorab'le  circumstances  of  our  soil  and  cli- 
mate,  and  by  the  use  of  cheap  labor  in  the 
midst  of  a  country  where  labor  is  dear. 

The  large  demand  for  cotton  in  other  coun 
tries  enables  us  to  pay  for  the  imports  that 
we  must  have,  and  also  for  others  that  we 
ourselves  might  supply,  were  it  not  that  our 
high  rates  for  labor  and  capital  permit  the 
foreign  producers  to  undersell  us  in  our  own 
market,  after  paying  heavy  duties  at  the  sea 
ports,  and  the  cost  of  transportation  across 
the  Atlantic. 

It  is  easy  to  follow  out  the  course  of 
operations  by  which  these  effects  are  pro 
duced  :  the  planter  produces  the  cotton 
which  is  sold  abroad,  and  buys  the  foreign 
supplies  of  the  north,  the  south,  and  the 
west.  The  north  carries  the  cotton  to  tho 
foreign  country,  and  brings  back  the  returns. 
She  delivers  to  the  south  her  share,  and 
pays  for  the  balance  in  manufactures.  After 
supplying  herself,  she  buys  food  from  the 
west  with  the  remainder. 

The  manufactures  of  Europe  being  loaded 
with  the  expenses  of  transport  across  the 
seas,  and  with  duties  paid  to  the  general 

fovernment,  the  northern  manufacturer  can 
eep  the  prices  for  his  goods  up  to  the  im 
porting  limit,  and  these  the  south  is  able  to 
pay,  because  of  the  profit  on  her  great  staple, 
and  the  monopoly  she  has  of  the  European 
market. 

Thus  are  the  high  prices  of  labor  sustain 
ed,  and  the  foreign  supplies  of  the  country 


ABUNDANCE  OF  LAND WAGES  OF  LABOR  DEPENDENT  ON  COTTON  AND  GOLD.   107 


paid  for  by  the  export  of  cotton,  whose  cost 
of  production  does  not  depend  on  the  high 
paid  labor  of  the  country,  but  on  the  cheap 
labor  of  the  negro  slave. 

During  the  last  ten  years  the  gold  of  Cal 
ifornia  has  had  precisely  the  same  effect,  and 
its  operations  have  been  in  every  respect 
similar.  The  demand  abroad  for  gold  is  of 
course  unlimited ;  the  cheap  and  profitable 
production  of  it  here  depends  on  the  abun 
dant  gifts  of  nature.  The  eastern  manu 
facturers  sell  their  high-priced  products  •  to 
the  miners,  who  are  prevented  from  obtain 
ing  them  cheaper  by  the  distance  from 
Europe,  and  the  duties  of  the  custom-house, 
and  are  able  to  pay  for  them  by  the  abundant 
rewards  they  receive  from  their  own  labor. 
In  this  case  nature,  without  any  aid,  makes 
the  production  profitable  ;  in  the  other  nature 
is  aided  by  the  domestic  institutions  of  the 
south.  But  the  effects  are  in  both  cases 
identical. 

These  two  articles  are  assisted  by  rice  and 
tobacco,  which  are  in  almost  every  respect 
similar  to  cotton.  The  demand  abroad  is 
not  so  great,  and  our  advantages  in  their 
cultivation  over  the  other  producers  for  the 
European  market  are  not  so  marked  and  de 
cided.  They  are,  however,  real,  and  they 
may  properly  be  regarded  as  aids  to  cotton 
and  gold  in  producing  the  effect. 

The  propriety  and  correctness  of  this  ex 
planation  of  our  high  prices  is  not  affected 
by  the  fact  that  we  also  export  some  manu 
factures.  This  is  done  in  spite  of  their  high 
prices,  because  they  are  carried,  not  to  Eng 
land  and  France,  but  to  Mexico,  South 
America,  and  the  West  Indies,  where  our 
proximity  and  trade  give  us  some  advantages 
over  the  European  manufacturer.  A  few 
cotton  goods  are  carried  to  China ;  these  are 
coarse,  so  that  the  superior  cheapness  of  the 
raw  material  here  partly  compensates  for  the 
superior  cost  of  manufacturing.  This  ad 
vantage  is  aided  by  the  influence  of  fashion, 
habit,  and  accident ;  by  the  superior  adapted- 
ness  of  our  goods  to  their  wants  at  the  com 
mencement  of  the  export,  and  the  good  will 
and  good  name  that  were  then  secured ;  and 
by  various  other  inducements  which  often 
lead  to  the  purchase  of  higher-priced  com 
modities  even  in  a  free  and  open  market. 
Some  few  manufactures  are  even  carried 
to  England,  France,  and  Germany,  on  ac 
count  of  the  temporary  superiority  of  our 
workmen,  or  of  new  improvements  in  the 
mode  of  manufacture  not  yet  introduced 

7 


abroad,  or  of  new  inventions,  or  discoveries, 
or  patents.  The  whole  amount  of  these  being 
small,  and  due  to  real  advantages  we  have 
here,  or  to  accident,  or  fashion,  or  taste,  or 
prejudice,  do  not  form  any  objection  to  the 
explanation  we  have  proposed,  that  high 
prices  are  maintained  in  our  country  chiefly 
by  cotton. 

So  also  with  agricultural  products ;  we  ex 
port  some  of  these  to  the  markets  on  our 
own  continent,  where  we  have  many  advan 
tages  over  the  European  producer.  In  some 
of  these,  as  in  the  flour  to  Brazil,  these  are 
very  considerable.  Our  import  of  coffee  is 
large,  and  our  exports  in  return  are  very 
small,  and  consequently  freights  are  low. 
We  produce  a  kind  of  wheat  in  our  southern 
climate  manufactured  into  flour,  which  will 
not  readily  sour  in  the  voyage  across  the 
equator.  These  two  reasons  secure  a  large 
demand  for  the  brand  of  southern  mills. 
And  there  are  many  other  circumstances 
that  induce  a  few  shipments  without  refer 
ence  to  price,  so  that  even  the  small  influence 
of  our  agricultural  exports  in  sustaining 
prices  is  not  due  entirely  to  cheap  lands,  but 
to  position,  accident,  advantages  of  climate, 
and  other  things  of  this  kind. 

If  we  refer  to  our  commercial  statistics,  it 
will  be  seen  how  small  a  ratio  our  manufac 
tures  and  the  products  of  our  cheap  lands 
bear  to  the  whole  exports.  In  1850  the 
cotton,  rice,  and  tobacco  exported  were 
worth  eighty-five  millions  of  dollars,  and 
formed  sixty-three  per  cent,  of  the  whole 
value;  the  flour,  grain,  cheese,  butter,  lard, 
tallow,  beef,  pork,  naval  stores,  and  many 
other  animal  and  agricultural  products  were 
less  than  twenty-four  millions,  and  constitut 
ed  only  eighteen  per  cent,  of  the  domestic 
exports;  while  the  manufactures  of  every 
kind,  including  those  of  cotton,  were  only 
fifteen  millions,  forming  but  eleven  per  cent, 
of  the  exports.  For  1859,  the  last  year  of 
our  published  returns,  the  value  of  cotton, 
rice,  tobacco,  and  gold  was  $245,000,000, 
or  seventy-three  per  cent,  of  the  whole 
value  ;  all  the  products  of  animals  and  of  the 
field,  forty-two  millions,  or  thirteen  per  cent, 
of  all ;  and  manufactures  of  every  kind  (in 
cluding  eight  millions  of  cotton  goods)  thirty 
millions  of  dollars,  or  nine  per  cent,  of  the 
whole  exports.  Of  cotton  alone  the  exports 
were  $161,000,000. 

We  repeat,  then,  that  it  is  cotton  almost 
entirely  that  keeps  up  the  price  of  labor 
and  capital  in  this  country  above  the  rates 


108 


COTTON    CULTURE. 


of  every  other  part  of  the  world :  that  it 
is  aided  in  this  by  the  gold  of  California 
and  the  rice  and  tobacco  of  the  Southern 
states,  and,  to  a  very  small  and  insignificant 
extent,  by  our  cheap  lands  and  abundant 
forests  ;  that  cotton  brings  about  this  result 
because  it  is  in  large  demand  in  foreign  coun 
tries,  being  the  cheapest  article  of  clothing ; 
because  our  planters  produce  it  in  large 
amounts,  and  at  great  profit  to  themselves  ; 
and  because  we  have  almost  a  monopoly  of 
the  foreign  market,  on  account  of  our  ability 
to  produce  a  cheaper  and  better  article  than 
any  other  country  in  either  of  the  four  quar 
ters  of  the  globe.  This  cheapness  is  secured 
by  the  advantage  of  our  soil  and  climate, 
and  by  the  aid  of  cheap  labor,  which  does 
not  come  into  competition  with  the  other 
labor  of  the  country  so  as  to  depress  the 
general  standard  of  wages. 

To  establish  the  first  of  these  propositions, 
we  have  only  to  refer  to  the  history  of  the 
cotton  manufacture  of  Europe  and  America, 
and  especially  of  England,  as  found  in  an 
other  chapter. 


CHAPTER  II. 

PRODUCTION  AND  PRICES  OP  COTTON. 

COTTON  has  been  employed  as  a  material 
for  clothing  from  the  earliest  times,  and 
at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century 
nearly  two  millions  of  pounds  were  imported 
into  England  to  supply  their  spinning  wheels 
and  looms,  and  to  be  used  for  the  other  pur 
poses  to  which  it  was  applied.  In  1751  the 
imports  rose  to  2,976,610  pounds,  in  1764 
they  were  3,870,392  pounds,  and  in  1781  they 
had  increased  to  5,198,778.  At  this  period 
they  took  a  sudden  rise,  and  in  the  next  five 
years  increased  to  nineteen  millions,  and  in 
the  next  five  to  twenty-nine  millions  of 
pounds,  thus  making  a  more  rapid  progress 
in  five  years  than  in  the  preceding  hun 
dred. 

The  cause  of  this  rapid  advance  was  the 
introduction  of  machinery  for  the  spinning 
of  cotton.  This  reduced  the  price  and  in 
creased  the  demand,  and  led  to  the  exclu 
sion  of  linen,  silk,  and  wool,  and  the  substi 
tution  of  cotton  in  their  place. 

As  early  as  1738  Wyatt  had  taken  out  a 
patent  for  the  spinning  of  cotton  by  machin 
ery.  He  was  assisted  by  Paul,  who  after 
ward  took  out  a  patent  for  carding  the  cot 


ton  by  machinery.  But  so  complex  and 
imperfect  were  the  details  of  this  machinery 
of  Wyatt  and  Paul  that  these  projects  failed. 
The  principle  was  discovered,  but  important 
practical  improvements  were  wanting  before 
it  could  be  made  successful. 

In  1769,  Arkwright  took  out  a  patent  for 
his  water-frame  and  throstle,  and  in  1770, 
Hargreaves  invented  his  spinning-jenny,  both 
of  which  were  on  the  same  principle  as 
Wyatt's  machine,  but  led  to  a  very  -differ 
ent  result.  Between  1770  and  1780  these 
machines  were  fairly  tested,  and  in  the  next 
ten  years  they  were  rapidly  inti'oduced. 
The  patent  of  Arkwright  was  broken  down 
in  the  courts  of  law  in  1785,  by  the  perse 
vering  opposition  of  those  who  had  wrong 
fully  appropriated  his  discoveries ;  and  the 
expiration  of  the  other  patents  in  a  short 
time  opened  the  whole  manufacture  to  the 
free  use  of  the  people.  In  1 800  the  imports 
of  cotton  had  risen  to  fifty-six  millions,  an 
increase  of  eleven  fold  in  twenty  years.  In 
the  first  eighty  years  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury  the  increase  had  been  one  hundred  and 
fifty  per  cent. ;  in  the  last  twenty  years  it 
had  been  a  thousand. 

These  improvements  of  Arkwright  and 
Hargreaves  were  not  the  end  and  perfection 
of  the  inventions  for  spinning.  These  ma 
chines  were  not  adapted  for  the  finer  num 
bers,  and  in  1779  Samuel  Crompton  invent 
ed  the  mule,  which  combined  the  excellen 
ces  of  the  two  former  inventions.  No  pat 
ent  was  taken  out  for  it,  and  it  was  worked 
for  a  while  in  secret.  But  the  high  prices 
Crompton  obtained  for  his  yarn  soon  attract 
ed  such  attention  that  he  could  no  longer 
keep  it  concealed.  For  number  forty,  he 
received  three  dollars  and  a  half  a  pound ; 
and  for  number  sixty,  six  dollars.  These 
prices  were  commanded  by  the  superiority 
of  his  yarn,  and  the  mule  was,  therefore,  a 
great  improvement  on  the  old  machines. 
At  first  the  invention  was  quite  imperfect, 
but  it  was  soon  improved  and  brought 
nearly  to  its  present  perfection.  In  the 
course  of  ten  years  it  was  everywhere  intro 
duced.  Under  its  influence  the  demand  for 
labor  rapidly  increased. 

•The  next  important  invention  was  the 
power-loom,  first  proposed  and  patented  by 
Cartwright.  The  patent  was  issued  in  1787, 
but  all  efforts  failed  to  introduce  it  success 
fully  until  after  the  beginning  of  the  present 
century.  The  improvements  in  dressing  the 
warp,  which  were  indispensable  to  the  sue- 


PRODUCTION    AND    PRICES    OF    COTTON. 


109 


cess  of  the  power-loom,  were  made  in  1803. 
In  1813  there  were  twenty-four  hundred  of 
these  in  use  in  England.  In  1820  these  had 
increased  to  fifty-five  thousand,  and  in  1833 
to  a  hundred  thousand. 

The  steam  engine  of  "Watt  was  not  less 
important  to  the  manufacture  of  cotton  than 
these  improvements  in  spinning  and  weav 
ing.  The  water  power  of  England  was  lim 
ited,  ftregular,  and  entirely  insufficient  for 
the  numerous  machines  that  were  soon  in 
troduced,  and  the  new  motive  power  was 
especially  adapted  to  their  work.  Being 
cheap  on  account  of  the  abundance  of  coal, 
regular  in  its  operations  so  as  to  give  a  uni 
form  stroke  to  the  loom,  not  liable  to  in 
terruptions  and  strikes  as  human  labor  had 
been,  it  has  contributed  very  much  to  the 
progress  of  the  cotton  manufacture.  Watt's 
first  patent  was  taken  out  in  1769,  but  it 
was  not  until  1785  that  steam  was  applied 
to  the  driving  of  a  cotton  mill.  In  1800 
there  were  thirty  engines  employed  at  Man 
chester,  and  in  1859  the  number  in  the 
whole  kingdom  had  risen  to  twenty-two 
hundred. 

Under  the  influence  of  these  improve 
ments,  the  progress  in  the  manufacture  of 
cotton  has  been  of  the  most  rapid  descrip 
tion. 

It  was  under  the  influence  of  those  great 
inventions  that  the  importations  of  cotton 
rose  in  twenty  years — from  1781  to  1801 — 
from  five  to  fifty-six  millions  of  pounds,  and 
the  English  exports  of  cottons  from  two  mill 
ions  of  dollars  to  twenty-seven  millions. 
In  all  this  time  the  price  of  the  raw  material 
rather  advanced  than  decreased.  Accord 
ing  to  Tooke's  "History  of  Prices,"  the 
range  for  different  qualities  of  West  India 
and  Surinam  from  1780  to  1785  was  from 
13  pence  per  pound  to  40  ;  while  from  1795 
to  1800  it  was  from  15  to  55  pence.  But 
the  cost  of  yarns  was  very  different.  In 
1786  and  1787  the  price  of  No.  100  was 
nine  and  a  half  dollars  a  pound;  in  1790, 
seven  and  a  half  dollars;  in  1795,  four  dol 
lars  and.  three  quarters;  and  in  1800,  two 
dollars  and  thirty-five  cents. 

We  thus  see  that  the  effect  of  the  intro 
duction  of  machinery  was  to  give  an  im 
mense  increase  to  the  consumption  of  cot 
ton,  a  large  reduction  in  the  price  of  cotton 
goods,  and  a  substitution  of  cotton  for  wool, 
silk,  and  flax,  and  an  increase  in  the  demand 
for  labor. 

The  improTements  which  were  made  after 


1800  were  not  less  important  than  those 
which  preceded  it.  The  importations  into 
England  increased  from  1800  to  1810  more 
than  a  hundred  per  cent.,  being  from  fifty- 
six  to  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  millions 
of  pounds.  The  American  war  interrupted 
the  progress  in  the  next  decade,  but  in  1820 
it  had  risen  to  one  hundred  and  fifty-two 
millions.  For  the  next  ten  years  the  rate 
of  progress  was  nearly  a  hundred  per  cent., 
the  amount  in  1830  being  two  hundred  and 
sixty-four  millions.  In  1840  the  amount 
was  five  hundred  and  seventeen  millions, 
the  increase  being  nearly  a  hundred  per 
cent.  In  1850  the  imports  were  six  hun 
dred  and  sixty-nine  millions ;  and  in  1859 
they  were  eleven  hundred  and  eighty-one 
millions.  In  1860  the  amount  received 
from  the  United  States  alone  reached  the 
enormous  sum  of  eleven  hundred  millions, 
to  which  the  East  Indies  have  made  an  addi 
tion  of  two  hundred  more,  and  other  coun 
tries  nearly  a  hundredy  making  a  total  of 
fourteen  hundred  millions  of  pounds. 

This  increase  since  1780,  when  machinery 
was  first  successfully  applied  to  the  spinning 
of  cotton,  has  been  two  hundred  and  eighty 
fold.  Since  1800  the  increase  has  been 
twenty-five  times;  since  1820  twelve  times; 
and  since  1840,  three  times.  During  the 
year  1858  the  value  of  England's  manufac 
tured  cottons  was  four  hundred  and  thirty 
millions,  and  in  1859  four  hundred  and 
eighty  millions  of  dollars. 

At  the  same  time  the  manufacture  has  been 
growing  rapidly  in  every  other  country.  The 
abundance  of  coal  in  England,  the  cheap 
ness  of  iron  and  machinery,  and  the  low  rate 
of  interest  on  capital,  as  well  as  the  enter 
prise,  industry,  and  skill  of  her  people,  have 
placed  her  before  other  countries ;  but  their 
progress  has  been  rapid,  and  their  demand 
for  cotton  large  and  increasing. 

From  1820  to  1840  the  French  imports  of 
cotton  rose  from  forty-four  to  one  hundred  and 
four  millions  of  pounds,  and  in  1855  to  one 
hundred  and  sixty-eight  millions.  And  the 
recent  abolition  of  the  duty  on  raw  cottons 
has  made  the  increase  still  more  rapid.  In 
some  other  countries  of  Europe,  the  progress 
has  been  greater  than  in  France.  The 
comparative  magnitude  of  the  manufactures 
of  other  countries  than  England  may  be  seen 
by  our  exports  in  1860.  To  England,  we 
sent  2,669,000  bales ;  to  France,  589,000  ; 
and  to  the  rest  of  Europe,  515,000.  The 
average  of  1839  and  1840,  when  compared 


110 


COTTON    CULTURE. 


with  the  average  of  1859  and  1860,  is  as  fol 
lows  : — 

1839-40.  1859-60.  Increase 

Bales.  Bales.  per  cent. 

Great  Britain 1,022,000  2,344,000       130 

The  Continent 453,000  1,069,000       136 

The  United  States.    336,000  953,000       154 


140 


Total , 1,811,000       4,366,000 

As  England  exports  much  of  the  cotton 
she  receives,  and  all  obtain  more  or  less 
from  other  countries  than  the  United  States, 
the  comparative  importance  of  other  coun 
tries  will  be  best  seen  by  the  consumption  of 
all  kinds  of  cotton.  The  weekly  consump 
tion  for  the  years  1855  and  1856  was  as  fol 
lows  : — 

1855.  1856. 

Bales.  Bales. 

Great  Britain 37,384  43,518 

On  the  Continent 26,554  27,524 

The  United  States. .  .14,822  15,768 

In  the  United  States,  the  increase  in  the 
consumption  has  been  more  rapid  than  in  any 
other  country : — 

Average  from  1826  to  1830,  127,000  bales. 


1831 
1836 
1841 
1846 
1851 
1856 


1835,  195,000 
1840,  275,000 
1845,  363,000 
1850,  539,000 
1855,  686,000 
1860,  818,000 


This  large  increase  in  the  manufacture-  of 
cotton  has  been  accompanied  with  a  decline 
in  the  cost  of  the  raw  material,  and  a  still 
greater  decline  in  the  cost  of  manufactured 
goods.     The  price  of  American  cotton,  from 
1800  to  1820,  averaged  twenty-two  cents  per 
pound;  from  1820  to  1840,  thirteen  cents; 
and  from  1840  to  1860,  only  ten  cents.     In 
the  same  time  the  improvements  in  machin 
ery,  and  in  the  art  of  manufacturing,  and  in 
the  skill  of  the  workmen,  have  reduced  the 
price  of  yarns,  and  prints,  and  muslins,  and 
every  product  of  the  loom  in  a  much  greater 
ratio.      For  number  100,  the  price  of  yarn 
in  1786  was  nine  dollars  and  a  half;  in  1796, 
four  dollars  and  three  quarters;  in  1806,  one 
dollar  and  seventy-two  cents;  in  1812,  one 
dollar   and   twenty-seven    cents;    in    1830, 
eighty  cents;  and  in  1854,  fifty-eight  cents. 
In  the  lower  numbers  the  decrease  has  been 
nearly  as  large.    In  all  kinds  of  cotton  goods 
the  decrease  in  price  is  made  manifest  by 
the  change  in  the  official  and  declared  values 
of  the  exports  of  Great  Britain.     The  offi 
cial  is  a  fixed  nominal  price  for  every  article 
exported,  and  the  declared  is  the  real  value. 


The  former  may  therefore  be  regarded  as 
representing  quantities,  and  the  latter  values. 
Now  the  official  and  declared  values  of  all 
kinds  of  goods  for 

1814  were  $88,000,000  and  $100,000,000 


1824 
1833 
1840 
1850 
1858 


151,000,000 
232,000.000 
366,000,000 
569,000,000 
846,000,000 


92,000,000 

92,000,000 

123,000,000 

141,000,000 

214,000,000 


These  numbers  show  that  while  the  amount 
has  increased  nearly  tenfold,  the  value  has 
only  doubled,  and  that  therefore  the  goods 
are  five  times  cheaper  now  than  in  1814. 

We  have  now  followed  the  cotton  manu 
facture  from  its  rise,  a  century  since,  down  to 
the  present  time.  Its  immense  magnitude 
in  every  country  of  Europe,  its  rapid  prog 
ress,  its  exclusion  of  other  materials  for  cloth 
ing,  and  the  great  decrease  in  the  price  of 
manufactured  goods,  are  established  facts 
which  show  how  large  and  how  intense  is 
the  foreign  demand  for  our  cotton.  This  is 
the  first  proposition  we  proposed  to  consider 
in  our  explanation  of  the  high  prices  of  labor 
and  capital  in  our  country,  and  we  now  pass 
on  to  the  second,  that  the  production  of  cot 
ton  is  very  profitable  to  the  American 
planters. 

In  proof  of  this,  we  shall  show  that  the 
cultivation  of  cotton  has  attracted  labor  and 
capital  from  other  pursuits  in  the  cotton 
states,  until  it  has  concentrated  almost  their 
whole  productive  power  upon  this  single  ar 
ticle  ;  that  it  has  drawn  wealth  and  labor 
from  other  sections  of  the  country  to  be  de 
voted  to  it,  when  other  employments  were 
inviting  their  attention ;  and  that  these  and 
other  facts  demonstrate  the  profitableness  of 
this  culture.  . 

The  cotton  plant  of  Europe  is  a  native  of 
India,  whence  it  spread  very  slowly  into 
China  and  Persia,  Africa  and  Europe.  But 
cotton  is  a  native  of  this  continent,  and  was 
diffused  here  everywhere  before  the  arrival 
of  the  Europeans.  It  was  found  by  Colum 
bus  in  Cuba,  on  his  first  voyage,  in  1492, 
and  by  Cortes  in  Mexico,  and  Magellan  in 
Brazil,  on  their  first  visit  to  those  countries 
in  1519.  Pizarro  saw  it  in  Peru  in  1532, 
and  Cabega  de  Vaca  in  California  in  1536. 
In  both  divisions  of  the  continent  it  had 
spread  as  far  north  and  as  far  south  as  the 
climate  would  permit.  All  the  three  kinds 
of  cotton  were  growing  here :  the  herbaceous, 
or  annual ;  the  shrub,  which  lives  three  or 
four  years ;  and  the  tree,  which  lasts  for 


PRODUCTION    AND    PRICES    OF    COTTON. 


Ill 


twenty  years.  It  is  only  the  annual  which 
is  now  cultivated  in  the  United  States.  Dur 
ing  our  colonial  history,  it  was  introduced 
here  from  the  West  Indies  and  from  the 
Mediterranean,  and  was  extensively  culti 
vated  in  gardens  and  small  patches  for  do 
mestic  use  from  New  Jersey  to  Georgia.  A 
few  bags  were  exported  before  the  Revolu 
tion  ;  but  so  little  was  produced,  that  a  ship 
ment  of  eight  bales  from  Charleston,  in  1784, 
was  seized  by  the  custom-house  authorities 
in  England,  on  the  ground  that  so  large  an 
amount  could  not  have  been  grown  in  the 
United  States.  As  it  was  cultivated  to  ad 
vantage  in  the  West  Indies,  near  to  our 
coast,  many  attempts  were  made  to  extend 
its  culture  here.  Some  seeds  were  brought 
from  the  Bahamas,  and  successfully  culti 
vated  along  the  coast  of  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia,  soon  after  the  war  of  independence. 
This  was  carefully  improved  from  year  to 
year,  by  selecting  the  seed  of  the  finest 
plants,  by  the  application  of  the  most  suit 
able  manures,  and  by  choosing  the  best  lo 
calities  for  its  cultivation,  until  the  fine,  silky 
variety,  known  as  the  sea  island  cotton,  was 
naturalized  in  our  country,  and  brought  to 
the  greatest  perfection  of  staple.  The  seed 
is  easily  separated  from  the  lint  by  passing 
it  between  rollers,  which  push  back  the  seed 
and  permit  the  cotton  to  pass  through.  This 
is  a  tedious  work,  but  the  length  and  fine 
ness  of  the  fibre  secured  so  high  a  price  for 
the  product,  that  the  cultivation  has  con 
tinued  profitable  from  its  first  introduction 
to  the  present  time.  It  is  mixed  with  the 
best  wool  or  with  silk,  or  is  used  by  itself 
for  the  manufacture  of  the  finest  fabrics,  and 
commands  a  very  high  price  in  the  market, 
two,  three,  or  four  times  more  than  the  short 
staple  cotton.  Our  country  has  a  monopoly 
of  it;  for  neither  in  Egypt,  Pcrnarnbuco,  or  the 
Isle  of  Bourbon,  where  the  best  cottons  are 
grown,  can  they  produce  a  staple  of  the  same 
length  and  fineness.  Sometimes  a  dollar  a 
pound  is  paid  for  it ;  and  even  higher  prices 
have  been  offered  for  favorite  crops. 

The  cultivation  of  this  variety  is  limited 
to  the  islands  along  the  coast  and  a  narrow 
belt  near  the  sea,  though  in  Florida  it  may 
be  grown  in  any  part  of  the  peninsula. 
When  planted  in  the  uplands  it  degenerates 
quickly  and  is  less  productive.  The  whole 
value  of  this  crop  is  now  from  eight  to  ten 
jnillions  of  dollars,  and  varies  but  little  from 
year  to  year.  For  the  last  three  years  the 
crop  has  averaged  47,000  bales,  and  for  the 


three  preceding,  43,000  bales.  The  variety 
of  cotton  that  is  planted  in  the  interior  is 
the  native  Mexican  species.  It  adheres 
closely  to  the  seed,  and  cannot  be  separated 
by  the  common  roller  gin.  When  first  cul 
tivated  it  was  separated  by  hand,  but  this 
operation  was  slow  and  tedious,  and  limited 
the  cultivation  for  the  purposes  of  com 
merce.  In  1791  the  whole  exports  of  the 
United  States  of  all  kinds  of  cotton  were 
only  189,316  pounds — which  is  less  than 
the  product  of  many  of  our  single  planta 
tions  at  the  present  time.  In  1792  it  was 
four  hundred  and  nineteen  bags,  weighing 
138,328  pounds;  and  in  1793  it  was  487,- 
600  pounds.  At  this  period  it  took  a  sud 
den  start  upward,  and  rose  in  1794  to  1,601,- 
000,  and  in  1795  to  more  than  six  millions  of 
pounds.  The  cause  of  this  sudden  increase 
was  the  invention,  by  Whitney,  of  the  saw 
gin. 

This  ingenious  gentleman  was  a  native  of 
Massachusetts,  and  had  come  to  Georgia  as 
a  private  tutor  in  1792.  While  residing  as 
a  guest  in  the  family  of  Mrs.  General  Greene, 
near  Savannah,  he  was  informed  by  some  of 
her  visitors  from  the  upper  country,  where 
the  short-staple  cotton  was  cultivated,  of  the 
great  desirableness  of.  a  machine  for  separat 
ing  the  cotton  from  the  seed.  To  his  in 
ventive  turn  of  mind,  this  suggestion  was 
enough  to  attract  his  attention.  He  obtained 
some  of  the  seed  cotton  from  Savannah,  and 
soon  devised  the  saw  gin.  At  first  he  used 
bent  wires  or  teeth,  like  those  of  the  com 
mon  card,  but  much  larger  and  stronger, 
and  these  were  placed  in  rows  on  a  revolv 
ing  cylinder.  The  cotton  was  separated 
from  this  cylinder  by  a  frame  of  parallel 
wires.  As  the  cylinder  revolved,  the  teeth 
extending  through  the  wire  frame  caught 
the  cotton  and  drew  it  through  the  grating, 
but  the  seeds  being  too  large  to  pass  be 
tween  the  wires,  were  separated  from  the 
lint.  The  teeth  being  found  too  weak  to 
pull  the  cotton  from  the  seed  without  being 
bent  or  broken,  he  substituted  a  circular 
saw  in  their  place.  The  teeth  of  the  saws 
being  large,  and  shaped  like  the  beak  of  a 
bird,  had  more  strength  and  were  equally 
efficient.  Behind  the  saAv-cylinder,brushes 
were  arranged  to  remove  the  cotton  from 
the  saws,  and  thus  the  object  was  accom 
plished.  When  he  had  completed  his  gin, 
entirely  by  the  labor  of  his  own  hands,  he 
invited  some  farmers  to  see  it  tried,  and  all 
were  satisfied  with  its  work.  It  differed  es- 


PRODUCTION    AND    PRICES    OF    COTTON. 


113 


sentially  from  the  roller  gin  introduced  from 
the  Bahamas,  and  invented  there  by  Joseph 
Eve,  the  son  of  a  Pennsylvania  loyalist,  and 
afterward  a  resident  of  Georgia.  The  roller 
gin  had  also  teeth  and  a  wire  frame,  and 
the  revolving  teeth  caught  the  cotton  through 
the  wire  frame,  but  they  only  delivered  it 
to  the  rollers  which  separated  the  cotton 
from  the  seed.  In  the  saw  gin  the  teeth 
and  the  wire  did  the  work  of  separation. 
Though  Eve's  was  like  Whitney's,  and  may 
have  suggested  it,  they  were  on  different 
principles.  The  one  was  suited  for  the  sea 
island,  and  the  other  for  the  upland. 

Before  Whitney  could  take  out  his  patent, 
many  of  his  gins  were  constructed  by  the 
farmers  and  put  to  work.  His  patent  was 
issued  in  1793,  and  having  obtained  the  co 
operation  of  Miller,  who  furnished  the  capi 
tal,  they  undertook  the  manufacture  of  the 
gins  for  sale,  and  the  ginning  of  cotton  by 
the  pound  for  the  planters,  and  the  purchase 
of  the  seed  cotton,  that  they  might  clean  it 
themselves.  Although  these  plans  required 
large  capital,  Whitney  Avas  poor,  and  Miller 
had  but  small  means  when  this  project  was 
undertaken.  In  1794,  when  they  were  pre 
paring  several  machines  for  sale,  Whitney 
was  taken  sick,  and  his  workmen  were  pros 
trated  by  the  fevers  of  the  climate.  These 
difficulties  prevented  the  construction  of 
many  gins  by  the  patentees ;  and  as  the 
want  of  them  was  great,  and  the  machinery 
very  simple,  many  were  built  by  common 
mechanics,  and  thus  extensively  introduced. 
In  1795  Whitney's  shop  and  all  his  machines 
were  destroyed  by  fire,  and  this  was  another 
hindrance  to  the  sale  of  the  patented  gin, 
and  another  incentive  to  those  who  were  tres 
passing  on  his  rights.  To  put  a  stop  to 
these  infringements  of  their  patent,  suits 
were  instituted  by  Miller  and  Whitney. 
But  the  patent  law  had  just  been  passed  by 
Congress,  and  the  general  government  was 
little  known  or  respected.  The  juries  were 
composed  of  men  who  were  all  interested  in 
breaking  the  patent.  The  gin  makers  had 
strong  interests  prompting  them  to  resist 
the  suits.  Witnesses  were  found  who  testi 
fied  that  they  had  seen  the  gin  in  Europe, 
where  it  was  used  for  making  lint !  The 
suits  were  postponed  and  delayed  by  the  in 
genuity  of  lawyers,  and  as  the  United  States 
courts  only  met  at  long  intervals,  these 
delays  were  the  more  serious.  Under  these 
difficulties,  the  patentees  often  failed  in  their 
suits,  or  obtained  but  small  damages,  or 


were  engaged  in  long,  vexatious,  and  expen 
sive  litigation,  so  that  the  courts  became  an 
expense  to  them  instead  of  a  protection. 
The  gins  were  everywhere  introduced,  with 
or  without  the  patent-right.  This  was  the 
case  both  in  Georgia  and  South  Carolina ; 
but  the  delay  and  failure  of  the  suits  in 
Georgia  induced  the  patentees  to  propose  to 
the  legislature  of  South  Carolina  to  sell  the 
right  for  that  state  for  $100,000.  An  offer 
of  $50,000  was  made  them  and  accepted, 
and  this  was  nearly  all  that  was  ever  re 
ceived  by  the  inventors.  Whitney,  unlike 
Ark wright,  only  received  barren  honors  for 
his  great  invention ;  for  even  the  purchase 
money  of  South  Carolina  was  expended  in 
the  prosecution  of  the  suits  he  had  insti 
tuted  against  the  trespassers  on  his  rights. 

The  introduction  of  Whitney's  gin  acted 
like  magic  on  the  planting  of  cotton.  In 
eight  years,  from  1792  to  1800,  the  exports 
of  the  United  States  increased  more  than  a 
hundred-fold.  The  value  rose  from  830,000 
to  $3,000,000,  and  the  amount  from  138,000 
Ibs.  to  18,000,000.  The  whole  of  this  was 
wanted  in  England,  and  the  rapid  increase  in 
the  demand  there  that  followed  the  general 
introduction  of  Arkwright's  inventions  pre 
vented  any  decline  in  price.  The  population 
of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  where  all 
of  this  cotton  was  raised,  was  only  507,000 
in  1800;  so  that  the  amount  was  <§6  to  each 
individual,  including  the  young  and  the  old. 
This  was  not  enough  to  purchase  the  manu 
factures  and  the  foreign  supplies  they  needed  ; 
rice  and  tobacco  being  both  added  to  cotton 
in  the  exports  of  Charleston  and  Savannah. 
Those  of  rice  alone  were  larger  than  cotton, 
and  the  production  of  tobacco  was  considera 
ble.  The  immigrants  from  Virginia  and  North 
Carolina  brought  this  cultivation  with  them, 
and  it  formed  a  large  part  of  the  trade  at  the 
sea-port  towns  at  this  early  period.  But  it 
was  soon  to  disappear,  under  the  progress  of 
cotton.  In  the  next  ten  years,  from  1801  to 
1810,  the  production  increased  more  than  five 
fold,  from  1 8,000,000  to  93,000,000  of  pounds 
and  the  value  from  $3,000,000  to  $15,000,000. 
As  the  population  had  only  increased  30  per 
cent,  in  these  ten  years,  and  as  the  exports 
of  rice  had  risen  from  94,000  to  119,000 
tierces,  the  great  change  was  in  the  transfer 
of  labor  from  tobacco  to  cotton.  The  ex 
ports  of  cotton  and  rice  in  1810  were  more 
than  $30  to  each  person,  white  and  black, 
young  and  old,  male  and  female  ;  an  amount 
which  sufficiently  indicates  that  nearly  the 


114 


COTTON    CULTURE. 


•whole  available  labor  was  devoted  to  these 
two  staples. 

In  the  next  decade  the  cultivation  was  in 
terrupted  by  the  war  of  1812,  and  the  ex 
ports  only  rose  to  128,000,000  in  1820.  But 
the  high  prices  that  followed  the  war  stimu 
lated  the  production  to  the  utmost  possible 
limit.  Tobacco  was  no  longer  cultivated  as 
an  article  of  export.  Rice  was  still  planted 
in  the  swamp  lands  along  the  coast,  because 
,they  were  not  well  suited  for  cotton  and  be 
cause  rice  was  itself  a  very  profitable  crop. 
Emigrants  flocked  from  Virginia  to  engage 
in  the  culture  of  cotton ;  new  lands  were 
purchased  from  the  Indians ;  more  laborers 
were  brought  from  Virginia  to  work  in  the 
cotton  fields ;  and  every  hand  that  could  be 
spared  from  other  employments,  white  or 
colored,  was  appropriated  to  this  one  culture. 
In  consequence  of  this  transfer  of  labor,  the 
exports  rose  in  the  next  decade,  from  1820  to 
1830,  more  than  100  per  cent.,  from  128,000,- 
000  to  298,000,000  pounds. 

For  the  next  ten  years  the  impulse  to  the 
cultivation  of  cotton  was  greater  than  ever. 
It  was  impossible  for  the  cotton  states  to 
transfer  any  more  of  their  labor  to  the  cul 
ture.  Some  of  their  population  was  needed 
in  the  towns  and  cities  to  attend  to  the  sale  and 
shipment  of  their  cotton,  some  to  provide 
supplies  for  the  planters,  and  a  few  were  en 
gaged  in  those  mechanical  pursuits  which 
are  absolutely  indispensable,  even  in  an  agri 
cultural  country  receiving  its  manufactures 
from  distant  places ;  but  all  the  rest  were 
engaged  in  the  production  of  cotton.  The 
planter  raised  enough  corn  to  feed  his  stock, 
and  provide  bread  for  his  family  ;  he  sup 
plied  generally  his  own  meat,  but  for  the 
most  part  his  flour  was  brought  from  the 
north  or  west,  and  the  towns  were  supplied 
with  pork  and  flour  from  the  same  source. 
All  his  labor  was  appropriated  to  cotton, 
because  it  was  more  profitable  than  any  other 
crop.  All  his  profits  from  year  to  year  were 
devoted  to  buying  more  negroes,  that  he 
might  enlarge  his  cultivation  of  the  one  great 
staple  of  the  south.  The  emigrants  from 
Virginia,  and  North  Carolina,  and  Tennessee, 
though  at  their  first  arrival  they  might  pre 
fer  to  plant  tobacco  or  wheat,  soon  transferred 
all  their  hands  to  cotton.  The  lawyer,  and 
the  doctor,  and  the  school-master,  as  soon  as 
they  earned  any  money,  bought  land  and 
negroes,  and  became  planters.  The  preacher 
who  married  an  heiress  or  a  rich  widow,  be 
came  the  owner  of  a  plantation.  The 


merchant  who  wished  to  retire  from  the  per 
plexities  of  business,  and  take  his  ease  in  the 
country,  passed  his  old  age  in  watching  the 
cotton  plant  spring  up  from  the  fresh-ploughed 
ground,  spread  its  leaves  to  the  gentle  show 
ers  of  spring,  stretch  its  long  branches  to  the 
summer's  sun,  open  its  red  blossoms,  to  be  fol 
lowed  by  the  abundant  fruit  which  showed 
their  white  treasures  to  the  autumn  sky, 
gladdening  his  heart  with  the  abundant  re 
wards  of  his  labor.  All  the  labor,  all  the 
capital,  all  the  increase  of  population  and 
wealth  by  immigration  from  more  northern 
climates,  all  the  accumulations  of  every 
trade,  or  business,  or  pursiiit  were  devoted  to 
this  one  cultivation ;  and  though  it  had 
seemed  impossible  in  1830  to  increase  the 
cultivation  to  any  considerable  degree,  the 
production  rose  in  1840  to  744,000,000 
pounds,  or  six  times  the  product  of  1820. 

During  the  next  decade  this  favorite  cul 
ture  received  a  slight  check.  The  increase 
in  the  demand,  though  outrunning  every 
other  business,  had  been  overtaken  by  the 
still  more  rapid  increase  in  the  supply. 
Prices  declined,  and  the  capital  of  the 
country  had  an  opportunity  to  look  around 
for  other  employments.  It  readily  found 
them  in  the  construction  of  railroads,  the 
erection  of  cotton  factories  for  coarse 
goods,  the  production  of  the  corn,  and  meat, 
and  flour  for  the  towns  and  cities,  the  cul 
tivation  of  the  sugar  cane,  and  in  those  other 
mechanical  and  manufacturing  pursuits  which 
are  the  first  enterprises  of  an  agricultural 
people. 

The  south  had  other  employments  to 
which  she  might  have  turned  her  attention 
with  advantage.  She  had  fine  shipping 
timber,  and  in  great  abundance,  but  she  did 
not  increase  her  shipping,  because  high  as 
wages  and  interest  are  at  the  north,  they  are 
still  higher  at  the  south,  and  the  competition 
between  the  two  sections  is  so  easy  in  ship 
ping,  that  she  could  not  engage  in  shipping 
even  her  own  products,  as  long  as  other  more 
profitable  pursuits  keep  up  the  rate  of  labor 
and  capital  to  their  present  high  limits.  The 
low  prices  of  cotton  from  1840  to  1850  did 
not,  therefore,  divert  capital  to  shipping.  The 
tonnage  of  Charleston  averaged  50,000  tons 
from  1800  to  1810,  nearly  40,000  from  1810 
to  1820;  22,000  from  1832  to  1840,  and 
23,000  from  1840  to  1848. 

The  culture  of  rice  was  susceptible  of  very 
slight  increase,  because  the  only  land  suit 
able  for  its  cultivation  is  the  low,  swampy 


PRODUCTION    AND    PRICES    OF    COTTON. 


115 


district  along  the  sea,  where  the  crop  can  be 
covered  with  water.  From  early  times  this 
valuable  grain  had  been  raised  in  all  favorable 
localities,  and,  though  a  very  profitable  crop, 
no  increase  was  practicable.  From  1789  to 
1798  the  exports  of  the  United  States 
averaged  107,000  tierces;  from  1799  to 
1808  they  were  82,000;  and  from  1809  to 
1818  the  average  was  87,000.  From  1820  to 
1829  the  whole  crop,  including  the  shipments 
to  the  north  and  the  exports,  averaged  120,- 
000  tierces;  from  1830  to  1839  they  were 
148,000;  and  from  1840  to  1848  the  average 
was  162,000.  These  figures  show  little  or 
no  transfer  of  capital  to  this  production,  and 
the  reason  is  that  the  lands  suited  to  its  cul 
tivation  are  limited.  For  the  year  1858  they 
were  173,000  tierces,  showing  the  same 
steady,  unchangeable  condition  of  this  culture 
down  to  the  present  time. 

But  although  the  cultivation  of  rice  could 
not  be  increased,  and  the  northern  shipping 
was  too  easy  a  competitor  with  the  southern, 
there  were  many  employments  in  which  the 
south  could  engage,  before  she  would  reduce 
the  wages  and  profits  down  to  the  northern 
standard.  Tanneries,  forges,  foundries,  the 
making  of  shoes,  buckets,  hardware,  furni 
ture,  clothing,  machinery,  and  every  manu 
facture  where  the  bulk  or  the  weight  is  con 
siderable,  can  be  profitably  pursued.  The 
negroes  make  good  carpenters,  shoemakers, 
tanners,  workers  in  iron,  and  there  is  no  em 
ployment  pursued  at  the  north  to  which 
their  labor  cannot  be  profitably  devoted. 

Of  all  these  employments  thus  attracting 
her  attention,  the  principal  of  those  which 
she  selected  in  the  depression  of  1840  were 
the  construction  of  railroads,  the  culture  of 
wheat,  the  manufacture  of  coarse  cottons,  and 
the  planting  of  the  sugar  cane. 

These  railroads  have  nearly  all  been  profit 
able.  It  may  seem  strange  to  those  who 
have  only  heard  of  Harlem,  and  Erie,  and 
New  Haven,  and  Hudson  River  railroads,  to 
be  told  that  every  railway  of  the  cotton 
states  has  been  profitable.  The  country  is 
sparsely  settled,  and  it  cannot  be  from  pas 
sengers.  They  have  but  little  through 
freight  to  Tennessee  and  North  Carolina,  and 
it  cannot  be  from  the  transit  of  goods. 
Their  only  product  is  cotton,  and  it  is  this  that 
pays.  Not  only  does  the  great  staple  enrich 
those  who  make  it,  but  all  who  handle  it  and 
carry  it.  It  is  like  the  fabled  Midas,  and 
turns  all  things  into  gold. 

Wheat,  also,  has  been  a  profitable  culture, 


because  it  is  mainly  consumed  at  home,  and 
the  price  is  usually  the  cost  of  flour  in  New 
York  added  to  the  cost  of  transportation. 
Even  when  fine  seasons  and  a  large  crop  en 
able  the  farmer  to  export  some  of  his 
flour,  the  early  harvest  permits  him  to  send 
it  to  New  York  before  the  new  wheat 
of  the  north  and  west  can  be  offered  in  the 
market,  and  thus  secure  to  himself  a  high  price. 

So  have  the  cotton  factories  generally  been 
profitable.  All  that  have  been  managed  skil 
fully  and  faithfully  have  paid  good  dividends, 
and  several  have  made  fortunes  for  their 
owners.  The  oldest  mill  in  the  southern 
states,  near  Athens,  Georgia,  has  been  profit 
able  from  the  start,  more  than  thirty  years 
since.  Those  at  Granitevillc  and  Roswell, 
favored  with  water  power  and  wise  manage 
ment,  have  paid  large  and  regular  dividends. 
The  one  at  Macon,  though  driven  by  steam, 
has  been  alike  successful.  Many  of  the 
others  have  done  well,  though  the  machinery 
has  to  be  brought  from  the  north,  and  the 
expense  of  labor  and  superintendence  is 
high.  A  few  have  failed  from  frauds  and 
dishonesty  in  the  projectors  or  managers, 
some  from  carelessness  and  neglect  of  their 
duties  by  those  to  whom  they  were  entrust 
ed,  and  some  from  ignorance  and  'impru 
dence.  But  always  when  well  managed  they 
have  succeeded.  They  make  the  coarse  os- 
naburgs  and  heavy  shirting  for  the  negroes, 
and  the  coarser  numbers  of  yarn  for  the 
country  looms  of  the  planters.  Many  of 
them  send  their  yarns  to  Philadelphia  and 
New  York,  and  dispose  in  this  way  of  their 
surplus  production.  A  few  are  working  on 
finer  unbleached  cloth,  and  they  are  also 
doing  well. 

So,  also,  has  some  capital  been  devoted  to 
sugar.  The  beautiful  lands  along  the  lower 
Mississippi  have  been  appropriated  to  this 
crop.  Under  the  protection  of  the  tariffs 
of  1824  and  1828  the  culture  was  started, 
and  from  1835  to  1840  the  production 
averaged  seventy  millions  of  pounds,  worth 
over  four  millions  of  dollars.  The  low  prices 
of  cotton  about  this  time  encouraged  the 
producers,  and  the  amount  for  the  next  five 
years  averaged  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
millions  of  pounds,  worth  six  millions  of 
dollars.  In  the  next  five  years  the  product 
rose  to  two  hundred  and  eleven  millions, 
valued  at  ten  millions  of  dollars.  From 
1850  to  1855  the  production  still  further 
increased,  the  amount  being  three  hundred 
and  forty-seven  millions,  and  the  value  fifteen 


116 


COTTON    CULTURE. 


millions.  In  the  last  five  years— partly  from 
the  disastrous  season  of  1856,  which  not 
only  ruined  the  crop  for  that  year,  but  de 
stroyed  the  plants  for  the  next,  and  partly  to 
the  high  price  of  cotton,  which  has  diverted 
some  of  the  lands  to  this  culture — the  average 
has  only  been  two  hundred  and  sixty-three 
millions;  but  the  value  of  this  decreased 
crop  has  been  higher  than  ever,  having 
reached  seventeen  millions  of  dollars. 

To  these  and  a  few  other  new  enterprises, 
the  accumulating  labor  and  capital  of  the 
cotton  states  have  been  diverted  since  the 
disastrous  fall  of  prices  in  1837.  But  the 
culture  of  cotton  still  went  on,  and  with 
giant  strides,  too.  The  planters  were  more 
economical  at  home,  raised  more  corn  and 
bacon,  s»  as  to  lessen  their  purchases  from 
the  west  and  from  North  Carolina ;  but,  as 
the  price  of  lands  and  negroes  declined,  the 
inducements  to  raise  cotton  were  nearly  as 
great  as  before.  The  average  exports  for 
the  five  years  from  1836  to  1840  were  five 
hundred  and  twenty-four  millions ;  for  the 
next  five,  the  average  was  six  hundred  and 
eighty-eight  millions ;  and  for  the  next  five, 
seven  hundred  and  eleven  millions.  Here 
was  an  average  increase  much  faster  than 
the  natural  increase  of  the  population,  show 
ing  that,  in  spite  of  the  diversion  of  labor 
and  capital  to  new  pursuits,  emigrants  were 
still  arriving  from  North  Carolina  and  Vir 
ginia,  and  transfers  were  still  being  made 
from  the  tobacco  and  wheat  fields  of  Virginia 
to  the  cotton  lands  of  the  south. 

After  1850  prices  improved,  and  in  the 
next  five  years  the  average  exports  rose  to 
one  billion  and  twenty-five  millions  of  pounds, 
making  an  increase  in  the  average  produc 
tion  of  nearly  fifty  per  cent,  in  five  years. 
For  the  five  succeeding  years  the  exports 
have  not  been  completed  at  the  treasury  de 
partment,  and  the  number  of  bales  may  be 
taken  to  measure  the  increase  of  production. 
From  1850  to  1855  the  average  crop  was 
2,882,000  bales,  and  from  1855  to  1860  it 
was  3,628,000,  an  increase  which  is  twice  as 
great  as  the  natural  increase  of  the  popu 
lation,  indicating  the  continuance  of  the 
transfers  of  laborers  to  the  cotton  planta 
tions. 

And  never  before  has  the  planting  been 
more  profitable  than  in  the  last  few  years. 
The  price  has  not  been  so  high  as  in  1819, 
or  1825,  or  1836,  when  the  planters  were 
almost  bewildered  at  the  rates  offered  them 
for  their  crops ;  but  by  improved  methods 


of  cultivation,  and  greater  facilities  of  reach 
ing  the  market,  their  real  earnings  have  been 
greater  than  ever.  Higher  prices  have  been 
given  for  land  and  for  negroes  than  even  in 
1836.  The  wages  of  hired  servants  have 
been  larger  than  ever ;  and  the  planters 
have  been  everywhere  rich,  prosperous,  and 
happy.  _ 

The  immigration  into  the  cotton  states, 
and  the  purchase  of  negroes  from  Missouri, 
Kentucky,  and  Virginia,  arc  made  manifest 
by  the  changes  of  population.  The  natural 
increase  of  the  people  of  the  whole  country 
is  less  than  thirty  per  cent,  for  ten  years, 
after  deducting  the  emigrants  from  Europe 
and  the  inhabitants  of  our  purchased  territo 
ries.  Before  1820  it  exceeded  a  little  this 
ratio  ;  but  from  1830  to  1840  it  was  less, 
and  from  1840  to  1850  not  over  twenty-five 
per  cent.  NOW  the  population  of  the  eight 
cotton  states,  from  South  Carolina  to  Texas, 
increased  in  the  first  decade  of  the  present 
century  fifty  per  cent.,  in  the  second  decade 
fifty-live  per  cent.,  in  the  third  fifty  per  cent., 
in  the  fourth  fifty-one  per  cent.,  and  in  the 
fifth  forty-one  per  cent.  Thus,  in  all  this 
period  of  fifty  years,  the  real  increase  has 
been  nearly  double  that  of  the  natural ;  or, 
more  exactly,  in  every  ten  years  twenty  per 
cent,  of  the  existing  population  has  been 
added  from  the  more  northern  states. 


CHAPTER  III. 

MONOPOLY  OF  THE  MARKET— SLAVE  LABOR 
—COTTON  EXCHANGED  FOR  MANUFAC 
TURES. 

THE  history  that  has  now  been  given  of 
the  great  increase  in  the  production  of  cot 
ton  ;  of  the  entire  devotion  of  the  labor  of 
the  cotton  states  to  this  single  culture,  even 
to  the  neglect  in  some  places  of  the  corn, 
flour,  and  meat  necessary  for  the  wants  of 
their  immediate  neighborhood  ;  of  the  large 
increase  of  the  population  in  these  states;  of 
the  increasing  prices  of  land  and  negroes ;  of 
the  investment  of  nearly  the  whole  of  the 
annual  accumulations  of  the  people  in  enlarg 
ing  this  one  production,  when  others  that 
arc  really  profitable,  for  which,  they  have 
advantages  in  soil,  or  in  climate,  or  in  posi 
tion,  are  rejected — is  an  irresistible  accumu 
lation  of  proof  of  the  second  proposition  that 
we  proposed  to  consider;  that  the  American 
planters  are  able  to  produce  large  amounts 


MONOPOLY SLAVE  LABOR EXCHANGE  FOR  MANUFACTURES. 


.of  cotton  at  great  profit  to  themselves  ;  and 
we  will  pass  now  to  the  third  proposition : 
that  we  have  almost  a  monopoly  of  the  for 
eign  market,  on  account  of  our  ability  to  pro 
duce  a  better  and  cheaper  article  than  any 
other  country  in  the  world. 

We  have  already  adverted  to  the  superi 
ority  of  our  sea  island  variety.  It  is  the  best 
cotton  in  the  Liverpool  market,  and  com 
mands  the  highest  price.  It  has  not  been 
produced  in  larger  quantities,  because  the 
localities  where  it  can  be  cultivated  are  few. 
But  for  the  amount  we  make  there  is  no 
competition.  The  average  value  of  our  ex 
ports  of  this  kind  was  $0,000,000  from  1805 
to  1815,  including  the  years  of  the  war  and 
the  embargo;  $10,000,000  in  the  next  ten 
years;  $10,000,000  in  the  next;  87,000,000 
in  the  next ;  and  $9,000,000  in  the  last,  from 
1845  to  1855.  For  1859  the  amount  was 
13,713,000  pounds.  It  is  evident  from  these 
figures,  that  the  production  of  sea-island  cot 
ton  is  stationary. 

When  we  began  the  production  of  cotton, 
the  supplies  of  Great  Britain  were  furnished  by 
the  Levant  and  by  America.  Of  the  twenty- 
three  millions  received  in  1787,  seven  were 
from  the  West  Indies,  six  from  Turkey,  and  ten 
from  the  Spanish,  Dutch,  and  Portuguese  col 
onies  of  South  America.  None  was  received 
from  the  United  States  or  Egypt,  which  are 
now  the  principal  sources  of  supply.  The  first 
imports  from  the  East  Indies  were  in  1 798,  and 
from  Egypt  in  1823.  When  the  demand  in 
creased,  by  the  application  of  machinery  to  the 
manufacture,  we  very  soon  assumed  the  first 
rank  in  the  production  and  supply  of  cotton. 
By  the  year  1800  the  receipts  from  our  coun 
try  equalled  those  of  any  other,  and  in  some 
of  the  years  before  the  war  of  1812  we  sur 
passed  all  other  countries  taken  together. 
After  the  war  of  1812  we  immediately  re 
sumed  the  chief  place  as  producers  for  the 
European  market.  In  the  five  years  from 
1816  to  1820  the  average  weekly  consump 
tion  in  Great  Britain  of  the  different  kinds 
of  cotton  was  3,800  bales  of  American,  2,200 
from  Brazil,  1,100  from  the  East  Indies, 
and  700  from  the  West  Indies;  and  as  our 
bags  were  the  heaviest,  the  3,800  American 
were  more  than  the  4,000  from  other  coun 
tries.  In  the  next  five  years  Egyptian  made 
its  appearance  in  the  market,  and  the  aver 
age  was  6,400  bales  of  American,  2,6uO  from 
Brazil,  200  from  Egypt,  1,000  from  India, 
and  600  from  the  West  Indies.  The  decline 
of  the  West  Indies,  which  was  the  only  cot 


ton  similar  to  ours,  had  already  begun,  and 
from  1826  to  1830  the  decline  continued. 
The  average  consumption  of  American  was 
9,200  bales,  2,400  from  Brazil,  700  from 
Egypt,  700  from  India,  and  only  400  from 
the  West  Indies,  so  that  ours  was  more  than 
two-thirds  of  the  whole.  In  the  next  five 
years  the  American  rose  to  13,000,  the  West 
Indian  declined  to  200,  and  the  others  had 
but  a  slight  increase  ;  ours  being  three-fourths 
of  the  whole.  From  this  time  forward  the' 
United  States  supplied  about  eighty  per  cent, 
of  the  whole  consumption  of  England,  and 
also  of  the  rest  of  Europe.  In  the  last  year 
(1859)  the  number  of  bales  consumed  in 
Great  Britain  and  on  the  continent  was 
700,000,  of  which  the  American  was  eighty 
per  cent.,  the  West  Indian  one,  the  Brazilian 
three,  the  Egyptian  four,  and  the  East  Indian 
twelve.  And  this  ratio  has  been  nearly  the 
same  for  the  last  twenty  years.  The  ratio  of 
the  supply  from  Egypt  has  increased  a  little 
faster  than  from  America;  while  that  from 
the  West  Indies  has  almost  disappeared. 
Since  the  rise  in  the  price  of  coffee,  on  ac 
count  of  the  stoppage  of  the  slave  trade  in 
Brazil,  her  exports  have  been  stationary  or 
declining.  The  imports  from  the  East  Indies 
have  increased,  but  their  comparative  gain 
on  American  has  been  very  small.  In  the 
eight  years  from  1840  to  1847,  the  ziverage 
importation  into  England  of  American  cot 
ton  was  468,000,000  pounds,  and  of  East 
Indian  75,000,000  ;  while  for  the  next  eight 
years,  from  1848  to  1855,  the  former  averaged 
644,000,000  and  the  latter  1 1 5,000,000.  the 
first  ratio  was  16  and  the  last  18.  Since 
1855  the  ratio  has  slightly  increased.  For 
the  last  two  years  it  has  declined. 

The  supplies  furnished  by  the  several 
countries  are  not,  however,  rivals  of  each 
other.  Our  sea  island  is  the  finest  and 
dearest.  The  Egyptian  and  Brazilian  are 
next,  and  are  used  for  the  finer  fabrics. 
Ours  is  suited  for  all  the  common  yarns, 
uniting  strength  of  fibre  with  smoothness 
and  length  of  staple.  The  Indian  comes 
last  in  price,  is  coarse,  short  stapled,  and 
badly  cleaned.  It  is  mixed  with  American 
in  the  factories,  and  used  for  the  coarser 
goods. 

Thus  there  is  little  or  no  competition  be 
tween  the  different  cottons.  They  are  each 
used  for  their  particular  class  of  manufac 
tures.  The  Indian  would  be  of  little  use 
without  ours  to  mix  with  it,  so  that  an  in 
crease  in  the  supply  would  require  an  in- 


118 


COTTON    CULTURE. 


crease  of  American  to  be  worked  with  it. 
The  clearness  of  the  Egyptian  and  South 
American,  which  are  about  fifty  per  cent, 
higher  than  ours,  prevents  them  from  being 
substituted  in  its  place. 

In  a  paper  read  before  the  Society  of 
Arts,  J.  B.  Smith,  Esq.,  member  for  Stock- 
port,  says: — 

"  It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  while  we 
require  for  the  purposes  of  our  manufacture 
a  limited  quantity  of  the  sea  island  and 
short-staple  qualities  of  raw  cotton,  we  need 
and  can  consume  an  almost  unlimited  supply 
of  the  medium-staple,orUnited  States  quality. 
In  this  fact  lies  our  real  difficulty  ;  for  while 
several  quarters  of  the  world  supply  the  first 
sort,  and  India  could  supply  enormous 
quantities  of  the  short-staple  sort,  the  United 
States  of  America  alone  have  hitherto  pro 
duced  the  second  and  most  necessary 
kind." 

"  The  finest  long  cotton  in  the  world  is 
called  the  '  sea  island.'  It  is  grown  on  the 
low-lying  lands  and  small  islands  on  the 
coast  of  Georgia.  The  quantity  is  small, 
and  the  price  very  high.  It  is  used  mostly 
for  muslin  thread,  and  the  very  finest  num 
bers  of  yarn — say  100's  and  upward;  and 
price,  in  fact,  is  of  little  moment  to  the 
manufacturers  who  purchase  it.  It  usually 
sells  at  about  two  shillings  per  pound.  A 
quality  much  resembling  it,  and  almost,  if 
not  quite  as  good,  has  been  grown,  as  a 
sample  article,  in  Australia.  But  of  this  de 
nomination  of  cotton  the  consumption  is 
very  small.  Another  species — long,  strong, 
fine,  and  yellowish — is  grown  in  Egypt,  and 
imported  in  considerable  quantities.  An  in 
ferior  quality — coarse,  harsh,  bright  in  color, 
but  strong — is  imported  from  Brazil,  and  a 
very  small  quantity  from  the  West  Indies. 
Doubtless,  if  the  price  were  adequate,  and 
the  demand  here  very  great  and  steady,  the 
supply  from  many  of  these  quarters  might 
be  largely  augmented.  But  it  is  not  of  this 
sort  that  AVC  need  any  considerable  increase, 
nor  could  we  afford  the  price  which  probably 
alone  would  remunerate  the  grower. 

"  2.  Our  great  consumption  and  demand 
is  for  the  soft,  white,  silky,  moderately  long 
cotton  of  America — the  quality  usually  call 
ed  '  uplands,'  '  bowed  Georgia,'  and  '  New 
Orleans.'  This  used  to  be  sold  at  prices 
varying  from  3d.  to  6d.  per  pound  (it  is 
now  from  6d.  to  8d.).  It  can  be  consumed 
in  any  quantity ;  for  it  is  available  not  only 
for  weft,  but  for  warp,  except  for  the  finer 


numbers.  We  need  and  consume  nine  bags 
of  this  cotton  for  one  bag  of  all  others  put 
together. 

"  3.  It  is  the  insufficient  supply,  or  the  high 
er  price  of  this  cotton,  that  has  driven  our 
manufacturers  upon  the  short-stapled  native 
article  of  India,  commonly  called  Surat.  If 
the  price  of  the  two  were  equal,  scarcely  a  bag 
of  Surat  would  be  employed.  When  the 
price  of  American  cotton  rises,  owing  to  an 
inadequate  supply,  that  of  East  India  cotton 
follows  it  at  a  considerable  interval — the 
usual  ratio  being  two  to  three — and  the  im 
port  of  the  latter  is  greatly  stimulated.  It 
is  always  grown  in  India  in  large  quantities, 
and,  with  improved  means  of  communication 
and  more  careful  preparation,  might  be  sup 
plied  in  time,  in  indefinite  and  probably 
ample  quantities.  But  it  is  its  quality  that 
is  in  fault ;  and,  as  far  as  the  past  is  a  guide, 
it  would  seern  incurably  in  fault.  Many  at 
tempts  to  amend  the  character  of  this  cotton 
have  been  made.  American  planters  and 
American  '  saw  gins '  have  been  sent  over, 
and  American  seed  has  been  planted ;  and 
the  result  has  been  a  sensible  amelioration 
in  cleanliness  and  color,  and  some  slight  in 
crease  in  length  of  fibre,  but  scarcely  any 
change  in  specific  character.  The  dry,  fuzzy, 
woolly  characteristics  remain.  Sometimes 
the  first  year's  samples  nearly  resemble  the 
American  article,  but  the  resemblance  never 
becomes  permanent.  Hitherto  (we  believe 
we  are  correct  in  stating),  either  from  the 
peculiarity  of  the  soil  or  of  the  climate,  or, 
as  some  say,  from  adulteration  by  the  air 
borne  pollen  of  the  inferior  native  plant,  the 
improved  and  altered  character  of  the  cotton 
has  never  been  kept  up." 

"  The  point  we  have  to  bear  in  mind,  then, 
is  this:  our  desideratum  is  not  simply  more 
cotton,  but  more  cotton  of  the  same  character 
and  price  as  that  now  imported  from  the 
States.  If  India  were  to  send  us  two  mill 
ions  of  bales  of  Surat  cotton  per  annum, 
the  desideratum  would  not  be  supplied,  and 
our  perilous  problem  would  still  be  unsolved. 
We  should  be  almost  as  dependent  on  America 
as  ever." 

These  observations  of  a  practical  manu 
facturer  bring  out  conclusively  this  truth, 
that  for  the  uses  to  which  our  cotton  is  ap 
plied  we  are  without  competition.  The  long- 
stapled  is  too  dear,  and  the  short  too  coarse, 
fuzzy,  weak,  and  rough  to  be  substituted  for 
ours. 

It  thus  appears  that  we  have  a  monopoly 


MONOPOLY SLAVE  LABOR EXCHANGE  FOR  MANUFACTURES. 


119 


of  the  European  market,  because  we  furnish 
a  cheaper  and  better  article  for  the  same 
price.  And  this  excellence  is  due  to  our 
soil  and  climate,  and  to  the  cheapness  of  the 
labor  by  which  cotton  is  cultivated. 

The  soil  is  everywhere  favorable  for  cotton 
in  our  southern  states.  Where  it  is  rich 
enough  to  produce  any  thing  it  will  produce 
cotton.  The  climate  is  our  main  peculiarity. 
Although  we  are  so  near  the  equator  that  we 
have  six  months  of  the  summer,  and  some 
times  more,  without  a  frost  that  will'  kill  so 
tender  a  plant  as  cotton,  we  have  in  all  that 
time  a  succession  of  rain,  and  sunshine,  and 
dews,  and  clouds,  such  as  belong  to  temperate 
latitudes.  The  weather  is  hot  enough  for 
cotton,  and  yet  rainy  and  showery,  so  as  to 
keep  the  growth  of  the  plant  vigorous,  and 
bring  to  perfection  a  succession  of  fruit  on 
the  stalks  from  July  to  November.  The 
first  pickings  begin  as  early  as  July  at  some 
places,  everywhere  in  August,  and  during 
the  whole  of  September  and  October  new 
blossoms  are  appearing,  new  bolls  forming, 
and  new  pods  opening  their  silky  product 
for  the  hands  of  the  cultivator.  Even  after 
the  frost  has  stopped  the  growth  of  the  plant 
and  stripped  it  of  its  leaves,  the  bolls  still 
open,  and  the  fields  are  whitened  with  p,  suc 
cession  of  fruit,  until  January  arrives  and 
warns  the  planter  to  prepare  for  another 
crop. 

This  succession  of  rain  and  sunshine  does 
not  occur  in  India,  which,  after  the  United 
States,  produces  the  principal  part  of  the 
European  supplies.  And  this  is  the  reason 
that  the  American  variety  of  the  cotton 
plant  will  not  grow  there,  or  soon  degen 
erates  to  the  coarse,  rough,  short-stapled 
article  which  is  native  to  the  country. 

Another  advantage  we  have  over  India  is 
the  length  and  cost  of  the  voyage.  It  is 
worth  two  and  a  half  or  three  cents  a  pound 
to  transport  cotton  from  our  sea-ports  to  Liv 
erpool.  The  distance  from  India  to  England 
being  twice  as  great,  and  the  voyage  more 
than  twice  as  long,  freights  and  other  ex 
penses  must  increase  in  a  like  ratio ;  and  as 
the  best  qualities  of  Bombay  and  Surat  are 
worth,  even  now,  when  prices  are  high  in 
England,  only  eight  or  nine  cents,  it  is  evi 
dent  that  almost  nothing  is  left  for  the  interior 
producer,  especially  for  the  inferior  qualities. 
We  can  produce  cotton  with  profit  at  much 
lower  rates  than  we  now  name.  A  decline 
to  the  Indian  planter  is  ruinous,  because 
freights  are  stationary,  and  all,  or  nearly  all 


the  proceeds  in  England  will  be  consumed 
in  the  transportation. 

Probably,  however,  the  greatest  advantage 
we  have  over  the  Indian  producers  is  in  the 
cheapness  of  our  labor.  It  is  true  that  wages 
are  very  low  in  India,  but  the  labor  is  also 
inefficient.  We  have  the  cheapest  and  most 
efficient  labor  in  the  world. 

The  African  slave  in  the  southern  states 
is  well  fed  with  good  and  substantial  food, 
that  gives  him  strength,  endurance,  and 
health.  He  is  well  clad  in  winter,  and  Avell 
lodged,  to  protect  him  from  the  inclemencies 
of  the  season.  He  is  cheerful,  able  to  work, 
and  he  works  faithfully.  As  the  whole  cost 
of  this  labor  to  the  state  is  made  up  of  the 
simplest  necessaries  of  life,  the  support  of 
the  young,  and  the  old,  and  the  feeble,  it  is 
evident  that  the  south  has  the  cheapest  la 
bor  that  is  possible.  It  was  the  doctrine  of 
Malthus,  that  in  every  country  there  is  a 
constant  tendency  to  reduce  the  wages  of 
labor  down  to  the  mere  support  of  the  la 
borer.  That  limit,  however  approximated  to 
elsewhere,  has  never  been  reached  but  in  the 
south. 

The  slave  is  supplied  with  all  he  wants  of 
meal,  and  with  as  much  meat  as  is  needed 
for  his  health  and  strength.  This  meal  is 
prepared  in  many  ways,  and  makes  a  most 
palatable  bread.  His  master  generally  feeds 
on  it  in  preference  to  flour.  He  has  a  gar 
den,  where  he  can  raise  potatoes,  cabbages, 
collards,  greens,  turnips,  beans,  and  such 
other  vegetables  as  the  taste  and  industry 
of  the  family  may  desire.  He  has  clothing — 
cheap,  it  is  true,  but  warm  and  substantial. 

There  is  a  separate  dwelling  for  each  fami 
ly,  and  an  unlimited  supply  of  fuel  for  the 
winter.  The  old,  who  are  unable  to  labor 
in  the  field,  find  some  slight  work  about  the 
house — the  men  in  the  garden,  the  women 
in  the  care  of  young  children  whose  mothers 
are  out  on  the  usual  plantation  work.  The 
sick  are  carefully  attended  to  by  regular 
physicians  and  good  nursing. 

All  this  is  essential  to  the  health  and 
strength  of  the  laborer,  and  to  his  efficiency 
on  the  plantation.  The  humanity  and  sym 
pathy  of  the  master,  who  has  often  been 
reared  by  some  of  his  slaves,  are  sufficient 
to  secure  their  comfort ;  but  if  these  should 
be  wanting,  there  is  an  inexorable  law  se 
curing  the  necessary  wants  of  the  servant. 
With  less  meat,  or  with  insufficient  food, 
the  slave  is  unfitted  for  regular  work.  With 
less  clothing,  he  is  liable  to  sickness  and 


120 


COTTON    CULTURE. 


disease.  Without  attention  and  nursing  in 
sickness,  his  life  is  endangered,  and  his  ser 
vices  lost  to  his  master.  These  demands, 
united  with  the  influences  of  humanity  and 
sympathy,  secure  him  the  necessaries  and 
some  of  the  comforts  of  life. 

Another  element  of  the  cheapness  of  this 
labor  is  that  nothing  is  wasted  in  vicious  in 
dulgences.  In  other  countries,  a  large  part 
of  the  wages  of  labor  is  expended  in  strong 
drink ;  but  the  most  stringent  laws  are  every 
where  passed  against  selling  spirits  to  slaves ; 
the  Maine  liquor  law  is  enforced  with  the 
most  severe  penalties,  and  with  the  utmost 
certainty  of  conviction  for  the  guilty. 

Much  time  is  lost  in  free  countries  in  holi 
days  and  shows ;  in  idleness  and  neglect  of 
work ;  in  seeking  employment ;  in  change 
from  one  place  to  another ;  but  all  this  is 
saved  in  the  south,  for  there  are  no  idle 
hands  about  the  plantation,  and,  excepting 
the  week  between  Christmas  and  New  Year's 
day,  when  there  is  a  general  holiday,  there 
is  no  lost  time,  except  from  sickness,  in  any 
part  of  the  year. 

The  children  are  all  put  at  work  at  eleven 
or  twelve  years  of  age,  as  soon  as  they  are 
able  to  guide  a  plough  or  pick  cotton  in  the 
fields.  The  women  and  men  are  both  ef 
ficient  workers,  and  the  division  of  labor  is 
so  complete  that  the  children  of  many  moth 
ers  are  watched  over  and  cared  for  by  one, 
and  the  cooking  for  many  families  attended 
to  by  a  single  cook. 

This  system  of  labor  is  thus  the  cheapest 
possible.  The  corn  and  the  meat  being,  in 
most  cases,  raised  on  the  plantation,  and  not 
burdened  with  the  cost  of  transportation,  are 
supplied  at  the  cheapest  prices ;  the  work  is 
all  light  and  easy,  so  that  women  and  boys, 
as  well  as  men,  can  engage  in  it  efficiently. 
Every  thing  is  arranged  so  that  labor  is  se 
cured  at  the  lowest  possible  rate. 

Some  philanthropists,  indeed,  object  to  the 
system  on  this  account :  that  the  slave  ob 
tains  no  wages.  But  he  has  food  and  cloth 
ing,  a  house  and  fire,  proper  attention  when 
sick,  and  support  in  old  age.  His  children 
are  taken  care  of,  and  every  necessary  want 
supplied.  For  an  idle  and  improvident  race 
like  the  negro,  these  are  more  than  wages. 
They  are  more  than  his  industry  would  se 
cure.  He  would  not  earn  as  much  for  him 
self  were  he  free,  as  he  now  receives  from  his 
master ;  and  these  earnings  would  be  wasted 
in  drink,  or  in  excessive  indulgences,  or  in 
dress,  or  in  luxuries,  leaving  for  himself  and 


his  family  times  of  want  and  suffering,  with 
nothing  laid  up  for  sickness  and  old  age. 
Now  he  is  industrious  and  temperate,  and 
receives  the  necessaries  of  life  in  return; 
then  he  would  be  lazy,  and  wasteful,  and  des 
titute.  As  industry  and  temperance  are 
great  virtues,  and  the  necessaries  of  life  at 
,all  seasons  and  times,  in  sickness  and  health, 
in  youth  and  old  age  are  a  great  boon  to  the 
laboring  poor ;  and  as  want,  and  suffering,  and 
neglect  when  sick  or  aged  are  great  and 
real  evils,  philanthropy  surely  wastes  its 
sympathy  on  the  slave  when  it  complains 
that  he  is  denied  his  wages. 

The  culture  of  cotton  is  specially  suited  for 
slave  labor,  because  of  its  giving  full  employ 
ment  for  the  whole  year.  January  is  devoted 
to  fitting  up  the  fences,  clearing  off  the  decayed 
trees  that  have  fallen  in  the  fields,  and  put 
ting  in  order  the  cultivators  and  all  the  imple 
ments  of  the  farm.  The  ploughs  are  also 
started,  and  some  of  the  ground  broken  up  for 
spring  planting.  February  is  the  main  time 
for  ploughing,  and  in  the  more  southern  part 
of  the  cotton  country,  corn  is  planted  in 
this  month.  In  latitude  31°  the  time 
for  corn  is  the  20th  of  February ;  above 
this  line  it  gradually  becomes  later.  About 
a  month  after  the  corn,  cotton  is  planted.  In 
every  locality  it  is  desired  to  have  the  cotton 
up  as  soon  as  the  fear  of  frost  is  gone.  The 
season  for  planting  begins  as  early  as  the 
15th  of  March  in  the  most  southern  lati 
tudes,  is  delayed  to  the  1st  of  April  at  the 
parallel  of  32°,  to  the  loth  in  latitude  34°, 
and  later  still  above  this  line.  As  the  seed 
are  planted  close  together  in  drills,  the  hands 
pass  along  the  ro\vs  and  chop  down  the 
weakest  and  smallest  plants,  leaving  them  in 
bunches,  fifteen  to  twenty  inches  apart.  The 
ploughs  follow  or  precede  the  hoes,  both  be 
ing  necessary  to  kill  the  grass  and  soften  the 
ground  about  the  plants.  The  hoes  follow 
again,  and  thin  out  the  bunches  to  one  or 
two  stalks,  and  finally  they  are  reduced  to 
one,  the  rest  having  perished  from  the  cut 
worm  or  insects,  or  the  blows  of  the  plough 
and  the  hoe.  For  two  or  three  months  this 
hoeing  and  ploughing,  to  soften  the  ground 
and  destroy  the  grass,  gives  full  employment 
to  the  hands.  The  corn  has  also  to  be  treated 
in  the  same  way,  and  the  work  is  continued 
on  both  until  the  summer  has  come  and  the 
fruit  begins  to  appear  on  the  cotton.  There 
is  a  little  leisure  now  to  the  hands  before  the 
picking  is  begun,  and  this  gives  time  to  har 
vest  the  wheat  that  has  been  sown ;  to  cut 


MONOPOLY SLAVE    LABOR EXCHANGE    FOR    MANUFACTURES. 


121 


the  oats,  and  gather  the  fodder  from  the 
corn.  This  work  fills  up  the  time  until  the 
picking  begins.  At  first,  but  few  of  the  pods 
are  open.  The  hands  pass  between  the  rows 
— which  are  from  three  to  four  feet  wide  on 
the  poor  lands,  and  from  six  to  seven  on  the 
richest — and  as  the  branches  stretch  out  so 
as  to  reach  each  other,  they  each  gather  from 
two  rows  as  they  pass  through  the  field.  By 
September  the  fields  are  white  with  the 
opening  cotton,  and  every  hand,  young  and 
old,  male  and  female,  that  can  be  of  any  ser 
vice,  is  busied  in  gathering  the  cotton,  lest 
the  rain  should  come  and  beat  it  out,  and 
scatter  it  on  the  ground.  In  October  this 
picking  continues  undiminished.  At  the  close 
of  this  month,  frost  usually  appears,  and 
stops  the  growth  of  the  plant  and  kills  the 
leaves,  but  the  pods  keep  opening,  and  new 
cotton  offering  itself  to  the  hands  until  De 
cember.  The  fields  are  picked  over  twice 
or  three  times  if  the  season  is  favorable  and 
the  crop  large,  and  five  or  six  times  if  the 
opening  cotton  does  not  hurry  the  planter. 
The  gathered  cotton  has  now  to  be  sunned, 
and  dried,  and  ginned,  and  packed,  and  de 
livered  at  the  nearest  railway  station  or  river 
landing,  or  sold  in  the  neighboring  town. 
Thus  is  the  year  completed  with  unremitting 
toil,  from  Christmas  to  Christmas. 

The  distribution  of  labor  between  the 
white  and  black  races,  so  that  the  former 
shall  have  the  selection  of  the  products  and 
of  the  place  of  labor,  of  the  seeds  and  the 
mode  of  cultivation,  and  of  all  the  plans 
and  management  of  the  plantation,  is 
another  great  aid  to  the  cheapness  and  the 
efficiency  of  the  labor. 

Some  political  economists  have  supposed 
that  free  is  cheaper  than  slave  labor;  but 
though  there  are  pursuits  where  the  watch 
fulness,  foresight,  intelligence,  and  energy  of 
a  free  man  will  make  his  labor  so  much 
more  productive  than  that  of  a  slave  as  to 
pay  the  superior  cost  of  his  support,  it  is 
certain  that  the  want  of  these  qualities  in  the 
slave  is  but  a  slight  drawback  to  the  value  of 
his  labor  in  the  production  of  cotton.  The 
work  is  so  regular,  and  simple,  and  easy,  that 
the  free  man  performs  it  no  better  than  the 
slave,  and  as  the  direction,  and  management, 
and  skill  are  in  the  master,  the  work  is  well 
directed,  and  wisely  managed.  The  slave 
works  enough,  though  he  does  not  work  as 
hard  as  some  free  men.  In  fact,  it  is  very 
doubtful  if  a  free  white  man,  impelled  by 
necessity  or  the  desire  of  accumulation, 


would  be  more  efficient  in  the  cotton  field 
than  the  slave.  Certain  it  is  that  in  the 
south,  where  the  hot  sun  breeds  disease,  and 
the  malarious  air  brings  fevers,  the  white 
freeman  could  not  produce  as  much  as  the 
slave,  much  less  could  he  labor  as  cheaply. 
His  expenditures  being  more,  his  wife  and 
children  not  working  at  all,  or  but  little,  his 
waste  of  time  and  money  in  vicious  prac 
tices  and  holidays,  would  require  larger 
wages,  and  for  these  he  has  nothing  more 
to  give  than  the  slave. 

The  slaves  marry  and  are  given  in  mar 
riage  as  regularly  and  religiously  as  the 
white  peasants  of  any  country  ;  and  though 
the  marriage  has  not  a  legal  sanction,  it  has 
the  religious  and  moral.  They  are  kept  to 
gether  with  their  families  far  more  than  the 
white  people.  On  many  plantations  there 
are  one  or  two  hundred  negroes,  all  de 
scended  from  three  or  four  families ;  while 
the  children  of  the  first  master  have  been 
scattered  from  Maine  to  Texas.  They  have 
regularly  improved  since  first  introduced 
from  Africa,  and  are  now  improving,  from 
year  to  year,  in  intelligence,  in  moral  culture, 
in  intellectual  development,  in  appearance, 
in  habits,  in  comfort ;  and  they  are  as  cheer 
ful  and  faithful,  as  devoted  to  the  interests 
of  their  master,  as  attached  to  him  and  his 
family,  as  if  they  were  free  hired  servants, 
receiving  regular  wages.  There  is  no  men 
dicity,  no  need  for  poor-houses,  asylums, 
hospitals;  for  the  master's  house  is  the 
asylum  of  the  slaves ;  his  wife  and  his 
daughters  their  nurses,  and  his  own  doctor 
their  physician.  Such  a  set  of  laborers,  able 
and  willing  to  work,  contented  and  happy, 
with  every  want  supplied,  and  yet  costing 
the  master  the  least  possible  sum  needed 
for  their  health  and  their  strength,  fur 
nish  the  cheapest  and  most  efficient  labor 
possible. 

As  the  south  sends  nothing  to  the  north 
that  can  be  produced  there,  there  is  no  con 
flict  between  the  labor  of  the  north  and  the 
south.  There  is  no  competition,  no  tendency 
to  equalization  in  wages,  no  interference  the 
one  with  the  other.  They  are,  in  fact,  mutual 
helps  to  each  other,  as  town  and  country,  as 
man  and  wife,  as  the  limbs,  and  the  head, 
and  the  heart  of  the  human  body.  The 
high  wages  at  the  north  cannot  be  reduced 
by  the  labor  of  the  slave.  Instead  of  re 
duction,  it  causes  an  increase.  His  cheap 
toil  is  for  their  advantage.  His  labors,  under 
the  hot  tropical  sun,  are  for  the  benefit  of 


122 


COTTON    CULTURE. 


every  mechanic,  and  artisan,  and  workman, 
that  now  fears  the  competition  of  the  north 
ern  free  black.  As  a  slave  he  benefits  them, 
as  a  free  man  he  would  be  in  their  way. 

We  have  one  more  point  to  mention  to 
complete  the  explanation  we  suggest  of  our 
high  prices,  and  this  is  the  operation  of  the 
tariff'.  By  a  tax  at  the  sea-ports  on  any 
article  imported,  its  price  is  so  raised  that 
the  American  producer  of  the  same  kind  of 
goods  is  enabled  to  raise  his  price.  This 
advance  enables  him  to  pay  higher  rates  to 
his  workmen,  and  to  the  capitalist,  and  to 
all  concerned  in  the  manufacture.  But  it 
prevents,  also,  the  exportation  of  his  goods, 
because  they  are  too  high  for  the  foreign 
market.  Being  thus  unable  to  pay  for  the 
supplies  he  must  have  from  abroad,  the 
cotton  planter  comes  to  his  aid  with  a  prod 
uct  much  wanted  abroad,  and  raised  here 
under  favorable  circumstances  of  soil  and 
climate,  and  with  a  cheap  kind  of  labor  that 
does  not  compete  with  the  labor  of  the  man 
ufacturer.  This  will  pay  for  the  foreign  sup 
plies  of  both,  and  the  planter  buys  them, 
and  takes  in  return  the  high-priced  manu 
factures.  Thus  high  prices  are  sustained,  at 
the  expense,  indeed,  of  the  planter,  but  to 
the  great  advantage  and  prosperity  of  the 
north  and  the  west. 

We  have  now  considered  the  several  points 
of  the  explanation  Ave  proposed  for  our  high 
prices,  that  in  cotton  we  have  an  article  of 
great  profit  to  the  planters,  produced  by 
cheap  labor,  although  the  other  labor  of  the 
country  is  dear ;  in  large  and  intense  de 
mand  in  Europe  and  all  parts  of  the  world, 
because  it  furnishes  the  cheapest  material  for 
clothing,  for  the  production  of  which  there 
is  no  competitor  with  us,  as  we  have  almost  a 
monopoly  of  the  market ;  and  that  by  means 
of  this  export  we  pay  for  our  foreign  sup 
plies,  and  by  our  tariff  raise  the  price  of  the 
imports  to  our  own  high  limit,  and  thus  sus 
tain  the  rates  of  labor  and  capital,  and  secure 
the  prosperity  of  our  country. 

High  prices  for  labor  on  iron,  on  cotton 
and  woollen  manufactures,  and  on  all  the 
articles  we  import  from  abroad,  we  could 
not  have  without  a  tariff ;  this  tariff  could 
not  be  maintained  without  an  export  of  some 
product,  furnished  by  nature  or  made  with 
cheap  labor,  in  intense  demand  abroad  ;  for 
otherwise  it  would  be  impossible  to  pay  for 
our  imports.  Cotton  furnishes  the  desired 
article,  and  thus  makes  prices  high  both  for 
labor  and  money,  since  the  rates  for  the  one 


and  the  other  closely  correspond  at  all  times 
and  in  all  countries. 

Precisely  the  same  set  of  operations  has 
been  going  on  in  California  for  the  past  ten 
years.  Nature  there,-  as  here,  furnishes  a 
product  which  pays  well  to  those  who  ob 
tain  it ;  the  gift  of  nature  there  being  in  the 
mines,  and  here  in  the  soil  and  climate.  The 
miner  there  and  the  cultivator  here  are  well 
paid  for  their  labor.  Both  productions  are 
in  intense  demand  abroad ;  and  both  unite 
in  enabling  us  to  pay  for  our  foreign  impor 
tations,  without  reducing  to  the  foreign  limit 
the  wages  of  labor  and  the  interest  of  capital 
that  supply  these  products. 

It  may,  perhaps,  be  proper  to  confirm  the 
propositions  we  have  been  considering  by 
inquiring  into  the  course  of  our  domestic 
trade.  If  the  true  explanation  has  been 
given  of  the  anomaly  of  high  prices  prevail 
ing  in  a  country  engaged  in  a  large  com 
merce  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  we  will 
find  large  transfers  to  the  south  of  manufac 
tures  from  the  north,  and  of  agricultural 
products  from  the  west ;  because  cotton  be 
ing  very  profitable  to  the  planter,  and  nearly 
all  the  labor  of  the  south  being  appropriated 
to  this  culture,  the  northern  manufacturer 
will  supply  all  his  wants  of  every  kind  in 
which  labor  is  the  chief  element,  and  the 
western  farmer  will  supply  him  with  all 
those  articles  of  food  that  are  of  easy  trans 
portation.  In  fact,  we  find  in  the  south  that 
any  article  of  necessity,  comfort,  or  luxury 
comes  from  the  north.  If  we  enter  the 
dwellings,  or  the  shops,  or  the  stores  of  the 
cotton  states,  they  tell  all  the  same  story — 
every  thing  comes  from  the  north. 

As  I  rose  from  my  bed  this  morning  and 
surveyed  the  furniture  of  my  chamber,  I 
found  nothing  made  at  home.  The  bed 
stead,  netting,  and  canopy ;  the  coverlet, 
sheets,  and  ticking ;  the  bureau,  wardrobe, 
washstand,  and  crib ;  the  tables,  chairs,  mir 
rors,  curtains,  carpet,  bell-wire,  and  tassel ;  the 
medicine  chest,  and  all  its  bottles,  and  mix 
tures,  and  quack  preparations ;  all  the  per 
fumery,  and  cosmetics,  and  jewelry,  and 
brushes,  and  powders ;  every  article  of  dress, 
or  clothing,  or  ornament ;  even  the  white 
wash  on  the  walls,  arid  the  paint  on  the 
wood-work,  and  the  glass  in  the  windows 
were  from  the  north.  As  I  came  from  the 
chamber  to  the  library,  I  found  no  change. 
The  book-case,  curtains,  carpet,  pictures, 
tables,  sofas,  paper,  ink-stand,  pen,  and  ink 
were  from  the  north.  There  was  a  northern 


MONOPOLY SLAVE    LABOR EXCHANGE    FOB   MANUFACTURES. 


123 


grate  for  northern  coal;  a  marble  mantel 
from  the  north,  with  vases  and  photographs ; 
globe  and  statuary  from  the  same  source. 
I  opened  the  book-cases,  and  run  my  eye 
over  the  shelves,  to  see  if  any  could  be  found 
with  a  southern  imprimatur ;  but  though 
some  had  on  them  the  names  of  southern 
authors,  it  was  a  long  while  before  I  found 
a  southern  publishing  house.  There  was 
"  Beulah,"  but  it  had  not  Mobile  on  its  title- 
page  ;  Dr.  Thornwell's  "  Truth,"  but  it  was 
not  published  in  Columbia ;  the  "  Laws  of 
Georgia,"  but  they  were  printed  in  New 
York ;  "  Cobb  on  Slavery,"  but  it  claimed 
to  be  from  Philadelphia ;  Stevens'  "  History 
of  Georgia,"  but  it  came  from  Appleton's,  on 
Broadway  ;  "  White's  Statistics"  had  Savan 
nah  on  its  title-page,  but  I  suspected  this 
was  a  counterfeit  stamp,  and  that  it  had  not 
been  printed  in  the  south ;  Judge  O'Neall's 
"  Historical  Sketches  of  Carolina"  claimed 
to  be  from  Charleston,  and  this  was  the  first 
genuine  southern  print  I  found  in  my  library. 
A  more  diligent  search  discovered  others, 
but  they  were  few  and  far  between.  As  I 
went  to  the  breakfast-room,  the  exclusion  of 
the  south  was  not  so  complete.  The  side 
board,  and  its  glass  and  silver  were  from  the 
north,  but  it  had  on  it  a  handsome  pitcher 
from  our  own  kaolin ;  the  window-shades, 
clock,  tables,  chairs,  and  crumb-cloth  were 
from  the  •  same  source  ;  but  there  was  a 
lounge  manufactured  here.  Albert  gave  me 
my  coffee  in  a  northern  cup,  on  a  northern 
waiter,  sweetened  with  Stuart's  sugar,  but 
the  cream  was  from  home ;  Ziney  brought  in 
hot  waffles  on  a  northern  plate,  but  the  corn, 
and  flour,  and  eggs  of  which  they  were  made 
were  produced  here;  the  water  was  handed 
in  a  northern  tumbler,  and  cooled  with  Bos 
ton  ice,  but  the  water-cooler  had  on  it  a  do 
mestic  stamp ;  the  butter  was  southern, 
though  hardened  in  a  New  England  refriger 
ator ;  the  cantelopes  were  raised  here,  though 
the  salt  and  pepper  which  seasoned  them 
were  not ;  the  hot  biscuits  were  from  south 
ern  flour,  but  the  yeast-powders  with  which 
they  were  raised  were  from  New  York;  the 
beef-steak  was  from  our  own  market,  but 
the  tongue  had  been  brought  a  thousand 
miles  from  home ;  the  clabber  was  fresh  from 
our  own  dairy,  but  the  cheese  was  from  New 
Jersey ;  the  white,  hot,  smoking  hominy  was 
a  domestic  product,  but  the  dish  in  which  it 
was  served  was  not;  the  bread  was  from 
our  town  bakery,  but  the  ham  was  from  Cin 
cinnati  ;  the  knives,  and  forks,  and  spoons, 


and  caster,  and  vinegar,  and  oil,  and  mustard 
were  from  the  north,  but  the  catsup  was 
made  here ;  the  fish  were  from  Savannah, 
but  they  had  been  brought  up  by  a  north 
ern  locomotive,  running  on  English  rails ; 
the  walls  and  doors  were  covered  with  paint 
manufactured  at  the  north,  but  the  floor  was 
of  Georgia  pine  ;  the  locks,  and  keys,  and 
andirons,  and  shovel,  and  tongs,  and  hearth- 
broom,  and  rug,  and  oil-cloth,  and  table-' 
linen,  and  napkins  were  not  made  here,  but 
the  morning  newspaper  was  printed  on  paper 
made  at  home,  out  of  southern  rags,  and  by 
southern  labor. 

After  breakfast  Albert  drove  me  down 
town  in  a  northern  buggy,  behind  a  northern 
horse,  with  northern  harness,  and  reins,  and 
whip.  I  stopped  at  a  furniture  shop,  and 
asked  how  much  of  their  stock  was  made 
here ;  and  they  said  about  fifty  dollars  in  a 
thousand,the  southern  work  being  principally 
of  pine ;  I  asked  at  a  book  store  the  same 
question,  and  they  told  me,  including  law 
books  and  the  reports  of  our  supreme  court, 
perhaps  one  dollar  in  a  hundred ;  I  asked  at 
a  tin  shop,  and  they  said  their  stoves,  and  gas 
fixtures,  and  lamps,  and  japanned  work,  and 
block  tin  were  from  the  north,  but  that  their 
tin  ware  was  made  in  their  own  shop,  though, 
out  of  English  plate  and  with  northern 
solder ;  I  enquired  at  a  shoe  shop,  and  they 
told  me  they  had  several  hands  employed 
on  customers'  work,  but  the  great  proportion 
of  their  sales  were  from  Boston ;  I  stopped 
at  the  paper  warehouse,  and  was  sure  now 
that  I  had  found  a  shop  with  home-made 
products,  but  they  told  me  they  only  manu 
factured  wrapping  paper,  and  supplied  the 
newspaper  offices,  but  their  card,  and  post, 
and  letter  paper  was  from  the  north  ;  I  drove 
to  the  cotton  mills,  and  here  found  a  genuine 
home  manufacture,  but  their  machinery, 
and  looms,  and  spools,  and  oil  were  from  the 
same  northern  hive,  whose  products  swarm 
over  every  part  of  our  country. 

The  south  are  an  agricultural  people,  de 
voted  to  the  production  of  cotton,  because 
it  is  more  profitable  than  any  other  employ 
ment,  and  they  are  able  and  willing  to  buy 
their  supplies  from  the  north,  because  it  is 
their  interest  to  do  so.  Their  labor  is  em 
ployed  according  to  the  irresistible  laws  of 
trade  in  the  most  remunerating  pursuit,  and 
they  can  afford  to  buy  the  manufactures 
they  want,  because  they  can  be  furnished 
cheaper  than  they  can  make  them.  They 
might  tan  their  own  leather,  make  their 


124 


COTTON    CULTURE. 


own  shoes,  weave  their  own  cottons  and 
woollens,  put  together  their  own  clothing, 
brew  their  own  ale,  distil  their  own  grain, 
press  their  own  wine,  reduce,  cast,  and  refine 
their  iron,  mine  their  coal,  build  their  car 
riages,  print  their  books,  polish  their  marble, 
and  manufacture  their  own  furniture,  and 
china,  and  hardware,  and  carpets,  and  cloth 
ing  ;  but  they  find  it  their  interest  to  buy 
them,  and  appropriate  their  labor  to  the 
growing  of  cotton,  and  the  raising  of  those 
heavy  agricultural  products  that  cannot  be 
brought  here  cheaply,  and  the  manufacture 
of  the  coarser  and  cheaper  goods  on  which 
the  cost  of  transportation  is  large. 

The  war,  of  course,  made  a  great  change 
in  the  production  and  marketing  of  cotton, 
and  the  expectation  that  England  and  France, 
the  great  foreign  customers  for  the  staple, 
would  interfere,  or  form  an  alliance  with  the 
states  in  insurrection,  in  order  to  secure  their 
supply,  proved  futile.  The  greater  part  of 
the  crop  of  1860  was  brought  into  market; 
but  of  that  of  1 861,  which  was  nearly  as  large, 
was  withheld,  in  consequence  of  the  blockade 
of  the  ports,  to  such  an  extent  that  only 
120,752  cwt.,  or  about  30,000  bales,  hardly 
more  than  one-sixtieth  of  the.  quantity  sent 
the  preceding  year,  was  sent  to  Great  Britain, 
and  the  entire  export  to  Europe  did  not  reach 
50,000  bales,  notwithstanding  the  imperfec 
tion  of  the  blockade.  Of  this  quantity  about 
12,000  bales  were  shipped  from  New  York. 
The  crop  of  1862  was  small,  orders  having 
been  given  to  plant  corn  instead  of  cotton  to 
a  large  extent ;  and  so  stringent  was  the 
blockade  that  Great  Britain  received  but 
about  11,500  bales  of  American  cotton  from 
blockade  runners  and  all  other  sources,  and 
the  entire  export  from  opened  ports,  including 
some  re-exportation,  was  but  28,000  bales. 
Large  quantities  of  cotton  were  burned 
during  this  and  the  succeeding  year,  part  of 
it  by  the  insurgents,  to  keep  it  from  fallino- 
into  the  hands  of  the  Union  army,  and  part 
by  the  Union  soldiers,  because  it  was  the 


property  of  the  so-called  Confederate  govern 
ment.  In  1864  only  27,000  bales,  mostly 
of  the  crop  of  1863,  were  exported,  and  the 
work  of  destruction  went  on.  The  crop  of 
1863  and  that  of  1864  must  have  been  very 
small,  and  the  export  of  1864  was  only 
16,500  bales.  At  the  close  of  the  war  there 
was  a  very  considerable  amount,  perhaps  not 
less  than  1,200,000  bales,  on  hand  of  the 
crops  since  1861,  which  had  been  stored  in 
out-of-the-way  places,  much  of  it  awaiting  a 
safe  opportunity  to  ship.  Much  of  this  came 
into  market,  and  was  mostly  consumed  by 
the  American  manufactories,  which  had  been 
short  of  material  for  nearly  three  years. 
The  crop  of  1865  was  larger  than  those  of 
the  preceding  years ;  but  was  not  all  of  it 
gathered  in  good  condition.  The  export  of 
cotton  to  Great  Britain,  in  the  first  seven 
months  of  1866,  amounted  to  1,017,856 
bales,  being  nearly  one-half  of  all  received  in 
that  country  from  all  sources.  The  crop  for 
1866  will  probably  not  fall  short  of  two 
millions  of  bales,  southern  Illinois,  Kentucky, 
Missouri,  and  southern  Virginia  raising  con 
siderable  amounts  each  year  since  1862.  It 
is  obvious,  however,  that  cotton  can  never 
attain  again  the  supremacy  as  a  crop  for  ex 
port  which  it  held  before  the  war.  In  favor 
able  years,  as  much,  and  perhaps  more,  may 
be  raised  than  ever  before ;  for  the  better  cul 
ture  and  more  frugal  habits  of  free  labor  will 
give  a  better  yield  to  the  acre  than  the 
slovenly  and  wasteful  culture  by  slave  labor ; 
but  when  the  crop  shall  have  attained  to  or 
surpassed  its  old  amounts,  a  much  larger 
portion  of  it  will  be  consumed  in  our  own 
country,  and  very  considerable  quantities 
in  the  region  where  it  is  grown,  in  the 
manufacture  of  goods  for  home  consumption. 
Other  crops  and  products  have  also,  during 
the  war,  found  a  market  abroad  which  they 
will  not  readily  relinquish ;  and  the  export 
of  cereals,  and  of  beef,  pork,  butter,  cheese, 
tobacco,  and  hops,  will  henceforth  in  the 
aggregate  largely  exceed  the  export  of  cotton. 


PICKING    COTTON. 


The  season  cf  cotton  picking  commences  in  the  latter  part  of  July,  and  continues  without  intermis 
sion  to  the  Christmas  holidays.  The  work  is  not  heavy,  but  becomes  tedious  from  its  sameness.  The 
lield  handn  arc  each  supplied  with  a  basket  and  bag.  The  basket  is  left  at  the  head  of  the  "  cotton- 
ro\vs;"  tho  bag  is  suspended  from  the  "picker's"'  neck  by  a  strap,  and  is  used  to  hold  the  cotton  as  it  is 
taken  from  the  boll.  "When  the  bag  is  filled  it  is  emptied  into  the  basket,  and  this  routine  is  continued 
through  tho  day.  Each  hand  picks  from  two  hundred  and  fifty  to  three  hundred  pounds  of  "seed  cot 
ton"  each  day,  though  some  negroes  of  extraordinary  ability  go  beyond  this  amount. 

If  the  weather  bo  very  fine,  the  cotton  is  carried  from  the  field  direct  to  the  packing-house;  but 
generally  it  is  first  spread  out  on  scaffolds,  whero  it  is  left  to  dry,  and  picked  clean  of  any  ''  trash"  that 
may  bo  perceived  mixed  up  with  tho  cotton.  Among  the  most  characteristic  scenes  of  plantation  life  is 
t'.io  returning  of  the  hands  t.t  nightfall  from  the  field,  with  their  well-filled  baskets  of  cotton  upon  their 
heads.  Falling  unconsciously  "into  line,"  the  stoutest  leading  the  way,  they  move  along  in  the  dim  twi 
light  cf  a  winter  day,  with  the  quietness  cf  spirits  rather  than  human  beings. — Harper's  Magazine. 


GATHERING    THE   CANE. 


And  now  may  be  seen  the  field-hands,  armed  with  huge  knives,  entering  the  harvest  field.  1  he  cano 
is  iu  the  perfection  of  its  beauty,  and  snaps  and  rattles  its  wiry -textured  leaves  as  if  they  were  ribbons, 
and  towers  over  the  head  of  the  overseer  as  he  rides  between  the  rows  on  his  good-sized  horse.  Sud 
denly,  you  perceive  an  unusual  motion  among  the  foliage — a  crackling  noise,  a  blow — and  the  long  rows 
of  growing  vegetation  are  broken,  and  every  moment  it  disappears  under  the  operation  of  the  knife.  The 
cane  is  stripped  by  the  negroes  of  its  leaves,  decapitated  of  its  unripe  joints,  and  cut  off  frcm  the  root 
with  a  rapidity  of  execution  that  is  almost  marvellous.  The  stalks  lie  scattered  along  on  the  ground, 
soon  to  be  gathered  up  and  placed  in  the  cane-wagons,  which  with  their  four  gigantic  mule-teams  have 
just  come  rattling  on  to  the  scene  of  action  with  a  noise  and  manner  that  would  do  honor  to  a  park  of 
flying  artillery. 

We  have  already  alluded  to  the  fact  that  the  sugar  crop  has  to  be  gathered,  in  Louisiana  within 
ninety  days,  or  else  it  will  be  destroyed  by  the  cold;  as  a  consequence,  from  the  moment  the  first  blow  is 
struck,  every  thing  is  inspired  Avith  energy.  The  teams,  the  neg  oes,  the  vegetation,  the  very  air,  in  fact, 
that  has  been  for  months  dragging  out  a  quiescent  existence,  as  if  the  only  object  of  life  was  to  consume 
time,  now  start  as  if  touched  by  fire.  The  negro  becomes  supple,  the  mules  throw  up  their  heads  and 
paw  the  earth  with  impatience,  the  sluggish  air  frolics  in  swift  currents  and  threatening  storms,  while  the 
once  silent  sugar  house  is  open,  -windows  and  doors.  The  carrier  shed  is  full  of  children  and  women,  tlie 
tall  chimneys  are  belching  out  smoke,  and  the  huge  engine,  as  if  waking  from  a  benumbing  nap,  lias 
stretched  out  its  long  arms,  given  one  long-drawn  respiration,  and  is  alive. — Ilavpev's 


SUGAR-CULTIVATION  AND  CONSUMPTION. 


THE  cultivation  of  cane  sugar  in  the 
United  States  has  become  of  considerable 
importance  only  in  the  last  ten  years.  While 
it  has  in  that  time  occupied  an  .increasing 
proportion  of  the  attention  of  the  planters 
of  Texas  and  Louisiana,  it  has  rather  de 
clined  in  other  portions  of  the  Southern 
states.  The  cane  itself  is  more  nearly  asso 
ciated  with  Indian  corn  in  the  general  char 
acter  of  its  climatic  requirements  than  any 
other  staple.  It  differs  from  corn  in  this  re 
spect  only  in  degree,  each  condition,  or  the 
principal  condition  of  temperature,  at  least, 
being  required  in  similar,  but  greater  tropi 
cal  excess  for  the  period  of  its  growth.  In 
the  southern  parts  of  the  United  States  the 
great  heat  of  summer  gives  this  plant  a  range 
it  attains  in  no  other  country  of  the  same 
mean  annual  temperature ;  and  it  is  restrained 
only  by  the  limit  of  its  safe  endurance  of  the 
winter.  The  cane  may  be  cultivated  east  of 
the  high  plains  and  deserts  of  Texas,  and 
south  of  34°  north  latitude.  The  area  now 
occupied  by  the  cane  is  quite  limited,  a 
part  of  Texas,  the  lower  parishes  of  Louisi 
ana,  a  portion  of  Florida,  in  the  latitude  of 
Tallahassee  to  Cedar  Keys,  and  the  Atlantic 
coast  of  Georgia,  comprising  its  extent.  The 
considerable  capital  required  to  conduct  the 
culture  makes  it  a  larger  interest  than  might 
be  inferred  from  this  limited  extent  of  area. 

The  cane  was  first  introduced  into  Louis 
iana  in  1751,  and  the  first  plantation  was 
established  by  Mr.  Dubrcul  in  1758,  a  little 
more  than  a  century  since.  The  progress 
was  not  rapid,  however,  until  1794,  when 
the  revolution  of  St.  Domingo  drove  some 
few  Frenchmen  to  fly  for  refuge  from  their 
burning  houses  and  their  frantic  pursuers 
on  board  American  vessels,  with  such  of 
their  faithful  slaves  as  would  follow  them. 
When  there,  they  naturally  turned  their 
hopes  to  Louisiana,  where  they  might  find 
a  home  for  themselves  and  their  servants 
among  kindred  French.  To  these  unhap 
py  men  Louisiana  owes  the  introduction  of 


the  Creole  cane,  a  small  yellow  kind,  which 
only  was  then  grown  in  the  French  islands. 
About  the  same  period  the  cane  culture  was 
introduced  into  Georgia.  There  had  been 
there  growing  and  flourishing  from  the  time 
of  the  first  settlement  of  the  country  by 
General  Oglethorpe,  luxurious  orange  trees. 
As  similar  trees  in  Louisiana  had  been  de 
stroyed  by  the  frost,  while  those  in  Georgia 
flourished  uninjured,  the  idea  was  suggested 
to  an  enterprising  planter  that  if  under  such 
circumstances  cane  would  grow  in  Louisiana 
it  would  also  grow  in  Georgia.  In  1805  he 
procured  100  plants  of  the  Otaheite  cane 
that  had  been  sent  by  Lieutenant  Bligh  from 
Otaheite.  These  100  canes  multiplied  to 
2000,  and  from  these  most  of  the  plantations 
in  Georgia  and  Florida  were  propagated. 
The  question 'of  labor  in  the  English  West 
Indies  was  then  sufficiently  discussed  to  in 
duce  many  planters  to  leave  Jamaica  for 
new  settlements,  and  many  were  attracted 
to  Georgia  by  the  luxuriant  growth  of  the 
cane.  The  price  of  sugar  was  then,  under 
the  embargo,  about  ten  cents  per  pound,  and 
many  plantations  were  established.  The 
canes  spread  up  the  Altamaha,  the  Oconee, 
and  the  Ocmulgec,  and  luxuriated  in  the 
fine  lands  of  Florida  and  Georgia  to  a  dis 
tance  of  150  miles  from  sea.  Nevertheless, 
the  manufacture  was  not  many  years  after 
mostly  abandoned  in  that  region  on  a  large 
scale  or  for  export,  but  it  is  still  conducted 
to  a  considerable  extent  for  plantation  and 
home  use.  It  did  not  there  pay  so  well 
as  rice  or  cotton,  since  the  product  per  acre 
was  less  than  half  what  it  had  risen  to  be  in 
Louisiana.  In  the  rich  lands  of  that  state 
and  Texas  the  product  per  acre  is  2400 
pounds  against  1000  pounds  even  in  the 
richest  river  lands  of  Georgia. 

There  are  five  kinds  of  cane  in  use  by  the 
planters  of  Louisiana,  viz.,  the  Bourbon,  which 
has  large  eyes,  a  dark  purple  color,  and  is 
very  hardy;  the  green  ribbon  is  of  a  bright 
yellow  coter,  with  delicate  green  stripes ;  the 


128 


SUGAR — CULTIVATION    AND    CONSUMPTION. 


eye  is  small,  elongated,  and  delicate  in  its 
structure ;  the  red  ribbon  has  purple  stripes 
of  an  inch  or  less  in  width,  and  can  resist 
light  frost;  the  Otakeite  has  large  joints, 
does  not  grow  high,  and  has  a  comparative 
ly  thin  skin,  and  is  easily  affected  by  the 
frost,  yet  its  juice  is  rich  and  abundant ; 
the  Creole  cane  yields  a  superior  kind  of 
sugar,  but  it  has  been  less  used  than  the 
Bourbon  on  account  of  its  less  hardy  na 
ture.  It  is  now  getting  more  into  favor 
again.  These  are  the  varieties  mostly  used 
in  Louisiana.  The  mode  of  culture  is  simple 
and  allied  to  that  of  Indian  corn.  The  canes 
are  propagated  by  cuttings,  and  these  are 
planted  in  the  fall,  seldom  as  early  as  Octo 
ber,  since  the  planters  have  no  time  until 
the  grinding  season  is  over.  The  riper  por 
tion  of  the  stalk  is  generally  used  for  cane 
seed ;  others  cut  the  cane  in  the  middle  and 
use  the  green  tops  for  planting.  The  land 
is  well  ploughed,  harrowed,  and  marked  off 
in  rows  three  to  five  and  even  eight  feet 
apart.  As  the  cane  must  reach  its  full 
growth  in  nine  months,  a  good  distance 
apart  is  thought  necessary  to  promote  ac 
cess  of  the  sun  and  the  circulation  of  air.  A 
double-mould-board  plough  follows  the  mark 
er,  opening  a  clear  furrow  for  planting.  In  the 
furrow  the  canes  are  laid  straight  in  such  a 
manner  that  the  eyes  may  freely  throw  out 
their  shoots.  They  are  covered  from  four 
to  six  inches.  The  young  plants  are  culti 
vated  much  as  Indian  corn,  in  rows.  The 
planting  is  done  in  some  parts  of  Louisiana 
once  in  three  years.  The  first  year  it  is  call 
ed  "plant  cane,"  and  the  subsequent  growths 
are  called  rattoons.  But  sometimes,  as  on 
the  prairies  of  Attakapas  and  Opelousas  and 
the  higher  northern  range  of  its  cultiva 
tion,  it  requires  to  be  replanted  every  year. 
Within  the  tropics,  as  in  the  West  Indies 
and  elsewhere,  the  rattoons  frequently  con 
tinue  to  yield  abundantly  for  twelve,  fifteen, 
and  even  twenty-four  years  from  the  same 
roots.  In  Louisiana  in  the  fourth  year  the 
land  is  put  in  corn  and  peas.  After  the  corn 
is  gathered  the  stalks  and  peas  are  ploughed 
in,  and  the  land  is  ready  for  cane  again. 

In  Louisiana  the  cane  never  ripens,  and 
therefore  is  allowed  to  grow  as  long  as  it 
can  be  done  with  safety  from  frost.  In  the 
latter  part  of  October,  they  commence  by 
saving  their  seed,  that  is,  by  cutting  the 
cane  they  need  for  planting,  and  securing  it 
by  placing  it  in  mats,  so  called,  on  the 
ground,  say  twenty  feet  by  forty,  resting  it 


on  an  embankment,  with  the  buts  on  the 
ground  at  an  angle  of  about  twenty  degrees, 
and  leaving  a  mass  of  tops  on  the  surface,  a 
foot  deep  and  forming  a  perfect  protection 
from  frost. 

Next  they  commence  taking  off  the  crops. 
Every  negro  has  at  all  times  in  his  posses 
sion  a  cane  knife,  like  a  butcher's  cleaver, 
and  kept  very  sharp.  With  the  back  of  the 
knife  he  knocks  off  the  dry  leaves,  and  cuts 
off  the  stalk  as  of  no  value  where  the  leaves 
are  green.  Should  a  frost  come  whilst  they 
are  making  sugar,  the  work  is  stopped,  and 
all  hands  are  employed  winnowing  the  cane 
in  the  fields,  as  a  fermentation  commences 
immediately,  if  it  is  allowed  to  stand. 

The  cane  is  as  certain  as  any  large  crop 
we  have.  When  the  cane  is  gathered  it  is 
prepared  for  the  mill.  These  are  some 
twelve  feet  from  the  ground,  in  order  that 
the  juice  may  flow  from  the  rollers  into  the 
juice  boxes,  and  from  them  into  the  kettles. 
The  mills  are  composed  of  three  iron  rollers 
from  twenty-five  to  twenty-eight  inches  in 
diameter,  and  from  four  to  five  and  a  half 
feet  long.  There  are  a  great  number  of  in 
ventions  that  have  been  patented  within  a 
few  years.  The  cane  carrier  is  an  endless 
belt,  fifty  to  ninety  feet  long,  formed  of 
chains,  with  slats  inserted  and  placed  at  an 
angle  of  thirty  to  thirty-five  degrees  to 
the  ground.  The  lower  end  is  about  two 
feet  from  the  ground.  On  this  the  canes 
are  spread  evenly,  and  by  its  revolution 
they  are  carried  up  to  the  rollers  which  ex 
press  their  juice  as  they  pass  through.  The 
juice  thus  obtained  is  collected  in  large  res 
ervoirs,  to  go  through  a  process  of  boiling 
which  has  been  greatly  varied  by  improve 
ments  upon  the  old  Creole  plan.  The  juice, 
by  boiling  and  evaporation,  is  reduced  to  the 
state  of  muscovado,  which  is  placed  in  hogs 
heads  with  holes  bored  in  the  bottom,  to 
permit  the  molasses  to  pass  off.  In  the 
course  of  the  boiling,  lime  is  added  in  pre 
pared  portions  to  "  defecate"  the  sugar,  and 
the  juice  is  bleached  by  passing  through  a 
filter  of  bone-black.  Very  many  inventions 
have  been  patented  for  kettles,  vacuum  pans, 
etc.,  to  facilitate  the  boiling  process,  and 
others  to  promote  the  discharge  of  the  mo 
lasses.  One  of  these  is  by  centrifugal  force. 
The  sugar  is  placed  in  a  cylinder  of  iron  net 
work,  which,  revolving  with  great  rapidity, 
imparts  to  the  molasses  a  centrifugal  motion 
that  drains  it  from  the  sugar  through  the 
net,  when  it  is  collected  in  proper  vessels. 


SUGAR CULTIVATION    AND    CONSUMPTION. 


129 


The  introduction  of  bisulphate  of  lime  of 
late  years  has  added  greatly  to  the  quantity 
of  sugar  that  may  be  obtained  from  a  given 
quantity  of  cane,  and  also  to  its  quality. 

The  quantity  of  sugar  produced  on  an  acre 
varies  from  500  Ibs.  to  3000  Ibs. ;  the  average 
may  be  1000  Ibs.  A  well-cultivated  planta 
tion  in  Louisiana  produces  2400  Ibs.  sugar 
and  2000  Ibs.  or  160  gallons  molasses  per 
acre.  Some  mills  will  turn  out  1000  gal 
lons  juice  per  hour,  twenty  hours  in  a  day, 
giving  ten  hogsheads  of  sugar,  or  12,000  Ibs. 
and  20  bbls.  molasses,  or  800  gallons,  12  Ibs. 
to  the  gallon.  The  expenses  and  products  of 
a  plantation  in  Louisiana  have  been  given  as 
follows  in  official  documents  : — 

Household  expenses $1000 

Overseer's  salary 400 

Food  and  clothing — 15  working  hands  at  $30      450 
"                "           15  old  hands  and  chil 
dren,  $15 225 

Eepairs,  1!  per  cent,  on  capital  ($40,000). . .      600 


$2675 

50  hhds.  sugar  at  4  cents  per  Ib $2500 

25     "          "      "  3     "  "     862 

25     "          "      "  2     "  "     575 

4000  galls,  molasses,  10  cents 400  —  4137 

Balance $1462 

There  are  many  other  products  raised  by 
the  hands  besides  sugar.  Thus  there  are  in 
Louisiana  200,000  hands,  and  these  produced 
in  1859,  362,296  hhds.  of  sugar,  worth  with 
the  molasses  $31,399,241 ;  and  in  addition 
they  raised  6,327,882  bushels  of  corn,  or  31 
bushels  per  head ;  and  4,91 1,680  Ibs.  of  rice, 
or  24i  Ibs.  per  head.  There  are  in  Louisiana 
1298  sugar  houses,  987  worked  by  steam  and 
3 1 1  by  horse  power.  The  hogshead  of  sugar 
is  a  very  variable  measure,  but  the  average 
weight,  by  the  best  authorities,  is  1150  Ibs. 

With  the  progress  of  the  country,  a  great 
dependence  has  been  had  upon  Louisiana  for 
a  supply  of  sugar.  In  1815,  the  banks  of 
the  Mississippi  gave  10,000,000  Ibs.,  and  in 
1818,  25,000,000  Ibs.  In  1858,  it  had  risen 
to  414,796,000  Ibs.  The  census  of  1850 
gave  the  quantity  of  cane  sugar  raised  in  the 
United  States  as  follows  : — 

Lbs. 

South  Carolina 671,000 

Georgia 1,642,000 

Florida 2,750,000 

Alabama 8,242,000 

Mississippi 388,000 

Kentucky:    284,000 

Tennessee 248,000 

Texas 7,351,000 

Louisiana 226,201,000 

Total 247,577,000 


These  figures  show  that  already  in  1850 
the  manufacture  of  cane  sugar  had  concen 
trated  in  Louisiana,  but  had  become  impor 
tant  in  Texas.  The  production  of  sugar  va 
ries  greatly  from  year  to  year  as  affected  by 
the  season.  In  1853,  the  product  in  Louis 
iana  rose  to  495,156,000  Ibs.,  in  1856  it  fell 
to  81,373,000  Ibs.,  and  in  1858  it  had  recov 
ered  to  414,796,000  Ibs.  This  fluctuation 
has  an  important  influence  upon  the  ex 
changes  of  the  country,  since  when  the 
Louisiana  crop  fails,  the  price  of  sugar  rises 
very  high  and  the  importation  from  abroad 
becomes  excessive.  The  following  table  will 
show  the  quantity  of  sugar  consumed  in  the 
United  States,  and  whence  it  is  derived : — 


Year. 


1801, 
1811, 
1821, 
1831, 
1841, 
1842, 
1843, 
1844, 
1845, 
1846, 
1847, 
1848, 
1849, 
1850, 
1851, 
1852, 
1853, 
1854, 
1855, 
1856, 
1857, 
1858, 
1859, 
1860, 


CONSUMPTION    OF   SUGAR   IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

Total  in  Lbs.  per  Cts. 
tons.       head,   per  Ib 


Imported. 

21,376 

24,791 

26,672 

44,178 

65,601 

69,474 

28,854 

83,801 

88.336 

44^974 

98,410 

104,214 

103,121 

160,210 

201,493 

196,558 

200,610 

150,854 

192,607 

255,292 

241,765 

244,758 

239,034 

296,950 


Louisiana. 


4,000 

14,000 

35,000 

38,000 

39,200 

64,360 

44,400 

45,000 

83,028 

71,040 

107,000 

99,180 

144,600 

120,331 

118,659 

172,379 

234,444 

185,145 

123,468 

39,000 

143,734 

192,150 

118,331 


28,791 
40,672 
79,178 
103,601 
108,674 
93,214 
128,201 
133,336 
128,002 
169,450 
211,214 
202,301 
304,810 
321,824 
315,217 
372,989 
385,298 
377.752 
378^760 
280.765 
388,492 
431.184 
415',281 


6 
13! 


12i 
15 


3! 
3* 
3| 

16*   4! 

18!  4* 

22i  3« 

20!  3i 

29!  3^ 

30  3! 

29  3J- 
30£  3| 
34  3 
31!  3£ 
33|  4t 
23!  5! 

31  6! 
29!  6t 

30  7i 


The  small  crop  of  Louisiana  in  1856,  in 
duced  a  rise  in  prices  that  brought  a  large 
quantity  of  foreign  into  the  country.  The 
consumption  per  head  seems  to  have  been 
sustained  at  the  higher  prices.  The  con 
sumption  per  head  is  larger  than  in  other 
countries.  The  ratio  for  the  same  year  has 
been  as  follows  : — France,  9  Ibs.  per  *head  ; 
Great  Britain,  284  Ibs.  per  head;  and  in  the 
United  States,  31  Ibs.  per  head.  This  French 
consumption  includes  cane  and  beet-root  su 
gar.  The  United  States  figures  embrace  only 
the  cane.  The  maple  sugar  made  would,  with 
molasses,  swell  the  total  figures  for  1860  to 
464,673  tons;  as  thus — cane  sugar,  415,281 
tons;  molasses  refined,  60,000  hhds.,  giving 
13,392  tons  sugar;  of  maple  sugar  28,000 
tons.  California  consumption,  8000  tons. 


130 


SUGAR CULTIVATION   AND    CONSUMPTION. 


The  weight  of  the  Louisiana  sugar  hhds.  is 
taken  at  1,150  Ibs.  for  the  crop  of  1860,  and 
the  total  crop  for  that  year,  or  that  which 
commenced  in  1860,  was  302,205  hhds., 
weighing  347,535,750  Ibs.  The  number  of 
sugar  houses  worked  by  steam  is  1,090,  and 
by  horse  power  283.  The  product  of  mo 
lasses  was  25,516,699  gallons. 

MAPLE  SUGAR. 

It  is  but  a  few  years  since  the  highest 
reach  of  art  in  this  manufacture  produced 
only  a  fine  muscovado-like  sugar ;  but  now, 
by  improved  processes,  specimens  are  annu 
ally  exhibited  at  the  fairs,  vieing  with  the 
most  beautiful  loaf  sugar.  By  the  improved 
mode  the  sap  is  boiled  in  a  potash  or  caul 
dron  kettle  to  a  thick  syrup,  which  is  strain 
ed  when  warm.  It  is  then  allowed  to  stand 
twenty-four  hours,  and  is  then  poured  off. 
To  clarify  a  quantity  of  50  Ibs.,  a  mixture  of 
one  quart  of  milk,  one  ounce  of  saleratus, 
and  two  whites  of  eggs  well  mixed,  is  boiled 
into  the  sugar  until  it  has  become  thick. 
For  draining,  a  tube  is  employed  fifteen 
inches  square  at  the  top,  and  coming  to  a 
point  at  the  bottom.  The  sugar  is  put  in 
cold  and  the  bottom  tapped,  while  the  top 
is  covered  with  a  wet  flannel  cloth  of  two  or 
three  thicknesses. 

The  quantity  of  maple  sugar  made  per 
annum  cannot  be  ascertained  with  as  much 
accuracy  as  that  of  the  cane,  and  the  esti 
mates  of  the  dealers  are  founded  upon  the 
returns  of  the  census  of  1860,  which  were  as 
follows : — 

UNITED  STATES  MAPLE  SUGAR  PRODUCTIONS. 

Lbs. 

Maine 306,742 

New  Hampshire 2,255,012 

Vermont 9,819,939 

Massachusetts 1,006,078 

Rhode  Island .... 

Connecticut 44,259 

New  York 10,816,458 

New  Jersey. 3,455 

Pennsylvania 2,768,965 


Maryland. 

District  of  Columbia.. . 

"Virginia 

North  Carolina , 

South  Carolina. 

Georgia 

Alabama 

Texas 

Arkansas 

Tennessee 

Kentucky 

Missouri.. . 


63,281 

937,643 

30,845 

205 

991 

543 

69 

3,097 
117,359 
380.941. 
142,430 


Illinois 131,751 

Indiana 1,515,594 

Ohio 3,323,942 

Michigan 2,988,018 

Wisconsin 1,584,406 

Iowa 248,951 

Minnesota 370,947 

Kansas  and  Nebraska. .  1,864 


Total 38,863,884 

Besides  this  amount  of  sugar,  1,944,594 
gallons  of  maple  molasses  were  reported  in 
the  census  of  1860.  In  1863,  1864,  and 
1865,  the  great  advance  in  the  price  of  cane 
sugar  led  to  a  very  considerable  increase  in 
the  production  of  maple  sugar  and  syrup. 
Probably  not  less  than  30,000  tons  were 
manufactured  in  1864. 

A  great  deal  is  made,  as  of  cane  sugar  in 
Geoi-gia,  for  home  use ;  it  does  not  come 
upon  the  market,  but  prevents,  to  a  certain 
extent,  a  demand  that  would  exist  without 
it. 

SORGHUM  SYRUP  AND  SUGAR. 

The  production  of  a  syrup  from  the  juice 
of  the  stalks  of  the  sorgho  and  imphee,  two 
plants  of  the  maize  family,  as  a  substitute 
for  molasses,  was  first  attempted  to  any  con 
siderable  extent  during  the  decade,  1850- 
1860.  Efforts  were  also  made  to  produce  a 
sugar  from  this  syrup  ;  but  with  only  mode 
rate  success,  as  it  did  not  crystallize  readily, 
being  more  analogous  to  grape  sugar,  or  glu 
cose,  than  to  cane  sugar  in  its  character. 
In  1860,  the  production  reported  was  7,235,- 
025  gallons,  and  this  was  doubtless  much 
below  the  actual  production,  as  many  far 
mers  made  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  gallons, 
which  they  did  not  report.  During  the  war, 
the  high  price  of  sugar  and  molasses  greatly 
stimulated  the  production  of  this  syrup, 
both  at  the  north  and  at  the  south.  The 
annual  yield  in  1863,  1864,  and  1865,  could 
hardly  have  been  less  than  fifty  or  sixty 
millions  of  gallons. 

.       SUGAR   FROM   OTHER    SOURCES. 

Experiments  on  a  large  scale,  and  resulting 
in  a  good  degree  of  success,  have  been  made 
for  producing  sugar  from  the  white  sugar 
beet  of  France,  in  Illinois.  The  amount  thus 
produced  in  the  past  two  -years,  1865  and 
1866-,  cannot  be  definitely  stated,  but  must 
amount  to  several  hundred  tons,  and  it  is 
likely  to  increase.  Sugar  and  molasses  are 
also  produced  at  Buffalo  and  some  other 
points  from  corn,  by  a  chemical  process.  This 
is  probably  glucose,  or  grape  sugar. 


COMMERCE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


CHAPTER  I. 

COLONIAL   TRADE  —  IMPERIAL    RESTRIC 
TIONS—EMANCIPATION  OF  INHABITANTS. 

THE  history  of  the  commerce  and  trade  of 
a  people  is  a  record  of  their  industry  and 
productive  powers,  since  all  trade  is  but  an 
interchange  of  the  products  of  labor,  and 
wealth  but  an  accumulation  of  those  products 
beyond  the  necessary  annual  consumption, 
and  wear  and  tear  from  use.  In  the  United 
States,  since  the  date  of  their  settlement, 
the  development  of  trade  and  the  accumula 
tion  of  property  have  been  more  rapid  than 
in  any  other  country.  This  has  been  the 
case,  chiefly,  for  five  leading  reasons :  1.  The 
ample  supply  of  fertile  land  free  to  the  culti 
vator.  2.  The  persevering  and  intelligent 
industry  of  the  people,  combined  with  an 
inventive  genius  that  has  constantly  smooth 
ed  the  way  of  labor  by  devising  the  means 
of  producing  greater  results  with  the  same 
manual  force.  3.  The  rapid  increase  of  the 
numbers  of  the  people,  not  only  by  reason 
of  the  healthiness  of  the  climate  and  the 
general  morality  of  their  habits,  but  also  in 
consequence  of  the  great  immigration  from 
abroad,  induced  by  the  desire  of  the  most 
enterprising  Europeans  to  avail  themselves  of 
the  benefits  of  our  institutions.  The  stream 
of  natural  births  in  excess  of  deaths  has 
mingled  with  the  broad  current  of  immigra 
tion  to  swell  the  numbers  in  a  surprising 
ratio.  4.  The  accumulation  of  capital  ap 
plicable  to  reproductive  industries,  as  well 
through  the  frugal  habits  of  the  people,  who 
have  consumed  far  less  than  they  have  pro 
duced,  as  by  the  influx  of  capital  from 
abroad,  not  only  in  the  hands  of  immigrants, 
but  for  investments,  that  will  yield  larger 
revenue  to  European  holders  than  they  can 
there  obtain.  And,  fifth,  and  perhaps  more 
important  than  all,  the  control  that  the  peo 
ple  have  kept  of  their  own  funds.  They 
have,  had  no  absolute  rulers  or  dynasties  to 
involve  them  in  devastating  wars,  destroying 


wantonly  what  was  not  exhausted  in  military 
expenses,  and  leaving  the  people  deprived  of 
their  all.  On  this  continent  comparatively 
nothing  has  been  wasted  in  strife,  while  count 
less  sums  have  been  swallowed  by  Europe 
in  offerings  to  the  god  of  war.  Thus,  indus 
trious  and  frugal  habits,  abundance  of  fertile 
land,  morality  of  character,  and  freedom  of 
institutions,  have  combined,  with  fertility  of 
invention  in  machinery,  and  means  of  com 
munication,  to  build  up  a  nation  that  attracts 
the  cream  of  the  European  people  and  their 
capital — these  elements,  in  fifty  years  of  un 
disturbed  peace,  produce  an  example  of  the 
'highest  national  happiness.  It  is  true  that 
some  other  nations  have  more  aggregate 
wealth,  but  that  in  the  .United  States  is 
more  equally  divided  among  the  people. 
These  causes  have  operated  to  a  greater  or 
less  extent  since  the  settlement  of  the  country, 
but  with  increasing  force  as  the  present  cen 
tury  has  advanced.  We  may  illustrate  by  a 
few  figures,  showing  the  general  state  of 
affairs  at  three  periods,  viz.:  in  1700,  eighty 
years  after  the  time  of  first  settlement; 
secondly,  the  time  of  separation  from  the 
mother  country;  and  thirdly,  the  date  of 
the  census  of  1850  : — 


Population. 

1TOO,  262,000 

1790,  8,929,872 

18,50,  23,191,876 

1860.  31,429,891 


Annual 

agricultural  Manufactures, 
products. 


Assessed 
wealth. 


$150,000,000  479,293,263 

1,070,000,000  $1,019,000,000    2,275,730,124 

$9,318,292,265 


In  nearly  two  hundred  years  up  to  1790, 
the  population  had  increased  to  less  than 
4,000,000,  including  the  blacks;  and  the 
taxable  valuation  to  $479,293,263,  including 
the  land.  In  the  succeeding  sixty  years  the 
population  rose  sixfold,  and  the  taxable 
property  fivefold.  Of  that  population,  over 
5,000,000  immigrated  into  this  country. 
The  white  population,  however,  increased 
by  census  16,800,000  persons:  of  these, 
11,600,000  were  the  native  increase  in  sixty 
years;  hence,  nearly  50  per  cent,  of  the  in 
crease  was  from  immigration.  The  great 


COLONIAL    TRADE IMPERIAL    RESTRICTIONS EMANCIPATION    OF   INHABITANTS.       133 


increase  in  manufactures,  of  which  none  had 
been  allowed  under  the  imperial  govern 
ment,  is  very  remarkable.  It  indicates  only 
the  force  with  which  industry  acted  as  soon 
as  the  inhibition  of  the  mother  country  was 
removed.  The  population  for  1860  is  the 
current  estimate.  The  valuation  is,  how 
ever,  the  official  state  returns,  and  shows  an 
amazing  result — nearly  fourfold,  in  ten  years ! 
The  early  settlers  in  all  the  colonies  had 
to  depend  mostly  upon  agricultural  products, 
first  for  their  own  maintenance,  and  then  as 
a  means  of  procuring,  by  a  sale  of  the  sur 
plus,  those  manufactured  articles  which,  under 
the  rigorous  rule  of  the  mother  country,  they 
were  not  allowed  to  produce  themselves. 
The  early  policy  of  the  imperial  government 
was  to  make  the  colonies  a  source  of  profit 
to  the  mother  country,  and  this  was  sought 
by  restraining  the  colonists  from  any  pur 
suit  that  came  in  conflict  with  the-  industry 
of  the  mother  country,  and  to  confine  them 
to  the  production  of  such  articles  as  she 
stood  most  in  need  of.  Those  articles  they 
were  allowed  to  sell  only  to  the  mother 
country,  and  were  to  buy  what  they  stood 
in  need  of  only  of  her.  Under  those  gen 
eral  restrictions  the  colonists,  with  little 
capital,  and  a  barren  soil  at  the  north,  Avere 
to  prosper  as  they  could.  Their  genius  and 
restless  energy,  however,  stood  them  in  stead. 
But  they  were  compelled  to  encounter  new 
restrictions  at  every  turn.  The  provinces 
were  in  some  cases  grants  to  individuals,  and 
in  others  to  companies.  This  involved,  of 
course,  their  own  government.  But  soon 
the  Crown  claimed  the  right  of  confirming  the 
governor.  They  were  forbidden  to  coin 
money,  to  sell  lands  to  any  but  British  subjects, 
to  cut  down  pine-trees  on  any  pretence,  to 
send  wool  to  any  place  out  of  the  king's 
dominions,  to  export  any  produce  except  in 
English  vessels,  of  which  the  master  and 
three-fourths  of  the  crew  were  English.  Thus 
every  new  progress  of  the  colonies,  even  in 
settling  and  working  the  land,  was  followed 
by  a  new  restraint.  But  when  they  began 
to  manufacture,  new  anxieties  seized  the 
home  government.  Early  in  the  eighteenth 
century  an  act  of  parliament  forbade  the 
manufacture  of  hats;  and  Massachusetts  Bay 
gave  offence  by  undertaking  the  manufacture 
of  paper.  New  York  incurred  displeasure 
by  taxing  slaves  imported  from  Africa,  five 
ounces  of  silver  each ;  and  the  ire  of  the 
government  was  further  aroused  by  the  re 
bellious  disposition  that  prompted  the  New 


England  people  to  work  up  their  own  wool 
and  flax  into  home-spun  goods.  They  also 
attempted  to  start  banks,  which  parliament 
prohibited ;  and  they  forbade  the  manufac 
ture  of  iron  beyond  the  state  of  pig,  and  in 
terdicted  foreign-built  vessels  from  the  colo 
nial  trade.  In  spite  of  all  these  continually 
multiplying  vexations,  the  colonists  contrived 
to  find  something  to  do,  and  the  fact  that 
they  did  so  kept  the  home  government  con 
tinually  upon  the  "  anxious  seat."  A  par 
liamentary  committee  was  finally  appointed 
to  look  into  the  manner  in  which  those 
colonists  employed  their  time,  and  the  com 
mittee  of  parliament  reported  as  follows : — 

"  The  governor  of  Massachusetts  Bay  in 
formed  us  that  in  some  parts  of  this  province 
the  inhabitants  worked  up  their  wool  and 
flax  into  an  ordinary  coarse  cloth  for  their 
own  use,  but  did  not  export  any.  That  the 
greatest  part  of  the  woollen  and  linen  cloth 
ing  worn  in  this  province  was  imported  from 
Great  Britain,  and  sometimes  from  Ireland ; 
but,  considering  the  excessive  price  of  labor 
in  New  England,  the  merchants  could  afford 
what  was  imported  cheaper  than  what  was 
made  in  that  country.  That  there  were  also 
a  few  hat-makers  in  the  maritime  towns; 
and  that  the  greater  part  of  the  leather  used 
in  that  country  was  manufactured  among 
themselves.  That  there  had  been  for  many 
years  some  iron  works  in  that  province,  which 
had  afforded  the  people  iron  for  some  of  their 
necessary  occasions;  but  that  the  iron  im- 
po'rted  from  Great  Britain  was  esteemed 
much  the  best,  and  wholly  used  by  the  ship 
ping.  And  that  the  iron  works  of  that 
province  were  not  able  to  supply  the  twen 
tieth  part  of  what  was  necessary  for  the  use 
of  the  country.  They  had  no  manufactures 
in  the  province  of  New  York  that  deserved 
mentioning ;  their  trade  consisted  chiefly  in 
furs,  whalebone,  oil,  pitch,  tar,  and  provi 
sions.  No  manufactures  in  New  Jersey  that 
deserve  mentioning,  their  trade  being  chiefly 
in  provisions  shipped  from  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania.  The  chief  trade  of  Pennsyl 
vania  lay  in  the  exportation  of  provisions 
and  lumber,  no  manufactures  being  estab 
lished,  and  their  clothing  and  utensils  for 
their  houses  being  all  imported  from  Great 
Britain.  By  further  advices  from  New 
Hampshire,  the  woollen  manufacture  appears 
to  have  decreased,  the  common  lands,  on 
which  the  sheep  used  to  feed,  being  now 
appropriated,  and  the  people  almost  wholly 
clothed  with  woollen  from  Great  Britain. 


134 


COMMERCE     OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


The  manufacture  of  flax  into  linen,  some 
coarser,  some  finer,  daily  increased  by  the 
great  resort  of  people  from  Ireland  thither, 
who  are  well  skilled  in  that  business;  and 
the  chief  trade  of  this  province  continued, 
as  for  many  years  past,  in  the  exportation  of 
naval  stores,  lumber,  and  fish.  By  later  ac 
counts  from  Massachusetts  Bay,  in  New  Eng 
land,  the  assembly  have  voted  a  bounty  of 
80s.  for  every  piece  of  duck  or  canvas  made 
in  the  province.  Some  other  manufactures 
are  carried  on  there,  as  brown  Hollands  for 
women's  wear,  which  lessens  the  importation 
of  calicos,  and  some  other  sorts  of  East  India 
goods.  They  also  make  some  small  quan 
tities  of  cloth  made  of  linen  and  cotton,  for 
ordinary  shirting  and  sheeting.  By  a  paper- 
mill  set  up  three  years  ago,  they  make  to 
the  value  of  £200  sterling  yearly.  There 
are  also  several  forges  for  making  bar-iron, 
and  some  furnaces  for  cast-iron  or  hollow 
ware,  and  one  sitting-mill,  and  a  manufactory 
of  nails.  The  governor  writes  concerning 
the  woollen  manufacture,  that  the  country 
people,  who  used  formerly  to  make  most  of 
their  clothing  out  of  their  own  wool,  do  not 
now  make  a  third  part  of  what  they  wear, 
but  are  mostly  clothed  with  British  manu 
factures.  The  same  governor  (Belcher),  by 
some  of  his  letters  of  an  older  date,  in  an 
swer  to  our  annual  queries,  writes,  that  there 
are  some  few  copper  mines  in  this  province, 
but  so  far  distant  from  Avater-carriage,  and 
the  ore  so  poor,  that  it  is  not  worth  the 
digging.  The  surveyor-general  of  his  Maj 
esty's  woods  writes,  that  they  have  in  New 
England  six  furnaces  and  nineteen  forges  for 
making  iron,  and  that  in  this  province  many 
ships  arc  built  for  the  French  and  Spaniards 
in  return  for  rum,  molasses,  wines,  and  silks, 
which  they  truck  there  by  connivance.  Great 
quantities  of  hats  are  made  in  New  England, 
of  which  the  company  of  hatters  of  London 
have  likewise  lately  complained  to  us,  that 
great  quantities  of  those  hats  are  exported 
to  Spain,  Portugal,  and  our  West  India 
islands.  They  also  make  all  sorts  of  iron 
work  for  shipping.  There  are  several  still- 
houses  and  sugar-bakers  established  in  New 
England.  By  later  advices  from  New  York, 
there  are  no  manufactures  there  that  can 
affect  those  of  Great  Britain.  There  is  yearly 
imported  into  New  York  a  very  large  quan 
tity  of  the  woollen  manufactures  of  this  king 
dom  for  their  clothing,  which  they  would  be 
rendered  incapable  to  pay  for,  and  would  be 
reduced  to  the  necessity  of  making  for  them 


selves,  if  they  were  prohibited  from  receiv 
ing;   from   the   foreign    sugar    colonies   the 

i  •      v 

money,  rum,  sugar,  moJasses,  cocoa,  indigo, 
cotton,  wool,  etc.,  which  they  at  present 
take  in  return  for  provisions,  horses,  and 
lumber,  the  produce  of  that  province  and  of 
New  Jersey,  of  which  he  affirms,  the  British 
sugar  colonies  do  not  take  off  above  one-half. 
But  the  company  of  hatters  of  London  have 
since  informed  us,  that  hats  are  manufac 
tured  in  great  quantities  in  this  province. 
By  the  last  letters  from  the  deputy-governor 
of  Pennsylvania,  he  does  not  know  of  any 
trade  carried  on  in  that  province  that  can  be 
injurious  to  this  kingdom.  They  do  not  ex 
port  any  woollen  or  linen  manufactures,  all 
that  they  make,  which  are  of  a  coarser  sort, 
being  for  their  own  use.  We  are  further 
informed  that  in  this  province  are  built  many 
brigantines  and  small  sloops,  which  they  sell 
to  the  West  Indies.  The  governor  of  Rhode 
Island  informs  us,  in  answer  to  our  queries, 
that  there  are  iron  mines  there,  but  not  a 
fourth  part  iron  enough  to  serve  their  own 
use ;  but  he  takes  no  notice  of  any  sort  of 
manufacture  set  up  there.  No  return  from 
the  governor  of  Connecticut ;  but  we  find,  by 
some  accounts,  that  the  produce  of  this  col 
ony  is  timber,  boards,  all  sorts  of  English 
grain,  hemp,  flax,  sheep,  black  cattle,  swine, 
horses,  goats,  and  tobacco ;  that  they  export 
horses  and  lumber  to  the  West  Indies,  and 
receive  in  return  sugar,  salt,  molasses,  and 
We  likewise  find  that  their  manufac 


tures  arc  very  inconsiderable,  the  people 
there  being  generally  employed  in  tillage, 
some  few  in  tanning,  shoemaking,  and  other 
handicrafts;  others  in  the  building,  and 
joiners',  tailors',  and  smiths'  work,  without 
which  they  could  not  subsist." 

The  old  northern  colonies  in  America  had, 
it  is  well  known,  very  few  articles  fit  for  the 
British  market,  and  yet  they  every  year  took 
oft' large  quantities  of  merchandise  from  Great 
Britain,  for  which  they  made  payments  with 
tolerable  regularity.  Although  they  could 
not,  like  the  Spanish  colonists,  dig  the  money 
out  of  their  own  soil,  yet  they  found  means 
to  make  a  great  part  of  their  remittances  in 
gold  and  silver  dug  out  of  the  Spanish  mines. 
This  they  effected  by  being  general  carriers, 
and  by  a  circuitous  commerce  carried  on  in 
small  vessels,  chiefly  with  the  foreign  West 
India  settlements,  to  which  they  carried  lum 
ber  of  all  sorts,  fish  of  an  inferior  quality, 
beef,  pork,  butter,  horses,  poultry  and  other 
live  stock,  an  inferior  kind  of  tobacco,  corn, 


COLONIAL    TRADE IMPERIAL    RESTRICTIONS EMANCIPATION    OF   INHABITANTS. 


flour,  bread,  cider,  and  even  apples,  cab 
bages,  onions,  etc.,  and  also  vessels  built  at 
a  small  expense,  the  materials  being  almost 
all  within  themselves;  for  which  they  re 
ceived  in  return  silver  and  gold,  some  of 
which  remained  as  current  coin  among  them 
selves,  but  the  greatest  part  was  remitted 
home  to  Britain,  and,  together  with  bills  of 
exchange,  generally  remitted  to  London,  for 
the  proceeds  of  their  best  fish,  sold  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  countries  of  Europe,  served 
to  pay  for  the  goods  they  received  from  the 
mother  country.  This  trade  united  all  the 
advantages  which  the  wisest  and  most  phil 
anthropic  philosopher,  or  the  most  enlight 
ened  legislator,  could  wish  to  derive  from 
commerce.  It  gave  bread  to  the  industrious 
in  North  America  by  carrying  off  their  lum 
ber,  which  must  otherwise  rot  on  their  hands, 
and  their  fish,  great  part  of  which  without  it 
would  be  absolutely  unsaleable,  together  with 
their  spare  produce,  and  stock  of  every  kind. 
It  furnished  the  West  India  planters  with 
those  articles  without  which  the  operations 
of  their  plantations  must  be  at  a  stand,  and 
it  produced  a  fund  for  employing  a  great 
number  of  industrious  manufacturers  in  Great 
Britain :  thus  taking  off  the  superfluities, 
providing  for  the  necessities,  and  promoting 
the  happiness  of  all  concerned.  This  trade, 
however,  was  almost  entirely  ruined  by  the 
rigorous  execution  of  the  orders  against 
smuggling  and  the  collection  of  the  duties 
in  hard  silver,  which  soon  drained  the  country 
of  any  little  real  money  circulating  in  it. 
And,  as  if  government  had  intended  to  pre 
vent  the  colonists  from  having  even  the 
shadow  of  money,  another  act  was  passed  in 
a  few  days  after  that  for  the  new  duties,  de 
claring  that  no  paper  bills  to  be  henceforth 
issued  should  be  made  a  legal  tender  in  pay 
ment,  and  enjoining  those  in  circulation  to 
be  sunk  (that  is,  paid  off  in  hard  money)  at 
the  limited  time.  That  vast  quantities  of 
goods  were  imported,  in  direct  violation  of 
the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  law  and  of  the 
commercial  system  of  the  mother  country, 
there  is  no  doubt.  But  it  could  not  well  be 
otherwise  in  a  country  so  remote  from  the 
government  to  which  it  professed  allegiance, 
and  possessing  an  extent  of  coast  which  no 
chain  of  revenue  cruisers  that  could  be  sup 
ported  by  government  would  be  sufficient  to 
guard  with  any  kind  of  effect.  The  soil  of 
the  New  England  provinces  scarcely  furnish 
ed  provisions  sufficient  to  support  the  in 
habitants.  Their  industry  had  therefore  been 


chiefly  directed  to  the  sea — to  fishing,  nav 
igation,  and  the  various  branches  of  business 
subservient  to  them.  The  cod,  salmon,  mack 
erel,  sturgeon,  and  other  species  of  fish  which 
frequented  the  coasts  and  rivers  in  prodig 
ious  shoals,  afforded  employment  to  great 
numbers  in  taking,  curing,  and  packing  them. 
The  New  Englanders  also  frequented  the 
banks  and  coasts  of  Newfoundland,  and  the 
fishing  grounds  in  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence 
as  far  as  the  coasts  of  Labrador.  Besides 
their  own  fishing,  they  procured  from  the 
Newfoundland  fishermen  a  part  of  the  fish 
taken  by  them  in  exchange  for  rum  of  their 
own  manufacture,  and  other  articles  of  Amer 
ican  and  West  India  produce.  The  follow 
ing  record  of  rum  exported  from  the  colonies 
now  forming  the  United  States  (chiefly  from 
New  England)  to  the  provinces  of  Nova 
Scotia,  Quebec,  and  Newfoundland,  affords 
a  specimen  of  the  extent  of  that  trade  during 
a  few  years  preceding  the  revolution : — 

1770.        1771.        1T72.         1773. 

West  India  rum,  gallons  52,712  3fi,873  47,736  60.716 
American  rum,  "  590,748  550,514  520,525  fiOS,0.5 

643,460    587,387    56S,261     658,741 

The  fish,  after  being  sorted  in  the  harbors, 
were  shipped  off  to  the  countries  for  which 
each  quality  was  best  adapted.  The  best 
were  carried  to  the  southern  parts  of  Europe, 
and  the  proceeds  were  generally  remitted  to 
Great  Britain  in  bills  of  exchange  to  pay  for  the 
goods  they  had  occasion  for.  A  small  quan 
tity  of  the  best  fish  was  also  sent  to  Britain, 
and  the  inferior  sorts  were  destined  to  give 
a  relish  to  the  plantains  and  yams  Avhich 
constituted  the  principal  part  of  the  food  of 
the  negro  slaves  in  the  West  Indies.  After 
the  peace  of  1763,  the  whale  fishery  increas 
ed  in  the  seas  between  the  New  England 
coasts  and  Labrador,  in  consequence  of  the 
encouragement  given  to  it  by  the  great  re 
duction  of  the  duties  on  the  oil  and  whale 
fins,  so  much,  that  instead  of  eighty  or  ninety 
sloops,  which  had  gone  upon  the  whale 
fishery,  they  employed  160  in  that  business 
before  the  year  17*75,  and  the  other  branches 
of  their  fishery  increased  in  the  same  pro 
portion.  In  addition  to  the  commerce  sup 
ported  by  the  produce  of  their  fisheries,  they 
drove  a  very  profitable  circuitous  carrying 
trade,  which  greatly  enriched  them,  and 
supplied  most  of  the  money  in  circulation. 
Besides  building  vessels  for  the  service  of 
their  own  commerce,  they  built  great  num 
bers,  but  of  no  very  good  quality  of  wood 
or  workmanship,  for  sale;  and  from  the 


136 


COMMERCE    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


molasses,  which  they  brought  in  great  quan 
tities  from  the  West  Indies  (chiefly  from  the 
French  islands),  they  distilled  rum,  which, 
though  much  inferior  to  that  of  the  West 
Indies,  was  very  acceptable  "to  the  Indians, 
who  readily  received  it  in  exchange  for  their 
furs  and  peltry.  They  also  found  a  great 
sale  for  it  among  the  fishermen ;  consider 
able  quantities  of  it  were  shipped  to  Africa, 
and  exchanged  for  slaves,  or  sold  to  the 
resident  European  slave  merchants  for  gold 
dust,  ivory,  woods,  wax,  and  gums.  The 
candles  made  of  spermaceti,  furnished  by  the 
whale  fishery,  formed  also  an  article  of  ex 
port  to  the  amount  of  three  or  four  hundred 
thousand  pounds  weight  in  a  year,  besides 
what  were  consumed  npon  the  continent. 
Their  exports  to  Great  Britain  consisted 
chiefly  of  fish-oil,  whalebone  (or  fins),  masts 
and  other  spars,  to  which  were  added  several 
raw  materials  for  manufactures  collected  in 
their  circuitous  trading  voyages,  and  a  bal 
ance  paid  in  foreign  gold  and  silver  coins. 
In  short,  their  earnest  application  to  fisheries 
and  the  carrying  trade,  together  with  their 
unremitting  attention  to  the  most  minute 
article  which  could  be  made  to  yield  a  profit, 
obtained  them  the  appellation  of  the  Dutch 
men  of  America.  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania,  and  Delaware  have  a  much 
better  soil  than  that  of  the  New  England 
provinces,  and  they  then,  as  now,  produced 
corn  and  cattle  of  all  kinds  in  great  abun 
dance,  and  also  hemp,  flax,  and  lumber;  to 
which  may  be  added  iron,  potashes,  and  pearl- 
ashes.  Their  exports  were  corn  of  all  kinds, 
flour  and  bread  in  great  quantities,  salted 
provisions  of  all  sorts,  live  stock,  including 
horses,  horned  cattle,  hogs  and  sheep,  and 


all  kinds  of  poultry  in  great  numbers,  flax 
and  hemp,  boards,  scantling,  staves,  shingles, 
and  wooden  houses  framed  and  ready  to  fit 
up,  iron  in  pigs  and  bars,  and  vessels,  supe 
rior  in  workmanship  to  those  of  New  Eng 
land.  Their  chief  markets  for  these  com 
modities  were  the  British  and  foreign  West 
Indies,  Spain,  Portugal,  the  Western  islands, 
Madeira  and  the  Canary  islands,  whence  they 
carried  home  the  produce  of  each  country 
and  bullion.  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  re 
ceived  from  them  iron,  hemp,  flax,  feed, 
some  lumber,  and  skins  and  furs,  the  prod 
uce  of  their  trade  with  the  Indians,  together 
with  some  articles  of  their  imports  from  other 
provinces  and  from  foreign  countries,  which 
were  raw  materials  for  British  manufactures 
and  bullion.  Maryland  and  Virginia  almost 
from  their  first  settlement  made  tobacco  the 
principal  object  of  their  culture,  and  it  long 
continued  to  constitute  the  most  valuable 
export  of  British  America ;  but  the  quantity 
of  tobacco  was  diminishing  in  these  provinces 
for  many  years  before  the  revolution,  owing 
to  the  soil  being  exhausted  by  it,  and  the 
planters  had  turned  much  of  their  tobacco 
land  to  the  cultivation  of  wheat  and  other 
grain.  Their  tobacco  could  by  law  be  ex 
ported  only  to  Great  Britain ;  but  their  corn, 
flour,  lumber,  etc.,  were  carried  to  the  West 
Indies  and  elsewhere.  North  Carolina  pro 
duced  also  some  tobacco,  and  it  furnished 
pitch,  tar,  and  turpentine,  of  which  about 
130,000  barrels  were  annually  exported, 
whereof  the  greatest  part  came  to  Britain. 
The  following  accounts,  copied  from  those 
of  the  custom-house,  for  the  year  nearly 
preceding  the  revolution,  show  the  exports 
of  the  then  colonies  of  America: — 


AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  VALUE,  IX  STERLING  MONEY,  OF  THE  EXPORTS  OF  THE  SEVERAL   PROVINCES  UNDERMENTIONED, 

IN  THE   YEAR   1770. 


To  Great  Britain.  To  South  of  Europe 

To  West  Indies. 

To  Africa. 

Total. 

£. 

8. 

d. 

£. 

S.        (1. 

£.         s. 

d. 

£.        s. 

d. 

£. 

s.   d. 

New  Hampshire") 

!464 

0    5 

40,431    8 

4 

96  11 

31 

Massachusetts     1 

Rhode  Island       [ 

142,775 

12 

9     - 

76,702 
1,440 

0    4 
11    0 

123,394    0 
65,206  13 

6 

2 

9,801     9 
7,814  19 

10  1 

8I 

550,089 

19    2 

Connecticut         J 

2,567 

4    5 

79,395    1 

6 

J 

New  York  

113,382 

8 

8 

50,885 

13    0 

66.324  17 

5 

1,313    2 

6 

231,906 

1    7 

New  Jersey  

2,531  16 

5 

2,531 

16    5 

Pennsylvania  

28,112 

6 

9 

203,952 

11  11 

178,331    7 

8 

560    9 

9 

410,756 

16    1 

Maryland  )  
Virginia    J  

759,961 

5 

0 

66,555 
73,635 

11  11 
3    4 

22,303    9 
68,946    9 

2 
1 

\ 

991,401 

18    6 

North  Carolina   ) 
South  Carolina   J 

405,014 

13 

1 

3,238 

72,881 

3    7 
9    3 

27,944    7 
59,814  11 

9 
6 

71  15 
619  10 

ii 

9) 

569,584 

17    3 

Georgia  

82,270 

2 

3 

614 

2    0 

13,285  15 

1 

96,169 

19    4 

Total £1,531,516    8    6   £552,937  11    2    £747,910    3    7     £20,277    19   1  £2,852,441    8    4 

The  exports  of  North  Carolina  to  the  West    corn,  peas,  etc.     But  its  foreign  trade  wag 
Indies  consisted  mostly  of  salt  pork,  Indian   very  trifling  in  proportion  to  its  great  extent, 


COLONIAL    TRADE IMPERIAL    RESTRICTIONS EMANCIPATION    OF    INHABITANTS.       137 


and  even  to  the  quantity  of  its  productions, 
and  was  mostly  in  the  hands  of  the  merchants 
of  the  adjacent  provinces  of  Virginia  and 
South  Carolina,  and  of  the  New  Englanders. 
In  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  rice  and  in 
digo  were  the  staple  articles.  The  former 
grows  on  the  marshy  grounds  near  the  coast, 
and  the  latter  on  the  dry  soil  of  the  inland 
country.  The  planters  had  for  some  time 
applied  themselves  to  the  culture  of  tobacco  ; 
it  was  not  until  later  that  the  cultivation  of 
cotton  was  introduced.  They  made  then 
considerable  quantities  of  lumber.  Their 
exports  consisted  of  these  articles ;  and  the 
merchants  of  Charleston  also  shipped  some 
skins  obtained  by  trade  with  the  neighboring 
Indians,  and  part  of  the  produce  of  North 
Carolina. 

The  chief  dependence  of  the  colonies  for 
the  means  of  turning  their  industry  to  ac- 
zount,  was  thus  apparently  the  West  India 
trade.  Every  interest  in  England  had  been 
protected  at  the  expense  of  the  colonies,  and 
the  united  restrictions  had  resulted  in  a  larger 
AVest  India  trade.  The  government  now 
came  in  to  protect  itself,  and,  to  raise  a  rev 
enue,  laid  a  heavy  tax  upon  .the  West  India 
trade  in  1764. 

The  burdens  of  the  colonists  were  getting 
rather  too  many  and  heavy,  and  the  people 
more  and  more  disposed  to  question  the 
utility  of  a  connection  which  was  enforced 
avowedly  that  the  colonists  might  be  hewers 
of  wood  and  drawers  of  water  for  the  service 
of  the  mother  country.  The  first  movement 
in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  cutting  off  of 
their  trade  would  prevent  them  from  buying 
of  the  mother  country,  was  to  enter  into  an 
association  to  abstain  from  British  goods, 
and  to  manufacture  for  themselves.  Then 
commenced  an  active  struggle.  Surveyors- 
general  were  sent  to  America,  stamp  duties 
levied,  and  all  the  stamped  paper  sent  out 
from  England  was  burnt  up  by  the  colonists 
as  soon  as  it  arrived.  The  merchants  enter 
ed  into  an  agreement  to  import  no  more 
goods  from  Great  Britain,  and  a  manufac 
turing  society  was  established.  AVoollen 
factoring  became  the  rage,  and  so  far  was  it 
carried,  that  resolutions  were  passed  not  to 
eat  lamb,  and  not  to  patronise  any  butcher 
who  killed  lambs.  They  resolved  to  send 
no  more  tobacco  to  England.  These  reso 
lutions  caused  a  great  revulsion  in  England 
among  those  who  could  get  no  remittance 
and  those  who  had  made  goods  for  the  Amer 
ican  market.  The  government  felt  the  force 


of  this  pressure,  and  the  stamp  act  Avas  re 
pealed;  but,  at  the  same  time,  the  moral 
effect  of  the  repeal  was  destroyed  by  the 
declaration  that  the  acts  of  parliament  bound 
the  colonies.  Then  followed  more  duties, 
more  regulations,  more  resistance,  increasing 
anger  on  both  sides,  until,  in  the  year  1775, 
parliament  prohibited  all  trade  with  Amer 
ica,  and  the  united  colonies  opened  their 
ports  to  all  nations.  During  the  war  which 
ensued,  the  business  of  the  country  of  course 
suffered ;  but  a  very  extensive  illegal  trade 
was  carried  on  by  some  of  the  high  officers 
of  the  English  government,  who,  under  li 
censes  granted  to  carry  stores  and  provisions 
for  the  army,  cleared  vessels  for  Boston, 
Halifax,  or  Quebec,  with  liberty  to  <jo  to  any 
other  port,  and  sent  cargoes  of  general  mer 
chandise  for  sale  at  great  profits. 

These  events  closed  colonial  trade.  The 
high  profits  to  be  derived  from  the  sale  of 
goods  and  produce  during  the  war  were 
too  tempting  to  permit  trade  altogether  to 
cease,  notwithstanding  the  acts  of  Congress. 
Lord  Sheffield  states  that  one  ship  hi  par 
ticular  cleared  from  London  for  New  York, 
but  went  directly  to  Boston,  where  her  cargo 
sold  at  270  per  cent,  profit.  Many  cargoes 
were  paid  for  in  cash  before  they  left  Eng- 
land,  on  account  of  the  risk.  The  cities  in 
the  United  States  in  the  power  of  the-  British 
were  crowded  with  the  faithful;  at  the  same 
time  the  surrounding  back  country  did  not 
sympathise  with  them,  and,  as  a  consequence, 
provisions  were  very  scarce  and  high.  This 
gave  rise  to  a  clandestine  trade,  by  which  a 
vessel  would  be  loaded  with  produce  and 
sent  to  a  particular  spot,  where,  through  con 
nivance,  she  would  be  "  captured,"  and  her 
cargo  sold  as  a  prize,  at  very  high  prices,  to 
the  profit  of  both  captors  and  owners.  Amer 
ican  produce  also  found  its  way  to  Europe. 

With  the  year  1783  came  peace,  and  with 
it  a  new  era  opened  in  the  world's  commerce. 
Britain  had  always  treated  the  colonies  as 
having  no  rights,  and  she  was  now  required 
to  treat  with  them  as  equals,  not  only  in  a 
political  and  commercial  sense,  but  as  rivals 
on  the  ocean,  which  she  had  hitherto  affected 
to  rule.  The  United  States  were  then  in  by 
no  means  a  prosperous  condition.  Their  com 
merce  had  been  ruined  by  the  war ;  the  few 
manufactures  which  had  been  forced  into 
being  during  the  difficulties  had  to  encoun 
ter  ruinous  competition  from  imports  with 
the  return  of  peace  ;  the  country  was  flooded 
with  depreciated  paper  money,  of  which  over 


138 


COMMERCE    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


3,000,000  had  been  issued.  The  states 
were  in  debt  $20,000,000,  and  the  federal 
government  $42,000,375  ;  specie  had  mostly 
disappeared  from  circulation,  and  the  country 
was  without  a  mint,  or  a  regular  system  of 
finance.  Private  credit  was  greatly  impaired. 
The  collection  of  debts  had  been  suspended 
during  the  war,  and  with  the  return  of  peace 
the  courts  were  filled  with  suits ;  while  the 
markets  were  flooded  with  goods  beyond 
the  power  of  purchase.  The  several  states 
exercised  the  power  of  issuing  paper  money, 
and  making  it  a  legal  tender  for  debts,  and 
each  exercised  the  right  of  imposing  duties 
upon  imports  and  exports.  All  these  evils 
were  producing  the  most  disastrous  results, 
and  in  Massachusetts  an  open  insurrection, 
known  as  Shays's  rebellion,  threatened  not 
only  the  peace  of  that  state,  but  the  exist 
ence  of  the  Union,  which,  indeed,  was  very 
feeble  under  the  confederation.  In  Septem 
ber,  1787,  the  present  constitution  was  finally 
adopted,  and  the  work  of  construction 
commenced.  The  leading  measures  adopted 
did  not  come  fully  into  operation  until  1791, 
wrhcn  the  custom-houses,  the  mint,  the  bank, 
the  post-office,  commercial  treaties,  and  du 
ties  on  imports,  with  the  restrictions  upon 
the  states  as  to  levying  duties,  coining  money, 
making  paper  a  legal  tender,  and  minor 
regulations,  were  put  in  force. 

The  power  granted  to  Congress  by  the 
new  constitution,  of  levying  duties  upon 
goods  imported  into  the  country,  met  the 
exigencies  of  the  case.  The  states  had  been 
repeatedly  and  vigorously  called  upon  to  pro 
vide  the  means  of  meeting  the  public  debt 
and  expenses,  and  it  was  urged  upon  them 
that  independent  means  granted  to  it  was 
the  only  way  by  which  the  federal  govern 
ment  could  sustain  its  position.  This  power, 
with  that  to  levy  direct  taxes,  was  finally 
obtained  by  Congress  under  the  constitution 
of  1787.  In  the  meantime  the  exports  of 
the  country  were  actively  resumed  with  the 
cessation  of  hostilities.  There  were,  how 
ever,  no  means  of  knowing  the  actual  state 
of  trade  until  the  adoption  of  the  regulations 
under  the  constitution  of  1791.  The  trade 
was,  however,  very  active.  The  desire  to 
trade  on  both  sides  was  great ;  and  no  sooner 
was  peace  declared,  than  the  king  by  proc 
lamation  removed  all  legal  restraints  upon 
intercourse  with  the  United  States,  dispens 
ing  for  a  limited  time  with  a  manifest,  certifi 
cate,  or  other  legal  document  on  the  arrival 
of  any  vessel  belonging  to  the  United  States 


in  Great  Britain.  American  vessels  generally 
were  placed  upon  the  footing  of  colonial  ves 
sels.  Although  there  were  no  United  States 
official  returns,  the  English  custom-house 
returns  show  the  trade  between  the  two 
countries  for  that  period  as  follows  : — 


1784, 
1785, 
178G, 
1787, 
1788, 
1789, 
1790, 


Exports  to 

Great  Britain. 

£743,345 

893,594 

843,119 

893,637 

1,023,789 

1,050,198 

1,191,071 


Imports  from 

Great  Britain. 

£3,670,467 

2,308,023 

1,603,465 

2,009,111 

1.886,142 

2.525,298 

3^431,778 


The  imports  from  Great  Britain  alone,  in 
the  two  first  years  of  peace,  must  have  been 
nearly  $30,000,000,  or  $10  per  head  of  the 
people  against  an  export  of  $9,000,000,  and 
were  sufficient  cause  for  much  distress.  This 
was,  however,  of  a  nature  which  would  natu 
rally  cure  itself,  since  it  involved  a  fall  in 
prices  that  would  promote  exports  and  check 
imports,  and  these  were  more  nearly  equal 
ized  in  1788. 

In  that  year,  however,  a  new  event  gave  a 
great  impulse  to  American  exports.  The 
French  government  had  previously  made  a 
free  trade  treaty  with  England  ;  and  in  1787, 
under  the  liberal  sentiments  which  that  gov 
ernment  espoused,  they  issued  a  decree, 
placing  American  citizens  commercially  on 
the  same  footing  as  Frenchmen,  and  admit 
ting  American  produce  free  of  duty.  Under 
this  regulation,  the  United  States  exported 
in  1788,  246,480  tierces  of  rice,  140,959 
barrels  of.flour,  3,664,176  bushels  of  wheat, 
558,891  bushels  of  rye,  520,262  bushels  of 
barley.  These  figures  represent  very  large 
exports  for  the  state  of  the  country  at  that 
time,  when  the  population  was  small,  and  the 
farm  produce  drawn  altogether  from  the 
Atlantic  states  of  the  country.  The  farms  of 
the  Hudson  river  and  its  milling  powers  were 
then  in  great  requisition.  The  fisheries  had 
large  sales,  and  the  south  exported  freely  its 
rice.  The  enjoyment  of  the  French  and  Eng 
lish  trade  gave  a  great  impulse  to  the  shipping 
interest,  and  the  United  States  were  rapid 
ly  growing  into  a  power  whose  influence  was 
felt  in  all  the  commercial  relations  of  Eng 
land.  The  political  difficulties  of  Europe 
were  also  taking  a  new  shape.  The  failure 
of  the  harvests  hastened  the  march  of  affairs, 
and  a  new  war  between  France  and  England 
left  in  the  hands  of  the  United  States  the  carry 
ing  trade  of  the  world.  While  American  ship 
ping  was  called  upon  to  supply  raw  materials 


COLONIAL    TRADE — IMPERIAL    RESTRICTIONS EMANCIPATION    OF    INHABITANTS.       139 


and  food  for  England  and  western  Europe, 
it  was  also  called  upon  to  carry  between  Euro 
pean  countries  and  their  colonies.  French 
ships  could  no  longer  safely  trade  with  the 
West  Indies,  the  Spanish  merchants  and 
government  depended  upon  neutral  flags 
to  convey  their  merchandise  and  treasures, 
and  even  the  English  preferred  the  safety  of 
third  bottoms  for  the  transport  of  their  goods. 
The  insurrection  in  St.  Domingo,  and  the 
events  in  other  islands,  drove  great  numbers 
of  persons  to  the  United  States,  and  many 
fortunes  were  founded.  That  of  Stephen 
Girard  received  a  great  accession  from  the 
wealth  placed  on  board  his  ships  by  persons 
who  were  slaughtered  in  the  attempt  to  fol 
low.  The  activity  with  which  American 
shipping  was  employed  in  those  years  did 
not  prevent  them  from  seeking  new  trade  in 
the  east,  and  an  American  ship  made  its 
appearance  in  the  China  seas,  in  a  com 
merce  which  has  not  ceased  to  grow  to 
the  present  day.  .The  period  was  marked 
by  the  development  of  the  most  enter 
prising  genius  in  mercantile  adventure. 
The  fame  of  William  Gray,  of  Boston,  soon 
became  world-wide,  and  was  as  honored  in 
the  east  as  it  was  in  the  west.  His  ships 
navigated  every  sea,  and  employed  hundreds 
of  hardy  men.  The  skilful  and  bold  seamen 
who  commanded  his  ships  were  not  of  the 
later  class  of  "  dandy  captains,"  who  came  in 
with  the  "liners,"  but  it  was  his  saying  that 
the  best  captains  would  sail  with  a  load  of 
fish  to  the  West  Indies,  hang  up  a  stocking 
in  the  cabin  and  put  therein  the  hard  dollars 
as  they  sold  the  fish,  and  pay  out  from  it  as 
they  bought  the  rum,  or  molasses,  or  sugar, 
tie  up  the  balance,  and  hand  it  into  the 
counting-house  on  their  arrival  home,  in  lieu 
of  all  accounts.  The  honesty  and  judgment 
of  their  proceedings  were  beyond  question  ; 
and  the  problem  of  profits  between  the  fish 
sent  and  the  cargo  and  stocking  returned, 
was  for  the  clerks  to  solve.  The  genius  for 
plotting  long  and  intricate  voyages  belonged 
to  the  head  of  the  house.  New  York,  in 
John  Jacob  Astor,  had  still  a  more  extensive 
operator.  He  first  projected  the  enterprises 
to  the  north-west  coast,  and  laid  out  schemes 
which  required  ten  years  to  ripen,  with  pro 
found  skill,  and  his  name  was  known  through 
out  the  world.  Philadelphia  had  an  exponent 
of  her  commercial  power  in  Stephen  Girard, 
whose  enterprises  belonged  to  the  same  pe 
riod  of  large  operations  and  bold  conduct. 
The  Patersons  of  Baltimore  led  the  com 


merce  of  that  city ;  and  behind  these  leading 
names  came  a  crowd  of  great  merchants — 
for  the  mercantile  intellect  seemed  as  active 
in  that  day  as  was  military,  political,  and 
literary  genius  both  on  this  continent  and 
throughout  the  world. 

With  the  year  1791  the  new  government 
of  the  United  States,  under  the  constitution 
adopted  1787,  came  into  operation,  and  from 
that  date  regular  official  figures  of  the  an 
nual  progress  of  the  national  commerce  have 
been  published.  The  leading  changes  pro 
duced  by  that  event  were  the  abolishment 
of  all  state  laws  imposing  duties  upon  im 
ports  and  exports ;  the  creation  of  a  tariff 
by  Congress ;  the  establishment  of  a  mint,  a 
national  bank,  a  post-office ;  the  funding  of 
the  government  circulating  paper,  the  with 
drawal  of  all  state  issues,  and  the  enactment 
of  a  navigation  law  in  retaliation  of  the 
English  law.  The  general  course  of  trade 
proceeded,  however,  much  as  before,  until 
it  encountered  the  interruption  that  grew 
out  of  the  European  war.  A  few  years  of 
this  prosperity  excited  the  ire  of  the  bel 
ligerents,  and  England  could  no  longer  re 
frain  from  treating  the  Americans  still  as 
colonists.  In  1793  she  issued  an  order  to 
prevent  food  from  being  carried  to  any  port 
occupied  by  French  troops,  and  also  to  pre 
vent  American  vessels  from  trading  between 
France  and  her  colonies.  She  also  exercised 
the  right  of  impressing  American  seamen  to 
man  her  navy.  Under  these  and  other  or 
ders,  American  merchants  had  been  robbed 
,of  large  amounts  of  property.  The  com 
plaints  thus  created  threatened  war ;  but  it 
was  arrested  by  a  treaty  concluded  by  Mr. 
Jay,  under  which  $10,000,000  indemnity  was 
paid.  This  treaty  gave  umbrage  to  France, 
which  also  seized  American  vessels ;  but  the 
first  consul  put  an  end  to  the  complaints  in 
1800.  England  had,  however,  in  view  of 
the  apparently  progressive  difficulties  in 
Europe,  revived  the  principle  she  had  laid 
down  in  1756,  viz. :  that  neutrals  could  carry 
on  no  trade  in  time  of  war  that  they  had  not 
pursued  in  time  of  peace :  in  other  words, 
that  American  ships  should  not  do  the  French 
carrying  trade.  Her  next  step,  in  May,  1 806, 
was  to  promulgate  the  unheard-of  and  absurd 
edict,  that  Europe  was  in  a  state  of  blockade 
from  the  Elbe  to  Brest.  The  import  of  this 
was,  that  American  ships  should  visit  none 
of  those  ports.  This  monstrous  pretension, 
in  addition  to  some  minor  orders,  drew  from 
Napoleon,  November,  1806,  his  Berlin  de- 


140 


COMMERCE    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


cree  in  retaliation,  prohibiting  all  intercourse 
with  the  British  islands.  This  was  replied 
to,  by  Great  Britain  declaring  France  and 
her  colonies  in  a  state  of  blockade.  To 
these  insane  edicts  on  both  sides  succeeded 
others,  which  so  multiplied  the  difficulties  of 
commerce  that  the  United  States  government, 
to  avoid  war,  laid  an  embargo  upon  com 
merce  in  1808.  It  was  not  to  be  expected, 
however,  that  when  the  chief  interests  of  the 
country  were  commercial,  that  such  a  mea 
sure  should  be  otherwise  than  very  unpopu 
lar,  and  the  government  changed  it,  in  1809, 
to  non-intercourse  with  France  and  Great 
Britain.  Notwithstanding  all  the  troubles 
thrown  in  the  way  of  commerce  by  the  edicts 
of  France  and  England,  the  American  mer 
chants  contrived  to  carry  on  a  large  traffic. 
Under  Bonaparte's  continental  system,  which 
sought  to  exclude  colonial  and  British  pro 
ductions,  produce  was  very  scarce  and  high 
in  Europe.  The  emperor,  to  remedy  the 
matter,  offered  high  premiums  for  the  in 
vention  of  substitutes  for  many  articles,  such 
as  indigo,  cane  sugar,  coffee,  etc.  To  those 
premiums  arc  due  the  large  use  now  made 


of  chicory-root  as  a  substitute  for  coffee. 
It  originated  in  Germany,  but  has  since 
spread  to  England  and  the  United  States. 
Beet-root  sugar,  which  has  become  so  large 
an  industry  in  France  and  Germany,  being 
equal  in  consumption  to  cane,  originated  in 
the  same  manner.  Nevertheless,  all  com 
modities  were  very  high,  and  when  a  cargo 
could  be  got  in,  it  realized  a  fortune.  To 
get  them  in  was  the  problem ;  and  this  was 
usually  done  by  fees,  or  pots  de  vin,  which 
were  mostly  appropriated  by  Talleyrand  and 
Fouche,  and  afterward  rights  were  openly  sold 
by  the  emperor  to  raise  money.  Jerome  Bon 
aparte,  who  died  so  recently,  had  married,  in 
1 803,  Miss  Patcrson,  of  Baltimore,  a  direct  de 
scendant  of  "  Old  Mortality,"  immortalized  by 
Scott  in  a  novel.  The  Paterson  interest 
with  Jerome  was  the  means  of  procuring 
admission  for  many  a  valuable  cargo.  In 
terest  and  enterprise  effected  much,  and  few 
merchants  desired  to  lose  all  chance  through 
the  intervention  of  their  own  government. 
Nevertheless,  the  embargo  took  place  in 
1808.  The  progress  of  trade  from  1790  to 
1808,  was  as  follows: — 


IMPORTS    AND    EXPORTS    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES,  AND    TONNAGE    IN    THE    FOREIGN   TRADE. 


Tonnage. 

Pom.  exports. 

For.  exports. 

Total  exports. 

Imports. 

1790, 

474,374 

$19,666,000 

$539,156 

$20,205,156 

$23,000,000 

1791, 

502,146 

18,500,000 

512,041 

19.012041 

29,200,000 

1792, 

564,457 

19,000.000 

1,753,098 

20,753,098 

31,500,000 

1793, 

520,764 

24,000^000 

2,109,572 

26,109,572 

31,100,000 

1794, 

628,618 

26,500,000 

6,526,233 

33,026,233 

34,600,000 

1795, 

747,965 

39.500,000 

8,489,472 

47,989.472 

69,756,268 

1796, 

831,899 

40,764,097 

26,300,000 

67,064^097 

81,436,164 

1797, 

876,913 

29,850,026 

27,000^000 

56,850,206 

75,379,406 

1798, 

898,328 

28,527.097 

33,000,000 

61,527,097 

68,551,700 

1799, 

939,400 

33,142,522 

45,523,000 

78,665,522 

79,069,148 

1800, 

972,492 

31,840,903 

39,130,871 

70,971,780 

91,252,768 

1801, 

947,5'77 

47,473,204 

46,642,721 

94,115,925 

111,363,511 

1802, 

892,104 

36,708,189 

35,774,971 

72,483,160 

76,333,333 

1803, 

949,172 

42,205,961 

13,594.072 

55,800,033 

64,666,666 

1804, 

1,042,404 

41,467,477 

36^231,597 

77,699,074 

85,000,000 

1805, 

1,140.368 

42,387,002 

53,179,019 

95,566,021 

120,600,000 

1806, 

1,208,716 

41,253,727 

60,283,236 

101,536,963 

129,410,000 

1807. 

1,268,'548 

48,699,592 

59,643,558 

108,343,150 

138,500,000 

In  the  period  here  embraced  there  oc 
curred  many  events  which  had  a  very  lasting 
and  important  bearing  upon  the  future  of  the 
United  States.  The  temporary  free  trade 
with  France  had  imparted  a  sudden  impulse 
to  the  export  of  farm  produce.  The  wars 
that  succeeded  greatly  enlarged  the  sphere 
of  action  for  the  shipping,  and  we  find  in  the 
table  that  the  imports  of  goods  rose  year  by 
year  from  23,000,000  in  1790  to  138,000,- 
000  in  1807.  Of  these  large  imports,  how 
ever,  it  appears,  from  the  column  of  exports 
of  foreign  merchandise,  a  large  portion  was 


re-exported,  forming  the  carrying  trade  be 
tween  the  countries  of  Europe  and  their 
colonies,  that  the  war  threw  into  the  Ameri 
can  bottoms,  and  which  passed  through 
American  ports.  A  large  portion  of  this 
trade  was  paid  in  money  in  England,  form 
ing  those  credits  which  were  transferred  by 
the  Americans  to  the  English,  in  payment 
of  merchandise  thence  imported.  Thus  the 
trade  was  generally  in  favor  of  England 
with  the  United  States,  and  in  favor  of  the 
latter  with  Europe.  Now,  as  England  could 
have  no  direct  trade  with  Europe  during  the 


COLONIAL    TRADE IMPERIAL    RESTRICTIONS EMANCIPATION    OF    INHABITANTS-      141 


war,  and  yet  was  compelled  to  send  funds 
thither  for  political  purposes,  the  credits  she 
received  from  the  Americans  were  of  vast 
service  to  her.  It  was  in  the  conduct  of  that 
trade  that  the  tonnage  multiplied  to  the  ex 
tent  seen  in  the  column.  The  amount 
increased  from  474,374  tons  in  1790, 
to  over  1,200,000  tons  in  1807,  or  an 
increase  in  capital  so  employed  from  $15,- 
000,000  to  $50,000,000  The  wealth  of  the 
country  was  thus  rapidly  increasing  in  a 
foreign  trade,  which  formed  one-half  of  the 
whole  commerce.  The  fisheries  were  very 
active  and  flourishing ;  the  agricultural  in 
terest  prospered  under  the  large  exports  and 
high  prices,  and  manufactures  began  to  be 
actively  developed.  The  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  Mr.  Hamilton,  in  his  celebrated 
report  upon  manufactures  in  1791,  says: 
"  It  is  certain  that  several  important  branches 
have  grown  up  and  flourished  with  a  rapidity 
that  surprises,  affording  an  encouraging  assur 
ance  of  successive  future  attempts."  Among 
those  enumerated  as  then  flourishing  are 
leather,  iron,  wood,  flax,  bricks,  paper,  hats, 
carriages,  etc.  It  was  computed  that  four- 
fifths  of  all  the  clothing  of  the  inhabitants 
was  made  by  themselves,  and  that  great 
quantities  of  coarse  cloths  for  table  and  bed 
ding  were  manufactured  in  households.  All 
these  industries  pertained  mostly  to  the 
north,  and  their  surplus  formed  at  that  time 
most  of  the  exports  of  the  whole  country. 
The  southern  states  were  possessed  of  600,- 
000  blacks,  for  whom  there  was  no  adequate 
employment.  They  were  mostly  engaged 
upon  the  production  of  tobacco  and  rice,  but 
the  market  for  them  was  not  such  as  to 


afford  much  encouragement  for  the  future. 
The  increase  of  blacks  who  were  not  earning 
their  support  was  not  regarded  with  favor 
by  southern  statesmen  under  such  circum 
stances  :  hence  the  incorporation  into  the 
federal  constitution  of  the  inhibition  of  the 
slave  trade  after  1808.  That  provision  was 
resisted  by  the  New  England  shipowners, 
of- whose  business  the  transportation  of  blacks, 
as  a  return  cargo,  after  carrying  produce  to 
England,  formed  an  important  part.  An 
event  occurred  in  1793,  however,  which 
wrought  an  entire  change  in  the  business  of 
the  country  and  the  prospects  of  the  south. 
Up  to  that  time  a  little  cotton  had  been 
raised,  but  the  difficulty  of  freeing  it  from 
the  seed  was  such  that  one  hand  could  clean 
but  1  Ib.  per  day,  and  even  at  30  cents  per 
Ib.  it  was  not  profitable,  under  such  condi 
tions.  The  mode  of  carding  and  spinning 
it  was  also  laborious  and  slow.  At  about 
that  period  the  steam-engine  in  England  was 
introduced  as  a  motive  power,  and  such  in 
ventions  were  made  in  the  process  of  carding 
and  spinning  cotton  as  to  enable  one  man  to 
do  the  work  that  required  2,200  by  old 
methods.  These  were  the  conditions  of  an 
immense  demand  for  the  rawmatcrial.  Prov 
identially,  precisely  at  that  juncture,  1793, 
Eli  Whitney,  of  Massachusetts,  invented 
the  cotton-gin,  by  which  one  hand,  in 
stead  of  only  1  Ib.,  could  clean  360  Ibs.  per 
day.  Thus  the  market  for  cotton,  and  the 
means  of  preparing  it,  were  both  provided 
a£  once,  and  they  were  thenceforth  to  furnish 
the  chief  employment  for  American  ships. 
The  items  of  domestic  exports  in  the  above 
table  were  therefore  varied,  as  follows  : — 


Cotton.  Tobacco.  Flour  &  provisions.        Rice.  Manufactures.  Total. 

1700,              $42/285  $4,349,567  $5,991,171       $1,753,796  $12,136,819 

1803,           7,920,000  6,209.000  15,050,000         2,455,000         2,000,000  31,179,000 

1807,         14,232,000  5,470,000  15,706,000         2,307,000         2,309,000  44,002,400 


Thus  cotton  in  a  few  years  came  to  form 
nearly  one-third  of  the  whole  exports,  there 
by  supplying  to  the  shipping  in  1808  a  com 
pensating  freight  for  the  blacks,  who  were 
no  longer  to  be  imported.  That  cotton  trade 
lias  not  ceased  to  grow  to  the  present  day, 
and  with  ever  increasing  importance.  It 
has  supplied  not  only  the  manufacturers  of 
Europe  with  raw  material,  but  also  those 
of  the  northern  states.  The  impulse  thus 
given  to  the  cotton  culture  produced  a  vital 
change  in  the  condition  of  the  south,  and 
this  change  is  well  indicated  in  the  charge 
made  by  Judge  Johnson,  of  Savannah,  in 

9 


1807,  in  the  case  of  a  suit  brought  by  Whit 
ney  to  make  good  his  claim  to  his  patent. 

"  The  whole  of  the  interior,"  said  Judge 
Johnson,  "  was  languishing,  and  its  inhabit 
ants  were  emigrating,  for  want  of  some  object 
to  engage  their  attention  and  employ  their 
industry,  when  the  invention  of  this  machine 
(the  gin)  at  once  opened  views  to  them 
which  set  the  whole  country  in  active  mo 
tion.  From  childhood  to  age  it  has  pre 
sented  to  us  a  lucrative  employment.  .  Indi 
viduals  who  were  depressed  with  poverty 
and  sunk  in  idleness  have  suddenly  risen  to 
wealth  and  respectability.  Our  debts  have 


142 


COMMERCE    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


been  paid  off,  our  capitals  have  increased, 
and  our  lands  doubled  in  value.  We  cannot 
express  the  weight  of  obligation  which  the 
country  owes  to  this  invention.  The  extent 
of  it  cannot  now  be  seen." 

In  these  words  we  have  the  proof  of  the 
utter  depression  that  then  existed  at  the 
south,  affording  a  strong  contrast  to  the  im 
mense  wealth  that  has  since  been  developed. 

The  kinds  and  quantities  of  goods  import 
ed  into  the  country  were  adapted  to  the 
wants  of  the  people  at  that  time,  when  lux 
uries  had  by  no  means  so  large  a  share  of 
the  public  taste  as  is  now  the  case.  The 
homespun  goods  of  the  country  were  to  be 
gradually  supplanted  by  machine  goods  as 
these  improved  and  cheapened,  and  they  did 
so  rapidly  under  the  influence  of  larger  sup 
plies  of  raw  material,  operated  upon  by  the 
most  astonishing  inventions  in  new  machines, 
and  the  improved  scientific  processes  applied 
to  the  manufacture.  The  American  manu 
facturers  wei'e  required  to  withstand  not  only 
the  competition  of  the  large  capital  and 
cheap  labor  of  England,  but  the  constant 
effects  of  new  inventions,  of  which  the  first- 
fruits  were  manifest  in  imported  goods.  They 
therefore  grew  'but  slowly,  and  hardware, 
dry  goods,  and  other  leading  branches  of 
merchandise,  continued  to  be  imported.  The 


aggregate  amount  retained  in  the  country 
for  consumption  did  not  materially  increase 
in  the  ten  years  up  to  1807. 

All  branches  of  industry  were  in  a  high 
state  of  prosperity,  when  the  course  of  events 
brought  on  the  embargo,  which  produced 
an  immense  change  in  the  course  of  affairs. 
All  those  interests  that  had  thriven  so  well 
since  the  peace  of  1783,  became  suddenly 
depressed  by  the  circumstances  which  gave 
an  impulse  to  manufacture.  The  raw  mate 
rial  and  farm  produce  which  had  been  so 
actively  exported  now  accumulated  on  hand 
at  falling  prices,  'tempting  the  manufacturer 
to  employ  the  labor  no  longer  occupied  with 
commercial  interests,  and  a  new  order  of  in 
dustry  sprang  into  being.  Trade  was,  how 
ever,  not  entirely  interrupted;  many  coast 
ing  vessels,  with  suitable  cargoes,  were  by 
pretended  stress  of  weather  driven  into 
foreign  ports,  and  the  United  States  courts 
were  filled  with  suits  brought  for  breaches  of 
the  embargo  acts.  Under  the  non-inter 
course  act  of  1809,  business  recovered  to 
some,  extent,  only  to  encounter  those  new 
vexations  which  brought  on  the  war  of  1812. 
That  event  rather  changed  the  course  of 
trade  than  interrupted  it,  and  was  succeeded 
by  a  greater  degree  of  activity  than  ever. 
The  imports  and  exports  were  as  follows  : — • 


Tonnage. 

Domestic  exports. 

Foreign  exports. 

Total  exports. 

Total  imports. 

1808, 

1,247,596 

$9.433.546 

$12.997,414 

$22,430,960 

$56,990,000 

1809, 

1,350,281 

31,405,700 

20,797,531 

52,203,231 

59,400,000 

1810, 

1,424,784 

42,366,679 

24,391,295 

66,757,974 

85,400,000 

1811, 

1,232,502 

45^294,041 

16,022,790 

61,316,831 

83,400.000 

1812, 

1,209,997 

30,032,109 

8.495,127 

38,527,236 

77,030,000 

1813, 

1,166,629 

25,008,152 

2,847,845 

27,855,997 

22,005,000 

1814, 

1,159.210 

6,782,272 

145,169 

6,927,441 

12,965,000 

1815, 

1,368,127 

45,974.403 

6,583,350 

52,557,753 

113,041,274 

1816, 

1,372,218 

64.78L896 

17,138,556 

81,920,452 

147,103,700 

1817, 

1,399,911 

68,313,500 

19,358,069 

87,671,569 

99,250,373 

1818, 

1,225,184 

73.854,437 

19,426,096 

93,280,533 

121,750,000 

1819, 

1,260,751 

50,976.838 

19,165,683 

70,142,521 

87,125,000 

1S20, 

1,280,166 

51,683,640 

18,008,029 

69,691,669 

74,450,000 

$545,907,213       $185,376,954      $731,284,167    $1,039,910,347 


The  large  carrying  trade  that  had  existed 
in  foreign  produce  gradually  perished  on  the 
return  of  peace  in  Europe,  throwing  much  ton 
nage  out  of  employ ;  and  domestic  produce, 
although  it  found  its  way  abroad  to  some  ex 
tent,  still  fell  in  value,  and  accumulated  in 
quantity  in  the  home  ports.  Cotton  in  par 
ticular  felt  the  want  of  the  foreign  market, 
although  its  presence  in  New  Orleans  be 
came  an  instrument  in  the  great  triumph  of 
our  American  troops  pver  the  British  vet 
erans  who  had  just  driven  the  French  out 


of  Spain.  The  same  men  who  had  routed 
the  legions  of  Napoleon  embarked  at  Bor 
deaux  for  New  Orleans,  to  fall  before  the 
cotton  bags  defended  by  Jackson  and  his 
gallant  band. 

The  course  of  events  that  had  been  pro 
ductive  of  so  much  prosperity  from  1783  to 
1808,  was  followed  in  the  next  seven  years 
by  commercial  disasters,  it  is  true,  but  those 
disasters  were  relieved  by  the  brilliant  posi 
tion  assumed  by  the  United  States  among 
the  nations  of  the  earth  as  a  naval  power. 


TRADE — IMPERIAL    RESTRICTIONS — EMANCIPATION    OF   INHABITANTS.       143 


The  American  tonnage,  which  increased  to 
over  1,000,000  in  1807,  had  given  employ 
ment  to  large  numbers  of  hardy  and  skilful 
seamen,  men  whose  professional  skill  and 
nautical  daring  had  already  made  them  fa 
mous,  and  had  incited  Great  Britain  to  those 
impressments  by- which  she  sought  to  ob 
tain  the  services  of  such  able  men.  When 
her  conduct  drove  the  American  government 
to  embargo  commerce,  the  employment  of 
ships  and  men  became  restrained,  and  their 
daring  manifested  itself  in  infractions  of  the 
law.  Non-intercourse  and  war  drove  them 
altogether  out  of  employment,  and  they 
crowded  into  the  navy  and  privateers.  Up 
to  that  time  England  was  the  admitted  mis 
tress  of  the  seas.  Every  nation  in  Europe 
had  been  driven  from  the  contest.  The 
best  fleets  of  Xapoleon,  invincible  upon  land, 
had  invariably  struck  to  the  British  flag,  and 
the  feeble  nation  upon  this  continent,  just 
formed  out  of  revolted  colonies,  was  hardly 
worth  considering  at  all  as  a  power.  The 
proof  of  the  contempt  in  which  it  was  held 
was  given  in  the  conduct  of  the  nations  that 
forced  non-intercourse  and  war  upon  the 
United  States.  It  came  very  hard  for  all 
the  thriving  interests  here  to  face  ruin  in  the 
shape  of  war,  but  it  became  inevitable.  So 
distrustful,  however,  was  even  Congress  of 
the  ability  of  the  country  to  resist  England, 
that  it  was  determined,  on  the  declaration 
of  war,  to  send  the  government  ships  up  the 
rivers,  where  they  would  be  out  of  the  reach 
of  the  dreadful  English  cruisers.  It  was 
only  at  the  earnest  solicitation  of  the  leading 
officers  of  the  navy  that  permission  was 
finally  given  for  the  ships  to  go  to  sea.  The 
astonishment  in  Europe,  the  dismay  in  Eng 
land,  and  delight  in  the  United  States,  could 
scarcely  be  equalled  when  the  encounter  on 
the  seas  resulted  in  the  unprecedented  spec 
tacle  of  a  series  of  triumphs  over  the  tyrant 
of  the  ocean.  In  the  short  period  of  twenty 
years  a  power  had  arisen  that  was  thenceforth 
to  know  no  master  upon  the  ocean,  and  sub 
mit  to  no  insults,  and  this  power  had  been 
born  of  commerce.  The  war  closing  with 
the  defeat  of  the  best  troops  of  England,  the 
"  liberators  of  Spain,"  before  the  lines  of 
New  Orleans,  left  the  United  States  no  longer 
in  the  position  of  merely  liberated  colonies, 
but  in  that  of  a  victorious  power  among  the 
nations  of  -the  earth.  It  had  cost  much  to 
win  that  position,  but  it  was  worth  the 
struggle,  since  it  ensured  continued  peace 
thereafter.  The  nations  of  Europe  have  not 


since  thought  it  worth  while  to  provoke  new 
hostilities,  but  have,  on  the  other  hand,  from 
time  to  time,  settled  up  for  the  injuries  they 
then  committed  upon  American  commerce. 

The  intervention  of  war  had  paralyzed  every 
industry.  The  farm  products  that  had  been 
raised  for  export  no  longer  had  an  outlet 
for  the  surplus;  cotton,  rice,  and  tobacco  ac 
cumulated  idly  in  warehouses.  The  ships 
wrere  freightless  at  the  docks,  and  all  the 
earnings  of  industry  were  at  their  minimum. 
It  was  an  advantage  to  manufacturers,  indeed, 
to  have  no  competition  from  abroad ;  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  general'  depression  of  all 
other  industries  destroyed  the  home  market 
for  goods.  The  general  depression  of  trade 
and  the  depreciation  of  property  undermined 
all  credits.  Those  who  had  contracted  obli 
gations  to  pay  when  merchandise  was  sale 
able  and  property  convertible,  could  not  pay 
when  all  values  were  paralyzed.  In  order 
to  remedy  this  state  of  affairs  to  some  ex 
tent,  which  was  ascribed  by  certain  parties  to 
the  want  of  a  United  States  bank,  new  state 
banks  were  multiplied,  under  the  erroneous 
notion  that  these  could  supply  capital.  In 
asmuch,  however,  as  the  radical  evil  was 
inability  to  pay,  increase  of  promises  did-not 
help  the  matter,  and  a  general  suspension  of 
the  banks  took  place.  The  country  was 
filled  with  irredeemable  paper ;  and  the  fed 
eral  debt,  which  had  been  $75,463,476  on 
the  consolidation  of  the  revolutionary  debt 
in  1790,  had  risen  to  $127,334,934  when 
peace  took  place  in  1815.  In  such  a  state 
of  affairs  the  return  of  peace  brought  with  it 
a  flood  of  imported  goods,  which  amounted 
to  $147,000,000  in  1816,  giving  the  govern 
ment  a  customs  revenue  equal  to  $36,306,- 
874  in  the  year.  The  new  United  States 
Bank  went  into  operation  at  the  same  time, 
causing  for  the  moment  additional  pressure  ; 
but  the  sale  of  its  stock,  and  of  the  federal 
government  stock,  subscribed  to  its  capital, 
abroad,  helped  to  correct  the  exchanges. 
The  produce  that  had  accumulated  during 
the  war  also  went  forward  in  great  quan 
tities,  giving  a  considerable  impulse  to  the 
aggregate  of  domestic  exports,  which  rose  to 
$73,854,000  in  1818.  Of  this  amount  40 
per  cent,  was  cotton.  In  some  sort,  the 
trade  which  had  lain  dormant  during  the 
war  was  forced  into  the  first  three  years  of 
peace.  In  the  five  years  that  ended  with 
1820  there,  was,  consequently,  great  activity 
of  trade,  demanding  greater  banking  facili 
ties,  thus  promoting  a  restoration  of  con- 


144 


COMMERCE    OF    THE     UXITED     STATES. 


fidence,  and  aiding  the  United  States  Bank 
in  restoring  order  to  the  currency.  The 
year  1820  brought  with  it  new  regulations 
in  regard  to  the  talcing  of  the  census,  and  a 
law  of  Congress  was  enacted  for  correctly 
keeping  the  import,  export,  and  tonnage 
returns,  which  has  since  been  done,  and  an 
nually  reported.  The  revenues  of  the  gov 
ernment,  which  depended  upon  duties  on 
imports,  suffered  interruption  during  the 
war,  and  a  resort  to  taxation  became  neces 
sary.  This  had  been  done  in  1791  by  a  tax 
on  houses  and  lands.  A  new  valuation  took 
place  in  1815  ;  and  this,  compared  with  the 
valuation  of  1791,  gives  the  progress  of  real 
property  in  all  the  states  during  that  period. 
The  census  of  1820  comprised,  in  addition 
to  the  population,  some  items  of  the  industry 
of  the  people.  Comparing  the  leading  aggre 
gates  at  the  two  periods,  the  results  are  as 
follows : — 

1791.  1820.  Increase. 

Population  Estimated.     4,049.600  9.638,181  5,588,531 

Taxable  land,  acres..  163, 746,686  188,286,480  24,539,794 

Valuation 479.293,263  2,275,730,124  1,796,436,861 

Imports 23,000,000  74,450,000  51,45(1,000 

Exports 20.205,156  89,691,669  40,480,513 

Tonnage   474,374  1,280.166  805,792 

Bank  capital 8.000.000  1S7.II0.6I1  184,110,611 

Manufactures 5600.000  62,776,530  47,176,5:10 

U.S.  debt 75,463,476  91.015.566  ]5,55?,090 

"      revenue 4,399,478  16,779,831  12,379,858 

Post  offices,  No 75  4.500  4,425 

Post  roads,  miles 1.905  67,586  65.681 

Postal  receipts  ......           46,294  1, 1 1 1,927  1,004,733 

Such  was  the  progress  of  the  country  in 
the  first  thirty  years  of  its  existence.  Its 
population  had  increased  125  per  cent.  It 
had  added  five  states  to  the  Union,  and 
24,539,794  acres  to  its  taxable  property,  the 
value  of  which  had  risen  nearly  fivefold. 
Its  tonnage  had  increased  threefold,  its 
manufactures  tenfold,  and  the  capital  em 
ployed  in  banking  had  been  increased  $134,- 
000,000.  This  great  prosperity  had  mani 
fested  itself  in  face  of  a  war  with  the  great 
est  naval  power  the  world"  had  ever  seen, 
and  over  which,  a  decisive  victory  had  been 
won.  Commerce,  under  favorable  circum 
stances,  had  been  the  basis  of  this  great 
growth  of  wealth. 


CHAPTER  II. 

CHANGED  INTERESTS— MANUFACTURES- 
COURSE  OF  TR AD  K  —  SPECULATION-  RE 
VULSION  —  BANKRUPT  LAW  —  ENGLISH 
FREE  TRADE— REVOLUTION  IN  FRANCE 
—FARMERS— GOLD. 

THE  events  of  the  war  of  1812  had  brought 
with  them  much  experience.     Up  to  that 


period  great  dependence  upon  foreign  manu 
factures  had  existed.  It  is  no  doubt  true 
that  most  of  the  common  wearing  apparel 
and  similar  goods  were  made  in  families, 
but  iron  ware,  and  most  articles  that  enter 
into  the  materials  of  daily  avocations,  came 
from  abroad.  AVith  the  war  came  great 
deprivation,  and  many  necessary  goods,  that 
had  been  abundant,  were  no  longer  to  be 
had.  Materials  for  the  army  and  navy,  of  all 
sorts,  particularly  blankets  for  the  men,  were 
with  difficulty  obtained.  This  necessity 
gave  a  great  spur  to  individual  enterprise, 
and  at  the  same  time  forced  upon  the  gov 
ernment  the  idea  of  fostering  home  industry. 
This  necessity  was  also  apparent  from  the 
nature  of  the  government.  The  federal 
Constitution  had  given  to  Congress  the 
power  to  levy  duties  upon  imports,  and  also 
direct  taxes  for  its  support.  The  former 
right  was  exercised  up  to  the  war,  and  the 
government  finances  were  independent  and 
flourishing.  When,  however,  the  war  put 
an  end  to  commerce,  the  government  rev 
enues  also  ceased,  since,  there  being  no  im 
ports,  there  could  be  no  duties.  Resort  to 
taxation  was  then  the  alternative.  The  mode 
adopted  by  Congress  was  to  apportion  the 
amount  required  upon  each  state,  and  let 
the  respective  governments  collect  it.  It 
wras  soon  found  that  this  was  a  very  ineffi 
cient  mode  of  proceeding,  since  the  states 
could  not  be  coerced,  and  the  federal  govern 
ment  was  in  danger  of  falling  to  pieces.  The 
statesmen  of  the  day  saw  the  necessity  of 
strengthening  the  government  on  the  return 
of  peace,  and  this  was  done  by  the  same 
means  as-  it  was  sought  to  encourage  home 
manufacture,  viz.,  by  raising  the  duties  upon 
imported  goods.  A  new  tariff  was  therefore 
enacted- in  1816,  increasing  the  duties,  par 
ticularly  upon  cotton  goods,  in  taxing  which 
the  minimum  principle  was  introduced — 
that  is,  that  the  goods  should  pay  20  per 
cent,  duty,  but  that  the  cost  on  which  it 
was  calculated  should  not  be  less  than  a  fixed 
minimum.  Thus,  cotton  cloth  was  to  pay 
30  per  cent.,  but  the  cost  must  not  be  under 
20  cents  per  yard,  or  6  cents  per  square 
yard  duty.  The  new  duties,  falling  upon 
the  large  importations  that  followed  the 
peace,  rapidly  swelled  the  revenues  beyond 
the  current  wants  of  the  government ;  at  the 
same  time,  notwithstanding  that  the  navy 
had  so  well  discharged  its  duties  in  time  of 
war,  and  the  merchant  marine  had  so  well 
vindicated  its  ability  to  furnish  sailors,  Coil- 


CHANGED    INTERESTS MANUFACTURES. 


145 


gress  saw  filt  to  pass  a  navigation  act,  by 
•which  the  officers  and  three-fourths  of  the 
crews  of  American  vessels  should  be  Amer 
ican  citizens.  The  act  is  of  itself  mostly  a 
dead  letter,  since  naturalization  is  carried  on 
to  an  extent  which  makes  the  phrase  "  Am 
erican  citizen  "  a  very  ambiguous  one.  The 
object  is  desirable,  but  the  means  hampers 
trade,  and  does  not  effect  the  object.  With 
the  operation  of  the  higher  duties  during 
the  four  years  that  ended  with  1820,  the 
imports  diminished ;  the  currency  was  con 
tracted  and  restored  to  a  specie  basis  ;  the 
exports  of  the  country,  that  accumulated 
during  the  war,  passed  off;  the  proceeds 
had  cancelled  obligations,  bringing  the 
country  into  a  better  condition ;  and  the  fed 
eral  government  had  been  enabled  to  pay  off 
a  considerable  amount  of  its  debt.  The 
countries  of  Europe  had  also  become  settled 
after  the  convulsion  of  war  and  the  effects 
of  peace.  The  Bank  of  England,  that  had 
been  suspended  for  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
resumed  payments,  and  trade  generally  be 
gan  to  resume  its  accustomed  channels. 
Many  currents  of  business  had,  as  a  matter 
of  course,  been  disturbed.  The  large  foreign 
carrying  trade  that  had  been  enjoyed  by 
American  vessels  was  now  resumed  by  the 
nations  of  Europe,  and  new  currents  of  en 


terprise  were  to  grow  up,  under  new  appli 
ances.  The  capital  of  New,  England,  that 
before  the  war  had  been  exclusively  employ 
ed  in  navigation  and  agriculture,  was,  by  the 
events  of  the  war,  diverted  .to  banking  and 
manufactures,  and  was  now  growing  in  the 
last  direction,  banking  having  proved  dis 
astrous.  The  tariff  of  1816  had  been  meant 
to  aid  them,  and  in  1818  and  1819  additions 
were  made  to  the  protective  character  of  the 
duties.  Cotton  manufacture  grew,  and  the 
great  staple  culture  of  the  south — cotton — 
was  developed,  while  Europe,  no  longer 
wanting  so  much  food,  the  agriculturists  be 
came  depressed.  The  manufacturing  interest 
was  therefore  the  favorite,  and  in  1824  a  new 
tariff  of  higher  duties  was  demanded  and 
passed,  to  be  succeeded  by  one  of  a  higher 
grade  of  protection  in  1828.  The  effect  of 
these  changes,  with  the  steady  nature  of  the 
demand  for  produce  abroad,  was  to  keep 
the  imports  and  exports  at  moderate  figures 
up  to  1831,  when  a  reduction  of  duties  took 
place.  In  all  that  period,  under  the  action  of 
the  United  States  Bank,  and  the  annual  pay 
ments  of  an  average  of  some  $7,000,000  by 
the  government  on  its  public  debt,  the  curren 
cy  was  very  steady,  and  commerce -regular. 
The  exports  and  imports  for  the  ten  years 
under  those  rising  tariffs,  were  as  follows  : — 


Dom.  exports. 

For.  exports. 

Total  exports. 

Imports. 

Ex.  specie. 

1m.  specie. 

1821, 

43,671.894 

21,302,488 

64,974,382 

62,585,724 

10,478,059 

8,064,890 

1822, 

49,874,185 

22,286,202 

72,160,387 

83,241,511 

10,810,180 

3,369.846 

1823, 

47,155,408 

27.543,622 

74,099,030 

77,579,267 

6,372,987 

6,097,896 

1824, 

50  649,500 

25,337,157 

75,986,657 

80,549,007 

7,014,552 

8,379,835 

1825, 

66,944,745 

32,590,643 

99,535,388 

96,340,075 

8,932,034 

6,150.765 

1S2G, 

53,055,710 

24,539,612 

77,595,322 

84,974,477 

4,704,533 

6,&80,966 

1827, 

58,921,691 

23,403,136 

82,324,827 

79,484,068 

8,014,880 

8,151,130 

1828, 

50,669,669 

21,595,017 

72,264,686 

88,509,824 

8,243,476 

7,489,741 

1829, 

55,700,193 

16,658,478 

72,358,671 

74,492,527 

4,924,020 

7,403,612 

1830, 

59,462,029 

14,387,479 

73,849,508 

70,876,920 

2,178,773 

8,155,964 

$536,105,024      $229,643,834      $765,748,858     $798,633,400     $71,673,494    $69,144,645 


If  we  compare  this  period  of  ten  years 
with  the  ten  years  of  comparative  quiet  im 
mediately  preceding  the  war,  we  shall  find 
the  following  aggregate  results  : — 


Imnorts   Ke-exP<>rt8  of  Domestic 
imports.   f))l.ej,?n  g()o(ls    exl)0rts 


Total 
exports. 

179S— 1S09.  $9.">fi,470,000  $422.500 000  $39:(.700.000  $816.200,000 
1621— 1S31,    798,683,427    5W9,643,S81    ft8t>.104,9KS    7Cu,74S,752 

$50,451,248 


Decrease  $157,336,573  $192,856,166 

liicreusc $142,404,918 

The  decrease  was  altogether  in  the  foreign 
goods,  or  Colonial  produce  brought  into  the 
country  during  the  European  war  for  re- 
shipment  to  Europe ;  while  the  increase  in 
domestic  exports  was  mostly  cotton,  that 


article  forming  three-fifths  of  the  whole 
value  exported.  The  exports  of  flour  and 
provisions  were  limited,  but  manufactures 
began  to  form  an  item  in  the  exports.  It  is 
to  be  borne  in  mind  that  Great  Britain  had 
made  great  efforts  after  the  war,  when  her 
navigation  laws  were  modified,' to  concen 
trate  the  trade  of  the  world  in  her  ware 
houses.  Inducements  were  held  out  by. 
facilities  of  entry  and  advances  on  merchan 
dise  to  attract  thither  the  produce  of  all 
nations,  because,  under  such  circumstances, 
not  only  did  the  British  manufacturers  have 
within  their  reach  the  raw  materials  of  all 
manufactures,  but  trading  vessels  had,  in. 


146 


COMMERCE    OF    THE     UXITED     STATES. 


those  ample  warehouses,  every  variety  of 
goods  to  make  up  an  assorted  cargo  for  any 
voyage  in  the  -world,  and  make  of  them  the 
medium  of  selling  British  goods.  Thus,  all 
the  new  countries  of  America,  Africa,  and 
Asia  offered  markets  which  would  absorb 
small  quantities  of  a  great  variety  of  articles, 
but  a  cargo  of  any  one  description  would  glut 
them.  To  make  a  profitable  voyage,  there 
fore,  the  cargo  should  be  composed  of  such 
a  variety  of  wares  as  Avould  all  sell  to  ad 
vantage.  If  Virginia  was  to  send  a  whole 
cargo  of  tobacco  to  Africa,  a  portion  of  it 
would  sell,  and  the  remainder  be  a  dead 
stock,  and  the  voyage  a  losing  one.  The 
same  thing  would  happen  to  a  cargo  of  rum, 
or  calicoes,  or  gunpowder,  or  hardware,  or 
the  infinite  variety  of  articles  that  make  up 
the  AVants  of  a  small  community.  If  a  ves 
sel's  cargo  should  be  composed,  in  proper 
proportions,  of  all  these  articles,  the  whole 
would  sell  well,  and  the  voyage  pay ;  but 
for  a  vessel  to  go  round  to  places  where  each 
of  theSe  articles  is  to  be  had,  and  so  collect 
a  cargo,  is  expensive,  and  would  still  result 
in  loss.  The  English  warehouse  system 
sought 'to  supply  a  want  here  by  attracting 
into  them  all  possible  descriptions  of  tropical 
and  other  produce.  A  ship  might  then 
make  up  her  cargo  for  any  part  of  the  world 
at  the  smallest  average  expense,  and  every 
cargo  was  sure  to  be  completed  with  British 
manufactures.  Under  such  circumstances, 
they  could  compete  with  any  other  nation. 
The  advantage  was  so  manifest,  that  American 
ships  would  go  out  in  ballast  to  England,  to 
fit  them  out  for  Asiatic  markets.  It  resulted 
from  this  that  England  continued  to  be  the 
recipient  of  most  American  produce,  not 
only  for  her  own  use,  but  for  re-export  else 
where.  With  her  large  capital  she  advanced 
on  the  produce,  and  so  controlled  it,  becom 
ing  the  banker  for  the  Americans.  The 
nations  of  the  continent,  slowly  recovering 
from  the  effects  of  the  long  wars,  began  to 
manufacture  such  articles  as  found  sale  in  the 
United  States,  while  they  did  not  purchase 
largely  in  return.  China  furnished  teas  and 
silks,  and  got  its  pay  by  bills  drawn  against 
American  credits  in  London.  The  new  bank 
of  the  United  States  operated  the  credit,  giv 
ing  the  China  merchant  a  six  months'  biff  on 
London,  which  h'e  took  in  preference  to  sil 
ver,  which  he  before  remitted.  These  bills 
were  paid  out  for  the  tea,  and  by  the  Hong 
merchant,  who  received  them,  were  paid 
to  the  British  East  India  merchant  for  opium 


or  raw  cotton.  By  the  latter  it  was  remit 
ted  to  London,  where  it  was  met  by  the  funds 
already  provided  through  the  United  States 
Bank,  by  sales  of  American  produce.  This 
centralization  of  trade  in  England  became, 
however,  inconvenient.  The  American  ships 
that  now  began  to  carry  cotton,  tobacco, 
rice,  and  some  breadstuffs  to  Europe,  had 
thence  no  adequate  return  freights,  because 
those  countries  did  not  as  yet  offer 'a  good 
supply  of  merchandise.  Soon,  however, 
there  sprang  up  an  increasing  migration  to 
the  United  States  from  Germany  across 
France  via  Havre,  and  these  passengers  be 
came  a  desirable  return  freight,  causing  a 
change  in  the  model  of  the  ships  engaged  in 
the  trade.  By  this  means  the  freight  was 
reduced,  or  rather  the  ship  could  carry  cot 
ton  out  cheaper,  since  she  was  no  longer 
compelled  to  return  empty.  The  result  was, 
therefore,  cheapened  transportation,  in  the 
same  manner  that  the  modification  of  the 
navigation  laws,  enabling  ships  to  carry  car 
goes  both  ways,  had  cheapened  freight.  The 
increasing  exports,  and  the  weight  of  the 
tariff  of  1828  upon  imports,  had  so  operated 
upon  exchanges  as  to  cause  an  excess  of 
specie  to  be  imported  to  the  extent  of  some 
$15,000,000  in  the  last  few  years.  This  in 
flux  accumulated  in  banks,  and  disposed 
them  to  inflate  the  currency,  thereby  induc 
ing  imports  at  a  moment  when  reductions  in 
duties  were  made  by  the  tariff'  of  1831 ;  and 
this  inflation  was  aided  by  the  conflict  which 
then  began  between  the  United  States  Bank 
and  the  government  in  relation  to  the  re- 
charter  of  the  institution.  These  circum 
stances  laid  the  foundation  for  the  great 
speculation  which  followed.  The  high  tariff 
of  1828  had  produced  much  agitation,  that 
promised  serious  difficulties.  The  northern, 
or  New  England  states,  whose  interests  were 
originally  commercial,  opposed  the  war,  be 
cause  it  was  destructive  of  those  interests. 
Their  capital  was  turned  by  it  into  manu 
factures,  and  they  demanded  protection  for 
that  interest.  This  was  acceded  to,  because 
all  parties  had  Avitncssed  the  evils  of  a  de 
pendence  upon  foreign  nations  for  manufac 
tures,  and  also  because  the  federal  govern 
ment  needed  strengthening  by  the  support 
which  high  duties  would  give  it.  In  1830 
the  manufactures  had  enjoyed  fifteen  years 
of  protection,  and  should  -be  firmly  rooted. 
The  federal  government,  from  being  too 
weak,  had  become  too  strong.  The  public, 
who  consumed  goods  foreign  and  domestic, 


COURSE    OF    TRADE SPECULATION REVULSIONS 


147 


were  paying  too  high  a  tribute  for  the  sup 
port  of  the  manufacturers,  and  the  states 
felt  their  rights  encroached  upon  by  the 
growing  power  of  centralization.  A  change 
of  policy  in  respect  of  the  tariff  was  insisted 
upon,  and  a  reduction  took  place  in  1831, 
many  goods  being  made  free.  In  1832  Mr. 
Clay's  compromise  was  passed,  by  which 
biennial  reductions  were  to  take  place, 
until,  in  1842,  all  the  duties  should  be  re 
duced  to  a  general  level  of  20  per  cent,  ad 
valorem.  These  reductions  in  duties,  at  a 
time  of  bank  inflation  and  speculation,  emi 
nently  promoted  those  imports  which,  under 
such  circumstances,  were  carried  to  excess. 

The  manufactures  of  the  country  had 
largely  increased  during  the  ten  years  up  to 
1830.  The  capital  employed  in  cotton 
manufacture  at  that  date  was  840,614,984. 
There  were  795  mills,  working  1,246,503 
spindles  and  33,506  looms.  They  produced 
230,461,000  yards  of  cloth,  that  weighed 
59,604,926  Ibs.,  and  was  worth  $26,000,000. 
These  mills  employed  117,626  persons, 
whose  wages  were  810,294,944  per  annum. 
This  was  a  large  interest  grown  up  in  cotton. 
The  progress  of  manufactures  generally  was 
given  by  the  census,  as  follows  : — 

18S& 

Cotton 4,834,157 

Wool 4,113,068 

Pig  iron  and  castings ...  2, 2  3  0, 2  7  6 

Wrought  iron 4,640,660 

Brewers  and  distillers  . .  4,876.486 

Salt 1,852,258 

Other  articles 29,919,621 


1880. 

40,614,984 
14,528,166 

4.757,403 
16,737,251 

3,434,808 

935.173 

46,077,092 


Total $52,466,535     $127,084,877 

In  the  considerable  increase  of  interests, 
here  apparent,  many  of  the  factories  suffered 
by  home  competition,  when  too  much  capi 
tal  had  been  induced,  by  hope  of  protection, 
to  go  into  the  business.  The  operations  of 
these  manufactures  no  doubt  produced  a 
local  demand  for  materials  and  food ;  but 
this  did  not  suffice,  however,  in  the  absence 
of  a  foreign  demand,  to  support  prices  of 


farm  produce,  in  face  of  the  large  develop 
ment  given  to  agriculture  by  the  increasing 
immigration  and  settlement  of  the  western 
lands. 

The  season  of  speculation  which  now 
seized  the  public  mind  was  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  in  the  history  of  commerce. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  it  had  its  origin  in 
the  great  success  which  had  hitherto  been 
manifest  in  the  progress  of  the  country. 
Those  who  had  seen  but  thirty  years  of 
active  life  had  witnessed  the  most  extraordi 
nary  growth  of  numbers  and  wealth  in  the 
whole  country,  and  in  cities  particularly. 
The  highest  prizes  had  attended  those  who 
had  held  land  at  the  points  favorable  to 
trade,  which  trade  was  the  foundation  of. 
cities.  There  seemed  hardly  any  limit  to 
the  rise  that  might  take  place  in  the  value 
of  property,  and  so  liberal  were  bank  accom 
modations,  there  was  very  little  difficulty  in 
procuring  the  means  to  hold  land.  In  almost 
all  cities,  the  early  settlers  had  become  pos 
sessed  of  land  cheap.  The  rapid  growth  of 
trade,  bringing  in  numbers  to  occupy  those 
lands  for  stores  and  dwellings,  caused  a 
competition  that  raised  rents  and  values 
rapidly'  in  price.  The  effort  was  then  to 
become  possessed  of  land  for  speculation, 
and  this  effort  was  attended  with  the  wildest 
excitement ;  a  few  hours  sufficed  to  place  a 
moderate  fortune  in  the  hands  of  the  buyer, 
and  prices  rose  to  a  fabulous  extent  in  a 
short  time.  From  the  cities,  the  excitement 
spread  all  over  the  Union,  and  productive 
employments  were  neglected  to  trade  in 
lands ;  at  the  same  time,  the  fictitious  for 
tunes  made  by  these  means  stimulated 
expense,  and  the  wealth  of  the  country  was 
diminished  by  a  double  process — by  lessened 
production,  and  increased  consumption — 
"  the  candle  was  burned  at  both  ends,"  and 
there  could  be  little  surprise  that  it  was 
speedily  consumed.  The  course  of  the 
trade  for  the  ten  years  up  to  1840  was  aa 
follows : — 


T>om.  exports.  For.  exports.  Total  exports.  Imports.  Ex.  specie.  Im.  specie. 

1831,  $01,277,057  $20,033,526  $81,310.583  $103,191,124  $9,014,971  $7,305.945 

1832,  63,137,470  24,039,473  87,176,943  101,029.266  5,656,340  5,907,304 

1833,  70,317,693  19,822,735  90,140,433  108,118,311  2,611,701  7,070,368 

1834,  81,034,162  23,312,811  104,346,973  126,521,332  2,076,758  17.911,632 

1835,  101,189,082  20,504,495  121,693,577*  149.895,742  6,477,775  13,131,447 

1836,  106,916,680  21,746,360  128,663,040-  '189,980,035  4,324,336  13,400881 

1837,  95,564,414  21,854,962  117,419,376  140,989,217  5,976,249  10,516^414 

1838,  96,033,821  12,452,795  10.8,486,616  113,717,404  3,508,046  17/747,116 

1839,  103,533,891  '   17,494,525  121,028.416  162,092,132  8,776,743  5,59s'l76 

1840,  113,895,634  18,190,312  132,085,946  107,141,519  8,417,014  '   8,882,813 

$892,899,909  $199,451,994   $1,092,351,903  $1,302,676,082  $56,839,933  $107,469,096 


148 


COMMERCE    OF    THE    UNITED     STATES. 


.  This  period  of  commerce  shows  remark 
able  results,  since  it  illustrates  the  nature  of 
the  pure  speculation  that  possessed  the  coun 
try.  In  the  period  up  to  1830,  the  imports 
had  exceeded  the  exports  $32,884,675,  or  5 
per  cent,  in  the  whole  ten  years,  an  amount 
which  was  not  more  than  healthy.  In  the 
succeeding  ten  years,  the  excess  of  imports 
over  the  exports  was  $210,334,181,  or  20 
per  cent.,  and  this  took  place  although  the 
exports  were  valued  at  inflated  prices,  which 
were  not  realized  abroad.  The  course  of 
business  at  that  period  required  shipments 
of  American  produce,  mostly  cotton,  to 
firms  abroad,  who  made  advances  on  the 
consignment  at  a  certain  ratio,  less  than  the 
face  of  the  invoices.  The  produce  was 
then  afterward  sold  for  the  account  of  the 
owner,  and  not  unfrequently  did  not  bring 
the  amount  of  advances.  Thus,  if  cotton 
was  shipped  at  16  cts.  per  lb.,  and  12  cts. 
advanced,  the  amount  realized  might  be  only 
11  cts.  Hence,  the  real  exports  of  the 
country  were  not  always  measured  by  the 


export  value.  On  the  other  hand,  the  goods 
imported  were  mostly  ordered  by  importers 
here,  and  purchased  on  credits  in  the  manu 
facturing  districts.  These  credits  were  oper 
ated  through  large  London  houses  connected 
with  the  American  trade,  and  whose  ability 
to  extend  credits  depended  upon  the  indul 
gence  of  the  Bank  of  England,  and  that 
institution  itself  was  subject  to  pressure 
whenever  the  harvests  should  fail.  The 
system  of  credits  Avas  open,  however,  up  to 
1836,  in  England,  under  apparently  favorable 
circumstances.  The  United  States  and  rival 
banks  here  favored  the  extension  of  credits 
in  every  possible  way ;  and  the  goods  bought 
on  credit  in  Europe  were  sold  on  credit 
here,  and  consumed  by  those  who  held 
fortunes  based  upon  the  apparent  rise  in 
lands  bought  on  speculation,  for  promises. 
The  numbers  so  engaged  diminished  pro 
duction,  while  luxuries  were  imported  more 
rapidly  than  ever.  The  returns  of  certain 
articles  of  domestic  exports  and  imports,  in 
dicate  the  extent  of  this  process  as  follows : — 


1831, 

1832, 
1833, 
1834, 
1835, 
1836, 
1837, 
1838, 
1839, 
1840, 


Silks. 
$5,932,243 

9,248,907 

9,498,366 
10,998,064 
16,677,547 
22,980,212 
14,352,823 

9,812,338 
21,752,369 

9,835,757 


Imports. 


Wines. 
$1,673,058 
2,397,479 
2,601,455 
2,944,388 
3,750,608 
4,332,034 
4,105,741 
2,318,282 


Imports. 

Spirits. 

Sugar. 

$1,037,737 

$4,910,877 

1.365,018 

2,933,688 

1,537.226 

4,755.856 

1,319,245 

5,538,097 

1,632,681 

6,806,425 

1,917,381 

12,514,718 

1,470,8'02 

7,203,206 

1,476,918 

7,586,825 

9,929,502 

5,580,950 

Flour. 
$10,461,728 
4,974,121 
5,642,602 
4,560,379 
4,394,777 
3,572,599 
2,987,269 
3,603,299 


Exports. 


Provisions. 
$17,538,227 
12,424,703 
14,209,128 
11,524,024 
12,009,399 
10,614.130 
9,588,359 
9,636.650 
14,147,779 
19,067,535 


Thus,  while  the  import  of  silk  rose  from 
less  than  $6,000,000  to  nearly  $23,000,000, 
and  the  four  articles,  including  wine,  spirits, 
and  sugar,  from  $13,550,000  in  1831,  to 
$41,850,000  in  1836,  the  export  of  provis 
ions,  notwithstanding  the  high  prices,  fell 
from  $17,538,227  to  $10,614,130.  So  great 
had  been  the  decline  in  production,  that  in 
the  last-named  year,  1836,  wheat  was  actually 
imported  at  $2  per  bushel,  from  Russia,  on 
credit,  to  feed  land  speculators  in  the  west. 
The  mania  for  land  speculation  was  fed  by 
bank  bubbles,  and  large  sums  were  drawn 
from  the  east  as  well  as  Europe,  for  the 
creation  of  banks  west  and  south-west. 
The  transmission  of  these  sums  was  ttte 
means  of  credits  by  which  goods  were  con 
sumed.  There  were  created  in  the  period 
from  1830  to  1840,  577  banks,  having  an 
aggregate  capital  of  $218,000,000.  These 
banks  were  mostly  started  west  and  south 
west,  with  eastern  capital  paid  in  subscription 


to  the  bank  stock,  and  with  state  bonds  issued 
in  aid  of  the  banks.  Thus  a  stream  of  credit 
issued  from  London,  which,  aided  by  cir 
cumstances,  poured  over  the  Union,  checking 
industry,  exhausting  capital,  and  raising 
prices.  The  harvests  of  England  had  been 
good  for  some  years,  and  the  importation  of 
corn  had  ceased.  As  a  consequence,  ex 
changes  were  in  favor  of  England,  and  the 
bank  disposed  to  be  liberal.  It  Avas  so  to 
the  American  houses  in  London.  These 
houses  were  thus  enabled  to  grant  credits  to 
United  States  importers  of  goods  who  made 
their  purchases  in  Lancashire.  The  goods 
arriving  in  the  United  States,  were  sold  to 
jobbers  and  through  the  auction  houses  at 
long  credits,  and  these  were  payable  at  the 
local  banks  started  all  over  the  country.  The 
quantity  of  goods  thus  sold  Avas  increased  by 
the  large  fire  in  NCAV  York  in  December, 
1835,  by  Avhich  it  Avas  estimated  $18,000,000 
Avorth  of  property  was  consumed.  These 


COURSE  OF  TRADE SPECULATION REVULSION. 


151 


goods  were  replaced  on  credit,  and  the  city 
rapidly  rebuilt  by  the  same  means,  adding 
much  to  the  accumulating  liabilities,  At 
the  same  time,  as  we  have  seen,  8200,000,000 
were  sent  from  the  east  to  the  west  to  start 
banks.  These  banks  were  also  authorized  to 
issue  paper  to  circulate  as  money ;  and  capi 
tal  and  circulation  were  loaned  to  those  who 
purchased  and  consumed  goods.  Thus,  while 
the  city  merchants  were  selling  their  goods 
to  the  dealers  of  the  interior,  on  credit,  the 
capitalists  were  sending  money  in  the  same 
direction,  with  which  to  start  banks ;  these 
were  to  lend  the  dealers  the  means  of  taking 
up  their  notes.  As  long  as  this  lasted, 
business  was  brisk ;  but  it  soon  carne  to  an 
end.  The  federal  government  had  also  been 
a  party  to  the  excitement,  by  selling  its  lands 
on  credits  to  speculators,  and  the  amount  of 
these  sales  became  enormous,  when  suddenly 
the  government  issued  its  famous  "  specie 
circular,"  by.  which  the  lands  were  to  be 
paid  cash  in  specie.  This  was  the  first  blow 
to  the  credits.  The  government,  determined 
to  curtail  all  credits,  had  made  peremptory 
demand  upon  France  to  pay  the  indemnity 
long  since  due.  This  payment  took  place, 
and  was  received  at  this  juncture  very  oppor 
tunely  in  gold.  The  capital  of  England, 
which  had  been  loaned  so  freely  all  over  the 
world,  began  to  run  short.  The  harvests, 
also,  which  for  so  many  years  had  sufficed 
for  the  national  wants,  suddenly  failed,  in 
1836,  and  it  became  necessary  to  import 
corn  for  cash.  This  circumstance  caused 
exchanges  to  run  higher  against  England, 
and  the  bank  began  to  contract.  Its  first 
notice  was  in  August,  1836,  to  the  American 
houses  to  curtail  their  credits.  This  was 
the  signal  for  payment  through  the  whole 
line  of  credits  from  the  Bank  of  England  to 
the  western  consumer  of  goods.  The  pres 
sure  became  intense,  and  in  May,  1837,  every 
bank  in  the  Union  had  suspended  theii  pay 
ments.  The  three  large  American  houses  in 
London,  known  as  the  "  three  Ws,"  Wildes, 
Wiggins,  and  Wilson,  failed  for  many  mil 
lions,  and  their  assets  consisted  of  the  credits 
they  had  granted  American  importers.  The 
latter  stopped  in  great  numbers,  with  assets 
due  from  dealers  all  over  the  country ;  and 
the  latter  stopped  with  large  assets  due  from 
speculators  who  held  land  at  paper  prices, 
and  who  insisted  that  a  return  of  paper 
inflation  would  enable  them  to  pay.  The 
banks  of  the  interior  had  large  sums  due 
them  from  speculators  who  held  land,  as 


well  as  from  shopkeepers  who  had  trusted 
consumers.  The  shopkeepers  had  bought 
of  the  merchants  in  eastern  markets,  and 
had  given  notes  payable  at  their  local  banks. 
Those  notes  were  generally  sent  for  collection 
through  the  city  bank  to  its  country  corres 
ponding  bank,  aird  on  their  maturity  were 
met  by  a  discount  of  the  maker's  note  by  the 
local  bank.  This  mode  of  payment  only 
transferred  the  debt  from  the  merchants  to 
the  bank,  and  was  possible  only  as  long  as 
the  eastern  bank  did  not  claim  the  balance 
due  it.  WThen  that  was  done,-  failure  took 
place.  A  great  struggle  was. made  to  restore 
that  inflation,  particularly  by  the  United 
States  Bank,  which,  with  its  southern  and 
western  dependents,  felt  that  unless  the 
debts  contracted  all  over  the  country  in  an 
inflated  currency,  could  be  paid  in  a  similar 
currency,  they  could  not  be  paid  at  all. 
Public  opinion  was,  however,  bent  on  re 
sumption,  and  January,  1839,  it  took  place. 
The  United  States  Bank  sought  to  create 
foreign  credits  by  obtaining  state  stocks  on 
credit,  and,  by  selling  them  in  Europe,  aid 
the  exchanges.  It  also  entered  the  cotton 
market  as  a  monopolizing  buyer.  The  insti 
tution,  on  the  expiration  of  its  United  States 
charter,  had  obtained  a  new  one  from  Penn 
sylvania.  When  it  went  into  operation  as  a 
state  institution,  its  old  bills  hud  been  called 
in,  and  new  ones  issued.  Wlien  it  struggled 
to  maintain  its  resumption  in  1839,  it  had 
the  boldness  to  exhume  its  old  bills  and  pay 
them  out  for  cotton  at  almost  any  price, 
which  cotton  was  sent  to  its  agents  in  Liver 
pool  for  sale,  and  against  which  to  draw 
sterling  bills,  which  it  sold  in  New  York  for 
cash ;  thus  forming  a  kiting  operation.  At 
the  same  time,  it  had  obtained  some  $15,- 
000,000  of  state  stocks  from  Mississippi, 
Michigan,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  other  states, 
on  similar  terms,  and  these  were  sent  to 
London  for  sale;  but  not  selling  readily, 
they  were  pledged  to  cover  bills  drawn  by 
the  bank.  All  these  plans  were  insufficient 
to  sustain  the  institution  under  its  load  of 
debt,  and  it  became  evident  that  nothing 
short  of  a  second  general  suspension  of  the 
banks  could  save  it.  This  it  undertook  to 
bring  about  by  selling  in  the  New  York 
market  its  bills  on  France  and  England  to 
any  amount,  and  drawing  the  proceeds  from 
the  New  York  banks  in  specie.  This  course 
was  pursued  through  August,  1839;  when, 
early  in  October,  the  news  came  that  the 
bills  so  sold  in  New  York  on  France  had 


L52 


COMMERCE     OF    THE     UNITED     STATES. 


been  protested.  The  bank  tben  finally  failed, 
and  went  into  liquidation,  when  it  was  found 
that  more  than  its  whole  capital  had  been 
lost.  This  event  carried  with  it  most  of  the 
banks  in  the  country  that  had  followed  a 
similar  policy.  Liquidation  then  became 
general,  and  went  on  up  to  1843,  when  the 
lowest  point  of  credits  was  reached.  The 
short  harvests  of  England,  that  were  the 
immediate  cause  of  the  explosion  in  ISot, 
were  also  the  cause  of  a  gradual  restoration 
of  sound  prosperity  in  the  United  States,  by 
reviving  a  demand  for  the  products  of  land. 
This  was  the  more  readily  done  .that  the 
fictitious  paper  prices  that  prevented  Ameri 
can  farmers  from  competing  with  those  of 
Europe,  had  .  disappeared  with  the  bank 
stoppages.  The  farmers  had  nominally  sold 
their  produce  well,  but  they  had  taken  pay  in 
bank  paper,  which  the  revulsion  left  valueless 
in  their  hands.  The  process  of  liquidation 
swept  several  hundred  banks  out  of  existence, 
but  there  remained  an  immense  load  of  debt 
due  by  individuals,  to  relieve  whom  Con 
gress,  iu.  1841,  passed  a  bankrupt  law.  The 
operation  of  the  law  relieved  39,000  persons, 
from  debts  to  the  amount  of  $441,000,000. 
The  disasters  involved  the  failure  of  several 
states,  with  an  aggregate  debt  of  $100,000,- 
000.  The  banks  that  were  liquidated  had 
an  aggregate  capital  of  $200,000,000.  Thus, 
the  recorded  losses  were  as  follows : — 

States $100,000.000 

Bankrupt  debts 441,000.000 

Bank  capital 200,000,000 


$741,000,000 

The  debts  that  were  settled  without  the 
intervention  of  the  law,  were  supposed  to 
be  equal  to  those  legally  discharged,  but  the 
amount  recorded  is  an  enormous  sum.  In 
consequence  of  those  disasters,  many  states, 
in  revising  their  constitutions,  forbade  the 
authorization  of  more  bank  charters. 

While  speculation  had  thus  run  riot, 
during  the  ten  years  up  to  1 840,  consuming 
the  available  capital  of  the  country,  the 
population  had  not  failed  to  increase  and 
extend  itself  over  the  face  of  the  country. 
Many  of  the  states  had  projected  large  works, 
for  the  construction  of  which  they  had  con 
tracted  debts;  and  the  expenditure  upon 
the  works  had  attracted  laborers,  who  ulti 
mately  became  settlers.  The  sales  of  public 
lands  had  been  very  large,  but  these  had  to 
a  great  extent  been  taken  up  by  speculators, 
and  this  operation  in  some  degree  prevented 


actual  settlement.  All  these  lands  were  now 
pressing  upon  the  market,  and  the  distress 
in  cities  attending  the  subsidence  of  building 
and  other  employments,  drove  crowds  upon 
farming  lands,  laying  the  foundation  of: 
future  prosperity.  l)uring  the  speculative 
years,  the  commercial  cities  increased  most 
rapidly ;  and  with  the  revulsion,  the  agricul 
tural  states  took  the  lead.  The  cotton  cul 
ture  had  received  a  great  impulse  during 
the  same  period,  by  means  of  the  banking 
credits.  The  old  lands  of  the  Atlantic  states 
were  capable  of  producing  cotton  at  6  cts. 
per  lb.,  but  it  was  found  that  the  new  lands 
of  the  Mississippi  valley  would  produce  it  at 
a  much  less  rate.  The  migration  of  planters 
with  their  hands  then  took  place  to  the 
new  lands  of  the  west,  and  the  means  of  so 
doing  Avere  supplied  to  a  great  extent  by  the 
state  bonds -issued  in  aid  of  banking  capital. 
These  institutions  made  loans  to  the  planters 
on  security  of  the  crops.  Under  this  spur, 
large  tracts  of  land  were  got  under  cultiva 
tion,  disastrously  to  the  banks,  but  favorable 
to  a  large  supply  of  cotton,  of  which  the 
export  became  large. 

The  ten  years,  1841  to  1850,  thus  opened 
under  great  depression.  The  receipts  of  the 
federal  government,  in  consequence  of  the 
revulsion  of  trade  in  183Y,  had  fallen  far 
behind  its  expenses,  while  the  duties  under 
the  biennial  reductions  of  the  compromise 
tariff  were  approaching  their  lowest  grade  of 
20  per  cent.,  and  it  became  necessary  to 
restore  the  duties,  in  order  to  procure  rev 
enue.  The  utter  failure  of  the  United  States 
Bank,  of  which  a  large  portion  of  the  stock 
was  sent  abroad  ;  the  failure  of  so  many 
states,  some  of  which  repudiated  their  debts 
altogether ;  and  the  banknipt  law,  which 
had  expunged  so  large  a  volume  of  private 
debts,  had  produced  so  much  discredit 
abroad,  that  a  C  per  cent,  stock  of  the  fed 
eral  government  was  utterly  unsaleable,  not 
withstanding  that  in  1835  the  last  dollar  of 
the  old  national  debt  had  been,  paid  in  full. 
Congress,  therefore,  in  1841,  passed  an  act 
levying  20  per  cent,  duties  on  a  long  list  of 
articles  before  free,  and  in  1842  raised  the 
general  level  of  duties.  At  this  juncture 
there  had  been  no  plan  of  settling  the  state 
debts,  and  efforts  to  restore  the  national 
bank  failed.  Amid  these  adverse  circum 
stances,  however,  industry  revived  from  the 
ruins  of  speculation,  and  the  foreign  com 
merce  was  placed  upon  a  more  liberal  foot 
ing.  The  English  government,  taught  by 


BANKRUPT  LAW ENGLISH  FREE  TRADE. 


153 


the  experience  of  the  past,  had  decided  to 
relieve  commerce  from  many  restrictions, 
and  in  1842  modified  her  corn  laws,  and  ad 
mitted  provisions,  which  had  previously  been 
prohibited,  to  entry,  at  comparatively  low 
duties.  The  first  opening  of  the  trade  to 
provisions — cheese,  butter,  etc. — was  not  at 
once  successful;  many  attempts  were  re 
quired,  and  much  perseverance,  before  the 
American  articles  became  properly  prepared 
for  and  appreciated  in  the  English  markets'. 
Success,  however,  ultimately  attended  the 
trade,  and  a  largk  opening  to  western  prod 


uce  was  made,  that  has  proved  of  a  per 
manent  nature.  This  circumstance  gave  an 
impulse  to  commerce,  which  was  greatly  ac 
celerated  by  the  failure  of  the  potato  crops 
in  1845  and  1846.  That  event  was  of  so 
grave  a  nature  as  to  lead  to  the -abrogation 
of  the  corn  laws  altogether,  and  also  to  a 
suspension  of  the  navigation  laws  in  England, 
France,  Holland,  and  Belgium,  for  the  reason 
that  the  shipping  was  inadequate  to  the 
transportation  of  food.  The  course  of  com-' 
merce  during  the  ten  years,  1841  to  1850, 
was  as  follows  : — 


Of  those  amounts. 

Exports. 
Domestic.       Foreign. 

Total. 

Imports. 

Specie. 
Exports.  '     Imports. 

1841, 

$106,382,723 

$15,469-,OS1 

$121,851,804 

$127,946,177 

$10,034,332 

$4,988,633 

1842, 

92,969,996 

11,721,538 

104,691,534 

100,162.087 

4,813,539 

4,087,016 

1843, 

77,793,783 

G,552,697 

84,346,480 

64,753,799 

1,520,791 

22,390,559 

1844, 

99,715,179 

11,484,867 

111,200,046 

108,435,035 

5,454,214 

5,830,429 

1845, 

99,299,776 

15,346,830 

114,646,606 

117,254,564 

8,608,495 

4,070,242 

1846, 

102,141,893 

11,346,623 

113,488,516 

121,691,797 

3,905,268 

3,777,732 

1847, 

150,637,464 

8,011,158 

158,648.622 

146,545,638 

1,907,024 

24,121,289 

1848, 

132,9.04,121 

21,132,315 

154,036,435 

154,998,928 

15,841,616 

6,360,224 

1849, 

132,666,955 

15,088,865 

147,755,820 

147,857,439 

5,404,648 

6,651.240 

1850, 

136,946,912 

14,951,806 

151,898,718 

178,138,318 

7,522,994 

4,628,792 

$1,131,458,802     $131,105,780     $1,262,564,582     $1,267,783,782     $65,012,921     $86,906,156 


In  these  aggregates  we  have  the  reverse 
of  the  trade  during  the  ten  years  to  1840, 
since  the  imports  scarcely  exceeded  the  ex 
ports,  including  specie ;  and  exclusive  of 
specie,  there  was  an  excess  of  $14,677,030 
exports  over  imports.  The  exports  of  do 
mestic  produce  had  become  very  considerable. 
The  large  breadth  of  land  that  had  been 
brought  under  cotton,  and  the  rapid  settle 
ment  of  farm  lands  after  the  revulsion,  had 
laid  the  foundation  for  an  extended  produc 
tion,  while  the  means  of  transportation  had 
been  so  much  increased,  as  to  equalize  prices 
at  a  lower  level  on  the  seaboard,  and  supply 
a  far  larger  quantity  for  shipment  than  had 
been  possible  before.  Nevertheless,  the  de 
mand  became  so  urgent  in  the  three  years 
ending  with  1847,  as  to  tax  every  means  of 
transportation  to  its  utmost  capacity,  and  to 
carry  freights  to  an  inordinate  height',  notwith 
standing  the  suspension  of  the  navigation 
laws  in  England. 

The  demand  for  food  abroad  had  super 
seded  that  for  all  others  to  a  considerable 
extent.  The  necessity  of  carrying  food 
raised  the  freights  so  high,  that  other  ma 
terials  would  not  pay  to  carry ;  the  more  so, 
that  it  is  a  well-known  effect  of  dear  food, 
to  lessen  the  purchase  of  clothing  and  other 
articles.  Hence,  when  the  market  for  cloths 
was  lowest,  the  freight  on  the  materials  was 


highest.  The  condition  of  Ireland  made  it 
necessary  to  introduce  Indian  corn  as  a  sub 
stitute  for  potatoes.  This  was  by  great 
efforts  accomplished  in^,  degree,  and  thereby 
a  permanent  market  made  for  corn.  That 
article  of  food  is,  however,  very  far  from 
being  popular  with  the  people.  The  effect 
of  the  famine,  joined  to  the  general  influence 
of  the  change  of  English  policy,  was  to  carry 
up  the  domestic  exports  from  $106,000,000 
in  1841  to  $150,000,000  in  1847.  This  in 
crease  was  almost  entirely  due  to  breadstuffs 
and  provisions,  which  reached  a  value  of 
$68,761,921  in  1847,  being  nearly  one-half  the 
whole  domestic  exports  for  that  year.  The 
large  sale  of  western  produce  so  inaugurated 
gave  an  unusual  stimulus  to  the  activity  of 
internal  trade,  and  to  the  value  of  western 
lands  and  credits;  and  the  foundation  Avas 
thus  laid  for  the  movement  which  so  sin 
gularly  culminated  in  1857. 

While  the  famine  demand  of  1846  caused 
so  large  an  export  of  American  produce,  in 
return  for  which  merchandise  was  necessarily 
to  be  received,  the  federal  government  re 
covered  from  the  embarrassments  induced 
by  the  revulsion.  It  was,  ho,wever,  still  em 
barrassed,  but  this  time  with  a  surplus, 
rather  than  a  revenue ;  and  in  1846  the  tariff 
was  again  revised,  so  as  to  reduce  the  gen 
eral  average  of  duties  some  7  per  cent.  The 


154 


COMMERCE     OF    THE     UNITED     STATES. 


principle  of  protection  was  finally  disavowed, 
and  that  of  revenue  only  admitted  as  a  rule 
of  action.  This  reduction  of  duties  naturally 
gave  a  spur  to  importation,  at  a  moment 
•when  the  exports .  were  very  large.  There 
was  at  that  time,  however,  no  speculative 
action  in  this  country,  nor  much  inflation  of 
credit,-  by  which  large  quantities  of  goods 
could  be  suddenly  placed  ;  and  the  sales  of 
produce  were  so  prompt,  as  to  throw  a  large 
cash  balance  in  favor  of  the  country :  hence, 
of  the  imports  of  1847,  $24,121,289  were  in 
specie — the  largest  amount  ever  imported 
from  abroad  in  one  year — a  fact  which  im 
parted  much  activity  to  trade ;  and  in  the 
following  year,  when  the  exports  of  farm 
produce  declined,  815,841,616  of  that  specie 
returned  whence  it  came.  That  re-export 
was,  however,  much  stimulated  by  the  ex 
traordinary  political  convulsions  that  over 
took  Europe  in  February,  1848.  The  pecu 
liar  theories  avowed  by  the  successful  rev 
olutionists  in  relation  to  property,  which 
was  declared  to  be  "  robbery,"  greatly  alarm 
ed  the  public  mind,  and  tended  to  make 
French  property  utterly  unsaleable  for  the 
moment.  The  consequence  was  the  most 
active  shipment  of  money,  silver  particularly, 
with  which  to  purchase  the  cheap  goods  of 
France.  The  panic  soon  passed,  but  de 
pression  continued  under  the  provisional 
government,  which,  in  order  to  encourage 
industry  and  employ  workpeople,  gave  the 
manufacturers  orders  for  goods,  and  allowed 
a  drawback  of  10  per  cent,  on  merchandise 
exported  out  of  France.  This  state  of  affairs 
caused  the  importation  thence  into  the 
United  States  to  be  larger.  Among  the 
goods  so  imported  was  a  quantity  of  Lyons 
silk,  which  had  been  ordered  by  the  govern 
ment  with  the  view  to  employ  the  operatives. 
As  the  government  had  given  no  directions 
as  to  colors,  the  whole  was  made  up,  to  the 
extent  of  10,000,000f.,  in  tricolor.  A  large 
portion  of  this  was  bought  by  a  New  York 
house,  and  gentlemen's  coats  for  a  long  time 
had  tricolor  sleeve  linings.  With  the  in 
stitution  of  the  new  government  in  France, 
confidence  returned,  and  new  branches  of 
trade  were  opened  with  France,  as  well  as 
other  countries  of  the  continent,  which  be 
gan  to  be  rivals  for  the  American  trade. 
The  Germans  and  Belgians  had  so-  far  ad 
vanced  in  the  production  of  certain  manu 
factures,  as  to  dispute  the  French  and  English 
pretensions  to  supply  the  United  States,  and 
credits  began  once  more  to  form  the  medium 


of  extended  sales  of  foreign  merchandise. 
The  competition  was  now,  however,  far  more 
severe  with  the  home  manufactures,  which 
were  so  far  advanced  as  not  only  to  main 
tain  themselves  against  new  competition,  but 
to  drive  out  those  which  had  long  held  the 
field  in  particular  goods.  The  balance  of  the 
ten  years'  business  was,  notwithstanding,  very 
small.  The  period  closed,  however,  with 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  discoveries 
of  modern  times.  We  allude  to  the  gold 
discoveries  in  California.  {The  war,  which 
carried -Americans  to  California,  gave  them 
the  opportunity  to  discover,  and  the  "dust" 
was  soon  detected  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Captain  Sutter's  fort.  The  intelligence  was 
received  with  great  incredulity.  The  learned 
said  the  location  and  character  of  the  gold 
was  contrary  to  all  precedent ;  but  soon  the 
metal  came,  and  was  satisfactorily  assayed. 
Each  successive  arrival  brought  stronger 
confirmation,  and  about  $9,000,000  worth 
was  received  in  1850.  Since  then,  the 
amount  received  has  been  nearly  $50,000,- 
000  worth  per  annum. 

The  decade  ending  with  1860  was  one  of 
the  most  extraordinary  in  the  history  of 
commerce.  It  commenced  with  a  confirma 
tion  of  the  astounding  gold  discoveries  in 
California,  followed  by  as  important  a  dis 
covery  of  the  same  nature  in  Australia. 
These  events  deeply  stirred  the  commercial 
mind  throughout  the  world,  coming,  as  they 
did,  at  the  moment  when  the  political  difficul 
ties  of  Europe  had  settled  down  in  a  manner 
to  win  public  confidence  in  continued  peace 
and  security.  The  discovery  of  such  large 
supplies  of  gold  induced  the  general  belief 
that  the  metal  would  depreciate,  as  compared 
with  commodities  and  silver,  and  that  the 
depreciation  would  manifest  itself  in  a  rise 
in  prices  of  all  industrial  products.  Seri 
ous  apprehensions  Avere  entertained  through 
this  superficial  view  of  the  case,  particularly 
in  Europe,  where  a  large  class  are  rich  on 
fixed  annuities,  or  in  the  receipt  of  a  fixed 
amount  of  money  per  annum.  If  all  property 
was  to  rise  in  value,  leaving  the  amount  of 
rents  the  same  in  money,  it  would  be  equiva 
lent  to  ruining  creditors  for  the  benefit  of 
debtors.  Thus,  if  a  farmer  had  mortgaged 
his  farm  for  say  $5,000,  the  annual  interest 
at  6  per  ct.  would  be  $300 ;  at  an  average 
price  of  $1  per  bushel  for  wheat,  it  would 
require  300  bushels  per  annum  to  pay  the 
interest,  and  ultimately  5,000  bushels  to  pay 
the  principal.  If  the  mortgage  run  five 


REVOLUTION  IN  FRANCE FARMERS GOLD. 


155 


years,  lie  would  bo  required  to  give,  alto 
gether,  1,500  bushels  for  interest,  and  5,000 
bushels  for  principal — together,  6,500  bush 
els.  If,  through  the  influx  of  gold,  prices 
came  permanently  to  be  $2  for  wheat,  it 
would  at  once  reduce  the  quantity  per  annum 
that  he  would  have  to  pay  to  150  bushels, 
and  the  ultimate  amount  for  principal  to 
2,500 :  in  other  words,  he  would  save  half 
his  grain,  at  the  expense  of  his  creditor,  and 
the  money  value  of  his  farm  would  be 
doubled.  This  would  be  of  no  benefit  to 
him,  beyond  the  discharge  of  his  debt,  be 
cause  the  value  of  all  that  he  had  to  purchase 
would  rise  in  the  same  proportion.  All, 
creditors  would  lose  half  that  was  due  them. 
This  was  an  important  consideration  for  the 
debt-covered  countries  of  Europe,  where  so 
large  a  portion  of  the  people  are  creditors 
of  the  governments.  In  Holland,  to  avoid 
this,  they  passed  a  law  doing  away  with 
gold  as  a  legal  tender,  and  making  silver  the 
only  medium  of  payment,  under  the  impres 
sion  that  silver  would  rise  in  the  same 
proportion  as  other  commodities.  In  the 
United  States,  the  same  impressions  were 
entertained,  but  the  event  showed  that  the 
fears  were  groundless.  But  this  view  natu 
rally  stimulated  the  production  of  commodi 
ties  that  were  to  rise  in  value,  and  industry 
became  unusually  active,  since  all  classes 
wished  to  profit  by  the  anticipated  rise. 
Above  all,  commercial  enterprise  and  migra 
tion  tended  strongly  to  the  gold  countries, 
the  direct  source  of  the  anticipated  benefits. 
A  vast  amount  of  capital  was  sent  to  both 
California  and  Australia.  The  United  States 
shipped  to  the  latter  country,  in  1853,  a  large 
amount  of  goods;  and  to  California  the  drain 
continued  on  a  very  extensive  scale,  with 
small  remuneration  to  the  shippers.  The 
production  of  California  gold  has  been 
$000,000,000,  and  it  has '  cost  an  equal 
amount  of  capital.  In  other  words,  there 
has  been  no  profit  on  the  production.  The 
capital  that  it  cost  exists  in  the  gold  itself, 
and  in  the  cities  and  property  of  California. 
From  nearly  all  nations  the  capital  that  now 
constitutes  the  wealth  of  California,  flowed 
thither  in  exchange  for  the  gold.  While  this 
great  enterprise  of  gold  digging  has  been  in 
direct  prosecution,  another  equally  as  exten 
sive  was  undertaken,  viz. :  the  construction 
of  20,000  miles  of  railroads,  at  a  cost  of 
$720,000,000.  The  capital  for  the  enter 
prise  was  drawn  from  Europe,  in  the  shape 
of  money  and  iron,  and  from  the  eastern 


states,  in  subscriptions  to  stocks  and  bonds. 
These  have  not  all  turned  out  well,  but  the 
capital  expended  remains  in  the  shape  of 
railroads  that  are  now  ready  and  efficient 
means  of  developing  future  trade.  The 
speculative  investments  in  lands  and  western 
property  also  ran  to  an  inordinate  extent  in 
the  same  period,  and  nearly  $500,000,000, 
"i  the  best  estimates,  took  this  direction, 
following  the  trail  of  American  migration, 
from  the  eastern  to  the  western  states,  im 
pelled  by  the  large  immigration  from  Europe. 
As  We  have  seen  elsewhere,  2,518,054  per 
sons  arrived  from  abroad  in  the  period  here 
mentioned.  These  persons  brought  with 
them,  at  the  usual  estimate  of  $100  per  head, 
$251,805,400  in  capital,  as  money  and  goods. 
A  large  portion  of  this  was  expended  in 
transportation  expenses  and  in  settling  new 
homes.  We  have,  then,  the  following  esti 
mated  items  of  extraordinary  expenditures 
in  the  ten  years,  1850  to  1860  : — 

Capital  sent  to  California $r>00,non.OOO 

spent  in  20,0(>0  miles  of  railroad T'JO.OOO.OOO 

"       expended  in  land  operations 500,000,000 

"       expended  by  newly-arrived  immigrants 

at  fifty  dollars  each 125,900,000 

Total  extraordinary  expenditures $1,945,900,000 

The  300,000  persons  who  went  to  Cali 
fornia  to  consume  the  capital  sent'  thither, 
returned  $600,000,000  worth  of  gold,  of 
which  a  large  portion  went  to  Europe, whence 
goods  came.  The  railroad  expenditure  re 
sults  in  effective  investments  in  trade.  The 
land  investments  are  not  "active,"  for  tho 
present,  but  are  not  entirely  lost.  The  im 
migrants  are  mostly  at  work,  producing 
capital  in  new  states. 

While  these  large  expenditures  took  place 
in  the  United  States,  Europe  incurred  a 
heavy  loss  in  the  failure  of  her  corn  harvests, 
that  she  was  obliged  to  make  good  from 
the  corn  crops  of  the  United  States.  She 
also  incurred  a  heavy  expense  in  the  Russian 
war,  which  returned  very  little  for  the  invest 
ment,  but  which  required  a  larger  supply  of 
American  produce,  particularly  pork,  whis 
key,  but  of  gold,  above  all.  The  loss  of  her 
vine  crops,  also,  brought  American  whiskey 
in  demand,  as  a  substitute,  and  thereby, 
possibly,  cut  off  permanently  a  supply  of 
genuine  grape  liquors  for  the  United  States. 
Those  events  caused  a  larger  demand  for 
produce,  at  a  time  when  the  expenditures 
for  gold,  rails,  and  land  were  so  active.  It 
is  not  a  matter  of  surprise,  under  all  these 
circumstances,  that  the  gold  diggers,  road 


156 


COMMERCE    OF    THE     UNITED     STATES. 


in  addition  to  war  and  short  crops,  demanded 
more  raw  materials.  The  import  and  export 
table,  therefore,  shows  higher  figures  than 
ever  before,  as  follows : — 


builders,  speculators,  and  emigrants,  so  well 
supplied  with  money,  should  require  a  larger 
quantity  of  goods,  both  manufactured  and 
imported,  while  similar  activity  in  Europe, 


Of  these  amounts. 

Exports. 
Domestic.      Foreign. 

Total. 

Imports. 

Specie. 
Exports.       Imports. 

1851, 

$196,089,718 

$21,698,293 

$218,388,011 

$216,224,932 

$29,472,752 

$5,453,592 

1852, 

192,368,984 

17,289,382 

209,658,366 

212,945,442 

42,674,135 

5,505,044 

1853, 

213,417,697 

17,558,460 

230,976,157 

267,378,647 

27,486,875 

4,201,382 

1854, 

253,390,870 

24,850,194 

278,241,064 

304,562,381 

41,422,423 

6,958,184 

1855, 

246,708,553 

28,448,293 

275,1-56,846 

261,468,520 

56,347,343 

3,659,812 

1856, 

310,586,330 

16,378,578 

326,964,908 

314,639,942 

45,745,485 

4,207.632 

1857, 

338,985,065 

23,975,617 

362,960,682 

360,890,141 

69,136,922 

12,461,799 

1858, 

293,758,279 

30,886,142 

324,644,421 

282.613,150 

52,633,147 

19,274,496 

1859, 

335,894,385 

20,865.077 

356,759,462 

338^768,130 

63,887,411 

7,434,789 

I860, 

385,000,000 

25,000,000 

410,000,000 

444,500,000 

78,500,000 

7,000,000 

$2,766,799,881     $226,950,036     $2,993,749,917     $3,004,591,285     $507,306,493     $76,156,730 


The  imports  rose  steadily  to  over  $300,- 
000,000  in  1854,  under  the  first  Australian 
and  Californian  excitement,  and  took  larger 
dimensions  as  the  railroad  operations  pro 
gressed.  Railroad  iron  figured  largely  in 
the  amount  in  exchange  for  bonds.  The 
imports  of  silks  rose  from  $13,731,000,  in 
1850,  to  $30,636,000.  The  most  remarkable 
rise  in  the  importation  was,  however,  in 
sugar,  which,  from  $11,000,000,  rose  to 
nearly  $55,000,000,  in  1857,  in  consequence 
of  the  failure  of  the  Louisiana  crop,  at  a 
moment  of  very  active  demand.  So  high  a 
figure  to  be  paid  for  sugar  at  a  critical  mo 
ment  went  far  to  disturb  the  exchanges,  and 
aid  the  panic  of  1857.  We  find  that  the 
whole  amount  of  importations  for  the  ten 
years  reached  $3,004,591,285,  exceeding,  by 
$1,736,807,503,  the  importations  of  the" pre 
vious  ten  years.  This  excess  of  expenditure 
corresponds  with  the  estimated  amount  of 
capital  expended  for  extraordinary  purposes, 
since  a  considerable  portion  of  the  expendi 
tures  was  applied  to  domestic  manufactures. 
The  operation  of  the  treaty  with  Canada  pro 
duced  a  somewhat  larger  receipt  of  foreign 
goods.  These  also  swelled  proportionately 
the  aggregate  imports.  The  excitement  man 
ifest  in  the  United  States  in  regard  to  gold 
and  railroads,  was  also  present  in  England 
and  Europe.  The  production  of  manufac 
tured  wares  to  send  to  the  gold  countries, 
and  to  avail  of  the  local  demand  for  goods, 
required  more  raw  material,  at  a  moment 
when  the  short  harvests  and  war  enterprise 
enhanced  general  wants.  The  effect  of  these 
was  equivalent  to  a  large  transfer  of  capital 
to  the  west,  not  only  from  Europe,  but  also 
from  those  eastern  states  that  are  usually 


buyers  of  food.  Thus  the  wheat  crop  of 
the  United  States  in  1850,  by  census,  was 
equal  to  22,000,000  bbls  of  flour.  The  aver 
age  export  price  in  that  year  was  $5,  giving 
to  the  crop  a  value  of  8110,000,000.  In 

1855,  the  average  price  was  '$10,  giving  a 
value  of  $110,000,000  greater.      This  sum 
was  taken  out  of  the  pockets  of  the  food 
buyers,  to  the  profit  of  the  food  sellers,  at 
the  moment  when  the  latter  were  enjoying 
so  large  an  expenditure  for  other  purposes. 
The  export  value  of  agriculture  rose  from 
$24,309,210,   in    1850,  to   $77,686,455,  in 

1 856.  The  great  activity  of  the  years  ending 
with  1857  was,  then,  due  to  heavy  expenditure 
of  capital  at  the  west  simultaneously  with 
profitable  sales  of  its  crops.     The  panic  of 
that  year  caused  not  only  a  total  cessation 
of  the  expenditure,  but  an  earnest  desire  to 
recover  capital  invested  at  the  west.     Kail- 
road    building   stopped,   migration    ceased, 
speculation  was  at  an  end,  and,  at  the  same 
moment,  European  crops  being  good,  prices 
of  produce  fell  in  face  of  very  poor  western 
harvests.     With  this  combination  of  circum 
stances,  the  decade  closed  under  a  sort  of 
paralysis.    There  was  no  exhaustion  of  capi 
tal,  since  it  was   apparently  more  abundant 
and  cheaper  at  the  great  eastern  reservoirs 
than  ever  before ;   but  the  stimulus  to  its 
employment  was  gone,  and  it  accumulated 
in  first  hands.     The  broad  lands  of  the  west 
are  well  settled ;  they  are  well  supplied  with 
means  of  communication,  and  are  ready  to 
throw  out  limitless  supplies  of  capital,  when 
the  wheel  is  once  more  in  motion. 

If  we  bring  together  by  recapitulation 
the  aggregates  of  the  seven  decades  since 
the  formation  of  the  government,  we  shall 


FARMERS GOLD,  ETC. 


157 


Lave  a  very  interesting  synopsis  of  the  national 
progress  in  respect  of  commerce.  •  The  trea 
sury  department  has  also  caused  to  be  pre 
pared,  with  great  care,  the  annual  value  of 


agricultural  products  and  manufacturing  in 
dustry  at  corresponding  periods.  If  we  add 
them  'to  the  table,  it  will  be  so  much  the 
more  complete,  as  follows  : — 


Exports  for  periods  of  ten 
Domestic.                 Foreign. 

years^ 
Total. 

Imports. 

Manufactures. 
Annual  value. 

Agriculture. 
Annual  value. 

1800, 

$293,634,645 

$191,344,293 

$484,968,938 

$591,845,454 

1810, 

383,40-1,077 

372,536,294 

755,937,371 

927.663,500 

$145,385,906 

1820, 

462,701,288 

127,190,714 

589,892.002 

688,120,347 

62,766,385 

1830, 

536,104,918 

229,643,834 

765,748,752 

798,633,427 

111,645,466  • 

1840, 

892,889,909 

199,451,994 

1,092,351,903 

1,302,476,084 

483,278,215 

$621,163,977 

1850, 

1,131,458,801 

129,105.782 

1,260,564,583 

1,267,783,782 

1,055,595,899 

994,093,842 

1860, 

2,766,799,881 

226,950,036 

2,993,749,917 

3,004,591,285 

2,000,000,000 

1,910,000,000 

$6,466,990,519    $1,476,222,947    $7,943,203,466    $8,581,113,879 


This  table,  mostly  official,  gives  the  ex 
traordinary  results  of  a  nation's  .industry  and 
commerce  in  a  period. of  seventy  years.  The 
growth  has  such  an  accumulative  force,  as  to 
be  very  surprising.  In  the  item  of  re-exports 
of  foreign  goods,  the  trade  never  recovered 
the  figures  they  touched  at  the  period  when 
American  vessels  did  the  carrying  trade  for 
fighting  Europe.  Latterly,  however,  under 
the  warehouse  system  of  the  United  States, 
and  the  reciprocity  treaty  with  the  British 
provinces,  some  increase  in  that  respect  has 
taken  place,  the  more  so  that  steam  and  ex 
tended  relations  are  opening  to  the  United 
States  a  larger  share  of  the  South  American 
trade,  tending  ultimately  to  give  the  United 
States  the  preponderating  influence.  The 
exports  of  domestic  goods  grow  rapidly 
under  the  more  extended  demand  for  cotton 
throughout  the  world,  and  of  which  the 
United  States  is  the  only  source  of  supply. 
All  other  cotton  countries,  India  particularly, 
require  more  cotton  in  the  shape  of  goods 
than  they  supply  in  the  raw  state.  The  de 
mand  for  cotton  clothing  increases  in  the 
double  ratio  of  greater  numbers  and  greater 
wealth  throughout  the  world.  Cotton  is, 
however,  not  the  only  article  which  increases 
in  export  value.  The  tables  show  us  that 
gold  has  figured  in  ten  years  for  $507,000,- 
000  as  an  article  of  export,  and  will  probably 
never  be  less.  The  agricultural  resources  of 
this  country  have  just  begun  to  be  developed. 
Up  to  1842  there  was,  under  the  restrictive 
systems  of  Europe,  comparatively  no  market 
for  American  farm  produce.  In  that  year 
the  statesmen  of  England  recognized  the  fact 
that  the  demands  of  English  workpeople  for 
food  had  outgrown  the  ability  of  the  British 
islands  to  supply  it  on  terms  as  low  as  it 
could  be  bought  elsewhere.  They  therefore 
removed  the  prohibition  upon  the  import  of 


cattle  and  provisions,  and  reduced  the  duty 
on  grain.  This  opened  a  market  for  Amer 
ican  produce,  which  grew  rapidly.  The  cir 
cumstances  of  the  famine  of  1846  justified 
the  wisdom  of  the  English  government,  and 
led  to  the  entire  removal  of  the  corn  duties 
in  1849.  That  example  was  followed  by 
France  and  her  neighbors.  France,  however, 
restored  the  duties  in  1859.  The  liberal 
legislation  of  England,  the  famine,  the  wars, 
and  speculations  of  Europe,  have  gradually 
extended  the  demand  for  American  produce, 
at  the  time  when  a  very  broad  field  had  been 
opened  to  supply  that  demand.  This  we  may 
illustrate.  The  area  of  Great  Britain's  in 
dustry — hills,  lakes,  vales,  and  valleys— is 
53,760,000  acres;  and  the  population  in 
1812,  when  she  made  war  on  us,  was  11,- 
991,107.  Now  we  find  from  the  table  of 
land  sales,  elsewhere  given,  that  the  federal 
government  has  sold  in  the  last  twenty  years 
selected  farm  lands  to  the  extent  of  68,655,- 
203  acres,  and  has  given  to  railroads  42,- 
000,000  acres  more  of  selected  lands,  mak 
ing  110,000,000  acres  that  have  mostly  passed 
into  the  hands  of  settlers.  This  is  a  surface 
double  the  whole  area  of  Great  Britain ;  and 
the  population  on  that  area  has  increased,  in 
the  same  time,  11,374,595,  or  a  number 
nearly  as  large  as  that  of  Great  Britain  in 
1812.  There  have  been  built  on  that  area  in 
the  last  ten  years,  and  are  now  in  operation, 
20,000  miles  of  railroads,  crossing  every  part 
of  it,  and  bringing  every  farm  within  reach  of 
a  market.  The  speculators  and  road  builders, 
who  ate  up  the  produce  of  that  area,  during 
the  process  of  road  construction,  have  van 
ished,  and  •  the  whple  is  now  offered  by  a 
hundred  channels  to  the  best  bidders  of 
Europe.  We  have  said  that  corn  is  the 
settler's  capital,  and  that  -corn,  in  the  shape 
of  grain,  pork,  and  whiskey,  is  the  staple 


158 


COMMERCE    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES.. 


export  of  a  new  country.  The  corn  product 
of  1855,  per  state  reports,  was  600,000,000 
"bushels.  The  number  of  hogs  packed  that 
year  was  2,489,050,  averaging  200  Ibs.  each, 
and  giving  a  total  weight  of  497,900,000  Ibs. 


of  pork.  In  that  year  the  weight  of  pork 
exported  was  164,374,681  Ibs.  Of.  this 
amount,  58,526,683  Ibs.  went  to  England, 
or  12  per  cent,  of  the  whole  production,  as 
the  result  of  her  more  liberal  policy  of  1842. 


QUANTITIES   OF    CORN 

AND  POBK  EXPORTED  TO   GREAT  BRITAIN. 

Pork. 

Hams  and  bacon. 

Lard. 

Corn. 

Wheat. 

Flonr. 

barrels. 

Ibs. 

Ibs. 

bushels. 

bushels. 

barrels. 

1840, 

1.061 

.  . 

104,341 

615,972 

620.919 

1841, 

4,769 

20,394 

444,305 

12.548 

119,854 

208,984 

1842, 

6,900 

160,274 

3,430,732 

123,665 

143,300 

208,024 

1847, 

73,940 

14,067,105 

17,798.770 

15,526,525 

4399,951 

2,457,076 

1848, 

87,760 

29,218,462 

2.7,283,741 

5,062,220 

2,034,704 

958,744 

1849, 

111.385 

53,150,465 

21,388:265 

12,392,242 

'  608,661 

953,815 

1855, 

64,663 

30,240,101 

15.349,922 

5.935,284 

8,036,665 

2,026,121 

1B58, 

13,578 

15,365,524 

10,288,474 

3,215,198 

8,926,196 

3,512,169 

The  cotton,  tobacco,  and  rice  of  the  south, 
the  farm  produce  of  the  west,  and  the  gold 
of  California,  each  contributed  an  increasing 
proportion  to  the  general  exports ;  but  manu 
factures  have  also  come  to  figure  largely  in 
the  general  aggregate. 


The  following  table  gives  the  proportions 
in  which  the  general  heads  of  exports 
have  contributed  from  time  to  time  to  the 
result,  since  the  formation  of  the  govern 
ment  ;  and  also  the  total  exports,  including 
all  articles : — 


HEADS    OF    EXPORTS. 


Cotton. 

Tobacco 
and  rice. 

Flour  and 
provision*. 

Manufactures. 

United  States 
specie. 

Total  of  all 
domestic  exports. 

1790, 

$42,285 

$6,103,363 

$5,991,171 

.  . 

$19,666,000 

1803, 

7,920.000 

8,664,000 

15,050,000 

$2,000,000 

.  . 

42,'205,961 

1807, 

14,232,000 

7,783,000 

15,706.000 

2,309,000 

48,699,592 

1816, 

24,106,000 

15,187,880 

20,587,376 

2,331,000 

64,781,896 

1821, 

20,157,484 

7.143,349 

12,341,360 

2,752,631 

$10,478,059 

43,671,894 

1831, 

31,724,682 

6,908,655 

12,424,701 

5,086.890 

9,014,931 

61,277,057 

1836, 

71,284,925 

12,607,390 

9,588,359 

6,107,528 

345,738 

106,916,680 

1842, 

47,593,464 

11,448,142 

16,902,876 

7,102,101 

1,172,077 

92,969,996 

1847, 

53,415,848 

10.848,982 

68,701,921 

10.351,364 

2,620 

150,637,464 

1851, 

112,315,317 

11,390.148 

21,948,651 

20,136,967 

18,069,580 

196,689,718 

1854, 

93,596,220 

12,182,204 

65,941,323 

26,849,411 

38,234,566 

253,390,870 

1859, 

161,434,923 

23,281,186 

37,987,395 

32,471,927 

60,110,000 

335,894,385 

These  general  heads  represent  nil  parts  of 
the  Union — cotton  and  tobacco  in  the  south, 
flour  and  provisions  in  the  west,  manufac 
tures  in  the  east,  and  gold  in  the  Pacific 
states.  It  is  difficult  to  see  any  great  dif 
ference  in  the  prosperity  which  may  attend 
each  in  the  future.  The  south  is  most  secure 
in  its  market,  holding,  as  it  does,  an  absolute 
monopoly  of  a  raw  material,  which  is  indis 
pensable  to  the  industry  of  5,000,000  people 
at  home  and  abroad,  without  which  $500,- 
000,000  employed  in  manufactures  would 
be  valueless,  and  without  which  a  large  por 
tion  of  the  clothing  of  civilized  man  would 
fall  short.  The  peril  of  this  position  to 
manufacturers,  operatives,  and  merchants  is 
apparent  to  statesmen,  and  the  utmost  efforts 
are  vainly  made  to  find  a  remedy.  The 
greater  the  exertion  used,  the  more  depen 
dent  are  the  manufacturers  on  the  south. 
India  was  long  the  hope  of  England,  but 
there  are  12 0,000,000  persons  in  India  whose 


scanty  hand-spun  clothing  is  composed  of 
cotton.  Every  effort  to  improve  their  con 
dition,  and  to  induce  a  larger  culture  of  cot 
ton,  has  but  one  result — viz. :  to  create  a 
larger  demand  for  cotton  machine  clothing 
from  them  ;  and  the  dependence  upon  the 
United  States  is  the  greater.  The  import 
of  cotton  from  India  has  been  the  cry  for 
thirty  years.  What  is  the  result  ?  English 
official  returns  give  the  following  figures  for 
1859:— 

Ibs. 

Import  of  raw  cotton  from  India,  1859,  192,330,880 
Export  of  cotton  goods  to  India,  "  193,603,270 

Excess  of  cotton  sent  to  India, . .     1,272,390 

The  field  for  the  extension  of  the  machine 
goods  in  China  and  India  is  limited  only  by 
the  means  of  the  people  to  buy.  The  more 
those -means  are  increased,  the  greater  is  the 
demand  for  the  raw  material ;  and  the  value 
of  cotton  rises  annually  on  that  basis.  The 


FARMERS GOLD,  ETC. 


159 


productions  of  the  west  are  more  exposed  to 
rivalry  than  those  of  the  south ;  but  since 
the  formation  of  the  present  government, 
England  and  western  Europe,  from  being 
large  food  exporters,  have  come,  by  the  growth 
of  manufactures,  to  be  large  food  importers, 
and  their  supplies  are  drawn  more  steadily 
from  eastern  Europe.  Those  resources  are 
coming  to  be  narrowed,  for  the  same  reason. 
The  United  States,  on  the  other  hand,  with 
their  immense  plains  and  growing  means  of 
communication,  are  assuming  a  more  regular 
position  as  a  source  of  supply,  which  will 
annually  swell  the  exports.  The  column  of 
manufactures  is  a  gratifying  evidence  that 
the  colonial  position  is  at  last  overcome ;  that 
the  requisite  skill  and  capital  for  manufac 
turing  against  all  rivalry  are  at  last  acquired, 
and  that  American  industry  now  finds  sale 
in.  the  markets  of  the  world.  The  South 
American  countries  offer  the  legitimate 
opening  for  that  sale.  The  gold  of  California 
is  always  a  merchantable  commodity,  and 
must  sell  under  all  circumstances. 

The  internal  production  of  wares  has  in 
creased  in  a  ratio  more  rapid  than  even  the 
importation  of  them.  The  annual  production 
rose  from  62,000,000  in  1820  to  1,055,000,- 
000  in  1850,  as  manifest  in  the  column 
of  manufactures  reported  in  the  above 
table.  In  order  to  manufacture  to  advan 
tage,  something  besides  a  law  is  necessary. 
There  must  be  capital  and  a  supply  of  skilled 
labor.  Those,  in  the  long  race  of  a  thou 
sand  years,  grew  up  in  England,  where  the 
system  of  manufactures  is  mostly  individual. 
A  man  learns  his  trade,  and  devotes  himself 
to  the  production  of  an  article,  or  a  part  of 
an  article,  and  by  the  constant  exercise  of 
intelligence  and  economy,  he  comes  finally 
to  perfect  it  in  the  cheapest  manner.  These 
productions  are  combined  by  other  parties 
into  merchantable  commodities.  In  the 
United  States  it  was  a  consequence  of  the  pro 
hibition  under  the  imperial  government,  that 
these  individual  industries  did  not  grow  up. 
There  were  no  factories  in  which  young  ar 
tisans  were  learning  a  business,  and  when  sep 
aration  took  place  there  was  no  experienced 
labor.  When,  therefore,  the  capital  that 
had  been  earned  in  commerce  was  suddenly 
applied  to  manufactures,  the  only  mode  of 
proceeding  was  the  corporate  mode ;  the 
capital  was  subscribed  by  a  company,  and 
the  works  directed  by  persons  often  of  little 
practical  experience.  Under  such  a  system, 
progress  was  difficult.  With  the  large  im- 

10 


migration  of  skilled  workmen  from  abroad, 
however,  a  greater  breadth  has  been  given 
to  all  branches,  and  progress  is  very  rapid,  the 
more  so  that  the  general  prosperity  enables 
consumers  to  extend  the  best  possible  en 
couragement  to  producers,  by  buying  their 
wares.  The  chief  consumers  of  these  have 
been  the  agriculturists,  and  the  interchange 
of  manufactures  for  agriculture  forms  the 
chief  trade  of  the  whole  country.  In  1 840, 
per  census  reports,  the  value  of  manufac 
tures  was  $483,278,215,  and  of  agriculture, 
$621,163,977  ;  the  imports  were  $107,000; 
000.  The  interchange  of  these  commodities, 
at  first  hands,  would  involve  an  aggregate 
trade  of  $1,211,442,192.  The  same  items 
for  1850  would  give  an  aggregate  of  $2,305,- 
343,446 — nearly  double  the  amount.  But 
the  raw  material  passes  through  many  hands 
before  it  reaches  the  manufacturer,  and  his 
wares  pass  through  a  succession  of  mer 
chants,  jobbers,  and  retailers  before  they  are 
finally  consumed.  Grain  passes  through 
many  hands  before  it  is  finally  eaten.  The 
grinding  of  flour  is  one  of  the  largest  manu 
factures  of  the  country,  turning  out  in  1850, 
$136,056,736  per  annum.  It  is  probable 
that  each  of  the  articles  which  form  the  ag 
gregate  of  the  mining,  manufactures,  agricul 
ture,  and  imports,  is  sold  four  or  five  times 
before  it  is  finally  consumed.  This  would 
give  an  aggregate  trade  of  $10,000,000,000 
per  annum,  in  1850,  against  $6,000,000; 
000  in  1840,  or  an  average  of  $2,000  per 
annum  for  every  effective  man  in  the  country. 
This  seems  very  large.  If,  however,  we  have 
recourse  to  the  circular  of  the  leading  mer 
cantile  agency  in  New  York,  whose  rami 
fications  extend  over  the  Union,  we  find 
they  report  upon  their  books,  250,000  firms 
in  business  in  1857 — the  panic  year;  of 
these  firms  in  business  4,932  failed  in  1857, 
for  an  aggregate  of  $291,750,000  of  liabilities, 
or  an  average  of  $58,350  each.  If  the  aver 
age  of  all  the  persons  doing  business  was 
only  $50,000,  or  $8,350  each  less  than  those 
who  failed,  then  the  aggregate  amount  of 
credits  must  have  been  $12,500,000,000  in 
1857.  The  firms  on  the  books  do  not  in 
clude  the  retailers  to  any  great  extent.  Thus 
the  liabilities  of  1857  far  exceed  the  esti 
mate  we  made  on  the  figures  of  1850. 
Again,  the  bank  discounts  in  the  past  year 
are  $637,183,899;  these  purport  to  repre 
sent  bills  not  more  than  sixty  days  to  run. 
The  average  of  some  of  the  largest  city 
banks  is  fifty-four  days ;  at  sixty  days  the 


160 


COMMERCE    OF    THE     UNITED     STATES. 


amount  of  discounts  for  a  year  would  be, 
in  round  numbers,  $4,000,000,000;  and 
the  exchanges  at  the  New  York  clearing 
house,  as  we  sec  in  another  chapter,  are 
over  $8,000,000,000  per  annum.  These 
figures  give  some  idea  of  the  vastncss  of  that 
immense  traffic,  which  consists  in  the  intcr- 
chano-c  of  the  products  of  industry.  In 
1840,  the  active  bank  loans  were  $278,000,- 
000,  which,  at  the  same  average  time,  would 
give  $1,668,000,000  of  discounts  for  the  year, 
which  holds  about  the  same.  In  1850,  the 
loans  were  $413,756,759,  which  would  give 
an  aggregate  discount  for  the  year  of  $2,484,- 
000,000.  Comparing  these  aggregates  for 
several  years,  we  have  results  as  follows : — 


Annual 

productions. 

1840,       $1,211,442,192 

1850,          2,305,343,446 

1860,         4,444,50(1,000 


Annual  Bank 

transactions.          discounts. 

$6,055.000,000  $  1 .668,000,000 

1 1.525,0(N),000  2,484,000,000 

22,222,500,000  .  3,943,003,000 


We  have,  then,  the  fact  that  the  national 
trade  doubled  in  the  ten  years  ending  with 
1850,  as  a  consequence  of  the  increased  pro 
ductions  of  industry ;  and  the  best  data  give 


the  same  general  results  for  the  decade  now 
closing.  These  large  figures,  astonishing  as 
they  seem,  are  not  out  of  proportion  to  the 
immense  growth  of  the  country  in  breadth 
and  numbers. 

The  broad  surface  of  the  Union,  be 
tween  the  Atlantic  and  the  Mississippi 
river,  is  now  covered  with  states.  The 
thirteen  colonies  that  emerged  from  a  war, 
eighty  years  since,  have  grown  to  be  thirty- 
three  states,  \vith  a  land  value  of,  in  round 
numbers,  $9,317,000,000.  All  this  vast  ter 
ritory  is  now  productive,  yielding  its  annual 
returns,  and  giving  a  productive  annual  cap 
ital  beyond  any  thing  the  world  has  hitherto 
witnessed. 

The  following  table  gives  the  states  in 
the  order  of  their  admission  into  the  Union, 
the  area  in  acres,  the  population  of  the  old 
states  in  1790,  and  the  population  and  land 
valuation  of  each  state  in  1 850,  according  to 
United  States  census ;  also  the  same  figures 
from  the  state  censuses  made  nearest  to 
I860:— 


GROWTH    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


Date  of 

Area  in 

1' 

reo. 

1S50. 

Nearest  to  1860. 

admission. 

acres. 

Population.  Valuation. 

Population.    Valuation. 

Populatio 

n.    Valuation. 

Delaware  

.  17ST 

1,356,£00 

59,096 

4,053.233 

91,532 

15.896,870 

112,216 

80,466.924 

Pennsylvania  

.  1T8T 

30.0*0,000 

484,373 

72.82  i,252 

2,311,786 

bOO,275,S51 

2,906,115 

568,770,234 

New  Jersey  

,  17ST 

4,384,640 

184,139 

2T,287,9M 

4>9,555 

153,251.619 

672,035 

179,150,000 

Georgia  

,  1783 

37,120.0(0 

82,548 

10,2(53  506 

906,185 

121,618,729 

1,057,236 

837,969.471 

Connecticut  

.  178S 

8.040.000 

233,141 

40,163,955 

370,792 

119,083,672 

400,147 

211,187,683 

Massachusetts  

.   1TS3 

4,640.000 

3:8,717 

59,441,642 

994,514 

551,100,824 

1,231,066 

697,926.9!»5 

Maryland  

.  17S8 

7,040.000 

319,723 

•21,634,0(14 

533,031 

139.026,t>01 

687,049 

256,477,583 

South  Carolina  ...  — 

.  1783 

17,920.000 

249,073 

12,450,720 

66^,507 

105,737,492 

70:1,708 

214,101,201 

Khoile  Island   

1788 

763,000 

69,110 

8,082,355 

147.  r.45 

77.7.',S,974 

174.620 

111,175,174 

New  Hampshire  

1788 

5,139,200 

141,899 

19,028,103 

317,976 

92.251,596 

326,073 

103.304.3-J6 

Virginia  

1V88 

8<V265,'2SO 

743,308 

59,976.860 

1,421,061 

252,105,824 

1,596,318 

730,81  7.(:.>3 

New  York  

17S8 

29,440.000 

340,120 

74.885,075 

3,097,394 

7  K-,369,  038 

3,880,7:15 

1,404,907,679 

North  Carolina  

17K9 

2«,1  20,000 

893,751 

27,909,479 

869,039 

71,702.740 

992,022 

271,781,101 

District  of  Columbia 

1790 

32,000 

51,637 

14,409,413 

75,080 

20,271.000 

Vermont  

179! 

5,796,000 

85,416 

15  165,481 

314,120 

72,930,433 

315,098 

89,136,3.S4 

Kentucky  

17!!2 

24.115,200 

73,077 

£0,2CS.325 

932,405 

177,013,407 

1,155.684 

334,770.701 

Tennessee  

1796 

28,160,000 

85,791 

5,847,6f2 

1,002.717 

107,981,783 

1,109,801 

266,249,334 

Total  old  states 267,412,120      3,833,287     479,232.646     14,620,449    $3,237,570,916      17,455,653    $5,727,973,443 


Ohio  

1302 
1812 
1816 
1817 
1813 
1819 
1320 
1521 
1836 
1837 
1845 
1815 
1845 
1843 
1850 
185T 

25,576,960 
29,715,840 
21.637,760 
80,174,OfO 
85,459,200 
32,462,080 
22,400,000          8 
43,123,200 
33,406,720 
35,995,520 
37,931.520 
152,043,520 
35,155,200 
84,  ill,  360 
120,917,840 
90,774,960 

0,540 

Louisiana  

Indiana  

Mississippi  

Illinois  

Alabama  

Maine  

Missouri  

Arkansas  

Michigan  

Florida  

Texas   

Iowa  .  . 

Wisconsin  . 

California  . 

Minnesota  

Total  new  states 
Grand  total  .  .  . 

.    781.285.760 

.  .  1.048.02r.890    8.929.827  i479.282.G46 

1,930,329 
517,762 
9iS,4!6 
6015,526 
851.470 
771,023 
533. 1 6D 
6.2,044 
209.397 
39i,C54 
87,443 
212,592 
192,214 
305.391 
92,597 

•      6,077 


8.485,206       1,411,460,792 
23,105,635     $4,699,031,708 


840,800,031 
378,911.905 
313,204,964 
Jlil,747,5S6 
407,477,367 
201,100,100 
162,472,914 
274,965,164 

53,255,711 
120,362,474 

22,210,915 
133.722,433 
197.223,350 
152.537.700 
131,306,269 
781,101 


13.6011,561      8562,079,934 
31,065,214    $9,817,692,261 


In  addition  to  these,  New  Mexico  had,  in 
1850,61,547;  Oregon,  13,294;  Utah,  11,380. 
The  official  United  States  census  for  1860 


will  change  the  figures  of  the  states  some 
what.     The  aggregate  is  31,429,891. 


SHIPS TONNAGE NAVIGATION    LAWS. 


161 


CHAPTER  III. 

SHIPS— TONNAGE— NAVIGATION  LAWS. 

THE  appearance  of  the  United  States  as  a 
nation  was  fraught  with  the  most  extraordi 
nary  results  in  respect  to  the  condition,  pol 
icy,  and  governments  of  Europe,  but  in  none 
greater  than  in  respect  of  navigation.  From 
the  moment  that  the  stars  and  stripes  floated 
from  the  mast-head  of  a  merchantman,  a 
revolution  was  commenced  which  has  not 
yet  ceased  its  influence  upon  the  commerce 
of  the  world.  Up  to  that  time,  England  had 
gradually  attained  the  supremacy  of  the 
seas.  The  Dutch,  who  had  fought  a  steady 
battle  with  the  ocean,  until  they  had  driven 
it  back  and  fortified  their  country  by  dykes 
from  its  invasion,  had  earned  a  right  to  rule  ; 
which,  by  their  energy,  they  did  for  a  time. 
Their  country  was  small,  however,  and  pro 
duced  but  little :  hence,  there  was  no  room  to 
support  commerce  in  the  face  of  the  power 
of  England.  Great  Britain  is  an  island  of 
great  productive  power,  although  but  little 
larger  than  New  York.  Its  coast  is  indent 
ed  on  all  sides  with  good  harbors ;  and  from 
which  side  soever  the  wind  blows,  it  is  fair 
for  some  of  her  vessels  to  arrive,  and  others 
to  depart.  A  sea-girt  population  is  neces 
sarily  a  nautical  population.  The  English 
were  peculiarly  fitted  for  sea  adventure ; 
and  with  such  advantages,  added  to  their 
skill  in  building,  they  could  not  fail  to  ac 
quire  ascendancy  upon  the  ocean,  which 
their  large  population  maintained  and  fed 
by  planting  colonies  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 
When  the  commerce  of  England  had  well 
grown,  as  a  consequence  of  these  advan 
tages,  her  government,  in  the  hands  of  Crom 
well,  sought  to  increase  it  by  enacting  the 
famous  "  navigation  law,"  which  was  popular, 
because  it  professed  to  give  England  the 
supremacy  of  the  ocean.  The  principle  of 
the  law  was,  that  no  goods  should  be  im 
ported  into  England  from  Asia,  Africa,  or 
America,  except  in  British  vessels;  that 
goods  imported  from  Europe  in  European 
vessels  should  pay  more  than  if  imported  in 
British  vessels.  This  was  very  plausible. 
It  would,  it  was  supposed,  give  England  the 
world's  commerce  ;  but  as  there  then  exist 
ed  none  but  British  vessels  in  either  of  the 
three  continents  out  of  Europe,  there  was  no 
more  trade,  in  consequence  of  the  law,  than 
before.  The  law  was  a  dead  letter.  The  growth 
of  English  commerce  was  evidently  great. 


The  statesmen  of  Europe  ascribed  it  rather 
to  the  law  than  to  the  circumstances  of  the 
people,  and  they  imitated  its  provisions. 
The  trade  between  England  and  her  colonies 
was  large,  but  the  vessels  were  all  British. 
The  development  of  this  industry  of  the 
North  American  colonies,  and  their  trade, 
was  probably  the  first  real  opposition  on  the 
ocean  that  the  Dutch  received.  So  much 
did  it  nourish  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
that  Sir  Joshua  Childs,  writing  in  1670, 
states  that  "  Our  American  plantations  em 
ploy  nearly  two-thirds  of  our  English  ship 
ping,  and  thereby  give  constant  subsistence 
to,  it  may  be,  200,000  persons  here  at  home." 
Ship-building  had  been  pursued  with  great 
success  in  the  colonies ;  and  the  genius  of 
the  colonists  had  already  given  their  ships  a 
distinctive  character.  On  the  declaration  of 
peace,  in  1783,  that  "bit  of  striped  bunt 
ing"  was  found  floating  at  the  gafi'  of  all  the 
best  vessels.  They,  by  the  law,  could  now 
carry  no  goods  to  England.  The  large  ex 
ports  of  the  United  States  Avere  now  to  go 
in  the  worst  vessels,  because  they  were 
English.  The  United  States  immediately 
passed  a  similar  law,  that  forbade  any  goods 
to  be  imported,  except  in  American  vessels. 
The  American  vessel  then  went  out  in  bal 
last  to  bring  home  English  goods,  and  the 
English  vessel  came  out  in  ballast  to  carry 
home  American  produce.  Two  ships  were 
employed  to  do  the  work  of  one,  and  all  im 
ports  and  exports  were  charged  two  freights. 
This  was  too  absurd,  even  for  statesmen. 
A  treaty  was  consequently  made,  by  which 
the  vessels  of  both  nations  were  placed  upon 
the  same  footing.  The  practical  effect  of 
this  was  to  double  the  quantity  of  tonnage 
employed,  since  the  vessels  of  both  nations 
could  now  carry  freights  both  ways.  The 
position  of  affairs  was,  however,  entirely  new. 
The  United  States — a  young  country,  with 
few  ships  and  less  capital,  distributed  among 
a  sparse  population — presented  itself  to  the 
old,  wealthy,  and  aristocratic  governments 
of  Europe,  and  demanded  of  them  that  they 
should  admit  its  ships  to  visit  their  pop 
ulous  and  wealthy  cities,  in  return  for  the 
privilege  of  their  visiting  the  comparatively 
poor  and  unattractive  towns  of  the  states. 
This  kind  of  reciprocal  intercourse  had  never 
existed ;  and  the  United  States  now  came 
forward  to  propose  it,  and  to  lay  down  prin 
ciples  for  its  guidance.  Their  moral  influ 
ence  caused  them  to  be  adopted.  These 
principles  were,  "  independence,"  "  equal 


162 


COMMERCE    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


favor,"  and  "  reciprocity."  These  principles 
were  first  laid  down  in  the  treaty  made  be 
tween  France  and  the  United  States  in  1778, 
and  they  became  the  basis  of  all  subsequent 
negotiations.  The  commercial  sagacity  of 
the  English  prompted  them  to  accede  at 
once.  The  United  States  vessels  were  ac 
cordingly  placed  upon  the  footing  of  the 
"most  favored  nation."  From  the  moment 
the  United  States  entered  that  wedge,  the 
whole  system  of  exclusiveness  began  to  fall 
to  pieces.  There  are  now  forty-eight  treaties 
between  the  United  States  and  other  coun 
tries,  most  of  them  containing  the  favored 
nation  clause.  The  benefits  of  this  example 
have  been  so  fruitful,  that  all  the  nations  of 
Europe  have  eaten  through  their  old  restric 
tive  systems,  by  similar  treaties  with  each 
other.  Although  England  was  forced  into 
this  concession  in  her  direct  trade,  she,  for 
a  long  time,  refused  it  in  respect  of  her  col 
onies.  It  Avas  reserved  for  a  later  period  to 
force  her  into  that  movement.  The  vessels 
of  the  United  States  having  thus  gained  an 
international  footing,  events  supervened  to 
give  a  great  impulse  to  their  employment  in 
the  carrying  trade.  In  colonial  times,  Mas 
sachusetts  Bay  was  the  chief  theatre  for  ship 
building,  but  Maryland  was  also  noted  for  it. 
The  vessels  built  in  1771  were  as  follows: — 

AN    ACCOUNT  OF  THE  NUMBER  AND  TONNAGE   OF  VESSELS 
BUILT  IN  THE  SEVERAL  PROVINCES   IN  THE  TEAR  1771. 

SqU^!f 6d      -a**  Tonnage. 
!°l!"       schooners. 

New  Hampshire 15  40  4,991 

Massachusetts  Bay  ...  42  83  7,704 

Rhode  Island 15  60  2,148 

Connecticut 7  39  1,483 

New  York 9  28  1,698 

New  Jersey 2  70 

Pennsylvania '. . .  15  6  1,307 

Maryland 10  8  1,645 

Virginia 10  9  1,678 

North  Carolina 8  241 

South  Carolina 3  4  560 

Georgia 2  4  543 


Total. 


128 


291 


24,068 


The  tonnage  entered  and  cleared  for  the 
y earl 771,  to  all  ports,  was  as  follows: — 


Cleared  from 
colonies. 

Great  Britain 98,025 

Southern  Europe 37,237 

West  Indies 108, 150 

South  and  Central  America.   107,552 


Entered 

colonies. 

82,934 

37,717 

106,713 

104,578 


350,964  331,942 

This  was  before  the  war.  After  the  Avar, 
the  trade  received  a  great  development  from 
the  French  treaty  of  1 778,  and  from  that  with 


Great  Britain.  The  ship-building  during 
the  colonial  period  had  been  in  very  different 
styles,  so  that  every  seaman,  at  a  glance, 
could  recognize  the  origin  of  the  vessel. 
The  Baltimore  clipper,  the  Essex  fishing 
schooner,  the  Chesapeake  schooner,  the 
down  east  lumber  schooner,  or  brig,  the 
Hudson  river  sloop,  the  Long  Island  sloop, 
the  Newport  boat,  the  Massachusetts  Bay 
dory,  Avere  distinct  types,  and  still  preserve 
their  styles  to  some  extent,  although  the 
march  of  improvement  has  tended  to  assimi 
late  all  styles,  by  combining  their  good 
points.  The  changes  of  trade  have  varied 
the  demand,  and  since  California  has  brought 
clippers  in  demand,  they  are  now  by  no 
means  a  Baltimore  peculiarity.  The  fishing 
vessels  were  peculiarly  adapted  to  their  em 
ployment.  The  fisheries  were  the  chief 
business  of  the  northern  colonists,  and  they 
had  not  only  the  benefit  of  the  large  sale  to 
the  West  Indies  and  to  the  Catholic  countries 
of  Europe,  but  the  eating  of  fish  in  England 
had,  by  the  laAv  of  Elizabeth,  in  1563,  been 
ordered  on  Wednesdays  and  Saturdays,  for 
the  encouragement  of  seamen,  thus  affording 
a  large  market,  from  which  foreign  fish  Avere 
excluded.  The  same  law  became  a  custom 
doAvn  to  our  day,  it  being  still  almost  uni 
versal  in  NCAV  England  to  eat  fish  on  Satur 
day.  Indeed,  so  strictly  Avas  this  custom 
observed,  that  in  the  old  slave  days  of 
Massachusetts,  it  being  ordered  that  slaves 
should  not  be  in  the  streets  on  Sunday,  a 
black  Avas  arrested  on  the  common.  He 
denied  that  it  Avas  Sunday,  and  proved  his 
point  by  showing  that  "  rnassa  no  eat  salt 
fish  yesterday."  The  fisheries  were  thought 
to  be  the  nursery  of  seamen,  and  when  the 
Union  was  formed,  a  law  of  July  4,  1789, 
allowed  a  drawback  on  fish  exported  equal 
to  the  supposed  quantity  of  salt  used.  This 
law,  in  1792,  Avas  changed  to  a  bounty  per 
ton  on  the  vessels  engaged  in  the  fisheries, 
and  has  been  continued  down  to  the  present 
time.  The  number  of  tons  now  in  the 
cod  fisheries  is  129,637,  and  the  bounty  paid 
to  the  interest  from  the  origin  of  the  grant 
to  the  close  of  the  year  1859,  amounts  to 
$12,944,998,  of  which  Maine,  New  Hamp 
shire,  and  Massachusetts  received  nearly  the 
whole.  It  is  to  be  remarked  that  this 
bounty-fed  interest  has  prospered  less  than 
any  other.  The  whale  fishery  seemed  pecu 
liarly  adapted  to  the  skill  and  daring  of  the 
American  seamen.  The  Avhale  boats  Avere  of 
a  peculiar  build,  and  gradually,  although  they 


SHIPS TONNAGE NAVIGATION    LAWS. 


163 


received  no  protection  from  the  government, 
they  drove  away  other  nations  from  the  seas. 
*  The  interest  is,  however,  depressed,  from  the 
growing  scarcity  of  whales,  and  the  great 
competition  that  its  product  receives  from 
other  sources.  The  making  of  lard  oil 
brought  "prairie  whales"  into  effectual  com 
petition  with  those  of  the  ocean. 

The  tonnage  engaged  in  the  foreign  trade 
increased  up  to  1810  very  rapidly  under  the 


Registered 
tons. 

Coasting. 

Whalers, 
tons. 

Cod 
fishery. 

Mackerel                 Steam, 
fishery.          Ocean.       Coasting. 

1789, 

123,893 

68,607 

9,062 

1810, 

984,269 

405,347 

1,227 

35,168 

.  .» 

1821, 

619,896 

559,435 

27,994 

51,351 

1829, 

650,143 

608,858 

57,278 

101,797 

35,973 

54,036 

1840, 

899,764 

1,176,694 

136,926 

76,035 

28,269 

281,339 

1850, 

1,585,711 

1,755,796 

146,016 

85,646 

58,111       44 

942     481,004 

1858, 

2,223,121 

1,710,332 

198,593 

110,896 

29,593       78,027     651,363 

This  table  gives  a  sort  of  chart  of  the 
whole  progress  of  the  tonnage.  It  is  observ 
able  that  up  to  the  close  of  the  first  period, 
viz. :  to  the  embargo  and  non-intercourso  of 
1809,  the  registered  tonnage,  or  that  engaged 
in  the  foreign  trade,  increased  most  rapidly ; 
there  were  then  no  large  home  productions 
to  require  much  inland  transportation,  and 
the  carrying  trade  of  Europe  was  very  active. 
With  the  growth  of  cotton,  however,  an 
immense  freight  was  given  as  well  to  coasting 
as  to  registered  tonnage,  and  that  was  far 
more  valuable  to  the  latter  than  the  carrying 
trade  which  had  been  lost.  When  the  war 
and  non-intercourse  stopped  the  growth  of 
external  tonnage,  a  great  impulse  was  given 
to  that  of  the  interior.  The  lakes  and  rivers 
began  to  be  covered  with  craft,  which  swelled 
the  enrolled  tonnage.  In  the  south  a  good 
portion  of  this  tonnage  was  employed  in  the 
transportation  of  cotton  to  the  seaboard, 
where  it  was  freighted  to  Europe  in  regis 
tered  vessels.  The  operation  of  the  laws  in 
relation  to  the  measuring  of  vessels  had  an 
injurious  influence  upon  the  form.  The 
making  the  beam  of  the  vessel  an  element 
in  the  calculation  of  the  tonnage  she  would 
carry,  led  to  the  construction  of  "  kettle 
bottoms,"  which  swelled  out  in  the  form  of 
a  kettle,  allowing  her  to  carry  much  more 
than  her  register  showed.  These  vessels 
carried  cotton  mostly  to  European  ports, 
whence  there  was  little  return  cargo ;  but 
when,  after  the  war,  migration  set  in  freely 
from  Havre,  affording  a  return  freight,  the 
form  was  altered  to  give  accommodation  to 
the  passengers,  and  an  impulse  was  given  to 
ship-building.  The  latter  branch  of  industry 


influence  of  the  carrying  enjoyed  under  the 
treaties  with  Europe,  and  the  effect  of  the 
wars  between  the  great  powers.  The  coast 
ing  trade  did  not  increase  in  the  same  ratio, 
for  the  reason  that  the  trade  enjoyed  by  tho 
registered  tonnage  was  not  the  carrying  of 
American  goods,  but  of  foreign  products 
from  colonies  to  Europe.  The  compara 
tive  increase  of  the  tonnage  is  seen  as  fol 
lows  : — 


Total. 

201,562 
1,424,789 
1,298,958 
1,260,797 
2,180.764 
3,535,454 
5,049,808 


languished  up  to  1829,  since  there  was  little 
carrying  trade,  and  the  cotton  crop  was  only 
one-fourth  its  present  quantity.  The  British 
government  had  refused  to  allow  the  West 
India  colonies  to  be  open  to  American  ves 
sels.  The  West  Indies,  however,  were  depend 
ent  upon  the  United  States  for  supplies  of 
produce,  while  they  were  required  to  send 
their  owrn  sugar,  coffee,  and  rum  to  the 
mother  country  in  British  vessels.  By  re 
fusing  to  let  American  vessels  go  thither, 
she  sought  to  secure  three  freights  for  British 
ships.  Thus,  a  vessel  left  England  with 
goods  for  the  United  States,  then  loaded 
provisions  for  the  West  Indies,  and  took 
home  thence  sugar,  etc.,  to  England,  making 
a  round  voyage.  This  the  United  States 
refused  to  permit,  unless  American  vessels 
participated  ;  and  the  trade  was  closed.  The 
English  colonists,  deprived  of  American  sup 
plies,  set  up  a  clamor  which  compelled  the 
government  to  open  certain  ports  to  Ameri 
can  ships  on  the  same  terms  as  British  ships ; 
and  Congress,  in  return,  authorized  the  Pres 
ident,  by  proclamation,  to  open  United 
States  ports  to  colonial  vessels,  whenever  he 
should  have  proof  of  a  reciprocal  movement. 
This  took  place  in  1830,  and  the  trade  has 
rapidly  increased  since. 

The  increase  of  registered  tonnage,  as  of 
all  others,  had  been  large  up  to  1 840,  under 
the  general  animation  that  trade  encountered 
from  the  speculative  action  of  those  years. 
Two  circumstances  now,  however,  occurred 
to  enhance  the  demand  for  shipping.  These 
were  the  English-China  war,  and  the  Amer 
ican-Mexican  war.  The  attempts  of  the 
English  to  force  the  opium  trade  upon  the 


164 


COMMERCE    OF    THE     UNITED     STATES. 


Chinese,  contrary  to  tlieir  laws,  had  induced 
the  Chinese,  in  1841,  to  destroy  a  large 
quantity  of  opium.  This  brought  on  the 
•war,  -which  resulted  in  the  opening  of  five 
Chinese  ports  to  the  commerce  of  the  world, 
and  by  so  doing  had  increased  the  demand 
for  American  ships — always  favorites  with 
the  merchants  in  the  trade  between  India 
and  China.  One  result  of  the  English  Avar 
with  the  Chinese  was  the  negotiation  of  a 
treaty  of  a  very  favorable  nature  betAveen 
the  United  States  and  the  Chinese  govern 
ment.  The  great  success  of  the  Americans 
in  .that  respect  Avas  a  matter  of  envy  upon 
the  part  of  the  English ;  but  it  Avas  not  a 
matter  of  surprise,  that  since  the  Chinese 
were  compelled  to  open  their  ports  to  trade, 
they  should  favor  those  who  had  been  friend 
ly  rather  than  their  victors.  The  Americans 
and  English  had  long  traded  together, 
and  their  nationality  had  long  been  a  puzzle 
to  John  Chinaman.  As  far  as  he  could  see, 
they  both  spoke  the  same  language,  although 
they  sailed  under  different  flags ;  but,  Avith 
his  natural  acuteness,  he  had  observed  that 
the  "  red-haired  devils "  had  more  capital 
than  the  Americans ;  he  consequently  classi 
fied  the  latter  as  "  second-chop  Englishmen." 
He  was  now,  hoAvever,  not  sorry  to  give 
them  the  advantage  in  the  treaty  negotiated 
by  Hon.  Caleb  Gushing,  or,  as  they  styled 
him,  Ku-ching.  The  return  of  that  minister 
to  the  United  States  across  Mexico  was  at 
tended  with  a  new  insult  from  that  people, 
who  robbed  him  of  his  baggage.  Sub 
sequently,  the  long  train  of  insults  heaped 
upon  Americans  through  the  recklessness 


and  arrogance  of  the  Mexicans,  ended  in  a 
war  in  1846.  That  event  caused  a  large 
demand  for  shipping  on  the  part  of  the  gov 
ernment,  for  transports.  The  expedition 
fitted  out  under  General  Scott  for  Vera  Cruz, 
Avas  the  largest  naval  enterprise  ever  under 
taken  by  any  nation  up  to  that  time — that 
is,  a  like  number  of  troops  had  never  before 
been  transported  so  great  a  distance  by  sea 
to  open  a  campaign  in  an  enemy's  country. 
The  British  and  French  expedition  from 
Varna  to  the  Crimea,  ten  years  afterward, 
was  no  greater  in  magnitude,  although  great 
ly  trumpeted  by  English  writers.  The  Amer 
ican  expedition  Avas  promptly  successful, 
when  even  the  French  had  failed  in  their 
previous  attack  upon  Vera  Cruz.  Following 
these  two  events,  that  absorbed  so  much 
shipping,  came  the  Irish  famine.  The  same 
famine,  Avhich  created  the  extended  demand 
for  American  produce,  also  stimulated  a 
large  migration  to  the  United  States,  fur 
nishing  ample  freights  to  the  homeward- 
bound  shipping. 

The  increase  of  steam  tonnage  Avas  the 
most  remarkable.  The  first  arrival  of  a 
steamer  from  England  Avas  the  Sirius,  April 
23, 1838.  That  experiment  Avas  looked  upon 
Avith  distrust,  but  it  has  succeeded  so  far, 
that  fifteen  lines,  running  forty-five  ships, 
have  since  been  started  between  the  United 
States  and  Europe.  In  July,  1840,  the 
Britannia,  the  first  Cunard  boat,  arrived  at 
Boston ;  and  that  line  has  continued  to  be 
the  most  uniformly  successful  up  to  the 
present  time.  The  lines  since  started  are  as 
follows,  mostly  running  from  New  York  : — 


Linos. 

Port. 

Style. 

Ownership. 

Cunard  line, 

Liverpool, 

paddle-wheel, 

British, 

" 

Havre, 

screw, 

" 

Collins 

Liverpool, 

paddle-wheel, 

American, 

Scotch 

Glasgow, 

screw, 

British, 

Irish 

Cork, 

it 

u 

French 

Havre, 

ii 

French, 

Old  Havre  line, 

it 

paddle-wheel, 

American, 

Vanderbilt    " 

" 

ii 

u 

Independent  line 

" 

it 

ii 

Belgian 

Antwerp, 

screw, 

Belgian 

Bremen 

Bremen, 

paddle-wheel, 

American, 

Hamburg 

Hamburg 

screw, 

German, 

Cuiiard 

Bost'n  to  L'pool, 

paddle-wheel, 

British, 

Philadelphia 

Liverpool 

screw, 

" 

Portland 

it 

a 

a 

Total 

Average  passag 

Tons. 

o 

ut. 

days. 

hours. 

10,360 

11 

3 

11,800 

9,727 

12 

3 

6,612 

13 

0 

2,000 

4,500 

15 

0 

7,200 

13 

6 

7,600 

13 

0 

1,800 

12,590 

4,000 

14 

12 

2,400 

16 

0 

8,100 

11 

12 

6,856 

3,000 

45  98,545 

Such  has  been  the  progress  of  steam  be- 1  ence,  time  and  distance  have  been  reduced 
tween  Europe  and  America.     By  its  influ-  J  one-half,  and,  as  a  natural  consequence,  cap- 


SHIPS — TONNAGE NAVIGATION    LAWS. 


165 


ital  has  been  virtually  increased,  since,  by 
quicker  communication,  it  can  be  more  fre 
quently  turned.  Many  disasters  Lave  at 
tended  the  ocean  service  of  steam ;  but  it 
h.is  been  estimated  that  since  the  first 
steamer  arrived,  in  1838,  500,000  persons 
have  crossed  the  Atlantic  by  steam.  Of 
this  number,  2,709  have  been  lost ;  giving  a 
chance  of  loss  as  one  out  of  1 84.  The  iirst 
ocean  steamer  lost  was  the  President,  in 
1841,  with  130  lives,  Since  then,  the  loss 
es  have  been  as  follows  : — 


President, 

Arctic, 

Pacific, 

San  Francisco, 

Central  America, 

Independence, 

Yankee  Blade, 

City  of  Glasgow, 

Union, 

Humboldt, 

Franklin, 

City  of  Philadelphia, 

Tempest, 

Lyonnais, 

Austria, 

Canadian, 

Argo, 

Indian, 

Northerner, 

Hungarian, 


Ownership. 
British, 
American, 


British, 
American, 


British, 

" 

French, 
German, 
British, 


Lives 
lost. 
130 
300 
240 
1GO 
387 
140 
75 
420 


150 
160 
456 


American, 
Brit.,  (about) 


27 

32 

120 


Value  of  ves 
sel  and  carpo. 
$1,200,000 
1,800.000 
2,000,000 
400,000 
2,500.000 
100,000 
280,000 
850,000 
300,000 
1,600,000 
1,900,000 
600,000 
300,000 
280,000 
850,000 
400,000 
100,000 
125,000 
75,000 
270,000 


Total 2,797  $15,930,000 

Showing  that  a  fleet  of  twenty  fine  steam 
ers,  many  of  them  first-class,  have  been 
totally  lost  within  the  period  named.  The 
President,  Pacific,  City  of  Glasgow,  and  Tem 
pest,  were  never  heard  from;  the  Arctic, 
San  Francisco,  and  Central  America,  foun 
dered ;  the  Independence,  Yankee  Blade, 
and  Northerner,  were  wrecked  on  the  Pacific, 
and  the  Canadian,  Humboldt,  Franklin,  Argo, 
and  Hungarian,  on  the  Atlantic  coast ;  the 
Lyonnais  was  sunk  by  collision,  and  the 
Austria  was  burnt.  Not  enumerated  in  this 
list  arc  two-thirds  as  many  more,  generally 
of  a  class  much  inferior,  which  were  lost  in 
the  California  trade. 

The  growth  of  steam  service  in  the  in 
terior  of  the  country  was  more  rapid  than 
its  external  development.  The  amount  of 
steam  tonnage  in  ocean  navigation,  in  18$0, 
was  44,942,  against  none  in  1840.  The  in 
land  tonnage  engaged  on  lakes,  rivers,  and 
coasting,  was  481,004 — an  increase  of  283,- 
000  in  ten  years,  at  a  cost  of  $28,000,000. 

When  the  western  country,  with  its  fer 


tile  fields  and  magnificent  water-courses, 
attracted  settlers,  and  these  had  produce  for 
sale,  there  was  but  one  way  to  market,  and 
fiat-bottomed  boats,  launched  upon  the  de 
scending  streams,  bore  the  freights  to  New 
Orleans.  At  that  point  they  were  not  un- 
frequently  broken  up,  the  owners  returning 
by  land.  In  1794,  two  keel  boats  sailed  from 
Cincinnati  to  Pittsburg,  making  the  trip  in 
four  weeks.  Each  boat  was  covered,  so  as 
to  be  rifle-proof ;  was  loop-holed  for  muskets, 
and  six  guns,  to  carry  pound  balls.  •  It  was 
in  this  manner  that  persons  and  property 
were  protected  from  Indian  aggression. 
The  other  western  rivers  presented  similar 
means  of  travel.  Even  this  was  progress, 
however;  and  each  year  saw  the  numbers 
and  wealth  of  the  dwellers  increase.  In 
1790  the  first  sea-going  brig  was  built 
at  Marietta,  Ohio.  She  was  called  the  St. 
Clair,  120  tons,  owned  and  commanded  by 
Commodore  Preble,  who  descended  the 
Ohio  and  Mississippi,  and  arrived,  via  Hav 
ana,  at  Philadelphia,  where  she  was  sold. 
In  1 802-4,  four  ships,  three  brigs,  and  three 
schooners  were  built  at  Pittsburg  for  the 
Ohio  navigation.  Keel  boats  and  sea-going 
vessels  rapidly  multiplied ;  but  the  dangers 
of  the  navigation  retarded  commerce  The 
dangerous  falls  of  the  Ohio  were  a  drawback ; 
and  the  Kentucky  legislature,  in  1804,  incor 
porated  a  company  to  cut  a  canal  round 
them.  This  was,  however,  not  done  until  1830. 
After  1806,  the  march  of  commerce  and 
civilization  began  to  make  itself  felt,  and 
trade  was  carried  on  in  keel  boats,  which, 
however  comfortably  they  might  float  with  the 
s<mzTO,requi  red  three  months  for  a  voyage  from 
New  Orleans  to  Cincinnati.  The  first  steam 
boat  on  the  rivers  was  built  by  Fulton  at  Pitts 
burg,  in  1811.  She  cost  $20,000,  and  took 
her  first  freight  and  passengers  at  Natchez, 
arriving  at  New  Orleans  in  December.  She 
continued  to  run  three  or  four  years  between 
those  points,  eight  days  up  and  three  days 
down,  clearing,  the  first  year,  $20,000. 
Steam  tonnage  then  rapidly  multiplied. 
The  annexation  of  Louisiana,  and  the  events 
of  the  Avar,  had  greatly  stimulated  western 
trade  and  river  tonnage.  From  the  period 
last  named,  up  to  the  yea.^^83« — a  period 
of  twenty-eight  years,  or  thereabout — how  do 
we  find  the  aspect  of  matters  altered  ?  The 
surface  of  the  "  beautiful  river,"  as  the  French 
call  the  Ohio,  constantly  agitated  by  the 
revolutions  of  paddle-wheels,  and  its  shores 
decked  with  cities,  towns,  and  villages,  the 


166 


COMMERCE     OF    THE     UNITED     STATES. 


appearance  of  which  sufficiently  indicated 
the  vast  stores  of  Avealth  which  a  thrifty,  in 
dustrious  population  was  rapidly  bringing  to 
light.  It  is  computed  that  the  country 
drained  by  the  Ohio  and  its  tributaries  em 
braces  one-third  of  Pennsylvania,  one-third 
of  Virginia,  two-thirds  of  Ohio,  all  of  Ken 
tucky,  three-fourths  of  Indiana,  and  one- 
fourth  of  Illinois — making  an  aggregate  of 
142,000  square  miles,  or  91,000,000  of  acres. 
The  Ohio  rises  near  the  42d  degree  of  north 
latitude,  and  empties  itself  into  the  Missis 
sippi,  near  the  37th  degree,  within  which 
space  all  the  tributaries,  with  the  exception 
of  the  great  bend  of  the  Tennessee,  are  cir 
cumscribed.  The  computation  of  those  who 
owned  the  first  steamboat  on  this  river, 
made  after  her  first  trip,  is  said  to  have  been, 
that  if  6  cents  freight  could  be  obtained  on 
each  pound,  and  they  could  get  enough  to  do, 
the  investment  would  be  a  profitable  one. 
The  result  has  shown  that  freight  has  been 
reduced  to  less  than  a  cent,  and  that  ample 
employment  is  afforded  for  hundreds  of 
boats !  The  number  o£  steamboats  built 
previous  to  the  year  1835  inclusive,  was 
588,  of  which  173  were  built  at  Pittsburg, 
and  164  at  Cincinnati.  The  number  of 
boats  in  active  business  in  1838  was  357, 
measuring  65,000  tons,  or  180  tons  each; 
and,  in  1858,  the  tonnage  had  increased  to 
124,941. 

The  opening  of  the  Erie  canal,  in  1825, 

five  a  new  direction  to  western  produce, 
he  great  lakes,  from  forming  a  separation 
from  Canada,  at  once  became  a  means  of 
communication  between  the  inhabitants  of 
the  vast  circle  of  their  coast  and  Buffalo, 
the  gateway  to  the  east.  Those  vast  seas 
form  a  basin,  into  which  pours  from  every 
quarter  the  produce  of  eight  sovereign  states, 
not  including  the  Canada  side.  On  these 
lakes  a  few  craft  had  floated ;  and  in  Erie 
harbor,  in  1812,  was  built,  in  seventy  days 
from  cutting  the  timber,  that  remarkable 
fleet  that  bore  Perry's  flag  to  victory,  and 
made  the  lakes  American  seas.  Tonnage 
multiplied  as  the  produce  increased,  and  the 
construction  of  the  Ohio  canals  gave  a  north 
ern  direction  to  it. 

Up  to  1820  there  was  but  one  steamer  on 
the  lakes,  and  not  until  1827  did  a  steamer 
reach  Lake  Michigan.  In  1832  a  steam 
boat  landed  troops  at  Chicago.  In  1833 
there  were  on  the  lakes  eleven  boats,  which 
had  cost  $360,000.  They  carried  61,480 
passengers  in  that  year.  In  1840  there 


were  forty-eight  boats  on  the  lakes,  and 
their  value  was  $2,200,000.  In  1859  the 
number  of  boats  was  186,  and  the  value 
$3,997,000,  including  propellers.  The  amount 
of  tonnage  upon  the  lakes  is  now  as  fol 
lows  : — 

STATEMENT  SHOWING  THE  NUMBER,  KIND,  TONNAGE, 
AND  VALUATION  OF  VESSELS  ENGAGED  IN  THE  COM 
MERCE  OF  THE  LAKES  IN  1859. 


AMERICAN    BOTTOMS. 


Number. 


Eig. 

Steamers 
118        Propellers 
72        Tugs 
43         Barques 
64         Brigs 
833        Schooners 


Tonnage.  Valuation. 

46,240  1,779,900 

55,657  2,217,100 

7,779  456,500 

9,666  482,800 

30,452  456,000 

178,362  4,378,900 


1,193 


Total 328,156   $9,771,200 


CANADIAN    BOTTOMS. 

Number.          Eig.  Tonnage. 

54  Steamers  21,402 

16.  Propellers  4,127 

17  Tugs  2,921 

15  Barques  5,720 

14  Brigs  3,295 

197  Schooners  32,198 


Valuation. 
989,200 
140,500 
184,800 
134,000 
78,400 
778,300 


313 


Total 69,663      $2,305,200 


The  losses  of  screw-propellers  upon  the 
lakes  by  wreck  and  fire,  rose  from  $39,000 
in  1848  to  $1,159,957  in  1855,  and  have 
since  diminished  to  $91,830  last  year.  The 
number  of  vessels  lost  in  ten  years  was 
402,  and  the  value  $3,752,131.  The  num 
ber  of  vessels  built  in  1858,  was  113  on  the 
rivers,  and  31  on  the  lakes. 

Broad  canals  and  numerous  railroads  are 
always  busy  delivering  upon  the  bosom  of  the 
lakes  the  wealth  annually  created  by  5,000,- 
000  of  people,  and  valued  at  hundreds  of  mil 
lions  of  dollars.  The  borders  of  those  lakes 
are  dotted  with  cities, whose  marvellous  growth 
has  been  proportioned  to  the  rapid  settle 
ment  of  the  surrounding  country.  Oswe- 
go,  Buffalo,  Cleveland,  Sandusky,  Toledo, 
Monroe,  Detroit,  St.  Joseph,  Chicago,  Mil 
waukee,  Racine,  and  many  smaller  ports, 
have,  like  nets,  so  to  speak,  accumulated  a 
portion  of  the  vast  wealth  that  has  rushed 
by  them  over  the  bosom  of  the  lakes.  Each 
of  these  cities  has  a  large  tonnage  employed 
in  the  transportation  of  produce  and  mer 
chandise  ;  and  that  tonnage  has  in  the  last 
few  years  received  a  new  development  by 
the  introduction  of  the  newly  constructed 
screws.  The  invention  of  Fulton  consisted 
in  the  adaptation  of  paddle-wheels  to  propel 
vessels.  The  idea  of  propelling  by  a  screw 
in  the  stern  was  quite  as  old  as  that  of  the 


SHIPS TONNAGE NAVIGATION    LAWS. 


167 


paddle-wheels ;  it  was  not,  however,  success 
fully  constructed  until,  in  1839,  after  many 
failures  by  others,  Ericsson  succeeded.  A 
small  iron  screw-steamer  was  built  and  navi 
gated  to  this  country  in  1839,  by  Capt.  Crane, 
and  she  became  a  tug  on  the  Raritan  canal. 
From  that  time,  screws  vindicated  their  value 
for  certain  purposes,  as  superior  to  paddles. 
They  have  lately  performed  so  well  as  to 
lead  to  the  impression  that  they  may  yet 
supplant  the  paddles  altogether.  This  is 
more  particularly  the  case  with  inland  navi 
gation.  The  form  of  the  screw  has  undergone 
continual  changes,  to  obviate  some  of  the 
difficulties  that  presented  themselves.  The 
model  until  recently  in  use  upon  the  lakes, 
is  the  Loper  propeller,  invented  by  Capt. 
Loper,  of  Philadelphia.  The  screw  was  cast 
in  one  piece,  and  of  a  form  that  combines 
many  advantages,  particularly  that  of  hoisting 
out  of  water  with  a  fair  wind.  Within  the 
last  three  or  four  years,  however,  a  Buffalo 
invention  has  been  introduced,  by  which  the 
engineer  may  regulate  the  "  pitch,"  or  angle 
of  the  screw  blades,  according  to  the  circum 
stances,  without  taking  up  the  screw.  These 
steam  propellers  are  obviously  of  a  nature  to 
monopolize  the  trade  of  the  lakes.  They 
make  their  trips  with  regularity  and  prompt 
ness.  There  are  now  118  on  the  lakes,  with 
a  tonnage  of  55,657;  and  68  paddle-wheels, 
tonnage  46,240.  The  great  progress  made 
in  the  last  ten  years  in  railroads,  which  have 
come  to  rival  canals  and  rivers  throughout 
the  west  and  skirting  the  lakes,  has  greatly 
affected  the  trade  in  vessels,  as  well  steam  as 
sail.  The  introduction  of  steam  lessened  the 
amount  of  tonnage,  because  steam  can  per 
form  more  voyages.  Railroads  have  again 
reduced  the  quantity  of  tonnage  required, 
because  they  run  all  winter,  and  at  all  times 
with  greater  speed.  While  this  lias  been 
taking  place,  however,  greater  facilities  for 
getting  to  sea  have  made  ship-building  on 
the  lakes  more  active.  Several  vessels  have 
been  built  at  the  lake  ports  for  Liverpool, 
going  down  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  some 
schooners  have  recently  been  built  at  Cleve 
land,  to  run  between  Boston  and  Albany 
and  Chesapeake,  bay.  Those  of  about  200 
tons  cost  $10,000.  The  advantage  of  build 
ing  on  the  lakes  consists  in  the  fact  that 
ship  plank  is  much  cheaper,  say  $20  in 
Cleveland  to  $60  in  Boston,  spars  $40 
against  $100 ;  and  the  vessel  makes  a  hand 
some  freight  in  lumber  on  the  voyage  out. 
Nevertheless,  in  the  last  two  or  three  years, 


there  has  been  a  decrease  of  lake  tonnage, 
as  well  through  the  competition  of  the  rail 
roads,  as  the  diminished  transport  of  grain, 
arising  from  the  cessation  of  the  export 
demand  for  grain.  The  wrecks,  condemna 
tions,  and  departures  for  the  ocean,  at  a  time 
when  building  is  slack,  have  decreased  the 
actual  tonnage.  This  year  the  vast  crops 
moving  require  every  available  means  of 
transportation. 

These  circumstances  of  the  increase  of  the 
western  and  lake  tonnage,  indicate  the  means 
by  which  freights  accumulated  at  the  sea 
ports  to  employ  the  ocean  or  registered 
tonnage,  had  increased  in  such  rapid  pro 
portions  in  the  last  nine  years.  The  in 
crease  from  1850  to  1858  was,  it  appears, 
637,410  tons,  while  the  sail  coasting  tonnage 
actually  declined.  The  discovery  of  Califor 
nia  gold  led  to  the  employment  of  clipper 
ships  for  quick  passages  round  the  cape,  and 
these,  under  the  pressure  of  high  freights, 
rapidly  multiplied.  In  1855,  the  number 
of  vessels  built  was  2,034,  having  a  tonnage 
of  583,450,  or  a  quantity  equal  to  the  whole 
coasting  tonnage  of  the  Union  in  1830.  The 
tonnage  increased  too  fast,  and  reaction 
overtook  it.  The  quantity  built  in  1859 
was  only  870  vessels,  of  156,602  tons.  In 
ordinary  years,  cotton  is  the  chief  freight 
of  ships,  and  the  ordinary  proportion  of 
shipping  is  as  one  ton  to  a  bale  of  cotton 
produced.  The  progress  of  the  registered 
tonnage  during  the  eight  years,  from  1851  to 
1858,  was  as  follows  : — 


REGISTERED  TONNAGE. 


1851, 
1852, 

1853, 
1854, 
1855, 
1856, 
1857, 
1858, 


Built. 

165,850 
193,021 
209,898 
320,012 
336,098 
260,676 
195,962 
96,459 


Lost 
at 

sea. 

23,149 
28,083 
33,850 
53,493 
46.149 
58.580 
63,232 
46,198 


Sold 
Condemned,    to 

foreigners. 
3,801      15,247 
2,060 
6,400 
7,448 
6,696 
6,992 
9,371 
13,699 


17,612 
10,035 
59,244 
65,887 
41,854 
61,791 
25,925 


Increase. 

123,647 

145,265 

159,613 

199,826 

218.366 

153J248 

71.567 

10,635 


The  building  under  the  clipper  fever  more 
than  doubled  from  1851  to  1855.  The  sales 
to  foreigners  have  risen  to  a  large  item.  In 
the  five  years,  1854-58,  it  amounted  to  244, 
700  tons,  or  20  per  cent,  of  the  whole  quan 
tity  built.  This,  at  an  average  of  $100  per 
ton,  amounts  to  $24,470,000,  or  yearly  aver 
age  sales  of  $4,895,000,  forming  a  considerable 
manufacture.  The  cheapened  cost  of  build 
ing  on  the  lakes  and  western  rivers  will 
transfer  to  that  region  much  of  that  trade 
The  enrolled  tonnage  has  been  as  follows : — 


168 


COMMERCE    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


1851, 
1853, 
1855, 
1857, 
1858, 


Built. 

132,353 

215,673 
247,351 
182,841 
145,827 


Lost  at  Con(lemned. 
sea. 


7,675 
11,819 
15,068 
19,257 
17,263 


2,047 
3,209 
2,138 
1,877 
2,337 


858 
378 


Increase. 

122,631 
200,645 
230,144 
160,848 
125,847 


The  amount  of  shipping  owned  in  the 
United  States,  and  engaged  in  either  foreign 
or  domestic  commerce,  reached  its  highest 
point  in  1856,  and,  after  some  remarkable 
fluctuations,  had  attained  nearly  the  same 
point  in  1861  ;  but  the  presence  of  rebel 
privateers  in  the  Atlantic,  Pacific,  and  Indian 
oceans,  during  the  war,  led  to  the  sale  or 
transfer  of  great  numbers  of  vessels  to  a 
foreign  flag.  Since  the  close  of  the  war  there 
has  been  great  activity  in  the  building  and 
purchase  of  ships,  and  three  or  four  years 
will  probably  restore  the  supremacy  of  Ameri 
can  shipping.  The  following  table  shows 
the  changes  which  have  taken  place,  since 
1850,  in  the  amount  of  shipping  engaged  in 
our  commerce.  It  has  reference  to  the  port 
of  New  York  alone,  but  gives  the  proportions 
of  foreign  and  American  shipping  very  fairly. 


Date. 

1850, 
1851, 
1855, 
1856, 
1861, 
1862, 
1864, 
1865, 


AMERICAN. 
No. 
Vessels. 

1,832 
2,353 
2,487 
2,763 
3,034 
2,693 
1,568 
1,430 


Tonnage. 

807,581 
1,144,485 
1,340,257 
1,684,597 
1,618,258 
1,472,989 
845,172 
774,459 


FOREIGN. 
No. 
Vessels. 


1,451 
1,490 
904 
1,098 
1,943 
2,713 
3,207 
3,210 


Tonnage. 

446,756 

470,567 

220,000 

386,263 

865,447 

1,079,492 

1,416,734 

1,473,815 


The  commerce  of  the  United  States,  both 
in  the  exportation  and  importation  of  goods 
and  products,  has  advanced  with  far  greater 
rapidity  than  that  of  any  other  nation  of 
Christendom.  The  following  table  shows 
the  extraordinary  rapidity  of  its  increase,  as 
compared  with  that  of  Great  Britain  and 
France,  the  two  greatest  commercial  nations 
of  the  world  : — 


NATIONAL  EXPORTS. 


Date. 
1800, 
1819, 
1829, 
1839, 
1849, 
1859, 
1860, 
1862, 
1863, 
1864, 
1865, 


United  States. 
$31,480,903 
64,974,382 
72,358,671 
121,028,416 
145,755,820 
355,894,385 
400,122,296 
229,790,280 
331,809,459 
445,791,370 
336,697,123 


Great  Britain. 
$118,413,084 
176,057,005 
179,213,115 
266,167,900 
317,980,125 
626,114,049 
664,782,635 
951,134,453 
709,010,477 
802,000,000 


Prance. 
$53,750,816 
83,095,885 
121,563,730 
188,101,247 
207,281,108 
321,182,291 
424,950,000 
819,150,000 
420,506,250 
499,218,750 


The  exports  from  the  United  States,  in 
1866,  will  probably  considerably  exceed 
$500,000,000. 

.The  exports  of  a  nation,  it  should  be  re 
membered,  are  but  a  part  of  the  surplus 
remaining  after  the  wants  of  the  people  are 
supplied  with  the  article  exported.  This  is 
particularly  the  case  with  all  agricultural  pro 
ducts,  and  the  amount  of  these  exported 
bears  often  a  very  small  proportion  to  the 
whole  crop.  Of  cotton,  fully  one-half  the 
yield  is  consumed  at  home  ;  while  of  bread 
stuff's,  the  export  in  1865  was  $53,502,511, 
and  the  total  yield  of  the  year,  in  twenty- 
one  states  and  one  small  territory  only,  was 
$360,000,000,  or  about  seven  times  the  whole 
export.  With  each  year,  too,  the  proportion 
of  manufactured  goods,  the  product  of  skill 
bestowed  upon  the  raw  material,  is  increasing; 
though  as  yet  we  are  not  so  far  free  as  we 
should  be  from  the  use  of  foreign  manufac 
tured  products ;  and  the  many  duties  which 
it  has  been  found  necessary  to  impose  upon 
foreign  manufactures,  so  far  from  diminishing 
their  consumption,  have  seemed  to  increase  it. 
The  importations  of  1866,  at  a  gold  valuation, 
were  $437,638,966,  equal  to  over  $650,000,- 
000  in  currency,  larger  than  in  any  previous 
year  of  our  history,  although  almost  every 
article  imported  pays  a  duty  of  from  thirty- 
three  to  fifty  per  cent,  on  its  prime  cost.  It 
is  a  remarkable  fact  that,  notwithstanding 
the  immense  waste  and  destruction  caused 
by  the  war,  the  wealth  of  the  country  has 
increased  at  the  average  rate  of  about  five  per 
cent,  per  annum,  and  at  the  next  decennial 
census  will  undoubtedly  exceed  twenty-five 
thousand  millions  of  dollars ;  thus  showing 
an  actual  gain  of  about  sixteen  thousand 
millions  in  the  value  of  property  in  ten  years. 
This  rate  of  gain,  continued  for  five  decades, 
or  fifty  years,  would  make  this  the  wealthiest 
nation  on  the  globe ;  and  there  is  no  reason 
to  doubt  that  it  will  not  only  be  continued, 
but  increased,  since  within  the  next  five  or  teu 
years,  with  our  Pacific  railroad  and  its  branches 
completed,  we  shall  become  the  carriers  for 
the  whole  population  of  the  globe.  Swift 
steamers  will  then  bear  the  products  of  the 
far  East  to  the  great  port  of  San  Francisco 
in  twenty  days,  or  less,  whence  they  will 
be  brought  to  New  York  in  five  days,  and 
reach  Liverpool  in  eight  days  more,  thus 
making  the  circuit  of  three-fourths  of  the  globe 
in  thirty-three  days,  while  the  Atlantic  Cable 
and  the  Russo- American  telegraph  give  instant 
communication  with  the  antipodal  markets. 


CENSUS,  1860. 

THE  FOLLOWING  TABLE  GIVES  THE  TOTAL  POPULATION  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES  ACCORDING  TO  THE  CENSUS  OP 
1860,  DISTINGUISHING  FREE  FROM  SLAVE,  SHOWING  ALSO  THE  NUMBER  OF  STATES,  THE  RANK  OF  EACH 
STATE  ACCORDING  TO  ITS  POPULATION  AND  THE  NUMBER  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  TO  WHICH  IT  IS  ENTITLED 
IN  CONGRESS,  THE  TAXABLE  VALUATION  ACCORDING  TO  THE  LATEST  RETURNS,  AND  THE  NUMBER  OP 
MILITIA  IN  EACH  STATE. 


States. 

Total  free 
population. 

Slaves. 

Represen 
tation  in 
Congress. 

Rank 
us  per 
popu 
lation. 

Yaluation. 

Militia. 

73,553 
83,533 
28,915 
161,192 
17,826 
51.630 
418,846 
81.984 
850,000 
279,809 
109,570 
257,420 
58,913 
51,321 
110,000 
24,990 
21,000 
207,730 
9,000 
46,864 
9,229 
143,155 
8,201 
79,448 
86,072 
78,699 
12,122 
76,662 
91,324 
36,084 
118,047 
88,979 
71,252 
47,450 
19,766 

619,958 
826,072 
315,877 
1,231.494 
174,621 
460,670 
3,851,668 
676,084 
2,924,501 
2,877,917 
754,291 
1,687,404 
1,370,802 
768,485 
682,002 
172,793 
143,642 
884,770 
52,566 
64(5,183 
110,548 
1,097,373 
72,093 
679,965 
808,186 
615,336 
81,885 
620,444 
854.245 
407,551 
1,085,590 
933,707 
859,528 
831,710 
415,999 
28,893 
82,060 
60,000 
11,624 
4,839 

85,382 
1,805 
495,826 
3,284 
828,877 
407,185 
467,461 
63,809 
435,473 
812,186 
479,607 
115,619 
225,902 
287.112 
109,065 
184,956 

5 
3 
8 
10 
1 
4 
30 
5 
23 
19 
6 
13 
11 
6 
5 
1 
1 
8 
1 
6 
1 
11 

"i 

4 

7. 
1 
6 
4 
6 
9 
8 
'8 
3 
4 

22 
27 
28 
7 
29 
24 
1 
20 
2 
8 
16 
4 
6 
15 
19 
80 
82 
26 
86 
17 
83 
5 
35 
12 
IS 
11 
31 
18 
21 
14 
8 
9 
10 
25 
28 
88 
84 
87 
89 
40 

$162,472,914 
103,804,326 
86,775,213 
597,936.995 
111,175,174 
211,187,683 
1,404,907,679 
281.333.349 
508,770,234 
840,800,031 
120.362,474 
407,477,367 
818,204,904 
152,537.700 
197.223,350 
781,100 
679,240 
131,306,269 
1,981,101 
255,477,588 
80,466.924 
730,817,653 
20,271,000 
271,781,101 
214,101,20? 
837,969,471 
22,216,915 
201,100,100 
878,911,905 
161,747,536 
274,965,164 
834,770,701 
266,249,384 
53,255,711 
188,722,688 

New  Hampshire  

Rhode  Island  

Pennsylvania  

Ohio     

Michigan  

California  

Maryland  

Delaware  

Virginia  

District  of  Columbia  '.  

North  Carolina  

South  Carolina  

Georgia  

Florida  

Alabama  

Louisiana  

Mississippi  

Missouri  

Kentucky  

Tennessee  

Arkansas  !  

Texas     

Nebraska  

New  Mexico  

Utah  

Washington  

Dakotah  

Total  

27,678,271 

4,00-2,996 

234 

$9,812,404,850 

3,303,811 

It  will  bo  observed  that  the  figures  fur  the  total  population  do  not  quite  agree  with  those  in  vol.  i.,  p.  160,  for  the  year  1860. 
This  arises  from  the  fict  that  after  that  table  was  printed  a  revision  took  place  in  the  official  tables.  The  column  of  valu 
ations,  it  will  be  borne  in  mind,  is  that  of  the  several  States,  each  for  its  own  taxation  purposes,  and  each  on  its  own 
peculiar  basis.  The  figures  do  not  therefore  give  relative  values  between  the  States. 


PRINCIPAL  CITIES  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  INCLUDING  ONLY  THOSE  WITH  A  POPU 
LATION  OF  OVER  50,000  IN  1860. 


Name. 

1790. 

1800. 

1810. 

1820. 

1S80. 

1840. 

1850. 

1860. 

83  181 

60  489 

96373 

123  706 

208  007 

lirooklyn     

8298 

4402 

7  175 

12  042 

86  233 

Williamsburg  

1  620 

5  680 

80*780  ! 

273,325 

Hoston  

IS  033 

24027 

82250 

48298 

61  372 

93  388 

Baltimore  

18503 

26614 

46*555 

62  788 

80  625 

102  313 

169  054 

Philadelphia  

42520 

70  287 

96664 

108  116 

167  188 

258  037 

750 

2540 

9  644 

24831 

46  338 

Chicago  

4  479 

Louisville  

1857 

4012 

10352 

21  210 

43  194 

Newark  

6507 

10958 

17  290 

88  894 

72  0'V> 

New  Orleans  

17,242 

27  196 

46  310 

102  198 

116  8*5 

170  766 

St.  Louis  

4893 

5  852 

16469 

77  860 

160  *>77 

Buffalo  

1  508 

2095 

8653 

IS  °18 

42  261 

81  541 

8.210 

8.203 

13.247 

1S.S27 

23.36i 

4  1.1  H»0 

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ij  General  1 

TRAVEL   AND   TRANSPORTATION, 

STEAM   ENGINES, 
MANUFACTURES,   MACHINERY,  &c. 


IMPROVEMENTS  IN  TRAVEL  AND   TRANSPORTATION   ILLUSTRATED. 


TRAVEL  AND  TRANSPORTATION. 


CHAPTER  I. 

EARLY  ROADS— POST  ROADS— MACADAM- 
NATIONAL. 

OF  all  the  marvels  that  have  marked  the 
present  century,  those  which  manifest  them 
selves  in  the  development  of  the  means  of 
locomotion  and  transportation  are  among 
the  most  wonderful.  With  the  emancipation 
of  the  states  from  their  colonial  condition, 
and  the  formation  of  a  federal  government, 
a  most  extraordinary  activity  seems  to  have 
been  imparted  to  the  inventive  faculties 
of  the  American  people,  and  to  which  side 
soever  we  direct  our  attention,  we  find 
that  all  the  great  and  useful  creations  of 
genius  take  date  from  that  auspicious  event. 
The  art  of  transportation  has,  as  it  were, 
been  created.  Not  that  our  fathers  were  not 
possessed  of  the  means  of  transportation  by 
land  or  water,  but  those  means  were  so  im 
measurably  below  those  now  in  use,  thatitmay 
be  fairly  claimed  that  a  new  art  has  been 
created.  When  our  fathers  landed  on  these 
shores,  it  is  easily  understood  that  they 
found  no  roads,  or  carriages,  or  other  means 
of  moving  from  one  place  to  another.  In 
deed,  the  countries  they  had  left  were  at 
that  time  but  poorly  provided  with  such 
means,  as  compared  with  what  they  have  at 
present. 

The  first  attempts  to  exchange  the  prod 
ucts  of  labor,  which  mark  the  nascent  com 
merce  of  a  people  emerging  from  barba 
rism,  are  developed  through  manual  labor, 
and  the  application  of  the  strength  of  ani 
mals  in  a  rude  and  imperfect  way.  The 
peddler  with  his  pack,  and  progressively  his 
pack-horse,  are  the  instruments  of  intercourse 
in  an  infant  society.  From  village  to  vil 
lage,  pathways  are  formed,  wheel -carriages 
are  invented  to  gather  the  fruits  of  harvests, 
and  they  wear  their  own  paths  upon  the  sur 
face  of  the  soil,  and  finally  the  road  is  con 
structed,  more  or  less  perfect,  as  a  means  of 
transport  between  places  more  or  less  dis 


tant.  In  such  a  state  of  affairs  the  roads 
are  very  imperfect,  and  the  carriages  of  the 
rudest  description.  It  is  conceivable  that 
the  first  step  from  the  pack-horse  and  its 
pathway,  to  the  two-wheeled  cart  and  a  road 
was  a  very  great  advance — nearly  as  much 
as  from  the  road  to  the  railway.  And  this 
improvement  has  by  no  means  been  of  so 
distant  a  date  as  at  first  we  might  imagine. 
Not  only  is  the  construction  of  good  roads 
of  very  recent  date,  but  up  to  the  present 
moment  a  very  large  portion  of  the  world 
called  civilized  is  without  them.  Certain 
parts  of  Europe,  the  French  colony  of  Algiers, 
and  the  United  States  alone  possess  them. 
In  other  words,  but  little  more  than  one- 
quarter  of  the  inhabited  part  of  the  globe 
is  provided  with  roads.  In  China  a  large  part 
of  the  internal  land  transportation  is  upon 
human  backs.  With  the  exception  of  one  or 
two  important  communities,  the  extensive 
empire  of  Russia,  with  60,000,000  inhabi 
tants,  is  without  roads ;  communication  is 
kept  up  only  in  the  winter,  when  the  ground  is 
frozen,  by  sledges.  Spain  is  little  better  off 
than  Russia,  and  Italy  has  few  of  such  im 
provements. 

The  condition  of  affairs  in  this  country 
before  the  construction  of  roads  is  evident 
to  the  hardy  pioneers  of  the  western  fron 
tier,  and  has  been  at  times  common  to  every 
part  of  the  country.  The  first  settlers  on 
arriving  here,  it  is  certain,  found  no  roads, 
and  were  not  skilled  in  following  an  Indian 
trail.  They  built  their  houses  upon  the 
summits  of  hills,  as  well  to  avoid  the  mias 
mata  of  swamps  as  to  get  notice  of  the  ap 
proach  of  hostile  savages.  The  connection 
between  these  houses  was  by  foot-paths  that 
became  horse  tracks,  and  with  the  progress 
of  events  were  enlarged  into  wagon  roads. 
These,  ultimately  fenced  in,  became  the  high 
ways,  running  irregularly  over  the  face  of 
the  country,  as  they  were  prolonged  by  settle 
ments.  The  science  of  road  making  never 
guided  their  direction,  nor  would  farmers 


EARLY  ROADS — POST  ROADS MACADAM NATIONAL. 


1V3 


permit  the  squareness  of  their  fields  to  give 
place  to  tho  straightncss  of  roads.  These 
highways  are  made  in  the  general  idea  of 
making  the  passage  of  a  vehicle  'between 
any  two  given  points  possible,  and  various 
expedients  arc  resorted  to,  to  overcome  ob 
stacles  at  the  smallest  expense.  The  plough 
turns  up  the  sides,  and  the  scraper  draws  the 
earth  to  the  summit,  which  is  levelled  off  to 
be  hardened  by  travel.  The  reduction  of 
hills  or  the  lilling  in  of  swamps  is  not  resorted 
to  in  new  settlements,  but  the  latter  are 
mostly  made  passable  by  laying  down  logs 
across  the  track,  and  parallel  with  each 
other.  This  (corduroy]  road  is  better  than  a 
swamp,  but  offers  so  great  resistance  that  a 
far  less  load  can  be  drawn  over  it  than  over 
a  smooth,  level  road.  The  roads  of  the 
whole  country,  encountering  these  natural 
difficulties,  took  their  character  from  their 
location,  and  transportation  in  each  district 
was  more  or  less  difficult,  according  to  cir 
cumstances.  The  best  roads  of  the  day 
were  such  as  would  now  nowhere  be  tol 
erated;  as  a  general  thing,  the  water-courses, 
so  abundant  in  the  country,  were  the  main 
arteries,  and  most  roads  were  directed  toward 
these,  or  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  large  city 
they  converged  upon  it  as  a  common  centre. 
The  number  of  even  these  roads  at  the 
date  of  the  formation  of  the  government 
was  not  large,  nor  was  their  quality  to  be 
admired.  The  streams  and  water-courses 
were  well  supplied  with  small  craft,  that 
delivered  goods  and  produce  between  distant 
points,  but  where  the  route  left  the  water,  the 
transportation  became  difficult  and  expen 
sive.  The  war  and  its  success  had  deeply 
stirred  the  public  mind,  and  imparted  full 
activity  to  the  independent  genius  and  en 
terprise  of  the  people.  Those  3,000,000 
of  souls  occupied,  as  it  were,  but  a  foothold 
on  this  immense  continent,  to  the  ultimate 
possession  of  the  whole  of  which  they  al 
ready  looked  forward.  The  means  of  trans 
portation  were  the  first  object  and  desire 
that  presented  themselves  to  thinking  men. 
Steam,  as  a  power  of  locomotion,  was  un 
known,  and  the  science  of  road  making 
little  developed.  Canals,  therefore,  pre 
sented  themselves  almost  simultaneously  to 
leading  men  in  various  sections.  General 
Washington  had,  before  he  attained  his 
twenty-first  year,  crossed  the  mountains  and 
given  his  careful  attention  as  an  engineer  to 
the  subject  of  canals,  more  particularly  the 
connection  of  the  Chesapeake  with  the  Ohio 

11 


river.  At  a  subsequent  period  he  received 
the  thanks  of  the  Virginia  House  for  his 
report  on  the  results  of  his  examination  of 
the  valley  of  the  Ohio.  And  the  war  had  no 
sooner  closed  than  we  find  him,  in  1784,  pre 
siding  at  a  commission  sitting  at  Annapolis, 
on  behalf  of  Maryland  and  Virginia,  to  con 
sider  the  improvement  of  the  navigation  of  f 
the  Potomac,  which  improvement  ultimate-; 
ly,  in  after  years,  became  a  canal  to  Pittsburg. 
General  Washington,  as  an  engineer,  always' 
took  an  active  interest  in  works  of  internal 
improvement.  When  the  Dismal  Swamp 
canal,  connecting  the  Chesapeake,  at  Nor 
folk,  Va.,  with  Edenton,  Albernarle  Sound, 
North  Carolina,  a  distance  of  28  miles, 
through  the  vast  Dismal  Swamp,  was  project 
ed  and  executed  at  the  expense  of  individuals 
with  some  government  aid,  he  took  some 
of  the  stock.  One  certificate  of  this  stock, 
originally  issued  to  him  for  £300,  or  $1,000, 
was  sold  in  1825,  at  auction,  in  Alexandria, 
for  $12,100,  to  Judge  Washington.  Penn 
sylvania,  nearly  at  the  same  time,  appointed 
commissioners  to  explore  routes  for  connect 
ing  the  Delaware  with  the  lakes.  They 
reported  in  favor  of  the  Juniata,  partly  by 
canal  and  partly  by  river.  The  result  was  a 
charter  of  the  Schuylkill  and  Susquehanna 
Company,  in  1789,  and  the  Delaware  and 
Schuylkill  in  the  following  year,  with  $400,- 
000  capital.  In  New  York  the  active  mind 
of  Gouverneur  Morris  had  already  projected 
the  Erie  canal.  In  Massachusetts,  the  Mid 
dlesex  canal,  30  miles,  was  authorized  in 
1789,  and  navigated  in  1804.  In  South 
Carolina  the  Santee  canal  was  finished  in 
1 802.  These,  with  many  other  events,  show 
the  activity  of  the  public  mind  at  the  date 
of  the  birth  of  the  Union,  in  relation  to 
means  of  transportation.  It  will  be  re 
membered,  however,  that  the  people  were 
then  few  in  number.  They  were  heavily  in 
debt.  Their  productions  were  small  and 
trade  limited.  There  was  no  surplus  capital 
to  carry  out  those  magnificent  ideas,  which 
were  in  advance  of  the  times,  The  natural 
water-courses  of  the  country  ran  through 
the  finest  farms  and  delivered  most  of  the 
produce  upon  noble  bays,  which  were  well 
provided  with  ships  to  transport  it  abroad 
for  sale.  This  natural  traffic  absorbed  all 
the  commercial  capital  of  the  country,  but 
it  was  so  profitable  that  in  the  course  of  a 
few  years  it  supplied  accumulation*  for 
other  objects,  and  it  was  left  for  a  few  years 
later  to  witness  the  prosecution  of  great  en- 


174 


TRAVEL    AND    TRANSPORTATION. 


terprises.  The  roads  of  the  country  were  in 
a  terrible  state,  however,  and  since  the  new 
constitution  had  empowered  Congress  to 
establish  post-offices  and  post-roads  for  the 
conveyance  of  the  mails,  it  became  its  duty 
to  look  to  the  roads,  and  this  was  the  first 
practical  bond  of  union  between  the  states. 


A  systematic  connection  of  every  town  in  the 
whole  thirteen  states,  by  state  routes  under 
one  organization,  completed  the  means  of 
communication  and  established  passenger 
routes.  The  statistics  of  the  post-office 
afford  a  very  good  indication  of  the  progress 
of  that  kind  of  transportation  : — 


MAIL    SERVICE. 


1791 

No.  of 
post  offices 
89 

Miles 
.  post  roads. 
1,905 
37,031 
115,176 
260,052 

By  stages.  Sulkies  and  horses.  Steam. 
Miles.                Miles.               Miles. 
89,650          756,818 
2,534,102       3,058,960 
17,693,839       8,531,909        628,737 
23,448,398     27,021,658     4,569,962 

1811 

2,403 

1833 

8,450 

1859 

27,977 

Rail. 
Miles. 


This  table  gives  the  transportation  of  the 
mail  in   the  first  year  of  its  operation ;    in 
1811,   when  steamboats  began  to  run;  in 
1833,  when  railroads  began  to  claim  a  share  ; 
and  in  the  past  year,  when  all  these  means 
have  been  more  fully  developed  in  all  sec 
tions  of  the  country.     There  are  thus  three 
distinct  periods  of  transportation  :   1790  to 
1810  were  20  years  of  common  roads  and 
sail  vessels;  from   1810  to    1830   were    20 
years  of  canals  and  steamboat  progress  ;  and 
since  1830  there  have  been  30  years  of  rail 
road  progress,  which  has  produced  immense 
results,  throwing  an  entire  net-work  over  the 
surface  of  the   country  between  the  Atlantic 
and  the  Mississippi,  and  superseding  other 
means  of  transportation.     It   is   to    be   ob 
served  that  in  the  first  year  of  the  opera 
tions    of  the  post-office    department,  there 
were   but    1,905    miles    of  post-roads,   and 
that  on  these,  nine-tenths  of  the  service  was 
on  horseback .   the  stage   service  being  very 
small ;  but  as  the  roads  were  improved  up 
to  1811,  the  stage  service  came  nearly  to 
equal  the   horse    service.     From  that  date 
steam  began  to  take  the  mails  that  ran  on  or 
near   water- courses,    and     subsequently    to 
1830   the  railroads  began  to  compete  with 
the  stages  on  land ;  since  that  time  the  stage 
service  has  increased  but  six  millions,  while 
in   the  previous  20  years  it  had  increased 
over  fifteen  millions  of  miles.     The  extension 
of  post  routes   has   been   in   70   years,  it 
appears,   over   258,000   miles  in  the  whole 
country,  and   the   federal   government   has 
taken  an  active  part   in   the  extension  of 
roads.     The   most   important  work  of  this 
kind  undertaken  was  the   Cumberland    or 
national   route   across   Ohio,   Indiana,    and 
Illinois   to    St.   Louis.      For   this   purpose, 
large  annual  appropriations  were  made  by 
Congress.     Other  roads  in  many  directions 
were  projected,  particularly  from  Washing- 


Annual. 

Miles. 
846.468 
5,592,652 
26,854,485 
86,308,402 

ton  to  New  Orleans  ;  and  in  the  frontier 
states,  numerous  roads  were  constructed  by 
the  troops  under  the  direction  of  the  war 
department. 

It  was  thus  that  the  federal  government 
imitated  imperial  Rome,  which  in  the  days 
of  its  power  clearly  understood  that  that 
power  was  to  be  maintained  only  by  the  rap 
id  march  of  its  legions.  From  the  "  eternal 
city,"  noble  causeways  ran  to  the  remotest 
corners  of  the  then  world.  These  were  mili 
tary  routes  simply,  and  intelligence  was  con 
veyed  upon  them  from  station  to  station  with 
great  rapidity.  On  the  fall  of  the  empire, 
those  noble  works,  instead  of  being  preserv 
ed  for  the  uses  of  commerce,  were  in  a  great 
measure  demolished  by  small  states,  as  a 
means  of  preventing  invasion.  Nevertheless, 
those  Roman  roads  remained  the  best  roads 
in  England  clown  to  the  present  century. 
What  is  called  Ermine  street  connected  Lon 
don  with  Carlisle,  in  Cumberland.  Another  is 
known  as  Watling  street.  Apart  from 
those  old  works,  the  roads  of  England  were 
no  better  than  those  of  this  country  up  to 
the  present  century.  In  this  respect  there 
is  great  difference  between  the  works  of  the 
Romans  and  those  of  the  United  States. 
Those  old  Roman  roads  had  no  competitors. 
During  1,400  years  they  continued  the 
best  means  of  conveyance.  The  United 
States  roads,  on  the  other  hand,  were  hardly 
done  before  the  inventive  spirit  of  the  age 
set  up  a  successful  rival  in  the  giant  railway, 
which  has  become  the  trunk  road.  The 
French  government,  under  the  empire,  saw 
the  necessity  of  roads,  and  began  a  system 
for  Europe.  The  noble  way  over  the  Sim- 
plon  was  the  first  of  these.  With  the  fall 
of  the  empire  that  system  became  confined 
to  France,  but  has  since  been  vigorously 
pushed — $20,000,000  per  annum  was  ex 
pended  for  many  years  iu  their  construction. 


EARLY  ROADS — POST  ROADS — MACADAM — NATIONAL. 


175 


There  were  in  1815,  3,000  leagues  of  "roy 
al"  roads,  and  these  had  increased  to  10,000 
in  1850.  2,000  leagues  of  departmental,  or 
county  roads  had,  in  the  same  time,  increas 
ed  to  12,100,  and  town  roads  were  extended 
by  15,000  leagues.  These  extended  means 
of  communication  have  imparted  to  French 
prosperity  much  of  its  strength. 

In  the  United  States  the  impulse  given  to 
road  building  by  the  federal  government  was 
taken  up  by  the  several  states,  if  not  direct 
ly  at  the  public  expense,  yet  by  laws  which 
compel  inhabitants  to  work  on  the  local 
roads.  These  regulations  are  different  in 
different  states.  The  essential  features  of  all 
the  laws  are  nearly  the  same  as  in  the  state 
of  New  York,  where  the  directing  power  is 
in  "  commissioners  of  highways,"  who  are 
chosen  in  each  town.  Under  these  over 
seers  are  also  chosen.  The  commissioners 
direct  as  to  the  grade  of  the  road,  general 
shape,  drainage,  etc.  The  overseers  sum 
mon  the  persons  wjio  are  to  work,  see  that 
they  do  actually  work,  collect  fines  and  com 
mutation  money.  Every  person  owning  land, 
and  every  male  over  twenty-one  years,  is  as 
sessed  to  work.  The  whole  number  of  days' 
work  shall  be  at  least  three  times  the  num 
ber  of  inhabitants  in  each  town.  Under  this 
system  the  roads  are  never  very  good.  The 
commissioners  work  gratuitously,  and  skill, 
labor,  and  time  are  never  to  be  had  for  that 
price.  The  overseers,  being  changed  every 
year,  are  never  experienced  in  the  undertak 
ing.  The  men  they  summon  go  to  it  as  a  half 
holiday,  and  the  work  the  overseer  sets  them 
at  is  pretty  sure  to  be  that  which  most  bene 
fits  his  own  place.  The  money  subscribed  is 
not  expended  in  the  best  manner.  These 
are  all  circumstances  which  do  not  favor  the 
construction  of  such  roads  as  will  greatly 
reduce  the  cost  of  transportation.  In  the 
laying  out  of  the  road  in  this  way,  a  passa 
ble  track  is  the  most  aimed  at. 

To  admit  vehicles,  the  track  must  be 
cleared  of  wood  by  the  ax-men,  swamps  must 
be  overlaid  with  materials,  rivers  bridged, 
and  the  route  laid  around  hills  in  order 
to  avoid  the  difficulties  of  ascent.  These 
are  the  main  points  to  make  a  road  practica 
ble.  It  is  very  soon  discovered  that  trans 
portation  on  a  bad  road  is  much  more  ex 
pensive  than  on  a  good,  and  efforts  are  ac 
cordingly  made  by  the  most  enterprising  to 
improve  the  bad  roads.  The  first  step  is  to 
make  the  roads  in  such  a  manner  as  to  ac 
commodate  the  greatest  number  of  people, 


and  at  the  same  time  allow  the  largest  loads 
to  be  drawn  by  horses.  The  better  the  road 
the  larger  will  be  the  load  that  a  team,  or  two 
horses,  can  draw  at  a  given  speed,  and  of 
course,  the  cheaper  the  transportation.  It  is 
to  be  understood,  however,  that  the  road 
must  be  equally  good  for  the  whole  distance 
that  a  load  is  to  be  drawn,  since  if  there  is  a 
space  where  great  difficulties  are  to  be  en 
countered,  the  load  must  be  gauged  to  meet 
that  difficulty,  no  matter  ho\v  good  may  be 
the  remainder  of  the  road.  If  a  highroad 
leading  through  one  township  is  not  kept  up, 
it  neutralizes  the  public  spirit  of  those  ad 
joining  ;  hence  the  necessity  of  a  general 
system  to  insure  continuous  cheap  transpor 
tation.  To  effect  this,  science  has  devoted  its  , 
attention,  but  with  little  effect  in  the  man 
ner  that  country  roads  are  made  and  kept  in 
repair.  The  requisites  of  a  road  are:  1st, 
straightness,  because  straight  lines  are  the 
shortest ;  2d,  it  should  be  as  level  as 
possible,  because  every  ascent  causes  a  loss 
of  power.  Thus,  if  a  horse  draws  on  an  or 
dinary  level  road  two  tons,  and  comes  to  an 
ascent  of  one  foot  in  every  twenty,  he  can 
not  ascend,  because,  in  addition  to  the 
draught,  he  must  lift  up  200  pounds,  or  one- 
twentieth  of  the  whole  weight  through  the 
whole  height.  To  make  the  road  level,  and 
save  this  labor  and  expense,  the  road  must 
wind  round  the  hill.  There  is  little  lost  by 
this,  because  generally  it  is  no  further  round 
than  over.  To  prove  this,  cut  an  egg  in  half 
longitudinally,  and  set  it  upon  the  table  ;  the 
line  which  goes  round  the  base  is  the  same 
as  that  which  goes  over  the  top.  The  half 
of  an  apple  or  any  similar  body  will  give  the 
same  result.  Even  jf  it  were  longer,  it  is 
better  to  go  round,  since  the  horse  can  do 
the  last  and  not  the  other.  The  road  should 
never  be  less  than  a  rod  wide,  to  allow  two 
vehicles  to  pass.  The  surface  of  the  road 
must  be  as  smooth  and  hard  as  possible,  in 
order  to  overcome  as  much  as  possible  the 
resistance  offered  by  sinking  in,  which  is 
very  serious,  because  the  depression  creates 
little  hills  before  the  wheels.  Thus,  if  a 
wheel  four  feet  in  diameter  sinks  in  one 
inch,  to  overcome  the  resistance  thus  offered 
one-seventh  of  the  load  would  require  to  be 
lifted  up  over  it.  The  harder  the  road,  the 
less  the  resistance  from  this  source.  The 
greater  the  number  of  stones,  hard  substan 
ces,  and  inequalities  there  are  to  be  encoun 
tered,  the  greater  the  resistance  from  colli 
sion.  The  resistance  of  friction  is  propor- 


176 


TRAVEL    AND    TRANSPORTATION. 


tional  to  the  roughness  of  the  road,  and  the 
extremes  of  this  may  be  illustrated  by  a  car 
riage  wheel  on  gravel  and  a  rail  wheel.  The 
loss  of  power  on  a  road,  or  in  other  words, 
the  cost  of  transportation,  is  increased  in 
proportion  to  the  increase  of  these  resist 
ances,  and  inversely  as  they  are  diminished. 
To  overcome  them  many  improvements  have 
been  gradually  adopted,  such  as  earth,  gravel, 
broken  stone,  stone  pavements,  wood,  and 
railroads. 

In  marshy  forests  charcoal  roads  are 
made.  Timber  from  6  to  1 8  inches  thick  is 
cut,  24  feet  long,  and  piled  up  lengthwise  in 
the  centre  of  the  road  in  such  a  manner  that 
the  pile  will  be  about  12  feet  high.  This  is  cov 
ered  with  earth,  taken  from  ditches  on  either 
side.  When  the  wood  is  charred,  the  coal 
is  raked  down  to  the  width  of  10  feet,  with  a 
depth  of  two  feet  in  the  centre  and  one  at  the 
side.  Such  a  road  becomes  very  compact, 
and  free  from  dust.  Such  a  one  in  Michigan 
cost  $660  per  mile. 

In  the  older  states  mostly  plank  roads 
were  at  one  time  favorites,  and  many  hun 
dreds  of  miles  were  constructed  at  a  cost  of 
$1,250  per  mile.  This  plan  has  been  gen 
erally  abandoned.  The  roads  not  kept  up 
are  a  nuisance,  and  many  have  been  com 
plained  of,  and  removed  as  such. 

Gravel  roads  have  sometimes  been  made 
with  the  gravel  from  the  shores  of  rivers,  but 
the  resistance  offered  by  these  roads  is  con 
siderable. 

The  modes  of  road  making  here  alluded 
to,  are  those  which  are  prevalent  mostly  in 
the  country  districts,  and  where  the  work  is 
performed  as  a  tax.  These  answer  for  cross 
roads ;  but  the  great  thoroughfares  were 
taken  in  hand  either  by  the  state  or  by  au 
thorized  companies. 

Turnpike  companies  were  chartered  by 
most  of  the  states,  with  the  intention  that 
they  should  construct  roads  having  all  the 
requisites  of  the  best  routes,  and  they  were 
authorized  to  make  a  charge  to  those  who  use 
them.  These,  like  most  corporations,  were 
subject  to  abuse  ;  and  the  people  were  com 
pelled  to  pay  tolls  when  they  had  gained  noth 
ing  in  the  way  of  easier  transportation.  New 
England,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  other 
states,  authorized  a  number  of  companies 
which  answered  a  purpose  before  railroads. 
The  New  York  turnpike  laws  enact  that  ve 
hicles  having  tires  six  inches  wide  shall  pay 
half  tolls,  those  with  nine  inches,  one  quar 
ter,  and  those  12  inches,  none  at  all.  These 


enactments  were  designed  to  encourage  the 
use  of  broad  tires,  as  being  less  destructive 
to  roads,  but  where  the  road  is  well  made,  as 
on  the  Macadam  plan,  the  breadth  of  the 
tire  has  no  effect ;  on  the  other  hand,  the 
horses'  feet  do  the  most  damage.  It  has 
been  calculated  that  a  set  of  tires  will,  in. 
average  weather,  on  a  macadamized  road, 
run  2,700  miles,  but  that  a  set  of  shoes  will 
bear  only  200  miles  travel. 

The  Macadam  road,  invented  by  a  Scotch 
gentleman  of  that  name,  was  introduced  in 
1820.  The  principle  is  simply  that  stones 
broken  into  angular  fragments  not  over  a 
certain  size,  say  that  of  a  pigeon's  egg,  will, 
under  the  pressure  of  wheels,  combine  into 
a  compact  mass,  excluding  all  water,  and, 
therefore,  not  subject  to  the  action  of  frost, 
and  be  as  solid  as  the  original  stone.  These 
have  proved  to  be  the  best  roads,  an 
swering  most  of  the  conditions,  and,  there 
fore,  allowing  of  transportation  at  the  small 
est  cost.  Good,  well-made  pavements,  as 
used  in  cities,  are  better,  since  they  give  lit 
tle  resistance,  and  afford  a  foothold  to  the 
horses.  In  order  to  understand  the  differ 
ence  in  value  of  these  roads,  it  may  be  re 
marked  that  a  machine  has  been  invented 
called  a  dynamometer.  It  resembles  a  spring 
balance ;  one  end  is  connected  with  the  car 
riage,  and  the  other  with  the  horses,  and  the 
power  they  exert  is  shown  by  the  index. 
By  such  an  instrument  it  was  determined 
that,  on  a  gravel  and  earth  road,  the  resist 
ance  to  draught  of  one  ton  was  147  Ibs. ;  on  a 
Macadam  road,  65  Ibs. ;  on  a  good  pave 
ment,  33  Ibs.  ;  and  on  a  rail  track,  8  Ibs. 
Whence  it  appears  that  a  horse  can  draw 
three  times  as  much  on  a  Macadam  road  as 
on  an  earth  road  ;  on  a  pavement,  four  and  a 
half  times  as  much ;  on  a  railway,  eighteen 
times  as  much. 

These  figures  indicate  the  gradual  advance 
made  in  the  power  of  transportation,  since 
the  roads,  under  the  action  of  the  state  and 
federal  government,  and  of  the  enterprising 
towns  and  cities,  gradually  improved  from 
mere  wagon  ways  to  well-constructed  roads 
in  those  sections  where  land  carriage  was 
most  used.  W'hile  individuals,  companies,  and 
states  thus  contributed  to  the  improvement 
of  roads,  the  federal  government  entered 
the  field  with  greater  vigor. 

There  were  two  motives  for  the  construc 
tion  of  roads  and  internal  improvements  by 
the  federal  government.  The  first  was  to 
facilitate  the  mails ;  and  the  second  was  to 


EARLY  KOADS POST  ROADS — MACADAM — NATIONAL. 


177 


facilitate  communication.  It  was  obvious 
that  the  new  and  infant  states  had  little 
means  to  expend  in  the  construction  of 
roads  that  were  to  be  more  or  less  for  the 
general  benefit.  The  government,  therefore, 
in  organizing  new  states  upon  the  national 
territory,  made  provision  for  the  construc 
tion  of  roads  out  of  the  proceeds  of  the  pub 
lic  lands  sold  within  each  state.  The  gov 
ernment  everywhere  constructed  numerous 
roads,  and  after  the  war  of  1812,  when  its 
finances  began  to  be  easy,  it  employed  the 
French  General  Bernard  and  a  corps  of  en 
gineers  in  the  construction  of  fortifications 
and  roads.  Among  these  engineers  was  Capt. 
Poussin.  This  gentleman  went  back  to 
France,  carrying  with  him  the  republican 
ideas  here  collected.  He  there  propagated 
them  with  such  effect  that  he  was,  in  1848, 
when  the  Revolution  chased  the  last  Bourbon 
from  the  throne,  attached  to  the  Paris  Na 
tional,  the  republican  newspaper,  and  be 
came,  in  consequence,  ambassador  of  the 
provisional  government  to  the  United  States 
in  1849.  Thus,  after  the  lapse  of  a  quarter 
of  a  century,  returning  to  the  scene  of  his 
early  labors. 

When  the  state  of  Ohio  was  admitted  into 
the  Union,  there  were  -very  few  roads  there, 
and  the  federal  government  was  the  chief  pro 
prietor  of  the  land.  It  was  agreed,  therefore, 
that  two  per  cent,  of  the  proceeds  of  the  land 
sold  should  be  applied  to  the  making  of  a 
road  leading  to  the  state.  The  same  condi 
tion  was  made  when  Indiana,  Illinois,  Mis 
souri,  Mississippi,  and  Alabama  were  ad 
mitted,  and  the  road  was  commenced.  A 
turnpike  road  from  Baltimore,  170  miles  to 
Wheeling,  was  laid  out,  and  a  similar  road 
from  Washington,  150  miles  to  Cumberland 
was  constructed.  From  that  point  the  Cum 
berland  road  runs  135  miles  to  the  east  bank 
of  the  Ohio  ;  of  this  distance,  85  miles  are  in 
Pennsylvania,  35  in  Maryland,  and  15  in  Vir 
ginia.  This  was  extended  west  80  miles  to 
Zanesville,  and  so  through  the  states  of  Ohio, 
Indiana,  and  Illinois,  to  St.  Louis.  The 
road  has  cost  the  government  over  $3,500,- 
000.  Its  effect  upon  transportation  was 
very  great.  Before  its  construction  it  re 
quired,  to  go  from  Baltimore  to  Wheeling, 
8  days.  This  was  reduced  to  3  days.  The 
figures  were  the  same  for  the  length  of 
travel  from  Washington  to  Wheeling.  Its 
influence  upon  the  country  through  which  it 
ran  was  great.  Villages  multiplied  in  its 
neighborhood,  and  the  value  of  property 


was  much  enhanced.  The  city  of  Wheeling 
was  particularly  influenced  by  it.  In  the  year 
1828  it  forwarded  to  Baltimore  over  that 
road  3,500,000  Ibs.  or  1,750  tons  of  prod 
uce,  by  over  1,000  wagons.  Anticipations 
were  then  indulged  that  a  small  reduction 
in  the  cost  of  transport  would  bring  100,000 
tons  of  Ohio  produce  over  the  road  to  Bal 
timore.  They  did  not  then  foresee  that  the 
reduction  in  cost  would  be  brought  about 
only  by  rails  to  Baltimore. 

The  Cumberland  road  by  no  means  monop 
olized  the  attention  of  Congress,  but  roads 
were  constructed  in  most  of  the  states  under 
the  war  department,  and  in  the  new  states 
the  army  was  employed  in  making  them. 
Some  800  miles  were  thus  made  in  Arkansas. 
We  may  allude  to  a  few  of  these  roads,  as 
that  to  Mars  Hill,  Maine ;  Detroit  to  Fort  Gra- 
tiot,  Michigan  ;  do.  to  Saginaw  bay  ;  do.  to 
Chicago  ;  Laplaisance  bay  to  the  Chicago 
road ;  Fort  Howard  and  Fort  Crawford ; 
road  to  Chattahoochee ;  canal  surveys  in 
Florida  ;  road  to  Apalachicola;  Pensacola  hav 
to  Pittsburg,  Miss. ;  road  from  Jackson  to  Ful- 
top,  Mississippi ;  Memphis  to  Little  Hock ; 
Green  bay  to  Winnebago.  These  few  names 
of  roads  spreading  from  Maine  to  Arkan 
sas  and  Florida  will  give  an  idea  of  the  ex 
tended  works  of  the  government,  which  also 
embraced  removing  obstructions  of  rivers 
and  improving  river  navigation.  A  grand 
system  of  internal  improvements  was  thus 
developed,  until  its  growing  magnitude  made 
it  a  political  issue,  and  the  whole  system 
came  to  an  end  under  the  Maysville  road 
veto  of  General  Jackson.  The  principle  was 
adopted  by  one  party,  that  the  federal  gov 
ernment  had  no  power  to  construct  any  but 
strictly  national  works,  or  not  any  that  were 
entirely  within  a  single  state.  The  system 
thus  came  to  a  violent  end,  after  an  expendi 
ture  of  some  $30,000,000,  but  not  until  rail 
roads  had  begun  already  to  supersede  canals 
and  roads.  The  federal  government  had 
thus  lent  a  powerful  hand  to  the  extension 
of  highways.  The  great  thoroughfares  that  it 
had  laid  open  had  facilitated  migration  and 
settlement,  and  wherever  these  had  taken 
place,  local  roads  multiplied,  until  we  find 
that  in  the  present  year  there  are  260,052 
miles  of  post-road  in  the  Union. 

The  mails  of  the  government  were  given 
out  by  contract  to  the  highest  bidder  for 
four  years'  service.  The  whole  mail  service 
was  divided  into  sections,  north,  east,  west, 
and  south,  each  being  let  for  four  years,  but 


178 


TRAVEL    AND    TRANSPORTATION. 


every  year  one  of  those  fell  due.  The 
contractors  agreed  to  deliver  the  mails  on 
certain  routes  in  a  given  time,  for  a  certain 
amount  of  money.  The  mail  money  was 
generally  depended  upon  for  the  expenses  of 
running" the  vehicles,  and  such  passengers  as 
could  be  carried  by  the  same  conveyance 
afforded  a  profit.  Thus  the  system  for  the 
circulation  of  letters  and  newspapers  became 
the  machinery  for  the  circulation  of  the  peo 
ple.  These  accommodations  were,  however, 
far  from  being  luxurious  at  a  distance  from 
the  great  cities.  In  these,  indeed,  the  staging 
was  conducted  in  a  style  approaching  the 
splendid.  The  eastern  stages  running  into 
Boston,  and  penetrating  into  every  part  of 
New  England,  were  celebrated  for  their 
quality  and  style,  as  were  those  of  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore,  and 
most  other  large  cities  that  were  the  centres 
of  traffic,  as  well  as  post  service.  The  dif 
ferent  "  lines"  ran  such  opposition,  as  re 
duced  the  fare  and  promoted  speed.  The 
dandy  "  turn-out"  being  ready  at  the  hour, 
well  dressed,  polite,  smart  drivers  received 
the  "  ribbons"  with  gloved  hands,  and  the 
"  team"  went  through  with  a  skill  that  could 
get  the  best  time  out  of  the  nature  of  the 
road.  As  the  traveller  receded  from  the  great 
centres,  he  found  the  "teams"  worse,  and 
the  roads  to  match.  The  mails  ran  fewer 
times  in  the  week,  the  vehicle  dwindled  from 
the  easy  coach  to  the  covered  spring  wagon, 
to  the  open  wagon  without  springs,  ultimately 
to  the  horse,  and  finally  perhaps  to  a  man's 
back,  and  the  traveller's  accommodation 
diminished  in  proportion. 


CHAPTER  II. 

COASTERS— STEAMBOATS— CANALS. 

IN  the  neighborhood  of  the  water-course 
the  traveller  was  better  accommodated  by 
the  coasting  vessels.  The  early  settlement;- 
of  the  country  had  been,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  upon  the  coast  and  on  the  numerous 
streams  with  which  the  country  is  supplied 
The  roads  had  extended  back,  more  or  less 
into  the  country  from  these  settlements 
where  the  freights  accumulated  at  th< 
landings,  whence  they  were  carried  by  wate 
for  interchange  with  other  towns,  or,  as  thi 
country  grew,  to  be  exported  abroad.  Thi 
wagon  charge  for  freight  was  always  so  higl 
as  to  absorb  the  value  of  the  produce  a 


noderate  distances,  and  travelling  was  most- 
y  upon  horses,  unless  water  conveyances  ' 
ould  be  availed  of.  This  was  the  common 
node  for  long  journeys  on  all  the  rivers. 
The  following  advertisement,  from  a  New 
fork  paper  early  in  the  present  century, 
gives  an  idea  of  the  style  of  travelling  in  the 
youth  of  men  now  not  old. 

"  SLOOP  EXPERIMENT — FOR  PASSENGERS 
ONLY. — Elias  Bunker  informs  his  friends  and 
the  public,  that  he  has  commenced  running 
a  sloop  of  about  110  tons  burthen,  between 
;he  cities  of  Hudson  and  New  York,  for  the 
purpose  of  carrying  passengers  only.  The 
owners  of  this  vessel,  being  desirous  to  ren 
der  the  passage  as  short,  convenient,  and 
agreeable  as  possible,  have  not  only  taken 
are  to  furnish  her  with  the  best  Beds,  Bed 
ding,  Liquors,  Provisions,  &c.,  but  they  have 
been  at  very  great  expense  and  trouble  in 
procuring  materials,  and  building  her  on  the 
best  construction  for  sailing,  and  for  the  ac 
commodation  of  ladies  and  gentlemen  travel 
ling  on  business  o\- for  pleasure. 

"  Merchants  and  others  residing  in  the 
northern,  eastern,  or  western  counties,  will 
find  a  great  convenience  in  being  able  to  cal 
culate  (at  home)  the  precise  time  they  can 
sail  from  Hudson  and  New  York,  without  be 
ing  tinder  the  necessity  of  taking  thiir  beds 
and  bedding,  and  those  in  New  York  may 
so  calculate  their  business  as  to  be  certain 
of  comfortable  accommodations  up  the  riv 
er." 

This  was  evidently  no  common  luxury  that 
Capt.  Bunker  proffered  to  an  admiring  pub 
lic.  They  were  no  longer  required  to  "take 
up  their  beds  and  walk."  Ladies  and  gen 
tlemen  travelling  for  pleasure  could  nosv  be 
supplied  with  bedding,  as  well  as  other  lux 
uries,  on  board  a  hundred  ton  sloop,  and 
depend  upon  the  time  of  her  leaving.  The 
wary  Elias  did  not  commit  himself  to  the 
time  of  her  arrival,  however.  Long  experi 
ence  had  made  him  cautious  on  that  point. 
However,  to  be  certain  of  leaving  was  some 
thing,  since  the  taking  of  a  passage  had 
been  only  a  preliminary  step  to  a  voyage. 
The  completing  of  the  freight,  the  waiting 
for  a  wind,  and  the  notification  by  means  of 
a  black  man  to  be  on  board  at  an  appointed 
hour,  were  now  to  be  dispensed  with.  This 
was  a  great  blessing,  a  good  way  in  advance 
of  the  navigation  150  years  previous,  when 
permission  was  granted  to  a  sloop  to  go  from 
New  Amsterdam  (New  York)  to  Fort  Or 
ange  (Albany),  provided  she  did  not  carry 


COASTERS STEAMBOATS CANALS. 


179 


more  than  six  passengers.  This  was  the 
mode  of  reaching  most  of  the  large  cities. 
From  any  point-of  the  eastern  coast  the  best 
mode  of  reaching  Boston  was  by  the  lumber 
or  other  coasters.  In  these  the  passengers, 
male  and  female,  were  stowed  away  in  a  few 
berths  in  the  cabin,  or  sprawled  around  upon 
the  uncarpeted  floor.  Sometimes  these  ves 
sels,  when  the  freight  earnings  were  eked  out 
by  a  fair  number  of  passengers,  as  from  Ban- 
gor,  Portland,  or  other  cities,  were  raised  to 
the  dignity  of  a  "packet,"  when  a  few  ex 
tra  berths  were  decorated  with  a  red  bomba- 
zette  frill  of  rather  a  scanty  style.  In  the 
rainy  seasons,  spring  and  fall,  these  were  al 
most  the  only  modes  of  travelling.  It  may 
be  suppossd  that  passengers  were  not  very 
abundant.  The  vessels,  however,  improved 
in  size  and  accommodation,  and  the  number 
of  passengers  still,  even  in  these  railroad 
days,  conveyed  by  them  is,  perhaps,  as  large 
as  ever.  The  speed  of  these  vessels  was  not 
great,  and  the  uncertainty  of  arrival  such  as 
now  would  by  no  means  suit  ideas  of  busi 
ness.  In  those  seasons  of  the  year  when  the 
roads  were  generally  good,  the  stages  would 
make  four  miles  per  hour  and  arrive  in  fair 
time.  Such  arrangements  did  not  permit 
frequent  visits  for  the  purchase  of  goods, 
and  most  business  was  done  fall  and  spring, 
when  the  goods  followed  the  water-courses 
as  far  as  possible,  and  then  paid  from  15  to 
30  cents  per  ton  per  mile,  according  to  the 
difficulties  of  the  route.  Even  the  mail 
charge  was  from  6J-  to  25  cents  per  single  let 
ter,  or  a  letter  on  one  piece  of  paper,  being 
18J  cents  for  any  distance  between  150  and 
400  miles — envelopes,  of  course,  were  not 
used.  Those  charges  were  continued  down 
to  1845,  when  the  reduction  took  place. 

The  tonnage  employed  in  the  coasting 
trade  had  increased  from  68,607  in  1789,  to 
420,362  in  1812.  Inasmuch  as  but  little 
change  had  taken  place  in  the  speed  and 
build  of  the  vessels,  the  increase  indicates 
the  progress  of  business.  In  18o7  the  en 
terprising  sloop  owners  who,  like  Captain 
Bunker,  had  conceived  the  idea  of  furnish 
ed  berths  for  the  accommodation  of  the  pub 
lic,  were  struck  aghast  at  the  success  of  Ful 
ton's  "  Clermont" — named  after  the  country 
seat  of  Chancellor  Livingston — steaming  up 
the  river  at  the  rate  of  four  miles  an  hour  un 
der  all  circumstances.  The  conservative  inter 
ests  were  loud  in  demonstrating  the  utter  ruin 
that  was  to  overtake  river  craft,  the  occupa 
tion  of  boatmen,  and,  consequently,  the  na 


vy,  "  the  country's  right  arm  of  defence," 
by 'means  of  this  great  innovator.  Never 
theless,  the  spark  of  genius  had  kindled  the 
flame  of  invention,  and  the  public  were  be 
coming  absorbed  in  it.  Each  new  steamer  ex 
ceeded  the  previous  ones  in  build  and  style, 
and  the  machinery  underwent  as  rapid  im 
provement.  As  usual,  however,  the  public 
were  slow  to  be  convinced.  It  was  admit 
ted,  when  it  could  no  longer  be  denied,  that 
steam  would  answer  for  the  river,  but  it  was 
held  to  be  idle  to  attempt  the  Sound  naviga 
tion  in  those  new-fangled  concerns.  This 
problem  was  decided  in  the  Fulton  by  Capt. 
Bunker,  possibly  our  enterprising  friend  of 
the  sloop.  The  "Hell-gate"  passage  was, 
in  those  days,  an  object  of  terror.  An  Eng 
lish  frigate  had  been  lost  there  in  the  old 
war,  and  there  were  not  a  few  who  still  held 
the  idea  that  "  the  devil  only  could  beat 
those  English  who  had  beat  the  Dutch." 
The  East  River  rushing  up  the  Sound  at  par 
ticular  times  of  tide  pours  a  tremendous  flood 
between  Ward's  and  Long  Islands.  The 
passage  narrows  to  a  few  yards,  and  the  tide 
rushes  past  the  "hog's  back"  and  the  "grid 
iron,"  turns  at  right  angles,  and  forms  a 
foaming  whirlpool  around  the  "  pot-rock," 
which,  even  with  the  surface  of  the  water, 
is  fatal  to  any  vessel  that  touches  it. 
Through  that  "gate  of  Hell"  the  steamer 
was  to  pass,  and  the  operation  was  described 
by  a  passenger  as  follows  : — 

"  I  remember  the  long-agitated  question, 
whether  steamboats  could  be  made  capable 
of  sea  navigation,  or  so  constructed  as  to  trav 
erse  our  sounds,  bays,  and  coasts  in  safety. 
This  question  was  put  to  rest  by  the  enter 
prise  and  skill  of  Capt.  Bunker.  In  the  Fulton, 
constructed,  I  am  told,  with  a  view  to  crossing 
the  Atlantic,  he  undertook  the  navigation  of 
Long  Island  Sound,  an  arm  of  the  sea  iu 
which  the  most  severe  tempests  are  often 
encountered.  During  a  season  of  no  extra 
ordinary  moderation,  including  the  two  equi 
noctial  gales,  Capt.  B.  lost  but  a  single  trip. 
Another  doubt  remained  to  be  removed.  It 
was  supposed  impossible  to  pass  the  celebrat 
ed  passage  of  Hell-gate  against  the  tide,  at 
the  strength  of  the  current.  This  was  re 
served  for  Capt.  Bunker  to  remove,  and  I 
happened  to  be  on  board  at  the  time  of  the 
novel  and  interesting  experiment,  returning 
southward  from  New  Hampshire.  A  num 
ber  of  respectable  passengers  witnessed  the 
performance.  It  was  in  the  boat  Connecti 
cut,  built  with  all  the  strength  to  be  obtained 


180 


TRAVEL    AND    TRANSPORTATION. 


and  careful  workmanship.     The    machinist 
(McQueen)  was  accompanying  his  engine  *'to 
prove  its  powers,  with  careful  and  ingenious 
assistants,  and  some  of  the  owners  were   on 
board  also.     The  first  attempt  to  pass  the 
point  of  greatest  pressure  of  the  contracted 
stream  was  unsuccessful,  and  the  boat  was 
compelled  to  retreat  into  an  eddy  and  in 
crease  her  steam.     With  renovated    power 
the  effort  was  repeated,  every  man  fixed  im 
movable  at  his  post,  the  passengers  properly 
stationed  in  different  parts  of  the  boat,  the 
engineers  employing  their  utmost  diligence 
to  force  the  passage.     They  were  again  de 
feated  by  the  supposed  resistless  stream,  and 
again  retreated,  racked,  strained,  and  shiver 
ing,  from  the  contest.     After  a  short  pause 
and  fresh  preparation,  it  was  resolved  by  the 
parties  concerned  to  make  a  third  endeavor, 
and  test  the  strength  of   the  machinery  by 
the  greatest  trial  it  could  ever  be  expected 
to  bear.     After  a  severe  struggle,  in  which 
a  weaker  vessel  would  have  been  disjointed 
and   torn  to  pieces,  the  headstrong  current 
yielded  to  the  giant  power  of  .steam,  and  the 
triumph  of  art  over  nature  was  effected.     A 
few  moments  of  greater  breathless  anxiety 
I  scarcely  ever  witnessed.     Mechanical  sci 
ence    achieved   a   victory   over   elementary 
force,  and  overcame  an  obstacle  heretofore 
deemed    in   this    manner  altogether   insur 
mountable.     The  courage  and  perseverance 
of  Capt.   B.   were   so    conspicuous    on   this 
occasion,  that  I  can  never  forget  the  impres 
sion  made  on  all  present.     We  have  since 
found  it  as  easy  to  traverse  our  sea-board, 
navigate  the  Mississippi,  and  cross  the  At 
lantic,  as  it  was  to  find  America  after  Colum 
bus  had  broken  the  egg." 

To  those  who  now  so  frequently  make 
that  dire  passage  without  knowing  it,  this 
animated  description  must  afford  surprise  as 
well  as  amusement.  It  is  suggestive,  not  so 
much  of  the  temerity  of  the  "  bold  naviga 
tors"  of  that  day,  as  of  the  feeble  nature 
of  the  boats  then  built.  The  passage,  to  be 
sure,  has  now  been  deprived  of  some  of  its 
44  horrors"  by  the  removal  of  the  pot-rock, 
which  has  been  broken  by  gunpowder 
blasts  to  a  depth  which  leaves  it  no  longer 
dangerous.  The  noble  steamers  of  the  pres 
ent  day  pass  through  at  all  times  of  tide, 
without  apparently  feeling  the  current,  in 
stead  of  butting  at  it  three  times  "  strained 
and  shivering.".  The  steamboat,  after  per 
forming  this  feat,  passed  up  the  Connecticut 
*iver  for  the  first  time  to  Middletown.  The 


North  River  boats  continued  to  improve, 
and  the  time  of  the  Clermont — 36  hours  to 
Albany — was,  in  1820,  reduc'ed  by  the  Par 
agon  to  20  hours.  In  1823,  however,  the 
time  from  New  York  to  Providence,  200 
miles,  was  20  hours,  and  the  stage  to  Boston 
completed  the  route,  40  miles,  in  6  hours 
more,  making  26  hours.  At  that  date  steam 
ers  were  multiplying  on  all  the  Atlantic  rivers 
and  bays,  and  on  the  western  rivers,  as  well  as 
on  the  lakes.  In  1 8 1 9  the  first  steamer  crossed 
the  Atlantic  from  Savannah,  Georgia,  to  Eng 
land.  In  1 825  the  Chief  Justice  Marshall  had 
reduced  the  time  to  Albany  to  14  hours  30 
minutes.  The  progress  in  speed  may  be  seen 
at  a  glance  in  the  following  figures : — 

1811,  Clermont's  time  to  Albany,  4  ma.  per  h.,  36  hs. 
1820,  Paragon,  "  "  27 

1825,  Chief  Justice  Marshall,   "  14.30 

1840,  Knickerbocker,  "  9.33 

1860,  average  time  18  miles  per  hour,  8 

With  the  opening  of  the  Erie  canal  in 
1825,  the  quantity  of  goods  going  and  com 
ing  much  increased  the  demand  for  trans 
portation,  and  barges  in  tow  of  steamers  be 
gan  a  new  era  in  that  buisness.  That  goods 
could  be  carried  west  on  the  canal,  and  so 
by  continuous  Avater-courscs  on  the  lakes 
and  their  affluents,  induced  more  passengers 
by  the  same  route.  In  1841  the  improved 
method  of  propelling  by  screw  was  introdu 
ced  by  the  patent  of  Capt.  Ericsson.  The  iron 
screw  steamer  R.  F.  Stockton,  of  72  tons, 
came  from  Liverpool  under  the  command  of 
Capt.  Crane,  and  became  a  tug  on  the  llari- 
tan  canal.  Those  steamers  now  gradually 
Stained  ground  in  public  favor.  The  speed 
was  long  not  so  great  as  that  of  the  paddle 
wheels.  This  has  been  gradually  overcome 
by  improved  models  and  forms  of  screw, 
until  in  the  month  of  October,  18GO,  two 
propellers  of  100  feet  length  were  launched 
for  the  North  River  trade,  and  made  time 
18  miles  per  hour,  being  the  fastest  boats 
x>r  their  length  afloat.  This  class  of  vessels 
may  ultimately  be  exclusively  used  in  the 
European  trade. 

The  settlers  who  had  crossed  the  moun- 
;ains  in  the  early  times  of  the  government 
lad  located  mostly  on  the  great  streams, 
within  easy  reach  of  the  means  of  conveying 
;he  surplus  to  points  of  sale.  They  were 
not  provided  with  vessels  of  a  very  expensive 
onstruction ;  and  flat  boats  were  the  chief 
means  of  descending  the  streams.  These 
vessels,  designed  only  to  go  down  stream, 
were  composed  of  such  material  as,  after 


3    63 


COASTERS STEAMBOATS CANALS. 


181 


having  served  the  purpose  of  transporting 
produce,  could  be  broken  up  at  the  place  of 
destination,  and  sold  as  lumber.  These 
were  improved  into  keel  boats,  for  the  pur 
pose  of  ascending  the  streams,  and  in  either 
case  were  propelled  by  long  poles  in  the 
hands  of  the  boatmen.  These,  standing  on 
the  gunwale  at  the  extreme  bow  of  the 
boat,  thrust  the '  pole  into  the  mud,  and 
setting  the  shoulder  against  the  top,  push 
ed  the  boat  forward  with  the  feet  in 
walking  toward  the  stern,  which  reached,  they 
drew  up  the  pole,  walked  back,  and  repeated 
the  movement.  In  this  laborious  mode  of 
travel,  all  the  merchandise  sent  from  the 
east,  via  New  Orleans,  reached  its  destina 
tion.  It  required  four  months  to  travel  thus 
from  New  Orleans  to  St.  Louis — a  distance  of 
]  ,500  miles,  and  the  cost  of  the  goods,  it  may 
well  be  supposed,  was  enhanced  by  the  proc 
ess  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  produce 
sent  down  realized  but  little.  Thus,  between 
the  cheapness  of  the  produce  and  the  dear- 
ness  of  merchandise  received  in  exchange, 
the  settler  realized  but  little  for  his  labor. 
It  is  easy  to  conceive  how  great  a  blessing 
was  steam  on  those  waters,  to  enable  the 
weary  men  to  stem  the  ceaseless,  downward 
flow  of  the  mighty  currents.  In  1811  that 
blessing  made  its  appearance  at  Pittsburg  in 
the  shape  of  a  steamboat,  built  by  Fulton, 
and  which  had  a  considerable  success.  The 
general  progress  was,  however,  slow,  for  the 
reason,  among  others,  that,  as  in  all  such 
cases,  there  was  a  large  capital  invested  in 
river  craft,  which  would  depreciate  in  value 
in  face  of  the  new  power,  and  there  was  not 
much  capital  to  embark  all  at  once  in  steam. 
It  was  also  the  case  that  Chancellor  Living 
ston,  the  partner  of  Fulton,  claimed  a  mo 
nopoly  of  the  lower  Mississippi  trade,  and 
put  a  restraint  for  some  years  upon  steam  in 
that  region.  So  great  a  power  could  not,  how 
ever,  but  force  its  way.  With  the  construc 
tion  of  the  Enterprise,  in  1815,  St.  Louis  was 
reached  in  25  days  from  New  Orleans,  and 
public  enthusiasm  was  aroused.  There  were, 
however,  up  to  1817,  still  but  twelve  boats 
upon  the  western  waters,  of  an  aggregate  ton 
nage  of  2,335  tons.  The  time  to  Pittsburg  was 
54  days,  of  which  36  days  was  running  time. 
These  passages  caused  much  excitement,  and 
a  bold  merchant  predicted  that  the  rate  of 
freight  between  New  Orleans  and  St.  Louis 
would  fall  to  $3.50  per  100  Ibs.,  but  he  was 
regarded  as  visionary,  or  what  they  would 
now  call  in  Wall-street  language  a  •"  bear" 


in  freights.  His  sanguine  nature  would 
probably  have  been  surprised  could  the  veil 
of  time  have  been  so  lifted  as  to  permit  him 
to  see  35  years  ahead — the  boats  of  the  pres 
ent  day  making  money  at  40  cts.  per  100 
Ibs.,  and  carrying  it  in  three  days,  instead 
of  25.  The  Monongahela  and  Ohio  Steam 
boat  Company  claimed  patronage  because 
their  new  crack  boats  could  go  nine  miles 
an  hour !  But  they  were  in  advance  of 
the  times;  that  speed  was  thought  to  be 
dangerous,  even  if  possible.  Those  people 
are  now,  however,  not  quite  satisfied  unless 
the  speed  is  equal  to  25  miles  in  still  water. 
The  war  had  given  a  new  impulse  to  settle 
ments  west ;  the  more  so  that  steam  now 
so  much  facilitated  travel,  and  freights  multi 
plied  in  proportion.  Thus  reciprocally  the 
improved  means  of  travel  induced  more  lo 
comotion,  and  increased  traffic  more  de 
mand  for  vessels.  The  multiplying  boats 
and  more  rapid  passages  still  found  a  suffi 
ciency  of  business,  and  even  the  old  river 
craft  were  kept  in  requisition  for  tow  boats. 
Cincinnati  began  to  build  barges  of  100  tons 
to  go  to  New  Orleans  in  tow  of  steamers ; 
and  the  Etna  made  the  passage  down  in 
fifteen  days,  reflecting  great  glory  on  the  com 
mercial  enterprise  of  that  city,  and  its  citizens 
became  elated.  A  Cincinnati  writer  of  1817 
estimates  the  territory  drained  commercially 
by  that  city  at  10,000  square  miles,  and  re 
marks  :  "  Supposing  this  settled  by  40,000 
families,  and  that  each  farm  would  give  two 
tons  annual  surplus  for  exportation,  there 
would  be  80,000  tons  to  send  to  New  Orleans, 
or  freight  for  800  boats  of  100  tons  each." 
The  writer  apologizes  for  the  extravagance  of 
this  estimate.  Commercial  enterprise  began 
to  seek  new  routes.  In  1823  three  keel  boats 
in  tow  passed  450  miles  up  the  Wabash 
river.  It  was  not  until  1826  that  the  first 
steamer  ran  up  the  Alloghany  river.  In  the 
same  year  the  ship  Illinois  reached  St. 
Louis  from  New  York,  via  New  Orleans, 
3,000  miles,  in  twenty -nine  days  and  a  half, 
and  the  first  steamer  ran  up  the  Susquehanna 
to  Tioga.  The  opening  of  the  Erie  canal,  in 
1825,  caused  a  great  change  in  travel.  Thus 
the  journey  from  New  York  to  Pittsburg  was 
accomplished  by  canal,  with  only  eight  days 
staging,  and  thence  down  the  river  to  New 
Orleans.  In  1824  the  passage  up  from  New 
Orleans  to  New  York,  via  Pittsburg,  was 
made  in  24  days,  at  an  expense  of  $90. 
The  passage  from  Natchez  to  Philadelphia, 
2,000  miles,  was  equal  to  17  days.  In 


''Ml1  m'i  i,,  >'f 


COASTERS — STEAMBOATS  — CANALS. 


183 


the  same  year  a  remarkable  voyage  was  pro 
jected  from  Charleston  to  Green  Bay.  It 
was  a  sloop  of  six  tons,  with  six  passengers, 
and  it  reached  Rochester  in  15  days  from 
Charleston.  The  passage  of  a  gentleman 
from  Detroit  to  Washington  and  back  in  16 
days  was  regarded  as  a  miracle. 

The  remarkable  progress  of  steam  upon 
the  Mississippi  may  be  estimated  most 
readily  by  a  table  of  the  passages  at  different 
periods,  as  follows  : — 

NEW    ORLEANS    TO    ST.     LOUIS — 1,300    MILES. 

Prior  to  steam 120  days. 

1815,  Steamer  Enterprise 25      ' 

1823,       "          average  passages..  12      '         • 
1826,       "          General  Brown...     9      '   12  hours. 
1828,       "                      "             ...     9      '     4      " 
1860,       "          running  time 3      ' 

The  time  between  New  Orleans  and  St. 
Louis  was  thus  diminished  under  the  various 
improvements  suggested  by  experience  in 
the  form  and  mode  of  running  steamers.  A 
boat  of  350  tons  when  fitted  out  will 
now  cost  some  $50,000,  and  will  carry  500 
tons  down  stream,  or  1,500  bales  of  cotton 
on  deck.  Twenty  years  ago  the  freight  of 
cotton  down  from  Memphis  was  $2  per  bale, 
and  below  Natchez  $1  per  bale.  The  charge 
for  freight  up  from  New  Orleans  to  Natchez 
was  75  cts.  per  100  Ibs.  As  the  business 
increased,  larger  boats  were  built.  Of  these 
the  Eclipse  was  the  type.  She  car 
ried  1,200  tons,  but  was  too  large  to  pay  ; 
and  boats  are  now  constructed  of  a  less 
dimension.  The  Mississippi  boats  are  large 
flat-bottomed  boats,  drawing  from  15  to  50 
inches  of  water.  The  speed  depends  upon 
the  circumstances  of  the  channel.  That  of 
the  Memphis,  recently  built  for  the  St. 
Louis  and  Memphis  trade,  is  18  miles  in 
still  water  per  hour.  With  light  draught  and 
great  pressure,  a  speed  equal  to  24  miles  in 
still  water  has  been  attained.  The  Al 
to  ona  ran  between  Alton  and  St.  Louis,  25 
miles,  in  one  hour  and  forty  five  minutes, 
and  in  one  hour  down;  average  down  and 
up,  one  hour  and  twenty -five  minutes. 
Eighteen  miles  is  said  to  be  the  time  of  the 
western  boats.  Those  rivers  flow  with  gen 
tle  currents  in  mostly  shallow  water;  and 
there  have  been  various  changes  in  the 
fashion  of  the  boats.  The  stern-wheel  boat, 
we  believe,  is  peculiar  to  those  rivers.  Instead 
of  having  two  wheels  paddling,  one  on  each 
side,  one  wheel,  20  feet  in  diameter,  is  placed 
directly  at  the  stern,  athwart  ships,  and  by 
its  revolutions  pushes  the  boat  ahead.  These 
boats  are  not  remarkable  for  their  speed,  but 


answer  in  narrow  and  shallow  streams.  The 
regular  steamers  have  their  main  decks 
within  four  or  five  feet  of  the  water,  and  the 
guards  overhanging  the  bow  give  them  the 
appearance  of  a  New  York  ferry-boat.  The 
paddle  wheels  are  generally  much  further  aft 
than  in  the  eastern  steamers.  The  after 
part  of  the  main  deck  is  devoted  to  freight. 
Above  the  main  deck  from  10  to  18  feet  is 
the  saloon  deck,  which  extends  nearly  over 
the  whole  of  the  main  deck.  The  saloon  is 
surrounded  with  state-rooms,  which  open 
into  it,  as  well  as  on  to  a  promenade  which 
goes  entirely  round  the  outside  of  the  boat. 
The  saloon  is  from  150  to  250  feet  long. 
Above  this  deck  is  a  promenade  deck,  upon 
which  is  a  long  tier  of  state-rooms,  and  this, 
in  its  turn,  is  surmounted  by  another  prome 
nade  deck,  which  has  the  pilot-house  at  its 
front,  and  which  is  usually  50  feet  from  the 
water.  But  formerly,  when  there  was  no 
restraint  upon  reckless  steam  pressure,  or 
the  explosive  qualities  of  the  boiler,  its 
height,  as  well  as  that  of  the  decks,  was 
very  uncertain.  The  "crack  boats"  are 
now  built  from  300  to  400  feet,  with  36  to 
40  feet  beam,  eight  feet  hold,  and  draught  of 
water,  light  two  feet,  and  loaded  four  feet. 
These  steamers  are  now  free  from  those 
reckless  races  which  formerly  so  endangered 
life,  when  the  safety-valve  was  fastened 
down,  the  furnace  stuffed  with  tar  and  pitch, 
and  the  captain,  rifle  in  hand,  ready  to 
shoot  down  the  pilot  of  the  opposing  boat 
at  the  critical  moment  when  the  least  devia 
tion  in  steering  would  lose  him  the  race. 
Those  barbarous  times  have  passed  with  the 
frontier  manners  of  the  passengers.  Their 
sporting,  drinking,  gambling,  fighting,  have 
given  place  to  business,  temperance,  pru 
dence,  and  refinement,  while  wealth  rolls  up 
in  the  cities  as  a  result  of  the  speedy  and 
cheapened  transportation  which  the  steam 
ers  have  effected. 

The  increase  of  steam  tonnage  on  those 
waters,  has  been,  as  follows  : — 

1842. 

New  Orleans 28,153 

St.  Louis 14,725 

Cincinnati 12,025 

Pittsburg. 10,107 

Louisville 4,618 

Nashville 3,810 

Wheeling 2,595 

Vicksburg 

Memphis 

Galena. . 


1851. 

I860. 

34,736 

70.072 

31,834 

55,515 

24,709 

23,136 

16,943 

42,474 

15,181 

29,037 

3,578 

5,268 

7,191 

11,545 

938 

450 

6,143 

5,849 

Total  tons 76,033       135,560       240,039 


184 


TRAVEL    AND    TRANSPORTATION. 


It  is  a  matter  of  course  that  when  the 
speed  of  these  vessels  has  increased  in  the 
manner  indicated,  their  efficiency  for  traffic 
has  progressed  in  the  same  ratio.  In  the 
25  days  that  were  formerly  required  to  go 
from  New  Orleans  to  St.  Louis,  a  steamer 
of  the  present  day  will  make  eight  passages, 
and  will  carry  more  freight.  Hence,  the 
number  of  tons  does  not  indicate  the  growth 
of  the  trade.  If  the  number  of  tons  is  three 
times  greater,  the  business  is  30  times 
larger.  The  effect  of  the  great  reduction  in 
the  freight  on  goods  may  be  illustrated  by 
a  single  example.  Thus,  in  1815  cotton 
cloth  was  30  cts.  per  yard,  and  100  yards 
weighed  25  Ibs.,  winch  would  consequently 
be  worth  $30.  The  transportation  of  this 
at  that  time  from  New  Orleans  to  St.  Louis 
would  cost  $5,  or  1 7  per  cent,  of  the  cost.  The 
same  quantity  of  cloth  is  now  worth  $9.00, 
and  the  transportation  from  New  Orleans  to 
St.  Louis  40  cts.,  or  4i  per  cent,  of  the 
cost.  These  figures  speak  of  the  greater 
money  value  realized  for  products,  and  the 
increased  quantities  of  merchandise  pro 
cured  for  that  money  value. 

The  war  of  1812,  by  interrupting  trade  on 
the  Atlantic,  had  induced  a  large  migration 
to  the  west,  when  steam  was  opportunely 
developed  to  facilitate  trade  and  traffic  at 
the  same  time.  The  return  of  peace  found 
a  large  population  west  of  the  mountains  in 
the  full  tide  of  prosperity,  and  in  the  Atlan 
tic  states  great  excitement  in  regard  to 
steam,  with  multiplying  manufactures,  which 
sought  a  market  in  the  growing  west.  Under 
such  circumstances  the  old  canal  projects  for 
opening  up  the  communication  were  revived 
in  full  force,  the  more  so  that  the  war  had 
nearly  destroyed  the  usual  water  communica 
tion. 

Instead  of  transporting  merchandise  in 
sloops  and  schooners  along  the  coast,  now 
no  longer  safe  from  the  enemy,  recourse  was 
had  to  wagons  over  roads  not  the  best  in 
the  world.  This  was  necessarily  very  slow 
and  costly.  The  traffic  between  New  York 
and  Philadelphia,  for  instance,  was  carried 
on  in  A  Conestoga  wagon,  drawn  by  four 
horses,  and  that  which  covered  the  distance 
of  90  miles  in  three  days  was  known  as 
"the  flying  machine,"  and  the  value  of 
goods  at  either  end  of  the  round  showed 
great  fluctuations,  enhanced  by  the  expense. 
This  extra  expense  for  the  whole  coast  alone, 
it  was  asserted,  would  have  paid  the  whole 
cost  of  a  system  of  internal  navigation  from 


Maine  to  Georgia.  It  was  then  that  the 
enterprises  to  which  the  great  minds  of  the 
Revolution  had  given  birth  at  the  peace  of 
1783  began  to  be  realized,  and  two  objects 
wei'e  sought,  viz.  :  a  safe  inland  water -com 
munication  along  the  whole  Atlantic  border, 
to  operate  in  case  of  war,  and  another 
was  to  connect  the  watei's  of  the  west  with 
the  east,  and  the  public  began  to  regard 
with  more  favor  the  project  of  uniting  the 
lakes  to  the  Hudson  river.  Mr.  Morris,  who 
had  suggested  it  at  the  close  of  the  Revolu 
tion,  wrote  an  able  report  in  its  favor  in 
1812,  when  the  war  gave  new  interest  to  it. 
The  undertaking  was  formidable,  and  New 
York  applied  to  the  federal  government 
and  other  states  for  aid,  but  her  application 
was  met  with  jeers  and  ridicule.  The  result 
was  the  determination  of  the  state  to  under 
take  it  alone,  when  the  return  of  peace 
allowed  of  more  facility  for  its  execution ; 
accordingly,  on  the  4th  of  July,  1817,  the 
Erie  canal  was  commenced  with  great  cere 
mony,  Governor  De  Witt  Clinton  turning 
the  first  earth,  and  it  was  completed  Octo 
ber,  1825.  The  event  was  celebrated  with 
the  greatest  pomp  along  the  whole  line,  and 
in  the  city  of  New  York.  The  canal  is  363 
miles  long,  40  feet  wide  at  top,  4  feet  deep, 
and  the  capacity  of  boats,  80  tons.  The 
construction  cost  $7,143,789,  or  $19,679 
per  mile.  This  immense  work  gave  the  long- 
wished-for  communication  between  the  great 
lakes  and  the  tide  waters  of  the  Atlantic.  In 
the  same  year,  viz.,  October,  1817,  a  canal 
connecting  the  waters  of  Lake  Champlain 
with  the  Erie  canal  some  miles  from  Albany 
was  commenced.  This  Erie  and  Lake  Chain- 
plain  or  Northern  canal  is  63  miles  long,  and 
was  completed  at  the  close  of  1823,  at  a  cost 
of  $1,257,604,  or  $19,962  per  mile.  The  Erie 
canal  proved  to  be  the  most  successful  work 
of  the  kind  in  the  world,  and  within  10 
years  discharged  in  full  the  debt  created  for 
its  construction.  The  great  success  of  the 
work  not  only  gave  an  impulse  to  canal 
building  in  other  states,  but  induced  the 
state  of  New  York  to  embark  in  new  under 
takings  of  the  same  nature,  which  have  not 
proved  so  successful.  These  were  what  are 
called  the  lateral  canals,  draining  the  coun 
try  on  either  side,  into  the  grand  canal. 
The  Oswego  canal  runs  38  miles  from  Lake 
Ontario  to  the  Erie  canal,  at  Syracuse.  It 
cost  $55,437,  and  was  finished  in  1838. 
The  Cayuga  and  Senega  lake  runs  23  miles 
from  those  lakes  to  the  Erie  canal  at  Mon- 


COASTERS — STEAMBOATS CANALS. 


185 


tezuma,  and  was  finished  in  1829,  at  a  cost 
of  $237,000.  The  Chemung  canal,  connect 
ing  the  Chemung  river  with  Seneca  lake, 
39  miles,  was  finished  in  1838,  at  a  cost  of 
$316,000.  The  Crooked  Lake  canal,  8  miles, 
was  finished  in  1836,  for  $120,000.  The 
Ohenango  connects  the  Susquehanna  at 
Binghamton  with  the  Erie  canal  at  Utica, 
96  miles,  and  was  finished  in  1837,  at  a 
cost  of  $2,417,000.  These  canals  never 
paid  their  expenses,  and  became  a  burden 
upon  the  revenues  of  the  Erie.  There  are 
also  in  New  York,  the  Genesee  Valley  canal, 
108  miles  ;  Black  River  and  feeder,  87  miles  ; 
the  Delaware  and  Hudson,  83  miles ;  and 
the  Oneida,  8  miles. 

The  great  success  of  the  Erie,  as  we  have 
said,  roused  the  emulation  of  other  states, 
and  during  the  five  years  succeeding  the 
opening  of  the  Erie  the  air  was  filled  with 
canal  projects,  only  to  name  which  would 
occupy  much  space.  We  may  mention  some 
of  the  most  extraordinary,  however  :  a  canal 
from  Boston  to  Narragansett  bay ;  Long 
Island  to  Canada,  via  the  Connecticut  river ; 
Boston  to  the  Connecticut  river ;  a  canal 
over  Cape  Cod  ;  Providence  to  Worcester  ; 
a  ship  canal  across  Central  America.  These 
projects  only  indicate  the  extraordinary  ac 
tivity  that  the  Erie  success  had  imparted  to 
the  public  mind.  Those  which  were  evidently 
the  most  needed  for  present  and  future  com 
merce,  were  immediately  undertaken.  The 
Chesapeake  and  Ohio,  to  connect  the  waters 
that  the  name  designates;  the  Ohio  canal,  to 
connect  Lake  Erie  with  the  Ohio  river ;  the 
Farmington  canal,  in  Connecticut,  afterward 
used  for  a  railroad  site  ;  the  Chesapeake  and 
Delaware,  to  connect  those  waters,  were  all 
ready,  and  broke  ground  July  4,  1825, 
three  months  before  the  Erie  was  finally 
completed.  These  works,  with  many  others, 
which  we  shall  take  up  in  their  order,  were 
pushed  to  completion,  under  various  diffi 
culties,  inasmuch  as  that  they  required  a 
large  amount  of  money,  but  they  had  an 
immense  influence  upon  traffic,  and  called 
into  requisition  an  amount  of  engineering  skill 
which  had  never  before  been  demanded  in 
the  country,  and  various  success  has  attend 
ed  the  construction.  The  object  of  a  canal 
is,  of  course,  to  float  boats  that  contain 
merchandise,  between  two  points,  in  order 
to  reduce  the  expense  of  the  transportation. 
The  canal  is  therefore  constructed  with  some 
regard  to  the  amount  of  business  that  will 
be  required  of  it.  The  channel  must  be 


excavated  on  the  level  soil,  carried  over  gaps 
and  rivers  by  embankments  that  will  hold 
the  water,  and  it  must  be  fed  by  abundant 
streams. 

The  channel  is  excavated  with  the  two  sides 
sloping  at  the  same  angle,  which  varies  with 
the  nature  of  the  soil.  The  base  of  the 
slope  is  commonly  to  the  height  as  5  to  4. 
The  bottom  of  the  canal  is  generally  the 
breadth  of  two  boats  upon  the  deck,  in 
order  that  they  may  pass.  The  depth  of 
water  in  the  canal  should  be  at  least  one  foot 
more  than  the  draught  of  the  boats.  The  tow- 
path  is  about  two  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
water,  and  about  ten  feet  wide.  When  the 
canal  runs  through  a  sandy  soil,  or  one  that 
does  not  easily  retain  water,  the  bottom  is 
"puddled."  This  process  is  to  mix  clay 
well  with  gravel  and  put  it  on  in  successive 
layers  of  two  or  three  inches  thick.  When 
a  new  layer  is  put  on,  the  old  one  is  roughed 
up  to  make  both  adhere  well.  When  re 
pairs  are  needed,  they  are  generally  done  at 
the  time  the  water  is  let  out  for  the  winter. 
The  bed  of  the  canal  is  so  laid  as  to  give  a 
gentle  current  to  the  water.  The  levels  are 
the  distances  between  the  locks,  and  each 
level,  proceeding  downward,  has  a  less 
elevation  than  the  preceding  one.  In  a 
hilly  country  these  locks  are  frequent,  and  in 
some  cases  are  continued  for  a  distance,  like 
steps  up  and  down  a  declivity.  Thus  the 
Erie  canal,  on  leaving  Lake  Erie  at  Lock- 
port,  descends  60  feet  to  the  Genesee  river. 
To  perform  this,  ten  double  locks  built  in 
masonry  are  required,  but  the  canal  has 
also  one  level  of  63  miles  without  a  lock. 
The  lock  is  a  chamber  built  of  timber  or 
masonry,  as  large  as  possible  for  the  size  of 
the  canal.  The  boats  must  not  exceed 
what  can  be  admitted  to  the  locks.  The 
top  of  the  lock  is  above  the  surface  of  the 
water,  and  its  bottom  is  level  with  that  of 
the  next  lower  level.  Each  end  of  the 
chamber  is  closed  by  heavy  swinging  doors, 
which  open  in  the  middle  against  the  direc 
tion  of  the  current.  The  doors  being  a  little 
broader  than  the  lock,  they  meet  in  the  mid 
dle  at  an  angle,  and  the  weight  of  the  water 
presses  them  together.  When  a  boat  going 
up  the  canal  comes  to  a  lock,  it  passes  be 
tween  the  open  gates,  which  close  behind 
it.  The  water  is  then  let  in  from  the  upper 
gates,  until  the  lock  being  full,  the  boat 
floats  to  the  upper  level,  generally  about  10 
feet  rise,  but  sometimes  1 8  feet.  It  passes 
out,  and  another  boat  being  ready  to  go 


186 


TRAVEL    AND    TRANSPORTATION. 


down  takes  its  place,  when,  the  upper 
gates  being  closed,  the  water  is  let  off  below 
and  the  boat  lowers  with  it  to  the  lower 
level.  A  lock  full  of  water  is  thus  dis 
charged.  It  follows  that  a  large  supply  of 
water  must  be  Jiad  to  replace  what  thus 
passes  off,  in  addition  to  leakage  and  evap 
oration.  The  engineer  of  the  Erie  canal 
calculated  the  loss  by  leakage  was  100 
cubic  feet  per  minute.  For  supply,  reser 
voirs  are  often  constructed.  Canal  branches, 
called  feeders,  are  made  to  bring  water  from 
distant  sources.  Steam  power  is  also  used 
to  raise  water  to  the  required  level.  This  is 
the  case  with  the  Illinois  and  Michigan 
canal ;  the  waters  of  Lake  Michigan  being 
pumped  up  to  the  summit  level.  In  some 
cases  inclined  planes  are  substituted  for 
locks.  In  these  cases  the  boats  run  upon 
trucks,  which  are  then,  by  the  power  of 
steam,  dragged  up  the  plane  to  the  higher 
level.  In  the  Morris  canal,  of  New  Jersey, 
these  have  a  slope  of  one  in  21.  These  are 
the  general  features  of  all  the  canals,  but  the 
influence  they  have  upon  transportation  de 
pends,  of  course,  in  some  degree,  upon  the 
localities  and  the  capacities  of  the  work. 
Boats  are  commonly  towed  upon  a  canal  by 
horses.  A  single  horse  can  draw  upon  a 
good  road  a  ton  at  a  speed  of  2£  or  3 
miles  per  hour,  and  can  draw  as  easily  70 
tons  upon  a  canal  at  the  same  speed.  The 
difference  in  cost  is  immense.  Instead  of 
24  cents  a  ton  for  one  mile  land  carriage, 
the  Erie  canal  charges  6  mills  per  ton  per 
mile,  or  one-fortieth  part  of  the  expense. 
The  freights  charged  are  distinct  from  the 
state  tolls.  It  is  obvious  that  where  the 
boats  are  of  greater  capacity,  allowing  of  a 
larger  quantity  to  be  passed  down  at  the 
same  passage,  the  cost  of  transportation 
is  much  diminished.  Thus  the  Delaware 
and  Hudson  canal  had  a  capacity  for  50 
ton  boats,  and  coal  was  carried  108  miles 
for  $1.  The  enlargement  of  the  canal  so 
as  to  admit  boats  of  100  tons  reduced  the 
cost  65  cents,  but  some  of  the  boats  carry 
148  tons  at  proportionate  rates.  When  the 
routes  of  the  canals  of  other  states  threat 
ened  to  affect  the  business  of  the  New  York 
canal,  the  reduction  of  the  cost  by  means 
of  enlargement  was  the  means  resorted  to 
to  retain  the  trade,  and  the  enlargement  has 
been  prosecuted  at  great  expense.  The 
principle  of  the  enlargement  was  based  upon 
the  fact  that  as  the  canal  is  abundantly 
supplied  with  water,  the  only  limit  to  its 


capacity  would  be  the  time  required  to  pass 
boats  at  the  locks.  It  was  calculated  that 
26,000  boats  can  be  locked  each  way  in  a 
season.  The  old  canal  boats  were  about 
70  tons,  hence  the  utmost  capacity  of  the 
canal  would  be  3,640,000  tons;  but  by  the 
enlargement  the  boats  were  to  be  of  224 
tons  burden,  hence  the  tonnage  would  be 
11,648,000  tons,  if  the  quantity  moving 
each  way  was  the  same,  but  the  down 
freight  is  as  four  to  one  of  the  up,  which 
reduces  the  capacity  to  7,230,000  tons. 
Before  the  canal  was  built,  the  expense  of 
transportation  from  Buffalo  to  New  York 
was  $100  per  ton  !  and  the  time  20  days. 
A  ton  of  wheat  in  Nqw  York  was  then  worth 
about  $33,  hence  the  transportation  was  three 
times  the  value  of  the  wheat,  six  times  the 
value  of  corn,  and  twelve  times  the  value 
of  oats.  As  a  consequence,  the  wheat  of 
western  New  York  at  that  time  went  down 
the  Susquehanna  to  Baltimore  as  the  cheap 
est  and  best  market,  as  the  lumber  of  the 
head  waters  of  that  river  now  goes.  When 
the  canal  was  opened,  the  freight  down  was 
about  $14  per  ton,  more  or  less,  according 
to  the  character  of  the  freight.  This  has 
gradually  been  reduced,  and  in  1850,  when 
the  railroads  for  the  first  time  were  allowed 
to  carry  freight,  it  was  $3  to  $7  from  Buffalo 
to  New  York.  By  the  enlargement  it  is  sup 
posed  the  rates  will  be  reduced  to  81.82 
between  Albany  and  Buffalo.  Since  the 
permission  of  railroads  to  carry  freight, 
however,  the  business  of  canals  is  more  con 
fined  to  those  heavy  freights  furnished  by 
the  raw  produce  of  the  country,  lumber  par 
ticularly.  Those  coarse  and  bulky  articles 
that  are  of  low  money  value  as  compared 
with  their  weight  will  continue  to  move  up 
on  canals,  but  the  lighter  and  more  costly, 
as  well  as  those  pressed  for  time,  will  be 
carried  exclusively  by  rails.  These  latter 
have  some  disadvantages,  however,  as  in  the 
case  of  flour,  the  motion  of  the  railroad 
causing  it  to  waste,  an  objection  not  urged 
against  canal  travel. 

The  total  length  of  the  five  great  lakes  is 
1,555  miles,  and  the  area  90,000  square 
miles,  and  they  are  estimated  to  drain  an  area 
of  335,515  square  miles.  That  vast  tract  of 
waters  was  a  waste  as  far  as  transportation 
went  until  the  year  1797,  when  the  first 
American  schooner  was  launched.  The 
craft  increased  to  some  extent  for  the  small 
commerce  that  engaged  the  settlers  when 
there  was  no  outlet  either  to  the  Atlantic 


COASTERS — STEAMBOATS — CANALS. 


187 


or  to  the  south.  In  1816,  however,  a 
steamer  was  built  on  Lake  Ontario,  and  in 
1819  the  Walk-in-the- Water,  340  tons,  was 
launched  at  Buffalo.  The  most  of  the  trade, 
however,  consisted  in  the  operations  of  the 
Indian  traders,  carrying  westward  supplies 
and  trinkets  for  the  trade,  and  returning 
with  furs  and  peltries.  On  the  opening  of  the 
Erie  canal,  in  1825,  a  new  state  of  things 
presented  itself.  Western  New  York  threw 
off  its  frontier  aspect,  and  put  on  an  air  of 
civilization,  since  it  became  a  receiver  of 
western  produce  and  exporter  of  goods.  The 
steam  tonnage  multiplied  to  transport  the 
growing  produce  of  the  west.  In  1822  the 
Superior  was  launched,  another  steamer  in 
1824,  two  in  1825,  and  three  in  1826.  One 
of  these  made  the  first  voyage  upon  Lake 
Michigan,  in  1826,  on  a  pleasure  excursion. 
It  was  not  until  1832  that  business  called 
them  thither,  and  then  one  reached  Chicago, 
in  the  employ  of  the  government,  to  carry 
supplies  for  the  Black  Hawk  war.  From 
that  time,  tonnage  has  increased  as  follows : — 


1841. 

Buffalo  Creek 6,773 

Presque  Isle 2,813 

Cuyahoga 1,855 

Sandusky 

Miami 887 

Detroit 2,053 

Mackinaw 

Chicago 

Milwaukee. . 


1S50.  1860. 

25,990         42,640 

5,691  1,471 

6,418         22,597 

360 

1,745 

16,469         30,381 

1,746  617 

652  8,151 

2,026 


14,381         58,711       108,243 

The  11  boats  running  in  1833,  carried  to 
and  from  Buffalo  61,485  passengers,  and 
the  fares  with  the  freight  amounted  to  $229,- 
212.  Those  were  the  years  of  the  great 
land  speculations,  and  crowds  of  passengers 
went  west  on  that  errand.  Three  trips  were 
made  a  year  to  the  upper  lakes.  The 
trips  to  Chicago  from  Buffalo  occupied  25 
days  to  go  and  return.  In  1841  the  time 
required  for  a  first-class  steamer  was  1U 
days  from  Buffalo  to  Detroit  and  back 
This  was  reduced  in  1851  to  3  days 
and  5  for  propellers.  In  1834  the  lab 
commerce  was  controlled  by  an  association 
owning  18  boats.  This  association  was  kep. 
up  to  1841,  when  the  number  of  boats  hac 
increased  to  48.  The  opening  of  the  Ohio 
canals  had  poured  upon  the  lakes  a  larg( 
amount  of  produce.  The  500  miles  of  cana 
then  completed,  opened  up  the  grain  coun 
try  to  the  lakes.  In  1835,  Ohio  exported 
by  the  lakes  543,815  bushels  of  wheat; 


n  1840,  3,800,000  bushels;  and  in  1851, 
12,193,202  bushels,  which  paid  $500,000 
reight  and  charges.  The  railroads  have 
since  interfered  to  some  extent,  but  the 
wheat  received  across  the  lakes  has  this  last 
year  been  as  follows : — 

From  Ohio 2,856,216  bushels. 

Indiana 3*219,225 

Michigan 2,117,970 

Illinois 12,195,195 

Wisconsin 5,447,766 

New  York 130,667 


Total 25,967,039         " 

The  successive  opening  of  the  Ohio  canals 
in  1833,  the  Illinois  canal  in  1848,  and  the 
Indiana  canal  in  1851,  all  added  constantly 
to  the  amount  of  produce  to  be  transported, 
and  since  the  last-mentioned  date  the  rail 
roads  have  opened  new  regions  of  country, 
and  increased  the  lake  trade.  It  is  to  be  borne 
in  mind  that  the  size  of  the  vessels,  their 
great  speed  when  under  way,  and  the  great 
er  dispatch  in  loading  and  unloading  by 
steam,  not  only  for  motion,  but  for  labor  at 
the  dock,  enable  the  same  quantity  of  ton 
nage  to  do  ten  times  the  business  that  it 
formerly  could  do.  In  1859  the  lake 
steamers  averaged  437  tons.  In  the  present 
year  the  average  is  680  for  steamers  and  470 
for  propellers.  A  change  is  now  going  on  in 
the  power,  by  reason  of  the  improvements  in 
propellers.  In  1843  the  first  lake  propeller, 
the  Hercules,  was  launched  at  Cleveland, 
275  tons,  the  screw  of  Ericsson's  patent. 
She  was  said  to  have  made  great  economy 
in  wood  for  fuel.  In  1851  the  propellers 
had  increased  to  52,  with  a  tonnage  amount 
ing  to  15,729.  In  1860  there  were  118, 
tonnage  55,657.  These  boats  had  far  less 
speed  than  the  paddles,  but  they  have  not 
ceased  to  gain  in  public  opinion,  not  only 
upon  the  lakes,  but  in  the  Atlantic  bays  and 
rivers,  until  recent  improvementshave  brought 
them  to  rival  the  paddle  wheels  in  speed. 
These  vessels  will  in  all  probability  monop 
olize  the  European,  as  well  as  the  internal 
trade. 

Previous  to  the  opening  of  the  Erie  canal, 
in  1825,  the  commerce  of  the  lakes  was  nec 
essarily  local,  since  there  were  no  markets 
east  or  west.  The  produce  raised  in  the  coun 
try  bordering  the  lakes  descended  the  streams 
that  ran  into  them,  and  found  interchange 
with  other  lake  ports.  The  opening  of  the 
canal  immediately  gave  an  eastern  current  to 
produce  of  all  descriptions,  and  much  had  ac- 


188 


TRAVEL    AND    TRANSPORTATION. 


cumulated  in  anticipation  of  the  event,  and 
goods  returned  in  great  quantities.  In  the 
month  of  May,  1825,  837  boats,  carrying 
4,122  tons  of  goods,  left  Albany  for  Buffalo, 
paying  $22,000  tolls. 

The  lumber  from  western  New  York  and 
the  lake  borders  being  now  marketable 
where  before  it  was  valueless,  a  motive  for 
clearing  land  was  imparted,  and  the  new  canal 
received  on  its  bosom  from  all  sections  of  the 
lake  shore  the  lumber  brought  by  multiply 
ing  vessels.  The  lumber  that  found  tide 
water  before  had  been  that  which  in  south 
ern  New  York  and  in  Pennsylvania  skirted 
the  natural  water-courses,  and  being  cut  and 
hauled,  was  rafted  down  to  Philadelphia  and 
Baltimore.  The  New  England  streams  de 
livered  the  lumber  in  the  same  manner. 
The  opening  of  the  canal  brought  into  com 
petition  the  vast  and  hitherto  untouched 
resources  of  the  west,  and  the  same  remark 
applies  to  all  farm  produce.  The  farmers 
of  New  England  were  undersold  at  their  own 
doors,  by  produce  from  western  New  York. 
The  potatoes  that  had  been  quick  of  sale  at 
75  cents,  were  supplanted  by  the  best  "  che- 
nangos"  at  37i  cents,  and  the  competition 
was  felt  in  corn,  flour,  and  most  articles. 
The  effect  of  this  was  to  turn  the  attention 
of  that  hard-working  and  thrifty  race  of 
men,  the  farmers  of  New  England,  to  the 
western  country,  where  the  soil  was  so  much 
more  profitable.  At  that  date  commenced 
the  interchange  of  inhabitants,  which  has 
drawn  off  so  many  New  England  farmers, 
replacing  them  with  manufacturers  from 
abroad.  In  order  to  show  the  extent  of  this 
operation,  we  take  from  the  census  of  1850 
the  figures  showing  the  nativities  of  the 
whole  people  of  the  United  States.  Thus 
there  were  in  the  whole  Union  8,370,089 
persons  who  were  born  in  the  New  Eng 
land  and  middle  states.  Of  these,  6,941,- 
510  lived  in  the  states  where  they  were 
born.  The  remainder,  1,428,579,  were  liv 
ing  mostly  west,  but  in  their  place  there 
were  living  in  the  New  England  and  middle 
states  1,292,241  persons  who  were  born  in 
foreign  countries.  These  latter  worked  in 
the  mills  and  manufactories,  while  1,428,579 
northern  persons  who  had  migrated  west 
were  agriculturists  attracted  thither  by  the 
fertile  lands  made  available  by  the  means  of 
transportation.  The  lakes  were  now  con 
nected  with  tide  water,  but  the  whole  sys 
tem  of  western  rivers  with  a  southern  course 
had  no  northern  connection.  The  state  of 


Ohio  determined  to  make  the  connection, 
by  means  of  a  canal  from  Portsmouth,  on 
the  Ohio,  to  Cleveland,  on  Lake  Erie.  On 
the  4th  July,  1825,  the  first  spade  was 
put  into  the  ground,  and  in  1833  the  first 
boat  passed  through  from  lake  to  river,  307 
miles.  The  whole  interior  of  Ohio  was  thus 
opened  to  either  the  northern  or  the  south 
ern  market ;  and  the  state  authorized  turn 
pikes  and  other  roads  to  feed  the  canal,  on 
the  borders  of  which  trade  grew  rapidly. 
There  are  several  branches  of  the  Ohio  canal ; 
one,  the  Hocking,  goes  to  Athens,  and  an 
other  to  Columbus.  The  highest  level  of 
the  Ohio  canal  is  305  feet  above  the  lake, 
and  499  feet  above  the  Ohio  river.  Another 
canal,  the  Miami,  was  also  commenced  in 
1825  to  connect  Cincinnati  with  Lake  Erie. 
In  1829  it  had  been  opened  to  Dayton,  85 
miles,  but  it  was  not  completed  until  1843, 
when  it  connected,  130  miles,  with  the 
Wabash  canal,  which  joins  Lake  Erie  at 
Toledo,  making  215  miles  from  Cincinnati 
to  -Lake  Erie.  All  the  Ohio  canals  are  as 
follows : — 


Cost. 

$4,695,202  69 

1,020,000  00 

3,667,440  82 

1,628,028  29 

975,481  01 

3,009,923  29 

607,268  99 


Length. 
Miles. 

Ohio  canal 340 

Miami 85 

"      extension 130 

Muskingurn 92 

Hocking 56 

Wabash  and  Erie 91 

Walhonding 25 


Total 819      $15,603,345  09 

Thus  Ohio  was  crossed  by  canals,  that  gave 
the  greatest  development  to  her  resources, 
and  a  new  route  was  opened  for  all  the 
western  waters  to  the  Atlantic  ;  an  interior 
transit  from  the  Atlantic  cities  to  all  those 
of  the  east  was  in  operation  ;  and  New 
Orleans  might  now  be  reached  from  New 
York  and  New  England,  by  an  internal 
route,  with  comparative  ease  and  safety. 

The  state  of  Pennsylvania  next  under 
took  the  great  work  of  forming  a  connec 
tion  between  the  Delaware  and  the  Ohio. 
The  project  which  had  been  formed  at  the 
close  of  the  last  century  was  now  resumed ; 
and  in  1826  a  law  was  passed  to  construct 
the  work  at  the  expense  of  the  state,  and, 
July  4th,  1826,  the  first  earth  was  turned  at 
Harrisburg,  and  in  1834  it  was  opened  for 
use.  The  line  consisted  of  a  railroad,  82 
miles,  from  Philadelphia  to  Columbia,  cost 
$3,330,127  ;  a  canal  from  Columbia,  172 
miles,  to  Ilollidaysburg,  cost  $4,594,146; 


COASTERS STEAMBOATS CANALS. 


189 


a  portage  railroad  across  the  mountain 
from  Ilolltdaysburg  to  Johnstown,  36  miles, 
cost  $1,634,357  ;  and  a  canal  from  Johns 
town  to  Pittsburg,  105  miles,  cost  $2,823,- 
192 — making  395  miles,  at  a  cost  of  $12,- 
381,822.  Thus  the  Ohio  at  Pittsburg  was  now 
connected  with  Philadelphia,  by  a  route  much 
less  than  from  Buffalo  to  New  York.  There 
were  seven  branch  canals  made  to  feed  this. 
The  aggregate  length  was  314  miles,  and 
the  cost  $6,471,994.  Every  part  of  the 
state  was  now  more  or  less  in  communica 
tion  with  the  great  outlets  east  and  west. 
There  were,  besides,  three  private  canals, 
viz.:  the  Schuylkill,  108  miles;  the  Lehigh, 
85  miles ;  and  the  Union,  82  miles,  which 
connected  the  great  coal  fields  with  tide 
water. 

"We  have  shown  that  Washington  pre 
sided,  at  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  at  a 
meeting  for  the  improvement  of  the  Poto 
mac.  The  ideas  then  suggested  ripened 
into  a  project  for  a  canal.  The  cession  of  a 
portion  of  Maryland  and  of  Virginia  to  fofm 
the  District  of  Columbia  as  a  seat  of  gov 
ernment  led  to  the  national  desire  to  connect 
it  with  the  west.  This  was  done,  as  we 
have  seen,  by  the  National  or  Cumberland 
road  to  Wheeling.  But  in  1  820  the  canal 
from  Georgetown  to  Pittsburg  was  projected, 
Congress  voting  81,000,000.  Washington 
City  issued  bonds  for  a  like  sum.  George 
town  and  Alexandria  each  subscribed 
$250,000,  Maryland  $500,000,  and  Virginia 
8250,000,  and  6,084  shares  of  $100  each 
were  taken  by  individuals,  making  altogether 
$3,854,400.  As  the  work  was  to  run  through 
four  territories,  it  required  a  charter  from  Con- 
gres?,  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  Pennsylvania, 
and  July  4th  (Fourth  of  July  is  a  great 
day  for  canals),  1828,  John  Q.  Adams  and 
Charles  Carroll  turned  the  first  earth, 
la  1834,  104  miles  had  been  completed. 
The  work  was  finally  carried  191  miles 
to  Cumberland  in  1840,  at  an  expense  of 
some  $1 6,000,000.  It  will  not  probably  be 
carried  further,  never  having  answered  ex 
pectations,  although  of  late  it  has  had  busi 
ness  from  the  Cumberland  coal  regions. 

Thus  of  the  three  great  projects  for  con 
necting  the  eastern  and  western  waters,  only 
two  were  carried  out.  But,  following  the 
example  of  Ohio,  both  Indiana  and  Illinois 
determined  to  make  a  connection  across 
their  respective  states,  between  the  rivers  on 
the  south  and  the  lakes  on  the  north.  But 
they  were  some  years  later  than  Ohio,  since 
VOL.  II.  12 


they  were  younger  and  weaker  states.  In 
1836,  under  the  spur  of  the  speculative 
fever,  Indiana  enacted  a  bill  authorizing 
a  system  of  internal  improvements.  This 
embraced  the  Wabash  and  Erie  canal,  to  run 
from  Evansville  on  the  Ohio  to  the  Ohio 
state  line,  where  it  was  to  follow  down  the 
valley  of  the  Maumec,  taking  up  the  Miami 
canal  in  its  course,  and  entering  the  Erie 
Lake  at  Toledo.  Second,  the  White  Water 
canal,  to  connect  the  National  or  Cumberland 
road  at  Cambridge,  with  Lawrenceburg  on 
the  Ohio,  76  miles.  Third,  the  White 
River  canal,  to  connect  Indianapolis  with 
Evansville  on  the  Ohio,  190  miles,  and  to 
prolong  it  from  Indianapolis  to  Peru  on  the 
Wabash  canal.  There  were  also  to  be  some 
Macadam  roads  and  turnpikes.  These  works 
were  to  cost  $10,000,000.  The  Wabash  canal 
was  begun  in  1835,  and  in  1840,  90  miles 
were  finished.  The  great  revulsion  then 
brought  all  to  a  stand,  and  some  ten  years 
elapsed  before  the  work  was  completed 
through  the  aid  of  a  loan  obtained  on  pledge 
of  lands  granted  by  Congress  in  aid  of  this 
work. 

The  state  of  Illinois  undertook  a  far  more 
extensive  system  of  public  improvements. 
As  early  as  1810  a  project  was  put  forward, 
under  the  excitement  of  Fulton's  great  suc 
cess,  to  connect  New  Orleans  with  Buffalo 
in  32  days  by  steam,  by  way  of  Chicago. 
The  waters  of  the  Illinois  and  the  lakes 
were  in  high  floods  nearly  blended.  In  1823 
a  board  of  commissioners  was  appointed  to 
report  on  the  route  and  the  cost.  A  grant 
of  land  was  obtained  from  Congress  in  1829 
in  aid.  This  was  every  alternate  section  of 
land,  10  miles  on  each  side  of  the  canal,  in 
its  whole  length.  Not  until  1835  was  an 
act  passed  to  authorize  the  canal,  in  common 
with  many  other  works,  railroads  or  others, 
in  a  general  system  of  internal  improvements, 
which  were  to  cost  $12,000,000,  and  there 
had  been  sold  of  the  lands  granted  by  Con 
gress  $1,395,911. 

The  canal  was  to  connect  Chicago,  at  the 
foot  of  Lake  Michigan,  with  the  Illinois  river, 
102  miles.  It  was  prosecuted  with  more  or 
less  vigor  until  the  finances  and  credit  of  the 
state  were  ruined  by  the  revulsion  of  1837-9. 
The  work  then  lay  unfinished  until  in  1843, 
by  means  of  a  pledge  of  the  unsold  lands  of 
the  canal,  a  sum  of  $1,600,000  was  borrowed, 
and  the  work  completed  in  1852.  The  sales 
of  the  land  sufficed  to  pay  off  the  new  loan, 
and  some  of  the  arrears. 


190 


TRAVEL    AND    TRANSPORTATION. 


We  have  thus  sketched  the  great  main   tions,    and    may    enumerate    them    as   fol- 
canal  avenues  that  connect  important  sec-  i  lows : — 


Miles. 

Erie  canal Hudson  river  to  lakes 363 

Pennsylvania  canal .  .Delaware  and  Ohio 395 

Ohio  "    ..Ohio  river  arid  Lake  Erie 307 

Miami  "    ..          "  "  "        178 

Indiana  "     ..          "  "  "        379 

Illinois  "    ..Lake  Michigan  with  Illinois  river. .  .102 


Expenditure.  $££ 

$7.143.789  40' 

12,381,822  40 

4,695,824  40 

3,750,000  40 

7.101,000  60 

8,654,337  60 


No.  of 

Locks. 

84 

200 

152 

102 

102 

2 


Total 1,724      $43,720,772 


The  financial  results  of  the  New  York 
canals  may  be  thus  stated  in  the  aggregate 
of  receipts  and  revenues  from  the  commence 
ment  of  the  works  to  Sept.  30,  1859  : — 


Receipts. 

Cross  tolls $70,565,737 

Loans 55,842,462 

Other  items 20,469,924 


Expenditures. 

Construction $55,106.814 

Repairs 16,932.080 

Loans  and  interest  57,028,943 
Other  items 17,790,2b6 


Total $146,858,123 


Total $146,858,123 


These  great  state  works  have  completed 
the  connection  between  the  Atlantic,  the 
lakes,  and  the  western  rivers,  and,  by  so 
doing,  have  promoted  the  circulation  of  the 
produce  of  all  sections  in  active  competition. 
The  resources  of  every  section  have  been 
drawn  out  in  such  a  manner  that  the  whole 
people  have  had  the  advantages  of  all.  In 
the  course  of  the  development  a  vast  capital 
was  added  to  the  national  wealth,  and  a  great 
value  bestowed  upon  land  not  before  very 
marketable.  While  this  has  been  done  by 
state  means,  a  great  number  of  other  canals 
have  been  erected  as  well  by  public  means 
as  private  enterprise.  The  most  important 
of  these  was  the  Delaware  and  Raritan  canal, 
connecting  those  two  rivers.  The  work  was 
completed  in  1827,  shortening  the  distance 
16  miles  between  Philadelphia  and  New 
York,  and  packet  propellers  run  regularly 
through  it  between  the  two  cities.  It  is  also 
the  main  source  of  supply  of  coal  for  New 
York.  The  state  of  Virginia  early  embarked 


in  improvements,  particularly  in  the  James 
river,  which  is  navigable  to  Richmond  for 
vessels  of  120  tons,  the  tide  reaching  there; 
above  Richmond  a  series  of  short  canals  in 
tended  to  connect  the  river  with  the  Kan- 
awha,  where  it  is  navigable  70  miles  from  its 
mouth  on  the  Ohio.  This  project  was  un 
dertaken  by  the  James  River  and  Kanawha 
Company,  and  was  completed  in  the  form 
of  a  canal,  147  miles,  at  a  cost  of  $5,020,050. 
There  are  many  other  works  of  public  utility 
in  Virginia,  under  the  control  of  a  board  of 
public  works,  chartered  in  1816.  There  are 
a  number  of  other  canals  in  several  states,  as 
the  Blackstone,  of  Massachusetts ;  the  Ogee- 
chee,  of  South  Carolina,  connecting  Charles 
ton  with  the  Santce,  cost  $650^667,  and 
many  other  improvements  in  a  number  of 
states.  The  Morris  and  Essex  canal,  of  New 
Jersey,  101  miles,  was  completed  in  1831. 
It  had  banking  powers  connected  with  it, 
and  of  all  the  public  works  in  the  country 
was  the  basis  of  the  most  stupendous  stock 
speculation.  Its  liabilities  were  at  one  time 
near  $10,000,000,  and  it  was  sold  out  in 
1845  for  a  sum  less  than  13,000,000;  its 
business  is  at  present  prosperous.  It  is  one 
of  the  works  that  were  erected  to  develop 
the  great  coal  business  of  Pennsylvania.  The 
discovery  of  that  important  mineral  takes 
date  about  the  year  1 820,  and  the  canals  that 
were  built  to  bring  the  coal  down  may  be 
enumerated  as  follows  : — 


Schuylkill  navigation Pennsylvania. 

Lehigh  canal 

Fusquehanna 

North  Branch 

'•      upper 

Union 

Delaware  and  Hudson New  York. 

Morris  canal New  Jersey. 


Length. 
Miles. 
..108 
..85 
..  41 
..  73 
..  94 
..  82 
..108 
...102 


Total  canals . .  693 


Cost 

$2,500,196 
4,455,099 
897,160 
1,590,379 
4,500,000 
5,000,000 
9,100,000 
3,612,000 

$31,654,834 


"Width.    Locks. 


36 
60 

40 
40 
40 
36 
75 
32 


120 

81 

12 

8 

90 
18 
29 
22 


The  expenditure  of  large  sums  of  money    struction  promoted  a  local  demand  for  prod- 
along  the  routes  of  these  works  for  their  con-   uce,  and    aided    in  the   settlement   of  the 


RAILROADS LAND    GRANTS  — EXTENT    AND    COST. 


191 


country  through  which  they  ran,  and  from 
the  improvement  of  which  their  future 
froightings  were  to  be  derived,  and  there 
is  little  matter  of  surprise  that  the  first 
years  of  their  operation  should  be  of  large 
promise.  The  cost  of  transporting  a  ton  of 
merchandise  from  Buffalo  to  Albany,  which 
had  been  $100,  and  the  time  twenty  days, 
was  at  once  reduced  to  $20,  and  the  time  to 
eight  days.  While  yet  they  were  being  con 
structed,  however,  a  new  agent  of  transpor 
tation  had  risen,  which  was  to  overshadow 
their  importance,  and  reduce  them  to  a 
second  rank.  The  rejoicing  for  the  com 
pletion  of  the  Erie  had  hardly  died  away,  be 
fore  the  locomotive  began  to  throw  its 
shadow  on  the  future.  The  "  astonishing 
speed"  of  steamboats  and  stages  was  about 
to  dwindle  into  an  intolerable  tedium.  The 
capacities  of  railroads  had  begun  to  be  dis 
cussed,  and  the  discussion  rapidly  elicited 
action,  which  did  not  cease  to  extend  itself, 
until  the  whole  country  has  become  covered 
with  rails,  ^'hen  railroads  began  to  be  con 
structed,  however,  both  vehicles,  sailing 
vessels,  and  steamers  had  made  considerable 
progress  in  speed,  and  the  connections  of 
travel  had  come  to  be  made  with  more 
regard  to  dispatch.  It  is  amusing  to  look 
back  at  some  of  the  accounts  of  the  wonders 
of  the  canals  after  the  opening.  Thus,  in 
1823  it  is  stated — 

"  CANALS  !  A  sloop,  called  the  Gleaner,  has 
arrived  at  New  York  from  St.  Albans,  in  the 
state  of  Vermont,  with  a  cargo  consisting  of 
1,200  bushels  of  wheat  and  other  articles.  She 
will  carry  sixty  tons  of  merchandise,  and  does 
not  appear  to  have  had  any  difficulty  in 
passing  through  the  northern  canal.  It  is 
supposed  that  she  will  safely  navigate  the 
Hudson,  and  she  is  designed  as  a  regular 
packet  between  St.  Albans  and  the  city  of 
New  York.  Look  at  the  map!  An  uninter 
rupted  sloop  navigation  from  one  place  to 
the  other ! 

"  When  the  Green  Mountain  vessel  arrived 
at  New  York,  the  veteran  artillery  were  order 
ed  out,  and  she  was  saluted  from  the  battery." 

In  1824.  "  INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENT.  It 
is  stated  in  one  of  the  New  York  papers 
that  a  barrel  of  flour  can  be  transported  from 
Albany  to  New  York,  a  distance  of  150 
miles,  for  12£  cents,  and  that  one  individual 
offers  to  do  it  for  seven  cents." 

In  1825.  "MARCH  OF  INTELLECT  WITH 
POWER. — It  is  no  fairy  tale,  that  flour,  man 
ufactured  on  Lake  Erie,  has  been  profitably 


sold  in  Newbern,  North  Carolina,  for  85.50 
per  barrel.     This  flour  was  transported  from 
the    lake    to    Albany,    through  the   Grand 
1  canal ;  thence  down  the  North  River  to  New 
;  York  ;  and  thence,  by  sea,  to  Newbern.  The 
!  cost  of  transportation  from  the  lakes  to  New 
bern  was  less  than  $1.50   per  barrel,  while 
that  between  Raleigh  and  Newbern  (not  more 
ithan  120  miles)  is  generally  two  dollars." 
In  1826.  "The  following,  from  the  Pitts- 
\  bury  Gazette,  shows  the  importance  of  canals. 
Mr.  Foster  has  published  in  the  Greensburgh 
\  Gazette    a   statement   furnished   him   by  a 
merchant  of  Meadville,  showing  the  amount 
|  which  the  merchant  paid  for  the  transpor 
tation  of  his  goods  this  fall  from  Philadelphia, 
|  by  way  of  New  York,  the  canal,  and  Eric, 
;  to  the  town  of  Meadville.     The  whole   cost 
per  hundred  pounds  was  $1.20i!      We  are 
',  now  paying  three   dollars  per  hundred  for 
carriage  in  wagons  from  Philadelphia  to  this 
city!" 

These   extracts  afford — in  contrasting  not 
I  only  the   routes,  but  the  prices,  with  those 
•  before  their  use  and  those  which  now  exist — 
much  room  for  reflection.       It  may  be  re 
marked  that  the  Caroline,  burnt  in  the  em 
ploy  of  the  sympathizers  in  1839,  at  Schlos- 
ser,  and  sent  over  the  falls  of  Niagara,  was 
built  in  South  Carolina,  and  had  passed  up 
the  canals  to  her  destination. 


CHAPTER  IIL 

RAILROADS— LAND   GRANTS— EXTENT 
AND  COST. 

THE  excitement  in  relation  to  canals  and 
steamboats  was  'yet  at  its  zenith,  when  the 
air  began  to  be   filled  with  rumors  of  the 
new  application  of  steam  to  land  carriages 
and  to  railroads.      There  were  many  inven 
tions  and  patents  at  home  and  abroad  in  re 
lation  to  carriages  propelled  upon  common 
roads  by  steam,  but  these  seem  never  to  have 
attained  much  success,  although  attempts  to 
perfect  them  are  still  made  with  great  perse- 
i  vcrance.    On  the  other  hand,  the  use  of  rail- 
i  roads  from   small  beginnings  has  reached  a 
|  magnitude  which  overshadows  the    wildest 
I  imaginings  of  the  most  sanguine.      In  1825 
descriptions  came  across  the  water  of  the 
great   success   of  the   Darlington   railroad, 
which  was  opened  to  supply  London  with 
coal,  and  which  had  passenger  cars  moved 
by  steam  at  the  rate  of  seven  miles  per  hour. 


192 


TRAVEL    AND    TRANSPORTATION". 


The  most  animated  controversy  sprang  up  in 
relation  to  the  possibility  of  such  roads  in 
England,  and  was  shared  in  to  some  extent 
on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  With  the  nat 
ional  energy  of  character,  the  idea  had  no 
sooner  become  disseminated  than  it  was 
acted  upon.  The  construction  of  railroads 
in  America  is  usually  ascribed  to  the  emu 
lation  excited  by  the  success  of  the  Liverpool 
and  Manchester  railway.  This  appears  not 
to  have  been  the  case,  however,  since  some 
of  the  most  important  works  in  this  country 
were  projected  and  commenced  before  the 
Liverpool  and  Manchester  road  was  built. 
The  act  of  Parliament  for  the  construction 
of  that  road  was  passed  in  1826,  and  the  road 
itself  was  finished  and  opened  in  September, 

1830,  31  miles  long;  but  the  Massachusetts 
Quincy  road,  three  miles  from  Quincy  to  Ne- 
ponsct,  was    opened  in   1827,   and  a  great 
celebration   was  held  in  consequence.     The 
celebrated  Mauch  Chunk  railroad  of  Penn 
sylvania  was  begun  in  1826,  and  finished  in 
the  following  year.    On  that  road  the  horses 
which   draw  up  the  empty  coal   wagons  are 
sent  down  on  the   cars  which  descend  by 
their   own  gravity.     This   contrivance   was 
borrowed  by  the  Mauch  Chunk  road  from 
the   Darlington  road,  similarly  situated,  in 
England.      It  is  to  be  remarked  that  both 
the  Quincy  and  the  Mauch  Chunk  roads  were 
horse  roads  ;  the  locomotive  was  not  at  first 
introduced.     In  1828,  twelve  miles   of  the 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad  were  completed, 
two   years  before  the  Manchester  road  was 
opened.     In  the  same  year,  1828,  the  South 
Carolina  road,  from  Charleston  to  Hamburg, 
was  surveyed,  and  in  Massachusetts  the  city 
of  Boston  voted  the  construction  of  a  road 
from  that  city  to  the  Hudson   at  Albany. 
The    first   portion    of  that   road,    however, 
Boston   to    Worcester,   44    miles,   Avas   not 
opened  until  1835.     The  second  road  finish 
ed  in  the  United  States  was  the  Richmond, 
Va.,  road,  thirteen  miles  to  Chesterfield,  in 

1831,  and  in  the   same  year  that  running 
from  New  Orleans,  five  miles  to  Lake  Pont- 
chartrain,  was  opened.       Thus  roads  were 
well  adopted  in  public  opinion  here  before 
the   great  success  of  the  Manchester   road 
was  known,  but  which  gave  an  undoubted 
impulse  to  the  fever.  During  the  excitement 
in   relation   to    "rail"    roads,  a  writer  in  a 
Providence  paper  thus  satirized  the  condition 
of  the  Connecticut  roads.     He  claimed  the 
invention  of  the  cheapest  "  rail"  roads,  and 
proved  it  thus :    "  Only  one  English  engine 


alone  costs  $2,000,  which  sum  the  whole  of 
our  apparatus  does  not  much  exceed,  as 
figures  will  prove  ;  for  700  good  chestnut 
rails  at  $3,  amounts  to  only  $21,  and  it 
ought  to  be  remembered  that  this  is  all  the 
expense  we  are  at,  and  the  inference  is  con 
clusive  in  our  favor.  We  place  our  rails 
fifty  to  the  mile  by  the  side  of  the  road,  to 
pry  out  the  wheels  when  they  get  stuck,  and 
hoist  behind  when  wanted."  The  public 
were,  however,  no  longer  to  be  satisfied 
with  this  kind  of  "rail"  road.  They  em 
barked  in  the  new  enterprise  with  such 
vigor,  that  in  1836  two  hundred  companies 
had  been  organized,  and  1,0031. miles  were 
opened  in  eleven  states.  These  were  highly 
speculative  years,  however,  and  the  revulsion 
brought  matters  to  a  stand. 

It  was  at  once  apparent  to  the  commercial 
mind  that  if  railroads  would  perform  what 
was  promised  for  them,  geographical  position 
was  no  longer  important  to  a  city.  In  other 
words,  that  railroads  would  bring  Boston 
into  as  intimate  connection  with  every  part 
of  the  interior  as  New  York  could  be.  The 
large  water  communication  that  enabled  New 
York  by  means  of  steamboats  to  concentrate 
trade  from  all  quarters,  could  not  now  com 
pete  with  the  rails  that  would  confer  as 
great  advantages  upon  Boston.  Indeed,  Bos 
ton  had  now  availed  herself  of  steam  power. 
Up  to  1828  she  owned  no  steamers.  The 
Benjamin  Franklin,  built  in  that  year,  was 
the  first,  and  her  steam  tonnage  is  now 
but  9,998  tons.  When  she  bought  her  first 
steamboat,  however,  she  was  laying  out  those 
railroad  connections  that  she  has  since  push 
ed  so  vigorously,  and  they  have  paid  an 
enormous  interest,  if  not  directly  to  the 
builders,  at  least  to  the  general  interests  of 
the  city. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that  the  national 
government  expended,  as  we  have  seen, 
largely  in  the  construction  of  highways,  the 
clearing  out  of  rivers,  and  the  improvement 
of  harbors.  The  people  have  by  individual 
taxes  mostly  constructed  the  earth  roads  of 
this  country.  The  canals  have,  however, 
with  a  few  exceptions,  been  state  works, 
built  by  the  proceeds  of  state  loans,  with  the 
aid  of  lands  donated  by  the  federal  govern 
ment.  These  lands  were  made  marketable 
and  valuable  by  the  action  of  the  canals  in 
aid  of  which  they  were  granted.  The  rail 
roads  of  the  country  have  been,  as  a  whole, 
built  on  a  different  plan,  viz.,  by  corporations, 
or  chartered  companies  of  individuals.  These 


RAILROADS LAND    GRANTS EXTENT    AND    COST. 


193 


associations  have  not,  however,  themselves 
subscribed  the  whole  of  the  money,  probably 
not  more  than  half,  but  they  have  found  it  to 
their  interest  to  borrow  the  money  on  mort 
gage  of  the  works.  The  great  object  of  the 
companies  has  not  been  so  much  to  derive  a 
direct  profit  from  the  investment,  as  to  cause 
the  construction  of  a  highway,  which  should 
by  its  operation  increase  business,  enhance 
the  value  of  property,  and  swell  the  floating 
capital  of  the  country  by  making  available  con 
siderable  productions  of  industry,  which  before 
were  not  marketable,  since  the  influence  of  a 
railroad  in  a  new  district  is  perhaps,  if  not 
to  create,  at  least  to  bring  into  the  general 
stock  more  capital  than  is  absorbed  in  its 
construction. 

Thus  in  the  last  twenty-five  years,  a  thou 
sand  millions  of  dollars  have  been  spent  in  the 
construction  of  roads,  and  yet  capital  is  pro 
portionally  more  abundant  now  than  before 
this  vast  expenditure,  and  land  has,  in  railroad 
localities,  increased  by  a  money  value  greater 
than  the  cost  of  the  roads  !  We  have  seen 
that  before  the  operation  of  canals,  land 
transportation  was,  and  is  now  remote  from 
these  works,  one  cent  per  mile  per  hundred. 
If  a  barrel  of  flour  is  then  worth  in  market 
five  dollars,  a  transportation  of  300  miles 
would  cost  more  than  its  whole  value  ;  but 
by  rail  it  may  be  carried  from  Cincinnati  to 
New  York  for  one  dollar.  Thus  railroads 
give  circulation  to  all  the  surplus  capital  that 
is  created  by  labor  within  their  circle.  It  is 
on  this  principle  that  may  be  explained  the 
immense  prosperity  that  has  been  seen  to  at 
tend  the  enormous  expenditure  for  railroads, 
particularly  during  the  last  ten  years. 

The  construction  of  the  Massachusetts 
Western  railway,  from  Boston  to  the  Hudson 
river,  was  one  of  the  most  important  and  fi 
nancially  successful  of  all  the  railroads  of  the 
country.  New  York  had  constructed  her 
great  canal,  as  it  were  making  Albany  basin 
a  part  of  Lake  Erie.  Boston  now  grasped 
the  idea  of  a  railroad  that  should  make  Al 
bany  basin  with  its  affluents  a  part  of  Boston 
harbor.  It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind,  however, 
that  when  that  road  was  undertaken,  railroad 
building  was  a  new  art  ;  the  mode  of  laying 
the  track,  the  form,  and  even  the  model 
of  rails  were  problems.  The  form  of  wheels 
to  run  on  the  rails,  the  mode  of  setting  the 
car  on  the  wheels,  were  all  unknown  com 
pared  with  the  knowledge  on  the  subject 
which  the  construction  of  30,000  miles  of 
roads  in  this  country  has  since  accumulated. 


The  state  of  knowledge  at  that  time  may  be 
seen  in  the  following  extract  from  u  Wood 
on  Railroads"  in  1825  : — 

"  Nothing  can  do  more  harm  to  the  adop 
tion  of  railroads  than  the  promulgation  of 
such  nonsense  as  that  we  shall  see  locomotive 
engines  travelling  at  the  rate  of  twelve  miles 
per  hour." 

Such  was  engineering  knowledge  at  the 
time  Boston  voted  to  build  a  connection  200 
miles  to  Albany.  Since  that  day  much  has 
been  learned  in  relation  to  the  characteristics 
of  roads. 

The  great  advantage  of  railroads  is  that  they 
practically  diminish  distances  between  places 
in  proportion  to  the  speed  attained.  The 
rapidity  of  motion  and  power  of  traction  de 
pend  upon  the  diminution  of  friction.  This 
was  sought  in  common  roads,  Macadam  roads, 
and  canals,  but  has  approached  perfection  in 
railroads.  The  essential  attributes  are  two 
smooth  surfaces  for  wheels  to  run  on. 
These  being  made  of  iron,  are  made  as  narrow 
as  possible  to  lessen  the  cost ;  and  to  keep 
the  wheels  upon  the  rails,  flanges  are  placed 
upon  the  inner  rim  of  the  wheel.  The  form 
of  the  iron  rails  has  undergone  many  changes, 
as  experience  suggested  improvements. 
The  mode  of  laying  these  has  also  varied. 
The  building  of  a  railroad  includes  "  the  road 
bed,"  somewhat  like  a  common  road,  and 
the  superstructure,  which  embraces  rails,  sup 
ports,  ties,  etc.  The  main  operations  in  the 
construction  of  the  road  bed  consist  in  the 
"  excavations,  tunnels,  embankments,  ballast 
ing,  bridges,  and  viaducts." 

These  operations  are  required  to  give  the 
necessary  levelness  and  straightness  to  roads, 
both  of  which  are  reqiiisite,  not  only  as  ele 
ments  of  speed,  but  of  economy.  The 
straightest  road  is  the  shortest;  but  when 
the  road  is  done,  the  expense  of  keeping  up 
the  earth-work  is  nearly  nothing,  while,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  annual  expense  required 
to  keep  up  the  perishable  superstructure  is 
very  great  and  proportionate  to  the  length 
of  the  road.  Hence  true  economy  requires 
a  greater  outlay  to  make  the  road  straight, 
in  order  to  avoid  permanent  cause  of  ex 
pense.  Common  roads  may  be  lengthened 
to  advantage,  in  order  to  avoid  an  ascent. 
In  railroads  this  is  avoided  by  tunnels 
through  the  obstacle  when  it  is  too  high  to 
excavate  at  what  it  would  cost  to  tunnel. 
This  is  not,  however,  the  only  reason  for 
straightening,  ^ince  the  frequency  of  curves 
greatly  increases  the  danger  of  railroads. 


RAILROADS LAND    CHANTS    -  EXTENT    AND    COST. 


195 


When  a  car  in  motion  enters  upon  a  curve, 
it  has  a  tendency  to  continue  its  straight 
course,  and  this  is  overcome  by  the  resist 
ance  of  the  flanges  of  the  wheel  against  the 
rail,  and  by  the  firmness  of  the  outer  rail. 
This  resistance  is  always  felt  in  the  rocking 
motion  of  the  cars,  and  is  increased  by  the 
shortness  of  the  curve.  A  pair  of  wheels  is 
fastened  to  an  axle  and  turns  with  it,  the 
outer  whoel  moving  on  a  curve  much  faster 
than  the  inner  one,  which  would  slide,  under 
such  circumstances,  if  both  were  of  the  same 
diameter,  sufficiently  to  make  up  the  differ 
ence.  This  is  obviated  by  making  the 
wheels  conical,  or  of  a  larger  diameter  next 
to  the  flange  than  on  the  outside.  The  ef 
fect  of  this  is  that  the  wheels  having  some 
play  between  the  rails,  the  outer  wheel, 
forced  against  the  rail,  runs  on  a  larger  di 
ameter  than  the  inner  one,  thus  compensat 
ing  the  speed.  Further,  to  overcome  the 
centrifugal  force,  the  outer  rail  is  made 
higher  than  the  inner  one,  so  that  the  weight 
of  the  car  gives  it  a  tendency  to  slide  toward 
the  inner  one  in  opposition  to  the  centrif 
ugal  force.  The  excavations  in  loose  earth 
require  to  be  supported  at  the  sides  by  re 
taining  walls,  and  to  be  drained  by  ditches  and 
cross  drains.  In  making  a  tunnel  the  centre  of 
the  road  is  set  with  great  accuracy  on  the  sur 
face  of  the  ground  by  an  instrument,  and  shafts 
are  sunk  at  proper  levels  along  this  line.  The 
excavations  are  then  made  by  "  drifts"  from 
shaft  to  shaft,  and  to  the  open  ends  of  the 
tunnel.  The  material  excavated  is  raised 
through  the  shafts,  w-hich  serve  for  ventila 
tion  when  the  tunnel  is  finished.  The  em 
bankments  require  great  care  to  insure  their 
solidity.  When  the  materials  for  filling  are 
at  hand,  they  are  usually  made  at  their  full 
height  at  one  end,  and  then  temporary  rails 
permit  the  approach  of  wagons  to  be  emptied 
over  the  head  of  the  embankment.  The 
progress  of  the  work  depends  upon  the 
speed  with  which  these  succeed  each  other. 
When  the  track  passes  through  a  country 
like  a  wooded  swamp,  where  the  materials 
for  filling  are  not  at  hand,  resort  is  had  to 
trusses.  Piles  of  a  diameter  of  1 5  inches  are 
driven,  so  as  to  form  lines  of  the  width  of 
the  railroad ;  transverse  ties  are  fastened 
across  the  tops,  and,  with  proper  supports, 
longitudinal  timbers  are  laid  across  the  piles 
to  carry  the  rails.  The  tops  of  embank 
ments  and  the  bottoms  of  excavations  are 
made  about  two  feet  below  the  intended  or 
"  formation  level"  of  the  road,  and  have  there 


a  convex  surface  like,  an  ordinary  road- 
This  space  of  two  feet  is  filled  up  with  por 
ous  material,  broken  stones,  gravel,  etc. 
This  is  called  "  ballast,"  and  through  it  the 
rains  pass  freely,  and  the  frosts  of  winter  do 
not  so  much  affect  it.  On  this  "  ballast"  the 
sleepers  are  laid.  Many  roads  are  not  prop 
erly  ballasted,  and  are,  therefore,  unsafe. 
Bridges  are  difivult  of  construction,  and  have 
som<'times  been  made  of  iron.  This  was  tho 
case  with  the  Erie  railroad,  when  an  accident 
occurred,  because  the  iron,  resting  upon 
stone  piers,  contracted  by  the  cold  so  as  to 
drop  off  its  support. 

When  the  road  bed  is  complete,  the  su 
perstructure  is  put  on.  This  is  now  done  by 
cross  sleepers.  The  best  of  these  are  second- 
growth  chestnut,  7  feet  long,  and  8  by  12 
inches.  These  are  laid  upon  the  ballast. 
j.'he  iron  rails  are  laid  upon  these,  but  in 
some  cases  longitudinal  timbers  are  first  laid 
down,  and  upon  these  the  iron  rails  are  laid. 
The  iron  rails  have  undergone  many  im 
provements.  At  first,  a  simple  flat  iron  rail 
was  spiked  down  to  these  timbers.  These 
rails  Avould  often  get  loose,  and  the  end  ris 
ing  form  a  "  snake  head,"  and  the  wheel 
catching  under,  throw  it  up  with  great  force 
and  danger  to  passengers.  These  roads  were 
ridiculed  as  "  hoops  tacked  to  a  lath."  Va 
rious  forms  and  weights  of  rail  were  adopted 
as  experience  directed ;  that  now  the  favorite 
is  called  the  T  rail ;  the  shape  is  like  that 
letter  inverted.  There  must  be  a  certain 
breadth  of  rail  for  the  wheel  to  run  on,  and 
depth  for  strength.  The  smallest  rails  will 
weigh  36  Ibs.  to  the  running  yard.  The 
Massachusetts  roads  use  GO  Ibs.  to  the  yard ; 
the  New  York  roads,  70  to  75  Ibs.  to  the 
yard.  The  rail  is  not  fastened^  directly  to 
the  timber,  but  is  held  in  chairs,  which  are 
spiked  to  the  cross  sleepers.  The  chair  is 
of  cast  or  wrought  iron,  and  will  weigh  20 
to  30  Ibs.  They  are  made  in  one  piece,  so 
as  to  receive  the  ends  of  two  rails,  which  are 
fastened  by  wedges  of  iron  or  wood,  driven 
between  them  and  the  chair,  without  inter 
fering  with  the  longitudinal  expansion  and 
contraction  of  the  rails. 

The  proper  breadth  of  rails  apart,  or  the 
width  of  the  track,  has  been  matter  of  much 
discussion.  There  are  many  advocates  of 
the  "  broad  gauge"  and  of  the  "  narrow 
gauge."  The  latter  is  generally  4  ft.  8  in. 
and  the  former  6  ft.  The  Erie  railroad  is 
of  the  broad  gauge,  and  the  convenience  of 
the  cars  is  superior  to  that  of  the  narrow 


196 


TRAVEL    AND    TRANSPORTATION. 


roads.  It  is  a  more  expensive  road  to  build, 
however.  Both  plans  have  their  advantages. 
The  majority  of  roads  arc,  however,  built  on 
the  narrow  gauge.  When  gauges  on  long 
lines  are  uniform  it  facilitates  the  passage 
of  the  cars,  which  would  otherwise  be  inter 
rupted. 

The  power  on  railroads  is  mostly  steam, 
but  horses,  stationary  engines,  and  atmos 
pheric  pressure  are  sometimes  used.  The 
first  really  successful  locomotive  was  built  in 
1814,  which  drew  30  tons  6  miles  per  hour ; 
improvements  have  since  been  made  until  70 
miles  per  hour  is  attained.  A  Philadelphia 
engine  drew  158  cars,  2,020  feet  long,  with 
1,268  tons  coal,  84  miles  in  8  hours.  The 
engine  weighed  15  J  tons.  The  power  of 
an  engine  depends  upon  the  quantity  of 
steam  it  can  generate  in  a  given  time.  Each 
revolution  of  the  wheels  corresponds  to  ? 
double  stroke  of  each  piston,  or  four  cylin- 
derfuls  of  steam.  The  utmost  heating  surface 
is  therefore  required,  and  this  is  obtained  by 
tubular  boilers.  Wheels,  7  feet  in  diameter, 
pass  over  22  feet  in  each  complete  revolu 
tion.  To  go  25  miles  per  hour,  therefore, 
they  must  revolve  five  times  in  a  second, 
and  each  piston  must  make  10  strokes  in  the 
same  time.  This  minute  division  of  time  is 
accurately  made  by  this  ponderous  machine. 
This  rapid  exhaustion  of  steam  causes  a 
greater  demand  for  fuel  in  proportion  to  the 
speed.  The  power  of  an  engine  to  draw 
loads  depends  upon  the  pressure  of  steam, 
which  is  usually  50  to  60  Ibs.  to  the  square 
inch ;  but  the  adhesion  of  the  engine  to  the 
rails  must  be  great,  otherwise  the  wheel 
would  slip  round.  For  this  reason  the 
wheels  were  first  made  with  cogs  to  hold  in 
the  rail,  but  it  was  found  that  the  weight  of 
the  engine  was  sufficient  on  level  roads. 
The  adhesion  of  iron  upon  iron  is  one-eighth 
of  the  weight,  but  in  wet  and  freezing  weath 
er  it  is  greatly  reduced,  and  it  lessens  with 
the  increase  of  the  slope  of  the  road,  or 
ascending  grade.  Thus,  if  an  engine  will 
draw  389  tons  on  a  level,  it  will  draw  but 
one-fourth  of  the  amount  up  a  grade  50  ft. 
to  the  mile.  The  average  cost  of  locomotive 
power  is  not  far  from  50  cents  per  mile  run, 
which  includes  fuel,  oil,  wages,  repairs,  wear 
and  tear,  etc.  These  expenses  are,  of  course, 
lessened  by  levelness  and  straightness,  since 
where  these  are  perfect,  more  is  carried  for 
the  same  money,  than  on  common  roads.  A 
great  draw-back  upon  the  cheapness  of  rail 
transportation  is  the  weight  of  the  rolling 


stock.  The  cars  and  engines  usually  are  to 
the  paying  freight  as  1 0  to  6.  Various  means 
have  been  proposed  to  lessen  the  burden 
of  this  expense,  but  hitherto  without  much 
success.  It  is  evident  from  this  slight  sketch 
of  the  principles  of  railroad  construction  that 
the  characteristics  of  a  road,  in  relation  to 
curves,  grades,  etc.,  have  much  to  do  with  the 
economy  with  which  it  can  be  run,  and  its  ca 
pacity  to  compete  successfully  with  rival  lines. 

The  city  of  Boston  was,  as  we  have  said, 
one  of  the  eai'liest  to  understand  the  advan 
tages  that  were  to  be  drawn  from  railroads 
in  overcoming  the  disadvantages  of  its  posi 
tion  in  relation  to  the  west,  and  the  Western 
railroad  has  been  the  instrument  by  which 
she  made  the  great  states  west  of  New  York 
subservient  to  her  interests.  The  charter  of 
that  road  is  dated  March  15,  1833.  The 
road  runs  from  Worcester,  44  miles  west  of 
Boston,  to  the  Massachusetts  state  line,  and 
thence  38:^  miles  over  the  Albany  and  AVcst 
Stockbridge  railroad,  leased  and  operated  by 
the  Western  road,  into  Albany,  200  miles 
from  Boston.  The  first  train  of  passengers 
that  left  Boston  was  on  April  7,  1834,  for 
Davis'  Tavern,  Newton,  to  which  place  the 
Worcester  road  was  then  opened.  It  was 
completed  to  Worcester  July  3,  1835.  The 
Western  road,  in  continuation,  was  opened  to 
Springfield  Oct.  1,  1839,  ten  days  before 
the  United  States  Bank  finally  failed,  and  it 
reached  Greenbush  Dec.  21,  1841,  thus  es 
tablishing  the  route  from  Boston  to  the  Al 
bany  basin  in  seven  hours.  It  there  con 
nects  with  the  New  York  Central  road, 
which  carries  the  line  229  miles  to  Roches 
ter,  whence,  by  the  Lockport  division  of 
the  Central  road,  77  miles,  it  connects  at 
Suspension  bridge  with  the  Great  Western 
Canada  road,  and  thence  with  the  Michigan 
Central,  the  Illinois  Central,  and  the  Ohio 
and  Mississippi  roads  to  New  Orleans.  By 
this  route  Boston  and  St.  Louis,  1,365  miles 
distant,  are  connected  in  64  hours.  From 
Buffalo  the  line  connects  south  of  the  lakes 
with  all  the  net-work  of  Ohio  and  other 
roads.  Every  portion  of  the  country  is  thus 
brought  into  connection  with  Boston. 

The  Worcester  railroad  has  a  double  track 
its  entire  length,  laid  with  60  Ib.  iron.  Its 
freight-house  at  Boston  is  a  single  room  466 
feet  in  length  and  120  feet  wide.  The  cost 
of  the  road  was  $4,843,610.  The  Western 
has  a  double  track  68  miles;  it  has  20  de 
pots,  covering  118  acres  of  land;  it  has  15 
stone-arched  bridges,  15  to  60  feet  span. 


RAILROADS LAND  GRANTS EXTENT  AND  COST. 


197 


The  bridge  across  the  Connecticut  is  1,264 
feet  long.  The  Western  road  has  a  grade 
of  from  60  to  80  feet  per  mile  for  more  than 
1 8  miles ;  near  the  state  line  the  depot  is 
1,456  feet  above  the  depot  in  Boston !  These 
features  indicate  the  difficulties  that  were  en 
countered  in  the  construction,  and  it  received 
much  aid  from  the  state.  The  original  capi 
tal  was  $2,000,000;  in  1836  thia  was  in 
creased,  and  the  state  subscribed  $1,000,000. 
The  state  subsequently  loaned  its  credit  for 
$4,000,000.  The  present  debt  of  the  com 
pany  is  $5,839,080,  and  the  capital  85,150,- 
000,  on  which  it  uniformly  pays  8  per 
cent,  dividend.  The  cost  of  the  Western 
road  proper  was  $6,757,309,  and  of  the  Al 
bany  and  West  Stockbridge,  82,392,384. 
The  opening  of  this  road  made  a  great  change 
in  flour  business.  Formerly  the  flour  that 
came  down  the  Erie  canal,  and  was  tranship 
ped  in  sloops,  made  the  voyage  up  the  Sound 
and  round  Cape  Cod,  into  Boston  harbor. 
The  Western  road  made  the  line  direct,  and 
by  it  about  600,000  bbls.  now  annually  leave 
Albany ;  of  this  40  per  cent,  is  sold  along 
the  line,  in  what  was  once  an  agricultural 
region,  and  the  balance  meets  in  the  Boston 
market  the  flour  of  the  southern  states.  The 
Boston  and  Providence  road  was  opened  41 
miles  in  June,  1835,  and  at  once  became  the 
connecting  link  between  the  steamboats  from 
New  York  and  Boston,  taking  the  place  of 
the  stage  lines.  This  road  has  now  several 
branches,  and  has  been  very  profitable.  The 
original  cost,  $3,862,710,  has  long  since  been 
returned  to  its  stockholders  in  6  per  cent, 
dividends.  It  has  a  debt  of  8195,220,  which 
is  paid  at  the  rate  of  830,000  per  annum. 

The  Boston  and  Maine  road,  which  is  the 
second  link  in  the  great  chain  which  reaches 
from  Bangor  to  Xe\v  Orleans  by  the  Atlantic 
coast,  1,996  miles,  was  opened  in  1843.  It 
runs  74  miles  to  Berwick,  where  it  connects 
with  the  Portland,  Saco,  and  Portsmouth,  ex 
tending  to  Portland.  The  cost  of  this  has 
been  84,719,995,  and  it  has  no  debt.  It 
has,  since  Oct.,  1843,  paid  40  dividends, 
amounting  to  8133  per  share  of  8100.  The 
connections  of  this  road  are  very  numerous. 
Lateral  and  cross  roads  bring  every  manu 
facturing  town  in  New  England  within  easy 
distance  of  Boston.  The  3,749  miles  of  rail 
road  in  the  New  England  states  give  an 
active  circulation  to  raw  materials  and  the 
products  of  industry,  making,  so  to  speak, 
all  the  labor  of  those  states  available  on 
equal  terms. 


In  New  York  the  question  of  railroads 
had  been  very  early  discussed.  A  publica 
tion  of  Colonel  Stevens,  of  Hoboken,  in 
1812,  advocated  a  railway  instead  of  a  canal 
to  the  lakes ;  but  his  proposition  was  op 
posed  by  Chancellor  Livingston  on  grounds 
which  indicate  very  odd  ideas  of  the  'nature 
of  the  works.  The  first  regular  application 
to  the  legislature  for  a  railroad  charter 
seems  to  have  been  made  by  Stephen  Van 
Rensselaer  and  others  in  1826,  for  power  to 
construct  one  between  the  Hudson  and  the 
Mohawk,  and  they  received  the  grant  for 
the  reason  that  no  railroads  were  then  in  the 
country  at  all,  and  that,  as  the  petitioners 
were  willing  to  make  the  experiment  at  their 
own  cost,  it  was  a  good  opportunity  to  per 
mit  it.  The  surveys  for  the  road  were  not 
made  until  1830,  and  the  road  was  opened 
in  September,  1831,  and  three  cars,  with 
twenty  passengers  in  each,  were  drawn  to 
Schenectady  in  46  minutes  by  an  American 
engine  of  31  tons.  Meantime,  the  charters 
of  the  Harlem  and  the  Saratoga  and  Schen 
ectady  had  been  granted.  The  opening  of 
the  Mohawk  road  caused  much  excitement. 
A  road  from  the  Hudson  to  the  lakes  was 
agitated,  and  applications  Avere  made  to  the 
legislature  of  1832  for  49  roads,  of  which 
27  charters  were  granted,  and  of  these  six 
have  been  constructed,  viz. :  the  Brooklyn 
and  Jamaica,  Hudson  and  Berkshire,  Erie, 
Rensselaer  and  Saratoga,  Tonawanda,  Water- 
town  and  Rome.  In  1833,  six  railroads 
were  chartered ;  of  these  the  Utica  and 
Schenectady,  Whitehall  and  Rutland,  and 
Buffalo  and  Black  Rock  were  constructed. 
In  1834,  ten  railroads  were  chartered,  and 
of  these  five  were  constructed  :  the  Auburn 
and  Syracuse,  Buffalo  and  Niagara  Falls, 
Long  Island,  Lockport  and  Niagara,  and  the 
Saratoga  and  Washington.  In  1836,  43 
railroads  were  chartered,  seven  of  which 
were  built :  the  Albany  and  West  Stock- 
bridge,  Attica  and  Buffalo,  Auburn  and  Roch 
ester,  Lewiston,  Schenectady  and  Troy,  Skan- 
eateles,  and  Syracuse  and  LTtica.  In  1837, 
14  railroads  were  chartered,  but  none  of  them 
have  been  constructed.  In  1838,  the  state 
authorized  a  loan  of  its  credit  to  the  extent 
of  83,000,000  to  the  Eric  railroad,  and  of 
8100,000  to  the  Catskill  and  Canajoharie, 
and  of  8250,000  to  the  Ithaca  and  Owego  ; 
also,  8200,000  to  the  Auburn  and  Syracuse. 
In  1839,  the  Oswego  and  Syracuse  railroad 
was  chartered ;  and  the  city  of  Albany  lent 
,000  to  the  Albany  and  West  Stock- 


200 


TRAVEL    AND    TRANSPORTATION. 


bridge  road.  In  1840,  acts  were  passed  in 
the  legislature  to  loan  the  credit  of  the  state 
to  the  extent  of  $3,478,000  to  six  roads,  and 
provision  was  made  for  a  sinking  fund  to  be 
paid  into  the  treasury  by  the  railroad  com 
panies,  except  the  Erie.  In  1841,  the  city 
of  Albany  was  authorized  to  invest  $350,- 
000  in  the  Albany  and  West  Stockbridge 
road.  The  Erie  railroad,  having  defaulted 
on  its  interest,  was  advertised  for  sale  by  the 
comptroller,  which  did  not  take  place,  how 
ever.  This  was  not  the  case  with  the  Ithaca 
and  Owetro,  which  was  sold  for  8.4,500,  and 
the  Catskill  and  Canajoharie  for  $11,600. 
The  loss  to  the  state  was  $1,026,327.  In 
1844,  the  several  railroads  from  Albany  to 
Buffalo  were,  for  the  first  time,  permitted  to 
transport  freight  on  the  closing  of  the  canal, 
by  paying  the  state  the  same  toll  as  the 
canal  would  have  paid.  In  1846,  the  Hud 
son  River  and  the  New  York  and  New  Ha 
ven  were  chartered.  In  1847,  the  seven 
roads  making  the  line  from  Albany  to  the 
lakes  were  required  to  lay  down  an  iron 
rail  of  56  Ibs.  to  the  yard.  They  were  like 
wise  authorized  to  carry  freight  all  the  year 
by  paying  canal  tolls ;  and  all  the  railroads 
were  made  liable  for  damages  in  case  of 
death  by  neglect  of  the  companies'  agents. 
In  1848,  the  general  railroad  law  was  passed. 
The  law  provides,  however,  that  the  legisla 
ture  shall  decide  whether  the  "  public  utility  " 
of  the  road  justifies  the  taking  of  private  prop 
erty.  This  was  removed  in  1849.  Thus, 
from  1826  to  1850, 151  charters  were  grant 
ed,  and  of  these  30  have  been  carried  into 
effect.  We  observe  that  the  line  from 
Albany  to  Buffalo  was  composed  of  seven 
distinct  companies,  finished  at  different 
times.  Most  of  these  were  restricted  as  to 
fares.  The  Mohawk  and  Hudson — or  Al 
bany  and  Schenectady — was  not  restrained. 
The  others  were,  as  in  the  following  table 
composing  the  line  now  known  as  the  Cen 
tral  railroad : — 


Albany  and  Schenectady 
Utica  and  Schenectady.. 

Syracuse  and  Utica 

Auburn  and  Syracuse . . . 
Auburn  and  Rochester. . 

Tonawancla 

Attica  and  Buffalo 


Maxi 
mum^   . 

Char-  Open-   fare  tt  § 

tered.     ed.      per    c|3 
mile. 

..1826    1831      .. 
.1833     1836 

..1836     1839 

..1884    1839 

..1336    1841 


IT  $1,711,412 

.4     78  4,143.918 

.4     53  2,41)0.083 
.5     20 


1,011,000 
4,210.101 

1832    1842      .4     43$     1,216.820 
1836    1842      .3     31$        9(Jf.,9l5 

Total 327  $15,090,249 

These   companies  were  in  1850   allowed 
to  carry  freight  without  the  imposition  of 


the  canal  tolls,  and  in  1853  were  all  con 
solidated  in  a  single  company — the  New 
York  Central.  When  this  project  of  con 
solidating  was  under  consideration,  the  stocks 
rose  rapidly  to  high  premiums,  and  the  prin 
ciple  of  consolidation  was  to  create  scrip 
stock  to  the  amount  of  the  aggregate  pre 
miums,  and  divide  this  pro  rdta  among  the 
stockholders  of  all  the  companies.  That 
scrip,  to  the  amount  of  about  $8,100,000, 
now  figures  as  a  part  of  the  cost  of  the  pres 
ent  company.  It  may  be  remarked  that  the 
restrictions  as  to  charge  have  been  inopera 
tive,  since  the  charge  has  always  been  less. 
The  length  has  been  shortened  in  such  a 
manner  that  the  distance  is  now  298  miles 
from  Albany  to  Buffalo,  and  the  charge  is 
$7.00,  or  2'  cents  per  mile,  the  time  being  14 
hours.  The  capital  of  the  company  is  $24,- 
153,000,  the  liabilities  $6,233,000,  and  the 
$8,100,000  debt  certificates  to  be  paid  out 
of  future  income — making  altogether  $38,- 
486,000,  against  $30,732,517,  the  cost  of 
the  roads.  The  business  of  the  new  company 
from  its  consolidation  has  been  as  follows  : — 


EARNINGS    FROM    PASSENGERS,    FUEIGIIT,  AND    ALL    OTHER 
SOURCES,  FOR  THE  YEARS  ENDING  SEPT.  80,  1853-1859. 

Years  ending  Passengers.    Freight,  ^urces  Total. 

Sept.  30,  1853,  $2,829/68    $1,835,572  $122.279  $4,787,519 

"        ]854,  8,151,513      2.479,820  28K.999  5,918,3^2 

"        1855,  3,242,229      8,189.602  131,749  6.563,5s() 

"        1856,  8,207,378      4,328,041  171.928  7,707.847 

"        1857,  3,147.636      4,559.275  320,333  8,027.259 

"        185S,  2,532,646      8.700.270  295,495  6,528,412 

"        1859,  2,560,369      3,337,148  297,330  6,200.848 

Total $45,733,296 

Whoever  glances  at  the  map  of  New  York 
will  observe  that  the  Erie  canal  runs  mostly 
through  the  northern  counties,  skirting,  as  it 
were,  Lake  Ontario  for  a  considerable  dis 
tance  ;  that  the  lateral  canals  extend  from 
this  toward  the  southern  portion  of  the  state. 
The  Chcnango  canal  connects  the  Mohawk 
with  the  Susquchanna,  and  the  Gencsee  Val 
ley  canal  extends  from  the  Alleghany  river  to 
Lake  Ontario.  The  great  southern  tier  of 
counties  bordering  on  northern  Pennsylvania, 
after  having  taken  great  interest  in  the  con 
struction  of  the  canal,  were  without  means 
of  communication  with  markets,  other  than 
by  common  roads.  The  face  of  the  country 
was  too  rugged  to  permit  of  a  canal,  but  in 
1825  the  state  legislature  ordered  the  survey 
of  a  state  road  from  Lake  Erie  to  the  Hud 
son  river.  Several  conventions  Mere  held 
during  the  four  years  ending  with  1830  in 
relation  to  the  road.  The  railroad  fever  had 
gained  ground  meantime,  arid  finally,  in 
1832,  a  charter  for  a  railroad  was  granted, 


RAILROADS — LAND  GRANTS EXTENT  AND  COST. 


201 


with  a  capital  of  810,000,000.  The  survey 
was  made  by  De  Witt  Clinton,  Jr.,  but  the 
legislature  required  that  $1,000,000  of  the 
capital  should  be  subscribed  before  the  work 
was  commenced.  This  was  subscribed,  and 
E.  Lord  chosen  president  in  1833.  A  new 
survey  was  made  at  the  expense  of  the  state, 
and  the  report  made  on  it  in  1835,  when  a 
reorganization  of  the  company  took  place, 
with  J.  G-.  King  president.  The  subscrip 
tion  of  capital  now  reached  $2,362,100. 
The  work  was  commenced  by  putting  40 
miles  along  the  Delaware  river  under  con 
tract.  The  great  fire  of  December,  1835, 
incapacitated  many  of  the  subscribers  from 
paying  up,  and  work  was  suspended.  In 
January,  1836,  the  legislature  loaned  its 
credit  "for  $3,000,000,  but  the  stock  could 
not  then  be  negotiated.  Some  work  was 
done  along  the  line,  however,  by  local  sub 
scription.  In  1840 — Mr.  Lord  again  presi 
dent — the  loan  act  was  amended  so  as  to  be 
available,  and  the  company  purchased  its 
iron.  The  terms  of  the  loan  permitted 
the  state  officer  to  deliver  to  the  com 
pany  8100,000  of  state  stock  whenever  he 
should  have  evidence  that  the  company  had 
expended  an  equal  amount ;  the  state  stock 
not  to  be  sold  under  par.  The  company 
then  paid  its  contractors  with  time  drafts. 
The  receipts  for  these  drafts  furnished  the 
evidence  of  the  company's  expenditure,  on 
which  the  state  officer  issued  the  stock  to 
the  company,  which  then  borrowed  on  it 
the  money  to  take  up  the  drafts,  and  the 
lenders  of  the  money  sold  the  state  stock  in 
the  state  for  what  it  would  bring — some  lots 
as  low  as  80.  The  work  thus  done  was  in 
detached  lots,  as  the  interest  of  certain  par 
ties  prompted  the  expenditure.  As  soon  as 
the  last  issue  was  made  by  the  state  the 
company  stopped,  and  the  state  assumed 
the  interest  on  the  $3,000,000  issued  to  it. 
In  1842  the  company  assigned,  and  its  af 
fairs  fluctuated  until  1844,  when  Mr.  Loder 
was  elected  president.  In  1845  the  state 
surrendered  its  lien  of  $3,000,000  upon  the 
road,  and  authorized  the  individual  stock  to 
be  cut  down  one-half  by  holders  giving  up 
two  shares  and  taking  one  new  one.  A 
new  subscription  of  83,000,000  was  obtained, 
and  the  work  commenced  anew.  Much  of 
the  old  work  was  useless ;  and  at  this  day, 
when  the  passenger  approaches  Dunkirk,  he 
sees,  stretching  out  far  away  to  the  right, 
like  an  immense  army  of  grim  warriors,  the 
piles  that  were  driven  originally  for  the  road, 


at  great  expense,  and  then  abandoned.  From 
the  year  1 845  the  road  began  to  grow.  Start 
ing  from  Piermont,  on  the  North  River,  20 
miles  above  the  city,  it  reached  Otisville, 
62  miles,  in  October,  1846.  The  route  was 
altered,  and  reached  Binghamton,  139 
miles,  in  December,  1848,  at  a  cost  of  $9,- 
802,433,  allowing  $1,458,000  for  half  the 
old  stock,  after  the  release  of  the  state  lien. 
In  June,  1849,  22  miles  more  to  Owego 
were  opened;  in  October  361  miles  were 
added  to  Elmira ;  and  it  finally  reached  the 
lake  at  Dunkirk,  May,  1851.  This  was  a 
single  track,  and  it  was  found  almost  impos 
sible  to  work  it ;  consequently  they  put  a 
second  track  under  contract  on  portions  of 
the  road.  It  was  now  found  that  the  loca 
tion  of  the  road  at  Piermont,  to  be  reached 
by  steamboat,  would  not  answer.  The  com 
pany  then  made  an  arrangement  with  the 
Paterson  and  Ramapo  road  to  allow  the 
Erie  to  come  into  Jersey  City.  The  Erie 
railroad  being  a  wide  gauge,  6  feet,  and  the 
Paterson  road  4  feet  8  inches,  it  became 
necessary  to  lay  another  rail  outside  the 
track,  to  permit  the  Erie  cars  to  come  over 
that  road,  and  the  Erie  cars  reached  Jer 
sey  City  in  November,  1853.  It  is  remark 
able  in  relation  to  this  road,  that  it  has  de 
pended  upon  the  telegraph  to  such  an  extent 
that  it  could  scarcely  be  operated  without  it. 
It  gives  constant  information  of  the  where 
abouts  of  the  trains  and  the  condition  of  the 
track,  so  that  the  superintendent,  wherever 
he  may  be,  keeps  up  a  constant  communica 
tion  with  all  the  stations.  The  whole  length 
of  the  road  is  465  miles  ;  282  miles  double 
track  and  sidings.  The  maximum  grade  of 
the  road  is  60  feet  to  the  mile  for  8  miles, 
and  there  is  one  of  57  feet  to  the  mile.  The 
cost  of  the  road  was  greatly  enhanced  by  the 
mode  of  raising  money  for  its  construction, 
by  a  constant  series  of  loans,  for  which  were 
issued  first  mortgage  bonds,  second  mort 
gage  bonds,  bonds  convertible  in  stock  in 
1862,  bonds  convertible  in  1871,  income 
bonds,  unsecured  bonds,  and  other  debts, 
for  very  few  of  which  the  face  was  obtained, 
many  of  them  being  disposed  of  at  a  large 
discount.  By  these  means  the  debts  of  the 
company  ran  up  to  $25,260,000,  and  the  cap 
ital,  $10,000,000,  was  in  February,  1857,  by 
a  dividend  of  10  per  cent,  in  stock,  money 
alleged  to  have  been  earned  and  sunk  in  the 
Long  Dock,  raised  to  the  sum  of  $1 1,000,000. 
This  load  of  debt  exceeded  the  ability  of  the 
company,  and  it  went  finally  into  the  hands 


202 


TRAVEL    AND    TRANSPORTATION:. 


of  a  receiver.  The  length  of  the  road  is 
446  miles,  and  it  has  a  branch  of  19  miles 
from  Chester  Junction  to  Newburgh,  making 
465  miles.  It  leases  of  other  companies  95 
miles,  consequently  operates  560  miles ; 
and  it  has  282  miles  of  second  track.  There 
are  219  locomotives,  160  passenger  cars,  49 
second  class  cars,  45  baggage  cars,  and  2,763 
freight  cars.  The  company  connected  with 
Jersey  City  over  the  track  of  the  New  Jer 
sey  Transportation  Company,  but  it  project 
ed  an  independent  connection  through  what 
is  called  the  Long  Dock.  This  embraced  a 
tunnel  of  1\  miles  through  Bergen  ridge. 
and  2i  miles  of  road  running  out  on  to 
docks  and  piers  built  out  to  deep  water. 
The  Long  Dock  Company  was  chartered  by 
the  state  of  New  Jersey  with  a  capital  of 
$800,000.  It  purchased  $773,440  worth  of 
real  estate.  The  Erie  Company  leased  this 
at  10  per  cent,  of  the  capital,  and  then  com 
menced  expenditures  on  the  tunnel,  which 
is  4,880  feet  long,  and  up  to  January,  1860, 
it  had  expended  $1,500,000.  This,  among 
other  causes,  brought  the  Erie  railroad  to 
default;  and  in  August,  1859,  at  the  suit  of 
the  fourth  mortgage  bondholders,  a  receiver 
was  appointed.  It  was  then  proposed,  as  a 
means  of  arrangement,  to  capitalize  the  un 
secured  bonds,  with  the  interest  for  two  years, 
into  a  preferred  7  per  cent,  stock ;  to  extend 
the  first  mortgage  bonds  coupon  to  March  1, 
1860;  the  second  mortgage  to  September, 
1860;  the  third  to  March,  1861,  and  the 
balance  to  December,  1861.  It  is  estimated 
that  the  road  will  clear  the  other  claims  upon 
it,  and  complete  the  Long  Dock.  The  busi 
ness  of  this  road  from  1842  to  1859,  inclu 
sive,  was  as  follows  : — 

RECEIPTS. 

Receipts  from  passengers $14,428,024 

"         "     freight 29,902,826 

"         "     mails,  &c 1,586,935 


Total $45,917,785 

EXPENDITURES. 

Operating  expenses $28,993,114 

Dividends 3,481,445 


Total $32,474,559 

The  Camden  and  Amboy  railroad  and 
Delaware  and  Raritan  Canal  Co.,  of  New 
Jersey,  is  one  of  the  oldest  passenger  roads, 
having  been  chartered  in  February,  1830, 
with  the  canal  privilege.  The  last  is  43 
miles  from  Bordentown  to  New  Brunswick ; 
and  the  former,  South  Amboy  to  Camden, 
New  Jersey,  63  miles.  There  was  to  be  no 


rival  route  within  five  miles  of  it.  In  1831 
the  company  gave  the  state  1,000  shares  of 
stock,  and  a  new  act  was  passed  consolidat 
ing  the  canal  and  railroad  companies ;  fares 
not  to  exceed  $3  between  New  York  and 
Philadelphia.  In  the  following  year  1,000 
shares  more  were  conveyed  to  the  state.  In 
1837  the  road  was  permitted  to  extend  to 
New  Brunswick  ;  fares  limited  to  5  cents  per 
mile.  In  1 842  the  transit  duties  on  the  road 
were  fixed  at  10  cents  per  ton  for  freight, 
and  one-half  of  all  above  $3  charged  for  pas 
sengers.  The  road  was  opened  to  Camden 
in  1834.  In  1843  an  arrangement  was 
made  with  the  New  Jersey  Transportation 
railroad  for  through  passage  from  New  York 
to  Philadelphia.  The  Camden  road  cost 
$5,563,580,  and  the  New  Jersey  railroad, 
Jersey  City  to  New  Brunswick,  31  miles, 
$4,719,176.  The  Camden  road  has  paid  in 
25  years  281  per  cent,  dividends,  or  11-]-  per 
cent,  average. 

The  New  Jersey  Central  road  extends 
from  Elizabethport,  12  miles  by  water  from 
New  York,  to  Easton,  on  the  Delaware ;  at 
Elizabeth  it  connects,  also,  with  the  New 
Jersey  railroad ;  at  Easton  it  commands  the 
great  Pennsylvania  coal  fields,  and,  prospcc- 
tively,  it  will  unite  New  York  city  with  Lake 
Erie,  over  the  Pennsylvania  and  Sunbury 
and  Erie  railroads.  The  cost  of  the  road  is 
•$5,617,290;  the  capital  is  $2,000,000 ;  and 
the  debt  $3,375,000. 

The  great  Pennsylvania  line  of  im 
provements,  from  Philadelphia  to  Pittsburg, 
commenced  4th  July,  1826,  and  finished 
in  March,  1830,  comprised  82  miles  of  rail 
road  from  Philadelphia  to  Columbia,  and 
36  miles  of  portage  road  from  Hollidays- 
burg  to  Johnstown  ;  this  consists  of  a  series 
of  inclined  planes,  which  are  worked  by  sta 
tionary  engines.  This  118  miles  of  railroad 
was  prolonged  by  278  miles  of  canal,  and  the 
cost  of  the  whole  to  the  state  was  over 
$12,000,000.  This  broken  line  was  not 
very  well  calculated  to  compete  either  with 
the  continuous  water  service  of  the  Erie 
canal  or  the  uninterrupted  passage  of  freight 
on  the  New  York  railways.  The  citizens  of 
Philadelphia  felt  the  want  of  works  better 
adapted  to  the  growing  wants  of  that  great 
city ;  and  a  new  railroad  was  proposed  from 
Harrisburg  to  Pittsburg,  250  miles.  The  route 
is  favorable,  except  for  the  mountain  division, 
where  the  summit  is  crossed,  2,200  feet  above 
tide  water,  requiring  gradients  95  feet  to  the 
mile.  These  ai£  but  little  in  excess  of  those 


RAILROADS — LAND    GRANTS — EXTENT    AND    COST. 


203 


of  the  Massachusetts  lines,  which  are  worked 
to  advantage.  This  work  was  opened  through, 
November  15, 1832,  at  a  cost  of  $7,978,000, 
It  proved  very  successful,  and  up  to  Novem 
ber,  1855,  its  profits,  over  interest  on  capital, 
were,  in  accordance  Avith  its  charter,  credited 
to  construction  account,  and  it  has  since  paid 
6  per  cent  The  state  line  of  public  works 
did  not  succeed  financially,  and  the  state  de 
termined  to  sell  it.  After  repeated  offerings 
it  was  finally  purchased  by  and  transferred 
to  the  Pennsylvania  railroad  in  1857  for 
$7,500,000,  which  was  met  by  an  issue  of 
the  5  per  cent,  bonds  of  the  company  to  the 
state,  payable,  $100,000  per  annum  until  1890, 
and  the  balance,  $4,300,000,  in  four  equal 
instalments  annually  thereafter.  When  the 
road  took  possession  of  the  state  works, 
the  canals  were  found  to  be  in  a  dilapidated 
condition,  and  the  railroad  needed  repairs, 
which  required  assessments.  The  route  then 
became  continuous  by  rail  from  Philadelphia 
to  Pittsburg,  353  miles.  From  Philadelphia 
8  miles  to  the  Susqnchanna  river  there  is  a 
double  track,  and  other  portions  of  the  road 
raise  the  double  track  to  242  miles.  The 
cost,  including  the  state  line,  is  $30,168,987, 
composed  of  capital,  $13,240,225,  and  $17,- 
571,054  of  bonds.  A  part  of  the  cost  is 
composed  of  $816,050  advanced  to  the 
Pittsburg,  Fort  Wayne,  and  Chicago  rail 
road,  which  prolongs  the  Pennsylvania  road 
to  the  latter  city.  That  road  was  composed 
of  three  roads,  viz. :  the  Ohio  and  Pennsyl 
vania,  the  Ohio  and  Indiana,  and  the  Fort 
Wayne  and  Chicago  roads.  These  were  con 
solidated  into  one  company  in  1856,  and  the 
line  completed  from  Pittsburg  to  Chicago  in 
1859,  471  miles,  at  a  cost  of  $16,079,590,  of 
which  $5,259,040  is  capital,  and  $7,956,075 
bonds.  To  assist  the  completion  of  this  road, 
the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company  took  up 
the  rails  on  the  36  miles  of  portage  road 
which  it  had  bought  of  the  state,  and  which 
was  of  no  use,  as  it  run  parallel  to  its  own  road, 
and  gave  them  to  the  Pittsburg  road  to  com 
plete  its  extension  from  Plymouth  into  Chi 
cago.  For  this  iron  and  the  expense  of  tak 
ing  up  and  moving,  the  Pittsburg  road  gave 
its  first  mortgage  bonds  for  $650,000.  The 
business  of  the  Pennsylvania  road,  connect 
ing,  as  it  does,  Philadelphia  with  Chicago 
and  the  whole  net-work  of  railroads  between 
and  beyond  these  cities,  is  not  only  profitable 
to  itself,  but  of  immense  value  to  Phila 
delphia. 

We  have  stated  that  a  portion  of  the  great 


Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad  was  finished  two 
years  before  the  opening  of  the  Manchester 
road  in  England.  The  company  received 
two  charters :  one  from  the  state  of  Mary 
land,  February,  1827,  and  the  other  from  the 
state  of  Virginia  in  the  following  March, 
with  authority  to  construct  a  road  from  Bal 
timore  to  the  Ohio  river.  The  capital  au 
thorized  was  $5,000,000,  and  the  company 
entitled  to  organize  on  the  payment  of 
$1,000,000.  The  company  was  so  organized 
in  April  of  the  same  year,  and  with  the  aid 
of  several  officers  of  the  United  States  top 
ographical  corps,  the  road  was  partly  located 
in  the  same  summer.  July  4th,  ground  was 
broken  by  Charles  Carroll,  of  Carrollton,  and 
the  portion  of  the  road  to  Ellicott's  Mills 
was  put  under  contract.  The  capital  of  the 
company,  at  the  close  of  1828,  reached 
$4,000,000,  of  which  three-fourths  was  taken 
by  individuals,  $500,000  by  the  city  of  Bal 
timore,  and  $500,000  by  the  state  of  Mary 
land.  The  road  was  gradually  extended  to 
the  Point  of  Rocks  in  1832.  Here  arose  an 
obstacle  of  right  of  way.  The  Chesapeake 
canal  had  appropriated  the  narrow  gorge 
through  the  mountain,  and  several  years  of 
negotiation  elapsed  before  the  difficulty  was 
finally  settled  by  the  legislature.  In  1833 
the  Washington  branch  was  chartered,  on 
the  condition  that  at  least  25  cents  per  pas 
senger  should  be  paid  to  the  state.  The 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  Company  contributed 
$1,016,800  toward  the  construction,  and  it 
was  opened  30  miles  to  Washington,  August 
25,  1835.  The  road  had  then  no  locomotives, 
horse  power  being  used.  The  company  of 
fered  $4,000  for  a  locomotive  of  American 
manufacture  to  burn  coal.  One  was  invented 
by  Phineas  Davis  and  accepted.  It  ran  15 
miles  per  hour  on  short  curves  and  30  miles 
on  a  straight  line.  The  rails  were  flat  bars 
laid  on  stone  foundations,  which  soon  gave 
way  to  longitudinal  timbers  with  improved 
rails.  The  road  reached  Harper'^  Ferry  in, 
1834,  and  the  state  subscribed  $3,200,000'' 
for  the  extension  to  Wheeling.  In  1838  the 
state  of  Virginia  extended  the  time  for  con 
struction  through  its  territory  and  subscribed 
$1,058,420.  The  road  was  then  completed  to 
Cumberland  in  1842,  but  nothing  further 
was  done  until  1847.  Virginia  again  ex 
tended  the  time,  and  in  1849  state  bonds 
granted  to  the  company  furnished  means  for 
pushing  the  road  to  completion  in  1853.  The 
city  of  Baltimore  then  furnished  $5,000,000, 
which  was  expended  in  protecting  tunnels, 


204 


TRAVEL    AND    TRANSPORTATION. 


double  track,  etc.  There  is  one  tunnel  of 
4,137  feet,  and  the  length  of  all  the  tunnels 
is  12,804  feet. 

A  charter  for  the  Parkersburg  branch  was 

granted  in  1851.  The  work  began  Decem- 
er,  1852,  and  was  completed  May  1,  1857. 
The  road  was  built  jointly  by  the  city  of  Bal 
timore  and  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Com 
pany.  The  former  gave  $1,500,000  first 
mortgage  bonds,  and  the  latter  $1,000,000 
of  its  second  mortgage  bonds,  and  has  since 
advanced  $1,795,326.  The  road  is  operated 
by  the  Baltimore  Company  under  a  contract 
for  five  years,  at  a  rent  of  40  per  cent,  of  the 
gross  earnings. 

The  capital  of  the  Baltimore  Company  is 
$10,01 1,800,  and  the  funded  debt  $13,881,- 
833.  There  are  three  sinking  fund's  operat 
ing  to  redeem  these  debts,  and  all  amount  to 
about  $1,200,000.  The  total  earnings  of  the 
main  road  for  30  years  were  $9,744,351  from 
passengers,  $29,604,970  from  freight;  total, 
$39,349,  321 ;  the  amount,  less  expenses,  was 
$17,421,250,  and  the  total  amount  of  divi 
dends  paid  has  been  $4,589,860.  These 
range  from  1  to  7  per  cent.,  and  during  the  five 
years  ending  with  1852,  were  paid  in  stock. 

The  traffic  of  the  road  east  is  mostly  in 
coal.  Thus,  of  566,214  tons  delivered  at 
Baltimore  in  1859,  323,898  was  coal.  The 
number  of  passengers  on  the  road  and 
branches  going  west  in  1859  was  338,037; 
going  east,  349,501.  Tons  of  freight  going 
west,  303,104;  going  cast,  770,452.  This 
road  has  exercised  an  immense  influence 
upon  the  business  of  Baltimore,  and  opened 
a  route  to  the  Ohio  valley  which  rivals  the 
Pennsylvania  and  the  great  New  York  routes. 
The  Virginia  Central  railroad,  which  now 
connects  Richmond  195  miles  with  Jackson's 
River,  was  originally  chartered,  in  1836,  as 
the  Louisa  railroad,  with  a  capital  of  $300,- 
000,  and  in  1837  the  board  of  public  works 
was  authorized  to  subscribe  on  behalf  of  the 
state  $120,000.  In  December,  1837,  twenty- 
three  miles  of  the  road  were  opened.  It  was 
further  extended  in  the  following  year,  and 
in  1840  the  road  reached  Gordonsville. 
Under  new  privileges,  granted  in  1848,  the 
work  was  resumed,  and  reached  Charlottes- 
ville  in  May,  1850,  but  in  that  year  some  new 
privileges  being  asked,  the  name  of  the  road 
was  formally  changed  to  the  Virginia  Central 
railroad.  There  were  then  seventy  miles  in 
operation,  and  extensions  at  both  ends  were 
proceeded  with;  of  these  in  1851  twenty- 
three  miles  were  completed,  bringing  the  road 


into  Richmond.  It  was  not  until  1857  that 
the  road  was  opened  through  to  Jackson's 
River,  195  miles,  at  a  cost  of  $5,362,910  ;  of 
this  $3,132,445  is  capital  paid  in,  $1,878,493 
by  the  state,  and  the  balance  by  individuals. 
The  highest  grade  of  the  rqad  going  west  is 
eighty-three  feet  per  mile  for  11  miles,  and 
going  east  seventy-two  feet  per  mile  for 
fourteen  miles.  There  are  107  miles  straight, 
and  77  miles  curved,  of  which  the  smallest 
radius  is  716  feet  for  i  mile.  The  rails  are 
all  T,  from  fifty  to  sixty  pounds  per  yard. 
The  cross  ties  2,400  to  the  mile.  The  busi 
ness  of  the  past  year  was  as  follows  : — 

Going  Passengers.          ^0^ 

Kast 33,629  66,678 

West 30,548  68,205 


Total 64,177         134,883 

Earnings $311,980      $306,212 

This  road  from  its  opening,  1837,  to  the 
close  of  1859,  earned  as  follows:  average 
length,90  miles  ;  passenger  earnings,$79,583  ; 
freight,  $89,773  ;  gross  earnings,  $1^0,009  ; 
expenses,  $94,486;  dividends  paid,  $22,971 ; 
per  cent.,  2. 

In  casting  the  eye  upon  a  railroad  map, 
the  line  from  Bangor,  Maine,  to  New  Orleans, 
1,996  miles,  is  found  to  be  composed  of 
nineteen  grand  links ;  one  of  the  largest  of 
these  is  that  which  connects  Lynchburg,  Va., 
with  Bristol,Tenn.,  204  miles.  This  was  called 
the  Virginia  and  Tennessee.  It  was  opened 
in  1854.  By  this  route  the  mails  of  the 
government  are  conveyed  from  Washington 
to  New  Orleans  in  seventy-five  hours.  This 
commanding  position  of  the  road  is  not, 
however,  more  advantageous  than  its  local 
business,  which  is  derived  from  one  of  the 
most  fertile  districts  of  Virginia,  as  well  as 
rich  in  minerals.  The  road  opened  what 
had  been  one  of  the  most  secluded  portions 
of  the  central  states,  and  vast  resources  are 
there  to  be  developed.  The  cost  of  the  road 
is  $7,050,519,  of  which  $3,418,599  is  capital 
and  $2,833,000  bonded  debt.  The  future  of 
this  road  is  one  of  the  most  promising. 

The  next  most  important  link  in  this  great 
line  is  the  Orange  and  Alexandria  road,  con 
necting  Alexandria  and  Lynchburg,  170 
miles.  This  road  was  completed  in  1859  ; 
by  it  the  distance  from  New  York  to  central 
Virginia  is  shortened  sixteen  miles,  and  the 
route  to  New  Orleans,  so  to  speak,  straight 
ened.  The  cost  of  the  road  was  capital, 
$1,899,330;  bonds,  $2,600,000. 

The  South  Carolina  road  was  one  of  the 


RAILROADS LAND    GRANTS EXTENT    AND    COST. 


205 


first  projected  in  the  country.  The  city  of 
Charleston  early  saw  the  advantage  and  im 
portance  of  the  work,  which  was  commenced 
in  1830,  and  opened  in  1833.  Its  main 
trunk  extends  from  Charleston  to  Hamburg, 
on  the  Savannah  river,  opposite  Augusta, 
Georgia,  136  miles.  The  track  was  origin 
ally  a  trestle-work,  on  which  was  laid  a  thin 
flat  rail.  Some  of  the  swamps  and  rivers 
were  crossed  at  an  elevation  of  fifty  feet. 
On  this  road  the  first  successful  American 
locomotive  was  run.  It  was  called  the 
"Best  Friend,"  and  was  built  under  the 
supervision  of  E.  L.  Miller,  of  South  Caro 
lina.  It  was  introduced  by  Horatio  Allen, 
and  ran  in  1830,  when  there  were  but  eight 
miles  of  road  out  of  Charleston.  The  South 
Carolina  road  cost  $7,701,338,  of  which 
$4,179,475  is  capital,  and  $2,730,463  bond 
ed  debt.  The  road  owes  most  of  its  busi 
ness  to  the  transportation  of  cotton,  and  it 
pays  ten  per  cent,  regularly.  Its  stock  is 
above  par.  The  project  of  connecting  Charles 
ton  with  Cincinnati  was  early  entertained, 
and  in  1836  a  grant  was  obtained  from 
South  Carolina,  North  Carolina,  Tennessee, 
and  Kentucky,  for  the  purpose  of  construct 
ing  a  road  through  Columbia,  Knoxville,  and 
Danville  to  Covington,  opposite  Cincinnati. 
This  enterprise  was  swamped  in  1837  by  the 
crisis,  when  the  road  was  partially  construct 
ed  to  Columbia.  That  project  has  now  been 
revived  by  the  completion  of  the  Greenville 
and  Columbia  road,  and  the  extension  of  the 
Blueridge  road  into  Tennessee,  thence  via 
Knoxville  through  Danville  and  Lexington  to 
Cincinnati.  A  more  circuitous  road  by  way 
of  Nashville  and  Louisville,  over  the  Nashville 
and  Chattanooga,  and  Nashville  and  Louis 
ville  railroads,  has  been  opened.  Charleston 
thus  drains  the  whole  interior  country. 

The  Georgia  railroad  system  is  composed 
of  two  great  lines :  one  from  Savannah  to  the 
Tennessee  river,  434  miles,  and  the  other, 
255  miles,  from  Augusta  to  West  Point, 
whence  it  is  prolonged  to  Montgomery  by  the 
Montgomery  and  West  Point  road.  The 
Georgia  Central,  connecting  Savannah  with 
Macon,  191  miles,  was  opened  nearly  at  the 
same  time  as  the  Georgia  road  connecting 
Augusta  with  Atlanta,  171  miles,  viz.,  in 
November,  1 843,  having  been  commenced  in 
1836.  It  was  chartered  with  banking  priv 
ileges,  and  has  been  eminently  successful. 
Its  capital  stock  is  $4,010,000,  and  bonded 
debt  $158,767.  This  road  made  a  dividend 
last  year  of  15  per,  cent.,. and  its  stock  is  now 

13 


15  per  cent,  premium.  The  Georgia  road 
cost  $5,210,372,  of  which  $4,156,000  is 
capital,  and  $476,895  bonded  debt.  The 
earnings  of  this  road  are  1 5  per  cent. 

.  From  Atlanta  a  road  stretches  to  West 
Point ;  it  has  always  paid  either  seven  or 
eight  per  cent.,  besides  several  extra  divi 
dends  ;  and  last  year  divided  a  bonus  of  thirty 
per  cent.  The  state  railroad  of  Georgia, 
built  at  extravagant  cost,  and  managed  by 
state  officials,  paid  into  the  treasury  last 
year  out  of  its  net  earnings  about  eight  per 
cent,  on  its  cost. 

In  Alabama,  Louisiana,  and  Arkansas,  their 
fine  rivers,  navigable  for  steamboats,  and 
stretching  into  every  part  of  the  states,  have 
made  railroads  almost  unnecessary.  But 
whenever  they  are  built,  and  can  obtain  a 
freight  of  cotton,  they  are  sure  to  pay.  This 
product  is  not  like  corn,  or  wheat,  or/ even 
flour,  worth  one,  two,  or  three  cents  a  pound, 
but  eight,  ten,  or  twelve  cents,  and  can  there 
fore  afford  to  pay  the  cost  of  transportation. 

The  most  remarkable  railroad  in  the  world 
as  to  extent,  location,  mode  of  construction, 
and  magnitude  of  resources,  is  perhaps  the 
Illinois  Central  road.  It  may  be  called  the 
corner-stone  of  a  future  empire.  In  1837, 
when  the  population  of  the  state  of  Illinois 
was  less  than  200,000  souls,  and  these  agri 
culturists  scattered  over  the  great  state,  they 
undertook  with  singular  boldness  a  system 
of  internal  improvement  by  canal  and  railroad, 
which  would  involve  an  expenditure  of  at  least 
$1 5,000,000.  Among  these  was  the  Central 
railroad,  which  was  to  extend  from  Cairo,  at 
the  junction  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers, 
longitudinally  of  the  state,  to  Galena  at  its 
northern  extremity  on  the  Missisippi  river, 
making  a  line  of  457^  miles,  which  should  be 
the  base  of  a  triangle  of  which  the  great  river 
formed  the  other  two  sides.  This  road  was  to 
cross  the  Illinois  river  at  the  commencement  of 
navigation,  or  where  it  meets  the  canal  coming 
from  Chicago.  Other  roads  were  projected 
to  cross  the  state,  intersecting  the  Central 
road.  The  Central  road  was  undertaken, 
and  about  $3,500,000  spent  upon  it,  when 
bankruptcy  overtook  the  state,  and  the  road 
rapidly  deteriorated.  The  progress  of  the 
work  on  the  canal,  with  the  funds  borrow 
ed  on  pledge  of  the  land  granted  by  the 
federal  government,  had  been  of  great  benefit 
to  the  state,  and  had  enabled  the  federal  gov 
ernment  to  sell  most  of  its  lands  on  the 
canal  and  great  water-courses,  in  fact,  all 
within  reach  of  market  There  remained, 


206 


TRAVEL    AND    TRANSPORTATION. 


however,  some  15,000,000  acres  of  the  rich 
est  land  in  the  heart  of  the  state,  for  which 
there  was  no  sale,  because  it  was  not  acces 
sible  to  market.  Experiencing,  however,  the 
great  results  from  the  canal  grant,  which  not 
only  laid  open  great  tracts  to  market,  but 
by  local  expenditure  in  construction,  brought 
settlers  and  money  upon  the  vacant  lands, 
it  decided  upon  a  similar  grant  to  the 
state  in  aid  of  the  Central  railroad.  Accord 
ingly,  in  September,  1850,  Congress  made  a 
grant  of  lands  to  the  state  of  Illinois  of  every 
alternate  section,  six  sections  in  width,  on 
each  side  of  the  road  and  its  branches,  and 
if  any  land  so  situated  should  be  taken  up, 
then  any  vacant  land  elsewhere  might  be 
selected  in  room  of  it,  within  fifteen  miles  of 
the  line  of  the  road.  The  same  law  con 
ferred  upon  the  states  of  Alabama  and  Mis 
sissippi  similar  grants  for  the  extension  of 
the  road  from  Cairo  to  Mobile  city.  In 
the  following  February  the  state  of  Illinois 
incorporated  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
Company,  with  a  capital  of  $1,000,000,  to 
be  extended  to  an  amount  not  exceeding  the 
cost  of  the  road.  The  company  on  its 
organization  was  to  pay  over  to  the  state 
treasury  $200,000,  and  receive  from  the  state 
the  entire  grant  of  lands  made  by  the  federal 
government,  together  with  all  that  remained 
of  the  old  Central  road,  right  of  way,  etc. 
The  company  was  to  have  fifty  miles  com 
pleted  within  two  years,  under  forfeit  of  the 
$200,000  deposited,  and  which  was  to  be  re 
turned  to  the  company  on  the  completion  of 
the  fifty  miles  within  the  time.  The  road  was 
to  run  from  Cairo  to  the  western  end  of 
the  Illinois  canal,  and  thence  branch  to 
Galena  on  the  river,  and  to  Chicago  on  the 
lake.  The  company  was  to  pay  to  the  state 
annually  five  per  cent,  on  the  gross  income 
of  the  road.  These  were  the  leading  items 
of  the  grant,  and  the  conditions  were  all 
carried  out.  The  location  and  survey  of  the 
route  showed  the  company  entitled  to 
2,595,000  acres  of  land  to  be  selected  by  the 
company.  This  vast  tract  of  land,  amount 
ing  to  an  area  larger  than  the  whole  state  of 
Connecticut,  was  all  to  be  selected  from 
good  farming  lands,  not  an  acre  of  waste  in 
the  whole,  but  all  of  the  richest  prairie  soil, 
of  the  same  character  as  that  in  the  neigh 
borhood  of  St.  Louis,  which  for  two  hundred 
years  had  given  to  fresh  settlers  annual  crops, 
without  in  any  degree  deteriorating  appar 
ently.  These  lands  of  the  company  were 
appropriated,  2,000,000  acres,  valued  at 


$18,150,000,  as  a  security  for  $17,000,000 
of  construction  bonds;  250,000  acres  were 
added  to  the  interest  fund  to  meet  any  de 
ficiency  of  means  from  other  sources  ap 
propriated  to  interest  on  the  construction 
bonds ;  and  345,000  acres  were  held  in 
reserve,  but  were  finally  the  basis  of$3,000,- 
000  "  free  land  bonds,"  issued  and  redeemed 
by  conversion  into  company  stock.  The 
2,000,000  acres  were  placed  in  the  hands  of 
trustees,  who  alone  have  power  to  give  title 
to  purchasers,  and  who  are  required,  when 
ever  the  funds  accumulate  to  the  amount  of 
a  bond,  to  buy  and  cancel  it.  No  land  can 
be  sold,  unless  bonds  to  the  same  amount 
are  cancelled.  It  was  estimated  that  the 
bonds  thus  issued  would  build  the  road,  and 
leave  the  entire  work  free  of  cost  to  the 
stockholders.  It  was  found  requisite,  how 
ever,  to  create  170,000  shares,  representing 
$17,000,000  capital.  On  this  instalments 
have  from  time  to  time  been  called  in.  The 
$200,000  deposited  with  the  state  was  as 
sessed  $20  on  10,000  shares,  and  the  amount 
has  since  been  increased  to  $26,000,000,  on 
which  80  per  cent,  has  been  called,  making 
$20,800,000.  In  April,  1852,  $4,000,000  of 
the  7  per  cent,  construction  bonds  were  is 
sued  at  par,  and  the  subscribers  to  this  loan 
had  the  privilege  of  subscribing  ten  shares  of 
stock  for  each  $1,000  bond.  The  company 
purchased  their  iron,  72,000  tons,  in  1852, 
when  it  was  very  low,  or  less  than  half  the 
price  to  which  it  rose  soon  after,  when  the 
railroad  fever  developed  itself.  In  October, 
1852,  the  whole  line  was  put  under  contract, 
in  divisions,  and  10,000  men  were  employed 
at  an  expense  of  $3,700,000  per  annum,  at 
work  along  the  line,  twelve  hours  per  day, 
stretching  a  great  highway  through  fertile 
plains  never  before  opened,  conferring  value 
on  them,  wealth  to  the  farmers,  and  strength 
to  the  state.  As  the  work  progressed,  it  en 
countered  difficulties  from  cholera,  and  the 
demand  for  labor  which  the  growing  railroad 
mania  caused.  The  road  was  opened  in 
1854,  and  its  earnings  for  its  first  year,  1855, 
were  $1,532,118.  It  sold  of  its  lands  528,- 
863  acres  for  $5,598,577,  and  the  sales  have 
since  reached  1,267,627  acres  for$16,230,326, 
leaving  on  hand  1,327,372  acres.  These  lands 
are  quite  as  valuable  for  farms  as  those  sold. 
The  Illinois  Central  railroad  is  the  longest 
continuous  line  of  road  under  the  control  of 
a  single  corporation  in  the  United  States. 
It  owns  112  locomotives  (of  which  number 
twenty-five  burn  coal),  seventy  first-class  pas- 


RAILROADS — LAND    GRANTS — EXTENT    AND    COST. 


207 


senger  cars,  twenty-four  baggage  and  express 
cars,  and  2,295  freight  cars.  It  has  ex 
tensive  workshops  for  the  manufacture  and 
repair  of  machinery  at  Chicago,  Centralia, 
and  Amboy,  with  one  or  two  smaller  es 
tablishments  at  other  places.  The  road  is 
intersected  by  and  makes  connections  with 
sixteen  distinct  lines  of  railroad.  At  its 
northern  terminus — Dunleith — on  the  Mis 
sissippi  river,  the  cars  make  connections 
with  the  boats  of  the  Minnesota  Packet  Com 
pany  for  the  upper  Mississippi.  The  com 
pany  have  recently  erected  a  grain  elevator 
at  Dunleith,  by  which  grain  will  be  trans 
ferred  from  the  boats  to  the  cars  at  a  con 
siderable  saving  in  labor  and  expense. 

At  Cairo,  the  southern  terminus  of  the 
road,  the  cars  make  direct  connections  (by 
steamer  to  Columbus,  Ky.)  with  the  Mobile 
and  Ohio  railroad  for  Memphis,  Natchez, 
Vicksburg,  New  Orleans,  and  other  southern 
cities.  In  Chicago  the  company's  facilities 
for  receiving  and  forwarding  freight  are  un 
surpassed.  Sleeping  cars  are  run  on  all  its 
night  passenger  trains. 

The  land  department  is  the  most  interest 
ing  branch  of  the  company.  It  is  divided 
into  three  bureaus — the  cashier's  office,  the 
sales  room,  and  the  contract  room.  The 
whole  force  employed  in  it  comprises  about 
twenty-five  clerks,  one  of  whom  is  a  brother 
of  Charles  Dickens,  the  distinguished  novel 
ist.  He  is  on  the  sunny  side  of  thirty,  is  a 
quiet,  unassuming  gentleman,  and,  it  is  said, 
writes  considerable  for  some  of  the  leading 
literary  publications  in  this  country.  But 
to  return  to  the  lands  of  the  Illinois  Central 
railroad.  They  comprise  an  area  covering 
4,055  square  miles,  nearly  as  large  as  the 
territory  of  the  state  of  Connecticut,  twice 
as  large  as  Delaware,  more  than  half  as  large 
as  Massachusetts,  about  the  same  size  as  the 
electorate  of  Hesse-Cassel,  three-fourths  as 
large  as  the  grand  duchy  of  Baden,  and  half 
as  large  as  the  grand  duchy  of  Tuscany. 

The  most  marvellous  result  of  this  great 
work  was  manifest  in  the  report  of  the 
United  States  land  commissioner.  The  lands 
through  which  the  road  ran  had  been  offered 
on  an  average  of  15. years  at  $1.25  per  acre, 
without  finding  a  buyer.  All  those  lands 
were  withdrawn  while  the  company  made 
its  selections.  When  that  was  done,  the 
lands  were  again  brought  into  market,in  June, 
1852,  and  these  in  the  next  twelve  months 
sold  in  Illinois  298,861  acres  for  cash,  at  $2. 50 
per  acre,  and  2,509,120  for  land  warrants. 


The  sales  were  double  the  quantity  sold  in  all 
the  states  in  the  previous  year.  The  whole 
interest  of  the  government  in  Illinois  was 
speedily  closed  out.  For  lands  which  had 
been  valueless  to  it  before  the  completion  of 
the  road,  it  realized  over  $9,000,000.  This 
was  the  effect  of  transportation  upon  those 
lands. 

The  first  land  grants  of  the  government, 
as  we  have  seen  in  a  preceding  chapter,  were 
in  aid  of  canals.  The  grant  to  the  Illinois 
railroad  was  followed  by  others,  and  the  ag 
gregate  grants  are  as  follows  to  each  state  : — 

Grants  for  internal  Railroad 
improvements.  grants. 

Ohio 1,243,001.77  

Indiana 1,609,861.61  

Illinois 500,000.00  2,595,053 

Missouri 500,000.00  1,815,435 

Alabama 500,000.00  2,332,918 

Mississippi 500,000.00  1,687,530 

Louisiana 500,000.00  1,162,580 

Michigan 1,250,000.00  3.096,000 

Arkansas 500.000.00  1,465,297 

Florida 500,000.00  1.814,400 

Iowa 1,385,078.22  3,456,000 

Wisconsin    1,069,371.99  1,622,800 

California 500, 000.00  

Minnesota  Ter.  .    340,000.00  4,416,000 

10,897,313.59       25,464,013 

The  grants  for  internal  improvements  in 
clude  the  canal  grants  to  Ohio,  Indiana,  and 
Illinois,  as  well  as  for  river  improvements. 
The  railroad  grants,  it  appears,  amount  to 
nearly  25,500,000  acres.  These  grants  have 
been  applied  to  that  purpose  by  the  several 
states,  not  always,  however,  with  the  best 
success.  The  state  of  Wisconsin  was  unfor 
tunate  in  the  grants  of  the  state  rights,  and 
the  land  has  been  withheld  in  some  cases. 
Minnesota  founded  a  railroad  system  upon 
her  lands,  but  up  to  the  present  time  disaster 
only  has  attended  it.  The  system  was  push 
ed  to  its  extent  in  1857,  and  then  suffered  a 
severe  revulsion.  With  the  improved  de 
mand  for  farm  produce,  migration  may  be 
expected  to  be  renewed,  and  the  value  of  the 
land  grants  to  be  restored. 

The  land  grant  of  the  federal  government 
to  Alabama  for  the  Mobile  and  Ohio  road 
was  to  the  extent  of  1,120,000  acres,  and  it 
became  the  basis  of  a  sinking  fund  for  the 
aid  granted  to  the  states  of  Tennessee,  Missis 
sippi,  and  Alabama.  The  road  is  to  extend 
from  Mobile  bay,  in  a  line  nearly  due  north, 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio  river,  opposite 
Cairo,  a  distance  of  594  miles.  Thence  by 
the  Illinois  Central  it  will  connect  with 


208 


TRAVEL    AND    TRANSPORTATION. 


leith,  on  the  upper  Mississippi,  928  miles,  and 
also  with  Chicago  and  the  eastern  lines. 
The  road  was  commenced  in  1851,  and  was 
pushed  through  Tennessee  to  West  Point 
in  1857;  it  is  by  the  law  of  that  state 
entitled  to  a  guaranteed  state  credit  of 
$8,000  per  mile,  which  will  carry  it  to  the 
Kentucky  line.  The  work  is  one  of  the  most 
important  in  the  whole  country. 

The  Memphis  and  Charleston  railroad 
connects  Memphis,  on  the  Mississippi,  with 
Charleston,  by  the  way  of  the  Nashville 
and  Chattanooga  road.  This  road  connects 
Charleston  and  Savannah  with  the  leading 
cities  of  the  Mississippi  river.  It  is  271 
miles  long,  and  forms  part  of  the  great  through 
line  from  Washington  to  New  Orleans.  It 
is  well  built,  and  pays  1 2  per  cent,  dividends. 
Its  cost  was  $0,351,752,  of  which  $2,258,115 
is  capital,  and  $2,594,000  bonded  debt. 

The  New  Orleans,  Jackson,  and  Great 
Northern  road  forms  the  southernmost  link 
of  the  great  chain  which  stretches  2,000 
miles  on  the  Atlantic  coast  to  Bangor,  thus 
connecting  codfish  with  sugar,  the  Maine  law 
with  New  Orleans  rum.  The  road  runs  from 
New  Orleans  to  Canton,  Mississippi,  206 
miles.  It  has,  as  a  matter  of  course,  an  im 
mense  through  business  as  well  as  a  large 
local  traffic.  Its  cost  has  been  $8,949,183, 
of  which  $4,320,618  is  capital,  and  $3,185,- 
000  bonded  debt. 

There  were  completed  in  January,  1860, 
the  last  two  links  in  the  great  chain  of  rail 
ways  from  Maine  to  Louisiana — the  first,  the 
last  twenty-five  miles  on  the  Mississippi  Cen 
tral,  and  the  second,  of  sixty-one  miles  be 
tween  Lynchburg  and  Charlottesville,  on  the 
Orange  and  Alexandria  railroad,  popularly 
known  as  the  Lynchburg  Extension.  This 
route,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  following  table 
of  distances,  is  within  a  fraction  of  2,000 
miles  in  length,  from  Bangor  to  New  Or 
leans,  of  a  continuous  rail  track,  with  the 
exception  of  four  short  ferries,  viz. :  the  Hud 
son  river,  the  Susquehanna,  the  Potomac, 
and  the  James  river  at  Lynchburg,  the  last 
two  of  which  will  soon  be  supplied  with 
bridges. 

From  New  Orleans  to  Canton,  Miss.,  by  the 
New  Orleans,  Jackson,  and  Great  Northern 
railway 206 

Canton  to  Grand  Junction,  Miss.,  by  the  Mis 
sissippi  Central  railway 165 

Grand  Junction  to  Stephenson,  Ala.,  by  the 
Memphis  and  Charleston  railway 219 

Stephenson  to  Chattanooga,  Tenn.,  by  the  Nash- 
Tille  aud  Chattanooga  railway 38 


Chattanooga  to  Cleveland,  Tenn.,  by  the  Cleve 
land  and  Chattanooga  railway 29 

Cleveland  to  Krioxville,  Tenn.,  by  the  East 
Tennessee  and  Georgia  railway 83 

Knoxville  to  Bristol,  Tenn.,  by  the  East  Ten 
nessee  and  Virginia  railway 130 

Bristol  to  Lynchburg,  Va.,  by  the  Virginia  and 
Tennessee  railway 204 

Lynchburg  to  Alexandria,  by  the  Orange  aud 
Alexandria  railway 169 

Alexandria  to  "Washington,  D.  0.,  by  the  "Wash 
ington  and  Alexandria  railway 6 

"Washington  to  Baltimore,  Md.,  by  the  Balti 
more  and  Ohio  railway 39 

Baltimore  to  Philadelphia,  by  the  Philadelphia, 
Wilmington,  and  Baltimore  railroad 98 

Philadelphia  to  New  York,  by  the  Philadelphia 
and  New  York  railroad  line 87 

New  York  to  New  Haven,  Conn.,  by  the  New 
York  and  New  Haven  railway 74 

New  Haven  to  Springfield 62 

Springfield  to  Worcester,  by  the  Western  rail 
way 55 

Worcester  to  Boston,  by  the  Boston  and  Wor 
cester  railway 45 

Boston  to  Portland,  Me.,  by  the  Eastern  and 
Portland,  Saco,  and  Portsmouth  railways.. . .  107 

Portland  to  Bangor,  Me.,  by  the  Penobscot  and 
Kennebec,  and  Androscoggin  and  Kennebec 
railways 137 

Total 1,953 

This  vast  chain  of  railways  is  composed  of 
nineteen  independent  roads,  costing  in  the 
aggregate,  for  2,394  miles  of  road,  $92,784,- 
084,  or  nearly  one-tenth  of  the  whole  rail 
way  system  of  the  United  States,  of  which 
1,953  miles  are  used  in  this  continuous  line. 
The  roads  from  Washington  city  to  New 
Orleans,  embracing  a  distance  of  1,249  miles, 
have  had  the  contract  for  the  great  through 
mail  to  New  Orleans  once  a  day  since  July 
1,  1858. 

The  state  of  Michigan,  in  1836,  con 
templated  the  construction  of  three  railroads 
to  cross  the  state :  the  Southern,  from 
Monroe  to  New  Buffalo ;  the  Central,  from 
Detroit  to  St.  Joseph;  and  the  Northern, 
from  Huron  to  Grand  River.  For  these  roads 
a  state  debt  of  $5,000,000  was  contracted ; 
and,  in  1838,  28  miles  of  the  Central  road 
had  been  put  in  operation,  which  was  ex 
tended  to  146  miles,  at  a  cost  of  $2,238,289, 
and  the  Southern  road,  68  miles,  at  a  cost 
of  $1,125,590,  when  the  state  failed  and  re 
pudiated  its  debt.  As  a  step  toward  re 
covery,  a  bill  was  passed,  at  the  suggestion 
of  Mr.  Charles  Butler,  of  New  York,  called 
the  "  Butler  act,"  by  which  the  state  sold 
the  Central  road  to  a  Boston  company  for 
$2,000,000  of  its  own  bonds,  and  the  South 
ern  road  for  $5,000,000  to  another  company. 


RAILROADS LAND    GRANTS EXTENT    AND    COST. 


209 


Little  was  dono>  however,  until  1849,  when 
Mr.  Butler  and  others  reorganized  the  South 
ern  company,  and  the  road  was  pushed  to 
completion.  As  it  approached  the  Indiana 
line,  an  old  Indiana  state  charter  was  pur 
chased,  enabling  the  company  to  carry  their 
work  through  that  state  to  the  Illinois  line, 
whence,  under  the  general  law  of  that  state, 
it  was  pushed  on  to  Chicago.  The  dis 
tance  from  Monroe,  on  Lake  Michigan,  to 
Chicago,  is  246  miles,  and  the  work  was 
completed  for  $5,000,000,  or  $20,000  per 
mile  in  running  order,  the  level  nature  of 
the  country  being  very  favorable  to  the 
construction  of  railroads.  The  work  was 
eminently  successful,  but  became  involved 
through  its  connection  with  lateral  jobs, 
which  covered  it  with  liabilities  greater  than 
its  business,  large  as  it  was,  could  carry.  It 
was,  like  the  Erie  canal,  and  indeed  many 
other  railroads,  overlaid  with  useless  and  ill- 
judged  expenditure.  The  company  expend 
ed  $1,312,534  in  aid  of  other  roads,  many 
in  nowise  connected  with  it,  and  in  keeping 
up  a  ruinous  competition.  The  company 
thus  became  hopelessly  involved  in  1857, 
when  its  cost  had  risen  to  $19,595,407. 
Its  struggles  increased  its  liabilities,  while 
its  business  declined.  Its  main  line,  Monroe 
to  Chicago,  is  246  miles,  and  six  branches 
raise  the  length  to  509  miles,  to  which  30 
miles  leased  are  to  be  added. 

The  Michigan  Central  reached  the  lake 
in  May,  1849,  and  was  also  pushed  to  com 
pletion,  going  round  the  foot  of  Lake  Michi 
gan,  where  the  Illinois  Central  put  out  a 
hand  to  meet  it.  The  connection  is  thus 
284  miles  Detroit  to  Chicago.  The  cost  of 
this  road  was  $14,548,411.  The  road  was 
laid  with  T  rail,  and  was  very  prosperous. 
The  capital  of  the  company  is  $6,057,844, 
and  the  debt  $8,284,063.  The  road  is  an 
important  link  in  the  line  of  connection 
between  Boston  and  the  western  country. 

The  state  of  Tennessee  has  an  important 
system  of  railroads  extending  to  all  sec 


tions  of  the  state.  The  state  guarantees 
$8,000  per  mile  for  the  purchase  of  iron  and 
epuipment,  upon  the  condition  that  the  com 
panies  prepare  the  road  bed  and  defray  the 
charges  of  construction.  The  state  retains 
a  lien  upon  the  whole  property.  The  roads 
have  been  well  built. 

The  state  of  Missouri  had  done  little 
toward  the  construction  of  roads  until  the 
session  of  1851,  when  it  agreed  to  lend  its 
aid  to  two  great  lines:  the  Pacific  road, 
commencing  at  St.  Louis  and  running  across 
the  state,  on  the  south  side  of  the  Missouri 
river,  and  the  Hannibal  and  St.  Joseph  road, 
extending  206  miles  across  the  state  from 
river  to  river,  connecting  the  two  cities 
named.  This  last  has  also  a  land  grant  of 
600,000  acres,  made  the  basis  for  $5,000,- 
000  of  the  company's  bonds.  The  state 
subsequently  enlarged  its  plan,  and  agreed 
to  issue  some  $24,000,000  of  its  bonds  in 
aid  of  the  railroads.  The  panic  of  1857 
supervened  before  the  issue  was  completed, 
and  many  of  the  roads  became  embarrassed. 
The  most  important  of  these  roads  is  the  Pa 
cific.  It  has  received  state  aid,  direct  and 
contingent,  to  the  extent  of  $7,500,000,  and 
has  also  a  land  grant  of  1,127,000  acres. 
The  main  line,  St.  Louis  to  Kansas  city,  is 

282  miles,  running  nearly  parallel  with  the 
Missouri  river,  and  the  south-west  branch  is 

283  miles — together,  565.     The  route  open 
is  63  miles  to  Syracuse.     The  cost  is  $11,- 
701,516,  of  which  $3,319,835  is  capital,  and 
bonded  debt  $8,303,000. 

In  the  following  table  of  the  leading  rail 
roads  of  all  the  states,  with  the  capital  paid  in 
and  the  funded  debts  outstanding,  there  are 
many  roads  which  run  through  several  states. 
These  are  given,  the  whole  in  those  states 
where  their  greatest  length  is.  Thus  the  Bos 
ton  and  Maine  road  has  three  miles  in  Maine, 
but  the  whole  is  put  down  in  Massachusetts. 
The  titles  of  roads  in  Italics  show  the  land- 
grant  roads.  The  figures  are  from  returns 
a  year  earlier  than  those  above. 


RAILROADS  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES-PROJECTED  LENGTH  AND  MILES  COMPLETED,  WITH 
THE  CAPITAL  PAID  IN,  AND  FUNDED  DEBT. 


Corporate  titles  of  companies. 

Aridroscoggin 

Androscoggin  and  Kennebec.. . , 
Atlantic  and  St.  Lawrence 

Branch 

Bangor,  Oldtown,  and  Milford.. 

Branch. . 


Total  length  Length  roads 

of  Roads.  completed. 

36.1  36.1 

55.6  55.6 

149.2  149.2 

1.5  1.5  j 

123  12.3 

0.5  0.5 


Carried  forward 255.2 


255.2 


Capital. 
$151.833 
457,900 

2,494,900 
135,000 

3,239,633 


Funded 
Debt. 
$444,638 
1,748,451 

3,472,000 


5,665,095 


210 


TKAVEL    AND    TRANSPORTATION. 


Corporate  titles  of  companies. 

Total  length 
of  roads. 
255.2 

Length  roads 
completed. 
255.2 
17.2 
6.0  ) 
5.5  f 
6.0 
63.0  ) 
9.5  ) 
7.5 

54.7 
21.5 
51.3 
39.0 
18.5 

Capital. 
$3,239,633 
226,500 

224,113 

175,000 
1,287,779 

100.000 
180,497 
555,228 
430,000 
1,500.000 
169,200 
370,000 

Funded 
debt. 
$5,665,095 

1,280,000 

300',000 
1,206,800 

556J900 
450.000 

17  2 

6.0 

...           5.5 

Great  Falls  and.  South  Berwick  

60 

63  0 

9.5 

7.5 

33.0 

54.7 

Portland  and  Oxford  Central  

28.5 

Portland  Saco  and  Portsmouth     

51  3 

39.0 

55.0 

Total  Maine       

631.4 

5549 

20.8 
23.1 
93.0 
53.8 
28.5 
34.5 
14.6 
16.8 
20.5 
26.8 
53.8 
69.2  ) 
12.3  f 
10.5 
46.8 
24.7 
10.3 

8,457,980 

371,037 
246,018 
1,800.000 
2,085.925 
389,047 
1,500,000 
200,000 
492,500 
166,748 
863,400 
695,587 

3,068,400 

245,643 
250,000 
500,000 
232,227 

9,458,495 

150',000 
1,050,000 
738,200 
420,853 

42,795 
209,927 
33.800 
383,400 

299,500 
750,000 

20.8 

Ashuelot     .              

23.1 

Boston,  Concord  and  Montreal  

93.0 

53.8 

37.0 

34.5 

...          14.6 

16.8 

Great  Falls  and  Conway  ...    

46.3 

Manchester  and  Lawrence  ,  

26.8 

Merrimac  and  Connecticut  Rivers  

53.8 

Northern  New  Hampshire.  -    -  

69.2 

12.8 

10  5 

Portsmouth  and  Concord     

46.8 

24.7 

10.3 

Total  New  Hampshire  

594.8 

560.5 

90.7 
17.3 
119.6 
44.8 
6.8  ) 
1.5  f 
47.0 
118.0  ) 
4.0  y 
23.7 
54.0  ) 
10.5  y 

13,206,532 

1,200,000 
345,000 
2,233,376 
950,000 

255,706 
1,350,000 
5,000,000 
516,164 
332,000 

4,078,475 
800,000 
3,145,001 

3,853,000 
793,200 
700,000 

110.3 

Grand  Trunk  of  Canada     

.  .  ..         17  3 

Rutland  and  Burlington           

119.6 

Rutland  and  Washington  

44.8 

Rutland  and  Whitehall   

6.8 

Branch      ..            

1.5 

Vermont  and  Canada  

47.0 

118.0 

4.0 

Vermont  Valley           

23.7 

Western  Vermont  

54.0 

Branches  

10.5 

Total  Vermont  

557.5 

537.9 

5*o'o 
13.6 

12,182,246 

153,312 

1,508,000 
287,917 

9,291,201 

306.500 
109,937 

23.3 

50.0 

Providence,  Warren,  and  Bristol  

13.6 

Total  Rhode  Island  

86.9 

63.6 

23.9 
122.4 
74.0 
57.0 
55.5  ) 
10.6  J 
61.5 

1,949,229 

279,100 
1,936,739 
2,000,000 
1,031,800 

2,350,000 

960,748 

416,437 

85,000 
1,810,500 
232,000 
287,300 

964,000 
866,000 

Danbury  and  Norwalk.  

23.9 

Hartford,  Providence,  and  Fishkill  

197.5 

Housatonic  „  

.  .    .         740 

Naugatuck  

57  0 

New  Haven  and  Hartford  

55.5 

Branches  

10  6 

New  Haven,  New  London,  and  Stonington.  .  . 

61.5 

Carried  forward 480.0 


404.9 


8,558,387 


4,244,800 


RAILROADS LAND    GRANTS— EXTENT    AND    COST. 


211 


Corporate  titles  of  companies.      , 
Brought  forward  

Total  length 
of  roatls 
480.6 

Length  roads             Capi&l. 
cotnplfted. 
404  9            $8,558,387 

4g'g    •              922,500 

660                  510,900 
62.3               2,980,839 

5J[Ji           2,122,500 

Funded 
Debt. 
$4,244.800 

700,000 

1,052,500 
2,219,000 

714,998 

New  Haven  and  Northampton  

46.4 

8.8 

New  London,  Willimantic,  and  Palmer  

66.0 

New  York  and  New  Haven   

62  3 

Norwich  and  Worcester  

.  .    .          59.0 

Allyn's  Point  Extension  

7.0 

Total  Connecticut  

729.5 

654.4 

64.2 
7.1 
63.0  i 
31.0  i 
60.2 
63.0 
48.0 
11.8 
11.0 
6.6 
53.0 
6.0 
33.8 
21.7 
14.5 
15.0 
12.0 
18.7 
13.0 

15,095,126 

977,700 
120,000 

3,798,400 
657,351 
2,200,000 

238,513 
220,666 
111,114 
1,157,800 
101,387 
3,749,000 
154,157 
630,000 
248,225 
357,078 
1,024,600 
216,794 

8,331,298 
2,049,500 

6,882,000 
1,006,800 
3,186,000 

340,000 
188,700 

95,000 
600,000 

Belvidere  Delaware     

64.2 

Burlington  and  Mount  Holly  

7.1 

Camden  and  Amboy  

63.0 

Branch    

31.0 

Carnden  and  Atlantic  

60.0 

Central  of  New  Jersey  

63.0 

Extra  truck  

48  0 

Flemington  

11.8 

Freehold  and  Jamesburg  

.    .  .           17.0 

6.6 

Morris  and  Kssex   

.  .    .  .           92  0 

Newark  and  Bloomfleld  

60 

33.8 

Northern  New  Jersey  

21.7 

Paterson  and  Hudson  

14.5 

Paterson  and  Ramapo  

15.0 

Sussex  

12.0 

Warren  

18.7 

West  Jersey  

60.0 

Total  New  Jersey  

645.6 

553.6 

15.1 
19.5 
21.2 
26.7  , 
1.8; 
74.3 
8.8 
74.5 
43.5 
12.1 
44.8 
24.3 
461 
1.0 
50.0 
2.4 
9.2 
3.3 
44.1  i 
30.5 
3.8 
19.9  j 
1.4 
15.1 
50.9 
16.0 
14.0 
9.0 
24.9 
5.9 
0.7 
6.6 
12.4 
3.9 

15,982,785 

312,828 
295,337 
600,000 

1,830,000 

4,076,974 
3,692,144 
3,160,000 

4,500,000 
681,690 

1,591,100 

203,150 
136,789 

2,853,400 
56,353 
299,107 
396,085 
3,540,090 

214,296 
1,895,402 
298,951 
369,218 
12,000 
250,357 
200,000 
156,185 

14,348,000 

440,000 

174,200 
500,000 
190,000 
252,500 

2,030,500 
280,261 

100,000 
62,900 

303,014 

loo'.ooo 

Agricultural  branch  

28  4 

Amherst  and  Belchertown  

43.0 

Berkshire  

21.2 

Boston  and  Lowell  

2-6.7 

Branch  

1.8 

Boston  and  Maine  

74.3 

Branches  

8.8 

Boston  and  New  York  Central  

74  5 

Boston  and  Providence  

43.5 

Branches  

12.1 

Boston  and  Worcester  

.      .  .         44  8 

Branches  

24.3 

Cape  Cod  branch  ... 

46  1 

Branch  

....           10 

Connecticut  River  

..      .         50.0 

Chicopee  branch  

2  4 

Danvers  

..    ..           9.2 

Dorchester  and  Milton  

3.3 

Eastern   

44.1 

Branches  

.    ...          305 

Easton  branch  .    . 

38 

Essex  

19  9 

Branch  

1  4 

Fairhaven  branch  

15  1 

Fitchburg  

50.9 

Branches                     

16  8 

Fitchburg  and  Worcester  

14.0 

Grand  Junction  

90 

Hampshire  and  Hampden  

24  9 

Hartford  and  New  Haven  

5.9 

Horn  Pond  branch  

07 

Lexington  and  West  Cambridge  

6.6 

12.4 

3.9 

Carried  forward,  , 

776.3 

737.7 

31.621.456 

4.433.375 

212 


TRAVEL    AND    TRANSPORTATION. 


Corporate  titles  of  companies. 

Total  length  Length  ro 
of  roads.        complete 
775  3           737  7 

jds            Capital. 
$31  621  456 

Funded 
debt. 
$4  433  375 

Medway  branch    

3.6               3.6 

32,554 

8.1               8.1 

149  496 

144             144 

600  000 

New  Bedford  and  Taunton  

20  1              20  1 

Branch              

1.6                1.6 

500,000 

26.9              26.9 

220,240 

221,600 

New  York  and  Boston  air  line  

32  0                86 

223  176 

675  000 

Old  Colony  and  Fall  River  

795             79.5 

Bridge  water  branch  

7.8               7.8 

3,015,100 

134,500 

Peterboro'  and  Shirley  

14.1              141 

265  327 

Pittsfield  and  North  Adams  

18.6             18.6 

450  000 

Providence  and  Worcester  

43.4             43.4 

1  510  200 

300  000 

Salem  and  Lowell  

16.9              169 

243  305 

226  900 

South  Reading  branch  

8.2               82 

Branch  

0.3               0.3 

298,947 

South  Shore  

.  ..    .         11.5             11  5 

259  685 

153  290 

Stockbridge  and  Pittsfleld  

21.9             21.9 

448  700 

Stony  Brook   

.    ..           13.2             132 

267  364 

Stoughton  branch  

4.1               47 

94  944 

Taunton  branch  

11.1             ll.l 

Branch      

.  .    .  .           06               0.6 

313,156 

.  . 

Troy  and  Greenfield  

36.5             361 

385  206 

219  000 

Vermont  and  Massachusetts     

69.0             69  0 

Branch  

8.0               80 

2,214,225 

1,003,880 

Waltham  and  Watertown,  horse  

2.2               2.2 

18  978 

Western  

156.1           1561 

5  150  000 

6  125  520 

West  Stockbridge  

2.7               27 

39  600 

45.7             45.7 

1  141  000 

194  500 

Total  Massachusetts  

1,4748        1  3842 

49  462  563 

13  687  565 

Albany  and  Susquehanna  

140.0 

275  792 

Albany  and  West  Stockbridge  

38.0             380 

1  000  000 

1  289  933 

Albany,  Vermont,  and  Canada  

31.9             31.9  1 

Branch  

08               08 

495,005 

1,575,091 

Black  River  and  Utica  

108.5             349 

Branch  

26               26 

804,648 

700,000 

Blossburg  and  Corning  

14.8             14.8 

250  000 

290  000 

Buffalo,  Corning,  and  New  York  

142.3            1420 

680  000 

2  592  221 

Buffalo  and  New  York  City  

91.0              91.0 

Branch  

1.5                1.5 

755,709 

1,720,000 

Buffalo  and  Pittsburg  

....          75  2 

133  167 

Buffalo  and  State  Line  

68.3              683 

1  934  850 

1  049  000 

Canandaigua  and  Elmira  

69.8             69  & 

500  000 

Canandaigua  and  Niagara  Falls  

98.6             98.6 

Branch  

16                16 

1,300,000 

2,195,832 

Cayuga  and  Susquehanna  

34.6             34  6 

687  000 

411  000 

Chemung  

17.4             174 

380  000 

70  000 

Erie  and  New  York  City  

63.2 

352  741 

14  000 

Genesee  Valley  

16.0 

75  689 

165  000 

Hicksville  and  Cold  Spring  

41                41 

52  000 

Hudson  and  Boston  

17.0             170 

175  000 

Hudson  River.  

144.0           144  0 

3  758  466 

8  842  000 

Lake  Ontario,  Auburn,  and  New  York  

73.8 

71  000 

Lake  Ontario  and  Hudson  River  

182.0 

2  715  186 

870  000 

Lebanon  Springs  

22  5 

324  448 

Long  Island  

95.0              950 

Hempstead  branch  

25               25 

1,852,715 

636,997 

New  York  and  Erie  

446  0           446  0 

Newburg  branch  

19  0              19  0 

11,000,000 

25,326,505 

New  York  and  Harlem  

130  8           130  8  < 

Morrisania  branch  

21               21! 

5,717,100 

5,151,287 

New  York  Central  

297.7           297  7  j 

Branches,  &c  

258  2           258  2  ( 

24,153,000 

14,333,771 

Niagara  Falls  and  Lake  Ontario  

132             13  2 

393  721 

Carried  forward.  .  .  . 

.    2,724.0        2,057.4 

59.837.237 

67.11  2  fi37 

RAILROADS LAND    GRANTS EXTENT    AND    COST. 


213 


Corporate  titles  of  companies. 

Total  length 
of  reads. 
2,724.0 

Length  roads 
completed. 
2,057.4 

Capital. 
$59,837,237 

Funded 
debt 
$67,152,637 

118.0 

118.0  ) 

3.8 

3.8  f 

3,077,900 

1,500,000 

35.9 

35.9 

396,340 

213,500 

20.6 

20.6 

347,775 

75.4 

75.4  ) 

Branch     

2.3 

2.3  J 

665,419 

911,000 

49.7 

18.5 

657  560 

150,000 

25.2 

25.2 

610,000 

140,000 

Sackett's  Harbor  and  Kllisburg  

18.0 

18.0 

167,485 

278,400 

Saratoga  and  Schenectady  

21.0 

21.0 

300,000 

85,000 

40.9 

40.9  ) 

Rutland  branch      

6.6 

6.6  C 

500,000 

395,000 

Sodus  Point  and  Southern  

35.0 

35,289 

26.0 

26.0 

115,000 

Syracuse  Bino-hamton,  and  New  York  

80.0 

80.0 

1,200,130 

1,643,126 

5.4 

5.4 

75,370 

171,200 

Troy  and  Boston      

34.7 

34.7 

604,911 

806,500 

Troy  and  Greenbush  

6.0 

6.0 

275,000 

Troy  arid  Rutland  

.    ...          17.3 

17.3 

380,818 

Troy  Union  and  Depot  

2.0 

2.0 

7,611 

680,000 

Union   Ramapo      

0.2 

0.2 

50,000 

Union   Syracuse  

1.3 

1.3 

77,414 

Watertown  and  Rome  

96.8 

96.8 

1,498,500 

685,000 

Total  New  York  

3,520.4 

2,786.3 

70,674,768 

74,811,371 

Delaware  and  Maryland  

840 

84.0 

361,478 

931,500 

Newcastle  and  Frenchtown  

.  .    .  .         16.0 

16.0 

744,520 

Newcastle  and  Wilmington  

5.0 

5.0 

93,000 

Total  Delaware  

105.0 

105.0 

1,198,998 

931,500 

Annapolis  and  Elkridge  

39.0 

39.0 

462,000 

Baltimore  and  Ohio  

Branches  '  .    . 

I    379.0 

379.0 

10,011,800 

13,881,833 

Washington  line  

30.0 

1,650,000 

Hoffman's  Mines  branch  

11.0 

11.0 

500,000 

Cumberland  and  Pennsylvania  

22.0 

22.0 

800,000 

George's  Creek  Canal  and  Iron  

21.0 

21.0 

600,000 

Northern  Central 

Branches  ....„  

t    J38.0 

138.0 

2,260,000 

5,578,800 

Western  Maryland  

14  0 

14.0 

300,000 

Sundry  coal  railroads,  say  , 

....          40  0 

40.0 

800,000 

Total  Maryland  

694.0 

694.0 

17,383,800 

19,460,633 

Alexandria,  Loudon,  and  Hampshire  

122.0 

41.3 

1,403,018 

36,188 

Manassas  Gap  

105  0 

77  8 

2,969  861 

775  500 

Norfolk  and  Petersburg  

79.0 

79.0 

1,500,124 

590,610 

North-western  Virginia.  .  .  . 

103.0 

103.0 

468,605 

5,719,229 

Orange  and  Alexandria  

149.0 

88.0 

1,981,167 

2,316,879 

Fredericksburg  and  Gordon  ville  

.  .      .            45.0 

45.0 

231,573 

Petersburg  and  Lynchburg  , 

123.0 

123.0 

1,365,300 

1  851  500 

Petersburg  and  Roanoke  

59.0 

59  0 

883  200 

102  500 

Richmond  and  Danville  

140.0 

140.0 

1,980,997 

907  491 

Richmond,  Frederick,  and  Potomac  

75.0 

75.0 

1,041,880 

643  960 

Richmond  and  Petersburg  

22  0 

22  0 

835  750 

204  808 

Richmond  and  York  River  

24.0 

24  0 

657  812 

85  000 

.  .  .      .         80  0 

80  0 

844  200 

472  811 

Virginia  Central  

1780 

178  0 

3  132  445 

1  48  5  346 

Virginia  and  Tennessee  

204  0 

2040 

3  353  672 

3  247  500 

Winchester  and  Potomac  

32.0 

32  0 

300  000 

1<)0  000 

Total  Virginia  , 

,  .    ...    1,540.0 

1,371.1 

22,949  604 

18  559  316 

Atlantic  and  North  Carolina  

95.0 

95  0 

1  545  225 

400  000 

North  Carolina  

223.0 

223.0 

4  000  000 

Carried  forward 318.0 


318.0 


5,545,225 


400,000 


214 


TRAVEL    AND    TRANSPORTATION. 


Corporate  titles  of  companies. 
Brought  forward  

Total  length 
of  roads. 
318.0 

Length  roads 
completed. 
318.0 

Capital. 

$5,545,225 

Funded 
debt 
$400,000 

Raleigh  and  Gastoti  

97  0 

97.0 

973,300 

126,200 

Roanoke  Valley  

22  0 

22.0 

450,073 

Western,  coal  

43  0 

Wilmington  and  Manchester  

161.0 

161.0 

1,127,511 

1,060  000 

Wilmington  and  Weldon  

.    ..        162.0 

162  0 

1,340,217 

791,055 

Total  North  Carolina  :  

803.0 

760.0 

9,436,322 

2,377,255 

Blue  Ridge  ....             

183  0 

13.0 

1,916,515 

217,577 

Charleston  arid  Savannah  

102.0 

55.0 

706,365 

195,266 

Charlotte  and  South  Carolina  

109.0 

109.0 

1,201,000 

384,000 

Cheraw  and  Darlington  

40.0 

40.0 

400.000 

200,000 

Greenville  and  Columbia  

143.0 

143.0  J 

Branches  

21.0 

21.0  | 

1,429,008 

1,145,000 

King's  Mountain  

23.0 

23.0 

200,000 

Laurens  

32.0 

32.0 

400,000 

106.218 

North-eastern  

102.0 

102.0 

685,743 

960,410 

South  Carolina  

136.0 

136.0  ) 

Branches.  .  .        

106.0 

106.0  \ 

4,179,475 

2,770,463 

Spartanburg  and  Union  

67  0 

25.0 

1,000,000 

Total  South  Carolina  

1,064.0 

805.0 

12,418,106 

5,978,934 

Atlanta  and  West  Point  

87.0 

87.0 

1,250,000 

250,000 

Augusta  and  Savannah 

53  0 

53  0 

733,700 

298  500 

Barnesville  and  I'll  nnaston  

160 

16.0 

Brunswick  and  Florida  

67.0 

24.0 

151,887 

Central  of  Georgia 

191  0 

191  0 

3  750  000 

106  267 

Georgia  and  Bunk  

2320 

232.0 

4,150,000 

373  000 

Macon  and  Western  

102.0 

102.0 

1,438,800 

23,000 

Main  Trunk  (Atlantic  and  Gulf)  

40 

4.0 

63,767 

Milledgeville  and  (Gordon  

17.0 

17.0 

212,500 

Milledgeville  and  Katonton  

22.0 

22.0 

275  000 

Muscogee  

50.0 

50.0 

669,950 

249,000 

Rome  and  Kingston  

Savannah,  Albanv,  and  Gulf.  

68.0 

68.0 

1  275  901 

10  200 

South-western  

228  0 

228.0 

2  921,900 

396,500 

Western  and  Atlantic  

138  0 

138  0 

5  901  497 

Total  Georgia  

1  275.0 

1,222  0 

22  794  902 

1  582  467 

Florida   ...                  .                    .        .          , 

154  0 

62  0 

2  500  000 

Florida  and  Alabama     

45  0 

32  0 

191  485 

195  000 

Florida,  Atlantic,  and  Gulf  Central  

60.0 

H2  0 

205  781 

204  600 

fensacola  and  Gtoryia  

253.0 

29  0 

800  000 

Tallahassee  

22.0 

22.0 

425  000 

Total  Florida  

.  .    .  .        534  0 

177  0 

4  122  266 

399  600 

Alabama  and  Florida  

.  .  .  .          135.0 

65  0 

877  953 

503  500 

Alabama  and  Mississippi  Rivers  

88.0 

30  0 

•    355  010 

109  500 

Alabama  and  Tennessee  Rivers  

168.0 

109.0 

1,067  006 

777,777 

Marion  

14  0 

14  0 

290  000 

Mobile  and  Girard  

222  0 

57  0 

1  500  000 

Mobile  and  Ohio  

518  0 

362  0 

3  481  791 

4  717  497 

Montgomery  and  West  Point  

116  0 

116  0 

1  419  769 

922,622 

North-ea.it  and  South-west  Alabama  

209.0 

650,000 

Tennessee  and  Alabama  Central  

....           260 

65  184 

Total  Alabama  

1,496.0 

753.0 

9,646,723 

7  030  896 

Baton  Rouge,  Gros    T&e,  and  Opelousas  

17.0 

17.0 

225,000 

Clinton  and  Port  Hudson  

22  0 

22.0 

750  666 

Mexican  Gulf  

27  0 

27  0 

662  911 

Miluesburg  and  Lake  Pontchartraiu  

6.0 

6.0 

212,398 

Carried  forward.  .  , 

72.0 

72.0 

1,950,975 

RAILROADS LAND    GRANTS EXTENT    AND    COST. 


215 


Corporate  titles  of  companies. 

Total  length 
of  roads. 
72.0 

Length  roads 
completed. 
72.0 
13.0 
80.0 
206.0 
21.0 

Capital. 
$1,950,975 
497,220 
1,002,959 
4,437,990 
882,922 

Funded 
Debt. 

$ 

2,121,000 
2,817,000 

58,744 

13.0 

258.0 

411.0 

189.0 

943.0 

392.0 

236.0 
71.0 
83.0 
8.0 
7.0 
26.0 

8,672,066 

2,000,961 
798,285 
1,000,000 
200,000 
95,000 
620,000 

4,996,744 

2,554,732 
456,949 
1,400,000 

236.0 

Mississippi  and  Tennessee  

99.0 

Southern  Mississippi  *  

143.0 

Grand  Gulf  and  Port  Gibson  

8.0 

Raymond             .        

7.0 

West  Feliciana  

26.0 

Total  Mississippi  

519.0 

431.0 

12.0 

206.0 
168.0 
182.0 
19.0 
8.6 

4,714,246 

50,493 
1.770,612 
2,620,000 
3,330,657 
66,974 
1,999,300 

4,411,681 

327,000 
8,768,000 
3,250,000 
8,203,000 
1,400,000 
3,276,000 

Cairo  and  Fulton  

78.0 

Hannibal  and  St  Joseph  

206.0 

North  Missouri  

236.0 

Pacific     

311.0 

South-western  branch  

283.0 

St.  Louis  and  Iron  Mountain  

8.6 

Total  Missouri  

1  200.0 

673.0 

8.0 
80.0 
20.0 
13.0 
29.0 
65.0 

185.0 

19.0 
26.0 
5.0 

9,838,036 

312,000 
1,582,169 
694,024 
694,444 
514,409 
741,069 

2,151,430 

575,000 
800,000 
100,000 

25,224,000 

2,930,000 
sold  for  26,000 
71,000 
130,000 
456,519 

2,300,000 

8.0 

Covington  and  Lexington  

80.0 

Lexington  and  Big  Sandy  

133.0 

Lexington  and  Danville  

35.0 

Lexington  and  Frankfort  

29.0 

Louisville  and  Frankfort  

65.0 

Louisville  and  Nashville  

Lebanon  branch  

'  '  •  j-    269.0 

Maysville  and  Lexington  

90  0 

Paducah  and  Mobile  

260 

Portland  and  Louisville  

5.0 

Total  Kentucky  

740.0 

450.0 

48.0 
30.0 
30.0 
30.0 
130.0 
300.0 
300.0 
70.0 
60.8 
59.0 
41.0 
159.0 
46.0 
30.0 

8,164,545 

300,000 
867,210 
333,204 
1,289,673 
536,654 
3,809,949 
570,000 
298,721 
317,447 
798,285 
144,894 
2,256,479 
595,922 
216,962 

5,887,519 

612,000 
2,020,000 
1,902,000 
2,659,000 
1,361.000 
740,000 
632,500 
554,949 
406,000 
1,524,000 
860,000 
413,000 

Central  Northern  

480 

Cleveland  and  Chattanooga  

30  0 

Edgefield  and  Kentucky  

41.0 

East  Tennessee  and  Georgia  

30.0 

East  Tennessee  and  Virginia  

148  0 

Memphis  and  Charleston  

311.0 

Memphis  and  Ohio  

306.0 

Memphis,  Clarksville,  and  Louisville  

130  0 

Mississippi  Central,  and  Tennessee.  

50.0 

Mississippi  and  Tennessee  

100.0 

McMinnville  and  Manchester  

41.0 

Nashville  and  Chattanooga  

202  0 

Tennessee  and  Alabama  

62.0 

Manchester  and  Alabama  

38  0 

Total  Tennessee  , 

1,543.0 

1,346.0 

38.0 
22.0 

75.0 
86.0 
50.0 

38.0 
11.0 
107.0 

12,335,390 

351,524 

785,950 

752,733 
616,072 
838,086 
245,000 
921,449 
648,216 

13,684,449 

446,000 
729,000 

665,000 
860,000 
965,000 
755,000 
570.000 
414,000 

Memphis  and  Little  Rock  (Arkansas)  

1460 

Sacramento  Valley  (California)  

.  .  .  .          22.0 

286.0 

Chicago,  Iowa,  and  Nebraska  

86  0 

DubiK|iie  and  Pacific  

319  0 

Iowa  Central  air-lino  

,  ...       438.0 

Keokuk,  Fort  Desmoines,  and  Minnesota  

140.0 

Keokuk,  Mount  Pleasant,  and  Muscatine  

68.0 

Mississippi  and  Missouri  , 

,  ...        4190 

Total  Iowa 1,756.0 


367.0 


3,821,556 


216 


TRAVEL    AND    TRANSPORTATION. 


Corporate  titles  of  companies. 
Ash  tabula  and  New  Lisbon  

Total  length 
of  roads. 
84.8 

Length  roads             rQT,;f0i                       Funded 
completed.              Capital.                        Debt_ 

$600,000 

Bellefontaiue  and  Indiana  

118.2 

118.2 

1,859,813            $1,267,078 

Carrollton  Branch  

11.5 

11.5 

225,000 

Central  Ohio  

137.0 

137.0 

1,628,356              3,673,000 

Cincinnati,  Hamilton,  and  Dayton  

60.3 

60.3 

2,155,800               1,411,000 

Cincinnati  and  Indianapolis  Junction  

99.1 

37.0 

1,000,000 

Cincinnati,  Wilmington,  and  Zanesville  

162.8 

131.8 

2,441,176              3,032,000 

Cleveland,  Columbus,  and  Cincinnati  
Branches,  &c  

135.4 
5.8 

135.4  j 
5.8  j 

4,746,100                   38,000 

Cleveland  and  Mahoning  

75.0 

67.0 

580,000               l,202,30fl 

Cleveland,  Painesville,  and  Ashtabula  

95.4 

95.4 

3,000,000               1,667,000 

Cleveland  and  Pittsburg  

101.0 

101.0") 

Tuscarawas  extension  

32.0 

32.0 

Hanover  branch  

1.5 

1.5 

3,942,368              4,918,325 

Beaver  extension  

22.0 

22.0 

"Wheeling  extension  

47.0 

47.0j 

Cleveland  and  Toledo,  N.  div  
"         "        S.  div  

109.2 
79.4 

109.2  j 
79.4] 

3,343,812               3.842,72C 

Cleveland,  Zanesville,  and  Cincinnati  

.  .  .       114.0 

61.4 

369,673                 575,250 

Clinton  Line  

55.3 

.  . 

1,000,000 

Clinton  Line  extension  

94.6 

1,983,000 

Columbus,  Piqua,  and  Indiana  

103.0 

72.0 

750,000               1,600,00( 

Columbus  and  Xenia  

54.6 

54.6 

1,490,000                  290,70( 

Dayton  and  Cincinnati,  tunnel  

53.2 

2,000,000 

Dayton  and  Michigan  

144.0 

144.0 

2,108,380               2,513,40( 

Dayton  and  Western  

36.6 

36.6 

289,692                  700,00( 

Dayton,  Xenia,  and  Belpre  

63.0 

16.0 

437,838                  422,655 

Eaton  and  Hamilton  

45.0 

45.0 

469,762                  728,85; 

Four  Mile  Valley  

34.0 

300,000 

Fremont  and  Indiana  

120.0 

36.0 

1,000,000 

Greenville  and  Miami  

32.0 

32.0 

300.000                 473,  00( 

Iron  

47.0 

13.0 

118,865                    50,00( 

Little  Miami  

83.4 

83.4 

2,981,293               1,399,00( 

Marietta  and  Cincinnati  
Hillsboro1  branch  

173.8 
21.6 

173.8  i 
21.6 

1,399,000              7,405,91* 

Ohio  and  Mississippi  

192.3 

192.3 

6,584,681               9,880,00( 

Pittsburg,  Columbus,  and  Cincinnati  
Cadiz  branch  

117.0 
8.0 

117.0  i 

8.0  i 

1,906,736              2,400,00( 

Pittsburg,  Maysville,  and  Cincinnati  

225.0 

.  . 

390,933 

Sandusky,  Dayton,  and  Cincinnati  

153.9 

153.9  j 

Old  line  

52.0 

52.0 

2,697,090               2,134,00( 

Findlay  Branch  

16.0 

16.03 

• 

Sandusky,  Mansfield,  and  Newark  
Huron  branch  

116.0 
9.0 

116.0 
9.0 

828,583               1,402,57! 

Scioto  and    Hocking  Vallevs  

130.0 

55.5 

403,975                  500.00( 

Springfield  and  Columbus  

43.0 

19.5 

193,000                  150,00( 

Springfield,  Mount  Vernon,  and  Pittsburg  

112.0 

49.0 

1,000,000               1,050,00( 

Tiffin  and  Fort  Wayne  

102.7 

150,000 

Toledo,  Wabash,  and  Western  

243.0 

243.0 

3,573,000               7,650,00( 

Total  Ohio  

4,282.0 

3,060.0 

62,326,631             61,376,76; 

Detroit  and  Milwaukee  

188.0 

188.0 

2,950.009              4,250,00( 

Detroit,  Monroe,  and  Toledo  

51.0 

51.0 

1,202,821 

Grand  Rapids  and  Indiana  

183.0 

Iron  Mountain,  N.  Michigan  

25.0 

25.0 

600,000 

Michigan  Southern  and  Northern  Indiana  

246.0 

246.0") 

Constaritine  branch  

4.0 

4.0 

Old  Goshen  branch  

10.0 

10.0 

Michigan  City  branch  

14.0 

140 

St.  Joseph  Valley  railroad  
Jackson  branch  

8.0 
42.0 

8.0 
42.0 

8,975,400              9,343,00( 

Goshen  air-line  

.  .  .       120.0 

120.0 

Toledo  section  

3.0 

3.0 

Ohio  section  of  D.  M.  and  T.  Railroad  

7.0 

7.0 

Erie  and  Kalamazoo  

30.0 

30.0 

Carried  forward 93 1 .0 


748.0 


13,728,230 


RAILROADS LAND    GRANTS EXTENT    AND    COST. 


217 


Corporate  titles  of  companies. 

Total  length 
of  roads. 
931.0 

Length  roads 
completed. 
748.0 
284.0 

Capital. 
$13,728,230 
6,057,844 
500,000 

Funded 
debt. 
$13,593,000 
8,284,063 

Michigan  Central  

284.0 

fort  Huron  and  Milwaukee                 

89  8 

Flint  and  fere  Marquette             

1730 

Total  Michigan  

1,477.8 

1,032.0 

108.0 
29.0 
109.0 

72.4 

8*9.8  ) 
20.2  f 
84.0 
78.0 
27.0 
64.0 
86.0  ) 
26.0  f. 
23.0) 
288.0 
74.0 
20.0 
16.0 
73.0 
3.5 

20,286,061 

1,196,679 
1,000,000 
986,061 
835,000 
611,050 

1,689,900 

835,971 
1,014,252 
188,000 
1,000,000 

1,647,700 

2,800,000 
1,100,000 
120,000 
160,000 
1,381,450 
265,033 

21,877,063 

1,006,125 
1,219,100 
1,166,000 

1,362,284 

1,025,700 
681,000 

600,000 
1,336,816 

3,000,000 
820,000 

230,000 

Chicago  and  Cincinnati     

104  0 

Cincinnati  and  Chicago  

108.0 

Cincinnati,  Peru,  and  Chicago  

102.0 

Evansville  and  Crawfordsville  

1090 

Evansville,  Indianapolis,  and  Cleveland.  .  .  . 

155.0 

Indiana  Central  

72  4 

Indiana  and  Illinois  Central  

70  0 

Indianapolis  and  Cincinnati  

89.8 

Cincinnati  extension  

20.2 

Indianapolis,  Pittsburg,  and  Cleveland.  .  .  . 

84.0 

Jeffersonville  

78  0 

Knightstown  and  Shelby  ville  

27.0 

Lafayette  and  Indianapolis  

64  0 

Madison  and  Indianapolis  

86.0 

Martinsville  branch  

26  0 

Shelby  ville  branch  

23  0 

New  Albany  and  Salem  

288.0 

Peru  and  Indianapolis  

74.0 

Rushville  atid  Shelbyville  

200 

Shelby  ville  Lateral  

16.0 

Terre  Haute  and  Richmond  

73.0 

Union  Track,  Indianapolis  

3  5 

Total  Indiana  

1  692.9 

1,290.9 

220.0 
138.0 
45.0 
181.8 
196.0 
33.2 
121.0") 
105.5 
21.0  }- 
1.5 
10.5J 
175.6 
308.0  ) 
250.0  I 
146.0  ) 
4.0 

35.0 
45.0 
3.0 
148.0 
46.0 

94.0  ) 
92.0  J 
100.0 
43.0 
1.0 
168.5  ) 
25.0}- 
14.8) 

16,831,096 

3,500,000 
4,631,540 
988,000 
5,603,000 
2,000,000 
1,000,000 

6,026,400 

1,600,000 
10,249,210 
100,000 

750,000 
1,300,000 
60,000 
1,780,295 

200,000 
1,560,889 
800,000 

200,000 
3,026,903 
500,000 

45,885,237 

12,447,025 

4,500,000 
3,158,000 
762,865 
1,397,000 
7,369,000 
580,000 

3,783,015 

3,088,426 
20,000,000 

3,292,402 
600.000 

2,200,000 
1,200,000 

5,035,615 

Chicago,  Alton,  and  St.  Louis  

220.0 

Chicago,  Burlington,  and  Quincy  

138  0 

Chicago  and  Milwaukee  

45  0 

Chicago  and  Rock  Island  

.   .         181  8 

Chica/jo,  St.  Paul,  and  Fond  du  Lac  

.   .   .         196  0 

Fox  River  Valley  

33  2 

Galena  and  Chicago  Union  

121.0 

Fulton  and  Iowa  line  

105.5 

Beloit  branch  

21  0 

Elgin  branch  

15 

St.  Charles  branch  

105 

Great  Western  

178  0 

Illinois  Central  

308  0 

Chicago  branch  

250  0 

Galena  branch  

146  0 

Illinois  Coal  

4  0 

Illinois  and  Indiana  Central 

74.5 

Illinois  River  

81  5 

Joliet  and  Chicago.  .  . 

...           35  0 

Joliet  and  Northern  Indiana 

45.0 

Mound  City  

30 

Ohio  and  Mississippi  

148.0 

Peoria  and  Bureau  Valley 

46.0 

Peoria  and  Hannibal.  .  .                  

129  0 

Peoria  and  Oquawka  

94  0 

Eastern  extension  

920 

Quincy  and  Chicago  

100  0 

Quincy  and  Eastern  

430 

Rock  Island  Bridge  

10 

Terre  Haute,  Alton,  and  St.  Louis  

1685 

St.  Louis  branch  

25.0 

Belleville  division  

14  8 

Tonica  and  Petersburg  

120  0 

Total  Illinois  

3,177.4 

2,772.4 

56,966,324 

218 


TRAVEL    AND    TRANSPORTATION. 


....        ,                                                               Total  length  Length  roads          r^it.,1  Funded 

Corporate  t.tles  of  companies.  of  roads.  completed.  Capital.  (M>^ 

Alleghany  Valley 181.0  45.0  $1.660,000  $400,000 

Beaver  Meadow 20.0  20.0  1,410,900  2,000 

Catuwissa,  Williamsport,  and  Erie 63.0  63.0  1,700,000  2,271,536 

Cumberland  Valley 52.0  52.0  981,900  245,500 

Delaware,  Lackaw'anna,  and  "Western 193.0  193.0  3,360,872  6,070,125 

East  Pennsylvania 36.0  36.0  386,121  365,500 

Erie  and  North-east 22.0  22.0  600,000  400,000 

Harrishurg  and  Lancaster 55.0  55.0  1,087,100  601,000 

Hempfield 32.0  32.0  1,809,563 

Huntingdon  and  Broad  Top 46.0  42.0  425,015  1,000.000 

Lackawanna  and  Bloomsburg .69.0  69.0  110,000  1,000,000 

Lehigh  Valley 45.0  45.0  1,966,350  1,500,000 

Little  Schuylkill   46.0  28.0  2,256,100  942,500 

Leliigh  Coal  and  Navigation 24.0  20.0  2,479,900  3,619,304 

Mine  Hill  and  Schuylkill  Haven 145.0  72.0  2,800,000 

North  Pennsylvania 75.0  660  3,155,820  2,787,000 

Pennsylvania '. . .  386.0  386.0  13,249,128  16,932,517 

Philadelphia  aud  Baltimore  Central 79.0  12.0  ..  250,000 

Philadelphia,  Germantown,  and  Norristown 24.0  24.0  1,208,500  374,800 

Philadelphia  and  Reading 151.0  151.0  11,737,041  12,195,950 

Philadelphia  and  Trenton 28.0  2-8.0  1,000,000 

Philadelphia,  Wilmington,  and  Baltimore 104.0  98.0  5,600,000  2,498,435 

Pittsburg  and  Connellsville 147.0  60.0  1,753,864  1,500,000 

Pittsburg,  Fort  Wayne,  and  Chicago 467.0  467.0  6,266,278  8,895,457 

Pittsburg  and  Steubenville 31.0  31.0  1,221,277  280,000 

Sclmylkill  and  Susquehanna 54.0  54.0  1,258,700  97,000 

Schuylkill  Valley 39.0  24.0  568,150 

Shamokin  Valley  and  Pottsville 33.0  28.0  500,000  821,447 

Sunbury  and  Erie 148.0  148.0  4,506,920  4,369,070 

Tioga 29.0  290  97,550  396,000 

Westchester  and  Philadelphia 26.0  26.0  682,170  944,169 

Williamsport  and  Elmira 78.0  78.0  1,500,000  2,361,973 

Total  Pennsylvania 2,928.0  2,044.0  57,939,216  73,181,283 

Kenosha  and  Rockford 176.0  55.0  800,000  700,000 

Lacrosse  and  Milwaukee 199.0  199.0  10,872,000  10,414,066 

Milwaukee  and  Chicago 40.0  40.0  1,000,000  600,000 

Milwaukee  and  Horicon 42.0  42.0  1,101,200 

Milwaukee  and  Mississippi 260.0  234.0  3,696,693  4,047,000 

Milwaukee,  Water-town,  and  Baraboo 130.0  130.0  345,861  132,000 

Racine  and  Mississippi 142.0  136.0  2,705,720  1,417,000 

Wisconsin  Central 65.0  10.0  600,000 

Total  Wisconsin 1,054.0  846.0  21,121,474  17,310,066 

Buffalo  Bayou 190.0  32.0 

Galveston,  Houston,  and  Henderson 240.0  56.0 

Houston  and  Brazoria 125.0  50.0  275,000  240,000 

Houston  and  Texas  Central 125.0  70.0  455,000  975,000 

San  Antonio  and  Mexican  Gulf 135.0  25.0 

Southern  Pacific 784.0  28.0 

f              Total  Texas 1,824.0  251.0  730,000  1,215,000 

Minnesota  and  Pacific 620.0  ..  ..  600,000 

Southern  Minnesota 175.0  . .  . .  575,000 

Minneapolis  and  Cedar  Rapids 112.0  . .  . .  600.000 

Minnesota  Transit 200.0  ..  ..  500,000 

Root  River  Valley 60.0 


Total  Minnesota 1,167.0 


2,750,000 


There  is,  in  addition  to  the  roads  here 
mentioned,  a  considerable  length,  probably 
2,000  miles  in  all,  employed  in  mining  dis 
tricts,  and  not  used  for  general  traffic.  The 


grand  result  is  over  28,000  miles  of  road, 
which  have  cost,  in  capital  and  funded  debt, 
$1,066,866,284,  which  has  been  expended 
in  the  period  since  the  first  road  was  begun. 


RAILROADS tAND    GRANTS EXTKNT    AND    COST. 


219 


RECAPITULATION  BY  STATES. 

Corporate  titles  of  companies. 

Total  length 
of  roads. 

Length  roads 
completed. 

Capital. 

Funded 
Debt. 

Maine  

631.4 

554.9 

$8,457,980 

$9,458,495 

New  Hampshire  

594.8 

560.5 

13,006,532 

4,078,475 

Vermont  

557.5 

537.9 

12,182,246 

9,291,201 

Khodo  Island  

86.9 

63.6 

1,949,229 

416,437 

Connecticut  

729.5 

654.4 

35,095,126 

8,331,298 

Massachusetts  

1,474.8 

1,384.2 

49,462,563 

13,687,565 

New  York  

3,520.4 

2,786.3 

70,674,768 

74,811,371 

New  Jersey  

645.6 

553.6 

15,982,785 

14,348,000 

Pennsylvania  

2,928.0 

2,044.0 

57,939,216 

73,181,283 

Dela  ware  

,  105  0 

105.0 

1,198,998 

931,500 

Maryland  

694.0 

694.0 

17,383,800 

19,460,633 

Virginia  

1,540.0 

1,371.0 

22,249,604 

18,559,316 

North  Carolina  

803.0 

760.0 

9,436,322 

2,377,255 

South  Carolina  

,  1,064.0 

805.0 

12,418,106 

5,978,934 

Georgia  

1,275.0 

1,222.0 

22,794,902 

1,582,467 

Florida  

534.0 

177.0 

4,122,262 

399,600 

Alabama  

1,496.0 

753.0 

9,646,723 

7,030,896 

Louisiana  

943.0 

392.0 

8,672,066 

4,996,744 

Mississippi  

519.0 

431.0 

4,714,246 

4,411,681 

Missouri  

1,200.0 

673.0 

9,838,036 

25,224,000 

Kentucky  

740.0 

450.0 

8,164,545 

5,887,519 

Tennessee  

1,543.0 

1,356.0 

12,335.400 

13,684,449 

Arkansas  

146.0 

38.0 

351,524 

446,000 

California  

22.0 

22.0 

785,950 

729,000 

Iowa  

1,756.0 

367.0 

3,821,556 

4,229,000 

Wisconsin  

1,054.0 

846.0 

21,121,474 

17,310,066 

Minnesota  

1,167.0 

2,275,000 

Texas  

,  1,824.0 

251.0 

730,000 

1,215,000 

Illinois  

3,177.4 

2,772.4 

45,885,237 

56,966,324 

Indiana  

1,692.9 

1,290.9 

16.831,096 

12,447,025 

Michigan  

1,477.8 

1,032.0 

20,286,061 

21,877,063 

Ohio  

4,282.2 

3,060.1 

62,326,631 

61,376,763 

Total 40,224.1      28,007.8        $569,865,924        $497,000,360 


The  expenditure  of  sucli  an  enormous  sum 
of  money,  amounting  to  $54  per  head  for 
the  average  population  during  the  30  years 
in  which  they  have  been  building,  is  mar 
vellous  in  so  young  a  country,  which,  40 
years  before  this  outlay  occurred,  was  mostly 
destitute  of  capital.  The  railroads,  however, 
exist,  and  capital  is  now,  at  this  moment, 
more  abundant  for  general  purposes  than  it 
was  before  the  construction  of  the  railroads. 
It  is,  in  fact,  cheaper  in  the  general  market, 
and  in  this  we  recognize  the  vast  utility  of 
the  works  in  developing  capital.  The  opera 
tion  has  been  to  bring  the  production  of 
millions  of  acres  into  general  circulation, 
more  than  supplying  the  absorption  that  the 
railroad  building  occasioned.  It  is  to  be 
considered  that  a  considerable  amount,  prob 
ably  $300,000,000,  has  been  borrowed  in 
Europe.  For  the,  in  round  numbers,  26,000 
miles  of  road  built  since  1840,  there  would 
have  been  required  very  nearly  2, G 00,000 
tons  of  railroad  iron,  which,  at  an  average 
price,  was  worth  $104,000,000.  There  was 
imported  in  the  same  time,  1840  to  1849 
inclusive,  1,714,343  tons,  at  a  cost  of  $09,- 


799,797,  mostly  purchased  in  exchange  for 
bonds.  In  the  six  years  ending  with  1 857  there 
were  opened  14,335  miles  of  railroad,  which 
required  ]  ,304,485  tons.  In  the  same  period 
there  were  imported  1,289,787  tons.  Thus 
the  quantity  of  domestic  required  was  14,698 
tons  in  addition  to  the  renewal  of  old  rail.  A 
good  deal  of  iron  was  bought  at  very  high 
prices  proportioned  to  the  estimated  values  of 
the  bonds.  That  some  of  those  bonds  have  not 
been  paid  is  true,  and  also  that  iron  was  very 
bad.  The  iron  has  been,  therefore,  a  posi 
tive  advance  to  the  capital  of  the  country, 
to  be  paid  out  of  the  products  of  the  earth 
newly  opened  to  market  by  its  means.  In 
illustration  of  the  value  conferred  by  the 
means  of  transportation,  we  may  take  the 
Philadelphia  coal  fields ;  these  were  discov 
ered  as  fuel  in  1820.  The  quantity  that  has 
since  been  delivered  is  seen  in  the  following 
table  :— 

Tons. 

1820  to  1840 21  years 6,847,179 

1840  to  1850 10     "     22,034,961 

1350  to  1860 9     "     55,742,000 


Total  tons  coal 84,624,140 


220 


TRAVEL    AND    TRANSPORTATION. 


This,  at  an  average  value  of  $5,  gives  $423- 
120,760.  If  this  coal  is  assumed  to  have 
been  transported  100  miles  average  at  the 
cost  of  transportation  on  common  roads,  the 
expense  would  have  swallowed  up  the  whole 
value,  but  there  have  been  built,  running  into 
the  anthracite  region,  the  following  works : — 


Miles. 

11  canals 815 

40  railroads 1,564 


Cost. 

$40,556,775 
86,773,269 


Total $127,330,044 

Under  the  supposition  that  the  coal  trans 
ported  pays  the  interest  on  this  cost,  which 
would  be  $8,690,000  per  annum,  then  the 
7,626,000  tons  brought  to  market  last  year, 
at  a  value  of  $38,000,000,  paid  $1.12  per 
ton,  or  22  per  cent.,  thus  bestowing  a  clear 
value  of  $29,000,000  per  annum  upon  those 
fields.  The  Cumberland  coal  fields  also  de 
liver  over  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  road 
617,010  tons  per  annum.  The  annual  sale 
of  coal  from  those  regions  of  Pennsylvania 

Miles  of     Cotton  crop. 

Bales. 
1,634,945 
1,683,574 
2,378,875 
2,030,401 
2,394,503 
2,100,537 
1,778,651 
2,347,634 
2,728,596 
2,096,706 


1841  

road. 
662 

1842  

791 

1843  

848 

1844  

932 

1845  

1,109 

1846  

1,169 

1847  

1,303 

1848  

1,319 

1849  

1,415 

1850.. 

.  1,415 

Total 21,174,422 

The  value  of  the  5,914  miles  of  roads 
built  is  not  far  from  $150,000,000,  but  the 
value  of  the  cotton  produced  and  brought 
to  market  has  been  in  the  20  years  $2,900,- 
000,000.  The  increase  in  the  value  during 
the  last  10  years  over  the  former  decade  has 
been  $800,000,000.  That  vast  sum  has 
poured  out  upon  the  markets  of  the  world 
as  a  purchasing  power,  stimulating  industry 
at  home  and  abroad  to  produce  the  equiva 
lents  to  give  in  exchange,  and  which  have 
been  consumed  by  the  southern  cotton  pro 
ducers. 

In  the  western  country  the  results  are  still 
more  marked,  since  a  country  which  was  a 
wilderness  has,  under  the  influence  of  rail 
roads  opening  the  way,  become  the  source 
of  immense  wealth.  This  influence  upon 
the  grain  business  of  Chicago  is  seen  in  the 
following  table,  which  shows  the  number  of 
miles  in  operation  in  Illinois  and  Wisconsin, 


is,  including  the  quantities  used  locally, 
$40,000,000.  This  sum  is  added  to  the 
floating  capital  of  the  country  as  a  conse 
quence  of  the  $127,330,044  absorbed  in  con 
structing  the  roads.  In  other  words,  the 
cost  of  construction  is  repaid  in  three  years 
nearly,  and  a  perpetually  increasing  fund 
flows  down  for  the  promotion  of  trade, 
since  coal  is  as  much  a  purchasing  power 
for  goods  as  is  gold.  What  those  roads 
have  done  for  coal  have  the  southern  roads 
done  for  cotton.  Formerly  the  water-courses 
were  the  only  means  of  transportation ;  and 
when  they  were  dry  or  shallow  cotton  ac 
cumulated  at  the  landings  until  the  next 
flood.  The  iron  arms  now  stretch  out  in  all 
directions,  and  not  only  is  all  the  cotton 
grown  added  to  the  marketable  value,  but 
new  lands  are  brought  into  action.  The  ef 
fect  of  railroads  upon  cotton  is  seen  in  the 
following  table,  which  shows  the  miles  of 

• 

railroad  open  in  10  cotton  states,  and  the 
quantity  of  cotton  produced: — 


Miles  of 
road. 

1851 1,560 

1852 2,010 

1853 2,515 

1854 3,040 

1855 3,362 

1856 3,809 

1857 4,165 

1858 4,751 

1859 5,552 

1860 5,914 


Cotton  crop. 

Bales. 
2,355,257 
3,015,029 
3.262,882 
2,930,027 
2,847,339 
3,527,845 
2,939.519 
3,113,962 
3,851,481 
4,675,770 

32,519,111 


in  each  year,  and  the  bushels  of  grain  re 
ceived  in  Chicago  for  corresponding  years : — 

Miles  of  railroad.  Grain  receipts. 

Illinois.  Wisconsin.       Bushels. 

1841 22  ..  40,000 

1852 148  20  5,873.141 

1853 296  50  6,412,181 

1854 1,200  200  12,932,320 

1855 1,884  240  16,633,700 

1856 2,241  285  21,583,221 

1857 2,571  559  18,032,678 

1858 2,678  793  20,035,166 

1859 2,774  838  21,736,147 

1860 2,811  951  40,000,000 

The  cost  of  the  Illinois  and  Wisconsin 
railroads  has  been  $141,283,691,  most  of  it 
furnished  by  the  eastern  states  and  by  Eu 
rope.  In  the  same  period  there  have  been 
sold  by  the  federal  government,  in  Illinois, 
15,000,000  acres  of  land,  and  the  canals  and 
railroads  have  sold  3,000,000  acres.  This 
land  now  sends  forth,  it  appears,  over  these 


RAILROADS LAND    GRANTS EXTENT    AND    COST. 


221 


cost  of  the  railroads,  and  a  permanently  in 
creasing  affluence  of  wealth  from  that  region. 
The  railroads  of  the  other  sections  bordering 
the  Lakes  have  not  been  less  efficient. 

As  an  illustration  take  Chicago  as  a  great 
railroad  centre : — 


railroads,  40,000,000  bushels  of  grain,  at  a 
value  of  $60,064,575  per  annum,  as  esti 
mated  by  Col.  Graham,  of  the  United  States 
Engineers,  and  Chicago  sends  back,  in  re 
turn,  a  value  of  $60,608,779.  Two  years  and 
a  half  of  such  production  gives  the  whole 

Passengers. 

Chicago  and  Milwaukee $145,580  84 

Racine  and  Mississippi 41,151  80 

Lacrosse  and  Milwaukee. . . .     205,745  19 

Chicago  and  St.  Paul 102,876  26 

Milwaukee  and  Mississippi..     305,305  93 

Galena  and  Chicago 1,022,141  65 

Mineral  Point 14,015  77 

Chicago  and  Iowa 15,379  29 

Chicago  and  Burlington 533,034  75 

Dubuque 30,900  17 

Burlington  and  Missouri 46,377  58 

Chicago  and  Rock  Island...  .  449,526  02 
Mississippi  and  Missouri. . . .  90,280  02 
Chicago,  Alton  and  St.  Louis  417,80026 

Illinois  Central 819,82987 

Pitts.,  Ft.  Wayne,  and  Chicago     742,372  04 

Michigan  Southern 920,366  53 

Michigan  Central 1,013,062  24 

Total $15,297,156  85 


Freight. 

Mail  and  Mis. 

Total. 

$46,363  40 

$12,235  91 

$204,186  15 

114,017  85 

155,229  65 

269,941  10 

16,767  45 

492,453  74 

194,608  50 

12,824  92 

310,319  68 

557.900  20 

17,479  89 

383.176  01 

472,269  13 

53,150  45 

1,547,561  33 

37,487  05 

1,552  52 

53,055  35 

32,817  86 

2,555  08 

50,853  24 

103,421  97 

34,252  92 

1,600,709  63 

29,468  83 

1,200  00 

61,578  00 

42,869  46 

1,975  06 

91,222  10 

439,152  32 

43,101  66 

981,789  00 

124,162  51 

3,400  00 

717,842  53 

424,734  84 

24.753  32 

967,288  52 

975,904  87 

180,804  28 

1,976,578  52 

699.053  79 

126,354  35 

1,567,780  18 

849J528  36 

269,452  08 

2,039,346  97 

931,753  98 

71,370  63 

2,016,186  85 

Tliis  gives  a  value  of  $15,297,155  earned 
by  roads  running  into  Chicago  from  almost 
every  point  of  the  compass.  A  large  por 
tion  of  the  earnings  were  derived  from  pas 
sengers  who  had  been  connected  with  rail 
road  building  and  land  speculation. 

While  all  these  rivers,  canals,  and  roads 
have  been  busy  bringing  down  produce  from 
swelling  numbers  of  settlers,  the  traffic  of 
the  great  outlets  has  been  equally  as  active. 
We  are  to  bear  in  mind  that  in  1825,  when 
the  Erie  canal  opened,  there  was  no  transpor 
tation  of  produce  from  west  to  east  of  the 
mountains.  Bearing  that  in  mind,  we  shall 
inspect  the  following  table  with  interest. 
It  shows  the  tonnage  and  revenues  of  the 
five  great  outlets,  for  the  year  1859,  as  fol 
lows: — 


THROUGH     TONNAGE. 

Going  East         "West. 

New  York  canals 2,121,672 

New  York  Central 234.241 

New  York  and  Krie 200,000 

Pennsylvania  railroad    129,767 

Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad  . .     135, 127 


Total 
tonnage. 

817.459    8,7BI,fiS4 
113,833       834,379 
60.01)0       869,072 
103.889     1,170,240 
6ti,470       897,496 


Total 8,8-20,b07    067,601     7,662,87 1 

RECEIPTS. 

Freight.    Passengers. 
$1,723,945 


New  York  cana]g(tollg) . 

New  York  Central 

New  York  and  Erie 

Pennsylvania  railroad... 
Baltimore  and  Ohio 


Total 
receipts. 


8,857,148  $2,566,369 

8,108.243  1,154,088 

3,419,491  I,4l2.fi08 

2,92^,41 1  690.207 


$6,200,848 
4,394,527 
5,362,355 
3,618,618 


Total $14,517,246    $5,823,262    $19,571,848 

Thus  these  five  routes  collected  in  1859 


$14,51 7,246  in  tolls  and  freights, and  $5,823,- 
262  from  passenger  traffic.  This  has  been 
the  sum  of  the  progress  in  transportation 
across  the  mountains  east  and  west.  The 
vast  lines  of  railroads  now  in  operation  are 
probably  more  than  the  present  wants  of  all 
parts  of  the  country  may  require,  but  the 
glance  we  have  made  at  the  past  shows  that 
the  country  will  very  soon  outgrow  this  sup 
ply  of  rails,  and  call  for  a  completion  of  those 
projected. 

This  immense  length  of  continued  rail  now 
enables  an  individual  to  travel  from  one  ex 
tremity  of  the  Union  to  the  other  without 
fatigue ;  not  only  are  the  distances  short 
ened,  but  every  appliance  for  comfort 
makes  the  journey,  even  to  invalids,  com 
modious.  For  this  purpose  there  have  been 
recently  introduced  on  the  long  lines,  sleep 
ing-cars,  wherein  the  passenger  takes  his  nat 
ural  rest  while  the  iron  horse  is  whirling 
him  toward  his  destination  at  the  rate  of  30 
miles  an  hour.  This  is  an  improvement  upon 
the  invention  introduced  by  Captain  Bun 
ker,  as  we  have  seen  on  the  Hudson  river 
sloops  in  the  early  part  of  the  century, 
whereby  gentlemen  and  ladies  could  be  ac 
commodated  with  beds.  They  were  prob 
ably  more  necessary  in  that  day,  however, 
when  it  might  have  been  necessary  to  while 
away  the  time  in  their  berths.  The  rail  cars 
do  not  go  the  less  rapidly  that  the  passengers 
are  well  accommodated.  There  have  been 


222 


TRAVEL    AND    TRANSPORTATION. 


many  instances  not  only  of  berths  provided 
but  of  births  taking  place  in  the  cars.  Such 
an  event  happened  on  the  Long  Island  cars, 
which  were  going  at  the  speed  of  40  miles 
per  hour,  and  a  grave  difficulty  sprang  up 
as  to  where  the  young  gentleman  was  born, 
a  problem  not  easily  solved,  when  towns 
passed  at  the  rate  of  a  mile  in  90  seconds. 

We  have  seen  that  the  passenger  of  the 
present  day  does  not  occupy  much  time  in 
performing  long  distances,  and  that  these 
passages  are  by  no  means  costly  as  compared 
with  the  inconvenient  mode  of  locomotion  in 
the  olden  time.  Twenty  years  since  it  was 
recorded  as  a  marvel  that  a  gentleman  made 
the  distance  from  Chicago  to  Albany  in  154 
hours,  or  6  days  and  10  hours,  and  24  days 
from  New  Orleans  to  Baltimore  was  recorded 
as  matter  of  wonder.  Now,  89  hours  from 
New  York  to  New  Orleans  is  an  easy  pas 
sage,  and  Cincinnati  is  reached  in  36  hours. 
A  passenger  is  booked  through  from  Bangor 
to  New  Orleans  in  less  time  than  was  em 
ployed  to  go  from  Boston  to  New  York. 
From  New  York,  as  the  great  centre,  lines 
radiate  in  all  directions,  bringing  the  most 
distant  cities  within  a  more  convenient  dis 
tance  than  was  Philadelphia  in  the  past 
century. 

It  is  instructive  to  look  back  at  the 
changes  the  means  of  locomotion  have 
wrought  in  the  views  of  passengers.  At  the 
close  of  the  last  century  enterprising  con 
tractors  advertised  as  follows  :  — 

"PHILADELPHIA  STAGE- WAGGON  and  NEW 
YORK  STAGE-BOAT,  performs  their  Stages 
twice  a  Week.  John  Butler,  with  his  wag 
gon,  sets  out  on  Mondays  from  his  House, 
at  the  Sign  of  the  Death  of  the  Fox,  in 
Strawberry-ally,  and  drives  the  same  day  to 
Trenton  Ferry,  when  Francis  Holman  meets 
him,  and  proceeds  on  Tuesday  to  Bruns 
wick,  and  the  passengers  and  goods  being 
shifted  into  the  waggon  of  Isaac  Fitzran- 
dolph's  the  same  day,  where  Ruben  Fitz- 
randolph,  with  a  boat  well  suited,  will 
receive  them,  and  take  them  to  New  York 
that  night.  John  Butler  returning  to  Phil 
adelphia  on  Tuesday  with  the  passengers 
and  goods  delivered  to  him  by  Francis 
Holman,  will  again  set  out  for  Trenton 
Ferry  on  Thursday,  and  Francis  Holman,  &c., 
will  carry  his  passengers  and  goods,  with  the 
same  expedition  as  above  to  New  York." 

By  this  remarkably  ingenious  plan  and 
diction  of  John  Butler,  everybody  got  to 
"his  journey's  end  in  the  course  of  time  ; 


"  with  the  same  expedition  as  above,"  that 
is,  it  appears,  from  Monday  morning  to 
Tuesday  night,  if  Ruben  Fitzrandolph's 
boat  did  not  get  aground  or  becalmed,  or 
weather-bound,  or  driven  off,  in  either  of 
which  cases  the  time  of  arrival  was  dubious. 
But  honest  John  "  with  his  waggor,"  was 
soon  "cutout."  Those  "Yankees,"  immor 
talized  by  Knickerbocker,  came  down  from 
the  north  and  innovated  even  upon  so  ad 
mirable  an  arrangement  as  was  here  devised 
in  the  tap-room  of  the  "  Death  of  the  Fox," 
Strawberry-ally,  under  the  administration  of 
Jefferson.  Ruben's  boat  with  its  vicissitudes 
was  abandoned,  notwithstanding  the  attrac 
tions  of  the  "  Kill  van  Kull"  passage,  and  a 
land  route  through  adopted.  The  attractions 
of  this  route  were  set  forth  as  follows  : — 

"  FOR  PHILADELPHIA  AND  BALTIMORE — 
SWIFTSURE  MAIL  STAGE. — A  new  line  has 
removed  from  No  2  Courtlandt  street  to  No. 
116  Broadway,  and  is  now  running  between 
New  York  and  Philadelphia,  through  a 
beautiful  country,  and  on  the  short  and 
pleasant  road  through  Newark,  Springfield, 
Scotch  Plains,  Bound  Brook,  Somerset, 
Arnwell,  Coryell's  Ferry,  Cross  Road, 
Crooket  Billet,  and  Jenkintown  to  Phila 
delphia. 

"To  start  from  New  York  every  day  at  10 
o'clock,  A.  M.  (Sundays  excepted,)  lodge  at 
Somerset,  and  arrive  at  Philadelphia  next 
day  afternoon.  The  Swiftsure  is  the  only 
opposition  stage  from  this  city  to  Philadel 
phia  and  Baltimore." 

There  does  not  appear  to  have  been  much 
time  saved  by  this  new  plan,  any  further 
than  that  the  vicissitudes  of  the  boats  were 
exchanged  for  those  of  muddy  roads.  Spring 
coaches  had,  however,  supplanted  honest 
John  Butler's  wagon,  since  travellers  had 
become  more  dainty.  A  few  years  more 
brought  steam  into  competition  for  the  use 
of  travellers,  and  the  number  multiplied  to 
such  an  extent,  that,  on  the  occasion  of  the 
great  semi-centennial  jubilee  anniversary 
of  the  National  Independence,  held  July  4, 
1825,  it  was  recorded  in  The  Philadelphia 
Gazette,  that  300  New  Yorkers  were  said  to 
have  been  in  Philadelphia.  There  were 
passengers  enough  to  fill  35  coaches  !  Great 
doings,  that,  in  the  travelling  way  !  What 
would  Francis  Holman  have  done  with  the 
crowd  between  Brunswick  and  Trenton  ? 
Travelling'  had  clearly  outgrown  his  arrange 
ments.  Well,  35  years  more  passed  on,  and 
railroad  connections  being  constructed,  the 


RAILROADS LAND    GRANTS EXTENT    AND    COST. 


223 


papers  of  the  day  contained  a  new  adver 
tisement  of  a  trip  to  Philadelphia.  It  was  no 
longer  "John  Butler  with  his  waggon,"  but 
that  "  John  Brougham  with  his  company" 
would  perform  as  usual  in  the  evening  at 
the  New  York  theatre,  then  proceed  by  the 
cars  to  Philadelphia  and  perform  at  the 
theatre  there  in  the  same  evening,  and  re 
turn  to  New  York  to  sleep.  Thus  two  per 
formances  were  had  in  two  cities  90  miles 
distant,  and  the  passage  made  both  ways  in 
the  same  evening  by  rail !  The  ordinary  pas 
sage  is  some  4  hours,  and  the  expense  $3.00. 
The  fare  is  reduced  to  $2.25,  if  the  passenger 
docs  not  care  about  an  hour  or  so  of  time. 

The  influence  of  these  great  improve 
ments  in  travel  has  been  in  an  eminent  de 
gree  to  consolidate  population  in  cities,  and 
these  grow  tho  more  readily  that  the  dis 
tance  within  which  perishable  food  can 
be  brought  to  market  is  so  much  increased 
by  rapidity  of  travel.  The  elements  of 
growth  of  a  city  are  supplies  of  food,  fuel, 
and  water.  Unless  these  are  abundant  and 
cheap,  the  disadvantages  thence  arising  will 
counterbalance  the  geographical  and  commer 
cial  advantages  of  a  city.  To  supply  food  the 
circle  of  country  about  the  city  which  supplies 
market-gardens,  dairies,  etc.,  must  be  fertile 
and  accessible.  The  width  of  this  ring, 
or,  in  other  words,  the  area  thus  devoted,  is 
determined  by  the  speed  with  which  the 
produce  can  be  transported.  The  distance 
of  its  extreme  limits  must  not  be  greater 
than  will  permit  the  products  to  reach  the 
centre  in  time  for  use  ;  any  improvement 
that  enables  a  larger  space  to  be  gone  over 
in  the  same  time  increases  the  area  of  dwell 
ings  and  market-lands.  The  area  thus 
commanded  increases  as  the  square  of  the 
distances.  Thus,  if  the  speed  is  doubled,  the 
area  is  four  times  as  large,  if  it  is  tripled,  the 
area  adapted  to  city  supplies  is  nine  times  as 
great,  consequently  there  will  be  nine  times 
as  much  milk,  butter,  vegetables,  food,  and 
produce  as  before.  Steamboats  opened  a 
market  in  New  York  for  large  quantities  of 
early  southern  fruits  and  vegetables  that 
compete  with  those  coming  by  rail  from  a 
country  before  secluded.  If  the  city  is  thus 
benefited,  so  are  -the  distant  farms,  the 
value  of  which,  as  compared  with  those  near, 
becomes  equalized.  If  wheat  is  worth  $1.00 
in  the  city,  and  it  cost  25  cents  to  get  it 
there  from  a  certain  farming  district,  the 
producer  will  get  75  cents  only.  If  the  cost 
of  transportation  be  reduced  to  10  ceuts> 


then  there  is  15  cents  to  be  divided  between 
the  city  consumer  and  the  producer.  The 
comparative  influence  of  a  railroad  in  effect 
ing  this  result  over  a  common  road  is  great. 
Another  very  important  development  of 
railroads  has  been  for  city  service.  It  is 
now  nearly  30  years  since,  the  city  of  New 
York  having  spread  over  a  greater  surface 
of  ground  than  it  was  convenient  to  walk) 
over,  lines  of  omnibuses  were  started  to  run 
on  the  great  thoroughfares,  to  carry  passen 
gers.  The  price  was,  at  first,  12^  cents  for 
a  ride  any  distance  on  the  line.  This  was 
gradually  reduced  to  6  cents.  About  the  year 
1852,  however,  the  plan  of  horse  railroads 
was  proposed,  and  one  was  laid  down  the 
Sixth  Avenue,  to  the  lower  part  of  the  city. 
This  was  at  once  eminently  successful.  The 
advantages  accruing  to  the  general  benefit 
from  the  development  of  this  system  may  be 
briefly  enumerated  as  follows: — The  quick 
est,  cheapest,  and  most  agreeable  facilities  of 
travel  to  all  parts  of  the  city ;  the  surprising 
increase  of  the  value  of  property  upon  the 
outskirts,  now  easy  of  access  at  all  hours  of 
the  day  and  evening ;  the  spreading  of  the 
laboring  population  to  the  suburbs,  and  the 
consequent  rapid  extension  of  the  city ;  the 
opening  of  new  branches  of  occupation  by 
the  necessity  created  for  conductors  and 
drivers,  and  the  building  of  cars  ;  and,  lastly, 
the  creation  of  an  extensive  and  profitable 
investment  for  capital,  the  stock  of  some  of 
these  lines  of  railway  being  eagerly  sought 
as  safe  and  lucrative.  It  resulted,  that 
others  were  put  into  operation.  The  plan 
was  soon  adopted  in  Boston,  and  in  Phila 
delphia,  which  is,  from  its  broad  and  rectan 
gular  streets,  well  adapted  to  railroad  travel. 
From  there  the  system  has  spread  to  Balti 
more,  Pittsburg,  Cincinnati,  St.  Louis,  New 
Orleans,  and  other  cities.  The  extent  of  the 
roads  is  as  follows  : — 

No. 

Boston 5 

New  York  and  Brooklyn.   7 
Philadelphia 18 


Miles.  Cost 

30.4  $908,943 

66.8  5,212,586 

1548  8,550,000 


Total 30       242.0        14,731,529 

The  amount  of  traffic  on  these  roads  is 
immense.  In  New  York,  the  number  of 
passengers  carried  in  a  year  more  than  equals 
the  whole  population  of  the  United  States. 
Thus  while  the  railroads  favor  the  settle 
ment  of  cities,  by  concentrating  in  them  a 
large  manufacturing  and  commercial  pop 
ulation,  which  can  draw  cheap  food  from 


224 


TRAVEL    AND    TRANSPORTATION. 


every  section  of  the  Union,  they  at  the  same 
time  circulate  that  city  population  cheaply 
and  speedily,  enabling  them  to  occupy  a 
larger  space  of  ground,  and  at  the  same  time 
concentrate  the  manufacturing  operations  in 
a  manner  to  facilitate  the  greatest  production 
of  commodities  that  are  reciprocally  re 
quired  by  the  producers  of  food.  In  no  coun 
try  have  railroads  been  availed  of  to  the  ex 
tent  which  the  United  States  exhibit.  Under 
the  free  action  of  the  national  energy,  the 
roads  have  multiplied  in  a  marvellous  man 
ner,  but  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  this 
has  had  an  immense  tract  of  rare  and  fer 
tile  soil  to  respond  to  the  operations  of  the 
roads,  and  the  country  has  been  taken  up, 
step  by  step,  by  an  immense  immigration. 
Such  a  state  of  affairs  cannot  exist  in  Europe. 
There  are  no  new  lands  and  crowds  of  immi 
grants,  the  resources  of  which  need  only  the 
railroad  to  be  developed.  There  the  money 
put  into  railroads  is  a  positive  investment, 
here  it  calls  into  activity  a  sum  larger  than  its 
own  amount.  The  gross  income  of  257 
roads  in  the  United  States,  for  1859,  was 
$111,203,245  freights  and  passengers,  or 
$4  per  head  for  each  soul  in  the  Union.  This 
was  for  goods  transported  and  for  travelling. 
The  roads  of  the  United  States,  as  compared 
with  Europe  and  Great  Britain,  will  be  seen 
in  the  following  tables  of  the  number  of 
miles  in  operation  throughout  the  globe  at 
the  commencement  of  the  year  1857: — 

United  States 28,500  miles. 

Canada  and  British  Provinces 1,465 

Cuba 391 

Jamaica 10 

New  Granada 49 

Brazil 53 

Peru 22 

Chili 80 

England  and  Wales 6,426 

Scotland 1,138 

Ireland 1,012 

Spain 263 

France 3,712 

Belgium 1,119 

Holland 422 

Denmark 188 

Norway  and  Sweden 67 

Eussia  and  Poland 637 

Prussia 2,309 

Smaller  German  States 4,235 

Austria  and  Hungary 1,697 

Switzerland 167 

Italy.. 812 

Egypt 132 

British  India 311 

Australia..... 39 


Total  of  railways  in  the  world  in  1857.55,256 


The  comparative  cost  of  the  roads  by  an 
other  authority  is  as  follows  : — 


Miles. 

United  States 28,037 

Great  Britain 8,297 

France 4,038 

Germany 3,213 

Prussia 1,290 

Belgium 1,095 

British  Provinces.      826 

Cuba 359 

Panama 47 

South  America. . .         60 

Russia 422 

Sweden 75 

Italy 170 

Spain 60 

Africa 25 

India. .  100 


Cost. 

$1,086,865,399 

1,487,916,420 

616,118,995 

228,000,000 

145,000,000 

98,500,000 

41,600,000 

16,100,000 

7,000,000 

4,500,000 

42,000,000 

7.500,000 

17,000,000 

6,000,000 

3,100,000 

15,000,000 


Cost  per 

mile. 

$38,800 

179,000 

152,000 

71,000 

63,000 

90,000 

50,000 

41,000 

150,000 

75,000 

100,000 

100,000 

100,000 

100.000 

125,000 

150,000 


Total 48,114     $3,823,200,814    $79,000 

Although  the  territories  of  the  United 
States  abutting  on  the  Pacific  coast  and  the 
north-west  were  the  scene  of  Mr.  Astor's  en 
terprise  early  in  the  century,  California,  up 
to  the  Mexican  war  in  1 846,  was  an  unknown 
region.  That  war  resulted  in  an  acquisition 
of  territory,  that  was  no  sooner  annexed, 
than  the  inquisitive  settlers  discovered  those 
gold  treasures  that  set  the  world  in  a  blaze, 
and  made  that  region  the  centre  of  migra 
tion  for  many  years.  The  route  thither  was 
by  Cape  Horn,  on  a  voyage  of  many  months, 
or  across  Central  America,  by  a  perilous 
journey.  That  was  not  to  be  suffered  long 
by  a  people  who  had  learned  the  art  of  rail 
road  building,  and  the  Panama  railroad,  48 
miles,  was  constructed  at  a  cost  of  $8,000,- 
000 ;  $4,973,000  capital,  and  $2,427,000 
debt.  This  road,  connecting  on  the  Atlantic 
side  with  New  York  by  a  steam-line,  and  on 
the  Pacific  side  with  San  Francisco,  by 
another,  became  at  once  the  great  route, 
and  its  revenue  last  year  was  $1,925,444. 
The  facilities  of  trade  thus  afforded,  caused 
a  rapid  multiplication  of  people  on  the  north 
west  coast,  the  more  so  that  new  discover 
ies  of  gold  were  being  made.  Meantime  the 
public  mind  was  awakened  to  the  neces- 
ity  of  an  inland  route  by  rail,  not  only  to 
shorten  the  transport  trade  from  India,  but  as 
a  means  of  support,  in  case  of  war,  and  also 
as  a  bond  of  union.  The  undertaking  was 
regarded  with  hesitation,  even  by  those  who 
had  seen  the  active  progress  of  great  works 
among  us.  It  was  supposed  impossible  to 
build  a  road  2,000  miles  to  connect  St. 
Louis  with  San  Francisco,  across  the  moun 
tains,  although  the  map  shows  a  line  b&* 


RAILROADS LAND    GRANTS EXTENT    AND    COST SHIP    CANALS. 


225 


tween  St.  Louis  and  New  York,  and  between 
New  Orleans  and  Brazos.  What  is  there  more 
difficult  in  one  than  in  the  other  ?  It  is  said 
the  country  is  unsettled !  What  was  the 
country  between  Detroit  and  New  Orleans, 
through  which  there  are  now  1500  miles  of 
road,  25  years  since  ?  The  settlement  of  the 
country  goes  on  at  a  railroad  pace.  The 
frontier  line  of  the  country  is  1,600  miles. 
Along  this  the  population  advance  west,  at 
the  rate  of  1,000,000  souls  per  annum.  The 
demand  for  a  railroad  in  1850  earne  from 
20,000,000  people,  without  any  answering 
reply  from  beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains. 
The  demand  is  now  prolonged  by  30,000,- 
000,  to  whom  500,000  voices  from  the 
Pacific  coast  respond.  Before  the  roads  can 
be  constructed,  if  now  undertaken,  40,000,- 
000  on  the  east  of  the  mountains  will  be 
eager  to  communicate  with  1,000,000  on 
the  western  slopes.  These  vast  numbers 
will  be  pressing  toward  each  other,  so  as  to 
shorten  the  purely  through  route,  increase 
the  local  traffic  at  both  termini,  and  a  ter 
minus  which  shall  be  500  miles  south  of 
one  centre  and  500  miles  north  of  another, 
will  not  suffice.  The  mind  at  once  be 
comes  impressed  with  the  necessity  of 
having  three.  Let  us  revert  thirty  years,  to 
the  connection  of  the  Atlantic  with  the 
Mississippi  river.  Suppose  the  necessity  of 
a  railroad  connection  had  then  been  agitated 
to  run  12  or  15  hundred  miles  to  St.  Louis; 
that  one  connection  would  have  ill  supplied 
the  numerous  routes  that  now  cross  the 
country  between  Canada  and  Charleston. 
A  parallel  case  will  soon  present  itself  with 
the  western  slopes,  and  three  routes  will 
be  found  by  no  means  too  many,  either  to 
answer  the  purposes  of  communication  or  to 
accommodate  the  travel.  The  requisites  of 
a  road  are  shortness  and  cheapness.  These 
are  relative.  The  road  which  is  shortest 
and  cheapest  to  connect  the  Columbia  river 
with  the  great  northern  interests,  including 
those  of  Canada,  which  concentrate  round 
Lake  Superior,  is  not  the  shortest  and 
cheapest  mode  of  reaching  New  Orleans 
from  San  Diego ;  nor  would  a  route  between 
the  two  latter  at  all  accommodate  those 
northern  interests.  The  Pacific  railroad  ex 
tended  from  St.  Louis  to  San  Francisco  would 
be  the  shortest  and  cheapest  for  those  central 
interests,  but  it  could  not  advantageously 
do  the  business  of  the  other  sections. 

Each  of  these  sections  has  large  means 
that  can  be  applied  to  the  construction  of  a 


road  that  would  serve  their  necessities,  but 
which  could  not  be  enlisted  in  favor  of  one 
that  would  be  of  no  direct  benefit.  If,  there 
fore,  the  government  should  give  authority 
for  the  construction  of  three  roads,  with  a 
grant  of  six-mile  sections  along  the  route  of 
each,  and  in  addition  aid  each  by  a  grant 
of  $50,000,000  of  5  per  cent,  bonds,  taking 
a  first  lien  upon  the  road,  the  local  interests 
of  each  section  would  complete  the  balance. 
Migration  will  follow  these  lines  of  com 
munication  settling  the  best  lands,  until 
those  coming  east  will  meet  those  proceed 
ing  west,  and  a  continuous  line  of  settlement 
will  follow  the  rising  sun  from  New  York  to 
Sun  Francisco,  and  the  entire  Union  be 
united  with  the  waters  of  the  Pacific,  that 
bring  the  commerce  of  Asia  on  the  east, 
and  with  those  of  the  Atlantic,  that  float  its 
commerce  with  Europe  on  the  west. 

The  Pacific  railroad,  though  long  dis 
cussed,  was  not  definitely  located,  nor  the 
company  incorporated,  tillJuly  1st,  1862,  and 
acts  amendatory  of  it  were  passed  July  2d, 
1864,  March  3d,  1865,  and  July  3d,  1866. 
By  this  act,  the  right  of  way,  to  the  extent  of 
200  feet  in  width  on  each  side  of  the  rail 
road,  was  granted  to  the  company;  and  also 
every  alternate  section  of  public  land,  to  the 
amount  of  five  alternate  sections  per  mile, 
except  mineral  lands;  and  also  provided  for 
issuing  thirty-year  government  bonds,  to 
the  amount  of  $16,000  per  mile,  for  every 
section  of  forty  miles  completed,  to  the  com 
pany,  such  bonds  constituting  a  first  mort 
gage  on  the  road.  Under  this  act  and  its 
amendments,  the  road  was  commenced  from 
both  termini,  and  has  been  vigorously  prose- 
cuted.  On  the  1st  of  January,  1867,  there 
were  completed  about  305  miles  of  the 
eastern  division,  extending  to  within  200' 
miles  of  Denver,  Colorado  ;  and  it  was  pro 
gressing  at  the  rate  of  from  one  to  two  miles 
per  day.  Of  the  western  division,  156  miles 
east  from  Sacramento,  to  the  state  line,  was 
to  be  finished  by  July  1st,  1867,  and  to 
Salt  Lake,  675  miles  from  Sacramento,  by 
1869.  It  is  expected  to  be  completed  in  its 
whole  extent  by  1870.  The  completion  of 
this  road  will  bring  the  carrying  trade  be 
tween  Europe  and  Eastern  Asia  through  the 
United  States,  and  will  greatly  facilitate 
the  development  of  the  vast  mining  interests 
of  the  Rocky  Mountain  and  Pacific  regions. 


THE   SEUOXD    EXPERIMENTAL    BOAT   OK   JOHN    i'lTCH. 

Finished  in  May,  1787,  and  run  at  the  rate  of  four  miles  per  hour  on  the  Delaware.     Cylinder 
twelve  inches  in  diameter,  stroke  three  feet. 


THE    FIRST   STEAMBUAT   EVKR   BUILT   TO   CARRY   PASSES  UEKS. 

Constructed  by  John  Fitch,  and  finished  April  16th.  1798.  Cylinder  eighteen  inches  in  diameter, 
speed  eight  miles  per  hour  in  smooth  water.  The  following  year  this  boat  was  run  to  Burlington 
regularly  as  a  passenger  boat 


STEAM. 


JOHN  c.  M  ERR  i  AM. 


CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 
HISTORY    OF    STEAM    ENGINE. 

ONE  hundred  years  ago,  a  harmless  vapor 
arose  with  the  morning  sun,  and  floated  o'er 
our  heads,  remarked  by  the  artist,  poet, 
or  philosopher,  but  almost  unheeded  by  the 
mechanic,  and  only  regarded  by  the  mariner 
as  a  prognosticator  of  the  wind. 

How  is  it  to-day  ?  From  myriad  towering 
columns,  o'er  which  the  fierce  fire-king  his 
sombre  mantle  flings,  gushes,  in  mimic 
clouds,  the  quick  breath  of  our  new-born 
Titan.  The  ancient  rocks  echo  to  his  shrill 
voice,  and  tremble  as  he  rushes  by.  He 
troubles  the  waters,  and  rides  on  their 
crest  defiant.  O'er  hill  and  dale,  and  lake 
and  river,  is  his  white  flag  unfurled,  pro 
claiming  peace  to  all  nations.  From  the 
pine  of  the  frozen  north,  to  the  palmetto  of 
the  sunny  south,  his  tvin  track  tunnels  the 
mountain,  belts  the  prairie,  and  spans  the 
flood.  Mightiest  of  kings  is  this  son  of  fire  ! 
proudest  of  monarchs  is  this  genius  of  the 
lamp  and  the  fountain  ! 

In  an  article  like  this,  it  is  not  neces 
sary  that  we  should  dwell  upon  the  ge 
nius  of  James  Watt  —  abler  pens  have 
awarded  him  the  fame  lie  so  richly  deserves, 
and  a  proud  monument  in  Westminster  Ab 
bey  tells  the  passing  stranger  that  it  was 

NOT  TO  PERPETUATE   A   NAME, 
•WHICH   MUST  ENDURE  WHILE  THK  PEACEFUL   AKT8  FLOURISH ', 

BUT    TO    SliMW- 

THAT   MANKIND   HAVE    LKAKNKD   TO   HONOR  THOSE 
WHO    BUST    DESERVE   THEIR  GRATITUDE, 

TUAT   THE   KINO, 

HIS  MINISTERS,    AND    MANY   OF  THE  NOBLES 

AND   COMMONERS   OF  THE   REALM 

KA1SED    THIS    MONUMENT    TO 

JAMES   WATT, 

WHO,    DIRECTING   THK    FORCE   OF   AN   ORIGINAL  GENIUS, 

EAKLY   EXERCISED   IN    PHILOSOPHIC   RESEARCH, 

TO   TUB    IMPROVEMENT  OK 

THE   RTEAM-ENQINE, 
ENLARGED   THK   RESOURCES   OF   HIS   COUNTRY, 

INCRKA8ED  THE  POWER  OF  MAN. 
AND    KOBE    TO     AN     EMINENT     PLACE 

AMONG    THE   MOST    ILLUSTRIOUS  FOLLOWERS  OK   SCIENCE, 
AND  TUB  BJ5AL,  BENEFACTORS   OF  THK  WOBJ.P. 


What  greater  praise  could  be  awarded  to 
him  than  this?  How  could  his  unrivalled 
genius  be  more  concisely  expressed,  or 
clearly  acknowledged  ?  and  yet,  at  that  time, 
they  had  but  begun  to  see  the  stupendous 
results  of  his  inventions.  To  realize  the  in 
ventive  mind  of  James  Watt,  it  requires 
careful  study,  and  thorough  mechanical 
knowledge,  even  at  this  late  day ;  and  when 
•we  consider  that  with  him  all  was  compara 
tively  novel,  we  pause  in  astonishment  at  a 
mind  so  fertile  in  mechanical  devices. 

England,  ever  true  and  grateful  to  her  own 
genius,  has  fitly  honored  her  greatest  in 
ventor,  while  America  has  suffered  genius  as 
great  to  die,  unrewarded  in  life,  and  forgot 
ten  in  the  grave  ;  but  she  has  not  neglected 
to  profit  by  their  inventions ;  and  it  is  our 
purpose  to  show,  in  this  article,  how  great 
have  been  the  results. 

The  first  steam  engine  of  which  we  have 
any  knowledge  in  America  Avas  at  the 
Schuyler  copper  mine,  Passaic,  N.  J.  It 
was,  more  properly  speaking,  an  atmos 
pheric  engine,  and  was  imported  from  Eng 
land  in  1736,  and  put  up  by  a  Mr.  Horn- 
blower.  The  first  engine  that  was  con 
structed  in  America  was  built  by  Christopher 
Colics  for  a  distillery  in  Philadelphia;  the 
machine  was,  however,  very  defective.  It 
was  built  in  October,  1772,  and  was,  like 
the  other,  an  engine  upon  Newcomen's  plan. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  it  is  less  than  a 
hundred  years  since  America  took  her  first 
lessons  in  a  science  that  was  destined  to 
work  such  a  revolution  in  the  whole  world ; 
and  her  birth,  as  a  nation,  may  be  considered 
as  cotemporary  with  that  of  the  steam  en 
gine.  In  1787,  John  Fitch,  of  Connecticut, 
built,  in  Philadelphia,  the  first  condensing 
engine,  and  this  without  the  aid  of  Watt's 
experiments — for  it  was  only  in  the  year 
1786  that  the  latter  patented,  and  made 
public,  his  most  important  improvements; 
and  we  have  every  reason  to  believe  that 
Fitch  was  at  first  ignorant  of  them.  With 


228 


STEAM. 


the  assistance  of  common  blacksmiths,  he 
constructed  a  low-pressure  engine,  and,  more 
than  this,  applied  the  motor  to  a  steam 
boat.  Then  came  the  experiments  and  suc 
cess  of  Robert  Fulton,  a  man  whom  \ve  have 
not  forgotten  to  honor;  ,thc  improvements 
of  Stevens,  to  whom  we  owe  our  great  suc 
cess  in  river  navigation,  and  the  energy  and 
perseverance  of  Oliver"  Evans,  the  first  to 
apply  the  principles  of  the  high-p res. Hire,  or 
non-condensing  engine,  to  common  use,  and 
to  demonstrate  its  advantages  not  only  for 
the  stationary  engine,  but  also  its  adapta 
bility  to  carriages  on  common  roads ;  from 
which  we  may  date  the  invention  of  the  lo 
comotive  engine,  for  it  was  only  the  experi 
ence  of  Stephenson  in  tram-roads  that  led 
him,  at  a  much  later  day,  to  the  invention 
of  the  latter,  and  Watt's  engines  would  never 
have  become  applicable  thereto,  on  account 
of  their  great  size. 

In  spite  of  the  difficulties  under  which  a 
young  nation  labored,  from  the  want  of  an 
accumulated  capital,  we  took  a  start  from 
the  first  introduction  of  the  locomotive  en 
gine,  that  has  astonished  the  world;  and 
have  grown  a  race  of  civil  engineers  that, 
with  a  limited  amount  of  money,  have  pro 
duced  effects  wonderful  even  to  themselves. 
Well  may  Americans  be  proud  of  the  results 
of  their  inventive  genius.  To  the  general 
reader  these  events  have  come  to  be  a  mat 
ter  of  course,  and  steam,  with  its  thousands 
of  detailed  improvements,  is  looked  upon  as 
something  wonderful,  but  inexplicable ;  the 
mass  of  people  understanding  little  or  nothing 
of  its  nature.  We  propose,  then,  to  explain, 
as  simply  as  possible,  the  cause  of  this  great 
effect,  and,  dropping  technicalities,  to  give 
the  great  public  a  concise  idea  of  steam,  and 
the  steam  engine,  before  proceeding  to  the 
results  of  its  use. 

When  Watt  constructed  his  first  engines, 
he  used  them  to  replace  horses  in  the  mines, 
and,  in  order  to  give  some  idea  of  their 
value,  he  reckoned  his  engines  as  at  so  many 
horses'  power ;  and  the  power  of  a  horse  was 
computed  from  the  effect  produced  by  a 
horse  raising  a  weight  to  a  certain  height 
in  a  given  time  :  this  he  computed  as  33,000 
Ibs.,  raised,  in  one  minute,  to  the  height  of 
one  foot.  The  following  description,  from 
S.  Holland,  chief  engineer  of  the  English 
navy,  concisely  shows  the  manner  of  obtain 
ing  the  horse-power  of  a  steam  engine  : — 

"  Work  is  a  term  in  mechanics  of  recent 
origin,  but  of  great  utility ;  it  means  a  com 


pound  of  force  (or  pressure)  and  motion. 
Work  is  said  to  be  performed  when  a  pres 
sure  is  exerted  upon  a  body,  and  the  body 
is  thereby  moved  through  space.  The  unit 
of  a  pressure  is  one  poxind,  the  unit  of  space 
one  foot,  and  work  is  measured  by  a  '  foot 
pound'  as  a  unit.  Thus,  if  a  pressure  of  so 
many  pounds  be  exerted  through  a  space  of 
so  many  feet,  the  number  of  pounds  is  mul 
tiplied  into  the  number  of  feet,  and  the  prod 
uct  is  the  number  of  foot-pounds  of  work  ; 
hence,  if  the  stroke  of  a  steam  engine  be 
seven  feet,  and  the  pressure  on  each  square 
inch  of  the  piston  be  22  pounds,  the  work 
done  at  each  single  stroke,  for  each  square 
inch  of  the  piston,  will  be  7  multiplied  by 
22,  equal  to  154  foot-pounds.  Power  con 
tains  another  element  in  addition  to  those 
contained  in  work.  It  implies  the  ability  to 
do  so  much  work  in  a  certain  p>  riod  of  time  ; 
and,  in  order  to  have  a  proper  idea  of  it,  a 
unit  of  measure  is  also  employed.  This 
unit  is  called  a  '  horse-power,'  and  is  equal 
to  33,000  pounds  raised  through  a  space  of 
one  foot  in  one  minute ;  it  is  the  execution 
of  33,000  foot-pounds  of  work  in  one  minute. 
To  find  the  horse-power  of  a  steam  engine  is 
to  find  the  number  of  pounds  pressure  on  the 
piston  in  square  inches,  and  to  multiply  this  by 
the  number  of  feet  travelled  by  the  piston  per 
minute,  which  gives  the  work ;  then  this  is 
divided  by  33,000  pounds, and  the  quotient  is 
the  horse-power,  which  is  usually  abbreviated 
II.  P.  As  the  pressure  is  always  indicated 
by  the  square  inch,  the  number  of  square 
inches  in  the  area  of  the  piston  has  to  be 
found.  This  is  done  by  squaring  the  diam 
eter  of  the  piston,  and  multiplying  this  by 
the  decimal,  -7854." 

The  horse-power  of  an  engine  is  always 
calculated  with  the  steam  in  the  boiler  at  a 
moderate  pressure,  and,  consequently,  if  the 
steam  is  kept  at  a  higher  pressure,  it  will  be 
capable  of  more  work,  and  the  engine  will 
be  of  a  greater  effectual  horse-power  than 
the  one  given.  Hence  the  terms  real  and 
nominal  horse-power.  The  term  horse 
power  is,  in  reality,  of  itself  nominal,  as 
Watt,  in  order  to  have  his  engines  give 
satisfaction,  added  some  twenty-five  per  cent, 
to  the  real  work  of  the  best  horses  in  Corn- 
Avail.  Having  thus  given  an  explanation 
of  this  term  concisely,  that  it  may  be  re 
membered,  we  will  endeavor  to  instruct  the 
general  reader  as  to  some  other  terms  not 
always  understood,  although  constantly  made 
use  of  in  conversation. 


STEAM. 


229 


Engines  arc  divided  into  two  kinds :  low 
and  high-pressure,  or  condensing  and  non- 
condensing.  The  low-pressure  engine  was, 
in  the  main,  invented  by  James  Watt ;  and 
its  peculiarity  consists  in  the  fact  that,  while 
the  steam  is  entering  upon  one  side  of  the 
piston,  the  steam  upon  the  other  side  is  con 
densed,  and  forms  a  vacuum  that  adds  to 
the  power  of  the  engine  from  twelve  to  four 
teen  pounds  to  the  square  inch.  Thus,  with 
steam  at  the  pressure  of  twenty-five  pounds 
only,  we  have  an  effective  force  of  nearly 
forty.  The  low-pressure  engine  has  the  ad 
vantage  of  not  carrying  so  much  steam,  and, 
consequently,  is  less  dangerous.  From  the 
fact,  however,  that  it  is  much  more  compli 
cated  and  expensive,  it  is  not  often  used  on 
land,  unless  for  large  engines,  and  its  size 
prevents  its  adaptation  to  locomotion. 

The  high-pressure  engine  was  invented  by 
Leopold  and  Trevithick,  •  subsequent  to  the 
other.  Oliver  Evans,  of  Philadelphia,  was 
the  first  to  advocate  its  use,  and,  in  fact,  to 
practically  apply  it.  Engines  of  this  descrip 
tion  discharge  the  steam,  after  using  it,  into 
the  air,  and  have,  consequently,  the  resist 
ance  of  the  atmosphere  to  contend  with ; 
they  are,  however,  much  cheaper,  and  with 
properly  built  boilers  are  not  necessarily 
more  dangerous.  All  our  locomotives  are 
upon  this  principle,  and  the  draft  of  the  fur 
naces  is  accelerated  by  the  rush  of  the  waste 
or  exhaust  steam,  as  it  passes  into  the  chim 
ney.  The  pressure  of  steam  used  in  our  high- 
pressure  engines,  averages  more  than  in  any 
other  country ;  from  eighty  to  one  hundred 
pounds  per  square  inch  being  the  common 
average.  In  order  to  prevent  an  amount  of 
steam  from  accumulating  to  a  higher  pres 
sure  than  this,  the  safety  valve  "is  placed 
upon  the  boiler,  so  constructed  that,  when 
the  pressure  rises  above  the  point  desired,  it 
will  open  the  valve,  and  allow  the  surplus  to 
escape.  Over-weighting  this  valve,  or  not 
taking  proper  care  of  it,  and  allowing  it  to 
rust  into  its  seat,  are  fruitful  sources  of 
boiler  explosions.  No  engineer  should  run 
an  engine  without  trying  his  valve  at  least 
once  a  day. 

It  is  important  that  the  water  in  the 
boiler  should  always  be  at  about  the  same 
height;  not  full,  as  in  that  case  water  is  apt 
to  pass  over  into  the  cylinders,  and  the  en 
gine  is  said  to  be  flooded ;  nor  too  low,  for 
the  heat  of  the  furnace  would  melt  the  flues, 
if  they  were  not  covered  with  water.  Vari 
ous  automatic  contrivances  have  been  in 


vented  to  keep  the  water  at  the  true  level ; 
but  their  liability  to  get  out  of  order  has  pre 
vented  their  use,  and  engineers  unite  in  the 
opinion  that  man's  judgment  alone  is  com 
parative  security.  To  assist  the  competent 
engineer,  there  are  several  devices.  The 
most  common  are  the  three  gauge-cocks, 
placed,  the  one  above  the  other,  at  some 
three  inches  apart — the  centre  one  being  the 
desired  level ;  by  trying  these  cocks,  the  ex 
act  height  can  be  readily  seen.  Other  water  ^ 
gauges  have  been  in  use,  some  of  them  since 
the  earliest  engines  were  constructed,  upon 
the  principle  that  a  float  upon  the  water  will 
indicate,  by  means  of  a  rod,  its  exact  height. 
A  glass  tube,  connected  above  and  below  the 
water  line,  is  much  used  in  our  steamers. 

In  order  to  determine  the  steam  pressure 
at  any  point  below  that  at  which  it  raises  the 
safety  valve,  various  steam  gauges  have  been 
in  use  from  time  to  time  ;  the  most  common, 
in  steamboats  is  called  the  syphon  gauge, 
and  works  upon  the  principle  of  balancing  a 
column  of  mercury  in  a  syphon  tube.  With 
in  the  last  ten  years  the  spring  gauge  has 
come  into  general  use  in  locomotive  and 
other  engines;  they  occupy  but  little  room, 
and,  if  occasionally  tested,  answer  every  pur 
pose  of  the  more  cumbersome  syphon.  With 
the  exception  of  the  Bourdon  (French)  and 
Schaefi'er  (Prussian),  all  the  spring  gauges  in 
use  in  the  United  States,  some  thirty  in 
number,  are  American  inventions,  and  both 
of  the  foreign  gauges  have  been  improved 
upon,  and  are  made  in  a  superior  manner 
here. 

The  passage  between  the  boiler  and  the 
cylinder  was  at  first  opened  and  closed  by 
means  of  a  cock ;  the  slide  valve,  modifica 
tions  of  which  are  now  universally  used,  was 
the  invention  of  Murray,  of  Leeds,  England, 
in  1810.  The  piston  was  at  first  packed 
with  hemp,  saturated  with  grease ;  the  brass 
rings,  now  used,  were  invented  by  Murdock 
&  Aiken,  of  Glasgow,  in  the  year  1813. 
The  paddle-wheel  between  two  boats  was 
first  used  by  William  Symington,  in  Scot 
land  ;  but  the  side  wheel,  as  now  used,  to 
gether  with  the  screw  propeller,  were  both 
made  use  of  in  the  models  by  John  Fitch. 
His  first  steamboat,  however,  was  worked  by 
oars,  or  paddles,  after  the  same  manner  as  an 
Indian  uses  them.  The  first  boat  that  car 
ried  passengers,  built  by  John  Fitch  in  1789, 
was  propelled  by  a  set  of  paddles  at  the 
stern.  The  North  River,  of  Clermont — Ful 
ton's  first  passenger  boat — was  driven  by  the 


230 


STEAM. 


present  form  of  side  Avheel ;  she  made  a 
successful  trip  in  the  year  1807. 

One  of  the  greatest  improvements  of 
steamboats  with  regard  to  speed  was  made 
by  Robert  L.  Stevens,  who  added  the  false 
bow  to  a  boat  constructed  by  him  in  1815. 
She  attained  the  speed  of  15  miles  per  hour, 
a  great  improvement  over  the  North  River 
(which  only  made  four  miles  per  hour),  but 
seeming  very  slow  at  the  present  date,  as 
contrasted  with  the  time  made  at  a  trial  trip 
of  tho  Daniel  Drew,  in  1860,  which  was  22 
miles  per  hour  against  the  tide. 

It  is  quite  curious  to  follow  the  various 
improvements  that  have  been  made  upon  the 
steam  engine,  and  to  see  how  the  present 
simple  apparatus  was  settled  upon.  It  re 
quired  years  of  experiment  before  the  crank 
was  adopted,  notwithstanding  that  the  same 
device  had  been  in  use  in  the  common  foot- 
lathe  for  several  centuries.  It  was  finally 
adopted  by  Picard ;  but,  after  his  invention, 
Watt  patented  a  much  more  complicated 
method  of  transmitting  the  reciprocating 
into  the  rotary  motion.  This  was  called  the 
sun  and  planet  motion,  and  went  out  of  use 
only  after  repeated  trials  with  the  crank. 
It  is  true  that  the  latter  was  patented ;  and 
the  fact  that  Mr.  AVatt  wished  to  avoid 
another  patent,  had  much  to  do  with  this 
persistent  trial  of  an  inferior  device.  In  the 
use  of  the  locomotive  engine,  also,  it  was 
ouly  after  years  of  experiment  that  it  was 
realized  that  the  traction  of  the  wheel  upon 
the  rail  was  sufficient  to  propel  the  carriage 
not  only  upon  a  level,  but  also  up  a  very 
steep  grade. 

On  the  line  of  the  Pennsylvania  railroad, 
beyond  the  town  of  Altoona,  the  track  has 
an  ascending  grade  over  the  mountains  of 
over  100  feet  to  the  mile,  yet  a  passenger 
train  of  six  or  seven  cars,  with  the  assistance 
of  two  locomotives,  surmounts  the  grade  at 
a  speed  of  nearly  thirty  miles  per  hour,  and 
this,  too,  upon  a  road  that  lies  coiled  upon 
the  side  of  the  mountain  like  a  huge  serpent. 
So  short  are  its  curves,  that  the  locomotive 
is  quite  visible  from  the  fourth  car  during 
many  parts  of  the  ascent.  No  other  nation 
in  the  world  can  show  so  great  a  triumph  of 
civil  engineering  as  this.  The  first  road 
that  was  constructed  at  this  place  was  work 
ed  by  stationary  engines,  and  the  cars  were 
drawn  up  by  ropes  and  chains.  This  was  a 
copy  of  European  engineering ;  but  Amer 
ican  genius  is  destined  always  to  rise  supe- 
jior  to  imitation,  and  it  is,  in  fact,  only  when 


it  so  rises,  and  trusts  to  its  own  gigantic 
plans,  that  the  true  power  of  American  char 
acter  shows  itself.  The  stolid  English  en 
gineer  imitates  the  Egyptians  and  the  Ro 
mans,  and  piles  stone  upon  stone,  and  iron 
upon  iron.  The  American  imitates  nature, 
with  whose  great  works  he  is  in  constant 
communion,  and,  like  the  spider,  constructs 
a  bridge  light  in  appearance,  but  sufficiently 
strong  to  withstand  the  tempest  and  the 
storm,  and  bear  with  an  easy  vibration, 
double,  nay,  triple,  the  load  put  upon  it. 
Only  an  appreciation  of  the  grandeur  of  such 
a  fall  as  that  of  Niagara,  could  fit  a  man  to 
construct  the  bridge  that  spans  its  river. 

But  to  return  to  the  improvements  in  the 
steam  engine  itself.  When  we  look  at  the 
combination  of  them,  as  at  present  in  use, 
we  cannot  but  feel  the  wonderful  genius 
therein  displayed.  It  is  but  a  few  years 
since  the  steam  engine,  although  vastly  su 
perior  to  horse  power,  was  a  cumbersome 
and  expensive  machine  both  to  construct 
and  repair ;  and  although  it  is  at  present  far 
from  being  perfect,  yet  the  difference  in  its 
first  cost,  and  the  amount  of  fuel  it  uses  for 
the  same  effect,  is  astonishing.  Stand  and 
look  at  some  of  our  immense  stationary  en 
gines,  and  see  how  noiselessly  and  steadily 
they  turn  the  ponderous  wheel !  One  would 
think  a  child's  power  could  stop  it.  Then 
pass  on,  and  on,  through  the  groaning  mill, 
and  see  the  labor  of  thousands  of  men  per 
formed  by  this  untiring  giant.  It  is  only 
after  seeing  the  work  he  accomplishes,  you 
can  realize  his  strength.  Stand  upon  the 
western  prairie  at  night.  The  moon  silvers 
a  twin  track  that  glistens  far  into  the  dark 
ness  ;  soon  you  hear  a  distant  hum  that 
grows  upon  the  ear,  and  detect  a  faint  spark 
that  brightens  as  you  gaze ;  anon  the  sound 
increases,  and  the  eye  of  the  iron  horse  over 
powers  the  moon's  pale  gleam ;  he  sees  you, 
and  screams  his  shrill  warning.  Who  can 
help  starting  as  he  rushes  by,  or  not  feel  as 
though  steam  itself  were  personified.  Mark 
the  groaning  train,  with  its  living  freight, 
tearing  madly  through  the  darkness,  bearing 
absent  friends  to  the  loved  at  home,  or  per 
haps  good  news  from  the  beloved  afar. 

Again,  stand  upon  the  Battery,  at  New 
York,  and  watch  the  almost  countless  fleet 
of  steamships,  steamboats,  propellers,  and 
tugs;  some  moving  steadily  toward  the 
Narrows,  as  though  conscious  and  proud  of 
a  power  that  can  span  the  ocean  in  so  short 
a  time  ;  others  plashing  and  dashing  madly 


STEAM. 


231 


about,  or  clinging  to  some  gigantic  ship,  and 
tugging  manfully  at  its  side,  when  old 
Boreas  has  left  it  helpless ;  others,  again,  in 
holiday  attire,  bearing  a  happy  throng  over 
the  glad  waters,  and  tuning  the  voice  of  this 
giant  slave  into  fitting  melody  for  the  joyous 
hour.  Here  comes  the  Sound  steamer,  a 
floating  palace  fitted  up  in  almost  regal  ele 
gance,  drawing  but  little  water,  and  yet 
a  staunch  sea-boat,  large,  and,  to  the  foreign 
ship-builder,  apparently  top-heavy,  yet  fast 
as  the  racehorse,  and  frequently  tried  by  the 
stoutest  gales.  Up  and  down  both  rivers 
ply  the  ever  busy  ferry-boats  —  movable 
bridges,  ever  crowded  with  passengers.  Did 
Fulton's  wildest  dreams  ever  picture  a  scene 
like  this  ?  Did  John  Fitch  ever  imagine  a 
triumph  so  wonderful  ?  Yet  it  is  all  the 
work  of  steam ;  and  to  them  we  owe,  in 
part,  the  bands  by  which  we  hold  this  half- 
tamed  Titan.  Not  only  are  these  steamers 
propelled  by  steam,  but  his  aid  is  called  in 
both  to  load  and  unload  them,  and,  in  the 
hour  of  danger,  steam  works  at  the  pumps 
with  untiring  hands.  Not  alone  in  the  large 
manufactory,  the  gallant  steamer,  and  the 
rushing  car,  does  the  vapor  of  water  show 
its  strength  and  usefulness,  but  thickly  strewn 
about  our  cities  and  villages,  delving  in  the 
mines,  driving  the  rattling  press,  it  helps 
all  trades,  and  multiplies  the  power  of  man 
a  thousand  fold.  Cities  have  sprung  up  under 
its  magic  touch,  and  everywhere  we  see  traces 
of  the  king  of  motors — steam. 

And  to  whom  are  we  indebted  for  all  this 
improvement,  this  immense  power  ?  Mainly 
to  the  American  inventor,  and  our  patent 
laws.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  one- 
half  of  the  patents  issued  at  the  United 
States  Patent  Otlicc  for  the  last  twenty  years 
related  either  directly  to  the  steam*  engine, 
or  to  machines  intended  to  be  driven  by  it ; 
nearly  all  of  them  patented  by  citizens  of 
the  United  States.  The  use  of  steam  ex 
pansively  was  an  English  invention,  but  it  is 
doubtful  whether  it  was  profitably  used  until 
improved  upon  in  America.  American  loco 
motives  have  borne  oft'  the  palm  wherever 
they  have  been  brought  into  contact  with 
those  of  other  nations.  In  ocean  steamers 
we  may  be  second,  but  the  reason  is  plain : 
foreign  builders  have  the  assistance  of  rich 
and  powerful  governments,  while  our  own 
success  is  entirely  due  to  private  enterprise, 
with  a  limited  amount  of  capital. 

As  for  steamboats  for  rivers  and  lakes,  to 
which  our  immense  inland  navigation  has 


turned  the  attention  of  our  mechanics,  we 
are  far  ahead  of  our  rivals.  The  Yangtsze 
and  Peiho,  built  for  the  Chinese  coast,  have 
never  been  equalled  by  England,  as  is  suffi 
ciently  plain  from  the  following  China  over 
land  trade  report,  written  by  one  of  their 
own  countrymen : — 

"  Steamboat  builders  in  England,  and  Scot 
land,  too,  are  certainly  the  most  adroit 
'  shavers'  living.  They  turn  out  so  many 
miserable  botches,  that  really  AVC  think  a 
very  great  majority  of  the  community  would, 
were  they  '  going  into  steam,'  resort  to  the 
United  States.  As  far  as  river  naviga 
tion  is  concerned,  our  attempts  to  com 
pete  with  Jonathan  are  simply  absurd,  as 
those  who  own  English  river  steamers  here 
at  present,  must,  ere  this,  have  discover 
ed  to  their  cost.  But,  even  in  sea-going 
steamers,  '  if  the  proof  of  the  pudding  be  in 
the  eating,'  we  should  wish  to  know  where 
the  British  steamers  are,  which  are  as  swift, 
as  safe,  as  commodious,  as  serviceable,  or  as 
economical  in  expenditure  of  fuel,  as  the 
Yangtsze  or  the  Peiho  ?  We  maintain  that 
every  boat  sent  out  here  from  England  or 
Scotland,  on  China  account,  whether  for 
coast  or  the  river,  has  cither  been  a  misera 
ble  failure,  or  a  glutton  for  fuel.  We  do 
not  make  one  exception.  We  do  not  like  to 
mention  names,  as  we  are  averse  to  depre 
ciate  people's  property,  but  we  confidently 
leave  it  to  every  unfortunate  sufferer  to  say 
whether  or  not  we  are  correct  in  our  state 
ment. 

"  We,  of  course,  except  the  I*.  &  0. 
Company,  as  they  seem  to  have  a  secret 
plan  of  constructing  boilers,  which  makes 
them  last  as  long  as  the  boat ;  that  is,  for  an 
indefinite  period.  We  declare  one  never 
hears  of  any  thing  occurring  to  one  of  the 
company's  boilers,  nor  any  of  their  boats 
being  laid  up  to  have  a  new  one,  or  the  old 
one  mended. 

"  We  will  take,  for  instance,  the  Chevy 
Chase,  which  vessel,  we  believe,  cost  on  the 
Clyde  about  three  times  the  sum  that  the 
Yangtsze  cost  at  New  York.  Now  the 
Yangtsze  has  been  running  nearly  three  years 
hard  upon  the  coast,  making  unprecedentedly 
swift  passages,  and  never  was  docked  until 
the  other  day.  The  Chevy  Chase  will  not 
carry  so  much  as  the  Yangtsze,  nor  has  she 
as  good  accommodation ;  but  she  burns 
twice  as  much  coal,  and,  in  a  race  between 
this  and  Shanghai,  would  be  sparingly  backed. 
She  is  about  as  strong  again  and  as  heavy 


232 


STEAM. 


again  as  there  is  the  slightest  occasion  for ; 
and  has  clearly  twice  as  much  power  as  she 
can  bear,  for  the  weight  of  it  sinks  her.  She 
is  a  very  shallow  craft,  and  her  deck  is  so 
near  the  bottom,  which  contains  an  enor 
mous  mass  of  iron,  that  compasses  will  not 
act,  and  it  becomes  dangerous  to  run  her 
in  thick  weather.  She  will  bring  grief  to 
the  hearth,  but  never  grist  to  the  mill;  and 
the  sooner  she  is  altered  the  better.  She 
should  be  made  into  a  screw  propeller,  and 
a  suitable  vessel  built  for  the  valuable  and 
powerful  machinery  now  fitted  in  her.  With 
a  screw,  and  a  spar  deck  fore  and  aft,  she 
might  be  rendered  serviceable  yet.  If  the 
beams,  etc.,  of  the  spar  deck  were  con 
structed  of  wood,  arid  the  compasses  put  on 
an  elevation,  they  would  act  well  enough ; 
they  are  at  present  neutralized  by  their 
proximity  to  a  prodigious  mass  of  iron. 

"  The  American  boilers,  though  not  so 
durable  as  ours,  are  much  better  adapted  to 
economy  of  fuel.  Coal,  in  the  United 
States,  costs  as  many  dollars  as  it  docs  shil 
lings  in  England.  Economy  of  fuel  is,  there 
fore,  more  studied  than  with  us,  space  being 
sacrificed.  Our  short  tubular  boilers  send 
half  the  heat  into  the  chimney,  while  the 
long  flue  boilers  of  the  Americans  absorb  the 
heat  pretty  much  in  making  steam.  The 
difference  is  very  great,  and  well  worth  the 
subject  of  an  inquiry. 

"  Our  engineers  are  such  a  pig-headed, 
self-satisfied,  conceited  set  of  people,  that, 
until  they  see  their  trade  gone,  and  their 
crotchets  explode,  they  will  not  believe  then- 
own  eyes.  We  are  not  venturing  on  opinions, 
so  much  as  stating  results ;  and  too  many 
here  can  corroborate  the  sad  experience  we 
unfold." 

Having  spoken  thus,  in  general  terms,  of 
the  steam  engine,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to 
give  a  description  of  the  simplest  form 
thereof,  by  describing  its  component  parts  in 
terms  easy  to  be  understood  and  remembered. 
A  steam  engine  consists,  then,  of  a  cylinder, 
closed  at  both  ends,  having  fitted  to  it  a  pis 
ton,  whose  rod  passes  out  at  one  end  through 
a  steam-tight  hole  called  a  stuffing-box. 
The  piston  consists  of  a  skeleton,  technically 
called  a  spider,  having  three  brass  rings 
made  thin  enough  to  yield  to  the  inequali 
ties  of  the  cylinder  as  it  wears,  and  forced 
against  it  by  springs  resting  upon  the  spider, 
and  held  in  place  by  a  plate  commonly 
called  a  follower.  The  steam  is  admitted  to 
the  cylinder  on  the  side,  at  each  end,  through 


what  are  called  the  ports  ;  the  two  ends  of 
the  ports  are  brought  near  each  other  at  the 
point  where  they  enter  the  steam-chest — a 
small  box  near  the  centre  of  the  cylinder. 
These  ports  are  alternately  opened  to  the 
boiler  and  the  atmosphere,  by  a  sliding 
valve,  that  obtains  its  motion  from  what  is 
called  the  eccentric,  which  is  placed  upon 
the  main  shaft.  The  piston-rod  is  fastened, 
at  the  external  end,  to  a  cross-head,  which 
communicates  its  motion  to  the  crank-rod, 
and  through  it  to  the  main  shaft.  In  sta 
tionary  engines,  working  by  a  single  cylin 
der,  it  is  evident  there  will  be  two  points  at 
which  the  rod  has  no  power  over  the  crank ; 
these  points  are  called  dead  centre*,  and 
to  overcome  them  the  momentum  of  the 
balance-wheel  is  used.  In  the  locomotive, 
two  cylinders  being  used,  they  are  set 
quartering  (at  right  angles  with  each  other), 
and  the  one  overcomes  the  dead  centre  of 
the  other.  In  the  marine  engine  the  motion 
of  the  wheel  is  continued  by  the  action  of 
the  water,  as  the  boat  advances,  and,  conse 
quently,  no  balance  is  required. 

If,  after  a  part  of  the  steam  has  entered 
the  cylinder,  the  induction  valve  be  closed, 
the  expansion  of  the  steam  would  continue 
the  stroke  of  the  piston  until  the  pressure 
became  the  same  as  that  of  the  external  air, 
or  until  the  piston  had  reached  the  end  of 
its  stroke.  Thus,  if  the  pressure  of  the  steam 
was  eighty  pounds  per  square  inch  in  the 
boiler,  and  the  valve  was  closed  after  the 
piston  had  made  one  quarter  of  its  stroke, 
it  is  evident  that  the  pressure  would  con 
stantly  decrease  up  to  the  end  of  that 
stroke,  and  that  the  average  pressure  would 
be  less  than  the  pressure  in  the  boiler,  but 
at  the  end  of  the  stroke  there  would  be 
but  very  little  waste  steam ;  in  other  words, 
the  pressure  remaining  in  the  cylinder  would 
not  be  in  so  great  an  excess  over  the  atmos 
pheric  pressure  as  if  the  steam  had  followed 
the  piston  throughout  its  entire  stroke.  To 
show  this  more  plainly,  it  must  not  be  for 
gotten  that  steam  at  eighty  pounds  pressure 
is,  in  reality,  steam  at  ninety-five  pounds  to 
the  square  inch,  working  against  fifteen 
pounds  (the  atmospheric  pressure),  or  a 
difference  of  pressure  of  eighty  pounds;  there 
fore,  at  the  end  of  the  stroke,  the  ninety-five 
pounds  would  have  become  twenty-three 
and  three-quarters  of  pressure  working 
against  fifteen  pounds  atmospheric,  or  a 
difference  of  eight  and  three-quarters  of 
pressure ;  so  that,  when  the  cylinder  was  open- 


STEAM. 


233 


ed  by  its  exhaust  to  the  air,  there  would  be 
only  eight  and  three-quarters  of  a  pound  to 
the  square  inch  thrown  out  into  the  air,  and 
thus  wasted,  while  you  have  had  an  average 
of  sixty-seven  pounds  to  the  square  inch 
throughout  the  stroke  of  the  piston,  working 
against  fifteen  pounds  of  atmospheric,  or  an 
actual  difference  of  pressure  of  fifty-two 
pounds.  Had  you  used  fifty-two  pounds  of 
indicated  pressure,  following  the  full  stroke 
of  the  piston,  it  is  evident  you  would  have 
thrown  into  the  air  the  contents  of  the  cylin 
der  at  that  pressure,  instead  of  at  eight  and 
three-quarters,  as  by  the  cut-off.  This  is,  in 
brief,  the  theory  of  the  cut-off;  but,  like 
many  other  improvements,  it  has  been  car 
ried  to  an  extreme,  and  has  thus  become  a 
positive  evil.  In  order  to  realize  this,  notice 
carefully  the  following  :  If  steam,  at  thirty 
pounds  per  inch,  as  indicated,  be  used  in  a 
cylinder,  cutting  oft'  at  one-quarter  stroke, 
what  will  be  the  pressure  at  the  end  of  the 
stroke?  Thirty  is,  as  before  shown,  forty- 
five  against  fifteen  :  at  the  end  of  the  stroke 
it  will  then  be  eleven  and  one-quarter  against 
fifteen,  or  a  back  pressure  of  three  and  three- 
quarter  pounds.  Many  people,  who  have 
found  fault  with  cut-offs,  have  overlooked 
this  important  point,  and  have  judged  all 
cut-olFs  by  an  engine  that  was  thus  working 
at  a  disadvantage. 

In  explaining  the  cut-off,  we  have  not 
taken  into  consideration  the  condensation  of 
the  steam  from  its  expansion ;  and  this  is, 
of  itself,  a  very  important  item  of  loss,  as  is 
also  its  increased  friction  ;  so  that  the  actual 
gain  from  the  use  of  a  cut-oft'  is  not  as  great 
as  it  would  theoretically  appear. 

Having  thus  stated  some  of  the  most  im 
portant  parts  of  a  steam  engine,  we  will  now 
speak  of  some  of  its  accessories.  In  order 
to  give  a  uniformity  of  speed  to  the  machin 
ery  driven  by  a  steam  engine,  no  matter 
how  much  the  work  it  has  to  do  may  vary, 
the  governor  was  invented :  it  consists,  in 
its  simplest  form,  of  two  balls  revolving 
around  an  upright  shaft,  and  suspended  from 
its  top  by  rods ;  if  revolved  with  great  rapid 
ity,  these  balls  are  carried  by  their  centrif 
ugal  motion  to  the  greatest  circumference 
that  their  rods  will  allow  them  ;  if  moved 
slowly,  they  will  assume  their  smallest  cir 
cumference,  and,  by  these  motions,  close  or 
open  the  throttle,  or,  in  the  improved  en 


gines,  vary  the  cut-off:  thus  controlling  the 
speed  of  the  engine,  and  keeping  it  always 
at  nearly  the  same  velocity. 

In  order  to  keep  the  boiler  filled  with 
water  to  the  requisite  level,  one  or  more 
pumps  are  placed  in  connection  with  it,  of  a 
capacity  to  supply  it,  if  only  working  part 
of  the  time.  These  pumps  should  always  be 
provided  with  &  pet-cock,  which,  when  open 
ed,  will  show  whether  the  pump  is  doing  its 
duty,  as  the  valves  of  any  pump  arc  liable  to 
become  clogged  and  useless.  On  the  loco 
motive  engine  the  casual  observer  will  notice 
that  the  engineer  frequently  tries  these  cocks, 
which  are  placed  upon  the  side  of  the  en 
gine,  and,  in  fact,  that  he  sometimes  tries 
them  to  the  detriment  of  dandified-looking 
individuals,  who  approach  too  close  to  the 
iron  steed.  The  pet-cocks  are  not,  how 
ever,  as  much  used  as  they  should  be,  and, 
in  fact,  are  very  frequently  left  out  altogether 
in  the  construction  of  the  stationary  engine. 
The  safety  valve,  as  at  present  in  use,  has  a 
great  many  faults  :  it  was  originally  the  in 
vention  of  Denis  Papin,  of  France,  and  was 
constructed  by  him  in  his  experiments  with 
what  was  called  Papin's  steam  digester — a 
machine  for  dissolving  bones,  etc.  It  con 
sisted,  as  at  first  constructed,  of  a  small 
round  plate  covering  a  hole,  and  held  in  its 
place  by  a  weight  suspended  from  a  lever, 
whose  fulcrum  rested  upon  the  plate.  But 
little  improvement  has  been  made  upon  this 
simple  device ;  it  is  now  tapered,  to  fit  a 
counter-sunk  hole,  and  possesses  the  advan 
tage  of  being  more  difficult  to  calculate.  But 
one  of  its  chief  faults  is  in  the  fact  that  the 
point  of  contact  between  the  lever  and  valve 
is  so  large,  that  its  wear  creates  a  constantly 
varying  leverage.  This  could  be  obviated 
by  making  the  point  of  contact  a  knife-edge 
instead  of  a  half-inch  pin.  Another  disad 
vantage  in  the  common  safety  valve  is  the 
fact  that  the  engineer  lias  the  power  of 
weighting  it  to  an  unlimited  extent.  We 
have  seen  this  difficulty  obviated  by  an 
American  invention.  The  weight  is  sus 
pended  in  the  boiler  directly  from  the  valve, 
and  consists  of  the  greatest  weight  the  boiler 
should  ever  be  allowed  to  carry.  The  lever 
is  now  so  applied,  that  its  tendency  is 
to  always  lighten  the  valve,  so  that  the 
more  it  is  weighted  the  less  steam  can  be 
carried. 


234 


STEAM. 


CHAPTER   II. 

STEAMBOATS. 

IN  looking  over  English  works  upon  steam, 
we  cannot  help  noticing  the  truth  of  Dr. 
Lardner's  remarks :  "  England  has  been  so 
dazzled  by  the  splendor  of  her  own  achieve 
ments  in  the  creation  of  a  new  art  of  trans 
port  by  land  and  water  within  the  last  thirty 
years,  as  to  become  in  a  measure  insensible 
to  all  that  has  been  accomplished  in  the 
same  interval  and  in  the  same  department 
of  the  arts  elsewhere."  Not  content  with 
the  praise  other  nations  have  ever  been 
willing  to  give  her  for  the  invention  of  the 
steam  engine,  she  also  wishes  to  rob  John 
Fitch  of  the  only  reward  we  can  now  give 
him  for  a  life  devoted  to  the  steamboat.  It 
is  true  that  her  arguments  are  aided  to  this 
end  by  the  writings  of  some  Americans  who 
have  endeavored  to  .prove  Fulton  as  the  first 
practical  steam  navigator,  thereby  putting 
the  date  of  this  invention  some  twenty  years 
later.  But  the  time  is  fast  approaching 
when  the  true  inventor  will  be  acknowledged 
by  his  countrymen,  and  the  man  who  proph 
esied  so  truly  that  "  this  will  be  the  mode 
of  crossing  the  Atlantic  in  time,  whether  I 
shall  bring  it  to  perfection  or  not;  steam 
boats  will  be  preferred  to  all  other  convey 
ances,  and  they  will  be  particularly  useful 
in  the  navigation  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Mis 
sissippi.  The  day  will  come  when  some  more 
potent  man  will  get  fame  and  riches  for  my 
invention  "  — when  this  man,  we  say,  will  be 
honored  as  he  should  be  by  the  millions  who 
enjoy  the  fruits  of  his  genius;  when  our 
school-books  will  place  his  name  in  connec 
tion  with  that  of  Fulton,  and  his  biography 
will  be  found  in  every  library ;  when  his 
grave  and  the  tomb  of  Washington  will  not 
bring  a  blush  to  the  American  cheek. 

And  are  you  not  to  blame,  reader  ?  Have 
you  ever  read  the  life  of  John  Fitch,  the 
American  Watt — a  life  that  remained  sealed 
for  thirty  years  by  his  own  request,  and  now 
teaches  a  lesson  of  perseverance,  under  trials 
that  few  ever  have  to  encounter  ?  If  not,  it 
is  a  duty  you  owe  your  country  and  yourself 
to  read  it  at  once,  and  thus  add  another 
name  to  the  tablets  of  your  memory,  already 
inscribed  with  those  of  Franklin,  Fulton, 
and  Morse. 

The  extent  to  which  steam  navigation  has 
improved  our  country,  is  scarcely  realized 
even  by  those  who  have  travelled  over  it  the 


most.  The  Hudson  river,  from  the  first 
voyage  of  the  North  River,  Fulton's  steam 
boat,  up  to  the  present  time,  has  re 
mained  at  the  head  of  all  competitors  in 
river  navigation.  We  had  then  two  trips 
per  week,  each  consuming  from  thirty  to 
thirty-six  hours ;  we  have  now  four  passen 
ger  boats  per  day  over  the  entire  route,  and 
many  making  short  trips,  besides  those  used 
for  towing  barges  and  canal  boats  ;  the  pas 
senger  boats  making  the  entire  trip  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  in  from  ten  to  twelve 
hours.  The  increased  prosperity  of  New 
York,  growing  out  of  this  immense  traffic 
by  steamboats  alone,  is  very  great,  but 
even  this  is  small  when  compared  with  the 
navigation  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  other 
western  rivers.  In  1856  there  were  over 
one  thousand  steamboats  and  propellers  on 
the  western  waters,  costing  not  less  than 
nineteen  millions  of  dollars,  and  of  a  carry 
ing  capacity  of  four  hundred  and  forty-three 
thousand  tons.  Of  these  boats,  the  smallest 
was  the  Major  Darien,  of  ten  tons,  built  at 
Freedom  in  1852;  and  the  largest  was  the 
Eclipse,  of  one  thousand  one  hundred  and 
seventeen  tons,  built  at  New  Albany  the 
same  year.  Thus,  on  the  western  waters,  in 
the  short  space  of  forty-five  years,  steam 
created  a  business  that  absorbed  nineteen 
millions  of  dollars  in  steamboats  alone. 

Up  to  the  year  1811,  the  only  regular  meth 
od  of  transportation  had  been  by  means  of 
flat  boats,  which  consumed  three  or  four 
months  in  the  passage  from  New  Orleans  to 
Pittsburg.  The  price  of  passage  was  then  one 
hundred  and  sixty  dollars ;  freight,  six  dol 
lars  and  seventy -five  cents  per  hundred 
pounds.  The  introduction  of  steam  has  re 
duced  the  price  of  passage  between  these 
two  cities  to  thirty  dollars,  and  merchandise 
is  carried  the  whole  distance  for  a  price 
which  may  be  regarded  as  merely  nominal. 
Besides  this  great  saving  of  time  and  money 
effected  by  steam  navigation  on  these  waters, 
the  comparative  safety  of  steam  conveyance 
is  an  item  which  especially  deserves  our 
notice.  Before  the  steam  dispensation  be 
gan,  travellers  and  merchants  were  obliged 
to  trust  their  lives  and  property  to  the  barge 
men,  many  of  whom  were  suspected,  with 
very  good  reason,  to  be  in  confederacy  with 
the  land  robbers  who  infested  the  shores  of 
the  Ohio,  and  the  pirates  who  resorted  to 
the  islands  of  the  Mississippi.  These  partic 
ulars  being  understood,  we  are  prepared  to 
estimate  the  value  and  importance  of  the 


THE   FIRST  PROPELLER  EVER  BUILT. 


Constructed  by  John  Fitch,  and  experimented  with  by  him  on  the  Collect  pond,  New  York  city. 
The  boiler  was  a  twelve  gallon  pot,  with  a  bit  of  truck-plank  fastened  by  an  iron  bar  placed  transversely. 
This  was  ia  the  year  1796. 


OLIVER   EVANS1    ORUKTER   AMPII1BOLOS. 

Thirty  feet  long  and  twelve  broad.     Cylinder  five  inches  in  diameter  with  a  nineteen  inch  stroke. 
Constructed  by  Oliver  Evans  about  the  year  1804. 


THE  MACHINERY   OF  FULTON 'S  FIRST  STEAMBOAT. 

Imported  from  England  where  it  was  constructed  in  1805.     Wheels  fifteen  feet  in  diameter,  cylinder 
twenty-four  inches  in  diameter,  four  feet  stroke. 


T1IE   NORTH   RIVtR,  OF   CLERS10NT. 


Robert  Pulton's  first  steamboat  as  she  appeared  after  being  lengthened  in  1808.  She  was  launched 
in  1807,  and  was  run  as  a  regular  packet  between  New  York  and  Albany.  Speed  four  miles  per  hour, 
length  133  feet,  beam  18  feet,  depth  8  feet,  tonnage  160. 


STEAMBOATS. 


239 


services  which  the  steam  engine  has  rendered 
to  the  commerce  and  prosperity  of  the  west 
ern  states. 

In  1811,  Messrs.  Fulton  and  Livingston, 
having  established  a  ship-yard  at  Pittsburg 
for  the  purpose  of  introducing  steam  navi 
gation  on  the  western  waters,  built  an  exper 
imental  boat  for  this  service — and  this  was 
the  first  steamboat  that  ever  floated  on  the 
western  rivers.  It  was  furnished  with  a  stern 
wheel  and  two  masts — for  Mr.  Fulton  be 
lieved,  at  that  time,  that  the  occasional  use 
of  sails  would  be  indispensable.  This  first 
western  steamboat  was  called  the  Orleans ; 
her  capacity  was  one  hundred  tons.  In  the 
winter  of  1812,  she  made  her  first  trip  from 
Pittsburg  to  New  Oilcans  in  fourteen  days. 

The  first  appearance  of  this  vessel  on  the 
Ohio  river  produced,  as  the  reader  may  sup 
pose,  not  a  little  excitement  and  admiration. 
A  steamboat  at  that  day  was,  to  common 
observers,  as  great  a  wonder  as  a  navigable 
balloon  would  be  at  the  present.  The  banks 
of  the  river,  in  some  places,  were  thronged 
with  spectators,  gazing  in  speechless  aston 
ishment  at  the  puffing  and  smoking  phe 
nomenon.  The  average  speed  of  this  boat 
was  only  about  three  miles  per  hour.  Be 
fore  her  ability  to  move  through  the  water 
without  the  assistance  of  sails  or  oars  had 
been  fully  exemplified,  comparatively  few 
persons  believed  that  she  could  possibly  be 
made  to  answer  any  purpose  of  real  utility. 
In  fact,  she  had  made  several  voyages  before 
the  general  prejudice  began  to  subside,  and 
for  some  months,  many  of  the  river  mer 
chants  preferred  the  old  mode  of  transporta 
tion,  with  all  its  risks,  delays,  and  extra  ex 
pense,  rather  than  make  use  of  such  a  con 
trivance  as  a  steamboat,  which,  to  their  ap 
prehensions,  appeared  too  marvellous  and 
miraculous  for  the  'business  of  every-day 
life.  How  slow  are  the  masses  of  mankind 
to  adopt  improvements,  even  when  they  ap 
pear  to  be  most  obvious  and  unquestionable ! 
The  .second  steamboat  of  the  west,  was 
a  diminutive  vessel  called  the  Comet. 
She  was  rated  at  twenty-five  tons.  Daniel 
D.  Smith  was  the  owner,  and  D.  French  the 
builder  of  this  boat.  Her  machinery  was 
on  a  plan  for  which  French  had  obtained  a 
patent  in  1809.  She  went  to  Louisville  in 
the  summer  of  1813,  and  descended  to  New 
Orleans  in  the  spring  of  1814.  She  after 
ward  made  two  voyages  to  Natchez,  and 
was  then  sold,  taken  to  pieces,  and  the  en 
gine  was  put  up  in  a  cotton;  factory.  The 

15 


Vesuvius  was  the  next ;  she  was  built  by 
Mr.  Fulton,  at  Pittsburg,  for  a  company, 
the  several  members  of  which  resided  at 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  New  Orleans. 
She  sailed  under  the  command  of  Captain 
Frank  Ogden,  for  New  Orleans,  in  the  spring 
of  1814.  From  New  Orleans,  she  started 
for  Louisville,  in  July  of  the  same  year,  but 
was  grounded  on  a  sand-bar,  seven  hundred 
miles  up  the  Mississippi,  where  she  remain 
ed  until  the  3d  of  December  following,4 
when,  being  floated  off  by  the  tide,  she  re 
turned  to  New  Orleans.  In  1815-16,  she  made 
regular  trips  for  several  months,  from  New 
Orleans  to  Natchez,  under  the  command  of 
Captain  Clement.  This  gentleman  was  soon 
after  succeeded  by  Captain  John  D.  Hart, 
and  while  approaching  New  Orleans,  with  a 
valuable  cargo  on  board,  she  took  fire  and 
burned  to  the  water's  edge.  After  being 
submerged  for  several  months,  her  hulk 
was  raised  and  re-fitted.  She  was  afterward 
in  the  Louisville  trade,  and  was  condemned 
in  1819. 

In  1818,  the  first  steamboat  was  built  for 
Lake  Erie  and  the  upper  lakes,  at  Black 
Rock,  on  the  Niagara  river,  for  the  late  Dr. 
I.  B.  Stuart,  of  Albany,  N.  Y.,  by  Noah 
Brown,  of  New  York  city.  She  was  a  very 
handsome  vessel,  360  tons  burden,  brig  rig 
ged,  and  her  engine,  on  the  plan  of  aBoulton 
and  Watt  square  engine,  was  made  by  Rob 
ert  McQueen,  at  the  corner  of  Centre  and 
Duane  streets,  New  York  city  ;  her  cylinder 
was  40  inches  diameter,  4  feet  stroke.  The 
materials  for  making  the  boiler  were  sent 
from  New  York,  and  the  boiler  was  made  at 
Black  Rock — 9  feet  diameter,  24  feet  long 
— a  circular  boiler,  with  one  return  flue, 
called  a  kidney  flue,  seldom,  if  ever,  carry 
ing  more  than  nine  inches  of  steam.  This 
steamer  was  called  the  Walk-in-t  he- Water, 
after  a  celebrated  Indian  chief  in  Mich 
igan.  Her  engines  were  transported  from 
New  York  to  Albany  by  sloops,  and  from 
Albany  to  Butt'alo  by  large  six  and  eight 
horse  Pennsylvania  teams.  Some  of  the 
engine  was  delivered  in  fifteen  days  time, 
and  some  was  on  the  road  about  twenty-five 
days. 

The  trip  from  Black  Rock,  or  Buffalo,  to 
Detroit,  consumed  about  forty  hours  in  good 
weather,  using  thirty-six  to  forty  cords  of 
wood  the  trip..  The  price  of  passage  in  the 
main  cabin  was  eighteen  dollars;  from  Buf 
falo  to  Erie  (Penn.),  six  dollars ;  to  Cleve 
land,  twelve  dollars;  to  Sandusky  (Ohio^ 


240 


STEAM. 


fifteen  dollars;  to  Detroit,  eighteen  dollars. 
The  strength  of  the  rapids  at  the  head  of 
the  Niagara  river,  between  Buffalo  and 
Black  Rock,  was  so  great,  that  besides  the 
power  of  the  engine,  the  steamer  had  to 
have  the  aid  of  eight  yoke  of  oxen  to  get 
her  up  on  to  the  lake,  a  distance  of  about  two 
and  one-half  miles.  In  those  days,  the  pas 
senger  and  freighting  business  was  so  small, 
that  one  dividend  only  was  made  to  the 
owners  for  the  first  three  years  from  the 
earnings  of  the  steamer.  In  1821,  in  the 
fall,  the  steamer  was  totally  lost  in  a  terrible 
gale.  On  the  coming  winter,  a  new  steamer 
was  built  at  Buffalo,  by  Mr.  Noah  Brown  of 
New  York — a  very  strong,  brig-rigged  vessel. 
She  was  called  the  Superior,  flush  decks  fore 
and  aft ;  the  first  steamer,  the  Walk-in-the- Wa 
ter,  having  had  a  high  quarter  or  poop  deck. 

Compare  the  time  and  expense  of  travel 
ling  in  those  days  with  the  present  time ! 
Mr.  Calhoun  (now  living),  the  engineer  of 
the  Walk-in-the- Water,  says,  "Every -two 
years  I  used  to  return  to  New  York  from 
Buffalo  in  the  fall,  and  in  the  spring  from 
New  York  to  Buffalo.  I  have  been  three 
and  four  days,  by  stage,  to  Albany ;  never 
less  than  three  days,  and  sometimes  near 
five  days ;  the  stage  fare  was  ten  dollars  to 
Albany.  From  Albany  to  Buffalo,  I  have 
been  ten  days  in  getting  through  ;  the  short 
est  time  was  eight  days ;  the  stage  fare 
through,  was  tiventy-dne  dollars.  How  is  it 
no  to  ?  My  usual  expense  in  going  to  Buf 
falo  from  Albany  was  thirty  dollars,  includ 
ing  meals  and  sleeping."  Such  facts  show 
the  advantages  we  have  obtained  from  the 
use  of  steam  in  our  river  navigation. 

The  boats  that  then  plied  upon  the  Hud 
son  river,  would  not  be  sufficient  to  carry 
the  passengers'  baggage  of  the  present  day. 
The  first  boat  was  only  160  tons,  while  the 
New  World,  built  in  1847,  was  of  1400. 
The  latter  has  made  the  trip  from  New  York 
to  Albany  in  seven  hours  and  fifteen  min 
utes,  including  nine  landings  of  say  five 
minutes  each ;  the  actual  running  time 
being  six  hours  and  twenty  minutes ;  dis 
tance,  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles — per 
formed  by  the  North  River  in  thirty-six 
hours. 

The  application  of  the  steam  engine  to 
navigation,  has  been  successful  by  three 
methods  only. :  the  side  wheel,  the  stern 
wheel,  and  the  propeller.  The  side  wheel 
was  known  to  the  ancients,  and  was  used  in 
connection  with  a  windlass,  turned  by  men, 


as  a  means  of  propulsion,  by  the  Romans, 
in  their  war  galleys.  It  was  first  partially 
applied  to  steam  navigation  by  Robert  Ful 
ton,  but  since  his  day  it  has  undergone  vast 
improvement.  As  at  first  constructed,  it 
consisted  of  a  double-spoked  water-wheel, 
suspended  by  a  shaft  with  no  outside  bear 
ing,  which  shaft,  being  of  cast  iron,  was 
very  liable  to  break.  The  outside  bearing 
and  guard  were  subsequently  invented  by 
Fulton,  as  appears  from  his  specification  of 
patent.  The  wheels  being  totally  uncovered, 
were  found  to  throw  water  upon  deck,  and 
a  dash-board  was  put  up  to  prevent  it,  which 
was  in  time  replaced  by  the  present  wheel- 
house.  The  paddle  was  next  surrounded 
with  a  circular  brace,  or  rim,  as  at  present  in 
use.  In  Fulton's  first  boat,  the  wheels 
could,  at  will,  be  disconnected  from  the  en 
gine,  but  this  plan  went  out  of  use  in  order 
to  simplify  the  machinery,  after  the  crank 
shaft  was  adopted,  connected  directly  with 
the  engine.  Various  side  wheels  have  been 
patented,  that  are  so  constructed  as  to  prevent 
the  lift  of  water  as  the  bucket  rises  there 
from.  One  on  the  Richard  Stockton  ap 
pears  to  work  well,  but  their  complication, 
cost,  and  liability  to  get  out  of  repair,  have 
prevented  their  general  introduction. 

The  stern  wheel  was  first  thought  of  by 
Jonathan  Hull,  of  England,  in  1736,  as  suf 
ficiently  appears  from  drawings  thereof  pub 
lished  by  him ;  but  it  certainly  was  first 
practically  applied  by  Robert  Fulton,  in  the 
steamboat  Orleans,  of  which  we  have  al 
ready  spoken.  This  wheel  is  now  in  almost 
universal  use  on  our  western  rivers,  as  it  is 
peculiarly  adapted  to  boats  drawing  but  lit 
tle  water.  The  wheel  is  suspended  at  the 
stern,  and  is  sometimes  covered  with  a 
wheel-house,  but  more  frequently  entirely 
exposed. 

The  propeller  was  first  applied  to  a  small 
steamboat  built  by  John  Fitch,  and  experi 
mented  with  by  him  under  the  patronage  of 
Chancellor  Livingston,  on  the  Collect  Pond 
in  New  York.  The  propeller  was  a  screw 
or  worm.  Great  improvements  have,  how 
ever,  been  made  in  the  screw,  and  to  the 
English  we  are  indebted  for  some  of  the 
most  important.  Captain  Ericsson  deserves 
great  credit  for  his  improvements  in  this 
respect.  Among  the  finest  of  our  propellers 
may  be  named  the  R.  R.  Cuyler  and  the 
Matanzas  ;  the  former  is  of  wood,  her  total 
length  is  240  feet;  she  is  33  feet  wide,  and 
has  24  feet  depth  of  hold.  She  is  furnished 


STEAMBOATS. 


241 


with  one  direct-acting  inverted  condensing 
engine,  the  largest  single  engine  as  yet  built 
for  a  propeller.  Her  cylinder  has  a  diameter 
of  TO  inches  and  48  inches  stroke.  She  is 
furnished  with  two  return  tubular  boilers 
13  £  feet  wide,  17  feet  long,  and  14  feet  4 
inches  high,  with  separate  chimneys  and 
separate  connections  to  each  boiler. 

The  Matanzas  is  the  first  steamer,  whose 
hull  is  entirely  of  iron,  that  has  ever  been  con 
structed  in  the  United  States.  Her  frame  is  of 
angle  iron,  with  reverse  bars  also  of  iron;  her 
keel  is  of  solid  iron,  3  by  9  inches,  as  are  her 
beams  and  deck  knees.  She  is  clipper  built, 
900  tons  burden ;  her  dimensions  arg — 
length  210  feet,  keel  200  feet,  30  feet  beam, 
depth  20 A  feet.  This  beautiful  propeller,  as 
all  her  visitors  have  unanimously  called  her, 
was  built  at  the  Delarnater  Iron  Works,  under 
the  direction  of  Mr.  J.W.  Caper,  and  is  the  first 
iron  ship  constructed  at  that  shop.  Her  en 
gine  is  an  inverted  cylinder,  56  by  44  inches, 
of  the  same  pattern,  although  smaller,  as  that 
of  the  R.  R.  Cuyler,  and  was  designed  by 
the  same  engineer,  Mr.  John  Baird,  chief 
engineer  of  Cromwell's  line. 

The  chief  advantage  claimed  for  the  pro 
peller  over  the  side  wheel,  is  the  fact  that 
in  sea-going  vessels  the  latter  rarely  possess 
an  equal  immersion,  and  consequently  are 
constantly  varying  their  purchase  upon  the 
water,  whereas  the  propeller  is  always  acting, 
or  nearly  so.  The  disadvantage  of  the  pro 
peller  is  the  increased  speed  of  the  engine ; 
this  was  at  first  overcome  by  gearing,  but 
the  plan  is  objectionable  on  account  of  break 
age  and  friction.  The  true  form  of  a  pro 
peller  is  not  yet  decided,  and  probably  we 
shall  soon  see  many  vast  improvements  both 
in  its  construction  and  the  application  of  the 
engine  that  drives  it.  In  war  vessels,  the 
propeller  is  less  liable  to  be  damaged  by  shot 
than  the  side  wheel,  and  as  an  auxiliary  for 
the  sailing  vessel,  it  is  far  preferable  to  the 
latter.  Various  devices  have  been  adopted 
to  disconnect  and  take  in  the  propeller  when 
using  sails,  but  the  use  of  two  arms  instead 
of  four  has  in  a  great  measure  obviated  the 
necessity  so  to  do.  Propellers  have  been 
tried  with  success  on  the  Raritan  canal,  and 
arc  now  extensively  used  there  ;  their  cheap 
ness,  as  compared  with  the  side  wheel,  will 
always  recommend  them  for  small  vessels. 
Whether  the  propeller  will  ever  entirely  su 
persede  the  side  wheel  is  still  a  question ; 
that  they  are  cheaper  in  connection  with  sails 
as  freighters  no  one  questions,  and  it  is  pos 


sible  that  they  may  eventually  be  so  im 
proved  as  to  eclipse  the  side  wheel  in  speed ; 
but  this  we  very  much  doubt.  They  are, 
however,  as  yet  comparatively  in  their  in 
fancy,  and  time  alone  will  prove  them. 

Among  sea-going  side  wheel  steamers,  the 
Americans  may  point  with  pride  to  the 
Adriatic,  the  largest  steamer  afloat  except 
the  Great  Eastern  ;  she  measures  350  feet  in 
length,  50  feet  beam,  and  is  about  5,000  tons 
burden.  She  was  modelled  and  built  by 
the  late  George  Steers,  and  is  a  perfect  ves 
sel  in  appearance,  appointments,  speed,  and 
every  other  respect.  Her  engines  were  built 
at  the  Novelty  Works ;  her  total  cost  was 
over  a  million  of  dollars.  She  has  two  oscil 
lating  engines,  101  inches  in  diameter  by  12 
feet  stroke,  and  carries  25  Ibs.  of  steam ;  her 
paddles  are  40  feet  diameter,  floats,  3  by  12 
feet ;  she  has  eight  vertical  tubular  boilers, 
with  30,758  square  feet  of  headng  surface. 
She  is  truly  a  magnificent  ship,  and  will 
compare  favorably  with  any  steamer  in  the 
world,  not  excepting  the  Great  Eastern,  that 
mammoth — we  had  almost  said  blunder. 

Of  our  steam  navy,  the  first  commence 
ment  of  which  was  the  steam  battery  Ful 
ton  the  first,  built  under  the  personal  super 
vision  of  Robert  Fulton,  we  can  only  say 
that  it  is  small  but  efficient ;  steam  in  the 
navy  is  now  a  positive  need,  and  we  hope  to 
see  our  force  largely  increased.  The  steam 
engineers  in  the  United  States  navy  are  sec 
ond  to  none  in  the  world. 

The  use  of  the  donkey  engine  or  auxiliary 
pump,  has  been  adopted  in  nearly  all  of  our 
steam  vessels,  and  is  a  decided  improvement 
over  the  old  method  of  filling  the  boilers  by 
the  main  engine,  as  it  obviates  the  difficulty 
of  working  the  wheels 'while  lying  at  the 
wharf,  or  stopping  from  any  cause.  The 
sages  who  managed  the  Great  Eastern  have 
thrown  out  the  "  donkeys,"  probably  because 
they  think  there  are  sufficient  for  all  pur 
poses  among  the  directors. 

The  use  of  coal  in  our  steamers  is  now 
universal  upon  the  Atlantic  coast  and  rivers. 
John  E.  Mowatt,  the  first  to  establish  the 
tow-boat  business,  was  also  among  the  first  to 
burn  coal.  His  boat,  the  Henry  Eckford, 
was  fitted  up  for  that  purpose,  but  the  want 
of  a  sufficient  draft  was  the  cause  of  its 
abandonment  after  several  trials;  this  was  in 
1825.  A  few*  years  after,  Robert  L.  Stevens 
tried  a  blower  on  his  crank  boat,  the  North 
America.  His  first  blower  was  of  rude  cpn.- 
struction,  being  made  of  planks,  and  placed 


242 


STEAM. 


directly  in  front  of  the  furnace,  under  the 
doors.  After  his  success,  the  blower  came 
into  general  use  both  for  coal  and  wood ;  but 
improvements  in  furnaces  have  now,  in  a 
measure,  superseded  its  use.  Mr.  Stevens 
tried  several  expensive  experiments,  and  many 
of  them  proved  of  value  only  as  lessons  to 
the  engineer.  While  experimenting  upon 
the  blower,  he  caused  to  be  constructed  a 
spiral  fan  in  the  chimney,  but  abandoned  it 
after  one  or  two  trials.  Placing  the  boilers 
on  deck  was  his  invention,  as  also  the  false 
bow  that  made  so  great  an  improvement  in 
speed.  The  present  open  work  walking- 
beam  is  also  ascribed  to  him ;  in  fact  we 
may  safely  say  that  Robert  L.  Stevens  did 
more  than  any  other  man  toward  the  im 
provement  of  the  steam  engine. 

When  steam  was  first  used,  great  fears 
were  entertained  of  explosions,  and  dangers 
by  fire ;  this  was  increased  by  the  explosion 
of  the  steamboat  Washington.  This  hap 
pened  June  9th,  181G.  She  was  the  largest 
and  finest  boat  that  floated  on  the  western 
waters.  Her  commander,  Capt.  Shrcve,  was 
skilled  and  experienced  in  all  the  duties  of 
his  calling;  her  machinery  was  all  presumed 
to  be  in  the  best  possible  order,  and  no  hu 
man  foresight  could  have  anticipated  the 
fatal  event.  The  boat  left  Marietta,  Ohio,  on 
Monday,  June  7th,  and  on  the  afternoon  of 
the  following  day  came  safely  to  anchor  off 
Point  Harmar,  where  she  remained  until 
Wednesday  morning.  The  fires  were  now 
kindled,  and  other  preparations  made  for 
continuing  the  voyage  down  the  Ohio  ;  but 
a  difficulty  occurred  in  getting  the  boat  into 
a  proper  position  to  start  the  machinery. 
While  laboring  to  effect  this  object  (the 
boat  having,  in  the"  meantime,  been  carried 
by  the  force  of  the  current  near  the  Vir 
ginia  shore),  it  became  necessary  to  throw 
out  a  kedge  anchor  at  the  stern.  Shortly 
after,  all  hands  were  called  to  haul  in  the 
kedge,  and  while  there  collected  together, 
the  end  of  the  boiler  nearest  the  stern  was 
suddenly  blown  off,  and  a  column  of  min 
gled  water  and  steam  was  thrown  among  the 
crowd,  killing  a  number  upon  the  spot,  and 
inflicting  the  most  frightful  injuries  on  the 
remainder.  The  captain,  mate,  and  several 
others,  were  blown  overboard,  and,  with  the 
exception  of  one  man,  were  afterward  res 
cued  from  the  water,  and  found  to  be  more 
or  less  injured  by  the  scalding  water  and 
the  scattered  fragments  of  the  boiler. 

At  Harmar,  a  neighboring  town,  the  in 


habitants  were  alarmed  by  the  sound  of  the 
explosion,  appearing,  as  it  did,  to  shake  the 
earth.  A  number  of  citizens — among  whom 
were  several  physicians — rushed  to  the  boat 
to  ascertain  the  extent  of  the  calamity.  Lan 
guage  is  but  feeble  to  explain  the  misery  and 
torture  which  presented  itself  to  their  view. 
Strewn  about  the  deck  were  the  mangled 
and  Avrithing  forms  of  human  beings,  filling 
the  air  with  screams  and  groans,  while 
others,  more  fortunate,  had  ended  their  suf 
ferings  in  death.  Those  who  experienced 
the  greatest  pain,  apparently,  were  injured 
by  inhaling  the  scalding  steam,  which  is 
agonizing,  beyond  all  the  powers  of  imagina 
tion  to  conceive.  The  cause  of  this  explo 
sion  is  not  exactly  known,  but  it  is  supposed 
to  have  been  from  over-pressure,  owing  to 
the  displacement  of  the  valve  Aveight,  which 
had  accidentally  slipped  to  the  end  of  the 
lever. 

This  accident,  as  we  said  before,  added  to 
the  general  prejudice  against  steamboating, 
and  caused  a  great  excitement  among  the 
inhabitants  of  that  region ;  people  being 
oblivious  of  the  fact  that  in  proportion  to 
the  passengers  carried  by  steamboats  up  to 
that  date,  there  had  been  much  less  accident 
and  danger  than  by  the  original  conveyance 
of  barges  and  flat  boats.  Still,  there  was  a 
great  deal  of  mismanagement,  resulting  from 
ignorance,  in  our  first  steam  vessels,  and  the 
general  introduction  of  high-pressure  en 
gines,  without  the  proper  increase  of  strength 
in  the  boilers,  caused  many  serious  acci 
dents,  that  in  time  drew  the  attention  of 
Congress  to  the  subject.  Several  laws  were 
passed ;  but  it  was  not  until  quite  a  late 
period  that  the  present  comparatively  per 
fect  system  of  inspection  was  matured  by 
our  government. 

In  the  year  1852,  an  act  was  passed  by 
Congress,  containing  provisions  against  fire, 
regarding  pumps,  boats,  life  preservers,  the 
transportation  of  dangerous  articles,  etc. 
This  act  also  provided  for  an  inspector  of 
boilers  in  each  district,  whose  duty  it  is  to 
test  all  the  boilers  in  his  district,  used  on 
board  of  vessels  carrying  passengers,  once 
when  first  constructed,  and  at  least  once  a 
year  thereafter.  The  Board  of  Inspectors 
were  also  empowered  with  the  examination 
of  engineers,  which  duty  is  set  forth  in  the 
following  section :  "  Whenever  any  person 
claiming  to  be  qualified  to  perform  the 
duty  of  engineer  upon  steamers  carrying 
passengers,  shall  apply  for  a  certificate,  the 


LOCOMOTIVES. 


243 


Board  of  Inspectors  shall  examine  the  appli 
cant,  and  the  proofs  which  he  produces  in 
support  of  his  claim ;  and  if,  upon  full  con 
sideration,  they  are  satisfied  that  his  char 
acter,  habits  of  life,  knowledge,  and  experi 
ence  in  the  duties  of  an  engineer  are  all  such 
as  to  authorize  the  belief  that  the  applicant  is 
a  suitable  and  safe  person  to  be  entrusted 
with  the  powers  and  duties  of  such  a  station, 
they  shall  give  him  a  certificate  to  such  effect, 
for  one  year,  signed  by  them,  in  which  cer 
tificate  they  shall  state  the  time  of  the  exami 
nation,  and  shall  assign  the  appointee  to  the 
appropriate  class  of  engineers." 

It  was  also  provided  that  nine  super 
vising  inspectors  should  be  appointed  by  the 
executive,  to  carry  out  the  provisions  of  the 
act.  Since  the  passage  of  this  law,  steam 
boat  explosions  on  the  Atlantic  coast  have 
become  almost  unknown,  and  have  greatly 
decreased  in  the  west.  With  competent 
inspectors  this  law  is  invaluable,  and  we 
hope  to  hail  the  day  when  a  similar  act  is 
passed  in  every  legislature,  touching  loco 
motive  and  stationary  boilers. 

No  one  who  looks  at  the  immense  amount 
of  business  ddne  by  steam  vessels,  will  ques 
tion  the  advantages  obtained  by  the .  appli 
cation  of  steam  to  navigation,  still  this 
branch  of  commerce  is  as  yet  in  its  infancy, 
and  it  is  our  belief  that  not  only  will  steam 
supersede  sails  entirely,  but  also  that  the  la 
borious  occupation  of  rowing  will  eventually 
be  mainly  done  by  steam.  It  is  unques 
tionable  that  boats  requiring  four  men  to  pull 
them  can,  even  now,  be  much  more  economi 
cally  worked  by  machinery,  and  certainly 
run  much  faster.  Their  cost  need  not  ex 
ceed  five  hundred  dollars.  For  such  small 
craft  the  propeller  is  better  fitted  than  the 
side  wheel.  There  is  a  boat  of  this  descrip 
tion  now  running  in  the  harbor  of  Norfolk, 
Virginia,  and  capable  of  carrying  twelve  pas 
sengers  at  eight  miles  per  hour,  at  the  ex 
pense  of  seventy-five  cents  per  day  for  fuel, 
and  the  wages  of  one  man,  who  can  easily 
do  the  work  and  steer  the  boat.  This  boat 
carried  passengers  to  the  Great  Eastern, 
when  she  lay  off  Old  Point  Comfort,  and  ap 
peared  like  the  minnow  beside  the  whale. 

We  have  already  stated  that  John  E. 
Mowatt  was  the  first  to  introduce  the  tug 
business  on  the  North  River.  This  was 
Jonathan  Hull's  idea;  he  never  dreaming 
that  large  vessels  could  be  provided  with 
propelling  power,  both  on  account  of  its 
weight,  the  weight  of  fuel  for  a  voyage,  and 


the  danger  from  fire.  This  branch  of  steam 
navigation  has  proved  very  lucrative.  With 
in  the  past  few  years  the  propeller  has  here 
also  been  substituted.  Philadelphia,  we  be 
lieve,  was  the  pioneer  in  this  enterprise,  and 
most  of  the  propeller-tugs  were  built  in  that 
place.  We  will  conclude  this  chapter  with 
the  following  statement  of  the  tonnage  of 
steam  vessels  belonging  to  the  several  ports 
of  the  United  States  in  1859,  as  published 
in  the  "  Report  on  Commerce  and  Navi 
gation": — 

New  York 120,598.09 

New  Orleans 75,789.91 

St.  Louis 54,5 1 5.64 

Pittsburg 40,550.08 

Buffalo 42,464.04 

Detroit 33,005.12 

Louisville 29,626.72 

Cincinnati 25,668.31 

Mobile 28,898.52 

Philadelphia 22, 238.50 

Cleveland 21,720.73 

Baltimore 19.260.83 

San  Francisco , 10,214.94 

Boston 9,998.52 

Chicago 7,651.45 

The  total  steam  tonnage  of  the  United 
States,  for  the  year  ending  30th  of  June, 
1859,  was  676,004  83-95- tons. 


CHAPTER  III. 

LOCOMOTIVES. 

OUR  second  chapter  referred  more  partic 
ularly  to  the  application  of  steam  to  naviga 
tion.  In  this,  we  shall  endeavor  to  set  forth 
its  advantages  in  land  transportation.  Among 
the  earliest  experiments  upon  this  subject  in 
America,  were  those  by  Oliver  Evans,  of 
Philadelphia.  The  following  is  his  account, 
published  in  1804  : — 

"  I  constructed. for  the  Board  of  Health  of 
Philadelphia  a  machine  for  cleaning  docks, 
called  the  Orukter  Amphibolos  or  Amphib 
ious  Digger.  It  consisted  of  a  heavy  flat- 
bottomed  boat,  thirty  feet  long,  and  twelve 
feet  broad,  with  a  chain  of  buckets  to  bring 
up  the  mud,  and  hooks  to  clear  away  sticks, 
stones,  and  other  obstacles.  These  buckets 
are  wrought  by  a  small  steam  engine  set  in 
the  boat,  the  cylinder  of  which  is  five  inches 
diameter,  and  the  length  of  stroke  nine 
teen  inches.  This  machine  was  constructed 
at  my  shop,  one  mile  and  a  half  from  the 
river  Schuylkill,  where  she  was  launched. 


244 


STEAM. 


She  sunk  nineteen  inches,  displacing  five 
hundred  and  fifty-one  cubic  feet  of  water, 
which,  at  62.5  pounds,  the  weight  of  a  cubic 
foot,  gives  the  weight  of  the  boat  thirty -four 
thousand  four  hundred  and  thirty-seven 
pounds,  which,  divided  by  two  hundred  and 
thirteen,  the  weight  of  a  barrel  of  flour,  gives 
the  weight  of  one  hundred  and  sixty-one 
barrels  of  flour  that  the  boat  and  engine  is 
equal  to.  Add  to  this  the  heavy  pieces  of 
timber  and  wheels  used  in  transporting  her, 
and  the  number  of  persons  generally  in  her, 
will  make  the  whole  burden  equal  to  at  least 
two  hundred  barrels  of  flour.  Yet  this 
small  engine  moved  so  great  a  burden,  with 
a  gentle  motion,  up  Market  street  and  around 
the  Centre  Square,  and  we  concluded  from 
the  experiment  that  the  engine  was  able  to 
rise  any  ascent  allowed  by  law  on  turnpike 
roads,  which  is  not  more  than  four  degrees." 

After  giving  a  comparison  of  the  merits 
of  steam  and  horse  power,  for  moving  car 
riages  on  common  roads,  Evans  says  :  "Add 
to  all  this  that  the  steam  wagon  consumes 
nothing  while  standing,  will  roll  and  mend 
the  roads,  while  the  horse  wagons  will  cut 
them  up.  Upon  the  whole  it  appears  that 
no  competition  could  exist  between  the  two. 
The  steam  wagons  would  take  all  the  busi 
ness  on  the  turnpike  roads.  I  have  no 
doubt  but  you  will  duly  appreciate  the  im 
portance  of  such  an  improvement,  and  con 
ceive  it  to  be  your  interest  to  appropriate 
the  sum  necessary  to  put  it  in  operation.  I 
have  invented  the  only  engine  that  will 
answer  that  great  purpose,  as  well  as  many 
others  for  which  power  may  be  wanted.  It 
is  too  much  for  an  individual  to  put  in 
operation  every  improvement  which  he  may 
be  able  to  conceive  or  invent.  I  have  no 
doubt  that  my  engines  will  propel  boats 
against  the  current  of  the  Mississippi,  and 
wagons  on  turnpike  roads  with  great  profit. 
I  now  call  upon  those  whose  interest  it  is,  to 
carry  this  invention  into  effect.  All  which 
I  respectfully  submit  to  your  consideration." 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  Mr.  Evans  not 
only  practically  applied  steam  to  locomotion, 
but  fully  realized  the  advantages  of  his  in 
vention.  The  introduction  of  the  railroad 
prevented  the  improvements  that  would 
naturally  have  followed  so  great  an  inven 
tion,  and  but  little  has  since  been  done,  until 
within  the  past  three  or  four  years. 

Mr.  Fisher  has  been  one  of  the  most  success 
ful  in  his  improvements  ;  his  first  experiment 
was  in  1853,  when  he  built  a  small  carriage 


for  four  persons,  which  weighed,  empty, 
about  one  thousand  four  hundred  pounds. 
The  cylinders  were  ten  by  four ;  boiler, 
thirty  feet  of  surface,  only  twenty  feet  of 
which  could  be  reckoned  effective,  or  one 
foot  of  surface  to  about  one  hundred  and 
ten  pounds  of  total  weight.  It  outran 
horses,  in  night  races,  on  the  Broadway 
pavement,  and  ran  at  a  moderate  speed  on 
cobble  pavements,  but  had  not  steam  enough 
for  common  roads. 

The  next  trial  was  in  1858,  on  two  steam 
fire  engines,  the  J.  C.  Gary  and  J.  G.  Storm, 
the  carriages  and  engines  of  which  were 
built  from  his  design,  the  boilers  and  pumps 
being  designed  by  others.  These  engines 
had  heavy  boilers  and  apparatus,  and  could 
not  be  regarded  as  steam  carriages,  but  only 
as  a  demonstration  of  the  practicability  of 
working  by  steam.  Their  cylinders  are 
fourteen  by  seven  and  a  half  inches ;  wheels, 
five  feet ;  the  Gary  boiler  four  hundred  and 
eighty  feet  of  heating  surface ;  that  of  the 
Storm  three  hundred  and  eighty ;  weight  of 
the  Gary,  empty,  fifteen  thousand  six  hun 
dred  and  thirty-six  pounds ;  the  Storm  some 
what  lighter.  These  engines  ran  well  on 
pavements,  and  when  fairly  in  motion  could 
run  on'  soft  ground  at  six  or  seven  miles  per 
hour.  The  next  experiment  was  by  Mr. 
Fisher  in  1859,  when  a  carriage  was  built, 
which  is  not  yet  finished.  Its  cylinders  are 
fourteen  by  seven  inches ;  wheels,  five  feet ; 
boiler,  one  hundred  and  sixty  feet  of  surface ; 
weight,  with  water  and  eleven  men,  estimated 
at  twelve  thousand  pounds,  or  seventy -five 
pounds  to  one  foot  of  heating  surface.  Two 
gentlemen  timed  it  on  an  evening  trial  trip ; 
one  reported  that  it  ran  between  two  mile 
stones  in  two  minutes  and  forty  seconds; 
the  other  reported  it  within  three  minutes. 
The  road  was  gravel,  rather  loose  and  soft 
on  the  surface. 

As  we  have  before  stated,  the  introduction 
of  railroads  turned  the  attention  of  our 
mechanics  to  them,  and  steam  carriages 
were  abandoned.  The  railway  itself  does 
not  come  within  the  compass  of  our  article ; 
we  will  state,  however,  that  its  origin  is  un 
known,  as  the  remains  of  a  stone  tram-road 
have  been  found  among  the  ruins  of  Thebes. 

Thirty  years  ago  they  were  stilLdiscussing 
the  advantages  of  canals  as  compared  with 
railroads  in  this  country ;  it  is,  however, 
somewhat  singular  that,  with  the  exception 
of  a  mile  or  two  of  canal  near  Cambridge, 
constructed  by  the  Romans,  England  had  in- 


LOCOMOTIVES. 


246 


troduced   the  entire    principle  of  railroads 
long   before   she   took  up  canals.     As  long 
ago  as  1776,  and  possibly  thirty  years  prior 
to  that  time,  England  had  wooden  rails  in 
some  of  her  collieries.     It  was  not,  however, 
until  the    year  1825   that  the   subject  was 
prominently  brought  forward.     The  railway 
project  from   Manchester  to  Liverpool  was 
the  cause  of  this  new  impulse.     The  rails, 
prior  to  1776,  were  of  wood,  placed  about 
four  feet  apart  on   sleepers ;  these  wooden 
rails  were  then   covered  with    iron   plates, 
and  cast  iron  wheels  were  adopted  instead 
of  the  wooden  ones  that  had  been  used  up 
to  this  time.     In   1790,  the   edge  rail  was 
invented.     From    1802    to    1806,   the    first 
effective   experiments  were  made  with  the 
locomotive    engine.     It  was   not,  however, 
supposed   possible  that  the  friction   or  ad 
herence  of  the   plain  wheels  of  such    car 
riages  noon   the  rail  could  be  sufficient   to 
allow  any  great  weight  to  be  drawn    after 
them,  and,  therefore,  the   cumbersome   ap 
pendage  of  cog  wheels  and  ratchet  wheels, 
continuous    and    endless    chains,  propelling 
levers,  etc.,  etc.,  continued  to  perplex   the 
minds  of  engineers  until   about  1814,  when 
it  was  first  discovered  that  the  adhesion  of 
the  locomotive  carriage,  with  its  plain  cast 
iron  wheels,  was  adequate  for  every  purpose 
on   ordinary  railways.       The    improvement 
consequent   upon  this  was  effected  by  Mr. 
Stephenson  in  the  north  of  England,  and  for 
a  long  time  his  engines,  with  unimportant 
alterations,  were  used  where  fuel  was  cheap. 
Those  locomotives  drew  about  one  hundred 
tons  on  a  level,  at  four  miles  the  hour,  per 
forming  the  work  of  about  sixteen  horses. 
Their  weight  was  about  ten  tons,  and  cost 
about  sixteen  thousand  dollars. 

The  first  railway  in  the  United  States  was 
built  from  Milton  to  Quincy,  Mass.,  a  dis 
tance  of  two  miles,  in  1826.  The  Baltimore 
and  Ohio  was  the  first  passenger  railroad ; 
it  was  opened  in  1830,  a  distance  of  fifteen 
miles,  with  horse  power.  Next  in  the  order 
of  time  came  the  Mohawk  and  Hudson,  from 
Albany  to  Schenectady,  sixteen  miles ;  opened 
for  travel  also  with  horse  power.  The  first 
locomotive  engine  upon  a  railway  in  this 
country,  was  built  at  Stourbridge,  England, 
for  the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  Com 
pany,  and  imported  by  Mr.  Horatio  Allen. 
This  engine  was  called  the  Lion.  Mr. 
Allen,  in  a  speech  not  long  since,  gives  a 
graphic  account  of  the  first  trip  :  "  It  was 
in  the  year  1828,  on  the  banks  of  the  Lack- 


awaxcn,  at  the  commencement  of  the  rail 
roads  connecting  the  canal  of  the  Delaware 
ind  Hudson  Canal  Company  with  their  coal 
nines ;  and  he  who  addresses  you  was  the 
only  person  on  that  locomotive.  The  circum 
stances  which  led  to  my  being  alone  on  the 
ngine  were  these  :  the  road  had  been  built 
m  the  summer ;  the  structure  was  of  hem- 
ock  timber;  the  rails  of  large  dimensions, 
notched  on  caps  placed  far  apart;  the  tim 
ber  had  cracked  and  warped  from  exposure 
to  the  sun.  After  about  three  hundred  feet 
of  straight  line,  the  road  crossed  the  Lacka- 
waxen  creek  on  trestle-work,  about  thirty  feet 
liigh,  with  a  curve  of  from  three  hundred  and 
fifty-six  to  four  hundred  feet  radius.  The 
impression  was  very  general  that  the  iron 
monster  would  break  down  the  road,  or  it 
would  leave  the  track  at  the  curve  and  plunge 
into  the  creek.  My  reply  to  such  appre 
hensions  was,  that  it  was  too  late  to  consider 
the  probability  of  such  occurrences ;  that 
there  was  no  other  course  than  to  have  a 
trial  made  of  the  strange  animal,  which  had 
been  brought  here  at  great  expense ;  but 
that  it  was  not  necessary  that  more  than  one 
should  be  involved  in  its  fate  ;  that  I  would 
take  the  first  ride  alone,  and  the  time  would 
come  when  I  should  look  back  to  the  inci 
dent  with  great  interest.  As  I  placed  my 
hand  on  the  throttle- valve  handle,  I  was  un 
decided  whether  I  would  move  slowly  or 
with  a  fair  degree  of  speed ;  but  believing 
that  the  road  would  prove  safe,  and  prefer 
ring,  if  I  did  go  down,  to  go  handsomely, 
and  without  any  evidence  of  timidity,  I 
started  with  considerable  velocity,  passed  the 
curve  over  the  creek  safely,  and  was  soon 
out  of  hearing  of  the  vast  assemblage.  At 
the  end  of  two  or  three  miles  I  reversed  the 
valve,  and  returned  without  accident ;  having 
thus  made  the  first  railroad  trip  by  locomo 
tive  on  the  western  hemisphere." 

The  first  locomotive  engine  ever  built  in 
the  United  States,  was  built  at  the  West 
Point  foundry,  New  York,  under  the  direc 
tion  of  Samuel  Hall,  for  the  South  Carolina 
railroad.  This  engine  blew  up  shortly  after 
it  commenced  running,  and  another  was 
built  to  replace  it.  Iri  1831,  the  De  Witt 
Clinton  was  built  at  the  same  foundry  for 
the  Mohawk  and  Hudson  (New  York  Cen 
tral)  railroad ;  this  engine  weighed  four  tons ; 
it  was  run  without  load  at  the  rate  of  forty 
miles  per  hour.  Cylinders,  five  and  a  half 
inches  in  diameter — stroke,  sixteen  inches ; 
four  coupled  wheels,  four  and  a  half  feet  in 


246 


STEAM. 


diameter.  The  boiler  was  cylindrical,  with 
a  large  dome  in  the  centre,  and  contained 
some  thirty  flues.  In  January  of  the  same 
year,  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad  offered 
four  thousand  dollars  for  the  best  anthracite 
coal-burning  locomotive,  weighing  three  and 
one  half  tons,  and  capable  of  drawing  fifteen 
tons,  fifteen  miles  per  hour  on  a  level,  with 
a  steam  pressure  of  not  more  than  a  hundred 
pounds  to  the  square  inch.  The  conditions 
were  filled  by  an  engine  built  by  Phineas 
Davis,  of  York,  Pa.,  in  June,  1831.  This 
engine  had  an  upright  boiler  and  cylinder. 
William  T.  James,  of  New  York,  who  had 
already  constructed  a  steam  carriage  in  1829, 
finished  a  locomotive  in  1832;  this  engine 
was  employed  on  the  Harlem  railroad,  with 
success,  for  a  time,  but  was  eventually  sold 
to  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  road,  where  it 
exploded  in  1834.  This  engine  was  pro 
vided  with  a  "  spark  arrester."  In  January, 
1833,  M.  W.  Baldwin,  of  Philadelphia,  still 
one  of  our  best  locomotive  builders,  built 
the  Old  Ironsides,  for  the  Philadelphia 
and  Germantown  Railroad  Company.  This 
engine  weighed  five  tons,  and  was  said 
to  have  been  run  at  the  rate  of  sixty- 
two  miles  per  hour.  Mr.  Baldwin  intro 
duced  the  outside  connection  engine,  thus 
doing  away  with  the  crank  axle,  and  plac 
ing  the  cylinder  more  under  the  eye  of 
the  engineer. 

It  would  be  tedious  to  follow  the  con 
struction  and  alterations  in  the  various  loco 
motives  that  were  built  by  different  manu 
facturers  in  the  United  States.  We  will, 
however,  mention  the  most  important  im 
provements. 

The  truck  frame,  in  front  of  the  engine, 
was  first  used  by  Adam  Hall,  of  the  West 
Point  foundry,  in  1832,  on  an  engine  called 
the  Experiment.  The  four  eccentrics  were 
first  used  by  William  T.  James,  on  his  steam 
carriage ;  they  were,  however,  patented  by 
S.  II. 'Long,  of  Philadelphia,  in  1830,  and 
first  used  on  a  locomotive  in  1833  ;  this  was 
the  Black  Hawk,  built  by  Long  and  Norris, 
of  Philadelphia,  the  founders  of  the  present 
locomotive  shop  known  as  Norris'  works. 
The  Norris  engines  were  the  first  ever  ex 
ported  ;  this  was  brought  about  by  the,  at 
that  time,  extraordinary  fact  of  drawing 
19,200  pounds  up  an  incline  of  three  hun 
dred  and  sixty-nine  feet  to  the  mile,  the  en 
gine  weighing  but  14,370  pounds ;  on  hear 
ing  of  which,  the  Birmingham  and  Glouces- 
t#r  Railway  Company  ordered  several  engines 


for  an  incline  upon  their  road,  where  they 
performed  successfully.  Since  that  time, 
engines  have  been  exported  to  England, 
France,  Russia,  Germany,  Egypt,  and  Chili. 
In  the  latter  country  there  are  eight  American 
locomotives.  The  engines  forwarded  to 
Egypt,  were  built  by  William  Mason,  of 
Taunton ;  and  for  excellence  of  workman 
ship,  style,  and  finish,  will  compare  favor 
ably  with  any  in  the  world.  There  are,  at 
present,  twenty-nine  American  locomotives 
on  German  roads.  Messrs.  Winans,  of  Bal 
timore,  furnished  the  majority  of  the  loco 
motives  sent  to  Russia.  There  arc  now  some 
twenty-three  locomotive  shops  in  the  United 
States.  Most  of  the  engines  are,  however, 
built  in  Philadelphia,  and  Paterson,  N.  J. 
Ilinckley  and  Drury's,  afterward  called  the 
Boston  Locomotive  AVorks,  was  established 
in  1840.  The  Lowell  shop  began  to  build 
engines  in  1835.  Rogers,  Ketchum  &  Gros- 
venor,  of  Paterson,  New  Jersey,  commenced 
building  in  1837.  This  shop  is  still  in  full 
operation,  under  the  name  of  the  Rogers 
Locomotive  Works.  This  shop  made  sev 
eral  material  alterations  upon  the  English 
type  ;  they  enlarged  the  boiler  in  proportion 
to  the  cylinder,  established  the  link  motion, 
and  covered  more  effectually  the  cylinders 
and  valve  chests,  to  prevent  radiation.  Rog 
ers,  also,  was  among  the  first  to  adopt 
the  full-stroke  pump.  The  locomotives  built 
at  this  shop  have  always  found  a  ready 
market.  Next  in  order  was  the  Taunton  Lo 
comotive  Company,  established  in  1847,  by 
W.  W.  Fairbanks,  a  marine  boiler  maker  from 
Providence,  Rhode  Island.  Then  John  Sou 
ther,  formerly  of  llinckley's  shop,  started 
his  Avorks  in  South  Boston,  in  1848.  In 
1849,  the  Amoskeag  Manufacturing  Com 
pany  entered  the  lists  with  some  important 
improvements ;  they  Avere  followed  by  the 
Portland,  Lawrence,  and  Wilmarth  shops, 
and  a  few  years  after,  by  Mason,  of  Taunton, 
the  East  Bridgewater,  and  the  Manchester 
locomotive  works.  But  since  1857,  the 
New  England  locomotive  shops  have  done 
but  little  of  this  kind  of  work ;  the  Boston, 
Lawrence,  and  Manchester  locomotive  works 
have  failed;  the  Amoskeag,  Lowell,  and 
Mason's  shop  at  Taunton,  have  turned  their 
attention  to  cotton  and  woollen  machinery ; 
and  the  business  has  gone  almost  entirely 
into  the  hands  of  the  Paterson  and  Phila 
delphia  shops.  The  causes  of  this  change 
are  various :  prominent  among  them  may 
be  mentioned  the  manufacture  of  locomo- 


LOCOMOTIVES. 


249 


lives  by  railroad  companies  themselves,  at 
their  repair  shops. 

The  manufacture  of  the  locomotive  engine 
had  a  good  effect  upon  our  machine  shops, 
independent  of  the  work  it  furnished ;  as  in 
order  to  construct  them  a  variety  of  improved 
tools  were  made,  that  have  greatly  added  to 
the  facility  for  turning  out  other  machinery. 
These  improvements  are  so  marked  that  no 
one  who  is  familiar  with  the  machine  shop 
can  help  noticing  them. 

Coal  is  now  rapidly  superseding  wood  as 
fuel  for  the  locomotive.  It  is  true  that  some 
of  our  first  engines  were  coal-burners,  but 
•wood  has  been  for  years  the  principal  fuel 
used.  The  American  engine  has  several 
marked  distinctions  from  the  English ;  what 
most  strikes  the  eye  of  the  common  observer 
is  the  cab,  or  house  for  the  protection  of  the 
engineer;  this  is  peculiar  to  our  locomo 
tive.  The  smoke  stack  is  also  very  different 
in  the  wood-burning  engine  from  that  in  use 
on  coal-burners.  The  auxiliary  pump  is  used 
on  some  of  our  engines,  but  not  to  so  great 
an  extent  as  it  should  be. 

A  first-class  locomotive  engine  costs  about 
ten  thousand  dollars,  and  an  average  taken 
from  one  of  our  largest  roads  shows  a  cost 
of  about  eleven  hundred  dollars  per  year  for 
repairs.  Locomotives  in  this  country  are 
built  much  too  large  for  the  Avork  they  have 
to  accomplish,  and  the  attention  of  our 
master  machinists  having  lately  been  much 
attracted  to  this  subject,  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  some  improvements  in  the  weight  will 
be  made.  A  locomotive  too  heavy  for  the 
work  it  has  to  do,  is  not  only  more  expen 
sive  in  first  cost,  but  in  the  greater  wear  of 
the  road.  A  good  locomotive  can  draw  thirty 
times  its  own  weight  on  a  level,  and  a  paying 
load  should  not  exceed  twenty-five  tons; 
bearing  this  in  mind,  why  build  twenty-six 
ton  engines?  There  are  many  parts  of  an 
engine  now  built  much  too  heavy ;  the  bell, 
dome-casings,  and  cabs,  for  instance.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  greatly  lessen  the  weight  of 
the  rti lining  gear,  although  in  some  instan 
ces  this  is  much  too  heavy.  Wrought  iron 
in  place  of  cast  in  some  cases  would  be 
lighter  and  much  better,  and  steel  should  be 
substituted  for  iron  wherever  possible.  The 
speed  over  the  American  roads  is  not  so 
great  as  in  England,  from  the  fact  that  the 
former  have  more  and  steeper  grades,  and 
have,  besides,  shorter  curves,  to  say  nothing 
about  their  construction  being  much  less 
expensive.  Sixty  miles  per  hour  has  been 


made  upon  our  roads,  however,  but  thirty  is 
nearer  an  average,  while  in  England  seventy 
miles  has  frequently  been  attained. 

Dr.  Lardner,  in  his  lately  published  "Econ 
omy  of  Railroads,"  thus  endeavors  to  convey 
to  the  unpractised  reader  the  enormous  speed 
of  a  locomotive  going  at  the  rate  of  seventy 
miles  an  hour  :  "  Seventy  miles  an  hour  is, 
in  round  numbers,  one  hundred  and  five  feet 
per  second,  that  is  a  motion  in  virtue  of 
which  a  passenger  is  carried  over  thirty-five 
yards  between  the  beats  of  a  common  clock. 
Two  objects  near  him,  a  yard  asunder,  pass 
by  his  eye  in  the  thirty-fifth  part  of  a  sec 
ond  ;  and  if  thirty-five  stakes  were  erected 
by  the  side  of  the  road,  one  yard  asunder, 
the  whole  would  pass  his  eye  between  two 
beats  of  a  clock ;  if  they  had  any  strong 
color,  such  as  red,  they  would  appear  a  con 
tinuous  flash  of  red.  At  such  a  speed, 
therefore,  the  objects  on  the  side  of  the  road 
are  not  distinguishable.  When  two  trains, 
having  this  speed,  pass  each  other,  the  rela 
tive  velocity  will  be  double  this,  or  seventy 
yards  per  second ;  and  if  one  of  the  trains 
were  seventy  yards  long,  it  would  flash  by  in 
a  single  second.  To  accomplish  this,  suppo 
sing  the  driving  wheels  seven  feet  in  diame 
ter,  the  piston  must  change  its  direction  in 
the  cylinder  ten  times  in  a  second.  But 
there  are  two  cylinders,  and  the  mechanism 
is  so  regulated  that  the  discharges  of  steam 
are  alternate.  There  are,  therefore,  twenty 
discharges  of  steam  per  second,  at  equal  in 
tervals  ;  and  thus  these  twenty  pufts  divide 
a  second  into  twenty  equal  parts,  each  puff 
having  the  twentieth  of  a  second  between 
it  and  that  which  precedes  and  follows  it. 
The  ear,  like  the  eye,  is  limited  in  the  rapid 
ity  of  its  sensations,  and  sensitive  as  that 
organ  is,  it  is  not  capable  of  distinguishing 
monotonous  sounds  which  succeed  each 
other  at  intervals  of  the  twentieth  part  of  a 
second.  According  to  the  experiments  of 
Dr.  Hutton,  the  flight  of  a  cannon  ball  was 
six  thousand  seven  hundred  feet  in  one 
quarter  of  a  minute,  equal  to  five  miles  per 
minute,  or  three  hundred  miles  per  hour. 
It  follows,  therefore,  that  a  railway  train, 
going  at  the  rate  of  seventy-five  miles  per 
hour,  has  the  velocity  of  one-fourth  that  of 
a  cannon  ball ;  and  the  momentum  of  such 
a  mass,  moving  at  such  a  speed,  is  equiva 
lent  to  the  aggregate  force  of  a  number  of 
cannon  balls  equal  to  one-fourth  of  its  own 
weight." 

Some   years   ago   a  curious   calculation^ 


250 


STEAM. 


showing  one  of  the  advantages  of  the  steam 
locomotive,  was  made  in  England.  "  In  1853, 
111,000,000  passengers  were  conveyed,  each 
passenger  travelling  an  average  of  twelve 
miles.  Twelve  miles  of  railroad  are  accom 
plished  in  half  an  hour,  whereas  the  old 
stage  coach  required  an  hour  and  a  half  to 
get  through  the  distance.  The  aggregate 
time  thus  saved  for  the  above  number  of 
passengers  is  equal  to  thirty-eight  thousand 
years."  This  was  seven  years  ago,  since 
which  time  the  number  of  passengers  carried 
has  been  nearly  doubled. 

Mr.  Fleming,  on  the  Mobile  &  Ohio  rail 
road,  and  some  other  master  mechanics,  have 
adopted  the  plan  of  paying  the  engineers  a 
certain  fixed  salary,  and  then  giving  prizes 
to  those  who  save  the  most  fuel  to  the  mile 
run.  It  is  also  customary  to  place  the  in 
spection  of  wood  to  be  used  under  the  en 
gineer's  care,  he  having  the  choice  of  the 
stations  at  which  he  will  take  in  wood. 
With  these  two  regulations  the  company  get 
better  wood  at  the  same  price,  as  it  is  di 
rectly  to  the  engineer's  interest  to  carefully 
examine  the  quality,  quantity,  and  price  of 
every  load  of  wood  he  takes  on.  So  great 
has  been  the  economy  of  this  plan,  that 
it  is  strange  that  every  one  does  not 
adopt  it. 

Another  important  item  in  the  running 
expenses  of  the  locomotive  is  the  oil  and 
waste.  The  latter  is  used  to  wipe  the 
machinery,  not  only  on  account  of  the  looks, 
but  to  prevent  its  gumming  up  with  oil  and 
dirt.  The  average  cost  of  oil,  waste,  and 
tallow,  taken  from  some  of  our  largest  roads, 
is  seventy-five  hundredths  of  a  cent  per 
mile  run ;  and  as  engines  average  some  fif 
teen  thousand  miles  per  year,  we  have  a 
total  cost,  in  three  small  items,  of  one  mill 
ion  dollars  per  year  in  the  United  States 
alone. 

Before  leaving  the  subject  of  steam  loco 
motives,  we  wish  to  speak  of  the  Dummy 
engine,  or  steam  car  for  city  railroads.  We 
know  that  this  use  of  steam  has  met  with 
great  opposition  from  all  classes  of  men  ; 
but  what  are  the  arguments?  In  the  first 
place  they  say  :  "  Oh !  the  steam  car  is 
much  more  dangerous  than  horses."  Why  ? 
"  Because  it  is  more  difficult  to  stop,  and  it 
goes  so  much  faster."  What  is  the  truth  ? 
It  is  much  easier  to  stop  a  steam  car  than 
one  drawn  by  horses,  inasmuch  as  we  have 
not  only  the  same  brakes,  but  the  power  of 
reversing  the  engine  in  an  emergency.  As 


to  the  cars  being  run  faster,  our  laws  against 
fast  driving  are  as  potent  in  the  one  case  as 
in  the  other ;  and  by  Darker's  arrangement, 
it  is  impossible  for  the  car  to  go  over  a  given 
speed — the  governor  being  attached  to  the 
brake.  The  second  argument  against  steam 
cars  is  that  the  noise  and  smoke  will  frighten 
horses.  The  noise  and  smoke  can  both  be 
avoided,  and  it  has  been  proved  that  horses 
are  not  more  liable  to  start  than  at  the  sight 
of  a  buffalo  robe.  The  argument  as  to  ex 
pense  has  been  entirely  thrown  aside ;  still, 
but  few  know  the  great  advantage  in  this 
respect  that  steam  has  over  horse  power.  A 
number  of  our  lines  average  seven  horses  to 
a  car  (in  Boston  they  average  eight),  in 
order  to  have  the  necessary  relays;  seven 
good  horses  for  this  purpose  are  worth,  say, 
eight  hundred  dollars ;  the  feed,  care,  and 
stable-room  of  each  horse  averages,  say  three 
dollars  and  fifty  cents  per  week ;  so  that  a  line 
with  forty  cars  is  under  the  enormous  annual 
expense,  for  horse-care  and  keep  alone,  of 
$50,960  !  Now  then  for  steam.  The  first  cost 
of  an  engine  and  steam  generator,  with  all  the 
necessary  appurtenances,  will  be  no  more,  if  as 
much,  as  the  seven  horses  to  each  car.  Keep 
ing  the  engine  in  repair  would  incur  no  more 
expense  than  shoeing  horses,  renewing  har 
ness,  etc.  It  would  cost  no  more  to  replace 
them  than  to  replace  worn-out  horses.  The 
engines,  to  be  of  sufficient  capacity  to  over 
come  our  steepest  grades,  will  consume  eight 
bushels  of  coke  per  day  (a  high  estimate), 
running  sixteen  hours,  the  price  of  which  at 
present  is  five  cents  per  bushel ;  but,  suppo 
sing  the  extra  demand  to  cause  an  advance 
of  a  hundred  per  cent. — which  is  hardly  v 
likely,  for  even  a  less  increase  in  price  would 
cause  many  private  families  and  others  to 
cease  using  it — the  fuel  expense  in  one  year, 
to  a  company  with  forty  cars,  would  be 
$9,984 ;  making  the  difference  in  cost, 
in  one  year,  between  steam  and  horses, 
of  840,976.  Think  of  it!  $40,976  saved 
to  a  company  with  forty  cars,  in  one  year 
(over  $1,000  per  car),  after  putting  down 
the  fuel  at  double  its  present  price.  Coke 
is  preferable,  because  it  is  clean  to  handle, 
ignites  quick,  emits  no  smoke,  is  light  and 
cheap,  and  requires  a  much  less  draught  than 
coai.  To  save  cumbrous  and  useless  weight 
as  much  as  possible,  it  is  proposed  to  carry 
very  little  fuel,  except  what  is  on  the  fire, 
nor  unnecessary  extra  water  either,  the  tank 
and  bin  to  be  replenished  at  the  depot  each 
trip,  while  waiting  its  time. 


LOCOMOTIVES. 


251 


Were  the  different  companies  to  offer,  as 
an  inducement,  to  reduce  the  fare  to  three 
cents,  on  condition  that  the  community  would 
permit  the  use  of  steam,  they  would  anni 
hilate  all  groundless  opposition  on  the  part 
of  the  masses,  which  is  every  thing  with  us ; 
and  the  enormous  increase  of  "  short  rides," 
occasioned  by  the  reduction  of  fare,  would 
make  the  receipts  greater  than  at  present ; 
and  as  the  saving  in  favor  of  steam  is  quite 
$1,000  a  year  per  car,  the  value  of  the  stock 
would  be  increased  prodigiously.  If  there 
could  be  any  serious  objection  urged  against 
using  steam,  in  this  age  of  improvements, 
with  the  plans  of  safety  here  laid  down, 
other  than  those  suggested  by  "old  fogy- 
ism,"  all  the  advantages  we  have  enumerated 
would  weigh  little  in  its  favor ;  but  when  it 
can  be  so  arranged  as  to  be  actually  safer 
than  horse  power,  we  think  the  time  has 
come  to  put  it  thoroughly  to  the  test,  at  all 
events. 

Among  the  plans  for  city  cars  that  have 
been  suggested  and  built,  we  may  mention 
those  of  Latta,  of  Cincinnati ;  Baldwin ; 
Grice  &  Long ;  and  Darker,  of  Philadelphia. 
Latta's  engine  is  in  a  separate  car  from  the 
passengers  ;  Baldwin's  has  its  machinery  be 
neath  the  car,  and  its  boiler  in  front;  and 
Darker  places  his  entire  engine  and  boiler 
upon  the  roof,  connecting  with  the  wheels 
on  the  outside,  near  the  centre.  Grice  & 
Long's  car  is  thus  fitted:  the  engines  and 
boiler  are  on  the  front  platform ;  the  engines 
slightly  inclined,  and  graded  to  the  front 
axle ;  the  axle  being  placed  at  the  extreme 
end  of  the  car,  for  the  purpose  of  making 
the  connection,  and  increasing  the  stability 
of  the  wheels.  The  boiler  is  of  the  ordinary 
vertical,  tubular  type  ;  the  after  part  of  the 
car  is  finished  with  a  self-adjusting,  vibrating 
truck,  for  the  purpose  of  turning  the  short 
curves  of  city  roads.  The  running  of  this 
car  has  afforded  the  utmost  satisfaction. 
With  a  full  complement  of  passengers,  it  has 
ascended  the  heaviest  railway  grades  in 
Philadelphia  county;  some  of  which  exceed 
three  hundred  and  seventy  feet  to  the  mile, 
embracing  sharp  curves.  The  whole  ar 
rangement  is  simple  and  compact ;  can  be 
applied  to  the  horse  cars  now  in  use,  and 
will  give  them  a  greater  number  of  seats 
than  they  now  afford.  These  steam  cars 
"burn  anthracite  coal,  and  have  open  ex 
hausts  ;  thus  avoiding  the  two  most  promi 
nent  objections  urged  against  street  locomo 
tives,  smoke  and  noise.  The  American  and 


Gazette,  of  Philadelphia,  describes  a  trip 
made  last  March  in  this  car,  from  which  we 
extract  the  following: — 

"The  road  traversed  is  a  very  rough  one, 
built  cheaply  of  cast  iron  rails,  which  are 
shorter  than  those  of  wrought  iron  used  in 
the  city  streets ;  and  as  the  material  is  less 
durable,  the  joints  are  well  worn,  and  the 
travelling  good  for  dyspeptics.  There  are 
also  some  sharp  curves  and  steep  grades, 
which  are  calculated  to  test  the  power  of  a1* 
locomotive.  But  with  all  these  difficulties 
the  car  made  its  trip  in  thirty  minutes,  against 
forty-five  usually  taken  by  the  horse  cars. 
It  was  really  agreeable  travelling,  too,  for  the 
car  was  heated  by  steam  pipes,  so  that  it  was 
as  comfortable  inside  as  in  a  parlor.  There 
is  no  escape  of  smoke,  as  the  engine  con 
sumes  only  anthracite,  and  uses  up  its  own 
gas ;  nor  is  there  escape  steam,  that  be 
ing  carefully  provided  against.  Thus,  when 
the  locomotive  is  under  full  headway,  there 
is  no  puffing  or  blowing,  no  wheezing  to  be 
heard  outside,  and,  in  fact,  nothing  to  frighten 
a  horse.  On  the  road,  all  sorts  of  vehicles 
were  encountered,  drawn  by  every  descrip 
tion  of  horse,  from  the  thorough-bred  to  the 
common  draught  horse;  they  were  passed 
at  the  ordinary  pace  and  without  stopping, 
but  none  of  them  took  fright ;  and  this 
settles  clearly  enough  that  the  steamer  will 
not  frighten  horses.  The  car  is  warmed  in 
winter  by  steam  pipes  along  the  floor.  Yes 
terday  was  a  raw,  disagreeable  day,  and  we 
had  occasion  to  observe  that  the  car  was 
comfortably  warmed  by  these  pipes.  The 
temperature,  too,  may  be  increased  or  di 
minished,  at  the  will  of  the  engineer,  an  im 
portant  consideration  in  our  variable  climate. 
In  summer  the  steam  car  may  also  be  kept 
cool  by  the  same  agency  which  heats  it,  by 
simply  attaching  a  steam  fan  to  the  engine, 
the  fan  to  be  stationed  in  the  centre  of  the 
roof  of  the  car." 

Thus  much  for  the  first  experiment  of  any 
note  that  has  been  tried  upon  the  street  rail 
road.  It  was,  in  our  opinion,  a  decided  suc 
cess,  and  should  wake  up  our  city  railroad 
companies  to  action ;  this  old  war  between 
horses  and  steam  is  renewed,  but  we  hope  it 
will  soon  have  its  final  quietus. 

We  will  conclude  this  chapter  with  an 
anecdote  of  the  first  engine  introduced  upon 
the  Baltimore  and  Susquehanna  railroad. 
This  road  was  built  to  run  with  horses,  and 
in  some  of  the  first  circulars  issued  by  thfe 
company,  the  road  was  spoken  of  as  being 


252 


STEAM. 


delightfully  picturesque,  winding  among 
beautiful  scenery,  and  forming  a  most  inter 
esting  ride — rather  different  from  the  em 
peror  of  Russia's  idea  of  a  railroad,  which 
he  laid  out  with  a  ruler,  by  describing  a 
straight  line  from  Moscow  to  St.  Petersburg. 
Against  the  wish  of  the  president  of  the 
company  an  engine  was  imported  from  Eng 
land  in  the  brig  Herald,  about  the  year  1830, 
and  was  put  upon  the  road  under  the  man 
agement  of  an  English  engineer.  While 
standing  upon  the  track  one  day,  fired  up 
and  ready  to  start,  the  president,  who  was 
absent  on  her  arrival,  came  down  to  look  at 
the  strange  animal.  He  was  accompanied 
by  one  of  the  directors,  who  had  already  ex 
amined  the  iron  steed  and  was*  desirous  of 
exhibiting  it  to  the  best  advantage.  The 
engineer  being  temporarily  absent,  the  two 
mounted  upon  the  platform.  "  Thee  sees, 
friend,"  said  the  director,  "this  lever;  well, 
by  drawing  it  toward  thee  (suiting  the  action 
to  the  word ),  the  machine  will  retreat,  and 
by  pushing  it  from  thee,  it  will  advance ; 
thus  the  competent  man  can  handle  it  as 
readily  as  thee  can  drive  a  horse.  If  thee 
turns  this  little  crank  the  steam  will  com 
mence  working,  and  the  engine  will  start." 
And  sure  enough  the  engine  did  start,  for 
the  honest  Quaker,  in  order  fully  to  explain 
its  action,  had  opened  the  throttle.  Away 
went  the  iron  horse,  affrighting  them  out  of 
all  presence  of  mind,  and  increasing  in  ve 
locity  at  each  stroke  of  the  piston,  until  it 
reached  one  of  the  picturesque  curves  that 
had  so  much  delighted  the  president,  where, 
with  one  bound,  it  left  the  track  and  turned 
a  summersault  down  the  embankment.  Both 
parties  were  hurt,  but  most  fortunately  es 
caped  with  their  lives. 


CHAPTER   IV. 
STATIONARY    ENGINES. 

THIS  is  the  oldest  form,  being  but  a  modi 
fication  of  the  first  steam  pumping  engines ; 
not  being  confined  to  space  as  in  the  loco 
motive  and  marine  engine,  these  machines 
have  admitted  of  a  greater  variation  of  form, 
and  a  better  chance  of  artistic  display  than 
any  other,  consequently  we  have  many  in 
stances  of  elaborate  workmanship  and  a 
great  variety  of  design.  The  majority  of 
stationary  engines  in  use  may  be  divided  as 
follows :  the  beam,  the  horizontal,  the  steeple, 


the  oscillating,  and  the  rotary  engine.  The 
beam  engines  are  commonly  low-pressure  or 
condensing,  and  are  mainly  used  for  pump 
ing,  or  where  great  power  is  required ;  the 
motion  of  the  piston  is  communicated  by 
the  working-beam  to  the  pump  or  crank 
shaft  at  the  opposite  side  of  the  machine. 
The  horizontal  engine  is  probably  the  most 
used  at  a  high  pressure  in  this  country  ;  its 
advantage  is  the  facility  with  which  it  is 
put  up,  and  its  steady  working;  every  part 
being  firmly  attached  to  a  solid  bed,  requir 
ing  but  little  bracing  to  keep  it  in  place. 
The  disadvantage  of  a  horizontal  engine  is 
the  unequal  wear  of  the  cylinder,  due  to  the 
gravity  of  the  piston.  The  steeple  or  verti 
cal  engine  has,  like  the  beam  engine,  an  up 
right  cylinder,  but  is  connected  directly  to 
the  main  shaft  above  or  below.  In  all  the 
above-named  engines  the  cylinder  is  station 
ary,  and  the  reciprocating  motion  is  changed 
into  rotary  by  means  of  a  cross-head,  slides, 
and  connecting-rod ;  in  the  oscillating  engine 
the  cylinder  vibrates  upon  trunions,  placed 
sometimes  at  its  centre,  and  sometimes  at  its 
end  ;  thus  allowing  the  piston  to  be  coupled 
to  the  crank,  and  doing  away  with  the  cross- 
head  and  slides.  The  advantages  of  this  en 
gine  are  its  reduced  size  and  expense.  In  the 
horizontal  and  other  engines  the  steam  valve 
is  moved  by  an  eccentric,  but  in  some  oscil 
lators  the  trunion  box  forms  a  self-working 
valve  both  for  induction  at  the  one  side  and 
eduction  at  the  other.  The  disadvantages  of 
an  oscillator  are  the  liability  to  overheat  its 
trunions  and  the  difficulty  of  keeping  them 
tight.  An  oscillator  costs  less  at  the  start, 
but  requires  more  oil,  and  is  of  doubtful 
economy. 

The  change  of  the  reciprocating  into  the 
rotary  motion  was  a  problem  for  many  years, 
and  the  idea  that  there  was  a  great  loss  of 
momentum  in  the  constant  stopping  and 
starting  of  the  piston  at  each  end  of  the 
stroke  induced  many  mechanics  to  study 
some  method  of  obtaining  a  direct  rotary 
motion,  or,  in  other  words,  to  produce  a  ro 
tary  piston.  It  was  at  once  evident  to  the 
merest  novice  that  a  rotary  engine  would  be 
in  reality  a  rotary  pump  reversed,  and  con 
sequently  the  rotary  engines  bear  so  strong 
a  resemblance  to  the  oldest  rotary  pump  as 
to  instantly  strike  the  eye  of  any  one  who 
has  seen  the  two.  One  of  the  most  suc 
cessful  rotary  engines  of  to-day  is  that  of 
Holly,  of  Seneca  Falls,  New  York,  and  this 
is  only  a  modification  of  Murdoch's  rotary 


STATIONARY     ENGINES. 


253 


engine,  which  is,  in  turn,  a  perfect  copy  of  an 
old  pump  taken  from  Serviere's  collection. 
It  may  be  thus  described :  two  cog-wheels 
fitted  accurately  to  each  other  are  inclosed 
in  a  case ;  each  cog  is  grooved  and  fitted 
with  packing,  bringing  it  into  steam-tight 
contact  with  the  circumference  and  sides  of 
the  case.  The  axles  of  the  cog-wheels  are 
continued  through  the  sides  of  the  case,  and 
geared  together  at  each  end  to  prevent 
friction  upon  the  centre  cogs ;  now,  if  re 
volved,  each  cog  will  act  as  a  piston,  but  as 
the  cogs  in  contact  in  the  centre  lap  each 
other,  the  piston  surface  at  each  extreme  of 
the  case  will  be  just  double  that  of  the 
centre,  and  this  surplus  of  force  gives  mo 
tion  to  the  two  axles.  The  pump  of  which 
tliis  engine  is  a  copy  was  invented  as  long 
ago  as  the  sixteenth  century. 

A  patent  was  obtained  in  England  in  1825 
by  Mr.  J.  Eve,  an  American.  AVithin  a 
cylindrical  case  a  hollow  drum  was  so  con 
structed  as  to  fit  closely  to  the  case ;  floats, 
or  pistons,  were  cast  upon  its  periphery,  and 
packed  to  fit  the  cylinder ;  on  one  side  of 
the  main  cylinder  was  a  small  recess  filled 
with  a  small  drum,  that  revolved  in  contact 
with  the  main  drum,  this  small  drum  having 
a  segment  removed  to  receive  each  piston  as 
it  passed,  and  having  its  diameter  so  pro 
portioned  to  the  main  drum  as  to  revolve 
once  between  the  passage  of  each  piston  or 
float.  Other  rotary  engines,  on  a  plan  anal 
ogous  to  the  above,  differing  only  in  the 
manner  of  opening  the  valve,  have  been  in 
vented,  and  copied  from  the  ancients,  some 
of  which  are  exceedingly  complicated,  but 
they  have  always  been  unsuccessful  in  prac 
tice,  principally  from  the  fact  that  it  is  ex 
ceedingly  difficult  to  pack  them.  If  they 
could  overcome  this  fault  without  adding 
friction,  the  rotary  engine  would  be  very 
valuable  on  account  of  the  small  space  it 
occupies. 

The  demand  for  stationary  engines,  from 
one  horse  power  upward,  during  the  last 
twenty-five  years,  has  been  so  great  that  now 
almost  any  machine  shop  is  prepared  to  build 
them,  and  of  course,  while  such  is  the  case, 
thousands  of  engines  are  annually  built  that 
would  better  bear  the  name  of  steam  eaters 
than  steam  engines.  In  some  of  the  small 
engines  that  flood  the  market,  the  first 
principles  of  steam  are  practically  ignored, 
and  there  are  at  this  moment  running  in  the 
United  States  engines  that  consume  more 
coal  to  do  the  work  of  ten  horses  than  a 


properly-constructed  one  would  use  to  do 
the  work  of  twenty.  As  an  instance  of  the 
truth  of  this  statement,  we  will  take  the 
engines  built  by  Messrs.  Corliss  &  Nighten 
gale,  of  Providence,  over  an  engine  that 
was  working  to  good  advantage  in  the 
James  Mills,  Newburyport,  but  was  re 
moved  on  the  representation  of  the  build 
ers  of  the  new  machine,  that  they  would 
take  five  times  the  saving  of  the  first  year's 
fuel  as  sole  payment  of  their  engine.  The 
James  Steam  Mills  contained  17,024  spin 
dles,  and,  including  the  weaving  and  all 
the  preparations  for  making  sheeting  and 
shirtings,  required  a  hundred  and  ninety 
horse  power  ;  their  engines  were  condensers ; 
cylinders,  twenty-four  inches  by  four  feet 
length  of  stroke.  Ten  thousand  four  hun 
dred  and  eighty-three  pounds  of  coal  per  day 
was  the  average  amount  used  during  five 
years  previous  to  the  contract  for  the  new 
engines  ;  this  included  the  coal  used  for 
dressing,  heating,  and  all  other  purposes  for 
which  steam  is  used  in  such  an  establish 
ment.  The  new  engines  Avere  high-pressure 
cylinders,  eighteen  inches  by  four  feet  stroke. 
By  the  terms  of  contract  under  which  the 
change  of  engines  was  made,  it  was  at  the 
option  of  the  company  to  pay  for  the  new 
arrangement  the  sum  of  ten  thousand  five 
hundred  dollars  cash  in  lieu  of  the  saving 
of  coal ;  but  the  choice  was  to  be  made  be 
fore  the  new  engines  Avere  put  in  operation. 
In  view  of  the  favorable  results  obtained  by 
the  former  engines,  they  decided  to  pay  in 
the  saving  of  fuel.  The  new  engines  were 
run  one  year  from  December  3d,  1855,  and 
the  average  amount  of  coal  used  per  day 
was  found  to  be  five  thousand  six  hundred 
and  ninety  pounds.  The  coal  being  reck 
oned  at  six  dollars  per  ton,  Messrs.  Corliss 
&  Nightengale  received  nineteen  thousand 
seven  hundred  and  thirty-four  dollars  and 
twenty-two  cents.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  builders  received  nearly  double  price 
for  their  engine,  and  yet  it  cost  the  owners 
of  the  mill  nothing  for  a  machine  that  was 
destined  to  be  a  source  of  great  saving  in 
their  future  expenses. 

The  singular  character  of  Mr.  Corliss'  bar 
gains  attracted  much  attention  to  his  en 
gines,  as  they  showed  conclusively  the  ad 
vantages  thereof  over  the  old  plans.  The 
above  experiment  was  a  comparison  between 
his  engine  and  what  had  been  considered 
a  good  machine  ;  in  the  following,  however, 
we  see  its  great  advantages  over  a  more  or- 


254 


STEAM. 


dinary  engine.  In  March,  1852,  Mr.  Corliss 
contracted  with  Crocker  Brothers  &  Co., 
of  Taunton,  Massachusetts,  to  furnish  them 
with  an  engine  that  would  do  the  same  work 
they  were  then  doing  with  five  tons  of  coal 
per  day,  and  yet  only  consume  two ;  agree 
ing  to  forfeit  one  dollar  per  pound,  for  every 
pound  per  day  used  above  that  amount. 
This  contract  was  successfully  filled  without 
taking  out  the  old  boilers. 

Mr.  Corliss'  engines  possessed,  as  may  be 
readily  supposed,  several  important  improve 
ments,  one  of  which  was  the  manner  by 
which  its  speed  was  regulated.  Watt 
regulated  by  connecting  the  governor  with 
the  throttle-valve ;  Corliss  used  no  throttle- 
valve,  but  connected  the  governor  direct  to 
the  cut-off.  This  connection  of  the  gover 
nor  was  not  of  itself  the  improvement  of 
Mr.  Corliss,  as  that  had  already  been  done 
by  others ;  but  it  was  the  manner  by  which 
this  connection  was  made,  which  was  at  once 
simple  and  efficacious,  for  which  he  deserves 
credit.  The  use  of  the  throttle-valve  was 
always  attended  with  a  wire-drawing  of  the 
steam.  This  wire-drawing  is  a  reduction  of 
the  expansive  force  of  the  steam,  and  is  al 
ways  attended  with  more  or  less  condensa 
tion  ;  so  that  every  form  of  cut-off,  used 
with  a  throttle,  is  more  or  less  imperfect. 
By  thus  dispensing  with  the  throttle-valve 
altogether,  and  opening  the  steam-valve  sud 
denly,  the  pressure  of  steam  in  the  cylinder 
approximates  very  closely  to  the  boiler  pres 
sure.  The  valves  in  the  Corliss  engine  are 
circular;  and  by  his  automatic  method  of 
varying  the  point  of  cut-off,  he  gains  a  great 
advantage,  as  he  cuts  off  suddenly  without 
danger  of  slamming,  as  in  the  use  of  the 
puppet-valve. 

We  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  to  say 
that  the  Corliss  engines  are  the  best  in  the 
market ;  they  are  among  the  best ;  and  we 
have  dwelt  thus  long  on  some  of  their  merits 
in  order  to  contrast  them  with  others. 
When  we  add  the  fact  that  one-half  of  the 
stationary  engines  in  the  United  States  are 
run  by  boys  or  men  not  capable  of  manag 
ing  a  modern  cooking-stove,  the  reader  can 
realize  to  some  extent  the  economy  of  cheap 
(?)  engines  and  cheap  (?)  engineers.  Steam 
is  a  good  slave  but  a  bad  master  ;  and  the 
fearful  loss  of  life  in  the  United  States 
during  the  past  forty  years,  from  the  explo 
sion  of  steam  boilers,  is  mainly  due  to  bad 
management.  Boilers  are  in  constant  use 
all  over  the  country,  carrying  a  pressure 


double — nay,  triple — that  for  which  they 
were  intended ;  the  safety  (?)  valve  weight 
ed  down  by  old  pieces  of  iron,  stones,  etc., 
to  such  an  extent  that  the  runner  no  more 
knows  what  pressure  he  is  using,  than  does 
the  stranger  who  is  passing  his  door.  In 
thousands  of  cases  the  steam-gauge,  which, 
at  least,  gives  the  pressure  when  in  order, 
is  not  used,  or  never  tested ;  and  what  was 
intended  as  a  preventive,  becomes,  by  a  stop 
page  in  the  connecting  pipe  or  a  derange 
ment  of  its  machinery,  a  source  of  treach 
erous  security.  Many  a  man,  on  being  asked 
why  he  does  not  use  a  steam-gauge,  .will  re 
ply  that  they  are  not  reliable,  or  that  the 
safety-valve  is  good  enough ;  and  yet  that 
same  man  is  perhaps  employing  an  engineer 
that  could  not  calculate,  to  save  his  life,  the 
amount  of  pressure  he  was  carrying,  or,  the 
size  of  his  safety-valve  being  given,  tell  its 
area  in  square  inches.  "We  can  point  out 
places  where  the  engines,  beautifully  de 
signed  and  executed  in  their  details,  are 
nothing  but  a  mass  of  slime  and  grease  from, 
bed-plate  to  cylinder-head,  the  deposit  of 
no  one  knows  how  many  weeks  of  inatten 
tion  and  neglect,  while  a  stolid  runner  sits 
calmly  by,  as  though  rather  admiring  the 
state  of  things  than  otherwise.  When  such 
is  the  case  where  every  thing  is  visible,  where 
is  the  necessity  of  looking  among  the  usual 
ly  unsearched  portions  of  the  machine  for 
safety  and  economy." 

A  steam  boiler  blew  up  in  Brooklyn  a 
few  months  ago,  and  we  went  over  to  exam 
ine  it ;  we  were  told  the  engineer  had  run 
an  engine  for  some  time.  Whether  this 
was  true  or  not,  the  man  was  one  who  did 
not  understand  his  business,  as  is  sufficiently 
evident  from  the  following  reasons :  his 
pump  was  small,  but  sufficiently  large  if  in 
good  order — which  it  certainly  was  not ;  we 
took  out  the  piston  with  ease,  and  put  it  back 
again  readily,  although  it  was  entirely  cov 
ered  with  the  coarse  gravel  and  sand  thrown 
about  by  the  explosion.  The  safety-valve 
was  held  in  its  place  by  a  rod  passing  through 
a  plate ;  this  rod,  originally  a  good  fit,  was 
so  firmly  rusted  in  its  place,  that  all  the  force 
we  could  exert  on  the  end  of  the  lever  was 
not  sufficient  to  move  it.  We  unscrewed 
this  plate,  and  it  required  two  or  three  smart 
blows  of  the  hammer  to  drive  the  rod  out. 
In  our  opinion,  it  would  have  taken  not  less 
than  twelve  hundred  pounds  in  the  boiler  to 
have  started  that  valve,  allowing  that  it  had 
the  weight  upon  it  that  we  saw.  The  owner 


STATIONARY     ENGINES. 


255 


stated  that  the  valve  always  leaked  more  or 
less  ;  but  on  looking  at  it  we  were  convinced 
that  if  it  rested  upon  its  seat,  it  never  could 
have  leaked,  as  it  was  a  ground  joint  and  a 
good  one.  We  consequently  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  valve  was  not  held  in  its 
place  by  the  weight  on  the  lever,  but  simply 
by  the  rust  on  the  valve-rod  or  stem,  the 
weight  at  the  end  having  nothing  to  do  with 
it.  The  safety-valve  was  bolted  on  to  the 
steam  dome  with  four  5-8  bolts,  and  was 
evidently  blown  off  at  the  same  instant  as 
the  flue  collapsed,  as  it  was  found  in  the 
shop  near  the  engine,  while  the  boiler  was 
thrown  at  least  seventy-five  feet  against  a 
house. 

We  might  name  scores  of  other  accidents 
resulting  from  similar  causes,  of  which  the 
above  is  a  fair  sample ;  but  it  is  evident 
enough,  from  what  we  have  already  said,  that 
there  is  a  want  in  the  community  yet  un 
filled — one  that  should  receive  the  careful 
attention  of  every  public  man.  What  we 
need  is  a  law  compelling  the  owners  of  steam 
boilers  to  have  them  inspected  at  least  once 
a  year,  and  properly  provided  with  safety- 
valves  and  other  trustworthy  appliances;  it 
also  should  be  imperatively  their  duty  to 
employ  engineers,  and  not  mere  runners.  A 
la\v  framed  upon  the  United  States  steam 
boat  inspection  plan  would  be  of  incalcula 
ble  benefit  to  the  owners  themselves,  as  well 
as  the  community  at  large. 

The  gradual  introduction  of  the  station 
ary  engine  has  been  of  infinite  value  to  our 
country  as  it  is,  but  if  rendered  safe  as  it 
might  be,  its  value  would  be  increased  four 
fold.  It  is  now  no  longer  necessary  that 
the  manufacturer  should  locate  beside  a 
waterfall,  and  transport  his  manufactured 
goods  for  miles  to  a  market ;  he  can  estab 
lish  himself  beside  the  railroad,  the  steam 
boat,  nay,  in  the  city  itself,  where  his  cus 
tomers  dwell.  Thus,  the  stationary  engine 
tends  to  centralize  manufactures,  while  the 
locomotive  and  steamboat  lengthen  the  arms 
of  trade. 

The  portable  engine  has  lately  come  into 
general  use,  and,  like  the  stationary,  is  made 
of  various  forms,  in  all  of  which  it  resembles 
the  latter,  with  the  exception  of  placing  the 
engine  directly  upon,  or  against  the  boiler. 
These  engines  are  used  wherever  it  is  neces 
sary  to  do  work  sufficiently  great  to  pay  for 
them,  but  not  for  permanent  business,  such 
as  pile  driving,  excavating,  etc.  Among  the 
simplest  of  this  class  of  engines,  may  be 


mentioned  Reed's  oscillator,  and  Hittinger, 
Cook  &  Co.'s.  A  portable  engine  manufac 
tured  at  the  Washington  Iron  Works,  con 
tains  all  the  safety  and  economic  appliances 
of  the  best  stationary  engines ;  a  description 
of  these  portable  engines  will  answer  for 
this  class  of  machines.  The  boiler  is  tubu 
lar,  commonly  called  a  locomotive  boiler, 
and  is  mounted  upon  two  large  wheels  at  the 
fire-box  end,  and  two  small  wheels  at  the 
smoke-box  end,  so  fitted  as  to  turn  beneath 
the  barrel.  The  steam  dome  is  over  the  fire 
box,  and  is  fitted  with  safety-valve  and  steam 
gauge.  The  cylinder  is  fastened  to  a  hollow 
frame  that  serves  as  a  feed-water  heater,  and 
is  placed  very  near  the  steam  dome,  thereby 
preventing  radiation  in  the  steam  pipe. 
Upon  the  top  of  the  steam  chest  is  placed 
the  governor.  On  the  front  of  the  boiler 
we  find  the  smoke  pipe,  and,  directly  behind 
it,  the  main  shaft  and  a  pair  of  balance 
wheels.  The  next  matter  of  interest  is  the 
arrangement  of  the  main  slide-valve  of  the 
engine,  which  is  well  known  to  cause  much 
loss  of  power,  in  the  ordinary  construction, 
by  the  friction  caused  by  the  pressure  of 
steam  on  its  back.  This  is  entirely  relieved 
by  a  very  simple  method  in  this  engine. 
The  valve,  Avhich  is  an  ordinary  one,  has  a 
solid  protection  at  each  end,  which  rests  on 
a  roller.  These  rollers  are  made  at  first 
slightly  too  small,  but  the  grinding  away  of 
the  valve  on  its  seat  soon  causes  the  projec 
tions  to  rest  on  the  rollers,  when  all  the  slid 
ing  friction  at  once  ceases,  and  the  valve 
works  free  from  friction  except  that  caused 
by  the  stuffing-box  around  its  rod.  It  is  ev 
ident  that  this  arrangement  will  not  readily 
get  out  of  order,  for  when  the  rollers  wear, 
it  brings  the  valve  on  the  seat,  which  at  once 
begins  to  wear,  and  the  pressure  once  more 
is  brought  on  the  rollers ;  hence,  it  is  self- 
adjusting.  The  rollers  being  removed,  re 
duces  it  to  the  usual  slide-valve. 

The  force  pump  has  been  a  fruitful  source 
of  trouble  to  all  those  who  have  ever  had 
charge  of  a  small  steam  engine  having  a 
quick  motion;  indeed,  it  frequently  gives 
trouble  in  larger  engines,  from  the  accumu 
lation  of  air  in  the  chamber,  which  prevents 
its  suction.  It  is  usual  to  have  attached  to 
the  lower  part  of  the  pump,  or  valve  cham 
ber,  a  small  air-cock,  and,  when  the  pump  is 
to  start,  the  attendant  places  his  finger  on  its 
extremity  as  soon  as  the  plunger  reaches  the 
bottom  of  the  pump,  thus  expelling  the  air ; 
then,  on  the  rise  of  the  plunger,  a  vacuum  is 


256 


STEAM. 


formed,  and  the  pump  fills  with  water;  the 
cock  is  then  closed,  and  the  pump  left  to  it 
self.  As  soon,  however,  as  air  collects  from 
any  defect  of  packing,  or  otherwise,  the 
pump  ceases  to  work,  and  has  to  be  again 
started  as  before.  This  difficulty  is  entirely 
got  rid  of  by  the  simple  contrivance  of  an 
air-trap,  whose  valve,  opening  outward  at 
each  downward  stroke  of  the  pump,  allows 
the  air  to  escape,  accompanied  with  a  little 
water,  and  closes  by  the  atmospheric  pres 
sure  as  the  plunger  rises. 

Within  the  last  five  years,  the  labor  of 
loading  and  unloading  vessels  at  our  wharves 
has  been  performed  by  hoisting  engines. 
These  are  all  run  at  high  pressure,  and  do 
the  work  with  economy  and  dispatch.  One 
of  the  best  of  these  machines  is  made  at 
the  shop  of  Hittinger  &  Cook.  The  steam 
er  Matanzas  carries  one  on  board,  to  use  at 
the  other  end  of  the  route.  The  hoisting  so 
much  resembles  the  portable  engine,  as  not 
to  require  especial  explanation. 

In  most  of  the  steam  sawmills  in  the 
United  States,  the  fuel  consists  of  the  saw 
dust  made  at  the  mills,  and  thus  the  cost  of 
running  is  greatly  reduced;  in  other  en 
gines,  coal  is  almost  exclusively  used.  In 
fact,  the  enormous  amount  of  wood  con 
sumed  by  steam  engines  throughout  the 
United  States,  has  so  called  the  attention  of 
mechanics  to  coal-burning  engines,  that  it  is 
not  probable  we  shall  use  wood  as  fuel 
many  years  longer.  One  of  the  greatest 
fields  for  economy  in  the  use  of  steam,  now 
open,  is  the  waste  of  combustible  gases  by 
the  chimney,  commonly  spoken  of  under  the 
term  smoke,  but  often  consisting  of  the  best 
part  of  the  fuel,  unconsumed  from  the  lack  of 
oxygen,  and,  in  some  cases,  lack  of  caloric. 
Tubes,  to  conduct  atmospheric  air  to  the  sur 
face  of  the  fire,  have  been  in  use  some  time, 
also  the  perforation  of  the  fire  door;  but 
the  tubes  being  exposed  to  an  intense  heat, 
soon  become  of  no  value,  and  the  openings 
at  the  door  and  sides  of  the  fire-box  only 
partially  supply  the  oxygen.  A  Mr.  Pierce, 
of  Troy,  has  patented  a  plan  for  surrounding 
the  air  tubes  with  water,  thus  protecting  a 
passage  direct  to  the  middle  of  the  fire ;  we 
have  not  seen  this  plan  tried,  but  think  it 
would  be  a  source  of  economy. 

Stationary  engines  being  the  most  plenty, 
it  is  upon  them  that  are  tried  nearly  all  the 
new  experiments.  At  the  present  time,  the 
use  of  super-heated  steam  is  attracting  a 
great  deal  of  attention.  In  order  to  under 


stand  this  subject,  it  is  necessary  that  we 
should  look  closely  into  the  nature  of  steam 
itself.  It  would  defeat  the  purpose  of  this 
article  if  we  were  to  go  into  a  lengthy  argu 
ment  upon  the  relative  merits  of  the  various 
theories  that  have  been  advanced  by  scien 
tific  men  upon  steam,  and,  consequently,  we 
shall  merely  give  our.  own  opinions  upon  the 
subject — opinions  at  which  we  have  arrived 
by  careful  study  and  experience,  it  being 
understood  that  the  laws  of  steam  are  at 
best  comparatively  unknown.  The  analyza- 
tion  of  simple  steam  is  yet  to  be  made ;  we 
will,  however,  call  it  water  converted  into 
an  aeriform  state  by  the  electrization  of  its 
particles  by  caloric.  Simple  steam  does  not, 
however,  in  the  present  construction  of  boil 
ers,  come  into  use  as  a  motor,  from  the  follow 
ing  reason :  steam  has  the  same  affinity  for 
liquids  that  all  fluids  have,  forming  an  elec 
tro-magnetic  combination  to  which  there  is 
no  barrier;  it  will  then  absorb  and  hold  in 
suspension  particles  of  water  Avhenever  in 
direct  contact  therewith,  and,  consequently, 
all  steam  formed  in  the  boiler  will  hold  in 
suspension  a  portion  of  water,  and  become, 
in  lieu  of  simple,  surcharged  steam.  Thus, 
steam  at  20  Ibs.  to  the  square  inch  holds 
in  suspension  nearly  double  its  weight  of 
water.  What  is  the  effect  of  this  ?  First, 
the  water  thus  carried  off  in  suspension  is 
at  the  maximum  temperature,  or  equal  to 
that  of  the  steam  containing  it,  and  the  in 
vested  heat  of  this  water  is  not  only  wasted 
to  a  great  extent,  but  these  water  particles 
become  a  very  serious  tax  upon  the  real 
steam  with  which  they  are  admixed,  as  fol 
lows  :  having  been  heated  under  the  maxi 
mum  pressure  of  the  steam  with  which  they 
are  incorporated,  they  have  a  corresponding 
temperature,  and  as  the  latter,  the  steam, 
expands  in  the  steam  pipes,  on  its  way  to 
the  cylinder,  and  in  the  cylinder  itself,  the 
pressure  becoming  correspondingly  less, 
these  particles  flash  partially  into  steam,  but 
not  containing  the  total  amount  of  heat  neces 
sary  to  their  constitution  as  elastic  vapor,  they 
absorb  into  the  "latent"  form  a  quota  of 
heat  from  the  surrounding  particles  of  true 
steam,  thus  condensing  them  ;  for  steam,  be 
it  remembered,  can  part  with  no  portion  of 
its  legitimate  heat  without  condensation 
(unless  it  be  super-heat,  of  which  presently), 
it  being  understood  that  the  absorption  of 
sensible  heat  (temperature)  into  the  "  latent" 
form,  and  which  is  the  exact  measure  of  the 
force  exerted  by  steam  under  all  circum- 


STATIONARY    ENGINES. 


257 


stances,  whether  usefully  realized  or  not,  is 
not  here  meant  as  a  loss  of  heat.  That 
there  is  a  loss  by  direct  condensation  because 
of  the  presence  and  action  of  these  water 
particles  as  explained,  may  seem  to  some  at 
the  first  glance  a  paradox,  but  there  is  in  the 
case  of  steam,  and  between  the  particles  of 
all  matter,  a  certain  impetus  and  momentum 
in  the  transference  of  that  unknown  some 
thing,  which  is  their  " vis  viva"  or  cause  of 
elasticity.  The  electrician  knows  this  well ; 
vide  the  "lateral  discharge"  and  return  stroke. 
Again,  for  more  common  place  example, 
fasten  by  one  extremity  a  straight  spring,  bend 
it,  release  it,  it  flics  back,  not  to  its  original 
position  of  rest  or  neutral  point,  but  far 
beyond,  though  finally  it  will  settle  there. 
And  so  it  might  be  held  that  the  particles 
of  steam  would  make  "reprisal,"  so  to  speak, 
of  the  heat  stolen  by  the  particles  of  water 
flashing  into  steam,  as  set  forth  ;  and  so  they 
do,  but  meantime  the  piston  is  moving  on, 
and  this  heat,  the  source  of  the  elastic  force 
of  the  steam,  cannot,  it  will  be  evident,  be 
acting  efficiently  in  two  or  more  directions 
at  the  same  time ;  but  this  is  not  all,  the 
more  watery  particles  in  the  steam,  the  more 
heat  wasted  by  conduction  to,  and  radiation 
from,  the  steam  pipes,  cylinders,  etc. 

Water  is  classed  as  a  non-conductor  of 
heat  to  a  high  degree,  but  it  is  a  medium 
radiator,  and  it  vastly  exceeds  steam  and 
other  aeriform  fluids  in  both  these  respects. 
This,  to  a  great  extent,  accounts  for  the  sud 
den  falling  off  of  power  during  "  priming," 
so  well  known.  But  there  is  still  another, 
as  it  were,  negative  loss  due  to  this  water 
carried  off  in  the  steam,  because,  by  its 
minute  subdivision,  it  exposes  an  immense 
surface  to  heat,  particularly  radiated  heat, 
that  might  be  brought  to  act  upon  it, 
and  thus  quickly  transform  it  into  perfect 
steam,  much  augmenting  the  volume  of  the 
whole,  and  being  generated  at  less  cost  than 
the  first  portion  which  held  it  in  suspension  ; 
and  it  is  through  the  avoidance  of  the  evils 
before  mentioned  as  due  to  these  water 
particles,  and  the  gain  produced  by  their 
conversion  into  elastic  steam,  that  so  much 
economy  is  found  in  the  use  of  super-heated 
steam,  which  is  steam  that  lias  received  an 
excess  of  heat  (temperature)  beyond  that 
normally  due  to  its  pressure  when  in  direct 
contact  with  the  water  from  whence  it  em 
anated.  The  system,  however,  is  fallacious, 
because  pure  steam,  and  all  other  known 
aeriform  fluids,  expand  only  about  l-540th 

16 


part  of  their  volume,  at  the  ordinary  atmos 
pheric  temperature,  for  each  degree  of  Fah. 
additional  forced  upon  them.  Pure  steam 
thus,  say  at  twenty  pounds  to  the  square 
inch,  would  require  to  be  elevated  to  a  tem 
perature  of  about  eight  hundred  Fahrenheit 
to  double  its  volume  if  under  a  constant 
pressure,  or  to  double  its  pressure  if  under  a 
constant  volume  (the  quantity  of  heat  being, 
however,  very  different  in  the  two  cases) ; 
whereas  the  mere  added  temperature  in  this 
case  would  correspond  to  that  of  simple 
steam  at  a  pressure  of  about  seven  hundred 
and  fifty  pounds  to  the  square  inch,  not  to 
mention  that  such,  and  far  less  temperatures, 
would  destroy  all  packings,  prevent  lubrica 
tion,  cause  "  cutting,"  warp  valves,  etc. 
There  are  other  practical  defects.  Although 
there  is  no  difficulty  in  super-he-ating  the 
steam  to  any  desired  extent  according  to  the 
size  of  the  super-heating  vessel  and  the  part 
of  the  smoke  or  fire  space  in  which  it  may 
be  located,  yet  it  is  very  difficult,  if  not  im 
practicable,  to  maintain  a  proper  average  un 
der  the  influence  of  fluctuating  fires — at  one 
time  in  full  glow,  at  another  freshly  trimmed, 
and  an  uneven  draft,  damp  or  dry,  weak  or 
strong ;  the  engine  at  one  time  under  full 
motion,  and  a  rapid  flow  of  steam  passing 
through  the  super-heater,  and  at  another 
time  the  engine  stopped,  and  there  being 
little  or  no  flow  of  moist  steam  through  it 
to  protect  it  from  being  overheated  and 
"burnt  out,"  or  rendered  brittle  and  insecure. 
Hence,  if  super-heating  be  attempted  at  all, 
it  should  be  to  the  minimum  degree,  and 
not  with  tile  expectation  of  an  important 
access  of  power  that  no  degree  will  aftbrd, 
but  only  to  an  extent  sufficient  to  supply 
radiation  from  the  various  parts  of  the  en 
gine,  etc.,  during  the  travel  and  action  of 
the  steam,  thus  preventing  its  condensation, 
which,  to  a  given  extent,  involves  not  only 
that  much  immediate  loss,  but  the  more  im 
portant  coactive  evils  due  to  the  presence 
of  watery  particles.  The  great  and  main 
object,  then,  is  accomplished  by  the  produc 
tion  and  use  of  simple  (dry)  steam ;  any 
modicum  of  water  present  possessing  but 
the  negative  advantage  of  supplying  lubrica 
tion,  and  any  "  super"  heat,  that  of  supplying 
radiation. 

We  have  dwelt  at  some  length  upon  the 
laws  of  steam,  but  at  best  we  can  do  but 
little  justice  to  the  subject,  and,  as  we  have 
already  said,  this  article  is  intended  mainly 
as  a  statement  of  the  effects  rather  than  the 


258 


STEAM. 


causes,  still  we  could  not  refrain  from  touch 
ing  upon  a  subject  that  has  already  and  is 
destined  still  to  attract  so  much  attention  as 
this. 

We  cannot  leave  this  branch  of  the  sub 
ject  without  alluding  to  the  new  pumping 
engine  lately  erected  at  the  Brooklyn  Water 
Works.  The  impression  is  still  generally 
prevalent  that  gravitation  supplies  of  water 
for  cities  are  cheaper  and  better  in  all  cases 
where  it  is  even  possible  to  have  them.  It 
is  plain,  however,  from  numerous  results 
throughout  Europe  and  America,  that  the 
annual  cost  represented  by  the  interest  on 
the  capital  expended  for  gravitation  supplies, 
except  in  special  instances,  far  exceeds  the 
annual  cost  of  interest  and  maintenance  in 
curred  by  properly  arranged  steam  supplies, 
and  that  the  quality  of  the  water  obtained  is 
generally  superior.  In  this  respect,  the 
contrast  between  New  York  and  Brooklyn, 
which  cannot  be  detailed  here,  is  conclusive. 
This  engine  was  built  at  Hartford,  Conn., 
by  Messrs.  Woodruff  &  Beach,  R.  W. 
Hamilton,  Esq.,  being  their  superintending 
engineer.  It  is  a  double-acting  Cornish  en 
gine,  with  all  the  peculiarities  of  the  single- 
acting  English  engine,  very  much  modified 
and  improved.  It  has  three  return  drop- 
flue  boilers,  thirty  feet  long,  eight  feet  diam 
eter,  using  about  fifteen  tons  of  coal  per 
day.  The  engine  has  a  cylinder  of  ninety 
inches  bore  and  ten  feet  stroke,  working  a 
lifting  pump  at  each  end  of  the  beam,  of 
thirty-six  inches  bore  and  ten  feet  stroke. 
The  lower  pump  under  the  cylinder  works 
through  it,  and  each  is  provided  with  an 
annular  barrel,  fifty-four  inches  diameter,  with 
double-beat  covers.  The  working  buckets 
have  double-beat  valves.  In  smoothness  of 
action,  light  friction,  and  pumping  power, 
this  engine  takes  the  first  rank  among  the 
pumping  machinery  of  the  world.  It  is 
more  powerful  by  sixteen  per  cent,  than  the 
celebrated  Leeghwater  engine  at  work  in  the 
Harlem  Meer.  This  result  is  highly  credit 
able  to  Messrs.  McElroy  &  Wright,  under 
whose  careful  study  and  mechanical  skill  its 
several  improvements  were  jointly  devel 
oped. 

The  contract  required  the  engine  to  lift 
six  hundred  thousand  pounds  of  water,  one 
foot  with  one  pound  of  coal,  with  a  delivery 
of  ten  million  gallons  in  twenty-four  hours ; 
and  to  be  further  capable  of  delivering  ten 
million  gallons  in  sixteen  hours.  But  this 
engine  has  done  even  better  than  this — 


14,500,000  gallons  being  its  ordinary  work. 
Although  the  most  powerful,  this  engine  is 
not  the  largest  in  the  world,  the  Leeghwater 
engine  bearing  the  palm  in  that  respect.  The 
Cornish  engines,  of  which  this  is  in  most  re 
spects  a  type,  are  generally  favorites  among 
engineers.  This  system  rejects  the  use  of 
cranks  and  fly-wheels,  gearing,  or  any  other 
absorbents  of  power,  and  independent  reg 
ulators  of  action — three  essential  elements 
of  economy.  The  abundant  records  on  file 
of  the  actual  results  in  practice,  go  to  show 
conclusively,  that  in  the  facility  for  carrying 
high  steam,  for  great  expansion,  and  in 
lightness  of  friction,  the  Cornish  engines 
have  the  precedence  of  all  others.  No  en 
gines  carry  higher  boiler  pressure  in  pump 
ing — a  feature  in  itself  of  vital  importance 
to  economy;  no  engines  habitually  work 
under  greater  expansion  ;  and  it  is  impossi 
ble  to  improve  on  their, simplicity  of  motion 
in  the  working  parts.  These  are  three  con 
clusive  distinctions ;  and  the  results  obtained 
in  the  Brooklyn  engine,  which  belongs  to 
this  school,  are  remarkable.  Here  is  the 
most  powerful  pumping  engine  on  the  globe, 
with  a  frictional  loss  between  the  cylinder 
and  pumps  of  only  seven  and  a  half  per  cent. 
Here  is  an  engine  which  has  doubled  its 
boiler  pressure  by  the  simple  addition  of  a 
few  tons  of  counter-weight  to  its  inertia,  in 
creasing  its  duty  thirty-three  per  cent.,  and 
which  only  requires  a  greater  addition  of 
weight  to  carry  its  steam  gauge,  its  expan 
sion,  and  its  duty,  to  the  highest  range  of 
the  European  school. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  results  ob 
tained  with  this  engine  on  so  magnificent  a 
scale,  have  a  very  important  bearing  on  two 
prominent  engineering  questions.  First,  in 
demonstrating  the  economy  and  value  of  a 
steam  pumping  supply ;  and  second,  in  sus 
taining  the  Cornish  school  of  practice  in  the 
construction  of  pumping  engines.  And  more 
than  this,  the  Brooklyn  pumping  engine  has 
demonstrated  that,  however  good  the  origi 
nal  Cornish  engines  may  be,  American  me 
chanics  can  produce  as  good,  if  not  better, 
at  home. 


CHAPTER  V. 

STEAM  PUMPS. 


THE  great  desideratum  in  a  machine  for 
extinguishing  fires,  is  the  rapidity  with  which. 


STEAM    PUMPS. 


259 


it  can  be  set  to  work,  and  next  to  this  the 
quantity  of  water  it  will  throw  to  a  given 
height  or  distance.  The  machines  that  best 
filled  these  conditions  were  doubtless  the 
American  hand  fire  engines;  but  steam  has 
now  turned  fireman,  and  in  the  contest 
between  his  iron  arms  and  human  muscle, 
we  can  readily  determine  the  result.  At 
first,  time  was  the  all-important  item;  all 
were  ready  to  acknowledge. that  after  the  fire 
had  attained  full  headway ,the  untiring  efforts 
of  steam  were  all-powerful,  but  as  the  major 
ity  of  our  fires  were  nipped  in  the  bud  by 
the  rapidity  with  which  the  hand  engines 
were  brought  to  bear,  it  was  not  believed 
that  steam  would  ever  become  economical, 
and  rarely  efficacious.  An  engine  was  con 
structed  for  the  insurance  companies  of 
New  York  some  twenty  years  since,  but 
abandoned  as  too  expensive  ;  it  was  located 
in  a  house  containing  a  boiler, wherein  steam 
was  constantly  kept  up  at  a  low  pressure, 
and  so  arranged  as  to  discharge  its  water 
into  the  engine  on  an  alarm  of  fire  being 
given;  beneath  the  boiler  of  the  engine,  sha 
vings  and  light  fuel  were  kept  constantly 
laid,  so  that  by  the  time  the  machine  reached 
the  tire  it  would  have  steam  up  and  be  ready 
for  use.  This  was  planned  by  Ericsson,  who 
also  planned  the  Braithwaites  engine,  used 
in  England.  The  latter  had  two  cylinders 
of  about  six  inches  in  diameter,  one  for 
steam  and  the  other  as  a  pump ;  they  were 
placed  horizontally.  This  engine  would  de 
liver  nine  thousand  gallons  of  water  per 
hour  to  the  height  of  ninety  feet.  The  time, 
consumed  in  getting  to  work  from  cold  water 
was  eighteen  minutes.  An  engine  built  for 
the  Prussian  government  in  1832  had  two 
steam  cylinders  of  twelve  inches  in  diameter, 
with  fourteen  inch  stroke,  and  two  pumping 
cylinders  of  ten  inches  diameter.  With  a 
steam  pressure  of  seventy  pounds  per  square 
inch,  this  engine  threw  an  inch  and  one 
quarter  stream  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet 
perpendicular ;  and  an  average  duty  was 
called  ninety  tons  per  hour.  She  consumed 
three  bushels  of  coke  per  hour. 

Such  were  the  first  steam  fire  engines. 
Experiments  were  frequently  tried  in  the 
United  States,  but  the  whole  subject  re 
mained  in  doubt  until  the  year  1852,  when 
the  first  public  trial  was  made  in  Cincinnati. 
A  steam  generator,  or  boiler,  which  had  been 
made  for  the  purpose,was  placed  in  connection 
with  a  steam  cylinder  and  the  pump  of  a  fire  en 
gine  belonging  to  the  city,  the  whole  mounted 


on  suitable  wheels  and  frame.  A  committee  of 
the  city  council  witnessed  the  experiment. 
From  their  report  it  appears  that  steam  was 
raised  from  cold  water,  the  engine  started, 
and  water  discharged  from  the  nozzle  to  the 
distance  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  feet, 
through  three  hundred  and  fifty  feet  of  hose, 
in  four  minutes  and  ten  seconds  from  the 
time  that  smoke  was  seen  to  issue  from  the 
chimney.  The  demonstration  was  convinc 
ing,  and  did  convince.  The  city  council 
contracted  for  a  steam  engine  to  be  built  on 
the  same  plan,  and  this  engine,  when  com 
pleted,  was  placed  in  service  under  the 
charge  of  a  company  organized  and  put  un 
der  pay  by  the  city.  Thus  the  first  paid  fire 
company,  to  operate  with  the  untiring  energy 
of  steam,  was  brought  into  existence — the 
first  of  the  kind  in  any  age  or  country. 
Steam,  whose  resistless  power  had  been  so 
extensively  used  in  the  fabrication,  develop 
ment,  and  transportation  of  property,  was  at 
last  compelled  to  aid  in  its  preservation  from 
fire.  Its  superiority  over  muscular  power, 
acknowledged  for  other  purpose*  so  numer 
ous,  was  to  be  asserted  against  conflagration ; 
and  a  city  not  a  century  old,  west  of  the 
Alleghanies,  attracts  the  applause  of  intelli 
gent  men  everywhere,  and  the  pride  of 
western  men,  as  the  scene  of  this  achieve 
ment. 

After  this  successful  experiment  and  the 
organization   of  the  paid  department,  Miles 
Greenwood  was    appointed   chief   engineer, 
and  it  is  to  his  energy  and  perseverance  that 
we  owe  the  success  of  the  steam  fire  engine. 
These  steamers  were  constructed  by  Messrs. 
A.  &  B.  Latta ;  the  first  in  service  was  called 
the  "  TJncle  Joe  Ross."     The  circulation  in 
the  boiler  is  kept  up  by  pumping,  and  thus 
steam  is  generated  in  a  very  short  space  of 
time ;  it  is  not,  however,  unattended  with 
danger.     After   the   success  of  Latta's    en 
gines,  several  manufacturers  went  into  the 
business..  Reaney  &  Neafy,  of  Philadelphia ; 
Lee  &  Lamed,     of   New  York;   Silsby  & 
Mynderse,  of  Seneca  Falls  ;    the  Amoskeag 
Manufacturing  Company ;  the  Boston  Loco 
motive  Works,  and  several  others.  Reaney  <fc 
Neafy  used  what  is  commonly  called  the 
locomotive  boiler ;  their  engines  gave  good 
satisfaction,  and  at  a  trial  in  Boston,  in  1858, 
they  received  the  prize  over  three  competi 
tors.     Of  the  Lee  &  Lamed    self-propeller 
we   have  already  spoken  (J.  C.  Gary  and 
J.  G.  Storm) ;  they,  however,  build  a  light 
hand  engine,  and  have  heretofore  furnished 


-260 


STEAM. 


all  the  steamers  for  New  York  city.  Their 
boiler  is  of  the  upright  annular  form,  Gary's 
patent,  and  their  pump  is  rotary,  patented  by 
the  same  man. 

The  Amoskeag  steam  fire  engine  has  some 
peculiar  features,  among  which  maybe  named 
the  vertical  cylinders  and  pumps,  by  the  use 
of  which  they  avoid  to  a  certain  extent  the 
shaking  that  is  so  objectionable  in  some  of 
the  other  machines ;  also  the  arrangement  of 
their  gauge  cocks  so  as  to  cover  the  whole 
side  of  the  boiler  and  show  at  once  the 
height  of  the  water,  which  is  used  in  this 
boiler  at  a  very  low  point  in  commencing, 
thereby  enabling  them  to  get  up  steam  very 
rapidly.  At  a  trial  in  New  York  in  Septem 
ber,  1860,  they  obtained  a  working  pressure 
from  water  at  90°  Fahrenheit  in  three  and 
one-half  minutes.  These  machines  have 
thrown  a  one  and  three-quarter  inch  stream 
two  hundred  and  twenty -five  feet  high.  They 
weigh  about  six  thousand  pounds,  and  are 
intended  to  be  drawn  by  horses.  The  Selsby 
&  Mynderse  engines  are  entirely  different 
from  any  other  in  their  construction  and 
operation;  the  engine  and  pump  are  both 
rotary,  and  are  built  after  Holly's  patent; 
we  have  already  spoken  of  this  engine  under 
the  head  of  Stationaries.  The  weight  of 
these  machines  is  as  follows :  to  be  drawn 
by  men — four  thousand  five  hundred  pounds 
light;  five  thousand  one  hundred  pounds  Avith 
fuel,  water,  suction  hose  etc.,  all  ready  for  ser 
vice  ;  this  size  is  warranted  to  force  a  one  and 
one-eighth  inch  stream  two  hundred  and  twen 
ty-five  feet,  or  two,  one  hundred  and  eighty 
feet,  with  a  steam  pressure  of  from  forty  to 
sixty  pounds.  To  be  drawn  by  horses — five 
thousand  six  hundred  pounds  light ;  six  thou 
sand  three  hundred  ready  for  service ;  forces 
a  one  and  one  half  inch  stream  two  hundred 
and  twenty  feet,  or  two  one  inch  streams  the 
same  distance.  These  machines  will  get  to 
work  in  from  four  to  six  minutes.  The  best 
work  ever  done  by  this  style  engine  was  in 
Providence,  R.  L,  where  an  engine  weighing 
six  thousand  two  hundred  pounds,  threw  a 
one  and  a  quarter  inch  stream  two  hundred 
and  fifty-five  feet  horizontal.  One  great 
advantage  of  the  Holly  pump  is  that  it  runs 
steadily,  no  chocking  being  required  to  keep 
the  engine  in  place  while  on  duty,  as  is  the 
case  with  all  engines  having  reciprocating 
pumps. 

Other  steam  fire  engines,  for  the  use  of 
factories  and  large  buildings,  not  intended 
to  be  transported,  have  been  in  existence 


for  a  greater  length  of  time  ;  these  machines 
are  also  used  as  auxiliary  pumps  for  supply 
ing  water  to  the  boilers  of  larger  engines, 
and  are  generally  called  "  doctors,"  or 
"  donkeys."  Among  the  best  of  these 
are  Worthington's  and  Woodward's  steam 
pumps.  The  importance  of  an  auxiliary 
pump,  in  all  cases,  cannot  be  too  much 
dwelt  upon.  If  the  pump  be  attached  to 
the  main  engine,  it  is  evident  that  on  the 
lack  of  water  in  the  boiler,  the  main  engine 
must  be  started.  This  is  not  always  possi 
ble.  A  sudden  break  down  in  a  mill 
would  necessitate  the  uncoupling  of  the 
shafting  before  the  boiler  could  be  fed.  The 
lack  of  water  at  a  station  when  waiting  for 
a  train,  obliges  the  engineer  to  run  back  and 
forth  upon  the  road  ;  and  if  a  boat  stops  at 
a  wharf,  or  is  enveloped  in  a  fog,  the  power 
that  works  the  pump  ceases  with  the  engine. 
But  how  is  it  when  the  engine  itself  breaks 
down,  or  the  locomotive  is  embedded  in  a 
snow  bank,  as  is  sometimes  the  case  ?  Why, 
the  engineer  must  draw  his  fires,  to  avoid 
ruining  his  boiler.  Bearing  these  facts  in 
mind,  the  advantages  of  an  extra  steam 
pump  are  obvious. 

The  Worthington  pump  is  exceedingly 
simple  in  its  construction ;  as  the  reciprocating 
motion  in  the  steam  and  water  cylinder  is 
the  exact  motion  required,  the  cross-head, 
slides,  and  balance  wheel  are  dispensed  with 
as  useless.  In  the  Woodward,  however, 
the  connecting-rod,  crank,  and.  wheel  are 
retained  to  give  motion  to  the  valve,  Avhich 
in  Worthington's  pump  is  moved  by  an  arm 
attached  to  the  piston  rod.  Both  of  these 
pumps  are  favorites,  and  it  is  difficult  to 
judge  which  is  best.  The  importance  of 
these  steam  pumps  as  auxiliaries  is  not,  how 
ever,  their  only  advantage.  On  board  of 
our  steamboats,  such  pumps  as  are  provided 
in  case  of  fire  are  often  rendered  of  no  avail 
by  the  necessity  that  exists  of  stopping  the 
progress  of  the  boat  in  order  to  check  the 
current  of  air,  which  otherwise  would  in 
crease  the  flames.  And  let  a  fire  engine  be 
kept  on  board  for  the  single  purpose  of  ex 
tinguishing  fires  if  they  happen — does  not 
our  common  experience  teach  us  that  in  so 
imminent  a  danger,  when  all  are  seeking 
personal  safety,  and  unwilling  to  await  the 
issue  of  a  doubtful  effort  for .  the  general 
preservation,  such  a  machine  will  be  found  a 
very  questionable  dependence  ?  Will  they 
not  be  difficult  of  access  at  the  moment,  or 
out  of  order,  from  rust  or  disuse,  when  most 


CALORIC  ENGINE  TROH  TfHE  WAREHOUSE  OF  0.  V.  MAPBS,   N.  T. 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


263 


needed  ?  And  does  the  confusion,  which  is 
always  attendant  upon  such  an  occasion,  al 
low  of  reasonable  hope  that  they  will  be 
found  and  repaired  in  time  to  be  of  use  ? 

These  are  questions  which  can,  perhaps, 
be  best  answered  by  those  who  have  wit 
nessed  the  scene  of  a  steamboat  on  fire. 
But  with  the  "  donkey"  engine,  the  case  is 
quite  different ;  being  constantly  in  use,  it  is 
always  in  order,  and  in  case  of  fire  it  can  at 
once  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  flames ;  it 
is  also  always  at  hand  in  case  of  a  leak  that 
overpowers  all  other  available  pumps ;  and,  in 
fact,  its  advantages  are  so  great  that  no  boat, 
locomotive,  or  stationary  engine  should  ever 
be  run  without  one.  For  large  pumping 
operations,  also,  it  is  believed  that  the 
Worthington  pump  has  many  advantages. 
The  power  is  direct,  all  the  motions  are 
rectilinear,  the  friction  is  not  great,  nor  is  the 
wear  excessive.  A  steam  and  a  pump  cylin 
der  attached  to  one  frame,  with  two  pistons, 
two  valves,  and  two  rods,  comprise  the  whole 
machine.  The  economy  of  the  donkey 
engines  is  obvious  where  steam  is  only  em 
ployed  for  boiling,  or  for  warming  buildings, 
and  where  the  large  and  costly  engines  usu 
ally  provided  in  such  cases,  are  used  solely 
for  driving  a  pump  to  supply  the  boiler. 
The  steam  used  to  drive  it,  whether  of  high 
or  low  pressure,  is,  of  course,  just  adequate 
to  the  required  work  of  forcing  water  into 
the  boiler  against  the  same  pressure. 

The  Worthington  pumps  are  made  of  a 
great  variety  of  sizes,  from  the  miniature 
ones  used  as  feeders  on  the  Lee  &  Lar:  ed 
fire  engines,  up  to  the  huge  pumping  engines 
for  water  works.  The  only  fault  we  have 
ever  heard  found  with  them  is  the  trouble  of 
starting;  this  cannot,  however,  be  very  great, 
inasmuch  as  a  pump,  to  be  efficacious  as  a 
feeder  for  a  fire  engine,  must  be  readily 
started  or  it  would  be  almost  valueless.  The 
Woodward  pump  has  much  more  brass 
used  in  its  construction  than  any  other,  and 
is  therefore  not  so  liable  to  rust.  The  Holly 
pump  has  been  constructed  as  an  auxiliary 
engine,  and,  in  fact,  on  some  of  their  larger 
machines  a  small  one  is  used  as  a  feeder ;  it 
occupies  but  very  little  space,  and  is  well 
spoken  of  by  those  who  have  used  it.  A 
pumping  engine  manufactured  by  Messrs. 
Carpenter  <fe  Plass,  of  New  York,  has  been 
lately  introduced,  and  has  the  advantage 
over  the  Worthington  of  starting  at  once  on 
opening  the  throttle ;  it  being  fully  as  simple. 
Other  pumps  of  this  class  ^re  manufactured 


all  over  the  country,  but  none  are  so  well 
known  as  the  ones  we  have  named.  On 
some  of  the  western  steamboats  they  use 
small  engines  of  the  ordinary  construction 
attached  to  the  common  force  pump,  but  in 
no  case  are  they  so  compact,  easy  of  repair, 
or  durable  as  the  above-named  steam  pumps. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

IN  the  former  chapters  we  have  set  forth 
the  various  forms  in  which  the  adaptation 
of  steam  is  most  familiar  to  the  community  ; 
in  all  of  which  steam  was  used  as  a  motor 
only  ;  and  before  dismissing  this  portion  of 
the  labor  of  steam,  we  will  allude  briefly  to 
some  other  machines,  destined,  perhaps,  to 
effect  as  great  a  revolution  in  other  branches 
of  industry,  as  the  locomotive  and  steam 
boat  have  in  transportation,  and  the  sta 
tionary  in  manufactures.  Agriculture — that 
wide  extended  base,  upon  which  we  have 
built  up  this  great  fabric  of  commerce, 
manufacture,  and  trade — has  been  the  last  to 
experience  a  direct  benefit  from  steam. 
The  farmer  is  pre-eminently  conservative,  to 
which  the  monotonous  routine  of  his  business 
predisposes  him  ;  but  the  course  of  the  giant 
worker,  steam,  is  irresistible,  aad  he,  too,  at 
last  accepts  its  aid.  For  some  time  past  the 
portable  engine  has  been  introduced  to  as 
sist  the  farmer  in  the  laborious  duties  of  his 
calling,  and  soon  will  .the  iron  horse  be 
chained  to  the  plough,  swing  the  gleaming 
scythe,  sow,  reap,  thresh,  and  winnow,  while 
the  husbandman  will  guide  and  direct  the 
iron  arms  which  do  his  bidding  uncom 
plainingly.  Already  has  the  shriek  of  our 
new  friend  been  heard  upon  the  western 
prairie  field,  and  the  smooth-turned  furrow 
attested  his  strength,  but  as  yet  he  takes 
not  kindly  to  his  new-found  toil,  and  the 
brains  of  a  score  of  inventors  are  at  work  to 
teach  him  this  new  duty.  "  God  speed  the 
(steam)  plough,"  say  we. 

But  this  great  problem,  the  education  of 
steam  to  its  new  duty,  presents  many  diffi 
culties.  There  are  three  kinds  of  engines — 
the  locomotive,  the  portable,  and  the  sta 
tionary — capable  of  being  employed  in  steam 
cultivation ;  and  there  may,  consequently, 
be  three  kinds  of  steam  cultivators  invented, 
each  characterized,  in  its  general  features, 
by  the  kind  of  engine  employed;  though 


264 


STEAM. 


under  each  class  there  may  be  many  modi 
fications  of  parts,  rendering  the  members  of 
the  same  class  as  widely  different  as  those 
of  different  classes.  These  varieties  would 
"be  determined  by  the  structure,  form,  or 
size  of  the  engine  itself;  by  the  mode  of 
conveying  the  power  to  the  tools  or  imple 
ments  with  which  it  works ;  and  by  the  na 
ture  of  the  tools  or  implements  it  uses. 
First,  then,  the  locomotive  steam  plough ;  this 
may  be  employed  to  draw  a  gang  of  ploughs 
after  it,  or  by  a  series  of  knives,  cutters,  or 
some  form  of  cultivator,  turn  up  the  ground 
as  it  passes.  The  moving  of  this  great  mass, 
however,  consumes  much  of  the  power,  and 
the  difficulty  presented  by  steep  grades  is 
very  great.  The  mere  sinking  of  the  wheels 
may  be  obviated,  as  it  is  in  the  Fawkes 
engine,  by  broad  wheels,  but  even  these 
sometimes  slip.  In  Boydell's  engines  the 
machine  lays  and  takes  up  alternately  a  suc 
cession  of  rails,  upon  which  to  roll.  Hacket 
proposed  to  lay  a  temporary  rail,  but  found 
it  very  expensive.  The  use  of  legs,  or 
pushers,  has  also  been  tried  in  England,  but 
was  not  successful. 

The  portable  engine  has  been  used  in 
several  ways.  As  a  cultivator  it  was  mount 
ed  upon  a  wagon  drawn  by  horses.  Asa 
plough  it  has  been  placed  by  the  side  of  the 
field,  working  a  gang  of  ploughs  by  chains 
and  cables;  and  after  finishing  one  field, 
easily  transported  to  another ;  this  was  called 
in  England  the  Wolston  system,  but  is  at 
best  very  slow.  The  portable  engine  has 
also  been  used  with  anchors,  and  to  warp, 
or  draw  itself  along  by  stretched  ropes. 
Each  of  the  above  methods  of  employing 
steam  has  its  peculiar  difficulties  and  de 
fects.  In  the  first  one,  two  horses  would  be 
required  to  draw  an  engine  of  the  lightest 
construction  over  safe  ground,  and  up  and 
down  hill;  and  the  advantage  of  the  ma 
chine  over  animal  power  alone,  would  be 
only  the  difference  between  its  "work  and 
what  the  team  would  do  without  it.  The 
inventor,  however,  calculates  that  with  an 
engine  of  two  horse  power,  and  of  suitable 
construction,  working  a  revolving  axle,  carry 
ing  tires  armed  with  a  kind  of  short  spade 
toward  their  points,  he  can  do  the  work  of 
twelve  horses,  giving  the  work  of  ten  horses 
and  their  attendants  for  the  cost  of  feed  and 
repairs,  pay  of  attendants,  interest  of  capital, 
etc.  In  the  Wolston  method  the  mode  of 
transferring  the  power  is  indirect,  the  ap 
paratus  is  complex  and  clumsy,  and  its  sue-. 


cess,  thus  far,  has  been  but  small.  In  the 
third  plan,  or  that  of  the  warping  engine, 
the  inventor  asserts  that  he  requires  an  en 
gine  of  less  than  one-half  the  weight,  power, 
or  cost  of  any  locomotive;  that  he  avoids 
all  indirect  strain  upon  his  cable,  by  getting 
the  engine  to  warp  itself  from  one  side  of 
the  field  to  the  other,  by  means  of  a  single 
rope  passing  a  couple  of  times  round  a 
drum  ;  that  the  anchor  at  either  side  can  be 
removed  and  passed  forward  six  or  eight 
feet,  by  one  man.  while  the  engine  is  trav 
elling  across  the  field ;  that,  when  using 
rotary  cultivators,  he  has  but  little  strain 
upon  his  cable ;  and,  lastly,  that  when  he  is 
drawing  ploughs,  etc.,  he  has  the  whole  trac 
tion  power  of  his  cable  to  prevent  his  being 
brought  to  a  stand  by  his  wheels  slipping. 
The  stationary  engine  has  been  used  to 
some  extent,  but  we  do  not  think  it  has 
sufficient  merit  ever  to  come  into  practical 
use. 

As  a  motor  for  a  dredging  machine  for 
deepening  our  rivers  and  harbors,  steam  has 
been  in  use  since  the  time  of  Oliver  Evans ; 
and  as  an  excavator  it  has  long  ago  dis 
tanced  human  opposition.  The  millions  of 
dollars  that  are  annually  expended  in  exca 
vating  earth,  have  attracted  the  attention  of 
inventors  to  devise  modes  of  aiding  the 
operation  by  machinery,  and  large  and 
costly  machines  have  been  made  for  this  pur 
pose  in  certain  situations,  especially  in  deep 
cuts  of  soft  sand,  which  work  well,  and  per 
form  the  labor  of  many  men.  Among  many 
others,  Messrs.  Goodale  &  Marsh  patented 
last  year  a  machine  that  not  only  acts  as  an 
excavator,  but  transports  the  earth  to  the 
desired  place  of  deposit,  it  being  intended 
to  work  in  ground  free  from  large  stones,  or 
nearly  so,  and  where  the  hills  arc  not  too 
steep  for  the  ascent  and  descent  of  a  loco 
motive  running  on  broad  wheels  on  the 
ground.  This  machine  will  prove  particu 
larly  useful  in  the  west. 

Steam  has  always  benefited  the  farmer 
by  bringing  him  nearer  to  a  market,  and  in 
asmuch  as  it  reduces  the  expense  thereof, 
it  necessarily  adds  to  his  profit.  The  hand 
ling  of  the  large  amount  of  grain  that  an 
nually  passes  through  the  large  warehouses 
of  our  western  cities,  is  of  itself  no  small 
item,  and  here,  too,  steam  lends  its  assistance, 
being  adapted  to  the  large  steam  elevators 
of  Chicago.  It  has  benefited  the  black 
smith  indirectly  by  blowing  his  furnaces 
and  driving  the  trip  hammers,  and  directly 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


265 


within  the  past  ten  years  in  the  immense 
steam  hammers,  where  it  is  so  much  under 
control   as  to  give  a  blow   of  several  tons 
weight,  or  crack  a  walnut  in  the  attendant's 
fingers  without  harming  him.     For  this  ad 
vantage  we  were  at  first  indebted  to   Eng 
land  ;  but  we  are  improving  upon  the  model, 
and   steam  hammers   will    soon    come   into 
general  use,  of  American  manufacture  alone. 
An   enormous    steam   hammer  on   Nay  lor' s 
principle  was  lately  sent  to  Australia.     The 
hammer  is  not  only  lifted  by  the  pressure  of 
steam  from  below,  but  the  gravity  of  the 
falling  hammer  is  assisted  by  the   pressure 
of  steam  from  above.     The  work  is  finished 
at  one  heat,  saving  both  the  fuel  and  time 
of  second  heats,  also   consequent  deteriora 
tion  and  waste  of  iron.     The   effect  of  the 
blow  of  this  hammer  will  be  equal  to  the 
momentum  acquired  by  sixteen  tons  making 
forty  blows  per  minute.     The  hammer  can 
be  made  to  work  double  or  single,  acting 
instantaneously ;  and  by  the  adjusting  valve 
gearing,  the  length  of  stroke  and  force  of 
blow    can    be    changed    instantly.      In    all 
gravity  hammers  the    effect   of  the  blow  is 
dependent  on  the  weight  of  the  hammer, 
multiplied  by  the  height  of  its  fall,  and  con 
sequently,  the  greater  the  distance  it  falls, 
the  greater  the  force  of  the   blow,  and  the 
slower   is   the    speed  of   working.     In   the 
double-action   hammer,  thrice  the  force   of 
blow  can  be  given  at  double  the  speed.     The 
principal  dimensions  and  weights  are:  timber 
foundation,  twenty-six   feet   by    twenty-four 
feet  six    inches,  depth,  thirteen    feet ;    cast 
iron  anvil  block,  base  eleven  feet  six  inches 
by  nine  feet  six  inches,  thirty  tons  weight , 
base  plate  to  receive  standards,  nineteen  feet 
six  inches  by  fifteen  feet  six  inches,  fourteen 
tons  weight ;  standards,*ten  feet  six   inches 
apart,    weight    fifteen    tons ;    height    from 
ground  to  top  of  steam  cylinder,  twenty-one 
feet  six  inches  ;  weight  of  all,  about  severity- 
five  tons.     Steam  to  work  this  hammer  is 
generated   from  the   furnace   in  which   the 
work  to  be    operated    upon   is  heated,  the 
boiler  forming  the   chimney,  and  the  heat 
passing   up   four    flues    in    the    same,   thus 
economizing  fuel  and  avoiding  the  expense 
of  a  brick  chimney.     The  boiler  is  six  feet 
six  inches  in  diameter,  and  thirty  feet  long ; 
weight,  fifteen    tons.      The    weight    of   the 
whole  apparatus,  including  boiler  and  mount 
ings,  is  about  one  hundred  tons.     This  ap 
paratus  was  constructed  in  England. 

Steam  has  also  been  applied  to  cranes 


with  great  success.  One  of  Morrison's  steam 
cranes  was  recently  loaded  with  forty-five 
cwt.,  the  steam  cut  off  from  the  boiler,  and 
the  load  left  to  hang  from  the  crane  by  the 
power  of  the  steam  already  in  the  crane 
cylinder.  After  hanging  for  half  an  hour, 
the  weight  had  descended  only  four  inches. 
Many  other  applications  of  steam  as  a  motor 
might  be  enumerated  if  space  would  allow, 
but  we  must  now  turn  to  the  multifarious 
duties  of  steam  in  the  useful  arts.  One  of 
the  most  important  of  its  applications  is  its 
use  as  a  vehicle  for  transferring  and  uniform 
ly  distributing  heat.  Its  large  capacity  for 
caloric  gives  it  great  efficiency  for  this 
purpose,  as  it  holds  and  will  communicate  as 
much  heat  as  a  mass  of  red-hot  iron,  and 
will  transmit  this  heat  to  a  great  distance, 
which  iron  will  not  do,  for  the  heat  will  re 
main  latent  until  the  steam  reaches  its  desti 
nation  and  becomes  condensed.  In  order  to 
apply  steam  to  the  warming  of  buildings,  it 
is  only  necessary  to  use  a  close  boiler,  from 
the  top  of  which  a  steam  pipe  can  be  carried 
to  the  top  of  the  building  ;  the  boiler  being 
placed  as  low  as  possible.  This  steam  pipe 
is  at  the  top  connected  with  a  series  of  larger 
ones,  placed  with  a  slight  inclination  near  the 
floor  of  each  room,  connected  each  with  the 
one  above  it,  at  its  highest  end ;  thus  giving 
facility  to  the  descent  of  the  condensed  water, 
which  is  so  directed  as  to  re-enter  the  boiler 
near  the  bottom.  By  such  an  arrangement, 
properly  constructed,  the  entire  caloric  pro 
duced  by  the  furnace  will  be  distributed  over 
the  building.  The  small,  or  steam  pipe 
should  be  made  quite  strong,  and  should 
have  at  least  an  area  of  one  square  inch  for 
every  six  gallons  of  water  evaporated  per 
hour  in  the  boiler.  It  will  require  occa 
sionally  an  addition  of  water  to  supply  acci 
dental  waste,  and  a  ball-cock  connected  to 
the  feed  pipe  would  be  useful ;  but  by  all 
means  have  a  safety-valve  upon  the  boiler. 

The  extent  to  which  buildings  are  now 
heated  by  steam  in  this  country  is  very 
great,  and  since  the  introduction  of  Gold's 
apparatus,  and  some  others  whose  names  we 
do  not  remember,  steam  heaters  have  been 
added  with  great  advantage  to  private  dwell 
ings.  They  are  certainly  much  more  healthy 
than  hot  air,  and,  properly  arranged  and 
managed,  need  not  be  more  expensive.  The 
pressure  is  merely  nominal,  and  therefore  not 
a  source  of  danger;  the  only  disadvantage, 
that  of  leakage,  is  no  greater  than  in  the  use 
of  gas  pipes.  For  large  factories,  steam  as  a 


266 


STEAM. 


heater  is  invaluable ;  and  for  warming  hot 
houses,  nothing  can  supply  its  place.  It 
gives  an  equal  heat,  and  is  devoid  of  that 
dryness  so  injurious  to  plants.  To  warm  a 
greenhouse  by  steam,  there  is  required  the 
boiler  of  a  steam  engine,  reckoned  at  one 
horse  power  for  every  thousand  feet  of  glass. 
It  is  advisable,  when  heating  a  hothouse  by 
steam,  to  surround  the  pipes  with  stones ; 
these  stones  absorb  the  heat,  and  if  from 
carelessness  or  inattention  the  steam  goes 
down,  they  will  continue  to  radiate  heat  for 
some  time,  thus  preventing  the  sudden  cool 
ing  of  the  place. 

It  is  sometimes  necessary  to  boil  liquids 
in  vessels  of  wood,  as  in  brewing,  etc.,  and  to 
use  heat  in  evaporating  thickened  liquids, 
strong  solutions,  etc.,  where  the  direct  appli 
cation  of  fire  would  be  destructive ;  there, 
also,  we  see  the  utility  of  steam.  The  com 
mon  manner  of  making  glue  is  an  instance 
of  this  ;  elevate  the  bottom  of  the  glue-pot 
and  cover  the  receptacle  for  boiling  water, 
and  you  have  at  once  a  steam  oven.  This 
plan  has  been  extensively  used  in  making- 
salt.  Or,  introduce  a  pipe  in  the  form  of 
the  worm  of  a  still  into  the  vat  containing 
the  solution,  and  allow  the  steam  to  pass 
through,  the  pipe.  The  steam  pipe  can  then 
be  of  iron,  copper,  lead,  or  tin,  as  the  nature 
of  the  solution  may  require ;  copper  is  in 
all  cases  the  best  where  it  can  be  used. 
Another  process  of  a  similar  nature  was  in 
vented  by  Mr.  Goodlet,  of  Leith  ;  it  consists 
of  pumping  the  solution  through  a  spiral 
pipe  passing  through  the  boiler,  thus  bringing 
the  solution  to  the  steam,  instead  of  the 
steam  to  the  solution.  Steam  kilns  for  dry 
ing  grain  have  also  been  used  upon  the  same 
principle.  Dry  houses,  for  lumber  to  be  used 
in  the  pattern  room,  are  added  to  our  ma 
chine  shops.  The  process  of  drying  printed 
cloths  and  fabrics  of  various  kinds,  also  the 
warp  after  it  is  sized,  is  in  use  in  all  our 
principal  manufactories,  and  adds  materially 
to  the  economy  and  expedition  of  their  pro 
duction.  The  process  of  drying  cloths  illus 
trates  this.  Steam  is  conducted  through  the 
axis  of  a  cylinder,  which  is  revolved  by 
suitable  machinery ;  the  cloth  is  then  made  to 
pass  over  it  in  contact  with  its  periphery ;  if 
necessary,  several  cylinders  are  placed  in  a 
line,  and  the  cloth  passes  over  the  first,  under 
the  second,  and  so  on.  Paper  is  thus  dried  : 
the  wet  pulp  laid  out  on  the  web  of  wire 
cloth  is  gradually  strained  as  it  approaches 
the  cylinders,  around  which  it  winds,  until  it 


omes  off   dry  and  ready  for  cutting ;  this 
operation  is  singularly  interesting. 

Cooking  by  steam  was  the  invention  of 
Denis  Papin,  of  France,  as  long  ago  as  1680  ; 
the  most  important  of  whose  experiments 
were  the  extraction  of  gelatine  from  bones, 
and  the  manufacture  of  essence  of  meat, 
soups,  etc.,  suitable  for  long  sea  voyages. 
From  a  work  published  by  him  in  1681,  we 
extract  the  following :  "  I  took,"  says  he, 
beef  bones  that  had  never  been  boiled,  but 
kept  dry  a  long  time,  and  of  the  hardest 
part  of  the  leg  ;  these  being  put  into  a  little 
glass  pot  with  water,  I  included  in  tlie  en 
gine,  together  with  another  little  glass  pot 
full  with  bones  and  water  too,  but  in  this 
the  bones  were  ribs,  and  had  been  boiled 
already.  Having  prest  the  fire  till  the  drop 
of  water  would  dry  away  in  three  seconds, 
and  had  ten  pressures,  I  took  off  the  fire,  and 
the  vessels  being  cooled,  I  found  very  good 
jelly  in  both  my  pots;  but  that  which  had 
been  made  out  of  ribs  had  a  kind  of  a  red 
dish  color,  which  I  believe  might  proceed 
from  the  medullary  part;  the  other  jelly  was 
without  color,  like  hartshorn  jelly ;  and  I 
may  say,  that  having  seasoned  it  with  sugar 
and  juice  of  lemon,  I  did  eat  it  with  as 
much  pleasure,  and  found  it  as  stomachi- 
cal,  as  if  it  had  been  jelly  of  hartshorn." 
Mutton  bones  are  better  than  beef  bones ; 
and  he  infers,  first,  that  one  pound  of  beef 
bones  affords  about  two  pounds  of  jelly  ;  sec 
ond,  that  it  is  the  cement  (gelatine)  that 
unites  the  parts  of  the  bones,  which  is  dis 
solved  in  the  water  to  make  it  a  jelly,  since 
after  that,  the  bones  remain  brittle;  third, 
that  few  glutinous  parts  are  sufficient  to  con 
geal  much  water,  "for  I  found  that  when 
the  jelly  was  dried,  IJiad  very  little  glue  (glu 
ten  ?)  remaining ;  fourth,  I  used  it  to  glue  a 
broken  glass,  which  did  since  that  t'imc  hold 
very  well,  and  even  be  washed  as  well  as  if 
it  had  never  been  broken ;  fifth,  it  is  heavier 
than  water,  and  sinks  to  the  bottom ;  sixth, 
hartshorn  produces  five  times  its  weight  of 
jelly. 

"  From  all  these  experiments,  I  think  it 
very  likely  that  if  people  would  be  per 
suaded  to  lay  by  bones,  gristles,  tendons, 
feet,  and  other  parts  of  animals  that  are  solid 
enough  to  be  kept  without  salt,  whereof 
people  throw  away  more  than  would  be  nec 
essary  to  supply  all  the  ships  that  England 
has  at  sea,  the  ships  might  always  be  fur 
nished  with  better  and  cheaper  victuals  than 
they  use  to  have.  And  I  may  say  that  such 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


267 


victuals  would  take  up  less  room,  too,  be 
cause  they  have  a  great  deal  more  nourish 
ment  in  them  in  proportion  to  their  weight. 
They  would  also  be  more  wholesome  than 
salt  meat.  Vegetables,  such  as  dried  peas, 
may  also  be  cooked  by  the  steam  of  salt 
water  without  becoming  salt." 

We  have  already  mentioned  that  Denis 
Papin  invented  the  safety-valve ;  it  was  in 
the  construction  of  this  digester  that  he 
used  it;  he  thus  speaks  of  it:  "To  know 
the  quantity  of  the  inward  pressure,  you 
must  have  a  little  pipe  open  at  both  ends, 
this  being  soldered  to  a  hole  in  the  cover, 
is  to  be  stopped  at  the  top  with  a  little  valve, 
exactly  ground  to  it.  This  must  be  kept 
down  with  an  iron  rod,  one  end  of  which 
must  be  put  into  an  iron  staple,  fastened  to 
the  bar,  and  the  other  end  kept  down  by  a 
weight,  to  be  hung  upon  it  nearer  or  further 
from  the  valve,  according  as  you  would 
keep  it  less  or  more  strong,  after  the  mari 
ner  of  an  ordinary  Roman  balance  or  steel 
yard." 

Papin's  method  of  determining  the  tem 
perature  is  somewhat  curious :  "  To  know 
the  degree  of  heat,  I  hang  a  weight  to  a 
thread  about  three  feet  long,  and  I  let  fall  a 
drop  of  water  into  a  little  cavity  made  for 
that  purpose  at  the  top  of  it,  and  I  tell  how 
many  times  the  hanging  weight  will  move 
to  and  fro  before  the  drop  of  water  is  quite 
evaporated  !"  As  nearly  all  that  we  at  pres 
ent  know  about  cooking,  and  extracting 
jellies  by  steam,  is  derived  from  the  experi 
ments  of  Denis  Papin,  we  will  close  this 
portion  of  the  subject  by  adding  his  descrip 
tion  of  one  of  them  :  "  Having  filled  my 
pot  with  a  piece  of  a  breast  of  mutton,  and 
weighed  five  ounces  of  coals,  I  lighted  my 
fire,  and  by  blowing  gave  such  a  heat  that 
a  drop  of  water  would  evaporate  in  four  sec 
onds,  the  inward  pressure  being  about  ten 
times  stronger  than  the  atmosphere.  I  let 
the  fire  go  out  of  itself,  and  the  mutton  was 
very  well  done,  the  bones  soft,  and  the  juice 
n  strong  jelly.  So  that,  having  had  occasion 
to  boil  mutton  several  times  since,  I  have 
always  observed  the  same  rule,  and  never 
have  missed  to  have  it  in  the  same  condi 
tion,  which  I  take  to  be  the  best  of  all. 

"  Beef  required  seven  ounces  of  coal  and 
the  same  heat,  and  the  beef  was  very  well 


•boiled,  although  there  were  more  parts  of 
the  bones  not  quite  softened.  Lamb,  rab 
bits,  and  pigeons,  mackerel,  pike,  and  eel, 
were  subjected  to  the  same  process ;  whence 
I  infer  that  the  bones  of  young  beasts  re 
quire  almost  as  much  fire  as  those  of  old 
ones  to  be  boiled ;  that  rabbit  bones  are 
harder  than  those  of  mutton ;  that  tough 
old  rabbits  may  be  made  as  good  as  tender 
young  ones  by  this  means ;  that  pigeons  may 
be  best  boiled  with  a  heat  that  evaporates  a 
drop  of  water  in  five  seconds  ;  that  mackerel 
was  cooked  with  gooseberries,  in  a  digester, 
the  fish  being  good  and  firm,  and  the  bones 
so  soft  as  not  to  be  felt  in  eating.  I  par 
ticularly  recommend  as  an  excellent  dish 
cooked  in  this  manner,  cod  fish  and  green 
peas." 

Another  application  of  steam  that  has 
proved  very  valuable  on  ship-board,  is  its 
condensation  after  having  been  evaporated 
from  salt  water,  to  supply  the  wants  of  pas 
sengers  and  crews  when  from  accident  or  an 
unusually  long  voyage  the  regular  stores  are 
exhausted.  The  reader  is  probably  aware 
that  when  salt  water  is  evaporated,  the  steam 
therefrom  is  as  pure  as  if  taken  from  fresh, 
and  would  be  as  healthful  and  palatable  as 
any  other  were  it  not  from  the  fact  that  it 
does  not  contain  the  usual  quantity  of  at 
mospheric  air  which  has  been  expelled  by 
heat.  If,  however,  it  is  allowed  to  fall  in 
the  form  of  rain,  or  is  poured  from  one  vessel 
to  another,  it  very  soon  absorbs  a  sufficient 
quantitv  «nd  becomes  as  good  as  rain  water, 
which,  in  fact,  it  is. 

The  application  of  steam  to  soften  wood, 
so  as  to  admit  of  its  being  bent  into  various 
shapes,  is  old ;  but  by  compressing  the  wood 
while  being  bent,  so  as  to  prevent  the  loosen 
ing  of  its  fibre,  great  improvement  has  been 
made,  and  in  the  manufacture  of  furniture 
this  has  been  of  great  service.  There  is  also 
a  Ship  Timber  Bending  Company  in  Brook 
lyn,  L.  I.,  who  are  doing  a  large  business  in 
that  line  ;  the  timber  thus  bent  being  quite 
as  good  as  if  of  natural  growth. 

Steam  bakeries,  as  they  are  called,  show  no 
new  application  thereof,  as  they  simply  consist 
of  dough-raising  and  other  machines  driven 
by  a  stationary  engine ;  we  mention  them 
simply  to  show  how  extensive  are  the  usea 
of  steam. 


268 


STEAM. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

CONCLUSION. 

To  understand  fully  our  indebtedness  to 
the  inventors  and  improvers  of  the  steam  en 
gine,  we  must  compare  the  past  with  the 
present.  We  must  remember  the  North 
Kiver  sloops,  the  slow  ocean  packet  ships,  the 
lumbering  coach ;  then  the  canal  boat,  the 
horse  boat,  the  horse  railroad ;  followed,  but 
not  yet  entirely  superseded,  by  the  steam 
boats  of  Fitch,  Fulton,  Stevens,  and  a  hun 
dred  others — each  an  improvement  on  the 
last — until  months  are  crowded  into  weeks 
and  weeks  into  days.  If  it  is  true,  as  some 
have  said,  that  the  duration  of  human  life  is 
less  in  each  succeeding  generation,  it  is  in 
contestable,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the 
amount  possible  to  be  accomplished  by  each 
man  in  the  same  amount  of  time  is  increased 
many-fold.  \\  e  have  shown  what  has  been 
done  by  steam ;  but  are  we  now  to  stop  and  fold 
our  hands  at  the  request  of  the  few  old  fogies 
who  have  been  hurried  along  against  their 
will,  and  now  wish  to  sit  down  and  take 
breath  when  the  great  work  has  but  just 
commenced  ?  No  !  American  genius  is  the 
engineer  of  this  locomotive,  "Progress  ;"  his 
hand  is  on  the  throttle-lever,  which  he  opens 
wider  each  day.  Conservatism  may  act  as 
brakeman,  but  has  no  power  to  stop  the  train 
unless  the  engineer  aid  him.  His  bright, 
clear  eye  looks  out  upon  the  straight  track — 
for  the  path  of  progress  is  only  warped  by 
foolish  or  selfish  men — and  conservatism  may 
brake  up  and  retard,  but  not  stop  the  train. 
It  will,  it  is  true,  take  more  steam  to  draw  the 
load,  while  old  fogies  thus  act  as  a  drag,  and 
they  may  rest  assured  that  their  action  only 
renders  the  course  of  progress  more  danger 
ous,  but  will  never  stop  it. 

Lay  down  this  vain  opposition,  then,  and 
add  your  voice  and  your  purse  to  aid  the 
advance  of  steam ;  send  your  horses  into  the 
country,  or  retain  them  only  for  pleasure 
rides  of  invalids ;  pave  your  streets  with  iron, 
and  harness  steam  to  your  drays  and  cars. 
We  may  not  live  to  see  it,  but  it  is  our  firm 
belief  that  the  time  will  come  when  the 
foolish  excuse  that  steam  will  frighten  horses 
in  our  cities  will  be  no  longer  urged,  for 
there  will  be  no  horses  to  frighten.  You 
say  that  we  are  enthusiastic;  so  was  John 
Fitch ;  does  it  then  follow  that  he  was  wrong  ? 
You  try  to  urge  that  there  is  more  danger 
in  steam  than  by  the  old  mode  of  travelling, 
but  this  has  long  ago  been  proved  false; 


and  if  there  still  are  accidents  from  boiler 
explosions,  it  is  your  fault  that  they  have 
not  long  since  ceased.  Pass  a  law  in  each 
state  providing  for  the  inspection  of  all 
steam  boilers,  and  the  examination  of  all 
engineers,  and  impose  a  heavy  fine  on  all 
who  hire  an  engineer  who  has  no  certificate. 
Do  not  make  this  a  political  movement, 
but  see  that  the  board  of  inspectors  is  com 
posed  of  experienced  engineers,  men  who 
can  themselves  pass  an  examination  of  the 
most  strict  nature ;  and  bear  in  mind  also  that 
steam  requires  close  attention,  and  that  there 
is  not  one  man  in  a  hundred  that  can  have 
the  care  of  it,  and  at  the  same  time  have  his 
mind  distracted  by  other  duties,  without 
endangering  the  whole  neighborhood.  Pow 
der  mills  are  always  located  apart  from  other 
buildings,  for  a  careless  act  would  scatter 
destruction  around  ;  well,  some  of  the  boilers 
in  New  York  at  this  present  moment  are 
worse  than  powder  magazines,  and  yet  they 
are  located  in  the  most  densely  populated 
parts  of  the  city,  and  beneath  sidewalks  trod 
hourly  by  thousands.  The  engineer  (?)  saws 
wood,  grooms  horses,  or  works  at  the  bench, 
while  his  pump  clogs,  and  the  water  gets 
low  in  the  boiler ;  or,  interested  in  other 
work,  he  forgets  to  put  the  pump  on,  and 
soon  after — longer,  perhaps,  than  he  is  aware 
— he  lets  in  the  water,  and  wakes  to  find  him 
self  in  a  neighboring  yard,  or  never  wakes  to 
see  the  effect  of  his  employer's  false  economy. 
Under  such  management,  who  can  wonder  at 
the  accidents  we  read  of  weekly;  or,  rather, 
what  man  conversant  with  the  laws  of  steam 
does  not  wonder  that  there  are  no  more 
"  terrible  calamities"  to  be  recorded  ? 

It  is  comparatively  easy  to  understand  the 
great  advantages  that  have  accrued  to  naviga 
tion  and  land  transportation  from  the  use 
of  steam,  for  its  effects  are  constantly  before 
our  eyes ;  but  improvements  from  the  use 
of  steam  in  stationary  engines  are  less  ap 
parent,  although  full  as  great.  Even  in  the 
immense  manufactories  of  Manchester  and 
Lowell,  where  the  water  power  seems  almost 
unlimited,  we  find  the  steam  engine  at  work ; 
and  all  the  water  power  of  the  United  States 
combined  would  not  be  sufficient  to  carry 
out  one  branch  of  manufacture  in  all  its  de 
tails.  If  we  now  compete  with  foreigners  in 
the  manufacture  of  cotton  goods,  in  spite  of 
the  low  price  of  labor  abroad,  it  is  not  only 
owing  to  our  great  improvements  in  cotton 
machinery,  but  also  to  the  competition  of 
our  steam  milk  And  the  steam  press  !  Tiny 


CONCLUSION. 


269 


jets  of  steam  puff  forth  from  the  offices  of 
our  smallest  job  printers,  and  ponderous  en 
gines  work  the  six,  eight,  and  ten  cylinder 
presses  of  our  large  dailies.  Ask  the  pro 
prietors  of  those  papers  what  they  could 
now  do  without  steam?  The  New  York 
Herald  has  two  engines  to  do  the  press- 
work  ;  one  built  by  Hoe  is  a  beam  engine  of 
twenty -five  horse  power,  the*  other  is  an 
upright  engine  of  fifteen  horse  power, 
making  in  all  forty  horse.  With  these  two 
engines  they  consume  about  one  ton  of  coal 
per  day,  and  throw  off  an  average  of  75,000 
impressions.  The  office  is,  however,  capable 
of  doing  much  more  than  this,  its  utmost 
capacity  being  48,000  impressions  per  hour. 
The  engine  rooms  are  very  well  fitted,  and 
have  two  of  Woodworth's  donkey  pumps ; 
the  one  to  supply  the  boilers  with  water, 
and  the  other,  to  be  used  in  case  of  fire,  is 
connected  with  hose  in  every  room  of  the 
building. 

The  first  steam  mill  that  was  erected  in 
England  was  mobbed  by  the  populace.  They 
feared  this  giant  competitor ;  they  were  afraid 
it  would  take  food  from  their  mouths ;  and 
we  are  sorry  to  say  that  this  old  feeling  of 
the  laboring  classes  is  not  yet  entirely  erad 
icated;  educated  Americans,  who  should 
know  better,  can  yet  be  found  to  condemn 
machine  labor.  Last  year  Broadway  was 
swept  by  a  machine  that  would  in  time 
have  been  replaced  by.  steam,  but  New  York 
has  taken  a  retrograde  step,  and  politics  have 
so  strong  a  hold  upon  her  citizens  that  prog 
ress  must  bide  her  time.  Has  the  intro 
duction  of  machinery  hurt  the  laboring 
classes  ?  That  is  the  question !  Are  our 
laboring  men  worse  off  than  before  the  in 
troduction  of  steam  ?  Look  at  the  facts  and 
the  answer  is  plain.  A  few  coachmen  were 
thrown  out  of  employment  to  make  room  for 
hundreds  of  employees  upon  the  railroad,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  thousands  benefited  by 
their  construction,  and  that  of  the  cars,  loco 
motives,  station-houses,  etc.  A  handful  of 
weavers  and  spinners  have  been  temporarily 
removed,  to  be  reinstated,  with  thousands  of 
their  fellow  men  and  women,  at  full  as  good 
pay  as  before.  Head  has  aided  hands  every 
where,  and  those  who  have  kept  up  with  the 
age  of  improvements  have  been,  as  they 
should  be,  the  ones  to  profit  by  its  advan 
tages.  But  great  as  have  been  the  improve 
ments  in  our  stationary  engines,  there  is 
still  much  to  do  ;  we  are  not,  in  fact,  living  up 
to  what  we  already  know.  The  ordinary 


average  of  duty  performed  by  our  best  sta 
tionary  condensing  engines  is  one  horse 
power  to  four  pounds  of  good  coal  consumed, 
while  in  marine  engines  it  requires  the  con 
sumption  of  four  and  a  half  pounds  to  the 
horse  power;  and  yet  engines  are  running 
that  consume  but  two  pounds  to  the  same 
work.  With  these  facts  before  their  eyes,  men 
continue  to  purchase  the  former,  instead  of 
looking  for  an  improvement  upon  the  latter ; 
for  even  these  results  can  be  improved  upon, 
as  in  our  best  boilers  there  is  much  of  the 
combustible  gases  wasted,  and  much  of  the 
water  evaporated  into  steam  is  condensed 
before  it  reaches  the  cylinder;  any  percepti 
ble  heat  from  the  engine  while  working  is,  of 
course,  so  much  loss  of  fuel.  Bearing  this  in 
mind,  enter  an  engine  or  fire  room,  and  you 
will  realize  the  loss  from  that  source  alone. 

The  first  difficulty  is  being  fast  overcome 
by  admitting  atmospheric  air  above  the  fire, 
which  unites  with  the  gases  as  they  rise,  and 
furnishes  the  oxygen  necessary  for  their  com 
bustion;  it  is  now  necessary  to  get  rid  of 
the  heavy,  incombustible  gases,  and  this  will 
soon  be  done.  The  radiation  of  heat  can 
be  prevented  almost  entirely  by  inclosing  the 
boiler,  cylinders,  steam-pipes,  etc.,  in  some 
non-conducting  substance  ;  this  is  technically 
called  "jacketing."  Other  improvements  in 
the  steam  engine  are  being  made  every  day, 
and  we  believe  that  the  consumption  of  only 
one  pound  of  coal  to  the  hors  epower  will 
soon  be  accomplished. 

In  view  of  all  the  facts  that  have  been 
adduced  to  prove  that  the  steam  .engine 
is  the  best  of  all  motors,  can  it  be  pos 
sible  that  there  are  still  those  who  are 
sceptical  on  the  subject  of  its  utility  ? 
Alas,  yes !  You  will  find  them  among 
those  who  object  to  the  use  of  steam  in  our 
streets  to  replace  the  horse  cars ;  men  who 
believe  that  new  inventions  must  necessarily 
be  humbugs,  because  in  a  few  instances  they 
have  failed,  and  who  cannot  see  that  the 
greater  number  have  added  to  their  wealth, 
their  comfort,  and  their  pleasure.  The  greater 
number,  say  we  ?  We  might  have  said  all ; 
for  if  the  first  invention  fail,  it  paves  the  way 
for  another  and  better,  and  many  of  the  fail 
ures  of  inventors  stand  as  sign-boards  to 
show  the  false  paths.  You  will  find  these 
incredulous  men  in  the  same  position  to-day 
as  were  the  throng  of  spectators  who  stood 
in  Brown's  ship-yard  when  the  North  Riv 
er  was  fired  up  /or  the  first  time,  loudly 
calling  it  "  Fulton's  folly."  Its  great  success 


STEAM. 


soon  quieted  them  for  the  time,  but  it  was 
for  a  time  only.  A  succession  of  surprises 
from  that  day  to  this  should,  it  would  be 
thought,  have  forever  quieted  them,  but  they 
"  still  live,"  and  will  only  accept  progress  as 
a  fact  after  repeated  successes  make  it  impos 
sible  to  doubt ;  meeting  each  new  plan  with 
the  same  incredulity. 

In  speaking  of  the  accessories  of  the 
steam  engine,  there  is  one  point  we  omitted: 
many  boilers  are  unprovided  with  steam 
gauges.  In  a  conversation  with  a  proprietor 
of  a  steam  engine  some  time  since,  we  asked 
him  why  he  did  not  have  a  gauge  upon  his 
boiler.  "Oh  !"  said  he,  "  that  is  all  nonsense ; 
my  safety-valve  is  weighted  at  one  hundred, 
and  my  boiler  would  easily  carry  twice  that 
steam.  I  have  been  without  one  for  three 
years,  and  don't  need  it."  We  asked  him  if 
his  engine  was  always  competent  to  do  his 
work,  and  if  the  latter  was  always  constant. 
"Yes,"  he  replied,  "the  engine  will  always  do 
the  work,  but  it  is  just  all  it  will  do.  As  for 
the  work  being  constant,  it  is  far  from  that ; 
some  days  we  do  not  run  but  half  of  our 
machines,  and  then  the  safety-valve  tells  its  own 
story  by  'blowing  off.' "  "Yes,"  we  replied, 
"  and  it  tells  another  story,  which  is  '  loss  of 
fuel.'  Had  you  a  steam  gauge,  the  engineer 
would  know  how  to  fire,  and  in  less  than  three 
months  you  would  be  able  to  pay  for  a  gauge 
out  of  your  savings."  "Pooh  !  nonsense,"  he 
replied.  Insisting  upon  the  truth  of  what  we 
said,  we  prevailed  upon  him  to  try  it  for  a 
month  with,  and  without  a  gauge,  and  so 
well  satisfied  was  he  with  the  result  that  he 
now  says  a  gauge  is  worth  two  hundred  dol 
lars  per  year  to  him.  This  may  have  been 
an  extreme  case,  for  the  engineer  always  knew 
when  he  came  in  the  morning  what  machines 
were  to  be  run,  and  he  soon  had  an  exact 
knowledge  of  the  amount  of  steam  required 
to  drive  them,  and,  therefore,  regulated  his 
fires  by  the  gauge.  Gauges  will  get  out  of 
order,  we  know,  but  they  must  be  tested  at 
least  every  three  months  by  some  standard, 
and  repaired  if  wrong.  Who  wonders  if  so 
delicate  an  instrument  should  get  out  of  or 
der  under  one  hundred  pounds  pressure  for 
two  or  three  years  ?  and  yet  we  can  point  to 
a  gauge  in  use  in  this  city  that  has  not 
been  tested  for  four.  It  is  unnecessary 
to  add,  the  proprietor  "  don't  believe  in 
gauges ;"  he  probably  expected  it  to  last  a 
fife-time. 

With  regard  to  low  water  detectors,  that 
vhistle  when  the  water  is  dangerously  low, 


1  they  must  be  used  with  great  caution,  for  if 
out  of  order  they  would  be  a  source  of  pos 
itive  danger  by  the  fancied  security  of  the 
runner.  After  all,  the  only  safeguard  is  a 
boiler  in  good  order,  and  a  competent  engi 
neer  to  take  care  of  it ;  be  sure  on  these  two 
points,  and  nothing  is  better  than  steam  to 
do  your  work.  Those  owning  small  engines 
object  to  paying  the  price  of  such  men.  Is 
it  not  better  to  pay  more  per  day  for  abso 
lute  safety  than  to  risk  an  explosion  that  will 
destroy  all  your  property,  and  possibly  your 
life  and  the  lives  of  your  workmen  ?  If  your 
work  is  not  sufficiently  profitable  to  pay  a 
competent  man,  sell  your  engine  and  run 
your  mill  by  horse  power;  better  have  a  mule 
to  turn  the  driving  wheel  than  run  the  en 
gine.  But  it  will  afford  it ;  nay,  in  nine  cases 
out  of  ten  a  good  man  will  save  more  than 
his  salary  amounts  to  in  fuel  and  repairs 
alone. 

And  now  a  word  to  engineers.  You  who 
are  upon  our  steamships  and  locomotives 
think  that  such  a  law  would  be  of  no  bene 
fit  to  you ;  but  you  are  very  much  mistaken; 
once  passed,  it  would  give  employment  to 
hundreds  that  are  now  competing  with  you 
for  a  position  that  is  only  sought  because  it 
offers  better  wages  than  stationaries  can 
under  the  present  system  ;  under  the  same 
pay,  men  would  prefer  to  run  land  engines, 
and  be  near  home.  Therefore,  it  is  a  duty 
you  owe  yourselves  to  insist,  wherever  you 
exercise  the  rights  of  suffrage,  that  your  rep 
resentative  shall  advocate  such  a  law  ;  make 
it  the  sine  qua  non  of  your  vote.  And  you, 
engineers  in  name  only,  if  you  wish  to  retain 
your  present  positions,  study  your  duty ;  learn 
why  you  do  what  you  now  mechanically  per 
form  ;  find  out  what  pressure  you  are  carry 
ing,  for  yourselves,  and  do  not  trust  to  the 
marks  on  your  safety-valves;  read  works  on 
steam,  and  satisfy  yourselves  if  they  are  true 
by,  as  far  as  in  your  power  lies,  testing  them, 
for  all  that  is  printed  is  not  necessarily  true, 
as  you  will  very  soon  discover.  Above  all 
things,  be  one  to  form  an  engineers'  society, 
and  discuss  with  men  of  experience  the 
knotty  points  which  will  rise  in  your  mind 
when  you  once  begin  the  study  of  this  po 
tent  vapor. 

We  cannot  finish  this  article  without  re 
ferring  briefly  to  another  motor,  which  has 
for  the  last  four  or  five  years  attracted  some 
attention  :  we  allude  to  the  caloric  engine. 
Mr.  Ericsson,  of  whom  we  have  already  spo 
ken,  is  the  inventor  of  this  machine.  The 


CONCLUSION. 


271 


x>wer  made  use  of  is  the  expansive  force  of 
heated  air.  For  small  engines  this  motor  has 
been  used  with  success,  but  in  all  Mr.  Erics- 
jon's  experiments  on  a  large  scale  it  has 
failed.  As  there  is  no  danger  of  explosion 
from  the  lack  of  water,  the  caloric  engine 
has  been  of  value  on  the  southern  planta 
tions,  as  any  one  can  run  it,  it  being  only  nec 
essary  to  make  a  fire,  and  see  that  the  ma 
chine  is  oiled  and  kept  in  repair.  We  do  not 
believe,  however,  that  it  will  ever  supersede 
steam  as  a  motor,  even  for  small  engines. 
Since  Mr.  Ericsson's  invention,  others  have 
followed  with  various  improvements,  and 
much  ingenuity  has  been  displayed  upon  the 
subject ;  we  hear  occasionally  of  some  great 
success  of  a  caloric  engine,  but  it  never  re 
sults  in  any  thing  permanent.  The  details  of 
the  caloric  are  different  from  those  of  the 
steam  engine,  and  the  heavy  boiler  is  done 
away  with,  but  they  are  not  as  cheap  if  the 
cost  of  the  boiler  be  exceptecl,  and  are  much 
more  liable  to  get  out  of  repair  ;  still,  if  prop 
erly  taken  care  of  they  are  useful,  as  we  said 
before,  in  situations  where  but  little  power  is 
required,  and  water  scarce.  Mr.  Holly,  so 
well  known  as  "  Tubal  Cain  "  of  the  New 
York  Times,  says,  in  speaking  of  the  caloric 
engine :  "  We  only  wish  it  was  a  better 
rival  of  steam  in  every  particular,  that  it 
might  compel  the  makers  and  users  of  boil 
ers  to  employ  better  materials,  better  forms, 
and  greater  care  in  the  management  of  the 
subtle  motor — steam.  And  as  its  mechanism 
improves,  as  we  believe  it  will,  to  some  ex 
tent,  year  after  year,  it  will  better  serve  the 
public  by  compelling  us  to  improve  the 
smaller  varieties  of  the  steam  engine,  which, 
we  believe,  can  also  be  made  perfectly  safe. 
The  hot-air  engine  requires  no  constant  or 
professional  attendance,  and  for  this  reason 
is  a  valuable  motor  in  cases  where  an  occa 
sional  or  auxiliary  power  is  required.  And 
for  small  purposes,  the  saving  of  engineer's 
pay  more  than  balances  the  increased  cost 
of  fuel  and  repairs." 

Undoubtedly  small  steam  engines  and 
boilers  can  be  made  perfectly  safe ;  in  fact, 
they  should  be  the  safest,  and  will  be  so, 
when  the  public  will  not  look  to  the  mere 
first  cost  alone,  but  will  only  buy  engines  of 
the  best  builders,  and  pay  a  fair  price  there 
for;  another  result  that  we  hope  to  see  brought 
about  by  an  inspection  law.  Nor  is  this  by 
any  means  a  small  matter,  for  the  unthinking 
man  would  be  astonished  at  the  amount  of 
small  stationaries  that  are  now  running 


throughout  the  country.  In  New  York 
there  are  engines  or  boilers  in  every  street ; 
at  our  hotels  and  public  buildings,  in  our 
printing  offices,  carpenter  shops,  as  well  as 
in  all  the  larger  manufactories  and  machine 
shops,  engines  of  from  two  to  five  hundred 
horse  power  are  daily  running.  Machinery 
of  all  kinds  is  driven  by  steam,  from  the 
large  lathes  and  planers  of  our  machine  shops 
to  the  sewing  machines  of  the  clothiers ; 
manufacturing  crinoline  in  one  place,  and 
forging  huge  masses  of  iron  in  another,  the 
busy  hum  of  steam-driven  machinery  resounds 
on  every  side.  Stand  and  look  at  the  ten- 
cylinder  press,  and  think  of  Franklin  work 
ing  at  his  old  wooden  one.  Compare  the 
speed  of  the  former  with  the  country  press 
of  only  a  few  years  back,  if  you  would  realize 
this  great  improvement.  Has  this  hurt  the 
printers  as  a  class  ?  Figure  up  the  gross 
amount  now  paid  to  compositors,  and  com 
pare  it  with  the  amount  paid  fifty  years  ago 
before  you  answer.  Philadelphia  is  known 
as  a  manufacturing  city,  and  one  which  is 
probably  destined  to  be  the  greatest  in  this 
country.  To  what  does  she  owe  her  pros 
perity  ?  To  the  stationary  engine,  for  she 
has  no  water  power.  We  have  already  said, 
and  we  repeat,  that  imperfect  though  the 
steam  engine  may  still  be,  it  is  by  no  means 
certain  that  water  power  is  cheaper,  and 
there  is  one  disadvantage  in  the  latter  that 
is  often  overlooked,  it  is  that  of  monopoly. 
The  rich  company  who  own  the  water 
power  let  it  out  at  their  own  price,  for  there 
is  no  competition ;  but  with  the  steam  en 
gine  it  is  very  different ;  if  the  price  asked 
for  power  by  your  neighbor  be  too  great, 
you  can  readily  purchase  an  engine  of  just 
the  power  you  require,  and  run  it  in 
dependently.  But  the  greatest  advantage 
of  the  stationary  engine  is  that  it  can  be 
used  by  the  manufacturer  at  the  door 
of  the  consumer,  and  the  goods  produced 
will  be  thus  under  his  direct  inspection. 

Steam  enters  into  the  manufacture  of  every 
thing  around  us.  The  paper  we  write  upon 
was  dried  by  steam,  our  tin  paper-cutter 
was  rolled  by  steam,  the  chair  we  sit  upon 
was  turned  and  bent,  the  carpet  was  perhaps 
wove  or  at  least  dyed,  and  the  wood  work 
of  the  very  room  we  are  in,  were  all  done  by 
steam.  Steam  can  warm  our  dwellings,  and 
prepare  our  food.  It  tunnels  mountains, 
and  makes  pins,  cards,  spins  and  weaves, 
coins  our  money,  braids,  twists,  sews, 
washes,  irons,  and,  in  fact,  enters  into  every 


272 


STEAM. 


"branch  of  industry.  It  has  added  more 
than  any  thing  else  to  the  wealth,  power, 
and  prosperity  of  our  country.  Think  of 
this  the  next  time  you  are  asked  to  aid  in 
any  steam  project,  and  as  Americans  have 
heretofore  been  among  the  first  to  perfect 
the  steam  engine,  may  they  ever  be  the  ones 
to  educate  it  to  new  branches  of  labor.  Be 
not  satisfied  with  past  improvement,  but 
look  forward  to  changes  as  great  for  the 
next  twenty  five  years,  as  there  have  been 
in  the  last  half  century. 


APPENDIX. 

EXPERIMENTS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES 
GOVERNMENT. 

IN  our  introductory  chapter  we  spoke  of 
the  use  of  steam  expansively.  Soon  after 
the  article  was  written,  results  were  obtain 
ed  by  a  series  of  experiments  under  the 
auspices  of  the  United  States  government, 
that  tend  to  the  material  alteration  of  en 
gineering  practice.  As  we  had  yet  time, 
before  this  work  went  to  press,  we  thought 
that  some  of  the  results,  together  with  their 
bearing  upon  steam  machinery,  would  prove 
acceptable. 

Chief  Engineer  B.  F.  Isherwood,  while  try 
ing  some  experiments  in  superheating  steam, 
found  that  the  results  obtained  by  the  use 
of  steam  expansively  were  by  no  means 
even  an  approximation  to  those  theoreti 
cally  claimed,  and  that  a  sufficient  allowance 
was  never  made  in  calculating  the  increased 
loss  from  condensation.  His  experiments 
attracted  considerable  attention  from  engi 
neers  and  steam-engine  builders,  and  a  peti 
tion,  signed  by  some  of  tjie  most  prominent 
of  them,  was  sent  to  the  Hon.  Isaac  Toucey, 
the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  early  in  the  fall 
of  1860.  In  reply  to  this  memorial  an  ex 
perimental  board  was  appointed,  consisting 
of  Chief  Engineers  Isherwood,  Long,  Zeller, 
and  Stimers ;  and  the  United  States  steamer 
Michigan,  then  lying  in  her  winter  quarters 
at  Erie,  Pa.,  was  placed  at  their  disposal. 
Slu>  was  made  fast  to  the  wharf,  and  so 
loaded  as  always  to  remain  with  a  fixed 
draught  of  water,  the  coal  burned  being 
kept  upon  the  wharf  and  brought  on  board 
as  fast  as  used.  Each  bushel  of  coal  was 
weighed,  together  with  the  ashes,  clinkers, 
etc.  The  feed  water  was  accurately  meas 


ured  in  a  large  tank  prepared  expressly  for 
that  purpose.  Every  valve  upon  the  two 
engines  of  the  Michigan  was  carefully  tested 
and  proved  tight,  as  were  also  the  pistons, 
stuffing  boxes,  throttles,  etc.  The  steam 
gauges  consisted  of  two  spring  and  two 
syphons,  and  were  in  good  order.  Indi 
cators  were  placed  upon  each  end  of  both 
engines.  Thermometers  were  placed  in  the 
hot  well,  the  feed-water  tank,  the  engine 
room,  upon  the  deck  of  the  steamer,  and  in 
the  water  over  the  side.  Diagrams  were  taken 
from  each  end  of  the  cylinders  alternately 
every  half  hour,  and  the  average  height  of 
the  barometers  and  all  the  above-named  in 
struments  was  duly  noted  every  hour  by  the 
officer  on  duty.  A  large  number  of  exper 
iments  were  tried,  each  of  which  occupied 
seventy-two  hours.  The  fires  were  started 
and  steam  raised  to  a  certain  point  (20  Ibs. 
per  square  inch)  before  the  experiment  was 
commenced;  and  at  its  expiration  the  fires 
and  pressure  were  brought  to  as  nearly  a 
similar  condition  as  possible.  In  fact  every 
care  that  experience  and  scientific  ability 
could  suggest  was  used,  and  we  believe  that 
any  one  who  will  examine  the  tables  pre 
pared  by  this  board,  will  acknowledge  that 
the  nicest  possible  accuracy  marked  their 
entire  labor.  The  experiments  lasted  about 
three  months  ;  one  cylinder  was  tried  at  al 
most  every  point  of  cut-off  with  the  initial 
boiler  pressure  at  20  Ibs.,  and  also  with  the 
initial  cylinder  pressure  at  the  same  point. 

The  deductions  by  the  committee  were, 
that  at  seven  tenths  of  the  stroke  they  ob 
tained  the  maximum  results;  that  cutting  off 
steam  at  any  shorter  point  than  this  is  a 
loss,  as  proved  both  by  the  water  and  coal 
consumed ;  that  the  loss  by  condensation 
in  the  cylinder,  and  increased  friction  and 
back  pressure,  is  generally  greatly  under 
rated;  and  that  the  use  of  a  cut-off  is  no  ad 
vantage  over  the  common  throttle  valve  in 
the  majority  of  cases,  and  never  sufficiently 
so  to  pay  for  its  increased  expense  and  the 
trouble  attendant  upon  its  use.  These  are 
a  few  of  the  most  prominent  of  their  deduc 
tions.  They  are  contrary  to  the  received 
opinions  of  most  of  the  engineers  from  the 
time  of  James  Watt  to  the  present  day,  and 
from  this  fact  are  decidedly  unpopular.  We 
therefore  do  not  expect  in  an  article  so  gen 
eral  in  its  nature  as  this  to  convince  the  scep 
tical  reader,  but  merely  to  state  a  fact  that 
time  will  prove  to  the  world.  The  follow^ 
ing  table  is  a  digest  of  the  first  experiments, 


APPENDIX. 


273 


but  in  order  to  get  the  entire  data  of  the 
series,  we  shall  be  obliged  to  wait  for  the 
printed  report  of  the  board,  which,  if  the 
present  troubles  at  Washington  do  not  pre 


vent,  will  probably  appear  before  the  end  of 
the  present  year ;  and  to  that  we  refer  those 
sufficiently  interested  in  the  subject  to  wish 
to  look  further. 


ONE    ENGINE — BOTH    BOILERS. 


One  third. 

Date  of  commencing 9  P.M.,  Dec.  5. 

Duration  of  experiment 72  hours. 

Pressure  of  steam  in  boilers  in  Ibs.,  per  square  inch  20 

Inches  of  vacuum  in  condenser 25.5 

Lbs.  per  square  inch  of  vacuum  in  cylinder 11.5 

Mean  effective  pressure  on  piston,  in  Ibs.  per  square  inch.  . .  20.5 

Revolutions  per  minute     11 

Indicated  horse  power     Ill 

Lbs.  of  feed  water  per  hour  per  horse  power 43.3 

Lbs.  of  coal  per  hour  per  horse  power 5.85 

Cost  of  power  by  these  experiments,  full  stroke  being  unity.  1.07 

Cost  of  power  as  usually  calculated,  full  stroke  being  unity.  0.50 


What  interests  the  ordinary  reader  is  this : 
accepting  that  the  deductions  are  true,  and 
that  it  is  more  economical  to  use  steam  at 
nearly  full  stroke  than  by  cutting  it  oft'  early 
in  the  cylinder,  the  following  advantages 
will  accrue — first,  we  shall  build  our  cylin 
ders  smaller,  costing  less  to  construct  and  oc 
cupying  less  room,  both  of  great  importance 
to  the  marine  engine — second,  the  other 
parts  of  the  engine  having  a  regular  strain, 
instead  of  alternately  crowding  and  being 
moved  by  the  balance  wheel,  will  bear  to  be 
much  lighter.  And,  lastly,  we  are  forever  rid 
of  expensive  and  complicated  cut-off  gear. 

We  cannot  close  this  part  of  our  theme 

17 


without  alluding  to  the  course  of  Mr.  Toucey 
in  this  mater.  The  experiments  were  so  ex 
pensive  that  without  government  assistance 
they  would  probably  have  never  been  accu 
rately  tried,  and  the  manner  in  which  they 
were  conducted  will  reflect  as  much  credit 
upon  the  American  government  as  was  ever 
conceded  to  the  French  Academy  for  their 
celebrated  experiments  upon  temperature 
and  pressure.  May  the  successors  of  Mr. 
Toucey  ever  show  as  much  public  spirit  as  he 
has  done  in  this  respect,  and  devote  some 
of  the  public  money  to  the  advancement  of 
steam  engineering  that  has  done  so  much 
for  our  prosperity. 


COTTON  MANUFACTURES. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ORIGIN— HAND  WORK— INVENTIONS. 

THE  use  of  cotton  as  a  material  for  human 
clothing  has  been  known  since  remote  ages, 
not  only  in  Asia,  but  among  the  ancient  in 
habitants  of  America.  The  kind  of  cotton 
used  in  the  United  States  is  a  native  of 
Mexico,  and  it  was  the  principal  material 
for  clothing  in  use  Avith  the  Mexicans  at 
the  time  of  the  discovery  of  this  country. 
They  had  neither  hemp,wool,nor  silk,  but  they 
wove  the  cotton  into  large  webs,  as  delicate 
and  as  fine  as  those  of  Holland.  These  they  or 
namented  with  feathers  and  fur,  wrought  into 
the  fabric  in  the  form  of  animals  and  flowers. 
Cortes  sent  a  number  of  these  magnificent 
robes  to  Charles  V.  The  art  was  apparently 
lost  in  the  strife  that  followed,  but  the 
material  transplanted  to  the  United  States 
about  the  time  of  the  organization  of  the 
new  government,  has  become  a  bond  which 
holds  modern  Europe  in  dependence  on 
American  industry ;  a  dependence  which 
they  would  gladly  shake  off  if  they  could, 
but  which  only  becomes  more  hopeless  in 
their  efforts  to  do  so.  The  cotton  culture 
has  produced  a  web  which  holds  the  lion 
in  its  toils,  and  his  efforts  to  free  himself, 
gigantic  as  they  may  be,  only  make  his  im 
potence  more  apparent. 

The  growing  and  manufacturing  of  cotton 
by  machine  took  date  from  the  organization 
of  the  United  States  government,  and  its 
progress  has  been  as  follows  : — yds. 

Price, 


United  States     Cotton  of 


Total  Liver-      Yards 


crop.         other  sources,     supply,   pool.       cloth. 

Ibs.  Ibs.  IDS.        cts. 

1600,    9,532,263  45,671,170   54,203.433  48  162,610.299 
1859,  2,162,000,000  199,446,616  2,361,444,616  6  7,064,333,646 

The  cotton  from  other  sources  is  that  im 
ported  into  Great  Britain  from  other  places 
than  the  United  States.  The  increase  of 
supply  is  nearly  all  from  the  United  States. 
The  usual  weight  of  cloth  being  three  yards 
to  the  pound,  the  quantity  of  cotton  spun 
would  give  in  cloth  the  large  number  of  yards 


seen  in  the  table.  This  production  employs 
a  vast  capital  in  the  transportation,  manu 
facture,  and  sale  of  the  fabric.  More  people 
are  now  directly  dependent  upon  the  manu 
facture  for  support,  than  there  were  in 
the  United  States  at  the  formation  of  the 
government.  In  the  United  States  this  year, 
978,043  bales  were  manufactured,  or  equal 
to  1,470,000,000  yards  of  cloth,  or  forty 
yards  to  every  person  in  the  Union.  The 
value  of  this  must  be  $140,000,000.  This 
has  been  the  result  of  seventy  years'  progress 
from  very  small  beginnings,  and  this  mar 
vellous  growth  has  resulted  from  the  extra 
ordinary  inventions  that  have  not  ceased  to 
succeed  each  other,  and  of  which  we  shall 
give  a  brief  sketch. 

The  manufacture  of  cotton  by  hand  orig 
inated  in  India  at  a  time  too  remote  for 
record,  and  it  has  there  existed  down  to  the 
present  time  in  a  rude  state  as  far  as  ma 
chines  are  concerned,  yet  of  an  unapproach 
able  and  almost  incredible  perfection  of 
hand  production.  Ancient  writers  speak  of 
the  "  fairy -like"  texture.  Tavernier,  two 
hundred  years  since,  describes  a  calico  that 
you  "can  hardly  feel  in  your  hand,  and  the 
thread  is  scarcely  discernible."  The  Rev. 
William  Ward  states  that  muslins  are  made 
so  fine  that  four  months  are  required  to  make 
one  piece,  which  is  then  worth  500  rupees 
($250).  "  When  this  is  laid  on  the  grass, 
and  the  dew  is  on  it,  it  cannot  be  seen." 
These  are  marvellous  productions,  doubtless, 
but  they  are  possible  only  as  a  result  of  the 
organization  of  the  people.  They  possess 
an  exquisite  sense  of  touch,  and  that  gentle 
ness  and  patience  which  characterize  only 
an  effeminate  race.  Even  with  them  a  long 
training  is  required  in  each  district  to  per 
fect  the  cloth  peculiar  to  it.  This  is  a  kind 
of  industry  that  does  not  minister  to  the 
wants  of  a  vigorous  people  in  other  climes. 
From  India  the  manufacture  spread  to  China, 
in  the  eleventh  century,  and  found  its  way 
to  Europe  with  the  Mahometan  conquests.  , 


OPJGIN — HAND    WORK INVENTIONS. 


275 


It  was  for  a  long  time  supposed  and  as 
serted  by  many  philosophers  that  the  Egyp 
tians  made  cloth  of  cotton,  and  the  mummy 
wrappers  were  asserted  to  be  of  cotton.  It 
was  not,  however,  until  of  late  years,  that 
the  error  was  proved.  The  microscope  re 
veals  the  fact  that  the  fibres  of  cotton  and 
flax  are  quite  different.  The  latter  is  round 
and  jointed,  like  a  sugar  cane,  while  cotton 
is  flat  and  twisted.  The  mummy  cloths 
are  all  of  the  first  description,  and  there  are 
no  signs  of  a  cotton  manufacture  in  Egypt. 

It  spread  through  southern  Europe  slug 
gishly,  and  is  first  mentioned  in  England  in 
1641 ;  but  it  made  little  progress  until  a  cen 
tury  later.  There  were  two  obstacles  to 
progress — want  of  the  material  and  want  of 
machines  to  manufacture  effectively.  The 
quantity  of  cotton  imported  into  Great 
Britain  early  in  the  seventeenth  century  was 
about  one  million  of  pounds. 

Up  to  the  time  of  the  American  revolution 
ary  war,  the  cotton  manufacture  in  England  in 
all  its  branches  was  in  a  very  primitive  state. 
At  that  date  a  series  of  inventions  and  discov 
eries  took  place,  that  rapidly  carried  the 
cotton  manufacture  to  a  magnitude  second 
to  no  other  industry,  and  gave  it  the  im 
pulse  which,  as  we  have  seen,  has  not  yet 
ceased  to  act.  The  cleaning,  carding,  spin 
ning,  weaving,  dyeing,  and  printing  were  all 
conducted  in  slow  and  expensive  methods,  by 
which  a  great  number  of  people  were  required 
to  produce  small  results.  The  only  source 
for  the  raw  material  was  then  theWest  Indies. 
The  quantity  derived  thence  was  about  40,000 
bales,  or  4,000,000  pounds,  and  this  was 
wrought  up  by  hand  processes. 

The  object  in  carding  and  spinning  is  to  draw 
out  the  loose  fibres  of  the  cotton  into  a  regu 
lar  and  continuous  line,  andafter reducing  it  to 
the  requisite  tenuity,  to  twist  it  into  a  thread. 
By  the  early  method,  after  the  cotton  was 
cleaned,  it  was  carded  between  two  fiat  cards 
held  in  the  hand.  A  small  quantity  of  the 
cotton  placed  on  one  was,  with  the  other, 
combed  as  straight  as  possible.  The  fleecy 
roll  that  resulted  was  called  a  sliver.  This 
roll,  or  sliver,  was  then  applied  to  the  single 
spindle,  that  was  driven  by  a  wheel  set  in 
motion  by  the  other  hand  of  the  operator; 
as  it  received  a  twist,  it  was  drawn  out  into 
a  thick  thread  like  a  candle-wick,  called  a  rov 
ing,  and  was  wound  on  a  cop.  This  roving  was 
again  drawn  out  and  spun  into  a  thread.  Thus, 
in  two  operations,  a  single  irregular  and  im 
perfect  thread  grew  slowly  in  two  bands.  In 


this  manner  all  the  cotton  yarn  used  was 
made,  in  cottages  and  private  houses,  mostly 
by  females.  The  weaving  was  also  done  by 
hand  looms ;  but  such  was  the  slow  process 
of  spinning,  that  the  weaver's  time  was 
largely  employed  in  going  round  to  buy  up 
yarn.  They  competed  with  each  other  in 
this,  and  the  yarn  thus  cost  more  than  it 
should.  One  fine  morning  Mr.  James  Har- 
greaves  determined  to  emancipate  himself 
from  the  spinners,  by  putting  into  practice  an 
idea  that  had  occurred  to  him.  This  was, 
to  spin  in  his  own  house,  and  to  make  one 
wheel  drive  eight  spindles,  and  to  draw  the 
rovings  by  means  of  a  clasp  held  in  the  left 
hand  of  the  operator.  That  was  the  first 
spinning-jenny,  patented  in  1767.  In  1769, 
Arkwright  added  the  important  discovery 
of  rollers,  or  drawing  frames.  This  was  one 
of  the  most  important  inventions.  It  con 
sisted  in  causing  the  roving,  on  its  way  to 
the  spindle,  to  pass  between  a  pair  of  rollers 
about  four  inches  long  and  one  in  diameter. 
These  held  the  roving  so  firmly  between 
them  that  it  could  pass  only  at  the  speed  of 
their  own  revolution.  From  these  the  rov 
ing  passed  between  two  other  rollers,  which 
revolved  twice  as  fast  as  the  first  pair. 
The  effect  was  that  between  the  two  sets, 
the  roving  was  drawn  out  to  double  its 
former  length,  and,  of  course,  half  its  tenuity. 
The  rollers  thus  supplanted  the  drawing  by 
hand.  By  this  mode  of  drawing  the  cotton, 
the  fibres  arc  straightened  and  made  parallel ; 
and  the  improvements  that  have  since  been 
made  in  the  same  direction  are  to  increase  the 
drawings  and  doublings,  or  the  placing  of  sev 
eral  slivers  together  to  be  drawn  down  into 
one.  In  1784,  Crompton  combined  these 
two  inventions  into  a  third,  called  the  mule- 
spinner.  The  machine  of  Arkwright  was 
called  the  water-frame,  because  it  was  first 
driven  by  water  power.  The  defect  was, 
that  it  spun  thread  for  warps  only.  It  could 
not  spin  fine  threads,  because  these  could 
not  bear  the  strain  of  the  bobbins.  This  the 
mule  remedied.  Instead  of  the  spindles  be 
ing  stationary,  and  the  rovings  movable,  the 
former  were  placed  upon  a  movable  frame 
which  runs  out  fifty-six  inches,  to  stretch 
and  twist  the  thread,  and  runs  in  again  for 
it  to  wind  upon  the  spindles.  The  thread  is 
thus  treated  more  gently.  The  effect  of  this 
machine  is  best  understood  by  the  fact  that 
a  "  hank"  of  thread  measures  840  yards,  and 
it  was  before  supposed  impossible  to  spin  80 
of  these  hanks  from  a.  pound  of  cotton.  The 


276 


COTTON    MANUFACTURES. 


new  machine  spun  350  hanks  to  the  pound, 
thus  forming  a  thread  167  miles  in  length  ! 
This  mule  was  improved  to  carry  130  spin 
dles  ;  and  when  water  power  was  applied, 
in  1790,  it  carried  400  spindles.  These 
mules,  at  the  present  day,  carry  3,000  spin 
dles,  and  are  now  self-acting. 

The  process  of  carding  had  also  in  this 
period  undergone  great  improvements.  The 
first  improvement  made  in  the  old  hand 
cards  was  to  make  one  of  them  a  fixture, 
and  of  a  larger  size  than  the  other.  The 
workman  could  thus  work  more  cotton  in 
the  same  time.  lie  then  proceeded  to 
suspend  the  movable  card  by  a  pulley, 
with  a  weight  to  balance  it.  The  next 
advance  was  to  make  the  movable  card  a 
cylinder  covered  with  cards,  and  turned 
by  a  handle,  in  a  concave  frame,  lined  also 
with  cards,  which  was  simply  the  fixed  card 
curved  to  adapt  it  to  the  cylindrical  form  of 
the  other.  The  lower  part  was  let  down  in 
order  to  remove  the  cotton,  by  means  of  a 
stick  with  needles  in  it  like  a  comb.  The 
next  improvement  was  in  1772,  to  attach  an 
endless  revolving  cloth,  called  a  feeder,  on 
which  the  cotton  was  spread,  and  by  it  convey 
ed  to  the  cylinder.  The  next  step  was  to  take 
the  carded  wool  off  the  cylinder  by  means 
of  another  cylinder  revolving  in  an  opposite 
direction,  and  called  the  doft'er.  This  being 
entirely  covered  with  cards,  gave  a  continu 
ous  fleece  of  cotton,  which  was  in  1773  re 
moved  from  it  by  means  of  a  steel  blade  like 
a  saw,  working  by  short  strokes.  This 
broad  fleece  then  passed  through  a  funnel,  by 
which  it  was  contracted  into  a  ribbon  ;  it  then 
proceeded  through  two  rollers,  that  com 
pressed  it  and  let  it  fall  into  a  deep  can.  The 
carding  machine  by  these  means  approached 
perfection,  but  there  was  necessary  to  it 
the  marvellous  American  invention  of  the 
card-making  machine,  which  made  the  cards 
so  perfectly  and  so  cheaply  as  to  make  the 
cylinder  carding  possible.  The  concave 
frame  in  which  the  original  cylinder  re 
volved,  was  soon  replaced  by  smaller  cylin 
ders  covered  with  cards  and  revolving  in  a 
direction  contrary  to  the  main  cylinder. 
Between  the  action  of  these,  the  cotton  was 
more  perfectly  combed  out. 

The  carding  and  spinning  of  yarn  thus  had 
become  developed  in  a  manner  to  meet  the 
wishes  of  the  weavers,  but  now  genius  was 
directed  to  the  loom,  and  in  1785  the  power 
loom  was  invented  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Cart- 
wright.  This  was  improved  upon,  until 


in  1803  a  new  loom  was  patented  by  Mr. 
Horrocks.  These  looms  but  slowly  sup 
planted  hand  looms,  notwithstanding  their 
great  superiority.  The  great  obstacle  to  the 
success  of  the  power  loom  was  that  it  was 
necessary  to  stop  it  frequently  to  dress  the 
warp  as  it  came  from  the  beam.  The  dress 
ing  is  a  size  of  flour  and  water,  now  used 
cold  ;  the  object  of  it  is  to  make  the  thread 
smooth,  like  cat-gut.  The  inconvenience  of 
the  frequent  dressing  was  remedied  in  1802, 
by  the  invention  of  the  dressing  machine. 
By  this  machine  the  thread  is  wound  from 
the  bobbins  upon  the  weaving-beam,  and  in 
its  passage  it  passes  through  the  starch.  It 
is  then  pressed  between  rollers,  and  pass 
ing  over  hot  cylinders  to  dry  it,  it  is  brushed 
in  its  progress.  When  wound  upon  the 
beam  it  is  ready  for  weaving.  The  power 
loom  thenceforth  grew  rapidly  in  favor. 
Before  the  invention  of  the  dressing  machine, 
one  man  was  required'  to  each  loom  ;  after 
ward,  a  girl  of  fourteen  tended  two,  and 
produced  with  them  three  and  one-half  times 
as  much  cloth  as  the  best  hand  weaver.  Im 
provements  were  made,  until,  in  1833,  a 
weaver  fifteen  years  old,  aided  by  a  girl 
of  twelve,  would  weave  eighteen  pieces  of 
nine-eighths  shirting  of  the  same  quality  of 
which,  in  1803,  it  required  a  grown  man  to 
make  two  in  a  week. 

While  these  improvements  in  machines 
were  made,  there  were  discovered  processes 
of  bleaching  quite  as  important.  This  pro 
cess  previously  required  six  to  eight  months 
to  steep  in  lyes  and  bleach  upon  the  grass. 
By  chemical  discoveries,  a  bleaching  powder, 
composed  of  manganese,  salt,  sulphuric  acid, 
and  lime,  is  effective  in  bleaching  the  rough, 
gray,  and  dirty  fabric  that  comes  from  the 
weaver,  in  a  few  hours.  Every  thing  is  done 
by  machinery  and  chemical  agents. 

The  printing  of  calico  was  introduced  into 
England  in  the  seventeenth  century,  but  made 
little  or  no  progress  until  its  introduction  into 
Lancashire  in  1764,  when  it  was  taken  up  by 
a  farmer,  Robert  Peel,  grandfather  of  the  late 
prime  minister  of  England,  Sir  Robert  Peel. 
When  he  began  to  print,  he  had  the  cloth 
ironed  out  by  one  of  his  family,  and  used  a 
parsley  leaf  for  a  pattern.  The  method  was 
to  cut  the  pattern  upon  blocks  of  sycamore, 
like  an  ordinary  wood  engraving.  On  the 
back  of  the  block  was  a  handle.  The  color 
was  contained  in  a  vessel,  over  which  was 
stretched  a  woollen  cloth,  in  contact  with 
the  liquid.  To  this  the  surface  of  the  block  was 


ORIGIN HAND    WORK INVENTIONS. 


277 


applied,  and  it  was  then  laid  upon  the  white 
cloth  ironed  out,  and  struck  with  a  mallet ; 
the  figure  was  thus  impressed.  The  block 
was  then  applied  in  a  fresh  place ;  so  that  a 
piece  of  calico  twenty-eight  yards,  required 
448  applications  of  the  block.  To  make 
more  delicate  figures,  copper  plates  were 
employed,  with  the  press  used  for  copper 
plate  printing.  The  copper-plate  method 
was  quite  as  slow  as  the  block  method.  In 
1785,  cylinder  printing  was  invented.  A  pol 
ished  copper  cylinder,  three  feet  in  length 
and  four  inches  in  diameter,  is  engraved 
with  the  figure  on  its  whole  surface.  It  is 
then  placed  in  tho  press,  and  as  it  revolves, 
the  lower  part  passes  through  the  coloring 
matter,  which  is  scraped  from  the  surface  as 
it  rises  by  a  steel  blade  nicely  adjusted 
lengthwise.  This  blade  is  called  the  "doc 
tor."  The  cloth  passes  between  this  roller 
and  a  large  cylinder,  and  receives  the  im 
pression,  by  a  continuous  motion.  Thus, 
two  or  three  minutes  now  sufficed  to  do 
what  required  before  448  applications.  Al 
most  any  number  of  these  cylinders  may  be 
used  at  the  same  time  in  the  same  press, 
and  with  different  colors.  Thus  a  five  cyl 
inder  press  will  do  what  would  have  required 
2,240  applications  by  the  block ;  in  other 
words,  a  man  and  a  boy  could  now  do  what 
before  would  have  required  200  men  and  boys. 
An  American  invention  here  made  an 
important  change  in  the  printing.  Mr.  Jacob 
Perkins,  of  Massachusetts,  invented  the  proc 
ess  of  transferring  an  engraving  from  a  very 
small  steel  cylinder  to  the  copper.  Before 
this,  the  whole  of  the  copper  cylinder  required 
to  be  engraved,  at  great  expense,  and  when 
done  would  print  about  1,500  pieces  of  cloth 
before  it  was  worn  out.  By  the  new 
mode,  a  steel  cylinder  three  inches  long 
and  one  in  diameter,  is  prepared  by  being 
softened  that  it  may  be  easily  cut.  The 
pattern  to  be  engraved  is  so  arranged  and 
made  to  agree  with  the  circumference  of  the 
copper  cylinder,  as  to  join  and  appear  con 
tinuous  when  repeated.  When  this  is  cut 
upon  the  steel  it  is  hardened,  and  then,  by 
great  pressure  against  another  soft  cylinder, 
the  figure  is  made  on  it  in  relief,  or  raised 
upon  its  surface.  This  being  hardened, 
transfers  by  pressure  the  design  upon  the 
whole  of  the  copper  cylinder.  The  engrav 
ing  is  thus  multiplied  fifty-four  times,  and 
may  be  renewed  at  short  notice  when  the 
cylinder  is  worn.  This  was  a  most  impor 
tant  step  in  advance.  When  many  colors  are 


required  in  the  same  pattern,  portions  of  it 
are  engraved  upon  separate  dies,  and  the 
number  of  colors  may  be  multiplied  by  add 
ing  cylinders. 

We  have  thus  sketched  the  state  of  affairs 
down  to  about  the  period  of  the  introduc 
tion  of  the  manufacture  into  the  United 
States,  which  was  about  the  period  of  the 
formation  of  the  government.  The  imports 
of  the  raw  material  into  Great  Britain  at 
that  time,  will  show  the  rapidity  with  which 
the  trade  developed  itself. 

COTTON    IMPORTED    INTO    GREAT    BRITAIN. 

1775.. .4,765,589  Ibs.     1786..  .19,900,000  Ibs. 
1781.. .5,198,777      "       1789..  .32,576,023     " 

The  cotton  was  derived  as  follows  in 
1786:  British  West  Indies,  5,800,000  Ibs.; 
French  and  Spanish  do.,  5,500,000  Ibs. ; 
Dutch  do.,  1,600,000  Ibs.;  Portuguese  do., 
2,000,000  Ibs. ;  Turkey,  5,000,000  Ibs.  The 
United  States  contributed  nothing.  They 
did  no£  then  grow  cotton. 

The  American  invention  of  the  cotton  gin 
was  more  important  than  all  the  inventions 
we  have  described,  for  the  reason  that  without 
it,  and  the  American  supply  of  cotton  made 
possible  by  it,  all  the  ingenuity  of  the 
English  would  have  failed  for  want  of  ma 
terial  to  work  on.  The  sources  of  supply 
above  mentioned  have  not  increased  in  ca 
pacity.  England  has  derived  some  cotton 
from  India,  but  not  so  much  in  the  raw 
state  as  she  sends  thither  in  goods,  and  the 
United  States  alone  keep  her  mills  in  mo 
tion.  While  they  have  done  this  they  have 
also  developed  the  manufacture  in  a  mar 
vellous  manner.  We  will  here  enumerate  the 
dates  of  the  above  described  inventions,  in 
order  to  show  that  it  was  in  the  midst  of 
the  excitement  they  produced,  that  the 
manufacture  was  transported  to  America. 

Hargreaves'  jenny 1767 

Arkwrifjht's  rollers 1 769 

Crompton's  mule 1784 

Feeding  for  carder 1772 

Doffer       "         "      1773 

Cartwriglit's  loom  1785 

Water  power  used 1790 

Cylinder  printing 1785 

Dressing  machine 1802 

It  was  at  the  period  so  prolific  in  inven 
tions,  and  when  the  use  of  cotton  had  so  in 
creased  in  England,  that  the  manufacture 
was  commenced  in  the  United  States.  The 
first  mill  was  at  Beverly,  Mass.  It  had  a 
capital  of  £90,000,  and  was  organized  in 
1787,  for  the  manufacture  of  corduroys  and 


HAND  LOOM. 


POWER  LOOM.    ONE   GIRL  ATTENDS  FOUR. 


SPINNING   BY   HAND   WITH  A  SINGLE  SPINDLE. 


A  MULE  SPINNEE,    OPERATED  BY  ONE   HAND,    CARRYING   3,000   SPINDLES,   DOING  THE  WORK  Of 

3,000   GIRLS. 


280 


COTTON    MANUFACTURES. 


bed  ticks.  The  capital  was  swallowed  up 
in  fifteen  years.  The  machines  were  very 
rude,  inasmuch  as  the  new  inventions  in 
England  were  then  unknown  here. 


CHAPTER   II. 

MANUFACTURE  IN  AMERICA— SPINNING- 
PROGRESS. 

SAMUEL  SLATER  was  an  apprentice  to 
Jedidiah  Strutt,  the  partner  of  Arkwright. 
He  served  his  time,  and  when  of  age  de 
parted  for  America,  where  he  arrived  in 

1789.  In  the  following   year,  he  entered 
into  partnership  with  Almey  and  Brown  to 
start  a  factory  at  Pavvtucket.     Here,  then, 
were  put  up,  in  the  best  manner,  the  whole 
series  of  machines  patented   and  used   by 
Arkwright  for  spinning  cotton.     There  had 
been  previous  attempts  at  the  spinning  of 
cotton  by  water  power,  and  some  rude  ma 
chines  were   in  existence  for  spinning  the 
rolls  prepared  by  hand,  in  private  families ; 
but  the  machines  that  had  been  invented  in 
England  for  the  purpose  were  entirely  un 
known  here  until  put  up  by  Slater.  Those  ma 
chines  were  so  perfect  that,  although  put  up  in 

1790,  they  continued  to  be  used  forty  years, 
up  to   1830,  when  they  formed  part  of  an 
establishment   of    two    thousand    spindles, 
which  still   exists  in  Pawtucket  under  the 
name  of  the  u  old  mill."       Slater's  business 
was  prosperous,  and  he  amassed  a  large  for 
tune.     He  died  in  1834.     His  son  and  heirs 
still  carry  on  the  business.     It  is  to  be  re 
marked  that   his  business  was  confined  to 
the  spinning  of  cotton.     The  business,  of 
course,  spread  as  soon  as  it  was  found  to  be 
profitable ;  but,  up  to  the  war  of  1812,  the 
New  England  interests  were  commercial,  and 
when  the  war  broke  out  there  was  an  im 
mense   rise  in  the  value    of  goods,   which 
gave  to  all  existing  spinning  interests  a  great 
advantage.     Cotton  cloth  sold  at  forty  cents 
per  yard  ;  and  Slater  held  almost  a  monop 
oly  of  the  supply  of  yarn  to  make  it.     Mr. 
Slater  had,  in  1807,  in  connection  with  his 
brother  John,  who  brought  over  important 
knowledge  of  the  recent  improvements   in 
machinery,  erected  a  mill  at  Slatersville,  near 
Smithfield,  R  I.      Mr.   Slater  established  a 
Sunday  school  for  his  operatives,  and  this  is 
supposed  to  have  been  the  first  in  New  Eng 
land. 

It  will  be  observed  that  Mr.  I.  Slater  got  his 


mill  into  operation  at  the  same  period  that 
the  federal  government  was  organized  under 
the  new  constitution,  a  most  auspicious  event. 
»The  manufacture  did  not  fail  to  attract  the 
attention  of  the  new  government,  and  Alex 
ander  Hamilton,  secretary  of  the  treasury, 
in  his  famous  report  of  1791,  remarks: — 

"The  manufacture  of  cotton  goods  not  long 
since  established  at  Beverly,  in  Massachu 
setts,  and  at  Providence,  lihode  Island,  seems 
to  have  overcome  the  first  obstacles  to  suc 
cess  ;  producing  corduroys,  velverets,  fustians, 
jeans,  and  other  similar  articles,  of  a  qual 
ity  which  will  bear  a  comparison  with  the 
like  articles  brought  from  Manchester.  The 
one  at  Providence  has  the  merit  of  being 
the  first  in  introducing  into  the  United 
States  the  celebrated  cotton  mill,  which  not 
only  furnishes  material  for  the  factory  itself, 
but  for  the  supply  of  private  families  for 
household  manufacture. 

"  Other  manufactories  of  the  same  material, 
as  regular  businesses,  have  also  been  begun 
in  the  state  of  Connecticut,  but  all  upon  a 
smaller  scale  than  those  mentioned.  Some 
essays  are  also  making  in  the  printing  and 
staining  of  cotton  goods.  There  are  several 
small  establishments  of  this  kind  already  on 
foot." 

The  same  report  proposes,  as  an  aid  to  the 
factories,  to  remove  the  duty  of  three  cents 
per  pound  on  the  import  of  raw  cotton,  and 
to  extend  the  duty  of  seven  and  a  half  per 
cent,  to  all  cotton  goods.  It  also  remarks 
that  cotton  has  not  the  same  pretension  as 
hemp  to  protection,  as  it  is  not  a  production 
of  the  country,'and  affords  less  assurance  of 
an  adequate  supply.  These  few  facts  afford 
an  idea  of  the  notions  then  entertained  of 
that  cotton  which  has  since  overshadowed 
all  other  interests. 

The  old  mill  of  Samuel  Slater,  Esq.,  the 
first  building  erected  in  America  for  the 
manufacture  of  cotton  yarns,  is  a  venerable 
wood-built  structure,  two  stories  in  height, 
bearing  numerous  evidences  of  its  antiquity, 
having  been  erected  in  1793.  Two  spinning 
frames,  the  first  in  the  mill,  are  still  there, 
and  are  decided  curiosities  in  their  way.  It 
is  almost  incredible  to  believe  that  this  old 
building,  time-worn  and  weather-browned, 
was  the  first  to  spread  its  sheltering  roof 
over  the  young  pupil  of  Arkwright,  and  that 
those  dwarf  frames,  rusty  and  mildewed  with 
inactivity,  are  the  pioneer  machines  of  that 
immense  branch  of  our  national  industry — 
the  manufacture  of  cotton  goods.  It  may  be 


MANUFACTURE    IN    AMERICA SPINNING PROGRESS. 


281 


remarked  that  down  to  1828  the  exportation 
of  machines  of  all  kinds,  and  also  wool,  was 
strictly  prohibited  in  England,  for  fear  other 
nations  should  benefit  by  English  mechanic 
al  genius,  of  which  they  supposed  they  had 
a  monopoly  ;  when,  however,  they  found  that 
the  balance  of  genius  was  on  this  side  of  the 
pond,  they  liberally  removed  the  prohibition. 
Mr.  Slater,  the  father  of  American  cotton 
manufactures,  was  so  closely  watched  at  the 
English  custom-house,  that  he  could  not 
smuggle  over  a  drawing  or  pattern.  He  had, 
however,  acquired  a  full  knowledge  of  the 
Arkwright  principle  of  spinning,  and  from 
recollection,  and  with  his  own  hands,  made 
three  cards  and  twenty-two  spindles,  and 
put  them  in  motion  in  the  building  of  a 
clothier,  by  the  water-wheel  of  an  old  fulling- 
mill.  Sixty-seven  years  have  since  elapsed, 
and  the  business  has  in  that  period  increased 
beyond  all  precedent  in  the  history  of  manu 
factures.  Our  rivers  and  wild  waterfalls, 
that  then  flowed  and  murmured  in  solitude, 
are  now  propelling  thousands  of  mill-wheels, 
and  millions  of  shuttles  and  spindles.  In  the 
business,  hundreds  of  fortunes  have  been 
made,  thousands  of  citizens  earn  a  subsist 
ence  and  find  constant  employment,  while 
millions  are  clothed  in  different  portions  of 
the  globe.  A  wonderful  revolution  has  that 
old  mill  produced  on  the  shores  of  the  new 
world.  When  Gen.  Jackson  visited  the 
mil!,  and  complimented  Slater  on  his  having 
been  the  first :  "  Yes,"  he  replied,  "  here  I 
gave  out  the  psalm,  which  is  now  sung  by 
millions." 

The  machines  for  the  spinning  of  cotton 
thence  spread  into  several  states,  and  con 
tinued  to  attract  capital.  The  extent  to 
which  this  was-  carried  became  evident  in 
1810,  from  the  facts  collected  bv  the  secre 
tary  of  the  treasury,  Albert  Gallatin,  Esq. 
The  manufactures  of  cotton  and  wool  were 
then  principally  confined  to  families;  and 
Mr.  Gallatin  thought  it  probable  that  about 
two-thirds  of  the  clothing  (including  hosiery), 
of  the  house  and  table  linen  worn  and  used 
by  the  inhabitants  of  the  United  States,  not 
residing  in  cities,  was  the  product  of  family 
manufactures.  The  number  of  cotton  mills 
returned  to  the  secretary,  which  were  erect 
ed  at  the  close  of  the  year  1 809,  was  eighty- 
seven,  sixty-two  of  which  (forty-eight  water 
arid  fourteen  horse-mills)  were  in  operation, 
arid  worked  at  that  time  31,000  spindles. 
The  other  twenty-five,  it  was  supposed,  would 
be  in  operation  in  the  course  of  the  year 


1810,  and,  with  the  former,  would  probably 
work  eighty  thousand  spindles  at  the  com 
mencement  of  the  year  1811.  He  estimated 
the  amount  of  capital  that  would  be  em 
ployed  in  these  mills  at  $4,800,000,  the 
cotton  used  3,600,000  Ibs.,  the  yarn  spun  at 
2,880,000  Ibs.,  valued  at  $3,240,000,  the 
men  employed  500,  and  the  women  and  boys 
3,500. 

By  the  returns  of  the  marshals  of  the 
census  of  1810,  the  number  of  cotton  fao. 
tories  was  168,  with  90,000  spindles;  but 
from  most  of  the  states  no  returns  were  made 
of  the  quantity  of  cotton  used  and  the  yarn 
spun.  Massachusetts  had  54,  most  of  them, 
no  doubt,  small,  having  in  the  whole 
only  19,448  spindles,  consuming  but  838,- 
348  pounds  of  cotton,  and  their  produce 
valued  at  $931,916.  Rhode  Island  had  26 
factories,  with  21,030  spindles,  and  Connect 
icut  14,  with  11,883  spindles.  These  were 
for  the  supply  of  yarn  to  be  used  in  hand 
looms  exclusively. 

In  this  position  of  affairs  the  Avar  took 
place ;  but  just  on  its  eve  Mr.  Francis  C. 
Lowell,  of  Boston,  returned  from  Europe, 
where  he  had  inspected  the  great  improve 
ments  in  machines  for  cotton  manufacturing, 
and  had  formed  the  project  of  establishing 
the  manufacture  in  this  country.  He  as 
sociated  with  himself  in  the  enterprise  his 
brother-in-law,  Patrick  S.  Jackson,  and  they 
set  about  it.  The  country  was  then  at  war 
with  England,  and  there  was  no  possibility 
of  getting  either  models  or  machines  thence, 
nor  even  drawings.  The  memory  of  Mr. 
Lowell  was  all  that  was  to  be  depended  upon 
for  the  structure  of  the  machinery,  the 
materials  used  in  the  construction,  even  the 
tools  of  the  machine  shop.  The  first  object 
to  be  accomplished  was  to  procure  a  power 
loom.  To  obtain  one  from  England  was,  of 
course,  impracticable  ;  and  although  there 
were  many  patents  for  such  machines  in  our 
Patent  Office,  not  one  had  yet  exhibited  suf 
ficient  merit  to  be  adopted  into  use.  Under 
these  circumstances  but  one  resource  re 
mained — to  invent  one  themselves — and  this 
these  earnest  men  at  once  set  about. 

Unacquainted  as  they  were  with  machinery 
in  practice,  they  dared,  nevertheless,  to  at 
tempt  the  solution  of  a  problem  that  had 
baffled  the  most  ingenious  mechanicians.  In 
England,  the  power  loom  had  been  invented 
by  a  clergyman,  and  why  not  here  by  a  mer 
chant  ?  After  numerous  experiments  and 
failures,  they  at  last  succeeded,  in  the 


282 


COTTON    MANUFACTURES. 


autumn  of  1812,  in  producing  a  model  which 
they  thought  so  well  of  as  to  be  willing  to 
make  preparations  for  putting  up  a  mill  for 
the  weaving  of  cotton  cloth.  It  was  now 
necessary  to  procure  the  assistance  of  a 
practical  mechanic,  to  aid  in  the  construction 
of  the  machinery,  and  the  friends  had  the 
good  fortune  to  secure  the  services  of  Mr. 
Paul  Moody,  afterward  so  well  known  as 
the  head  of  the  machine  shop  at  Lowell. 
They  found,  as  might  naturally  be  expected, 
many  defects  in  their  model  loom ;  but  these 
were  gradually  remedied.  The  project 
hitherto  had  been  exclusively  for  a  weaving 
mill,  to  do  by  power  what  had  before  been 
done  by  hand  looms.  But  it  was  ascertain 
ed  on  inquiry  that  it  would  be  more  eco 
nomical  to  spin  the  twist  than  to  buy 
it,  and  they  put  up  a  mill  for  about  1,700 
spindles,  which  was  completed  late  in  1813. 
It  will  probably  strike  the  reader  with  some 
astonishment  to  be  told  that  this  mill,  still 
in  operation  at  Waltham,  was  probably  the 
first  one  in  the  world  that  combined  all  the 
operations  necessary  for  converting  the  raw 
cotton  into  finished  cloth.  Such,  however, 
is  the  fact,  as  far  as  we  are  informed  on  the 
subject.  The  mills  in  this  country — Slater's, 
for  example,  in  Rhode  Island — were  spin 
ning  mills  only  ;  and  in  England,  though  the 
power  loom  had  been  introduced,  it  was  used 
in  separate  establishments,  by  persons  who 
bought,  as  the  hand  weavers  had  always 
done,  their  twist  of  the  spinners.  Great  dif 
ficulty  was  at  first  experienced  at  Waltham, 
for  the  want  of  a  proper  preparation  (sizing) 
of  the  warps.  They  procured  from  England 
a  drawing  of  Horrocks'  dressing  machine, 
which,  •  with  some  essential  improvements, 
they  adopted,  producing  the  dresser  now  in 
use  at  Lowell  and  elsewhere.  No  method 
was,  however,  indicated  in  this  drawing  of 
winding  the  threads  from  the  bobbins  on  to 
the  beam ;  to  supply  this  deficiency,  the 
macnine  called  the  warper  was  invented, 
and  there  was  now  no  further  difficulty  in 
weaving  by  power  looms.  The  "  double 
speeder,"  answering  to  the  fly  frame  for  spin 
ning  roving,  was  then  added.  Mr.  Moody 
then  invented  the  machine  called  the  filling 
throstle,  for  winding  the  thread  for  weft  from 
the  bobbin  on  to  the  quills  for  the  shuttle. 
The  manufacture,  as  far  as  machinery  went, 
was  now  on  a  permanent  basis.  The  dif 
ficulty  that  presented  itself  was  in  opera 
tives.  There  was  here  no  such  pauper  class  as 
that  from  which  the  English  mills  were  sup 


plied,  and  the  factories  were  to  be  recruited 
from  respectable  families.  By  the  erection 
of  boarding-houses,  at  the  expense  and  under 
the  control  of  the  factory ;  putting  at  the 
head  of  them  matrons  of  tried  character,  and 
allowing  no  boarders  to  be  received  except 
the  female  operatives  of  the  mill;  by  strin 
gent  regulations  for  the  government  of  these 
houses — by  all  these  precautions,  they  gained 
the  confidence  of  the  rural  population,  who 
were  no  longer  afraid  to  trust  their  daughters 
in  a  manufacturing  town.  A  supply  was 
thus  obtained,  of  respectable  girls;  and  these, 
from  pride  of  character,  as  well  as  from  prin 
ciple,  have  taken  care  to  exclude  all  others. 
It  was  soon  found  that  apprenticeship  in  a 
factory  entailed  no  degradation  of  character, 
and  was  no  impediment  to  a  respectable  con 
nection  in  marriage.  A  factory  girl  was  no 
longer  condemned  to  pursue  that  vocation  for 
life ;  she  would  retire,  in  herturn,  to  assume  the 
higher  and  more  appropriate  responsibilities 
of  her  sex ;  and  it  soon  came  to  be  consid 
ered  that  a  few  years  in  a  mill  were  an  honor 
able  mode  of  securing  a  dower.  The  busi 
ness  could  thus  be  conducted  without  any  per 
manent  manufacturing  population.  The  oper 
atives  no  longer  form  a  separate  caste,  pursu 
ing  a  sedentary  employment,  from  parent  to 
child,  in  the  heated  rooms  of  a  factory,  but 
are  recruited  in  a  circulating  current  from 
the  healthy  and  virtuous  population  of  the 
country.  The  success  which  these  mills  met 
with  of  course  prompted  their  extension.  In 
1821,  Mr.  Ezra  Worther,  who  had  formerly 
been  a  partner  with  Mr.  Moody,  and  who 
had  applied  to  Mr.  Jackson  for  employment, 
suggested  that  the  Pawtucket  canal,  at 
Chelmsford,  would  afford  a  fine  location  for 
large  manufacturing  establishments,  and  that 
probably  a  privilege  might  be  purchased  of 
its  proprietors.  To  Mr.  Jackson's  mind  the 
hint  suggested  a  much  more  stupendous  pro 
ject — nothing  less  than  to  possess  himself  of 
the  whole  power  of  the  Merrimac  river  at 
that  place.  Aware  of  the  necessity  of  se 
crecy  of  action,  to  secure  this  property  at 
any  reasonable  price,  he  undertook  it  single- 
handed.  It  was  necessary  to  purchase  not 
only  the  stock  in  the  canal,  but  all  the  farms 
on  both  sides  of  the  river,  which  controlled 
the  water-power,  or  which  might  be  neces 
sary  for  the  future  extension  of  the  business. 
Such  was  the  beginning  of  Lowell,  since  so 
world-renowned.  A  new  company,  the  Mer 
rimac,  was  immediately  established  under 
the  direction  of  Kirk  Boott,  Esq. 


MANUFACTURE    IN    AMERICA — SPINNING PROGRESS. 


283 


The  establishment  of  the  Lowell  mills  took 
place  at  a  time  when  the  occurrence  of  war 
had  diverted  the  capital  of  New  England 
from  commerce,  and  it  eagerly  sought  new 
modes  of  investment.  These  were  presented 
in  the  promising  prospects  of  the  newly  in 
vented  machine  manufactures.  The  cotton 
growth  of  the  south  had  become  large  before 
the  war,  and  that  event  caused  an  immense 
accumulation  of  stock  that  sunk  the  price  to 
the  lowest  point,  and  by  so  doing,  offered 
an  abundance  of  raw  material  at  rates  merely 
nominal  compared  with  what  the  English 
manufacturers  had  been  paying.  This  gave 
a  great  advantage  to  the  new  enterprise,  and 
Congress  aided  it  by  the  establishment  of 
protective  duties.  The  minimum  cotton 
duty  was  invented  for  the  purpose.  The 
rate  was  nominally  ad  valorem,  but  the  price 
was  fixed  at  a  minimum,  on  which  the  duty 
was  cast — hence  the  duty  was  in  effect  spe 
cific.  Thus,  the  abundant  raw  material,  the 
low  price  of  cotton,  and  the  protection  of 
the  government,  all  combined  to  give  hreadth 
to  the  newly  awakened  manufacturing  fe 
ver.  The  capital  that  crowded  into  it,  soon, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  overdid  the  business, 
and  distress  followed,  which  was  sought 
to  be  relieved  by  a  still  higher  tariff  in  1824. 
That  seemed,  however,  to  add  but  fuel  to  the 
flame;  and  in  1828,  still  higher  rates  were 
demanded.  We  may  compare  these  tariffs  : 
cotton  goods  not  dyed  Avere  to  be  valued  at 
twenty-five  cents  per  square  yard,  and  pay 
twenty-five  per  cent,  duty,  or  six  and  a  quar 
ter  cents  per  yard ;  goods  printed  or  dyed 
were  to  pay  nine  cents  per  square  yard ;  fus 
tians,  moleskins,  etc.,  were  to  pay  twenty-five 
cents  per  square  yard  ;  woollens  were  charged 
twenty-five  per  cent,  in  1816,  thirty-three 
and  a  half  per  cent,  in  1824,  and  forty-five 
per  cent,  in  1828.  Under  all  these  circum 
stances,  the  manufacture  could  not  fail  to 
grow  rapidly,  and  of  course  to  bring  on  dis 
tress  as  the  result.  In  1831,  the  tariff  excite 
ment  had  reached  such  a  pitch  that  the  most 
disastrous  political  results  were  anticipated. 
It  was  then  that  the  committee  of  the  con 
vention  collected  information  of  the  existing 
manufactures.  They  reported  the  table  which 
•we  annex.  The  returns  are  for  the  eleven 
states  where  manufactures  were  well  devel 
oped  ;  some  twenty  to  thirty  other  mills 
were  also  reported,  but  so  imperfectly  that 
the  returns  were  rejected.  The  table  is  very 
valuable — as  follows  : — 


"  ^-  03  w  •  *     „  w  °«  «ft  i    —        l  TjJ  ~l  •— '  X 

cij     to  o  or  •        *•*  to  —  — » ,_.      >-'CO^.^-j^1.-  r"1  j   j  '     ~*     • 


OOCOOS^S  —  CK 


Cu 


§:        O>VV<        S  O-40«J—  *•        JOO  —  O'' 

O        GdOO        O  O  O5  O  —  t  O  O4        V1 


"io  to  Co  -i  H) 

o  o  .         to      X  2  «c 

II 

''So  5 


to  ,_, 

^  s 

$  «p- 

to  —  to 

C7-  S5 


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III 

o?  5 


tstitovoo 


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o 


COTTON    MANUFACTURES. 


Such  had  been  the  immense  growth  of  the 
manufacture  in  ten  years  from  the  time  the 
Lowell  mills  were  started,  when  but  little  ma 
chine  cloth  was  made;  but  in  1831 ,  there  was 
made,  it  appears,  230,461,990  yards,  or  nearly 
twenty  yards  per  head  of  all  the  people.  It  ! 
is  obvious  that  this  large  and  sudden  pro-  i 
duction  of  cloth  could  have  found  vent  only 
by  supplanting  the  work  of  families  and 
hand  looms,  and  of  course  by  pressing  hard 
upon  the  spinners  of  yarn.  The  New  Eng 
land  mills  were  mostly  carried  on  as  one 
concern,  spinning  and  manufacturing  to 
gether.  This,  however,  is  not  the  case  with 
the  mills  in  the  middle  or  the  new  states. 
The  mills  there  are  mostly  employed  in  spin 
ning  only,  as  were  the  first  New  England 
mills.  The  yarns  are  produced  for  sale  to 
hand  looms.  The  census  of  1840  gave  the 
number  of  mills  in  the  whole  country  at 
1,240,  and  the  number  of  spindles  at  2,_:84,- 
631,  consuming  132,835,856  Ibs.  of  cotton; 
and  the  manufacture  had  continued  to  spread 
into  the  southern  and  western  states.  That 
was  still  hand  weaving,  which  yet  obtains 
in  many  parts  of  the  older  states  of  the 
Union.  Thus,  while  in  Pennsylvania  the 
capital  invested  amounts  to  about  one-seventh 
of  that  of  Massachusetts,  the  quantity  of  cot 
ton  consumed  is  one-fifth ;  the  value  of  the 
raw  material,  not  quite  one-fourth ;  number 
of  operatives  (male  and  female),  one-fourth; 
value  of  products,  rather  more  than  one- 
faurth ;  the  number  of  pounds  of  yarn  spun 
and  sold  as  yarn  is  above  thirty  times  greater 
in  Pennsylvania  than  in  Massachusetts.  This, 
to  a  certain  extent,  gives  a  key  to  the  differ 
ences  in  the  modes  of  manufacture  in  the 
two  states.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  however, 
that  domestic  weaving  is  gradually  giving 
way,  and  those  manufacturers,  especially  in 
Pennsylvania,  who  formerly  did  a  prosperous 
business  as  spinners  only,  now  find  that  the 
eastern  states  supply  the  piece  goods  at  a 
rate  so  little  above  the  cost  of  the  yarn,  that 
it  is  not  worth  the  while  of  the  farmer  to 
continue  this  primitive  custom  of  weaving 
his  own  cloth.  Thus  the.  domestic  loom  is 
fast  following  the  spinning  wheel  of  the  early 
settlers,  and  those  manufacturers  who  until 
recently  have  spun  yarn  only,  are  gradually 
introducing  the  power  loom  as  the  only 
means  of  sustaining  their  position  in  the 
market.  This  was  illustrated  by  the  Eagle 
Cotton  Mill,  Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania.  For 
merly,  the  proprietors  spun  yarn  only,  and 
did  a  successful  trade ;  but,  by  a  return 


which  they  made,  it  appears  that  in  six 
establishments  under  their  direction  they 
had  introduced  already  540  looms  to  the 
26,000  spindles,  and  were  manufacturing 
sheeting  at  the  rate  of  6,000,000  yards  per 
annum,  together  with  twilled  cotton  bags, 
batting,  and  yarns,  and  this  in  order  to  make 
the  latter  pay,  by  consuming  the  surplus 
yarns  themselves.  In  the  Penn  Cottoa  Mill, 
Pittsburg,  the  more  modern  system  had  be 
come  the  rule  of  the  establishment,  and  with 
7,000  spindles  and  207  looms,  2,730,000 
yards  of  shirtings  were  produced  annually, 
besides  240,000  Ibs.  weight  of  colored  yarns 
for  cotton  warps  and  cotton  rope.  At  two 
establishments  in  Richmond,  Virginia,  the 
consumption  of  the  yarn  in  the  manufacture 
of  piece  goods  was  the  rule.  Georgia,  Ten 
nessee,  and  North  Carolina  are  quoted  as 
those  in  which  the  greater  progress  had  been 
made,  while  Virginia,  South  Carolina,  and 
Alabama  were  the  next.  In  Tennessee,  spin 
ning  would  appear  to  be  the  rule  and  manu 
facturing  the  exception  ;  in  Georgia  and 
North  Carolina,  equal  attention  is  paid  to 
both;  while  in  Virginia,  South  Carolina,  and 
Alabama  the  manufacture  of  the  piece  goods 
is  decidedly  more  extensively  carried  on 
than  spinning;  only  slave  labor  is  largely  used, 
with  free  whites  as  overseers  and  instructors. 
The  males  are  heads  of  departments,  ma 
chinists,  dressers,  etc.,  and  the  females  are 
spinners  and  weavers.  The  latter  are  chiefly 
adults,  though  children  from  twelve  to  fif 
teen  are  employed.  The  average  hours  of 
work  here  are  twelve,  but  vary  a  little  with 
the  season,  very  full  time  being  the  rule. 
The  James  River  Mill  produces  a  large 
weight  of  work  for  the  extent  of  its  machin 
ery.  The  goods  manufactured  are  coarse 
cottons,  and  average  about  two  and  one-half 
yards  to  the  pound,  shirtings  twenty-eight 
inches  wide  (osnaburgs),  summer  panta 
loons  for  slaves,  and  bagging  for  export  to 
the  Brazils  for  sugar  bags,  running  about 
three  yards  to  the  pound.  Bagging  of  a 
lighter  character  for  grain,  and  thirty-six  inch 
osnaburgs,  two  yards  to  the  pound,  are  also 
produced.  The  Manchester  Company  manu 
facture  sheetings,  shirtings,  and  yarns,  and 
employ  about  325  operatives ;  the  children 
being  of  the  same  average  age  as  at  the  James 
River  Mill.  Mr.  Whitehcad,  of  Virginia,  in 
1853,  perfected  a  patent  speeder.  Its  ad 
vantages  are  a  greater  speed,  a  more  even 
roving,  and  a  bobbin  of  any  desirable  size, 
which  never  becomes  spongy  in  the  wind- 


MANUFACTURE    IN    AMERICA SPINNING PROGRESS. 


285 


ing.  In  Maryland,  however,  there  were 
twenty-four  establishments  in  1850,  chiefly 
engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  piece  goods, 
such  as  drillings,  sheetings,  ducks,  osna- 
burgs,  and  bagging.  The  yarns  produced 
for  domestic  purposes  bear  but  a  small  pro 
portion  to  those  manufactured  into  cloth, 
and  these  are  chiefly  sold  within  the  state 
for  the  home  weaving  of  mixed  fabrics  of 
wool  and  cotton,  forming  coarse  linseys. 
If  the  illustrations  given  show  the  early  pro 
gress  and  position  of  this  manufacture  in  the 
United  States,  so  far  as  daily-recurring  im 
provements  and  ever-increasing  wants  have 
permitted  it  to  remain  in  its  original  form, 
the  manufacturing  towns  of  Lowell,  Man 
chester,  and  Lawrence,  strikingly  demonstrate 
the  results  of  the  energy  and  enterprise  of 
the  manufacturers  of  New  England.  At 
Lowell,  Mass.,  the  cotton  manufacture  has 
been  developed  in  a  form  which  has  been  a 
theme  for  many  writers  on  the  economy  and 
social  bearing  of  the  factory  system ;  and 
the  plans  so  successfully  put  into  operation 
here  and  carried  on  since  1822  have  led  to 


the  erection  of  large  establishments,  with 
their  attendant  boarding-houses,  at  Man 
chester,  N.  H.,  and  more  recently  at  Law 
rence,  Mass.  The  falls  of  the  Pawtucket  on 
the  Merrimac  river  and  the  Pawtucket  canal, 
which  had  previously  been  used  only  for 
the  purpose  of  navigation  and  connecting 
the  river  above  and  below  the  falls  by  means 
of  locks,  presented  to  the  original  projectors 
of  Lowell  a  site  for  the  solution  of  an 
important  problem,  not  only  in  Ameri 
can  industry,  but  to  a  great  extent  in  that 
of  Europe  itself.  This  was  the  combina 
tion  of  great  natural  advantages  with  a 
large  and  well-directed  capital,  resulting 
in  extensive  and  systematic  operations  for 
the  realization  of  a  legitimate  profit,  while 
the  social  position  of  the  operative  classes 
was  sedulously  cared  for,  and  their  moral 
and  intellectual  elevation  promoted  and 
secured. 

The  census  of  1860  gave  figures  that  show 
the  extent  of  the  manufacture  as  it  existed 
at  that  date,  in  all  the  states.  Those  figures 
are  as  follows : — 


COTTON  MANUFACTURES  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  PER  CENSUS  OF  1860. 


States.                       E 
Maine   

No.  of 
stablish- 
ments. 
19 
44 
8 
217 
153 
129 
79 
185 
44 
11 
20 
1 
8 
2 
3 
1 
2 
6 
16 
39 
17 
33 
1 
14 
2 
1 
4 
2 
30 

1,091 
1,074 

Capital. 

$6,018,325 
12,586,880 
271,200 
33,704,674 
10,052,200 
6,627,000 
5,383,479 
9,203,460 
1,320,550 
582,500 
2,254,500 
45,000 
265,000 
251,000 
4,700 
6,000 
169,000 
244,000 
1,367,543 
1,272,750 
801,825 
2,126,103 
30,000 
1,316,000 
1,000,000 
450,000 
230,000 
37,000 
965,000 

Cost  of  raw 
material. 

$3,319,335 
7,128,196 
181,030 
17.214,592 
5,799,223 
4,028,406 
3,061,105 
7,386,213 
1,165,435 
570,102 
1,698,413 
47,403 
374,100 
229,925 
11,930 
6,000 
110,000 
214,755 
811,187 
622,363 
431,525 
1,466,375 
23,600 
617,633 
226,600 
64,140 
79,800 
11,600 
384,548 

Male 
hands. 

1,828 
3,829 
157 
13,691 
6,353 
4,028 
3,107 
6,412 
1,010 
520 
1,093 
70 
372 
177 
10 
4 
85 
130 
694 
449 
342 
1,131 
40 
543 
220 
130 
106 
14 
323 

Female 
hands. 

4,936 
8,901 
222 
24,760 
7,724 
4,974 
4,552 
8,582 
1,524 
589 
1,594 
25 
468 
190 
1 
3 
85 
116 
747 
1,315 
549 
1,682 
25 
769 
140 

109 
11 
676 

Cost  of  labor. 

$1,368,888 
2,883,804 
78,468 
7,798,476 
2,847,804 
1,743,480 
1,405.292 
2,768,340 
468,336 
218,352 
582,780 
19,800 
151,164 
84,888 
2,640 
3,420 
30,600 
41,280 
260,856 
189,744 
123,300 
415,332 
7,872 
198,408 
49,440 
15,600 

4J428 
139,180 

Valu*  of 
products. 

$6,235,623 
13,699,994 
357,450 
38,004,255 
12.151,191 
8,911,387 
6,676,878 
13,650,114 
2,217,728 
941,703 
2,973,877 
74,400 
723,500 
344,350 
18,987 
10,000 
230,000 
315,270 
1,489.971 
1,046,047 
713,050 
2,371,207 
40,000 
1,040,147 
466,500 
80,695 
176,328 
23,000 
698,122 

New  Hampshire  
Vermont  

Massachusetts  

llhode  Island.  .  .     ... 

Connecticut  

New  York  

Pennsylvania.  . 

New  Jersey  

Delaware.    .  . 

Maryland  

District  of  Columbia.. 
Ohio   

Indiana    

Illinois  

Utah     

Missovri  

Kentucky    

Virginia  

North   Carolina  

South  Carolina  

Georgia  ,  

Florida  

Alabama  

Louisiana  

Texas  

Mississippi  
Arkansas   

Tennessee  

Total  

98,585,269 
76,032,578 

57,285.534 
37,778,064 

46,859 
35,295 

75,169 
62,661 

23,940,168 
17,267,112 

115,681,774 
65,501,687 

Total  in  1850  

Increase. 


17     $22,552,691   $19,507,470     11,364     12,508     $6,672,996   $50,180,087 


286 


COTTON    MANUFACTURES. 


CHAPTER  III. 

INVENTIONS— MODE  OF   MANUFACTURE- 
PRINTING — AGGREGATE. 

WHILE  the  manufacture  has  thus  spread 
over  the  face  of  the  Union,  the  pioneer  mills, 
or  those  which  are  erected  in  new  locali 
ties,  are  generally  employed  in  the  spinning 
of  yarn  of  coarse  sorts ;  the  old  mills 
gradually  spinning  finer  yarn,  and  attaching 
weaving  and  printing  to  their  operations. 
In  the  whole  period,  however,  of  the  past 
forty  years,  continued  improvements  have 
been  made  in  machines  and  in  power.  Those 
mills  that  came  into  operation  with  fresh 
capital  and  the  newest  machines,  had  always 
advantages  over  those  which  still  worked  the 
old  machines.  The  introduction  of  steam 
as  a  motor  also  favored  the  introduction  of 
mills  into  localities  that  were  not  provided 
with  water,  and  many  persons a  contended 
that  steam  was  cheaper  and  better  even 
where  water  power  existed.  The  latter  was 
improved  in  its  turn  by  the  introduction  of 
turbine  wheels,  which  are  a  steady  and  suf 
ficient  power.  The  streams  of  New  England 
were  by  art  made  to  contribute  in  a  wonder 
ful  manner  to  the  work  of  factories.  The 
works  at  Holyoke,  Mass.,  are  a  singular  in 
stance  of  genius  and  enterprise.  In  the 
machines  themselves,  the  greatest  improve 
ments  have  been  continually  made,  in  this 
country,  as  well  as  abroad.  We  have  men 
tioned  the  American  gin  of  Whitney, 
which,  by  enabling  cotton  to  be  cleaned, 
laid  the  foundation  of  the  whole  trade.  The 
card-sticking  machine,  the  steel  die  of  Per 
kins,  ring  spindle  of  Jenks,  the  improved 
throstle  of  M 'Cully,  the  tube-frame,  the 
patent  size  of  Mallerd,  of  Lowell,  are  among 
the  most  important  of  a  crowd  of  inventions 
that  have  been  made  by  American  mechanics, 
and  every  few  years  a  new  mill  starts  in  some 
quarter,  with  all  these  combined.  The  ring 
spindle  of  Mr.  Jenks  is  very  curious,  and  is 
producing  important  results.  That  gentle 
man  was  a  pupil  of  Slater,  and  has  an 
establishment  for  the  manufacture  of  cotton 
machinery  near  Philadelphia,  since  1810. 
On  the  starting  of  the  Lowell  mills,  Mr. 
Moody  invented  a  number  of  machines,  viz :  a 
loom,  a  filling  frame,  a  double  speeder,  a 
governor,  and  also  what  is  called  the  "  dead 
spindle,"  in  distinction  to  the  "  live  spindle," 
which  was  the  English  invention.  The 
dead  spindle  is  mostly  used  in  Lowell.  Mr. 
Jenks'  ring  spindle  is,  however,  superseding 


both,  inasmuch  as  that  it  produces  more  and 
better  yarn.  The  spindle  of  this  improved 
frame  has  no  fly,  but  has  a  small  steel  ring, 
called  a  traveller,  about  a  quarter  of  an  inch 
in  diameter,  with  a  slit  for  the  insertion  of 
the  thread,  which  is  wound  by  the  ring 
travelling  around  the  bobbin,  being  held  in 
its  horizontal  plane,  during  its  circuit,  by  an 
iron  ring  loosely  embraced  by  its  lower  end 
and  fastened  upon  the  traversing  rail,  being 
sufficiently  large  to  allow  the  head  of  the 
bobbin,  as  well  as  the  traveller,  to  pass 
through  without  touching.  This  plan  of 
spindle  may  be  driven  8,000  revolutions  per 
minute  with  perfect  security  when  spinning 
coarse  yarn,  and  when  producing  the  finer 
numbers,  10,000  revolutions  per  minute  is 
not  an  extraordinary  speed  for  it  to  attain ; 
the  yarn  produced  in  either  case  being  su 
perior  in  strength  and  character  to  the  yarn 
produced  by  the  other  throstles  at  a  greatly 
reduced  speed. 

The  manufacture,  as  at  present  conducted, 
is  a  most  beautiful  and  complicated  art. 
The  raw  material  is  divided  into  long 
staple,  medium  staple,  and  short  staple. 
The  staple  means  simply  the  length  of  the 
fibre,  and  it  is  characteristic  of  the  origin  of 
the  article.  The  first  or  long  staple  is  used 
for  the  warps,  or  the  longitudinal  threads  of 
a  cloth.  These  threads  must  be  made  of 
long  staple  ;  no  other  kind  of  cotton  will 
spin  into  the  fine  numbers.  The  medium 
staple  is  used  for  the  '-!  weft,"  or  cross  threads 
of  tissues.  It  is  softer  and  silkier  than  the 
long  staple,  and  fills  up  the  fabric  better. 
The  long  staple  will  not  answer  for  this 
purpose.  The  quantity  of  cotton  in  the 
weft  of  cloth  is  from  two  to  five  times  as 
much  as  that  in  the  warp.  The  short  staple 
is  used  for  weft,  but  it  is  harsher  and  more 
like  wool,  and  after  washing  or  bleaching  it 
makes  the  cloth  meagre  and  thin.  It  is 
mixed  with  the  medium  staple  in  small 
proportions. 

This  last  and  almost,  when  alone,  useless 
sort  is  that  which  comes  from  India,  and 
the  first  or  long  staple  is  "  sea  island,"  raised 
on  our  southern  coast.  The  medium  staple, 
or  that  which  is  required  for  the  great 
bulk  of  the  manufactures,  is  alone  found  in 
the  United  States.  It  is  that  kind  called 
"  uplands,"  bowed  Georgia,  or  New  Orleans. 
The  quality  is  a  result  of  climate  and  soil. 

The  cotton  having  reached  the  mill,  it  is 
requisite  that  all  of  the  same  staple,  but  of 
different  qualities,  should  be  well  mixed,  to 


INVENTIONS MODE    OF    MANUFACTURE PRINTING AGGREGATE. 


287 


give  as  uniform  a  character  as  possible  to 
the  cloth.  To  attain  this,  the  contents  of  a 
bale  are  spread  out  upon  the  floor,  and  upon 
it  another  is  scattered,  and  so  on  until  a 
huge  pile,  called  a  "  bing,"  has  been  raised; 
a  rake  is  then  used  to  scrape  down  from  the 
sides,  thus  mixing  the  whole  as  the  cotton  is 
required  for  the  mill.  This  cotton  is  matted 
together  and  filled  with  dirt,  sometimes  by 
design  to  increase  the  weight  fraudulently. 
It  must,  therefore,  first  of  all  be  cleaned  and 
the  fibres  loosened.  For  this  purpose  several 
machines  are  used.  The  favorite  is  a  patent 
AVilley,  which  is  composed  of  two  iron  axles 
on  a  level  with  each  other,  each  having  four 
stout  steel  teeth.  The  toctli  of  both  axles 
mesh  together  as  they  revolve,  and  also  the 
fixed  teeth  attached  to  the  inner  casing  of 
the  box  which  contains  them.  These  axles 
revolve  1,600  times  in  a  minute,  opening  out 
the  fibres  and  beating  out  the  dirt  from  the 
cotton,  which  is  blown  through  a  tube  by  a 
revolving  fan. 

The  second  machine  through  which  the 
cotton  passes  is  the  spreading  machine, 
the  object  of  which  is  to  perfect  the  clean 
ing  and  loosening  of  the  fibres.  The  cot 
ton  being  carefully  weighed  and  spread 
upon  the  feeding  apron,  passes  in  between  a 
pair  of  rollers,  where  it  meets  the  action  of 
blunt  knives  revolving  1,700  times  in  a 
minute.  The  cotton  coming  from  this  ma 
chine  is  flattened  into  a  filmy  sheet  of  uni 
form  thickness,  and  wound  upon  a  roller.  It 
is  of  the  greatest  importance  that  this  feed 
ing  should  be  done  evenly,  as  otherwise 
the  "lap,"  as  it  winds  upon  the  roller,  will 
have  thin  and  thick  places,  which  will  run 
through  the  subsequent  manufacture. 

The  laps  that  come  from  the  spreader 
wound  on  rollers,  arc  now  to  go  through  the 
third  process,  that  of  carding.  The  machine 
for  this  purpose  we  have  described.  It  re- 
.  ceives  the  end  of  the  lap  from  the  roller 
of  the  spreader,  and.  by  its  operation 
combs  out  and  straightens  the  cotton  into  a 
delicate  fleece,  which  the  "  doffer"  delivers 
through  a  funnel,  whence  it  is  drawn  com 
pressed,  elongated,  and  consolidated  by  a 
pair  of  rollers,  that  drop  it  into  a  tin  can. 
To  the  observer  it  appears  like  a  stream  of 
cream  running  into  the  tin  can.  For  very 
fine  yarns,  this  process  is  repeated  with  finer 
cards.  The  first  carding  is  then  called 
breaking. 

The  fourth  process  for  the  cotton  is  the 
drawing.  Hitherto  the  cotton  has  passed  only 


through  male  hands;  with  the  drawing  it 
passes  into  those  of  females.  The  slivers,  as 
they  are  dropped  into  the  tin  can  from  the 
carding  machine,  are  exceedingly  tender  and 
loose,  and  the  fibres  are  not  yet  arranged  in 
the  position  proper  for  the  manufacture  of 
smooth  yarn.  This  is  to  be  perfected  by  the 
rollers  of  the  drawing  frame ;  some  frames 
have  three  pairs  of  rollers  and  others  four. 
The  distance  between  the  pairs  of  rollers  is 
such  that  the  longest  fibre  of  cotton  will  not 
reach  from  the  centre  of  one  roller  to  that 
of  another  pair.  This  prevents  breaking  the 
fibres,  but  the  rollers  must  not  be  too  far 
apart,  lest  the  cotton  separate  in  unequal 
thicknesses.  The  "  doubling,"  by  which  the 
end  of  a  new  sliver  is  laid  on  the  middle  of 
one  running  in,  equalizes  the  sliver.  The 
more  it  is  doubled  and  drawn,  the  more  per 
fect  is  the  yarn,  and  this  doubling  is  done 
sometimes  32,000  times. 

The  fifth  operation  is  the  roving,  or 
first  spinning  process.  The  slivers  un 
der  the  action  of  the  drawing  frame  be 
come  so  thin  and  tender  they  will  no 
longer  hold  together  without  a  twist,  and 
many  machines  are  used  for  the  purpose  of 
imparting  it,  under  the  names  of  slubbin, 
fly  frame,  belt  speeder,  tube  frame,  and 
others.  The  operation  is  performed  one  or 
more  times,  according  to  the  fineness  of  the 
yarn  desired.  The  cans  which  receive  the 
slivers  from  the  drawing  frames  are  placed 
upon  revolving  wheels,  and  the  sliver  passes 
from  these  to  the  fly  frame.  This  came  into 
use  in  1817.  In  this  frame  the  spindles  are 
set  vertically  in  one  or  two  rows  at  equal 
distances  apart,  each  passing  through  a 
bobbin,  which  is  loosely  attached  to  it,  and 
which  has  a  play  equal  to  its  length  up  and 
down  on  the  spindle  ;  at  the  top  of  the  spin 
dle  is  suspended  a  fly  with  two  dependent 
legs,  one  solid,  and  the  other  hollow.  The 
roving  enters  this  by  an  eye  immediately 
above  the  top  of  the  spindle,  and  passing 
down  the  hollow  leg  attaches  to  the  bobbin. 
The  revolving  spindle  carries  the  fly  with 
it,  spinning  and  winding  the  roving  at  the 
same  time.  At  this  point  enters  a  very  nice 
calculation.  The  roller  on  which  the  roving 
is  wound  delivers  it  with  the  exact  speed  of 
the  spindle,  but  as  the  size  of  the  bobbin  on 
the  latter  increases,  it  going  at  the  same  speed 
would  take  up  the  yarn  faster  than  the 
roller  would  deliver  it,  and  would  strain  it 
too  much.  This  is  avoided  by  a  contrivance 
which  varies  the  speed  of  the  bobbin  to  meet 


288 


COTTON    MANUFACTURES. 


the  circumstances.  The  rovings  having  re 
ceived  this  twist,  are  now  to  be  spun  into 
yarn,  and  this  is  done  either  by  the  throstle 
or  the  mule  spinner.  The  difference  in  the 
motion  and  structure  of  these  machines  is  not 
great.  The  former  is  similar  to  the  bobbin 
and  fly  frame.  The  roving  being  unwound 
from  the  bobbin  is  elongated  between  three 
pairs  of  rollers,  and  is  then  spun  and  wound 
upon  a  bobbin  as  before.  The  greatest  differ 
ence  in  these  machines  is  in  the  spindles. 
The  oldest  is  the  live  spindle,  and  the  dead 
spindle  is  that  invented  at  Lowell,  and  that 
which  has  been  most  used  here.  The  ring 
spindle  of  Jenks  is  fast  superseding  both. 
The  thread  being  spun  by  any  of  these 
means  is  wound  upon  bobbins,  and  these  are 
then  set  in  a  frame  in  such  a  manner  that 
the  threads  can  be  wound  off  from  them  on 
to  a  large  six-sided  reel.  This,  one  and  a 
half  yards  in  circumference,  makes  560 
revolutions,  giving  the  length  of  a  "  hank ;" 
many  hanks  are  wound  on  the  reel  at  the 
same  time,  and  when  these  are  removed  and 
weighed  they  give  the  number  of  the  yarn. 
The  coarsest  yarn  weighs  half  a  pound  to  the 
hank,  or  840  yards ;  common  quality  gives 
ten  to  forty  hanks  to  the  pound.  The  finest 
seldom  exceeds  300  hanks  to  the  pound. 
Previous  to  1840  no  yarn  finer  than  350  was 
made  in  England  ;  at  the  World's  Fair  there 
was  some  exhibited  600,  and  some  muslin 
for  a  dress  for  the  queen  was  made  of  460 
yarn.  This  exceeds  the  "  fairy  tissues"  of 
the  east,  mentioned  in  the  fore  part  of  this 
article.  Thus  machinery  has  overtaken  east 
ern  hand  art.  It  has  been  stated  that  yarn 
has  been  spun  900,  and  one  specimen  of  No. 
2,150,  or  1,026  miles  for  a  pound  of  cotton! 

The  finest  yarns  are  singed  by  being  run 
through  a  gas  flame ;  they  are  then  passed 
over  a  brush  and  run  through  a  hole  in  a 
piece  of  brass  just  large  enough  to  admit  the 
yarn.  Any  inequality  then  stops  the  yarn 
and  is  immediately  remedied.  Upon  most 
of  the  machines,  throstles,  and  feeders  there 
are  clocks,  which,  wound  up  once  a  week, 
mark  the  quantity  of  work  that  each  ma 
chine  does.  From  this  register  the  account 
is  transferred  to  a  board  which  hangs  in 
sight  of  all  the  operatives,  and  from  which 
the  monthly  wages  are  ascertained. 

The  yarn  being  spun,  the  filling  is  now 
ready  for  the  weaver,  but  the  warp  goes  to 
the  dressing-room.  Here  the  yarn  is  warped 
oti'  from  the  spools  on  to  the  section  beams. 
This  is  considered  hard  work,  since  it  re 


quires  unremitting  attention  to  reconnect 
the  threads  that  are  constantly  breaking. 
The  yarn  now  upon  the  beams  undergoes 
"  dressing,"  or  the  application  of  the  size 
before  mentioned,  and  the  friction-  of  the 
brushes.  The  beams  containing  the  dressed 
yarngo  to  the  weaving-room,  which  usually  is 
a  large  mill  containing  one  hundred  and  fifty 
girls,  and  some  six  hundred  looms.  From 
this  room  the  woven  fabric  goes  to  the 
cloth-room,  where  it  is  trimmed,  measured, 
folded,  and  recorded,  and  either  baled  for 
market  or  sent  to  the  print-works. 

The  print-works  are  a  most  interesting 
portion  of  the  manufacture.  The  cloth  re 
ceived  from  the  manufactory  is  covered  with 
a  fine  nap,  which,  if  printed,  would  rise  up 
and  give  the  colored  parts  a  pepper-and-salt 
look.  To  get  rid  of  this,  the  cloth  is  singed  ; 
not  as  the  cook  singes  a  fowl,  by  a  blaze, 
but  by  running  the  cloth  over  a  half-cylinder 
of  copper,  heated  red  hot.  The  cloth  is 
passed  over  dry,  and  repasscd;  after  which 
it  is  moistened  by  wet  rollers,  to  extinguish 
any  shreds  which  might  happen  to  be  on 
fire.  This  singeing  process  always  excites 
the  wonder  of  the  beholder,  who  is  not  a 
little  astonished  that  the  cloth  is  not  injured. 
The  next  process  is  to  bleach  the  cloth.  On 
the  success  of  this  depends  all  the  after- 
work.  A  good  white  is  not  only  the  soul 
of  a  print,  but  without  it  no  good  and  bril 
liant  color  can  be  dyed.  The  greatest  diffi 
culty  is  to  remove  every  trace  of  grease  and 
oil,  imparted  by  the  spinner  and  weaver. 
The  cloth  is,  therefore,  put  into  big  tubs, 
holding  five  hundred  pieces,  and  steeped  in 
warm  water  some  hours.  It  is  then  Avashed 
in  the  dash-wheel,  and  subjected  to  the  follow 
ing  operations,  which  convert  the  oil  to  soap, 
and  remove  with  it  the  coloring  matter : — 

1.  Boiled  by  steam  in  a  creamy  lime. 

2.  Washed  in  the  dash-wheel. 

3.  Boiled  in  alkali  by  steam. 

4.  Washed  in  the  dash-wheel. 

5.  Steeped  in  bleaching-powder  solution 
some  hours. 

6.  Steeped  in  oil  vitriol  and  water,  about 
the  strength  of  lemon  juice. 

7.  Washed  in  the  dash-wheel. 

8.  Squeezed  between  rollers. 

9.  Mangled  and  dried  in  air,  or  in  warm 
rooms  built  for  this  purpose. 

The  cloth  is  now  perfectly  white,  and 
loses  not  so  much  in  weight  and  strength  as 
by  the  old  process  of  grass  bleaching.  The 
bleached  cloth  is  now  printed  with  one  or 


INVENTIONS MODE    OF    MANUFACTURE PRINTING AGGREGATE. 


289 


more  colors.  Four  to  six  colors  only  could 
be  applied  by  the  printing  machine  up  to 
1845  ;  if  more  were  wanted,  they  were,  until 
recently,  introduced  by  hand,  with  blocks, 
after  the  other  colors  were  finished.  By  a 
Boston  invention,  patented  in  1851,  twelve 
colors  may  now  be  printed.  The  improve 
ment  consists  in  the  mode  of  applying  pres 
sure  to  the  print  rollers.  A  yielding  pres 
sure  of  several  tons  is  given  to  each  roller. 
The  frame  is  also  so  constructed  that  any  one 
of  the  rollers  may  be  removed  from  the  ma 
chine  without  disturbing  the  others.  The 
machine  weighs  ten  tons,  and  is  ten  feet 
high.  This  huge  machine  is  so  nicely  ad 
justed  that  the  cloth,  while  passing  through 
it  at  the  rate  of  a  mile  per  hour,  recewes 
twelve  colors  each  with  the  utmost  precision. 
Ordinary  machines  will  print  300  pieces,  or 
12,000  yards,  per  day,  while,  by  the  old 
hand  process,  it  would  have  required  192,- 
646  applications  of  the  block.  The  figure, 
or  design,  is  engraved  on  a  copper  roller, 
each  color  having  a  separate  roller.  The 
color  which  the  beholder  sees  imprinted,  as 
he  watches  the  process,  is  not  the  color  that 
is  to  be,  when  the  print  is  finished.  The 
color  which  he  sees  is,  with  the  exception  of 
brown,  or  blue,  or  black  occasionally,  fugitive. 
It  is  merely  what  is  called  "  sightening" — 
that  is,  a  color  imparted  to  the  paste,  or 
"thickening,"  which  is  imprinted  by  the 
roller  to  enable  the  machine  printer  to  judge 
of  the  perfectness  of  the  work.  The  paste, 
or  thickening,  contains  the  mordant — that  is, 
the  peculiar  .substance  which,  combining 
chemically  with  the  cloth,  enables  it  to  dye  a 
peculiar  color,  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
mordant  and  dye-wood.  The  cloth  dyes 
only  where  the  mordant  is  applied — that  is, 
on  the  printed  figure  only.  The  mordants 
generally  used  are  alum  and  copperas,  eacl 
of  which  is  first  changed  to  acetate  of  alu 
mina  or  iron — that  is,  "the  color-maker  takes 
away  the  oil  of  vitriol  from  the  alum  and 
copperas,  and  substitutes  vinegar  in  its  place. 
Sometimes  the  iron  liquor,  as  it  is  called,  is 
made  by  dissolving  iron  turnings  in  pyrolig- 
neous  or  wood  acid.  The  preparation  of 
color,  and  the  thickening  it  with  flour, 
starch,  gum,  etc.,  is  a  distinct  branch,  carried 
on  in  the  color  shop  of  the  print-works.  It 
may  be  added,  that  with  madder,  iron  dye 
black  and  purple,  according  to  its  strength ; 
alum  dyes  red  of  various  shades;  and  a 
mixture  of  the  two  dyes  chocolate.  So  that 
out  of  the  same  dye-kettle  come  various 

IS 


colors,  according  to  the  mordant,  and  these 
colors  are  all  fast. 

The  cloth  having  been  printed  and  dried, 
is  "  aged,"  during  which  a  chemical  combi 
nation  takes  place  between  the  mordant  and 
the  cloth.  Ordinarily,  this  occurs  in  two 
or  three  weeks  by  a  natural  affinity  of  the 
cotton  fibre  and  mordant,  but  by  certain 
agents,  this  chemical  change  is  hastened  and 
perfectly  effected  in  two  or  three  days ;  yet 
as  this  process  goes  on  in  conjunction  with 
the  others,  the  visitor  sees  only  the  folding 
up  and  winding  into  rolls  of  the  piece  of 
cloth,  though  all  the  time  this  change  is 
going  on.  The  cloth  is  then  passed,  by 
means  of  rollers,  through  a  boiling  hot  solu 
tion  of  phosphate  of  soda,  to  render  insolu 
ble  any  uncombined  mordant,  and  to  wet 
the  cloth  evenly.  It  is  then  washed  in  the 
dash-wheel,  and  after  this,  to  remove  the 
thickening,  passed  for  twenty  or  thirty  min 
utes  through  bran  or  meal  and  water,  quite 
hot,  washed,  and  it  is  now  ready  for  dyeing. 
The  dye-woods  used  are  madder,  bark,  or 
logwood — the  last  only  for  mourning  prints, 
or  black  and  white.  The  dye-wood  is  put 
into  large  wooden  vats,  with  a  portion  of 
water,  and  then  the  pieces  of  cloth,  sixteen, 
in  each  vat,  are  introduced  over  a  winch, 
moved  by  water  power.  Steam  is  then 
admitted,  the  goods  turned  through  and 
through,  round  and  round,  gradually  heat 
ing  the  water,  till  at  the  end  of  two  hours 
it  rises  near  to  boiling,  and  the  mordanted 
cloth  is  perfectly  dyed.  It  is  taken  out, 
rinsed,  and  washed  in  the  dash-wheel.  The 
cloth  after  this  is  passed,  by  means  of  a 
winch,  either  through  hot  water  and  bran 
or  through  hot  soap,  for  half  an  hour, 
washed,  and  then  again  put  through  these 
operations,  again  washed,  and  then  rinsed 
through  a  hot  solution  of  chloride  of  soda, 
washed  again,  squeezed,  and  dried  in  either 
air  or  in  warm  rooms.  Sometimes  they  are 
mangled  with  some  stiffening,  and  so  are 
finished.  The  visitor  of  print  works  will 
see  a  great  number  of  men  busily  employed 
dipping  wooden  frames,  on  which  are 
stretched  pieces  of  cloth,  printed  with  a 
brown  figure,  into  deep  vats,  filled  with  a  green- 
blue  liquor.  The  cloth  comes  out  with  a 
greenish  hue,  and  immediately  grows  blue  in 
the  air  on  all  parts,  except  where  the  brown 
figure  was.  That  resists,  or  throws  off  the 
blue  vat.  Now,  the  blue  vat  contains  a  solu 
tion  of  indigo  in  lime  water.  Indigo  is  one 
of  the  most  insoluble  substances  in  water ; 


290 


COTTOX    MANUFACTURES. 


but  by  means  of  copperas  and  lime,  the 
oxygen  of  the  indigo  is  abstracted  by  the 
iron ;  it  then  becomes  greenish  and  is  dis 
solved  by  the  lime-water.  Exposed  to  air, 
it  again  absorbs  oxygen  and  becomes  blue. 
It  is  during  this  change  from  green  to  blue 
that  it  becomes  chemically  united  to  the 
cloth.  The  brown  figure  resists,  because  it 
is  a  preparation  of  copper,  which  yields  its 
oxygen  to  the  indigo  on  the  figure  while  in  the 
vat.  The  figure  becomes  covered  with  blue 
indigo  in  the  vat ;  it  forms  then  no  affinity 
with  the  cloth,  and  consequently  after  the 
copper  has  been  removed  by  a  weak  acid, 
the  brown  spot  or  figure  remains  white,  and 
so  is  produced  the  blue  ground  with  white 
figures.  The  whole  is  a  most  exquisite 
chemical  process  from  beginning  to  end, 
equalled  only  by  the  process  for  China  blue, 
where  blue  figures  are  raised  on  a  white 
ground.  This  is  done  by  printing  on  the 
figure  with  fine  ground  indigo  thickened 
with  paste,  and  then  by  alternate  immer 
sions  in  lime  water  and  copperas  liquor,  the 
indigo  is  dissolved  and  fixed  on  the  spots 
where  printed,  by  a  play  of  chemical  affini 
ties  similar  to  those  described  in  blue  dip 
ping.  Black  and  white,  and  red  or  chocolate 
and  white,  are  made  by  passing  the  cloth 
through  red  or  iron  liquor,  or  their  mixture, 
and  after  squeezing,  while  the  cloth  is  open 
and  flat,  that  is  dried  in  hot  flues.  Every 
part  of  the  cloth  is  thus  imbued  with  mor 
dant.  The  process  is  termed  "  pading." 
It  is  then  printed  with  citric  acid  (lemon 
juice)  thickened  with  roasted  starch.  This 
acid  discharges  the  mordant,  and  conse 
quently,  when  dyed  as  usual,  the  discharged 
figures  arc  left  white.  Logwood  is  the  dye 
for  black,  and  madder  is  the  dye  for  reds  and 
chocolates.  The  designing  of  patterns  is  a 
distinct  branch  of  art.  Usually,  one  or 
more  designers  are  employed  in  each  estab 
lishment. 

In  the  year  1840,  there  were  thirty-six 
cotton-printing  establishments  in  the  United 
States.  These  were  in  New  Hampshire, 
Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  New  York, 


New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  and  Maryland. 
They  printed  100,112,000  yards,  at  a  value 
of$ll,667,512. 

The  exports  of  cotton  goods  from  the 
United  States  in  1827  were  valued  at  $951,- 
000  for  plain  white  cloths ;  845,120  printed 
and  colored ;  $163,293  for  yarn,  etc. ;  making 
together  $1,159,413.  In  1857,  the  exports 
of  white  had  run  to  $3,463,230  ;  and  of 
printed  to  $1,785,685  ;  dark  and  other  manu 
facture,  £866,2 62  ;  together,  £6,115,117.  The 
American  cottons  are  much  in  demand  in 
China,  in  consequence  of  their  heavier  qual 
ity  than  the  English  or  Chinese  goods.  The 
value  of  cotton  goods  imported  in  1856  was 
$25,917,999  ;  and  the  average  for  the  last  six- 
toen  years  was  $16,758,418.  The  value  per 
head  of  United  States  cotton  goods  consumed 
was,  for  1856,  $2.40  ;  and  of  foreign  goods, 
sixty  cents.  The  imported  goods  are  mostly 
of  the  finer  description,  nearly  all  from  Eng 
land  and  Scotland,  and  mostly  into  the  port  of 
NCAV  York,  under  the  credit  system  of  sales. 

We  may  here  add  the  progress  of  the 
trade  in  Great  Britain,  as  it  is  given  in  the 
factory  inspector's  official  report : — 

Horse  power.  Spindles.      Looms.  Cottpn  used. 

Ibs. 

1851,      134,21"      25.038,114      301,445      757,379.749 
l«tt,      161,4^5      8.3,503,580      369,205  1,02:5,886,528 

The  following  comparative  figures  will 
show  the  decline  in  the  cost  of  the  yarn,  as  a 
result  of  machinery  : — 

No.  40  yarn.  1S12.        1S30.      1857. 

Hanks  per  spindle  per  day.      200       275       275 

Cotton  perlb $0  36  $0  14  $0  12 

Labor     "    " 0  24     0  15     0  10 

Cost  yarn    " 0  60     0  29     0  22 

The  manufacture  progresses  in  this  coun 
try  according  to  the  wants  of  the  population, 
and  these  wants  increase  in  the  two-fold  ratio 
of  more  means  and  greater  numbers.  The 
progress  here  is  also  more  steady  than  it  is 
abroad,  for  the  reason  that  the  demands  of 
the  people  are  not  curtailed  by  those  period^ 
ical  famines,  which  abroad  cause  every  other 
consideration  to  yield  to  that  of  food.  We 
may  sum  in  the  following  table  the  progress 
of  the  manufacture  since  1809: — 


COTTON    MANUFACTURE    IN    THE    UNITKD    STATES. 


1809  

No.  of 
Factories. 

62 

Spindles. 
31,000 

Hands. 
4,000 

Cotton 
used. 
Ibg. 
3,600,000 

Yards  cloth 
made. 

Capital. 

1810  

168 

90,800 

1820  

250  572 

'  9,945,609 

1831  

795 

1,246503 

57466 

77,757,316 

230,461,990 

$40,614,984 

1840  

1  240 

2,284  631 

72  119 

132,835,856 

398,507,563 

51,102,359 

1850.. 

..l!074 

4,052.000 

97,956 

276,074,100 

828,222,300 

76,032,578 

18CO 1,091     5,235,727       122,028        437,905,036    1,148,252,406        98,585.269 


PAPER:  ITS  MANUFACTURE. 


291 


The  figures  for  1809  are  those  of  Mr.  Gal- 
latin,  and  those  of  1810  those  of  the  United 
States  marshal,  also  those  for  1820.  Those 
for  1831  are  taken  from  the  report  of  the  com 
mittee  before  alluded  to,  and  the  succeeding 
ones  from  the  decennial  censuses.  Although 
the  returns  for  1860  have  not  yet  been  offici 
ally  published,  the  figures  given  have  been 
copied  from  the  revised  records,  and  are  be- 
lioved  to  be  substantially  accurate.  The 
above  table  shows  that  in  1830  the  cotton 
spun  was  six  and  a  half  pounds  per  head;  in 
1840,  eight  pounds  per  hea  1 ;  in  1850,  ten  and 
a  quarter  pounds  per  head  ;  and  in  1860,  fif 
teen  pounds  per  head,  being  in  the  double  ratio 
of  numbers  and  wealth,  and  showing  that  the 
United  States  are  the  largest  consumers  of 
cotton  goods  in  the  world.  The  United 
States  now  consume  nearly  as  much  raw 
cotton  per  annum  as  Great  Britain  did  in 
1838-9  ;  that  is  to  say,  Great  Britain  at  that 


date  ^>nsumed  442,691,8/7  Ibs.,  and  the 
United  States  this  year  357,185,523  Ibs.  Thus 
the  manufacture  in  the  United  States  this 
year  for  home  consumption  equals  what  Great 
Britain  produced  for  home  consumption  and 
her  vast  export  trade  in  1839,  or  twenty 
years  since.  In  this  progress  of  manufacture 
there  has  been  a  steady  decline  in  price.  In 
1815  the  price  of  cotton  cloth  was  forty 
cents;  in  1822,  twenty-two  cents;  and  at 
this  time  four  to  ten  cents.  In  those  figures 
we  have  the  secret  of  the  great  dissemi 
nation  of  machine  goods.  The  price  of 
a  good  calico  is  now  twelve  yards  to  a 
bushel  of  wheat.  Forty  years  ago,  it  was 
one  yard  for  a  bushel  of  wheat.  The  quality 
of  the  goods  at  the  same  time  has  improved 
in  a  greater  ratio.  The  handsome  prints 
that  now  replace  the  "factory  checks"  of 
that  day,  show  as  great  a  change  as  does  the 
price. 


PAPER:  ITS  MANUFACTURE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

MATERIALS— PROGRESS. 

IF  the  question  were  put,  "  What  single  ar 
ticle  has  been  of  the  greatest  service  to  man 
kind  ?"  mature  reflection  would,  we  think, 
decide  upon  paper  as  that  article,  since  it 
has  been  the  means  by  which  thought  and 
ideas  have  been  diffused,  not  only  among 
cotemporaries,  but  preserved,  and,  as  it  were, 
accumulated  inmagazines  for  future  expansion 
and  growth.  All  other  inventions,  and  per 
haps  the  whole  growth  of  civilization,  are  due 
to  the  material  of  paper.  Every  branch  of 
knowledge  is  reached,  and  every  avenue  to 
the  wisdom  of  great  minds  and  the  results  of 
genius  arc  explored  only  by  means  of  paper, 
and  its  blessings  are  diffused  through  all  ranks 
of  society.  Even  he  who,  wrapt  in  his  igno 
rance,  despises  "  book  laming,"  enjoys  a  part 
of  those  benefits  of  civilization  which  paper  has 
been  the  means  of  imparting  to  all.  Like  al 
most  all  great  blessings,  however,  it  has  been 
developed  most  rapidly  and  completely  in  the 
United  States.  Almost  all  vegetable  sub 
stances  were  used  for  the  manufacture  of  pa 
per  by  our  ancestors,  but  it  was  not  until  the 


fourteenth  century  that  linen  rags  became 
generally  the  material.  The  first  German 
paper  mill  was  established  at  Nuremberg  in 
1390;  some  English  manuscripts,  however, 
date  as  far  back  as  1340,  on  linen  paper. 
The  first  English  mill  mentioned  is  in  1496, 
by  John  Tatc,  jun.,  in  Hertfordshire.  In 
1588  a  paper  mill  was  started  at  Dartford. 
It  is  to  be  conceived,  however,  that  in  that 
age,  when  books  and  newspapers  were  little 
used,  and  walls  were  draped  with  cloth,  that 
paper  was  not  much  in  demand,  and  many 
improvements  were  not  made  in  the  manu 
facture.  In  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  the  manufacture  was  introduced  into 
the  colonies.  Mr.  J.  M.  Willcox,  a  paper 
maker  near  Philadelphia,  stated  that  in  1725 
his  grandfather,  who  had  been  educated  a 
paper  maker,  came  over  and  settled  where 
the  mill  now  is,  and  he  erected  in  1732  a  mill 
for  .the  manufacture  of  paper.  The  kind  of 
paper  then  made  was  of  the  description  used 
by  clothiers  for  press-boards,  for  the  pressing 
of  cloth.  There  existed  at  that  time  an  act 
of  parliament  against  the  manufacture  of  any 
other  kind  of  paper  in  the  colonies.  There 
were  at  that  time  two  other  mills  in  the  same 


PAPER:  ITS  MANUFACTURE. 


business,  one  near  Boston  and  another  near 
Philadelphia.  The  demand  for  paper  at  that 
time,  either  for  books  or  newspapers,  was 
small,  and  not  of  a  character  to  attract  much 
capital  into  the  business.  When  the  war 
came  on,  a  demand  sprung  up,  and  Mr.  Will- 
cox  manufactured  the  paper  for  the  conti 
nental  money,  and  at  the  same  time  com 
menced  making  writing  paper  for  the  first 
time  in  America. 

The  Massachusetts  Bay  assembly,  in  1728, 
passed  an  act  for  the  encouragement  of  the 
paper  manufacture.  They  granted  to  Daniel 
Henchman  and  others  the  right  of  making 
paper,  on  condition  that  within  the  first 
fifteen  months  they  would  make  140  reams 
of  brown  paper  and  sixty  reams  of  printing 
paper.  Of  this  the  board  of  trade  report  of 
1731  says:  "By  a  paper  mill  set  up  three 
years  ago,  they  make  to  the  value  of  £200." 
This,  with  the  mill  of  Willcox  and  another 
near  Philadelphia,  were  the  only  ones  exist 
ing  at  that  time ;  but  the  trade  grew  to  a 
considerable  extent.  Coxe,  in  his  "  Views  of 
the  United  States,"  says  there  were  in  1794 
forty-eight  mills  in  Pennsylvania.  In  1810, 
the  value  of  paper  made  in  the  United  States 
was  about  $2,000,000.  The  general  govern 
ment,  from  its  origin,  did  what  it  could  to 
encourage  the  manufacture,  by  making  rags 
free ;  curiously  enough,  however,  after  the 
fall  of  Napoleon,  a  considerable  quantity  of 
paper  came  to  this  country,  and  was  bought 
up  by  the  contractors  to  supply  Congress ; 
and  for  a  long  time,  up  to  1 825,  the  paper  used 
by  the  United  States  Senate  bore  the  water 
line,  "Napoleon,  Empereur  et  Roi,  1813." 

It  was  about  the  year  1760  that  the  inven 
tion  of  wove  moulds  was  made  to  obviate  the 
roughness  of  laid  paper.  This  led  to  the 
manufacture  in  France  of  what  is  called 
vellum  paper.  In  Holland,  soon  after,  the 
manufacture  was  improved  by  the  invention 
of  cylinders  with  long  steel  knives  to  reduce 
the  rags  to  pulp,  thus  superseding  the  old 
plan,  which  was  by  stampers.  It  was  then 
customary  to  pile  the  rags  in  large  stone 
vats,  and  let  them  remain  for  a  month  or  six 
weeks  to  ferment  and  rot  by  soaking  and 
stirring  in  water.  By  these  means  the  fibres 
became  loosened,  and  sufficiently  soft  to  be 
reduced  to  pulp  in  the  large  wooden  stampers. 
The  vats  were  now  supplanted  by  engines. 
These  arc  arranged  in  pairs.  That  which  first 
receives  the  rags  is  called  the  washer,  working 
the  rags  coarsely,  while  a  stream  of  water  runs 
through  them.  The  contents  of  this  vat, 


when  ready,  is  called  half  stuff,  and  is  lei 
off  into  the  other  engine,  which  is  on  a 
lower  level,  and  this  beats  or  grinds  the 
whole  into  pulp  for  making  paper. 

From  the  date  of  the  Pievolution  until  the 
year  1820,  there  was  very  little  improvement 
in  the  mode  of  making  paper  by  machinery. 
The  number  of  mills  increased  in  proportion 
to  the  demand  for  material  for  newspapers 
and  book-making.  This  grew  in  such  a  man 
ner,  that  by  the  year  1810  the  ordinary  sup 
plies  of  material  for  paper  making  began  to 
fail,  and  rags  from  Europe  were  imported  in 
greater  quantities  for  that  purpose.  The 
principal  supplies  of  rags  in  the  United 
States  came  from  the  economy  of  families, 
purchased  by  ragmen  who  called — some 
times  paying  money,  and  at  others  exchang 
ing  tinware  and  other  commodities.  It  is 
only  of  late  years,  and  that  in  the  large 
cities,  that  the  European  chiffonnicrs,  or  rag 
pickers,  have  made  their  appearance.  These 
are  now  to  be  seen,  male  and  female,  with 
the  early  dawn,  armed  with  a  bag  and  a  long 
iron  hook,  watching  the  opening  and  sweep 
ing  out  of  stores,  to  pick  up  every  shred  of 
rag  or  paper,  and  following  the  gutters  the 
live-long  day,  thrusting  the  iron  hook  into 
filth  of  all  descriptions  to  fish  out  matter  for 
the  paper  maker.  This  they  rinse  in  the 
nearest  puddle,  arid  deposit  in  their  bag.  Many 
of  them  earn  a  fair  living  at  this  unpromising 
occupation.  Nevertheless,  the  supply  is  very 
inadequate,  and  large  importations  are  re 
sorted  to.  The  quantity  of  imports  is  as  fol 
lows  : — 


IMPORTATION"    OP    BAGS    INTO     THE  UNITED     STATES. 

Hags  imported.      Of  which  y  ,           Per  II 

Ibs.  from  Italy.  cts 

1846,  9.897,706  8,002,865  $385,020 

1847,  8.'l54,886  6,529,234  304,177 

1848,  17,014,587  13,808,036  626,130 

1849,  14,941,236  11,009,608  524,437 

1850,  20,696.875  15,861,266  747,157 

1851,  26,094,701  18,512,673  902,876 

1852,  18,288,458  12,220,579  622,876 

1853,  22,766,000  14,171,292  985,465 

1854,  32,615,753  24,240,999  1,007,826 

1855,  40,013,516  23,948,612  1,224,413 

1856,  38,727,017  20,817,204  1,239,168 

1857,  44,582,080  27,317,580  1,448,125 


3.89 
3.73 
3.68 
2.51 
3.61 
3.46 
3.42 
4.31 
3.69 
3.06 
3.20 
3.27 


Total,   293,192,815    196,404,948  $10,016,014 

It  may  be  remarked,  that  the  export  of 
linen  rags  is  strictly  prohibited  from  Holland, 
Belgium,  France,  Spain,  and  Portugal.  The 
import  from  Italy  has  been  nearly  70  per 
cent.  The  rags  thence  derived  are  mostly 
linen  which  has  been  used  for  outer  gar- 


MATERIALS PROGRESS. 


293 


ments,  and  which  have  become  whitened  by 
exposure  to  sun  and  air.  That  circumstance 
formerly  gave  them  a  value  which  they  have 
lost  since  the  improvements  in  bleaching  all 
descriptions.  The  linen  rags  from  the  north 
of  Europe  are  stronger  and  darker.  The 
quantity  of  rags  used  in  the  United  States  in 
1850  was,  according  to  the  value  reported  in 
the  census,  nearly  200,000,000  Ibs.,  and  20,- 
696,875  Ibs.  were  imported  in  that  year. 
The  importation  has,  it  appears,  since  more 
than  doubled,  and  it  is  now  estimated  that 
the  quantity  used  is  400,000,000  Ibs. ;  and 
as  one  and  a  half  pounds  of  rags  give 
one  pound  of  paper,  the  product  would  be 
270,000,000  Ibs.  This  compares  with  the 
English  and  French  returns  as  follows: — 

Rags  consumed,     ^per^ade  ^bs.per 

1DS>  Ibs.  sumed. 

United  States 400,000.000  270,000,000     10.80 

Great  Britain 436,800,000  291,200,000       4.55 

France 235,200,000  140,083,447       3.89 

At  one  time  there  were  serious  apprehen 
sions  that  the   supply  of  linen  rags  would 
fail,  and  various  researches  were  entered  upon 
by  ingenious  individuals  to  find  substitutes. 
A  book  written  in  Germany  by  M.  Schiiffer, 
so  long   ago  as   1772,  contains  sixty  spec 
imens  of  paper  made  of  different  materials. 
This  ingenious  person  made  paper  from  the 
bark  of  the  willow,  beech,  aspen,  hawthorn, 
lime,  and  mulberry ;  from  the  down  of  the 
asclepias,  the  catkins  of  black  poplar,  and  the 
tendrils  of  the  vine ;  from  the  stalks  of  net 
tle,  mugwort,  dyer's  weed,  thistle,  bryony, 
burdock,    clematis,    willow-herb,    and   lily ; 
from  cabbage-stalks,  fir-cones,  moss,  potatoes, 
wood-shavings,  and  sawdust.    Paper  has  been 
likewise    made    from    straw,    hopbind,    lic 
orice    root,  the  stalks  of  the   mallow,  and 
the   husks   of  Indian  corn.     These  experi 
ments  are  now  continued,  and  an  attempt  to 
make  paper  from  reeds  has  recently  been 
made     in     Baltimore.      The     process     of 
bleaching  the  coarser  rags,  so  as  to  render 
them  fit  for  the  purposes  to  which  only  those 
of  the  finest  qualities  were  formerly  applied, 
will,  however,  render  the  use  of  these  inferior 
substances  unnecessary  for  many  years.    The 
advance  of  a  people  in  civilization  has  not 
only  a  tendency  to  make  the  supply  of  rags 
abundant,  but,  at  the  same  time,  to  increase 
the  demand.     The  use  of  machinery  in  man 
ufactures  renders  clothing  cheap  ;  the  cheap 
ness  of  clothing  causes  its  consumption  to 
increase,  not  only  in  the  proportion  of  an  in 


creasing  population,  but  by  the  scale  of  indi 
vidual  expenditure ;  the  stock  of  rags  is 
therefore  increasing  in  the  same  ratio  that 
our  looms  produce  more  linen  and  cotton 
cloth.  But  then  the  increase  of  knowledge 
runs  in  a  parallel  line  with  this  increase  of 
comforts,  and  the  increase  of  knowledge  re 
quires  an  increase  of  books. 

The  use  of  cotton  for  clothing  has  become 
so  general  as  to  have  an  important  influence 
upon  the  supply  of  rags.  It  has  to  a  consid 
erable  extent  superseded  linen.  When  cot 
ton  cloth  has  been  much  worn,  it  is  of  little 
value  for  pulp,  since  the  paper  made  from  it 
will  hardly  bear  its  own  weight.  To  remedy 
this,  imported  rags,  which  are  supposed  to  be 
about  80  per  cent,  linen,  are  mixed  with  the 
domestic  cotton  rags,  giving  the  paper  a 
strength  and  firmness  it  would  not  otherwise 
have.  The  best  qualities  of  writing  and 
printing  papers  contain  30  to  50  per  cent. 
of  linen,  which  is  entirely  derived  from 
abroad.  The  use  of  cotton  clothing  is,  how 
ever,  rapidly  spreading  all  over  the  civilized 
world,  and  the  effect  of  this  is  that  the  pro 
portion  of  linen  contained  in  the  imported 
rags  decreases  from  5  to  10  per  cent, 
every  year.  An  ultimate  resource  is,  how 
ever,  new  raw  cotton,  which,  mixed  with  the 
worn  rags  of  the  same  material,  makes  a 
beautiful  paper.  Some  .twenty  years  since, 
after  the  great  revulsion  of  1837,  cotton  was 
so  cheap  that  large  quantities  were  manufac 
tured  into  paper.  It  is  ordinarily  too  dear 
for  that  purpose.  Some  years  since  the  pro 
ject  was  started  of  importing  the  mummy 
wrappers  from  Egypt,  to  convert  them  into 
paper.  Old  ATohemet  All,  who  was  chief  man 
ufacturer  in  his  own  dominions,  stopped  the 
project,  by  forbidding  the  export  and  monop 
olizing  that  valuable  material  for  his  own 
mills.  A  curious  thing  that,  that  the  cloth 
ing  which  swathed  dead  Egyptians,  three 
to  four  thousand  years  since,  should  now  be 
the  medium  of  knowledge  in  this  nineteenth 
century. 

The  quality  of  the  paper  depends  greatly 
upon  that  of  the  linen  worn  in  the  country 
where  it  is  made.  Where  that  is  coarso 
and  brown,  the  rags  and  the  paper  made 
from  them  must  be  so  too.  The  quality  of 
the  rags  depends  very  much  upon  the  state 
of  civilization  of  the  countries  which  pro 
duce  them ;  the  lower  the  state  of  civiliza 
tion,  the  more  coarse  and  filthy  the  rags. 
When  the  rags  are  received  at  the  mill,  they 
are  sorted  according  to  their  respective 


294 


PAPER:  ITS  MANUFACTURE. 


qualities;  for  if  rags  of  different  qualities 
were  ground  together  at  the  same  engine, 
the  finest  and  best  parts  would  be  ground 
and  carried  off  before  the  coarser  were  suffi 
ciently  reduced  to  make  a  pulp.  In  the 
sorting  of  rags  intended  for  the  manufacture 
of  fine  paper,  hems  and  seams  are  kept  apart, 
and  coarse  cloth  separated  from  fine.  Cloth 
made  of  tow  should  be  separated  from  that 
made  of  linen ;  cloth  of  hemp  from  cloth  of 
flax.  Even  the  degree  of  wear  should  be 
attended  to,  for  if  rags  comparatively  new 
are  mixed  with  those  which  are  much  worn, 
by  the  time  the  first  are  reduced  to  a  good 
pulp,  the  others  are  so  completely  ground  up 
as  to  pass  through  the  hair  strainers,  thus 
occasioning  not  only  loss  of  material  but  loss 
of  beauty  in  the  paper;  for  the  smooth,  vel 
vet  softness  of  some  papers  may  be  pro 
duced  by  the  finer  particles  thus  carried  off. 
The  pulp  produced  from  imperfectly  sorted 
rags  has  a  cloudy  appearance,  in  consequence 
of  some  parts  being  less  reduced  than  others, 
and  the  paper  made  from  it  is  also  cloudy  or 
thicker  in  some  parts  than  in  others,  as  is 
evident  on  holding  a  sheet  up  before  the 
light.  When  it  is  necessary  to  mix  differ 
ent  qualities  of  materials,  the  rags  should  be 
ground  separately,  and  the  various  pulps 
mixed  together  afterward.  The  rag  mer 
chants  sort  rags  into  five  qualities,  known  as 
Nos.  1,  2,  3,  4,  and  5.  No.  1,  or  superfine, 
consisting  wholly  of  linen,  is  used  for  the 
finest  writing  papers.  No.  5  is  canvas,  and 
may,  after  bleaching,  be  used  for  inferior 
printing  papers.  There  is  also  rag-bagging, 
or  the  canvas  sacks  in  which  the  rags  are 
packed,  also  cotton  colored  rags  of  all  colors, 
but  the  blue  is  usually  sorted  out  for  making 
blue  paper.  Common  papers  are  made  from 
rag-bagging  and  cotton  rags.  An  operation 
sometimes  required  after  unpacking  the 
rags  is  to  put  them  into  a  duster,  which  is  a 
cylinder  four  feet  in  diameter  and  five  feet 
long,  covered  with  a  wire  net,  and  inclosed 
in  a  tight  box  to  confine  the  dust.  A  quan 
tity  of  rags  being  put  into  this  cylinder,  it 
is  made  to  rotate  rapidly  on  its  axis,  and 
thus  a  great  deal  of  dust  is  shaken  out,  which 
might  otherwise  vitiate  the  air  of  the  rag- 
cutting  room.  The  sorting  is  done  by  wo 
men  and  children  in  a  large  room.  The  rags 
are  sorted,  according  to  their  fineness,  into 
the  superfine,  the  fine,  the  stitches  of  the  fine, 
the  middling,  the  seams  and  stitches  of  the 
middling,  and  the  coarse.  ,  These  divisions 
are  more  or  less  observed  at  the  present  day. 


The  very  coarse  parts  are   rejected,  or  laid 
aside  for  making  white-brown  paper. 

The  paper  was  formerly  made  into  sheets 
by  means  of  the  mould  and  deckle.  The  mould 
was  a  square  frame  or  shallow  box  of  ma 
hogany,  covered  at  the  top  with  wire  cloth ; 
it  is  an  inch  or  an  inch  and  a  half  wider 
than  the  sheet  of  paper  intended  to  be  made 
upon  it.  The  wire  cloth  of  the  mould  varies 
in  fineness  with  that  of  the  paper  and  the 
nature  of  the  stuff;  it  consists  of  a  number 
of  parallel  wires  stretched  across  a  frame  very 
near  together,  and  tied  fast  through  holes  in 
the  sides ;  a  few  other  stronger  wires  are 
also  placed  across  at  right  angles  to  the 
former;  they  are  a  considerable  distance, 
apart,  and  are  bound  to  the  small  wires  at 
the  points  of  intersection  by  means  of  fine 
wires.  In  several  kinds  of  writing  paper  the 
marks  of  the  wires  are  evident,  from  the  pa 
per  being  thinner  in  the  parts  where  the 
pulp  touches  the  wires.  In  what  is  called 
wove  paper,  there  are  no  marks  of  the  wires; 
these  are  avoided  by  weaving  the  wire  in  a 
loom  into  a  wire  cloth,  which  is  stretched 
over  the  frame  of  a  mould,  and  being  turned 
down  over  the  sides  is  fastened  by  fine 
wire. 

The  water-mark  in  paper  is  produced  by 
wires  bent  into  the  shape  of  the  required 
letter  or  device,  and  sewed  to  the  surface  of 
the  mould ;  it  has  the  effect  of  making  the 
paper  thinner  in  those  places.  The  old 
makers  employed  water-marks  of  an  eccen 
tric  kind.  Those  of  Caxton  and  other  early 
printers  were  an  ox  head  and  star,  a  collared 
dog's  head,  a  crown,  a  shield,  a  jug,  etc.  A 
fool's  cap  and  bells  employed  as  a  water 
mark  gave  the  name  to  foolscap  paper ;  a 
postman's  horn,  such  as  was  formerly  in  use, 
gave  the  name  to  post  paper.  Connected 
with  the  sizing  of  papers  is  the  blueing, 
which  is  said  to  have  originated  in  the  sug 
gestion  of  a  paper  maker's  wife,  who  thought 
that  the  practice  of  improving  the  color  of 
linen  while  passing  through  the  wash,  by 
means  of  a  blue-bag,  might  also  be  advanta 
geously  applied  to  paper.  A  blue-bag  was 
accordingly  suspended  in  the  vat,  and  the 
effect  proved  to  be  so  satisfactory  that  it  led 
to  the  introduction  of  the  large  and  impor 
tant  class  of  blue  writing  paper.  It  was  soon 
found  that  smalt  gave  a  better  color  than 
common  stone-blue,  and  smalt  continued  to 
be  used  for  many  years  ;  but  when  artificial 
ultramarine  came  to  be  manufactured  at  a 
very  low  cost,  and  in  a  groat  variety  of  tints, 


INVENTIONS MANUFACTURE. 


295 


this   beautiful    color    gradually    superseded 
smalt  in  the  manufacture  of  writing  paper. 

From  1820  to  1830,  some  efforts  were 
made  to  introduce  into  the  United  States 
machinery  from  Europe.  England  and 
France  were  before  us  in  its  introduction. 
Several  machines  were  sent  out  from  Eng 
land  ;  some  very  imperfect,  and  the  cost  too 
great  for  our  manufacture.  The  patronage 
then  offered  was  no  inducement  to  our  own 
machinists  to  construct  so  expensive  a  ma 
chine  until  1830,  about  which  time  Phelps 
&  Spoftbrd  of  Windham,  Connecticut,  made 
one  which  answered  very  well.  Soon  after, 
the  country  was  supplied  at  a  reasonable 
cost,  and  equal  in  quality  to  the  best  English. 
Not  long  afterward,  Howe  &  Goddard,  of 
Worcester,  Massachusetts,  commenced  mak 
ing  the  Fourdrimer — the  shaking  endless 
wire-web  machine.  The  cylinder  machine, 
more  simple  and  less  costly  than  the  other, 
is  in  more  general  use  ;  but  the  paper  made 
on  it  is  not  equal  in  quality.  Notwith 
standing,  it  does  very  well  for  news,  and  the 
various  purposes  which  a  coarser  article  will 
answer  for.  These  are  made  in  various 
places  throughout  the  United  States.  The 
interval  from  1830  to  1840  was  important 
for  the  vast  improvements  in  the  manufacture, 
by  the  application  of  this  kind  of  machinery 
for  that  purpose  ;  also,  by  the  introduction 
of  the  use  of  chlorine  in  the  form  of  gas,  of 
chloride  of  lime,  and  the  alkalies,  lime  and 
soda-ash,  in  bleaching,  cleansing,  and  dis 
charging  the  colors  from  calicoes,  worn  out 
sails,  refuse  tarred  rope,  hemp  bagging,  and 
cotton  waste,  the  refuse  of  the  cotton  mills. 
These  articles,  which  heretofore  had  been 
considered  only  applicable  for  the  manufac 
ture  of  coarse  wrapping  paper,  have,  through 
the  application  of  this  bleaching  and  cleans 
ing  process,  entered  largely  into  the  com 
position  of  news  and  coarse  printing  papers, 
and  consequently  have  risen  in  value  300 
per  cent.  A  few  mills  possess  machinery 
and  adopt  a  process  by  which  they  are  pre 
pared  for  the  finest  printing  and  letter  paper. 
A  beautiful  paper  is  made  of  cast-off  cable 
rope.  Hemp  bagging  is  an  excellent  ma 
terial  for  giving  strength,  and  is  in  great  de 
mand,  especially  for  making  the  best  news 
paper.  The  cost  of  making  paper  by  ma 
chinery,  compared  with  that  of  making  it  by 
the  old  method  (by  hand),  not  taking  into 
account  the  interest  on  cost  and  repair  of 
machinery,  is  about  as  one  to  eight.  The 
present  low  price  resulting  from  improved 


machinery  and  the  cheap  printing  by  steam 
power,  has  placed  newspapers  and  books  in 
the  hands  of  all ;  and  a  great  increase  of 
production  has  followed  within  the  last  few 
years.  The  quantity  now  made  might  be 
nearly  ascertained,  if  the  deputy  marshals 
could  report  the  number  of  engines  in  opera 
tion  :  300  pounds  of  paper  would  be  the 
average  daily  produce  of  each  engine — 
taking  into  consideration  the  loss  of  time 
and  power  from  a  deficiency  of  water  in  the 
summer  season.  There  has  been  a  greater 
proportional  increase  of  mills  in  the  middle 
and  western  states  within  the  last  ten  years, 
than  in  the  east.  Ten  years  ago,  80  per 
cent,  of  the  supplies  for  Philadelphia  came 
from  the  east  of  the  North  River ;  at  present 
there  probably  does  not  come  20  per 
cent.  Formerly,  a  much  greater  quantity 
was  sent  west  of  the  mountains,  and  large 
quantities  of  rags  brought  in  return.  In 
consequence  of  the  greater  number  of  mills 
in  the  west,  particularly  in  Ohio,  New  Or 
leans  is  to  some  extent  getting  supplies 
there.  Formerly,  they  all  went  from  the 
Atlantic  states. 


CHAPTER  II. 

INDENTIONS— MANUFACTURE. 

THE  slow  and  difficult  process  of  moulding 
the  separate  sheets  of  paper  by  hand,  has  to 
a  very  great  extent  been  superseded  by  the 
introduction  and  gradual  improvement  of 
the  very  beautiful  machinery  of  Fourdrinier. 
By  means  of  this  machine,  a  process  which, 
under  the  old  hand  system,  occupied  a  couple 
of  weeks,  is  now  performed  in  a  few  min 
utes.  Within  this  brief  space  of  time, 
and  the  short  distance  of  thirty  or  forty 
feet,  a  continuous  stream  of  fluid  pulp  is 
made  into  paper,  dried,  polished,  and  cut  up 
into  separate  sheets  ready  for  use.  The 
paper  thus  produced  is  moderate  in  price, 
and,  for  a  large  number  of  purposes,  superior 
in  quality  to  that  which  was  formerly  made 
by  hand.  In  fact,  the  machine-made  papers 
can  be  produced  of  unlimited  dimensions ; 
they  are  of  uniform  thickness ;  they  can  be 
fabricated  at  any  season  of  the  year  ;  they  do 
not  require  to  be  sorted,  trimmed,  and  hung 
up  in  the  drying-house — operations  which 
formerly  led  to  so  much  waste  that  about 
one  sheet  in  every  five  was  defective.  The 
paper  machine  moves  at  the  rate  of  from 


296 


PAPER  :    ITS    MANUFACTURE. 


twenty-five  to  forty  feet  per  minute,  so  that 
scarcely  two  minutes  are  occupied  in  con 
verting  liquid  pulp  into  finished  paper,  a 
result  which,  by  the  old  process,  occupied 
about  seven  or  eight  days.  If  the  machine 
produce  ten  lineal  yards  of  paper  per  minute, 
or  six  hundred  yards  per  hour,  this  is  equal 
to  a  mile  of  paper  in  three  hours,  or  four 
miles  per  day  of  twelve  hours.  The  paper 
is  about  fifty-four  inches  wide,  and  suppos 
ing  three  hundred  machines  to  be  at  work  on 
an  average  twelve  hours  a  day,  the  aggregate 
length  of  web  would  be  equal  to  1,200 
miles,  and  the  area  3,000,000  square  yards. 
Paper  is  sent  into  market  in  various  forms 
and  sizes,  according  to  the  use  for  which  it 
is  intended.  The  following  table  contains 
the  names  and  dimensions  of  various  sheets 
of  paper. 

Inches. 
Foolscap 14  by  17 


Crown 15 

Folio  post 16 

Demy 17 

Medium 19 

Eoyal 20 

Super-royal 22 

Imperial 22 

Medium  and  half 24 

Royal  and  half 25 

Double  Medium 24 

Double  super-royal 27 

Double  imperial 32 


20 

21 

22 

24 

25 

27 

32 

28i 

29 

38 

42 

44 


Many  of  the  papers  above  enumerated 
are  made  by  hand  of  the  exact  size  indica 
ted,  but  if  made  by  the  machine,  the  roll 
of  paper  has  to  be  cut  to  the  required  di 
mensions.  In  order  to  do  this  with  pre 
cision  and  expedition,  various  cutting  ma 
chines  have  been  contrived,  in  which  the 
paper,  as  it  comes  from  the  manufacturing 
machine,  is  cut  to  any  size  required.  Fine 
papers  are,  in  many  cases,  hot-pressed  and 
glazed.  In  hot-pressing,  a  number  of  stout 
cast  iron  plates  are  heated  in  an  oven,  and 
then  put  into  a  screw  press  in  alternate 
layers,  with  highly  glazed  paste-boards, 
between  which  the  paper  is  placed  in  open 
sheets  ;  and  the  hard-polished  surface  of  the 
pasteboards,  aided  by  the  heat  and  pressure, 
imparts  that  beautiful  appearance  which  be 
longs  to  hot-pressed  paper.  A  yet  more 
smooth  and  elegant  surface  is  produced  by 
the  process  of  glazing.  The  sheets  of  paper  are 
placed  separately  between  very  smooth,  clean, 
copper  plates.  These  are  then  passed  through 
rollers,  which  impart  a  pressure  of  twenty  to 
thirty  tons.  After  three  or  four  such  pres 
sures  the  paper  acquires  a  higher  surface, 


and  is  then  called  glazed.  The  general  in 
troduction  of  steel  pens  has  increased  the 
demand  for  smooth  papers,  and  has  led  to 
improvements  in  finishing  them.  As  an 
improvement  in  the  manufacture  of  paper 
sized  by  the  machines  now  in  use,  it  is  pro 
posed  to  conduct  the  web  of  paper,  after  it 
has  been  either  partially  or  completely  dried, 
through  a  trough  of  cold  water,  then  to  pass 
it  through  a  pair  of  pressing  rollers,  and  after 
ward  to_  dry  it  on  reels,  or  over  hot  cylin 
ders.  The  paper  which,  has  been  thus  treated 
will  be  found  to  "bear"  much  better,  and 
admit  of  erasures  being  made  on  its  surface, 
and  written  over,  without  the  ink  running  in 
the  way  it  does  when  the  paper  is  sized  and 
dried  in  the  usual  manner.  It  has  been 
found  that  when  paper  is  dried,  after  sizing, 
by  the  drying  machines  in  present  use,  the 
paper  is  very  harsh,  and  until  it  stands  for 
some  time  to  get  weather  (as  it  is  technically 
termed)  great  difficulty  is  experienced  in 
glazing  the  paper.  This  inconvenience  is 
proposed  to  be  overcome  by  passing  the 
paper  partially  round  a  hollow  cylinder, 
through  which  a  small  stream  of  cold  water 
is  made  to  run.  By  this  means  the  heat  is 
carried  off,  and  the  paper  is  rendered  more 
tractable,  and  brought  to  a  proper  state  for 
undergoing  the  glazing  operation. 

We  may  describe  the  modern  process  of 
paper  making,  by  detailing  the  operations 
as  carried  on  in  large  mills.  The  visitor 
goes  up  to  the  second  story,  into  a  room 
some  sixty  by  eighty  feet,  in  which  girls  are 
engaged  assorting  the  rags.  Here  are  nu 
merous  bales  of  white  rags,  foreign  and  do 
mestic.  The  imported  arc  linen,  the  others 
cotton.  In  the  same  room  these  rags  are 
cut  by  a  machine,  driven  by  power,  which 
fits  them  for  the  subsequent  processes.  They 
are  next  sent  into  a  rotary  boiler  of  about 
two  tuns  capacity,  into  which  steam  is  ad 
mitted,  and  the  rags  boiled.  Next  they  are 
cast  down  on  a  floor  in  the  first  story,  where 
they  are  put  into  cars,  on  which  they  are 
conveyed  to  the  washing  engines.  Two 
engines  are  employed  in  washing,  called  rag 
engines.  These  engines  play  in  tubs  of  an 
oval  form,  of  large  capacity,  each  containing 
perhaps  200  Ibs.  of  rags.  The  impelling 
power,  steam  or  water,  causes  the  revolution 
of  a  roller,  set  with  knives  or  bars  of  cast 
steel  inserted  in  it  longitudinally.  This 
roller  is  suspended  on  what  is  called  a  lighter, 
by  which  it  may  be  raised  or  lowered  at 
pleasure  upon  a  plate,  consisting  of  bars  of 


INVENTIONS — MANUFACTURE. 


297 


steel,  set  up  edgewise.  Passing  now  between 
this  and'  the  plate,  the  rags  are  reduced  to 
fibre.  A  stream  of  pure  water  is  then  con 
veyed  into  the  rag  engine,  and,  by  means  of 
a  cylinder  covered  with  gauze  wire,  the  dirty 
water  is  passed  off.  This  cylinder,  called  a 
patent  washer,  is  octagonal  in  shape,  some 
thirty  inches  in  length,  revolving  in  the  en 
gine,  and  having  buckets  within  it,  corres 
ponding  with  the  sides  of  the  washer.  By 
this  process  the  rags  are  washed  perfectly 
clean  in  from  three  to  six  hours. 

The  bleaching  process  is  performed  by  the 
insertion  into  this  engine  of  a  strong  solution 
of  the  chloride  of  lime  and  some  acid,  to  cause 
a  reaction.  The  pulp  is  then  emptied  into 
large  cisterns,  covered  with  the  bleach  liquor 
it  contains,  where  it  is  allowed  to  remain 
from  twelve  to  twenty-four  hours  to  bleach. 
It  is  then  drained,  put  into  the  beating  en 
gine,  and  reduced  to  a  pulp,  the  consistency 
of  milk,  which  it  much  resembles.  This 
pulp  is  emptied  into  a  large  cistern,  in  a 
vault  beneath,  and  kept  in  motion  by  means 
of  an  agitator  revolving  in  it.  It  is  then 
raised  by  a  lifting  pump  into  a  small  cistern, 
from  which  it  is  drawn  off  by  a  cock — which 
is  opened  more  or  less,  according  to  the 
thickness  of  the  paper  intended  to  be  made — 
on  to  a  strainer,  which  removes  the  knots, 
sand,  or  hard  substances  that  may  damage 
the  paper,  and  then  flows  upon  a  leathern 
apron,  which  conducts  it  to  an  endless  wire 
cloth,  over  which  the  web  of  paper  is  form 
ed.  This  wire  cloth  is  kept  constantly 
vibrating,  which  both  facilitates  the  escape 
of  water  and  the  felting  together  of  the 
fibres  of  the  pulp.  The  wire  cloth,  with  the 
pulp  upon  it — the  edges  being  protected  by 
deckle-straps — passes  on  until  it  comes  to  a 
couple  of  wet-press  cylinders,  as  they  are  call 
ed,  the  lower  of  which  is  of  metal,  but  cover 
ed  with  a  jacket  of  felting  or  flannel ;  the 
upper  one  is  of  wood,  made  hollow,  and  cov 
ered  first  with  mahogany,  and  then  with 
flannel.  These  cylinders  give  the  gauze  with 
the  pulp  upon  it  a  slight  pressure,  which  is 
repeated  upon  a  second  pair  of  wet-press 
rolls  similar  to  the  first.  The  paper  is  then 
led  upon  an  endless  felt  or  blanket,  which 
travels  at  exactly  the  same  rate  as  the  wire 
clot!),  while  the  latter  passes  under  the  cyl 
inders,  and  proceeds  to  take  up  a  new  supply 
of  pulp.  The  endless  felt  conveys  the  paper, 
still  in  a  very  wet  state,  between  cast  iron 
cylinders,  where  it  undergoes  a  severe  pres 
sure,  which  rids  it  of  much  of  the  remaining 


water,  and  then  between  a  second  pair  of 
press-rollers,  which  remove  the  mark  of  the 
felt  from  the  under  surface ;  and  finally  it  is 
passed  over  the  surface  of  cylinders  heated 
by  steam,  and  when  it  has  passed  over  about 
thirty  lineal  feet  of  heated  surface,  it  is 
wound  upon  a  reel  ready  for  cutting.  Forty 
years  ago  three  men  could  by  hand  manu 
facture  4,000  sheets  in  a  day.  The  same 
number  now  by  the  aid  of  machinery  will 
make  60,000. 

From  the  time  of  the  Revolution  the  quan 
tity  of  paper  imported  has  been  gradually 
decreasing ;  and  before  the  revision  of  the 
tariff  in  1846,  had  dwindled  to  perhaps  not 
more  than  2  per  cent,  of  the  amount  con 
sumed,  with  the  exception  of  wall  papers,  of 
which  large  quantities  were  imported,  and 
still  continue  to  be,  from  France.  Since 
1846,  there  has  been  an  increase  of  cheap 
French  letter  paper,  but  the  amount  is  small 
compared  with  the  whole  amount  of  letter 
paper  consumed,  probably  not  more  than  3 
per  cent.  There  is  also  a  small  quantity  of 
ledger  and  letter  paper  brought  from  Eng 
land,  but  as  the  American  is  quite  equal  in 
quality,  the  importation  is  gradually  dimin 
ishing.  Within  the  last  few  years  great  in 
genuity  has  been  exercised,  both  in  England 
and  the  United  States,  in  trying  to  make  a 
paper  by  machinery  to  resemble  the  old- 
fashioned  hand-made  laid  paper  (yet  pre 
ferred  by  many).  To  the  eye  it  is  a  pretty 
good  imitation,  but  lacks  the  toughness, 
firmness,  and  surface  of  the  hand-made.  By 
an  experienced  judge  the  difference  is  easily 
discovered.  Notwithstanding,  large  quan 
tities  have  been  used  under  the  supposition 
that  they  were  hand-made.  The  reduced 
price  of  machine  paper  has  forced  almost  all 
manufacturers  to  abandon  the  old  method. 
There  were  a  few  years  since  only  two 
mills  in  operation  in  the  United  States  in 
which  it  was  made  by  hand — one  in  Massa 
chusetts  and  one  in  Pennsylvania.  There  is  a 
limited  quantity  of  peculiar  kinds,  that  can 
be  better  made  by  hand  than  on  a  machine, 
such  as  band-note,  laid  letter,  deed  parch 
ments,  and  such  as  are  used  for  documents 
that  are  much  handled,  and  require  great 
strength  and  durability.  Within  the  last 
few  years  some  improvement  has  been  made 
in  the  finish  of  writing  and  printing  papers, 
by  the  introduction  of  iron  and  paper  calen 
ders  for  the  purpose  of  giving  a  smooth  sur 
face.  The  finish  of  American  papers  is  now 
equal  to  any  in  the  world. 


298 


PAPER  :    ITS    MANUFACTURE. 


The  quantity  of  paper  required  for  the 
newspaper  service  of  the  country  is  probably 
150,000,000  Ibs.  per  annum,  which  would 
allow  a  circulation  of  750,000,000  sheets. 
There  would  remain  250,000,000  Ibs.  of 
paper  for  the  service  of  the  book  trade,  and 
the  trade  and  publications  of  the  religious 
societies. 

The  use  of  paper-hangings,  which  has  become 
so  common  in  the  past  ten  years,  superseding 
hard  finish  and  painted  walls  for  city  dwell 
ings,  absorbs  a  large  amount  of  paper.  In 
Philadelphia,  which  has  been  the  leading 
place  for  the  manufacture  of  paper-hangings 
until  more  recently,  when  the  business  has 
been  carried  on  in  New  York  and  Boston, 
the  consumption  of  paper  for  hangings  has 
been  yearly  1,500  tons,  or  3,000,000  Ibs. 
The  paper  used  for  this  purpose  is  heavy, 
and  comes  from  the  mill  in  rolls  1,200  yards 
long,  and  from  20  to  35  inches  wide.  It 


States  and  Territories. 

Connecticut 

Delaware 

Georgia 

Illinois 

Indiana  

Kentucky 

Maine   

Maryland 

Massachusetts 

Michigan 

New  Hampshire 

New  Jersey 

New  York 

North  Carolina 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Iowa 

South  Carolina 

Tennessee 

Vermont 

Virginia 

"Wisconsin 

California 

i         Total  in  U.  S  . . . 
Total  in  1850 


costs  from  9  to  14  cents  per  pound .  In 
the  preparation  of  this  paper  the  "pattern 
is  first  carefully  drawn  from  original  designs, 
and  then  printed.  The  outlines  of  the 
various  tints  are  made  each  upon  a  separate 
block,  made  of  pear-tree  mounted  with  pine. 
The  color  is  contained  in  sieves,  and  the 
blocks  thus  applied  to  these  arc  laid  upon 
the  paper,  following  each  other  upon  the 
guide-marks  left  by  the  previous  impressions. 
It  is  stated  that  a  paper-hanging  exhibited 
at  the  World's  Fair,  and  representing  a  chase 
in  a  forest  with  birds  and  animals,  was  per 
fected  by  the  application  of  12,000  blocks. 

In  making  what  is  called  flock  (shearings 
of  broadcloth)  paper,  the  pattern  is  printed 
in  size  and  varnished ;  the  wool  then  being 
sifted  on  the  varnished  pattern,  adheres  to  it. 

The  census  of  1 860  gave  the  localities  of 
the  paper  mills  and  their  comparative  im 
portance  as  follows : — 


MANUFACTORIES 

OF     THE     UNITED     STATES. 

No.  of 
Establish 

Capital. 

Cost  of  raw 
material. 

Male 
bands. 

Female 
hands. 

ments. 

' 

55 

$1,860,000 

$1,527,672 

698 

502 

2 

280,000 

286,439 

66 

27 

4 

171,000 

72,400 

52 

26 

2 

47,103 

43,075 

29 

12 

10 

147,500 

56,785 

64 

26 

1 

125,000 

08,500 

25 

35 

14 

519,100 

535,539 

223 

183 

25 

272,800 

300,759 

155 

69 

99 

3,589,860 

3,313,162 

1,494 

1,845 

5 

46,500 

62,837 

53 

35 

24 

425,000 

378.596 

207 

126 

36 

990,000 

997,109 

461 

254 

126 

2,039,000 

1,394,210 

1,411 

446 

6 

121.850 

54,600 

54 

35 

29 

875,500 

737,246 

512 

212 

84 

1,917,920 

1,313,841 

690 

392 

1 

12,000 

6.600 

8 

5 

3 

111,000 

53,000 

38 

19 

2 

14,500 

10,200 

11 

13 

12 

139,500 

152,396 

87 

55 

9 

154,500 

130,165 

11 

38 

5 

133,000 

99,135 

56 

37 

1 

60,000 

8,000 

14 

555 

14,052,683 

11,602,266 

6,519 

4,392 

443 

5,523,929 

5,523,929 

3,835 

2,950 

Cost  of  labor. 

.  Value  of 
product 

$342,996 

$2,453,258 

29,292 

38r>,000 

20,904 

146,300 

13,080 

59,938 

25,548 

14d,200 

19.200 

122,000 

100,834 

949,645 

51,228 

513,690 

800,692 

6,170,127 

16,248 

127,000 

95,580 

701,2(J9 

179,940 

1,582,703 

433,028 

3,059,776 

53,916 

165,703 

197,448 

1,382,241 

256,656 

2,367,268 

3.924 

17,400 

16,044 

96,500 

4,500 

28,000 

35,688 

227,800 

41,678 

270,000 

23,968 

193,114 

4,800 

40,000 

Increase. 


112 


2,767,212      21,216,802 
1,497,792      10,187,177 


3,048,337      $6,048,337       2,684       1,442      $1,269,420   $11,029,625 


There  were  produced  in  these  555  paper 
mills,  in  1860,  131,508,000  pounds  of  print 
ing  paper,  22,268,000  pounds  of  writing 
paper,  33,379  tons  of  wrapping  paper,  and 


those  made  of  oakum,  hemp  rope  and  bag 
ging,  <fec.,  were  not  enumerated.  During 
the  war,  the  price  of  paper  rose  more  than 
one  hundred  per  cent.,  and  the  product  has 


8,150    tons   of    straw  boards.      The    mills  been  greatly  increased  since  1860. 
which   manufacture   tarred   boards,  that   is, 


HAND  CARDING. 


WOOLLEN  MANUFACTURES. 


CHAPTER  I. 

WOOLLEN    MANUFACTURES  —  CARDING  — 
WEAVING— FELTING. 

THE  manufacture  of  woollen,  or  any  other 
goods,  having  been  prohibited  in  the  colo 
nies  under  that  harsh  principle  Avhich 
prompted  the  Earl  of  Chatham  to  exclaim 
that  the  "  colonists  had  no  right  to  manu 
facture  so  much  as  a  horse-shoe  nail,"  much 
progress  could  not  have  been  expected. 
Nevertheless,  progress  was  made,  since  the 
home  manufacture  of  woollen  cloth  became 
very  general.  The  people  spun  and  wove 
their  own  cloth,  and  the  merchant  found 
little  sale  for  the  imported  article.  The 
oppressions  of  the  home  government  were 
continued,  until  finally,  in  1765,  a  society 
was  started  in  New  York  with  great  zeal, 
not  only  repudiating  all  foreign  goods,  but 
taking  measures  to  encourage  the  home 
manufacture  of  cloth  from  sheep's  wool,  and 
from  all  other  materials.  This  was  very  pop 
ular  ;  and  an  agreement  was  extensively  en 
tered  into,  in  order  to  encourage  the  growth 
of  wool,  to  eat  no  mutton  or  lamb,  and  to 
purchase  no  meat  of  any  butcher  who  should 
kill  a  sheep  or  lamb.  The  economist  of  the 
present  day  will  smile  at  such  a  mode  of  en 
couraging  the  farmer  to  keep  sheep,  viz. :  by 
cutting  oil'  his  market  for  the  mutton.  Never 
theless,  it  showed  zeal.  Manufactures  are 
not,  however,  to  be  established  by  resolu 
tion.  For  their  development  there  are  neces 
sary,  1  st,  the  supply  of  skilled  labor ;  2d,  the 
material  for  its  use ;  3d,  the  capital  to  em 


ploy  it ;  and  4th,  the  demand  for  the  goods. 
This  latter  existed  to  a  considerable  extent, 
on  certain  conditions,  among  which  was,  that 
it  should  come  within  the  means  of  the  con 
sumers.  There  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  much  scarcity  of  wool,  since  home-made 
goods  were  generally  used.  There  was  an 
absence,  however,  of  capital,  and  of  that 
skilled  labor  which  is  always  the  result  of 
extensive  experience  in  the  same  employ 
ment.  There  came  great  numbers  of  art 
isans  from  Europe,  and  it  was  stated  that 
30,000  weavers  left  Ulster  in  1774.  The 
war  came,  peace  succeeded,  and  the  new 
government  was  formed  in  1791  ;  on  which 
occasion,  Alexander  Hamilton,  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  made  his  famous  report  on 
manufactures.  He  stated,  that  of  woollen 
goods,  hats  only  had  reached  maturity,  and 
supplied  the  demand.  At  Hartford,  a  mill 
for  cloths  and  cassimeres  was  in  operation, 
and  produced  excellent  wares,  under  the  cir 
cumstances  ;  but  he  remarked,  that  "  it 
was  doubtful  if  American  wool  was  fit  for 
fine  cloths."  The  quality  of  wool  grown 
in  the  country  must,  since  then,  have  chang 
ed  very  much,  since  the  American  wool  is 
used  entirely  for  the  fine  goods,  and  the 
imported  wools  only  are  used  for  carpets  and 
coarse  manufactures.  The  manufacture  of 
cloths  did  not  progress  rapidly,  since  we  find 
that,  in  1810,  according  to  the  report  of  the 
Treasury  department,  ordered  by  Congress, 
the  manufacture  of  wool  was  still  mostly  in 
families.  The  progress  of  the  manufacture, 
according  to  that  report,  has  been  as  fol 
lows  : — 


1810. 


Woollen  manufacture,     $25,608,788 


1320. 
4,413,068 


1830. 
14,528.166 


1840. 
20,696,999 


JS50. 
43,207,545 


This  value,  in  1810,  was  nearly  all  in  fam 
ilies,  and  the  figures  subsequently  are  the 
product  of  regular  manufactures  as  the  busi 
ness  progressed.  The  family  manufacture 
was  necessarily  of  a  rude  description.  The 
wool,  being  washed,  was  carded  between 


two  cards  held  in  the  hands  of  the  operator, 
who  continued  to  card  until  the  wool  was 
formed  into  a  long  roll,  Avhich  was  then  spun 
upon  the  single  spindle,  driven  by  the  wheel 
that  the  busy  hand  of  the  housewife  kept  in 
motion.  There  are  many  still  living  who 


CARDING WEAVING FELTING. 


301 


were  employed  in  sticking  the  teeth  for  those 
cards,  and  in  tending  the  wheel.  The  cloth, 
woven  also  by  hand,  was  subsequently  sent 
to  mill  to  be  fulled,  and  dyed,  and  dressed ; 
which  was  the  first  regular  business  branch 
of  the  manufacture.  The  dyeing  was  rather 
an  imperfect  process.  The  operator  did  not 
then  understand  the  art  of  fixing  colors. 
Daniel  Webster  somewhere  relates  his  mis 
fortune,  when,  dressed  up  in  a  new  suit  of 
home-spun  blue,  he  accompanied  his  father 
on  the  way  to  a  new  school,  and,  being  over 
taken  by  a  shower,  had  the  color  washed 
from  his  new  coat  into  his  shirt.  With  the 
lapse  of  time  dyeing  became  better  under 
stood.  Not  many  years  have  elapsed,  how 
ever,  since  the  distinctive  mark  of  American 
cloth  was,  that  it  wore  "white  on  the  edges ;" 
in  other  words,  its  color  was  not  fast.  With 
the  introduction  of  machinery,  and  the  im 
proved  condition  of  the  people,  home  manu 
factures  necessarily  gave  way  to  machine 
work.  Other  occupations  paid  the  time  of 
the  farmer  better,  and  the  use  of  machines 
gradually  made  a  market  for  the  raw  wool, 
at  a  price  which,  compared  with  falling 
prices  of  the  cloth,  would  give  the  wool- 
grower  his  cloth  without  labor.  This  we 
may  illustrate  by  extreme  figures.  Suppose, 
there  being  no  factories,  wool  is  worth  10 
cts.  per  lb.,  and  cloth  imported,  $2  per  yard, 
a  pound  of  wool  will  make  two  yards,  or  $4  ; 
if  not  as  good  cloth,  at  least  good  enough. 
The  farmer,  by  turning  his  wool  into  cloth, 
makes  a  large  saving.  Soon,  however,  ma 
chine  labor  sinks  cloth  to  50  cts.  per  yard, 
and  raises  wool  to  60  cts.  The  farmer  can 
now  no  longer  afford  to  make  his  own  cloth, 
but  his  wool  trade  has  become  profitable. 
Thus,  machine  goods  supplant  hand  goods. 
In  this  line,  the  inventions  have  been  very 
remarkable. 

In  1797,  Asa  Whittemore,  of  Massachu 
setts,  invented  a  machine  for  making  cards. 
Instead  of  sticking  them  by  hand,  as  before, 
a  strip  of  leather,  by  passing  between  a 
cylinder  and  a  scraper,  becomes  of  equal 
thickness.  This  strip  of  leather,  in  passing 
through  the  machine,  is  stuck  full  of  teeth, 
that  are  also  made  from  steel  wire  by  the 
machine  at  the  same  time.  The  ingenuity 
of  this  machine  was  such,  that  the  famous 
John  Randolph,  on  inspecting  it,  exclaimed, 
that  "  it  operated  as  if  it  had  a  soul !"  There 
have  been  100  patents  since  issued  for  im 
provements  in  this  machine.  The  hand 
cards  were  then  supplanted  by  the  carding 


machine.  This  has  a  drum  of  about  3  ft. 
diameter,  and  as  many  long,  covered  with 
the  cards.  Smaller  cylinders,  also  covered 
with  cards,  are  placed  so -as  to  revolve  against 
the  circumference  of  the  cylinder,  and  in  the 
contrary  direction.  There  is  a  feed  apron, 
on  which  the  wool  is  laid,  and,  being  drawn 
in  between  two  rollers,  is  caught  by  the  cards 
of  the  revolving  drum,  and  combed  out  be 
tween  it  and  the  smaller  cylinders.  The 
wool  is  thus  spread  on  the  surface  of  all, 
arid  is  finally  taken  up  by  the  "  doffer,"  or  a 
cylinder  in  front  of  the  main  drum ;  from 
this  it  flows  in  a  broad,  thin,  gauzy  fleece, 
which  passes  through  a  funnel,  and  in  so 
doing  is  contracted  into  a  ribbon,  or  sliver, 
which  is  delivered  into  a  can,  ready  for  the 
"  drawing  frame."  Long  wools  and  short 
wools  are  subjected  to  different  treatment  in 
this  stage  of  the  manufacture.  The  long 
wools  arc  sometimes  called  combing  wools, 
in  consequence. 

In  the  manufacture  of  worsted,  the  long 
staple  is  used  mostly,  because  a  smooth,  fine 
yarn  is  required,  not  much  liable  to  full,  or 
shrink,  or  curl.  In  order  to  form  such  a 
thread,  the  first  object  is  to  lay  or  stretch 
the  fibres  into  lines,  as  parallel  as  possible. 
If  it  were  possible  to  procure  a  single  fibre 
of  wool  of  a  length  sufficient  to  weave  like  a 
fibre  of  silk,  the  beauty  and  finish  of  the 
fabric  would  be  as  nearly  perfect  as  could 
be  desired.  As  that,  however,  is  not  pos 
sible,  the  object  of  the  manufacturer  is  to 
draw  out  the  fibres  into  parallel  lines,  in 
order  that  they  may  twist  into  a  thread  as 
fine  and  smooth  as  can  be  obtained.  The 
old  mode  of  doing  this  was  by  hand.  When 
the  wool  has  been  washed  with  lye,  or  soap 
and  water,  and  dried,  it  passes  into  a  ma 
chine  called  the  "  picker,"  tended  by  a  boy, 
who  lays  the  wool  as  evenly  as  he  can  upon 
the  feed  apron,  which  carries  the  wool  be 
tween  rollers,  when  it  is  caught  by  revolving 
teeth,  torn  asunder,  and  scattered  in  the  air. 
The  fibres  are  thus  cleared  and  straightened 
to  some  extent.  They  were- then  taken  to  the 
comber,  who,  in  a  close  room,  employed 
combs  with  long,  heated  teeth.  The  work 
man  oiled  the  wool,  and  combed  it  with  these 
heated  instruments,  until  it  became*  suitable, 
when  it  was  arranged  in  "  slivers."  This 
was  a  very  laborious  and  unhealthy  task,  and 
many  machines  have  been  invented  to  super 
sede  the  baud  labor.  Some  of  them  are  very 
ingenious,  and  they  have  advanced  the 
stage  of  the  manufacture  in  an  eminent  de- 


302 


WOOLLEN    MANUFACTURES. 


grec.  When  the  "  slivers"  are  thus  pre 
pared,  they  are  carried  to  the  "  breaking 
machine."  There  the  first  sliver  is  placed 
upon  an  apron,  which  carries  it  between  two 
rollers,  that  seize  and  draw  it  forward,  and  it 
passes  from  them  throxigh  other  sets  of  rollers, 
which  move  three  times  as  fast.  As  a  con 
sequence,  the  sliver  is  drawn  out  to  three 
times  its  original  length.  When  it  has  half 
passed  into  the  first  set  of  rollers,  the  end  of 
another  sliver  is  laid  upon  it,  passing 
thence  with  it,  and  becoming  incorporated 
with  it  in  the  drawing.  All  the  slivers  thus 
become  incorporated  in  one  of  three  times 
the  aggregate  length  of  all  the  original  sliv 
ers,  and  it  is  coiled  in  a  can.  Three  of 
these  cans  are  carried  to  the  "  drawing 
frame,"  which  has  five  sets  of  rollers,  oper 
ating  in  the  same  manner  as  the  breaking 
frame.  As  fast  as  the  sliver  comes  through 
one  set  of  rollers,  it  coils  into  a  can,  and  the 
slivers  of  three  cans  arc  then  united,  and  pass 
through  another  set  of  rollers.  These  draw 
ings  thus  take  place  1,500  times  with  some 
wool,  and  the  process  reduces  the  sliver  to 
one-fourth  its  original  bulk.  There  arc  many 
variations  of  the  detail  of  drawing  by  differ 
ent  machines,  but  the  result  is  the  same. 
After  the  drawing  is  finished,  a  pound  of  the 
sliver  is  taken  and  measured,  in  order  to 
test  the  accuracy  of  the  drawing.  This 
done,  the  sliver  is  passed  to  the  "  roving" 
frame,  where  two  slivers  are  drawn,  as  be 
fore,  into  a  "  roving,"  which  has  now  become 
so  attenuated,  that  it  must  have  a  twist  to 
hold  it  together.  This  twist  is  imparted  to 
it  as  it  is  wound  upon  spindles,  of  which  the 
frame  contains  a  great  many.  The  bobbins 
from  the  roving  frame  spindles  are  then  car 
ried  to  the  spinning  frame.  They  are  placed 
upon  skewers,  and  the  roving  proceeds  from 
them  between  rollers,  of  which  there  are 
three  sets :  the  first  pair  turns  slowly,  the 
middle  twice  as  fast  as  the  first,  and  the 
third  from  twelve  to  seventeen  times  as  fast 
as  the  first  pair.  The  spindles  that  receive 
the  thread  from  the  rollers  must  turn  very 
fast  to  give  the  required  twist  to  the  thread. 
The  hardest  thread  is  tammy  warp,  and, 
when  this  is  of  size  of  twenty-four  hanks  to 
the  po\ind,  the  twist  is  ten  turns  to  an  inch. 
The  least  twist  is  given  to  thread  for  fine 
hose,  and  it  is  then  five  to  the  inch.  The 
threads  are  then  reeled.  The  bobbins  are 
placed  in  a  row  upon  wires,  before  a  long 
horizontal  reel,  which  is  exactly  a  yard  in 
circumference.  When  this  has  revolved 


eighty  times,  it  rings  a  bell.  It  is  then 
stopped,  and  a  thread  passed  round  the 
eighty  turns  of  each  thread.  The  reel  then 
proceeds.  Each  of  these  eighty  turns  is 
called  a  ley ;  seven  such  are  a  "  hank :" 
which  is,  consequently,  560  yards.  When 
this  quantity  is  reeled,  the  ends  of  the 
threads  are  tied  together,  and  each  hank  is 
weighed  by  a  machine,  which  denotes  the 
number  of  hanks  to  a  pound,  and  this  is  the 
number  of  the  yarn :  thus,  No.  2_4  means 
that  twenty-four  hanks  of  560  yards  each 
will  weigh  1  Ib.  A  hank  of  cotton  measures 
840  yards. 

Short  wool,  for  the  cloth  manufacture,  re 
sembles  cotton  in  some  respects.  The  wool 
being  oiled  and  "  picked,"  is  passed  through 
the  carding  machine,  whence  it  proceeds 
through  the  drawing  process,  as  with  the 
long  staple,  until  it  assumes  the  form  of  yarn 
for  the  weaver.  , 

In  woollen  cloths,  cassimeres,  broad  cloths, 
narrow  cloths,  etc.,  all  wool  is  used  :  that  is, 
both  warp  and  weft  arc  wool,  but  the  wool 
is  combined  with  many  other  articles,  ac 
cording  to  the  dearness  of  each.  The  cotton 
warp  is  used  in  satinets ;  and  in  most  descrip 
tions  of  dress  goods  there  is  a  combination 
of  wool  with  silk  or  cotton.  If  these  articles 
are  very  high,  more  wool  is  used ;  and  the 
reverse,  if  wool  is  high,  and  cotton  is  cheap, 
more  cotton  is  introduced  into  the  fabric. 
There  are  also  a  great  variety  of  styles  and 
patterns  constantly  produced,  to  attract  at 
tention. 

The  weaving  process  on  the  improved 
power-looms  has  been  greatly  facilitated  of 
late  years,  and  the  labor  has  been  diminish 
ed.  Thus,  formerly,  one  person  was  re 
quired  to  tend  one  loom,  at  a  certain  speed; 
but,  by  various  improvements,  one  person 
may  now  tend  four.  In  large  factories,  great 
numbers  of  looms  are  placed  in  one  room, 
and,  as  the  cloth-roils  become  full,  they  are 
placed  upon  a  little  rail-car,  which  carries 
them  off  to  the  dyeing  and  finishing  depart 
ment. 

The  woven  cloth  is  carried  to  the  fulling- 
mill,  to  have  the  oil  applied  in  spinning,  and 
other  greasy  matters  removed,  and,  by  a 
partial  felting,  to  give  the  fabric  more  com 
pactness.  The  first  process  is  to  scour  the 
cloth.  This  is  done  by  placing  it  in  troughs, 
so  arranged  as  to  contain  the  liquids — stale 
urine  and  hog's  dung,  then  urine  alone,  and 
to  be  followed  by  fullers'  earth  and  urine. 
Heavy  oaken  mallets,  or  pounders,  slide 


CARDING WEAVING FELTING. 


303 


down  with  force  into  one  end  of  the  trough, 
and  mash,  or  roll  over  the  cloths.  The 
pounders  are  lifted  by  wooden  cams,  kept  in 
motion  by  horse-power  for  many  hours.  In 
this  process  the  oil  is  detached  from  the 
wool,  the  urine  is  absorbed  by  the  earth, 
and  both  washed  oft'  by  the  water.  When 
this  is  complete,  soap  is  applied  liberally, 
and  the  pounding  continued,  to  full  the  cloth. 
Instead  of  soap,  in  some  cases  steam  is  applied, 
and  the  pounders  made  of  iron.  The  process 
of  fulling  is  also  effected  without  pounders, 
the  cloth  being  pushed,  or  squeezed,  through 
a  long  trough.  After  the  fulling,  the  soap  is 
washed  out,  and  the  cloth  is  ready  for 
teasling.  To  full  a  piece  of  broadcloth  re 
quires  sixty  to  sixty-five  hours,  and  lllbs.  of 
soap  are  usually  applied.  In  the  process, 
the  cloth  will  shrink  in  length  from  fifty-four 
to  forty  yards,  and  from  twelve  quarters 
wide  to  seven  quarters. 

When  cloth  is  returned  from  the  fulling- 
mill,  it  is  stretched  upon  the  tenter  frame, 
and  left  to  dry  in  the  open  air.  As  cloth  in 
the  fulling-mill  shrinks  nearly  one-half,  it 
must  be  woven  nearly  double  its  intended 
breadth.  Superfine  six-quarter  broadcloths 
are  therefore  woven  twelve  quarters  wide. 

The  cloth  is  minutely  examined,  when  dry, 
in  every  part,  freed  from  knots  and  uneven 
threads,  and  repaired,  by  sewing  any  little 
rents,  or  inserting  sound  yarns  in  the  place 
of  defective  ones. 

In  order  to  raise  up  the  loose  filaments  of 
woollen  yarn  into  a  nap  upon  one  of  the  sur 
faces  of  the  cloth,  it  is  scratched  with  the 
heads  of  the  teasle  plant,  or  with  teasling  cards 
made  of  wire.  In  large  factories  the  operation 
is  performed  in  the  gig-mill,  which  is  a  cylinder 
covered  all  over  with  teaslcs,  and  made  to 
revolve  rapidly,  while  the  cloth  is  drawn 
over  it.  This  operation  requires  attention, 
lest  the  goods  become  tender.  Indeed, 
every  branch  of  the  wool  manufacture  re 
quires  the  supervision  of  a  practical  man.  If 
a  piece  of  cloth  comes  from  the  press  dam 
aged,  or  inferior,  he  must  be  able  himself  to 
discover  where  the  fault  lies,  without  taking 
any  other  man's  word  for  it ;  if  the  wool  is 
not  properly  cleaned  and  dyed,  the  dyer 
must  be  called  to  account,  not  the  carder,  or 
the  weaver ;  and  if,  through  the  carelessness 
of  the  shearer  or  gigger,  the  goods  arc  made 
tender,  they  must  answer  for  it,  not  the 
spinner.  Therefore,  the  manager  of  a  wool 
len  establishment  must  be  a  thorough  prac 
tical  manufacturer,  conversant  with  all  the 


branches  of  his  business,  and  able  to  assume 
and  maintain  the  responsibility  of  each  and 
every  one.  This  individuality  of  the  manu 
facturer  is  well  divided  among  the  different 
branches  of  the  manufacture  in  England, 
where  the  business  has  grown  up  in  the 
hands  of  practical  men ;  but  in  this  country, 
where  manufacturing  was,  as  it  were,  im 
provised  on  the  formation  of  the  govern 
ment,  it  came,  necessarily,  under  the  con 
trol  of  corporations,  where  the  supervising 
power  could  not  be  so  well  exercised  as 
where  each  branch  is  produced  by  an  in 
dividual  on  his  own  responsibility,  and  to 
meet  the  consequences  of  defect  himself. 
In  a  corporation,  many  of  the  appointments 
are  independent  of  the  general  direction, 
and  the  resulting  defects  in  fabrics  are  placed 
to  the  account  of  the  wrong  party,  or  not 
fixed  upon  any. 

The  art  of  dyeing  and  printing  fabrics  is 
one  of  the  most  progressive  connected  with 
manufacturing.  The  materials  of  human 
clothing  are  mostly  from  silk  and  wool,  of 
animal  origin,  and  cotton  and  flax,  of  vege 
table  origin.  These  two  classes  differ  in  the 
facility  with  which  they  imbibe  coloring 
matter.  The  animal  fibre  takes  much  more 
brilliant  shades  than  the  vegetable,  and  the 
color  may  be  applied  to  either  class  in  the 
raw  state,  in  the  spun  yarn,  or  in  the  fabric : 
hence,  great  diversity  in  the  processes.  The 
coloring  matters  are  themselves  of  the  most 
various  origins — animal,  vegetable,  and  min 
eral — and  their  substances,  brought  together, 
act  upon  each  other,  and  produce  the  most 
intricate  changes.  The  leading  vegetable 
colors  are  yellow,  brown,  and  red ;  blue  is 
derived  only  from  litmus  and  indigo  ;  black 
is  afforded  by  nutgalls,  sumach,  and  cashew 
nut.  These  arc  generally  obtained  by  water ; 
but  some  of  the  substances  require  either 
alcohol  or  some  of  the  fixed  oils.  From  the 
animal  kingdom  come,  from  the  bodies  of 
the  cochineal  and  kermes  insects,  the  bril 
liant  scarlet  and  crimson  dyes.  The  ancient 
dye,  called  Tyrian  purple,  was  long  supposed 
to  be  lost ;  but  a  French  chemist  has  lately 
discovered  it.  Hoofs,  horns,  etc.,  give  Prus 
sian  blue.  Many  brilliant  colors  are  derived 
from  the  salts  of  various  metals.  The  same 
metal  is  caused  to  give  various  colors.  Iron 
gives  that  buff'  known  as  nankeen ;  it  gives 
various  shades  of  blue,  and  is  made  to  yield 
black,  slate  color,  and  other  shades.  Chrome, 
and  lead  salts,  give  an  interesting  variety  of 
colors.  The  materials  to  be  dyed,  of  what- 


304 


WOOLLEN    MANUFACTURES. 


ever  nature,  are  seldom  found  to  nave  such 
an  affinity  for  the  dyes  used  that  they  will 
retain  them.  They  will  soon  wash  out,  un 
less  a  remedy  is  applied.  Chemistry  dis 
covered  this  in  certain  substances  that  will 
fix  themselves  permanently  upon  the  fibre, 
and  then,  by  uniting  chemically  with  the 
color,  "  fix"  that  permanently  also.  These 
applications  are  called  "  mordants,"  from  the 
Latin,  mordeo,  because  they  were  thought  to 
bite  into  the  fibre.  It  is  sometimes  the  case 
that,  in  thus  combining  with  the  color,  the 
mordant  will  modify  or  alter  its  tone,  and 
those  having  this  effect,  are  sometimes  called 
"  alterants." 

Thus,  if  a  decoction  of  madder  be  applied 
directly  to  cloth,  it  gives  a  dirty  red  color, 
that  will  not  remain.  If  the  cloth  is  first 
prepared  with  acetate  of  alumina,  the  color 
will  not  only  become  entirely  fast,  but 
will  assume  a  fine  red  hue,  which  will  re 
sist  the  action  of  air,  light,  and  water.  If, 
instead  of  the  alumina,  oxide  of  iron  is  used 
as  a  mordant,  a  purple  color  will  be  ob 
tained.  In  dyeing  with  cochineal,  if  crim 
son  is  required,  alumina  is  used  for  a  mor 
dant  ;  if  oxide  of  iron  is  used,  the  color 
will  be  black.  It  follows,  that  mixing  mor 
dants  will  multiply  shades,  and  the  variations 
of  proportions  and  strength  of  solution  give 
a  wide  field  for  the  production  of  effects.  It 
sometimes  is  the  case,  that  two  solutions, 
neither  of  which  will  give  any  color  at  all  to 
the  fabric,  will  impart  a  fast  color  by  follow 
ing  each  other  in  the  application.  Thus,  a 
solution  of  nitrate  of  potash  gives  no  color  to 
cloth,  and  may  be  washed  out ;  the  same  is 
true  of  bichromate  of  potash ;  but  if  one 
of  these  is  applied  after  the  cloth  has  receiv 
ed  the  other,  a  fast  yellow  is  obtained.  In 
the  process  of  mandarining,  an  acid  is  made 
to  act  directly  upon  the  fibre  of  the  wool. 
In  a  large  factory,  the  dye  stuffs  are  ground 
and  mixed  in  an  appropriate  room.  The  in 
fusions  are  made  in  tubs  or  vats,  some  in  cold 
water,  and  others  in  boiling  water.  Some 
of  the  dyes  are  introduced  in  the  shape  of  a 
coarse  powder,  and  others  in  bags,  through 
which  the  color  oozes.  The  cloth  is  first 
prepared  by  thorough  cleansing,  in  order 
to  remove  all  extraneous  matters  that  may 
be  attached  to  the  fibre.  When  this  is  com 
pleted,  the  mordant  is  applied  by  soaking 
the  cloth  in  appropriate  solutions.  It  is 
then  hung  up  to  dry  in  long  folds,  if  intend 
ed  for  printing,  as  in  the  case  of  muslin-de 
laines,  a  fabric  in  which  the  American 


manufacturer  has  come  to  surpass  the  im 
ported  article,  and  to  monopolize  the  market. 

The  art  of  printing  goods  may  be  said  to 
have  been  created  in  the  last  fifty  years.  As 
practised  in  the  early  part  of  the  century, 
it  was  comparatively  rude.  The  figures  to 
be  impressed  upon  the  cloth  were  engraved 
upon  a  square  block  of  wood,  and  the  color 
being  applied  to  this,  it  was  impressed  upon 
the  cloth,  which  was  then  drawn  forward, 
and  a  new  application  of  the  block  made. 
This  was  the  style  of  printing  practised  orig 
inally  by  Robert  Peel,  grandfather  of  the  late 
prime  minister  of  England,  and  founder  of 
that  family.  An  improvement  was  then 
made  by  engraving  the  pattern  upon  a  cop 
per  cylinder,  and  by  passing  the  cloth  over 
this,  the  work  was  done  with  more  pre 
cision  and  continuity.  This  was  costly,  how 
ever;  and  one  such  cylinder  laboriously  en 
graved,  would  print  only  1,500  pieces  of 
cloth.  Perkins,  of  Newburyport,  Massachu 
setts,  then  invented  the  die.  This  is  a  small 
steel  roller,  on  which  the  figure  is  engraved, 
and  made  exceedingly  hard.  From  this,  the 
figure  is  conveyed  to  a  soft  steel  roller  by 
pressure.  From  this  last  the  design  is  im 
pressed  upon  a  copper  roller  by  pressure. 
This  last  prints  the  cloth.  In  this  manner, 
the  design  on  the  steel  die,  once  engraved, 
may  be  multiplied  to  any  number.  The 
original  block-printing  would  take  but  one 
color.  Numbers  of  improvements  were  made 
to  increase  the  number  of  colors  that  might 
be  printed.  This  is  now  done  by  engraving 
the  dies  and  rollers  with  portions  of  the 
designs  that  are  to  take  different  colors. 
The  rollers  are  placed  upon  the  printing 
machine  in  such  a  manner,  that  the  cloth 
passes  up  slowly  over  the  large  drum  of  the 
machine.  They  each,  in  succession,  impress 
it  with  the  design  and  color  with  which  they 
are  fed.  Almost  any  number  of  colors  may 
thus  be  printed.  The  style  and  quality  of 
ladies'  dress  goods  of  wool,  have  thus  made 
rapid  strides  in  the  last  feAV  years. 

The  faculty  of  felting  possessed  by  the 
wool,  arises  from  the  barbs  upon  each  fibre, 
like  those  that  are  to  be  seen  on  each  fibre 
of  a  feather,  locking  into  each  other.  The  pro 
cess  of  rubbing  in  hot  water  causes  those  in 
the  wool  to  become  more  closely  interlocked, 
until  the  whole  becomes  a  compact  mass. 

The  making  of  hats  of  wool  was  a  large  busi 
ness  in  the  New  England  colonies  early  in  the 
18th  century — so  much  so,  as  to  draw  upon 
them  the  interference  of  the  government  for 


CARDING WEAVING FELTING. 


305 


the    suppression    of  the    business.     It  con 
tinued,  however,  locally,  and  was,  in  1791, 
mentioned  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
as  one  of  the  most  successful.     The  manu 
facturing  process  was  mostly  the  same,  al 
though  the  form  of  the  hat  underwent  many 
changes,  from  the  "  cocked"  to  the  "  stove 
pipe,"  and  latterly  to  "Wide  Awake,"  "  Kos- 
suth,"  and  other  styles.     The  wool — mostly 
lambs  or  short  wool — was  washed  in  urine 
to  remove  all  grease  that  prevented  felting. 
The  wool  then,   being  dried,  was  "  bowed." 
This  was  performed  by  the  operative,  who 
laid  about  3  oz.  of  wool  upon  a  board,  and 
then,  holding  in  his  left  hand  a  bow  with  a 
stiff  string,  he  vibrated  the  string  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  strike  the  wool,  and  cause  it  to 
fly  out  clear  and  loose.     When  quite  clear, 
it  was  formed  by  hand   into   a  cone  form 
nearly  three  times  as  large  as  the  proposed 
hat   body.       To    keep    the    light   wool    to 
gether,  it  was  placed  between  two  cloths. 
It  was  then  immersed   in  water,    and  con 
tinually  rolled  in  different  directions  upon  a 
short  round  stick  held  in  the  hands  of  the 
operator.     This  operation  caused  the  hat  to 
felt  or  shrink  into  the  proper  size  and  shape. 
JJeing  then  in  the  sugar-loaf  form,   it  was 
stretched  upon  the  hat  block  that  gave  it  its 
shape,  and  the  manufacture  proceeded  with, 
until,  napped  with  fur  and  trimmed,  it  was 
ready  for  sale.  About  30  years  since,  machines 
for  forming  the  bodies  were  introduced,  and 
tlicse  soon  supplanted  the  old  hand  system. 
The  wool  was  washed  with  soft  soap  as  a 
substitute  for  urine,  the  lye  of  the  soap  being 
equally  efficacious  in  removing  the  grease. 
When  dry  and  clean,  the  wool  was  passed 
through  the  "  picker,"  made  with  a  cylinder 
covered  with  long  teeth.     As  this  revolved 
with  great  velocity,  it  took  from  a  pair  of 
rollers  the  wool,  separated  it,  straightening 
the  fibres,  and   cleaning  it  of  dust  at  the 
same   time.      This   wool   was   then   passed 
through   the   breaker,  or  carding   machine, 
as  in   preparation  for  spinning;  but  as  the 
broad  fleece  comes  off  the  doffer,  instead  of 
being  drawn  into  a  ribbon,   it  i.s  received 
upon  a  pair  of  light  wood  cones,  placed  with 
their  bases  together.     To  these  a  vibratory 
motion  is  given  at  the  same  time  that  they 
revolve.     The  result  is,  that  the  fleece  of 
wool  winds  over  them  in  contrary  directions, 
until  they  appear  like  a  large  cocoon.    When 
about  3  oz.  are  wound  upon  the  cones,  the 
boy  who  tends  cuts  them  apart  with  shears, 
and    by   a  rapid    movement   removes    the 

19 


woolly  cap  from  the  cone,  which  instantly 
resumes  its  motion.  These  caps,  so  removed, 
are  perfectly  formed  "bodies,"  ready  to  be 
felted  in  the  usual  manner.  The  regularity 
and  rapidity  of  the  formation  enables  a 
"  body"  to  be  formed  with  much  less  wool 
than  by  the  hand  system.  Instead  of  3  to 
4  ozs.  for  a  hat,  a  perfect  body  was  now 
formed  of  1  oz.  weight.  This  process  of  the  • 
wool  manufacture  grew,  rapidly,  until  a  ma 
chine  was  invented  to  form  hat  bodies  of' 
fur.  The  difficulty  in  that  respect  had  been 
that  the  fur  could  not  be  carded  into  a  fleece 
like  the  wool.  A  machine  was  then  in 
vented,  by  which  the  air  was  exhausted 
under  a  fine  wire  gauze,  and  the  fur  flying 
was  drawn  upon  this  and  partly  felted  into 
a  ribbon,  which  was  wound  upon  cones  for 
the  hat  bodies.  The  next  process  was  to 
form  the  cone  itself  full  of  holes,  and,  by  ex 
hausting  the  air,  the  fur  is  caused  to  settle 
upon  it  evenly,  in  weight  sufficient  for  a 
body.  These  fur  hats  caused  those  of  wool 
to  rank  second. 

The  felting  qualities  of  wool  have,  how 
ever,  caused  it  to  be  used  for  many  other 
purposes,  such  as  piano-covers,  drugget,  and 
for  the  manufacture  of  cloth  without  weav 
ing.  This  is  called  beaver  cloth,  and  is 
difficult  to  detect,  by  the  eye,  from  woven 
cloth.  Several  manufactories  of  this  descrip 
tion  are  in  operation  in  Connecticut.  The 
wool  being  worked  and  "picked,"  is  carded 
in  a  machine  which  is  double  the  width  of 
the  ordinary  one,  in  order  to  deliver  a  fleece 
or  web  six  feet  wide  instead  of  three.  This 
"  web"  is,  as  it  is  delivered  by  the  machine, 
carried  out,  in  a  horizontal  direction,  21 
feet,  and  so  doubled  in  folds  until  it  gets  a 
proper  thickness  for  felting.  Inasmuch  as 
that  the  process  of  felting  causes  a  web  to 
contract  more  in  breadth  than  in  length,  it 
becomes  necessary,  to  give  the  cloth  a  proper 
consistency,  that  the  webs  should  cross. 
To  do  this  two  machines  are  placed  at  right 
angles  with  each  other,  and  as  the  web  of 
one  is  extended,  that  of  the  other  crosses  it. 
When  the  proper  thickness  is  thus  attained, 
the  whole  is  rolled  upon  a  beam,  and  trans 
ferred  to  the  felting  table.  Here  a  number 
of  cloths  are  laid  together  upon  an  endless 
apron,  the  movement  of  which  carries  them 
forward  over  an  iron  plate,  perforated  with 
holes,  through  which  steam  ascends,  and 
thoroughly  heats  and  saturates  the  cloths, 
which  proceed  under  a  platen,  to  which 
steam  power  imparts  a  rapid  vibratory  ino- 


30C 


WOOLLEN    MANUFACTURES. 


tion,  which  felts  the  cloth.    When  this  is  com 
pleted,  the  cloth  is  dyed  of  the  requisite  color, 
and  then  subjected  to  the  fulling  and  teasling 
process,  like  a  woven  cloth.     For  those  heavy 
coat  cloths  that  are  in  the  style  called  Peter 
shams,  another  process   is    substituted.     It 
consists  in  passing  the  cloth  under  a  sort  of 
press,  of  which  the  lower  side,  on  which  the 
cloth    rests,    is   stationary,  and   the    upper, 
being  covered  with  sand,  receives  a  rapid, 
rotatory,   vibratory  motion,  which  rolls  up 
the  nap  into  those  little  knots  that  are  the 
distinctive  feature  of  Petersham.    The  nature 
of  these  cloths  permits  of  giving  them  two 
colors.     Thus  a  dark  and  a  drab  color  may 
be   felted   together   to   form   one   cloth,  of 
which  the  inside  is  of  a  different  color  from 
the  outside.     These  cloths  are  used  to  some 
extent  by  the  clothiers,  but  their  durability 
is  said  not  to  be  such  as  to  recommend  them. 
Of  all  people,  the   American   shows  the 
most  remarkable   inclination  for  good  car 
pets.     It  seems  to  be  impossible  for  him  to 
walk    comfortably   through    life    without   a 
carpet  under  his  feet.     Every  man  who  oc 
cupies  a  few  square  feet  of  house-room  must 
have  the  brick  or  the  boards  protected  from 
his  tread  by  so  much  carpeting.     Here  car 
peting  appears  in  a  thousand  places  where, 
in  other  parts  of  the  world,  it  is  never  seen. 
The    English   shopkeeper   thinks   the    bare 
boards  good  enough  for  the  reception   of 
his   customers,  and  seldom   does  the  mer 
chant  think  of  adding  to  the  elegance  of  his 
counting-room  by  laying  down  a  square  of 
Brussels.     Only  those  churches  devoted  to 
the  service  of  the  more  aristocratic  worship 
pers,  are  furnished  with  the  comforts  of  Kid 
derminster — the   bare  wood,   or  bricks,   or 
stone,  being  considered  more  consonant  with 
"  the  self-denying  duties  of  the  sanctuary." 
Widely  different  is  it  with   the  well-to-do 
American.     He   believes   in   enjoying   life ; 
and  considering  that  carpets   contribute  to 
,  life's    enjoyment,  he    does   not   hesitate   to 
spread  every  place  where  he  is  accustomed 
to  tread  with  a  due  quantity  of  three-ply,  or 
tapestry,  or  Brussels,  or  Turkey.    Yet,  with 
al,  the  quantities  imported  are  apparently  in 
adequate    to    this    general    demand.     The 
number  of  yards,  of  all    descriptions,   im 
ported,    is   about  •  1,500,000    per   annum — 
a   quantity    that    might    suffice  for  15,000 
houses ;  but  in  1 850,  according  to  the  cen 
sus,  there  were  3,362,000  dwellings  in  the 
Union.     It  follows,  that  by  far  the  largest 
portion  of  carpets  are  furnished  by  home 


manufacture.  The  carpets  most  in  nse  in 
this  country  are  known  as  '  rag  carpets,"  as 
ingrain,  three-ply,  Venetian,  tapestries,  Brus~ 
sels,  velvets,  Wilton.  The  Turkey,  Axmin- 
ster,  and  Persian  carpets  arc  used  but  little, 
and  manufactured  not  at  all.  The  ingrain 
carpet  is  made  with  two  sets  of  worsted 
warp,  and  two  sets  of  woollen  weft.  It  con 
sists  of  two  distinct  webs,  incorporated  into 
each  other  by  the  warp  threads  passing  from 
one  to  the  other  to  bring  the  required  colors 
to  the  surface.  Each  web  is,  however,  a 
cloth  of  itself,  which,  if  separated  by  cutting 
from  the  other,  would  present  a  coarse  sur 
face,  like  baize.  Two  colors  only  arc  used 
with  effect  in  this  kind  of  carpet.  The 
three-ply  is  similar,  but  produced  by  three 
webs,  making  a  thicker  carpet,  with  a 
greater  number  of  colors.  The  pattern  in 
this  does  not  appear  in  opposite  colors,  as 
in  the  two-ply.  This  fabric  was  long 
thought  not  adapted  to  power  looms,  but  in 
1839,  Mr.  Bigelow,  of  Lowell,  improved  the 
matter,  so  that  weavers,  who  were  then 
making  8  yards  per  day  by  hand,  could  make 
12  yards  per  day  by  power.  This  plan  has 
since  been  so  improved,  that  power  looms 
are  now  wholly  used,  with  such  economy  of 
labor  as  greatly  to  reduce  the  cost  of  car 
pets.  The  hand  weaver  could  always  tighten 
the  weft  thread,  if  he  found  it  too  loose  to 
make  the  selvage  regular,  and  if  he  saw  that 
the  weft  thread  was  too  irregular  to  make 
the  figure  a  just  proportion,  he  imparted 
more  or  less  force  in  beating  it  up.  The 
judgment  and  skill  of  the  weaver  was  thus  a 
great  element  in  the  production  of  the  goods. 
Mr.  Bigelow,  in  his  first  loom,  contrived  to 
take  up  the  woven  cloth  by  an  unerring 
motion,  the  same  amount  for  every  beat  of 
the  lathe.  His  next  step  was  to  regulate 
the  tension  of  the  threads,  so  as  to  keep  the 
selvage  smooth,  and  the  figure  regular.  In 
this  he  succeeded  so  as  to  bring  the  two- 
ply  loom  to  27  yards  per  day,  and  the 
three-ply  loom  to  ]  8  yards.  His  method 
of  producing  figures  that  will  match  was 
patented  in  1845.  The  same  machine  was 
found  to  be  applicable  to  Brussels  and  tap 
estry  carpets,  the  weaving  of  which  by 
power  was  before  thought  to  be  impractica 
ble.  They  were  made  at  the  rate  of  4  yards 
per  day  by  hand.  This  has  been  increased 
to  20  yards  per  day  by  the  new  process. 
The  figures  of  the  carpets  are  also  made  so 
as  to  match  perfectly,  and  surpass  the  best 
carpets  made  in  any  other  part  of  the  world. 


CARDING WEAVING FELTING. 


307 


These  looms  are  used  in  factories  built  for 
them  in  Lowell  and  Clinton,  Massachusetts ; 
Thompsonvillc  and  Tariffville,  Connecticut ; 
a   large    factory    is    in    operation    in    New 
York,    and    Philadelphia   and    other    cities 
have  lately  established  them.     The  Brussels 
carpet  takes  its  name  from  the   capital  of 
Belgium,    whence    it    was   introduced   into 
England  in  the   last  century.     It  is  made 
upon  a  ground  of  linen  weft,  which  is  con 
cealed  by  the  worsted  threads  that  interlace 
and  cover  it.     The  threads  are  generally  of 
five  different  colors.     In  weaving,  these  run 
the  length  of  the  web,  and  are  so  managed 
that  all  those  required  by  the  pattern  are 
brought  up  together  across  the  line  of  the 
carpet.    Before  they  are  let  down,  a  wooden 
instrument  called  a  sword  is  passed  through, 
to  hold  up  the  threads.     This  is  replaced  by 
a  wound  wire,  which  being  at  last  removed, 
leaves  a  row  of  loops  across  the  carpet.     In 
a  yard  there  are  sometimes  320  successive 
lifts  of  the  sets  of  colors  required,  each  of 
which  forms  a  row  of  loops.     Four   colors 
must  always  lie  beneath  the  5th,  which  ap 
pears  on  the  surface,  and  thus  the  carpet  is 
thick  and  heavy.     The  Wilton  carpet  differs 
from  the  Brussels  in  that  the  loops  are  cut 
before  the  wire  is  removed.     A  groove  runs 
in  the  wire  to  receive  the  edge  of  the  cut 
ting  knife.     The  soft  ends  of  the  cut  loops 
give  the   carpet  its  velvet  appearance.     In 
Imperial   Brussels,  the  loops  of  the  figures 
only. are  cut.     Here   a  new   invention  was 
brought   into   use  to  make    "tapestry   and 
velvet  pile."     This  is  a  combination  of  the 
arts  of  printing  and  weaving.     The  principle 
is  this:    if  a   rose-bud   occurs   a   thousand 
times  in  the  length  of  a  web,  at  4  feet  apart, 
the  block  printer   must  apply  his   block  a 
thousand  times  to  print  the  bud.     By  the 
new  process  the  thread  is  wound  a  thousand 
times  round  a  cylinder  4  feet  in  circumfer 
ence,  and   a   turning   wheel,   charged  with 
color,    passes  across  the  coil.      The  thread 
unwound  is  found  to  be  marked  in  a  thou 
sand  places  exactly  where  it  is  wanted.    The 
threads  are  thus  all  parti-colored,  and  singly 
show  no  regular  figure ;  but  when  arranged  in 
the  proper  order  for  the  weaver's  beam,  the 
figures    come    into   view   much    elongated. 
Sometimes  1 8  feet  of  warp  will  be  gathered 
into  4  feet  of  cloth,  in  order  to  secure  the 
due  proportion  of  the  intended  object.     By 
this    system    the    number    of   colors,    that 
could  not  exceed  6  or  7  by  the  old  plan,  is 
now  increased  to  20  or  30,  or  any  number; 


and  instead  of  a  change  of  blocks  for  every 
pattern,  the  same  blocks  serve  for  all  pat 
terns. 

The  wool  used  for  carpets  is  imported 
from  South  America  and  the  East  Indies.  Of 
that  obtained  from  South  America,  the  best 
is  the  Cordova,  which  is  worth  here  22^  and 
23  cents  per  lb.,and  next  in  grade  to  it  ranks 
the  Buenos  Ay  res,  worth  13  and  14  cents 
per  Ib.  The  East  India  wools  all  rank  still 
lower,  and  are  generally  of  a  dark  color.  It 
may  be  interesting  to  follow  the  wool  in  its 
passage  through  the  various  processes  which, 
transform  it  from  its  hard,  dirty,  and  oily 
mass,  lying  in  bales,  to  the  brilliant  velvety 
pile  worthy  the  foot  of  Flora  McFlimsey. 
The  material  passes  in  the  usual  way,  from 
the  wash  to  the  combing  machines,  which 
separate  the  long  from  the  short  fibres.  The 
long  are  passed  through  rollers,  and  assume 
a  form  entitled  a  "  sliver,"  which  is  allowed 
to  fall  into  a  hollow  cylinder  set  for  the  pur 
pose,  while  the  short  fibres  disappear  in  a 
mysterious-looking  box  at  one  side  of  the 
room.  These  slivers  are  then  passed  through 
a  drawing  frame,  twenty  or  more  of  them 
united,  and  drawn  out  so  as  to  equalize  the 
thread ;  eight  or  ten  of  these  threads  are 
again  subjected  to  the  drawing  process  and 
reduced  to  one,  which  operation  is  repeated 
as  often  as  is  necessary  to  produce  uniform 
ity.  These  long  fibres,  so  carefully  put 
through  this  process,  are  intended  to  form 
the  warp  of  the  carpets,  while  the  short 
fibres  are  used  for  the  "woof"  or  "filling." 
In  the  spinning-room,  both  staples  of  wool 
come  together  to  be  spun  on  the  long,  clash 
ing,  clattering  "spinning  jacks,"  twelve  in 
number,  some  of  them  spinning  256  and 
others  308  threads  at  once.  When  it  leaves 
the  "jacks"  it  is  in  the  form  of  coarse  yarn, 
tightly  rolled  on  large  spools,  from  which  it 
is  wound  into  skeins  and  is  ready  for  the  dye 
house.  By  a  curious  system  of  folding,  of  a 
recent  American  invention,  part  of  the  yarn 
skeins  are,  after  being  scoured  (a  process  ap 
plied  to  all  yarns  to  free  them  from  their 
natural  oil),  subjected  to  a  parti-colored  dye 
ing — and  thus  the  same  skein,  or  frame  of 
skeins,  may  sometimes  bear  half  a  dozen  dif 
ferent  colors.  These  parti-colored  yarns  are 
used  for  warp.  Other  bundles  of  yarn  are 
submerged  in  rolling,  steaming  floods  of  col 
ored  liquids  of  every  hue.  That  portion  in 
tended  to  be  used  white,  is  bleached  by 
means  of  sulphur  in  houses  erected  for  the 
purpose  on  the  river  bank.  From  the  dye- 


308 


WOOLLEN    MANUFACTURES. 


ing-room,  the  yarn  is  conveyed  to  the  drying- 
room,  immediately  over  the  engine  boilers, 
and  after  it  has  become  thoroughly  dried,  is 
conveyed  to  the  winding-room, where  winding 
machines,  worked  by  girls,  are  at  work,  rill 
ing  spools  and  bobbins  from  the  skeins ;  and 
no  sooner  are  the  spools  filled  than  they  are 
unfilled  by  the  warping  machines,  five  of 
which  are  constantly  in  operation.  The 
threads  are  here  wound  upon  the  large  cylin 
ders  for  the  printers,  and  cacli  filling  of  this 
great  cylinder  makes  but  a  single  thread  in 
the  warp  of  a  single  pattern,  so  that  for  a 
piece  having  208  threads  in  its  width,  the 
cylinder  must  be  filled  and  carefully  printed 
a  corresponding  number  of  times.  These 
monster  skeins,  after  being  printed,  some 
times  with  100  or  more  shades  of  colors, 
each  laid  on  in  straight  lines  by  a  small 
printing  roller,  travelling  across  beneath  the 
large  cylinder,  are  packed  at  full  length  in 
rice  chaff,  and  having  been  placed  in  boxes 
on  a  little  railroad  car,  are  shoved  into  a 
boiler,  where  from  4  to  6  Ibs.  pressure  of 
steam  is  applied.  When  the  colors  have 
been  thoroughly  fixed  by  the  means  we  have 
stated,  the  skeins  are  dried  and  passed 
through  what  are  termed  setting  machines, 
when  the  yarn  is  ready  for  the  Bigelow 
loom.  These  have  on  the  end  of  each  of  the 
little  wires  used  to  raise  the  pile  of  the  Brus 
sels  carpet,  a  small  knife,  which,  while  it 
weaves,  cuts  the  pile  and  makes  it  "  velvet." 
The  next  machines  to  which  the  fabric  is  sub 
jected,  are  for  shaving  the  velvet,  and  girls  arc 
employed  in  trimming  the  under  side  of  the 
goods  and  preparing  them  for  the  rolling  ma 
chine.  Here  the  carpets  are  rolled,  marked 
with  the  number  of  the  pattern  of  each  roll, 
number  of  yards,  etc.,  and  thus  prepared  for 
removal  to  the  warehouse.  The  lengths  of 
the  pieces  usually  are :  velvets,  from  40  to 
50  yards ;  tapestries,  50  to  60  yards ;  and  in 
grains,  from  100  to  110  yards. 

The  quantity  of  carpets  made  in  New 
York  and  Massachusetts,  according  to  the 
respective  state  censuses  of  1855,  was  as  fol 
lows  : — 

Wool  used.   Carpets  made. 
Ibs.  yards. 

New  York 3,707,500       1,820,500 

Massachusetts....   2,880,974       1,988,460 


Total  two  states. .  6,588,474       3,808,960 

The  manufacture  of  long  shawls,  for  men's 
use,  was  pushed  to  a  great  extent  a  few  years 
since,  when  the  fashion  was  more  prevalent 


than  now.  The  Bay  State  Mills  became 
famous  for  that  description  of  goods,  the 
manufacture  of  which  required  3,000,000  Ibs. 
of  wool  per  annum. 

The  delicate  yarn,  known  as  zephyr 
worsted,  is  much  used  on  these  machines, 
greatly  promoting  the  manufacture  of  those 
articles  which  it  has  been  the  rage  to  knit 
of  late.  The  demand  for  that  yarn  causes 
frauds  to  enter  into  the  sale.  Each  pound 
of  zephyr  is  divided  into  16  laps,  which  are 
sold  without  weighing,  as  containing  each 
one  ounce  of  wool.  Full  weight  would  be 
16  drachms  to  the  ounce  lap,  or  if  stored  in 
over  dry  atmosphere,  15|  drachms;  but  the 
fraud  consists  in  putting  up  only  15,  14,  12, 
or  10  drachms  in  each  ounce  lap,  the  num 
ber  of  laps  in  a  pound  being  the  correct 
number — 16.  These  frauds  are  difficult  to 
detect,  as  the  dishonest  dealer  is  provided 
with  false  Aveights,  which  make  his  goods 
appear  on  trial  to  be  correct.  The  ounce  of 
the  apothecary  shops  contains  more  grains 
than  the  true  standard  avoirdupois  ounce,  so 
that  it  cannot  be  tested  there.  The  proper 
remedy  would  be  to  inquire  continually  of 
dealers  whether  their  goods  are  full  weight 
or  short  weight,  to  show  that  public  atten 
tion  is  directed  to  the  matter,  and  to  com 
pare  articles  bought  at  different  stores,  by 
putting  them  on  the  opposite  scales  of  a  bal 
ance,  and  noticing  where  goods  arc  sold  by 
true  or  best  weight. 

The  production  of  hosiery  and  fancy  knit 
work  has  become  very  important  in  the  last 
ten  or  fifteen  years.  The  supply  of  those 
articles  came  previously  from  England,  but 
within  that  time  the  manufacture  of  these 
articles  has  received  a  great  development, 
particularly  in  Philadelphia.  The  fine  Amcr* 
ican  wool  is  well  adapted  to  the  manufac 
ture.  The  business  is  largely  carried  on  in 
families  and  by  hand  looms.  There  are 
large  factories  devoted  to  the  production  of 
opera  hoods,  scarfs,  comforters,  etc.  The 
wool  is  prepared  in  the  usual  way,  by  card 
ing  and  spinning,  and  is  bleached,  dyed,  and 
printed  according  to  the  designs  required. 
In  the  weaving,  some  fifteen  or  twenty  differ 
ent  kinds  of  looms  are  employed.  One  has 
recently  been  invented  for  weaving  neck- 
comforts.  It  weaves  four  neck-comforts  of  a 
double  fabric,  and  each  of  a  different  pat 
tern.  The  Jacquard  principle,  used  in  car 
pets  for  years,  is  applied  to  it,  and  almost 
any  design  may  be  produced.  The  machin 
ery  is  changed  to  suit  the  goods — hoods, 


CLOTHING    TRADE TOTAL    MANUFACTURE. 


309 


talmas,  opera  cloaks,  neck-comforts,  scarfs, 
hose  of  every  description.  A  large  estab 
lishment  in  Philadelphia  uses  250,000  Ibs.  of 
wool  per  annum  in  these  articles. 


CHAPTER  II. 

CLOTHING  TRADE— TOTAL  MANUFACTURE 
—SHODDY. 

UNTIL  within  the  last  twenty-five  years, 
the  ready-made  clothing  trade  was  confined 
almost  entirely  to  the  furnishing  of  sailors' 
sea  fit-outs,   or  slops.      The  stores  for  this 
purpose  were  mostly  in  the  neighborhood  of 
shipping  offices,  and  kept  to  some  extent  by 
sailor  landlords,  whose  business  philanthropy 
led  them  to  coax  "poor  Jack"  into  their 
"  cribs"  on  his  arrival,  and  feast  him  high 
while  his  earnings  lasted;  and  as  soon  as 
these  were  nearly  gone,  ship  him  on  board 
some  vessel,  obtain  his  advance  pay,  which 
is,    in    the    navy,    three    months,    or   $36, 
and  in  the  merchant  marine,  one    month, 
varying  from  $12  to  $20,  according  to  the 
demand  for  seamen.     If  this  is  not  all  due 
the  landlord,  he  supplies  slops  at  enormous 
rates  for  the  balance,  gets  Jack  dead  drunk, 
and  puts  him  on  board  at  the  last  moment 
in   that    condition.      In   such    a  business, 
ready-made  clothing  was  indispensable,  but 
otherwise  there  was  little  market  for  made- 
up  goods.    Most  families  in  the  country  made 
their  own  clothes.     But  as  taste  and  wealth 
improved,  the    difficulty  of   "  cutting   out" 
called  into  being  a  special  trade,  and  most 
villages  and.towns  in  the  country  were  visited 
by  professional  persons,  who  boarded  round 
in  the  families  where  cutting  and  fitting,  as 
well  for  males  as  females,  was  in  requisition. 
Another  trade  also  grew  up  in*  the  cities ;  it 
was   the    dealing  in  second-hand   clothing, 
mostly  by  Jews.     These  industrious  persons 
bought  up  all  the  old  clothing  that  could  be 
had,  cleaned,  repaired,  and  redressed  them, 
and  sold  them  to  those  who  sought  to  econ 
omize.     The  cleaning  and  repairing  of  these 
clothes  occupied  great  numbers  of  poor  peo 
ple.     The  repairing  soon  grew  into  fabricat 
ing  very  cheap    cloths   bought  at  auction, 
"half-burnt,"  "  wet  goods,"  etc.,  to  sell  them 
in  connection  with  the  old  garments.     Vis 
itors  from  the  country  found  that  garments 
could  be  bought  in  this  way  to  better  advan 
tage  than  even  to  have  them  made  at  home, 
and   the   boarding-round   system  began  to 


wane.  It  was  soon  found  in  New  York  that 
the  great  crowd  of  visitors  who  passed  rap 
idly  through  the  city,  and  had  little  time  to 
wait  for  measures,  or  to  be  inconvenienced 
with  tailors'  delays  and  misfits,  would  become 
buyers  of  a  better  class  of  ready-made  cloth 
ing,  and  the  manufacture  began  to  spread  by 
tailors  keeping  assortments.  The  visitors 
who  thus  bought  at  retail  were  disposed  to 
extend  orders  for  resale  at  home,  and  in 
1834  and  1835  the  wholesale  manufacture 
commenced  in  New  York.  One  of  the  first 
of  these,  a  shrewd  judge  of  cloth  and  a  close 
reckoner,  commenced  with  little  capital,  slept 
under  his  counter,  and  kept  his  personal  ex 
penses  very  small,  devoting  his  whole  time 
to  the  cheap  purchase  of  cloth,  and  the  most 
economical  way  of  making  it  up.  This  trade 
grew  rapidly  to  an  expenditure  of  880,000 
per  annum  for  labor,  mostly  to  sewing  girls, 
at  ridiculously  low  prices.  This  work  was 
done  to  a  considerable  extent  by  girls  who, 
living  with  their  parents,  wished  to  increase 
their  allowance  for  dress.  It  is  obvious  that 
where  the  purchase  of  goods,  the  cutting, 
and  making  are  attended  to  by  experienced 
men,  on  a  large  scale,  the  cost  of  the  goods 
must  be  very  much  less  than  that  at  which  in 
dividuals  could  get  them  up,  and  the  compe 
tition  of  the  clothiers  guarantees  that  the 
profits  shall  riot  be  exorbitant.  There  were 
many  in  the  trade  when  the  revulsion  of 
1837  ruined  them.  The  trade  was  soon  again 
re-established,  and  it  has  not  since  ceased  to 
grow,  not  only  in  New  York,  but  to  spread 
into  all  the  cities  of  the  Union.  The  census 
of  1850  gave  the  clothing  business  as  fol 
lows  : — 

Number 4,278 

Capital $12,509,161 

Cost  of  material $25,730,258 

Males  employed 35,151 

Females  employed 61,500 

Cost  of  labor $15,032,340 

Value  produced. $48,311,709 

This  production  in  amount  ranks  third  of 
the  occupations  of  the  Union.  Since  then 
the  increase  lias  been  very  much  greater,  and 
the  business  is  now  so  extensive,  that  the 
"  purchases  of  the  clothiers"  are  a  regulating 
feature  in  the  goods  market.  These  pur 
chases  take  place  many  months  before  the 
goods  are  sold.  The  cloths  for  winter  goods 
are  bought  in  the  previous  spring,  in  order 
to  give  time  for  the  making  up.  In  a  large 
clothing  establishment,  the  business  proceeds 
with  great  method.  The  cloth,  as  soon  as  it 


310 


WOOLLEN    MANUFACTURES. 


comes  in,  is  subjected  to  a  rigid  scrutiny, 
and  blemished  portions  are  removed.  The 
piece  is  then  taken  to  the  superintendent,  a 
statement  of  the  number  of  yards,  the  cost, 
and  of  whom  purchased,  is  then  entered  in 
a  book  kept  for  the  purpose.  There  is  also 
entered  the  number  and  description  of  the 
goods  to  be  made,  how  they  are  to  be  trim 
med,  the  name  of  the  cutter,  the  price  of 
making,  etc.  The  cloth  is  then  transferred 
to  the  cutter,  with  directions  as  to  kind  of 
garment,  style  of  cut,  sizes,  etc.  The  gar 
ments  being  cut,  are  passed  to  the  trimmer, 
who  supplies  buttons,  thread,  lining,  etc. 
The  goods  then  come  under  the  control  of 
the  foremen,  of  whom  there  are  several,  and 
these  give  them  out  to  be  made.  The  num 
ber  who  do  this  part  of  the  business  is  very 
large,  and  are  mostly  females.  They  take 
home  pantaloons,  vests,  etc.,  and  when  not 
well  known  to  the  foreman,  are  required  to 
leave  a  deposit  in  money  for  the  return  of 
the  goods.  This  is  necessary  in  large  cities, 
since  it  happens  that  if  there  is  no  deposit, 
the  person  may  be  tempted  to  pawn  or  sell 
the  goods;  or,  if  she  is  honest,  she  may  have 
a  drunken  husband,  who  will  seize  and 
pawn  the  goods.  It  often  happens,  however, 
that  poor,  deserving  women  have  no  money 
to  deposit,  and  go  hungry  in  face  of  work 
that  they  might  do.  There  are,  on  the  other 
hand,  knavish  dealers,  who,  taking  advantage 
of  the  position  of  the  depositor,  require  it, 
and  when  the  goods  are  returned,  declare 
the  work  ill  done,  and  retain  the  deposit  to 
pay  for  the  alleged  spoiling  of  the  cloth. 
There  are  also  great  numbers  of  men  em 
ployed  in  doing  the  heavy  work,  and  since 
the  introduction  of  sewing  machines,  these 
have  been  greatly  employed.  The  large  immi 
gration  into  New  York  has  caused  a  great 
supply  of  German  and  other  families,  who 
take  in  sewing,  and  these  nearly  all  have 
a  sewing  machine.  This  demand  for  the 
machines  is  supplied  by  the  liberality  of  the 
competing  patentees.  They  deliver  a  machine 
.upon  the  payment  of  a  small  sum,  and  allow 
the  buyer  to  pay  up  a  dollar  or  two  a  month 
until  the  purchase  is  completed.  In  this 
manner  the  supply  of  labor  in  the  manufac 
ture  of  clothing  is  greatly  increased,  but  the 
pressure  is  harder  upon  those  who  have  no 
machines.  The  women  may,  however,  earn 
from  $3  to  $5  per  week ;  the  former  price  on 
coarse  work  was  as  low  as  25  to  37£  cts.  for 
common  silk  vests,  and  as  much  for  panta 
loons,  of  which  two  pair  a  day  is  a  large  pro 


duction.  For  custom-made  silk  vests,  &1  is 
paid.  The  finer  coats  arc  made  by  regular 
tailors,  employed  in  fashionable  city  shops 
during  the  dull  season,  and  these  earn  $7  to 
$12  per  week.  The  supply  of  labor  is  not, 
however,  confined  to  the  city,  but  embraces  a 
broad  circle  of  country,  to  which  goods  are 
sent  by  rail  and  express  to  be  made  up. 
Many  clothing  concerns  have  agencies  in  the 
country  towns.  These  keep  vehicles  to 
travel  round  to  farmers'  and  other  dwellings 
where  good  sewing  is  done  in  the  winter, 
with  his  goods,  and  bring  them  back  when 
done.  This  reverses  the  old  system  of  board 
ing  round  to  cut  out  family  goods,  since  the 
goods  go  round  to  get  made  up.  The  ener 
gy  with  which  the  trade  is  driven,  therefore, 
produces  two  competitions,  one  to  get  the 
work  done,  and  the  other  to  get  the  goods  sold. 

The  cutting  is  an  "  art "  of  itself,  and  re 
quires  a  certain  talent.  It  is,  in  fact,  the 
most  important  part  of  the  manufacturing, 
since  the  style  and  "  set "  of  the  goods  de 
pend  upon  it.  The  large  New  York  clothing 
stores  employ  the  best  "  talent "  in  this  line. 
The  majority  of  the  goods  made  up  in  New 
York  and  Philadelphia,  is  for  the  south  and 
west.  The  capital  required  is  large,  since 
the  goods  are  to  be  purchased  some  four  or 
five  months  in  advance  of  the  season  ;  much 
cash  is  paid  out  in  the  manufacturing,  and 
finally,  sales  made  at  six  to  eight  months. 
This  manufacture  includes  all  styles  of  boys' 
clothing  as  well  as  men's.  The  house  of 
Brooks  Brothers  sell  $1,000,000  per  annum, 
and  pay  out  8200,000  for  sewing.  This  is 
stated  at  one-hundredth  part  of  the  clothing 
business  of  New  York. 

The  clothing  trade  of  Boston  has  also  re 
ceived  a  great  development  of  late  years, 
and  by  a  combination  pf  circumstances  which 
have  had  their  influence  everywhere.  In 
1840  there  were  only  two  houses  in  the 
trade  in  Boston,  and  the  aggregate  sales 
were  about  $200,000.  These  "have  now  in 
creased  to  thirty-five  houses,  with  sales  not 
much  short  of  $15,000,000  per  annum. 
The  supply  of  goods  of  home  manufacture 
is  large  in  Boston — as  well  from  the  man 
ufacturers  direct,  as  through  commission 
houses  who  advance  on  them  to  the  manu 
facturers.  The  cutting  is  done  in  Boston, 
but  the  sewing  is  mostly  done  in  the  farmers' 
families  throughout  New  England,  and  about 
60,000  females  in  such  situations  are  em 
ployed.  The  numerous  railroads  that  trav 
erse  the  country,  make  commodities  cheap ; 


CLOTHING    TRADE TOTAL    MANUFACTURE. 


311 


and  as  sewing  machines  improve  in  the  qual 
ity  of  the  work  they  do,  and  in  the  cheap 
ness  with  which  they  can  be  furnished,  hard 
ly  a  house  is  without  one,  and  all  seek  em 
ployment  for  them.  In  1857,  when  the 
financial  pressure  caused  so  many  mills  to 
stop,  throwing  hands  out  of  employment, 
these  sought  sewing  as  a  substitute ;  and 
their  savings  enabled  them  to  buy  machines. 
The  same  event  threw  large  quantities  of 
goods  upon  the  market,  through  the  auction 
houses,  and  also  through  the  hands  of  the 
commission  houses,  to  whom  the  manufac- 


WOOLLEN  MANUFACTURES 

OF   THE   TJXITKU    STATES   FOR   1360. 

Pounds 

Value  of 

Number  of  hands 

Valno 

of 

all 

emplovei 

L 

of  entire 

wool  used. 

raw  material. 

Male.        Female. 

products. 

Maine  

.  .  .       $932.400 

2,414,300 

$1,003,366 

539 

488 

$1,717,007 

New  lampshire.  . 

.  .       1,421,300 

3,829,404 

1,612,578 

846 

672 

2,601,353 

Vermont  

...       1,746.300 

4,047,010 

1,662,650 

895 

1,178 

2,938,626 

Massachusetts  .... 

.  .  .       8,993,903 

33,516,797 

12,520,675 

7,659 

5,310 

19,655,787 

Rhode  Island  

.  ..       3,168,500 

6,832,600 

4,070,224 

2,593 

1,636 

6,915,205 

Connecticut    

.  ..       2,491,000 

7,179,819 

4,043,124 

2,308 

1,459 

6,840,220 

New  York  

...       3,115,700 

7,453,004 

3.424,614 

2,504 

1,716 

5,870,117 

Pennsylvania  

.  ..      4,339,310 

7,128,529 

4,427,138 

3,738 

2,350 

8,191,675 

New  Jersey  

583,400 

1,175,800 

548,578 

532 

303 

1,085,104 

Delaware  

117,000 

140,000 

75,807 

76 

33 

153,035 

Marvland  

318,200 

1,055,272 

267,355 

248 

133 

605,992 

Ohio  

658,750 

1,190,751 

476.833 

543 

185 

825,231 

Indiana  

464,341 

940,000 

352,362 

436 

97 

649,771 

Michigan  

103,950 

163,100 

69,010 

77 

49 

139,246 

Illinois  

207,600 

324,300 

110,462 

128 

34 

187,613 

Wisconsin  

100,600 

265,000 

85,743 

74 

31 

172,720 

Iowa  

82,500 

168.700 

67,293 

96 

24 

127,640 

Missouri  

103,750 

191,400 

56,745 

53 

17 

143,025 

Kentucky  

408,500 

1,452,500 

510,902 

350 

87 

845,226 

Virginia  

463,600 

1,131,000 

389,204 

381 

113 

717,827 

North  Carolina.  .  . 

223,000 

504,500 

151,005 

113 

140 

291,000 

South  Carolina.  .  .  . 

50,000 

250,000 

60,000 

37 

55 

80,000 

Georgia  

242,500 

1,008.600 

260,475 

167 

216 

464,420 

Alabama  

140,000 

264,435 

80,790 

95 

103 

191,474 

Texas  

60.000 

81,900 

25,980 

36 

7 

38,796 

Mississippi  

75,500 

270,597 

119,849 

202 

33 

158,507 

Louisiana  

75,000 

69,150 

31,300 

40 

20 

45,200 

Tennessee  

6,000 

10,000 

5,225 

8 

2 

8,100 

California  

100,000 

400,000 

50,000 

40 

20 

150,000 

Oregon  

70,000 

150,000 

27,000 

27 

3 

85,000 

turcrs  pledged  them  for  money.  Thus,  there 
was  a  large  supply  of  goods  and  labor  at 
less  than  former  rates;  clothing  could  be 
furnished  much  cheaper,  and  this  circum 
stance  was  not  advantageous  to  the  old 
stocks.  That  circumstance,  temporary  in 
itself,  gave  an  impulse  to  the  clothing  busi 
ness,  as  bringing  more  within  its  scope. 

The  national  census  returns  of  1850  and 
1860  gave  some  details  of  the  manufacture 
of  woollen  in  each  state,  at  each  of  those 
periods.  That  of  1860  was  the  most  full, 
and  is  as  follows  : — 


Yards  of 

cloth 
manufac  tured. 

2,509,100 

5,782,641 

3,975,882 

34,899,348 

19,343,660 

14,301,043 

7,951,079 

23,405,469 

1,754,575 

427.200 

1,153,857 

1.078,266 

'680,355 

172,723 

176,960 

285.000 

133,315 

358,000 

2,230,246 

1,007,714 

639.000 

300.000 

1,4^5,000 

613,410 

94,976 

569,203 

48,800 

18,000 

52,500 


Total $30,862,654    83,608,468  $36,586,887     24,841     16,519  $61,895,217       124,897,862 


There  were  produced  in  these  1,260  wool 
len  mills,  the  same  year,  in  addition  to  the 
cloth  specified  above,  6,401,206  pounds  of 
woollen  yarn,  610,400  shawls,  296,874  pairs 
of  blankets,  18,000  table  covers,  155,000 
yards  of  felt  (all  made  in  New  Jersey),  and 
600  coverlets  ((made  in  Ohio).  The  annual 
product  in  1850  was  valued  at  $43,542,288, 
and  in  1840  at  $20,696,699,  so  that  the  pro 
duction  was  tripled  in  20  years.  In  the  re 
turns  from  the  state  censuses  of  1855  and 
1857,  the  production  of  all  classes  of  woollen 
goods  increased  considerably.  Massachu 


setts  and  New  Hampshire  showed  the  largest 
increase.  The  manufacture  appears  to  con 
fine  itself  mostly  to  the  middle  states;  cu 
riously  enough  to  those  states  which  are 
most  exposed  to  the  competition  of  the  im 
ported  goods. 

We  should  have  stated  above,  that  the 
manufacture  of  woollens  in  the  United  States 
increased  from  $20,000,000  in  1840,  to  $43,- 
000,000  in  1850,  according  to  the  national 
census.  The  statistical  accounts  of  the  gen 
eral  progress  are  very  meagre.  The  statistics 
of  woollen  goods  manufactured  in  1855, 


312 


WOOLLEN    MANUFACTURES. 


in  the  states  of  New  York  and  Massachusetts, 
were  given  as  follows  :  — 


MASSACHUSETTS. 


Broadcloth  ..............  yards  759,627 


Cassimeres 

Satinets 

Jeans 

Flannels  and  blankets 

Yarn 

Carpets 


6,444,585 
6,736,082 
1,948,609 
"10,279.227 
Ibs.     689,957 
yds.  1,988,460 


"Wool  used  ..............  Ibs.  21,667,272 

NEW   YORK. 

Cloth  ...........  ,  .......  yds.  4,836,834 

Yarn  ...................  'ibs.     506,178 

Shawls  .................   no.      188,000 

Blankets  ................  prs.       48,000 

Knit  goods  ..............   doz.       ]  5,384 

Shoddy  .................  Ibs.      348,000 

Carpets  .................   yds.  1,820,500 

"Wool  used  ..............  Ibs.  ]  5  3'.'5.283 

These  figures  show  that  there  has  been  an 
increase  of  nearly  12,000,000  pounds  of  the 
wool  used  since  1857  in  Masachussetts,  and 
a  considerable  increase  in  the  quantity  of 
goods  produced.  In  New  York,  the  quan 
tity  of  wool  used  has  fallen  off  more  than 
one  half  in  five  years.  This  has  been  partly 
owing  to  the  lessened  production  of  shawls, 
which  took  so  large  an  amount  of  wool.  The 
following  figures,  from  a  well-informed  source, 
show  the  number  of  factories,  sets  of  ma 
chines,  and  quantity  of  wool  required  to  feed 
them,  in  New  England  and  New  York,  at 
this  moment  :  — 

Factories.  Sets.  Wool  required. 

Maine  .........  32  91  Ibs.  2,065,000 

New  Hampshire.  56  228  5,670,000 

Vermont  .......  56  122  2,375,000 

Massachusetts  ..  154  999  31,017,000 

Connecticut  .....  93  410  12,155,000 

Rhode  Island  ...  56  225  5,625000 


New  York  ..... 


468  10,590,000 


Ibs.  69,497,000 

The  production  of  cloths  labors  under  dis 
advantage  from  the  sharp  competition  which 
the  English,  Belgians,  and  French  have  kept 
up  to  obtain  the  American  market.  Up  to 
1840,  19-20ths  of  the  cloths  and  cassimeres 
imported  into  the  United  States  were  of 
English  manufacture.  At  that  date  they 
lost  ground,  but  have  since  recovered.  The 
importations  have  been  as  follows  : — 

IMPORTS    OF    CLOTHS     AND     CASSIMERES    INTO    THE 
UNITED  STATES. 

Germany.  Belgium.  Franco.  England.  Total. 

1840,          16,fil2       93.135  89,767  4,4!)0,b30  *4.fi!>n>44 

1848,        71C,93l      396,712  2,466,302  i.777.612  6.357.557 

1851,     1,411,282      47N,582  1,9SS.18I  3.7S5.070  7  <HW  Oti.i 

1857,     2,574,871      1)09,381  1,659,470  5,711,938  l«|*M.(iU6 

The  tariff  of  1841  and  1842  approached, 
by  the  biennial  reductions,  the  20  per  cent. 


horizontal  rate  contemplated  by  the  com 
promise  tariff,  for  the  last  and  subsequent 
years  of  its  operation  :  that  is  to  say,  cloth 
paid  50  per  cent,  in  1822,  38  per  cent,  in 
1840  and  1841,  and  29  per  cent,  in  1842  to 
June  30.  By  the  tariff  of  1842  it  paid  40 
per  cent.,  and  by  the  present  tariff  30  per 
cent.  It  may  be  observed,  that  with  the 
advance  of  duty  from  29  per  cent,  under 
the  last  year  of  compromise,  to  40  per  cent. 
in  1844,  the  import  of  cloths  in  the  aggre 
gate  increased,  but  this  increase  came  from 
the  continent,  and  the  maximum  importation 
was  in  1 845.  In  the  year  1848  the  quantities 
received  from  France,  stimulated  by  the  ex 
port  bounty  of  the  revolutionary  government, 
increased  50  per  cent.,  and  the  same  influ 
ence  caused  cloths  to  come  from  Germany 
in  greater  quantities.  The  Belgians  and 
Germans  were  here  in  great  numbers,  at  the 
Crystal  Palace  exhibition,  seeking  to  intro 
duce  their  wares,  and  with  more  or  less  suc 
cess.  The  result  is,  that  the  aggregate  value 
of  foreign  cloths  consumed  in  the  United 
States  did  not  increase,  although  the  popu 
lation  increased  at  least  5,000,000  of  people. 
The  superior  dye  and  finish  of  the  German 
and  French  cloths  have  been  the  main  reasons 
for  their  supplanting  the  English  in  our 
markets.  The  English  manufacturers  have 
now,  by  outlay  of  capital  and  increased  ex 
ertions,  obtained  more  or  less  success  in  re 
covering  their  ground ;  and  against  this 
sharp  competition  of  France,  Germany,  and 
England,  our  manufacturers  have  hitherto 
fully  maintained  their  ground,  as  appears 
from  the  fact,  that  while  the  increase  of 
population  and  the  wealth  of  that  population 
has  been  very  large  within  ton  years,  and  the 
market  for  foreign  goods  has  been  extend 
ed,  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  most  of  the  in 
creased  consumption  of  the  country,  in  the 
double  ratio  of  greater  number  and  enhanced 
means,  has  been  supplied  from  our  own  pro 
duction  under  shield  of  a  30  per  cent.  duty. 
The  importation  of  shawls  was  very  much 
increased  in  the  same  period  of  time,  under 
similar  conditions  in  reference  to  the  suc 
cessful  competition  of  Europe  against  Eng 
land.  But  the  manufacture  of  these  articles 
in  this  country  has  also  immensely  increased 
in  the  same  time.  The  attention  of  farmers 
in  the  last  two  years  has  been  powerfully 
directed  to  this  great  staple,  and  the  degree 
of  prosperity  which  it  manifests  is  well  cal 
culated  to  extend  their  enterprise  not  only 
to  the  number  of  sheep,  but  to  the  quality — 


CLOTHING    TRADE TOTAL    MANUFACTURE. 


31.3 


in  respect  not  merely  of  breeds,  but  in  keep 
ing  clean  and  packing.  The  fact  has  been 
developed  by  the  most  elaborate  scientific 
researches,  that  the  climate  and  soil  of  the 
United  States  arc  better  adapted  to  the  growth 
of  fine,  long  stapled  wools,  suitable  for  the 
cloth  manufacturer,  than  any  other  manufac 
turing  country,  and  the  article  produced  ex 
ceeds  the  Australian  wool.  Under  the  ap 
pliances  of  increased  capital,  and  the  stimulus 
which  the  competition  of  England  with  the 
continent  may  impart  to  the  quality  of  the 
fabric,  the  United  States  will  probably  assume 
the  superiority ;  but  our  manufacturers  should 
not  neglect  the  necessary  exertion  to  procure 
as  fine  a  finish  and  as  durable  a  dye  for  their 
cloths  as  those  of  the  continent  exhibit. 
The  United  States  wools  are  rapidly  gaining 
a  character  which  will  bring  the  foreign 
manufacturers  into  such  competition  for  tht/ir 
purchase  as  will  permanently  sustain  their 
price. 

The  supply  of  wool  in  the  United  States 
has  never  been  equal  to  the  demand.  In 
1840  and  1850  the  census  gave  the  quan 
tities  raised  in  the  country.  If  to  these  we 
add  the  quantities  imported,  we  approximate 
the  quantity  used  as  follows  : — 

1S40.  1850. 

United  States  product.  .Ibs.  35,802,114  52,516,969 
Imported 15006,410  18,669,794 


Total  manufactured,  .lbs.50,808,524     71,186,763 

These  wools,  imported  into  the  United 
States,  are  mostly  of  the  coarser  descrip 
tions  used  for  carpets,  etc.,  and  the  average 
value  is  about  10  to  11  cts.  These  are 
qualities  which  do  not  compete  with  the  fine 
wools  of  American  growth  ;  but  the  growth 
of  manufactures  was  found  to  be  impeded  by 
the  want  of  greater  supply.  In  consequence, 
Congress,  in  1857,  made  all  wools  costing 
less  than  20  cents  at  the  place  of  growth, 
free  of  duty.  These  had  paid  30  per  cent., 
ad  valorem,  previously.  This  law  had  not 
much  effect  in  increasing  the  supply,  for  the 
reason  that  the  supply  is  everywhere  short. 
There  were  quantities  of  South  American 
wool  imported  of  a  fine  quality,  but  so  filled 
with  the  burr  peculiar  to  that  country,  as  to 
make  them  nearly  useless.  Many  machines 
were  invented  to  remove  these  burrs,  but 
with  partial  success.  One  was  of  the  form 
of  a  number  of  circular  saws,  8  to  10  inches 
in  diameter,  set  close  together  upon  a  shaft, 
which  revolved  with  much  velocity.  The 
wool  was  fed  to  this  cylinder,  through  two 


rollers.  The  saw  teeth  seized  the  wool, 
which,  passing  between  the  saws,  left  the 
burr  on  the  surface,  whence  it  Avas  removed 
by  the  motion  of  the  cylinder  against  a  sta 
tionary  knife  placed  longitudinally  across  it. 
The  general  impulse  given  to  manufactures 
at  home  and  abroad,  has  caused  the  demand 
to  outrun  the  supply  of  wool.  This  was  the 
more  the  case  that  manufactures  spread  in 
those  countries  that  formerly  were  most  de 
pended  upon  for  raw  wools.  The  supply  of 
England  has  been  kept  up  by  the  extended 
exports  of  Australia  and  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope.  Hence,  the  lower  duty  did  not  im 
prove  the  supply  in  the  United  States,  and 
the  home  supply  has  to  some  extent  been 
diminished  by  the  operation  of  railroads  and 
the  growth  of  large  cities.  These  latter  have 
raised  the  demand  for  mutton  and  lamb, 
while  the  easy  transportation  afforded  by  rail 
has  induced  the  farmers  to  send  the  animals 
to  market  instead  of  the  wool,  which  was 
formerly  alone  practicable.  The  price  of 
wool  accordingly  rose,  and  the  manufacturers 
naturally  sought  to  reduce  the  cost  of  the 
raw  material  by  hunting  up  a  substitute. 
This  is  usually  found  in  substituting  one  of 
these  four  chief  materials  of  human  clothing 
1 — cotton,  silk,  wool,  and  flax.  The  one  of 
these  that  is  relatively  dearest  is  mixed  with 
larger  proportions  of  the  others.  Hence,  the 
value  of  the  Avhole  becomes  in  some  degree 
equalized. 

Out  of  these  circumstances  has  grown  one 
of  the  most  curious  manufactures  that  have- 
sprung  up  of  late  years.  This  is  the  shoddy 
manufacture.  It  has  recently  been  imported 
from  England ;  and  there  are  now  in  New 
York  state  six  factories — inWatervliet,  New- 
burg,  Troy,  and  Marlborough.  These  turn 
out  about  100,000  Ibs.  of  shoddy  per  annum. 

But  what  is  shoddy  ? 

In  the  somewhat  hilly  district  of  York 
shire,  between  Huddersfield  and  Leeds,  stand 
on  two  prominences  the  pretty  little  towns 
of  Pewsbury  and  Batley  Car.  The  stranger, 
on  alighting  from  the  railway  car,  is  struck 
with  the  unusually  large  warehouses,  built 
of  stone,  by  the  railway  company.  For  such 
small  stations,  these  arc  mysterious  erections. 
But  if  he  enter  the  principal  warehouse,  he 
will  probably  find  piled  up  hundreds  of  bales, 
containing  the  cast-off  garments  of  Great 
Britain  and  the  continent  of  Europe.  Here, 
in  fact,  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  are 
brought  the  tattered  remains  of  the  clothes, 
some  of  which  have  been  worn  by  royalty  in 


WOOLLEN    MANUFACTURES. 


the  various  courts  of  Europe,  as  well  as  by 
the  peers  and  peasants.  The  rich  broadcloth 
of  the  English  nobles  here  commingles  with 
the  livery'of  their  servants  and  the  worsted 
blouses  of  the  French  republicans ;  while 
American  undershirts,  pantaloons,  and  all 
other  worsted  or  woollen  goods,  may  there 
be  found,  all  reduced  to  one  common  level, 
and  known  by  one  common  appellation,  of 
"  rags." 

The  walls  of  the  town  are  placarded  with 
papers  announcing- public  auctions  of"  Scotch 
shoddies,"  "  mungocs,"  "rags,"  and  such 
like  articles  of  merchandise,  and  every  few 
days  the  goods  department  of  the  railway  is 
besieged  by  sturdy-looking  Yorkshiremcn, 
who  are  examining,  with  great  attention,  the 
various  bales,  some  of  which  arc  assorted 
into  "  whites,"  "  blue  stockings,"  "  black 
stockings,"  "  carpets,"  "  shawls,"  "  stuffs," 
"shirtings,"  "  linseys,"  "  black  cloth,"  etc. 
A  jovial-looking  man,  of  doubtful  temperance 
principles,  at  last  steps  forward  and  puts  the 
goods  up  to  auction.  The  prices  which 
these  worn-out  articles  fetch  are  surprising  to 
the  uninitiated.  Old  stockings  will  realize 
from  §35  to  §50  a  ton ;  while  white  flannels 
will  sometimes  sell  for  as  much  as  $100  a  ton, 
and  even  more.  The  "  hards,"  or  black 
cloth,  when  clipped  free  from  all  seams  and 
threads,  are  worth  from  $100  to  $150  a  ton. 
There  are  common  mixed  sorts  of  coarse 
fabric  which  can  be  bought  as  low  as  from 
$15  to  $25  a  ton;  while  the  "rubbish," 
consisting  of  seams,  linseys,  and  indescrib- 
ables,  are  purchased  by  the  chemists  for  the 
manufacture  of  potash  crystals  for  from  $10 
to  $15  a  ton. 

It  will  be  seen  that  assorting  these  old 
woollens  is  equally  important  with  the  assort 
ing  of  the  different  qualities  of  new  wool ; 
and  there  is  the  additional  consideration  of 
colors  to  render  assorting  still  more  neces 
sary.  It  is  six-prising,  however,  with  what 
rapidity  all  this  is  accomplished.  There  are 
some  houses  where  old  woollen  rags  arc 
divided  into  upward  of  twenty  different  sorts, 
ready  for  the  manufacturer.  The  principal 
varieties  are  flannels,  of  which  there  are 
"  English  whites,"  "  Welsh  whites,"  "  Irish 
whites,"  and  "  drabs."  Each  of  these  com 
mand  a  different  price  in  the  market :  the 
English  and  AVclsh  being  much  whiter  than 
the  Irish,  and  of  finer  texture,  are  worth 
nearly  double  the  price  of  the  Irish.  The 
stockings  are  the  next  in  value  to  the  flan 
nels,  on  account  of  the  strength  and  elas 


ticity  of  the  wool.  The  peculiar  stitch  or 
bend  of  the  worsted  in  stocking  manufac 
ture,  and  the  hot  water  and  washing  to  which 
they  arc  submitted  during  their  stocking 
existence,  have  the  effect  of  producing  a  per 
manent  elasticity  which  no  after  process 
destroys,  and  no  new  wool  can  be  found  to 
possess.  Hence,  old  stockings  are  always  in 
great  demand,  and  realize,  for  good  clean 
colored  sorts,  as  much  as  $80  a  ton  in  busy 
seasons.  The  white  worsted  stockings  are 
the  most  valuable  of  the  "  softs,"  and,  when 
supplied  in  sufficient  quantity,  will  sell  for  as 
much  as  $140  a  ton.  Carpets,  and  other  col 
ored  sorts,  are  generally,  owing  to  their  rapid 
accumulation,  to  be  had  at  very  low  prices. 

"  Shoddy,"  so  well  understood  in  York 
shire,  is  the  general  term  for  the  wool  pro 
duced  by  the  grinding,  or,  more  technically, 
the  "pulling"  up  of  all  the  soft  woollens; 
and  all  woollens  arc  soft,  except  the  super 
fine  cloths.  The  usual  method  of  convert 
ing  woollens  into  shoddy,  is  to  first  carefully 
assort  them,  so  as  to  see  that  not  a  particle 
of  cotton  remains  on  them,  and  then  to  pass 
them  through  a  rag  machine.  This  has  a 
evlinder  3  ft  in  diameter  and  2'>  im-hes  long, 
with  steel  teeth  half  an  inch  apart  from  each 
other,  and  standing  out  from  the  cylinder, 
when  new,  one  inch.  This  cylinder  revolves 
five  hundred  times  in  a  minute,  and  the  rags 
are  drawn  gradually  close  to  its  surface  by 
two  fluted  iron  rollers,  the  upper  one  of 
which  is  packed  with  thin  stuff  or  skirting, 
so  as  to  press  the  rags  the  closer  to  the 
action  of  the  teeth.  The  cylinder  runs  up 
ward  past  these  rollers,  and  any  pieces  of 
rag  which  are  not  completely  torn  into  wool, 
are,  by  their  natural  gravity,  thrown  back 
upon  the  rags  which  are  slowly  creeping 
into  the  machine.  The  rollers  are  fed  by 
means  of  a  creeper,  or  slowly  moving,  end 
less  cloth,  on  which  a  man,  and  in  some 
instances  a  woman,  lays  the  rags  in  proper 
quantities.  One  of  these  machines  is  com 
monly  driven  by  a  seven-inch  band,  and  re 
quires  at  least  five  horse  power.  Half  a  ton 
of  rags  can  be  pulled  in  ten  hours  by  one  of 
these  machines.  The  dust  produced  sub 
jects  the  workpeople  on  first  commencing 
the  occupation,  to  what  is  there  called  the 
"  rag  fever."  But  after  a  time  the  imme 
diate  effects  are  warded  off,  and  although  it 
no  doubt  shortens  life,  the  remuneration 
being  considerable — in  England,  2s.  for  every 
240  Ibs.  of  rags  pulled — there  is  never  any 
difficulty  in  obtaining  workpeople. 


CLOTHING    TRADE TOTAL    MANUFACTURE. 


315 


The  "  niungo"  is  the  wool  produced  by 
subjecting  the  hards,  or  superfine  cloths,  to  a 
similar  operation  as  that  above  described. 
The  machine,  however,  for  the  mungo  trade, 
is  made  with  a  greater  number  of  teeth, 
several  thousand  more  in  the  same  sized 
cylinder,  and  the  cylinder  runs  about  700 
revolutions  in  a  minute.  The'rags,  previous 
to  being  pulled  in  this  machine,  are  passed 
through  a  machine  called  a  "  shaker."  This 
is  made  of  a  coarsely-toothed  cylinder,  about 
2£  ft.  in  diameter,  which  revolves  about  300 
times  in  a  minute,  in  a  coarse  wire  cylinder. 
This  takes  away  a  large  portion  of  the  dust, 
which  is  driven  out  at  a  large  chimney  by 
means  of  a  fan.  The  mungo  pulling  is, 
therefore,  a  cleaner  business  than  the  shoddy 
making,  and,  as  a  general  rule,  is  more  prof 
itable.  The  power  required  for  a  mungo 
machine  is  that  of  about  seven  horses. 

Both  the  better  kinds  of  shoddy  and  the 
mungo  have  for  some  years  been  saturated 
with  oil ;  but  recently,  milk  has  been  applied 
to  this  purpose,  and  found  to  answer  exceed 
ingly  well.  The  consequence  is  that  milk 
in  that  locality,  in  England,  has  risen  100 
per  cent,  in  price  ;  and  even  in  that  district, 
where  cows  are  kept  in  large  numbers,  it  was 
feared  there  would  be  a  great  scarcity  of 
milk  for  the  supply  of  the  towns. 

When  well  saturated  with  c»il  or  milk,  the 
shoddy  or  the  mungo  is  sold  to  the  woollen 
manufacturer.  There  are  scores  of  men  who 
attend  the  Huddersfield  market  every  Tues 
day  to  dispose  of  their  mungo.  It  is  as 
much  an  article  of  marketable  value  there, 
as  cloth  is  here.  It  is  not  unusual  for  good 
mungo  to  realize  as  much  as  eight  English 
pence  per  pound,  while  the  shoddy  varies  in 
price  from  one  penny  to  sixpence  per  pound, 
according  to  quality. 

The  common  kinds  of  shoddy  require,  of 
course,  to  be  subjected  to  the  scouring  pro 
cess,  for  which  large  wooden  heaters,  or 
"  stocks,"  are  employed.  The  dung  of  hogs 
is  largely  employed  in  this  purifying  pro 
cess,  as  well  as  human  urine,  which  is  exten 
sively  used  in  the  blanket  manufacture  of 
Yorkshire. 

The  white  shoddy  is  capable  of  being 
used  either  for  light-colored  goods  or  for 
the  common  kinds  of  blankets,  while  the 
dark-colored  shoddy  is  worked  into  all  kinds 
of  coarse  cloths,  carpets,  etc.,  which  are 
dyed  any  dark  color,  so  as  to  hide  the  vari 


ous  colors  of  the  old  fabrics.  It  is  mixed  in 
with  new  wool  in  such  proportion  as  its 
quality  will  permit,  without  deteriorating 
the  sale  of  the  material. 

The  mungo  is  used  in  nearly  all  the  York 
shire  superfine  cloths,  and  in  some  very  ex 
tensively.  It  produces  a  cloth  somewhat 
inferior,  of  course,  to  the  West  of  England 
goods  in  durability,  but,  for  finish  and  ap 
pearance,  Avhen  first  made  up,  the  inferiority  I 
would  only  be  perceived  by  a  good  judge ' 
of  cloth.  This  substance  is  largely  intro 
duced  into  all  felted  fabrics.  Blankets,  car 
pets,  druggets,  table-covers,  and  Petersham 
coats,  are  sometimes  entirely  made  from  it, 
and  the  trade  is  rapidly  extending. 

The  effect  of  shoddy  in  the  cloth  of  an 
overcoat,  in  the  wear,  is  to  rub  out  of  the 
cloth  and  accumulate  between  it  and  the 
lining.  We  have  seen  a  gentleman  take  a 
handful  of  this  short  wool  from  the  corners 
of  his  coat. 

The  grounds  on  which  this  shoddy  and 
mungo  business  can  be  justified  are  the 
cheapening  of  cloth,  and  the  turning  to  a 
useful  purpose  what  would  be  otherwise 
almost  useless. 

The  business  in  Yorkshire  is  dignified 
by  the  title  of  the  "  Dewsbury  trade ;" 
and  to  it  Dewsbury  certainly  owes  its 
wealth,  and  we  might  almost  say  its  ex 
istence.  In  twenty  years  it  has  grown 
from  a  village  to  a  town  of  some  30,000  in 
habitants,  and  some  immense  fortunes  have 
been  made  by  this  extraordinary  trans 
formation  of  old  garments  into  new. 

Considerable  quantities  of  white  shoddy 
were  sent  from  England  and  Scotland  to  this 
country,  and  finally  a  machinist  sent  several 
of  his  rag  machines,  and  several  factories 
were  successively  started.  The  sale  of  the 
product  is  now  largely  conducted  in  Cedar 
street,  New  York. 

The  shoddy  trade  is  somewhat  fluctu 
ating,  being  affected  very  much  by  the  state 
of  the  wool  market.  So  great  is  the  com 
petition  in  the  markets,  that  as  soon  as  a 
rise  takes  place  in  the  price  of  new  wool,  the 
small  manufacturers,  instead  of  raising  their 
prices,  commonly  regulate  their  expenditure 
by  using  a  larger  proportion  of  the  old 
material,  and  they  arc  thus  enabled  to  com 
pete,  in  prices  at  least,  with  the  larger  manu 
facturers,  who  can  lay  in  a  large  stock  of 
new  wool  when  the  prices  are  low. 


LEATHER. 


CHAPTER  I. 

TANNING— BOOTS  AND  SHOES. 

ON  the  formation  of  the  federal  govern 
ment,  much  solicitude  was  apparent  in  rela 
tion  to  the  growth  of  the  more  important 
branches  of  manufactures.  That  the  im 
perial  government  had  so  persistently  pre 
vented  the  establishment  of  any  considerable 
branches,  was  a  great  drawback,  because  it 
had  prevented  the  development  of  the  neces 
sary  experience  and  skill  in  manufacture  re 
quired  for  large  operations.  The  removal 
of  those  prohibitions  by  the  act  of  inde 
pendence,  attracted  attention  to  the  forbid 
den  industries,  and  they  began  to  flourish. 
The  tanning  and  manufacture  of  leather,  in 
all  its  branches,  was  one  of  the  first  that  be 
gan  to  thrive,  and  naturally,  because  the 
slaughter  of  animals  for  food  furnished  a 
greater  or  less  supply  of  skins,  that  required 
to  be  wrought  up  into  boots,  shoes,  harness, 
etc.  Parliamentary  committees,  early  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  mentioned  tanning  in 
the  colonies  as  a  branch  of  individual  in 
dustry,  which  supplied  most  of  the  local 
demands  for  leather  and  shoe-making,  as  one 
of  the  leading  handicrafts. 

In  1791,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
Mr.  Hamilton,  in  his  report  on  manufactures, 
mentions :  "  Tanneries  are  not  only  carried 
on  as  a  regular  business  in  numerous  parts 
of  the  country,  but  they  constitute,  in  some 


places,  a  valuable  item  of  incidental  family 
manufacture."  He  went  on  to  mention,  that 
encouragement  had  been  asked  of  the  gov 
ernment  in  two  ways,  viz. :  by  prohibiting 
both  the  import  of  the  leather  and  the  ex 
port  of  the  bark.  It  was  alleged  that  the 
leather  trade  had  raised  the  price  of  bark 
from  $3  to  $44  per  cord.  He  ascribed  the 
rise,  however,  rather  to  the  increase  of  tan 
neries  than  to  the  export,  of  which,  he  said, 
there  was  no  evidence.  Glue  was  then  a 
large  item  with  the  tanners,  Avho  iised  up 
the  refuse  portions  of  the  skins  in  that  way. 
From  that  time  to  the  present,  tanners  have 
increased  in  all  the  states,  in  the  proportion 

!  nearly   of    the   growth   of   the    population. 

I  The  importation  of  boots  and  shoes  was 
always  insignificant,  comprising  high-priced 
articles  from  Paris  mostly.  Thus,  the  year 
1822  was  one  of  the  largest  import:  there 
were  then  14,979  pairs  of  shoes,  mostly  kid 
and  morocco,  imported,  for  $9,192  ;  and  207 
pairs  of  boots,  for  $792,  or  nearly  $4  per 
pair.  In  1858  the  importation  was  only 
39,826  pairs  of  leather  boots  and  shoes,  at  a 
value  of  $87,101 ;  and  the  export  of  do 
mestic  boots  and  shoes  in  this  year  was  609,- 
988  pairs,  or  a  value  of  $663,905  :  showing 
a  large  excess  of  exports  over  imports. 

The  manufacture  of  boots  and  shoes  has, 
therefore,  been  in  the  double  ratio  of  the 
number  of  people,  and  their  ability  to  buy, 
in  proportions  as  follows  : — 


LEATHER    MANUFACTURE     OP    TUB     UNITED    STATES    IN     1860. 


Esta 
Boots  and  shoes  
Gloves  

blishments, 
12,486 
126 
46 
136 
12 
3,695 
5,040 

Capital. 
$23,357,627 
594,825 
588,000 
2,331,250 
1,039,000 
6,616,034 
35,655,370 

Kaw  material. 
$42,728,174 
537,589 
915,271 
3,896,522 
1,395,400 
6,726,344 
44,520,737 

Leather  belting.  .  , 

Morocco  dressers.  .  .  . 
Patent  leather  

Saddles  and  harness.  . 
Tanners  and  curriers  . 

Total  .  . 

21.541  ,< 

fe70.182.106  $ 

100.720.037 

Male. 

Female. 

Labor. 

Product. 

94,512 

28,514 

$30,938,080 

$91.889,298 

453 

976 

330,419 

1,176,795 

329 

25 

134,952 

1,481,750 

2,371 

331 

924,308 

6,291,075 

865 

317,460 

2,101,250 

12,443 

337 

4,333,041 

14,604.328 

22,622 

57 

6,933,740 

67,306,452 

The  total  value  was  thus  raised  to  $184,-    ners    and    curriers    was    $67,306,452.      Of 
850,948.     The  value  produced  by  the  tan-  this  leather  so  produced,  the  harness-makers 


TANNING BOOTS    AXD    SHOES. 


911 


and  shoe-makers  used  $40,454,588.  The 
tanneries  lie  at  the  foundation  of  the  whole. 
They  use  the  skins  and  hides  of  animals 
slaughtered  in  the  whole  country,  and  re 
quire,  in  addition,  an  average  of  some  5,000,- 
000  of  foreign  hides,  imported  mostly  from 
Central  and  South  America,  and  the  British 
East  Indies,  to  make  good  the  demand.  The 
census  of  1 840  gave  the  sides  of  sole  leather 
tanned  at  3,463,611,  and  of  upper  leather 
3,781,868. 

The  supply  of  hides  in  the  country  origin 
ally  was  derived  mostly,  if  not  altogether, 
from  the  slaughter  of  animals  for  food.  Tan 
neries  were  started  where  bark,  mostly  hem 
lock,  was  most  easily  accessible,  and  the  tan 
nery  became  the  market  for  hides  and  skins 
for  many  miles  around,  as  well  for  the 
farmers  as  butchers.  In  the  neighborhood 
of  the  large  cities,  foreign  hides  became  the 
main  resource.  Thus,  in  1858,  the  value 
imported  was  89,719,683,  as  follows:  Bos 
ton  and  Salem,  83,290,555 ;  New  York, 
85,629,027;  Philadelphia,  $377,635;  Bal 
timore,  $422,466.  The  importers  of  hides 
sell  to  the  tanners  for  casli  or  short  time,  and 
then  tanning  takes  place  in  localities  best 
suited  to  the  combination  of  the  materials. 
Boston  is  the  largest  leather  market  in  the 
states ;  but  there  is  not  tanned  in  Massa 
chusetts  half  the  leather  they  use.  They 
tan  the  upper  leather ;  but  the  sole  leather 
is  mostly  tanned  in  New  York.  The  hides 
imported  at  Boston  and  Salem  are  sold  to 
the  New  York  dealers,  by  them  supplied  to 
the  tanners,  and  then  resold  to  the  boot 
makers  of  Massachusetts.  One  reason  of 
this  is,  no  doubt,  that  the  newly  opened 
counties  of  New  York  supply  more  and 
cheaper  bark  than  can  be  had  elsewhere. 
When  the  Erie  railroad  was  opened  through 
the  southern  tier  of  counties,  tanneries  rapidly 
increased  along  its  line.  The  returns  of  the 
road  for  the  first  five  years  were  as  follows : — 


1846, 
1847, 
1848, 
1849, 
1850, 


Hides  sent  west. 

Ibs.  976,950 

1,200,520 

1,111,580 

3,253,883 

10,140,022 


Leather  sent  cost 

781,300 

480,040 

1,078,620 

3,696,592 

8,409,765 


So  rapid  was  the  effect  of  having  access 
to  new  hemlock  forests.  The  number  of 
hides  that  are  produced  each  year  in  the 
country,  although  a  very  important  item, 
the  census  has  not  furnished  in  any  definite 
manner.  That  of  1 840  gave  the  number  of 
sides  tanned  in  1839  at  3,463,611,  which 


would  account  for  1,731,805  hides.  The 
number  of  neat  cattle  in  the  country  was 
then  14,971,586,  and  of  horses  and  mules 
4,335,669.  The  deaths  among  them  would 
give  al>out  400,000  hides,  and  the  neat 
cattle  would  give  3,000,000  hides.  The 
number  of  horses,  cattle  and  other  domestic 
animals  in  the  United  States,  in  1866,  is 
estimated  by  the  Agricultural  Department  as 
follows : — 

Horses 6  691,220 

Mules 1,054,337 

Cattle 26,935,61 6 

Swine 28,845,003 

Sheep 41,253,652 

The  census  gives  the  quantity  of  cattle 
slaughtered  at  25  per  cent,  of  the  whole. 
This  would  give  6,733,904  neat  cattle.  The 
horse  hides  (ten  per  cent.)  would  be  about 
669,000.  The  census  of  1850  gives  6,128, 
970  hides  tanned,  and  8,653,865  skins,  in 
cluding  6,000,000  sheep  skins.  If  we  com 
pare  the  census  of  1840  with  that  of  1850, 
for  tanneries,  we  have  results  as  follows : — 

No.        Capital.    Sides  tinned.    Skins.        Value. 
1S40,     8,229    $I5.<V>0,9;'9       H,64!!.G1I      S.781.S(i8    $20.919.110 
1850,     6,263     18,900,557      12,257,940     8,65^,865     «2,S61,796 

The  census  of  1850  gives  6,128,970  hides 
tanned,  which  gives  12,257,940sides.  Under 
the  head  of  skins,  the  census  of  1840  has 
upper  leather,  calf,  horse,  etc.  The  census 
of  1850  includes  6,000-,000  sheep-skins. 
Now,  these  12,257,940  sides  of  sole  leather 
by  no  means  account  for  all  the  shoes  made 
in  the  country.  The  rapid  rate  at  which 
shoes  and  boots  are  made  and  worn,  far 
exceeds  the  increase  of  cattle  and  hides ; 
and  the  census  returns  do  not  obtain  any 
thing  like  the  quantities  that  are  made  in 
the  large  cities,  where  the  numbers  of  very 
poor  foreign  shoe-makers  are  large.  The 
census  of  1855  gave  24,804  boot  and  shoe 
makers  in  the  state  of  New  York,  while 
the  United  States  census  of  1850  gave  but 
10,439  in  the  state.  This  difference,  to 
some  extent,  no  doubt,  grew  out  of  the  large 
migration,  there  being  among  the  emigrants 
very  many  shoe-makers  who  work  very  cheap 
and  well. 

The  skins  of  domestic  animals,  or  "  green 
hides,"  are  rated  of  higher  value  than  the 
foreign  or  salted  hides  ;  yet  these  latter  will 
give  a  great  weight  of  leather,  because  of  the 
water  in  the  green  hides,  which,  on  the  other 
hand,  are  more  easily  handled.  The  largest 
oxen  make  the  best  sole  leather.  The  skins 
of  the  bull  are  thickest  about  the  neck  and 


S18 


LEATHER. 


parts  of  the  belly ;  but  the  back  is  thinner, 
and  are  inferior  in  fineness  of  grain  to  oxen 
or  cows.  The  best  are  made  into  the  heavy 
leather,  used  for  the  best  trunks,  shoe-soles, 
machine-belts,  harness,  etc.  The  lighter 
qualities  serve  for  uppers  of  common  boots 
and  shoes.  Kips,  or  skins  of  young  cattle, 
make  the  uppers  of  fine  boots  and  shoes. 
Those  hides  of  the  best  quality  only  are 
.split  or  shaved  for  the  thin  enamelled  leather 
used  for  ladies'  shoes,  and  are  made  into 
"  lace  leather,"  or  thongs  for  belts.  In 
preparing  the  hides  for  tanning,  the  heavy 
ones  are  soaked  for  months  in  lime-water. 
The  hair,  at  last,  can  be  removed,  with  the 
epidermis,  by  the  two-handed  scraping-knife, 
rubbed  over  it  as  the  hide  is  laid  flat  down 
on  the  bench  prepared  for  this  purpose. 
The  fleshy  substance  on  the  other  side  is 
then  scraped  oft',  and,  like  the  head,  checks, 
and  other  waste,  used  for  making  glue.  In 
large  establishments,  machines  are  used  for 
this  scraping.  The  lime  that  remains  in  the 
pores  of  the  hide  must  be  removed  by  soak 
ing  in  some  solution,  like  chlorine,  that  will 
form  a  soluble  compound  with  the  lime. 
Sometimes  hides  are  laid  in  piles,  and  allow 
ed  to  begin  to  putrefy,  great  care  being 
taken  to  stop  it  as  soon  as  the  hair  starts. 
By  the  United  States  plan,  the  object  is 
more  effectively  obtained,  with  less  labor, 
and  no  injury  to  the  leather.  The  hides  are 
suspended  in  a  cool  vault,  protected,  like  an 
ice-house,  against  the  entrance  of  warm  air, 
and  furnished  with  a  covered  channel-way, 
that  answers  as  a  drain  and  as  a  conduit  for 
cool  damp  air.  Cool  spring  water  is  then 
conducted  into  the  vault,  to  fall  round  its 
sides  like  spray.  The  hides  are  thus  kept 
in  a  mist,  at  a  temperature  of  44  to  46  deg., 
and,  in  six  to  twelve  days,  are  found  freed 
from  all  superfluous  matter.  The  cold  vapor 
has  been  absorbed,  and  its  action  by  melting 
has  distended  and  removed  the  epidermis 
with  the  roots  of  the  hair.  As  soon  as  this 
is  effected,  the  hides  are  ready  for  tanning. 
This  American  plan,  it  will  be  observed,  is 
far  in  advance  of  that  of  the  old  systems, 
still  practised  in  Europe. 

Of  the  hides  brought  into  New  York  in  a 
year,  the  disposition  was  as  follows : — 

Domestic  hides,  slaughtered 250,000 

Imported 1.902,000 

Stock,  Jan.  1 '375,000 


Supply   2,527,000 


Taken  for  sole  leather 1,877,000 

upper     "      250,000 

patent    "      100,000 

"     by  western  tanners  . . .       100,000 

"          neighboring  cities ..      150,000     2,477,000 


Stock,  Dec.  31 


50,000 


These  figures  show  the  relative  disposition 
of  the  hides  sold  in  New  York. 

Leather,  tanned,  is  generally  divided  into 
three  kinds,  namely :  hides,  kips,  and  skins. 
The  stoutest  leather  employed  for  trunks 
and  soles  of  boots  and  shoes,  is  made  from 
butts  or  backs.  Buff  leather  was  formerly 
made  for  defensive  armor  from  the  hide  of 
the  buffalo,  but  it  is  no.w  furnished  by  the 
cow-hide,  and  is  used  chiefly  for  soldiers' 
belts.  Bull-hide  is  thicker  than  cow-hide, 
while  kip-skin,  from  young  cattle,  is  lighter 
than  the  latter.  The  name  kip  is  also  giv 
en  to  Calcutta,  Brazil,  and  African  hides. 
Calf-skin  supplies  the  great  demand  for  the 
upper  part  of  boots  and  shoes  ;  sheep-skins 
form  a  thin,  cheap  leather ;  lamb-skins  are 
used  for  gloves ;  goat  and  kid-skins  form  a 
light  leather  of  fine  quality  ;  deer  or  ante 
lope  are  usually  bi-dressed  in  oil ;  horse-hide 
is  prepared  for  harness  work,  etc.,  and  this, 
with  seal-skin,  is  used  for  making  enamelled 
leather  ;  dog-skin  makes  a  thin,  tough,  leath 
er,  but  most  of  the  gloves  sold  as  dog 
skin  are  made  of  lamb-skin.  Hog-skin 
makes  a  thin,  porous  leather,  and  is  used  for 
covering  the  seats  of  saddles  ;  ass  and  mule- 
skins  are  for  shagreen  leather,  used  mostly 
for  scabbards.  There  is  a  large  import 
trade  in  skins.  The  great  demand  for 
leather  for  the  best  gloves  is  supplied  by 
lamb-skins  from  Italy,  Spain,  the  south  of 
France,  and  other  parts,  where,  in  conse 
quence  of  the  lamb  being  killed  quite  young, 
the  skin  is  small,  fine,  and  thin,  and  is  used 
instead  of  kid ;  but  it  is  neither  so  strong 
nor  so  glossy.  The  skins  of  lambs  that  die 
soon  after  their  birth,  are  sometimes  dressed 
with  the  wool,  and  are  used  for  lining  gloves 
and  shoes.  The  best  kid-skins  are  from  the 
south  of  France ;  they  are  also  imported 
from  Germany,  Switzerland,  Italy,  and  Ire 
land.  It  is  said  that  as  soon  as  the  kid  be 
gins  to  feed  on  herbage,  the  skin  suffers  in 
fineness  and  delicacy,  and  is  no  longer  suit 
able  for  the  best  gloves.  The  best  morocco 
leather  is  made  from  Swiss  goat-skins ; 
another  kind  is  from  Mogador  and  East  In 
dian  goat-skins,  which  are  often  made  into 
black  morocco,  known  as  "  black  Spanish 


TANNING — BOOTS  AND  SHOES. 


319 


leather,"  from  the  circumstance  of  the  first 
supplies  having  been  obtained  from  Spain. 
The    leather   from    the  Cape   sheep-skin   is 
nearly   equal  to  morocco.       Hippopotamus 
hides  are    exported  from  South  Africa,  and  j 
when  tanned  with   oak  bark,  they  make  an 
extremely  thick    and    compact   leather.     In 
Canada,    recently,    leather   has   been   made 
from   the  white  whale  which  visits  the   St. 
Lawrence.     In  February,  1860,  some  speci 
mens    of  this  leather   were    shown    at   the 
American  Institute.     There  are  various  sorts 
of  excellent  leather  made  from  their  skins. 
The  vegetable  substances  use  1  in  tanning 
have  of  late  years  become  almost  as  numer 
ous   as  the»varicties  of  hides  and  skins  on 
which  they  are  employed.     The  active  vege 
table     principle,     tannin,    varies     somewhat 
according   to    the    source    from  which  it  is 
derived ;  but   it   is   always   marked   by  an 
astringent  taste,  a  bluish-black  or  dark  green 
precipitate  in  aqueous  solution  by  admixture 
with   a  solution  of  one  of  the  salts  of  per 
oxide  of  iron  ;  while,  with  a  solution  of  gela 
tine,  it  gives  a  dirty  white  or  brown  precipi 
tate.     Daring  a  long  period   the  principal 
tanning   material   has   been    oak  bark   and 
hemlock   bark.     That  which  is  stripped  in 
the  spring  is  the  most  esteemed,  far  it  then 
contains   a   larger    quantity  of  tannin  than 
that  stripped  in  autumn,  and  this  more  than 
the  bark  stripped  in  winter.    The  best  bark  is 
obtained  in  a  warm  spring,  from  coppice  trees 
about  twelve  years  of  age.     Oak  bark  con 
tains  from  4  to  22  per  cent,  of  tannin,  which 
is  contained  in  the  inner  white   layers  next 
the  alburnum,  as  in  the  case  of  other  astrin 
gent  barks.     The  tannin  of  bark  is  probably 
not  identical  with  that  of  galls,  as  it  does 
not  yield  pyrogallic  acid  when  subjected  to 
destructive    distillation ;    from   four   to    six 
pounds  of  oak  bark  arc  required  for  every 
pound   of  leather.     After  the  stripping,  the 
bark   is  stacked  to  dry  ;  should  the  season 
be    rainy,  a  portion  of  the   tannin  may  be 
washed  out,  and  the  bark  be  thus  deterio 
rated.   When  the  tanned  leather  is  taken  in 
hand  by  the  currier,  it  is  softened  by  being 
soaked    in  water.     It   is   next  beaten    by  a 
mallet  upon  a  hurdle,  and  then  placed  over 
a  plank  called  a  beam,  which  projects  slant 
ingly  from  the   floor.     The  workman  leans 
over  this  and   against  the  leather,  so  as  to 
keep  it  in  its  place,  and  with  a  broad  knife 
shaves  off  all  the  irregularities  from  the  flesh 
side.      The    knife   is   held   firmly   in   both 
hands,  and   the  operator  continually  exam 


ines  the  skin,  and  moves  it  to  bring  all  parts 
under  the  knife.  After  it  is  shaved,  it  is 
thrown  into  cold  water,  the  flesh  side  laid 
next  to  a  stone  slab,  and  the  other  well 
rubbed  with  a  tool  called  a  stretching  iron. 
This  process  forces  out  a  whitish  matter 
(bloom)  gathered  in  the  tan  pit,  and  reduces 
inequalities.  Many  tools  are  employed, 
having  the  same  object.  The  skin  then  un 
dergoes  "  dubbing ;"  an  ointment  of  cod 
oil  boiled  with  the  skins  of  sheep,  is  well 
rubbed  in  on  both  sides,  and  the  leather 
hung  up  to  dry.  It  is  afterward  rubbed 
with  the  graining  board — an  instrument 
shaped  somewhat  like  a  brush,  but  grooved, 
and  made  of  hard  wood.  The  leather  is  then 
ready  for  sale  ;  or,  after  shaving  the  flesh 
side  with  a  very  sharp  knife,  it  is  waxed. 
A  color,  composed  .of  oil  and  lamp-black,  is 
well  rubbed  in  on  the  flesh  side,  with  a  hard 
brush,  until  the  surface  is  thoroughly  black ; 
upon  this  is  applied  a  size  and  tallow  with  a 
stiff  brush,  and  when  dry,  it  is  rubbed  with 
a  broad,  smooth  lump  of  glass ;  this  is  re 
peated.  This  leather  is  called  "waxed,"  or 
"  black  on  the  flesh,"  and  is  used  for  the 
uppers  of  men's  boots  and  shoes.  If  curried 
on  the  other  side  it  is  called  black  on  the 
grain,  and  is  used  for  ladies'  uppers.  In 
preparing  such  leather,  the  waxing  is  per 
formed  as  follows  :  a  solution  of  sulphate  of 
iron,  called  copperas  water  or  iron  liquor,  is 
applied  to  the  grain  side  of  the  wet  skin, 
when  the  salt,  uniting  Avith  the  gallic  acid 
of  the  tan,  produces  an  ink  dye  ;  stale  urine 
is  then  applied  to  the  skin,  and  when  dry, 
the  stuffing  is  applied.  The  grain  is  raised, 
and  Avhen  dry,  the  skin  is  whitened,  bruised, 
and  again  grained  ;  after  which,  a  mixture 
of  oil  and  tallow  is  applied  to  the  grain 
side,  and  it  undergoes  carefully  the  treat 
ment  with  the  pommel  or  graining-board 
again,  and  several  other  processes  of  rubbing, 
polishing,  and  dubbing,  or  oiling.  These 
duly  performed,  with  due  regard  to  time  and 
circumstances,  complete  the  process. 

For  many  years  it  was  found  difficult  to 
cause  a  bright  varnish  to  adhere  to  leather 
without  cracking,  an  effect  which  is  now 
produced  by  means  of  boiled  linseed  oil 
mixed  with  vegetable  black  and  Prussian 
blue.  This  composition,  of  the  consistence 
of  a  thick  paste,  is  rubbed  upon  the  surface  of 
the  leather,  and  then  dried  at  a  temperature 
of  from  150°  to  170°  Fahr.  The  process  is 
repeated  from  three  to  seven  times,  and 
when  quite  dry,  the  varnish  adheres  very 


320 


LEATHER. 


firmly,  and  will  bear  considerable  flexure 
and  tension  without  cracking.  By  mixing 
colored  pigments  with  the  varnish,  enamelled 
leather  of  various  colors  may  be  produced. 

The  process  of  tanning  differs  considerably 
in  the  mode  of  treatment  with  the  kind  of 
skin  and  the  result  desired.  A  large  num 
ber  of  thin  leathers  which  are  intended  to  be 
dyed,  are  tanned  in  various  ways.  White 
leathers  are  not  tanned,  but  tawed,  or  treated 
with  alum,  salt,  and  some  other  matters. 
Wash  leather  is  dressed  with  oil,  or  sham- 
oyed  ;  but  whatever  may  be  the  subsequent 
treatment,  the  preparatory  steps  somewhat 
resemble  each  other — whereby  hair,  wool, 
grease,  and  other  matters,  are  removed,  and 
the  skin  is  reduced  to  the  state  of  a  gelatinous 
membrane  called  pelt ;  the  hair  is  removed 
from  kid  and  goat-skin,  by  means  of  cream 
of  lime  ;  the  wool  is  generally  removed  by 
the  feltmongers  before  the  skin  is  passed  to 
the  tawers. 

Foreign  lamb-skins,  which  are  received 
with  the  wool  on,  are  washed,  scraped  on 
the  flesh  side,  and  sweated  in  a  close  room, 
until,  in  consequence  of  the  putrefactive  fer 
mentation,  the  wool  can  be  easily  removed. 
After  this,  fatty  matters  are  got  rid  of  by 
subjecting  the  skins  to  hydrostatic  pressure; 
they  arc  next  worked  at  the  beam  and  pared 
into  shape,  treated  with  lime,  and  next  with 
dogs'  or  pigeons'  dung,  if  the  skins  are  to  be 
tanned,  and  with  bran  and  water  if  they  are 
to  be  tawed,  the  object  being,  in  either  case, 
to  get  rid  of  the  lime.  During  these  opera 
tions,  the  skins  are  worked  a  few  times  at 
the  beam,  and  are  finished  by  washing  in 
clean  water.  Morocco  leather  is  prepared 
by  tanning  goat-skins  with  sumach,  and 
dyeing  on  the  grain  side.  Inferior  moroccos 
are  prepared  from  sheep-skins  similarly 
treated,  for  which  purpose  each  skin  of  pelt 
is  sewed  up  into  a  bag,  the  grain  side  outer 
most,  distended  with  air,  and  placed  in  a 
mordant  of  tin  or  alum.  They  are  next 
placed  in  a  warm  cochineal  bath  for  red,  in 
digo  for  blue,  orchil  for  purple,  and  are 
worked  by  hand  until  the  dye  has  properly 
struck.  For  certain  colors  the  tanning  pre 
cedes  the  dyeing.  The  tanning  or  sumach- 
ing  is  carried  on  in  a  large  tub,  containing  a 
weak  solution  of  sumach  in  warm  water ; 
another  and  stronger  solution  is  contained 
in  an  adjoining  vessel,  a  portion  of  which, 
together  with  some  sumach  leaves,  is  poured 
into  the  bag ;  some  of  the  weak  solution 
is  then  added,  the  bag  is  distended  with 


air,  and  the  skin  thrown  into  the  vat.  In 
this  way  about  50  skins  are  treated,  and  are 
kept  in  motion  a  few  hours  in  the  sumach 
tub,  by  means  of  paddles  worked  by  hand, 
or  by  machinery.  The  skins  are  then  taken 
out  and  heaped  upon  a  shelf  at  the  side  of 
the  tub,  the  pressure  thus  produced  causing 
the  liquor  to  escape  slowly  through  the  pores 
of  the  skin,  the  bags  being  shifted  about 
from  time  to  time.  The  bags  are  next 
passed  into  a  second  vat,  containing  a 
stronger  solution,  where  they  remain  for 
nine  hours.  The  bags  are  now  opened  and 
washed  ;  fine  red  skins  being  finished  in  a 
bath  of  saffron.  All  the  skins  are  next  struck 
on  a  sloping  board  until  they  are  smooth 
and  flat,  and  in  order  to  improve  their  ap 
pearance  in  the  currying,  a  little  linseed  oil 
may  be  rubbed  on  the  grain  side ;  they  are 
then  hung  up  in  a  loft  to  dry,  when  they  be 
come  horny  and  are  in  the  crust,  as  it  is 
called  ;  they  next  pass  through  much  labor 
ious  friction  with  the  pommel,  and  with  a 
glass  ball ;  while  the  peculiar  ribbed  ap 
pearance  of  morocco  is  given  by  means  of  a 
ball  of  box-wood,  on  which  is  a  number  of 
narrow  ridges.  Sheep-skin  morocco  is  pre 
pared  from  split  skins;  the  skin-splitting 
machine  resembles  in  principle  that  hereafter 
described,  only  as  the  membrane  is  thinner, 
certain  variations  are  required.  Instead  of 
stretching  the  skin  on  a  drum,  it  is  passed 
between  two  rollers,  the  lower  one  of  gum- 
metal,  and  solid,  and  the  upper  made  of  gum 
rings ;  while  between  the  two  rollers,  and 
nearly  in  contact,  is  the  edge  of  the  sharp 
knife,  which  is  moved  by  a  crank,  as  hereafter 
mentioned.  When  a  skin  is  introduced  be 
tween  the  two  rollers,  it  is  dragged  through 
against  the  knife  edge  and  divided,  the  solid 
lower  roller  supporting  the  membrane,  while 
the  upper  one,  being  capable  of  moving 
through  a  small  space  by  means  of  its  rings, 
adjusts  itself  to  inequalities  in  the  mem 
brane  ;  where  this  is  thin  the  rings  become 
depressed,  and  when  it  is  thick  they  rise  up, 
so  that  no  part  escapes  the  action  of  the 
knife.  The  divided  skins  are  not  sewed  up 
into  bags,  as,  from  their  thinness,  they  can 
be  sumached  quickly. 

In  preparing  white  leather  by  "  tawing," 
the  pelt  is  made  as  pure  as  possible ;  the 
best  kind  of  leather  being  prepared  from  kid- 
skins,  while  sheep  or  lamb-skins  make  the 
inferior  kinds.  They  are  first  fed  with  alum 
or  salt  in  a  drum  or  tumbler  made  like  a 
huge  churn ;  about  three  pounds  of  alum 


TANNING BOOTS  AND  SHOES. 


321 


and  four  pounds  of  salt  being  used  to  120 
skins  of  average  size.  The  alumina  of  the 
alum  forms  some  definite  compound  with 
the  gelatine  of  the  skins,  while  the  salt  serves 
to  whiten  them.  When  taken  out,  the  skins 
are  washed  in  water,  then  allowed  to  ferment 
in  bran  and  water  to  remove  the  surplus 
alum  and  salt,  and  to  reduce  the  thickness. 
They  are  next  dried  in  a  loft,  and  become 
tough  and  brittle,  but  they  are  made  soft 
and  glossy  by  means  of  a  dressing  of  twenty 
pounds  of  wheat  flour  and  the  yolks  of  eight 
dozen  eggs.  By  rotating  the  skins  in  drums 
for  some  time  the  dressing  is  absorbed,  and 
scarcely  any  thing  but  water  remains.  This 
dressing  is  usually  repeated,  and  the  skins 
hung  up  to  dry.  The  beautiful  softness  and 
elasticity  of  leather  is  now  given  by  manip 
ulation.  The  skins  are  first  dipped  in  clean 
water,  worked  upon  a  board,  and  staked  upon 
a  stretcher  or  softening  iron,  consisting  of 
a  rounded  iron  plate  fixed  to  the  top  of  an 
upright  beam,  by  which  the  skins  are  ex 
tended  and  smoothed  ;  they  are  then  finished 
by  being  passed  over  a  hot  iron. 

The  tanning  of  leather,  more  than  almost 
any  other  manufacture,  is  a  chemical  process, 
the  success  of  which  depends  almost  wholly 
upon  the  skill  and  judgment  with  which  its 
complicated  manipulations  are  conducted. 
To  attain  the  requisite  skill  in  the  laboratory 
of  the  chemist  is  evidently  impossible ;  it 
can  only  be  acquired  in  the  tanning  itself, 
by  long  and  careful  attention  and  observa 
tion  ;  and  perhaps  there  is  no  description 
of  manufacture  where  so  much  depends  upon 
practical  knowledge,  and  so  little  upon  mere 
theory,  as  in  the  tanning  of  leather.  The 
tanning  of  leather  consists  in  effecting  a 
combination  between  the  gelatine,  which  is 
the  main  constituent  of  raw  hides,  and  tan 
nin,  a  peculiar  substance,  found  in  the  bark 
of  several  species  of  trees — the  oak  and 
hemlock  chiefly.  The  processes  employed 
are  so  various,  and  the  modifications  occa 
sioned  by  temperature,  strength  of  the 
liquor,  and  quality  and  condition  of  the 
hides,  are  so  numerous  and  so  different,  that 
hardly  any  branch  of  business  requires  for 
its  successful  conduct  a  greater  degree  of 
judgment  and  experience,  and  in  few  arts 
have  there  been  effected  greater  improve 
ments.  Within  twenty  years  the  gain  of 
weight  in  converting  hides  into  leather 
has  increased  nearly  fifty  per  cent. ;  that 
is,  from  a  quarter  to  a  third  more 
leather  can  now  be  obtained  from  a  given 

20 


quantity  of  hides  than  in  the  old-fashioned 
way. 

The  great  improvement  in  weight  seems 
to  have  been  gained  by  the  judicious  use  of 
strong  liquors,  or  "  ooze,"  obtained  from 
finely-ground  bark,  and  by  skilful  tanning. 
In  order  to  produce  heavy  weights,  the  hides 
should  not  be  reduced  too  low  in  the  beam- 
house,  and  should  be  tanned  quickly  with 
good  strong  liquors,  particularly  in  the  latter 
stage  of  the  operation.  To  green  hides,  par 
ticularly,  nothing  can  be  more  injurious  than 
to  suffer  them  to  remain  too  long  in  weak 
"  ooze."  They  become  too  much  reduced, 
grow  soft,  flat,  and  flabby,  lose  a  portion  of 
their  gelatine,  and  refuse  to  "  plump  up." 
On  the  other  hand,  however,  the  effects  of 
an  early  application  of  "  ooze,"  that  is  too 
strong  and  too  warm,  to  green  hides,  is  very 
injurious.  It  contracts  the  surface  fibres  of 
the  skin,  tanning  at  once  the  external  layers, 
so  "  dead,"  as  it  is  termed,  as  to  shut  up 
the  pores,  and  prevent  the  tanning  from 
penetrating  the  interior.  This  renders  the 
leather  harsh  and  brittle. 

In  softening  hides,  and  preparing  them 
for  the  process  of  tanning,  a  great  deal  also 
depends  upon  the  judgment  of  the  person 
superintending  the  operation,  inasmuch  as 
the  diversities  in  the  qualities  and  charac 
teristics  of  hides  render  it  impossible  to  sub 
ject  them  to  any  thing  more  than  a  general 
mode  of  treatment.  In  "sweating,"  the 
character  of  the  hides  and  the  temperature 
are  essential,  but  ever-varying  considerations. 
As  a  general  rule,  however,  the  milder  the 
process  of  preparing  the  hides  for  the  bark, 
the  better.  Unnecessarily  severe  or  pro 
longed  treatment  is  inevitably  attended  with 
a  loss  of  gelatine,  and  a  consequent  loss  of 
weight  and  strength  in  the  leather.  Too 
high  a  temperature  is  particularly  to  be 
avoided. 

In  almost  every  lot  of  hides,  particularly 
the  Orinocos,  however,  there  are  generally 
some  that  prove  very  intractable,  resisting 
all  the  ordinary  modes  of  softening.  For 
such,  a  solution  of  ashes,  potash,  or  even 
common  salt,  will  be  found  to  be  bene 
ficial. 

As  we  have  said,  no  precise  rule  can  be 
given  as  to  the  length  of  time  required  for 
the  preliminary  process  of  soaking  and 
"  sweating" — so  much  depending  upon  the 
qualities  of  the  hides,  and  the  tempera 
ture  at  which  these  operations  are  con 
ducted. 


322 


LEATHER. 


The   following    table,  however,   may   be   to  a  definite  idea  of  the  practice  in  a  large 


found  useful  in  conveying  an  approximation 


tannery  :- 


Temperatures. 


40° 
Days. 


Buenos  Ayres  hides 10  to  12 

Carthagena  aud  Laguayra. . .     8       12 


SOAKING. 

50"  60° 

Days.  Days. 
8  to  1 2  6  to  8 
7  957 


70° 
Days. 
3  to  6 
2       5 


SWEATING. 

40°                 50°  60°  70° 

Days.            Days.  Days.        Days. 

15  to  20  12  to  16  8  to  12     2  to  3 

15  \     20  10       15  6         82       3 


Salted  hides  do  not  require  more  than 
about  two-thirds  the  time  to  soak,  but 
about  the  same  time  to  sweat.  In  sweating, 
the  temperature  rises  as  the  hides  sweat,  so 
that  the  operation  is  seldom  performed  un 
der  50°.  It  is  particularly  recommended 
that,  for  the  tougher  hides,  the  heat  should 
never  be  greater  than  60°  or  65°. 

After  the  hides  are  prepared  for  tanning, 
the  next  process  is  what  is  commonly  called 
"  handling,"  which  should  be  performed  two 
or  three  times  a  day  in  a  Aveak  ooze,  until 
the  grain  is  colored,  new  liquor  being  prefer 
able  to  old.  They  are  then,  after  a  fort 
night,  laid  away  in  bark,  and  changed  once 
in  two  to  four  weeks  until  tanned.  Much 
care  and  judgment  is  requisite  in  proportion 
ing  the  continually  increasing  strength  of 
the  liquors  to  the  requirements  of  the  leather 
in  the  different  stages  of  this  process.  The 
liquors  should  also  be  kept  as  cool  as  pos 
sible,  within  certain  limits ;  but  ought  never 
to  exceed  a  temperature  of  eighty  degrees. 
In  fact,  a  much  lower  temperature  is  the 
maximum  point,  if  the  liquor  is  very  strong 
— too  high  a  heat,  with  the  liquor  too 
strongly  charged  with  the  tanning  principle, 
being  invariably  injurious  to  the  life  and 
color  of  the  leather.  From  this,  it  would 
seem  that  time  is  an  essential  element  in  the 
process  of  tanning,  and  that  we  cannot  make 
up  for  the  want  of  it  by  increasing  the 
strength  of  the  liquor,  or  raising  the  tem 
perature  at  which  the  process  is  conducted, 
any  more  than  we  can  fatten  an  ox  or  a  horse 
by  giving  him  more  than  he  can  eat.  It 
may  be  questioned  whether  any  patented 
schemes  for  the  more  rapid  conversion  of 
hides  into  leather,  will  be  found,  on  the 
whole,  to  have  any  practical  utility. 

We  have  mentioned  the  injurious  effects 
resulting  from  too  strong  a  solution  of  the 
active  principle  of  the  bark ;  on  the  other 
hand,  the  use  of  too  weak  -solutions  is  to 
be  avoided.  Hides  that  are  treated  with 
liquor  below  the  proper  strength,  become 
much  relaxed  in  their  texture,  and  lose  a 
portion  of  their  gelatine.  The  leather  neces 
sarily  loses  in  weight  and  compactness,  and 


is  much  more  porous  and  pervious  to  water. 
The  warmer  these  weak  solutions  are  ap 
plied,  the  greater  is  this  loss  of  gelatine.  To 
ascertain  whether  a  portion  of  weak  liquor 
contains  any  gelatine  in  solution,  it  is  only 
necessary  to  strain  a  little  of  it  into  a  glass, 
and  then  add  a  small  quantity  of  a  stronger 
liquor.  The  excess  of  tannin  in  the  strong 
solution,  seizing  upon  the  dissolved  gelatine 
in  the  weak  liquor,  will  combine  with  it,  and 
be  precipitated  in  flakes  of  a  dark,  curdled 
appearance,  to  the  bottom.  In  the  best 
tanneries,  the  greatest  strength  of  liquor 
used  for  handling,  as  indicated  by  Pike's  ba 
rometer,  is  16°.  Of  that  employed  in  laying 
away,  the  greatest  strength  varies  from  30^ 
to  45°. 

After  the  leather  has  been  thoroughly 
tanned  and  rinsed,  it  will  tend  very  much  to 
improve  its  color  and  pliability  to  stack  it 
up  in  piles,  and  allow  it  to  sweat  until  it 
becomes  a  little  slippery  from  a  kind  of 
mucus  that  collects  upon  the  surface.  A 
little  oil  added  at  this  stage  of  the  process,  or 
just  before  rolling,  is  found  to  be  very  useful. 

Great  caution  is  necessary  in  the  admis 
sion  of  air  in  drying,  when  first  hung  up  to 
dry.  No  more  air  than  is  sufficient  to  keep 
the  sides  from  moulding  should  be  allowed. 
Too  much  air,  or,  in  other  words,  if  dried 
too  rapidly  in  a  current  of  air,  will  injure 
the  color,  giving  a  darker  hue,  and  rendering 
the  leather  harsh  and  brittle.  To  insure 
that  the  thick  parts,  or  butts,  shall  roll 
smooth  and  even  with  the  rest  of  the  piece, 
it  is  necessary  that  the  leather  should  be 
partially  dried  before  wetting  down  for 
rolling,  and  that,  when  wet  down,  it  should 
lie  long  enough  for  every  side  to  become 
equally  damp  throughout. 

In  the  tanning  records  of  200,000  sides, 
an  average  of  the  whole  time  was  five  months 
and  twenty-seven  days.  The  average  weight 
of  the  leather  was  seventeen  pounds  per  side. 
This,  according  to  the  best  authorities  we 
have  at  hand,  is  considerably  below  the  time 
employed  in  England.  There,  it  is  no  un 
common  thing  for  eight  and  ten  months  to 
be  employed  in  tanning  a  stock  of  leather, 


TANNINO BOOTS    AND    SHOES. 


323 


and  some  of  the  heaviest  leather,  it  is  said, 
takes  even  fourteen  and  fifteen  months. 

.  A  new  process  of  tanning  leather  has  been 
recently  introduced,  as  follows  : — 

Sole  leather  hides  for  sweat  stock  are  pre 
pared  for  the  tan  liquors  in  the  usual  man 
ner.  Limed  stock  for  upper  and  sole  leather, 
for  either  hemlock  or  oak  tanning,  is  limed 
and  washed,  and  bated  by  the  paddle-wheel 
handlers ;  after  being  properly  prepared  for 
the  tan  liquors,  it  is  then  handled  in  a  sec 
tion  of  vats,  with  the  liquors  communicating 
in  the  manner  long  known  as  press-leaches, 
except  the  order  of  running  the  liquors  is 
from  near  the  top  of  one  vat  to  the  bottom 
of  the  next,  and  so  on  through  the  whole 
section,  thus  "  pressing"  the  weak  liquor 
ahead  on  to  the  greener  stock,  giving  a  per 
fect  gradation  of  strength  of  liquor  on  each 
pack,  stronger  or  weaker  according  to  the 
length  of  time  it  has  been  in ;  each  vat  is 
fitted  with  a  paddle-wheel  handler,  patented 
June  19th,  1847,  and  Dec.  24th,  1850,  which 
is  used  for  stirring  the  stock  in  the  liquors, 
dispensing  with  the  necessity  of  handling  by 
hand  entirely ;  in  this  section  stock  should 
be  kept  about  two  weeks,  then  taken  out  and 
hung  over  sticks  with  head  and  butt  down 
in  layaways,  patented  August  10th,  1858, 
and  not  again  moved  or  seen  till  well  tanned ; 
the  layaways  arc  all  in  one  section  with  the 
communicating  trunks,  in  the  same  manner 
as  the  handlers ;  when  a  pack  is  taken  out 
tanned,  a  pack  from  the  handlers  is  put 
into  its  place,  and  the  weakest  liquor  in  the 
section  is  allowed  to  fill  the  vat ;  here  every 
part  of  every  side  is  in  contact  with  the 
liquor  at  all  times,  and  the  liquors  on  every 
pack  are  becoming  stronger  every  day  till 
tanned ;  the  liquors  arc  kept  in  motion  by 
small  paddle-wheels,  which  operate  on  the 
surface  of  the  liquor  over  the  suspended  sides, 
causing  the  liquors  to  pass  with  a  gentle  cur 
rent  among  the  sides,  bearing  them  up,  so 
that  they  do  not  rest  heavy  on  the  sticks. 

Two  men's  labor  is  sufficient  for  all  the 
yard  work  for  a  tannery  working  in  and  out 
150  sides  per  dav,  including  washing  the 
tanned  stock  and  taking  it  to  the  loft. 

The  results  of  tanning  144,000  hides  were 
as  follows : — 

wlblht'   AZag0'  Valnc- 

Hides 114,000     3,229,155     22.22  $421,810 

Leather, sides,  287,275     5,316,789     18.51     704,044 

This  gives  a  considerable  increase  in  the 
•weight  of  the  hides,  and  the  increase  in  the 


value  of  the  article  is  much  greater.  That 
covers,  of  course,  commission,  labor,  interest, 
profits,  etc.  The  great  development  given 
to  general  business  in  the  last  ten  years  has 
caused  an  almost  continuous  rise  in  the  value 
of  leather  and  hides.  The  latter,  on  being 
purchased  and  put  in  the  vats,  would  thus 
acquire  value  from  the  general  rise  in  the 
market,  in  addition  to  the  regular  value 
added  by  the  art  of  the  tanners.  There  was 
gradually  felt  a  growing  scarcity  of  hides,  and 
the  quantities  imported  by  no  means  kept 
pace  with  the  rising  value.  The  quantities 
and  values  of  hides  imported  for  the  few  last 
years  were  as  follows  :- — 

1650.         1855.          1856.          1857.  1858. 

No.  hides,  2.5T2.8S4  2,434,554  2.260,150  2/51,846  2.493,655 
Value,  $5,9(14,838  4,823,119  5,9)9.319  7,620,272  8,048,825 

This  shows  that  for  79,000  fewer  hides, 
there  was  paid,  in  the  year  1858,  82,000,000 
more  money  than  in  1850,  a  rate  which  gives 
an  advance  of  37^-  per  cent,  in  the  value  of 
hides,  without  inducing  a  greater  supply. 
Such  a  fact  indicates  the  growing  cost  of  the 
raw  material  for  boots  and  shoes,  and  also 
indicates  the  growing  value  of  the  hides  of 
animals  throughout  the  country. 

Leather  being  so  costly  a  substance,  great 
efforts  arc  made  to  introduce  economies  in 
its  manufacture  and  use  in  every  direction. 
One  plan  for  getting  the  most  possible  sur 
face  out  of  a  given  weight,  is  to  split  the 
thick  hides  into  two  thinner  sheets.  This 
process,  formerly  difficult,  has  of  late  under 
gone  many  improvements.  When  the  hide 
is  sufficiently  tanned,  it  is  split  sometimes 
into  five  thicknesses,  from  a  single  one.  This 
is  done  by  various  machines,  in  one  of  which 
the  knife  is  72  inches  long,  or  as  long  as  a 
hido  is  wide.  A  late  improvement  in  Bos 
ton  makes  the  knife  80  inches  long,,  and 
economises  25  per  cent,  in  the  stock  that 
before  was  shaved  away.  The  flesh  side  of 
the  sheet,  with  the  shanks,  arc  used  by  the 
trunk-makers  to  cover  wooden  trunks,  and 
blackened  on  the  trunks.  Other  sheets  are 
subjected  to  a  process  called  "  buffing," 
which  consists  in  shaving  oft'  about  half  the 
grain,  in  order  to  obtain  a  softer  surface  to 
receive  an  artificial  grain.  They  are  then 
returned  to  the  tan-yard,  and,  after  being 
scoured,  arc  retanned  in  warm  liquors.  They 
are  then  sent  to  the  currier  to  be  prepared 
for  japanning.  A  new  patent  has  been 
issued  for  splitting  leather  with  a  circular 
knife,  which  is  of  thin  metal,  made  like  a 
|  disc,  convex  side  up.  This  revolves  hori- 


324 


zontally,  with  its  sharp  edge  just  above  a 
table,  over  which  the  leather  is  stretched, 
and  held  down  firmly  to  it  by  springs.  Un 
der  the  table  is  a  roller,  which,  by  revolving, 
draws  the  leather  forward  against  the  edge 
of  the  revolving  knife.  The  upper  side  of 
the  leather  splits  off  in  curls  above  the  knife, 
which  may  be  nicely  adjusted  to  make  the 
leather  of  any  thickness. 

The  general  manufacture  of  boots  and 
shoes  had  undergone  few  changes  other  than 
those  produced  by  changing  fashions  and 
the  regular  improvements  of  business,  until 
the  introduction  of  sewing  and  pegging- 
machines,  which  have  given  a  great  impulse 
to  the  production  by  affecting  prices  and 
disturbing  localities.  The  Massachusetts 
shoe-makers,  by  their  industry,  early  obtain 
ed  an  ascendancy  in  the  manufacture,  and  it 
is  one  that  is  easily  adopted  in  an  indus 
trious  community.  The  towns  in  the  neigh 
borhood  of  Boston  attracted  masons,  car 
penters,  and  other  workmen,  in  the  winter 
season,  when  their  own  professions  were  dull, 
to  pursue  shoe-making,  which  was  always  a 
resource.  The  town  of  Lynn  was  the  most 
famous ;  and  the  facility  with  which  shoes 
were  turned  out,  led  to  the  legend,  that  the 
materials,  being  stuck  to  the  wall  by  an  awl, 
were  combined  in  the  proper  manner  by  a 
blow  of  the  lapstonc  being  skilfully  aimed  at 
them.  There  were  others  who  asserted  that 
both  boots  and  shoes  grew  there  sponta 
neously.  Whatever  may  be  the  fact,  an 
affluence  of  these  useful  articles  was  always 
observable  there,  and  thirty  years  since  the 
sales  were  mostly  in  the  hands  of  the  New 
York  merchants,  to  whom  most  of  the  New 
England  manufacturers  consigned  or  sold 
their  wares.  Gradually  this  changed.  The 
number  of  skilled  Avorkmen  that  arrived  from 
abroad  became  so  great,  as  to  fill  most  of 
the  departments  into  which  the  boot  trade 
became  divided,  as  crimping,  bottoming, 
heeling,  and  finishing;  and  the  pay  of  the 
workpeople,  by  the  piece,  or  the  pair,  enables 
each  to  control  his  own  time,  working  when 
they  please.  These  sometimes  club  their 
work,  and  appoint  an  agent  to  sell ;  others, 
by  economy,  save  their  pay,  and  employ  a 
few  men,  whose  work  they  direct.  These, 
in  the  cities,  are  called  "garret  bosses." 
When  they  succeed  in  establishing  a  trade, 
they  conduct  the  manufactory  by  a  foreman, 
and  open  an  office  in  the  city,  where  they 
sell  their  wares,  and  purchase  the  stock  for 
manufacture.  The  materials  are  in  this 


manner  better  purchased ;  and  as  the  seller 
is  himself  the  manufacturer,  coming  in  con 
tact  with  buyers  from  all  sections,  he  be 
comes  conversant  with  the  styles  adapted  to 
all  localities,  and  the  manufactory  is  by  far 
the  better  conducted  for  it.  The  advan 
tages  of  this  system  have  made  Boston,  of  late 
years,  the  grand  centre  of  such  operators, 
and  have  drawn  thither  the  jobbers  from 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Cincin 
nati,  St.  Louis,  etc.,  until  Boston  has  become 
the  largest  shoe  market  in  the  world.  The 
sales  of  boots  and  slices  there  are  $62,000,- 
000  per  annum.  The  number  of  pairs  made 
in  Massachusetts  in  the  year  1860  was  as 
follows : — 

Boots 11,578,885 

Shoes 32,678,167 

Boots  and  shoes 51,250 


Total  pairs 44,308,302 

Total  value $37,468,355 

This  was  a  number^  sufficient  for  one  and 
a  half  pairs  for  each  person,  great  and  small, 
in  the  United  States ;  and  the  number  em 
ployed  in  making  them  was  43,907  males, 
and  32,652  females:  together,  76,559.  In 
1845,  the  value,  manufactured  in  Massachu 
setts,  was  $14,799,140 — an  increase  of  $22,- 
669,215  in  the  fifteen  years;  showing  the 
force  of  concentration  of  the  trade. 

The  number  of  cases  exported  from  Bos 
ton,  in  1859,  was  as  follows  : — 

Total  year. 

Baltimore 62,461 

Charleston 17,177 

Louisville 21,119 

Lexington 2,158 

Memphis 3,338 

Mobile 2,940 

Nashville    18,781 

Paducah 1,146 

Richmond 1,452 

Savannah,  Ga 2,526 

St.  Louis 55,774 

New  Orleans 37,686 

Philadelphia 56,119 

New  York 182,207 

All  others 253,10? 

Total  cases 717,991 

This  gives  a  value  of  over  $30,000,000. 
The  class  of  shoes  sent  from  Boston  is  not 
of  so  fine  a  character  as  those  which  are 
turned  out  in  Philadelphia.  The  largest 
quantity  of  morocco  is  made  there  ;  and  the 
supply  of  skins  and  leather  is  ample,  and  of 
the  best  quality.  The  workmen  have  a 
reputation  for  skill,  and  are  paid  by  the  piece. 


TANNING BOOTS  AND  SHOES. 


325 


The  work  is  divided  into  separate  branches. 
For  men's  dress  boots,  the  "  fitter"  is  paid 
75  ctis. ;  for  crimping,  10  cts. ;  for  bottom 
ing,  $2  50;  heeling,  12  cts.  A  fast  work 
man  earns  about  $12  per  week.  The  pro 
duction  of  boots  and  shoes  in  Philadelphia 
has  been  placed  at  $4,141,000,  including  a 
quantity  made  in  the  state  prisons.  The 
introduction  of  sewing  machines  has  had  an 
important  effect  upon  the  manufacture  of 
both  boots  and  shoes,  and  more  recently,  the 
invention  of  a  machine  to  peg  soles  prom 
ises  to  make  a  still  greater  change  in  the 
principal  branch  of  the  Lynn  manufacture. 
The  machine  in  question,  for  which  a  pat 
ent  has  recently  been  issued,  punches  the 
leather,  and  inserts  the  pegs,  in  an  incred 
ibly  short  time,  with  the  utmost  accuracy 
and  efficiency.  The  sole,  when  pegged,  is 
perfectly  pliable,  the  pegs  forming,  apparent 
ly,  a  portion  of  its  substance.  The  use  of 
these  machines  is  as  well  adapted  to  the 
limited  wants  of  small  western  towns,  as  to 
the  grand  operations  of  metropolitan  manu 
facturers,  and  local  wants  may,  by  their  ac 
tion,  be  so  gradually  supplied,  as  to  dry  up 
those  streams  which  unite  in  so  extended  a 
demand  in  Boston. 

Let  us  go  into  an  eastern  machine  shoe 
factory.  In  a  small  room,  partitioned  off  for 
the  purpose,  is  a  neat  and  compact  steam 
engine,  which  carries  all  the  machinery,  even 
to  the  stitching  machines.  The  remainder 
of  the  basement  is  occupied  by  machines  for 
cutting,  stripping,  rolling,  and  shaping  the 
soles.  The  stock  is  then  passed  to  the  ^tory 
above,  where  the  shoes  are  lasted,  and  the 
outer  soles  are  tacked  on  by  hand  ;  by  which 
process  they  are  prepared  for  pegging.  The 
pegging  machines  are  simple  in  their  con 
struction  and  mode  of  operation,  but  per 
form  the  work  with  great  despatch  and 
accuracy,  driving  the  pegs  at  the  rate  of 
fourteen  a  second.  One  of  the  most  curious 
operations  of  the  machine  is  the  manner  in 
which  it  manufactures  the  peg  for  its  own 
use.  A  strip  of  wood  of  the  required  width, 
and  neatly  laid  in  a  coil  100  ft.  in  length,  is 
put  into  the  machine,  and  at  every  revolu 
tion  it  is  moved  forward,  and  a  peg  cut  off 
and  driven  into  the  shoe.  The  rapidity  and 
unerring  accuracy  with  which  these  machines 
perform  the  work,  is  truly  astonishing.  After 
being  pegged,  the  shoes  are  passed  up  to 
the  third  story,  where  the  bottoms  are 
smoothed,  scoured,  and  brushed,  and  then 
sent  into  the  front  of  the  buildinjr  to  be 


packed,  ready  for  sale  and  transporta 
tion. 

Another  part  of  the  building  is  occupied 
by  the  women  who  tend  the  stitching 
machines,  which  are  also  run  by  steam : 
thus  saving  them  from  what  otherwise  must 
prove  a  laborious  and  fatiguing  operation. 

A  dozen  hands  employed  in  the  manu 
facture  of  these  pegged  shoes  will  complete 
about  20  cases  per  week;  and  the  work 
being  almost  entirely  accomplished  by 
machinery,  gives  it  a  uniformity  as  to  style, 
shape,  and  general  appearance,  which  it  is 
impossible  to  obtain  by  hand.  The  pegging 
machine  has  been  invented  but  a  few  years. 
The  work,  even  now,  is  said  to  be  fully 
equal  to  that  performed  by  hand,  and  must, 
therefore,  we  think,  certainly  supersede  it 
when  the  machinery  is  brought  to  a  higher 
state  of  perfection,  which,  in  the  nature  of 
things  (it  being  impossible  to  stay  the 
progress  of  inventive  Yankee  genius),  must 
be  continually  taking  place. 

The  style  of  making  boots  and  shoes 
changes  in  some  degree,  and  is  leading  manu 
facturers  to  introduce  improvements,  like 
that  of  a  steel  shank,  so  called,  which  is  a 
steel  spring  fixed  firmly  in  the  heel,  and  ex 
tending  under  the  hollow  of  the  foot  between 
the  soles,  to  give  elasticity  to  the  step. 
The  grades  of  city  work  vary  with  the  qual 
ity  of  the  material  and  the  labor  bestowed. 
The  patent  leather  custom-made  boots  com 
mand  $10  per  pair;  and  the  high  Russia 
leather  Wellington  boots  $12  ;  and  so  down 
to  $10,  $8,  and  $5  for  calf-skin;  with  lower 
rates  for  split  leather,  and  ordinary  material. 
The  scarcity  of  material,  and  the  high  prices 
of  stock,  have  driven  the  poorer  class  of 
shoe-makers  to  the  use  of  old  tops,  or  upper 
leathers,  for  both  boots  and  shoes.  These 
are  not  only  refooted  for  the  use  of  the 
wearer,  but  are  cut  down  to  make  new  shoes 
and  boots  of  a  smaller  size.  Many  take 
much  pains  to  buy  up  old  articles  of  that 
description,  and  reproduce  them  at  rates  far 
below  what  they  cbuld  be  afforded  by  regu 
lar  shoe-makers  from  new  stocks.  Much  art 
is  used  also  in  economising  the  soles  of 
cheap  goods.  A  thin  under-sole  is  used ; 
between  which  and  the  in-sole,  pasteboard, 
old  slips  of  leather,  and  other  cheap  sub 
stances,  are  inserted,  to  give  an  appear 
ance  of  substance.  These  cheap  varieties 
of  shoes  supply  the  wants  of  those  whose 
means  are  small,  with  a  semblance  of  shoe- 


326 


LEATHER. 


The  phrase,  "paper  soles,"  is  not  infre 
quently  used  to  designate  the  extremely  thin 
substance  attached  to  the  casings  of  the 
dainty  little  feet  of  our  fair  sex,  but  still  that 
substance  is  leather.  Kcccntly,  however,  a 
pair  of  veritable  paper  soles  were  put  upon  a 
customer,  and  worn,  though  for  a  very  lim 
ited  time.  The  victim  in  the  case  was  a 
strapping  negro  fellow,  who,  allured  by  the 
seductive  invitation  to  "walk  in  and  see  the 
cheap  clodings,"  entered  a  Jew's  museum, 
and  purchased  a  pair  of  laced  boots  for 
$1  50. 


Establishments.  Hands. 
Tanners  863           5,525 
Boots  &  shoes  1,463         10,372 

Capital. 
$3,367,013 
1,061,940 

Harness,  &c. 

594 

1,613 

481,571 

Pocket-books 
Hose,  &c. 
Patent  leather 

12 
2 
5 

581 
19 
67 

91,430 
1,000 
59.000 

Morocco  

30 

509 

223,300 

The  production  of  leather  by  tanners  ex 
ceeds  by  much  the  value  used  by  those  who 
Avork  up  leather.  A  great  deal  of  the  leather 
made  in  this  state  goes,  however,  as  we  have 
seen,  to  New  England  to  be  used. 

The  manufacture  of  gloves  has  not  ex 
tended  itself  in  this  country  so  much  as 
some  other  industries,  with  the  exception  of 
buckskin  gloves,  which  are  peculiarly  Amer 
ican,  combining  utility  with  dress.  The  use 
of  gloves  is  becoming  far  more  general  in 
cities  than  formerly.  In  early  times,  the 
practice  of  presenting  a  pair  of  gloves  at 
funerals  to  the  attending  clergy,  and  others, 
was  carried  to  such  an  extent  in  Massachu 
setts,  that  the  legislature  forbade  the  prac 
tice,  under  a  penalty  of  £20.  In  cold  re 
gions,  gloves  are  of  the  warmest  wool,  or 
skins,  with  the  fur  side  out.  Buckskin  lined 
with  soft  wool  is  often  used :  the  texture 
changes  with  the  climate  to  the  softest  kid 
and  silk.  India-rubber  gloves  are  used  for 
many  purposes,  such  as  saving  the  hands  of 
females  in  many  kinds  of  domestic  labor. 
Some  years  since,  the  French  government 
undertook  to  clear  the  sewers  of  Paris  from 
the  multitude  of  rats  that  infested  them,  and 
which  had  become  a  formidable  nuisance. 
These  rats  were  of  large  and  divers  breeds. 
It  was  stated  that  a  contract  was  entered 
into  with  a  Parisian  glover  to  purchase  the 
skins  for  the  glove  manufacture  at  a  certain 
price,  on  the  condition  that  they  should  not 
exceed  1,000,000.  It  resulted  that  many 
millions  were  procured^  and  the  Parisian 


Raw  material. 
9,670,386 
2,628,524 

Value  produced. 
$15,642,383 
6,063,951 

816,804 

1,580,492 

128,040 

369,000 

60,000 

77,000 

118,000 
1,301,612 

226,500 
2,899,829 

They  fitted  well,  and  wore  well  for  a  few 
hours,  but  great  was  his  astonishment  when 
his  trotters  parted  company  with  his  bdots, 
and  he  was  once  again  barefooted.  On  ex 
amining  more  closely  his  purchase,  he. found 
that  the  soles  were  composed  of  thick  paper 
board,  colored  to  resemble  leather,  and  peg 
ged  to  the  uppers.  The  sympathising  justice 
heard  his  complaint,  but  could  grant  no 
relief. 

The  New  York  state  census  of  1855  gave 
the  following  summary  of  the  production  of 
leather,  and  the  manufactures  therefrom  : — 


Quantity. 
4,244,615'hides. 
1,478,017  pairs, 
j  1-5,663  sets. 
(  37,807  trunks. 
21,600  gross. 

73,250  skins. 
838,795  skins. 


house  having  declined,  a  London  glover 
took  the  "  lot."  It  is  not  certain,  however, 
that  the  skins  are  of  practical  value. 

The  French  excel  in  the  manufacture  of 
kid  gloves,  and  Parisian  gloves  are  still  with 
out  a  rival.  The  difference  is  seen  in  the 
cutting  of  the  skin  to  the  best  advantage. 
This  is  performed  with  scissors,  after  stretch 
ing  and  rubbing  the  skin  upon  a  marble  slab 
with  a  blunt  knife. 

A  skin  is  first  cut  longitudinally  through 
the  middle,  by  which  it  is  divided  into  two 
equal  and  similar  parts ;  and  the  single  strip, 
tor  the  palm  and  back,  is  next  cut  off  from 
one  end  of  the  half  skin.  The  pieces  for 
the  thumb,  the  gussets  for  the  fingers,  and 
other  small  pieces  to  be  inserted,  must  all 
be  worked  out  either  from  the  same  skin, 
or  from  others  precisely  similar.  In  this 
work,  it  is  said,  "  a  Frenchman  will  gen 
erally  manage  to  get  one  or  two  pairs  of 
gloves  more  than  an  Englishman  can  from 
the  same  skins,  and  thi'se  not  inferior  or 
scanty,  but  as  well  and  handsomely  shaped 
as  the  rest.  This  clever  and  adroit  manip 
ulation  of  the  leather  is  an  object  of  great 
importance  in  France,  where  not  less  than 
375,000  dozen  of  skins  of  all  kinds  are  cut 
up  into  gloves  every  year."  The  nearly 
square  piece  cut  off  is  folded  over  upon 
itself,  giving  a  little  more  width  for  the  side 
designed  for  the  back  of  the  hand ;  and  upon 
this  oblong,  double  strip,  the  workman, 
measuring  with  his  eye  and  finger,  marks 
out  the  'length  for  the  clefts  between  the 


TANNING BOOTS  AND  SHOES. 


327 


fingers,  which  he  proceeds  to  cut  and  shape. 
Making  the  hole  for  the  thumb  is  a  matter 
requiring  the  greatest  skill,  for  a  very  slight 
deviation  from  the  exact  shape  would  cause 
a  bad  fit  when  the  parts  are  sewed  together, 
resulting  in  unequal  strain  and  speedy  frac 
ture  when  the  glove  is  worn.  By  late  im 
provements,  introduced  by  M.  Jouvin,  the 
thumb-piece,  like  the  fingers,  is  of  the  same 
piece  with  the  rest  of  the  glove,  requiring 
no  seam  for  its  attachment.  The  cutting 
also  is  performed  in  great  part  by  punches 
of  appropriate  patterns,  and  some  of  these 
are  provided  with  a  toothed  apparatus  some 
what  resembling  a  comb,  which  pricks  the 
points  for  the  stitches.  The  seams  are  sew 
ed  with  perfect  regularity  by  placing  the 
edges  to  be  united  in  the  jaws  of  a  vice,  which 
terminates  in  fine  brass  teeth,  like  those  of 
a  comb,  but  only  one-twelfth  of  an  inch  long. 
Between  these  the  needle  is  passed  in  suc 
cessive  stitches.  When  the  sewing  is  com 
pleted  the  gloves  are  stretched,  then  placed 
in  linen  cloth,  slightly  damp,  and  beaten,  by 
which  they  are  rendered  softer  and  more 
flexible.  The  last  operation  is  pressing. 
The  chief  branch  of  the  manufacture  carried 
on  in  the  United  States  is  that  of  buckskin 
gloves ;  and  the  most  important  seat  of  this  bu 
siness  is  at  Gloversvillc,  Fulton  county,  N.  Y. 


It  follows,  from  what  has  been  said,  that 
the  United  States  are  large  consumers  of 
leather ;  and  when  we  consider  that  we  are 
largely  a  grazing  and  cattle-growing  nation, 
manufacturing  from  our  native  hides  a 
greater  quantity  of  leather  than  any  other 
nation  of  equal  population,  in  addition  to 
large  imports,  it  would  seem  to  indicate 
an  extravagant,  if  not  a  wasteful  use  of 
leather. 

We  arc  informed  by  Adam  Smith,  who  has 
delineated  every  point  and  line  of  every 
branch  of  political  economy,  and  who  has, 
apparently,  collected  and  compressed  into 
three  volumes  more  of  the  critical  history  of 
the  individual,  as  well  as  the  general  economy 
of  human  society,  than  any  one  author,  and 
with  less  of  error  and  mistake  than  most 
authors,  that  it  is  characteristic  with  savage 
nations  to  export  their  raw  hides,  and  neither 
to  manufacture  nor  use  much  leather;  while 
civilized  nations  import  largely  of  raw  hides, 
and  manufacture  and  consume  large  quanti 
ties  of  leather.  It  is  a  fair  corollary,  then, 
that  our  excessive  consumption  of  leather 
indicates  our  superior  degree  of  civilization  ; 
and  such  is  undoubtedly  the  truth.  The 
high  grade  of  civilization  of  the  people  of 
the  United  States  is  abundantly  evident,  and 
universally  acknowledged. 


FIRE-ARMS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

COLT'S    REVOLVERS  —  SHARP'S    RIFLES  — 
DAHLGREN'S   GUNS. 

THE  improvements  in  fire-arms  are  making 
such  rapid  progress  among  civilized  nations, 
that  we  may  indulge  the  hope  that  they 
will  soon  cease  to  be  wanted  at  all ;  since,  as 
extremes  meet,  they  may  become  so  effec 
tual  in  their  operation,  and  war  reduced  to 
such  a  science,  that  an  attempt  to  fight  will 
only  be  entire  mutual  destruction,  like  that 
most  effectual  combat  between  the  two  Kil 
kenny  cats.  The  last  war  in  Europe,  by 
which  France,  in  three  months,  liberated 
Italy  from  Austrian  grasp,  is  an  example  of 
the  power  that  may  now  be  exerted  in  a  short 
space  of  time,  and  the  newly  invented  rifled 
cannon  had  a  powerful  agency  in  bringing 
matters  to  a  close.  After  the  invention  of 
gunpowder  in  the  fourteenth  century,  the 
art  of  gunnery  made  great  progress,  and  the 
musket  came  to  be  the  most  important 
weapon.  The  Roman  legions  used  the  short 
stabbing  sword  as  their  favorite  weapon.  In 
the  age  of  chivalry,  the  lance  of  the  horse 
man  was  the  queen  of  weapons,  and  con 
tinued  so  up  to  the  battle  of  Pavia,  in  1525, 
when  chivalry  made  its  last  charge,  and 
went  down  with  the  white  panache  of  the 
gallant  Francis  I.  From  that  time  the  ar- 
quebuse,  then  a  matchlock,  improved  into  a 
firelock,  displaced  the  English  bow,  acquired 
the  bayonet,  and  became,  in  its  turn,  the 
"  queen  of  weapons."  When  the  musket, 
or  "  Brown  Bess,"  was  furnished  with  per 
cussion  caps  instead  of  flints,  and  the  sword 
bayonet  was  added,  there  seemed  to  be  little 
to  hope  for  in  the  way  of  improvement. 
Since  the  "  wars  of  the  Roses"  in  England, 
nine-tenths  of  all  the  battles  of  the  world 
have  been  decided  by  projectiles,  artillery, 
and  musketry,  without  crossing  a  bayonet  or 
drawing  a  sword.  The  cavalry,  as  an  arm, 
has  continually  lost  ground,  except  in  the 
rout  of  a  defeat,  when  it  follows  up  a  fly 
ing  enemy.  It  never  could  break  a  square, 


even  when  armed  only  with  pikes,  and  re 
cent  events  have  shown  that  it  cannot  reach 
infantry  in  line. 

A  remarkable  change  has  come  over 
"  Brown  Bess"  of  late,  and  it  seems  now 
to  have  seen  its  best  days.  The  rifle,  or  a 
screwed  barrel,  was  among  the  first  forms 
of  the  manufacture  of  small  arms  in  the 
sixteenth  century  ;  but  the  musket  was  pre 
ferred,  on  account  of  its  more  speedy  load 
ing.  The  rifle  was,  however,  the  favorite 
with  the  American  colonists,  and  its  execu 
tion  in  their  hands  during  the  Revolution 
brought  it  into  general  notice.  The  adding 
of  the  percussion  cap  was  a  great  improve 
ment  to  it.  Recently  it  has  become  so  im 
proved  as  to  supplant  not  only  the  old 
musket,  but  artillery  also,  since  the  events 
of  the  last  few  years  have  shown  that  it  is 
easy  to  silence  cannon  by  shooting  down 
the  gunners  at  their  pieces,  beyond  the 
reach  of  grape.  In  the  text-book  of  the 
St.  Cyr  Military  School  of  France,  it  is 
directed  that  the  fire  of  artillery  should 
cease  when  the  enemy  is  distant  twelve 
hundred  yards.  At  Waterloo,  the  opposing 
armies  being  twelve  hundred  yards  distant, 
were  out  of  reach  of  all  but  solid  shot 
from  field  guns,  as  they  were  then  served. 
It  is  now  stated  that  the  Minie  rifle  is  effec 
tive  at  a  mile  distant,  and  at  two  thousand 
yards  troops  can  easily  shoot  each  other. 
It  follows,  from  these  simple  facts,  that  ar 
tillery  must  improve  or  become  ineffective. 
The  improvements  in  the  rifle  were  mostly 
in  the  ball.  The  French  pin  rifle  had  a 
small  steel  "  pin"  in  the  bottom  of  the 
chamber.  The  powder  filled  in  around  this 
pin,  and  the  ball,  of  a  conical  shape,  hollow 
at  the  base  like  a  thimble,  had  a  small  metal 
plate,  which,  on  being  rammed  home,  struck 
against  the  pin,  and  spread  the  ball  so  as  to 
slug  the  piece.  The  Minie  rifle  was  nearly 
the  same,  without  the  pin,  because  it  was 
found  that  the  explosion  would  of  itself 
spread  the  ball.  The  performances  of  this 
weapon  are  somewhat  marvellous,  since  it  is 


COLTS    REVOLVERS SHARPS    RIFLES — DAHLGREN S    GUNS. 


331 


said  that  it  is  effective  at  a  distance  of  over  a 
mile. 

The  most  important  improvement  in 
small  arms  has,  however,  been  in  repeating 
weapons,  of  which  the  revolvers  of  Mr. 
Samuel  Colt  are  the  type.  Mr.  Colt  was  a 
seaman  in  his  youth,  and  while  on  a  voyage 
to  Calcutta  devised  the  revolver.  He  made 
the  model  in  wood,  in  1829,  while  at  sea. 
Improving  upon  this,  he  took  out  his  first 
patent  for  fire-arms  in  1835.  This  was  for 
the  rotating  chambered  breech.  This  of  it 
self  was  no  new  invention,  since  many  of 
the  old  arms  preserved  in  the  tower  of  Lon 
don  have  the  same  style  of  manufacture.  It 
is  obvious,  however,  that  what  is  possible 
in  this  respect  with  percussion  caps,  was  not 
so  with  the  old  flint-lock.  Mr.  Colt  had  the 
advantage  of  the  cap,  and  his  invention 
caused  the  chambers  to  revolve  by  the  act 
of  cocking.  In  1851,  he  read  an  essay  upon 
the  subject  before  the  Institution  of  En 
gineers  in  London.  Patents  were  issued  in 
France,  England,  and  the  United  States ; 
and  in  1835  an  armory  was  established  at 
Paterson,  N.  J.,  but  afterward  abandoned. 
The  first  important  use  made  of  this  new  arm 
was  in  1837,  by  the  United  States  troops  un 
der  Lieut.  Col.  (now  Gen.)  Harney.  The  In 
dians  were  acquainted  with  a  "  one-fire" 
piece,  but  when  they  saw  the  troopers  fire 
six  times  without  loading,  they  thought  it 
time  to  give  in.  There  was  not  much  de 
mand  for  the  arm  until  the  Mexican  war  of 
1846-47,  when  a  supply  was  required  for 
Taylor's  army.  The  government  ordered 
1,000,  and  there  was  not  a  model  to 
be  found.  This  order  was  filled  at  Whit- 
neyvillc,  near  New  Haven.  Other  orders 
followed,  and  the  works  were  transferred  to 
Hartford.  Mr.  Colt  manufactured  on  his 
own  account.  The  California  fever  set  in, 
and  was  followed  by  the  Australian  excite 
ment.  The  demand  for  arms  thus  occa 
sioned,  induced  Colonel  Colt  to  erect  an 
armory  unequalled  in  the  world.  It  occupies 
what  was  a  flooded  meadow  of  two  hundred 
and  fifty  acres.  This  is  diked  in  for  two 
miles,  and  the  most  extensive  buildings 
have  been  erected,  at  a  cost  of  $1,000,- 
000,  to  supply  1,000  fire-arms  per  day. 
In  1858,  60,000  were  turned  out.  All 
the  accessories  of  these  arms — balls,  cart 
ridges,  bullet-moulds,  powder-flasks,  etc. — 
are  manufactured  at  this  place.  There  are 
fllso  extensive  works  for  the  manufacture  of 
the  machinery  by  which  fire-arms  are  made. 


It  is  to  be  remarked  that  at  these  works  the 
machinery  for  the  British  government  ar 
mory  at  Enfield  has  been  made  ;  and  also 
all  those  for  the  Russian  government  at 
Tula.  The  arms  of  Colt  attracted  great 
attention  at  the  World's  Fair  of  London. 
"  In  whatever  aspect  the  different  observers 
viewed  the  American  repeaters,"  says  an  ac 
count  of  the  impression  they  made  at  the 
Crystal  Palace,  "  all  agreed  that  perfection 
had  been  reached  in  the  art  of  destruction. 
None  were  more  astonished  than  the  Eng 
lish,  to  find  themselves  so  far  surpassed  in 
an  art  which  they  had  studied  and  practiced 
for  centuries,  by  a  nation  whose  existence 
was  within  the  memory  of  man,  and  whose 
greatest  triumphs  had  been  in  the  paths  of 
peaceful  industry.  The  Duke  of  Welling 
ton  was  found  often  in  the  American  depart 
ment,  pointing  out  the  great  advantage  of 
these  repeaters  to  other  officers  and  his 
friends ;  and  the  different  scientific  as  well 
as  popular  journals  of  the  country  united  in 
one  common  tribute  of  praise  to  the  inge 
nuity  and  genius  of  Colonel  Colt.  The  In 
stitute  of  Civil  Engineers,  one  of  the  most 
highly  scientific  and  practical  boards  of  its 
kind  in  the  world,  invited  Colonel  Colt  to 
read  a  paper  before  its  members  upon  the 
subject  of  these  arms,  and  two  of  its  meet 
ings  were  occupied  in  hearing  him,  and  in 
discussing  the  merits  of  his  invention."  He 
was  the  first  American  inventor  who  was  ever 
thus  complimented  by  this  celebrated  in 
stitute,  and  he  received  at  its  hands,  for  his 
highly  able  and  interesting  paper,  the  award 
of  a  gold  medal  and  a  life-membership.  In 
addition  to  his  presence  before  the  institute, 
Colonel  Colt,  in  high  compliment  to  his  ex 
perience  and  skill,  appeared  also,  upon 
special  invitation,  before  a  select  committee 
on  small  arms  of  the  British  Parliament, 
and  there  gave  testimony  which  was  gladly 
received,  and  deemed  of  superior  practical 
value.  His  own  statements  were  amply 
corroborated  at  the  time,  before  the  same 
committee,  by  British  officers,  and  others, 
who  had  visited  his  armory  in  America ; 
and  especially  by  J.  Nasmyth,  the  inventor 
of  the  celebrated  steam  hammer,  who,  in  re 
ply  to  the  inquiry,  what  effect  his  visit  to 
Colt's  manufactory  had  upon  his  mind,  an 
swered  :  "  It  produced  a  very  impressive 
effect,  such  as  I  shall  never  forget.  The 
first  impression  was  to  humble  me  very  con 
siderably.  T  was  in  a  manner  introduced  to 
such  a  skilful  extension  of  what  I  knew  to 


332 


FIRE-ARMS. 


be  correct  principles,  but  extended  in  so 
masterly  and  wholesome  a  manner,  as  made 
me  feel  that  we  were  very  far  behind  in  car 
rying  out  what  we  knew  to  be  good  princi 
ples.  What  struck  me  at  Colonel  Colt's 
was,  that  the  acquaintance  with  correct  prin 
ciples  had  been  carried  out  in  a  bold,  in 
genious  way,  and  they  had  been  pushed  to 
their  full  extent ;  and  the  result  was  the  at 
tainment  of  perfection  and  economy,  such 
as  I  had  never  met  with  before."  All  tests 
and  examinations  to  which  the  repeating 
arms  were  subjected  in  England,  were  highly 
in  their  favor.  Emphatically  they  spoke  for 
themselves.  The  enormous  power — nay,  the 
invincibility  of  British  troops  armed  with 
them,  was  demonstrated.  "  The  revolver 
manufactured  by  Colonel  Colt,"  said  the 
Dover  Telegraph,  a  public  journal,  express 
ing  the  best  and  almost  universal  opinion  of 
England  upon  the  arm,  "  is  a  weapon  that 
cannot  be  improved  upon.  It  will,  we  un 
hesitatingly  predict,  prove  a  panacea  for  the 
ills  we  have  so  unhappily  encountered  in  the 
southern  hemisphere.  The  Caff'rc  hordes  will 
bitterly  rue  the  day  on  which  the  first  ter 
rific  discharge  is  poured  upon  their  sable 
masses."  And  so  a  panacea  the  revolver  did 
prove,  both  with  the  Caffre  hordes,  and 
with  the  Muscovite  also,  upon  the  bloody 
plains  of  the  Crimea.  Over  40,000  of  these 
pistols  are  now  in  use  in  the  British  navy ; 
and  Garibaldi  has  been  ably  sustained  by  a 
corps  commanded  by  Colonel  Peard,  and 
armed  with  Colt's  revolving  rifles. 

The  most  important  progress  in  the  man 
ufacture  of  these  arms,  is  that  each  separate 
part  of  a  pistol  or  carbine  is  made  after  one 
pattern  by  machinery,  and  with  such  entire 
accuracy,  that  a  number  of  the  weapons  may 
be  taken  to  pieces,  and  any  part  of  one  will  tit 
any  of  the  others.  Each  separate  part  is 
made  perfect  of  itself,  and  separate  boxes 
contain  these  parts.  The  weapons  arc  put 
together  rapidly  when  wanted.  There  has 
been  a  gradual  improvement  in  them,  from 
suggestions  derived  from  their  use  in  Mexico, 
the  Crimea,  and  Italy,  It  is  now  a  world- 
renowned  weapon. 

The  great  success  of  Colt  has,  of  course, 
brought  forth  imitations,  and  repeating  arms 
of  many  descriptions  have  been  patent 
ed.  Very  many  are  infringements  on  Colt. 
There  are  Allen's,  Derringer's,  the  Volcano, 
and  other  pistols,  and  Pettinger's  patent, 
which  is  a  revolving  chamber,  but  also  a 
patent  lock  of  some  reputation, 


The  invention  of  breech-loading  weapons 
has  also  been  very  successful.  The  type  of 
this  class  is  Sharp's  rifle,  which  was  invented 
about  the  year  1852,  by  Mr.  C.  Sharp,  of 
Philadelphia.  The  cartridge  in  this  weapon  is 
put  in  at  the  breech,  and  the  "  twist"  removed 
by  the  act  of  closing  the  breech.  The  piece 
is  also  self-priming.  The  caps,  instead  of 
being  single,  in  the  shape  of  small  thimbles, 
as  usual,  arc  made  flat,  and  arranged  together 
like  the  coil  of  a  watch-spring ;  at  each  cock 
of  the  piece  this  uncoils  and  thrusts  a  cap,  or 
one  section  of  the  coil,  over  the  nipple.  The. 
danger  of  this  is  that  they  all  explode  at 
once  if  not  well  made.  After  the  most  careful 
examination  of  the  construction  of  this  arm 
by  competent  men,  it  was  found,  in  compari 
son  with  others,  to  stand  the  tests  of  a  first- 
class  weapon,  being  safe  and  certain  in 
firing,  easily  and  rapidly  loaded,  simple  in 
its  construction,  and  constantly  kept  clean 
by  its  own  operation.  For  sporting  pur 
poses,  this  rifle  soon  became  a  favorite 
weapon.  The  ordnance  department  at  Wash 
ington  expressed  their  admiration  of  the  im 
provement  ;  and  subsequently  the  British 
government  ordered  6,000  of  these  rifles, 
for  the  use  of  their  army  in  India.  More 
recently,  Mr.  Sharp  applied  the  principle 
which  distinguishes  his  rifles  to  the  con 
struction  of  a  new  pistol  or  carbine,  es 
pecially  designed  for  the  use  of  mounted 
dragoons.  The  advantages  claimed  by  the 
patentee  for  the  new  pistol  are  numerous ; 
among  others,  that  it  is  more  compact, 
lighter,  has  a  more  extensive  range,  and 
fires  with  greater  accuracy  than  any  pistol 
now  in  use.  It  is  single-barrelled,  but  owing 
to  the  ease  with  which  it  can  be  loaded,  it  is 
capable  of  being  fired  twice  as  often  as  any 
revolver  in  a  given  period  of  time.  The  pis 
tol  weighs  about  two  and  a  half  pounds; 
the  barrels  are  six  and  eight  inches  long, 
and  throw  a  half-ounce  ball  effectively  one- 
fourth  of  a  mile.  It  primes  itself  for  twenty 
rounds.  It  was  recently  tested,  in  competi 
tion  with  various  other  fire-arms,  at  West 
Point,  by  a  board  of  officers  appointed  by 
the  United  States  ordnance  bureau,  and 
struck  a  target  six  feet  square,  at  a  distance 
of  600  yards,  twenty  out  of  thirty  shots. 
The  same  pistol  was  fired  seventy  times  in 
seven  minutes,  priming  it  three  times,  every 
ball  striking  a  target  three  feet  square,  at  a 
distance  of  forty-five  feet,  with  a  force  suf 
ficient  to  penetrate  eight  inches  of  pine 
board,  Certificates  from  officers  in  the  army 


COLT'S  REVOLVERS — SHARP'S  RIFLES — DAHLGREN'S  GUNS. 


333 


testify  to  the  high  estimation  in  which  it  is 
held  by  the  troops  that  have  tried  it.  The 
firm  of  C.  Sharp  &  Co.  erected  (for  the 
manufacture  of  his  fire-arms)  a  very  exten 
sive  establishment  at  the  west  end  of  the 
wire  bridge,  near  Fairmount.  The  building 
is  of  brick,  140  feet  long  by  forty  feet  broad, 
and  is  surmounted  by  a  cupola,  from  which 
aii  admirable  view  of  the  city  and  surround 
ing  country  can  be  obtained.  The  machinery 
is  of  the  most  beautiful  and  accurate  descrip 
tion  :  the  entire  cost  for  the  buildings  and 
machinery  being  about  $130,000.  The 
basement  is  used  for  the  forging  of  the  iron 
material  of  the  pistol.  In  the  rear  of  the 
first  story  is  placed  a  high-pressure  stationary 
engine  of  seventy-five  horse  power,  which 
forms  the  motive  power  of  the  establishment. 
The  second  story  is  used  for  the  boring  of 
rifle  barrels,  which  are  drilled  from  solid 
cylinders  of  cast  steel.  The  third  story  is  the 
tool  manufactory,  where  the  cutting,  milling, 
and  finishing  apparatus  is  constructed.  The 
fourth  story  is  the  finishing  shop,  where  the 
rude  materials  arc  adjusted,  and  from  which 
the  article  issues  complete.  The  manufacture 
of  the  rifles  is  carried  on  in  Connecticut. 

Among  new  inventions  of  breech-load 
ing  pistols  is  that  of  Stafford,  of  New  Ha 
ven.  The  conical  ball,  as  in  the  case  of 
all  breech-loading  arms,  is  fixed  ready  for 
use  in  a  copper  cartridge,  which  is  dropped 
from  the  left  hand  into  the  barrel  when  the 
pistol  is  held  by  the  right  hand.  The  barrel 
being  attached  to  the  stock  by  a  hinge,  is 
opened  to  receive  the  ball.  Then,  on  throw 
ing  the  barrel  into  line  with  the  breech,  by 
an  upward  jerk  of  the  right  hand,  it  is  ready 
for  use.  There  is  a  spring  catch  in  front  of 
the  hammer  of  the  lock  which  catches  the 
barrel  and  holds  it  in  position  until  the  pis 
tol  is  discharged.  When  the  thumb  is 
brought  down  on  the  catch,  the  barrel  is  dis 
engaged,  and,  by  a  jerk,  is  thrown  into  posi 
tion  for  reloading — the  whole  operation  of 
loading  and  firing  being  accomplished  in  a 
small  fraction  of  the  time  required  to  de 
scribe  it.  This  must  be  so,  for  an  expert 
can  fire  sixteen  shots  a  minute  with  this  pis 
tol.  The  arrangement  of  sights  is  also  com 
plete,  so  that  any  object  can  be  exactly 
covered  by  a  marksman  with  precision,  and 
the  penetration  and  force  with  which  the 
ball  is  projected  can  hardly  be  realized  by 
those  who  have  not  experimented  with  it. 

In  the  present  year  (1860)  a  patent  issued 
for  a  breech-loading  cannon,  which  has  also 


been  patented  in  France  and  England.  By 
this  a  ball  cartridge  is  dropped  into  the  gun 
by  an  opening  in  the  breech,  a  pin  moves 
forward,  pushing  the  cartridge,  closing  the 
hole  by  which  it  entered,  and  discharging  the 
piece  by  percussion  powder. 

The  rifle  factory  of  Mr.  Eli  Whitney,  sit 
uated  at  the  foot  of  East  Rock,  on  the  Hart 
ford  and  New  Haven  turnpike,  was  founded 
by  the  father  of  the  present  proprietor,  in 
the  year  1798,  and  was  long  used  by  him  in 
the  manufacture  of  arms  for  the  United 
States  government.  This  gentleman,  dis 
tinguished  for  his  talents  as  a  mechanic,  for 
his  sound  judgment,  and  for  his  persevering 
industry,  applied  to  this  branch  of  business 
the  same  skill  and  ingenuity,  the  first  fruits 
of  which  had  been  already  displayed  in  the 
invention  of  that  instrument  so  important  to 
the  agricultural  interests  of  the  south — the 
cotton  gin.  The  result  was  the  production 
of  an  article  superior  to  that  obtained  from 
England,  not  only  in  itself,  but  also  in  the 
manner  in  which  it  was  made.  The  method 
of  manufacturing  muskets  then  devised  by 
Mr.  Whitney,  and  also  many  of  the  different 
kinds  of  tools  invented  and  used  by  him, 
have  been  since  adopted  in  the  national  ar 
mories.  The  establishment  has,  we  believe, 
been  exclusively  devoted  to  this  business 
from  the  time  of  its  foundation  until  a  few 
years  since,  when  an  alteration  was  effected, 
and  the  manufacture  of  rifles  .  substituted. 
The  metal  is  wrought  into  the  most  eccen 
tric  shapes,  without  any  further  intervention 
of  human  hands  than  is  requisite  for  super 
intending  the  machine.  Owing  to  this  skil 
ful  arrangement  of  machinery,  only  thirty-five 
men  are  required  to  carry  on  the  works, 
turning  out  nearly  3,000  rifles  a  year,  worth 
about  $13  apiece.  In  the  manufacture 
of  these  about  50,000  pounds  of  iron, 
0,000  pounds  of  copper,  and  from  4,000  to 
5,000  pounds  of  steel  are  annually  con 
sumed.  The  steel  is  worked  up  into  ram 
rods,  springs,  and  portions  of  the  lock.  The 
iron  costs  about  $140  per  ton,  and  is  ob 
tained  from  Salisbury,  Connecticut — that 
procured  there  being  found  of  a  superior 
quality  to  either  the  English  or  Pennsylvania 
iron.  The  stocks  are  made  of  black  walnut, 
which  is  brought  from  Pennsylvania.  The 
rifles,  when  finished,  weigh  ten  and  a  half 
pounds  each.  A  striking  advantage  gained 
by  the  extended  use  of  machinery  in  making 
the  different  parts  of  the  rifle  is  the  perfect 
uniformity  of  the  work.  So  accurately  and 


834 


FIRE-ARMS. 


in  so  many  different  ways  is  every  part,  even 
the  most  minute,  gauged,  that  in  putting 
together  the  whole,  no  delay  is  occasioned 
from  trifling  inaccuracies  in  fitting.  Each 
screw,  spring,  sight,  top-board,  or  any  other 
piece  whatever,  is  so  nicely  wrought  that  it 
may  be  applied  to  and  will  fit  any  one  of 
the  3,000  rifles  made  in  the  course  of  the 
year  as  exactly  as  it  does  the  one  of  which 
it  finally  forms  a  part.  The  rifles  are  made 
on  contract  for  the  government,  and  are  not 
offered  for  sale. 

The  manufacture  of  guns  is  extensively 
carried  on  in  England,  and  the  value  ranges 
from  $1.50  to  $175  each.  A  vast  quantity 
of  the  cheap  arms  has  always  been  manu 
factured  for  the  American  trade,  particularly 
for  the  Indians.  The  common  guns  are 
made  of  flat  strips  of  iron,  called  a  kelp,  three 
feet  long,  four  inches  wide.  This  is  rolled 
into  a  cylinder  by  hand,  and  the  edges  Avoid 
ed.  Sometimes  the  strip  is  thick,  and  one 
foot  long,  being  drawn  out  as  it  is  welded. 
The  quality  of  the  gun  depends  upon  the 
toughness  and  elasticity  of  the  iron.  A  supe 
rior  gun  was  made  of  the  metal  used  for 
horse-shoe  nails,  and  the  old  nails  or  stubs 
were  reserved  for  this  purpose,  and  formed  a 
large  item  of  import  into  England  from  the 
continent.  Latterly  they  have  been  sup 
planted  by  iron  made  for  the  purpose.  Steel 
bars  in  combination  with  iron  ones,  called 
laminated  steel,  are  now  thought  to  be  the 
best.  There  is  much  fraud  in  this  manufac 
ture,  and  thousands  of  guns  of  common 
Damascus  iron  are  imported  into  the  United 
States  as  laminated  steel. 

The  manufacture  of  guns  is  carried  to  great 
perfection  at  the  United  States  armories  at 
Springfield,  Massachusetts,  and  Harper's  Fer 
ry,  Virginia.  The  guns  are  there  made  of 
flat  bars  of  iron  14  inches  long,  5  3-8 
inches  wide,  and  9-16  inch  thick.  The 
edges  are  bevelled,  so  that  when  turned  over 
into  a  cylinder  they  will  make  a  perfect 
joint.  The  bars  are  first  put  into  areverbera- 
tory  furnace,  and  when  at  a  white  heat  are 
passed  through  curving  rolls,  of  which  there 
are  five,  to  bend  the  bar  gradually  in  order 
that  it  may  not  split.  The  curving  of  450 
is  a  day's  Avork.  Before  it  is  curved  it  is 
called  a  plate;  after,  a  cylinder  ;  Avhen  welded 
it  is  a  tube,  and  a  barrel  when  it  receives  its 
shape  in  the  taper  groove.  The  Avoiding 
being  completed,  the  foreman  takes  the  barrel 
to  the  straightening  machine.  This  revolves 
sixty  times  in  a  minute.  The  machines  will 


weld  seventy-five  barrels  per  day.  At  every 
stop  the  tests  of  gauge  and  inspection  are 
rigidly  enforced.  The  barrels  are  proved 
tAvice,  with  360  and  240  grains  of  poAvdcr, 
and  a  ball  double  the  Aveight  of  the  service 
ball. 

The  stocks  are  of  black  walnut,  and  are 
delivered  by  contract  in  the  rough.  They 
are  turned  into  perfect  finish  in  half  an  hour, 
passing  through  sixteen  machines  of  the  prin 
ciple  of  Blanchard's  lathes.  The  "  furniture" 
or  metallic  mountings  for  receiving  the  barrel 
and  stocks,  are  most  of  them  stamped  out  of 
plates. 

The  locks  are  highly  ingenious,  and  brought 
to  great  perfection.  They  are  too  compli 
cated  for  description.  In  the  year  1859 
the  government  produced  20,000  muskets  in 
both  armories.  The  United  States  rifle, 
musket  is  composed  of  eighty-four  different 
pieces,  twenty-six  of  which  are  of  cast  steel, 
two  of  Avood,  and  the  remainder  iron.  There 
are  524  distinct  operations  performed  on 
each  musket  and  appendages.  Each  opera 
tion  has  a  fixed  price. 

The  improvements  in  small  arms  have 
been  more  successful  than  those  in  cannon, 
although  the  subject  has  for  a  long  time  oc 
cupied  the  serious  attention  of  governments 
and  scientific  men.  The  military  maxim, 
that  "  he  who  Avould  live  long  must  enlist  in 
the  artillery,"  seems  likely  to  lose  its  point. 
That  arm  Avas  ahvays  effective  out  of  musket 
range,  but  now,  as  we  have  seen,  its  fire  falls 
short  a  long  Avay  inside  of  rifle  practice. 
In  recent  years,  there  have  been  attempts 
to  form  guns  of  Avrought  iron,  commonly  of 
hoops  encasing  bars  of  the  sjline  metal. 
This  construction  was  adopted  for  the  first 
cannon,  and  Avas  returned  to  in  the  formation 
of  the  Stockton  gun,  which  weighed  7  tons 
l7i  cwt.,  the  explosion  of  Avhich  killed  some 
members  of  the  cabinet  in  1845.  It  Avas  a 
gun  of  the  same  nature,  the  explosion  of 
Avhich  killed  James  II.  of  Scotland,  in  1460. 
The  efforts  that  have  been  made  in  this 
direction  abroad  have  produced  many  IIOAV 
guns.  Among  these  the  Lancaster,  which 
Avas  to  have  had  such  effect  in  the  Crimea. 
The  gun  has  a  twist,  and  the  oblong  ball 
moves  endwise  through  this  twist,  giving 
the  gun  an  immense  range,  but  it  Avas  very 
uncertain  of  aim,  and  each  discharge  cost 
one  hundred  dollars.  Many  of  these  burst 
Avith  great  damage.  This  Avas  supposed  to 
be  owing  to  the  Avedging  of  the  shot  in  the 
tAvist.  The  new  rifled  guns  of  Armstrong,  Eng- 


COLT'S  REVOLVERS — SHARP'S  RIFLES — DAHLGREN'S  GUNS. 


335 


lish,  and  those  of  the  French  invention,  have 
not  yet  been  sufficiently  proved,  although 
it  was  said  that  the  latter  were  of  great  in 
fluence  in  deciding  the  Italian  campaign. 
The  greatest  decided  improvement  in  guns, 
however,  is  an  American  one,  by  Captain 
Dahlgren,  of  the  United  States  navy.  That 
gentleman  entered  the  navy  in  1820,  as  a 
midshipman,  and  was  made  commander  in 
1855.  Since  1847  he  has  been  employed 
in  ordnance  duty,  conducting  experiments 
that  have  had  great  results.  Among  these 
is  the  adoption  for  boats  of  bronze  howitzers, 
12  Ibs.  and  24  Ibs.  calibre,  to  throw  shells, 
shrapncll,  and  canister ;  they  are  also  avail 
able  on  land.  The  Dahlgren  gun  is  consid 
ered  the  most  perfect  form  yet  constructed, 
and  the  new  steam  frigates  are  armed  with 
them.  The  length  of  a  10-inch  Dahlgren 
is  107  inches,  and  the  range  1,776  yards. 
The  improvement  in  the  United  States  in 
the  manufacture  of  guns  is  still  making 
progress. 

The  best  metal  yet  used  for  guns  is  cast 
iron.  That  metal  was,  however,  formerly  not 
so  well  made  as  at  present.  It  was  not  so 
uniform  in  character,  and  its  strength  was 
estimated  at  20,000  Ibs.  the  square  inch, 
while  bronze  burst  at  33,000  Ibs.,  and  was 
thought  to  be  more  relied  upon  for  uniform 
ity.  This  opinion  has  been  modified  by  ex 
periments,  made  by  Major  Wade,  of  the 
United  States  army,  at  Chicopee,  in  Massa 
chusetts,  in  1850.  It  there  appeared  that 
•  samples  from  different  parts  of  the  same  gun 
showed  a  difference  of  from  23,108  to  54,531, 
showing  a  tendency  of  the  metal  to  cool  in 
masses  into  separate  alloys.  Bronze  was, 
however,  less  hard  than  iron,  and  its  great 
cost  caused  it  to  be  confined  to  field  pieces, 
while  for  every  thing  above  iron  is  used. 
The  casting  of  guns  was  originally  hollow, 
but  from  unequal  contraction  in  cooling, 
caused  by  different  temperature  within  and 
without,  the  plan  was  abandoned,  and  the 
gun  being  cast  solid  was  bored  out  cold. 
In  the  United  States,  experiments  have  been 
successfully  made  to  improve  the  qualities  of 
iron  for  gun  purposes.  The  object  is  to 
produce  a  metal  of  a  perfectly  uniform 
texture,  hardened  with  the  piece  to  prevent 
the  battering  action  of  the  ball.  The 
principle  of  strengthening  iron  by  remcltirig 
was  developed  in  experiments  carried  on  by 
Major  Wade,  of  the  United  States  army. 
Since  1841  an  officer  is  required  to  be 
prese.nt  at  the  foundries  while  cannon  are 


making,  to  examine  and  test  the  metal  be 
fore  it  is  used,  as  well  as  the  first  gun 
made,  before  another  is  cast  from  it.  This 
inspection  has  been  highly  useful.  The 
transverse  strength  of  some  iron  was  found 
to  be  doubled  by  four  meltings  and  castings. 
From  experiments  made  at  South  Boston  in 
1844,  it  was  found  that  the  cohesive  power 
of  iron  is  augmented  by  exposing  the  melted 
iron  to  intense  heat.  This  is  increased  by 
the  time  of  exposure,  up  to  a  limit  beyond 
which  the  strength  retrogrades.  All  the 
experiments  resulted  in  increasing  the  aver 
age  strength  of  iron  from  23,638  Ibs.  to  37,774 
Ibs.  the  square  inch.  The  strongest  piece  of 
iron  ever  cast  was  a  sample  of  Greenwood 
(Orange  county,  N.  Y.)  ore.  It  was  brought 
to  the  degree  of  density  which  is  combined 
with  the  greatest  strength.  In  the  sample 
the  density  was  7.304,  and  the  tenacity 
45,970  Ibs.  per  square  inch.  This  material 
will  be  probably  the  favorite  for  gun  manu 
facture. 

The  process  of  casting  bronze  guns  is 
complicated.  The  pattern  of  the  piece  is 
prepared  by  taking  a  tapering-  rod  much 
longer  than  the  gun,  and  enclosing  it  entirely 
in  the  coils  of  a  soft  rope.  When  this  lias 
approached  the  form  of  the  intended  gun 
body  (not  including  the  breech),  it  is  laid 
over  with  plaster-of-Paris.  It  is  then  caused 
to  revolve  against  a  profile  board,  and  by  so 
doing  receives  its  shape.  The  models  of  the 
trunnions,  or  arms  on  which  the  gun  rests  on 
its  carriage,  are  then  attached  to  it,  and  the 
whole  dried.  It  is  then  washed  with  ashes 
to  prevent  adhesion,'  when  it  is  covered  with 
putty  loam  dried  hard.  This  is  the  first 
layer  of  the  mould,  and  other  layers  aro 
added,  until  the  whole  is  2|  inches  thick. 
This  mould  is  then  encased  in  iron  bands, 
over  which  a  further  thickness  of  5  inches 
of  mould  is  laid.  Over  this  come  more 
hoops  and  mould.  The  rod,  with  its  covering 
of  rope  arid  plaster,  is  then  taken  out,  leaving 
the  putty  mould  entire.  The  breech  mould  is 
made  separate  in  the  same  manncr,arid  that  for 
the  "  head"  also.  When  thoroughly  dried,  the 
three  sections  arc  set  up  in  the  pit  with  several 
others,  and  the  spaces  around  are  rammed  in 
with  earth  firmly.  In  order  that  the  metal 
when  running  in  may  settle  as  equally  as 
possible,  it  is  introduced  at  the  bottom.  It 
thus  rises  in  the  gun,  and  into  the  head 
three  feet  above  the  gun.  The  object  of 
this  head  is  to  allow  the  metal  most  likely 
to  be  imperfect  to  rise  to  the  top.  Hence, 


330 


FIKE-ARMS. 


when  the  gun  is  cool,  this  head  is  cut  off. 
The  gun  is  then  solid,  and,  being  placed 
upon  a  frame,  is  bored  out.  In  this  case  the 
borer  does  not  revolve,  but  the  gun  itself. 
A  steel  cutter,  fixed  to  the  end  of  a  bar, 
penetrates  into  the  gun  as  it  is  made  to  re 
volve  against  it,  being  pressed  up  to  it  as 
the  work  progresses.  The  boring  being 
finished,  the  gun  is  turned,  and  the  touch- 
hole  drilled  with  a  bit  and  stock. 

In  casting  iron  guns  the  process  varies 
slightly.  The  mould  being  prepared,  is  en 
closed  in  a  huge  case  of  cast  iron,  called  a 
gun  box,  made  in  sections.  The  lower 
section  contains  the  mould  of  the  breech, 
and  is  entire.  Between  the  mould  and  the 
sides  of  the  case,  sand  tempered  with  clay  is 
rammed.  The  flat  surface  on  which  the 
next  section  is  to  rest,  is  covered  with  fine 
charcoal  and  clay  water  to  prevent  adhesion. 
The  second  section  is  of  two  pieces  divided 
lengthwise,  and  has  affixed  to  it  the  trunnions. 
The  mould  is  kept  in  a  perfectly  vertical 
position  by  being  adjusted  by  a  plumb  line. 
Sometimes  the  space  round  the  box  is  left 
empty,  and  covered  over  to  retain  the  hot 
air  and  prevent  cooling  too  rapidly.  When 
the  mould  is  ready,  the  iron,  which  has 
been  prepared  by  many  remcltings,  flows 
from  several  furnaces,  through  channels 
in  the  sand,  into  a  reservoir,  from  which 
runners  or  channels  lead  over  the  tops  of  the 
moulds,  which  are  slowly  and  steadily  filled, 
without  the  introduction  of  air  to  disturb  the 
quiet  settling  of  the  metal. 

The  guns  being  cast,  the  difficulty  is  in 
cooling  them  to  preserve  the  uniformity, 
and  fires  are  sometimes  kept  burning  round 
the  case  for  several  days  after  casting.  At 
this  point,  an  important  improvement  was 
introduced  by  Lieutenant  Rodman.  The 
original  mode  of  casting  guns  hollow  was 
abandoned  for  boring  in  1729.  On  the  plan 
of  Rodman,  guns  are  now  cast  hollow.  A 
water-tight  tube  of  cast  iron  is  placed  in  the 
centre  of  the  mould.  In  the  centre  of  this 
tube  is  a  smaller  one,  and  through  this  a 
current  of  cold  water  enters,  and,  rising  in 
the  larger  tube,  flows  off.  Thus  the  interior 
is  cooled,  while  the  exterior  is  prevented, 
by  heated  air,  from  cooling  too  fast.  The 
metal  is  thus  protected  from  unequal  con 
traction.  In  proof  of  this  experiment,  guns 
were  cast  in  pairs.  These  were  8-inch 
bores,  of  the  same  iron  in  every  respect,  one 
solid  and  one  hollow.  The  solid  gun  burst 
at  the  seventy-third  discharge.  The  hollow 


one  stood  fifteen  hundred,  and  did  not  fail. 
A  pair  of  10-inch  guns,  treated  in  the  same 
manner,  resulted  in  the  bursting  of  the  solid 
gun  at  the  twentieth  fire,  and  the  hollow  one 
at  the  two  hundred  and  forty-ninth. 

Another  curious  fact  was  substantiated, 
viz.,  that  the  strength  of  the  gun  increased 
by  time.  8-inch  solid  cast  guns,  proved  in 
30  days,  stood  72  charges  ;  one  proved  in 
34  days  stood  84  ;  one  in  100  days  stood 
731  charges;  one  that  lay  six  years  stood 
2,582  charges.  The  explanation  of  Major 
Wade  was,  that  the  particles  of  iron  strained 
in  cooling  by  unequal  contraction,  readjust 
themselves  in  time,  and  reach  their  greatest 
tenacity. 

When  the  iron  gun,  whether  cast  solid  or 
hollow,  has  been  dressed  and  drilled,  it  is 
ready  to  be  proved,  which  is  done  in  this 
country  by  testing  the  strength  of  a  cylinder 
of  the  iron  an  inch  in  diameter  and  two 
inches  long,  cut  out  of  the  cannon,  formerly 
from  one  of  the  trunnions,  but  now  from  the 
barrel  near  the  muzzle.  The  specific  gravity 
and  other  properties  of  the  sample  are  care 
fully  noted,  and  these,  together  with  the 
trials  to  which  it  is  subjected,  and  the  hard 
ness  of  the  metal  determined  by  a  very  ex 
act  method,  give  correct  indications  of  the 
strength  of  the  gun,  without  the  necessity  of 
submitting  it  to  extreme  proof  by  firing  with 
constantly  increasing  charges  until  the  piece 
is  destroyed.  Indeed,  to  such  perfection 
have  these  proofs  been  brought,  that  guns 
have  been  selected  as  of  inferior  quality  from- 
among  a  large  lot,  which,  on  reference  to  the 
books  of  the  foundry,  were  found  to  have 
been  the  only  ones  of  the  lot  made  of  hot 
blast  iron.  According  to  the  indications 
furnished  by  the  tests,  several  guns  are 
usually  taken  from  each  large  lot  of  them,  to 
be  submitted  to  extreme  proof — the  selection 
being  generally  of  those  that  appear  to  be 
the  poorest,  best,  and  intermediate  qualities. 
These  are  fired  commonly  with  charges  of 
powder  equal  to  one-fourth  the  weight  of 
the  ball,  with  one  shot  and  one  junk  wad 
over  it.  The  firing  is  continued,  unless  the 
piece  previously  bursts,  to  500  rounds.  Then 
one  ball  more  is  added  with  every  discharge, 
till  the  bore  is  filled.  The  powder  is  after 
ward  doubled  in  quantity,  and  the  bore  filled 
with  shot  at  each  discharge.  When  it  bursts, 
pieces  are  selected  for  further  examination 
from  the  breech,  near  the  trunnions  and  the 
chase.  Guns  are  also  tested  by  hydrostatic 
pressure,  water  being  forced  into  the  bore 


COLT  S    REVOLVERS SHARP  S    RIFLES — DAHLGREN  8    GUNS. 


337 


with  increasing  pressure,  till  it  sometimes 
bursts  the  piece,  or  brings  to  light  its  hidden 
defects  by  opening  the  small  fissures  that 
were  concealed  in  the  metal.  It  is  not  un 
common  for  it  to  appear  upon  the  exterior 
of  pieces,  of  which  the  thickness  of  the  metal 
is  four  inches,  exuding  through  as  a  thin 
froth,  which  collects  upon  the  outside,  and 
forms  drops  and  little  streams.  By  this 
method,  the  exact  pressure  applied  is  known, 
and  may  be  gradually  increased  to  any  de 
sired  degree.  Sample  bars  are  also  cast  to 
gether  with  the  cannon,  which  furnish  some 
indication  of  the  strength  of  the  metal.  The 
different  rates  of  cooling  of  the  large  and 
small  mass,  however,  render  their  qualities 
somewhat  dissimilar. 

The  next  hostile  operations  upon  the 
ocean  will  have  to  encounter  countless 
changes  that  have  been  made  since  the  last 
war.  Steam  will  develop  its  yet  untried 
powers  in  warfare.  The  new  armor  to  make 
ships  ball-proof,  the  range  of  small  arms, 
and,  not  the  least  of  the  new  agents,  the 
effect  of  the  shell  guns  of  Dahlgren,  are  to 
be  tested.  The  difficulty  of  getting  to 
close  quarters  is  by  them  much  increased. 
The  picking  off  of  officers  and  men  by  the 
use  of  the  new  rifles  must  have  the  same 
tendency.  In  naval  gunnery,  as  on  land, 
the  small  arms  formerly  came  into  play 
only  within  the  range  of  the  batteries.  At 
present,  the  small  arms  are  first  effective,  and 
the  Dahlgren  only  recovers  a  portion  of  the 
ground  lost  by  cannon  as  a  consequence  of 
the  increased  range  of  rifles. 

In  1848  also  commenced  in  our  navy, 
under  the  direction  of  Dahlgren,  the  adap 
tation  of  graduated  scales  to  naval  guns. 
These  bear  the  ranges  in  yards,  and  eleva 
tions  in  degrees  and  fractions.  Tables  con 
taining  the  angles  of  elevation  answering  to 
different  distances,  are  furnished  in  the 
"  Ordnance  Manual."  The  scales  are  made 
of  brass,  and  fitted  to  the  breech  of  the 
gun.  These  insure  accuracy  of  aim. 

An  interesting  series  of  experiments  has 
been  conducted,  under  government  orders, 
by  Major  Mordecai  at  Washington,  in  rela 
tion  to  the  initial  velocity  of  shot.  By 
initial  velocity  is  understood  the  velocity 
of  the  shot  in  the  gun  after  discharge.  This 
is  considered  the  most  important  point,  and 
infinite  pains  and  expense  have  been  in 
curred  in  deciding  it.  The  experiments 
made  by  Major  Mordecai  were  in  this  view. 
The  machines  used  for  this  purpose  are  a 


block  filled  with  sand  suspended  on  iron 
straps,  at  fifty-five  feet  distance  from  the  gun, 
which  is  also  suspended.  At  the  discharge 
the  gun  recoils,  and  its  rate  of  recoil  is 
measured,  while  the  shot  buries  itself  in  the 
sand  contained  in  the  block,  imparting  a 
motion,  which  is  also  measured.  The 
weight  of  the  block  is  9,358  Ibs.,  and  of 
the  gun  pendulum  10,500  Ibs.  The  result 
of  a  great  variety  of  experiments  was,  that 
the  velocity  measured  by  the  block  was 
nearly  the  same  as  that  measured  by  the 
gun." 

The  deductions  from  the  experiments  were 
some  very  valuable  conclusions  concerning 
the  charges  for  cannon  and  small  arms,  and 
the  form  of  the  cartridge  for  heavy  guns.  In 
relation  to  wad,  it  was  decided  that  the  use 
of  hay  or  punk  is  injurious  to  correct  aim. 
When  a  wad  is  required  to  hold  the  ball, 
it  should  be  light.  In  small  arms,  on  the 
other  hand,  wad  is  required  to  develop  the 
force  of  the  charge ;  unless,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  rifle,  the  ball  has  no  windage. 

Another  description  of  gun  has  been 
made  up  and  experimented  upon  at  Old  Point 
Comfort.  This  tremendous  piece  of  ord 
nance,  by  far  the  largest  ever  cast  in  this  or 
any  other  country,  is  designed  for  use  in  our 
coast  defences,  as  an  offset  to  the  late  important 
improvement  in  the  construction  of  vessels- 
of-warl  It  is  intended  to  cripple,  certainly 
and  hopelessly,  at  a  single  shot,  any  hostile 
ship  or  steamer,  no  matter  how  large  or 
strongly  built,  that  may  venture  within  a 
mile  of  its  enormous  muzzle. 

The  Floyd  gun  was  cast  but  a  short  time 
since,  at  the  Fort  Pitt  foundry,  near  Pitts- 
burg,  Pennsylvania,  under  the  supervision 
of  Captain  Rodman,  of  the  ordnance  de 
partment.  It  weighs,  independently  of  the 
carriage,  49,099  Ibs.,  and  its  cost  is  some 
thing  over  $10,000.  The  bore  is  sixteen 
inches  in  diameter,  and  fifteen  feet  in  depth. 
The  gun  is  worked  by  six  men,  and  the 
time  consumed  by  loading  and  firing  is  just 
one  minute  and  a  half.  It  will  throw  either 
shot  or  shell ;  and  these  are  spherical  in 
form  and  of  appalling  magnitude — the  solid 
shot  weighing  450  Ibs.  The  15-inch  shell 
weighs  about  384  Ibs.,  and  carries  beside  15 
Ibs.  of  powder.  The  charge  of  powder 
used  in  firing  this  monster  cannon  was  at 
first  only  20  Ibs.,  but  this  has  been  gradually 
increased  to  ascertain  the  maximum  of 
powder ;  and  in  the  last  discharge  no  less 
than  45  Ibs.  were  used. 


338 


FIRE-ARMS. 


The  piece  is  not  intended  to  be  fired  at  a 
jongef  range  than  about  two  thousand  yards, 
but  at  this  distance  its  execution  is  terrific, 
completely  shattering  the  most  massive  tar 
gets,  whether  constructed  of  stone,  timber, 
earth,  or  iron. 

Not  the  least  singular  feature  of  the  big 

fin  is  the  powder  used  in  discharging  it. 
he  grains  are  hard,  smooth  lumps  of  irreg 
ular  shape,  varying  in  size  from  half  an  inch 
to  an  inch  in  diameter. 

This  powder  is  made  on  the  principle  of 
what  is  known  amongst  boys  as  a  "  spit 
devil,"  that  is,  it  is  so  mixed  as  not  to  ex 
plode  all  at  once,  like  the  fine-grain  powder, 
the  inertia  of  the  bolt  'being  so  great  that 
an  instantaneous  explosion  of  the  whole 
charge  would  burst  the  gun  ;  but  the  igni 
tion  of  the  charge  being  gradual  at  first,  the 
ball  is  started  without  any  great  strain  on 
the  piece,  and  (it  is  contended  by  the  friends 
of  great  guns)  is  always  successfully  launch 
ed  on  its  mission  of  destruction. 

There  was  convened  in  August,  at  the 
fort,  a  board  of  engineers,  commissioned  by 
the  government,  to  examine  into  the  ex 
pediency  of  introducing  the  Floyd  gun  as  a 
regular  arm  of  the  United  States  service. 

The  large  guns,  as  now  used,  are  mostly 
designed  to  overcome  the  resistance  offered 
by  the  iron  covering  of  the  new  war  steamers, 
the  use  of  which  has  become  so  general  in 
the  civil  war.  The  necessity  of  some  mate 
rial  of  greater  resistance  to  projectile  force 
became  early  apparent,  when  gunnery  be 
came  so  much  improved  that  ordinary  wooden 
ships  were  no  longer  capable  of  withstand 
ing  an  assault.  The  question  of  iron  plates 
for  ships  was  discovered  as  early  as  1811,  by 
Stevens,  of  New  Jersey.  In  1840,  experi 
ments  were  made  in  England  upon  the  re 
sistance  of  iron  in  view  of  arming  vessels. 
In  1  852,  the  United  States  ordered  experi 
ments  upon  iron  batteries,  but  without  favor 
able  results  at  that  time.  In  1854,  the 
French  Emperor  ordered  a  series  of  experi 
ments  to  be  made  in  relation  to  iron  plates  ; 
and  in  1860  the  iron-clad  ship  La  Gloire 
was  built.  In  1861,  the  Warrior  was  con 
structed  in  England.  Neither  of  these  ves 
sels  appear  to  be  a  success,  however ;  both 
are  overloaded,  and  both  roll  heavily  in  a 
heavy  sea. 

In  1841,  Mr.  Theodore  R.  Timby,  of 
York,  constructed  a  model  of  a  revolving 
iron  tower  for  harbor  defense.  In  1854,  Cap 
tain  Ericsson  made  a  model  of  an  iron  tower 


on  an  armored  vessel.  The  application  of  the 
tower  to  vessels  he  claimed  was  first  made  by 
him.  On  this  plan  was  built  the  Monitor, 
which  encountered  the  Confederate  iron-clad 
Merrimac,  in  Hampton  Heads.  The  latter 
was  a  wooden  ship  cut  down,  and  armed 
with  railroad  iron,  placed  at  angles,  and 
proved  to  be  very  effective  and  invulnerable 
to  shot.  The  Monitor  was  so  successful  that 
the  government  ordered  10  more  at  once. 
These  were  844  tons,  each  having  one  turret 
and  two  guns  of  11  and  15  inch  calibre. 
Subsequently,  seven  Monitors,  of  1,034  tons 
each,  were  ordered,  having  one  turret  and 
two  15-inch  guns  each.  The  third  class 
Monitors  carry  two  turrets  and  four  guns 
each.  There  were  built  several  other  de 
scriptions  :  of  these  the  Ironsides,  tonnage 
2,486,  weight  of  armor  750  tons;  she  car 
ries  two  200lb.  Parrott  rifles,  four  24lb,  and 
sixteen  11  inch  guns.  The  Dunderberg  is 
of  7,000  tons  measurement,  armor  weight 
1,200  tons.  On  the  Western  rivers  were 
many  others  of  various  construction;  of 
these,  the  Essex  has  over  all  a  continuous 
layer  of  India-rubber,  one  inch  thick,  and 
the  iron  plating  is  bolted  over  that.  The 
rubber  is  supposed  to  give  some  elasticity  to 
the  plates  when  struck.  The  hull  is  divided 
into  40  compartments,  and  there  are  false 
sides,  designed  to  break  the  blow  of  an  as 
saulting  rarn.  Altogether  the  number  of 
iron-clad  steamers  at  the  close  of  1862  was 
53,  carrying  266  guns.  There  were  also  13 
gunboats  and  rams,  carrying  67  guns.  The 
events  of  the  war  demonstrating  the  utility 
and  behavior  of  gunboats  under  fire,  has 
developed  alike  their  good  and  bad  quali 
ties  to  some  extent,  but  by  no  means  defi 
nitely. 

In  the  attack  on  Charleston,  the  Iron 
sides,  with  eight  Monitors,  carrying  32  guns, 
were  engaged.  During  three-quarters  of  an 
hour  she  sustained  the  converging  fire  of 
four  forts,  carrying  300  guns  of  8  and  11  inch 
calibre  and  6  inch  rifled  shot.  The  number 
of  shot  fired  was  3,500,  distance  1,300  yards, 
at  close  quarters,  300  and  600  yards.  The 
Passaic  received  58  shots,  and  was  disabled 
in  the  turret,  which  was  rendered  incapable 
of  turning.  The  Keokuk  was  sunk  and  the 
enemy  captured  her  guns.  The  whole  num 
ber  wounded,  in  all,  was  13,  of  which  four 
were  wounded  on  the  Nahant,  by  the  shift 
ing  of  bolt-heads  not  properly  guarded  in 
side.  The  experiment  was  very  satisfactory 
as  to  resistance. 


CUTLERY. 


UNITED  STATES  INDUSTRY— AXES. 

THE  manufacture  of  cutlery  in  the  United 
States  is  of  recent  origin  comparatively.  But 
a  few  years  since,  the  Avhole  supply  came 
throngs  the  hands  of  the  importer  from 
Europe ;  but  the  production  of  edge-tools 
and  cutlery  was  no  sooner  started,  than  it 
took  a  rapid  growth;  and  a  foreigner,  re 
marking  upon  branches  of  American  industry, 
says :  "  The  manufacturers  of  cutlery  have 
far  surpassed  those  of  the  old  world  in  the 
production  of  tools,  and  that  not  merely  in 
the  excellence  of  the  metal  used,  but  espe 
cially  in  the.  practical  utility  of  the  patterns, 
and  in  the  remarkable  degree  of  finish  in 
their  work."  This  is  a  just  remark.  The 
"  high  finish"  of  American  work  is  applied 
only,  however,  where  it  has  utility;  not 
where  it  is  a  useless  expense.  This  may  be 
illustrated  in  watches  and  clocks.  The  Eng 
lish  have  highly  polished  works,  that  add 
much  to  the  expense,  but  nothing  to  the 
service.  In  the  American  article  this  ex 
pense  is  saved.  A  peculiarity  of  American 
work  is  the  readiness  with  which  improve 
ments  are  perceived  by  the  intelligent  worker, 
and  immediately  adopted  and  applied.  This 
intelligence  comes,  in  some  degree,  from  the 
entire  freedom  of  industry,  and  the  absence 
of  all  trade  "  guilds,"  unions,  or  restrictions. 
The  American  who  travels  in  Europe  is 
struck  with  the,  to  him,  ludicrous  mystery 
with  which  every  species  of  handicraft  is 
surrounded.  It  would  seem  as  if  the  pro 
prietor  of  every  petty  workshop  or  factory 
was  exclusively  possessed  of  the  philosopher's 
stone,  which  would  be  robbed  from  him  by 
the  prying  gaze  of  every  transient  visitor. 
The  apprentices  are  only 'taught  the  routine 
of  centuries,  and  only  so  much  as  is  neces 
sary  to  fulfil  the  part  of  the  labor  required 
of  them.  The  manufacture  itself,  whatever 
it  may  be,  is  divided  into  branches,  each  of 
which  is  in  charge  of  persons  who  preserve 
their  supposed  secret  from  the  other  branches. 

21 


Under  these  circumstances,  the  apprentice 
succeeds  with  difficulty  in  becoming  a  master 
of  his  trade.  When  out  of  his  time,  he 
must  travel  for  three  years ;  and  when  he 
returns  to  his  native  town,  he  must  have 
money  and  interest  to  be  made  a  citizen,  and 
then  admitted  as  a  member  of  the  guild,  or 
trades'  union,  before  he  can  pursue,  except 
as  a  journeyman,  the  trade  he  has  learned. 
How  different  is  all  this  in  the  United  States! 
The  boy  enters  a  factory,  or  a  workshop, 
and  is  taught  his  especial  work,  and  has 
within  his  reach  every  branch  of  information, 
scientific  and  practical,  connected  with  the 
Avhole  of  it.  His  fellow-workmen  are  ex 
perienced  in  all  the  branches,  and  with  the 
best  modes  in  use  in  all  countries.  His  em 
ployer  is  wedded  to  no  system  or  rule,  but 
is  ever  on  the  alert  for  improvement ;  always 
ready  to  suggest  and  hear  suggestions,  and 
to  adopt  feasible  ones.  It  is  no  wonder  that, 
in  such  an  atmosphere,  the  arts  should 
flourish,  and  that  an  observant  foreigner 
should  exclaim,  as  above,  that  hardly  twenty 
years  of  experience  in  the  new.  world  should 
have  surpassed  the  centuries  of  progress  in 
the  old  world.  This  branch  of  industry 
thrives  mostly  in  individual  workshops ;  it 
has  not  come  much  within  the  sphere  of 
corporate  influences.  There  is  a  general  and 
very  perceptible  adoption  of  American  pat« 
terns,  not  only  in  Europe,  but  in  England, 
as  being  more  practical-;  and  it  is  stated, 
that  in  American  factories  already,  there  is 
more  English  steel  used  than  in  England 
itself.  The  American  worker  does  not  be 
lieve  in  using  poor  tools,  when  good  ones 
are  to  be  had. 

Steel  is  the  material  used,  by  reason  of  its 
hardness,  for  the  cutting  edges  of  tools  and 
cutlery.  The  backs  are  made  of  iron,  as  a 
cheaper  material.  So  also  are  the  handles, 
or  "tangs,"  to  which  the  steel  is  welded. 
The  steel  is  blistered,  as,  or  after,  it  is  drawn 
down,  by  tilt-hammers,  into  shear-steel.  This 
is  used  for  table-knives,  scythes,  etc.  When 


340 


CUTLERY. 


a  fine  finish'  is  required,  or  great  hardness, 
the  blistered  steel  is  melted  into  cast  steel, 
and  the  ingots  are  forged  into  bars.  Simple 
articles,  such  as  chisels,  are  made  by  ham 
mering  a  bit  of  cast  steel  into  the  required 
shape.  This  being  intended  only  for  the 
edge,  is  made  very  thin,  and  upon  it  is 
welded  a  flat  slip  of  iron,  which  has  been 
forged  into  the  shape  of  the  chisel,  with  a 
shoulder  formed  by  driving  it  into  a  hole  in 
the  anvil.  One  side  of  the  chisel  is,  there 
fore,  iron,  intended  to  be  ground  away,  and 
the  other  steel.  Scissors  are  made  of  various 
materials.  Common  ones  are  shear  steel, 
with  the  blades  hardened.  Tailors'  shears 
have  the  blades  only  steel ;  the  remainder  is 
iron.  Formerly,  only  the  edge  was  steel. 
Some  scissors  are  made  of  good  cast  iron, 
called  run,  or  virgin  steel.  Of  these,  many 
are  sold  for  7  cents  a  dozen.  There  are 
some,  on  the  other  hand,  made  Avith  bows 
and  shanks  of  gold,  and  sell  for  $50  a  pair. 
"When  made  wholly  of  steel,  the  blade  is 
hammered  out  at  the  end  of  a  small  bar. 
It  is  then  cut  off,  with  enough  to  form  the 
shank  and  bow.  A  hole  is  then  punched  ; 
the  instruments  shaped,  united  by  a  screw, 
ground,  filed,  and  burnished.  The  blades 
are  slightly  bowed,  in  such  a  manner  that 
they  touch  each  other  only  at  the  point  of 
cutting,  and  this  point  moves  as  the  blades 
close  in  the  act  of  cutting,  from  the  pivot  to 
the  point.  This  operation  is  seen  by  hold 
ing  a  pair  of  scissors,  edgeways,  to  the  light. 
This  action  gives  smoothness  to  the  cut. 

The  manufacture  of  table  cutlery  is  of 
recent  introduction  into  the  United  States ; 
and  it  has  made  progress,  by  reason  of  the 
American  invention  of  a  machine  to  form 
the  blades,  which  invention  has  been  adopt 
ed  in  Europe.  In  the  old  process,  the  blade 
of  a  table  or  other  large  knife  is  hammered 
out  on  an  anvil  at  the  end  of  a  bar  of  steel, 
and  cut  off.  It  is  then  welded  on  to  the 
bar  of  wrought  iron,  about  half  an  inch 
square,  and  enough  of  this  is  cut  off  to  form 
the  bolster,  or  shoulder,  and  the  tang.  The 
blade  is  then  heated  and  hammered,  or,  as  it 
is  called,  smithed,  which  serves  to  condense 
the  metal,  and  enable  it  to  acquire  a  higher 
finish.  The  mark  of  the  maker  is  then 
stamped  upon  it,  and  it  is  hardened  by  heat 
ing  to  redness,  and  plunging  it  into  cold 
water.  It  is  tempered  to  a  blue  color,  and 
is  then  ready  for  grinding.  The  small  blades 
of  pen-knives  are  hammered,  entire,  out  of 
the  best  cast  steel.  A  temporary  tang  is 


drawn  out,  to  secure  the  blade  while  it  is 
ground.  A  number  of  blades  are  heated 
together  for  tempering,  by  being  placed 
over  the  fire,  upon  a  flat  plate,  their  backs 
downward.  When  at  'the  proper  degree  of 
redness,  so  as  to  take  a  brown  or  purple 
color,  they  are  dipped  in  water  up  to  the 
shoulder.  For  razors,  the  best  cast  steel  is 
selected  ;  and  when  the  blade  is  shaped  upon 
the  anvil,  from  a  bar  as  thick  as  the  back  of 
the  razor,  and  half  an  inch  wide,  it  is  well 
smithed,  to  condense  the  metal.  Only  the 
best  metal  will  bear  the  working  down  of 
one  part  of  the  blade  to  the  requisite  thin 
ness,  while  the  back  is  left  thick.  The 
shape  is  farther  improved  by  grinding  on  a 
dry,  coarse  stone.  The  tempering  is  per 
formed  after  the  blade  is  drilled  for  the  pin 
of  the  joint,  and  stamped.  It  is  then  ground 
and  polished. 

The  grinding  and  polishing  of  cutlery  is 
conducted  mostly  by  wheels  constructed  for 
the  purpose.  There  is  a  trough,  with  a 
stone  for  grinding,  and  a  polisher,  driven  by 
a  pulley.  The  stones  vary  in  diameter  from 
4  inches  to  2  feet,  according  to  the  articles 
to  be  ground.  The  convex  surface  of  the 
small  wheels  gives  the  concavity  on  the  blade 
of  the  razor,  and  the  other  wheels  suit  the 
various  sizes  and  shapes  of  the  articles  pol 
ished.  Some  are  used  dry,  and  others  are 
kept  wet,  in  order  that  the  heat  engendered 
by  dry  grinding  may  not  injure  the  temper 
of  the  articles  ground.  The  dry  grinding  is 
more  expeditious ;  but,  unless  the  troughs 
are  furnished  with  a  ventilating  fan  and  flue 
for  carrying  off  the  fine  metallic  particles 
and  dust  from  the  stones,  the  health  of  the 
worker  suffers.  This  flue  is  constructed  of 
tin,  in  the  shape  of  a  sort  of  cap,  that  comes 
over  the  back  of  the  stone;  the  other  end  of 
the  flue  is  in  an  adjoining  room,  and  has  the 
air  partly  exhausted  from  it  by  a'  fan  in 
rapid  motion.  This  creates  a  strong  cur 
rent,  which,  when  the  stone  is  in  operation, 
carries  the  dust  and  filings  from  it  into  the 
flue.  When  the  grinding  is  completed,  lap 
ping  succeeds.  This  is  done  on  a  thin 
wooden  wheel,  faced  with  a  tire  of  metal 
made  of  five  parts  lead  to  one  of  tin,  and 
cast  upon  the  edge  of  the  wheel.  It  is  then 
turned  true,  and  indented,  so  as  to  hold  a 
dressing  of  oiled  emery  of  different  degrees 
of  fineness.  The  steel  blades  receive  various 
degrees  of  polish,  by  drawing  them  from  end 
to  end  across  the  revolving  lap,  which  is  fed 
with  emery  of  various  sizes. 


UNITED    STATES    INDUSTRY AXES. 


341 


The  handles  of  cutlery  are  made  of  a 
variety  of  substances :  ivory,  horn,  mother- 
of-pearl,  tortoise-shell,  cocoa-nut,  maple-wood, 
etc.  Ivory  is  mostly  used  for  table-knives. 
A  solid  piece  is  cut  out,  of  the  right  size, 
and  a  hole  for  the  tang  bored  at  one  end. 
This  is  sometimes  carried  through,  so  that 
the  tang  may  be  visible.  When  it  does  not 
go  through,  the  tang  is  secured  by  cement. 
By  a  late  contrivance,  a  little  spring-catch  is 
fastened  to  the  tang,  which  falls  into  a  notch 
made  in  the  cavity  of  the  handle,  and  pre 
vents  it  from  being  withdrawn.  Balance 
handles  are  made  by  introducing  lead  into 
the  handle,  to  counterbalance  the  weight  of 
the  blade.  The  handles  of  pen-knives  are 
complicated.  The  springs  must  be  nicely 
adjusted,  requiring  a  peculiar  temper.  The 
Blips  for  the  handles  require  great  care  in 
the  fitting.  It  is  stated  that  a  three-bladed 
knife  passes  through  the  finisher's  hands 
one  hundred  times. 

The  manufacture  of  butcher  and  shoe 
iriives  is  large  in  the  state  of  New  York. 
The  state  census  of  1855  gave  it  at  35,000 
per  annum ;  and  these  have  a  wide  reputa 
tion. 

The  manufacture  of  forks  is  said  to  be 
one  of  the  most  unhealthy  of  the  mechanical 
arts.  It  has  been  estimated  that  the  destruc 
tion  of  life  in  it  is  greater  than  in  any  other 
pursuit,  by  reason  of  the  fine  dust  evolved 
in  the  process  of  grinding,  and  which  fills 
the  atmosphere  of  the  rooms,  and  invades 
the  lungs  of  the  operators.  This  takes  place 
in  the  finishing.  The  forks  are  hammered 
out  of  square  steel  rods,  3-8ths  of  an  inch 
thick.  The  tang  and  shank  arc  roughly 
shaped  at  the  end  of  the  steel  rod,  and  are 
then  cut  off,  with  about  an  inch  of  the 
square  steel  besides.  This  is  drawn  out  flat 
for  the  prongs ;  and  the  tang  and  shank  are 
then  shaped  by  the  die.  The  other  end, 
heated  to  a  white  heat,  is  laid  in  a  steel  die 
upon  an  anvil,  when  another  die,  attached 
to  the  under  face  of  a  heavy  block  of  metal, 
is  allowed  to  fall  upon  it  from  a  height  of 
7  to  8  ft.  The  prongs  are  thus  shaped,  and 
all,  but  a  thin  film  of  steel,  removed  from 
between  them.  This  is  cleared  out  by  an 
instrument  called  a  fly  press.  A  number  of 
forks  are  collected  together,  and  annealed 
by  heating  and  allowing  them  to  cool  slow 
ly.  They  are  now  sufficiently  soft  to  be 
easily  shaped  by  the  file,  and  by  bending. 
They  are  then  heated  to  redness,  and  suddenly 
cooled,  by  which  the  hardness  is  restored. 


The  process  of  hardening  renders  all  steel 
brittle ;  and  it  is  intended  to  remove  this, 
by  tempering.  The  higher  the  heat  when 
the  metal  is  hardened,  the  softer  and  stronger 
will  be  the  steel.  A  lower  degree  of  heat 
gives  more  hardness,  and  also  more  brittle- 
ness.  The  temper  is  indicated  in  the  color, 
and  the  temperature  which  produces  that 
color  follows  a  regular  scale.  Thus,  430 
degrees  of  heat  give  a  very  pale  straw  color, 
suitable  for  the  temper  of  lancets.  Higher 
degrees  of  heat  give  darker  shades  of  yellow, 
suitable  for  razors,  pen-knives,  and  chisels ; 
until,  at  500  degrees,  the  color  is  brown- 
yellow,  adapted  to  axes  and  plane-irons. 
Twenty  degrees  higher,  the  yellow  has  a 
purple  tinge,  seen  in  table  knives.  Thirty 
degrees  more,  and  the  dark  color  of  a  watch- 
spring  is  obtained.  Again  twenty  degrees, 
and  the  dark  blue  of  saws  is  visible.  At 
630  degrees,  the  color  has  a  tinge  of  green, 
and  the  steel  is  too  soft  for  instruments. 
This  color  is  supposed  to  be  produced  by 
the  action  of  the  oxygen  of  the  air  upon  the 
carbon  of  the  steel,  and  protects  the  metal 
from  rust  in  some  degree. 

One  of  the  most  necessary  tools  for  a  new 
and  agricultural  country  is  the  axe.  The 
remains  of  all  lost  races  generally  disclose, 
in  some  rude  form,  that  useful  instrument ; 
and  the  modern  nations  of  Europe  present 
it  in  an  improved  metallic  form.  The 
I  Spanish  axe,  which  has  no  head,  is  made  by 
!  hammering  out  the  bar,  and  turning  it  into 
a  loop,  to  make  the  eye.  The  manufacture 
of  the  axe  has,  hoAvever,  like  its  use,  been 
carried  to  its  highest  perfection  in  the 
United  States.  An  American  axe  has  a 
fame  coextensive  with  that  of  an  American 
backwoodsman,  who  alone,  of  all  the  nations 
that  visit  this  continent,  is  fitted  to  struggle 
with  the  mighty  forests  with  which  the 
country  was  covered.  While  the  American 
pioneer,  axe  in  hand,  boldly  buries  himself 
in  the  forest  to  clear  and  subdue  it,  the 
European  keeps  rather  to  the  plains,  as  more 
easily  managed.  The  experience  in  the  use 
of  the  axe,  and  the  various  uses  to  which  it 
is  applied,  have  combined  to  produce  great 
varieties,  all  of  which  have  undergone  con 
tinual  improvements.  Formerly,  the  opera 
tor  depended  upon  the  rude  forges  and  lim 
ited  skill  of  blacksmiths  to  supply  axes. 
With  the  improvements  that  suggested 
themselves,  special  factories  sprung  up,  and 
the  largest  factory  of  the  kind  in  "the  world 
is  in  New  England.  There,  1,200  tons  of 


342 


CUTLERY. 


iron,  and  200  tons  of  cast  steel,  are  by 
machinery  wrought  annually  into  tools.  In 
the  most  recent  process,  hammered  bar  iron 
is  heated  to  a  red  heat,  cut  of  the  requisite 
length,  and  the  eye,  which  is  to  receive  the 
handle,  punched  through  it.  It  is  then  re 
heated,  and  pressed  between  concave  dies, 
until  it  assumes  the  proper  shape.  It  is 
now  heated,  and  grooved  upon  the  edge,  to 
receive  the  piece  of  steel  which  forms  the 
sharp  edge.  To  make  the  steel  adhere  to 
the  iron,  borax  is  used.  This  acts  as  a  soap 
to  clean  the  metal,  in  order  that  it  may  ad 
here.  At  a  white  heat,  it  is  welded  and 
drawn  out  to  a  proper  edge,  by  trip  ham 
mers.  The  next  process  is  hammering  off 
the  tool  by  hand,  restoring  the  shape  lost  in 
drawing  out ;  it  is  then  ground,  to  form  a 
finer  edge.  It  is  then  ground  upon  finer 
stones,  and  made  ready  for  the  temperer. 
The  axe  is  now  hung  upon  a  revolving  wheel 
in  a  furnace,  over  a  small  coal  fire,  at  a 
peculiar  red  heat.  It  is  cooled,  successively, 
in  salt  water  and  fresh  water,  and  then  tem 
pered  in  another  furnace,  where  the  heat  is 
regulated  by  a  thermometer.  It  is  then 
polished  to  a  high  finish,  which  will  show 
every  flaw,  and  enable  it  to  resist  rust.  It 
is  then  stamped,  and  the  head  blackened 
with  a  mixture  of  turpentine  and  asphaltum. 
The  manufacture  of  scythes  has  reached  a 
high  state  of  perfection  in  the  western 


states,  and  the  patterns  have  been  imitated  to 
a  great  extent  in  Europe. 

The  manufacture  of  surgical  instruments 
has  become  large  in  the  cities,  mostly  in 
Philadelphia,  where  the  manufacture  has 
acquired  much  celebrity.  The  ingenuity 
and  skill  with  which  an  infinite  variety  of 
instruments  are  adapted  to  the  purpose  of 
operations  upon  the  living  fibres  of  the  body, 
are  marvellous  in  their  way.  The  quantities 
supplied  to  the  west  and  south  are  large. 

The  production  of  cutlery  and  edge  tools 
in  the  Union,  according  to  the  census  of 
1850,  was  as  follows  : — 

Number  of  factories 401 

Hands 4,275 

Capital $2,321,895 

Cost  of  labor 1,420,844 

Cost  of  material 1,439,462 

Value  produced 3,813,241 

This  was  for  the  year  1850.  The  quan 
tities  that  are  exported  from  the  United 
States  are  small,  not  amounting  to  above  a 
few  thousand  dollars.  The  imports,  how 
ever,  continue  to  be  large.  In  the  year  1857, 
they  reached  $2, 140,000;  of  which,  $1,953,- 
396  was  from  England.  The  quantity  im 
ported  is  far  from  keeping  pace  with  the 
number  and  Avealth  of  the  population.  The 
great  demand  from  the  latter  is  supplied 
by  the  increasing  home  production  of  in 
dividual  operatives. 


FURS  AND  FUR  TRADE. 


AMONG  the  natural  products  of  the  new 
world,  the  valuable  furs  of  the  various 
wild  animals  which  peopled  its  boundless 
forests,  its  rivers,  lakes,  and  seas,  were  soon 
appreciated  by  the  early  discoverers  and  ex 
plorers.  For  many  centuries  the  choicer 
varieties  of  fur  had  been  held  in  the  highest 
estimation,  and  the  use  of  such  as  the  er 
mine  and  sable  was  monopolized,  by  special 
enactments,  by  the  royal  families  and  nobility 
of  both  European  and  Asiatic  countries.  A 
market  was  therefore  ready  for  the  large 
supplies  which  were  soon  furnished  to  the 
early  settlers  by  the  Indians  in  exchange  for 
the  trinkets,  liquors,  and  numerous  articles 
of  trifling  value  brought  from  Europe  for 
this  trade.  The  English  and  French  com 
peted  with  each  other  to  secure  the  control 
of  the  business  around  Hudson's  Bay  and 
in  the  territories  now  constituting  British 
America,  extending  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific.  Each  nation  established  its  own 
trading  posts,  or  "  factories,"  and  protected 
them  by  forts,  and  the  possession  of  these 
often  passed  by  conquest  to  the  rival  party. 
The  incorporation  of  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company  in  1670,  by  Charles  II.,  gave  a  de 
cided  stimulus  to  the  English  interest,  by 
securing  to  men  of  great  influence  and 
wealth,  the  control  and  monopoly  of  the  fur 
trade  throughout  the  possessions  claimed  by 
the  British.  The  enormous  profits  realized 
by  this  company  induced  the  Canadians,  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  last  century,  to  form 
another  company,  which  they  called  the 
North-west  Fur  Company,  and  whose  field 
of  operations  was  nominally  limited  to  the 
territories  ceded  to  the  English  by  the 
French  in  1763.  Early  in  the  present  cen 
tury  their  factories  were  extended  westward 
to  the  rivers  that  flow  into  the  Pacific,  and 
they  employed  of  Canadian  voyageurs  and 
clerks,  who  were  mostly  young  men  from 
Scotland,  about  2,000  persons.  They  ac 
quired  possession  of  Astoria,  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Columbia,  in  1813,  and  vigorously 
competed  with  the  old  company — -the  two 
associations  carrying  on  open  war  throughout 
the  wild  territories  known  only  to  these  fur 


traders  and  the  Indians  they  controlled: 
By  act  of  parliament,  the  two  companies 
were  united  in  one  in  1821,  and  their  opera 
tions  have  been  continued  under  the  name 
of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  until  1859, 
when  their  last  special  license  of  1838  ex 
pired.  The  company  has  exercised  a  des 
potic  sway  throughout  the  territories  it 
occupied,  compelling  the  labor  of  the  poor 
French  voyageurs  and  the  Indians,  and 
causing  them  to  subsist  upon  the  most 
meagre  fare  and  pitiful  allowance.  Sad  tales 
of  their  sufferings  are  familiar  to  those  who 
have  visited  these  northern  regions.  The 
company  established  an  express  by  the  way 
of  the  great  lakes  and  the  western  rivers, 
and  by  numerous  relays,  always  ready,  in 
formation  was  conveyed  by  canoes  and  by 
land  travel  in  an  incredibly  short  time  from 
the  head-quarters  of  the  company  at  Mon 
treal  to  the  most  distant  posts  on  the  Pacific. 
Their  furs  collected  on  both  sides  of  the 
continent  were  transported  to  London  for 
the  great  annual  sales  of  March  and  Septem 
ber.  From  London  many  were  sent  to  Leipsic, 
for  the  great  annual  fair  at  this  famous  mart. 
While  these  extensive  operations  were  in 
progress,  the  inhabitants  of  the  provinces 
now  constituting  the  United  States  derived 
little  or  no  benefit  from  the  trade  so  long 
as  they  remained  British  colonies.  In  1762, 
an  association  was  established  among  the 
merchants  of  New  Orleans,  for  conducting 
the  fur  trade  in  the  regions  on  the  waters  of 
the  Missouri  and  its  branches  ;  and  this  led 
to  the  founding  of  St.  Louis  in  1763,  by 
Laclede,  the  leader  of  the  organization.  This 
place  was  made  their  head-quarters  for  the 
reception  of  furs  collected  by  their  voyageurs 
in  distant  excursions  by  canoes  and  Macki 
naw  boats  toward  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
among  tribes  of  Indians  who  often  attacked 
their  parties,  but  who,  controlled  by  the 
talent  and  wise  policy  peculiar  to  the  French, 
became  at  last  firm  friends  of  the  enterprise, 
and  bound  to  the  interests  of  the  Chouteaus 
and  others  by  whom  it  was  conducted. 
From  St.  Louis  the  peltry  was  boated  down 
the  river  to  New  Orleans,  ox  up  the  Illinois 


344 


FURS,    AND    PUR   TUADE. 


to  Lake  Michigan,  and  thence  to  the  great 
trading  post  of  Mackinaw.  From  this  it 
was  forwarded  by  the  lakes  and  the  St. 
Lawrence  to  Quebec,  to  be  shipped  to  Eng 
land.  Over  the  same  routes  Avere  returned 
the  groceries,  etc.,  for  the  supply  of  the 
traders,  which,  so  slow  were  the  means  of 
transportation,  were  the  returns  in  part  of 
the  furs  collected  the  fourth  preceding  year. 
But  though  the  expenses  of  the  long  voyages 
more  than  doubled  the  cost  of  the  supplies 
after  they  left  Mackinaw,  the  profits  of  the 
business  were  not  rated  at  less  than  300 
per  cent.  For  fifteen  years  preceding  1805, 
the  annual  value  of  the  peltry  collected  at 
St.  Louis  is  stated  to  have  been  $203,750 ; 
and  the  value  of  the  goods  annually  sent  up 
the  Missouri  during  about  the  same  period 
was  estimated  at  $61,000.  Deer  skins  con 
stituted  the  greater  portion  of  the  product, 
and  they  were,  indeed,  the  chief  medium  of 
exchange,  the  value  of  articles  being  rated  at 
so  many  shaved  deer  skins.  Beaver  and 
otter  were  the  next  in  importance,  and  buf 
falo  skins,  which  are  now  the  chief  object  of 
the  trade,  were  then  scarcely  collected  at  all. 

From  the  year  1818,  the  fur  trade  of 
the  north  has  been  conducted  almost  wholly 
by  organizations  which  have  sprung  from 
these  early  operations.  It  was  extended  by 
the  associations  established  at  St.  Louis  to 
the  regions  beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
and  there  carried  on  at  immense  sacrifice  of 
human  life,  from  the  dangers  naturally  inci 
dent  to  the  pursuit,  and  the  unappeasable 
hostility  of  the  savage  tribes.  In  1847  it 
was  estimated  that  the  annual  value  of  the 
trade  had  averaged  for  forty  years  from 
$200,000  to  $300,000,  and  the  latter  portion 
of  this  period  much  more  than  the  larger 
sum  named.  But,  like  the  discovery  of  gold 
in  California,  its  greatest  importance  was  the 
opening  of  uncultivated  territories  to  the 
advance  of  civilization,  and  the  introduction 
of  a  permanent  population  for  the  establish 
ment  of  new  states. 

During  the  last  century  the  fur  trade 
had  attained  to  no  importance  in  the 
eastern  states.  Mr.  John  Jacob  Astor, 
of  New  York,  engaged  in  it  in  1784, 
buying  in  Montreal  and  shipping  to  Eng 
land.  But  under  the  treaty  of  1794  he 
was  enabled  to  introduce  fur  from  the  British 
provinces  into  New  York,  and  he  then 
opened  a  new  trade  direct  with  foreign  coun 
tries,  shipping  peltries  even  to  China,  and 
receiving  in  exchange  the  rich  products  of 


the  East  Indies.  As  his  operations  pros 
pered,  he  engaged  in  the  early  part  of  the 
present  century  in  the  collection  of  furs  along 
the  northern  frontier,  a  field  which  had 
before  been  in  exclusive  possession  of  the 
North-west  and  Hudson's  Bay  Companies ; 
and  he  labored  zealously  in  the  great  national 
enterprise  of  diverting  this  important  trade 
from  the  exclusive  control  of  foreign  com 
panies,  and  causing  it  to  contribute  to  the 
commercial  interests  of  the  United  States. 
With  wonderful  energy,  and  dependent  al 
most  solely  on  his  own  resources,  he  carried 
on  these  gigantic  operations,  having  in  1808 
a  capital  of  no  less  than  $1,000,000  in 
vested  in  them.  In  1810  he  established 
the  Pacific  Fur  Company,  for  the  purpose 
of  forming  a  settlement  on  the  Pacific  coast, 
and  by  means  of  it  carrying  out  the  grandest 
commercial  scheme  that  had  ever  been  un 
dertaken.  His  ships,  leaving  New  York 
with  supplies  for  the  colony,  were  to  obtain 
from  it  and  by  trading  along  the  coast  car 
goes  of  furs  to  be  sold  in  China,  and  there 
loading  with  teas,  silks,  etc.,  would  return 
to  New  York,  making  a  complete  circum 
navigation  of  the  globe.  Mr.  Astor  was 
bound  by  his  articles  of  agreement  to  fur 
nish  capital  to  the  amount  of  $400,000  if 
required,  sending  each  year  an  expedition 
around  by  sea  and  another  across  the  coun 
try  to  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia,  and  the 
profits  were  to  be  equally  divided  between 
his  associates  and  himself.  Notwithstanding 
a  succession  of  disasters,  Mr.  Astor  con 
tinued  for  three  years  to  despatch  a  ship 
bound  around  Cape  Horn,  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Columbia,  having  unshaken  confidence 
in  the  final  success  of  the  enterprise.  And 
such,  no  doubt,  would  have  been  the  result, 
had  not  his  principal  Canadian  partner,  who 
controlled  the  affairs  at  Astoria  (the  settle 
ment  on  the  Pacific),  proved  treacherous  and 
given  up  the  post  to  the  rival  North-west  Fur 
Company  for  a  mere  nominal  price,  on  the 
pretence  that  it  would  certainly  be  seized  by 
the  British  cruisers  during  the  Avar.  This 
occurred  on  the  16th  October,  1813. 

From  that  time  the  operations  of  Mr. 
Astor  were  restricted  to  the  northern  terri 
tories  lying  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 
His  factories  were  at  Mackinaw,  and  at  the 
foot  and  head  of  Lake  Superior,  upon  whose 
waters  he  maintained  sailing  vessels  long 
before  they  were  visited  by  the  explorers 
of  copper  mines.  Up  to  the  year  1845  the 
only  business  prosecuted  upon  its  distant 


FURS,    AND    FUR    TRADE. 


345 


shores  was  that  of  the  fur  hunter,  and  they 
were,  in  fact,  known  only  to  this  class  and  to 
the  wandering  Chippewa  and  .Sioux  tribes  of 
Indians.  The  territory  of  Minnesota,  also, 
and  the  still  more  western  regions,  were  fre 
quented  only  for  the  same  object  previous  to 
1848.  From  that  period,  or  even  earlier, 
the  fur  trade  has  declined  in  importance, 
and  its  profits  have  been  divided  among 
larger  numbers  of  adventurers.  The  house 
of  Pierre  Chouteau,  jr.,  &  Co.  has  been  dis 
tinguished  for  many  years  as  the  most  en 
terprising  of  those  engaged  in  the  trade  ; 
and  in  1859  one  of  their  steamboats  ascen 
ded  the  Missouri  river  to  the  Great  Falls, 
near  the  Rocky  Mountains,  about  3,950  miles 
from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  returned  laden 
with  buffalo  robes.  Thus  the  trade  still  con 
tinues  to  be  the  pioneer  of  civilization — 
opening  new  roads  into  wild  territories  for 
the  advance  of  permanent  settlers. 

At  present,  St.  Paul,  in  Minnesota,  is  the 
chief  trading  post  of  the  fur  trade  of  the 
United  States.  Until  the  year  1844,  the 
furs  from  the  valley  of  the  Red  River  were 
sent  to  Hudson's  Bay  by  Nelson's  River,  but 
from  that  period  they  have  been  collected  at 
St.  Paul,  whence  they  are  transported  down 
the  Mississippi,  and  are  brought  at  last  to 
New  York.  In  1857,  the  value  of  the  furs 
shipped  from  St.  Paul  was  $182,491;  and 
in  1858,  when  the  price  of  furs  was  lower, 
the  shipments  amounted  to  $161,022.  The 
following  table  exhibits  the  varieties  and 
value  of  the  exports  of  1856  : — 


Animals. 

No.  skins. 

Value. 

Muskrat  

.   64,292 

$11,572   56 

Mink  

,.      8,276 

18,621   00 

Marten  

.      1,428 

3,570  00 

Fisher  

.  .      1,045 

4,702  00 

Fox,  red  

876 

1,095  00 

"       cross..  .  . 

20 

100  00 

"       silver.  .  .  . 

8 

400  00 

kilt  

.      2,542 

],271  00 

Raccoon  , 

.  .      3,400 

2,550  00 

"Wolverine  .... 

.  .      2,032 

3,048  00 

Otter  , 

405 

1,417   50 

Beaver  

586  Ibs. 

881   00 

Bear  

610 

6,700  00 

Lvnx  

50 

125  00 

Buffalo  robes.. 

.  .      7,500 

41,200  00 

Total  value  . 

$97,252   56 

From  this  table  it  is  apparent  that  the 
character  of  the  important  furs  has  greatly 
changed  since  the  early  periods  of  the  trade. 
Buffalo  robes,  then  esteemed  of  no  impor 
tance,  are  now  the  largest  and  most  valuable 
item ;  while  the  beaver  and  otter,  and  even 
the  marten  and  fisher  (two  animals  .of  the 


sable  kind)  have  greatly  fallen  oft'  in  relative 
importance.  The  skins  of  some  of  the 
smaller  animals,  as  the  mink,  assume  the 
greatest  importance  for  their  numbers  and 
value,  and  next  to  these,  in  aggregate  value, 
are  the  skins  of  the  common  muskrat. 
The  highest-priced  furs  are  the  Russian 
sable,  the  sea-otter,  and  the  black  or  silver 
fox.  For  its  size,  the  first,  named  of  these 
is  the  most  valuable,  but  the  sea-otter  brings 
the  highest  price  of  any  single  skin.  This 
is  collected  chiefly  on  the  American  and 
Asiatic  coasts  of  the  North  Pacific  ocean  ; 
and  its  greatest  demand  is  among  the  Chi 
nese  and  Russians,  though  its  use  by  the 
former  is  restricted  to  the  mandarins  and 
high  officers  of  state.  In  the  latter  part  of 
the  last  century  it  was  in  such  demand,  that 
several  expeditions  were  fitted  out  from  this 
country,  and  also  from  Europe,  expressly  for 
collecting  this  fur  from  the  islands  and  coast 
about  Nootka  Sound.  The  present  value  of 
the  skins  is  from  $100  to  $125  each.  The 
silver  fox  is  found  in  the  northern  part  of 
this  continent,  and  is  occasionally  captured 
in  the  region  about  Lake  Superior.  The 
value  of  the  skin  is  even  greater  than  that 
given  in  the  above  table — being  often  rated 
at  $60  apiece  ;  in  Europe,  when  well  dressed, 
they  have  been  known  to  bring  nearly  as 
many  guineas.  They  are  in  demand  chiefly 
by  Russian  noblemen  for  their  most  costly 
outside  garments.  Of  late  years  the  skins 
of  the  skunk  have  been  largely  collected, 
and  thousands  of  them  have  been  annually 
exported  from  New  York.  Those  of  black 
color  were  worth  the  most,  and  sometimes 
brought  seventy-five  cents  each.  The  de 
mand,  however,  has  fallen  oft',  as  it  is  found 
impossible  to  entirely  remove  the  disagreea 
ble  odor  of  the  animal,  so  that  it  will  not  be 
given  out  when  the  articles  made  of  the 
fur  are  moderately  warm.  Rabbits'  fur,  as 
described  in  the  account  of  the  hat  manufac 
ture,  is  an  article  of  considerable  trade.  It 
is  obtained  chiefly  from  Europe,  and  is  mostly 
consumed  by  the  hatters,  for  whose  use  noth 
ing  but  the  fur  itself  in  fleeces  is  imported. 
The  whole  skins  are  used  to  some  extent  by 
the  furriers  for  cutting.  The  present  char 
acter  of  the  trade,  and  value  of  skins,  are 
seen  in  the  following  statement  from  the  cir 
cular  of  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  exten 
sive  houses  in  this  business — that  of  Messrs. 
C.  G.  Gunther  &  Sons,  of  Maiden  Lane,  New- 
York.  To  their  experience  we  are  indebted 
for  many  of  the  particulars  that  follow : — 


346 


FURS,    AND    FUR    TRADE. 


Silver  fox,  according  to  size  and  color  ........................  From  $10  00  to  $30  00 


Otter,  northern  and  eastern,  and  north-western  ..............  do. 

"     Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  Ohio,  and  western  .........  do. 

"     Kentucky,  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  vicinity  ...........  do.     " 

"     North  and  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia  ...............  do.     " 

Fisher,  northern  and  eastern,  according  to  size  and  color  ........     " 

"        Penn.,  Ohio,  and  southern    "  "  "         ........     " 

Bear,  northern  .......  .  ........     "  "  "         ........     " 

"     southern  ...............     "  "  "         ........     " 

Martens  .......................    "  "  "         ........     " 

Wolf  skins  .....  ..'...  .....................................     ' 

Cross  fox,  northern  and  eastern,  according  to  size  and  color.  .....     " 

"        Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  and  Ohio,  do  ............     " 

Eed  fox,  northern  and  eastern,  do  ............     " 

"      south  Penn.,  New  Jersey,  and  Ohio,          do  ............     " 

"      southern  and  western,  do  ............     " 

Gray  fox,  northern  and  eastern,  cased  .........................     " 

"      southern  and  western  ........................  ^.  ......     " 

Beaver,  northern,  parchment,  per  skin  .........  .  ..............     " 

"         southern,  and  ordinary,  per  skin  ......................     " 

House  cat,  ordinary.  .......................................     " 

"        black  furred  ..................................  ...     " 

Mink,  New  York  and  eastern,  according  to  size  and  color  ........ 

"      New  Jer.,  Penn.,  Ohio,  Mich.,  Ind.,  111.,  Wis.,  and  Iowa,  do.  . 
"      Maryland,  Virginia,  Kentucky,  Mo.,  Iowa,  and  south,     do.  . 
"      North  Carolina  and  Tennessee,  do.  . 

"      South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida,  and  Alabama,  do.  . 

"Wild  cat,  northern  and  eastern  states,  cased  .................. 

"        southern  and  western  .........  .  .  .  .  :  ............... 

Raccoon,  Mich.,  north.  Ind.,  Indian  handled,  ac'd'g  to  size  and  color 
northern  Ohio,  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  and  Minnesota,  do.  . 
New  York  and  eastern  states,  and  north  Penn.,         do.  . 
New  Jersey,  southern  Penn.,  Ohio,  Ind.,  and  111.,       do.  . 
Maryland,  Virginia,  and  Kentucky,  do.  . 

North  Carolina  and  Tennessee,  do  .  . 

u         South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida,  and  Alabama,         do  .  . 
Muskrat,    spring  ........................................... 

"         fall  and  winter  ................................... 

"         southern,    average  .......  .  ........................ 

Opossum,    northern,  cased  .................................. 

"          southern  ........................................ 

Rabbit,     cased  ............................................ 

Skunk,    prime,  black,  cased  ............  .  ................... 

"        white  and  black   .................................. 

"        out  seasoned  and  very  white  ........................ 


50  to 
00  to 
00  to 
50  to 
50  to 
00  to 
00  to 
00  to 
50  to 
50  to 
00  to 
50  to 
25  to 
00  to 
50  to 
40  to 
30  to 
00  to 
50  to 

8  to 
15  to 
50  to 
25  to 
00  to 
00  to 
50  to 
35  to 
20  to 
60  to 
50  to 
40  to 
30  to 
25  to 
20  to 
10  to 
14  to 

7  to 

5  to 

6  to 
5  to 
1  to 

10  to 
3  to 
0  to 


8  00 


00 
65 
00 
00 
00 
50 
75 
75 
50 
40 
1  50 

1  00 
10 
20 

2  25 
1  75 
1  25 
1   25 
1  00 

50 

40 

1  00 

60 

50 

40 

30 

25 

20 

16 

8 

6 

8 

6 

2 

12 
5 
0 


Although  the  supplies  of  furs  are  dimin 
ishing,  the  trade  in  fancy  furs,  such  particu 
larly  as  are  used  for  ladies'  wear,  is  increasing 
in  importance  ;  and  in  the  city  of  New  York 
the  wholesale  and  retail  trade  for  the  year 
1856  was  estimated  to  amount  to  about 
$1,375,000.  The  sales  of  a  single  house 
amounted  in  1858  to  about  $800,000,  and 
consisted  altogether  of  fancy  furs,  such  as 
sleigh-robes,  caps,  coats,  gloves,  and  all  arti 
cles  worn  by  men  and  women.  The  same 
house  exported,  in  addition  to  this,  $350,000 
worth  of  shipping  furs,  consisting  of  otter, 
beaver,  muskrat,  fisher,  bear,  silver  fox,  wolf, 
cross,  gray,  and  red  fox,  raccoon,  opossum, 
rabbit,  and  skunk.  A  decided  change  in  the 
requirements  for  furs  for  ladies'  wear  has 
taken  place  within  a  few  years.  Instead  of 
the  cheaper  sorts  which  formerly  supplied 


the  market,  the  more  costly  kinds  are  no\y 
largely  in  demand.  Russian  sable,  which, 
since  the  opening  of  the  Amoor  river,  is 
furnished  in  larger  quantities  and  at  lower 
rates,  is  much  worn,  and  so  are  opera  cloaks 
of  the  white  ermine,  tipped  with  black  tabs, 
from  the  tail  of  the  animal.  A  full  set  of 
the  best  Russian  sable,  consisting  of  a  fichu 
Russe,  muff,  and  cuffs,  has  been  sold  for 
$1,800.  The  fichu  Russe  is  a  large  cape, 
falling  below  the  waist,  and  from  twenty- 
eight  to  thirty-three  inches  in  length. 
Around  the  neck, .  it  is  finished  with  a 
collar  four  inches  deep,  and  slightly  pointed 
at  the  back.  The  usual  prices  for  a  set  of 
this  fur  are  from  $700  to  $1,500.  Made  of 
Hudson's  Bay  sable,  the  set  is  worth  from 
$200  to  $800.  Some  specimens  of  this  fur 
are  nearly  equal  in  beauty,  and  quite  so  in 


PURS,  AND  FUR  TRADE. 


347 


quality,  to  the  lower  grades  of  Russian  sable. 
The  mink  is  the  most  popular  fur  for  the 
same  use,  owing  to  its  moderate  price,  com 
bined  with  good  qualities,  and  a  set  of  the 
finest  is  worth  from  $100  to  $200.  This 
and  the  sables  are  often  ingeniously  imitated 
by  dyeing  some  of  the  cheaper  sorts,  as 
rabbit's  fur,  so  that  even  experienced  per 
sons  are  sometimes  deceived.  The  stone 
marten  has  been  a  fashionable  fur,  but 
though  very  handsome,  it  is  giving  place  to 
those  sorts  of  darker  shades.  It  is  distin 
guished  by  a  white  underground,  and  over 
this  is  the  exterior  shading  of  a  light  brown 
stone  color.  A  fine  set  of  this  has  usually 
sold  for  from  $125  to  $150.  Fitch  makes  a 
good  serviceable  fur,  but  was  never  very 
fashionable.  It  is  of  yellowish  hue,  mel 
lowed  down  in  the  best  varieties  by  a  long, 
thick  overgrowth  of  dark  brown.  Sets  of 
the  darker  shades  are  worth  from  $50  to 
$75,  and  others  considerably  less.  Muskrat 
furs  are  sold  under  various  names,  as  river 
mink,  marsh  marten,  American  sable,  and 
French  mink,  and  are  worth  in  a  full  set 
from  $28  to  $35.  The  French  cony,  called 
also  French  sable,  is  a  French  rabbit,  colored 
brown,  with  black  stripes  through  the  mid 
dle  of  the  skin,  in  imitation  of  mink  and 
sable.  A  set  of  this  fur,  of  best  quality, 
costs  from  $20  to  $25.  Two  sorts  of  squir 
rel  furs  are  made  up,  and  mostly  for  chil 
dren's  wear  alone.  One  is  entirely  gray,  and 
the  other  mixed  gray  and  white,  and  their 
value  is  from  $25  to  $40  the  set.  The 
white  fur  worn  by  children  is  of  the  miniver 
and  white  cony.  Sets  of  furs  are  complete 
with  a  victorine  or  small  cape  in  the  place 
of  the  large  one,  and  are,  of  course,  furnished 
at  considerably  less  cost.  Fur  overcoats  for 
gentlemen  are  rarely  seen  in  this  country. 
A  few  have  been  introduced  from  Russia  of 
great  elegance,  both  sides  being  of  rich  fur, 
so  that  either  might  be  worn  outside.  Ladies 
in  the  cities  often  preserve  their  expensive 
furs  during  the  summer,  by  depositing  them 
with  the  fur  dealers,  who  take  the  same  care 
of  them  as  of  their  own  stock. 

The  mechanical  processes  to  which  furs  are 
subjected  are  few  and  simple.  The  skins  when 
stripped  from  the  animals  are  merely  dried 
in  the  sun,  in  order  to  protect  them  against 
putrefying.  Those  of  small  size  are  often 
first  steeped  in  a  solution  of  alum  for  more 
efficient  protection,  but  the  operation  is  ob 
jectionable,  as  the  alum  weakens  the  pelt. 
They  are  made  up  into  bales,  and  are  called 


peltry.  When  stored,  it  is  essential  to  keep 
them  perfectly  dry ;  and  to  guard  against  in 
jury  from  moths,  camphor  and  tobacco  ai'e 
strewed  among  them;  and  they  must  be 
examined  every  few  weeks,  and  each  skin 
be  beaten  with  a  stick  in  order  to  cause  the 
worms  of  the  moth  to  fall  upon  the  floor, 
when  they  are  crushed  by  treading  upon  them. 

The  first  process  of  the  furrier  is  to  soften 
the  pelt.  This  is  done,  with  the  finer  kinds, 
by  placing  them  in  a  tub  with  a  quantity  of 
butter  and  trampling  them.  After  stripping 
off  the  loose  pieces  of  skin,  they  are  again 
trampled  in  sawdust  (that  of  mahogany 
being  preferred),  the  effect  of  which  is  to 
remove  the  grease,  and  the  cleaning  process 
is  completed  by  occasionally  beating  with  a 
stick  and  combing  the  fur.  The  skins  are 
now  ready  for  the  cutter,  who  from  a  large 
number  cuts  out  pieces  of  various  shapes, 
which  are  then  sewed  together  to  make  up 
the  various  articles  of  fur  dresses.  Each  cape, 
muff,  etc.,  is  thus  made  up  of  pieces  from  dif 
ferent  skins,  and  the  numerous  seams  are  con 
cealed  on  the  outside  by  the  fur  itself,  and  on 
the  inside  by  the  lining. 

Furs  that  are  to  be  used  for  felting  require 
first  the  separation  of  the  long  hairs.  This 
is  effected  after  the  skins  have  been  split, 
scraped,  and  pressed,  by  either  clipping  them 
down  to  the  length  of  the  short  hairs,  or 
pulling  them  out  one  'by  one  as  each  is 
seized  between  a  knife-blade  and  the  thumb. 
When  carefully  trimmed  and  pressed,  the 
skin  is  well  moistened  with  water,  and  being 
held  upon  a  board  of  willow-wood,  the  fur  is 
cut  off  close  to  the  pelt  by  means  of  a  sharp, 
rough-edged  knife.  The  whole  clipping 
is  kept  in  one  fleece  by  means  of  a  piece  of 
tin  held  in  the  left  hand,  and  up  which  the 
fur  is  slipped  as  it  is  cut.  The  rabbits'  fur 
imported  for  the  hatters  is  received  in  these 
light,  loosely  cohering  fleeces,  each  being  the 
fur  of  one  animal.  The  skins  of  the  beaver 
and  nutria  require  much  more  thorough 
cleaning  to  remove  the  fat  from  the  pelt  and 
the  grease  from  the  fur,  as  by  repeated 
scrubbing  with  soap  and  hot  water.  The 
thick,  closely  matted  fur  of  the  former  has 
been  successfully  cut  by  machine  knives, 
an  operation  that  has  always  failed  when 
applied  to  the  more  uneven  and  thinner 
kinds  of  fur.  Some  chemical  preparations 
have  been  used  to  separate  the  fur  from  the 
pelt,  but  they  are  generally  found  to  be 
objectionable,  as  they  destroy  in  part  the 
felting  property. 


HATS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

EARLY  HISTORY  —  M  ANUF  A  CTURE  —  IM 
PROVEMENTS. 

FROM  an  early  period  in  the  history  of 
manufactures  in  the  United  States,  the  pro 
duction  of  hats  appears  to  have  been  prose 
cuted  with  considerable  success.  As  far 
back  as  the  year  1732,  the  business  was  so 
successfully  carried  on  in  New  England  and 
New  York  as  to  lead  to  complaints  among 
the  hatters  of  London,  and  representations  of 
the  injurious  effects  upon  the  trade  were  in 
consequence  made  by  the  London  Board  of 
Trade  to  the  House  of  Commons.  Being 
the  most  conspicuous  article  of  dress,  the  hat 
naturally  was  an  object  of  particular  solici 
tude,  and  much  more  latitude  was  allowed  in 
giving  to  it  peculiar  and  fanciful  forms  than 
at  the  present  4ime.  And  if  our  fathers 
failed  to  produce  fine  specimens  of  manufac 
turing  skill,  we  must  admit  that,  in  adopt 
ing  the  graceful  forms  of  the  high  Spanish 
hat,  with  its  rounded  brim,  and  ornaments 
of  plumes,  or  loops  and  tassels,  they  cer 
tainly  excelled  us  in  their  appreciation  and 
selection  of  pleasing  shapes,  instead  of  such 
stiff  and  awkward  forms  as  those  of  the 
fashionable  hat  of  the  present  day.  There 
was,  however,  with  them,  quite  as  great  a 
variety  of  hats  as  with  us,  both  in  material 
and  in  figure.  The  common  hats  were  of 
rough  felt,  usually  of  wool,  or  of  wool  and 
fur — sometimes  of  fur  alone — and.  the  prac 
tice  was  early  introduced  of  covering  the 
wool  body  with  a  plating  of  fine  fur,  felted 
by  hand  into  the  outside  of  the  coarser  ma 
terial.  The  body  was  stiffened  or  not  with 
glue,  and  sometimes  water-proof  stiffened 
with  gum  shellac.  The  round  crowns  of  the 
early  part  of  the  century  had  given  place, 
in  the  better  kinds  of  hats,  to  flat  tops, 
and  the  broad  brims  of  some  were  turned 
up  and  looped,  first  on  one  side,  then  on 
another,  and  at  last- on  the  third,  till  it  be 
came  the  regular  three-cocked  hat.  This, 


from  being  a  fashionable  hat,  finally  came  to 
be  appropriated  to  military  officers,  by  whom 
it  is  still  worn  as  a  badge  of  rank.  The 
Quakers  alone  adhered  to  the  old  broad 
brims,  making  it,  it  is  said,  a  point  of 
faith  not  to  wear  a  button  or  a  loop,  and 
wore  their  hats  "  spread  over  their  heads  like 
a  pent-house,  darkening  their  outward  man 
to  signify  they  have  the  inward  light."  In 
the  other  extreme  there  were  fashionable 
hats,  like  ladies'  bonnets  of  the  present  time, 
too  small  to  serve  as  a  covering  for  the  head ; 
such  a  hat  was  conveniently  carried  under 
the  arm,  and  in  fashionable  calls  furnished  a 
pleasant  diversion  to  its  owner,  who  twirled 
it  upon  the  head  of  his  cane. 

Many  of  the  soft  hats  of  our  ancestors  were, 
no  doubt,  very  fair  articles  of  hand  work 
manship.  They  possessed  abundance  of 
material,  and  used  the  choice  fur  of  the 
beaver  more  lavishly  than  hatters  have  of 
late  been  able  to  afford.  Their  mode  of 
felting  was  the  same  as  that  now  practised 
where  machinery  is  not  introduced,  and 
their  methods  of  shaping  hats  over  blocks,  or 
"  sizing,"  were  probably  as  skilfully  con 
ducted  as  at  the  present  time.  But  in  the  pro 
duction  of  the  stiff  pasteboard  hats,  covered 
with  a  sheet  of  fur  or  other  material,  the 
processes  in  use  were  comparatively  rude, 
and  have  so  continued  down  to  within  a  few 
years  past.  Within  our  own  recollection, 
the  hatter  in  almost  every  village  made  the 
hats  he  sold,  felting  his  own  materials  and 
forming  the  bodies  over  his  blocks,  and 
covering  with  them  the  stiff  and  clumsy 
cylinders  of  pasteboard,  shaped,  as  near  as 
might  be,  to  the  prevailing  forms  of  the  day. 
The  fur  of  the  musquash  and  beaver  were 
used,  often  plated  upon  a  body  of  lamb's 
wool ;  and  the  choicest  beaver  hats  were 
plated  with  the  finest  fur  of  the- animal,  taken 
from  the  belly  and  cheeks.  This,  too,  came 
to  be  used  upon  bodies  of  rabbits'  fur,  of 
which  the  so-called  beaver  hats  at  last  were 
chiefly  made ;  and  as  beaver  became  scarce, 


EARLY    HISTORY MANUFACTURE— IMPROVEMENTS. 


349 


nutria,  from  a  South  American  animal  of 
this  name,  was  very  generally  substituted 
for  it.  The  hatter  was  provided  with  dyeing 
kettles,  in  which  the  complex  materials  of 
his  hat  bodies  were  brought  to  a  uniform 
black  shade ;  and  there  was  a  variety  of  ap 
paratus  for  steaming,  shaping,  and  finishing, 
all  of  which  involved  laborious  hand-work 
ing,  and  more  or  less  mechanical  skill,  to 
produce  the  small  number  of  hats  required 
by  the  men  and  boys  of  the  village. 

Within  a  few  years  a  complete  revolution 
has  been  effected  in  this  business.  Ma 
chinery  has  been  almost  wholly  substituted 
for  hand  labor  in  preparing  the  materials  of 
hats,  and  this  is  now  done  upon  an  immense 
scale  in  a  few  of  the  large  cities,  whence  the 
hat  bodies,  or  the  finished  hats,  are  sent  for 
the  supply  of  the  country.  The  effect  of 
this  has  been  to  furnish  hats  of  uniformly 
better  quality  than  were  made  by  hand,  at 
greatly  reduced  cost,  and  to. carry  the  manu 
facture  to  such  perfection  that  the  American 
hat  is  now  distinguished  as  the  lightest  and 
best  produced  in  any  country.  In  England, 
the  American  is  often  recognized  by  the  ex 
cellence  of  his  hat.  For  this  we  are  in  part 
indebted  to  the  greater  dryness  of  our  cli 
mate,  the  moisture  of  England  rendering  it 
necessary  to  give  more  body  and  stiffening 
to  the  hats  exposed  to  its  influence.  This 
is  not  so  much  the  case  in  France,  and  hats 
there  approach  more  nearly  the  quality  of 
our  own. 

In  New  York  city  the  business  in  the  com 
mon  felted  hats  of  wool  and  of  fur,  which 
make  no  pretensions  as  works  of  mechani 
cal  skill,  is  carried  on  upon  an  immense 
scale  in  numerous  establishments ;  and  it  is 
stated  that  the  commission  houses  and  agen 
cies  engaged  in  this  trade,  which  are  con 
centrated  chiefly  in  the  lower  part  of  Broad 
way,  sell  over  5,000,000  hats  annually. 

The  business  in  stiff  hats  is  quite  a  dis 
tinct  branch,  and  their  manufacture  is  ex 
tended  through  several  different  establish 
ments.  The  making  of  the  bodies  is  almost 
monopolized  by  the  firm  of  Messrs.  Henry  A. 
Burr  &  Co.,  of  New  York  city,  and  by  their 
patented  machinery,  supplied  to  agents  in  a 
few  other  cities.  They  receive  from  the 
hatters,  who  buy  of  the  importers,  lots  of 
rabbits'  fur — the  chief  supplies  of  which 
come  from  towns  near  the  German  Ocean,  as 
Frankfort-on-the-Main,  Brussels,  etc.  Some 
of  poorer  quality  is  also  obtained  from  Vir 
ginia  and  North  Carolina.  The  fur  of  each 


lot  is  mixed  together,  and  to  every  4  or  5 
ounces  (the  usual  quantity  for  a  felt  hat)  -i- 
to  4-  an  ounce  of  the  finest  carded  cotton  is 
added ;  and  at  the  same  rate  for  the  lighter 
fashionable  hats,  the  weight  of  which  is 
about  3  ozs.  Picking  machines,  revolving 
with  great  velocity,  and  creating,  in  a  capa 
cious  box,  a  powerful  current  of  air,  cause 
the  fur  to  be  well  mixed,  the  operation  being 
repeated  to  make  it  thoroughly  effectual. 
The  long  hairs  and  bits  of  pelt  are  then 
separated  by  what  is  called  the  blowing  ma 
chine.  This  consists  of  pickers,  which  re 
volve  several  thousand  times  in  a  minute, 
and  strike  out  the  coarse  hairs  and  heavy 
particles,  which  fall  upon  a  screen,  while  the 
light  hairs  are  blown  upward  and  carried 
forward  to  another  compartment,  where  the 
same  process  is  repeated.  The  screens  are 
kept  in  agitation,  and  the  coarse  particles 
arc  finally  shaken  off  at  the  feet  of  the  man 
who  feeds  the  machine,  and  by  him  they  are 
again  passed  through  to  save  the  fur  that 
adheres  to  them.  The  dust  escapes  through 
the  perforated  copper  covering  of  the  ma 
chine,  and  the  clean  fur  is  delivered  at  the 
extreme  end  in  a  fine  flocculent  condition, 
readily  worked  into  a  mat  by  felting,  as  is 
shown  by  rolling  a  little  of  it  between  the 
fingers.  In  the  large  factory  of  the  Messrs. 
Burr  &  Co.,  about  30  of  these  machines 
are  kept  in  operation,  and  the  quantity  of 
fur  prepared  by  them  is  enough  for  about 
10,000  hats  daily.  This  number  of  hat 
bodies  has  been  produced  at  this  factory  for 
several  months  together.  Two  steam  en 
gines  are  employed  by  turns,  one  of  which 
is  of  400,  and  the  other  of  200  horse  power. 
The  fur  used  to  be  felted  altogether  by 
the  hand  process :  but  various  improved 
methods  have  been  devised  for  lessening 
the  labor ;  and  the  best  of  these  are  of 
American  origin.  By  the  process  invented 
by  Mr.  Thomas  Blanchard,  of  Boston,  the 
fur  was  made  to  collect  upon  a  fine  wire 
gauze,  and  there  take  the  form  of  a  matted 
ribbon,  by  exhausting  the  air  beneath  so  as 
to  create  a  strong  current  of  air  from  the  re 
ceptacle  in  which  the  particles  of  fur  were 
kept  floating  in  the  air.  This  ribbon  being 
wound  around  a  double  conical  block,  of  the 
size  of  two  hat  bodies,  was  then  joined  along 
the  overlapping  edges  by  rubbing.  The 
method  of  Messrs.  Burr  &  Co.  is  an  im 
provement  upon  this,  perfected  by  Mr. 
Ilenry  A.  Wells  and  Mr.  Burr.  A  cone  of 
sheet  copper,  considerably  larger  than  a  hat 


350 


HATS. 


body,  punched  full  of  small  round  holes,  is 
set  upright,  and  made  to  revolve  slowly 
upon  a  vertical  spindle.  An  exhausting  fan 
under  it  rotates  about  4,000  times  in  a 
minute,  causing  a  strong  current  of  air  to 
draw  through  the  holes  from  the  outside. 
Against  the  cone  is  the  mouth  of  a  sort  of 
trunk,  or  long  box,  in  the  opposite  end  of 
which  the  fur  is  fed  in  quantities  just  suf 
ficient,  each  time,  for  one  hat  body.  The 
fur  is  taken  up  from  the  feeding  apron  by  a 
cylindrical  brush,  and  thrown  forward  by 
the  rapid  revolutions  of  this,  which  also 
create  a  current  of  air  that  blows  the  fur 
toward  the  mouth  of  the  box.  From  thence 
it  is  seized  by  the  exhausting  current,  and 
drawn  down  upon  the  cone,  covering  this 
completely,  while  it  is  turning  round  sixteen 
times.  The  workman  standing  by  picks  oif 
any  coarse  particles  that  fall  in  with  the 
rest,  and  as  soon  as  the  deposit  is  completed, 
he  lays  a  wet  cloth  over  the  cone,  and 
places  over  all  a  loosely  fitting  metallic 
cover.  He  then  lifts  off  the  whole,  and  im 
merses  it  in  a  tank  of  hot  water,  replacing  a 
new  cone  immediately,  to  receive  the  next 
hat  body.  The  effect  of  the  hot  water  is  to 
make  the  particles  of  fur  cohere  more  closely 
together.  When  taken  out  of  the  water  the 
mat  is  placed  in  a  piece  of  blanket,  and 
worked  by  the  hand  upon  a  table.  It  is 
then  squeezed,  to  press  out  the  water,  and 
folded,  to  be  pressed  with  others,  and  made 
up  with  them  into  bundles  for  the  hatters. 
The  shape  of  these  bodies  is  that  of  a  wide, 
open-mouthed  bag,  of  a  size  much  larger 
than  the  hat.  They  are  very  soft,  and  toler 
ably  strong,  and  are  afterward  reduced  to 
the  required  dimensions  and  shape  by  the 
process  called  "  sizing,"  which  is  done  by 
the  makers  of  felt  hats  for  themselves,  and 
for  most  of  the  larger  manufacturers  of  silk 
hats  by  intermediate  establishments  specially 
devoted  to  this  object. 

The  immense  advantage  gained  by  these 
improvements,  is  seen  in  the  enormous  pro 
duction  of  the  factory  of  Messrs.  Burr  &  Co., 
which,  in  1856,  amounted  to  about  3,000,000 
hat  bodies,  besides  about  an  equal  number 
made  by  their  machines  in  other  cities. 
These  were,  moreover,  of  uniform  quality, 
according  to  the  kind  of  fur  used,  and 
every  one  free  from  imperfection.  By  the 
old  method,  it  was  the  labor  of  a  skilful 
man  to  form  four  or  five  bodies  in  a  day ; 
and  these  were  generally  inferior  to  the 
machine-made  bodies.  Their  cost  was  es 


timated  at  56  cents  each.  The  new  ma 
chines,  called  "  formers,"  employ,  each  one, 
two  men  and  a  boy  to  tend  them,  and 
another  man  is  occupied  in  rolling  and  put 
ting  up  the  bodies.  Their  production  is 
400  a  day,  and  the  cost  of  the  labor  em 
ployed  is  rated  at  from  six  to  ten  cents  for 
each  hat. 

The  "  sizing"  of  the  bodies,  as  performed 
by  the  manufacturers  of  felt  hats,  and  those 
who  prepare  them  for  the  makers  of  silk 
hats,  consists  chiefly  in  rubbing  a  pile  of  the 
bodies  after  they  have  been  dipped  in  hot 
water,  and  rolled  in  a  blanket  upon  a  sloping 
plank  table,  that  forms  the  margin  of  a  large 
central  tank.  This  is  called  the  hat-maker's 
battery,  and  is  large  enough  for  eight  to 
twelve  men  to  work  around  it.  By  rubbing 
the  bodies  they  soon  felt  together  more 
closely,  and  are  reduced  to  the  proper  sizes 
for  hats.  Those  intended  for  silk  hats  are 
called  shells ;  and  in  this  condition  are  sent 
to  the  factories  where  these  hats  are  made  up. 

Silk  hats,  which  are  the  latest  and  most 
perfect  improvement  in  this  art,  are  made  by 
covering  the  stiffened  fur  bodies  or  shells  with 
black  plush  specially  prepared  for  this  use, 
and  supplied  to  the  trade  from  France,  the 
best  dyed  coming  from  the  manufactory  of 
Martin,  of  Paris.  This  business  is  carried  on 
in  several  large  establishments  in  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  and  other  cities;  and  from 
these  the  fashionable  hatters  are  supplied 
with  hats  made  to  order  and  marked  with 
their  names.  The  country  trade  is  also  sup 
plied  from  the  same  sources,  but  with  hats 
rather  heavier  and  stronger  than  those  made 
for  city  wear.  The  latter  weigh  when  finish 
ed  only  about  three  ounces,  and  are  not 
usually  expected  to  continue  in  wear  more 
than  a  few  months ;  not  because  of  their  be 
coming  shabby  in  this  time,  but  because 
slight  changes  in  the  form  are  continually 
introduced,  which  wearers  must  adopt  to 
keep  in  the  fashion  ;  and  in  the  city  there  is 
more  disposition  and  means  for  always  wear 
ing  the  best. 

The  manufacture  involves  a  variety  of  pro 
cesses,  each  of  which,  after  the  most  eco 
nomical  system  of  division  of  labor,  is  con 
ducted  by  workmen  specially  devoted  to  this 
alone.  By  one  set  of  hands  the  soft  shells 
are  first  subjected  to  the  operation  of  water 
proof  stiffening.  They  are  dipped  one  at  a 
time  in  a  weak  solution  of  shell-lac,  then 
slipped  over  a  block,  and  partially  brought 
into  shape  by  rubbing  with  the  hands.  The 


EARLY    HISTORY MANUFACTURE IMPROVEMENTS. 


351 


brim  and  tip  (or  edges  of  the  top)  are  then 
brushed  over  with  a  thicker  coating  of  the 
gum  to  give  additional  stiffness  to  these 
parts.  When  dry,  a  hot  iron  is  applied, 
which  has  the  effect  on  cooling  of  giving 
greater  hardness  and  solidity  to  the  material. 
The  next  application  is  a  coating  of  fine  glue 
or  gelatine,  the  object  of  which  is  to  prevent 
the  varnish  of  seed-lac,  which  is  next  laid  on, 
from  striking  in.  The  hats  are  after  this 
taken  to  the  finishing-room,  and  here  are 
first  shaped  and  trimmed,  to  the  exact  pat 
tern  sent  with  the  orders  from  the  retail  hat 
ters.  In  this  operation  brass  gauges  of  a 
variety  of  forms  are  made  use  of,  by  which 
the  exact  dimensions  and  shapes  required 
are  secured  without  the  slightest  deviation. 


The  silk  plush  has  been  in  the  meantime  al 
ready  prepared  by  sewing  a  circular 'piece  for 
covering  the  top,  with  great  nicety  to  the 
piece  which  surrounds  the  body,  the  two 
edges  of  which  meet  in  a  line  up  and  down 
the  side  of  the  hat.  The  brim  is  covered  by 
a  separate  piece  above  and  below,  and  the 
edges  of  these  pieces  are  afterward  concealed 
under  the  binding  and  the  band.  A  hot  iron 
is  applied,  in  order  to  smooth  the  plush  and 
cause  it  to  adhere  to  the  varnish,  which  is 
softened  by  the  heat  of  the  iron.  After 
being  lined  and  trimmed,  the  hat  is  finally 
smoothed  and  shaped  Avith  a  hot  iron,  and 
the  precise  curve  required  is  given  to  the 
brim,  the  finishing  of  which  demands  the 
skill  of  a  practical  workman. 


INDIVIDUAL  INDUSTRIES. 


THE  great  progress  of  this  country,  as 
evinced  in  the  developments  of  the  preced 
ing  articles,  is  manifest  to  the  civilized  world, 
in  the  position  which  the  country  occupies 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  If  we  have 
followed  the  progress  of  each  leading  branch, 
from  small  beginnings  up  to  the  magnificent 
results  that  they  now  display,  it  has  been  to 
show  that  these  results,  great  as  they  are,  are 
but  the  preliminary  to  that  career  which  the 
future  promises.  It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind 
that  the  capital  of  the  country  had  to  be 
created,  and  that  the  large  enterprises  could 
be  carried  out  only  by  an  accumulation  of 
capital  that  grew  as  it  was  applied.  The 
manufactories,  the  mines,  the  finances,  the 
railroads  of  the  country,  were  nearly  all  car 
ried  on  by  associated  capital  acting  through 
corporate  bodies.  Underlying  those  vast 
undertakings,  however,  arc  the  broad  fields  of 
individual  industry,  where  every  man,  de 
pending  only  on  his  own  skill  and  perse 
verance,  not  only,  as  it  were,  created  an  in 
dustry,  but  devised  the  means  of  making 
it  useful.  The  inventive  genius  of  the  peo 
ple  has  been  systematically  applied  to  the 
improvement  of  qualities  of  goods  made,  at 
the  same  time  that  the  cost  of  manufacture 
lias  been  cheapened.  The  field  of  individual 
industries  may  be  explored  with  quite  as 
much  interest  and  admiration  as  those  which 
have  been  opened  by  the  application  of  in 
corporated  capital.  The  wonderful  results 
that  have  been  obtained  have  been  accom 
panied  by  the  fortunes  of  the  enterprising 
men  that  have  produced  them.  It  is  the 
case  sometimes  with  corporate  capital  that 
the  greatest  enterprises  are  carried  out  suc 
cessfully  for  the  public  interests  while  the 
capital  invested  in  them  has  been  sunk.  In 
the  case  of  individual  operation,  a  combina 
tion  of  mechanical  inventions,  of  industry 
classified,  of  raw  materials  judiciously  as 
sorted,  and  of  directing  skill,  produces  ar 
ticles  that,  before  unknown  or  unappreciated 
by  the  public,  have  become  necessities,  and 


the  demand  rewards  the  genius  and  judg 
ment  of  the  manufacturer  with  a  fortune. 
In  almost  all  cases,  but  little  money  capital 
was  possessed  at  the  commencement,  but 
there  was  a  better  capital  than  mere  money 
in  the  self-reliant  genius  of  the  indomitable 
American.  These  individuals  have  remod 
elled  old  manufacturing  processes  with  im 
provements,  and  created  others,  giving  em 
ployment  to  thousands  of  workers,  and  cre 
ating  interchangeable  values  for  the  great 
natural  products  of  the  country  ;  in  other 
words,  finding  a  market  for  labor  which 
would  otherwise  not  have  been  available. 
In  the  present  article  we  will  explore  a 
number  of  the  leading  industries  of  this 
nature. 


BUILDINGS  AND  BUILDING  MATERIAL. 

AMONG  the  marvellous  evidences  of  the 
advancing  wealth  and  luxury  of  the  Ameri 
can  people,  the  multiplication  and  improve 
ment  of  dwellings  are  very  conspicuous. 
The  official  figures  in  relation  to  the  num 
bers  and  values  of  dwellings  in  the  country 
are  indeed  not  very  abundant  or  very  pre 
cise.  There  are  materials,  however,  which, 
put  together,  give  a  pretty  accurate  esti 
mate  of  the  enormous  investments  in  dwell 
ings. 

In  1798  the  number  of  dwellings  and  their 
value  in  all  the  states,  was  given  in  the  tax- 
list  laid  before  Congress.  The  Values  given 
in  the  official  tax  list  at  the  end  of  the  last 
century  not  only  apply  to  a  class  of  dwell 
ings  far  less  costly  than  the  average  of 
those  now  in  vogue,  but  it  was  at  a  time 
when  money  or  capital  was  of  a  higher 
value  relatively.  The  number  and  value 
of  the  houses  then  reported  may  be  com 
pared  with  the  number  of  dwellings  reported 
in  the  United  States  Census  of  1850,  as 
follows : — 


354 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


NUMBER    AND     VALUE    OF     DWELLINGS    IN    TUB     UNITED     STATES. 

1798.  1850. 

No.  dwellings.  Value.  No.  dwellings.  Value. 

Maine part  of  Massachusetts.  95,802  $72,109,000 

New  Hampshire 11,142  $4,146,93890  57,339  43,004,250 

Vermont 5,437  1,558,38936  56,421  42,315,750 

Massachusetts 48,984  24,546,82646  152,835  114,626,250 

Ehode  Island 7,037  2,984,00287  22',379  16,784,250 

Connecticut 23,465  8,149,479  28  64,013  48,009,750 

New  York 33,416  25,495,63139  473,936  354,452,000 

New  Jersey 19,624  9,149,91884  81,064  60,798,000 

Pennsylvania 51,772  29,321,04833  386,216  289,662,000 

Delaware 5,094  2,180,16583  15,290  11,464,500 

Maryland 16,933  10,738,286  63  81,708  61,281,000 

District  of  Columbia ..  7,917  5,937,750 

Virginia 27,693  11,248,26767  165,815  124,361,270 

North  Carolina 11,760  2,932,893  09  104,996  78,747,000 

South  Carolina 6,427  5,008,292  93  52,642  39,481,500 

Georgia 3,446"  1,797,63125  91,206  63,404,500 

Florida ..  9,022  6,766,500 

Alabama ..  73,070  54,807,500 

Mississippi . .  51,681  38,760,750 

Louisiana ..  49,101  36,825,750 

Texas ..  27,988  20,991,000 

Arkansas ..  28,252  21.189,000 

Tennessee 1,030  286,44683  129,419  97,065,750 

Kentucky 3,339  1,139,76513  130,769  98,076,250 

Missouri . .  96,849  72,344,850 

Illinois ..  146,544  109,908,000 

Indiana ..  170,178  127,629,500 

Ohio ..  336,098  252,073,530 

Michigan ..  71,616  53,712.000 

Wisconsin ..  56,316  42,237,000 

Iowa ..  32,962  29,971,500 

California ., ..  23,742  17,806,500 

Minnesota  Territory ..  1,002  751,500 

New  Mexico  Territory ..  13,453  10,089,750 

Oregon  Territory ..  2,374  1,780,500 

Utah  Territory . .  2,322  1,741,500 

Total 276,559  $140,683,98477  3,362,337     $2,520,967,400 

Number  of  churches ..  36,221  87,049,459 


The  national  census  of  1850  did  not  give 
the  value  of  the  dwellings,  but  the  state  cen 
sus  of  New  York  for  1855  gave  not  only  the 
dwellings  but  their  value  and  material  of 
construction.  By  that  census  it  appears 
there  were  in  New  York  522,325  dwell 
ings,  worth  $664,899,967,  or  an  average  of 
$1,267  each.  The  average  for  stone  houses 
was  86,526.  These  are  mostly  the  better 
class  of  houses  belonging  to  the  wealthy  in 
habitants  of  towns.  The  whole  number  of 
these  is  7,536,  of  which  1,617  are  in  New 
York  city,  and  worth  $32,267,340,  or  an 
average  of  $20,000  each.  In  the  remaining 
portion  of  the  state  the  stone  houses  are 
5,919  in  number  and  $16,917,479  in  value, 
or  an  average  of  nearly  $3,000  each.  The 
New  York  stone  houses  and  hotels  are  ex 
ceptions,  being  the  most  luxurious  display 
of  the  wealthy  few.  The  number  of  brick 
houses  is  57,450,  average,  $5,433  ;  and  of 
frame  houses,  397,638,  average  value  $748. 


If,  then,  we  assume  $750  as  the  average 
value  of  the  dwellings  in  the  whole  Union, 
the  result  for  1850  will  be  an  aggregate  of 
$2,521,752,750  invested  in  dwelling-houses, 
being  an  increase  of  $2,381,068,765  in  52 
years,  or  nearly  $50,000,000  per  annum  for 
52  successive  years,  in  addition  to  the 
$87,049,459  invested  in  churches.  The 
sums  absorbed  by  other  public  buildings  are 
not  specified.  The  building  which  has  been 
done  in  the  last  ten  years  by  far  exceeds  that 
ratio.  Thus  the  New .  York  State  census 
gives  the  number  of  dwellings  in  1855  at 
522,325  against  473,936  in  1850,  an  increase 
of  48,389,  or  more  than  10  per  cent,  in  five 
years.  Comparing  dwellings  to  the  popula 
tion,  the  results  are  as  follow  : — 


UNITED     STATES. 


No. 

1798 276,659 

1850 3,362,337 

1860 4,333,730 


Free 

population. 

4,412,884 
20,059,399 
28,000,000 


Persons  to 

each  house. 

19.00 

5.94 

6.00 


BUILDINGS    AND    BUILDING    MATERIALS. 


355 


NEW    YORK    STATE. 


•  No. 

1798 33,416 

1850 473,936 

1855 522,325 


Population.  -« 

586,754  19.00 

3.097,394  6.53 

3,466,212  6.64 


The  number  of  persons  to  a  dwelling  was 
greater  in  New  York  in  1850  than  the  aver 
age  of  the  Union,  and  that  number  slightly 
increased;  in  the  next  five  years  that  increase 
was  again  narrowed  to  the  city  of  New  York, 
where  the  crowd  of  foreign  arrivals  and  large 
hotels  and  boarding-houses  raised  the  num 
ber  of  persons  to  15  for  each  house. 

The  population  of  Philadelphia  and  the 
number  of  dwellings  are  as  follow  : — 

Population.     Dwellings,  ^li,?" 

1850 408,762         61,278         6.10° 

1860 568,034         89,978         6.05 

In  Philadelphia  the  increase  of  dwellings 
per  cent,  appears  to  be  greater  than  the  pro 
gress  of  the  population. 

The  general  result  in  the  Union  is  a  house 
for  every  free  white  family,  and  these  fami 
lies  average  5£  persons  each.  From  these 
figures  it  is  apparent  that  the  number  of 
houses  in  the  Union  progresses  in  the  ratio 
of  its  free  inhabitants.  Thus,  in  1850,  the 
number  of  houses  was  to  the  population  of 
the  whole  Union  as  1  to  5.94  ;  assuming  that 
for  1860  there  are  6  persons  to  each  house, 
there  must  now  be  4,333,333  houses,  an  in 
crease  of  970,996  houses  in  10  years,  at  a 
value  of,  in  round  numbers,  $800,000,000.  In 
the  same  proportion,  there  must  be,  in  1870, 
5,600,000  houses,  which,  at  the  value  of  1855, 
would  be  $4,200,000,000.  In  other  words, 
during  the  present  decade,  1,300,000  houses 
must  be  built,  and  it  is  probable,  from  the 
advancing  luxury  of  the  age,  they  will  cost 
more  than  those  of  15  years  before,  and  one 
thousand  three  hundred  millions  may  be  re 
quired  for  the  expenditure.  This  is  a  neces 
sity  of  increasing  numbers,  and  provides 
nothing  for  re-construction,  or  churches,  or 
public  buildings.  This  item  of  house-build 
ing  fh  an  iiicreasing  country  stands  out  in 
contrast  to  the  demand  in  the  same  line  in 
old  and  stationary  countries  of  Europe. 
Some  of  those  old  cities  were  built  500  to 
1000  years  ago,  of  solid  masonry,  and  very 
few  houses  have  since  been  added.  There 
is  no  active  and  continued  demand  for  labor 
and  capital  to  provide  new  dwellings  to  ac 
commodate  swelling  numbers.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  empty  dwellings  frequently  give 
melancholy  signs  of  a  departing  population. 

22 


In  the  United  States,  not  only  does  this 
vast  annual  demand  for  130,000  new  houses 
exist,  but  every  year  brings  improvements  in 
the  style  of  construction  and  the  luxurious- 
ness  of  accommodation.  The  simple  frame 
buildings  that  generally  spring  up  on  the 
outskirts  of  cities,  are,  before  they  are  yet 
old,  required  to  give  place  to  brick  buildings, 
since  the  spreading  population  carries  the  mu 
nicipal  laws  which  forbid  wooden  structures 
over  larger  limits.  The  brick  buildings  that 
supplant  the  frame  must  also  be  more  sub 
stantial,  since  the  same  fire  laws  also  pre 
scribe  the  thickness  and  stability  of  the 
walls.  Wealth  follows  with  its  more  preten 
tious  style,  and  brown  stone  or  marble  pal 
aces  rear  their  stately  fronts  on  what  was 
lately  an  open  lot.  With  the  improved 
style  of  houses  there  is  a  constant  ambition 
to  occupy  a  "  modern  house,"  or  one  with, 
the  "  modern  improvements,"  which  may  be 
enumerated  as,  warming  apparatus,  whether 
by  hot-air,  water,  steam,  or  gas;  the  water- 
pipes  in  all  the  rooms,  connecting  with  the 
cooking-range  for  facility  of  heating ;  water- 
closets  and  bath-rooms  connected  with  street 
sewers  to  carry  off  the  waste  water;  bells, 
speaking-tubes,  telegraphs,  ventilation,  burn 
ing-gas,  dumb-waiters  to  communicate  with 
different  floors,  and  all  the  luxury  of  arrange 
ment  and  embellishment  which  makes  a 
modern  private  dwelling  so  far  in  advance 
even  of  the  fairy  palaces  of  the  Arabian 
Nights'  Entertainments.  There  is  a  natural 
desire  on  the  part  of  all  to  obtain,  as  circum 
stances  will  permit,  a  better  house,  and  if 
these  are  not  built  in  the  substantial  manner 
which  in  Europe  defies  the  ravages  of  time, 
they  are  in  the  fashion  and  luxury  of  the 
day,  and  may  be  altered  or  re-constructed  as 
fortune  changes.  The  railroads  that  give 
access  to  the  neighborhood,  in  such  a  man 
ner  that  A  business  man  may  take  his  break 
fast  at  7^  o'clock,  ride  40  miles,  and  be  at 
his  office  before  bank  opens,  has,  so  to  speak,, 
carried  city  houses  into  a  broad  circle  of 
country,  and  "  villas"  rise  rapidly  from  the 
soil,  also  provided  with  all  city  improve 
ments.  Thousands  of  miles  are  within  this 
influence.  In  sections  which,  a  quarter  of  a 
century  since,  were  shadowed  only  by  the 
native  forests,  in  which  the  scream  of  the 
panther  and  the  gleam  of  his  eyes  startled 
the  benighted  traveller,  streets  of  marble 
fronts  now  emit  the  glare  of  gas  and  the 
latest  creations  of  the  opera.  In  all  direo 
tions  the  gaze  of  the  traveller  falls  upon 


356 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


new  creations,  where  lumber,  brick,  stone, 
and  lime  are  combining  into  a  dwelling  or 
a,  factory,  a  school-house  or  a  church. 

The-  increase  of  houses  being  proportion 
ed  to  the  increase  in  the  numbers  of  the 
people,  their  value  has  risen  in  the  ratio 
of  thoir  growing  wealth.  It  is  remarkable 
that  the  country,  in  all  its  sections,  abounds 
with  the  best  materials  for  all  description  of 
dwellings,  and  yet  these  materials  were  very 
slowly  discovered.  For  long  years  the  bricks 
with  which  the  best  houses  of  New  York 
were  built,  were  brought  from  Amsterdam 
in  those  stately  old  droguers  which,  on  their 
arrival  in  the  bay  of  New  Amsterdam, 
were  regularly  dismantled  and  laid  up  over 
the  winter,  setting  out  on  their  homeward 
voyage  with  the  early  spring.  The  bricks 
were  probably  used  as  ballast,  but  even  then 
the  cost  of  a  house  so  built  was  something 
important.  The  early  houses  of  the  set 
tlers  were  log  huts,  but  subsequently  frame 
houses  were  raised  by  the  more  ambitious, 
and,  as  wealth  increased,  those  "  shingle 
palaces"  that  became  famous  in  the  stories 
of  New  England  manners,  began  to  dot  the 
country.  In  the  cities,  frame  houses  were 
the  rule  down  to  a  comparatively  late  date, 
when  the  fire  laws  forbade  the  erection  of 
wooden  tenements  within  certain  districts. 
The  abundance  of  timber  not  only  for  build 
ing  purposes,  but  for  fuel,  was  a  great  advan 
tage  to  the  country.  But  as  the  population 
increased,  the  inroads  upon  it  became  very 
heavy,  and  the  forests  were  rapidly  thinned 
out.  The  annual  consumption  exceeded  the 
growth,  according  to  the  estimates  of  the 
most  experienced  lumbermen,  by  about  30 
per  cent.,  and  this  notwithstanding  that 
coal  came  to  supply  the  drafts  made  for 
fuel,  and  the  substitution  of  bricks  for  city 
houses.  The  sources  of  lumber  for  building 
purposes  have  become  more  diversified  as 
the  demand  has  increased.  The  State  of 
Maine  was  for  a  long  time  the  head-quarters 
of  the  trade  for  pine,  spruce,  and  hemlock 
lumber ;  but  hard  pine  comes  from  North 
Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida,  and  Alabama ; 
Ohio  and  Michigan  supply  black  walnut, 
cherry,  ash,  white  oak.  The  exports  from 
the  country  are  about  $2,500,000  per  an 
num,  and  ship-building  makes  large  drafts 
upon  it.  The  lumber  trade  at  various 
leading  points,  where  the  lumber  resources 
of  the  back  country  are  most  readily  con 
centrated  for  market,  may  be  given  as  fol 
lows  : — 


Detroit.  ... 
Savannah  . 
Charleston. 
Albany.  .  . 
Bangor.  ... 
Cincinnati. 
Chicago — 
Milwaukee 
Oswego  . . 
Cleveland  . 
Baltimore  . 
Boston  . . . 
Buffalo. ... 
Philad'phia 


Feet. 

76,537,000 

23,365.656 

15,312,128 
291,771,762 
176,187,016 

32,000,000 
300,982,207 

65,000,000 
144,654,572 

28,950,000 
100,000,000 
131,000,000 

68,558,151 
162.879,722 


Lath. 

M. 

13,491,000 


49,102,000 
1,643,500 


20,000,000 
2,026,000 


Shingles. 
36,647,000 

48,756,000 

165,927,000 
7,653,250 

28,000,000 

10,000,000 

1,768,300 

21,220.937 


Total.  ..1,661,568,214     86,262,500     320,072,487 
Value...    $31,931,364       $138,797       $1,280,289 

The  Bangor  lumber  is  derived  from  the 
forests  of  that  region,  and  it  composes  a 
part  of  that  sent  to  Boston,  Philadelphia, 
etc.  The  Savannah  and  Charleston  trade  is 
that  shipped  from  those  ports,  mostly  North. 
The  Albany  lumber  is  derived  from  tlio 
canal  deliveries  and  the  northern  soctior.. 
The  Philadelphia  lumber  comes  mostly  f:vm 
the  canals  and  rivers ;  about  one-third  comes 
through  the  Chesapeake  and  Delaware  Ca 
nal,  as  much  more  down  the  Delaware  livor 
from  southern  New  York  :  about  one  million 
feet  only  comes  from  Maine.  The  Baltimore 
supplies  are  mostly  from  the  Suaquchanna 
river,  being  rafted  down  from  Pennsylvania 
and  New  York.  From  150  to  200  millions 
of  feet  go  down  the  Alleghany  river  every 
year.  Chicago  is  by  far  the  largest  lumber 
market,  and  the  supplies  are  derived  from 
the  Michigan  Lake  shore,  the  largest  quan 
tity  from  the  Green  Bay  district.  The  sup 
plies  are  sent  through,  the  state  by  canal  and 
the  various  railroads  that  radiate  through 
the  prairie  country,  where  wood  of  natural 
growth  is  scarce,  and  which  scarcity  was  one 
of  the  objections  to  settling  until  railroads 
became  the  means  of  furnishing  the  supplies. 
The  largest  quantity  goes  by  the  canal,  and 
the  next  largest  by  the  Illinois  Central 
railroad. 

With  the  vast  supply  of  lumber  and  tim 
ber  to  meet  the  additional  demand  for  build 
ing  purposes,  it  followed  that  improvements 
in  the  mode  of  preparing  it  would  not  fail 
to  make  their  appearance.  It  is  obvious 
that  inventions  are  more  likely  to  take  place 
when  the  quantities  handled  are  very  large, 
than  where  but  little  is  done  from  year  to 
year.  Thus  if  a  few  houses  are  built  occa 
sionally,  the  want  of  great  facilities  will  not 
be  so  marked  as  when  twenty  hundred  mil- 


BUILDINGS    AND    BUILDING    MATERIALS. 


357 


lion  feet  of  lumber  is  to  be  worked  up  every 
year  for  building  purposes,  mostly  in  the 
construction  of  dwellings.  The  carpenter, 
in  the  building  of  houses,  receives  the  beams, 
scantlings,  planks,  and  boards,  and  out  of 
them  lie  makes  bond-timbers,  wall-plates, 
roofs,  floors,  etc.,  and  with  the  completion  of 
strong  skeletons  his  labors  end.  The  joiner, 
plasterer,  and  plumber  succeed  him.  In  the 
formation  of  his  frame,  the  first  is  employed 
in  notching,  cogging,  tenoning,  pinning,  and 
wedging.  For  many  of  these  operations 
very  effective  machines  have  been  intro 
duced,  especially  for  mortising,  floor  plan 
ing  and  grooving,  etc.  Some  of  the  inven 
tions,  like  the  planing  machines  introduced 
in  1837,  are  of  great  value  and  influence. 
Circular  saws,  scroll  saws,  and  a  crowd  of 
inventions  bearing  upon  every  part  of  the 
work,  have  wonderfully  facilitated  the  work 
of  the  carpenter  and  joiner.  The  blinds, 
sashes,  doors,  window-frames,  have  become 
separate  trades,  each  of  which  supplies  its 
portion  much  cheaper  and  more  perfect  than 
formerly.  When  the  demand  is  large,  these 
are  supplied  with  great  precision.  House 
building  thus  becomes  a  trade.  In  the  large 
cities  a  speculative  builder  becomes  possess 
ed  of  a  number  of  open  lots.  On  them 
money  is  borrowed  to  build  a  block  of 
houses,  4  to  12  in  number.  With  the 
money  thus  borrowed  the  work  is  hurried 
on  until  the  roof  is  on,  when  the  whole  is 
regularly  mortgaged  to  secure  first  loans  and 
to  obtain  enough  to  complete  the  buildings. 
In  the  mean  time  they  are  offered  for  sale, 
and  generally  sold  by  the  time  they  are 
done. 

In  order  to  facilitate  the  sales  much  credit 
is  granted,  a  little  money  above  the  sum  of 
the  mortgages  being  all  that  is  required. 
The  mortgages  remain  at  7  per  cent.,  which, 
with  the  taxes,  etc.,  make  the  rent  rather 
high  to  the  owner.  It  not  unfrequcntly 
happens  in  some  neighborhoods  that  houses 
may  be  rented  for  an  annual  sum  far  less 
than  the  interest  on  the  sum  demanded  for 
the  house.  Nevertheless,  the  person  who 
lias  paid  a  little  money,  and  lives  under  a 
mortgage  larger  than  the  whole  house  would 
cost  if  built  with  ready  money,  has  the 
pride  of  a  house-owner. 

Sometimes  the  builders,  carpenters, 
plumbers,  painters,  all  furnish  their  parts  of 
the  work,  and  grates,  furnaces,  etc.,  also  put 
in  either  on  shares  or  secured  by  "  mechanics' 
liens," — all  these  to  be  paid  out  of  the  pur 


chase  money.  It  not  unfrequently  happens, 
however,  that  the  expenses  of  raising  money 
to  go  on  carry  the  cost  of  the  houses  too 
high  to  get  the  money  back,  and  foreclosure 
finally  settles  the  account.  Houses  are  also 
made  for  exportation,  as  well  of  iron  as  of 
wood,  as  in  the  case  of  the  early  times  of 
San  Francisco,  which  received  many  of  its 
dwellings  from  New  York.  The  settler  on 
the  new  lands  of  the  West  is  now  not  al 
ways  required  to  plunge  into  the  wilderness 
and  rear  his  first  shelter  from  logs,  but  may 
have  his  house  sent  from  Chicago  or  other 
cities  by  railroad,  and  put  up  to  await  his 
coming.  In  all  this  lumber  figures  largely. 
With  the  settlement  of  the  western  country, 
the  demand  for  lumber  is  urgent,  and  new 
supplies  are  opened  up.  The  most  exten 
sive  of  them  is  round  the  Falls  of  St.  An 
thony,  where  about  100,000,000  feet  of  new 
logs  come  down  in  the  spring  from  the 
waters  above.  These  logs  are  manufactured 
into  lumber  at  the  extensive  mills  round  St. 
Anthony.  One  of  these  mills  will  cut 
92,000  feet  of  lumber,  50,000  lath,  and 
20,000  shingles  in  a  day  of  12  hours.  The 
mill  employs  1 50  men.  There  are  cut  prob 
ably  200,000  feet  per  day  for  the  supply  of 
the  lower  country  with  lumber.  At  the  ex 
treme  South  lumber  is  also  supplied.  Some 
20,000,000  feet  are  shipped  from  Pensacola 
to  the  Atlantic  and  Gulf  cities,  in  addition 
to  the  large  quantities  used  in  the  place. 
The  Dismal  Swamp  Canal  at  Norfolk  de 
livers  3,000,000  feet  of  plank  per  annum, 
and  50,000,000  shingles,  400,000  feet  of 
timber  and  8,000,000  staves. 

The  material  for  dwelling-houses  is  thus 
liberally  supplied  at  the  leading  points,  to 
and  from  which  means  of  communication 
have  been  so  extensively  provided.  The 
majority  of  country  houses  are  of  lumber, 
or  frame  houses.  In  the  cities  the  majority 
are  brick,  and,  as  we  have  said,  many  New 
York  houses  are  still  standing  built  from  the 
small  yellow  brick  brought  from  Holland. 
Brick  clay  is  found  in  most  of  the  states, 
but  not  of  the  same  quality.  The  best  brick 
are  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore,  but  Chicago 
is  famous  for  its  straw-colored  bricks.  This 
color  results  from  the  absence  of  peroxide 
of  iron  in  the  clay.  Some  Milwaukee  bricks 
were  brought  to  New  York  city  for  the  con 
struction  of  Trinity  Building,  head  of  Wall 
street,  and  they  assimilate  in  color  to  the  old 
Holland  brick,  also  "far  fetched  and  dear 
bought."  It  is  curious,  however,  that  the 


358 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


brick  of  the  far  West  should  mingle  with 
that  of  Europe  in  the  composition  of  the 
city  of  New  York. 

In  the  manufacture  of  the  brick  the  clay 
is  obtained  as  pure  as  possible ;  but  it  must  be 
exposed  for  some  time  to  the  air  and  weather, 
which  soon  disintegrates  its  particles,  and 
fits  it  to  be  kneaded  into  a  mass.  The  clay 
is  then  soaked  in  a  tank.  The  kneading 
was  formerly  done  by  animals  or  the  naked 
feet  of  men,  which  machinery  has  superseded. 
The  clay  is  now  first  ground  in  the  pug- 
mill,  which  is  a  tub  in  which  revolve  on  a 
shaft  blades  that  cut  and  knead  the  clay  as 
it  is  fed  in  from  above,  and  passes  out  at  the 
bottom.  It  is  then  cut  into  pieces  and 
stacked  for  use.  The  old  hand  mode  of 
moulding  was  to  throw  the  clay  into  the 
mould  by  force  and  then  scrape  off  that 
which  was  superfluous.  The  labor  of  this 
process  was  reduced  by  causing  the  moulds 
to  receive  the  clay  from  the  mill  in  succes 
sive  sets.  It  is  obvious  that  the  clay  must 
be  cleaned  from  all  stones,  sticks,  etc.,  that 
would  disfigure  the  brick.  When  the  bricks 
are  moulded  they  are  dried.  For  this  pur 
pose  a  level  yard  is  prepared,  and  bricks  are 
brought  in  the  moulds,  which  are  removed, 
leaving  the  bricks  to  dry,  a  longer  or  shorter 
time,  according  to  circumstances.  If  the 
bricks  are  not  thoroughly  dry  they  will  crack 
in  baking.  For  the  purpose  of  baking,  the 
bricks  are  piled  one  upon  the  other,  to  make 
the  kiln  or  clamp.  These  contain  from 
500,000  to  1,000,000  bricks.  A  central 
double  wall  is  built,  lengthwise  the  lower 
portion,  of  baked  bricks.  On  both  sides 
longitudinal  fire  flues  of  green  brick  are 
built.  Over  them  the  mass  of  bricks  is 
laid,  with  flues  leading  to  the  top,  and  in 
an  open  manner,  with  small  scuttles  through 
the  heap  as  it  is  built  up.  The  top  and 
sides  are  built  of  baked  bricks.  Over  all 
loam  is  laid  to  prevent  the  fire  from  burning 
too  rapidly.  The  time  required  formerly  on 
the  Hudson  river  for  burning  the  great 
clamps  of  1,000,000  bricks  was  two  weeks, 
and  there  were  required  40  cords  of  wood 
for  100,000  bricks.  About  the  year  1838 
fine  anthracite  coal  dust  was  introduced  into 
the  clay  in  the  proportion  of  75  bushels  to 
100,000  bricks,  and  thoroughly  mixed  in 
the  kneading.  The  effect  of  this  was  to  re 
duce  the  time  to  four  days,  and  the  wood  to 
16  cords  for  100,000  bricks.  Thus  16  cords 
of  wood  is  rated  at  $80  ;  75  bushels  of  dust, 
$3  ;  4  days'  attention,  $6  ;  total  cost,  $89, 


against  $212.  It  follows  that,  as  the  heat  is 
very  unequal  in  a  clamp,  some  bricks  are 
underdone,  while  others  are  slightly  fused  on 
the  surface,  called  "  clinker 'brick." 

It  is  obvious  that  in  brick  machinery  the 
saving  of  labor  is  the  great  object,  and  to 
attain  that  a  great  number  of  machines  have 
been  invented.  One  of  this  class  forces  a 
lump  of  clay  of  the  breadth  and  depth  of  a 
brick  along  a  trough ;  and  it  is  cut  off  the 
proper  length  by  a  wire.  Other  machines 
have  been  made  to  stamp  the  brick  out  of  a 
lump  of  clay.  Again,  the  clay  is  forced  into 
moulds  by  a  heavy  roller.  There  are  ma 
chines  which  pulverize  the  dry  clay,  and 
press  this  with  great  force  into  moulds, 
ready  for  burning.  A  patent  for  this,  taken 
in  Baltimore  in  1847,  and  another  in  Bos 
ton,  pulverizes,  screens,  moulds,  and  presses 
2,500  bricks  per  hour.  On  this  plan 
bricks  are  made  on  Staten  Island.  They  pre 
sent  a  smooth  surface,  but  they  are  not  so 
good  as  the  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore. 
Bricks  have  been  made  partly  hollow  to 
diminish  the  weight.  The  size  of  bricks  is 
7 1  to  8}  inches  long,  4  to  4i  wide,  and  2£  to 
21  deep.  In  New  York  5  courses  of  brick 
are  allowed  to  the  foot  in  height.  In  New 
England  5  courses  make  a  foot,  without  the 
mortar.  The  weight  of  a  brick  is  about  4 
Ibs.,  and  21  make  a  cubic  foot  of  wall.  The 
Philadelphia  brick  are  the  best  in  the  coun 
try,  and  are  made  mostly  by  hand.  The 
clay  and  sand  give  the  brick  a  better  color. 
The  Baltimore  brick  bring  a  better  price 
because  the  clay  is  purer,  and  therefore 
stronger,  are  better  burned,  and  less  liable  to 
damage  by  transportation.  The  quantity 
made  in  Philadelphia  is  reckoned  at  100,- 
000,000  per  annum. 

The  lime  used  in  New  York  and  on  the 
Atlantic  coast  is  mostly  of  Thomaston, 
Maine,  where  it  is  manufactured  of  lime 
stone  and  oyster-shells.  Its  quality  is  much 
superior  to  that  of  the  lime  of  other  sources. 
The  chief  use  of  lime  is  for  making  mortar 
for  cementing  brick  and  stone  work  and 
plastering  walls.  The  best  qualities,  made 
from  pure  stones  or  shells,  slake  rapidly,  and 
are  calletl  fat.  This  kind  more  than  doubles 
in  bulk  on  being  slaked,  and  falls  into  a  soft, 
white  paste.  The  inferior  qualities  slake 
slowly,  and  give  out  but  little  heat  in  the 
process.  The  value  of  lime  with  masons  de 
pends  upon  the  quantity  of  sand  it  will  bear 
in  the  manufacture  of  strong  mortar.  Thus 
the  best  Thomaston  lime  will  take  8  bbls. 


BUILDINGS    AND    BUILDING    MATERIALS. 


359 


of  sand  for  one  of  lime.  It  is  stated  that 
an  excellent  lime  is  made  near  New  York 
city  from  white  marble,  and  that  it  will  take 
9  bbls.  of  sand.  The  Thomaston  lime  is 
burned  with  anthracite  coal.  In  New  York 
it  is  used  for  plastering,  at  a  price  of  $1  to 
81.30  per  bbl.  of  2^  bushels.  A  cheap 
lime  from  Ulster  county  is  sold  at  70  cents 
for  stone  work.  In  the  mortar  each  atom  of 
sand  is  surrounded  with  lime,  which  adheres 
closely  to  it,  and  attaches  it  to  adjoining  por 
tions,  becoming  hard  by  exposure  to  the  air. 
The  building  stone  of  Boston  for  the  best 
houses  has  been  derived  from  the  immediate 
neighborhood,  and  is  called  Quincy  granite. 
It  is  a  handsome  gray  stone,  hewn  for  dwell 
ings,  but  sometimes  used  unhewn  for  public 
buildings.  The  stone  is  derived  from  Quin 
cy,  and  the  first  railroad  started  in  the  coun 
try  was  for  the  service  of  these  quarries,  hav 
ing  been  introduced  shortly  after  their  open 
ing.  The  stone  now  so  well  known  and  exten 
sively  used,  not  only  in  Boston  but  in  most 
of  the  Atlantic  cities,  as  well  as  the  West 
India  Islands,  was  a  discovery  of  the  present 
century.  It  was  formerly  supposed  that, 
where  there  is  but  little  soil  there  is  also 
no  stone,  and  it  is  recorded  that  stone  for 
the  foundation  of  the  dwelling  of  Governor 
Phillips  was  brought  from  Rhode  Island. 
The  State  House  was,  through  scarcity  of 
stone,  built  with  brick.  Granite  quarries 
are  also  now  worked  near  New  York  and  in 
Delaware  Bay.  These  sources  supply  some 
of  the  stone  for  New  York  city,  where  a 
coarse  marble,  known  as  Sing  Sing  marble, 
is  also  used.  The  chief  stone  relied  upon 
for  the  fashionable  dwellings  is,  however, 
"  brown  stone,"  from  the  Portland  quarries 
of  Connecticut.  It  by  no  means  follows, 
however,  that  a  brown  stone  palace  "  on  an 
avenue"  is  built  of  brown  stone,  any  more 
than  a  brown  painted  house  is  built  of 
"  paint."  The  house  is  usually  built  of  lum 
ber  and  brick,  and  a  thin  coat  of  brown 
stone  put  on  the  front.  The  difference  in 
cost  between  a  plain  front  of  stone  and  one 
of  Philadelphia  brick,  with  stone  trimmings, 
will  be  from  $700  to  $1000.  For  the  con 
struction  of  large  and  fashionable  stores,  the 
Sing  Sing  marble  is  mostly  used,  but  iron 


1829  

Ships. 

Brigs. 
1 

Schooners. 
12 

Sloops  and 
canal  boats. 
4 

Steamers. 
25 

Total. 
42 

1859  

4 

1 

65 

37 

98 

205 

1829  

44 

67 

ATLANTIC. 
473 

141 

18 

743 

1859.. 

..118 

44 

366 

365 

128 

1.021 

fronts  have  come  latterly  much  into  use. 
These  are  cast  in  ornamental  styles,  and  put 
up  piece  by  piece,  each  being  riveted  to  the 
other,  the  whole  front  thus  forming  one  piece, 
and  then  painted  to  resemble  stone.  Marble 
is  the  favorite  material  in  Philadelphia,  not 
withstanding  her  superior  brick.  It  is  procur 
ed  in  abundance  a  few  miles  from  that  city. 

Stone  at  the  West  is  not  so  abundant,  but 
discoveries  of  good  building  stone  have 
been  made.  A  yellow  stone  in  the  neigh 
borhood  of  Cincinnati  supplies  a  handsome 
material  to  that  city.  The  canals  of  Ohio 
and  Illinois  carry  considerable  quantities, 
and  marble  has  been  found  near  Dubuque. 
There  are  valuable  quarries  in  the  neighbor 
hood  of  Chicago.  Iron  is  destined  to  figure 
largely  in  fronts  for  stores,  as  well  as  for  the 
construction  of  fire-proof  grain  depots. 

How  long  the  once  mighty  forests  of  the 
country  will  supply  the  prodigious  and 
growing  demand  for  the  use  of  dwellings,  is 
a  problem  ;  but  long  since,  the  demands  of 
shipwrights  have  so  thinned  the  Atlantic  for 
ests,  that  it  has  become  cheaper  to  build  upon 
the  lake  harbors  and  western  rivers.  The 
scarcity  of  knees  and  bends  for  ship-build 
ing,  led  to  the  invention  of  the  timber-bend 
ing  machine,  by  which  the  straight  oak  tim 
ber  was  claimed  to  be  bent  in  curves  or  at 
right  angles  for  knees  without  decreasing  its 
strength.  The  ports  of  the  West,  however, 
have  of  late  been  appealed  to,  and  vessels 
built  at  Cleveland  and  other  lake  ports,  at  a 
small  cost  for  lumber  and  labor,  find  their 
way  to  sea  much  cheaper  than  the  same 
class  built  on  the  famous  old  ways  of  Maine, 
Massachusetts,  or  Baltimore.  The  white  oak 
becomes  less  abundant,  and  live  oak  no  great 
er  in  supply,  while  the  pine  and  other  woods 
used  in  the  floors  and  trimmings,  compete 
with  the  demand  for  dwellings.  The  number 
of  vessels  built  in  1858  was  1225,  of  242,280 
tons.  Of  these  nearly  one  fourth  were  built 
in  the  state  of  Maine,  one  eighth  in  Massa 
chusetts,  as  much  in  New  York,  and  ten  per 
cent,  in  Philadelphia.  If  we  compare  the 
number  and  class  of  vessels  built  in  the  west 
ern  states  of  Illinois,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Missouri, 
Wisconsin,  Michigan,  in  1859,  with  1829,  we 
shall  observe  the  progress  in  30  years  : — 


Tons. 

9,032 

45,731 

68,066 
196,555 


360 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


The  tonnage  built  at  the  West  has  in 
creased  fivefold,  •while  that  on  the  Atlantic 
has  increased  less  than  threefold.  In  1860 
an  enormous  stimulus  was  given  to  ship 
building  in  all  the  western  ports.  Milwau 
kee  did  a  large  business,  and  the  lake  ton 
nage  was  greatly  increased.  The  whole 
quantity  of  tonnage  built  since  the  ac 
counts  were  kept  has  been  5,212,743  tons, 

No. 

Carpenters 2,790 

Ship-builders 892 

Bricks 1,603 

Lime  and  plastering,  .      761 

Lumber-yards 17,895 

Masts  and  spars 39 

Plumbers 124 

Sashes  and  blinds ....      433 

Shingles 520 

Quarries 1,144 

Timber-hewers 129 

The  New  York  census  of  1855  gave  the 
number  of  feet  of  lumber  used  per  annum 
in  house-building  at  5,953,000  ;  ship-build 
ing,  16,938,000  feet;  boat-building,  7,673,- 
000.  The  number  of  brick  made  in  the 
state  was  408,052,000,  and  4,214,000  bush 
els  of  lime. 


or  a  value  of  $260,637,000.  Of  this  amount 
3,400,000  tons,  or  a  value  of  $170,000,- 
000,  have  been  built  in  the  last  ten  years. 
The  annual  value  built  is  over  $16,000,- 
000,  and  the  value  of  the  lumber  used 
$9,000,000,  and  there  are  about  13,000 
men  employed.  The  census  of  1850  gives 
the  statistics  of  house  and  ship  building  as 
follows : — 


Capital. 

Material. 

Hands. 

Cost  of  labor. 

Value  produced. 

$3,289,308 

$7,011,930 

15,276 

$5,559,320 

$16,886,819 

5,182,309 

7,286,401 

12,623 

5,922.576 

16,595,683 

4,367,912 

1,474,023 

16,726 

4,235,088 

6,610,731 

1,124,072 

1,106,775 

2,834 

735,746 

2,286,242 

40.038,427 

27,593,529 

51,766 

16,022,052 

58,520,966 

124,130 

89,719 

154 

63,216 

189,482 

646,225 

1,297,119 

1,037 

377,944 

2,  343.'  60  7 

1,066,355 

859,827 

2,448 

860,920 

2,277.061 

823,940 

406,932 

2,127 

425,328 

985,957 

4,032,182 

2,475,760 

9,996 

3,431,194 

8,180,115 

222,479 

14,742 

414 

67,508 

132,246 

CARRIAGES  AND  COACHES, 

THE  improvements  in  the  means  of  trans 
portation  in  the  United  States  are  very  man 
ifest  in  the  number  and  quality  of  private 
carriages  of  all  kinds  that  are  now  kept  by 
almost  all  who  live  out  of  cities,  and  by  very 
many  of  those  who  reside  in  them.  With 
the  multiplication  of  railroads,  which  were 
to  supply  the  place  of  stage-coaches,  it  was 
supposed  that  the  number  of  horses  employ 
ed  would  be  greatly  diminished.  The  con 
trary  seems,  however,  to  be  the  fact,  since 
the  greater  breadth  of  land  by  their  means 
laid  open  to  market,  and  the  resulting  gen 
eral  wealth  have  enabled  all  to  keep  pleasure- 
vehicles,  when  formerly  the  saddle  only  was 
used  outside  the  stage-coach.  The  plain 
spring-less  box-wagon  of  the  farmer  conveyed 
his  family  to  and  from  church  on  Sunday, 
and  hauled  his  produce  on  week  days,  until 
within  a  very  few  years,  when  the  idea  of 
extravagance  attached  to  the  possession  of 
pleasure  or  spring-wagons  began  to  give 
way,  and  those  vehicles  were  found  in  the 
carriage-house  before  the  piano  supplanted 
the  quilting-frame  in  the  parlor.  So  far 


from  a  decrease  in  horses,  new  ones  and  of 
better  breed  were  required  for  fast  and 
stylish  driving.  The  well-to-do,  permanent 
business  man  must  have  his  business-wagon 
of  tasteful  appearance,  case  hardened  iron 
axles,  steel  springs,  and  a  top  buggy.  A 
rockaway,  or  even  a  coach,  in  many  cases, 
is  required  in  addition,  and  furnishes  labor 
for  fancy  horses.  The  multiplication  of  ve 
hicles  is  caused  on  one  hand  by  the  greater 
means  of  the  people,  and  on  the  other  hand 
by  the  great  improvements  in  manufacture, 
which  have  diminished  the  prices  while 
they  raised  the  quality  of  the  almost  infinite 
variety  of  styles  oftered.  These  are  so  ad 
mirable  as  to  have  elicited  not  only  the  sur 
prise,  but  what  is  better,  the  custom  of  the 
citizens  of  Europe.  The  tide  of  improvement 
ran  naturally  at  first  in  the  line  of  stages 
and  coaches.  The  object  was  to  make  them 
strong  and  light,  and  Avith  such  proportion 
of  all  the  parts  as  would  facilitate  the  draft ; 
in  other  words,  to  avoid  loss  of  the  power 
of  the  horse.  In  the  cities  the  improve 
ments  are  of  recent  date,  and  arose  out  of 
the  magnitude  of  the  business.  The  style 
adopted  in  1830  was  the  omnibus  or  long 
coach.  One  vehicle  was  then  started  to  run 
up  Broadway  for  12£  cents  per  head.  The 
success  was  complete,  and  the  number  mul 
tiplied,  while  the  fare  fell  successively,  until 
at  the  present  time  the  most  successful  charge 
5  cents  in  common  with  the  rail-cars.  The 
number  of  omnibuses  now  running  in  New 
York  is  440,  and  the  use  of  them  has  spread  all 
over  the  country,  giving  birth  to  very  numer 
ous  and  extensive" factories  for  their  produc- 


CARRIAGES  AND  COACHES. 


361 


tion.  About  300  per  annum  are  made  in  New 
York,  arid  larger  numbers  in  Newark,  New 
Jersey.  The  experience,  skill,  and  capital 
that  had  been  applied  to  the  production  of 
the  old  post-coaches  were  applied  to  the  con 
struction  of  the  new  vehicles.  The  work 
to  be  performed  by  the  coach  requires  the 
utmost  care  in  the  selection  of  the  mate 
rials  and  in  the  manner  of  combining  them. 
The  frame  is  a  piece  of  the  nicest  joiner's 
work,  of  the  toughest  ash,  that  has  grown 
in  exposed  situations,  and  been  seasoned  at 
least  two  years.  For  some  portions,  oak 
and  hickory,  equally  well  selected,  are  used. 
The  planking  is  of  the  strongest  elm,  and 
the  panels  of  Spanish  cedar ;  mahogany  and 
rosewood  for  ornamental  portions.  The 
frame  and  axles  are  thoroughly  ironed  with 
the  best  metal.  The  springs  are  of  the  best 
steel,  and  of  these  many  of  the  improved 
forms  are  of  quite  modern  dates.  The  ellip 
tical  spring  was  introduced  in  1825.  The 
leather  is  of  the  toughest  and  finest  descrip 
tion.  The  upholstery  is  of  fine  cloths,  nets, 
damasks,  plushes,  with  coach-laces,  exten 
sively  manufactured  in  New  England.  The 
most  important  part  of  the  construction  is 
probably  the  wheels.  These  must  be  so  put 
together  as  to  give  the  greatest  amount  of 
strength  with  the  smallest  weight  of  mate 
rial.  For  this  purpose  the  felloes  are  of 
ash,  the  spokes  of  oak,  and  .the  nave  of 
elm.  All  these  arc  so  arranged  as  to  receive 
the  weight  of  the  coach  as  far  as  possible 
longitudinally  of  the  fibres  of  the  wood.  A 
very  important  American  improvement  in 
the  strength  of  the  wheel  took  place  some 
30  years  since.  Up  to  that  time  the  iron 
tires  had  been  put  on  in  separate  plates, 
breaking  joints  with  the  felloes.  An  Ameri 
can  blacksmith  conceived  the  idea  of  mak 
ing  the  tire  whole  and  driving  it  on  when 
hot,  so  that  its  contraction  as  it  cooled  would 
bind  the  whole  wheel  together  almost  as  one 
piece.  This  invention  has  been  universally 
adopted.  The  tires  of  New  York  omni 
buses  are,  when  new,  an  inch  thick  ;  but  so 
great  is  the  wear,  that  they  require  renewal 
in  4  months.  The  size  of  the  wheel  is  reg 
ulated  by  the  ease  of  draft.  Thus  it  is 
found  that  the  greatest  ease  requires  that 
the  line  from  the  centre  of  the  forward  axle 
to  the  shoulder  of  the  horse  should  form 
an  angle  of  15  degrees  with  the  horizon. 
This  principle  will  not  admit  of  the  fore 
Avheels  being  more  than  forty-four  inches  in 
diameter,  while  to  diminish  the  draught,  the 


hind  wheels  are  56  inches,  and  the  width  of 
track  is  4  ft.  8  in.  The  naves  of  the  wheels 
have  a  lining  of  metal,  forming  a  box  that 
excludes  dust  and  retains  oil. 

It  will  have  been  remarked  by  the  observ 
ing  reader  that,  in  every  branch  of  industry 
which  has  been  recently  taken  hold  of  by 
the  American  manufacturer,  the  facility  of 
production  and  cheapness  of  sale-prices  have 
hand  in  hand  made  rapid  progress.  This 
remarkable  feature  has  been  due  mostly  to 
one  principle  :  it  is  that  of  reducing  the  man 
ufacture  to  its  utmost  subdivision,  and  mak 
ing  a  distinct  branch  of  each  separate  part 
of  the  object  to  be  completed.  A  pattern 
being  once  fixed  upon,  all  the  parts  of  that 
pattern  are  given  out  to  workmen,  who  con 
fine  themselves  each  to  the  manufacturing 
of  the  part  he  undertakes.  The  parts  so 
produced  are  made  in  the  best  manner. 
Each  man  strives  to  improve  in  the  work,  or 
to  do  more  and  better  in  a  given  time,  and 
his  native  intelligence  does  not  fail  of  re 
sults.  The  products  of  all  their  labors  are 
then  combined  in  complete  articles  in  number 
and  quality  to  defy  competition.  This  mode 
of  manufacture  is  a  cause  and  a  consequence 
of  large  sales.  By  improving  and  cheap 
ening  the  goods  the  demand  is  increased, 
and  thus  reacts  upon  the  power  to  produce. 
The  carriage  manufacture  is  another  illustra 
tion  of  this  principle.  The  Messrs.  G.  &  D. 
Cook  <fe  Co.,  of  New  Haven,  when  they  en 
gaged  in  the  manufacture,  nine  or  ten  years 
since,  introduced  this  way  of  systematizing 
the  work.  The  mode  of  building  carriages 
then  was  for  each  iftan  to  have  a  hand  by 
turns  in  all  the  processes  until  the  manufac 
ture  was  completed,  and  that  was  of  uncertain 
time.  The  Messrs.  Cook  were  enabled  by 
this  plan  to  turn  out  a  complete  carriage  in 
a  day,  of  a  quality  which  enhanced  the  ad 
miration  that  the  time  of  the  operation  had 
awakened.  Their  business  has  gradually 
expanded,  until  they  now  turn  out  ten  per 
day,  with  the  same  facility  with  which  they 
formerly  turned  out  one.  The  engraving  on 
another  page  gives  an  idea  of  the  extent  of 
their  establishment,  which  covers  two  acres, 
and  affords  85,000  square  feet  of  floor  room. 
It  has  grown  to  this  extent  from  one  build 
ing,  on  one  third  of  an  acre,  with  3,000  feet 
of  floor  room.  There  are  in  the  concern 
24  separate  departments,  under  24  distinct 
foremen,  each  of  whom  is  responsible  for  the 
part  of  the  work  performed  in  his  depart 
ment.  All  of  them  cover  every  branch  of 


362 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


the  business,  from  the  rough  lumber  to  the 
boxing  up  of  the  complete  vehicle.  The 
orders  are  all  laid  before  Mr.  Kimball,  one 
of  the  firm,  and  by  him  24  blanks  are  filled 
up  with  minute  particulars  of  the  jobs  de 
livered  to  each  foreman,  with  the  time 
specified  for  the  completion.  These  fore 
men  have  300  workmen  employed  in  all  the 
departments,  each  of  which  is  also  supplied 
with  every  variety  of  machine  that  invention 
and  experience  have  suggested  to  facilitate 
the  work,  and  these  are  driven  by  a  steam 
engine  of  great  power.  This  huge  giant 
with  its  thousand  arms  obeys  every  move 
ment  of  the  300  human  workers,  and  the 
surprise  of  the  observer  who  sees  rough 
lumber  wrought  up  into  pleasure-wagons  at 
the  rate  of  one  an  hour  is  merged  in  admira 
tion  of  the  intellectual  combination  that 
produces  such  results. 

It  is  such  enterprise  and  success  as  this 
that  drew  from  the  London  Jurors  of  the 
World's  Fair,  the  following  remarks  in  their 
report :  "  Comparing  the  state  of  the  art  of 
carriage-building,"  say  the  London  Jurors, 
in  their  report  on  carriages  exhibited  at  the 
World's  Fair,  "  of  former  and  not  very  dis 
tant  times,  with  that  of  the  present,  we  con 
sider  the  principles  of  building  in  many 
respects  greatly  improved,  and  particularly 
with  reference  to  the  lightness,  and  a  due 
regard  to  strength,  which  are  evident  in  car 
riages  of  British  make  ;  and  especially  dis 
played  in  those  contributed  by  the  United 
States,  where  there  is  commonly  employed 
in  the  construction  of  wheels,  and  other 


parts  requiring  strength  and  lightness  com 
bined,  a  native  wood  (upland  hickory), 
which  is  admirably  adapted  to  the  purpose. 
The  carriages  from  the  continental  states  do 
not  exhibit  this  useful  feature  in  an  equal 
degree." 

The  woods  most  used  in  the  construction 
of  carriages,  ash,  oak,  and  hickory,  grow  of 
superior  quality  and  in  great  abundance  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Philadelphia,  and  the  fact 
gives  the  art  of  carriage-making  there  great 
advantages.  There  are  in  that  city  over 
30  factories  that  produce  pleasure-carriages. 
The  capital  invested  is  some  $600,000,  and 
over  800  hands  are  employed.  The  vehicles 
are  mostly  for  city  use,  with  some  export 
demand.  One  of  the  largest  factories  of  the 
city,  Roger  &  Co.,  occupies  40,000  feet  of 
work  room,  and  employs  125  men  in  all 
the  departments  of  designers,  body- makers, 
wheelwrights,  carvers,  painters,  platers,  trim 
mers,  upholsterers,  etc.  The  wagons  of  that 
establishment  have  a  good  reputation.  In 
New  York,  the  carriage  business  is  pushed 
to  a  great  extent.  The  demand  for  heavy 
vehicles  for  the  great  cities  is  large,  and  the 
effect  of  railroads,  in  spreading  the  popula 
tion  of  the  city  over  a  radius  of  40  miles 
around  it,  has  caused  a  considerable  demand 
for  pleasure-wagons.  Some  persons  who 
would  have  no  use  for  a  vehicle  in  the  city, 
in  adopting  a  suburban  home,  found  a  car 
riage  a  necessity.  The  aggregate  of  the 
business  in  the  state  of  New  York  in  1855 
was  given  by  the  state  census  of  that  year  as 
follows : — 


CARRIAGE  AND  CAB  MANUFACTORIES  IN  NEW  YORK. 


Felloe  factories 

Wheel       "         

Hub          "       

Spoke        "       

Coach  and  wagon  factories 1,397 

Car  factories 

The  number  of  cars  made  per  annum  is 
580,  and  there  are  used  1,472,000  feet  of 
lumber  in  their  construction,  and  in  that  qf 
wagons,  6,562,200  feet.  There  are  11,151,- 
500  spokes  made.  The  number  of  wagons 
turned  out  is  33,138,  and  of  sleighs  3,838. 
The  size  of  some  of  these  factories,  and  the 
number  of  vehicles  turned  out,  are  surprising. 
The  numerous  depots  for  carriages  in  the 
city,  contain  every  possible  description  of 
vehicles,  and  of  all  manufactures.  The  car 
riage  manufacture  in  New  Jersey  stands 
next  in  magnitude  to  that  of  New  York. 


No. 

Hands. 

Capital 
in  tools. 

Value  of 
materials. 

Value 
produced. 

6 

30 

$13,250 

$21,450 

$45,  1  74 

2 

12 

3,500 

2,800 

11,100 

1 

5 

600 

400 

9,000 

16 

64 

15.950 

14,966 

52,331 

397 

6,391 

471,530 

1,712,256 

5,005,125 

26 

1,547 

264,784 

679,239 

1,274,768 

This  is  mostly  at  Newark,  where  great 
numbers  are  turned  out,  of  an  approved 
quality.  A  feature  of  the  carriage  and  wagon 
business  that  has  been  introduced  of  late 
years,  is  that  all  possible  parts  of  vehicles 
can  be  purchased  in  any  quantity,  conse 
quently  the  wheelwright  business  of  small 
towns  has  been  entirely  revolutionized.  They 
can  no  longer  make  an  entire  vehicle  as 
formerly  with  any  success,  but  purchase 
wheels,  axles,  top  frames,  springs,  etc.,  of  any 
and  every  pattern,  to  put  together  and  finish. 
All  these  parts  are  produced  in  great  quanti- 


1810. 


IS- 20. 


THOROUGH   Bit  ACE — 1825. 


ELLIPTIC    SPRINGS. 


The  following  are  a  few  of  several  hundred  styles  mannfactnred  by 

at  the  present  time, 


.  G.  &  D,  Cook  &  Co, 


CRICKET. 


FRENCH  DOG   CART. 


LAAVREXCE    BRETT. 


LCOP   CALASH. 


BREWSTER   CALASH   COACH. 


COFPE  ROCKATVAY. 


PREMIUM    TOP. 


WWW  WTTWW 

G.fc  D.  COOK  tCO.  CARRIAGE   MAKE RS 


••nffr-a.vett-.on  Wood.  I///  J.  lV7urj:   A',  i~ 

VIEW  OF  G.  &  D.  COOK  &  CO.'S  WORKS 


CARRIAGES  AND  COACHES. 


367 


ties,  by  machine.  Hence,  as  we  see,  there  are 
in  New  York,  16  spoke  factories,  which  turn 
out  1,115,500  spokes  per  annum,  also  felloe 
factories  and  hub  factories,  etc.  The  largest 
city  factories,  however,  make  most  or  all  the 
parts  within  themselves.  In  the  production 
of  a  vehicle,  the  design  is  first  prepared, 
whether  buggy  or  coach  or  rockaway,  on 
paper,  f  of  an  inch  to  the  foot.  The  design 
being  approved  by  the  purchaser  or  owner, 
a  geometrical  plan  is  executed  upon  the 
black-board.  The  patterns  are  then  cut  in 
the  wood,  and  from  this  skeleton  the  shape 
and  proportions  are  determined.  There 
must  be  exercised  in  this  process,  the  utmost 
mathematical  exactness.  The  wooden  frame 
is  now  removed  to  the  smithy;  then  come  in 
requisition,  springs,  tires,  hinges,  axles,  bolts, 
locks,  and  every  variety  of  form  by  which 
iron  can  conduce  to  the  strength  of  the  fa 
bric.  This  being  completed,  the  skeleton  is 
moved  to  the  body  department,  to  receive 
its  floors  and  panels,  the  sides  with  their 
proper  curvature,  the  seats  of  the  destined 
construction,  and  the  doors  with  their  trim 
mings.  From  this  room,  the  body  goes  to 
the  paint  room.  This  is  a  tedious  process. 
From  15  to  18  coats  of  paint  are  applied, 
each  being  rubbed  down  with  pumice  stone. 
When  it  is  dry,  several  coats  of  white  lead 
and  litharge,  succeeded  by  a  number  of 
white  lead  and  yellow  ochre,  complete  this 
"  priming,"  on  which  the  finishing  coats  of 
ornamented  colors  are  charged.  When  it  is 
clothed  in  its  pride  of  paint,  it  seeks  the 
trimming  room,  to  be  decked  with  fine 
cloths,  silks,  lace,  carpet,  embossed  leather, 
or  the  finest  morocco,  and  becomes  as  taste 
ful  as  art  can  make  it.  While  the  body  of 
the  vehicle  is  thus  being  prepared,  the  car 
riage,  or  wheels,  axles,  perches,  and  shafts 
have  also  been  approaching  a  state  ready  to 
receive  it.  The  felloes,  shafts,  and  nave, 
each  of  its  appropriate  and  well  selected 
wood,  arc  combined  into  wheels,  that  must 
in  size  bear  a  certain  proportion  to  the  body. 
The  average  difference  between  the  fore  and 
hind  wheels  is  eight  inches.  In  the  combina 
tion  each  department  supplies  its  proper  part, 
and  when  ready  to  receive  the  body,  that  is 
Lung  upon  the  springs,  and  the  whole  is 
ready  for  the  final  polish.  Apart  from  the 
coach  or  pleasure-vehicle  business,  is  the 
wagon  business,  which  is  of  great  extent, 
all  the  parts  being  formed  by  machines  of 
?\te  invention.  The  lumber  for  these  heavy 
•chicles  is  of  considerable  dimensions.  The 


plank  used  is  three  to  four  inches  thick. 
This  must  be  all  well  seasoned.  Hence 
capital  is  required  to  keep  a  sufficient  stock 
on  hand,  since  it  requires  four  or  five  years 
to  season,  or  one  year  for  every  inch  of 
thickness.  The  timber  for  hubs  is  of  black 
locust.  This,  of  different  sizes,  has  the  bark 
removed,  and  is  bored  through  the  centre 
to  facilitate  the  seasoning.  All  the  lumber 
thus  seasoned  in  stock,  is,  when  ready,  re 
moved  to  the  saw  mill.  Here  machines  are 
usually  ready  to  shape  every  part :  upright 
and  circular  saws  to  cut  the  plank  into  shafts 
and  felloes  after  it  is  marked  ;  planing  ma 
chines,  and  mortising  machinery  ;  lathes  for 
turning  spokes  and  hubs  ;  for  boring  holes 
for  the  spokes ;  for  driving  in  the  spokes ; 
for  shaping  and  finishing  the  felloes ;  for 
boring  holes  in  the  hubs  to  receive  the  boxes, 
so  as  to  insure  a  solid  bearing,  and  for  turning 
the  hubs,  of  which  the  two  ends  are  cut  off 
at  once  by  circular  saws.  All  these  machines 
soon  turn  the  solid  plank  into  finished  wheels, 
while  the  body  is  growing  under  similar 
applications  in  another  room,  under  the  di 
rection  of  various  departments.  The  iron 
axles  are  turned  in  the  machine  shops,  where 
also  all  the  tires,  bands,  straps,  bolts,  rivets, 
etc.,  are  prepared  and  applied.  The  wagons 
are  then  ready  for  the  paint.  This  is  the 
general  operation  of  wagon-making  in  large 
establishments.  In  Philadelphia  two  concerns 
furnished  550  wagons  for  the  Utah  expedi 
tion  of  the  government  in  five  weeks,  or  at 
the  rate  of  16  wagons  per  day,  or  a  wagon 
in  45  minutes. 

The  demand  for  express  wagons  that  has 
grown  up  of  late  years,  has  become  very 
large,  and  they  are  produced  in  great  per 
fection  as  respects  strength  and  price.  An 
other  large  demand  for  vehicles  has  taken 
the  shape  of  railroad  cars,  and  these  almost 
rivaPcoaches  in  the  extent  of  manufacture.  In 
New  York,  the  value  of  production  is  nearly 
$1,500,000  per  annum,  mostly  at  Troy. 
The  car  wheels  are  of  iron,  and  the  utmost 
care  is  taken  in  the  manufacture  of  them, 
that  when  cast  the  iron  shall  cool  equally  in 
all  its  parts.  For  this  purpose,  when  the 
wheel  is  cast  in  a  mould,  it  is  removed  as 
speedily  as  possible  into  a  circular  chamber 
or  furnace,  composed  of  fire  brick,  4^  inches 
thick,  and  surrounded  by  an  iron  case.  When 
they  are  there  deposited,  the  opening  is 
closed,  and  the  heat  of  the  whole  is  raised  to 
nearly  the  melting  point.  All  the  avenues  to 
and  from  the  interior  are  then  closed,  and 


368 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


the  whole  is  left  to  cool  gradually.  By  this 
process  of  raising  the  heat,  the  tempera 
ture  of  the  wheel  is  equalized  in  all  its  parts, 
and  as  the  heat  can  then  only  subside 
through  the  wall,  it  cools  so  gradually  that 
all  parts  of  the  wheel  contract  alike.  For 
this  cooling  4  days  are  required.  While  red 
hot  the  wheel  is  removed,  and  having  its 
edges  packed  round  with  sand,  the  centre  is 
made  to  communicate,  by  means  of  a  flue, 
with  a  chimney  120  feet  high.  The  draught 
thus  created  cools  the  centre.  The  same,  if 
not  far  greater  importance  attaches  to  the 
uniform  toughness  of  the  iron  of  a  wheel  as 
to  that  of  a  cannon.  The  lives  of  hundreds 


of  passengers  are  always  depending  upon 
the  soundness  of  the  running  wheels,  and  the 
utmost  care  is  taken  to  make  and  keep  them, 
sound. 

The  census  of  1860  gives  the  following 
statistics  of  the  production  of  carriages, 
wagons,  carts  and  children's  carriages  for  the 
year  ending  June,  1860.  There  has  been, 
generally,  an  increased  production  since  that 
period,  though  what  were  distinctively  known, 
as  "southern  carriages"  are  manufactured  iu 
less  quantities  than  formerly.  During  the 
war,  immense  numbers  of  army  wagons  and 
ambulances  were  built. 


No.  of 

Establish 

ments. 


Capital 
invested. 


Carriages  ............  3,917  $14,131,537 

Wagons  and  carts  .....  3,305       4,591,968 

Children's  carriages...      32          134,470 


Cost  of  Males      Females     Annua'  cost    Annual  value 

material  employed,  employed.         ,a°or               pro(10uct 

$9,085,301  27,304   157   $10,001,891  $26,848,905 

2,812,981  9,639     2     3,415,925   8,703,937 

108,393  335    22      129,540    374,350 


CLOCKS  AND  WATCHES, 

PERHAPS  there  is  no  one  article  of  more 
general  utility  than  "  Yankee  clocks,"  and 
none  on  which  more  small  wit  has  been  ex 
pended  both  at  home  and  abroad.  The 
land  of  "wooden  clocks  and  nutmegs"  has 
been  a  standing  jibe  against  those  who  have 
so  cleverly  and  perseveringly  executed  those 
practical  ideas  that  tend  directly  to  the 
amelioration  of  the  human  condition.  When 
we  look  around  and  reflect  that  every  house, 
hut,  and  hovel  in  the  length  and  breadth  of 
the  land  is,  or  can  be,  supplied  with  an 
accurate  time-keeper  for  one  dollar,  that  is 
to  say,  a  bushel  of  grain,  and  reflect  that 
thirty  years  since  comparatively  no  time 
keepers  existed  within  reach  of  the  masses 
of  the  people,  we  begin  to  perceive  that 
Yankee  clocks  are  by  no  means  so  con 
temptible  a  commodity.  Doctor  Franklin 
demonstrated  that  "time  is  money,"  but 
the  people  at  large  had  no  more  means  of 
measuring  their  time  than  of  money  to 
count.  Alfred  the  Great  and  other  old 
progress  men  discovered  the  value  of  time, 
and  were  hard  put  to  it  to  measure  it  out. 
Some  of  the  old  fellows  sought  to  do  it  by 
the  dropping  of  water ;  many  marked  the 
progress  of  the  sun  ;  and  other  devices  were 
employed  without  very  great  accuracy. 
Alfred  contrived  twelve  candles,  which  be 
ing  burned  one  after  the  other,  divided  his 
day  into  twelve  portions,  which  had  each 
their  special  employment.  Twelve  candles 
vere  not  convenient,  however,  to  carry  in 


one's  fob,  and  were  troublesome  to  light  and 
snuff.  If  a  Yankee  peddler  had  walked 
in  upon  him  with  a  wooden  clock  under  his 
arm  to  sell  for  a  dollar,  he  would  far  more 
likely  have  been  hanged  as  a  wizard  than 
sneered  at  as  a  humbug.  Time-keepers  were 
invented,  however,  in  the  process  of  time, 
and  gradually  found  their  way  into  the 
hands  of  the  rich.  They  were  imported  into 
this  country  from  Europe  down  to  the 
formation  of  the  federal  government,  at 
high  prices.  Some  of  these  were  the  pen 
dulum  clocks,  some  six  feet  high,  and  gen 
erally  stood  in  the  landings  of  the  old  houses. 
About  the  time  of  the  formation  of  the 
federal  government,  however,  Eli  Teny, 
of  Windsor,  Connecticut,  made  some  clocks 
of  wood,  of  a  small  size,  to  hang  up  against 
the  wall.  In  1793,  he  began  making  them, 
as  a  business,  in  Plymouth,  Connecticut. 
Then  he  made  a  few  in  the  year  by  his  own 
labor.  In  1800  he  had  procured  the  help 
of  a  couple  of  young  men.  The  wheels 
were  marked  out  on  the  wood  with  square 
and  compass,  and  then  cut  out  with  a  fine 
saw  and  jack-knife,  the  teeth  of  the 

!  wheels  being  formed  in  the  same  manner. 
Twice  a  year  Mr.  Terry  would  pack  up 

;  some  of  these  clocks  and  make  a  journey 
into  the  new  country,  by  which  name  the 
region  west  of  the  North  River  was  then 
called.  There  he  found  sale  for  his  wooden 
"  movements"  at  $25  each.  He  so  pros 
pered  in  this,  that  by  the  year  1807  a  num 
ber  of  persons  in  Waterbury  associated 
themselves  into  a  company  to  furnish  Terry 


CLOCKS    AND    WATCHES. 


369 


with  stock  of  which  he  was  to  make  the 
movements.  To  execute  this  formidable 
work,  he  bought  an  old  mill,  introduced 
some  machinery,  and  laid  out  a  lot  of  500 
clocks  at  one  time,  a  larger  number,  it  is 
said,  than  was  ever  before  undertaken  at 
one  time  in  the  world.  Mr.  Terry  used  to 
sell  his  clocks  himself  at  a  price  of  $25,  but 
of  course  money  was  not  then  obtained. 
Salt  pork  was  currency,  and  when  he  took 
the  clock  out  of  his  saddle-bags,  he  put  salt 
pork  in  the  place  of  it.  In  1810,  Mr. 
Terry  sold  his  factory  to  Thomas  <fe  Hoad- 
ley,  and  competition  springing  up  the  price 
of  the  wooden  movements  was  reduced 
from  810,  the  then  price,  to  §5,  at  which 
low  price  some  of  the  manufacturers  failed. 
In  1814,  Terry  invented  a  new  style,  called 
the  pillar  scroll  top  case,  about  21  inches 
high.  These  sold  for  $1  5  freely,  for  many 
years,  and  he  made  a  fortune  of  some  $200,- 
000.  At  this  juncture  Chauncey  Jerome 
became  an  apprentice  to  Mr.  Terry,  and  the 
works  being  extended,  a  circular  saw  was 
introduced  for  the  first  time,  and  it  was  a 
great  curiosity.  Jerome  began  when  of  age 
to  make  a  few  clocks  for  himself,  and  sold 
them  at  $12  each.  He  continued  the  busi 
ness  under  many  vicissitudes,  making  large 
quantities  of  clocks  that  were  sent  all  over 
the  Union,  and  sold  by  means  of  peddlers. 
An  occasional  new  form  to  the  clocks  gave 
a  renewed  impulse  to  the  sales,  the  grow 
ing  competition  between  the  clockmakers 
continuing  to  force  down  prices.  The  panic 
of  1837  had  a  disastrous  influence  upon  the 
trade,  ruining  almost  all  the  manufacturers, 
Up  to  that  time  the  clocks  had  been  alto~ 
gether  of  wood,  of  which  it  was  difficult  to 
procure  the  right  description.  When  this 
was  obtained  it  required  a  year's  seasoning, 
and  then  it  was  a  slow  process,  even  with 
machines,  to  cut  out  the  works.  The  largest 
manufacturer  had  never  made  more  than 
10,000  per  annum.  These  clocks  wore  one- 
day  clocks,  but  good  time-keepers.  In 
1837,  Mr.  Jerome  invented  the  one-day 
clock  with  brass  works.  This  invention 
proved  a  now  era  in  the  clock  business,  and 
buried  the  old  wooden  works.  From  that 
time  the  business  made  very  rapid  progress, 
and  the  clocks  not  only  found  their  way  all 
over  the  Union,  but  also  to  Europe,  India, 
China,  Australia,  and  elsewhere.  The  old 
wooden  clock  could  not  well  be  exported, 
because  exposure  to  the  humidity  of  the 
ocean  air  caused  the  works  to  swell  in  a. 


manner  that  ruined  them.  This  difficulty 
the  brass  works  did  not  encounter.  The 
new  business  improved  very  rapidly  under 
the  demand  for  the  clocks,  which  Avas  con 
tinually  stimulated  by  the  gradually  falling 
prices.  The  old  wooden  dial  was  supplant 
ed  by  one  of  zinc,  and  an  eight-day  clock, 
which  would  have  cost  $20  in  1837,  can 
now  be  had  for  $4.  The  one-day  clock  is 
sold  for  75  cents,  and  is  an  excellent  time 
keeper.  The  brass  works  of  the  clocks  are 
made  from  the  metal  sheets  with  the  great 
est  rapidity.  The  oldest  manufacturer,  Mr. 
Jerome,  states  that  three  experienced  men 
can  make  500  clocks  in  one  day  from  the 
sheets.  There  arc  in  every  one-day  clock 
from  8  to  10  wheels;  an  eight-day  clock  re 
quires  more.  All  these  wheels  are  cut  from 
the  brass  at  one  operation,  pressed  out  and 
levelled  for  use.  The  expense  of  three  clays' 
work  is  thus  distributed  through  500  clocks, 
not  quite  1^  cents  each  clock.  The  whole 
cost  of  the  movements  was  50  cents  each. 
The  frames  of  the  clocks  are  also  made  in 
large  quantities  by  machine.  For  the  body 
of  the  case,  common  merchantable  pi  no 
lumber  is  used.  The  boards  are  by  circular 
saws  cut  into  suitable  lengths  for  sides  and 
tops.  Those  free  from  knots  are  then  by 
another  saw  cut  into  their  proper  Avidths, 
and  go  to  the  planing  machine.  They  then 
are  by  an  appropriate  instrument  cut  in  the 
shape  designated  for  the  fronts.  The  pieces 
are  then  taken  by  a  workman  who  spreads 
glue  upon  them,  to  receive  the  rosewood  or 
mahogany  veneer.  These  are  then  in  lots 
of  a  dozen  placed  in  hand'Screws  until  dry. 
When  ready,  the  veneer  is  polished  by  ap 
plying  it  to  a  revolving  cylinder  covered. 
Avith  sand  paper,  by  which  it  is  soon  suffi 
ciently  polished  to  receive  the  varnish,  of 
which  several  applications  are  made,  and  it 
requires  about  ten  days  to  dry.  They  then 
receive  a  polish  and  are  put  together  in  the 
form  of  the  case.  It  Avas  usual  to  have 
10,000  clocks  undergoing  this  process  at 
once.  In  this  manner  a  case  Avould  cost  50 
cents,  20  for  labor  and  30  for  stuff ;  a  cabi 
net-maker  oould  not  make  one  such  under 
$5.  The  dials  arc  cut  by  machinery  from 
sheets  of  zjno,  the  holes  being  punched  by 
the  same  operation.  They  are  then  painted 
and  the  letters  and  figures  printed  on.  One 
man  could  print  1,200  to  1,500  in  a  day. 
The  whole  dial  would  thus  cost  5  cents. 
The  tablets  printed  in  a  similar  manner,  and 
colored  by  girls,  cost  1|  cents  each.  The 


370 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


glass  and  work  4  cents.  The  weights  cost 
13  cents.  Thus  the  complete  clock  would 
cost  about  $1.25,  a  price  brought  about  by 
the  systematizing  of  the  labor. 

The  great  clock  factory  of  Chauncey 
Jerome  was  one  of  31  that  were  in  operation 
in  1852.  It  had  been  merged  into  a  joint- 
stock  company  in  1850,  called  the  Jerome 
Manufacturing  Company.  In  1853  and 
1854  that  concern  produced  444,000  clocks 
,per  annum  ;  another  factory,  that  of  J.  C. 
Brown,  produced  100,000  clocks  per  an 
num,  and  -failed  subsequently;  and  the 
Ansonia  Company,  which  was  afterward 
formed,  150,000  clocks  per  annum.  The 
sharp  competition  of  all  these  companies 
reduced  the  price  to  such  a  degree  that 
many  stopped.  In  the  ten  years  ending 
with.  1856,  four  factories  were  destroyed  by 
fire,  nine  failed,  and  five  closed  on  account 
of  low  prices.  There  remained  13  factories, 
of  which  six  produced  95,000  per  annum, 
and  the  remaining  seven,  48,000  clocks. 
In  1855  the  great  showman,  Barnum,  be 
came  a  member  of  the  Jerome  Clock  Com 
pany  by  selling  a  clock  factory  which  he 
owned  in  Bridgeport  to  the  Jerome  Co.,  and 
taking  stock  of  the  company  in  payment. 
In  the  same  year  the  Jerome  Co.  failed 
utterly ;  its  owners  allege,  because  the 
debts  of  the  company  bought  from  Barnum 
ruined  them,  while  the  assets  of  the  con 
cern  were  of  no  value,  and  the  extensive 
financiering  to  stave  off  these  liabilities, 
swallowed  up  all  the  means  of  the  Jerome 
Company.  The  result  was  almost  a  com 
plete  sweep  of  the  clock  business.  The 
New  Haven  Clock  Co.,  which  succeeded  to 
the  business  of  the  Jerome  Co.,  is  now  the 
largest  factory.  Its  method  of  making 
dials,  etc.,  is  the  same  as  was  that  of  the 
old  company.  There  is  also  the  Benedict  »fe 
Burnham  Co.,  at  Waterbury,  Conn.  The 
factory  of  Seth  Thomas  &  Co.,  at  Plym 
outh,  is  the  next  largest.  The  factory  of 
William  L.  Gilbert,  of  Winsted,  is  also  im 
portant.  The  factory  of  E.  N.  Welsh,  of 
Bristol,  is  the  successor  to  the  business  of 
J.  C.  Brown,  who  failed.  These  five  com 
panies  now  make  most  of  the  clocks  manu 
factured  in  Connecticut.  The  New  Haveu 
Co.  produces  about  200,000  per  annum, 
and  the  other  four  companies  about  300,000. 
There  are  other  parties  engaged  in  making 
clock  movements  and  parts  of  clocks,  and 
one  house  in  Bristol  makes  thirty-day  brass 
clocks  that  keep  excellent  time. 


From  Connecticut,  by  the  perseverance 
of  these  energetic  men,  the  clocks  have 
spread  over  the  face  of  the  Avhole  country, 
ticking  in  almost  every  store  and  dwelling 
of  the  Atlantic  cities,  and  almost  every  log 
hut  of  the  frontier.  Nor  have  they  been 
confined  to  this  country.  In  1841  they 
Avere  introduced  by  Mr.  Jerome  into  Eng 
land,  exciting  there  great  surprise  and  in 
dignation  at  the  presumption  of  the  Yan 
kees  with  their  wooden  tickers.  The  tariff 
laws  of  England  permit  the  owner  of  goods 
to  enter  them  at  his  own  price,  on  which 
the  duty  is  to  be  cast.  If  the  officer  thinks 
that  price  too  low  he  can  take  the  goods  at 
10  per  cent,  advance  on  it.  The  first  cargo 
sent  by  Mr.  Jerome  were  entered  at  regular 
prices,  but  these  appeared  so  ridiculously 
low  to  the  officer  that  he  paid  the  10  per 
cent,  and  seized  the  goods.  The  owners, 
nothing  loath,  brought  forward  another  lot, 
which  met  the  same  fate  ;  but  on  present 
ing  the  third  the  officer  had  become  a  wiser 
man,  and  let  the  Yankees  do  their  own  busi 
ness.  Jerome's  clocks  had  there  a  great 
run,  and  they  also. tell  the  time  to  the  people 
at  Jerusalem  and  Joppa.  The  Chinese  have 
been  taught  to  use  them,  and  a  Yankee  clock 
marked  the  time  when  the  emperor  fled  from 
Pekin. 

While  Yankee  clocks  have  had  such  an  ex 
tensive  and  important  run  during  the  present 
century,  the  making  of  watches  has  been 
undertaken  only  within  the  last  ten  years. 
The  originator  of  the  business  was  Mr.  E. 
Howard,  of  Boston,  and  a  successful  busi 
ness  is  carried  on  at  Roxbury,  Massachusetts. 
A  distinctive  character  of  these  watches  lies 
in  that  part  of  the  watch  which  constitutes 
the  main  feature  of  difference  between  the 
English  and  Swiss  watches,  and  which  gives 
to  each  its  national  characteristics,  so  far  as 
the  principle  of  their  construction  is  con 
cerned.  In  the  English  watches,  the  motive 
power  is  conveyed  to  the  train  or  wheel- 
work  by  means  of  a  chain  and  fusee  ;  in  the 
Swiss  watches,  the  motive  power  is  convey 
ed  to  the  train  directly  by  means  of  what  is 
termed  the  "  going  barrel."  In  the  Ameri 
can  arrangement,  is  employed  neither  the 
fusee  nor  the,  going  barrel,  but  the  sta 
tionary  barrel,  in  combination  with  the 
maintaining  power.  The  stationary  barrel 
has  indeed  been  found  in  watches  made  a 
hundred  years  ago  ;  but  in  all  such  watches 
the  stationary  barrel  is  very  impractical,  as 
they  are  minus  the  maintaining  power,  and 


CLOCKS    AND    WATCHES. 


371 


arc  consequently  liable  to  stop  while  being 
wound  up.  But  by  the  direct  application 
of  the  maintaining  power  to  the  fixed  bar 
rel,  are  obtained  several  very  important  ad 
vantages  over  the  chain  and  fusee,  and  also 
over  the  going-barrel  arrangement.  These 
facts  add  much  to  the  character  of  Ameri 
can-made  watches,  and  in  point  of  national 
ity,  afford  features  of  difference  to  distin 
guish  them  from  the  foreign  watches. 

The  perfection  with  which  machinery  is 
adapted  to  fine  work,  is  beautifully  illus 
trated  in  the  works  of  the  Waltham  Co., 
which  we  believe  is  the  only  one  in  the 
world  where  all  the  parts  of  the  watch  are 
perfected  under  one  roof,  and  systematized 
so  that  all  the  parts  of  one  will  fit  any  num 
ber  of  others.  The  different  parts  of  the 
mechanism  of  foreign-made  watches  are 
cast  and  cut  laboriously  by  hand,  separately, 
and  often  in  places  remote  from  each  other, 
then  sent  to  the  finisher's  to  be  polished, 
fitted  together,  and  set  up.  Not  only  does 
this  arrangement  involve  a  vast  amount  of 
expense  for  the  time  and  labor  employed  in 
the  execution,  but  it  necessarily  results  that 
no  two  of  these  pieces  can  ever  be  so  pre 
cisely  alike  as  to  render  it  possible  to  substi 
tute  one  for  the  other,  and  that  the  whole 
mechanism,  made  thus  in  different  places  by 
skilful,  mediocre,  and  inferior  workmen,  can 
never  be  adjusted  with  the  same  precision 
as  though  manufactured  in  one  establish 
ment,  under  the  supervision  of  a  single 
head.  These  difficulties  have  been  obviated 
by  the  American  Watch  Company.  Every 
part  of  the  watch  is  cut  in  their  establish 
ment  by  the  aid  of  machinery,  graduated  to 
microscopic  exactness,  and  working  with  a 
delicacy  of  touch  that  the  fingers  would  strive 
in  vain  to  emulate.  The  pieces  are  thus  cut 
exactly  alike.  The  jewelling  department  in 
this  establishment  is  under  the  direction 
of  the  most  skilful  artisans.  The  precious 
stones,  rubies,  sapphires,  or  chrysolites,  infe 
rior  only  to  the  diamond  in  hardness,  and  re 
sembling  grains  of  brilliant  sand,  are  drilled  by 
the  diamond's  point  into  pivoted  reliances. 
They  are  then  opened  out  with  diamond 
dust,  on  a  soft,  hair-like  iron  wire,  their  per 
forations  having  certain  microscopic  differ 
ences.  In  like  manner,  the  pivots  of  steel 
that  are  to  run  in  these  jewels,  without 
wearing  out  in  the  least,  must  be  exquisitely 
polished.  By  this  operation  their  size  is 
slightly  reduced.  The  jewels  and  pivots, 
after  being  thus  finished,  are  classified  by 


means  of  a  gauge,  so  delicately  graduated 
as  to  detect  a  difference  of  the  ten  thou 
sandth  part  of  an  inch.  The  jewels  are 
classified  by  means  of  the  pivots,  the  jewels 
and  pivots  of  the  same  number  fitting  each 
other  exactly.  The  sizes  of  the  several 
pivots  and  jewels  in  each  watch  are  careful 
ly  recorded  under  its  number,  so  that  if  any 
one  of  either  should  fail  in  any  part  of  the 
world,  by  sending  the  number  of  watch  to 
Waltham,  the  part  desired  maybe  readily  and 
cheaply  replaced  with  unerring  certainty. 

By  the  old  method,  the  processes  of  bor 
ing  holes  and  shaping  wheels  and  pinions, 
and  bringing  them  to  a  size,  were  done  by 
the  drill-bow  alone,  a  slow  method,  and  de 
pending  wholly  on  the  quick  eye  and  steady 
hand  of  the  workman,  who  only  acquired 
the  requisite  skill  by  long  years  of  appren 
ticeship.  At  Waltham,  all  this  is  done  by 
lathes  connected  with  a  steam-driven  shaft, 
and  the  boring  or  cutting  tools  guided  by 
machines  of  most  ingenious  contrivance,  so 
as  to  make  the  pieces  absolutely  uniform  in 
all  their  dimensions. 

Take,  for  instance,  a  pinion,  which  is 
made  out  of  the  solid  steel  wire  drawn  for 
the  purpose.  Some  of  this  is  drawn  plain 
and  some  with  grooves  for  the  teeth.  In 
either  case,  the  arbor  or  axle  is  turned  to 
the  exact  size  and  taper  required  to  fit  the 
holes  in  the  jewels,  and  the  teeth  cut  to 
their  shape  and  distance,  all  by  various  ma 
chinery,  and  with  such  absolute  uniformity 
that  any  one  piece  will  fit  to  its  place  in  any 
other  watch  of  the  same  pattern.  In  like 
manner,  the  stones  for  pivots  are  first  cut, 
and  then  rounded  and  brought  to  a  size, 
polished,  and  fitted  for  use  by  machines, 
tended  by  young  women,  who  acquire  the 
requisite  skill  by  a  few  weeks'  practice. 
Little  screws,  so  minute  that  it  takes  one 
hundred  and  fifty  or  two  hundred  thousand 
to  weigh  a  pound,  are  cut  from  the  wire 
with  surpassing  rapidity,  threaded,  and  the 
heads  finished  with  complete  accuracy. 

The  tools  and  mechanical  movements  by 
which  all  these  results  are  so  completely 
accomplished,  are  nearly  all  of  original  con 
trivance,  and  if  fully  and  scientifically  de 
scribed,  would  excite  general  admiration  for 
their  ingenuity. 

The  works  admit  of  the  employment  of 
220  hands,  and  can  turn  out  50  watches  per 
day.  Of  about  125  pieces  that  go  to  make 
a  watch,  some  pass  through  50  hands  before 
they  are  finished. 


372 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


ELECTRO-PLATING. 

IT  is  now  scarcely  a  score  of  years  since 
this  wonderful  art  began  to  attract  attention, 
and  it  has  become  of  great  importance  in 
many  departments  of  industry.  By  its 
means  an  exact  copy  of  any  surface  may  be 
obtained  in  a  metallic  layer,  as  of  a  page  of 
tvpe,  a'  medal,  or  coin.  This  impression  ob 
tained,  being  backed  with  more  fusible  metal, 
becomes  a  duplicate  of  the  original  article. 
This  branch  of  the  art  is  called  electrotyping, 
and  some  account  of  it  is  given  in  respect  to 
type  elsewhere  in  this  volume.  The  other 
branch  of  the  art,  by  which  the  metal  held 
in  solution  may  be  made  to  settle  upon  and 
to  cover  permanently  the  surface  of  objects 
ornamental  and  otherwise,  is  called  electro 
plating  or  electro-gilding.  The  discovery 
that  this  might  be  done  was  made  early  in 
the  present  century,  but  it  was  not  followed 
up  as  a  useful  art  until  1839,  when  Mr. 
Jordan  published  an  account  of  the  manner 
in  which  he  obtained  impressions  of  en 
graved  plates  and  other  matters.  Attention 
was  then  directed  to  it.  Previous  to  1836 
silver-plating  or  gilding  was  executed  in  the 
old  way  or  various  ways.  Iron  was  gilded 
by  polishing  its  surface  and  then  heating  it 
till  it  acquired  a  blue  color.  When  this  was 
done  leaf  gold  was  applied,  slightly  burnished 
down,  and  exposed  to  a  gentle  fire,  after 
which  it  was  burnished  again.  Copper  or 
brass  may  be  gilded  in  the  same  manner. 
Gilding  metals  by  amalgamation  was  effect 
ed  by  forming  the  gold  into  a  paste  or  amal 
gam  with  mercury,  and  was  chiefly  employ 
ed  for  gilding  silver,  copper,  or  brass.  The 
metal  being  well  cleaned,  is  dipped  into  the 
amalgam  or  spread  over  with  it,  when  a 
quantity  will  adhere  to  the  surface.  The 
metal  is  then  exposed  to  the  heat  of  a  fur 
nace,  which  volatilizes  the  mercury,  leaving 
the  gold  adhering ;  this  is  afterward  bur 
nished.  In  this  way  buttons  and  similar  ar 
ticles  are  gilded. 

Ornamental  figures  may  also  be  delineated 
in  gold  upon  steel  by  a  very  ingenious  proc 
ess,  by  means  of  ether.  Gold  is  dissolved 
in  nitro-muriatic  acid,  and  a  quantity  of 
ether  is  added,  and  the  mixture  shaken. 
The  ether  will  then  take  the  gold  from  the 
acid,  and  an  ethereal  solution  of  gold  will  be 
produced,  which  is  separated  and  applied  to 
the  surface  of  the  steel  by  a  camel  hair ;  the 
ether  will  evaporate,  leaving  the  gold  on  the 
surface  of  the  steel.  The  metal  is  then 


heated  and  the  gold  burnished.  In  this  way 
sword-blades  are  ornamented.  Instead  of 
ether  the  essential  oils  may  be  used. 

Making  gilded  trinkets  was  brought  to 
such  perfection  that  the  use  of  real  gold 
was  very  much  diminished.  The  most  ele 
gant  patterns  are  struck  in  thin  copper,  and 
then  gilded  so  perfectly  as  not  to  be  distin 
guishable  in  a  general  way,  while  new,  from 
gold,  and  with  proper  care  they  will  last  for 
a  considerable  time ;  but  when  the  gilding 
docs  wear  off,  the  color  cannot  be  restored, 
as  in  the  case  of  jeweller's  gold.  These 
were  the  processes  in  use  up  to  1836, 
when  Mr.  Ames  was  one  of  a  committee  sent 
to  England  by  the  government  to  acquire 
knowledge  in  aid  of  a  government  arms  man 
ufactory,  and  his  attention  was  attracted  to 
the  subject  of  depositing  silver  by  electricity, 
which  was  then  being  discussed,  and  its  the 
ory  established.  No  process  of  depositing  the 
silver  upon  any  base  metal,  as  german-silver, 
had  been  discovered.  Subsequently,  pur 
suant  to  some  suggestions  of  Professor  Silli- 
man,  it  was  discovered  that  prussiate  of 
potash  would  hold  the  silver  in  solution 
without  oxidizing  the  baser  metals.  This 
removed  a  part  of  the  difficulty,  but  there 
yet  remained  to  deposit  any  given  weight 
of  silver  that  might  be  required.  This  was 
also  removed  by  the  discovery  of  the  cyanide 
solution.  From  that  time  the,  art  of  deposit 
ing  the  precious  upon  base  metals  gained 
ground,  and  has  since  become  important. 

The  early  process  was  to  dissolve  sulphate 
of  copper  in  a  vessel,  and  to  suspend  a  zinc 
plate  by  wires  soldered  to  it,  and  the  object 
to  be  coated  by  the  same  wires  in  the  liquid 
facing  the  zinc  and  very  near  to  it.  On  the 
application  of  the  electric  battery,  the  zinc 
dissolves,  and  about  the  same  amount  of 
copper  deposits  itself  upon  the  object  to  be 
coated,  which  is  attached  to  the  negative 
pole  of  the  battery.  A  quantity  of  sulphate 
of  copper  is  suspended  in  bags  in  the  upper 
portion  of  the  liquid  to  supply  that  which 
deposits.  In  electro-plating  with  gold  or 
silver  there  should  be  a  constant  motion 
sustained,  in  order  to  aid  in  equalizing 
the  deposit.  In  plating,  the  utmost  care 
is  to  be  taken  to  remove  all  traces  of 
grease  by  boiling  the  object  in  alkali.  This 
process  is  extensively  employed  for  giving  a 
very  thin  coating  of  silver  to  german-silver, 
britannia,  pewter,  or  brass,  by  which  they 
have  all  the  apparent  beauty  of  the  precious 
metal.  The  mode  of  dissolving  the  silver 


The  following  few  engravings  arc  a  selection  from  among  500  different  patterns  of  ar 
ticles  manufactured  by  Messrs.  ROGERS,  SMITH  &  Co.,  in  Hartford,  and  show  the  beauty 
of  design  and  elegance  of  finish  to  which  this  branch  of  American  industry  has  attained. 


FISHERIES. 


377 


•was  originally  by  pure  nitric  acid ;  distilled 
water  then  being  added,  the  silver  is  pre 
cipitated  as  a  cyanide  by  a  solution  of  cyan 
ide  of  potassium.  The  precipitate  being  col 
lected  and  washed,  is  dissolved  in  a  solution 
of  cyanide  of  potassium,  and  this  is  used  for 
silver,  in  place  of  the  sulphate  of  copper  used 
for  the  deposit  of  that  material.  The  object  is 
more  conveniently  obtained  by  connecting  a 
plate  of  silver  with  the  positive  pole  of  the 
battery,  suspended  in  a  solution  of  cyanide 
of  potassium,  and  allowing  the  current  to  pass 
until  the  silver  begins  to  deposit  upon  the 
negative  pole.  To  insure  the  adhesion  of 
the  silver  to  every  part  of  the  object  to  be 
coated,  it  is  well  washed  in  an  alkaline  lye. 
The  copper  wire  is  then  attached  to  the  ob 
ject,  which  is  dipped  in  nitric  acid,  and  then 
placed  in  the  solution  ;  after  being  in  it 
some  minutes  it  is  taken  out  and  well  brush 
ed  with  sand.  It  is  then  replaced  in  the 
solution,  and  in  several  hours'  time  it  will 
have  acquired  a  coating  of  dead  white  silver 
a,s  thick  as  tissue  paper.  It  may  then  be 
burnished  or  polished  with  a  hard  brush  and 
whiting.  The  strength  of  the  battery  makes 
a  difference  in  the  hardness  of  the  silver. 
When  the  battery  is  weak,  the  deposit  is 
soft,  and  it  hardens  with  the  increase  of  the 
magnetic  strength,  accompanied  by  contin 
ual  motion,  which  also  equalizes  the  depos 
it  up  to  a  certain  point,  beyond  which  the 
silver  changes  to  a  black  powder.  To  pro 
duce  the  natural  hardness  of  the  hammered 
metal,  it  is  requisite  to  preserve  certain  pro 
portions  between  the  size  of  the  silver  plate, 
and  the  object  to  be  plated.  If  the  time  of 
the  operation  is  prolonged,  the  deposit  may 
be  thickened  to  almost  any  extent.  To  de 
posit  a  plate  as  thick  as  ordinary  writing 
paper,  will  require  1-J  or  l-'-oz.  of  silver  to  1'2 
square  inches.  The  pure  metal  thus  deposit 
ed  is  as  durable  as  that  used  for  silver  coin. 
By  the  electro-plating- process  all  ornaments, 
however  elaborate  as  designs,  however  com 
plicated  they  may  be,  can  be  produced 
as  readily  and  in  as  great  perfection  as  in 
solid  silver.  The  most  elaborate  epergne 
or  the  plainest  tea  or  dinner-set  is  wrought 
and  plated  in  the  perfection  of  the  purest 
silver.  Door-plates,  knobs,  bell-pulls,  cutlery, 
etc.,  all  come  within  the  scope  of  this  rare 
art.  The  manufacture  is  carried  on  in  New 
York,  New  England,  and  Philadelphia,  on  a 
great  scale ;  but  perhaps  the  house  of  Rogers, 
Smith  &  Co.,  of  Hartford,  the  first  that  en 
gaged  largely  in  the  business,  has  retained 


the  relative  magnitude  of  its  position. 
Their  manufactory  is  a  very  extensive  one,  em 
ploying  many  hundreds  of  hands  at  the  same 
time.  They  make  more  than  fifty  different 
patterns  of  tea-sets,  and  their  ware  excels 
in  richness  and  durability.  Their  ware  has 
found  its  way  into  private  families,  hotels, 
and  steamboats  to  a  considerable  extent,  and 
also  swells  the  volume  of  the  national  exports. 

In  electro-gilding  the  metal  is  dissolved  in 
nitro-muriatic  acid,  when  the  chloride  of 
gold  thus  obtained  is  digested  with  calcined 
magnesia.  The  oxide  precipitated  is  washed 
by  boiling  in  nitric  acid,  and  is  then  dis 
solved  in  cyanide  of  potassium.  The  tem 
perature  in  gilding  copper  should  be  at  least 
130°  F.,  and  in  gilding  silver  still  higher. 
The  positive  plate  of  the  battery  must  be  of 
gold,  and  the  negative  of  iron  or  copper. 
Some  of  the  metals,  as  iron,  steel,  lead,  do 
not  readily  receive  the  gold  in  deposit 
(unlike  banks  in  that  respect),  but,  being 
first  covered  with  a  light  coat  of  copper, 
the  gold  is  deposited  upon  that.  The  cop 
per  may  be  said  to  act  in  this  case  like  the 
mordant  in  calico  printing.  The  solution 
should  contain  as  much  gold  as  will  perfect 
the  desired  work  at  once.  In  this  operation 
the  smallest  quantities  produce  the  most  ex 
traordinary  effects.  The  almost  infinite  mallea 
bility  of  gold  is  well  known,  and  its  capaci 
ty  to  "spread  itself"  upon  properly  pre 
pared  metals  beats  that  of  a  4th  of  July 
orator.  An  ordinary  watch-case  may  re 
ceive  a  heavy  coat  on  the  outside  and  be 
well  covered  within,  and  yet  the  expenditure 
of  gold  will  be  only  20  grains,  or  the  value 
of  one  dollar.  "  A  magnificent  gold  pencil- 
case"  will  have  cost  3  grains  of  gold,  or  16 
cts.  worth.  The  expense  of  tipping  a  taper 
finger  with  gold  for  sewing  is  5  cts.,  and 
probably  that  is  all  it  is  worth  since  sewing- 
machines  have  laid  both  thimbles  and  sailors' 
palms  upon  the  shelf. 

It  is  easily  understood  that  the  introduction 
of  such  an  art  as  this  should  have  at  once  su 
perannuated  the  old  system  of  plating.  Prog 
ress  is  being  continually  made,  and  in  New 
York  machines  have  been  introduced  and  ap 
plied  to  practical  operation  in  electro-plating. 


FISHERIES, 

THE  fisheries,  as  we  have  elsewhere  shown, 
were  the  first  successful  industry  of  the  col- 


378 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


onies,  and  they  laid  the  foundation  of  our 
national  commerce  and  marine.  The  results 
are  not  singular  in  this  respect,  since  the 
most  flourishing  commercial  countries  of  the 
modern  world  owed  their  origin,  like  the 
Romish  church,  to  the  "  poor  fisherman." 
When  the  subjects  of  ancient  Rome,  flying 
before  the  hordes  of  Attila,  retreated  to  the 
lagunes  of  the  Adriatic,  nothing  remained 
to  them  but  the  sea  and  its  treasures.  This 
pursuit  enabled  them  to  rear  on  the  rocks 
that  had  sheltered  them,  the  proud  Venice 
which  awed  the  world,  and  whose  power  fell 
only  when  the  republic  had  become  a  cor 
rupt  oligarchy,  and  the  young  general  Bona 
parte,  the  agent  of  a  new  republic,  called 
them  to  account.  With  the  same  origin 
Genoa  grew  into  the  dominion  of  the  seas, 
and  encountered  the  same  fate  when  wealth 
and  corruption  succeeded  the  humble  vir 
tues  of  the  founders.  The  Dutch,  from  a 
band  of  herring-catchers,  whose  collection  of 
fishing  huts  was  called  Amsterdam,  carried 
on  that  system  of  energetic  industry  that 
conquered  Holland  from  the  sea,  and  pre 
vented  the  future  encroachments  of  that  ele 
ment  by  dikes ;  while  the  country  grew  rich 
and  so  powerful  that  the  successors  of  those 
old  herring-busses  carried  a  broom  at  the 
mast-head  in  token  of  the  sovereignty  of 
the  seas.  To  them  succeeded  the  Eng 
lish,  whose  fishing-nurtured  marine,  coupled 
with  an  aptitude  for  commerce,  gave  them 
the  mastery  over  the  wealth-enervated  Dutch. 
The  English  felt  the  maritime  sceptre  to 
tremble  in  their  grasp  for  the  first  time, 
when  the  New  England  trained  fishermen 
met  them  in  battle,  and  almost  every  en 
gagement  resulted  in  the  triumph  of  the 
"  bit  of  striped  bunting."  But  warlike 
supremacy  is  the  least  of  the  triumphs, 
since  the  commercial  atad  maritime  superi 
ority  has  every  day  become  more  mani 
fest,  from  the  moment  Paul  Jones  "  began 
to  fight"  and  "  old  Stewart"  out-mano3uvred 
the  Engish  fleet,  to  the  success  of  the 
yacht  America  in  the  British  waters.  In 
that  period  the  Yankee  fishermen  have  car 
ried  the  stars  and  stripes  to  every  corner 
of  every  continent  and  shown  them  to  every 
isle  of  the  ocean.  The  vigor  and  address 
with  which  the  New  Englanders  early  em 
barked  in  the  cod  and  mackerel  fishing, 
and  built  vessels  with  which  to  prosecute  it, 
not  only  excited  the  admiration  of  the 
mother  country,  but  roused  the  alarm  of 
the  government,  who  foresaw,  in  their  indus 


try  and  intelligence,  the  causes  of  the  defeat 
they  sustained  a  century  later. 

About  the  time  of  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence,  the  trade  growing  out  of  the 
cod  fishery  furnished  the  northern  colonies 
with  nearly  one  half  of  their  remittances  to 
the  mother  country,  in  payment  for  goods. 
All  the  seaport  towns  were  engaged  mostly 
in  it,  and  thus  grew  in  proportion  to  the 
success  of  that  business.  Under  these  cir 
cumstances,  the  fishing  rights  were  a  very 
important  part  of  the  negotiations  entered 
into  at  the  peace.  The  general  result  of  the 
negotiations  was  that  the  Americans  might 
catch  fish  anywhere  except  within  three 
miles  of  certain  English  colonial  coasts,  and 
might  land  to  dry  and  cure  on  the  southern 
side  of  Newfoundland  and  other  convenient 
coasts.  Congress,  by  law,  also  granted  a 
bounty  to  vessels  of  which  all  the  officers 
and  three  fourths  of  the  crew  were  American 
citizens.  The  bounty  was  altered  from  time 
to  time,  and  as  it  now  exists  under  the  law 
of  1855  is  as  follows  :  If  the  vessel  is  more 
than  five  tons  and  not  more  than  30,  $3i 
per  ton ;  more  than  30  tons,  $4.  The  al 
lowance  of  one  vessel  during  the  season, 
whatever  may  be  her  tonnage,  cannot  exceed 
$360.  The  bounty  paid  out  in  the  last  12 
years  amounts  to  $4,046,929,  or  $337,244 
per  annum  average.  The  whole  amount 
paid  since  the  formation  of  the  government 
has  been  $12,944,998,  and  the  following 
states  were  the  recipients : — 

STATES    THAT    RECEIVE    THB   FEDERAL,    BOUNTY. 

Maine $4,175,050 

New  Hampshire 563, 134 

Massachusetts 7,926, 273 

Connecticut 182,853 

Rhode  Island 78,895 

New  York. 18,319 

Virginia 479 


Total $12,944,998 

The  cod  fishery  is  the  most  important,  if 
we  take  the  number  of  tons  employed  as  the 
guide.  In  1795  there  were  37,OUO  tons  of 
shipping  so  employed.  At  present  there 
are  110,000  tons  employed  in  the  business. 
There  are  several  ways  in  which  the  fishing- 
vessels  are  fitted  out.  The  leading  one  is 
for  six  or  seven  farmers  with  their  sons  to 
build  a  schooner  during  the  winter.  When 
the  spring  crops  are  in,  they  fit  out  the  ves 
sel  with  the  necessary  stores  and  go  on 
board  to  make  the  voyage  before  harvest. 
They  proceed  to  the  "Banks,"  the  Gulf  of 


FISHERIES. 


381 


St.  Lawrence,  or  Labrador,  and,  with  a  good 
catch,  get  home  in  time  to  harvest.  From 
the  proceeds  of  the  voyage  they  pay  any  out 
standing  claims  for  outfit,  draw  the  govern 
ment  bounty,  and  divide  the  proceeds.  Af 
ter  harvest  they  make  another  voyage,  the 
catch  of  which  tis  not  dried,  but  salted  down 
for  home  use,  under  the  name  of  mud  fish. 
Another  plan  is  to  charter  a  vessel  from  the 
owner,  merchant,  or  other,  in  a  company  of 
10  or  15,  on  shares;  the  owner  finding  the 
vessel,  and  nets,  and  salt  for  his  share,  which 
is  usually  three  eighths  of  the  whole  catch. 
The  men  supply  provisions,  hooks,  lines,  and 
the  salt  for  their  share  of  five  eighths  of  the 
fish.  One  of  them  is  selected  to  navigate, 
for  which  service  he  gets  $4  or  $5  per 
month  ;  otherwise  he  turns  in  to  catch  fish, 
or  to  work  with  the  rest.  The  first  spring 
voyage  is  usually  made  to  the  Banks ;  the 
second  either  to  the  Hanks,  the  Gulf,  or  Labra 
dor  ;  and  the  two  fall  voyages  also  generally 
to  the  Banks. 

Fish  here  are  all  caught  with  hooks,  and 
are  taken  from  the  bottom.  Each  fisher 
man  has  a  strong  line,  of  from  sixty  to  sev 
enty  fathoms  in  length,  to  which  is  attached 
a  lead  of  a  cylindrical  shape,  weighing  about 
five  pounds.  This  of  course  is  the  sinker. 
From  this  proceeds  the  "  pennant,"  which  is 
n  cord  about  twice  the  size  of  the  line,  and 
is  about  three  feet  in  length.  To  the  lower 
end  of  the  pennant,  and  attached  to  it  by  a 
small  copper  swivel,  is  the  "  craft,"  which  is 
a  small  stout  cord  about  two  and  a  half  feet 
in  length,  having  three  strips  of  whalebone 
laid  around  it  at  the  middle,  where  it  is  at 
tached  to  the  swivel  of  the  pennant.  The 
whole  is  then  serried  or  wound  round  with 
tarred  twine.  On  each  end  of  the  craft  is 
a  smaller  swivel,  to  which  the  gauging  of 
the  hooks  is  attached.  The  whalebone 
serves  to  keep  the  hooks  about  a  foot  apart, 
BO  there  is  little  danger  of  their  becoming 
entangled  Avith  each  other. 

The  men  arrange  themselves  on  the  wind 
ward  side  of  the  deck,  throw  over  their 
leads,  and  unreel  their  lines,  till  the  lead 
rests  on  the  bottom.  It  is  then  drawn  up 
so  that  the  hook  will  be  on  the  bottom  with 
the  down  pitch  of  the  vessel,  and  with  nip 
pers  drawn  on  their  fingers  to  keep  the  line 
from  cutting  them,  they  lean  over  the  bul 
warks,  patiently  awaiting  a  bite,  which  is 
known  by  a  slight  jerk  on  the  line.  They 
1hen  give  a  sudden  pull,  in  order  to  hook 
him,  stand  back  and  haul  in  the  long  line, 

23 


hand  over  hand,  until  the  fish  is  hauled  up 
to  the  surface,  when  he  is  taken  in  on  deck, 
unhooked,  and  thrown  into  a  square  box, 
which  each  man  has  fastened  by  his  side, 
called  a  "  kid."  The  hooks  are  then  baited 
and  hove  over  again,  and  the  fisherman, 
while  the  line  is  running,  picks  up  the  fish 
caught,  and  cuts  out  his  tongue. 

Toward  night,  the  fish  are  counted  out 
from  the  kids,  each  one  separately,  and 
thrown  into  a  large  kid  near  the  main- 
hatch,  called  the  "  dressing-kid."  They  are 
counted  aloud  as  they  are  thrown  along,  and 
each  man  is  required  to  keep  his  own  ac 
count  and  report  to  the  skipper  at  night,  who 
keeps  a  separate  account  for  each  man  on 
the  log-book.  The  dressing-gang,  consisting 
of  a  "  throater,"  a  "  header,"  a  "  splitter," 
and  a  "  salter,"  now  commence  dressing 
down.  After  passing  through  the  hands  of 
the  first  three,  they  assume  somewhat  the 
shape  seen  in  market.  They  are  then  passed 
down  between  decks  to  the  salter,  who  puts 
them  up  in  kenches,  or  layers,  laying  the 
first  tier  on  the  bottom  of  the  hold,  and 
building  up  with  alternate  layers  of  salt  and 
fish  till  the  kcnch  reaches  the  desired  height. 
The  decks  are  then  washed  down,  sails  taken 
in,  and  the  vessel  anchored  for  the  night. 

A  popular,  though  somewhat  dangerous 
method,  called  "  trawling,"  has  been  em 
ployed  of  late  years.  The  trawl  is  a  long 
rope,  with  from  twenty  to  a  hundred  lines 
depending  from  it,  to  which  hooks  are  at 
tached  as  to  the  common  line.  The  rope  is 
kept  at  the  surface  by  means  of  keg-buoys, 
each  one  marked  with  the  vessel's  name,  to 
prevent  any  dispute  as  to  ownership.  The 
hooks  are  baited  and  the  trawl  got  clear  and 
ready,  and  it  is  then  taken  in  a  dory  some 
distance  from  the  vessel,  and  set.  It  is 
generally,  AVC  believe,  set  at  night,  and 
hauled  in  the  morning.  The  very  laborious 
duty  of  hauling  the  tnuvls  is  performed  also 
in  dories,  by  two  or  three  men  in  each. 
Occasionally,  nearly  every  hook  has  done 
its  work,  but  most  frequently  from  tAventy 
to  fifty  fish  are  the  reward  of  their  toil. 
Sometimes  trawls  are  set  at  a  distance  of 
five  or  six  miles  from  the  craft,  and  not  un- 
frequcntly  do  the  traAvl-men  get  astray  from 
their  vessel.  In  this  case,  they  generally 
board  some  other  vessel,  if  one  is  lying  near, 
or  drift  about  for  hours  until  they  find,  their 
own. 

The  herring  fishery,  which  Avas  formerly 
very  abundant,  has  of  late  years  fallen  into 


382 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


decay,  for  the  reason  that  the  great  schools 
that  formerly  visited  these  shores  have 
ceased  to  come,  most  probably  because  the 
waters  resorted  to  by  the  fish  to  deposit 
their  spawn  have  been  obstructed  by  dams, 
mills,  etc.  For  the  same  reason  the  once 
abundant  salmon  has  now  become  scarce. 
The  indentures  of  the  apprentices  in  colonial 
times  were  said  to  have  contained  clauses 
that  the  apprentice  should  not  be  compelled 
to  eat  salmon  oftener  than  thrice  a  week. 
Since  then,  through  scarcity,  that  fish  has 
risen  to  $2  a  pound,  at  certain  seasons. 
Streams  that  once  afforded  supplies  for  do 
mestic  consumption  and  thousands  of  barrels 
for  export,  now  supply  less  than  the  local  de 
mand.  Along  the  Maine  waters  forty  years 
ago  two  hundred  a  day  for  three  months  in 
the  year  was  not  extra.  A  boy  of  15  would 
take  1500  in  a  season  with  a  dip-net. 
They  probably  caught  them  all,  for  very  few 
are  seen  of  late  years.  Until  within  twenty 
years  salmon  were  plenty  in  the  Merrimac 
river,  but  they  have  been  driven  away  by 
turbine  wheels.  Of  the  Delaware,  Susque- 
hanna,  Hudson,  Connecticut,  and  Thames, 
the  same  story  may  be  told  of  former  abun 
dance  and  present  scarcity.  As  an  instance 
of  relative  values,  one  shad  was  formerly 
thought  equal  to  three  salmon,  but  in  certain 
seasons  one  salmon  will  now  be  worth  a 
bushel  of  shad.  The  Aroostook  river  is  now 
the  source  of  greatest  supply,  but  the  chief 
quantity  that  comes  upon  the  market  is 
from  the  colonies.  On  the  Pacific  coast,  as 
far  south  as  the  Columbia  river,  they  are 
still  abundant.  In  that  river  a  navigator 
asserted  he  purchased  a  ton  of  salmon  for  a 
jack-knife.  There  are  those  who  already 
anticipate  a  dinner  in  New  York  upon  a 
Columbia  river  salmon,  to  be  brought  by 
the  Pacific  railroad.  Some  seven  years  ago 
the  same  table  on  Lake  Erie  presented  Ken- 
nebec  salmon  side  by  side  with  Lake  Supe- 
.rior  salmon-trout. 

The  halibut  fishery  on  George's  Banks 
is  an  enterprise  of  recent  years.  It  is  pur 
sued  in  mid-winter,  and  few  occupations, 
even  on  the  ocean,  are  more  hazardous. 
This  delicate  fish  is  packed  in  ice,  and  sent 
by  railroads,  sound  and  sweet,  to  the  most 
distant  markets. 

Before  the  construction  of  railroads,  the 
whole  number  of  halibut  annually  caught 
and  brought  into  Cape  Ann,  did  not  exceed 
2500,  which  were  nearly  all  sold  fresh  for 
immediate  consumption ;  for  not  having 


been  in  demand,  when  cured  in  any  manner 
by  salt,  for  the  domestic  or  foreign  markets, 
but  few  were  prepared  for  that  purpose.  In 
fact,  so  worthless  were  they  considered  as 
salted  fish,  that  the  owners  of  the  vessels 
employed  in  the  fisheries  generally  in 
structed  the  crews  to  cut  adrift  all  the 
halibut  which  were  drawn  up,  and  every 
year  many  thousands  had  been  thus  turned 
back  to  the  deep  with  a  fatal  wound.  But 
such  was  now  the  facility  of  transporting 
them  fresh  to  the  New  York  market,  that 
at  least  16,000  were  taken,  and  a  large  portion 
of  them  sent  to  that  city  by  the  railroads 
and  steamboats. 

The  mode  of  taking  halibut  is  as  follows  : 
The  lines  are  thrown  over  and  allowed  to 
sink  to  the  bottom ;  a  heavy  lead  is  attached, 
for  the  under  current  on  the  Banks  is  very 
strong ;  the  fish  takes  the  hook  by  suction, 
but  the  force  of  suction  is  sufficient  to  en 
able  the  fisherman  to  discover  that  he  is 
"  thar ;"  then  commences  the  "  hauling  in," 
and  the  reader  may  believe  it  is  no  joke  to 
haul  in  a  line,  in  a  rough  sea,  of  some 
eighty  or  ninety  fathoms  in  length,  with  a 
fish  of  from  twenty-five  to  two  hundred 
pounds'  weight  at  the  end.  Sometimes  the 
fish  comes  up  very  readily  to  the  surface, 
but  in  most  cases  it  is  necessary  to  "  drown" 
it,  by  drawing  it  some  ten  or  twenty  feet 
from  the  bottom,  and  very  suddenly  letting 
go.  This  last  process  is  of  course  a  very 
tedious  one.  The  fish  upon  coming  to  the 
surface  is  seized  by  a  "  gaff,"  an  oaken  pole 
or  stick  with  a  strong  hook  attached,  drawn 
on  board  the  vessel,  and  thrown  into  the 
ice-house.  Each  man  keeps  account  of  the 
number  of  fish  he  takes,  of  which  he  re 
ceives  the  proceeds  from  one  half  the 
amount  of  sale. 

Formerly  the  halibut  was  only  caught 
late  in  the  spring  and  during  the  summer 
and  autumnal  months,  on  the  south  shoals 
of  Nantucket,  along  the  coast  of  Cape  Cod, 
in  Barnstable  Bay,  on  Cash's  Ledge,  and 
some  other  places,  where  they  were  most 
abundant  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year, 
and  always  in  deep  water,  being  consid 
ered,  as  it  is  termed,  a  bottom  fish.  But 
since  the  demand  for  this  American  turbot, 
as  it  may  with  propriety  be  called  (for  it 
much  resembles  that  delicious  fish  in  form 
and  flavor),  has  so  vastly  increased,  the  fish 
ermen  have  made  explorations  in  search  of 
other  haunts,  and,  to  their  great  astonish 
ment,  found  them  in  immense  quantities  on 


FISHERIES. 


383 


George's  Banks,  early  in  March ;  and  what 
was  still  more  surprising,  and  a  fact  until  then 
entirely  unknown  to  them,  they  appeared  in 
extensive  shoals  on  the  surface  of  the  water, 
like  mackerel,  and  were  taken  with  but  three 
or  four  fathoms  of  line,  instead  of  from  26  to 
70,  which  they  had  been  accustomed  to  use 
time  out  of  mind  in*"  the  bottom  fishing. 
The  Cape  Ann  vessels  take  from  200  to 
500  each  trip,  weighing  from  25  to  200 
pounds. 

The  fish  is  packed  and  shipped  mostly,  if 
not  altogether,  in  Boston,  and  thence  sent 
to  the  most  distant  points  of  the  South.  It 
much  surprised  the  epicures  of  New  Orleans 
•when  it  popped  out  of  the  ice-box  in  the 
market,  not  only  by  the  strangeness  of  its  ap 
pearance,  being  altogether  unknown  in  those 
parts,  but  also  by  the  delicacy  of  its  rich 
flavor. 

The  growth  of  this  fishery  has  been  so 
rapid  that  from  a  small  beginning  it  has 
in  a  few  years  increased  to  $60,000  per  an 
num,  and  employs  75  nearly  new  and  well- 
adapted  vessels,  chiefly  owned  at  the  port 
of  Gloucester. 

The  mackerel  fishery  was  one  of  the  earli 
est  pursued,  but  it  did  not  reach  much  im 
portance  until  the  close  of  the  last  century ; 
and  it  is  now  mostly  confined  to  Maine  and 
Massachusetts.  There  are  about  30,000 
tons  employed  in  it,  and  the  number  of 
barrels  caught  annually  will  vary  from  131,- 
000  to  360,000  barrels.  Nearly  the  whole 
of  the  business  is  carried  on  in  Massachu 
setts,  the  other  states  doing  but  little  in  it. 
A  few  vessels  from  Maine  and  Connecticut 
fit  out  at  Gloucester,  the  chief  place  for  that 
industry.  The  merchants  of  Philadelphia, 
New  York,  and  Boston  have  their  agents  at 
that  place  to  purchase  and  ship  for  them. 
There  are  now  employed  in  it  over  1000 
vessels  and  10,000  men.  The  value  is  given 
as  follows  by  the  inspector  general  of  Mas 
sachusetts  : — 

Value  of  vessels  and  outfits  in  Mas 
sachusetts,  $6,032,000 

Value  average  of  catch, 4,400,000 

The  American  mackerel-catchers  took  of 
this  fish  one  year  as  follows  :  188,336  barrels 
in  American  waters,  and  140,906  barrels  in 
waters  now  claimed  as  the  exclusive  right 
of  the  Earl  of  Derby. 

Gloucester  sends  out  annually  about  four 
hundred  schooners,  ranging  from  65  to 
110  tons,  and  averaging  90  tons.  Their 


crews  for  the  mackerel  fishery  generally 
consist  of  from  10  to  14  men,  according 
to  the  size  of  the  craft;  for  the  cod  and 
halibut  fishery,  of  about  8  men.  The  ves 
sels  arc  nearly  all  of  a  clipper  build,  fore- 
and-aft  rig,  and  are  valued  at  an  average  of 
about  $4000.  Most  of  them  have  all  the  con 
veniences  of  a  mechanic's  house  on  shore, 
and  their  cabins  will  generally  compare,  in 
a  due  proportion  of  course,  with  the  cabins 
of  any  merchant-ship.  It  is  the  fisherman's 
pride  that  his  craft  shall  compare  in  beauty 
with  any  other  he  may  meet.  In  Glouces 
ter  the  value  of  shipping  tonnage  is  $1,600,- 
000.  In  the  months  of  May  and  June, 
nearly  all  the  vessels  owned  in  the  port 
commence  "  fitting  out"  for  the  Bay  of  St. 
Lawrence,  in  which  locality,  for  the  past 
few  years,  mackerel  abound  in  the  greatest 
numbers.  The  "  fit-out"  consists  in  the 
craft  being  newly  painted,  rigging  and  sails 
renovated,  anchors  and  cables  replenished, 
if  necessary,  men  shipped,  and  bait,  salt, 
and  provisions  taken  an  board.  She  is  then 
ready  for  a  start.  For  the  first  few  days  of 
the  passage  all  hands  are  busily  employed 
in  arranging  or  deciding  for  their  fishing 
quarters  at  the  rail.  The'bcst  men  are  gen 
erally  given  positions  near  the  main  rigging, 
which  is  considered  the  most  advantageous, 
as  the  fish  usually  rise  there  in  greatest 
numbers.  The  men  arc  shipped  "  on 
shares,"  as  it  is  termed,  i.  e.  each  man  is 
entitled  to  one  half  the  fish  he  takes— the 
other  half  going  to  the  vessel.  After  about 
a  week's  sail  they  arrive  at  their  destina 
tion,  which  comprises  the  Bay  of  St.  Law 
rence,  from  Cape  Breton  island  on  the 
south  and  Prince  Edward's  island  on  the 
west  to  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence  on 
the  north.  When  arrived,  bait  is  got  up 
and  ground.  The  "  toll-bait,"  as  it  is 
called,  is  generally  menhaden,  or  porgies,  a 
small  bony  fish,  little  used  as  an  article  of 
food.  This  is  supplied  in  great  quantities 
to  each  vessel.  It  is  finely  ground  in  a  mill 
provided  for  the  purpose,  then  mixed  with 
water,  and  it  is  ready  for  use.  Upon  the 
appearance  of  a  school  of  mackerel,  which  is 
indicated  by  a  rippling  of  the  surface  of  the 
water  not  unlike  that  of  the  schools  of  her 
ring,  the  vessel  is  "  hove  to,"  and  the  "  toll- 
bait"  thrown.  The  fish  will  generally  fol 
low  this  bait  to  the  side  of  the  vessel,  where 
all  hands  are  at  their  quarters,  and  anxiously 
awaiting  the  first  "bite."  And  now  com 
mences  a  general  excitement.  Each  man 


384 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


has  his  barrel  by  his  side,  and  to  those  who 
have  never  seen  the  operation,  the  rapidity 
with  which  the  fish  are  taken  from  the 
water  is  almost  incredible.  The  men  are 
also  provided  with  two  lines  each,  and  upon 
a  "  strike,"  which  means  when  the  fish  bite 
rapidly,  these  lines  are  in  constant  motion, 
and  what  seems  strangest  of  all  is  the  fact, 
that  although  a  space  of  only  about  a  foot 
and  a  half  or  two  feet  is  allowed  to  each 
man  for  himself  and  his  barrel,  it  is  very 
seldom  that  the  lines  become  entangled, 
even  when  the  school  being  at  some  dis 
tance  from  the  vessel,  some  15  or  20  fath 
oms  of  length  of  line  is  required,  and  the 
fish,  as  soon  as  the  hook  is  felt,  dart  hither 
and  thither  with  the  rapidity  of  lightning. 
After  a  "  deck"  of  mackerel  is  obtained 
(which  signifies  a  goodly  number  of  bar 
rels),  all  hands  immediately  prepare  to  put 
them  in  salt.  The  operations  of  "  passing 
up,"  "  splitting,"  and  "  gibbing"  are  gone 
through,  and  they  are  packed  in  salt  in  the 
barrels.  This,  with  a  plenty  of  leisure,  when 
the  fish  are  "  slack,"  or  do  not  take  the 
hook,  is  the  routine  of  the  Gloucester  mack 
erel  fisherman's  sea  life. 

The  process  of  netting  and  seining  is  used 
very  little,  it  being  a  much  easier  and  safer 
method  to  take  them  by  the  hook  and  line. 

Numbers  of  city  and  country  people  make 
trips  in  these  fishing  craft  in  summer  sea 
son,  from  the  fact  that  the  business  is  of  a 
hciilthful  nature,  and  is  a  pleasant  and  very 
convenient  manner  of  enjoying  a  few  weeks' 
leisure. 

These  schooners  make  two  or  three  trips 
each  season,  starting  about  the  middle  of 
May  or  first  of  June,  on  their  first  voyage, 
and  returning  in  October  or  November  from 
their  last  one.  A  "good  trip"  is  considered 
to  be  about  250  to  300  barrels. 

The  oyster  trade  is  a  large  and  general 
one,  and  pervades  most  of  the  towns  and 
cities  of  the  Union,  having  spread  with  the 
facilities  of  transport  to  points  that  distance 
before  deprived  of  the  bivalvular  luxury. 
The  oysters  are  of  a  great  variety  of  species, 
seemingly  dependent  upon  the  locality  where 
they  are  fatted.  Large  numbers  of  oysters 
taken  from  the  original  beds  are  unfit  for 
market  until  they  have  been  planted  or 
transferred  to  a  favorable  locality  for  them 
to  fat.  The  different  localities  impart  to 
them  various  flavors,  more  or  less  salt,  and 
which  are  difficult  to  discriminate  other 
wise  than  by  the  name  of  the  place  where 


they  were  fatted,  as  "East  Rivers,"  "Shrews- 
burys,"  etc.  The  setting,  planting,  and  bring 
ing  them  to  market  occupy  a  great  num 
ber  of  men  and  no  inconsiderable  tonnage. 
They  attain  a  marketable  size  in  about 
eighteen  months,  and  breed  very  rapidly. 
When  the  oyster  vessel  arrives  in  the  spring 
from  the  South,  it  is  anchored  near  the  site 
of  the  proposed  bed.  The  cargoes  are  then 
put  into  small  boats  that  come  alongside. 
The  beds  having  been  staked  off  into  small 
squares,  about  50  bushels  are  spread  over 
one  of  the  squares  in  such  a  manner  that 
no  oyster  shall  be  upon  another.  By  the 
fall,  the  oysters  will  have  considerably  in 
creased  in  size,  and  greatly  improved  in  fla 
vor.  If  allowed  to  remain  too  long  in  shel 
tered  waters,  the  oyster  not  long  acclimated 
will  perish  with  the  rigor  of  the  northern 
winter.  The  breeding  time  of  native  oysters 
is  in  April  and  May,  from  which  time  to 
July  or  August,  they  are  said  to  be  sick,  or 
in  the  milk,  and  in  most  localities  laws  for 
bid  taking  them  until  the  first  of  Septem 
ber,  with  a  view  to  favor  their  growth. 
They  are  then  caught  in  a  net,  which  has 
on  its  lower  edge  an  iron  scraper.  This 
being  attached  to  a  rope  and  cast  over  from 
a  boat,  is  dragged  along  the  bottom  by  a 
forced  motion  when  rowed  by  the  fisher 
men.  The  iron  scraper  turns  up  the  oysters 
and  they  are  retained  in  the  net,  which  from 
time  to  time  is  drawn  up  to  be  emptied. 
When  the  water  is  shallow  a  pair  of  huge 
tongs  are  used  to  pick  up  a  number  at  a 
time.  In  some  places  the  drag  or  dredge 
is  very  large  and  heavy,  and  is  drawn  along 
by  the  vessel  under  sail.  This  process  is 
forbidden  by  law  in  some  districts,  since  the 
heavy  drag  crushes  and  destroys  as  many  as 
it  catches.  WThen  the  season  sets  in,  the 
fishermen  crowd  the  waters  where  the  oys 
ters  are  to  be  had,  and  sell  their  catch  in 
the  neighboring  cities.  The  larger  dealers 
buy  their  oysters  in  Virginian  waters,  and 
carry  them  North  to  plant  until  they  are  fat. 
The  value  of  the  Virginia  oyster  trade  has 
been  given  as  follows,  showing  the  destina 
tion  of  the  oysters  : — 

No.  of  bushels.        Value. 

Virginia  cities 1,050,000     $1,050.000 

Baltimore '. . .     3,500,000       3,500,000 

Philadelphia 2,500,000       2,500,000 

New  York 6,950,000       6,950,000 

Fair  Haven 2,000,000       2,000,000 

Total 16,000,000  $10,000,000 

Other  cities, Providence,  etc.    4,000,000       4,000,000 

Total 20,000,000  $20,000,000^ 


FISHERIES. 


385 


It  has  been  estimated  that  the  oyster 
trade  of  Baltimore  is  more  valuable  than 
the  whole  wheat  trade  of  Maryland.  The 
whole  shores  of  the  Chesapeake  Bay  are 
admirably  adapted  to  their  growth,  and  they 
reach  maturity  in  one  year.  There  are  there 
250  vessels  engaged  in  the  business,  and 
their  catch  is  900  bushels  every  trip  of  ten 
days,  and  the  annual  aggregate  is  4,800,000 
bushels.  The  average  value  being  50  cents 
per  bushel,  the  value  is  $2,400,000  paid 
by  the  Baltimore  dealers.  Some  of  these 
houses  send  West  over  the  railroads  8  to  1 0 
tons  of  canned  oysters  per  day.  The  shells 
sold  for  manure  are  put  at  6,000,000  bush 
els  annually,  worth  two  cents  per  bushel,  or 
$120,000.  The  Long  Island  Sound  oys 
ters  were  originally  from  Chesapeake  Bay. 
These  oysters  cost  originally  25  cents,  and 
the  freight  is  15  cents.  The  native  oysters, 
or  what  arc  considered  such,  being  propa 
gated  from  old  plants,  are  taken  mostly  for 
the  city  trade,  while  the  transplanted  oys 
ters  find  their  way  all  over  the  country  by 
railroad.  To  preserve  them  they  are  first 
opened  and  put  into  kegs  or  cans  of  a  ca 
pacity  of  12  to  20  gallons  each.  These  are 
then  put  into  boxes  and  surrounded  with 
ice.  There  are  some  250  vessels  employed 
in  carrying  oysters  to  New  Haven.  There 
are  about  20  houses  engaged  in  the  business, 
the  largest  having  branches  in  Buffalo,  Cleve 
land,  Hamilton  and  elsewhere.  These  firms 
employ  a  great  number  of  boys  and  girls  in 
opening  the  oysters.  The  operation  is  per 
formed  with  incredible  dispatch  by  the  ex 
perienced  hands.  The  instruments  used  are 
a  hammer  to  crack  the  edge  on  a  slip  of 
iron  fixed  upright  in  the  bench,  and  a  knife. 
The  latter  is  always  held  in  the  hand,  while 
the  hammer  is  seized,  the  blow  given,  and 
dropped,  the  knife  inserted,  and  the  oyster 
being  seized  between  the  knife  and  the 
thumb  is  pitched  into  the  tub.  The  move 
ment  produces  a  constant  click-gouge-splash, 
click-gouge-splash,  as  the  tub  rapidly  fills 
with  the  "  bivalves"  previous  to  packing. 
The  openers  get  2  cents  a  quart,  and  they 
earn  from  $1  to  $2  per  day.  There  are  150 
oysters  to  the  gallon,  and  to  earn  $2,  100 
quarts,  or  3750  oysters  must  be  opened,  or 
during  12  hours  50  per  minute! 

The  sea-coast  by  no  means  monopolizes 
good  fishing.  In  and  about  the  great  lakes 
there  are  35  varieties  of  fish,  and  it  is  said 
that  a  larger  number  and  variety  of  fish  as 
cend  the  Maurnee  river  in  the  spring  to 


spawn,  than  in  any  other  river  on  the  globe. 
These  fish  give  rise,  as  a  matter  of  course,  to 
a  large  business.  The  number  of  barrels 
caught  annually  is  some  42,000,  which  may 
be  divided  as  follows:  Lake  Superior,  3000; 
Michigan,  15,000 ;  Huron,  14,000 ;  Erie, 
3000;  and  7000  barrels  in  Detroit  riv 
er.  Being  sold  at  an  average  of  $11  per 
barrel,  the  aggregate  value  is  some  8462, OuO. 
About  one  sixth  of  the  whole  quantity  is 
trout,  the  remainder  white  fish.  The  mode 
of  taking  them  is  by  "  gill  nets"  set  some 
ten  miles  from  the  shore.  Considerable 
numbers  are  taken  when,  having  been  up 
Detroit  river  from  Lake  Erie  to  spawn,  they 
are  on  their  return.  There  are  about  50 
fisheries  on  the  river.  In  some  of  the  rivers 
that  flow  into  the  lakes,  great  quantities  of 
pickerel  are  caught,  say  Fox  river,  Wiscon 
sin,  1000  barrels;  Saginaw  river,  1500  bar 
rels;  St.  Clair,  15,000  barrels;  Maumcc, 
3000  barrels,  and  as  much  mullet,  bass,  etc. 
The  annual  product  of  the  lakes  and  tribu 
taries  is  given  as  follows  : — 


Barrels. 

Lakes 35,000 

Detroit  river 7,000 

Other  rivers 10,000 


Value. 
$385,000 
77,000 
85,000 


52,000         $547,000 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  fisheries  is 
carried  on  in  Long  Island  Sound  and  some 
other  localities.  It  is  the  taking  of  what 
are  called  bony  fish  for  manure.  These  fish 
go  in  immense  schools,  which  show  them 
selves  in  ripples  upon  the  surface  of  the 
water.  They  are  taken  by  nets,  which  may 
be  seen  by  the  steamboat  traveller,  hung 
upon  immense  reeds  at  the  water's  edge  to 
dry.  These  nets  are  weighted  with  lumps 
of  lead  at  the  lower  edge,  having  floats  at 
the  top,  so  as  to  keep  them  upright  in  the 
water.  The  fishers,  in  boats,  pay  out  the 
net  from  one  and  the  other,  and  encircle  the 
school  with  it.  The  two  ends  then  being 
carried  to  the  shore  are  drawn  in  with  great 
force,  and  an  immense  haul  of  fish  results. 
With  the  bony  fish,  m^iiy  of  a  better  class 
are  caught,  but  if  the  aggregate  will  not 
equal  150  cart-loads  it  is  not  thought  large. 
These  fish  are  spread  upon  the  land  as  fer 
tilizers.  They  are  far  better  for  the  land 
than  for  the  neighbors,  who  for  miles  round 
suffer  odors  not  from  "  Araby  the  blest." 

The  whale  fishery  began  at  the  close  of 
the  17th  century,  in  Nantucket,  and  that 
has  bpen,  until  very  recently,  its  chief  loca- 


386 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


tion.  About  the  close  of  the  revolutionary 
war,  Massachusetts  employed  183  vessels,  of 
13,820  tons,  navigated  by  4,05 9  men,  and  pro 
ducing  about  $2,000,000  per  annum.  The 
business  has  progressed  until  the  American 
seamen  have  nearly  driven  all  others  from  the 
seas  in  that  pursuit.  England,  to  encourage 
her  whalers,  imposed  a  duty  on  foreign  oils, 
but  finding  her  fishers  coming  home  more 
frequently  without  oils,  while  her  wants 
were  greater,  and  the  American  whalers 
offering  to  supply  it,  she  "  caved  in,"  and 
took  off  the  duty,  in  order  to  encourage 
her  own  manufacturers.  Our  own  whalers 
have  never  had  the  bounty  of  the  govern 
ment  like  the  cod  fishery,  to  encourage 
them,  but  have  on  the  other  hand  been 
compelled  to  encounter  the  opposition  of 
"  prairie  whales,"  which  yield  their  lard  oil, 
and  the  multitudes  of  inventions  of  patent 
oils  from  coal  and  other  substances,  while 
from  the  growing  scarcity  of  whales,  that 
desert  their  old  feeding  grounds,  the  ex 
treme  difficulties  and  dangers  of  the  busi 
ness  are  continually  increasing.  Neverthe 
less,  the  hardy  American  seamen  continue 
to  chase  them,  even  into  the  extreme  arctic 
regions,  whither  the  whales  resort,  as  it  was 
said  by  an  old  "  ship's  lawyer,"  to  supply 
the  "  northern  lights"  with  oil.  In  spite  of 
all  these  difficulties  the  business  has  grown, 
probably  in  consequence  of  the  peculiar 
manner  in  which  it  has  always  been  con 
ducted.  The  voyage  being  projected  by 
the  owners,  the  officers  and  crew  are  shipped 
on  "  lays,"  every  man  having  an  interest  in 
the  voyage.  If  the  voyage  is  not  success 
ful  he  gets  nothing,  but  if  the  usual  suc 
cess  is  met  with,  he  gets  a  certain  number 
of  gallons  proportioned  to  the  whole,  and 
is  thus  interested  in  the  price  as  well.  The 
shares  of  officers  and  men  equal  one  third 
of  the  whole.  This  system  has  developed 
a  spirit  of  enterprise  and  hardihood  never 
surpassed,  if  it  was  ever  equalled  by  any 
other  nation.  The  largest  seat  of  this  busi 
ness  is  now  New  Bedford,  and  the  next  in 
importance  is  Newf  London.  Fair  Haven 
ranks  next,  and  Nantucket  has  declined  to 
the  fourth  position  in  relative  importance. 
The  annual  report  of  the  United  States 
Secretary  of  State  of  a  late  date  contain 
ed  the  following  statistics  of  the  trade, 
to  which  is  added  a  summary  of  the  capi 
tal  and  value  of  all  the  fisheries,  accord 
ing  to  the  best  authorities,  official  and  ex 
perienced  : — 


Value. 

Vessels  employed,  661  Sperm  oil,  bbls.  193.30(1  $7,571.812 
Tommee,  "  203,062  Whale  "  "  153,850  8,392. 8!>2 
Seamen,  "  16,370  "Whalebone,  Ibs.  1,588,000  1,076,000 

Total  value  of  product $1 2,040,  £04 

Value  of  vessels,  outfit,  advances  to  seamen,  etc  $16,625,000 

Supplies  by  masters 793,01)0 

Money  paid  to  officers  and  men  for  their  shares. .     4,013.  tiOl 


$21,431.601 
Add  interest  and  wear  and  tear  ...   2,004,621 


Total  investment $23,436.222 

The  value  of  all  the  fisheries,  including  the 
whale,  may  be  summed  up  as  follows  : — 

Vessels.  Ton'gre.  Capital.  Persons.    Value. 

Whale 661  aW.ofW  2=U:<6.226  16.370  $12,040.804 

Co<!,mackerel,etc.  2,280  175,306    7,280,000  10,150      8,730,000 

Oysters,  etc 25,1*00,000 

T, ake,  etc. 2,375,000 

Fish  for  manure 260,000 

Total $48,405,804 

The  "  cod,  mackerel,  etc.,"  includes  shad 
and  other  marketable  fish.  The  item  for 
oysters,  etc.,  includes  the  turtle,  clam,  and 
other  shell-fish. 


ICE, 

"  Hast  thou  entered  into  the  terrors  of  the  snow,  or  hast 
thou  seen  the  terrors  of  the  hail?"— Jon. 

FOR  how  many  years,  not  to  say  centuries, 
was  the  vast  icy  wealth  which  nature  confers 
upon  northern  latitudes  in  such  profusion, 
and  within  reach  of  every  individual,  utterly 
unappreciated  and  neglected !  The  use  of 
ice  was  indeed  known  to  the  luxurious  few 
in  remote  ages.  The  ancient  Romans  learn 
ed  to  cool  their  choice  wines  with  frozen 
water,  and  almost  in  every  age,  the  "  upper 
ten"  were  acquainted  with  its  merits.  Like 
education,  and  suffrage,  and  freedom  of 
opinion,  and  toleration  in  religion,  it  how 
ever  became  known  to  and  extended  among 
the  people  only  under  our  federal  govern 
ment.  It  is  now  no  longer  regarded  as  ex 
clusively  a  luxury,  but  has  become  a  neces 
sity,  tinder  almost  all  circumstances  water 
is  made  palatable  by  it,  and  wines  are  im 
proved  by  its  application.  The  introduction 
of  water  into  large  cities  by  aqueduct,  is 
made  acceptable  to  citizens  not  only  in  the 
summer  but  also  in  the  winter  by  the  use  of 
ice.  The 'excuse  for  ardent  drinks  based  on 
poor  water,  is  removed  by  the  possession  of 
ice,  since  tepid  water  is  rendered  attractive 
by  it.  When  water  is  thus  rendered  agree 
able,  the  temptation  to  indulge  in  strong 
drinks  is  diminished.  By  its  use,  also,  the 
supply  of  food  is  virtually  enhanced,  since 


ICE. 


387 


the  surplus  of  districts,  that  might  otherwise 
be  lost,  can  be  sent  to  a  considerable  distance 
to  supply  the  wants  of  large  cities.  The 
surplus  supplies  that  may  thus  accumulate, 
can  be  preserved  for  a  longer  time  by  the 
use  of  ice.  The  fruits  of  the  West  Indies 
may  be  preserved  in  the  northern  cities,  and 
those  of  our  own  orchards  are  by  the  same 
means  preserved  for  the  markets  of  India, 
Brazil,  and  the  West  Indies.  Packet  ships 
no  longer  carry  live  fowls  and  pigs,  since  a 
small  ice-house  may  be  packed  with  fresh 
provisions  for  the  voyage.  The  markets  of 
all  large  cities  are  provided  with  hundreds 
of  ice-chests,  in  which  fresh  provisions  are 
preserved  free  from  taint.  Fishermen  have 
become  greatly  dependent  upon  ice,  which 
enables  them  to  keep  a  large  and  full  supply 
of  fish  in  every  variety,  and  almost  every 
family  has  its  refrigerator  or  ice-box,  which, 
regularly  supplied,  is  the  recipient  for  butter, 
milk,  and  other  food.  Thus  families  are  as 
readily  furnished  with  ice  as  with  milk. 
To  country  houses  and  substantial  farmers, 
ice-houses  have  become  a  necessity  for  the 
same  general  reasons. 

Not  the  least  important  use  of  ice  is  its 
medical  applications.  It  is  a  reliable  tonic 
and  of  the  safest.  In  cases  of  fever  it  has 
become  of  general  use.  In  India  the  first 
prescription  of  a  physician  is  ice,  and  some 
times  it  is  the  only  one,  and  the  ice  is  always 
American !  If  India  sends  us  her  opium, 
she  gets  as  valuable  a  return  in  ice.  That 
article  is  also  a  styptic,  and  has  many  impor 
tant  medical  applications.  All  these  benefits 
and  many  more  were  annually  provided 
for  humanity  in  the  frosts  of  winter  and 
in  the  congealing  of  water,  but  were  disre 
garded  until  an  enterprising  Yankee  adopted 
the  notion  of  harvesting  that  crop.  Massa 
chusetts  to  be  sure  has  but  two  crops,  and  it 
required  two  centuries  to  discover  them. 
For  more  than  200  years  the  snow  fell  upon 
and  melted  from  her  granite  hills,  before 
speculation,  putting  its  hand  upon  them,  sent 
them  along  the  coast  by  schooner  loads  as 
material  for  palaces.  For  more  than  200 
successive  winters  the  clear  and  sparkling 
ice  showed  itself  upon  her  ponds,  and  van 
ished  under  the  vernal  sun,  before  enterprise 
detected  in  its  preservation  the  means  of  in 
creasing  human  enjoyment.  Those  frozen 
lakes  were  each  winter  covered  with  gold, 
but,  like  that  of  California,  it  was  long  undis 
covered.  It  will,  however,  never  run  out, 
since,  without  ploughing  or  sowing,  nature 


sends  the  annual  crop,  which  like  the  manna 
has  only  to  be  gathered,  and  the  market  for 
it  is  ever  increasing. 

There  were  many  farmers  possessed  of  ice 
houses  in  the  middle  states,  at  a  date  as  far 
back  as  the  formation  of  the  government. 
But  the  idea  of  making  a  trade  of  it  seems 
to  have  occurred  first  to  Frederick  Tudor, 
Esq.,  of  Boston,  in  1805.  He  shipped  a 
cargo  in  that  year  from  Boston  to  Martinique. 
The  ice  was  cut  with  axes,  and  carted  in 
wagons  to  Gray's  wharf,  Charlestown,  where 
it  was  shipped.  The  voyage  proved  a  total 
loss,  as  did  several  succeeding  ones,  until  the 
war  put  an  end  to  trade.  Mr.  Tudor  resum 
ed  it  at  the  peace,  and  persevered  in  face  of 
continued  losses,  until  1823,  when  he  ex 
tended  it  to  the  southern  states,  and  the 
West  Indies,  and  it  began  to  pay.  As  long 
as  it  was  a  losing  business  he  had  it  all  to 
himself;  as  soon  as  his  perseverance  had 
mastered  the  business  and  made  an  art  of  it, 
he  began  to  have  competitors.  Up  to  1832, 
however,  he  was  alone  in  it,  and  in  that 
year  extended  his  shipments  to  Calcutta, 
Madras,  and  Bombay,  and  also  to  Brazil. 
These  were  the  first  ice  shipments  ever  made 
to  those  countries,  and  they  have  ever 
since  been  good  customers.  Since  1832,  a 
number  of  firms  have  engaged  in  it.  In  that 
year  the  shipment  was  4,352  tons,  cut  from 
Fresh  Pond.  In  1854,  it  had  grown  to 
154,540  tons. 

The  use  of  ice  extended  itself  in  all  the 
cities  of  New  England,  and  in  Boston  be 
came  very  general.  The  quantity  there  used 
is  about  70,000  tons  per  annum,  against 
about  27,000  tons  in  1847.  The  ice  Is  cut 
mostly  from  Fresh  and  Spy  Ponds ;  at  the 
former  the  houses  are  capable  of  containing 
about  87,000  tons.  The  price  of  ice  for 
shipping  is  usually  $2  per  ton,  and  rises 
from  that  to  $6  after  mid-winter.  The 
article  is  served  to  families  at  the  rate  of  $5 
for  the  season,  May  to  October,  for  nine  Ibs. 
]  XT  day  ;  15  Ibs.  are  served  for  $8,  and  24  Ibs. 
for  $12.  When  large  quantities  are  served, 
the  price  is  1 7  cts.  per  hundred,  and  $3  per 
ton  to  hotels  when  500  Ibs.  per  day  are  taken. 
In  New  York  the  quantity  used  is  nearly 
285,000  tons.  This  is  supplied  in  the  pro 
portions  of  120,000  tons  from  Rockland 
Lake;  30,000  from  Highland  Lake;  NewRo- 
chelle,  10,000;  Athens,  15,000;  Rhinebeck, 
18,000;  Kingston  Creek,  60,000;  Catskill, 
20,000;  Barrytown,  12,000.  Of  this  quan 
tity,  1 1 3,000  tons  are  stored  by  the  Knicker- 


388 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


bocker  Co.,  and  the  remainder  by  four  firms. 
The  cities  of  Newburg,  Poughkeepsie,  Hud 
son,  Albany,  Troy,  lay  up  from  5000  to 
20,000  tons  each.  In  central  and  western 
New  York  the  use  of  ice  is  large.  It  com 
menced  at  Syracuse  in  1844  for  the  supply 
of  a  saloon,  and  it  was  gradually  extended 
to  butchers  and  families,  and  the  quantity 
there  used  is  about  10,000  tons,  taken  mostly 
from  Onondaga  Lake,  from  which  it  is  drawn 
two  or  three  miles  to  be  sto-wed  in  an  ice 
house.  The  other  cities  of  western  New 
York  have  followed  the  example,  and  the 
average  price  is  20  cts.  per  hundred.  Cin 
cinnati  used  to  draw  its  supply  of  ice  from  its 
own  vicinity ;  but  the  railroad  facilities  per 
mit  of  drawing  it  cheaper  and  better  from 
the  lakes.  Chicago  is  well  supplied  from 
the  same  source.  In  the  neighborhood  of 
Peru,  Illinois,  a  large  quantity  is  cut  for 
the  supply  of  the  lower  Mississippi.  It  is 
cut  in  the  winter  and  packed  in  flat-boats 
which  are  allowed  to  freeze  up  in  the  Illinois 
river ;  there  is  therefore  no  other  ice-house 
needed.  As  soon  as  the  river  breaks  up  in 
the  spring,  the  boats  float  down  stream  and 
supply  the  markets  below.  In  Philadel 
phia,  Baltimore,  and  Washington,  ice  is  more 
important  than  in  the  cities  of  the  North. 
When  the  weather  sets  in  cold  in  the  early 
part  of  the  winter,  they  cut  ice  in  the  neigh 
borhood,  but  the  best  supplies  are  from  Bos 
ton  or  from  more  northern  lakes.  The 
Atlantic  and  Gulf  cities  of  the  South  get 
most  of  their  ice  from  Boston,  which  sends 
them  about  110,000  tons  per  annum,  and 
further  quantities  to  Havana  and  the  WTest 
Indies.  Rio  Janeiro,  Callao,  and  Peru, 
Charleston,  Mobile,  and  New  Orleans,  are 
large  customers  of  Boston,  in  the  article 
of  ice.  In  New  Orleans,  substantial  brick 
ice-houses  have  been  erected  at  a  cost  of 
$200,000,  and  similar  arrangements  have 
been  made  in  Mobile  for  its  distribution. 
The  quantity  exported  to  Europe  is  large, 
and  England  takes  about  1,000  tons  of 
American  ice. 

It  follows  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  where 
this  object  of  industry  and  enterprise  is 
formed  by  nature,  the  means  of  conducting 
the  trade  will  gather  around  it.  Hence 
the  land  in  the  immediate  neighborhood 
of  fresh-water  lakes  at  the  North  rises  in 
value,  and  good  wages  come  to  be  earned  in 
the  winter  by  men  who  at  the  dull  season 
would  otherwise  not  be  employed.  The 
question  soon  presented  itself  to  those  who 


were  engaged  upon  cutting  ice  on  the  same 
pond  as  to  their  comparative  rights.  This  was 
settled  at  Fresh  Pond  by  a  committee,  who 
decided  that  each  owner  should  hold  the 
same  proportion  of  the  contiguous  surface  of 
the  pond  as  the  length  of  his  shore  line  is  to 
the  whole  border. 

The  time  for  cutting  is  December  and 
January.  The  "experts"  can  in  the  middle 
of  January  estimate  the  value  of  the  crop. 
When  the  ice  is  sufficiently  thick  to  cut,  say 
from  nine  to  twenty  inches,  the  former  for 
home  use  and  the  latter  for  exportation,  if 
there  should  be  snow  upon  the  surface,  it  is 
removed  by  wooden  scrapers  drawn  by 
horses.  There  is  a  layer  of  what  is  called 
"  snow  ice,"  that  is  not  fit  for  market ;  this 
must  be  removed,  and  for  this  purpose  an 
iron  scraper  with  a  cutting-edged  steel  is 
drawn  over  it  by  a  horse.  A  man  rides  upon 
the  scraper,  which  in  its  progress  cuts  several 
inches  of  the  snow  ice  from  the  surface  of 
the  clear  and  glittering  article  that  is  to  go 
to  market.  When  this  is  completed,  the 
field  of  ice  is  marked  oft'  into  squares  of  five 
feet  each.  The  marker  is  drawn  by  a  horse, 
and  is  guided  by  handles  like  a  plough.  In 
the  tracks  of  these  marks  and  cross  marks  fol 
lows  the  cutter.  This  is  a  remarkable  inven 
tion,  which  has  reduced  the  cost  of  cutting 
ice  in  the  neighborhood  of  Boston  alone, 
some  $15,000  per  annum.  Acres  of  ice  are 
thus  cut  into  square  pieces,  which  are  then 
floated  off  through  canals,  and  impelled  by 
long  poles,  to  the  sides  of  the  pond,  where 
inclined  planes  lead  up  to  the  ice-houses ;  up 
this  inclined  plane  each  piece  is  dragged  with 
great  celerity  by  a  powerful  steam  engine. 
In  the  house  it  is  directed  by  hand  down 
other  planes  to  be  packed  away  by  the 
requisite  number  of  men.  By  the  aid  of 
steam  ten  tons  of  ice  may  be  cut  and  housed 
in  a  minute.  With  a  full  power,  it  is  not 
uncommon  to  stow  600  tons  an  hour.  Some 
times  there  are  several  parties  on  the  pond, 
each  vicing  with  the  other  in  the  rapidity  of 
their  operations. 

Most  of  the  ice-houses  that  we  have  seen 
are  built  of  wood.  Sometimes  they  are 
found  of  brick.  They  are  very  high  and 
broad,  and  are  usually  from  100  to  200  feet 
in  length.  Fresh  Pond,  Cambridge,  Mass., 
has  its  shores  almost  covered  with  some  fifty 
of  these  ice-houses.  They  present  a  singular 
appearance,  neither  looking  like  barns  nor 
houses ;  and  one  unacquainted  with  the  ice 
business  would  be  almost  certain  to  ask,  on 


PINS. 


389 


seeing  them  for  the  first  time,  "  What  are 
they  f '  The  construction  of  these  houses,  in 
which  ice  is  to  be  stored  until  sold,  must  be 
regulated  by  the  climate — the  amount  to 
be  stored — the  material  nearest  at  hand — 
and  the  facility  of  reaching  the  shore — the 
object  being  to  have  a  cool  spot,  -where  the 
influence  of  the  sun  and  a  warm  atmosphere 
shall  be  least  felt.  Added  to  this,  the  mass  of 
ice  must  be  preserved  as  much  as  possible 
from  wasting,  by  being  surrounded  by  saw 
dust,  tan,  shavings,  rice-hulls,  charcoal,  or 
leaves,  which  must  be  used  in  the  ice-house, 
or  aboard  ship,  according  to  circumstances. 

Private  ice-houses  are  constructed  in  dif 
ferent  ways.  They  were  formerly  merely 
cellars  ;  they  are  now  in  the  most  approved 
methods  erected  above  ground,  with  a  drain 
under  the  mass  of  ice.  The  opening  is  gen 
erally  to  the  north,  and  the  ice  is  the  better 
preserved  for  a  double  roof,  which  acts  as  a 
non-conductor.  The  waste  of  ice  is  different 
under  different  circumstances;  shipping  ice 
should  not  waste  more  than  40  per  cent. ;  and 
when  shipped  on  an  India  voyage  of  16,000 
miles,  twice  crossing  the  equator,  and  oc 
cupying  some  months,  if  one  half  the  cargo 
is  delivered  it  is  considered  a  successful 
voyage.  The  cost  of  the  ice  delivered  is  of 
course  affected  by  this  element  of  wastage. 
In  Boston,  it  is  $2  per  ton;  in  Calcutta, 
2i  cts.  per  lb.,  or  $5Gi  per  ton.  The  use  of 
ice  in  India,  as  we  have  said,  is  medicinal  as 
Avell  as  luxurious,  and  the  demand  is  gener 
ally  quick.  There  is  hardly  a  nook  or  cor 
ner  of  the  civilized  world  where  ice  has  not 
become  an  essential  if  not  a  common  article 
of  trade.  While  we  admire  the  persever 
ing  energy  of  the  enterprising  Yankee,  who 
started  the  trade  amid  every  discouragement, 
and  carried  it  to  a  successful  issue,  which  gives 
employment  to  thousands  of  men,  and  freights 
to  hundreds  of  ships  and  boats,  and  confers  an 
inestimable  blessing  upon,  we  might  say,  the 
human  race  in  all  warm  climates,  we  cannot 
but  consider  how  vast  a  harvest  perishes 
yearly.  Hundreds  of  lakes  and  rivers  in  the 
northern  section  of  the  country  present  their 
annual  harvest  of  pure  ice,  and  yet  they  pass 
away  ungathered.  How  many  millions  in 
all  parts  of  the  world,  even  within  the  limits 
of  the  United  States,  pine  during  the  long 
summer  months  of  each  year  for  this  tonic ! 
The  time  is  coming  when  every  farmer  will 
gather  this  crop  as  regularly  as  his  potatoes. 
When  Daniel  Webster  took  his  farm  at 
Marshfield,  his  ice-house  cost  $100,  and  it 


was  filled  annually  at  an  expense  of  $25.  In 
that  he  preserved  his  fresh  meat  and  fish,  and 
prevented  his  butter  from  "  running  away." 
Sometimes  farmers  live  in  sight  of  fine  ponds 
that  would  give  a  plentiful  crop,  that  might 
be  harvested  and  sent  by  railroad  to  good 
markets,  without  ever  bestowing  a  thought 
upon  the  matter.  To  get  $2  or  $5  for  hauling, 
would  pay  their  otherwise  idle  teams  at  that 
season  well.  We  may  close  this  notice  by 
an  extract  from  an  oration  of  the  Hon. 
Edward  Everett,  as  follows  : — 

"  When  I  had  the  honor  to  represent  the 
country  at  London,  I  was  a  little  struck  one 
day,  at  the  royal  drawing-room,  to  see  the 
President  of  the  Board  of  Control  (the  board 
charged  with  the  supervision  of  the  govern 
ment  of  India)  approaching  me  with  a 
stranger,  at  that  time  much  talked  of  in 
London — the  Babu  Dwarkananth  Tagore. 
This  person,  who  is  now  living,  was  a  Hin 
doo  of  great  wealth,  liberality,  and  intelli 
gence.  He  was  dressed  with  Oriental  mag 
nificence — he  had  on  his  head,  by  way  of 
turban,  a  rich  Cashmere  shawl,  held  together 
by  a  large  diamond  broach  ;  another  Cash 
mere  around  his  body ;  his  countenance  and 
manners  were  those  of  a  highly  intelligent 
and  remarkable  person,  as  he  was.  After 
the  ceremony  of  introduction  was  over,  he 
said  he  wished  to  make  his  acknowledgments 
to  me,  as  the  American  minister,  for  the 
benefits  which  my  countrymen  had  conferred 
on  his  countrymen.  I  did  not  at  first  know 
what  he  referred  to ;  I  thought  he  might 
have  in  view  the  mission  schools,  knowing, 
as  I  did,  that  he  himself  had  done  a  great 
deal  for  education.  He  immediately  said 
that  he  referred  to  the  cargoes  of  ice  sent 
from  America  to  India,  conducing  not  only 
to  comfort,  but  health ;  adding  that  numer 
ous  lives  were  saved  every  year  by  applying 
lumps  of  American  ice  to  the  head  of  the 
patient  in  cases  of  high  fever." 


PINS, 

THE  manufacture  of  pins  has  reached  a 
great  development  in  the  United  States, 
where  the  most  important  invention  in  the 
art  of  making  them,  that  of  "  solid  heads," 
originated.  So  simple  an  article  as  pins 
formerly  required  a  great  manipulation  in 
their  production,  but  are  now,  like  most  ar 
ticles  that  have  been  the  objects  of  American 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


ingenuity,  produced  in  great  perfection  and 
abundance  by  machines.     Up  to  the  war  of  | 
1812,  pins,  like  almost  every  other  article  of  j 
manufacture,  were  imported,  and,  as  a  con-  ! 
sequence,  became  very  scarce  when  commu-  j 
nication  was  interrupted,  and  the  price  rose 
in  1813  to  $1  per  paper,  of  a  quality  much 
worse  than  are  now  purchased  for  GI  cts.  per 
paper.       These  high  war  prices  prompted 
the  manufacture,  and  some  Englishmen  com 
menced  the  business  at  the  old  State  Prison, 
at  what  was  called  Greenwich  village,  now 
a  part  of  New  York  city.      The   labor   of 
the  convicts  was  employed  in  the  business. 
The  return  of  peace  bringing  a  deluge  of 
cheap  pins  from  abroad,  put  an  end  to  that 
enterprise.     The  tools  used  in  the  manufac 
ture  at  the  prison  fell  into  the  hands  of  a 
Mr.  Turman,  who  in  1820  undertook  to  era- 
ploy  the  pauper  labor  of  the  Bellevue  Alms- 
house  in  the  manufacture,  which  was,  how 
ever,  unsuccessful.     "  Pauper  labor"  here,  it 
seems,  could  not  compete  with  pauper  labor 
abroad.     A  machine  had  been  invented  dur 
ing  the  war,  for  making  pins,  in  Boston,  but 
it  did  not  work  successfully.     The  old  pins 
had  the  heads  put  on  them ;  but  Mr.  L.  W. 
Wright,  of  Massachusetts,  invented  a   ma 
chine  for  making  solid-head  pins.     lie  car 
ried  this  to  England  and  operated  it  there, 
and  the  first  "solid-head"  pins  were  sold  in 
the  market  in  1833.     In  1832  a  pin  machine 
•was  patented  in  the  United  States  by  John 
J.  Howe.     The   machine  was    designed  to 
make  pins  similar  to  the  English  diamond 
pins,  the  heads   being  formed  of  a  coil  of 
small  wire  fastened  upon  the   shank  by  a 
pressure  between  dies.     In  December,  1835, 
the    Howe    Manufacturing     Company    was 
formed  in   New  York   for  the  purpose  of 
manufacturing  with  this  machine.    The  com 
pany  moved  to    Birmingham,   Connecticut, 
where  it  continues    operations  with   a  new 
patent  for  manufacturing  solid-head  pins,  got 
out  by  Mr.  Howe  in  1840.     In  1838  another 
company  was  started  at  Poughkeepsie,  not 
withstanding  that  by  an  extraordinary  over 
sight  pins  were  under  the  tariff  admitted 
free  of  duty,  while  the  wire  of  which  they 
•were  made  paid  20  to  25  per  cent.  duty.    In 
1846  there  was  much  excitement  in  respect 
to  the  pin  manufacture,  and  many  machines 
were  invented ;   few  of  them,  however,  suc 
ceeded  in  doing  good  work.     Most  of  the 
attempts  to  manufacture  failed.    The  Pough 
keepsie  Company  was,  however,  sold  to  the 
American  Pin  Company,  Waterbury,  Con 


necticut.  About  the  year  1850  the  copper 
from  Lake  Superior  began  to  be  used  for  the 
wire,  giving  an  impetus  to  the  business,  and 
250  tons  were  used  per  annum.  Great  im 
provements  were  made  by  self-acting  ma 
chinery  superseding  a  process  that  formerly 
required  six  or  seven  hands.  The  old 
method  of  sheeting  pins,  or  sticking  them  on 
paper,  was  a  tedious  process ;  a  good  hand 
could  stick  five  or  six  dozen  papers  in  a  day. 
By  the  improved  machinery  now  in  use,  a 
hand  will  stick  from  75  to  125  dozen  aday,  and 
do  the  work  in  far  greater  perfection.  There 
are  three  patents  in  force  for  improvements 
in  the  machines  in  use  for  this  operation, 
viz.,  those  of  S.  Slocum,  De  Gras  Fowler, 
and  J.  J.  Howe.  The  present  price  of 
American  solid-headed  pins  is  only  about  two 
thirds  of  the  lowest  price  at  which  imported 
pins  of  the  same  weight  were  ever  afforded  be 
fore  the  manufacturing  was  introduced,  and 
for  service  they  are  undoubtedly  better  than 
the  article  of  which  they  have  taken  the 
place.  The  American  improvements  in  both 
the  pin-making  and  the  pin-sticking  ma 
chinery  have  been  for  several  years  in  oper- 
i  ation  in  England  and  some  other  parts  of 
Europe. 

One  firm  in  Waterbury,  Connecticut,  have 
in  operation  an  improved   machine  for  the 
manufacturing  of  pins  which  turns  out  two 
barrels  per  day.     A  barrel  contains  4,000,- 
000  pins,  consequently  the  product  of  that 
little  manufactory  is  8,000,000  per  day,  or 
,48,000,000    per    week,   and  2,496,000,000 
i  per  annum.     Well  may  it  be  asked  '•  where 
all  the  pins  go  to  ?"    The  machine  is  perfect 
•  and  simple   in  its  operation.     The  wire  is 
|  run  into  it  from  a  reel,  cut  off  the  proper 
,  length,  pointed,  headed,  and  made  a  finish 
ed  pin  before  it  comes  out  again.     From  this 
machine  they  fall  into   the  hopper  of  the 
sticking   machine,    in   which    they    are   ar 
ranged,  stuck  upon  papers,  and   come  out 
perfect,  ready  for  packing  for  market.     This 
last  machine,  tended  by  one  girl,  does  the 
work    of   30    persons  by   the    old   process. 
That  is  better   than   pauper  labor.     There 
!  are    four    other   machines    in    the   United 
States.     These  operating  at  the  same  rate, 
will  make  312    pins   per  annum  for  every 
\  soul    in    the   Union.       There    should   be   a 
large    surplus    for    export    to    other   coun 
tries,  and  at  a  profitable  rate,  after  paying 
1  freight    and    charges,    since    no    European 
machines  can  compete  with  this  little  con 
trivance. 


REFINED    SUGAR. 


391 


REFINED    SUGAR, 

THE  people  of  the  United  States  are  fa 
mous  for  having  a  "  sweet  tooth,"  and  if  the 
story  about  "  pork  and  molasses"  is  not  quite 
accurate,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  a  "  little 
sweetening  don't  go  far"  in  a  family,  or,  to 
use  a  New  York  phrase,  into  a  family.  The 
figures  show  that  consumption  in  the  United 
States  is  far  ahead  of  any  European  countries, 
but  is  less  than  that  of  Cuba,  where  it  is 
enormous,  being  to  a  great  extent  used  in 
preserves  that  are  largely  eaten  as  well  as 
exported.  In  the  year  1859,  the  quantity 
of  foreign  sugar  taken  for  consumption  in 
the  United  States  was  239,034  tons.  The 
crop  of  Texas,  Louisiana,  and  Florida  was 
]  92, 150  tons,  making  together  431,184  tons 
of  cane  sugar.  The  quantity  of  sugar  made 
from  molasses  was  12,053  tons.  The  crop 
of  maple  sugar  was  27,000  tons,  exclusive  of 
California  and  Oregon.  The  result  is  a  total  of 
470,237  tons,  or  1,058,033,000  Ibs.  Allow 
ing  the  population  of  that  year  to  have  been 
30,000,000,  the  result  is  35£  Ibs.  per  head 
per  annum.  In  Great  Britain  the  consump 
tion  is  281  Ibs.  per  head,  in  France  9  Ibs. 
per  head,  and  in  Germany  still  less.  In 
those  countries,  however,  the  sugar  is  used 
almost  exclusively  in  its  refined  shape,  but 
very  sparingly.  During  the  long  wars  of 
Napoleon  it  was  difficult  to  come  by,  and  the 
manufacture  of  beet-root  sugar,  now  so  im 
portant,  grew  out  of  the  necessities  of  that 
period.  A  generation  grew  up  in  the  eco 
nomical  use  of  sugar,  and  even  to  this  day  in 
the  rural  districts,  and  among  some  of  the 
old  fogies  of  the  cities,  no  other  sugar  is  used 
than  a  piece  of  the  sugar-baker's  candy  held 
in  the  mouth  while  the  unsweetened  liquid 
is  drank.  The  story  is  told  that  this  piece 
was  formerly,  in  the  times  of  privation  dur 
ing  the  war,  suspended  by  a  string  from  the 
ceiling  over  the  table,  and  being  taken  in  the 
mouth  by  one  convive  when  drinking,  was 
allowed  to  swing  to  that  of  her  whose  turn 
succeeded.  The  German  idiomatic  phrase 
of  "pass  auf"  or  "  look  out"  for  the  next  was 
said  to  have  thus  originated.  In  our  own 
colonies  the  refiner  was  not  by  any  means 
considered  a  necessary  go-between  of  the 
cane  and  the  consumer,  who  went  directly  to 
the  fountain-head  and  used  the  molasses,  or 
"  long  sugar,"  not  only  for  his  coffee,  but  to 
compound  his  new  rum  or  "  white-face"  into 
"  black-strap,"  with  which  he  washed  down 
his  pumpkin  pie,  also  sweetened  with  mo 


lasses;  and  few  edibles  escaped  that  sweeten 
ing,  from  a  spoonful  of  brimstone  in  the 
spring  to  a  mince  pie  at  Christmas.  Refined 
crept  in,  and  with  the  use  of  this  article  va 
rious  grades  of  pure  sugars  made  their  ap 
pearance.  When  the  plants  or  canes  are 
crushed  in  a  mill,  the  juice  flows  abundantly 
through  a  strainer  into  the  clarifier ;  where, 
mixed  with  alkali,  which  assists  the  opera 
tion,  it  is  raised  to  a  certain  heat.  It  then 
passes  through  evaporating  coppers,  and  * 
the  scum  that  arises  in  the  process  is  re 
moved.  In  the  last  copper  it  is  boiled  until 
it  will  granulate  in  the  boiler.  Here  it  soon 
ceases  to  be  a  liquid,  and  being  placed  in 
hogsheads  with  holes  in  their  bottoms,  the 
molasses  drains  out  into  a  cistern  below. 
When  quite  cured  in  this  manner  it  is  ship 
ped  as  "  brown"  or  "  muscovado"  sugar. 

The  next  grade  of  sugar  is  "  clayed ;"  when 
the  sugar  is  properly  boiled,  it  is  poured  into 
conical  pots,  apex  down,  with  a  hole  in  each. 
When  the  molasses  has  drained  off,  a  stratum 
of  moistened  clay  is  spread  over  the  surface, 
the  moisture  of  which  percolating  through 
the  mass  contributes  powerfully  to  its  puri 
fication. 

"  Refined"  sugar  may  be  prepared  by  tak 
ing  either  the  clayed  or  muscovado,  redis- 
solving  it  in  water,  and  after  boiling  it  with 
some  purifying  siibstance,  as  blood,  or  other 
articles,  pour  it  into  the  conical  pots  again 
with  the  clay  application. 

The  solutions  of  brown  or  clayed  sugar, 
boiled  until  they  become  thick,  and  then  re 
moved  into  a  hot  room,  form  into  crystals 
upon  strings  placed  across  the  vessels,  and 
become  sugar-candy. 

The  use  of  molasses  and  brown  sugar,  as 
we  have  seen,  is  by  far  the  most  important 
in  the  United  States.  In  the  year  1857, 
when  the  Louisiana  sugar  crop  failed,  the 
importation  of  these  articles  reached  nearly 
$57,000,000,  and  the  import  contributed 
principally  to  the  panic  of  that  year.  Grad 
ually  the  use  of  refined  sugar  has  extended, 
and  in  1850  the  federal  census  reported  23 
refineries,  having  a  capital  of  $2,669, o()n,  and 
using  $7,662,685  worth  of  raw  sugar,  per 
haps  70,000,000  Ibs.,  and  producing  a  value 
of  89,898,800.  Since  that  period  "the  busi 
ness  has  greatly  extended  itself.  In  that  year 
there  were  two  in  New  York  city,  Woolsey's 
and  Stuart's.  These  rapidly  increased  to  fif 
teen,  which  together  refined  200,000,000  Ibs. 
of  sugar,  or  about  half  what  was  produced  in 
tho  whole  United  States.  The  introduction 


392 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


of  machinery  moved  by  steam  almost  revolu 
tionized  the  business  of  refining.  An  impor 
tant  improvement  that  was  made  in  substitu 
ting  aluminous  finings  for  bullock's  blood, 
which  was  always  productive  of  injurious 
consequences,  greatly  increased  the  produc 
tion  and  raised  the  quality  of  sugar.  The 
raw  sugar  of  the  Spanish  West  Indies  and 
Brazil  comes  mostly  in  cases  and  boxes;  that 
of  New  Orleans  and  the  English  islands  in 
hogsheads ;  South  America  generally,  Ma 
nilla,  and  the  Mauritius  send  it  in  bags. 
When  the  refiner  gets  possession  of  any  of 
these,  he  empties  into  a  pan  with  a  perforated 
bottom  ;  through  these  perforations  comes  a 
current  of  steam  which  dissolves  the  sugar. 
Chemical  application  then  bleaches  the  sugar 
or  takes  all  its  color  from  it.  It  then  passes 
into  the  vacuum  pans  to  be  boiled  by  steam. 
The  sugar  in  this  process  becomes  so  con 
centrated  that  it  is  held  in  solution  only  by 
the  high  temperature.  The  moment  it  be 
gins  to  cool,  a  rapid  crystallization  takes 
place,  producing  the  fine  grain  seen  in  loaf 
sugar.  When  the  syrup  has  boiled  suffi 
ciently,  it  is  poured  into  moulds  which  are 
prepared  in  the  loaf  form,  for  the  purpose  of 
facilitating  the  separation  of  the  sugar.  The 
liquor  that  runs  from  these  moulds  is  sub 
jected  to  a  new  boiling,  when  it  yields  lower 
grades  of  sugar.  The  syrup  that  exudes 
from  this  second  process  is  sold  as  molasses, 
and  the  proportion  of  this  is  about  20  per 
cent,  of  the  original  quantity. 

The  art  of  refining  has  been  carried  to 
greater  perfection  in  this  country  than  in 
Europe,  and  so  manifestly  that  no  imported 
article  can  equal  the  fine  granulated  sugars  of 
the  domestic  manufacturer.  The  business 
has  spread  with  the  demand  for  the  improved 
sugars.  The  increase  of  the  manufacture  has 
also  been  aided  by  the  federal  government, 
which  allows  a  drawback  upon  refined  sugar 
exported  equal  to  the  duty  on  the  equivalent 
raw  sugar  imported.  The  export  of  refined 
sugar  was  last  year  3,141,835  Ibs.,  worth 
$368,000.  The  manufacture  of  sugar  into 
candy  and  confectionery  is  carried  on  to  the 
value  of  $5,000,000  per  annum.  Some  years 
since,  the  bounty  or  drawback  upon  refined 
sugar  amounted  to  more  than  the  duty  on  the 
raw  article,  and  was  therefore  equivalent  to 
an  additional  bounty  on  the  manufacture.  It 
was  not  surprising  that  the  business  should 
spread  under  such  circumstances,  the  more 
so  that  modern  inventions  contributed  largely 
to  its  improvement.  The  capital  invested  in 


the  business  is  some  millions.  The  vuluc  re 
fined  in  New  York  is  now  some  $17,000,000 
per  annum,  and  the  refineicrsof  Philadelphia 
have  a  capacity  of  some  $10,000,000.  There 
arc  a  number  of  refineries  in  the  eastern 
states,  and  some  in  Baltimore,  St.  Louis, 
Cincinnati,  and  New  Orleans.  These  are 
sufficient  to  meet  the  demand  for  consump 
tion,  and  the  importation  has  become  unim 
portant.  One  of  the  largest  refineries  is 
Stuart's,  the  annual  sales  of  which  are  over 
$3,500,000.  The  concern  works  up  over 
45,000,000  Ibs.  of  sugar  per  annum,  employ 
ing  some  321  men.  The  quantity  of  coal 
used  is  from  7,000  to  8,000  tons  per  annum, 
and  the  value  of  the  bone  charcoal  used  in 
the  finery  process  is  $30,000.  A  week's  oper 
ation  requires  a  supply  of  763  hogsheads  of 
sugar,  or  at  1 ,110  Ibs.  each,  840,000  Ibs.  This, 
for  the  working  time  of  six  days,  gives  one 
hogshead  for  every  Hi  minutes.  The  sugar 
is  by  steam  power  hoisted  to  the  top  of  the 
building,  where  it  is  emptied  into  an  im 
mense  copper,  when  the  steam  soon  converts 
it  into  the  fluid  state.  In  its  descent  through 
the  building  by  pipes  and  tanks  it  undergoes 
the  various  purifications  to  which  it  is  sub 
jected.  The  flow  of  the  vast  quantity  is 
like  an  abundant  supply  of  water,  and  the 
rich  product  finds  its  way  on  the  ground 
floor  into  barrels  ready  to  meet  the  exten 
sive  demand  that  the  high  quality  occasions. 
One  large  refinery  was  erected  and  furnished 
at  an  expense  of  $875,000.  The  growing 
luxury  and  refinement  of  the  country  is  mak 
ing  refined  sugar  more  of  a  necessity  than 
formerly,  and  it  is  to  be  remarked  that  the 
use  of  refined  sugar  increases  the  demand  for 
the  raw  material  nearly  50  per  cent.,  since 
li  Ibs.  of  cane  sugar  are  required  to  make 
1  Ib.  of  white.  The  concentrated  sugar  un 
doubtedly  contains  greater  strength,  but  the 
quantity  used  is  not  curtailed  on  that  ac 
count;  on  the  other  hand,  it  seems  to  in 
crease,  since  the  custom  of  "  putting  down" 
preserves  in  families  extends,  and  the  purest 
sugar  is  required  to  attain  that  clear  appear 
ance  of  the  preserved  fruit  on  which  house 
wives  so  much  pride  themselves.  The  use 
of  sugar  for  this  purpose  fluctuates  with  the 
season  for  fruits.  In  those  years  in  which 
peaches,  for  instance,  are  abundant,  a  large 
number  are  preserved.  A  basket  of  peaches 
in  New  York  will  weigh  50  Ibs.,  and  the 
fruit  with  the  stones  taken  out,  25  Ibs.,  re 
quiring  as  much  sugar.  Some  years  the 
peaches  are  worth  $5,  of  the  preserving  qual- 


SILK. 


393 


ity,  which  is  a  clear  white,  and  in  other 
years,  50  cents.  In  the  latter  case,  the  sugar 
is  worth  four  times  as  much  as  the  fruit ;  in 
the  former,  one  half  as  much;  hence  a  great 
fluctuation  in  the  use  of  sugar,  which  must 
be  of  the  best  refined.  This  demand  takes 
place  for  all  kinds  of  small  fruits  as  well  as 
peaches,  and  it  grows  in  the  double  ratio  of 
numbers  and  wealth.  Strawberries  may  be 
preserved  with  granulated,  but  would  hardly 
be  palatable  done  up  in  "  long"  sugar. 


SILK, 

THE  culture  and  manufacture  of  silk  are, 
among  the  oldest  industries  of  the  colo 
nies,  and  many  efforts  on  the  part  of  Con 
gress  and  of  enterprising  men  have  been 
made  to  promote  them,  but  the  industry  has 
not  thriven  in  any  degree  to  be  compared 
with  some  of  those  that  have  grown  steadily 
under  the  intelligent  perseverance  of  unob 
trusive  individuals.  No  branch  of  industry 
is  ever  planted,  promoted,  or  perfected  by 
means  of  government  operations  alone.  It 
must  grow,  if  at  all,  out  of  the  spontaneous 
promptings  of  individual  genius,  and  live 
upon  the  necessities  that  give  rise  to  it  or 
the  wants  it  of  itself  creates,  to  be  healthily 
prosperous.  Hence  all  the  efforts  that  have 
been  made  to  encourage  the  silk  culture 
and  manufacture  have  proved  abortive,  while 
individuals  not  encouraged  have  prosecuted 
branches  of  the  trade  not  contemplated, 
with  success.  The  southern  colonies  were 
early  silk  producers.  So  important  had  it 
become  in  1753,  that  at  a  meeting  of  the  im 
perial  Board  of  Trade,  Oct.  26,  of  that  year, 
"the  state  of  the  colony  of  Georgia  was 
taken  into  consideration,  at  a  Board  of  Trade 
and  Plantations,  and  it  appeared  that  the 
colony  produced  upward  of  £17,000  [75,- 
000  dollars]  worth  of  raw  silk,  since  January 
1752,  besides  what  is  not  yet  come  to  the 
notice  of  the  board."  The  other  colonies 
of  the  South  were  also  well  engaged  in  it. 
Virginia  in  particular  was  largely  interested 
in  that  industry.  The  culture  of  cotton  and 
tobacco,  however,  in  the  early  years  of  the 
Union,  were  so  profitable  as  to  absorb  all 
other  culture  ;  and  silk  nearly  disappeared, 
although  numbers  of  farmers  preserved  their 
mulberry  groves,  and  continue  to  make 
small  quantities  of  raw  silk.  The  state  of 
Connecticut  seems  to  have  made  the  most 


decided  efforts  in  that  direction.  The  New 
London  Gazette  of  1768  informs  us  that 
William  Hanks  of  Mansfield,  had  "raised 
silk  enough  for  three  women's  gowns." 
The  gowns  of  "  three  women"  at  the  present 
day  would  involve  a  formidable  amount  of 
silk,  but  we  are  to  presume  he  meant  three 
"  dresses"  simply.  The  term  gown,  like 
"  vandyke,"  seems  to  have  become  some 
what  obsolete.  Mr.  William  Hanks  also  ad 
vertised  in  the  Gazette,  3,000  mulberry 
trees,  three  years  old,  and  of  one  inch  diam 
eter.  The  best  time  to-  set  them  out,  he 
says,  is  at  the  new  moon  of  April.  They 
were  to  be  sold  cheap,  in  order  to  promote 
the  culture  of  silk.  Sundry  gentlemen  in 
Windham  had  large  mulberry  orchards,  in 
tended  to  supply  a  silk  factory  erected  at 
Lebanon.  While  all  manufactures  were  in 
so  depressed  a  state  and  struggling  for  life 
under  the  disability  of  deficient  capital,  it 
was  hardly  to  be  expected  that  so  hazardous 
an  undertaking  as  silk  manufacture  could 
make  much  progress.  When,  however,  the 
high  tariff  policy  after  the  war  gave  the 
spur  to  manufacturing  of  all  kinds,  that  of 
silk  was  revived,  mostly  in  Connecticut 
and  Pennsylvania.  This  had  so  progressed 
that  in  five  small  towns  of  the  first-men 
tioned  state,  there  were  raised  in  1829,  2£ 
tons  of  raw  silk,  valued  at  $21,188.  In 
Washington,  Pennsylvania,  sewing  silk  Avas 
successfully  produced,  and  some  garments 
were  made  by  individuals  who  performed 
the  whole  work,  from  the  management  of 
the  worms  to  the  weaving  of  the  fabric. 
The  town  of  Mansfield,  Connecticut,  was  in 
that  year  the  great  seat  of  that  industry. 
The  population  was  2,500,  and  produced  as 
many  pounds  of  silk.  This  silk  was  con 
verted  into  the  most  beautiful  sewing  silk 
and  some  other  manufactures  by  the  skill 
and  industry  of  that  ingenious  people. 
Thus  prepared,  the  silk  was  at  that  time 
wortli  $8  per  Ib.  This  industry  was  carried 
on  without  interrupting  the  ordinary  occu 
pations  of  the  people,  and  also  employed 
the  young  and  old  not  suited  to  the  labors 
of  the  field.  The  mulberry  trees  are  orna 
mental  as  shade  trees,  and  do  not  impover 
ish  the  soil  as  much  as  fruit;  and  they 
will  flourish  in  almost  all  latitudes,  or 
wherever  the  apple  will  grow ;  and  where- 
ever  they  are  present  the  silk-worm  may  be 
reared. 

The   feeding   of  the  worms   commences 
with  the  first  opening  of  the  mulberry  leaf, 


394 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


and  continues  for  the  period  of  32  days, 
when  the  worm  commences  its  spinning 
and  ceases  to  eat.  The  leaves  are  gathered 
for  the  worms,  and  this  gathering  is  the  ap 
propriate  work  of  young  children.  Having 
wound  itself  in  its  cocoon,  it  requires  nurs 
ing  and  watching,  that  the  young  may  not 
eat  its  way  out  and  by  so  doing  destroy  the 
silk.  The  cocoons  being  placed  in  warm 
water  to  soften  the  natural  gum  upon  the 
silk,  the  winding  is  begun  by  women,  one 
of  whom  can  make  16  Ibs.  of  raw  silk  in 
the  season  of  six  weeks. 

The  excellence  of  the  silk  depends  upon 
the  properties  of  the  mulberry  leaf,  and 
these  are  considerably  diversified.  The 
white  mulberry  is  decidedly  the  best,  and 
of  this  there  are  several  varieties,  each  of 
which  depends  in  some  degree  upon  local 
ity.  The  kind  to  be  cultivated  and  the 
mode  of  proceeding  are  to  be  learned  from 
experience,  which  was  very  limited  in  the 
United  States  in  1829,  when  the  attention 
of  Congress  was  called  to  the  silk  culture 
by  the  petition  of  G.  B.  Clark,  of  the  city 
of  New  York,  for  a  grant  of  262  acres  of 
land  owned  by  the  United  States,  at  Green- 
bush,  New  York,  and  used  for  military  pur 
poses,  to  aid  him  in  rearing  mulberry  trees. 
The  grant  was  made  in  the  shape  of  a  lease, 
on  the  condition  that  100,000  mulberry 
trees  should  be  planted,  and  that  he  should 
procure  a  sufficient  number  of  worms  to 
consume  all  the  foliage  that  could  be  gath 
ered  from  the  trees.  The  public  objects  to  be 
gained  were  to  ascertain  the  best  kinds  to 
be  cultivated,  and  to  obtain  a  quantity  of 
that  description  for  distribution.  No  very 
great  results  flowed  from  this  movement. 
The  culture  never  amounted  to  much,  but 
the  tax,  15  per  cent.,  imposed  upon  im 
ported  raw  silk  in  order  to  encourage  the 
culture,  was  a  great  drawback  upon  the 
manufacture.  Nevertheless,  the  excitement 
in  relation  to  the  mulberry  trees  progressed, 
and  in  the  year  1831,  the  project  of  rearing 
silk-worms  was  renewed  in  various  parts  of 
the  Union,  with  great  vigor ;  and  the  sub 
ject  was  deemed  to  be  of  so  much  impor 
tance  that  it  not  only  attracted  the  attention 
of  Congress,  but  afterward  received  encour 
agement  from  the  legislatures  of  several 
states,  by  bounties  offered  for  all  the  raw 
silk  produced  within  their  limits  for  certain 
periods  of  time.  The  business  soon  began 
to  be  prosecuted  with  extreme  ardor,  and 
continued  several  years,  resulting  in  the  es 


tablishment,  of  extensive  nurseries  of  mul 
berry  trees,  but  it  ended  with  the  downfall  of 
the  famous  "  Morus  Multicaulis  Specula 
tion,"  in  1839.  The  rates  of  the  mulberry 
cuttings  were  at  2  cents  each  in  1838.  In 
that  year,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Hartford, 
Connecticut,  many  thousand  trees  were  sold 
at  20  to  50  cents  each.  The  trees  were 
sent  all  over  the  country,  and  it  was  stated 
that  the  growth  per  acre  gave  from  three 
to  five  thousand  dollars.  The  demand  for 
trees  was  from  those  who  undertook,  in  all 
sections  of  the  country,  to  plant  mulberry 
groves  for  the  supply  of  silk  factories  that 
were  to  be  started.  The  sales  of  trees  were 
often  made  on  the  ground,  standing,  at  the 
rate  of  12i  cents  per  foot,  those  "  trees"  not 
12  inches  high  being  rejected.  That  spec 
ulation  is  yet  alive  in  the  public  mind  as  a 
monument  of  the  folly  wrhich  at  times  over 
takes  a  community,  even  to  its  own  destruc 
tion.  It  Avas  second  only  to  the  famous 
tulip  mania  of  Holland,  or  the  South  Sea 
bubble  of  England,  or  the  Mississippi  scheme 
of  France.  The  mulberry  buds  sold  at 
fabulous  prices,  and  passed  rapidly  from 
hand  to  hand  of  the  speculators,  multiply 
ing  from  the  nurseries  to  meet  the  specula 
tive  demand,  which  suddenly  ceased  when 
the  test  of  practicability  was  applied.  The 
real  evil,  however,  which  the  mania  inflicted, 
was  that  the  means  taken  to  stimulate  a 
doubtful  culture  retarded  the  manufacture 
of  sewing  silk  and  goods,  because  the  high 
price  of  the  raw  material  so  occasioned  made 
competition  with  the  foreign  article  impos 
sible.  In  1836,  the  state  of  Massachusetts 
paid  $71  bounty  on  silk  made  in  that  year. 
This  bounty  rose  to  $2,111  in  1841.  All 
the  means  used  had  raised  the  quantity  of 
silk  made  in  the  United  States  in  1840,  to 
61,552  Ibs.,  worth  about  $250,000.  In 
1844,  the  quantity  was  stated  in  the  report 
of  the  commissioners  of  the  United  States 
census  at  396,790  pounds,  worth  $1,400,- 
000.  In  1850,  however,  the  quantity  had 
fallen  to  14,763  Ibs.,  showing  an  immense 
decline,  which  has  been  ascribed  to  inherent 
difficulties  of  the  climate.  Nature  seems  to 
have  put  a  veto  on  it  at  the  North,  and  at 
the  South  other  cultures  have  proved  more 
profitable.  The  effort  to  produce  the  silk 
failed,  and  caused  the  failure  of,  or  at  least 
retarded,  the  silk  manufacture,  which  has 
grown  in  England  in  some  degree  to  rival 
France,  where  the  silk  is  raised,  by  means 
of  entire  freedom  from  tax  on  the  raw  ar- 


FIRE-PROOF    SAFES    AND    SAFE-LOCKS. 


395 


ticlc.  Of  late,  some  further  progress  has 
been  made  in  the  manufacture. 

In  the  year  1769,  on  the  recommenda 
tion  of  Dr.  Franklin  through  the  American 
Philosophical  Society,  a  filature  of  raw  silk 
was  established  in  Philadelphia,  by  private 
subscription,  and  placed  under  the  direction 
of  an  intelligent  and  skilful  Frenchman, 
who,  it  is  said,  produced  samples  of  reeled 
silk  not  inferior  in  quality  to  the  best  from 
France  and  Italy.  In  1771,  the  managers 
purchased  2,300  pounds  of  cocoons,  all  the 
product  of  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  and 
Delaware.  The  enterprise  was  interrupted 
by  the  Revolution.  A  similar  enterprise 
was  again  attempted  in  1830,  under  the  su 
pervision  of  M.  J.  D.  Hornerque,  and  co 
coons  were  brought  in  abundance  to  the 
establishment  from  various  parts  of  the 
country,  and  so  continued  for  some  time 
afterward  ;  but  for  want  of  capital,  the  un 
dertaking  failed.  About  the  same  time, 
however,  other  undertakings  were  begun  in 
various  parts  of  the  country,  and  some  of 
these  have  attained  a  high  degree  of  suc 
cess.  In  1841,  the  convicts  in  Auburn 
prison,  New  York,  were  employed  in  the 
manufacture  of  silk  for  a  time,  with  much 
success.  In  the  first  year  a  value  of  $12,762 
was  produced  of  sewing  silk,  pronounced 
superior  to  the  imported  article.  The 
domestic  supply  of  the  raw  article  running 
short,  through  defects  of  climate,  that  manu 
facture  began  more  severely  to  feel  the 
weight  of  the  duty  of  15  per  cent,  ad  va 
lorem  on  raw  silk,  and  of  10  to  30  per  cent, 
on  dyestuffs.  These  duties  were  a  direct  dis 
crimination  in  favor  of  the  English  manu 
facturers,  who  obtained  those  materials  free 
of  charge.  Nevertheless  these  manufactures 
here  and  there  had  taken  root,  in  spite  of 
this  attempt  to  force  the  culture  of  the  silk 
by  means  that  tended  to  destroy  the  market 
for  it.  Many  manufactories  of  ribbons  grew 
in  favor,  and  produced  goods  with  a  texture, 
finish,  brilliancy  of  color,  and  general  adapt 
ability  for  an  extended  consumption  that 
gave  them  advantage  over  the  imported 
goods.  In  sewing  silk,  particularly,  the 
American  manufacturer  has  excelled.  The 
American  article  is  in  every  respect  equal  in 
color  and  finish  to  the  imported,  and  supe 
rior  in  the  spinning  and  "  fixing  the  cord" 
(the  great  desideratum  in  this  branch  of 
manufacture)  to  the  Neapolitan  article. 

The  following  figures  show  the  rapid  prog 
ress  of  the  manufacture  now  that  the  raw  silk 


is  free  of  duty.  From  1830  to  1850,  the  im 
port  of  the  raw  silk  increased  300  per  cent. 
The  manufacture  had,  meantime,  gathered 
strength,  and  in  the  last  ten  years  it  has 
risen  to  over  $1,540,000  per  annum,  while 
the  import  of  sewing  silk  is  nearly  extin 
guished.  The  largest  portion  of  the  silk  is 
derived  directly  from  China. 


Kaw. 

1880. 
Hansc  Towns. 

Holland 

Butch  K.  I.  . . 
Erigl'd  &  Scot.  17,98 
H.  N.  A.  Cols. 
B.  East  Indies 

France 3,240 

Italy 8,153 

Sicily 

Turkey 

China 89,696 


IMPORT   OF   RAW   SILK. 
Eaw.  Sewing. 

1850. 

$7,635      $1,873 
16 
297 
112,258 


2,073 
164,695 


18.226 
10,606 


2,623 
19^,619 


43 

101.867 

187,065 
76,782 

9,2»S 


Kaw.  Sewing. 

I860. 
$6,716      $4,733 


600,901       72,057 


15,470 
4,604 


1.7,699 
238 
915J504        7/185 


$119,074  $404.477  $489,487  $1,543,190  $111,912 


FIRE-PROOF  SAFES  AND  SAFE-LOCKS, 

BUT  a  very  few  years  have  passed,  since  it 
was  a  matter  of  necessity  for  individuals  to 
keep  their  valuables  in  their  own  houses,  and 
to  defend  them  from  the  attacks  of  burglars 
and  the  risks  of  fire,  as  they  best  could.  For 
these  purposes  strong  boxes  were  in  requisi 
tion.  In  modern  times,  paper  promises  have 
been  substituted  for  the  hard  currency  of 
former  times,  and  banks  become  the  deposi 
tories  for  that  money,  thus  relieving  individ 
uals  of  the  risk  of  keeping  coin  in  their 
houses,  to  attract  thieves.  The  banks  are 
also  depositories  for  plate  and  jewelry,  and 
insurance  companies  guarantee  from  loss  by 
fire.  Under  these  circumstances,  it  was 
hardly  to  be  anticipated  that  a  demand  for 
strong  boxes  should  arise,  when  the  use  of 
them  was  apparently  on  the  decline.  Singu 
larly  enough,  however,  the  art  of  making 
strong  boxes  has  only  been  developed  in  the 
present  century.  It  is  to  be  considered, 
however,  that  with  the  progress  of  the  cred 
it  system  in  the  last  150  years,  and  the  ex 
tension  of  commerce,  paper  securities  and 
account-books  of  all  kinds  have  multiplied, 
causing  a  greater  demand  than  ever  for  iron 
chests.  The  manufacture  of  these,  and  of 
the  locks  to  secure  them,  has  taken  great 
dimensions. 

It  is  obvious  that,  in  the  construction 
of  a  chest,  designed  to  be  not  only  bur 
glar  but  fire-proof,  iron,  as  a  material, 
would  naturally  suggest  itself.  Neverthe- 


396 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


less,  oak  seems  formerly  to  have  been  a 
favorite  material,  probably  from  the  facility 
of  working  and  ornamenting.  An  example 
of  this  kind  of  coft'er  is  afforded  in  the  chest 
in  which  the  crown  jewels  of  Scotland  were 
deposited  in  1707.  The  chest,  beautifully 
ornamented,  was  secured  with  iron  bands, 
hasps,  and  staples.  There  were  three  locks, 
which  then,  no  doubt,  afforded  security,  but 
each  of  them  could  be  opened  in  five  minutes 
with  a  bit  of  crooked  wire  in  our  day.  At 
the  close  of  the  last  century  there  began  to 
be  made  the  iron  chests,  known  as  "  foreign 
coffers."  These  were  constructed  of  sheet 
iron,  strongly  riveted  to  hoop  iron,  crossed  at 
right  angles  on  the  outside.  A  lock  throw 
ing  eight  bolts  inside,  and  two  bars  and 
staples  for  padlocks  outside,  Avere  employed 
to  secure  the  lid.  Over  the  door  lock  was  a 
cap  beautifully  pierced  and  chased,  and  a 
secretly  operated  escutcheon  concealed  the 
key-hole.  These  were  formidable  to  look  at, 
and  no  doubt  answered  their  purpose  all  the 
better,  that  the  science  of  lock-picking  was 
then  not  so  advanced  as  in  the  present  day. 
About  the  beginning  of  the  present  cen 
tury,  cast-iron  chests  began  to  be  made 
for  common  purposes,  and  the  manufacture 
flourished  to  a  considerable  extent.  The  idea 
of  introducing  non-conducting  substances  as 
a  protection  against  fire,  occurred  but  some 
years  later.  The  favorite  substance  for  this 
purpose  is  gypsum  or  plaster  of  Paris.  This 
material  was  first  used  in  Paris  for  the  con 
struction  of  fire-proof  houses.  The  practice 
for  more  than  fifty  years  had  there  been  to 
erect  hollow  walls  with  spaces  between  them 
varying  from  five  to  nine  inches  in  width. 
Plaster  of  Paris,  mixed  with  water  to  a 
proper  consistency,  was  poured  into  these 
spaces,  where  it  set  and  became  hard.  After 
the  beams  and  rafters  were  fixed  in  their 
places,  boards  were  nailed  to  them,  and  the 
same  material  was  spread  thereon.  The  lower 
floors  of  the  building  were  of  plaster,  over 
which  tiles  were  laid.  The  same  material 
was  applied  to  fire-safes  in  Paris,  and  these 
were,  to  some  extent,  imported  into  New 
York  about  the  year  1820.  The  first  port 
able  fire-proof  chests  introduced  for  sale  in 
New  York,  were  imported  from  France,  by 
the  late  Joseph  Boucheaud,  Esq.,  about  1820, 
and  no  doubt  many  of  our  old  merchants  and 
bankers  remember  them,  as  many  were  sold 
for  use  in  counting-houses  and  bank  vaults. 
They  were  constructed  of  wood  and  iron ; 
the  foundation  was  a  box  of  hard,  close- 


grained  wood,  covered  on  the  outside  with 
plate  iron,  over  which  were  hoops  or  bands 
of  iron,  about  two  inches  wide,  crossing 
each  other  at  right  angles,  so  forming  squares 
on  all  sides  of  the  chest.  Holes  were  made  in 
the  bands  and  plates,  through  which  well- 
made  wrought-iron  nails  or  spikes,  having 
''  hollow"  half-spherical  heads,  were  driven 
into  and  through  the  wooden  box,  and  then 
"  clinched.'1'1  The  inside  of  the  chest  was 
then  lined  with  a  covering  of  sheet  iron. 
These  chests  had  a  well-finished  but  very 
large  lock,  having  from  six  to  eight  bolts, 
operated  by  one  turn  of  the  key. 

The  first  actual  application  of  plaster  of 
Paris  to  safes  in  this  country  seems  to  have 
been  by  James  Conner,  the  type-founder,  of 
New  York.  His  business  made  him  ac 
quainted  with  the  non-conducting  qualities 
of  plaster  of  Paris,  and  he  applied  it  to  an 
iron  chest  in  his  office,  which  chest  has  been 
in  use  ever  since.  Soon  after,  Jesse  Delano, 
of  New  York,  began  making  chests  of  the 
Paris  pattern,  substituting  solid  cast-iron 
heads,  to  secure  the  bands.  In  1826,  he 
patented  an  improvement,  which  consisted 
in  coating  the  wooden  foundation  with  a 
composition  of  equal  parts,  clay  and  lime, 
plumbago  and  mica,  or  saturating  the  wood 
in  a  solution  of  potash  lye  and  alum,  to  ren 
der  it  incombustible.  These  were  generally 
used  in  the  country,  and  as  a  curious  in 
stance  of  the  Jlrc-proof  qualities  of  these  safes, 
we  may  state  that  one  stood  many  years  near 
the  stove,  in  the  counting-house  of  Lyman 
Stockbridge,  of  Hartford,  until  its  fire-proof 
qualities  seem  to  have  been  exhausted,  since 
it  spontaneously  took  fire  and  burnt  up  about 
three  years  since,  without  doing  other  injury 
on  the  premises.  In  this  case,  it  would  seem 
the  fire-proof  quality  was  inverted — viz.,  that 
the  fire  could  not  get  out,  instead  of  failing 
to  get  in.  After  Mr.  Delano,  C.  J.  Gayler 
began  the  safe  manufacture,  and  in  1833  he 
patented  his  "  double"  fire-proof  chest.  This 
consisted  of  two  chests,  one  so  formed  within 
the  other  as  to  have  one  or  more  spaces  be 
tween  them,  to  inclose  air  or  any  known  non 
conductors  of  heat.  In  the  same  year,  one 
of  these  double  chests  was  severely  tested 
by  being  exposed  in  a  large  building  in  Thom- 
aston,  Maine,  that  was  entirely  destroyed 
by  fire.  The  chest  preserved  its  contents  in 
good  order.  This  excited  the  public  admira 
tion,  and  one  enthusiastic  writer  described  it 
as  a  "Salamander,"  which  name  has  ever 
since  been  popularly  applied  to  safes. 


FIRE-PROOF    SAFES    AND    SAFE-LOCKS. 


The  majority  of  the  so-called  "safes"  in 
use  at  the  time  of  the  great  fire  in  New  York, 
in  1835,  were  simply  iron  closets,  and  were 
of  little  protection  against  the  devouring  ele 
ment.  There  were  then  about  sixty  of  Gay- 
ler's  double  chests  in  use,  and  a  few  of  these 
preserved  their  contents.  Soon  after,  John 
Scott  obtained  a  patent  for  the  use  of  asbes 
tos  for  fire-proof  chests.  In  1837,  Benjamin 
Sherwood  obtained  a  patent  for  a  revolving 
interior  safe,  filling  the  spaces  with  plaster 
of  Paris  and  charcoal. 

In  1S43  Enos  Wilder  obtained  a  patent 
for  the  construction  of  a  safe  of  heavy  iron 
plates,  filled  with  hydrated  plaster  of  Paris, 
and  soon  after,  Mr.  Fitzgerald,  whose  disco 
very  was  made  previously,  was  associated 
with  him.  About  1841,  Mr.  Silas  C.  Herring 
became  interested  in  Wilder's  safes,  first  as 
agent  and  afterwards  as  a  manufacturer. 
The  Wilder  safes  proved  a  protection 
against  fires  which  destroyed  the  Gayler  and 
other  patents.  In  1844,  Enos  Wilder's 
patent  was  transferred  to  his  brother,  B.  G. 
Wilder,  but  the  safes  under  this  patent  were 
made  by  Mr.  Herring;  and  not  long  after, 


Messrs.  Roberts 
manufacture  on 
paid  no  royalty. 


&    Rich 

the 


commenced 
principles. 


the 
but 


After  a  protracted  lawsuit, 


a  compromise  was  effected  by  which  both 
parties  continued  to  manufacture.  Other 
parties  tried  hydraulic  cement,  soapstone, 
alum  and  glue,  alum  alone,  mica,  asbestos, 
and  other  articles  for  filling,  but  none  proved 
as  effectual  as  the  hydrated  plaster  of  Paris, 
which,  under  the  influence  of  intense  heat, 
gave  up  its  water  of  combination,  and  form 
ing  an  atmosphere  of  steam  in  the  inner 
portion  of  the  safe,  protected  the  books  or 
papers  from  destruction.  It  was  found,  how 
ever,  that  the  plaster  after  a  time  gave  up  a 
part  of  its  water  of  combination,  and  not  only 
made  the  interior  of  the  safes  mouldy  and 
damp,  but  rusted  the  plates  of  iron  till  they 
were  eaten  through.  Messrs.  Herring  &  Co. 
had  offered  a  reward  of  &1,000  for  any  filling 
which  should  stand  the  test  better  than  the 
plaster  which  they  were  using.  In  1852,  Mr. 
Spear,  a  chemist  of  Philadelphia,  discovered 
that  the  residuum  of  the  soda  fountains, 
after  the  liberation  of  carbonic  acid  gas,  for 
the  so-called  soda-water,  possessed  remarka 
ble  non-conducting  powers.  This  residuum, 
which  had  been  previously  thrown  away, 
was,  by  Spear's  process,  preserved,  washed 
to  free  it  from  the  sulphuric  acid,  which 
had  acted 


kiln,  and,  when  in  a  dry  and  almost  impalpa 
ble  powder,  rammed  into  the  safes.  The 
safes  thus  prepared  were  found  to  have  no 
tendency  to  rust,  and  to  be  better  protected 
against  fire  than  by  the  use  of  the  plaster, 
this  powder  giving  up  its  water  of  combina 
tion  in  less  quantity,  and  more  slowly  than 
the  plaster,  but  sufficiently  to  preserve  the 
contents  of  the  safe.  Messrs.  Herring-  &  Co. 
purchased  Mr.  Spear's  discovery,  and,  since 
1854,  have  made  their  safes  mainly  on  this 
principle,  though  the  Wilder  patent  had  not 
expired.  Mr.  B.  G.  Wilder  had  meantime 
commenced  the  manufacture  of  safes  under 
his  patent,  himself;  and  the  successors  of 
Messrs.  Roberts  <fe  Bich,  under  several  firm 
names,  as  Rich  <fe  Rolf,  RofF  &  Stearns,  and 
Stearns  &-  Marvin,  also  manufactured  the 
Wilder  safe.  In  1854,  the  safes  which  had 
been  rusted  through  by  the  moisture  from  the 
plaster  of  Paris  began  to  be  returned  upon 
the  manufacturers,  and  the  cost  of  repairs 
and  refilling  was  very  heavy.  There  began  a 
little  before  this- time  to  be  a  demand  for  bur 
glar-proof  safes.  Lillie's  safes  were  highly 
commended  for  this  purpose,  he  using  thick 
slabs  of  chilled  east  iron,  and  flowing  cast 
iron  over  wrought  iron  ribs  in  their  con- 


was    found    after    a    time, 
the    buro-lars    succeeded    iu 


struction.  It 
however,  that 
drilling  these  sufficiently  to  blow  them  up 
in  a  few  minutes,  and  that  the  dependence 
placed  on  them  was  not  justified.  Messrs. 
Herring  &  Co.  a  few  years  since  adapted 
the  plan  of  making  their  burglar-proof  safes 
externally  of  boiler-plate  wrought  iron, 
with  an  inner  safe  of  hardened  steel,  and 
then  filled  the  space  between  with  a  casting 
of  Franklinite,  the  hardest  of  all  known 
metallic  ores,  which  in:  casting  was  incor 
porated  with  rods  of  soft  steel,  those  on  one 
side  running  vertically,  and  those  on,  the 
other  horizontally.  These:  castings,  resist 
the  best  drills  for  many  hours.  This  lias, 
in  connexion  with  the  burglar-proof  locks, 
proved  the  most  complete  protection  against 
burglars  yet  invented.  Among  the  burglar- 
proof  locks,  the  Bramah,  invented,  in  Eng 
land  in  1784,  was  in  high  repute  for.- many 
years,  but  was  picked  by  Hobbs,,  a,  Boston 
locksmith,  in  IQnl,  A  "permutation  lock" 
was  invented  by  .Dr.  Andrews,  in  1841,  and 
another  by  Newell,  about  1843.  Both 
were  finally  picked,  aad  Newell",  then  in 
vented  one  with  a  detached  tumbler,  which: 
was,  after  a. time, picked  by  William. Hall,  of 


the    chalk,   dried   in    a  Boston,  by  the  Asmoke  process,"  by  which, 


898 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


a  smoky  flame  is  introduced  by  the  key-hole, 
and  this  leaves  a  fine  deposit  of  lamp-black 
•upon  the  "  bellies"  of  the  tumblers.  When 
the  key  is  next  introduced,  it  removes  the 
larnp-black  from  the  parts  it  touches.  By 
means  of  a  small  reflector,  a  strong  light  is  then 
thrown  in,  bringing  the  key  marks  to  view. 
The  exact  sizes  for  a  false  key  are  thus  ob 
tained.  To  prevent  this  operation,  it  was 
supposed  that  concealing  the  tumblers  would 
be  all  that  was  requisite.  II.  C.  Jones,  of 
Newark,  accomplished  this  by  concentric 
rings  and  curtain ;  and  Pyes  did  it  more  ef 
fectually  with  eccentric  rings  and  curtain. 
The  Jock  was  now  thought  perfect.  It  was 
called  the  parautoptic  (Concealed  from  view) 
lock.  A.  C.  Hobbs,  with  one  of  these  at  the 
English  exhibition  of  1851,  defied  the  best 
English  operators.  One  of  these  locks  was 
used  at  the  Bank  of  England,  and  they  came 
into  general  use  in  the  United  States.  In 
1855,  Linus  Yale,  jr.,  of  Philadelphia,  by 
means  of  the  impression  process,  picked  this 
great  lock.  In  1843,  Linus  Yale,  senior,  pat 
ented  a  "  pin"  lock  and  then  the  duplex  lock, 
for  which  two  keys  are  required.  One  being 
introduced,  it  was  necessary  to  unscrew  and 
remove  its  handle,  then  close  the  key-hole 
entirely  with  a  hardened  plate,  before  the 
other  key-hole  could  open.  The  ingenuity 
of  his  son  dispelled  the  idea  that  this  was 
absolutely  secure,  by  picking  it.  Yale,  jr., 
being  convinced  that  no  lock  is  secure  so 
long  as  the  shape  of  the  key  prevents  the  en 
tire  closing  of  the  hole,  he  set  to  work  upon 
that  principle,  and  in  1851  he  invented  the 
magic  lock.  In  this  lock,  the  key  and  its 
bits  appear  as  of  one  piece ;  on  being  intro 
duced  into  the  lock,  the  bits  are  taken  up  by 
a  pin,  which  enters  through  them  into  the 
centre  of  the  key-shaft.  The  key  then  being 
turned  in  the  usual  manner,  puts  in  motion 
a.  set  of  gear  wheels.  These  first  separate 
the  bits  from  the  key,  and  then  carry  them 
,  into  the  interior  of  the  lock,  away  from  the 
key-hole.  They  there  operate  upon  the  tum 
blers  out  of  sight  and  beyond  the  reach  of 
any  picking  tools.  The  same  motion  which 
carries  away  the  bits  effectually  closes  the 
key-hole.  When  the  bolt  is  passed,  the  key 
hole  re-opens,  the  bits  come  back  and  join 
the  handle  to  be  taken  out,  as  they  were  put 
in.  The  bits  may  be  taken  away  in  .the 
pocket,  if  desired,  leaving  the  handle  with 
the  lock.  This  mechanism  seems  to  effect 
perfectly  the  conditions  sought  for  security 
against  picking.  E.  B.  Denison,  the  famous 


clockmaker,  of  London,  remarks  in  relation 
to  this,  as  well  as  to  Newell's,  "  that  the  cast 
ing  of  both  these  American  locks  (which  have 
all  their  heavy  parts  of  cast  iron)  is  vastly 
superior  to  any  iron  castings  we  have  ever 
seen  made  in  England ;  and,  on  the  whole, 
the  United  States  are  evidently  far  ahead  of 
us  in  the  manufacture  of  both  good  and 
cheap  locks."  This  is  certainly  very  grati 
fying  praise  to  the  national  pride,  when  we 
reflect  how  few  years  since  we  depended  en 
tirely  upon  England  for  bank  locks. 

In  some  cases,  burglars  introduce  strong 
tools  to  force  locks  apart,  and  others  intro 
duce  gunpowder  to  explode  them.  A  device 
against  this  is  to  form  a  strong  slider  of  cast 
steel  to  close  the  key-hole,  and  also  to  cut 
out  a  piece  of  the  back  plate  and  screw  it 
on  again,  with  small  screws.  This  giving  way 
on  the  application  of  force,  saves  the  rest. 

These  brilliant  inventions  have  been  made 
to  close  the  doors  of  safes  against  burglars, 
while  the  improvements  in  the  boxes  guard 
atrainst  fire. 


GLASS  MANUFACTURE. 

WHEN  we  contemplate  by  turns  each  of 
the  great  materials  most  conducive  to  man's 
advancement  in  civilization,  we  are  at  times 
lost  in  the  attempt  to  give  precedence  to 
any  one,  since  so  many  have  held  so  high  a 
rank  in  the  scale  of  usefulness.  Iron  has, 
perhaps,  been  the  most  important  in  respect 
of  industrial  purposes,  and  paper  has  been 
the  means  of  recording  and  promoting  that 
general  intelligence  without  which  progress 
could  not  be  very  extensive,  but  glass  has 
entered  more  into  the  necessities  of  science, 
as  well  as  those  of  social  life  and  every-day 
comforts,  than  most  materials.  The  great 
properties  of  glass  are  its  transparency,  its 
hardness,  its  power  of  assuming  any  possible 
form  when  hot,  and  its  non-conductibility. 
Employed  as  windows,  it  transmits  light  into 
our  dwellings  while  protecting  us  from  the 
inclemency  of  the  seasons  and  permitting  a 
view  of  exterior  objects ;  wrought  into  the 
form  of  vessels,  it  preserves  all  liquids  with 
out  alteration,  while  we  can  inspect  the  con 
tents.  This  quality,  added  to  its  indestruc 
tibility  by  any  of  the  acids  (except  fluoric), 
has  much  facilitated  the  investigations  of 
chemists.  The  physical  sciences  are  not  less 
indebted  to  it.  It  is  the  principal  auxiliary 


GLASS    MANUFACTURE. 


399 


of  optics.  "With  his  glass  prism,  Newton  de 
composed  light ;  it  is  by  its  means  that  as 
tronomy  makes  its  observations  and  discov 
eries  in  the  infinity  of  space  ;  combined  in 
the  microscope,  it  carries  the  vision  of  the 
naturalist  into  the  most  minute  formations  of 
nature  ;  with  it,  those  of  short  sight  have 
the  perception  extended,  and  by  it,  the  flat 
tened  vision  of  age  is  restored  to  its  natu 
ral  powers.  To  the  science  of  fluids  it  is 
indispensable,  and  most  of  the  experiments 
in  caloric  and  electricity  are  due  to  its 
agency.  If  all  the  sciences  are  more  or  less 
dependent  upon  it,  the  ordinary  usages  of 
life  are  no  less  promoted  by  it.  It  gives 
mirrors  for  the  toilet  and  for  ornament  to 
houses ;  it  serves  the  table  with  liquids  ;  it 
preserves  works  of  art  from  the  dust,  orna 
ments  lustres,  and  with  it  the  precious  stones 
can  be  imitated  in  all  respects  but  in  their 
hardness.  In  the  arts  its  wonderfully  varied 
powers  may  be  put  in  requisition  for  almost 
all  purposes,  from  the  delicate  spring  of  a 
chronometer  watch  to  the  heavy  pipes  for  sup 
plying  water  to  cities.  For  the  former  pur 
pose,  its  insensibility  to  climate  and  temper 
ature  gives  it  advantages  over  the  metals  used 
for  that  purpose. 

The  use  of  glass  is  of  a  very  remote  an 
tiquity — how  remote  is  left  to  conjecture.  It 
had  been  supposed  that  the  ancients  were  not 
acquainted  with  its  use.  Glass  beads  have, 
however,  been  found  on  mummies  more  than 
3000  years  old,  and  in  the  ruins  of  Nineveh 
bottles  and  vases  have  been  found  of  glass  ; 
and  the  exhumations  of  Pompeii  and  Ilercu- 
laneum  disclosed  the  fact  that  it  was  in  those 
cities  used  for  windows,  as  well  as  for  very 
numerous  utensils,  all  of  which  gave  evidence 
of  great  skill  in  glass  work.  The  manufac 
ture  of  glass  spread  from  Italy  to  other  coun 
tries  of  Europe,  at  first  into  Gaul.  Bohemia 
•was,  however,  possessed  of  the  best  materi 
als  in  the  greatest  abundance,  and  the  manu 
facture  settled  and  acquired  for  Bohemian 
glass  a  reputation  which  has  come  down  to 
our  times  for  vessels.  The  use  of  glass  for 
mirrors  seems  to  have  originated  in  Venice. 

The  manufacture  of  glass  was  carried  on 
in  England  as  early  as  1439,  according  to 
Horace  Walpole.  Flint  glass  was  made  in 
London  in  the  middle  of  the  16th  century, 
and  the  manufacture  of  plate  glass  was  com 
menced  by  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  who 
imported  Venetian  workmen.  Since  then 
great  progress  has  been  made,  and  English 
fliiit  glass  has  won  a  great  reputation.  The 


manufacture  was  one  of  the  earliest  intro 
duced  into  the  colonies.  At  Jamestown,  Va., 
a  glass-house  was  broken  up  by  an  irruption 
of  Indians  in  1632.  There  appears,  how 
ever,  to  have  been  no  accurate  account  of 
any  until  that  of  Mr.  Ilewes,  of  Boston,  in 
Temple,  N.  H.,  1780.  Those  works  were  op 
erated  by  Hessians  and  Waldeckers,  desert 
ers  from  the  British  army;  and  one  of  the 
•first  articles  there  produced -is  now  the  prop 
erty  of  Harvard  University.  Washington, 
in  his  diary,  1789,  alludes  to  a  glass-house 
in  New  Haven.  In  1803  a  German,  of  the 
name  of  Lint,  undertook  glassworks  in  Bos 
ton,  and  the  state  made  him  a  bounty  on 
every  table  of  window  glass  made.  From 
that  time  the  works  prospered,  or  at  least 
were  sustained. 

The  manufacture  of  crown  glass  was  early 
commenced    at  Pittsburg,  Pa.,    by  Colonel 
O'Hara,  who,  in  1798,  started  glassworks  in 
that  city,  to  which  the  materials  were  brought 
from  30  to  100   miles'   distance.     The  con 
cern  had  a  considerable   success,  and   was 
followed  by  others  until,  in  1814,  there  were 
five   glassworks   at   that   place.      In    1812, 
Messrs.  Bakewell  &  Co.  established  at  Pitts- 
burg  the  first  flint-glassworks  in  the  Union. 
They  brought  the  manufacture  to  great  per 
fection,  bringing  out  workmen  from  Europe 
at  high  wages.     The  style  of  cutting  and  en 
graving  was  thought    equal  to  the  foreign, 
and  the  operations  of  the  house   extended 
until  the  works  became  the  largest  for  glass 
manufacture    in   the    country.     There  were 
there  made  sets   of  glass  for  two  Presidents 
of  the  United  States ;   and  a  set  of  splendid 
vases  there    produced    40    years  since,  still 
adorns  the  saloon  at  La  Grange,  the  seat  of 
Lafayette.     The  house    have    also   received 
the   silver  medal   of  the  Franklin  Institute. 
In  other  parts  of  the   country  the  manufac 
ture  progressed  to  a  greater  or  less  extent, 
and  in  1832  a  committee  of  the  New  York 
convention  made  a  report  on  the  glass  man 
ufacture,  from  which  it  appears  there  were 
then   in   operation  21  glass  furnaces,  having 
140    pots   for   the    manufacture   of    crown 
glass ;  of  these,  6  were  at  Boston.     There 
were  also  in  operation  23  for  the  manufacture 
of  cylinder  glass;   of  these,  10  were  in  Penn 
sylvania,  2  at  Wheeling,    2   in  Maryland,  2 
in  New  York,  2  in  Ohio,  1  in  Massachusetts, 
1   in   New  Hampshire,    1   in  Vermont,  1    in 
Connecticut,  and  1  in  the  District  of  Colum 
bia.     The   whole   value   of  flint   glass  then 
produced  was  given    at   $1,350,000.     The 


400 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


most  extensive  green  bottle  factory  was  at 
that  time  Mr.  Dyott's,  near  Philadelphia. 
There  were  there  melted  4  tons  per  day,  or 
1200  tons  per  annum.  At  that  period  the 
glass  manufacture  received  an  impulse,  and 
in  1834  there  were  6  works  at  Pittsburg. 
making  crown  and  cylinder  glass,  green  bot 
tles,  and  apothecaries'  phials.  One  bottle 
factory  produced  1600  dozen  weekly,  and  a 
phial  factory  2200  gross  weekly.  There 
were  also  produced  in  one  concern  5000 
boxes  window  glass  annually,  of  a  quality 
nearly  equal  to  the  best  crown  glass.  There 
were  also  at  Wheeling  2  crown  and  flint- 
glassworks,  and  1  for  phials  and  bottles. 
At  Wellsburg,  16  miles  distant,  there  were 
1  flint  glass  and  1  green  bottle  factory. 

The  census  of  1840  showed  that  there 
were  then  in  the  United  States  81  glass 
houses,  employing  3,236  men.  The  aggre 
gate  capital  was  given  at  $2,014,100.  Of 
these,  2  were  in  Virginia,  28  in  Pennsylvania, 
25  in  New  Jersey,  13  in  New  York,  2  in 
Vermont,  3  in  Connecticut,  4  in  Massachu 
setts,  3  in  New  Hampshire,  and  1  in  Michi 
gan.  The  census  did  not  distinguish  the 
different  branches  of  the  glass  manufacture, 
nor  the  modes  of  making  window  glass. 
The  increase  up  to  1850,  by  the  census  of 
that  year,  appears  to  have  been  not  very 
considerable.  The  number  of  works  had 
risen  to  94,  with  an  aggregate  capital  of 
$3,402,350,  employing  5571  men,  and  pro 
ducing  a  value  of  $4,641,676  per  annum. 
Of  these  94  establishments,  28  were  in  Penn 
sylvania,  and  20  more  in  New  Jersey,  mostly 
owned  in  Philadelphia;  18  were  in  New 
York,  6  in  Massachusetts,  2  in  Maryland,  1 
in  Connecticut,  4  in  New  Hampshire,  2  in 
Missouri,  6  in  Ohio,  6  in  Virginia,  and  1  in 
Tennessee.  The  glass  manufacture  thus 
concentrates  apparently  in  Pennsylvania. 
There  has  been  in  the  last  ten  years  some 
progress.  In  1853  the  first  plate  glass  man 
ufactory  in  the  United  States  was  established 
at  Cheshire,  Berkshire  county,  Mass.  The 
same  company  now  are  at  Lenox  iinder  the 
name  of  the  "  Lenox  Rough  Plate  Glass 
Co."  The  rough  or  hammered  plate  glass 
manufacture  has  also  been  recently  estab 
lished  in  Philadelphia  ;  also  a  new  descrip 
tion,  called  "German  flint,"  of  less  beauty 
than  the  old  flint,  but  better  adapted  for  the 
use  of  apothecaries,  chemists,  perfumers,  etc., 
since  it  is  little  affected  by  acids  and  alka 
lies. 

The  materials  for  glass  are  several;  the 


chief,  silica,  obtained  from  the  sea  beaches  in 
the  form  of  quartz  sand,  and  from  the  quartz 
rocks  of  the  interior.  The  name  of  "flint 
glass,"  which  originated  with  the  English 
manufacturers,  and  long  held  the  highest 
rank  in  Europe,  came  from  the  use  of  flints, 
calcined  and  ground  to  powder.  This  proc 
ess  is  now  supplanted  by  the  use  of  sand,  of 
which  a  highly  prized  article  is  imported 
into  England  from  Austria.  The  purest  ar 
ticle  used  in  the  United  States  is  obtained 
from  Lanesborough,  Mass.,  being  a  disinte 
grated  quartz  rock.  It  is  easily  broken  by 
the  pick,  and  the  lumps  may  be  crushed  in 
the  hand.  The  grains  arc  remarkable  for 
their  purity.  They  appear  Avhite  in  the 
mass,  but  under  the  microscope  each  appears 
as  limpid  as  crystal.  This  is  used  for  the 
best  flint  and  plate  glass.  Lime  is  used  in 
the  shape  of  limestone  of  the  purest  quali 
ties,  or  as  quicklime.  Potash  is  derived 
from  common  wood  ashes,  and  the  ashes  of 
sea-plants  supply  soda.  Pcarlash  is  some 
times  used  ;  also  the  refined  alkalies.  Com 
mon  salt  is  used  whence  to  extract  carbonate 
of  soda.  In  addition  to  these,  saltpetre, 
alumina,  and  waste  glass,  enter  into  the  in 
gredients  of  glass,  the  proportions  of  many 
kinds  of  which  are  as  follows  : — 

English  bottle  glass — sand,  100  Ibs. ;  lixiv 
iated  ashes,  100  ;  wood  ashes  40  ;  kelp,  40  ; 
clay,  80  ;  cullet,  or  waste  glass,  100.  For  Bo 
hemian  crystal,  are  used — 100  Ibs.  sand  ;  pu 
rified  potash,  60;  chalk,  8;  cullet  and  man 
ganese,  40.  In  window  glass,  are  used — 
1 00  Ibs.  sand ;  chalk,  40 ;  carbonate  of  soda, 
35  ;  of  broken  glass,  from  60  to  180;  and 
some  manganese  and  arsenic.  For  plate 
glass — Lynn  sand,  washed  and  dried,  720 
Ibs. ;  alkaline  salt,  of  which  40  per  cent,  soda, 
450  Ibs.;  lime,  80;  nitre,  25;  broken  plate 
glass,  425.  These  will  give  ]  200  Ibs.  of  glass. 
For  Faraday's  heavy  optical  glass — protox 
ide  of  lead,  140  Ibs.;  silicate  of  lead,  24; 
dry  boracic  acid,  25 ;  and  100  Ibs.  of  sand. 
Artificial  gems  are  composed  of  100  Ibs. 
of  quartz  crystal,  or  sand ;  pure  minium,  or 
rtd  lead,  154  Ibs.;  caustic  potash,  54  Ibs. ; 
boracic  acid,  7  ;  and  some  arsenious  acid. 
These  are  a  few  of  the  proportions  used, 
but  most  manufacturers  modify  them  in  vari 
ous  ways,  since  the  same  compound  will,  in 
the  same  furnace,  under  different  conditions 
of  fuel,  draft,  and  weather,  give  different  re 
sults.  Bituminous  coal,  or  coke,  or  seasoned 
wood,  may  be  used  for  fuel,  and  firewood 
is  preferred.  In  some  glassworks  of  the 


GLASS    MANUFACTURE. 


401 


United  States,  rosin  is  preferred  to  all  other 
fuel,  since  when  pulverized  it  may  be  added 
in  small  quantities  at  a  time.  It  burns  -with 
out  giving  off  impurities  that  may  mix  with 
or  injure  the  glass,  and  it  leaves  no  residuum 

In  proceeding  to  manufacture,  when  the 
combination  of  materials  is  formed,  they 
are  thoroughly  ground,  mixed  together,  and 
sifted.  The  glass  furnace  is  a  large  circu 
lar  dome,  in  the  centre  of  which  is  the  fire. 
This  is  surrounded  by  8  to  12  melting  pots, 
which  being  raised  to  a  white  heat,  receive 
the  mixed  glass  in  quantities  about  one 
eighth  at  a  time.  As  each  instalment  melts 
down,  the  others  are  added.  The  entire 
quantity  being  melted,  the  fires  are  urged  to 
the  utmost,  while  the  workmen  watch  the 
operation,  with  long  iron  rods,  by  means  of 
which  they  extract  from  the  boiling  mass 
portions,  from  time  to  time,  until  transpar 
ency,  on  cooling,  indicates  that  perfect  fu 
sion  of  all  the  materials  has  taken  place.  A 
scum  rises  during  the  boiling  which  is  re 
moved  as  it  appears.  The  heat  is  then 
raised  to  the  highest  degree,  to  perfect  the 
fusion.  The  glass  is  now  made,  but  it  con 
tains  many  impurities,  being  substances  that 
would  not  melt ;  and  there  is  also  still  a  quan 
tity  of  gas,  which,  if  not  got  rid  of,  will  form 
those  bubbles  that  are  sometimes  seen  in 
common  window  glass.  The  mass  is  therefore 
kept  fluid  during  some  48  hours,  by  which 
means  the  "metal"  is  fined,  that  is,  all  the  bub 
bles  of  gas  will  have  disappeared,  and  insolu 
ble  matters  will  have  settled  to  the  bottom. 
The  heat  is  then  allowed  to  subside  until  the 
metal  becomes  thick  enough  to  work,  at 
which  point  the  temperature  is  maintained 
in  order  to  keep  the  glass  in  this  condition. 
The  pots  that  surround  the  furnace  will  gen 
erally  thus  hold  enough  to  employ  the  force 
day  and  night  for  the  first  four  days  of  the 
week,  the  hands  being  divided  into  gangs 
that  relieve  each  other  every  six  hours. 

The  glass  materials,  being  thus  brought  into 
suitable  combination,  arc  ready  for  some  of 
the  numerous  branches  of  manipulation  in 
which  that  article  is  employed — the  manu 
facture  of  window  glass,  plate  glass,  bottles, 
phials,  flint  glass,  vessels  of  all  descriptions, 
gems,  optical  instruments,  etc.  The  manu 
facture  of  window  glass  is  perhaps  the  most 
extensive,  and  this  is  conducted  in  two  modes. 
By  one  the  glass  is  blown  into  "tables,"  like 
cart  wheels,  and  by  the  other  it  is  formed  into 
cylinders,  that  are  cut  open  lengthwise  and 
flattened  out.  The  former  is  the  more  gener 


ally  practised.  That  description  is  generally 
known  as  English  crown  glass.  In  the 
manufacture,  the  melting  pots,  of  which 
there  are  usually  eight,  hold  about  half  a 
ton  of  metal  each,  and  this  will  suffice  for 
100  tables  of  crown  glass.  When  the  glass 
is  in  its  proper  state,  the  workman  is  armed 
with  a  pipe,  or  blowing  tube,  4  or  5  feet 
long,  with  a  bore  1  to  1  inch  in  diameter, 
and  a  little  larger  at  the  mouth  end  than  at 
the  other.  It  is,  as  it  were,  a  long  hand, 
with  which,  the  end  being  heated  red  hot, 
the  workman  reaches  into  the  pot  of  melted 
matter,  and  gathers  up  the  quantity  he  re 
quires.  By  long  experience  he  is  enabled 
to  do  this  with  great  exactness,  and  this, 
for  crown  glass,  will  not  vary  much  from  9 
Ibs.  The  pipe  being  cooled  to  admit  of 
handling,  the  lump  is  rolled  upon  the  mar- 
ver  (which  is  a  polished  cast-iron  slab),  to 
give  it  a  conical  form.  Blowing  through 
the  tube,  at  the  same  time,  causes  the  lump 
to  swell.  It  is  then  heated  in  the  furnace, 
and  again  rolled  and  enlarged  by  blowing. 
In  this  operation,  the  portion  next  the  tube 
becomes  hollow,  and  the  greater  portion 
of  the  glass  works  toward  the  point  of  the 
cone  it  forms  in  rolling.  The  solid  point  is 
called  the  bullion.  This  being  softened  in 
the  furnace,  the  tube  is  laid  across  a  rest, 
and  made  to  revolve,  while  the  glass  Is  blown 
to  a  globe.  During  this  operation,  a  boy 
supports  the  soft  end,  or  bullion,  with  an 
iron  rod.  The  globe,  by  continually  revolv 
ing,  increases  in  size,  and  flattens  out,  the 
bullion  point  still  forming  a  thick  centre,  to 
which  an  iron  rod,  called  a  pontil,  which  has 
a  little  molten  glass  on  its  end,  is  applied ; 
at  the  same  moment  the  globe  being  sepa 
rated  from  the  blow  pipe  by  the  application 
of  a  piece  of  cold  iron  to  its  "  nose,"  re 
mains  upon  the  pontil.  As  the  tube  breaks 
away,  it  leaves  a  circular  opening,  which  the 
workman,  holding  by  the  pontil,  presents  to 
the  furnace.  By  this  means  it  is  softened  al 
most  to  melting,  and  being  made  to  revolve 
rapidly,  the  opening  grows  rapidly  larger  by 
centrifugal  force.  The  heated  air  in  the  globe 
prevents  the  two  opposite  faces  from  coming 
together.  The  portion  next  the  fire  appears 
to  roll  inside  out,  and  it  suddenly,  with  a 
noise  like  opening  a  wet  umbrella,  flattens 
out  into  a  circular  disk,  which  is  then  re 
moved  from  the  fire,  and  kept  revolving  un 
til  it  is  cold.  The  pontil  is  then  cracked 
oft',  and  the  disk  removed  to  the  annealing 
oven,  and  set  up  on  edge  with  the  rest,  ar- 


402 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


ranged  in  rows,  and  supported  by  iron  rods, 
so  as  not  to  press  against  each  other.  The 
annealing  is  completed  in  24  to  48  hours. 
These  "tables"  are  generally  52  inches  in 
diameter ;  sometimes,  however,  as  much  as 
70  inches. 

Plate  glass  imperfectly  annealed  will,  when 
once  cracked,  soon  fall  all  to  pieces.  The  an 
nealing  process  is  simply  to  place  the  hot 
glass  in  a  hot  oven,  and  allow  the  whole 
to  cool  gradually.  By  this  operation  it  is 
found  that  glass  is  deprived  of  much  of  its 
brittleness.  The  explanation  is,  that  the  glass 
is  a  non-conductor,  and  when  made,  the  exte 
rior  cools  first,  forming  a  crystalline  crust 
which  shelters  the  interior  particles,  so  that 
these  continue  longer  in  the  fluid  state,  and 
are  prevented  from  expanding  as  glass 
usually  does  when  it  cools.  The  interior 
has  thus  a  constant  tendency  to  expand  or 
burst  out.  When  the  whole  is  allowed  to 
cool  slowly  in  an  oven,  all  the  fibres  of  the 
glass  assume  their  proper  and  natural  places, 
and  the  mass  becomes  tough  and  elastic. 
The  effect  of  sudden  cooling  is  manifest  in 
the  toys  called  "  Prince  Rupert's  drops." 
These  are  simply  hot  glass  dropped  into 
water.  In  so  doing,  most  of  the  drops  burst 
to  pieces,  but  some  retain  a  pear  shape. 
These,  when  taken  out,  will  bear  a  smart 
blow  without  breaking ;  but  the  smallest 
break  at  the  stem  will  cause  the  whole  to 
fly  to  pieces  Avith  a  loud  explosion.  Bo 
logna  phials  are  formed  of  unannealed  glass 
4  or  5  inches  long,  and  J  inch  thick.  These 
•will  bear  a  hard  blow,  or  a  bullet  may  be 
safely  dropped  in.  If,  however,  a  sharp 
fragment  of  sand  is  introduced,  the  phial 
will  fly  to  pieces.  Annealing  deprives  them 
of  these  qualities. 

From  the  annealing  kiln  the  tables  go  to 
the  warehouse,  and  are  there  assorted  ac 
cording  to  defects  and  qualities.  Each  one 
is  then  laid  in  turn  upon  a  "nest"  or  cush 
ion,  and  is  divided  by  a  diamond  into  two 
pieces,  one  of  which,  the  larger,  contains  the 
bull's  eye.  These  are  then  cut  into  square 
panes.  The  circular  shape  and  the  bull's 
eye  involve  much  waste  in  cutting.  The 
glass  thus  manufactured,  however,  has  a  re 
markable  brilliancy,  and  for  that  reason  it  is 
preferred  to  the  cylinder  process,  by  which, 
however,  larger  panes  are  made. 

The  cylinder  process  has  been  pursued  to 
a  great  extent  in  the  United  States.  It  is 
practised  by  a  number  of  workmen.  Some 
times  10  are  arranged  side  by  side,  with  a 


raised  platform  extended  in  front  of  the  fur 
naces  10  feet  above  the  bottom.  Standing 
upon  this,  each  man  gathers  a  proper  quantity 
of  metal  from  the  pot  before  him.  By  ap 
plying  the  lump  to  a  wooden  mould  and 
blowing,  it  takes  a  globe  form.  This  he « 
heats,  and  then  holds  upon  the  pipe  verti 
cally  over  his  head,  at  the  same  time  blow 
ing  into  it.  This  causes  the  globe  to  flatten. 
It  is  then  held  down  so  as  to  swing  below 
the  platform  on  which  the  worker  stands. 
This,  with  continued  blowing,  causes  the 
glass  to  elongate  in  the  form  of  a  cylinder. 
The  workman  watches  with  care  lest  the 
elongation  should  proceed  too  rapidly,  in 
which  case  he  raises  it  again  over  his  head. 
This  operation  is  dexterously  continued  until 
the  cylinder  attains  47  inches  in  length,  and 
10  inches  in  diameter.  The  end  is  then 
softened  in  the  fire,  while  the  pipe  is  closed 
with  the  thumb.  The  air  within  the  cylin 
der  then  expands  so  as  to  burst  out  the  end. 
The  edges  of  the  opening  thus  caused  are 
then  spread  and  trimmed.  The  tube  end  is 
cut  off  when  the  glass  is  cool  by  the  applica 
tion  of  a  hot  iron,  and  letting  fall  a  drop  of 
water  on  the  heated  line.  The  cylinder  is 
now  to  be  cut  open  lengthwise  in  order  that 
it  may  be  flattened  out  into  a  pane.  For 
this  purpose  two  methods  may  be  employed 
— one  with  the  hot  iron  and  cold  water,  and 
the  other  by  a  diamond  applied  inside  the 
cylinder  along  a  rule.  The  cylinders  are 
now  carried  to  the  flattening  furnace,  where 
they  are  laid,  slit  uppermost,  on  the  flatten 
ing  stone.  Here,  as  they  soften,  they  open 
out,  and  a  workman  with  an  iron  rod  aids 
the  operation.  Another  at  the  same  time, 
with  a  rod  having  a  block  of  wood  at  the 
end  for  polishing  the  sheets,  works  down  the 
irregularities  of  the  surface.  The  sheet  is 
then  passed  into  the  annealing  oven.  In 
every  stage  of  this  process,  the  sheets  are 
exposed  to  imperfections,  and,  in  conse 
quence,  few  are  perfect.  Most  answer  for 
inferior  uses.  None  have  the  brilliancy  of 
crown  glass.  The  main  difficulty  is  in  the 
wrinkling.  The  glass  being  made  in  the 
cylinder  form,  the  inner  and  outer  surfaces 
are  of  unequal  lengths.  In  the  flattening 
out,  this  inequality  produces  undulations, 
called  cockles,  which  distort  objects  seen 
through  the  glass.  The  unevenness  also 
made  it  very  troublesome  to  polish  the  sur 
face  until  the  difficulty  was  overcome  by  the 
device  of  pressing  upon  each  sheet  soft 
leather,  which,  acting  like  a  boy's  "  sucker," 


GLASS    MANUFACTURE. 


403 


adheres  to  the  glass  by  atmospheric  pressure. 
Two  plates  thus  held  are  laid  face  to  face, 
and,  by  the  action  of  machinery,  rapidly 
rubbed  together  with  the  intervention  of  pol 
ishing  sand  and  water.  By  this  means  a 
beautiful  polish  is  bestowed. 

By  these  two  methods  of  manufacture 
most  of  the  glass  used  in  the  United  States 
is  produced.  For  the  city  dwellings  of  the 
more  wealthy,  as  well  as  for  the  large  stores 
and  shops,  plate  glass  is  used  ;  but  the  de 
mand  is  small  compared  with  the  quantities 
used  in  the  United  States  for  the  rapidly 
multiplying  dwellings.  Thus  the  average 
number  of  square  feet  of  glass  for  a  dwelling 
may  be  placed  at  100.  The  number  of 
houses  in  the  United  States  in  1850  was 
3,363,427,  which  would  require,  in  round 
numbers,  336,000,000  feet.  In  1860  the 
number  of  dwellings  was  about  4,700,000, 
requiring  470,000,000  feet  of  glass,  or  an 
increase  of  134,000,000  feet  for  new  dwell 
ings  alone,  without  taking  into  account 
breakage,  rebuilding,  churches,  hot-houses, 
public  buildings,  etc.  The  value  of  the  new 
glass  required  would  be  about  $4,500,000. 
On  account  of  this  large  demand,  the  imports 
continue  considerable,  and  were  in  1858, 
19,734,439  square  feet,  at  a  value  of  $626,- 
747.  In  the  same  year  the  export  of  do 
mestic  glass  was  $214,608. 

Various  causes  affect  the  combination  and 
the  qualities  of  the  compounds.  The  alkali 
in  window  glass,  powdered  and  moistened,  is 
detected  by  its  action  upon  turmeric  paper, 
and  may  be  dissolved  out  by  boiling  water. 
Atmospheric  agents  sometimes  remove  it  in 
part  from  window  panes,  leaving  a  film  of 
silicate  of  lime.  The  glass  of  stable  windows 
is  liable  to  change  its  appearance  and  assume 
prismatic  colors  from  the  action  of  the  am- 
moniacal  vapors  upon  the  silica.  When 
moderately  heated,  glass  is  readily  broken  in 
any  direction  by  the  sudden  contraction  pro 
duced  by  the  prompt  application  of  a  cold 
body  to  its  surface.  It  is  divided,  when 
cold,  by  breaking  it  along  lines  cut  to  a 
slight  depth  by  a  diamond  or  some  other 
extremely  hard-pointed  body.  It  may  be 
bored  with  a  steel  drill  kept  slightly  mois 
tened  with  water,  which  forms  a  paste  with 
the  powder  produced.  Copper  tubes,  fed 
with  emery,  also  serve  to  bore  holes  in 
glass. 

As  very  large  panes  of  glass  could  be  made 
by  neither  of  the  above  methods,  the  large 
plate  glass  used  for  mirrors  and  for  shop 


windows  is  cast.  The  mixtures  employed 
do  not  vary  much  from  those  used  in  sheet 
glass.  A  larger  proportion  of  soda  is  used  ; 
aut  this  pushed  to  excess  gives  a  greenish 
inge.  The  greatest  care  is  taken  in  the  se 
lection  of  the  materials.  When  the  glass  is 
iiclted  in  the  pots,  it  is  ladled  into  cisterns 
or  cuvettes  placed  in  the  fire  by  the  side  of 
the  pots.  Some  manufacturers  allow  the 
metal  to  remain  fluid  in  the  pots  16  hours, 
and  an  equal  time  in  the  cuvettes  /  and 
in  some  cases,  in  order  to  allow  the  so 
da  to  volatilize  and  the  air  bubbles  to  es 
cape,  the  time  is  prolonged  to  48  hours. 
When  nearly  ready,  the  temperature  of  the 
glass  is  allowed  to  fall  in  order  that  the 
material  may  assume  a  pasty  consistency. 
Meantime,  the  casting  plate  is  prepared. 
This  is  usually  a  cast-iron  plate,  perhaps  7 
inches  thick,  11  feet  broad,  and  20  feet  long. 
It  has  raised  edges  to  prevent  the  glass  from 
flowing  off,  of  a  depth  proportioned  to  the 
proposed  thickness  of  the  glass  plate.  On  a 
level  with  this  table,  and  arranged  along  its 
side,  are  the  annealing  ovens.  Each  of  these 
is  16  feet  wide  and  40  feet  deep.  Hot  coals 
are  heaped  upon  the  plate  to  bring  it  to  a 
proper  temperature.  The  cistern  swung  on 
a  crane  is  then  approached  to  the  table, 
which  is  thoroughly  cleaned,  and  the  melted 
glass  carefully  skimmed  with  a  copper  blade. 
By  canting  the  cistern,  the  glass  is  then 
poured  upon  the  table.  A  copper  cylinder 
3  feet  in  diameter  extends  across  the  table, 
resting  on  the  raised  edges.  This,  being 
rolled  forward,  sweeps  before  it  the  excess 
of  glass,  spreading  the  whole  uniformly  of  a 
thickness  governed  by  the  raised  edges  of 
the  table.  The  effect  of  the  passage  of  the 
copper  roller  upon  the  brilliant  surface  of 
the  glass  is  very  beautiful,  leaving,  as  it  does, 
a  splendid  play  of  colors.  The  superfluous 
glass  being  then  trimmed  from  the  edges, 
the  plate  is  thrust  forward  into  the  annealing 
oven  previously  raised  to  a  red  heat.  Suc 
cessive  plates  arc  thus  cast  until  the  anneal 
ing  oven  is  full,  when  it  is  closed  up  and  left 
5  days  to  cool.  When  taken  from  the  oven 
the  plates  are  examined  for  defects,  and  the 
mode  of  cutting  decided  upon  is  then  done 
with  a  diamond. 

There  are  many  modes  of  grinding  and 
polishing,  but  in  this,  as  in  most  other  arts, 
the  latest  improvement  is  an  American  in 
vention,  which,  highly  successful  here,  was 
introduced  into  England  in  1856.  A  circu 
lar  plate  of  cast  iron,  10  feet  in  diameter  and 


404 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


2  inches  thick,  is  secured  upon  the  upper 
end  of  a  vertical  shaft,  so  as  to  revolve  with 
it.  Above  the  table,  frames  are  arranged  to 
hold  the  plates  of  glass,  which  are  laid  in  a 
bed  of  plaster  of  Paris,  with  the  face  to  be 
polished  resting  upon  the  revolving  table. 
The  frames  are  so  arranged  that  the  friction 
of  the  table  upon  the  glass  causes  them  to 
revolve  so  as  to  present  every  portion  of  the 
glass  surface  to  an  equal  amount  of  rubbing. 
When  sand  is  required  to  grind  down  the 
glass,  it  is  fed  in  from  a  box  above  the 
frame.  This  is  found  to  be  the  best  mode  ; 
but  sometimes  the  surfaces  of  the  plates  are 
ground  together.  After  grinding,  they  are 
smoothed  with  emery  powders  of  successive 
fineness  until  they  are  ready  for  polishing. 
This,  in  the  American  machinery,  is  per 
formed  by  rings  coated  with  felt  and  screwed 
to  the  surface  of  the  iron  table.  Oxide  of 
iron  or  rouge  is  applied  to  the  felt  as  a  pol 
ishing  agency.  When  this  is  completed 
they  are  ready  for  silvering. 

In  the  process  of  silvering,  a  large  stone 
table  is  prepared  so  as  to  be  canted,  by  means 
of  a  screw  beneath  it,  on  one  side.  Around 
the  edges  of  the  table  is  a  groove,  in  which 
quicksilver  may  flow,  and  drop  from  one 
corner  into  bowls  placed  to  receive  it.  The 
table,  being  made  perfectly  horizontal,  is 
covered  with  tin  foil  carefully  laid  over  it. 
A  strip  of  glass  is  placed  along  each  of  three 
sides  of  the  foil  to  prevent  the  mercury  from 
flowing  off.  The  metal  is  then  with  ladles 
poured  upon  the  foil  until  it  is  a  quarter  of 
an  inch  deep,  and  its  tendency  to  flow  is 
checked  by  its  affinity  for  the  tin  foil.  The 
plate  of  glass,  well  cleaned,  is  dexterously 
sliddcn  on  from  the  open  side.  Its  advan 
cing  edge  is  carefully  kept  in  the  quicksilver, 
so  that  no  air  or  any  impurities  can  get  be 
tween  the  metal  and  the  glass.  When  ex 
actly  in  its  place  it  is  held  until  one  edge  of 
the  table  is  raised  10  or  15  degrees,  and  the 
superfluous  metal  has  run  off.  Heavy  weights 
arc  then  placed  on  the  glass,  and  it  is  so  left 
several  hours.  It  is  then  turned  over,  and 
placed  upon  a  frame,  the  metal  uppermost, 
which  becomes  hard  in  the  course  of  sev 
eral  weeks.  Patents  have  been  taken  out 
for  precipitating  silver  upon  the  glass,  but 
this  process  is  not  so  successful  as  the  old. 

When  these  plates  are  used  for  shop  win 
dows,  some  of  them  require  to  be  bent  in 
various  manners.  This  is  a  separate  branch 
of  business,  and  is  carried  on  at  Newark,  N. 
J.,  extensively.  The  bed  is  made  of  suitable 


material,  on  the  floor  of  the  furnace,  and 
made  in  the  required  form.  The  sheet  of 
glass  is  laid  upon  this,  and  as  it  softens  in 
the  heat,  it  assumes  the  form  of  the  bed 
on  which  it  is  laid. 

The  manufacture  of  flint  glass  for  domes 
tic  purposes  requires  great  care  in  the  selec 
tion  of  the  materials.  It  possesses  the 
properties  of  great  transparency  and  high 
refractive  power.  Its  brilliancy  and  density 
are  in  some  degree  due  to  the  introduction 
of  oxide  of  lead.  Oxide  of  zinc  has  also 
been  found  effective  for  the  same  purpose. 
In  order  to  protect  the  glass  from  effects  of 
smoke  or  other  elements  which  might  dis 
color  it,  it  is  melted  in  a  covered  pot,  with 
an  opening  in  a  short  neck  on  one  side. 
The  heat  is  made  very  intense  that  the  fusion 
may  be  rapid.  The  moment  fusion  and 
fitting  have  thoroughly  taken  place,  the  heat 
is  reduced,  to  prevent  the  deleterious  action 
of  the  materials  of  the  vessel  upon  the  glass. 
In  the  United  States,  when  the  metal  is 
taken  out  by  the  workmen,  it  is  shaped  in 
the  required  form  by  pressing  into  a  die. 
For  this  purpose,  when  the  article  is  large, 
considerable  pressure  is  required.  The  ex 
perience  and  skill  of  the  workman  are  put 
to  the  test  in  taking  up  just  the  quantity  of 
metal  required  to  fill  the  mould,  which  is 
kept  at  a  red  heat.  The  objects,  being 
formed,  go  through  the  cutting  process,  as 
it  is  called,  but  really  the  grinding  proc 
ess.  Circular  stones  or  metallic  disks  are 
made  to  revolve,  being  fed  with  sand  and 
water  for  coarse  grinding,  and  emery  for 
finer  work.  The  marks  left  in  the  coarse 
grinding  are  removed  by  application  to 
wooden  revolving  wheels,  fed  with  pumice 
or  rotten-stone,  and  finally  with  putty  pow 
der,  a  preparation  of  tin  and  lead.  The 
fine  polishing  of  chandelier  drops,  and  sim 
ilar  ornaments,  is  effected  by  a  lead  wheel, 
supplied  with  rotten-stone  and  water.  Globes 
and  lamp  shades  are  polished  on  the  inside 
by  filling  them  with  sand,  and  placing  them 
in  a  drum,  which  revolves  rapidly  for  a 
length  of  time. 

The  glass  most  important  in  the  arts  is 
certainly  that  used  for  optical  instruments. 
Flint  and  crown  glass  are  both  used  for  that 
purpose,  but  both  have  their  defects.  Those 
of  the  former  arise  from  the  difficulty  of  ef 
fecting  uniform  fusion,  and  crown  glass  is 
seldom  possessed  of  the  requisite  uniformity 
of  texture.  These  difficulties  were  so  great 
that,  until  the  early  part  of  the  present  cen- 


GLASS    MANUFACTURE. 


405 


tury  lenses  larger  than  three  and  a  half  inches 
could  not  be  made.  At  that  time  a  Swiss 
clockmaker,  Guinand,  produced  them  as 
large  as  nine  inches,  of  the  greatest  perfec 
tion.  The  secret  remained  with  him  for  a 
long  time,  but  was  finally,  by  one  of  his  sons, 
imparted  to  M.  Bontemps,  who  in  1828  pro 
duced  lenses  of  twelve  to  fourteen  inches. 
The  secret  was  in  keeping  the  mixture  ac 
tively  stirred  when  liquid,  and  then  suffering 
it  to  cool  and  anneal  in  the  pot.  Lenses  are 
now  made  of  flint  glass  twenty-nine  inches 
in  diameter,  and  weighing  two  cwt. 

The  production  of  vessels  of  colored  glass 
is  conducted  in  a  very  ingenious  manner. 
The  coloring  matters  are  various.  Blue 
transparent  glass  is  made  with  2  Ibs.  oxide 
of  cobalt;  azure  blue,  4  Ibs.  oxide  of  cop 
per;  ruby  red,  4  ozs.  oxide  of  gold;  other 
colors  by  various  combinations.  Sometimes 
the  color  is  incorporated  merely  with  the 
outer  portion  of  the  glass.  This  is  effected 
in  the  blowing  by  dipping  the  lump  of  clear 
glass,  when  shaped  upon  the  marver,  into 
the  pot  of  melted  colored  glass,  and  then 
blowing  it  to  the  shape  required,  and  flash 
ing  out,  if  desired  to  convert  it  into  panes. 
The  color  may  afterward  be  reduced  in 
depth  by  grinding,  and  clear  spots  reached 
by  grinding  through  the  color.  In  the  proc 
ess  of  "  casing,"  a  portion  of  partially  blown 
flint  glass  is  inserted  into  a  thin  shell  of 
colored  glass,  and  then  blown  until  it  fills 
the  shell,  with  which  it  becomes  incorpo 
rated  by  heating  and  further  bloAving ;  cas 
ings  of  different  colors  may  be  thus  applied. 
In  painting,  the  color,  mixed  with  a  flux 
that  will  fuse  at  a  lower  temperature  .than 
the  glass,  and  with  boiled  oil,  is  laid  on  with 
a  brush  as  in  ordinary  painting,  or  by  blocks 
as  in  calico  printing.  The  glass  is  then 
heated,  when  the  flux  melts,  and  sinks  into 
the  body.  The  painting  of  glass  for  church 
windows  was  formerly  carried  to  a  high  de 
gree  of  excellence,  that  moderns  have  not 
been  able  to  equal.  Although  the  receipts 
have  been  preserved  in  ancient  treatises,  the 
process  has  been  lost. 

Enamelled  glass  has  of  late  been  much 
used.  The  glass  of  the  New  York  Crys 
tal  Palace  is  an  illustration.  In  this  proc 
ess  the  enamel  substance  is  ground  to  an 
impalpable  powder,  and  then  laid  with  a 
brush,  in  a  pasty  state,  upon  the  glass.  Af 
ter  the  paste  is  dried,  the  ornament  is  etched 
out  cither  by  hand  or  by  machinery.  The 
glass  being  then  softened  in  the  intense  heat 


of  the  furnace,  the  enamel  becomes  vitrified 
and  incorporated  with  it.  It  then  passes  to 
the  annealing  furnace.  This  process  was  in 
vented  by  Mr.  William  Cooper,  of  the  firm 
of  Cooper  &  Belcher,  New  York,  whose  ex 
tensive  works  at  Newark,  N.  J.,  supplied 
00,000  feet  for  the  New  York  Crystal  Palace. 
Another  variety,  the  flocked,  has  now  come 
more  into  use.  The  process  is  nearly  the 
same,  except  that  a  smooth  opaque  surface 
is  given  to  the  glass  before  the  enamel  is  ap 
plied. 

Soluble  glass  has  been  made  of  later  years 
of  equal  parts  silica  and  caustic  potash.  This 
is  soluble  in  boiling  water,  and  is  used  ex 
tensively  for  making  buildings  and  all  com 
bustible  bodies  fire-proof. 

In  the  manufacture  of  bottles,  the  metal, 
on  being  withdrawn  from  t^ic  melting  pot 
on  the  end  of  the  blowing  tube,  is,  if  for 
common  black  bottles,  shaped  in  concavities 
that  are  made  in  the  edge  of  the  marver. 
Fine  bottles  of  flint  glass  are  shaped  in 
moulds  of  brass  or  iron,  which  are  made  in 
two  parts  hinged  together,  so  that  they  may 
be  opened  and  shut  with  the  foot.  Bottles 
for  champagne,  soda  water,  etc.,  are  made 
of  extraordinary  strength,  and  tested  before 
using  by  hydraulic  pressure.  They  ought  to 
support,  for  this  purpose,  a  pressure  of  40 
atmospheres,  or  600  Ibs.  on  the  square  inch. 
Notwithstanding  the  great  strength  with 
which  they  are  usually  made,  the  breakage 
in  the  manufacture  of  champagne  is  rated  at 
30  per  cent. 

The  glass  is  drawn  out  into  tubes  in  a 
manner  that  illustrates  the  curious  manipu 
lations  of  the  metal.  The  workman,  with 
his  blowing  tube,  accumulates  a  certain 
quantity  by  successive  dips  into  the  melt 
ing  pot.  This  is  then  blown  into  a  globe. 
Another  workman  then  takes  hold  with  a 
pontil,  at  a  point  exactly  opposite  the  blow 
ing  tube.  The  two  men  then  separate,  and 
the  globe  contracts  in  the  middle,  which  be 
ing  drawn  out  to  the  size  of  the  tube  desired, 
cools,  and  the  hotter  portions  successively 
yield  to  the  drawing,  until  a  tube  of  100 
feet  or  more  hangs  between  the  workmen. 
The  diameter  of  the  bore  retains  its  propor 
tion  to  the  thickness  of  the  glass ;  hence 
thin  tubes  must  be  drawn  from  globes  blown 
to  a  large  size.  These  tubes  of  colored  glass 
may  be  converted  into  beads.  Beads  have 
always  been  a  great  element  in  the  trade 
with  the  North  American  Indians,  being 
highly  prized  by  them. 


406 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


INDIA-RUBBER  AND  ITS  MANUFACTURE. 

ONE   of  the  most  remarkable    American 
discoveries  of  the  present  century  is,   un 
doubtedly,  the  mode  of  manufacturing  and 
applying  the  article  known  to  commerce'  a: 
"India-rubber,"  but  which,  among  the  peo 
ple  of  South   America,    is    called    "  caout 
chouc."     The  article  in  question  is  a  gum 
procured  from  a  peculiar  tree  in  the  hottest 
regions    of  the    equator.     The    tree  .which 
yields  this  gnm  in  the  East  Indies  is  some 
what  different  from  that  which  produces  it 
in  the  equatorial  regions  of  South  America. 
The  former  ("  ficus  elastica")  is  represented 
in  an  engraving  on  another  page.     Although 
the  gum  was  used  in  a  rude  fashion  since 
many  ages  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  countries 
which  produce,  it  (and  it  had  been  known 
to  commerce  for  a  long  time,  having  been 
discovered    by    a    French    philosopher    in 
1736),   it  is  only  within  20  years   that  its 
value  has  been  appreciated.     In  that  time, 
under  the  genius  of  American  manufacturers, 
it  has  risen  to  a  rank  equal,  perhaps,  to  that  of 
iron  and  glass  among  the  materials  that  admin 
ister  to  the  necessities  and  comforts  of  man. 
In  the  forests  of  equatorial  South  America 
the  "  siphonia  elastica"  grows  to  a  height  of 
60  or  70  feet,  and  is  covered  with  a  scaly 
bark.     It    bears    a    fruit,   which  encloses  a 
white  almond  highly  esteemed   by  the  na 
tives.     A  slight  wound   on  this  tree  causes 
the  sap  to  flow  freely,  thick,  white,  and  unc 
tuous,  like  the  sap  of  the  milk-weed.     On 
being  exposed  to  the  air,  this  soon  becomes 
solid.     This  sap  is  collected  by  the  natives, 
who  make  a  longitudinal  cut  in  the  centre 
of  the  tree,  and  lateral  cuts  leading  diago 
nally  into  it.     At  the  bottom  of  the  perpen 
dicular  cut  a  banana  leaf  is  placed  to  con 
duct  the  sap,  as  it  flows,  into  a  vessel  placed 
to  receive  it.     The  sap  is  used  for  the  for 
mation  of  bottles,  boots,  shoes,  and  various 
articles.     The  process  is  to  form  the  figure 
of  the  tiling  desired  in  clay,  and  cover  it  on 
the  outside  with  many  coats  of  the  gum,  ex 
posing  it  to  fire  to  dry.     When  the  desired 
thickness  is  obtained,  the  mould  is  soaked 
out  in  water,  and  the  article  is  ready  for  use. 
Clumsy  shoes,  rudely  fashioned  in  this  man 
ner,  were  long  an  article  of  importation  from 
Para  into  the  United  States,  and  extensively 
sold  down  to  within  20  years.     There  was 
little  other  use  made  of  the  article  except  to 
erase  pencil  marks,  and  for  which  purpose 
was  charged  50  cents  for  £  a  cubic  inch,    The 


nature  of  the  gum  did  not,  however,  long 
fail  to  become  an  object  of  research.  The 
learned  decided  that  it  was  neither  gum  nor 
resin,  but  of  a  peculiar  nature  analogous  to 
resin,  from  which  it  differed  in  not  being 
soluble  in  alcohol.  Many  attempts  to  make 
it  useful  in  the  arts  were  made,  and  finally  it 
was  found  that  by  dissolving  it  in  volatile 
oil  there  was  obtained  a  sort  of  varnish  very 
useful  in  making  certain  tissues  and  fabrics 
water-proof.  A  thin  coat,  placed  between 
two  sheets  of  stuff,  caused  them  to  adhere 
closely  and  made  them  impervious  as  well 
to  water  as  to  air.  This  application  of  it 
was  made  in  the  manufacture  of  mattresses, 
cushions,  pillows,  boots,  bottles,  etc.  A  so 
lution  in  linseed  oil  is  called  an  excellent  var 
nish  for  making  leather  water-tight.  The 
best  solvents  are  said,  however,  to  be  oil  of 
turpentine,  coal,  naphtha,  and  benzole.  Al 
cohol  will  not  dissolve  it,  but  will  precipitate 
it  from  ether.  Another  solvent  is  of  rubber 
itself,  called  caoutchoucin.  It  is  produced 
by  exposing  rubber  to  a  heat  of  600°,  when 
it  goes  off  in  a  vapor,  which,  being  con 
densed,  produces  the  solvent.  All  these 
applications,  however,  utilized  only  one 
of  the  distinguishing  properties  of  rub 
ber,  viz.,  its  imperviousness  to  water.  An 
inventor,  however,  by  the  aid  of  a  new 
solvent,  found  means  to  spin  threads  of  the 
rubber  of  various  degrees  of  fineness  and 
strength.  These  threads,  covered  with  tex 
tile  fabrics — silk,  wool,  cotton,  or  linen — be 
came  light  and  supple  tissues  of  extraor 
dinary  elasticity.  This  opened  the  way  to 
an  immense  number  of  employments. 

In  some  machines  the  rubber  is  kneaded, 
and  compressed  in  various  ways,  and  finally 
a  number  of  the  balls  thus  treated  are  brought 
together  and  powerfully  squeezed  by  a  screw 
press  in  cast-iron  moulds,  in  which,  being 
lirmly  secured,  the  mass  is  left  several  days. 
This  process  is  somewhat  modified  in  differ- 
nt  establishments.  In  some,  the  cleaned 
shreds  are  rolled  into  sheets,  from  which 
threads  and  thin  rubber  are  sliced  by  the 
application  of  suitable  knives,  worked  by 
machines,  and  kept  wet.  The  sheets  are  at 
once  ready  for  the  purpose  to  which  this 
?orm  is  applied,  or,  by  machinery  of  great 
ingenuity,  they  are  cut  into  long  threads  of 
any  desired  degree  of  fineness.  If  then  re 
quired  to  be  joined,  a  clean  oblique  cut  is 
nadc,  with  a  pair  of  scissors,  and  the  parts 
>eing  brought  together,  readily  and  perfectly 
unite  by  the  pressure  of  the  fingers.  As 


THE    GREAT    CALENDER   MACHINE. 


FICUS   ELASTICA,    FROM   TUB 
EAST  INDIES. 


CUTTING   RUBBER   INTO   SLABS  FOR  THE 
WASHING    MACHINES. 


MACHINE   FOR    WASHIXO    INDIA-RUBBER. 


INDIA-RUBBER    UlUiNDlNU    MILL. 


INDIA-RUBBER    AND    ITS    MANUFACTURE. 


409 


the  threads  are  reeled  off,  they  are  elongated 
about  eight  times  their  original  length  by 
passing  through  the  hands  of  a  boy,  and  by 
the  same  operation  th.ey  are  deprived  of 
their  elasticity.  After  remaining  on  the  reel 
some  days,  they  are  wound  upon  bobbins, 
and  are  then  ready  for  weaving  and  braiding. 
The  threads  are  of  different  fineness.  A 
pound  of  caoutchouc  can,  by  one  machine, 
be  made  into  8000  yards  of  thread.  This 
may,  by  another,  be  divided  by  4,  making 
32,000  yards.  Elastic  braids  are  these 
threads  covered  with  silk  and  other  mate 
rial.  In  woven  fabrics,  caoutchouc  thread 
makes  the  warp,  alternately  with  threads  of 
stuff  to  receive  the  extreme  strain  that  would 
destroy  the  rubber,  and  the  other  materials 
form  the  weft,  or  cross-threads.  When  wo 
ven,  a  hot  iron  is  passed  over  the  stuff,  and 
this  causes  the  rubber  to  regain  its  elasticity. 
Another  mode  of  forming  the  threads  per 
fectly  round  and  smooth,  is  to  convert  the 
caoutchouc  into  a  soft  paste.  This  is  done 
by  macerating  it  for  some  hours  with  about 
twice  its  weight  of  sulphuret  of  carbon,  add 
ing  5  per  cent,  of  alcohol.  The  paste  is  well 
kneaded  by  compressing  it  through  dia 
phragms  of  wire  gauze,  placed  in  cylinders, 
and  is  then  forced  through  a  line  of  small 
holes  at  the  bottom  of  another  cylinder. 
The  threads,  as  they  issue,  are  taken  on  a 
web  of  velvet,  from  which  they  pass  to 
another  of  common  cloth,  and  are  carried 
slowly  along  for  600  to  TOO  feet,  when  be 
coming  dry  and  hard  by  the  evaporation 
of  the  solvent,  they  are  received  in  a  little 
cup.  The  threads  produced  of  vulcanized 
rubber  retain  their  elasticity,  and  are,  when 
woven,  kept  stretched  by  weights.  On  re 
leasing  them,  the  material  woven  with  them 
is  drawn  back,  producing  shirred  or  corru 
gated  fabrics. 

Caoutchouc  supplanted  the  metal  elastics 
for  many  purposes,  since  it  would  not  cor 
rode  in  moisture.  It  was  at  once  in  demand 
for  suspenders,  garters,  corsets,  and  number 
less  appurtenances  of  apparel. 

It  came  to  be  used  for  water-proofing 
cloths,  surgical  instruments  of  all  kinds, 
elastic  bands,  in  the  arts  and  trades.  Book 
binders  have  used  it  for  securing  the  leaves 
in  books,  imparting  flexibility  and  freedom 
to  the  opening  volumes.  In  thin  sheets,  it 
has  been  used  for  taking  impressions  of 
engravings.  In  this  form,  also,  it  is  an  ex 
cellent  material  for  covering  the  mouths  of 
bottles,  and  similar  applications  requiring 


the  exclusion  of  air  and  moisture.  Pre 
pared  with  other  ingredients,  it  forms  a  ma 
rine  glue  unsurpassed  in  adhesiveness  when 
applied  to  wood.  A  pound  of  fine  rubber 
is  dissolved  in  four  gallons  of  rectified  coal- 
tar  naphtha  and  well  mixed.  In  ten  or  twelve 
days  this  will  attain  the  consistency  of  cream, 
when  an  equal  weight  of  shellac  is  added. 
It  is  then  heated  in  an  iron  vessel  having  a 
discharge  pipe  at  the  bottom.  As  it  melts, 
it  is  kept  well  stirred,  and  the  liquid  flowing 
out  is  obtained  in  the  form  of  thin  sheets. 
When  it  is  applied,  it  is  heated  to  248°  and 
applied  with  a  brush,  and  retained  soft  un 
til  the  jointing  is  made,  by  passing  heated 
rollers  over  the  surface.  This  has  been,  it  is 
said,  applied  to  masts  of  vessels,  which  have 
been  so  firmly  spliced  that  fractures  take 
place  in  the  new  wood  sooner  than  to  sepa 
rate  the  glued  portion  ;  and  it  has  been  held 
that  parts  of  vessels  may  be,  by  these  means, 
so  firmly  put  together  that  iron  bolts  would 
be  unnecessary. 

Rubber  has  been  made  use  of  for  paving 
stables,  lobbies,  and  halls,  here,  as  well  as 
in  England,  where  Windsor  Castle  carriage 
way  is  so  paved.  There  are  a  multitude  of 
uses  for  the  material,  such  as  baths,  dishes 
for  photograph  and  chemical  purposes,  tele 
graph  wire  covers,  boots,  shoes,  toys,  life- 
preservers,  clothing,  furniture  covers,  travel 
ling  bags,  tents,  beds,  water  pails.  It  is 
being  constantly  applied  to  new  uses,  as  the 
chemical  modes  of  treating  the  article  de 
velop  new  properties. 

The  uses  of  the  article  were,  however, 
still  comparatively  limited.  The  water-proof 
qualities  were,  to  some  extent,  availed  of,  and 
its  elasticity  was  ingeniously  applied  in  many 
minor  directions.  The  native  article  itself 
was  still  an  impracticable  object  in  the  man 
ufacture.  It  had  baffled  the  philosopher, 
the  chemist,  and  the  artisan  in  investigating 
its  nature  and  in  controlling  its  properties. 
Repeated  attempts  were  made  to  transport 
the  pure  juice  or  gum  to  Europe,  there  to 
be  operated  upon,  but  without  success,  since 
it  was  found  that  it  rapidly  degenerated.  A 
method  of  doing  this  was  finally  devised  by 
Mr.  Lee  Morris,  of  New  York.  The  liquor 
is  first  filtered  and  mixed  with  J  its  own 
weight  of  ammonia.  On  being  poured  out 
on  any  smooth  surface,  and  exposed  to  a 
temperature  of  70°  or  100°  of  heat,  the  am 
monia,  which  had  preserved  it  from  the  ac 
tion  of  the  atmosphere,  is  evaporated,  and 
leaves  the  gum  in  the  form  of  the  object 


410 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


which  holds  it.  Its  intractable  nature  was 
finally,  however,  conquered  by  Charles  Good 
year,  who  controlled  it,  apparently,  as  Rarey 
does  horses,  viz.,  by  producing  the  result 
without  any  one  being  able  to  explain  the 
phenomenon.  Mr.  Goodyear  spent  20  years 
of  the  most  unremitting  toil  in  experiment 
ing  upon  India-rubber,  and  finally  discovered 
that  a  mixture  of  sulphur,  white  lead,  and 
caoutchouc,  exposed  to  regulated  tempera 
ture  from  8  to  12  hours,  becomes  "  vulcan 
ized,"  or  an  entire  new  substance  unlike  any 
other.  The  native  rubber,  being  exposed  to 
the  extremes  of  heat  and  cold,  is  destroyed  ; 
but  those  agencies  have  no  effect  on  the 
same  article  vulcanized.  The  liquids  which 
dissolve  the  pure  rubber  do  not  influence  the 
new  article,  which,  however,  acquires  a  far 
higher  degree  of  elasticity  —  becomes,  in 
fact,  an  "elastic  metal."  The  article,  when 
put  into  the  heaters,  is  a  tough,  sticky,  une- 
lastic  dough.  It  comes  out  endowed  with  a 
high  degree  of  elasticity,  insensible  to  heat, 
or  cold,  or  solvents,  and  applicable  to  almost 
every  want  of  life.  It  has  been  since  dis 
covered  that  the  white  lead  contributes  but 
little  to  the  change  undergone  in  the  heat 
ers,  the  cause  or  manner  of  which  has  baf 
fled  the  skill  of  the  most  scientific  chemists 
in  this  country  or  Europe.  In  mixing  the 
proportions  of  the  compounds,  reference  has 
always  been  made  to  the  nature  of  the  ob 
jects  to  be  manufactured.  The  form  and 
adaptation  of  the  articles  are  perfected  before 
the  "vulcanizing."  The  general  mode  of 
preparing  the  rubber  is  the  same.  The  rub 
ber  imported  from  the  East  Indies  is  said  to 
be  of  a  stronger  fibre  than  that  of  South 
America,  and  the  gum  is  selected  in  accord 
ance  with  the  manufacture  proposed.  It  is 
imported  in  rude  masses,  in  which  sticks, 
leaves,  and  dirt  are  thickly  mingled.  These 
are  about  2  feet  long  and  1  foot  thick.  The 
first  process  that  the  gum  undergoes  is  the 
expensive  and  laborious  one  of  cleaning,  by 
which  the  mass  loses  about  ]-  of  its  weight. 
A  large  vat  is  filled  with  hot  water,  and  in 
this  the  rubber  remains  until  the  exterior  is 
sufficiently  softened  to  allow  of  the  removal 
of  the  coarse  basket-work  that  covers  and 
adheres  closely  to  it.  When  this  is  done, 
the  lumps  are,  by  means  of  a  circular  knife 
of  a  diameter  of  4  feet,  revolving  with  great 
speed  under  the  influence  of  powerful  ma 
chinery,  cut  into  slabs  about  1  inch  thick. 
The  engraving  will  give  a  good  idea  of  the 
operation.  These  slabs  are  then  carried  to 


the  "  cracker,"  of  which  an  illustration  will 
be  found  on  another  page.  This  is  formed 
of  two  large  cylinders  grooved  longitudinally, 
and  revolving  slowly  but  irresistibly.  Between 
these  the  slabs,  as  they  are  passed,  are  elon 
gated  and  twisted,  by  which  operation  much 
of  the  dirt  and  bark  works  out.  The 
stretched  slabs  are  then  taken  to  the  wash 
ing  machine,  where  numerous  sharp  knives, 
revolving  under  the  water,  cut  it  into  small 
pieces,  as  seen  in  the  baskets  on  the  right  of 
the  illustration,  which,  at  the  same  time,  are 
kneaded  and  washed  until  they  are  thor 
oughly  cleansed.  They  are  then  ready  for 
the  grinding  machine.  This  consists  of 
large  hollow  cylinders,  made  of  cast  iron, 
and  revolving  in  opposite  directions.  The 
small  pieces  that  come  from  the  washing 
machine,  being  fed  in,  are  kneaded  by  the 
cylinders  again  into  thick  sheets  or  mats. 
With  this  process  the  preparation  is  sus 
pended  for  several  months  in  order  to  allow 
the  mats  to  be  thoroughly  dried  and  cured 
by  the  action  of  the  air.  This  involves  the 
necessity  of  keeping  on  hand  a  large  stock 
of  rubber. 

When  the  rubber  is  quite  cured,  it  is  taken 
to  the  mixing  machines,  where  it  is  to  be 
combined  with  the  various  metals  and  sub 
stances  to  which  the  metallic  rubber  owes  its 
peculiar  properties.  The  mixing  machines, 
like  most  of  those  used  in  the  manufacture, 
are  hollow  revolving  cylinders.  The  mixing 
cylinders  are  of  great  size  and  strength,  and 
acquire  the  necessary  heat  to  work  the  rub 
ber  from  the  steam  let  in  at  the  ends.  These, 
revolving  toward  each  other,  knead  the 
rubber  like  dough.  In  the  process,  a  con 
stant  series  of  explosions,  like  pistol-shots,  is 
caused  by  the  air  confined  in  the  folds  of 
the  substance  being  forced  out  by  the  action 
of  the  cylinders.  This,  on  a  grand  scale, 
repeats  the  boy's  amusement  of  chewing 
rubber  soft  in  order  to  explode  on  his  fist 
the  air- bubbles  created  in  it.  As  the  rub 
ber  softens  under  this  action,  the  workman 
slowly  mixes  in  the  various  substances  re 
quired.  These  consist  mostly  of  sulphur,  to 
which  are  added  the  oxides  of  various  metals, 
zinc,  lead,  iron,  etc.  Here  the  greatest  skill 
of  the  manufacturer  is  brought  into  requisi 
tion.  Every  quality  of  rubber  requires  a 
different  compound,  and  every  difference  in 
the  compound  requires  a  different  treatment 
in  the  subsequent  stages  of  the  manufacture. 
Thus  prepared,  the  substance  is  ready  to  be 
moulded  and  shaped  into  the  various  forms 


INDIA-RUBBER    AND    ITS    MANUFACTURE. 


411 


in  which  it  is  to  be  finally  perfected  and 
vised.  The  modes  of  preparation  are  various, 
according  to  the  ultimate  object — whether 
that  may  be  for  it  to  assume  the  form  of  the 
hard,  un elastic  comb,  a  door  spring,  a  steam 
valve,  a  carpet,  or  any  of  the  thousand  shapes 
it  is  made  to  take. 

It  may  be  here  remarked  that  the  dis 
covery,  great  as  it  was,  was  but  the  first  step 
in  the  great  scries  of  improvements  that  lias 
resulted  from  it.  After  18  years  of  incessant 
labor,  Mr.  Goodyear  had  perfected  a  raw 
material — but  a  raw  material  for  what?  It 
was  necessary  to  know  to  what  articles  it 
could  be  applied  before  there  could  be  any 
demand  for  it;  until  then  it  was  of  no  market 
able  value.  It  was  necessary  to  invent  or  dis 
cover  all  the  uses  to  which  it  might  be  ap 
plied.  The  shoe  business  was  the  first  to 
make  it  available;  but  since  then,  vast  as 
has  been  the  number  of  manufactures  based 
on  it,  discoveries  are  being  daily  made  to 
extend  it. 

The  manufacture  of  "belting"  and  "hose" 
is  a  very  large  business.  The  belts  are 
used  for  driving  machinery,  and  are  superior 
to  every  other  means.  They  are  stronger 
than  the  best  sole  leather,  and  adhere  to 
the  drum  or  pulley  with  a  tenacity  that 
prevents  slipping.  This  manufacture  is  a 
peculiar  process.  Cotton  duck,  similar  to 
that  of  which  sails  are  made,  is  woven  in  a 
mode  to  give  double  the  usual  strength  lon 
gitudinally.  This  duck  is  impregnated  with 
the  rubber,  under  the  influence  of  powerful 
machinery,  which  drives  the  substance 
through  and  through  its  meshes.  It  is  then 
taken  to  the  calender  machine,  seen  in  the 
engraving.  The  large  cylinders  of  which  it 
is  composed  have  a  perfectly  polished  sur 
face.  The  rubber  having  gone  through  the 
mixing  process,  is  in  the  shape  of  sticky, 
slate-colored  dough,  and  passing  through 
the  calenders,  is  rolled  out  into  a  perfectly 
even  sheet,  upon  the  prepared  duck.  When 
this  is  completed,  the  "  bolts"  are  taken  to 
the  belt-room,  spread  out  upon  tables  100 
feet  long,  and  cut  into  the  strips  desired  for 
the  various  kinds  of  belting.  For  one  of 
great  strength,  several  of  the  strips  are 
placed  one  upon  the  other,  and  then  pressed 
together  with  immense  power,  by  rolling- 
machines  ;  thus  giving  them  the  strength  of 
metal,  with  the  peculiar  friction  surface 
found  only  in  rubber.  The  belts  are  now 
ready  for  the  heaters.  These  are  long  steam 
boilers,  the  door  of  which  being  opened, 


there  is  drawn  out  a  long  railway  carriage. 
On  this  are  placed  the  goods,  which  are 
then  rolled  in,  the  boiler  closed,  and  steam 
admitted.  In  from  8  to  12  hours,  the  sin 
gular  transformation  known  as  vulcanizing, 
takes  place. 

The  manufacture  of  "  Croton  hose "  is 
similar.  A  long  iron  tube,  of  the  proper 
diameter  (and  hose  is  made  from  i  inch  to 
12  inches)  is  covered  with  a  sheet  of  care 
fully-prepared  rubber.  This,  howrever,  in 
tended  to  be  pliable,  would  not  of  itself  be 
of  sufficient  strength  to  sustain  a  strong 
head  of  water,  hence  it  is  covered  with 
webs  of  cloth  prepared  in  the  manner  of 
the  belting  duck.  When  a  sufficient  num 
ber  of  folds  have  been  applied  to  give  the  re 
quired  strength,  an  outside  covering  of  pure 
rubber  is  applied.  A  heater  of  immense 
length  then  receives  the  pipes,  with  the 
hose  on  them,  to  be  cured  by  the  same 
process  as  the  belts.  The  hose  is  then 
drawn  off  the  pipe  to  be  subjected  to  proof. 
This  hose  will  withstand  a  pressure  that 
will  burst  the  most  powerful  leather  hose. 

One  of  the  most  useful  applications  of  vul 
canized  India-rubber,  is  steam  packing.  The 
vulcanized  rubber  is  the  only  material  that 
will  preserve  its  elasticity  and  counteract  the 
expansion  and  contraction  of  metals  exposed 
to  the  heat  of  steam,  thus  making  a  joint 
perfectly  steam-tight.  It  is  used  to  pack 
round  piston  rods  in  steam  machines ;  to 
place  between  the  iron  plates  of  steam  pipes, 
wherever  a  joint  is  required;  for  gaskets, 
valves,  and  rings.  Some  ocean  steamers 
have  huge  rubber  valves,  five  feet  in  diam 
eter,  which  play  up  and  down  in  the  vast 
cylinder,  opening  and  shutting  like  the 
valves  of  a  colossal  artery.  The  use  of 
rubber  is  now  so  great  a  necessity,  wherever 
steam  is  used,  that  the  mind  wonders  how 
it  could  ever  have  been  dispensed  with.  It 
is  not  only  steam,  however,  but  every  branch 
of  mechanics  that  demands  its  presence,  in 
the  shape  of  sheets,  plates,  rings,  hollow  el 
lipses,  of  all  imaginable  forms  and  sizes,  of 
which  none  but  a  mechanic  can  conceive 
the  number  applicable  to  his  own  art. 

The  use  of  rubber  for  car-springs  has  be 
come  almost  universal.  The  high  degree  of 
elasticity  which  the  sulphur  imparts,  makes 
that  application  an  admirable  one,  and  the 
more  so  that  it  does  not  lose  the  elasticity 
by  prolonged  use. 

The  "  elastic  metal "  supplants  the  rigid 
one  in  numberless  uses.  House-sinks,  in- 


412 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


stead  of  cast  iron,  arc  now  formed  of  rub 
ber,  -without  joint  or  scam.;  and  these  arc 
far  less  fatal  to  the  china  washed  in  them, 
than  were  the  metal  ones.  Springs  for  doors, 
from  this  material,  supplant  all  others.  These, 
for  churches,  are  so  arranged  that  the  door 
may  be  closed,  or  held  open  to  a  desired 
distance.  For  bed-springs,  it  has  become 
the  most  desirable,  durable,  and  luxurious 
material.  Carpets  and  mats /for  halls,  stair 
ways,  and  public  rooms,  are  formed  of  it,  of 
infinite  variety  and  usefulness.  The  mixture 
of  lead  in  the  compound  was  found  to  make 
it  more  compact  and  heavy,  but  the  pecul 
iar  properties  are  apparently  attained  as  well 
without  the  use  of  the  lead.  The  combina 
tion  with  sulphur  has  been  effected  by  ex 
posing  the  material  to  the  action  of  sulphur 
ous  fluids,  as  the  sulphuret  of  carbon  and 
the  chloride  of  sulphur.  An  immersion  of 
one  or  two  minutes,  in  a  mixture  composed 
of  40  parts  of  sulphuret  of  carbon  to  1  of 
chloride  of  sulphur,  kept  at  the  usual  high 
heat,  will  produce  the  vulcanization ;  and 
pressed  into  moulds  while  at  the  high  heat, 
the  form  becomes  permanent  when  cold. 
For  the  purpose  of  imparting  that  hardness 
which  is  manifest  in  combs,  fancy  boxes, 
canes,  buttons,  knife-handles,  and  all  those 
forms  in  which  it  has  supplanted  bone,  shell, 
and  ivory,  magnesia  is  introduced.  It  is 
stated  that  sulphur,  in  the  proportion  of  one 
to  three,  will  impart  the  hardness  if  the 
high  temperature  is  sustained  for  a  suffi 
cient  length  of  time.  The  magnesia  gives 
a  lighter  color  to  the  articles  in  which  it  is 
compounded.  In  the  manufacture,  articles 
to  be  heated  are  buried  in  pulverized  soap- 
stone,  by  the  introduction  of  highly  heated 
steam.  The  ingenuity  of  chemists  and  me 
chanics  is  still  actively  stimulated  to  pro 
duce  new  compositions  and  new  results, 
not  only  in  the  properties  that  result  from 
new  compounds  and  varied  proportions,  but 
in  the  applications  of  which  they  are  sus 
ceptible.  Vast  as  are  the  resources  that 
rubber  opens  to  the  arts  and  to  trade,  it  may 
be  said  yet  to  be  in  its  infancy.  The  effect 
upon  the  commerce  of  the  country  is  seen  in 
the  following  table.  The  largest  proportion 
of  caoutchouc  used  in  the  world  comes  from 
South  America. 

Rubber  Shoes  exported.            Other           Tota' 

Tears.  Imported.  Pairs.          Value,  rubber  goods,    value 

1866..  $1,148,879  625,220      $427,986     $6(55,602    $1,093,538 

1857..    1,012,643  537,233        331,125         312,387         643.512 

1858..       755,828  247,380        115,931         197,448        813,379 

There  have  been  great  vicissitudes  in  the 


manufacture  of  goods  under  Goodyear's  pat- 
nts.      Numbers   of   companies   have    been 
'ormed  in  Connecticut,  New  York,  Newark, 
New  Brunswick,  Millstone,  N.  J.,  and  else 
where.      Some  of   these  have  been   highly 
successful,  and  others  have  sunk  their  capi 
tals.     These  companies  now  have  a  common 
agency  for  the   sale  of  their  goods,  under 
ertain  regulations  and  restrictions,  by  which 
the  ruinous  effects  of  competition  are  abol- 
.shed.     The  progress  of  the  manufacture  has 
aeen  very  rapid.     In   1850,  the  value  of  the 
rubber  goods   made    in    the  United   States 
was  $3,024,335.       In  1860,  it  amounted  to 
$5,642,700,  an   increase   of   86'6   per  cent. 
The  number  of  establishments  had  diminish 
ed,  but  they  employed  a  larger  capital,  used 
more  raw  material,  and  made  a  much  larger 
quantity  of  goods.     Since  1860  the  manu 
facture  has  nearly  or  quite  doubled.     The 
hard  rubber,  or  vulcanite,  is  used  for  jewelry, 
buttons,  dress  ornaments,  pencils,  canes,  <fec. 
Gutta  percha  is  used  extensively  for  sim 
ilar  purposes  as  the  caoutchouc,  and  is  pre 
pared  in  the   same  manner  by  Goodyear's 
process.     It  is  a  gum  found  in  the  trees  of 
the   Malay  peninsula,  and  procured  in   the 
same  manner  as  caoutchouc.     European  at 
tention  was  first  called  to  it  in  1842,  and  it 
began  to  be  imported  in  1844.     Its  chemi 
cal    composition    is  identical    with  that  of 
India-rubber,  except  that  it  contains  oxygen, 
which  rubber  does  not.     It  has  a  number  of 
qualities  that  make  it  preferable  for  certain 
uses.     It  is  a  bad  conductor,  and  is  there 
fore  very  applicable  as  a  covering  for  tele 
graph  wires,  and  its  peculiar  acoustic  prop 
erties  make  it  valuable  for  speaking-tubes 
in  public  houses  and  large  establishments. 
The  application  of  gutta  percha  to  the  coat 
ing  of  telegraph   wires  is  claimed    by   Mr. 
Samuel  J.  Armstrong,  of  New  York,  who 
for  that  purpose  modified  the  machinery  for 
gutta  percha  tubing.     The  first  machinery 
built  for  that  purpose  was  in  1848,  and  the 
first  wire  so  coated  was  laid  across  the  Hud 
son  river,  at  Fort  Lee,  in  August,  1849,  for 
the  Morse  Telegraph  Company.     This  ma 
chinery  was  furtively   carried   to  England, 
and  there  used  for  the  Atlantic  Telegraph. 
The  articles  made  of  gutta  percha  alone,   or 
mixed   with  other  substances,  are   of  very 
great  variety — ornaments,  vessels,  articles  of 
clothing,    fancy   articles,    surgical     articles, 
dentists'  and  numerous  other  articles.     Ves 
sels  have  also  been  made  of  it,  and  its  uses 
are  being  daily  multiplied. 


SEWING    MACHINES. 


413 


SEWING    MACHINES. 


THE  description  of  labor  which  is  the 
most  general  is,  probably,  that  of  sewing, 
since  all  women  take  part  in  it  more  or  less, 
and  they  are  aided  in  the  heavier  work  by 
men.  All  human  clothing,  bedding,  uphol 
stery,  &c.,  require  more  or  less  sewing  in 
their  manufacture,  and  during  the  present 
century  the  amount  required  has,  from  vari 
ous  causes,  been  greatly  increased.  To  the 
flax,  wool,  &c.,  previously  used  as  materials 
in  the  manufacture  of  cloth,  cotton  has  been 
added ;  and  by  the  aid  of  machinery,  cloth, 
from  all  these  materials,  has  been  produced 
in  greater  abundance  and  at  diminished  cost; 
while  the  increase  of  individual  wealth  among 
the  people  has  given  them  the  means  of  using 
a  greater  variety  and  amount  of  clothing, 
all  of  which  was  required  to  be  made  up 
with  the  hand  needle.  The  condition  of 
sewing  women  became  a  matter  of  public 
sympathy;  and  much  sentiment  was  exer 
cised  over  those  thus  compelled  to  waste 
their  lives  in 

"  Sewing  at  onco,  with  a  double  thread, 
A  shroud  as  well  as  a  shirt." 

When  the  inventive  genius  of  the  age  was 
directed  to  the  means  of  facilitating  all  labors, 


it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  this  important 
field  could  be  neglected.  The  first  attempt, 
so  far  as  we  can  learn,  to  accomplish  sewing 
by  machinery,  was  made  by  John  Knowles, 
of  Monkton,  Vermont ;  who,  as  early  as  the 
year  1819,  invented  and  constructed  a  sew 
ing  machine,  which  is  said  to  have  made  a 
good  seam,  and  to  have  been,  so  far  as  the 
capacity  of  forming  the  stitch  is  concerned, 
a  decided  success.  It  used  but  one  thread, 
and  made  a  stitch  identical  with  the  ordinary 
"back-stitch"  made  in  hand  sewing,  and  by 
a  process  substantially  the  same.  The  needle, 
however,  was  differently  constructed,  hating 
a  point  at  each  end,  with  the  eye  in  the  mid 
dle  ;  and  it  was  passed  back  and  forth  through 
the  cloth  without  changing  its  ends.  Ilis 
machine  was  furnished  with  a  device  for 
feeding  along  the  work,  automatically,  in 
concert  with  the  action  of  the  needle ;  a 
device  similar  in  principle  to  the  "baster- 
plate  of  Howe,  noticed  hereafter;  it  was,  how 
ever,  defective,  as  it  would  move*  the  work 
only  in  a  direction  straight  forward,  and 
hence  it  could  be  used  only  to  sew  upon 
straight  seams.  After  much  unsuccessful 
effort  to  correct  this  defect,  so  as  to  adapt 
his  machine  to  the  general  purposes  of  sew- 


414 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


ing,  Mr.  Knowles  abandoned  his  invention 
And  yet  it  appears  that  his  machine  em 
braced  nearly  all  the  essential  features  of  i 
practical  sewing  machine ;  approaching  more 
nearly  to  the  results  reached  in  the  first  ma 
chine  of  Mr.  Howe,  than  did  any  other  in 
vention  between  the  two.  Mr.  Knowles  die 
not  apply  for  a  patent,  and  never  made  bul 
the  one  machine. 

During  the  next  twenty-five  years,  many 
attempts  in  the  same  direction  were  made, 
both  in  this  country  and  in  Europe.  In 
May,  1829,  a  patent  was  granted,  in  Eng 
land,  to  Henry  Bock,  for  a  "tambouring 
machine,"  the  needle  having  two  points  and 
an  eye  ;  but  tambouring  is  not  sewing.  July 
17,  1830,  a  patent  was  granted  in  France,  to 
M.  Thimonier,  for  a  crocheting  machine, 
adapted  to  sewing  purposes;  but  this  ma 
chine  had  no  feeding  apparatus  whatever, 
and  the  material  to  be  sewed  had  to  be 
moved  along  by  hand.  It  had  a  crochet  or 
hooked  needle,  and  a  device  called  an  "  ac- 
croucheur,"  to  lay  the  thread  on  the  hook, 
after  it  had  passed  through  the  cloth.  It 
used  but  one  thread,  and  made  the  single- 
tambour  stitch.  An  attempt  was  made  to 
introduce  it  in  the  manufacture  of  army 
clothing,  but  the  attempt  proved  a  failure, 
as  did  the  machine. 

The  first  patent  issued  in  this  country  for 
a  sewing  machine  was  granted  February  21, 
1842,  to  J.  J.  Greenough,  of  Washington 
City.  This  machine  used  a  needle  having 
two  points  and  one  eye,  and  made  the 
"  through-and-through,"  or  shoemaker's 
stitch.  Whatever  may  have  been  its  merits, 
it  proved  of  no  value  to  the  public,  as  no 
machine  except  the  model  was  ever  built. 
A  machine  for  making  the  "  running "  or 
"  basting"  stitch  was  patented  March  4,  1843, 
by  B.  W.  Bean,  of  New  York  City ;  but  we 
believe  that  no  machines  were  ever  built 
for  sale.  A  patent  was  granted,  December 
27,  1843,  to  Geo.  K.  Corlies,  of  Greenwich, 
N.  Y.,  for  a  machine  similar  to  Greenough's  ; 
but  no  machines  were  ever  made  for  use. 

The  first  really  practical  sewing  machine  in 
vented  was  that  of  Elias  Howe,  Jr.,  of  Cam 
bridge,  Mass.,  invented  in  1845,  and  patented 
September  10,  1846.  His  patent  covered, 
broadly,  the  formation  of  a  seam  for  uniting 
pieces  of  cloth,  by  the  combined  action  of 
an  eye-pointed  needle  and  a  shuttle,  or  their 
equivalent,  interlocking  two  threads.  His 
machine,  as  originally  introduced,  combined 
a  grooved  and  curved,  eye-pointed  needle,  a 


peculiar  shuttle,  holding  and  feeding  de 
vices,  thread  carrier  and  guide,  &c.  In  its 
operation,  a  loop  of  thread  being  thrusl 
through  the  fabric  by  the  needle,  the  shuttle, 
carrying  the  lower  thread  upon  a  small  bob 
bin  within  it,  passed  through  the  loop,  leav 
ing  in  it  a  line  of  thread,  which,  beinp 
thus  interlocked,  was  drawn  into  the  fabric. 
The  pieces  of  cloth  to  be  sewed  were  sus 
pended  upon  points  of  a  "  baster-plate,"  with 
proper  "  holding  surfaces,"  which  was  moved 
forward,  and  the  length  of  the  stitch  regu 
lated  by  a  "  ratchet  wheel."  When  s 
"reach"  of  the  seam  had  been  sewed  the 
length  of  the  baster-plate,  the  cloth  was 
detached,  the  plate  run  back,  the  cloth  re- 
attached  to  the  points,  and  another  reach  of 
seam  sewed.  This  constituted  the  feeding 
apparatus.  In  his  later  machines,  however, 
the  method  of  holding  and  feeding  the  cloth 
is  entirely  changed.  The  baster-plate  is  no 
longer  used,  the  fabric  to  be  sewed  being 
laid  upon  the  horizontal  plate  or  table  of  the 
machine,  and  passed  under  a  straight  needle 
which  acts  vertically,  instead  of  horizontally 
as  in  the  original  machine.  Few  mechanical 
inventions  are  introduced  in  a  state  of  abso 
lute  perfection ;  and  this,  as  we  have  seen, 
constitutes  no  exception  to  the  general  rule. 
The  first  patent  for  an  improvement  upon 
Howe's  machine  was  issued  to  John  Brad- 
shaw,  of  Lowell,  Mass.,  for  a  device  to  regu 
late  the  tension  of  the  thread,  and  was  dated, 
Nov.  23,  1848.  On  the  6th  of  February, 
1849,  J.  B.  Johnson  and  Charles  Morey, 
of  Boston,  Mass.,  obtained  a  patent  for  a 
machine,  having  a  circular  or  continuous 
baster-plate,  which  was  an  improvement 
upon  the  straight  baster-plate  of  Howe  ;  but 
other  and  more  valuable  improvements  for 
the  same  purpose  soon  succeeded  this.  May 
8,  1849,  John  Batchelder,  of  Boston,  Mass., 
obtained  a  patent  for  an  improvement  to 
regulate  the  feeding  of  the  cloth,  automati 
cally,  by  the  machine.  And  about  the  same 
ime  a  patent  was  also  granted  to  J.  S. 
Uonant,  of  Dracut,  Mass.,  for  an  improve- 
nent  designed  to  accomplish  the  same  pur 
pose,  by  a  different  arrangement.  October 
2,  1849,  Blodgett  &  Lerow,  of  Boston, 
obtained  a  patent  for  a  machine  to  make 
he  shuttle-stitch,  by  a  method  different 
rorn  that  of  Howe,  the  shuttle  describing  a 
circle,  instead  of  moving  back  and  forth. 
The  introduction  of  this  machine,  though  it 
tvas  clearly  an  infringement  of  Howe's  patent, 
Droved  a  decided  advantage  to  him;  as  a 


WHEELER    &   WILSON'S    SEWING    iiACHINR. 
Fig.  1. — View  of  the  Machine  ready  for  work. 
29 


Fig.  8.— Front  view  of  Fig.  2. 


-Fig.  2.— View  of  the-  Machine  with  the  Cloth  Plate  removed. 


Fig.  4. 


I.  M.  SINGER'S   SEWING   MACHINES. 


FAMILY   MACHINE. 


TRANSVERSE    SHUTTLE   MACHINE.       LETTER  A 


LETTER  A  MACHINE  IN  CABINET   CASE. 


PIXKLE   &   LYOX   SEWING   MACHINE  CO. 


No  longer  is  wrought  the  gusstt  and  band 
With  ceaseless  stitch  and  Wearied  hand ; 
For  sewing  is  pleasure  by  magic  art, 
Since  curious  machines  well  play  their  part. 


No.  4.      LARGE  MANUFACTURING  MACHINE. 


Xo.  2.      FAMILY  MACHIXE. 


.  3.       MEDIUM   MACHINE. 


SEWING    MACHINES. 


419 


considerable  number  of  the  machines  were 
made  and  sold,  and  their  operation,  though 
far  from  perfect,  did  much  toward  con 
vincing  the  public  that  sewing  could  be 
done  by  machinery.  Several  other  improve 
ments  were  also  introduced,  but  those 
above  mentioned  were  the  most  important 
that  appeared  during  the  first  four  years 
succeeding  the  date  of  Howe's  patent  ; 
and  none  of  these  can  be  said  to  have  ac 
complished  any  marked  results.  During 
the  fifth  year,  however,  improvements  were 
multiplied  more  rapidly ;  and  from  this 
period  may  be  dated  the  first  decided  suc 
cess  in  the  practical  application  of  Howe's 
invention. 

Ou  the  12th  of  November,  1850,  a  patent 
was  issued  to  Allen  B.  Wilson,  of  Pittsfield, 
Mass.,  covering  two  improvements :  one,  a 
new  device  for  feeding  the  cloth,  termed  the 
"  two-motion  feed,"  afterwards  changed  by 
a  further  improvement  to  the  "  four-motion 
feed" — which  has  proved  the  best  feed  ar 
rangement  for  general  purposes  yet  invented  ; 
the  other,  a  shuttle,  pointed  at  each  end, 
which  made  a  stitch  at  each  movement,  while 
in  Howe's  machine  the  shuttle  had  to  go  and 
return  at  every  stitch.  This  improvement 
Avas,  however,  superseded  by  another,  styled 
the  "rotating  hook,"  which  was  the  sub 
ject  of  a  patent  dated  August  12,  1851, 
and  which  served  as  a  complete  substitute 
for  the  shuttle  of  Howe.  This  improve 
ment  constitutes  the  leading  or  characteristic 
feature  of  the  Wheeler  &  Wilson  ma 
chine. 

On  the  llth  of  February,  1851,  a  patent 
was  granted  to  Grover  &  Baker,  of  Boston, 
for  a  machine  invented  by  William  O.  Grover, 
of  that  firm,  the  distinguishing  feature  of 
which  consisted  in  a  device  called  the  "  circu 
lar  needle,"  which  also  served  as  a  substitute 
for  the  shuttle.  In  the  summer  of  1851, 
Mr.  Grover,  without  knowledge  of  what 
Wilson  had  done,  invented  a  feed  device, 
substantially  similar  to  Wilson's,  for  which 
a,  patent  was  issued  to  Grover  &  Baker, 
June  22,  1852.  This  double  invention  of 
the  same  device  gave  rise  to  some  difficulty 
between  the  two  companies ;  but  this  was 
compromised,  and  the  same  feeding  arrange 
ment  has  sinoe  been  used  in  both  machines. 

In  September,  1850,  Isaac  M.  Singer,  of, 
New  York  City,  completed  a  machine,  for 
which  a  patent  was  issued  to  I.  M.  Singer  & 
Co.,  on  the  12th  of  August,  1851.  This 
machine,  though  it  contained  several  ira- 
25 


provements  on  that  of  Howe,  bore  a  closer 
resemblance  to  it,  in  its  general  construction, 
than  either  of  the  two  last  named.  Copying 
so  nearly  from  Howe,  Singer  &  Co.  had  less 
to  do  in  getting  out  their  machine,  and  were 
the  first  in  market,  but  the  others  followed 
soon  after ;  and  thus,  with  a  nearly  even 
start,  those  three  companies  commenced  the 
manufacture  and  sale  of  their  respective 
machines ;  Singer  &  Co.  taking  the  lead  for 
the  first  two  years,  Grover  &  Baker  for  the 
two  next,  and  since  that  the  Wheeler  & 
Wilson.  With  such  energy  was  the  busi 
ness  prosecuted  by  each  of  those  companies, 
and  so  great  was  their  success,  that  before 
the  expiration  of  Howe's  original  patent,  in 
1860,  the  aggregate  number  of  machines 
made  and  sold  by  them  had  exceeded  130,000; 
of  which  about  55,000  were  turned  out 
by  Wheeler  &  Wilson,  40,000  by  Singer  <fe 
Co.,  and  35,000  by  Grover  &  Baker.  At 
that  date  less  than  2,000  machines  of  Howe's 
patent  had  been  manufactured,  and  these 
were  made  by  a  brother  of  the  inventor,  Mr. 
A.  B.  Howe,  of  New  York.  While,  there 
fore,  the  highest  honor  is  due  to  Mr.  Elias 
Howe,  Jr. — as  the  original  inventor  of  tha 
sewing  machine — the  public  is  largely,  in 
debted,  for  its  improvement  and  successful 
introduction,  to  the  inventive  genius  of  Wil 
son,  Grover,  and  Singer,  and  the  enterprise 
of  their  respective  companies.  Arid  here  it 
may  be  remarked,  that  the  infancy  of  the 
sewing  machine,  like  that  of  many  other  im 
portant  inventions,  was  beset  with;  difficul 
ties.  By  the  time  that  Mr.  Howe  had  com 
pleted  his  experiments,  built  his  model,  and 
secured  his  patent,  he  had  exhausted  his, 
means.  He  could  not  embark. in.  the  manu 
facture  of  machines  without  capital ;  and  ho 
could  not  obtain  the  capital,  he  so  much 
needed  until  the  utility  of  iri&  invention  had 
been  demonstrated  by  practical  use.  Fail 
ing  in  his  effort  to  enlist  the  aid  of  capital 
ists  in  this  country,  he  went  to  Europe.  In 
England  a  patent  was,  secured  for  his  inven 
tion,  but  he  allowed  it  to  be  taken  in  the 
name  of  another  party  residing  there,  who, 
losing  confidence  in  the  invention,  never  did 
much  with  it,  and  Howe  nev.er  realized  any 
thing  from  it.  Failing  of  any  success 
abroad,  he  decided  to  return,  and  try  his 
luok  once  more  here*.  But  to  such  poverty 
was  he  now  reduced,  that  he  was  obliged 
to  pawn  his  effects  to  pay  his  wife's  pas 
sage,  and  to  work,  as  an  ordinary  deck 
hand,  for  his  own.  Arriving  pQuailiesSj  but 


420 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


not  disheartened,  confident  that  some  day 
his  invention  would  be  appreciated,  he  re 
sumed  his  old  employment  as  a  journeyman 
mechanic,  for  a  livelihood.  At  length  the 
tide  of  circumstances  turned  in.  his  favor. 
The  infringement  of  his  patent,  by  the  three 
companies  above  referred  to,  and  by  other 
parties  of  less  note,  in  a  short  time  accom 
plished  what  he  had  never  been  able  to  do 
himself;  as  great  numbers  of  machines,  of 
various  makers,  were  thus  distributed,  by 
means  of  which  the  utility  of  the  sewing 
machine  was  soon  demonstrated.  These 
infringements  furnished  also  the  occasion  for 
legal  proceedings,  in  the  course  of  which  the 
validity  of  his  patent  was  established  by 
judicial  decisions.  Of  the  suits  brought  by 
him  against  those  three  companies,  one  re 
sulted  in  a  judgment,  in  his  favor,  and  the 
other  two  were  settled,  before  decisions  had 
been  reached.  At  this  time,  or  soon  after, 
an  arrangement  was  entered  into  between 
Mr.  Howe,  Wheeler  &  Wilson,  I.  M.  Singer 
&  Co.,  and  Grover  &  Baker,  by  which  each 
of  those  three  companies  was  licensed  to 
manufacture  its  own  machines,  under  the 
.protection  of  Howe's  patent,  during  the  re 
mainder  of  the  term  for  which  it  had  been 
granted,  at  a  patent  rent,  or  royalty,  of  ten 
dollars  on  each  machine  made  and  sold, 
until  a  certain  number  had  been  produced, 
and  at  a  less  rent  afterward.  The  contract 
by  which  that  arrangement  was  perfected 
was  dated  October  10,  1856,  and  is  known 
as  the  "  Albany  Agreement."  By  its  pro 
visions,  those  four  parties  were  constituted 
a  combination,  for  the  mutual  protection  of 
their  several  patents,  against  outside  infringe 
ment — a  combination  which  has  exercised 
an  important  influence  upon  the  general 
sewing  machine  interests  of  the  country. 

While  these  inventions  were  being  in 
troduced,  there  were  other  difficulties  to 
be  overcome— difficulties  affecting  not  Mr. 
Howe  only,  but  also  the  combination — 
among  which  were,  the  incredulity  of  the 
public;  the  trouble  of  teaching  operatives; 
the  indisposition  of  manufacturers  to  adopt 
new  modes  of  doing  business ;  the  disincli 
nation  of  tailors  and  seamstresses  to  wel 
come  the  sewing  machine ;  and,  last  but  not 
least,  the  introduction  of  an  inferior  class  of 
machines,  which,  being  sold  at  lower  prices, 
met  for  a  time  a  ready  sale,  and  which,  by 
their  general  failure,  did  much  to  impair  the 
confidence  of  the  public  in  the  utility  of  the 
sewing  machine.  Yet  this  experiment  served 


one  good  purpose,  as  by  it  the  public  be 
came  satisfied  of  the  worthless  character  of 
cheaply  made  machines ;  and  hence  the  re 
sult  was,  on  the  whole,  advantageous  rather 
than  otherwise,  to  those  interested  in  the 
manufacture  and  sale  of  good  ones. 

From  1852  to  1857,  no  new  machine,  of 
any  marked  excellence,  was  introduced,  the 
efforts  of  all  inventors,  outside  of  the  afore 
said  combination,  being  directed  not  so  much 
to  the  improvement  of  the  sewing  machine, 
as  to  the  production  of  a  cheaper  class.  The 
next  invention,  which  possessed  any  chum 
to  special  merit  as  an  improvement  upon 
those  already  noticed,  was  a  machine  in 
vented  by  James  E.  A.  Gibbs,  of  Millpoint, 
Va.,  for  which  a  patent  was  issued  June  2, 
1857.  The  leading  idea  of  Mr.  Gibbs,  and 
the  object  claimed  to  have  been  accomplished 
in  his  machine,  was — the  attainment  of 
greater  simplicity,  in  order  more  perfectly 
to  adapt  the  sewing  machine  to  the  capa 
cities  of  all.  Mr.  Gibbs,  who  was  a  natural, 
but  uneducated  mechanic,  had  never  seen  a 
sewing  machine  of  any  kind  until  he  had 
completed  the  model  of  his  own.  His  ma 
chine,  therefore,  though  containing  princi 
ples  which  had  been  previously  invented 
and  patented,  was  with  him  entirely  an  ori 
ginal  invention.  He  had  seen  in  some  news 
paper  or  magazine  a  notice  of  a  "  sewing 
machine  " — which  was  described  as  using 
"  two  threads " — and  the  thought  imme 
diately  occurred  to  him,  that  if  a  reliable 
seam  could  be  made  with  one  thread,  in 
stead  of  two,  less  machinery  would  be  re 
quired,  and  thus  greater  simplicity  would  be 
secured;  a  result  which,  to  him,  appeared  to 
be  one  of  great  importance,  especially  in  an 
instrument  for  general  family  use.  He  at 
once  set  himself  to  work,  and  soon  invented 
a  new  kind  of  stitch,  requiring  the  use  of  but 
one  thread,  yet  possessing,  as  claimed,  at 
least  equal  merit,  for  general  use,  to  any 
made  with  two  threads.  After  Mr.  Gibbs 
had  obtained  his  patent,  James  Wlllcox,  then 
of  Philadelphia,  secured  the  control  of  it; 
and  on  the  18th  of  February,  1859,  obtained 
a  license  from  the  aforesaid  combination, 
and  commenced  the  manufacture  of  the  ma 
chines,  under  the  name  of  the  Willcox  & 
Gibbs  Sewing  Machine.  The  peculiarities 
of  the  stitch,  and  the  construction  and  opera 
tion  of  this  machine  will  be  more  fully  de 
scribed  hereafter. 

On  the  expiration  of  Howe's  original  pat 
ent,  and  its  extension  for  the  further  term  of 


SEWING    MACHINES. 


421 


seven  years  from  the  10th  day  of  September, 
1860,  a  more  liberal  policy  was  adopted. 
The  "  combination  "  was  continued ;  but  an 
agreement  was  made  between  Mr.  Howe  and 
the  other  parties  constituting  it,  \vhich  pro 
vided  for  the  granting  of  licenses,  by  the 
combination,  to  other  parties  not  members 
of  it,  in  numbers  sufficient  to  secure  to  the 
public  a  "  full  supply  of  good  sewing  machines 
at  reasonable  prices." 

The  patent  rent  exacted  of  licensees,  un 
der  this  new  arrangement,  is  fixed  at  seven 
dollars  for  each  machine  using  two  threads, 
which  is  manufactured  and  sold  to  be  used 
in  the  United  States,  and  four  dollars  each 
for  all  exported,  to  be  used  in  foreign  coun 
tries.  Of  this  rent,  Mr.  Howe  receives  one 
dollar  on  each  machine  made  and  sold,  and 
the  balance  goes  to  the  other  three  parties; 
who  are  required  to  defray  all  the  expenses 
of  protecting  his  patents,  jointly  with  their 
own ;  besides  paying  him  a  license  rent  of 
one  dollar  each  on  all  machines  made  by 
them.  Mr.  Howe  has  therefore  a  net  in 
come  of  one  dollar  for  every  sewing  machine 
made  and  sold  in  the  United  States — an  in 
come  which  amounts  to  a  fortune  every  year. 
The  amount  thus  received  by  Mr.  Howe  dur 
ing  the  year  1866,  as  appears  by  the  license 
returns,  was  upwards  of  $155,000.  During 
the  same  period,  the  three  companies  received 
from  the  same  source  about  $213,000;  mak 
ing  a  total  of  over  $368,000,  received  by  the 
combination. 

Thi-  progress  of  invention  has  brought  into 
use  three  classes  of  sewing  machines,  viz.  : 

1st.  Those  making  the  double-thread, 
"shuttle"  or  "lock-stitch."  Of  this  class 
are  the  Howe,  Wheeler  &  Wilson,  Singer, 
Weed,  Etna,  Elliptic,  Florence,  Empire,  Fin- 
kle  &  Lyon,  and  Leavitt  Machines. 

2d.  Those  making  the  "  double-loop,"  or 
"Grovcr  &  Baker  stitch."  The  only  ma 
chine  of  any  importance,  which  makes  this 
kind  of  stitch,  is  the  Grover  &  Baker. 

3d.  Those  making  the  single  -  thread, 
"  twisted-loop"  or  "  Willcox  &  Gibbs  stitch." 
The  only  machines  of  this  class  are  those 
manufactured  by  the  Willcox  &  Gibbs  Sew 
ing  Machine  Company. 

In  all  sewing  machines,  the  formation  of 
a  stitch  requires  two  distinct  operations,  the 
first  of  which  is  performed  on  the  upper  sur 
face,  and  the  second  on  the  under  surface  of 
the  goods.  The  first  process  is  accom 
plished  in  every  machine  by  means  of  an 
eye-pointed,  reciprocating  needle,  with  a  ver 


tical  movement,  acting  in  concert  with  the 
feed  ;  the  office  of  the  needle  being  to  take 
the  thread  from  the  spool,  and,  carrying  it 
downward,  perforate  the  fabric  and  pass  a 
loop  of  the  thread  down  through  it,  to  a 
point  where  the  stitch-forming  mechanism 
underneath  will  reach  it,  while  the  feed,  by 
an  alternate  movement,  carries  the  goods 
forward  for  another  stitch.  The  second  pro 
cess  is  accomplished  by  means  of  special 
mechanism,  the  office  of  which  is  to  connect 
and  fasten,  with  a  separate  under  thread  or 
with  a  portion  of  the  upper  one  (according 
to  the  kind  of  stitch  made,  whether  a  double 
or  a  single  thread  one),  the  successive  loops 
of  the  upper  thread  as  they  are  passed  down 
through  the  fabric  by  the  needle.  Thus,  as 
the  sewing  proceeds,  two  continuous  rows 
or  lines  of  thread  are  produced,  one  on  the 
upper,  and  the  other  on  the  under  surface 
of  the  goods,  inclosing  between  them  the 
pieces  of  fabric  united  by  the  seam ;  the 
upper  line  being  always  a  single  thread, 
while  the  under  one  is  either  single,  as  in 
the  "  lock-stitch,"  tioo-corded,  as  in  the 
"twisted-loop  stitch,"  or  three-corded,  as  in 
the  "  double-loop  stitch."  These  two  lines 
of  thread,  it  will  be  perceived,  are  united  or 
linked  together  by  the  loop  of  the  upper 
thread  passing  through  the  fabric  at  the  end 
of  every  stitch  ;  and  this  coupling,  or  locking 
of  the  two  lines  of  thread,  when  properly 
drawn  up  by  the  tensions,  completes  the  for 
mation  of  the  stitch.  A  continuous  row  or 
chain  of  these  united  stitches,  thus  inclosing 
the  fabric  sewed,  constitutes  a  seam. 

The  first  of  these  operations  is  substan 
tially  the  same  in  all  machines ;  but  the 
second  operation,  or  under  process,  is  dif 
ferent  in  the  different  machines,  and  the 
variations  are  as  numerous  as  the  different 
kinds  of  stitches  made.  It  is  in  this  feature 
only,  that  the  distinguishing  characteristics 
of  the  several  kinds  of  sewing  machine 
stitches  consist.  Thus  in  all  lock-stitch  ma- 
chinos,  whether  using  a  reciprocating  shuttle 
like  Howe's,  or  a  rotating  one  like  Wil 
son's,  a  separate  thread  is  used  underneath  ; 
and  the  entire  length  of  this  thread  is  car 
ried,  by  the  shuttle,  through  each  successive 
loop  of  the  upper  thread  ;  thus  leaving,  when 
the  seam  is  completed,  only  a  single  line  of 
thread  on  the  under  surface  of  the  fabric,  as 
well  as  on  the  upper  one. 

In  forming  the  double-loop  stitch,  a  sepa 
rate  thread  is  also  used  underneath ;  but  this 
thread,  instead  of  being:  re-wound,  and  car- 


422 


INDIVIDUAL   INDUSTRIES. 


ried  by  a  shuttle,  is  manipulated  by  an  eye- 
pointed,  non-perforating,  horizontal  needle, 
which  takes  the  thread  directly  from  the 
spool,  and  instead  of  passing  the  entire 
length  of  the  under  thread  through  the  loop 
of  the  upper  one,  as  in  the  lock-stitch,  it 
passes  only  a  loop  of  it  through ;  and  this 
loop  in  its  turn  is  fastened  by  the  next  loop 
of  the  upper  thread.  Hence,  when  a  seam 
of  this  class  is  completed,  instead  of  there 
being  a  single  line  of  thread  on  the  under 
side,  there  is  a  series  of  compound  loops, 
forming  a  ridge  or  chain,  of  the  "  double- 
tambour"  character,  which  is  always  more 
or  less  prominent,  according  to  the  size  of 
the  thread  used. 

In  the  formation  of  the  twisted-loop  stitch, 
the  connecting  and  fastening  of  the  stitches 
on  the  under  side  of  the  fabric  are  also  effect 
ed  by  means  of  loops  instead  of  a  single  line 
of  thread.  But  as  there  is  no.  under  thread 
used,  this  fastening  is  done  with  a  portion 
of  the  upper  thread,  after  it  has  been  passed 
down  through  the  fabric.  In  other  words, 
the  lower,  or  fastening  loop  is  simply  the 
upper  loop  extended.  On  its  reaching  the 
under  side  of  the  fabric,  each  loop  is  first 
carried  through  the  last  preceding  one ;  and 
then  extended — twisted — and  held  open — 
ready  to  receive,  and  be  in  its  turn  fastened 
by  the  next  succeeding  loop  from  above. 
With  these  few  observations  on  the  elemen 
tary  principles  of  machine  sewing,  we  pro 
ceed  to  describe  these  several  stitches ;  in 
the  illustration  of  which  it  will  be  necessary 
to  describe  also  the  construction  and  opera 
tion  of  one  or  more  of  the  leading,  or  repre 
sentative  machines  in  each  class.  The 

FIRST  CLASS — includes  those  making  the 
lock-stitch;  to  illustrate  the  character  and 
formation  of  this  stitch — which  is  pre 
cisely  the  same,  made  by  one  machine  as 
another — we  select  the  Wheeler  &  Wilson 
machine. 

Among  the  first  improvers  of  the  sewing 
machine,  as  we  have  already  stated,  was  Mr. 
A.  B.  Wilson,  of  the  Wheeler  &  Wilson 
Sewing  Machine  Company.  In  his  hands 
the  sewing  machine  underwent  radical 
changes,  and  his  results  embody  mechanical 
conceptions  that  place  the  sewing  machine 
among  the  most  ingenious  and  effective 
pieces  of  modern  machinery. 

Mr.  Wilson,  like  Mr.  Howe,  approved  of 


radically  different.  Instead  of  passing  a 
bobbin  with  the  lower  thread  through  a  loop 
of  the  upper,  he  puts  a  loop  of  the  upper 
around  a  stationary  bobbin  containing  the 
lower  thread,  and  feeds  the  fabric  to  sew  an 
endless  seam. 

For  carrying  the  loop  of  the  upper  thread 
around  the  bobbin  containing  the  lower 
thread,  Mr.  Wilson  employs  a  rotating  hook 
of  peculiar  construction,  marked  5  (fig.  4).  It 
is  formed  by  cutting  away  a  portion  of  the 
periphery  of  the  circular  concave  disk,  a 
(fig.  4)  is  the  point  of  the  hook.  From  a 
is  a  diagonal  groove  across  the  periphery  of 
the  hook  to  the  point  ft,  where  the  edge  is 
beveled  off.  The  hook  thus  constitutes  a 
portion  of  the  thread  of  a  screw.  46  is  the 
cloth-plate,  35  the  needle,  with  the  eye  near 
the  point  threaded  with  e,  a  loop  of  which 
has  just  been  entered  by  the  point  of  the 
hook  a.  The  lower  thread  is  carried  in  a 
double  convex  metallic  bobbin  15,  to  lie  in 
the  cavity  of  the  hook,  and  held  in  its  posi 
tion  by  a  concave  ring  16  (fig.  2),  between 
which  and  the  concave  surface  of  the  disk  it 
lies.  No  axis  supports  it,  so  that  a  loop  of 
thread  can  pass  around  it  as  the  girl  passes 
the  skipping  rope  under  her  feet. 

Fig.  5  represents  the  hook  as  having 
made  about  two  thirds  of  u  revolution,  and 
the  lower  thread,  z,  extending  from  the 
lower  surface  of  the  fabric  to  the  bobbin 
in  the  concavity  of  the  hook.  The  upper 
thread,  e,  extends  through  the  fabric  from  a 
previous  stitch  into  the  concavity  of  the 
hook  behind  the  bobbin,  diagonally  around 
the  hook  at  the  point  6,  thence  diagonally 
along  the  groove  to  the  needle  35. 

As  the  hook  further  revolves  to  the  posi 
tion  indicated  in  fig.  6,  both  lines  of  the 
loop  e  are  upon  the  same  side  of  the  disk. 
The  line  of  thread  that  extended  in  fig.  5 
along  the  groove  of  the  hook  by  ft,  has 
slipped  off  at  the  termination  of  this  groove, 
and  fallen  in  front  of  the  bobbin,  so  that 
the  loop  of  the  thread  e  extends  behind  the 
bobbin,  around  the  point  of  the  hook  a,  and 
across  the  front  of  the  bobbin  to  the  needle 
35,  thus  surrounding  the  bobbin,  and  in 
closing  the  lower  thread  z. 

As  the  hook  further  revolves,  the  loop  is 
held  by  the  check  36,  until  the  point  of  the 
hook  enters  the  succeeding  loop  as  seen  in 


the    lock-stitch 
making  it,  the 


only,    but    his    method    of 
holding  and  feeding   mech 


anism,  and  the  tension  of  the  threads,  arc 


fig.  4,  when  the  loope  is  freed  from  the  check, 
and  being  drawn  up  by  the  enlargement  of 
the  succeeding  loop,  interlocks  with  the  lower 
thread  z  in  the  fabric  and  forms  a  stitch. 


SEWING    MACHINES. 


423 


In  this  connection  we  will  explain  the 
"  tension.'1'1  In  the  "  lock-stitch"  when  prop 
erly  formed,  the  interlocking  of  the  two 
threads  is  in  the  centre  of  the  fabric  sewed, 
as  seen  in  the  following  diagram: 


The  lower  thread  is  re-wound  upon  the 
metal  spool  or  bobbin  15,  of  such  size  as  to 
hold  50  or  60  yards  of  No.  80  cotton.  This 
re-winding  is  effected  by  the  machine  itself. 
The  bobbin  with  the  lower  thread  is  placed 
in  the  concavity  of  the  hook,  and  held  in 
place  by  the  ring  16  (fig.  2),  with  the  thread 
flowing  from  the  top  toward  the  front  of  the 
machine,  in  which  direction  it  revolves 
slowly.  The  hook  5  revolves  rapidly  in  the 
opposite  direction,  and  the  friction  between 
these  surfaces  renders  the  strain  or  tension 
upon  the  lower  thread  sufficiently  great  to 
keep  it  straight. 

The  upper  thread  is  fed  from  the  original 
spool  38  (fig.  1),  through  the  guide  39,. 
passes  once  around  the  tension  pulley  40, 
and  thence  through  the  eyelets  33,  33,  and 
the  needle  35  near  its  point.  Its  flow  is 
regulated  by  the  thumb-screw  and  volute- 
spring  41  pressing  against  the  side  of  this 
pulley.  Should  the  thread  be  drawn  too 
easily  from  spool  38,  the  hook  will  draw 
thread  from  that  instead  of  drawing  up  the 
preceding  loop  (fig.  4).  The  proper  pres 
sure,  however,  being  upon  the  pulley  40, 
the  hook  draws  up  the  previous  loop  to  the 
proper  position  of  interlocking  in  the  fabric, 
before  it  draws  any  from  spool  38. 

The  feeding  mechanism  of  Mr.  Wilson's 
invention  consists  of  a  feed-bar  10  (fig.  8), 
slotted  nearly  its  entire  length,  in  which  is 
pivoted  near  the  left  end  the  feed-tongue 
13,  armed  with  two  rows  of  feed-points,  14. 
This  feed-bar  works  in  grooves  in  the  stand 
ards  2,. 2  (fig.  3),  and  lies  just  beneath  the 
cloth-plate  46  (fig.  1),  so  that  the  points  14 
may  be  raised  through  the  slots  52  (fig.  7), 
with  its  left  end  against  the  feed-stop  54. 
The  feed  is  worked  by  a  cam  6  (fig.  3), 
which  rotates  with  the  arbor  4.  As  this 
cam  revolves,  the  swell  of  its  periphery 
strikes  the  under  surface  of  the  feed-tongue 
13,  and  raises  the,  feed-points  14,  through 
the  slots  52,  while  the  swell  upon  the  right 
side  of  the  cam  6  presses  upon  the  right  ear 
11  of  the  feed-bar,  and  throws  it  forward. 
The  cam  further  revolving,  brings  a  point  of 
depression  both  in  its  top  and  its  side  next  to 


the  feed-bar  ear,  when  the  points  drop  be 
low  the  surface  of  the  cloth  plate  and  the 
feed-spring  12  (fig.  3),  working  between  the 
left  standard  2,  and  the  left  ear  11  of  the 
feed-bar,  throws  the  bar  back  to  the  left 
against  the  feed-stop  54  (fig.  7),  and  the 
next  revolution  of  the  cam  throws  it  for 
ward.  It  should  be  remarked  that  while 
the  needle  penetrates  the  cloth,  the  feed- 
points  are  below  the  surface  of  the  cloth- 
plate,  and  intermit  their  action  upon  the 
cloth ;  hence  the  needle  constitutes  a  pivot 
upon  which  the  fabric  may  be  turned  to  sew 
a  curved  scam  of  any  radius. 

The  feed-points  rising  and  penetrating  the 
cloth  at  each  stitch,  their  movement  forward 
determines  the  length  of  the  stitch,  which 
is  graduated  by  regulating  the  play  of  the 
feed-bar.  The  play  of  this  bar  is  limited  to 
the  difference  between  the  widest  and  the 
narrowest  parts  of  the  feed-cam  6,  which  is 
about  one  fourth  of  an  inch,  and  may  bo 
graduated  to  any  length  within  those  limits, 
by  the  feed-stop  54,  against  which  the  feed- 
bar  is  thrown  by  the  feed-spring  12.  As 
the  widest  or  the  narrowest  part  of  this  ec 
centric  stop  is  turned  toward  the  feed-bar, 
greater  or  less  play  is  permitted,  and  longer 
or  shorter  stitches  are  made. 

The  machine  is  mounted  upon  a  neat 
work-table,  as  seen  in  the  cut  at  the  head  of 
this  article,  and  driven  by  sandal  treadles 
and  band  7  (fig.  1).  Motion  is  thus  com 
municated  to  the  hook  5  (fig.  2),  and  by 
the  eccentric  8  through  the  connecting-rod 
28  to  the  rocker  24,  pivoted  at  25,  25,  and 
gives  motion  to  the  needle-arm  29,  which 
holds  the  needle  35.  The  needle  vibrates 
through  a  small  hole,  60,  in  the  cloth-plate. 
The  threads  being  adjusted,  the  machine  is 
touched  into  motion  by  a  gentle  pressure  of 
the  foot  upon  the  sandals.  The  cloth  moves 
forward  from  left  to  right,  and  the  sewing  is 
accomplished  in  the  manner  described. 

Various  appliances  are  furnished  for  regu 
lating  the  width  of  hems,  etc.,  until  the 
hand  and  eye  have  become  trained  to  dis 
pense  with  them.  Another  appliance  is  the 
hemmer  (fig.  9).  It  is  slipped  into  a  slot  of 
the  cloth-presser  20,  and  is  so  convoluted, 
that  as  the  edge  of  the  cloth  passes  through 
to  be  sewed,  it  is  turned  down  as  in  ordinary 
hems,  and  stitched.  In  addition  to  their 
regular  machines,  the  Wheeler  &  Wilson 
Co.  also  manufacture  the  Elliptic  Machine, 
and  a  Button-hole  Machine. 

As  before  remarked,  the  lock-stitch  is  al- 


424 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


ways  the  same,  on  whatever  machine  it  is 
made.  In  forming  this  stitch  upon  either 
the  Howe,  or  the  Singer  machine,  the  de 
tails  of  operation  do  not  differ  essentially 
from  those  above  described,  with  the  excep 
tion,  that  the  shuttle  movement  in  both  these 
machines  is  reciprocal,  instead  of  being  ro 
tary  as  in  the  Wheeler  <fe  Wilson  macliine  ; 
and  the  feed  movement  is  rotary,  instead  of 
"  four-motioned."  Each  of  these  several 
movements  has  its  advantages  for  certain 
purposes ;  the  reciprocating  shuttle  being  the 
best  adapted  for  heavy  work,  and  the  rotary- 
one  for  light  work,  particularly  for  such  as 
requires  a  high  rate  of  speed ;  while  the  ro 
tary  or  wheel-feed  is  preferred  for  leather, 
and  for  some  kinds  of  heavy  cloth  work, — 
and  the  four-motion  feed  for  family  use,  and 
for  light  manufacturing  purposes  generally. 

The  Howe  and  Singer  machines  so  nearly 
resemble  each  other  in  construction  and  ac 
tion,  that  a  description  of  the  operation  of 
one  would  be  substantially  correct  for  the 
other.  It  should  here  be  stated  that  the 
"  wheel-feed,"  as  now  used  in  these  and 
several  other  shuttle  machines,  projecting 
upward  through  the  table,  was  first  applied 
in  the  Singer  machine;  and  also  the  "  arm," 
for  supporting  the  working  apparatus  over 
the  table.  The  "New  Family  Machine"  of 
the  Singer  Co.,  a  style  brought  out  during 
the  past  year  (1866),  is  furnished,  however, 
with  the  "  four-motion  "  feed.  This  machine 
is  less  noisy,  simpler  in  construction,  and  in 
other  respects  superior  to  their  old  family 
machine,  now  superseded  by  this. 

Of  the  "licensed"  machines  making  the 
lock-stitch,  there  are  several  which  possess 
greater  or  less  merit ;  but  none  of  these,  we 
believe,  contains  any  valuable  feature  which 
is  not  to  be  found  in  one  or  more  of  the  ma 
chines  already  noticed. 

We  come  now  to  the  SECOND  CLASS  ; — of 
which  the  Grover  &  Baker  machine  is  at 
once  the  original .  type,  and  the  only  repre 
sentative  at  present  in  the  market.  In  this 
machine,  a  circular,  eye-pointed  needle  takes 
the  place  of  the  shuttle.  This  needle  is  at 
tached,  in  a  horizontal  position,  upon  the 
upper  end  of  a  vertical  shaft,  which  is  ope 
rated  in  such  manner  as  to  give  to  the  needle 
an  oscillating  movement,  similar  to  that  of 
the  balance-wheel  in  a  watch ,  and  the  cir 
cular  needle  makes  two  movements,  one  for 
ward  and  the  other  back,  at  every  stitch. 
The  under  needle,  as  well  as  the  upper  one, 
takes  the  thread  directly  from  the  spool,  thus 


saving  the  trouble  of  re-winding  the  under 
thread.  In  sewing,  the  upper  thread  is  car 
ried  by  the  perforating  needle  down  through 
the  fabric,  where  a  loop  is  thrown  out  as  the 
needle  rises,  and  this  loop  is  entered  at  the 
right  moment  by  the  circular  needle  carrying 
the  under  thread,  which,  in  its  turn,  throws 
out  a  loop  also  as  the  needle  is  withdrawn ; 
and  this  loop  is  entered  by  the  upper  needle 
as  it  comes  down  again  with  another  loop 
from  above.  Thus,  the  "  under  process  "  of 
sewing,  in  this  machine,  consists  in  putting, 
first,  a  loop  of  the  under  thread  through  a 
loop  of  the  upper  thread,  and  then  a  loop  of 
the  upper  thread  through  a  loop  of  the  un 
der  thread ;  and  so  on  to  the  end  of  the 
seam,  each  loop  being  drawn  up  by  the  ten 
sions  as  the  sewing  proceeds.  A  seam  of 
this  kind,  when  finished,  appears  as  in  the 
following  diagram : 


which  gives  a  side  view  of  the  seam,  with 
the  fabric  cut  away .  so  as  to  exhibit  the 
course  of  the  threads  in  the  formation  of  the 
stitch.  This  stitch,  it  has  been  stated,  was 
introduced  as  an  improvement  of  the  lock 
stitch  ;  and  the  reader  will  naturally  inquire, 
what  has  been  the  result  of  experience  on 
this  point  ?  The  answer  is  found  in  the  fol 
lowing  facts  : — These  two  classes  of  ma 
chines  have  been  on  public  trial  about  the 
same  length  of  time,  or  about  sixteeg  years. 
Owing  to  various  causes,  Grover  <fe  Baker 
did  not  get  fairly  under  way  in  manufactur 
ing  their  machines  as  early  as  Wheeler  & 
Wilson,  or  the  Singer  Company.  But  so 
favorably  was  their  machine  at  first  received, 
that,  as  soon  as  they  were  prepared  to  meet 
the  demand,  they  took  the  lead,  and,  in  1854, 
Grover  &  Baker  sold  more  machines  than 
both  the  othev  companies.  The  license 
returns  for  1866,  however,  show  that,  dar 
ing  the  past  year,  the  Wheeler  &  Wilson 
Company  alone  sold  nearly  twice  as  many 
machines  as  the  Grover  &  Baker  Company  ; 
these  returns  also  show  that  more  than  four- 
fifths  of  all  the  double-thread  sewing  machines 
made  and  sold  during  the  past  year  were  of 
the  lock-stitch  class. 

Among  the  advantages  claimed,  for  the 
"double-loop"  stitch  over  the  lock-stitch 
are, — greater  elasticity  of  seam, — the  fact 
that  there  is  no  necessity  for  re-winding  the 
under  thread, — the  non-liability  of  the  seam 
to  ravel  when  broken, — and  the  capacity  for 


SKWING    MACHINES. 


425 


making  a  certain  kind  of  embroidery,  which 
cannot  be  made  on  machines  of  the  lock 
stitch  class.  It  is  also  claimed  that  the 
double-loop  stitch  is  free  from  certain  defects 
of  the  lock-stitch,  one  of  which  is,  that  in 
thin  goods,  where  the  diameter  of  the  thread 
must  necessarily  be  nearly  or  quite  equal  to 
the  thickness  of  the  fabric,  the  lock  cannot 
be  made  in  the  center,  although  it  may  be  so 
made  on  thicker  goods ;  but  that  it  will  be 
made  on  one  of  the  surfaces,  thus  leaving  the 
thread  on  that  side  straight,  and  the  seam 
without  any  elasticity.  It  is  also  claimed, 
that  in  thicker  goods,  in  consequence  of  varia 
tions  in  the  tension,  caused  by  the  unequal 
thickness  of  the  thread  in  its  different  parts, 
the  position  of  the  lock  is  constantly  vary 
ing,  from  the  center  of  the  fabric  to  one  side 
or  the  other,  as  exhibited  in  the  following 
diagram : 


and  it  is  claimed  that  a  large  proportion  of 

the  sewing  done  in  families,  upon  lock-stitch 

machines,  is   of  this    description.     On    the 

other  hand,  it  is  objected  to  the  double-loop 

stitch,   that  it   requires  a  great  deal   more 

thread.     In  reply  it  is  claimed  that  in  using 

lock-stitch  machines,  there  is  much  waste  of 

thread,  at  the  ends  of  the  seams ;  and  that 

in   the  ordinary  sewing  of  a  family,  where 

the    majority  of  the   seams  are  short,  thi 

ivaste  of  thread  is  fully  equal  to  the  extra 

amount    used   in    making   the    double-loop 

stitch  seam.     Widely  differing  estimates  ol 

the  relative  amounts  of  thread,  thus  wasted, 

or  used,  by  these  two   classes  of  machines 

have  been  published,  as  the  results  of  actua 

experiments.     These  apparent  contradictions 

have  doubtless  arisen  from  the  use  of  differ 

cut  materials,  and  different  lengths  of  stitches 

in  making  those  several  experiments;  since 

thin    material,  with    a    long   stitch,    wouk 

show  a  far  greater  difference,  in  the  ratio  o 

thread  used,  than  a  thick  material  with  a  shor 

stitch.     All  such  experiments  are  therefor 

unreliable;  nor  are  they  necessary,  for  th( 

actual  difference  between  two  seams  of  equM 

length,  made  on   the  same  goods  with  th 

same    thread   and   length  of  stitch,   woul 

plainly  be  just  equal  to  twice  the  length  o 

the  seam.     It  is  also  objected  to  the  double 

loop  stitch,  that  it  leaves  an  unsightly  ridg 

on  the  under  side.    To  this  it  is  replied  tha 

if  the  under  thread  is  of  the  proper  size  (lial 

that  of  tho  upper  one),  no  ridge  of  any  con 


cquence  will  be  formed.  Of  the  correctness 
r  incorrectness  of  this  explanation,  the  read- 
r  can  judge  from  the  above  diagram  of  this 
titch — which  is  an  enlarged  side  view  of  a 
earn  made  on  common  shirting  muslin,  with 

Grovcr  &  Baker  machine,  using  No.  70 
hread  above,  and  No.  140  underneath — 
hese  being  the  proper  sizes  for  such  goods. 
3y  many  persons  this  ridge  is  considered  an 
bjection  to  the  stitch.  Yet  there  can  be 
no  doubt  of  the  value  of  this  class  of  ma 
chines  for  certain  purposes ;  especially  for  all 
finds  of  work  where  great  elasticity  of  seam 
s  required.  Thus  far  we  have  described 
only  machines  using  two  threads.  It  now 
•einains  to  notice  those  of  the 

THIRD  CLASS  ; — which,  as  we  have  already 
stated,  use  only  a  single  thread,  and  make 
the  "twisted-loop  stitch."  The  fact  that 
this  stitch  requires  but  one  thread  has, 
doubtless,  led  some  to  suppose  it  identical 
with  the  old  "  chain-stitch,"  long  since  re- 
ected  as  unsuitable  for  sewing  purposes. 
They  are,  however,  distinct— as  much  so  as 
any  two  stitches  made.  In  forming  the 
twisted-loop  stitch,  each  loop  is  twisted, 
and  its  opposite  sides  crossed,  as  illustrated 
in  the  following  diagram,  No.  1 ;  while  the 
chain-stitch  loop  is  never  twisted,  but  is 


always  iu  the  position  shown  at  No.  2.  In 
the  formation  of  the  twisted-loop  stitch,  the 
"  upper  process,"  or  that  which  is  performed 
by  the  needle,  is  substantially  the  same  as  in 
the  machines  already  described.  The  feeding 
apparatus  is  the  "four-motion  feed,"  which 
is  operated  by  an  eccentric  on  the  end  of 
the  driving  shaft.  This  shaft  operates  also  the 
needle  and  the  "hook."  The  "under  process," 
or  connecting  and  fastening  of  the  stitches  on 
the  under  side  of  the  fabric,  is  wholly  unlike 
that  of  any  other  machine,  the  entire  pro 
cess  being  performed  by  a  novel  and  inge 
nious  stitch-forming  device,  called  the  "  ro 
tating  hook."  As  the  needle  begins  to  rise, 
after  having  carried  the  thread  down  through 
the  fabric,  a  loop  of  the  thread  is  thrown 
out,  just  hi  time  for  the  point  of  the  hook, 
as  it  passes  the  needle,  to  enter  the  loop. 
As  the  hook  continues  to  revolve,  it  passes 
further  and  further  into  the  loop,  enlarging 
arid  twisting  it  as  it  proceeds ;  until,  having 
made  an  entire  revolution,  the  point  of  the 


426 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


hook  arrives  again  at  the  needle,  which,  in 
the  mean  time,  has  brought  down  a  fresh 
loop;  this  new  loop  is  now  caught  by  the 
hook  and  carried  through  the  former  loop, 
which  still  remains  upon  the  hook,  spread 
open  in  the  right  position  to  receive  it.  As 
the  hook  proceeds  to  make  another  revolu 
tion,  it  soon  passes  out  of  the  old  loop,  and 
leaves  it  to  be  drawn  up,  by  the  tightening 
of  the  stitch,  into  the  seam.  This  tighten 
ing  is  effected,  partly  by  the  lifting  of  the 
needle-bar  as  it  rises  for  another  stitch  (the 
other  end  of  the  thread  being  held  by  the 
tension),  but  chiefly  by  the  peculiar  action 
of  the  hook,  as  it  enlarges  the  new  loop. 
But  it  is  the  twist  given  to  the  loop  during 
the  process  of  opening  it,  as  above  described, 
which  is  claimed  to  constitute  the  distin 
guishing  feature  of  this  stitch.  And  this  lock, 
or  twist,  being  drawn  in  below  the  surface  of 
the  fabric,  the  seam  is  left  as  smooth  on  its  un 
der  surface  as  its  upper  one ;  the  only  differ 
ence  being,  that  while  there  is  but  a  single 
line  of  thread  above,  there  is  a  double  one 
below,  the  two  being  so  closely  imbedded  in 
the  surface  of  the  goods,  as  to  present,  ex 
cept  on  a  close  inspection,  the  appearance 
of  a  single  line.  The  following  diagram  ex 
hibits  a  section  of  a  Willcox  &  Gibbs  seam, 


as  it  appears  when  completed;  the  edge  of 
the  goods  being  cut  away  to  the  stitching,  to 
show  the  course  of  the  thread  in  the  forma 
tion  of  the  scam.  It  has  been  objected  to 
the  twisted-loop-stitch,  that  it  is  not  so  reli 
able  as  one  made  with  two  threads.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  claimed  that  this  stitch  is, 
even  in  this  respect,  an  improvement  on  both 
the  lock-stitch,  and  the  double-loop  stitch 
that  the  effect  of  the  twist  in  the  loop  is  to 
produce  a  mutual  friction  or  bind  of  the  two 
opposite  sides  of  the  loop  on  each  other, 
which  actually  makes  the  seam  stronger  anc 
more  difficult  to  rip,  when  cut  and  pullec 
open,  than  any  stitch  made  with  two  threads. 
At  the  great  trial  at  Island  Park,  in  1855 
this  stitch  was  subjected  to  a  thorougl 
practical  test,  with  the  lock-stitch,  before 
a  jury  of  sewing  machine  experts.  Their 
decision  was,  that  in  every  kind  of  work, 
they  found  "  the  twisted-loop  stitch  strong 
er,  and  less  liable  to  rip,  than  the  lock 
stitch."  It  can,  however,  be  readily  taken 
out  if  desired,  after  unlocking  it ;  a  capacity 
which  is  claimed  to  be  an  advantage  in  mak 


ng  over   old   garments,    and   in    removing 
seams  that  have  been  placed  amiss. 

Another  valuable  quality  claimed  for  the 
•otating  hook  is,  the  certainty  with  which  it 
oerforms  its  work.  This  is  said  to  be  such, 
jhat  unless  the  machine  is  out  of  order,  the 
nissing  of  a  stitch  cannot  occur. 

The  rotating  hook  has  also  the  pecu- 
iar  capacity  of  fastening  off  the  seam,  auto- 
natically,  whenever  the  work  is  removed 
Voin  the  machine,  or  the  thread  is  cut  or 
Broken.  But,  perhaps  the  most  remarkable 
'eature  of  the  hook  is,  its  own  simplicity. 
While  it  performs  all  the  various  offices 
accomplished  in  two-threaded  machines,  by 
the  "bobbin" — the  "shuttle" — the  "  con- 
ave  ring" — the  "  shuttle-race  " — the  "spool 
er" — the  "  circular-needle  " — the  "spiral" 
the  "driver" — the  "  under-spool " — the 
"  spool-holder  " — the  "  uuder-tension,"  &c. 
— it  is  itself  only  a  single  piece.  I  a  fact  it 
does  not  add  so  much  as  a  unit  to  the  num 
ber  of  the  working  parts  in  the  machine ; 
for  as  it  is  permanently  attached  to  the  end 
of  the  driving  shaft,  and  revolves  with  it,  it 
is,  practically,  a  part  of  the  shaft  itself. 

The  following  description,  and  the  corre 
sponding  cuts  in  the  plates,  at  pages  417  arid 
418,  will  give  the  reader  a  general  idea  of 
the  construction  of  this  machine  : 

The  perspective  view  (fig.  l)  exhibits  the 
machine  itself,  separated  from  its  table  or 
stand.  All  the  working  parts,  underneath 
the  cloth-plate,  are  but  two  in  number — the 
" rotating-hook,"  B,  and  the  "feed"  appara 
tus,  which  is  situated  just  behind  it;  these5 
parts  are  covered,  when  the  machine  is  HI 
use,  by  the  hinged  cap,  A,  which,  in  the  cut, 
is  turned  down  to  expose  the  hook  and  feed, 
The  length  of  the  stitch  is  regulated  by  the 
lever ^  G;  and  the  cloth-presser,  a,  is  raised 
from  the  plate  by  the  cam,  H.  The  ma 
chine  is  fastened  upon  the  table  (fig.  2)  by  a 
thumb-screw  from  the  under  side.  It  is 
driven  by  a  round,  leather  belt,  C.  The  ten 
sion  on  the  thread  is  produced  by  passing  it 
between  two  polished,  glass  washers,  F, 
which  are  fitted  on  a  screw  spindle,  and 
pressed  together  by  a  spring,  the  pressure  of 
which  is  regulated  by  turning  the  screw. 
The  balance-wheel  is  prevented  from  turning 
in  the  wrong  direction,  or  wearing  the  dress 
of  the  operator,  by  a  patented  improvement, 
shown  in  fig.  2 ;  in  which  A  is  the  wheel,  C 
the  dress  guard,  B  a  part  of  the  stand,  or 
table  frame  to  which  the  guard  is  fastened, 
and  D  a  rubber  ball,  which  fits  loosely  in  a 


WILLCOX  &  GIBBS  SEWING  MACHINE. 


Willcox  &  Uibbs  Machine,  without  Table. 


IsTo.  2  Machine. 


Xo.  4.— Half-Case  Machine,  closed. 


WILLCOX  &  GIBBS  SEWING  MACHINE. 


Nos.  5  &  6. 
Half-Case  Machine,  open. 


— Cabinet  Machine,  open. 


SEWING    MACHINES. 


427 


recess  in  the  guard,  and  is  kept,  by  its  own 
gravity,  in  contact  with  the  rim  of  the  Avheel, 
between  which  and  the  recess  it  wedges 
when  any  attempt  is  made  to  turn  the  wheel 
backward.  The  needle  (fig.  5),  which,  with 
the  manner  of  setting  it,  is  patented,  is  made 
self-adjusting,  by  means  of  a  groove  in  its 
shank,  which  matches  Avith  a  spline,  or  steel 
rib,  situated  within  the  tubular  cavity  or 
hole  in  the  loAver  end  of  the  needle-bar,  D ; 
so  that  it  is  impossible  to  set  the  needle  in 
any  but  the  right  position  ;  and  as  the 
needles  are  all  of  precisely  the  same  length, 
when  it  is  pushed  to  the  upper  extremity  of 
the  hole  and  secured  by  the  nut,  E,  it  is  sure 
to  be  adjusted  properly. 

This  improvement,  in  the  manner  of  set 
ting  and  fastening  the  needle,  is  one  of  much 
practical  importance,  especially  in  a  sewing 
machine  for  general  family  use.  In  all  other 
machines  the  needle  is  fastened  by  means 
of  a  set-screw  (or  other  device  producing 
the  same  result),  Avhich  presses  against 
the  shank  of  the  needle  only  at  a  single 
point,  while  the  bearing  against  the  back 
side  of  the  shank  is  equal  to  its  entire  length. 
In  this  mode  of  fastening,  which  is  repre 
sented  in  the  following  cut,  the  needle  is 
liable,  \vhen  first  set,  to  stand 
aslant,  as  indicated  by  the  dotted 
lines,  b  and  c  ;  in  which  case  it 
is  necessary  for  the  operator  to 
spring  or  bend  the  needle,  until 
it  stands  in  its  proper  position,  as 
seen  at  a.  This  is  a  difficult  pro 
cess,  and  often  occasions  much 
trouble,  especially  with  beginners. 
But  in  the  Willcox  <fc  Gibbs  ma 
chine,  this  trouble  is  avoided ; 
since,  in  fastening  its  needle,  the 
shank  is  compressed  by  means  of 
the  concentric  nut,  on  all  sides 
alike  ;  and  consequently,  the 
point  of  the  needle,  when  fast 
ened,  is  certain  to  be  in  its 
proper  place — as  seen  at  a.  The 
Wi  Icox  it  Gibbs  needle  is  also  unlike  any 
oth  r,  in  having  a  much  shorter  blade — as 
seen  in  the  cut  above,  which  exhibits  a 
needle  of  each  of  the  five  leading  machines; 
each  needle  being  of  the  size  ordinarily  used 
for  common  muslin, — and  the  illustration 
being  in  each  case  exact,  in  size  and  form. 
Of  these,  No.  1  is  the  Singer  needle ;  No.  2, 
Wheeler  &  Wilson;  No.^3,  Howe;  No.  4, 
Grover  &  Baker;  and  No.  5,  Willcox  & 
Gibbs. 


The  hemmer  (fig.  3),  and  filler  (fig.  4), 
which  are  also  patented,  turn  the  hem  or  fell 
to  the  under  side,  so  that  the  stitch  is  on  the 
right  side  of  the  goods — which  is  not  the 
case  in  the  hemming  or  felling  done  on  other 
machines.  They  are  also  self-adjusting;  are 
easily  operated ;  make  the  hem  or  fell  of  any 
desired  width ;  and  do  their  work  in  a  very 
perfect  manner. 

The  groove  in  the  cloth-presser,  at  a,  is 
the  braider,  by  means  of  which  braiding  is 
done  of  any  desired  pattern  ;  and  the  braider, 
being  a  part  of  the  machine,  is  always  ad 
justed,  and  ready  for  use.  This  machine 
has  also  several  other  adjuncts  which  are  not 
represented  in  the  plate ;  as  the  quilter, 
corder,  and  tucker, — all  of  which  are  patent 
ed  improvements,  of  recent  introduction. 

The  machine  runs  very  easily,  is  almost 
entirely  noiseless,  and  all  its  movements  be 
ing  rotary  and  positive,  it  runs  faster,  and  is 
said  to  wear  longer  and 'cost  less  for  re 
pairs,  than  any  other  yet  introduced.  The 
Elm  City  Company  of  New  Haven  have  run 
a  large  number  of  these  machines  by  steam 
power,  in  the  manufacture  of  stitched  ruf 
fling,  working  double  time  (20  hours  a  day), 
at  a  speed  of  more  than  3,000  stitches  per 
minute. 

Although  the  Willcox  &  Gibbs  is  o^fFered 
only  as  a  family  machine,  and  no  effort 
has  been  made  to  introduce  it  for  manufac 
turing  purposes,  it  has  already  found  its  way 
into  manufacturing  establishments,  in  the 
various  departments  of  industry— especially 
in  the  manufacture  of  shirts  and  collars,  and 
other  descriptions  of  ladies'  and  gents'  fur 
nishing  goods ;  in  hat  and  cap  trimming, 
finishing  hosiery  work,  <fcc. 


428 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


The  success  of  this  machine,  commer 
cially,  affords  evidence  of  the  appreciation 
of  its  merits  by  the  public.  In  the  number 
of  machines  already  made  and  sold,  the 
Willcox  &  Gibbs  is  second  only  to  the 
Wheeler  &  Wilson,  Singer,  and  Grover  & 
Baker.  Although  it  is,  comparatively,  a  new 
machine,  having  been  in  the  market  scarcely 
eight  years — and  not  prominently  so  more 
than  four  or  five — upwards  of  55,000  of  the 
machines  have  already  been  made  and  sold ; 
a  number  nearly  twice  as  large  as  any  other 
company  sold  in  the  same  number  of  its 
earliest  years.  Till  recently  this  machine  was 
manufactured  by  Jas.  Willcox,  then  sole  pro 
prietor;  but  the  business  has  now  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  Willcox  &  Gibbs 
Sewing  Machine  Company — a  new  stock 
company  of  half  a  million  dollars  capital, 
organized  within  the  past  year — of  which 
Mr.  Willcox  is  President.  The  principal 
office  and  salesroom  of  this  company  is  at 
No.  508  Broadway,  New  York. 

The  warehouses  for  the  sale  of  sewing- 
machines,  now  quite  numerous,  are  to  be 


found  principally  on  Broadway.  Several  of 
these  are  constructed  in  the  newest  style  of 
warehouse  splendor,  and  combine,  in  an  emi 
nent  degree,  ornament  with  convenience. 
That  of  the  Wheeler  &  Wilson  Co.,  at  No. 
625  Broadway,  is  the  largest  and  most  costly 
structure  of  the  kind  in  the  world.  The 
Singer  establishment,  on  the  corner  of  Broad 
way  and  Grand  Street,  and  that  of  the  Howe 
Co.,  at  No.  699  Broadway,  are  also  capa 
cious  and  elegant  structures.  The  preceding 
cut  represents  a  front  view  of  the  salesrooms 
of  the  Grover  &  Baker  Co.,  at  No.  495 
Broadway.  The  depth  of  the  lower  room 
is  nearly  100  feet,  arid  the  front  is  almost 
entirely  of  glass.  On  this  long  floor,  richly 
carpeted,  the  machines  are  displayed,  and 
inspected  by  the  purchaser,  to  whom  in 
struction  is  given  in  the.  inner  rooms. 

It  is  conceivable  that,  when  the  fact  came 
to  be  clearly  established  that  machines  would 
do  good  and  strong  sewing,  and  with  a  speed 
so  much  greater  than  hand  sewing,  every 
branch  of  industry  in  which  the  needle  is 
used  began  to  introduce  and  adapt  the 
machines  to  its  own  exigencies.  It  was 
soon  found  that  some  machines  were  better 
adapted  than  others  to  particular  labors. 
The  clothing  business,  which  has  become  so 
important  as  a  new  branch  of  industry  in 
the  last  25  years,  found-  a  powerful  auxiliary 
in  the  sewing  machine,  and  great  numbers 
are  used  in  it,  mostly  Singer's.  For  shirt 
and  collar  making,  and  most  other  light 
manufacturing  purposes,  Wheeler  &  Wil 
son's  is  used  much  more  extensively  than 
any  other.  For  bag-making,  seaming  knit 
fabrics,  and  other  work  where  great  elas 
ticity  of  seam  is  necessary,  the  Grover  & 
Baker  is  chiefly  used;  although  the  Willcox 
&  Gibbs  is  also  much  used  for  this  purpose. 
The  Howe  machine,  as  now  made,  takes  the 
lead  for  light  leather  work,  and  competes 
strongly  with  Singer's  in  tailoring  and  lea 
ther  work  of  the  heavier  grades.  For 
family  use,  nearly  every  kind  has  been  re 
commended,  and,  to  greater  or  less  extent, 
sold ;  the  most  popular  for  this  purpose, 
until  recently,  being  the  Wheeler  &  Wilson, 
and  next,  the  Grover  &  Baker;  but'  of  late 
the  Willcox  &  Gibbs — on  account  of  its 
greater  simplicity,  ease  of  working  and  man 
agement,  and  non-liability  to  get  out  of 
order,  adapting  it  more  perfectly  to  all  kinds 
of  work  and  to  all  capacities — though  a  later 
invention,  is  taking  the  lead  for  domestic 
use. 


SEWING    MACHINES. 


The  activity  which  has  been  imparted  to 
the  use  of  sewing  machines  may  be  inferred 
from  the  fact  that  the  number  of  machines 
made  and  sold  under  Howe's  patent,  up  to 
and  inclusive  of  1866,  is  over  700,000,  the 
proportions  being,  in  round  numbers,  as  fol 
lows  : — 

Wheeler  &  Wilson  Co 250,000 

Singer  Co 160,000 

Grover  &  Baker  Co 140,000 

Willcox  &  Gibbs  Co.  (since  May,  1859) 55,000 

Howe 40,000 

All  others 65,000 


710,000 

The  number  of  sewing  machines  made  and 
sold  under  Howe's  patent,  during  the  year 
1866,  and  during  the  last  quarter  of  said  year, 
as  appears  from  the  license  returns,  was  as  fol 
lows  : —  t 

Last  quarter.  Year  1866. 

Wheeler  &  Wilson  Co.* 13,579  . .  47,125 

SmgerCo 14,164  ..  36,2.4)5 

Grover  &  Baker  Co 8,776  . .  28,186 

Willcox  &  Gibbs  Co 5,180  ..  15,028 

Howe .2,820  ..  10,251 

All  others 7,680  ..  27,673 


52,199      ..    164,498 

Sales  have  also  been  made  of  a  great  num 
ber  of  infringing  machines,  of  inferior  char 
acter  and  imperfectly  made,  that  would  not 
do  the  work  promised.  The  number  of 
these  now  made  is,  however,  very  small;  and 
the  manner  in  which  all  sewing  machines 
are  now  got  up  is  much  more  perfect  than 
formerly.  Great  preparations  have  been 
made  by  the  leading  firms  to  meet  the 
growing  demand.  One  manufactory,  that 
of  the  Wheeler  &  Wilson  Co.,  at  Bridgeport, 
Conn.,  is  said  to  contain  four  acres  of  floor 
ing;  and  another  company  boasts  of  its 
ability  to  supply  170,000  machines  annually. 
Since  the  extension  of  his  patent  in  1860, 
Mr.  Howe  has  erected  at  Bridgeport  a  very 
extensive  and  complete  establishment,  for 
the  manufacture  of  his  machines.  The 
Grover  &  Baker  Company  have  an  estab 
lishment  nearly  as  large,  at  Boston,  Mass. ; 
and  the  S.inger  Manufacturing  Company  have 
theirs  in  New  York.  The  manufactory  of 
the  Willcox  &  Gibbs  Company,  at  Provi-. 
dence,  R.  I.,  though  not  as  extensive  as  those 
above  named,  is  capable  of  turning  out  a 
very  large  number  of  machines.  This  estab 
lishment  is  distinguished  for  the  complcte- 

*  Wheeler  &  Wilson's  returns  include  tho  Elliptic 
machine. 


ness  and  perfection  of  its  machinery,  and  the 
superior  character  of  the  work  sent  out. 
These  several  establishments  so  nearly  resem 
ble  each  other  in  character  and  general  ar 
rangements,  and  in  the  process  of  building 
the  machines,  that  a  description  of  one  will 
serve  for  all.  The  following  is  a  sketch  of 
the  Singer  establishment : 

The  main  building  is  of  iron  and  brick, 
six  stories  high  above  ground,  with  a  cellar 
and  sub-cellar  underneath.  The  length  of 
the  front  is  100  feet,  with  an  extension  of 
about  60  feet  at  the  south  end.  The  depth 
of  the  main  building  is  60  feet,  but  an 
addition  to  the  rear  causes  the  premises 
used  as  a  foundry  to  reach  through  to  Eliza 
beth  Street.  The  main  edifice  is  now  ex 
tended  to  Broome  Street,  making  its  entii'e 
length  250  feet.  The  floors  are  of  wood ; 
but  the  pillars,  beams,  girders,  and  stairs  are 
of  iron ;  while  the  ceiling  to  each  floor  is 
arched  with  brick,  making  the  whole  con 
cern  fire-proof. 

Entering  by  the  front  door,  we  find  a  neat 
business  office  to  the  left,  beyond  which  is 
the  stock  room,  occuping  nearly  all  the 
first  floor. 

In  the   adjoining  wing  is  the  blacksmith- 
shop,   with   its  forges,  drop-hammers,  trip 
hammers,   <kc.     This  apartment,  well  venti- 
ated  and  lighted,  has  from  twenty  to  twenty- 
ive    men    constantly    at    work.      Here   are 
'abricated    the  shuttles,   feed-hammers,  and 
other  light  parts  of  the  machine,  made  of 
the     best   bar  steel.      The   shuttle  is  a    lit 
tle   canoe-shaped    vessel,  from  one  to   three 
nches  long,  as  bright  and  smooth  as  a  new 
)in.     A  die  of  the  proper  size  and  shape  is 
placed  on  the  block  under  the  drop-press, 
which  is  made  to  fall  with  a  blow  of  250 
rounds   upon    the    heated    steel,   when  the 
shuttle    is    substantially   formed,    requiring 
only  to  be  polished  with  the  file  to  be  ready 
or  use.     The  next  process  is  annealing  the 
articles  turned  out  from  the  forges,  in  order 
o  soften  the  metal  sufficiently  to  bear  ham 
mering   and   filing.     For  this  purpose  they 
re  packed  between  layers  of  charcoal  in  a 
trong  iron  box,  which 'is  shut  up  in  the  an 
nealing  furnace  for  about  two  days.     This 
done,  they  are  passed  through  the  trimmino-- 
)ress,  an  instrument  which  cuts  off  all  flanges 
r  excrescences  that  may  have  been  made 
mder  the  drop-press.     Some  pieces  require 
o   be    dressed    on    the    planing-machine ; 
>thers  to  be  turned  in  the  lathes,  or  filed  in 
ho  vices. 


430 


INDIVIDUAL    INDUSTRIES. 


Passing  down  one  flight  of  stairs,  we 
enter  the  foundry,  which  not  only  extends 
all  the  way  under  the  main  building,  but  has 
offshoots  in  two  other  directions,  its  entire 
area  being  nearly  half  an  acre.  So  much 
crowded,  however,  was  this  department  that 
a  separate  foundry  had  to  be  established  up 
town,  where  a  portion  of  the  work  is  now 
turned  out.  The  engine,  having  a  capacity 
of  eighty-horse  power,  occupies  a  separate 
apartment  in  the  basement. 

The  sub-cellar  is  devoted  to  cleaning  the 
castings,  which  is  done  by  the  ordinary 
mode  of  immersing  them  in  diluted  sulphuric 
acid,  and  afterward  scraping  off,  or  by 
placing  them  in  a  large  cylinder,  with  several 
hundred  weight  of  metal  stars.  The  cylin 
der  is  then  made  to  revolve  rapidly,  expos 
ing  every  part  of  the  surface  of  each  casting 
to  a  constant  attrition  from  the  stars,  by 
which  it  comes  out  in  time  smooth  and 
shining,  as  if  it  had  been  filed.  In  the 
foundry  about  eighty  employes  are  at  work. 
The  average  weekly  wages  of  journeymen, 
including  some  over-time,  is  between  $20 
and  $22. 

On  the  second  floor,  the  machine  properly 
takes  its  rise.  Here  its  heavy  parts  are 
planed,  bored,  grooved,  and  otherwise  pre 
pared  for  the  adjusting  room.  About  one 
hundred  machines,  planers,  lathes,  milling, 
slotting,  grooving,  screwing,  <fec. — are  run 
ning — while  the  hundred  workers  behind 
them  arc  so  actively  engaged  that  they  have 
no  time  to  bestow  upon  the  stranger.  In 
every  sewing  machine  are  nearly  one  hun 
dred  pieces,  independent  of  the  wood-work, 
some  of  the  pieces  having  ten  or  a  dozen 
faces.  It  is  essential  that  part  shall  fit  part 
so  accurately  as  to  occasion  neither  jolt  nor 
jar  afterward,  or  delay  in  adjusting,  when 
the  whole  instrument  is  put  together.  Hun 
dreds  of  openings  of  all  sizes  have  to  be 
drilled  and  reamed  out;  yet  so  nicely  that 
none  shall  vary  a  hair's-breadth  from-  the 
true  line.  Grooves  have  to  be  excavated — 
often  one  below  another.  Bolts,  nuts,  turn- 
screws,  have  to  be  turned  and  milled,  in 
many  cases  undergoing  half  a  dozen  opera 
tions  at  the  hands  of  a  single  workman. 

The  third  floor  differs  little  in  appearance 
or  use  from  the  second,  except  that  it  is  ap 
propriated  to  the  smaller  parts  of  the  instru 
ment,  the  infinitesimal  screws  and  bolts,  the 
needle-bars,  &c.  In  this  apartment  arc  fifty 
milling  machines,  twenty  lathes,  and  eight 
gear  cutters ;  the  number  of  men  and  boys 


at  work  is  about  sixty.  The  scale  of  wages 
ranges  from  $4.50  for  boys,  te  $25  per  week 
for  the  best  mechanics. 

Room  number  four  is  the  adjusting  or 
finishing  room,  into  which  all  the  parts  are 
brought  to  be  put  together.  The  instru 
ment,  however,  is  recognized  as  a  machine, 
after  the  table  and  arm  have  been  bolted  to 
gether,  which  is  done  on  the  second  floor. 
The  quantity  of  machinery  there  is  incon 
siderable,  as  compared  with  the  lower  apart 
ments,  the  work  being  mostly  of  a  kind  that 
must  be  done  by  hand.  The  number  of  em 
ployes  is  about  85. 

Room  number  five  is  the  japanning  room, 
and  shows  the  effects  of  the  operations  car 
ried  on,  the  roof  being  in  places  a  rich  am 
ber  color,  which  deepens  into  a  dark  .or 
brownish  green.  Japanning  is  an  art  of 
comparatively  recent  introduction  into  this 
country ;  but  it  has  already  attained  a  high 
degree  of  excellence.  A  coating  of  it  be 
comes  apparently  as  hard  as  the  metal  on 
which  it  is  laid.  We  can  describe  it  only 
in  brief.  The  liquid,  composed  of  oil,  tur 
pentine,  and  gum  asphaltum,  is  applied  by  a 
brush  to  the  metal,  and  the  article  is  then 
put  into  a  kiln  or  furnace,  a  fire-proof  build 
ing,  heated  to  a  temperature  350  degrees 
Fahrenheit.  After  baking  about  eight  hours, 
it  becomes  smooth  and  hard,  and  h  taken 
out.  But  previous  to  this  operation,  if  the 
machine  is  to  be  a  fancy  one  for  family  use, 
is  that  of  pearling,  for  which  purpose  the 
delicate  green  snail  shells  are  sawn  into  thin 
layers,  and,  by  means  of  a  punch  and  dies, 
cut  into  any  desirable  sizes  or  figures.  These 
are  applied  by  hand  to  the  margin  and  cen 
ter  of  the  table,  making  a  border  and  center 
of  flowers,  which  are  laid  on  before  entering 
the  kiln. 

Plain  machines  receive  three  coatings  and 
bakings,  after  which  the  black  surface  is 
rubbed  smooth  and  light  with  pumice  or 
rotten  stone.  The  pearl  machines,  after  be 
ing  baked,  are  scraped  along  their  margins 
and  centers,  so  as  to  expose  the  face  of 
the  pearl,  which  is  then  even  with  the 
surrounding  surface.  The  operation  next 
in  order  is  to  apply  gold-leaf,  for  which 
purpose  a  line  of  asphaltum  is  traced  on  the 
table  with  a  pencil,  of  any  required  design. 
Gold-leaf  is  applied  to  the  entire  surface, 
and  afterward  rubbed  off  with  wet  cotton 
waste.  To  the  line  traced  as  above  de 
scribed,  the  gold  adheres.  The  cotton,  thus 
saturated  with  "  the  king  of  metals,"  is  care- 


SEWING    MACHINES. 


431 


fully  preserved  and  made  to  yield  up  its 
treasure.  On  the  plainer  instruments,  gold 
is  not  applied,  but  a  substance  known  as 
"  German  metal."  In  this  department  are  32 
finishers  and  laborers.  First-class  ornament- 
ors  can  readily  command  $30  per  week. 

The  sixth  floor,  which  is  next  the  roof,  is  the 
department  for  making  and  fitting  a  variety 
of  small  work,  namely,  the  springs,  gauges, 
needle-bars,  &c.  The  number  of  employes 
there  is  eighty.  There  are  several  screwing 
machines,  with  revolving  heads,  at  work. 
The  close,  delicate-fitting  work  is  done  here; 
though  the  body  of  the  machine  is  put  to 
gether  on  the  fourth  floor.  In  an  adjoining 
room  the  emery  wheels  are  hard  at  work, 
emitting  their  streams  of  fire,  and  imparting 
an  exquisite  polish  to  various  parts  of  the 
machine.  The  number  of  steel  springs 
made  and  polished  every  week  is  about 
12,000.  The  number  of  employes  in  all 
departments  is  783.  The  amount  of  a 
week's  pay-roll  was  $9,700. 
1  Two  kinds  of  machines  are  made,  "  the 
Standard,"  or  "  Manufacturing,"  and  the 
"Family  Machine;"  also  a  Machine  for 
making  button-holes. 

The  Spring  Street  branch  comprises  two 
floors  in  a  large  building,  both  being  used  in 
making  needles.  Hence,  it  is  sometimes 
termed  "  the  needle  department."  The 
number  of  hands  employed  is  about  seventy, 
who  turn  out,  on  the  average,  50,000 
needles  every  week.  About  twenty-five  of 
the  employes  arc  women  and  girls.  The 
needles  are  made  of  the  best  quality  of 
steel  wire,  some  of  it  costing  $4  or  $5  per 
pound.  The  first  operation  is  to  straighten 
it  by  removing  all  twists  or  kinks.  The  ap 
paratus  used  had  to  be  invented  for  the  pur 
pose.  After  cutting  the  wire  into  lengths, 
the  needles  are  grooved  on  both  sides  by 
means  of  a  revolving  circular  saw,  the  fine 
teeth  of  which  gnaw  into  the  side  of  the 
needle  as  it  moves  forward.  Of  course,  it 
is  a  delicate  piece  of  work ;  but  there  is 
hardly  ever  an  instance  of  failure.  One  man 
is  able  to  attend  half  a  dozen  of  the  saws, 
each  cutting  2,500  per  day. 

The  needle  is  next  taken  to  the  eyeing 
machine,  where  the  eye  is  punched  by  means 
of  a  lever  worked  by  hand.  The  attendant, 
if  excelling,  will  punch  8,000  in  a  single  day. 
After  punching,  the  eye  is  drilled  out  by 
another  delicate  device.  The  speed  here 
attained  is  less  than  at  punching,  a  good 
day's  work  being  2,500.  The  needles  are 


then  tempered  and  pointed  in  rows  of  six  at 
a  time,  the  grinding  being  done  on  a  wet 
stone.  From  this  they  pass  to  the  polish- 
ing-roll,  a  round  revolving  bar,  overlaid  with 
a  composition,  in  which  grooves  have  been 
sunk  corresponding  to  the  sizes  of  needles. 
This  done,  they  are  put  up  into  bundles  and 
sent  off"  to  their  destination. 


MILLS, 

THE  universal  dependence  of  the  human 
family  upon  bread  as  food,  has  no  doubt 
caused  that  article  to  be  aptly  designated 
as  the  "  staff  of  life."  It  lias  been  made  of 
many  substances,  but  in  the  American  colo 
nies,  from  the  earliest  times,  Indian  corn, 
wheat,  and  rye  have  been  the  leading  if  not 
the  only  materials.  The  laborers  of  Europe 
have  only  since  comparatively  recent  dates 
used  grain  commonly  for  bread.  The  pea 
sants  of  the  south  of  France  for  long  ages 
used  only  chestnuts  and  similar  fruits  for  the 
purpose.  In  Germany,  rye  forms  the  na 
tive  "  black  bread"  made  of  the  grain 
ground  but  unbolted.  The  Scotch  use  oat 
meal  and  barley  for  bread.  The  English 
use  wheat  commonly,  as  is  the  case  now 
mostly  in  America.  Here,  however,  the 
variety  and  abundance  of  animal  and  other 
food  is  so  great  that  wheaten  bread  enters 
less  into  the  daily  diet  of  the  masses  than 
would  otherwise  be  the  case.  Whatever 
the  grain  used,  however,  milling  is  the  first 
necessity,  and  the  number  and  capacity  of 
the  mills  must  always  be  proportioned  to 
the  numbers  of  the  people.  In  a  country 
like  this,  where  they  multiply  so  fast,  the 
investments  in  mill  property  must  keep  pace 
with  the  swelling  numbers  of  the  people. 
We  find,  therefore,  in  the  returns  of  the 
manufacturing  industry  of  the  Union  for 
1850,  published  by  order  of  Congress,  that  of 
the  whole  value  produced,  $1,019,106,616, 
by  far  the  largest  item  was  the  products  of 
flour  and  grist  mills.  This  amounted  to 
$136,056,736,  or  rather  more  than  13  per 
cent.  Next  to  this  industry,  the  highest 
production  was  of  cottons,  the  most  general 
material  for  clothing,  and  that  product 
reached  $65,501,687.  The  largest  mill  in 
terest  was  in  the  state  of  New  York,  where 
.the  product  was  $33,037,021.  The  census 


432 


INDIVIDUAL     INDUSTRIES. 


of  1840  gave  the  number  of  flour  mills  in 
•the  Union  for  that  year,  and  if  we  compare 
the  population  and  crop  of  wheat  as  report 
ed,  with  the  number  of  flour  mills,  the  re 
sults  are  as  follows : — 


1840  . . 
1850  . . , 

18GO  .. 


Population. 

17,069,453 

23,191,877 
31,443,322 


"Wheat  raised. 
Bush. 

84,833,272 
100,485,944 
170,170,027 


No.  of  Flour 
Mills. 

4,364 
11,891 
13,868 


In  order  to  get  the  quantity  of  wheat 
floured,  it  is  necessary  to  deduct  from  this 
production  the  quantity  reserved  for  seed, 
and  the  quantity  exported  as  grain. 

From  the  earliest  settlement  of  the  coun 
try,  flour  has  been  an  important  article  of 
export,  and  New  York  wheat  early  gained 
a  reputation  as  well  abroad  as  at  home. 
During  the  wars  of  Napoleon,  the  valley  .of 
the  Hudson  furnished  large  supplies  of  flour, 
and  milling  was  a  very  profitable  business. 
Water-power  was  generally  used.  Mills  con 
centrated  where  this  was  to  be  had  advan 
tageously  in  the  neighborhood  of  good  sup 
plies  of  wheat.  The  mills  of  Rochester,  New 
York,  where  the  famous  Genesee  wheat  is 
floured,  are  a  grand  example  of  well-applied 
Avater  power.  The  Baltimore  and  Richmond 
city  mills  acquired  great  reputation,  and  of 
late  years  the  settlement  of  the  western 
country  has  caused  St.  Louis  to  become  the 
central  point  of  a  vast  region,  and  magnifi 
cent  mills  are  there  constructed.  The  mills 
at  Louisville  arc  also  on  a  grand  scale.  One 
of  those  mills,  as  an  illustration,  erected  at 
a  cost  of  $85,000,  has  four  run  of  stones  of 
a  capacity  of  1500  bushels  of  wheat  daily. 
The  mill  is  situated  at  the  falls  of  the  Ohio, 
just  where  thcv  dash  through  the  Indiana 
chute.  The  mill-race,  excavated  in  the  solid 
limestone,  involved  a  large  expenditure  of 
time  and  money.  The  wheels  are  con 
structed  on  a  new  principle,  being  similar 
to  the  submerged  propellers  used  in  war 
steamers,  and  working  an  immense  upright 
shaft,  the  base  of  which  is  sunk  fifteen  feet 
in  the  solid  rock.  This  shaft  drives  the 
entire  machinery  of  the  mill  with  irresistible 
power  and  the  regularity  of  clock-work. 
Almost  every  state  abounds  in  valuable  mill 
sites  that  furnish  the  power  for  flouring  the 
grain  of  the  several  districts  for  local  use. 
Steam  plays,  however,  an  important  part  as 
a  motor  for  supplying  flour  for  export.  The 
ordinary  operation  of  grinding  has  been  by 
two  millstones  of  some  4  to  C  inches  in  dia 


meter,  average  weight  14  cwt.  The  surfaces 
are  dressed,  and  the  lower  one  fixed,  the 
upper  one  revolving  with  an  immense  velo 
city,  generally  120.  revolutions  per.  minute. 
The  wheat  being  fed  in  through  an  aperture, 
is  ground  between  the  revolving  and  fixed 
surfaces  of  the  stones.  It  is  obvious  that 
the  great  weight  of  the  revolving  stone,  the 
speed  at  which  it  moves,  and  the  friction 
caused  by  the  interposition  of  so  glutinous 
a  substance  as  wheat,  involves  the  expendi 
ture  of  vast  power  to  sustain  the  action.  A 
single  pair  of  stones  requires  a  four-horse 
power  to  keep  up  the  required  motion.  In 
this  mode  of  grinding  between  such  extended 
surfaces,  the  flour  does  not  escape  so  readily 
as  desirable,  and  becomes  somewhat  dete 
riorated  by  continuous  retrituration.  There 
have  been  many  improvements  introduced 
in  the  form  of  mills.  One  of  the  most  suc 
cessful  seems  to  have  been  to  give  the  stones 
a  conical  form.  In  this  improvement,  the 
weight  of  the  running  stone  is  reduced  from 
14  cwt.  to  l£  cwt.,  and  it  is  placed  beneath 
the  fixed  stone ;  the  size  of  both  is  reduced 
to  one-third,  and  they  have  the  form  of  a 
frustum  of  a  cane.  It  is  obvious  that  a  mass 
of  14  cwt.,  revolving  over  a  surface,  is  not 
susceptible  of  the  same  delicacy  of  adjust 
ment  as  one  of  l£  cwt.  revolving  under  the 
fixed  surface,  and  the  miller  has  a  much 
easier  and  more  effective  control  over  the 
most  important  portion  of  his  operations. 
The  conical  form  facilitates  the  discharge 
of  the  flour,  and  obviates  the  clogging  and 
overheating  of  the  flat  stones.  By  a  judicious 
combination  of  this  mill  with  the  dressing 
machine,  a  perfect  separation  of  the  flour 
from  the  bran  is  effected  at  the  moment  the 
grist  escapes  from  the  stones.  The  bran 
still  remains  in  the  mill,  and  falls  by  its  own 
gravity  to  a  second  pair  of  stones  in  all 
respects  like  the  first  pair.  Both  pairs,  being 
mounted  on  the  same  spindle,  are  impelled 
by  the  same  gearing.  The  lower  pair  com 
plete  the  process,  and  leave  nothing  uncon 
verted  into  flour  that  will  -add  either  to  the 
weight  or  the  quality  of  the  Joaf. 

The  capital  invested  in  flour  mills  in  the 
whole  country  was  in  1860  given  at  $84,- 
585,004,  and  the  production  $248,580,365. 
The  quantity  of  flour  exported  in  1860  was 
somewhat  over  three  millions  of  barrels. 
To  supply  this,  and  the  wants  of  a  popu 
lation  amounting  to  fully  32,000,000,  the 
quantity  floured  was  about  35,500,000  bar 
rels. 


MUSICAL  INSTRUMENTS. 


PASSING  over  the  class  of  band  instru 
ments,  the  violin  and  its  congeners,  the  flute, 
guitar  and  harp,  all  of  which,  though  manu 
factured  here,  are  substantially  the  same  as 
European  instruments,  and  none  of  them 
have  been  materially  improved,  we  have 
only  space  to  speak  of  the  piano  and  the 
class  of  reed  instruments.  The  church  or 
gan  might  indeed  challenge  our  attention, 
but  this  has  only  kept  pace  with  the  foreign 
instrument  in  its  improvements. 

The  PIANO  has  been  improved  in  compass, 
tone  and  ability  to  imitate  the  musical  sounds 
of  the  human  voice,  during  the  past  eighty 
years,  more  than  any  other  musical  instru 
ment  ;  and  most  of  these  improvements  have 
originated  in  the  United  States.  The  instru 
ment  in  its  earliest  form,  dates  back  only  to 
1757,  and  as  late  as  1823  was  still  a  very 
imperfect,  wiry -toned  affah,  tolerated  but 
not  admired.  Considerable  numbers  of  the 
English  and  French  pianos  were  imported 
in  the  early  part  of  this  century,  though  at 
tempts  were  made  at  manufacturing  pianos 
here,  by  Osborn,  by  J.  Thurston,  and  by 
Stodart,  from  the  London  house  of  that 
name.  In  1823,  Jonas  Chickering,  a  young 
mechanic  from  New  Hampshire,  commenced 
their  manufacture  in  Boston,  and  possess 
ing  mechanical  ingenuity  as  well  as  musical 
skill,  he  soon  began  to  improve  the  instru 
ment.  He  made  the  entire  frame  of  iron,  in 
order  to  enable  it  to  resist  the  better  the  im 
mense  strain  of  the  tense  strings,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  increase  the  resonance  and  purity 
of  its  tones.  He  also  devised  the  "  circular" 
scale"  with  the  "arch-wrest  planks"  or 
"tuning  blocks ;"  both  these  improvements 
were  speedily  adopted  by  other  manufac 
turers  in  Europe  and  America.  He  also  made 
numerous  improvements  in  minor  details, 
which  resulted  in  rendering  his  instruments 
equal  to  any  in  the  world.  Other  manufactu 
rers  have  also  made  important  improvements, 
within  the  last  20  or  25  years,  in  the  instru 
ment.  Among  these  have  been  the  ^Eolian  at- 
'.achment  of  Obed  Colcman  ;  the  adoption  by 
several  manufacturers  of  the  over-strung  bass 
in  square  pianos ;  the  bedding  or  insulation 
of  the  iron  frame  by  Mr.  F.  C.  Lirhto :  the 


use  of  soft  elastic  washers  to  soften  the  tone, 
by  the  same  manufacturer;  the  double 
sounding-board  of  Mr.  S.  B.  Driggs,  intend 
ed  to  increase  the  volume  and  sweetness  of 
the  tones  of  the  instrument;  the  patent 
combination  sounding-board  of  Messrs.  Raven 
&  Bacon,  and  the  cycloid  form  of  the  piano 
of  Messrs.  Lindernann  &  Sons,  having  the 
same  purpose.  Messrs.  Steinway  &  Sons 
have  applied  the  patent  Agraffe  arrangement 
directly  to  the  full  iron  frame,  and  have  also 
obviated  the  difficulties  which  had  been  ex 
perienced  in  the  construction  of  the  upright 
piano,  by  their  patent  resonator,  and  double 
iron  frame.  Their  instruments  took  the 
highest  premium  over  the  competing  pianos 
of  the  best  manufacturers  of  Europe,  at  the 
International  Exhibition  in  London,  in  1862. 
Both  their  instruments  and  Chickerings  have 
a  very  high  reputation  in  Europe,  and  are 
largely  exported  thither,  while  the  importa 
tion  of  pianos  has  ceased.  The  Chickerings 
have  made  over  30,000  pianos,  a  larger 
number  than  any  other  manufacturers.  The 
entire  production  of  these  instruments  is 
probably  not  far  from  25,000  per  annum. 

KEED     INSTRUMENTS. 

THESE  are  all  the  inventions  of  the  present 
century.  The  first  use  of  metallic  reeds  (vi 
brating  tongues  of  metal),  for  musical  pur 
poses,  in  Europe  or  America,  was  the  Eolo- 
dicon  of  Eschenberg,  of  Bohemia,  invented 
about  GO  years  ago.  This  was  followed,  in 
1821,  by  the  accordeon,  which,  whether  of 
small  or  large  size,  was  little  more  than  a  mu 
sical  toy.  The  rocking  melodeon,  as  at  first 
constructed,  was  only  an  amplification  of  this, 
and  as  in  the  English  and  French  melodcons, 
the  air  was  forced  outward  through  the 
reeds,  in  order  to  produce  musical  sounds. 
The  reeds,  moved  by  this  forced  current, 
frequently  caught,  or  did  not  vibrate  prompt 
ly,  especially  the  highest  and  lowest  notes. 
About  the  year  1840,  some  of  the  rocking  or 
lap  melodeons,  constructed  by  several  manu 
facturers  on  an  improved  plan,  gained  consid 
erable  reputation.  The  reeds  of  these  were 
fastened  to,  and  vibrated  in,  a  small  square 


434 


MUSICAL    INSTRUMENTS. 


metallic  pipe,  which  was  inserted  through  the 
top  of  the  wind-chest,  with  the  points  of  the 
reeds  downward,  the  rear  ends  of  the  keys 
resting  on  the  open  ends  of  the  metallic  pipes, 
and  thus  forming  the  valves.  About  1840, 
another  improvement  was  adopted  in  the  lap 
melodeons,  which  gave  them  a  better  charac 
ter  of  tone,  and  contributed  to  their  intro 
duction  as  accompaniments  to  church  music. 
The  reeds  were  riveted  upon  a  piece  of  brass 
svvcdged  or  bent  so  as  to  form  three  sides  of 
a  square,  the  edges  of  which  were  then  in 
serted  in  grooves  made  for  them  upon  the  up 
per  side  of  the  wind-chest,  directly  over  the 
valve  mortice ;  and,  in  order  to  bring  the  point 
of  the  reed  to  vibrate  on  the  inside,  the  reeis 
were  made  to  pass  through  their  sockets  to 
the  under  side,  and  thus  naturally  took 
the  form  of  a  double  curve,  somewhat  re 
sembling  the  letter  S.  This  curving  the 
reeds  improved  the  tone,  and  on  this  ac 
count  was  adopted  by  most  of  the  American 
manufacturers,  though  liable  to  the  objec 
tion  of  retarding  the  promptness  of  the  re 
sponse  of  the  reeds. 

In  1846,  Mr.  Jeremiah  Carhart  secured  a 
patent  for  a  certain  construction  of  bellows, 
with  other  combinations,  to  operate  the 
reeds  by  suction  or  drawing  in,  instead  of 
forcing  out  the  air,  since  known  as  "the 
exhaust  plan."  This  invention  gave  to 
these  instruments  an  improved  quality  of 
tone,  greater  durability,  more  simplicity  of 
construction,  increased  promptness  of  utter 
ance,  uniformity  of  tones,  and  an  equal 
distribution  of  power  through  the  entire 
scale.  The  melodeons  made  on  this  plan 
by  Carhart,  and  subsequently  by  Prince  & 
Co.,  were  at  first  small,  of  only  one  size, 
hairing  but  four  octaves  of  reeds,  and  ex 
tremely  plain  in  style.  After  two  or  three 
years,  they  were  increased  in  size,  extended 
to  4i  and  5  octaves,  and  had  two  sets  of 
reeds.  This  was  about  the  utmost  compass 
possible  for  the  melodeon.  Another  improve 
ment,  made  about  1849,  was  the  change  of 
form  of  the  bellows,  the  exhauster  being  placed 
on  the  upper  side  of  the  reed-board,  instead 
of  underneath  the  bellows  ;  this  enabled  the 
performer  to  operate  the  bellows  more  easily. 
The  tones  of  the  instrument  still  lacked  soft 
ness  and  sweetness.  This  difficulty  was  reme 
died,  in  1849,  by  a  discovery  made  by  Mr. 
Emmons  llamlin,  now  of  Mason  &  Ilamlin,  but 
then  with  Prince  &  Co.  He  found  that,  by 
slightly  twisting  each  of  the  already  curved 


reeds,  this  harshness  was  overcome,  and  the 
tones  rendered  soft  and  musical. 

In  1855,  the  firm  of  Mason  &  Hamlin, 
formed  the  previous  year,  offered  to  the  pub 
lic  their  "  Organ  Harmonium"  an  instrument 
having  4  sets  of  reeds  and  two  manuals  of 
keys.  The  reeds  extended  from  ccc  in  the 
"  bourdon  "  to  c'""  in  alt,  or  seven  octaves. 
Two  blow-pedals  were  also  attached  to  it, 
which  enabled  the  performer  to  produce  ef 
fects  not  hitherto  attained  by  any  reed  instru 
ment  in  this  country.  In  1861,  after  numerous 
experiments,  Messrs.  Mason  &  Hamlin  suc 
ceeded  in  perfecting  their  "  School  Harmo 
nium"  simplifying  the  construction,  but  re 
taining  all  the  good  features  of  the  larger  in 
strument.  In  this  instrument,  the  bellows 
was  first  placed  vertically.  This  and  the  other 
improvements  were  soon  after  adapted  to 
the  organ  harmonium,  which  thenceforward 
became  capable  of  receiving  a  more  elegant 
form,  and,  in  1862,  was  brought  out  in  its 
present  shape,  as  the  "Cabinet  Organ" 
Its  history  since  that  time  has  been  one  of 
constant  improvement,  by  which  its  compass, 
variety  and  sweetness  of  tone  have  been  en 
hanced,  while  its  rapidity  of  action  enables 
it  to  render  secular  music  with  fine  effect, 
and  to  become  a  formidable  rival  of  the 
piano.  Of  these  improvements,  the  chief 
are,  the  Double  Bellows;  the  improved 
Self-adjusting  Reed  Valves  ;  the  Automatic 
Bellows  Swell,  an  addition  of  great  practi 
cal  value ;  the  Sounding  and  Tube  Boards, 
which  increase  the  resonance  of  its  tones ; 
the  Noiseless  Safety  Valves,  regulating  the 
pressure  and  escape  of  the  wind;  and  the 
Improved  Combination  Register,  which  facili 
tates  the  drawing  and  closing  of  the  stops. 

The  Cabinet  Organ  is  the  most  perfect  of 
the  reed-instruments,  but  the  melodeons, 
harmoniums,  and  Cottage,  Gem  and  Monitor 
organs,  which  have  preceded  it,  or  are  now 
made  by  other  manufacturers,  though  in 
ferior  to  it  in  sweetness  of  tone,  resonance, 
variety  and  rapidity  of  execution,  are  yet 
much  superior  to  the  English,  French  or 
German  instruments,  none  of  which  .are  con 
structed  on  the  "  exhaust  plan."  During 
the  year  ending  November  1,  1866,  the  in 
ternal  revenue  taxes  paid  by  the  manu 
facturers  of  reed  instruments  in  the  United 
States,  on  their  sales,  were  a  little  more  than 
$80,000,  indicating  a  manufacture  of  the 
value  of  $1,600,000.  Of  this  $80,000,  Mason 
&  Hamlin  paid  about  $21,000. 


HUMANITARIAN  AND  CORRECTIVE  INSTITUTIONS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PRISONS  AND  PRISON  DISCIPLINE. 

THE  idea  of  imprisonment,  as  a  punish 
ment  for  crime,  though  less  than  a  hundred 
years  old  in  this  country,  seems  to  have  oc 
curred  to  our  law-makers  sooner  than  to 
those  of  most  of  the  states  of  Europe.  In 
the  early  history  of  the  colonies,  however, 
the  prison  was  seldom  used,  except  as  a  place 
of  detention  for  debtors,  for  those  arrested 
but  not  yet  tried,  and  for  criminals  awaiting 
the  infliction  of  the  death  penalty.  Death, 
under  the  code  of  most  of  the  colonies, 
which  was  based  upon  that  of  Great  Brit 
ain,  was  the  penalty  of  a  great  number  of  of 
fences,  not  less  than  a  hundred  and  fifteen  in 
one  of  the  states ;  while  for  minor  crimes 
and  misdemeanors,  the  pillory,  the  stocks, 
whipping  at  the  whipping-post,  branding, 
cropping,  slitting  the  nostrils,  wearing  the 
halter,  and  banishment,  were  the  usual  pun 
ishments. 

Very  soon  after  the  Revolution,  however, 
the  penal  code  was  revised  in  a  spirit  of  hu 
manity  in  most  of  the -states,  the  number 
of  capital  offences  greatly  diminished,  the 
indignities  to  the  person  either  abolished  or 
(with  the  exception  of  one  or  two  states) 
greatly  mitigated,  and  imprisonment  substi 
tuted  for  the  death  penally,  as  well  as  in  a 
milder  form  for  various  punishments  of  a 
personal  character,  and  for  heavy  fines. 

The  prison  was  not  at  this  time  by  any 
means  a  model  institution.  The  worst  crim 
inals  were  often  herded  together,  and  fight 
ing,  blasphemy,  drunkenness,  and  obscenity 
made  their  dens  (for  really  they  were  nothing 
more)  perfectly  hideous.  Often,  too,  young 
and  innocent  persons,  unjustly  accused  of 
crime  or  detained  as  witnesses,  were  com 
pelled  to  endure  the  society  of  the  most  de 
praved  wretches,  and  the  young  man  or 
young  woman  who  entered  the  prison  with 
no  evil  habits,  after  a  few  weeks'  stay  there 
emerged  with  tainted  morals  and  thoroughly 


educated  for  a  life  of  crime.  In  one  state 
(Connecticut)  an  old  abandoned  Coppermine 
was  fitted  up  as  a  convict  prison,  arid  in  its 
dark,  damp  shafts  and  galleries,  into  which 
the  light  of  day  never  penetrated,  criminals 
were  Confined  till  in  many  cases  its  •poison 
ous  air  and  the  dampness  of  its  walls  put  an 
end  to  their  existence. 

Pennsylvania  having  been  the  first  state 
in  the  Union  to  ameliorate  her  penal  code, 
was  also  the  first  to  attempt  an  improvement 
in  her  convict  prisons.  In  1786,  the  Wal 
nut  Street  Prison  was  erected  on  the  solitary, 
plan,  with  thirty  cells.  The  convicts  were 
confined  in  a  cell  larger  than  that  generally 
in  use  in  prisons,  and  here  they  remained! 
without  work  or  books,  or  the  opportunity 
of  seeing  a  human  face  or  hearing  a  human, 
voice.  The  men  who  advised  the  adoption 
of  this  plan  were  really  humane  men,  who 
had  from  motives  of  philanthropy  urged  and 
effected  the  abolition  of  the  death  penal 
ty  for  many  of  the  crimes  for  which  it  had 
hitherto  been  inflicted,  but  they  did  not  un 
derstand  how  terrible  a  system  of  torture 
they  were  establishing,  in  inaugurating  this 
solitary  plan.  To  have  no  occupation,  no 
recreation  or  relief,  nothing  to  do  but  to 
think,  think,  year  after  year ;  to  be  deprived, 
too,  of  all  communication  with  friends,  of 
all  religious  instruction,  of  all  opportunity 
of  reading  the  Bible,  or  any  other  boot,, 
was  a  torture  so  refined  and  dreadful  that 
it  was  deserving  of  being  ranked  u;ith  the- 
rack,  the  boot,  and  the  thumbscrew,  of  the 
Inquisition. 

The  effects  of  this  system  of  pumishnieiiit 
in  producing  insanity  and  fatuity,,  though 
obviously  to  us  inherent  in  the  system  it 
self,  were  attributed  at  first  by  its .  atlvov 
cates  to  the  limited  scale  on  which,  it  was 
tried,  and  certain  defects  in  the  methods  o£ 
construction  and  arrangement ;  and,  it  was 
insisted  that  if  tried  on  a  larger  scale  and 
with  the  modifications  suggested  by  experi 
ence,  it  would  be  found  the.  best  plan  for^a 


436 


HUMANITARIAN    AND    CORRECTIVE    INSTITUTIONS. 


prison.  The  citizens  of  Pennsylvania  have 
teen  wont  to  deliberate  for  some  time  on 
the  best  plan  for  conducting  public  insti 
tutions,  whether  corrective  or  humane,  but 
when  their  minds  have. once  become  settled 
in  regard  to  them,  they  lave  never  hesitated 
on  the  ground  of  the  expense  of  the  meas 
ures  they  deemed  necessary.  It  was  so  in 
this  case.  Two  .convict  prisons  were  need 
ed  in  the  state,  one  to  take  the  place  of  the 
miserably  arranged  and  managed  one  at 
Philadelphia,  the  other  to  accommodate 
the  convict  population  of  the  rapidly  grow 
ing  western  counties.  The  latter,  since 
known  as  the  Western  Penitentiary  of 
Pennsylvania,  was  first  completed.  It  was 
located  at  Pittsburg,  and  was  finished  and 
occupied  in  1826.  The  Eastern  Peniten 
tiary,  located  at  Cherry  Hill,  near  Philadel 
phia,  was  not  completed  till  1829.  Mean 
time,  the  experiment  of  the  solitary  plan 
had  been  tried,  though  under  very  unfavor 
able  circumstances,  in  several  other  states. 
A  narrow  and  miserable  economy  htad  pre 
vented  such  a  construction  of  the  cells  as 
•wa^  tolerable;  and  the  plan  of  strictly  soli 
tary  confinement,  bad  enough  at  the  best, 
became  utterly  unendurable  and  was  aban 
doned. 

In  Maine,  one  of  the  states  which  tried 
ttie  experiment,  the  cells  were  in  the  form 
of  pits,  entered  through  a  trap  door,  made 
of  an  open  grate  of  iron,  about  two  feet 
square — serving  the  double  purpose  of  a 
door  and  a  window.  The  only  ventilation 
•was  through  a  crooked  orifice  in  the  side 
wall,  one  and  a  half  by  five  inches,  and  all 
the  heat  they  had,  in  a  stern  northern  win 
ter,  was  by  the  admission  of  warm  air 
through  a  hole  in  the  bottom  of  the  cell 
about  one  inch  in  diameter.  The  cells  or 
pits  were  entered  by  raising  the  trap  door, 
putting  down  a  ladder  for  the  convict  to 
4escend,  and  then  drawing  up  the  ladder 
sa&d  fastening  the  door  upon  him. 

The  Auburn  (New  York)  State  Prison,  also 
(Commenced  on  this  system,  carried  it  out 
'with  great  rigor,  in  small,  inadequate,  and  ill 
Teniilated  cells,  and,  as  was  to  be  expected, 
produced  the  most  disastrous  effects  on  the 
health  and  reason  of  the  convicts  subjected 
to  it,  and  in  1821  it  was  definitively  aban- 
•doned. 

The  New  Jersey  Prison,  though  construct 
ed  on  the  same  plan,  was  better  arranged, 
and  the  rigor  of  its  regime  was  soon  modi 
fied.  At  the  time  of  erecting1  the  two 


Pennsylvania  penitentiaries,  opportunity  for 
observation  had  been  afforded,  and  the  intel 
ligent  and  thoughtful  friends  of  prison  re 
form  in  the  state,  though  not  disposed  to 
give  up  the  idea  of  separating  convicts  from 
any  association  with  each  other,  yet  saw 
the  necessity  of  some  modifications  of  the 
solitary  system.  The  changes  they  initiated 
justified  the  change  of  name  they  applied 
to  the  system,  and  both  in  England  and  this 
country  it  has  since  been  known  as  the 
separate  system.  The  expenditure  for  per 
fecting  the  penitentiary  buildings  for  the 
purpose  designed  was  liberal,  almost  lavish. 
Each  prisoner  has  a  cell,  seven  feet  by  sev 
enteen,  or  thereabouts,  of  good  height,  and 
well  warmed  and  ventilated,  and  supplied 
with  water  for  washing,  a  water  closet,  a 
good  bed,  books,  and  the  implements  of 
some  kind  of  labor.  There  is  also  an  ar 
rangement,  by  means  of  which,  in  case  of 
sickness,  neglect,  or  the  want  of  any  article, 
he  can  call  his  keeper  to  his  cell.  These 
cells  arc  so  arranged  as  to  prevent  the  possi 
bility  of  communication  between  one  con 
vict  and  another,  or  the  sight  of  one  convict 
by  another.  The  convict  is  visited  by  the 
warden,  the  keeper,  and  the  moral  instruct 
or,  and  is  allowed  to  receive  the  visits  of 
those  who  are  interested  in  his  moral  and  re 
ligious  welfare.  On  the  Sabbath,  religious 
worship  is  conducted  in  the  corridor,  and 
all  who  have  cells  on  that  corridor  can 
listen  to  it,  and,  if  they  please,  join  in  the 
hymns  or  prayers. 

The  revulsion  of  feeling  caused  by  the 
cruelty  of  the  solitary  system,  led  many  of 
the  states,  and  prominently  among  them 
New  York  and  the  New  England  states,  to 
adopt  a  widely  different  system,  first  em 
ployed  in  this  country  at  Auburn  in  1821 
(though  it  had  previously  been  tried  in  Hol 
land),  and  hence  often  called  the  Auburn 
plan  •  a  more  appropriate  name  would  be 
cither  the  congregated  or  the  silent  system, 
as  expressive  of  its  peculiar  features. 

Prisons  constructed  on  this  system  have 
small  cells,  usually  five  by  eight  feet  in 
size,  with  iron  grated  doors,  arranged  in 
tiers  over  each  other,  in  which  the  prison 
ers  are  confined  at  night,  at  meal  times,  and 
on  the  Sabbath,  except  during  short  relig 
ious  exercises  in  the  chapel.  Attached  to 
the  prison  and  within  its  enclosure  are  ex 
tensive  workshops,  to  and  from  which  the 
men  are  marched  three  times  a  day,  keep 
ing  the  lock-step,  and  in  which  they  are  em- 


PRISONS    AND    PRISON    DISCIPLINE. 


437 


ployed  during  the  day,  their  services  being 
usually  let  to  contractors  at  so  much  per 
head  a  day,  the  contractor  furnishing  tools 
and  machinery,  and  the  state,  rooms,  power, 
and  the  board  and  clothing  of  the  convict. 
The  prisoner  is  prohibited  from  looking  up 
from  his  work,  or  speaking  to  a  fellow-con 
vict,  or  to  his  instructor  (the  contractor's 
agent)  except  about  his  work ;  nor  is  the 
instructor  or  the  keeper  allowed  to  converse 
with  him.  There  is  usually  a  sermon,  and 
perhaps  also  a  Sabbath  School  on  the  Sab 
bath,  and  the  chaplain  or  moral  instructor 
is  also  allowed  intercourse  with  the  prisoners 
during  the  week;  and  in  some  prisons  there 
are  libraries,  and  the  chaplain  selects  and 
exchanges  the  books  for  the  prisoners. 

On  one  or  the  other  of  these  plans,  the 
separate  or  the  silent,  or  on  some  attempted 
combination  of  the  two,  all  the  convict  pris 
ons  of  this  country  are  organized.  Neither 
plan  is  free  from  objections,  while  both  have 
also  their  advantages. 

The  separate  system  individualizes  the 
convict;  prevents  his  recognition  by  or 
communication  with  other  evil  disposed 
persons  who  may  be  in  prison  at  the  same 
time  ;  renders  a  large  armed  force  of  guards 
unnecessary,  since  combinations  and  con 
spiracies  are  impossible ;  makes  his  reforma 
tion  more  practicable,  since  he  is  only  in 
communication  with  the  good  and  virtuous, 
and  is  left  for  the  most  part  to  his  own 
thoughts,  unprompted  to  evil  by  the  sight 
of,  or  association  with  the  vicious ;  and  he 
is  not  liable,  except  under  extraordinary 
circumstances,  to  those  severe  personal  pun 
ishments,  by  the  lash,  the  bolt-shower-bath, 
bucking,  etc.,  which  arc  regarded  as  indis 
pensable  in  the  silent  system,  and  conse 
quently  escapes  their  degrading  effect.  It 
was  for  many  years  claimed  that  the  sepa 
rate  system  induced  insanity  and  materially 
shortened  life ;  but  the  statistics  of  the 
Pennsylvania  prisons,  for  a  considerable 
term  of  years,  as  compared  with  the  best 
congregated  prisons  in  this  country,  demon 
strated  the  error -of  this  opinion.  Insanity 
is  much  less  frequent  than  in  the  Auburn  or 
the  Connecticut  prisons,  which  have  been 
reckoned  the  most  favorable  examples  of 
the  latter,  and  the  percentage  of  deaths  is 
also  smaller. 

The  objections  to  the  separate  system 
are,  the  much  greater  cost  of  the  prison 
buildings,  the  comparative  unproductiveness 
of  the  labor  of  the  prisoners  (the  result  of 


their  working  alone),  and  the  general  weak 
ening  of  the  character  of  the  convict,  mak 
ing  him  after  his  discharge  rather  depend 
ent  upon  others  for  guidance  than  inde 
pendent  and  self-reliant  in  his  conduct. 

The  silent  system  demands  a  much  less 
costly  structure  for  its  inmates,  and  while 
the  per  capita  cost  of  their  maintenance 
and  safe  keeping,  owing  to  the  greater  ex 
penditure  for  guards  and  watchmen,  is  about 
the  same,  the  labor  when  well  (i.  e.  econom 
ically)  managed,  is  considerably  more  pro 
ductive.  No  separate  prison  has ,  ever  yet 
paid  its  way,  while  some  of  the  congregated 
prisons  have  done  so,  for  a  time,  at  least. 

This  fact  has  exerted  an  unwarrantable 
influence  over  the  legislatures  of  the  dif 
ferent  states,  who  seem  to  have  forgotten, 
or  never  to  have  realized,  that  the  design  of 
imprisonment  was  to  reform  as  well  as  to 
punish,  and  only  to  have  inquired  which 
system  would  pay  the  most  immediate  prof 
it  to  the  state,  without  reference  to  its  effect 
upon  the  prisoner. 

The  objections  to.  the  silent  system  are, 
that  it  deals  with  the  men  in  the  mass,  rath 
er  than  as  individuals  ;  that  it  is  impossible 
under  it  to  prevent  the  convicts  from  com 
municating  with  each  other,  and  that  from 
their  knowledge  of  each  other  they  are  less 
likely  to  be  reformed,  inasmuch  as,  after 
their  discharge,  the  more  hardened  will 
exert  an  evil  influence  over  those  who  de 
sire  to  reform ;  that  conspiracies  and  com 
binations  are  not  infrequent ;  that  extreme 
severity  on  the  part  of  the  wardens  and 
keepers  is  rendered  almost  inevitable,  and 
degrading  punishments  are  frequent ;  that 
the  almost  unlimited  and  irresponsible  pow 
er,  necessarily  reposed  in  the  officers,  is  very 
liable  to  abuse ;  and  that  the  constant  irri 
tation  of  mind  under  which  many  of  the 
prisoners  labor,  stimulated,  as  it  often  is,  by 
their  overseers  or  companions,  is  very  unfa 
vorable  to  reformation. 

When  we  add,  that  in  nearly  all  of  the 
states  the  pardoning  power  is  exercised  with 
very  little  discretion,  and  often  with  great 
injustice,  and  that  the  appointment  of  the 
officers  of  the  prisons  is  generally  among 
the  prizes  of  the  successful  political  par 
ty,  and  that  party  services,  not  eminent 
qualifications,  are  the  ground  on  which  the 
posts  are  claimed,  it  will  be  evident  that 
the  system  is  not  usually  so  well  adminis 
tered  as  it  might  be. 

There  are,  indeed,  in  nearly  all  the  states, 


438 


HUMANITARIAN    AND    CORRECTIVE    INSTITUTIONS. 


state  prison  directors,  or  inspectors,  whose 
duty  it  is  to  investigate  the  condition  of 
the  prisons  and  the  management  of  the  offi 
cers,  and  redress  any  wrongs  or  grievances 
of  the  prisoners ;  but  in  the  nature  of  the 
case  they  can  learn  but  little  except  what 
the  officers  are  disposed  to  have  them  know, 
and  in  many  cases  cruel  and  inhuman  beat 
ings,  and  the  use  of  the  bolt-shower-bath, 
one  of  the  most  terrible  instruments  of  tor 
ture  ever  invented,  the  yoke,  and  other 
punishments  worthy  only  of  the  Inquisition, 
fall  to  the  lot  of  the  nrihappy  prisoner,  often 
at  the  mere  caprice  of  the  keeper. 

In  Massachusetts,  and  perhaps  in  one  or 
two  other  states,  the  plan  has  recently  been 
adopted  of  commutation,  or  of  throwing  oft" 
a  certain  number  of  days,  proportioned  to 
the  length  of  the  sentence,  from  its  term, 
for  each  month  of  good  conduct  on  the  part 
of  the  prisoner.  Thus  a  prisoner  sentenced 
for  ten  years,  commutes  five  days  for  each 
month  of  good  behavior,  and  may  shorten 
his  sentence  almost  two  years,  if  his  conduct 
is  uniformly  good.  The  intention  of  the 
measure  is  good,  but  there  are  two  serious 
objections  to  it :  one,  that  as  a  reformatory 
measure  it  is  of  little  avail,  since  it  is  often 
the  case  that  the  sly,  cunning  rogue,  who  is 
constantly  on  his  guard,  is  more  likely  to 
conform  to  the  rules,  in  the  hope  of  the 
sooner  resuming  his  career  of  wickedness, 
than  the  man  who,  though  earnestly  desir 
ous  of  reformation,  is  passionate  and  sensi 
tive  to  harsh  treatment ;  and  the  other,  that 
the  personal  prejudices  or  spites  of  the 
keepers  will  often  make  this  an  engine  of 
punishment,  to  the  unhappy  wretch  who 
has  incurred  their  displeasure. 

A  better  plan,  in  every  respect,  is  that 
adopted  in  Ireland,  of  intermediate  prisons. 
The  ordinary  prisons  of  Ireland  are  on  the 
separate  plan,  and  the  prisoner  sentenced  to 
one  of  them  for,  say  ten  years,  earns  the 
privilege,  if  he  will,  by  continuous  good 
conduct,  of  being  transferred  at  the  end  of 
six  years  to  an  intermediate  prison,  usually 
connected  with  some  government  works, 
where  the  men  work  in  gangs;  and  if  his 
conduct  continues  exemplary  there,  he  is 
discharged  at  the  end  ot  a  year  and  a  half, 
by  a  ticket  of  license,  allowing  him  to  be  at 
large,  he  reporting  himself  to  the  constabu 
lary  station  nearest  him,  and  being  there  reg 
istered,  the  constabulary  being  notified  also 
of  his  having  received  a  ticket  of  license, 
by  the  prison  authorities.  During  the  re 


mainder  of  his  sentence  he  is  under  the 
surveillance  of  the  constabulary  force ;  and 
if  guilty  of  any  offence  against  the  laws,  can 
be  taken  at  once  and  remanded  without 
trial  to  his  first  prison,  to  serve  out  the  re 
mainder  of  his  sentence.  The  plan  works 
admirably  there,  and  would,  we  think,  do  so 
here  if  the  difficulty  in  regard  to  police  su 
pervision  could  be  obviated. 

Great  Britain  and  Germany  are  greatly  in 
advance  of  us  in  the  matter  of  prison  dis 
cipline.  Eminent  men  are  devoting  their 
whole  thoughts  and  time  to  the  work  of  de 
vising  the  best  means  of  combining  punish 
ment  most  effectually  with  reformation,  and 
the  government,  wisely  deeming  the  men 
worth  reforming  at  any  cost,  spares  no  ex 
pense  to  carry  into  effect  the  best  methods. 
In  both  countries,  too,  every  officer,  even 
down  to  the  lowest  subordinate,  is  trained 
for  his  work,  and  is  selected  for  his  moral 
worth  and  executive  ability,  and  not  as  a  re 
ward  of  partisan  service. 

Besides  the  convict  prison,  already  de 
scribed,  of  which  there  is  one  in  each  state, 
and  in  the  larger  two  or  three,  there  is  in 
each  county  (with  a  few  exceptions  where 
several  small  counties  have  united  in  sup 
porting  a  district  prison)  a  county  jail,  to 
which  persons  arrested  on  a  charge  of 
crime  are  committed  previous  to  trial,  in 
which  witnesses  who  would  be  liable  to  ab 
scond  are  detained,  and  persons  convicted 
of  habitual  intemperance  and  vagrancy,  pet 
ty  larceny,  and  other  crimes  of  a  venial 
character,  are  confined.  To  these  county 
jails  are  also  committed  prisoners  convicted 
in  the  United  States  courts,  in  many  cases, 
and  juvenile  delinquents  awaiting  trial  or 
transportation  to  a  reformatory.  In  most 
cases,  there  are  one  or  more  apartments 
destined  for  the  confinement  of  those  ar 
rested  on  civil  process,  and  known  as  the 
debtors'  prison. 

These  jails,  when  located  in  the  large 
towns,  or  in  populous  and  wealthy  counties, 
especially  if  recently  erected,  are  usually 
built  substantially  on  the  plan  of  the  silent 
convict  prisons,  but  the  rule  of  silence  is 
not  so  strictly  adhered  to.  Each  prisoner 
has  a  cell  to  himself,  but  the  able-bodied  are 
employed  in  the  day  time  in  the  Avorkshops 
connected  with  the  prison,  or  in  other  work, 
under  the  direction  of  the  jailer  or  his  dep 
uty.  The  sentences  being  in  the  majority 
of  cases  short,  and  the  prisoners  in  many  in 
stances '  confirmed  drunkards,  or  otherwise 


PRISONS   AND    PRISON    DISCIPLINE. 


439 


physically  infirm,  the  labor  is  seldom  or 
never  sufficient  to  defray  the  cost  of  the 
prisoner's  maintenance. 

The  greater  part  of  the  jails  throughout 
the  country  are,  however,  inferior  to  these, 
and  are  rather  calculated  to  demoralize 
than  to  reform  their  inmates.  Unseemly 
and  ill-constructed  buildings,  often  erected 
originally  for  some  other  purpose,  and  at  all 
events  poorly  adapted  to  this,  ill  ventilated 
and  frequently  filthy,  congregating  the  pris 
oners,  whether  convicted  for  crime,  awaiting 
trial,  or  detained  as  witnesses,  in  one  or  two 
rooms,  where  they  remain  night  and  day, 
the  vicious  polluting  the  minds  and  deprav 
ing  the  tastes  of  the  innocent,  by  their  blas 
phemy  and  obscenity,  and  their  boasting 
over  the  crimes  they  have  committed ; 
drunkenness  and  pilfering  practised  un 
checked,  or  at  least  with  but  partial  re 
straint  ;  and  in  many  cases,  the  jailer,  a  ra 
pacious,  greedy  cormorant,  selected  in  con 
sequence  of  party  service,  and  without  any 
qualifications  of  humanity  or  moral  princi 
ple  for  his  post;  all  these  together  consti 
tute  a  scene  so  forbidding,  that  it  is  wonder 
ful  that  it  should  be  tolerated  in  an  intelli 
gent  and  enlightened  community.  It  is 
certainly  desirable  that  in  counties  where 
the  population  is  so  sparse  and  the  number 
of  criminals  so  small  as  to  make  the  burden 
of  erecting  and  maintaining  a  good  and  well- 
regulated  county  jail  too  heavy  for  a  single 
county,  several  adjacent  counties  should 
unite  and  establish  a  district  prison,  where 
those  improvements  can  be  adopted  which 
shall  prevent  it  from  becoming  a  source  of 
moral  corruption,  and  over  which  a  man 
thoroughly  qualified  for  his  position  may  be 
placed. 

In  the  large  cities  there  are  other  prisons 
deserving  of  notice.  The  large  number  of 
offenders,  as  well  as  the  different  authorities 
by  which  they  are  committed,  render  a  clas 
sification  of  the  prisons  necessary.  There 
are,  then,  in  most  of  the  large  cities,  peni 
tentiaries,  or  prisons  to  which  persons  guilty 
of  minor  crimes  are  sentenced  for  periods 
from  one  month  to  two  years,  and  where 
they  are  usually  employed  in  labor  during 
their  period  of  imprisonment.  In  these, 
there  are  usually  separate  buildings  for  male 
and  female  prisoners.  There  are  also  city  or 
police' prisons,  to  which  parties  arrested  by 
the  police  are  committed  for  safe  keeping 
till  tried,  and  in  which,  if  their  offence  is 
trivial,  they  pass  their  brief  term  of  impris 


onment.  To  these  prisons  are  also  commit 
ted  prisoners  convicted  of  capital  offences, 
and  awaiting  execution,  or  those  who  having 
been  convicted  of  state  prison  offences,  are 
not  yet  sent  to  the  convict  prisons ;  or  hav 
ing  appealed,  await  the  result  of  their  ap 
peal.  United  States  prisoners  are  also  con 
fined  here.  Besides  these,  there  are  prisons 
for  persons  arrested  on  civil  process,  gener 
ally  known  as  debtors'  prisons,  though  debt 
ors  are  not  imprisoned  in  most  of  the  states, 
except  on  the  charge  of  fraudulent  conduct ; 
there  are  also  houses  of  detention,  for  wit 
nesses  ;  and  workhouses,  or  houses  of  correc 
tion,  for  able-bodied  vagrants.  Under  the 
general  head  of  education,  we  have  spoken 
of  the  houses  of  reformation  for  juvenile  de 
linquents,  which  partake  somewhat  of  a 
penal  character,  though  having  for  their 
main  object  the  reformation  of  the  youthful 
offender. 

The  condition  of  many  of  these  institu 
tions  is  very  far  from  what  it  should  be, 
though  the  sums  expended  upon  them  by 
the  city  authorities  have  been  amply  suffi 
cient  to  make  them  model  institutions,  if 
money  alone  could  accomplish  that  end. 
Many  of  them  are  of  bad  construction,  but 
the  great  want  in  most  of  them  is  of  capa 
ble,  upright,  humane,  judicious  keepers — a 
want  never  to  be  fully  remedied  till  the  ap 
pointments  are  made  on  the  ground  of  com 
petency  for  the  position,  alone,  without  ref 
erence  to  political  opinions. 

There  are,  however,  a  few  of  the  peni 
tentiaries,  and  prominent  among  them  the 
Albany  (New  York)  Penitentiary,  where  the 
prison  has  been  constructed  under  the  super 
vision  and  direction  of  men  of  large  expe 
rience  on  the  subject  of  prison  discipline, 
and  where  the  officers  employed  have  been 
selected  solely  on  the  ground  of  their  adap 
tation  to  their  several  positions.  In  these 
institutions,  the  prisoners  have  been  treated 
as  human  beings,  and  not  being  deprived  of 
all  hope  or  self-respect,  a  large  proportion 
of  them  have  thoroughly  reformed,  and  on 
their  restoration  to  society  have  proved 
themselves  good  citizens. 

The  improvements  in  the  construction  of 
prisons,  as  well  as  in  their  discipline  and 
management,  are  due  in  a  great  degree  to 
the  unwearied  labors  of  the  late  "  Boston 
Prison  Discipline  Society,"  founded  in 
1826,  the  "  Philadelphia  Society  for  allevia 
ting  the  miseries  of  Public  Prisons,"  found 
ed  in  1787,  and  the  "New  York  Prison 


HUMANITARIAN    AND    CORRECTIVE    INSTITUTIONS. 


Association,"  founded  in  1846.  These  socie 
ties,  though  the  first  two  were  engaged  for 
years  in  a  most  acrimonious  discussion  of  the 
comparative  merits  of  the  separate  and  silent 
systems,  have  yet  diffused  much  valuable  in 
formation  on  the  subject  of  prison  manage 
ment.  For  fifteen  years  past  the  Philadel 
phia  society  has  published  a  quarterly  Jour 
nal  of  Prison  Discipline,  containing  articles 
of  great  value  and  importance.  The  Phila 
delphia  association  has  a  visiting  committee 
who  visit  regularly  and  frequently  the  pris 
oners  of  the  Eastern  Penitentiary  and  of 
the  city  prisons,  and  instruct  and  encourage 
them  in  their  efforts  to  reform.  Efforts  are 
also  made  to  protect  those  who  are  unjustly 
accused,  and  to  save  from  prison  the  young 
who  are  novices  in  crime  or  dupes  of  the 
designing.  This  work  was  originated  and 
successfully  carried  on  in  that  city  for  many 
years  by  the  late  Isaac  T.  Hopper,  a  mem 
ber  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  who  subse 
quently  removed  to  New  York,  and  there 
was  the  means  of  organizing  the  New  York 
Prison  Association.  The  reports  of  this 
association  are  very  valuable  and  interest 
ing,  and  throw  much  light  on  the  causes  of 
crime  and  the  most  effectual  means  of  re 
pressing  it,  as  well  as  on  the  statistics  of 
crime  both  in  the  state  of  New  York  and 
in  other  states  and  countries.  The  associa 
tion  has  authority  from  the  legislature  to 
visit,  inspect,  and  report  upon  the  condition 
of  the  convict  and  county  prisons  through 
out  the  state,  and  by  its  reports  has  aided 
greatly  in  improving  the  condition  and  con 
struction  of  the  latter.  It  employs  a  general 
agent,  who  visits  the  city  prisons,  and  pro 
cures  the  release  of  the  innocent  and  friend 
less,  and  the  suspension  of  judgment  and 
discharge  of  those  who,  having  committed 
trivial  offences,  give  evidence  of  sincere  re 
pentance,  and  a  determination  to  do  better 
in  future.  The  same  agent  also  aids  dis 
charged  prisoners  who  are  desirous  of  lead 
ing  correct  lives,  furnishing  them,  where 
necessary,  with  clothing  and  a  small  sum 
of  money,  and  finding  them  employment. 

There  is  also  a  Women's  Prison  Associa 
tion  in  New  York,  formerly  connected  with 
the  New  York  Prison  Association,  which 
now  maintains,  at  191  Tenth  avenue,  a  re 
fuge  for  discharged  female  prisoners,  called 
the  "  Isaac  T.  Hopper  Home."  Here  121 
females  were  received  last  year,  on  their 
discharge  from  prison,  and  53  provided 
with  good  situations,  15  discharged,  and  the 


remainder  retained  at  the  Home.  The  effect 
of  this  institution  in  reforming  this  class 
of  women  has  been  excellent.  Similar  in 
stitutions  exist  in  Boston,  Baltimore,  and 
other  cities.  In  Boston,  a  philanthropic 
gentleman,  Rev.  Mr.  Spear,  has  established 
a  monthly  journal,  called  the  Prisoner's 
Friend,  for  the  benefit  of  this  unhappy  class, 
and  the  promotion  of  measures  for  their  im 
provement. 


CHAPTER  II. 
HOSPITALS  FOR  THE   INSANE. 

THE  condition  of  the  insane  in  all  civil 
ized  countries  has  become,  within  the  last 
seventy  years,  an  object  of  deep  solicitude 
to  the  humane.  Hospitals  for  their  treat 
ment,  or  rather  for  their  confinement,  have 
existed  in  Europe  for  five  or  six  hundred 
years ;  but  the  suffering  endured,  previous 
to  the  close  of  the  last  century,  in  these 
places  of  torment,  by  the  hapless  creatures 
deprived  of  reason,  exceeds  the  powers  of 
human  description.  The  vilest  galley-slave, 
or  the  most  depraved  heretic  in  the  power 
of  the  pitiless  officers  of  the  Inquisition, 
was  not  subjected  to  such  tortures  as  were 
inflicted  on  those  who  had  "lost  their  wits," 
and  who  were  so  unfortunate  as  to  be  known 
as  lunatics.  Confinement  in  close,  dark, 
damp  cells,  without  fire,  without  sufficient 
clothing,  in  the  most  pestilential  filth,  load 
ed  with  chains,  often  cruelly  beaten  either 
at  the  will  of  their  brutal  keepers  or  as  the 
only  curative  treatment,  their  limbs  often 
sloughing  off  from  the  combined  irritation 
of  their  chains  and  frost,  till  death,  most 
earnestly  longed  for,  yet  sometimes  so  long 
delayed  as  to  excite  our  astonishment,  ended 
a  life  of  inconceivable  wretchedness :  such, 
was  the  terrible  fate  that  awaited  the  insane, 
even  in  Christian  lands,  but  eighty  years  ago. 
Nor  was  it  those  deprived  of  reason  alone, 
who  were  consigned  to  a  doom  so  terrible. 
The  private  establishments  for  the  treatment 
of  lunatics,  and  even  some  of  the  public 
ones,  offered  ready  facilities  for  putting  out 
of  the  way  persons  whose  existence  in  soci 
ety  interfered  with  the  covetousness,  malice, 
or  hatred  of  relatives  or  others,  and  whom 
it  was  not  prudent  to  remove  by  poison  or 
the  assassin's  knife ;  and  many  a  helpless 
victim  was  consigned  to  a  private  or  public 
"bedlam,"  whose  fault  was  not  insanity,  but 


HOSPITALS    FOR    THE    INSANE. 


441 


the  possession  of  property  or  affection  cov 
eted  by  another. 

The  first  step  for  the  amelioration  of  the 
condition  of  the  insane  was  taken. by  Philip 
Pinel,  at  the  Bicetre  in  Paris,  in  1792.  He 
took  off  their  chains,  brought  them  out  to 
the  light  of  day,  and  sought  to  win  them 
back  to  reason  by  kindness  instead  of  bar 
barity.  Humane  reforms  are  seldom  rapid 
in  their  progress,  and  this  was  no  exception 
to  the  general  rule.  Twenty-one  years  later, 
the  first  movement  to  substitute  kindness  for 
chains,  and  the  system  of  non-restraint  for 
one  of  cruelty  and  brutality,  was  made  in 
England  by  William  Tuke,  a  member  of  the 
Society  of  Friends,  at  the  Retreat,  near  York, 
England.  Three  years  later  the  first  perma 
nent  lunacy  commission  was  appointed  in 
England,  and  its  reports  revealed  such  atroci 
ties  in  the  treatment  of  these  poor  wretches, 
that  reform  became  imperative  ;  but  in  Eng 
land  and  on  the  continent  of  Europe  it  is 
only  within  the  last  thirty  years  that  the 
proper  construction  of  insane  hospitals  and 
the  truly  scientific  treatment  of  insanity 
may  be  said  to  have  been  initiated.  In  both 
particulars  our  country  has  fully  kept  pace 
•with  the  most  advanced  of  the  European 
states. 

At  the  close  of  the  Revolution  there  were 
but  two  insane  hospitals  in  the  country,  and 
of  these  one  was  a  branch  of  a  general  hos 
pital.  These  were  the  "Insane  Department 
of  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital,"  at  Philadel 
phia,  founded  in  1755,  and  the  "Virginia 
Lunatic  Asylum,"  at  Williamsburg,  Virgin 
ia,  founded  in  1773.  The  two  had  less  than 
two  hundred  patients.  In  their  treatment 
they  were  probably  on  a  par  with  the  best 
institutions  of  the  time  in  Europe,  which  is 
no  very  high  encomium;  chains,  straps, 
strong,  dark  rooms,  the  strait-jacket,  and 
very  likely  occasional  whippings  and  beat 
ings  were  among  the  remedial  means  em 
ployed  ;  but  this  was  the  universal  treatment 
of  the  insane.  No  other  insane  hospital  was 
established  in  this  country  till  1817,  thougl 
the  number  of  the  insane,  at  the  commence 
ment  of  the  century,  could  hardly  have  fallen 
short  of  5000  persons.  These  were  kept  in 
private  houses,  under  restraint  if  violent,  or 
at  liberty  if  deemed  harmless ;  if  paupers, 
they  were  confined  in  jails  and  poor-houses, 
or  let  out  to  the  lowest  bidder,  who  man 
aged,  if  possible,  to  make  their  services  of 
some  value,  or  if  not,  often  kept  them  con 
fined  in  pens  or  sheds,  under  circumstances 


of  the  most  revolting  filth  and  exposure.  A 
warm  room  in  the  winter  Avas  considered 
entirely  unnecessary  for  the  insane,  partly, 
doubtless,  from  the  apprehension  that  they 
would  injure  themselves  or  others  by  means 
of  the  fire,  and  partly  from  an  absurd  no 
tion  that  the  feverish  heat  attendant  upon 
their  disease  rendered  them  insensible  to 
cold. 

In  1817,  members  of  the  Society  of 
Friends  in  Pennsylvania,  moved  by  the  suc 
cess  which  had  attended  the  experiment  of 
Mr.  Tuke,  at  his  Retreat  in  the  vicinity  of 
York,  Eng.,  established  at  Frankford,  Penn., 
the  "  Asylum  for  Persons  deprived  of  their 
Reason,"  a  small,  but,  from  the  first,  an  ad 
mirably  managed  institution,  and  which  has 
the  honor  of  being  the  first  in  which  the 
system  of  non-restraint  was  adopted  in  this 
country.  In  1818,  the  McLean  Asylum  at 
Somerville,  Mass.,  the  first  of  the  New  Eng 
land  insane  hospitals,  was  established.  The 
Bloomingdale  Asylum,  a  branch  of  the  New 
York  General  Hospital  in  New  York  city, 
was  founded  in  1821  ;  the  South  Carolina 
Insane  Hospital  at  Columbia,  in  1822  ;  the 
Retreat  for  the  Insane,  at  Hartford,  Conn., 
in  1824  ;  and  the  Kentucky  Asylum  at  Lex 
ington,  the  same  year. 

Up  to  1 840,  there  were  fourteen  insane 
hospitals  in  existence  in  the  United  States. 
Of  these  five  were  in  the  southern  states, 
four  in  New  England,  two  in  New  York, 
two  in  Pennsylvania,  and  one  in  Ohio.  The 
construction  of  many  of  these  was  very 
faulty  in  respect  to  ventilation,  warming, 
and  convenience  of  classification  of  patients. 
Many  of  them  were  also  over-crowded  for 
their  accommodations.  Their  management 
was,  however,  decidedly  in  advance  of  the 
views  which  had  obtained  in  the  early  part 
of  the  century,  and  their  construction,  in 
most  instances,  admitted  of  such  modifica 
tions  as  would  make  them,  if  not  perfect, 
yet  measurably  well  adapted  to  the  comfort 
and  welfare  of  their  inmates.  But  at  this 
time  a  new  era  commenced  in  the  care  and 
treatment  of  the  insane.  This  was  due  to 
several  causes.  The  managers  of  the  Pennsyl 
vania  Hospital  for  the  Insane,  which  for  many 
years  had  occupied  a  site  in  the  city,  at  the 
corner  of  Eighth  and  Pine  streets,  finding  its 
location  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  a  dense 
population,  sold  its  property  in  the  city,  and 
purchased  a  farm  of  one  hundred  and  thir 
teen  acres  in  the  suburbs,  in  1836,  and  pro 
ceeded  to  erect  upon  it  a  hospital  for  the 


442 


HUMANITARIAN    AND    CORRECTIVE    INSTITUTIONS. 


accommodation  of  about  two  hundred  pa 
tients.  Having  ample  funds  at  command, 
and  a  judicious  board  of  managers,  it  was 
resolved  to  introduce  into  the  hospital  all 
the  improvements  in  construction  which 
were  to  be  found  in  the  best  insane  hospitals 
in  Europe  and  America.  The  present  emi 
nent  superintendent  of  the  hospital,  Dr. 
Kirkbride,  was  elected  to  the  post  early  in 
the  progress  of  the  work,  and  contributed 
greatly  to  the  completeness  and  perfection 
of  its  arrangements.  This  hospital  was  not 
opened  till  the  beginning  of  1841,  and  its 
improved  construction  exerted  a  decided  in 
fluence  on  those  states  which  were  contem 
plating  the  erection  of  hospitals  for  the  in 
sane. 

A  still  more  powerful  agency  in  stimula 
ting  action  in  behalf  of  the  insane,  and  lead 
ing  to  the  erection  of  new  and  improved 
hospitals  for  them,  was  found  in  the  efforts 
of  Miss  Dorothea  L.  Dix.  Highly  educated, 
and  occupying  a  social  position  which  left 
nothing  to  be  desired,  this  heroic  and  noble- 
hearted  woman,  touched  with  the  condition 
and  sufferings  of  the  insane,  devoted  herself 
to  the  work  of  promoting  their  welfare  by 
personally  investigating  their  condition  in 
each  state,  and  urging  upon  the  legislatures 
the  erection  and  maintenance  of  hospitals 
for  their  treatment  and  cure.  Her  memori 
als  to  the  different  legislatures,  and  subse 
quently  to  Congress,  are  replete  with  terrible 
facts,  showing  the  cruel  abuses  to  which 
they  were  subject  where  their  care  devolved 
upon  relatives  or  upon  the  towns ;  and  the 
eloquence  of  her  appeals  was  almost  invaria 
bly  irresistible.  The  twenty  years  which 
have  passed  have  increased  the  public  hospi 
tals  for  the  insane  to  more  than  fifty,  besides 
a  considerable  number  of  private  asylums. 
Of  these  public  hospitals,  most  have  accom 
modations  for  250  patients,  and  some  of 
them  for  a  much  larger  number.  In  their 
construction  there  has  been  jealous  care  ex 
ercised  to  introduce  whatever  improvements 
had  been  fairly  tested,  either  in  Europe  or 
America ;  and  the  result  is  that  in  conven 
ience  and  healthfulness,  and  in  all  the  par 
ticulars  of  construction  and  management, 
the  American  insane  hospitals  are  surpassed 
by  those  of  no  country  in  the  world.*  To 


*  The  most  complete  and  perfect  of  the  American 
hospitals  for  the  insane,  not  only  in  its  construction 
hut  in  all  its  equipments  and  appliances,  is  the  "  New 
Pennsylvania  Hospital  for  the  Insane,"  near  Phila- 


these  ends  the  Annual  Convention  of  Super 
intendents  of  Insane  Hospitals,  first  organ 
ized  in  1845,  and  the  American  Journal  of 
Insanity,  established  in  1844,  have  materi 
ally  contributed.  At  the  time  of  the  com 
mencement  of  the  latter,  not  more  than  five 
or  six  works  on  insanity,  including  transla 
tions  and  reprints,  had  been  published  in 
this  country.  The  number  of  such  works 
is  now  very  large.  Many  of  the  superin 
tendents  of  insane  hospitals  have  visited  the 
European  institutions,  and  some  of  them, 
Drs.  Earle,  Bell,  and  Ray  among  the  num 
ber,  have  given  to  the  public  very  full  de 
scriptions  of  the  best  institutions  there.  The 
Convention  of  Superintendents  have  agreed 
upon  certain  principles  in  regard  to  con 
struction,  number  of  patients,  and  minimum 
extent  of  grounds,  desirable  in  the  erection 
of  hospitals ;  these,  with  other  suggestions 
of  great  value  and  importance,  have  been 
embodied  in  a  treatise  on  the  construction 
and  management  of  hospitals  for  the  insane, 
by  Dr.  T.  S.  Kirkbride  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Hospital.  Drs.  Beck  and  Ray  have,  in  their 
works  on  medical  jurisprudence,  laid  down 
with  great  clearness  and  force  the  principles 
which  should  govern  all  legal  investigations 
concerning  insanity.  Dr.  Macdonald  o-ave  the 
first  public  course  of  lectures  to  medical  stu 
dents  on  insanity,  in  1842. 

The  careful  investigations  made  by  most 
of  the  superintendents  into  the  different 
forms  of  insanity,  and  their  comparative  ef 
fect  on  the  general  health  of  the  patient, 
have  led  to  many  discoveries  of  great  im 
portance  to  the  community  at  large  as  well 
as  to  the  medical  profession.  It  has  been 
fully  demonstrated  that  early  treatment  at  a 
hospital  greatly  increases  the  probability  of 
cure  ;  that  insanity  often  exists  long  before 
its  presence  is  suspected ;  that  crimes  are 
many  times  committed  under  an  insane  im 
pulse  ;  and  that  mental  aberration  may  ex 
ist,  to  an  extent  which  renders  the  subject 
irresponsible,  where  there  is  no  hallucination, 


delphia,  opened  in  1859,  intended  for  male  patients 
only,  but  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  female 
department,  which  was  opened  in  1841 ;  both  being 
under  the  general  supervision  and  management  of 
Dr.  Thomas  S.  Kirkbride.  It  is  intended  for  250 
patients,  and  cost,  with  its  complete  equipment, 
about  $350,000.  It  was  planned  by  Dr.  Kirkbride, 
and,  for  its  size  and  purpose,  is  unsurpassed  either 
in  Europe  or  America.  The  hospitals  recently 
erected  at  Northampton,  Mass.,  and  Kalarnazoo, 
Mich.,  are  also  admirably  arranged. 


HOSPITALS    FOR   THE    INSANE. 


443 


and  no  maniacal  excitement,  or  melancholic 
depression.  Painful  evidence  has  been  ad 
duced  that  in  many  instances  persons  have 
perished  upon  the  gallows  whose  crimes 
have  been  committed  under  the  influence 
of  insanity,  and  who  should  have  been  com 
mitted  to  the  care  of  the  superintendent  of 
an  insane  hospital  rather  than  to  the  hang 
man. 

Within  the  past  two  or  three  years,  in 
sane  hospitals  have  been  established  for 
those  who  have  committed  serious  ofl'ences 
against  the  laws  under  the  influence  of  in 
sanity,  and  for  convicts  who  have  become 
insane  during  their  imprisonment.  The 
largest  of  these  is  at  Auburn,  opened  in 
February,  1859,  and  which  has  received 
sixty-nine  patients,  fifty-five  of  whom  are 
still  in  the  hospital. 

Among  the  improvements  introduced  in 
the  treatment  of  the  insane  within  the  past 
ten  or  twelve  years  are  horticulture  and 
floriculture  for  those  patients  who  can  be 
induced  to  take  an  interest  in  them ;  libra 
ries  and  reading-rooms  ;  gymnasiums  well 
provided  with  apparatus ;  the  introduction 
of  paintings  and  engravings,  not  only  into 
the  halls,  but  into  the  patients'  rooms ; 
games  like  chess,  checkers,  backgammon, 
tivoli,  and  dominoes,  as  well  as  those  of  a 
more  active  character;  school  exercises  for 
a  portion  of  the  patients  ;  parties,  lectures, 
tableaux,  readings  and  recitations,  and  other 
measures  for  diverting  the  mind,  and  recall 
ing  it  from  the  trains  of  thought  to  which  it 
is  accustomed  to  revert.  The  success  which 
has  crowned  these  measures  has  been  most 
gratifying.  The  percentage  of  recoveries  in 
recent  cases  has  been  constantly  on  the  in 
crease,  and  even  among  those  regarded  here 
tofore  as  incurable,  there  have  been  many 
instances  of  recovery  under  the  stimulus  to 
new  trains  of  thought  thus  induced. 

There  is  still  needed  provision  in  all 
the  states  for  cases  of  long  standing,  the 
chances  of  whose  recovery  are  very  slight, 
inasmuch  as  in  many  cases  they  have  fallen 
into  a  condition  of  hopeless  imbecility,  or 
are  most  of  the  time  stupid  and  depressed, 
with  occasional  alternations  of  violent  mania. 
The  safety  of  the  community,  as  well  as 
their  own  comfort,  require  that  they  should 
be  in  a  hospital ;  yet  most  of  the  insane 
hospitals  are  so  pressed  with  applications 
for  the  admission  of  recent  cases,  generally 
of  a  far  more  hopeful  character,  that  they 
are  reluctant  to  retain  these  incurables,  and 


far  more  reluctant  to  receive  them,  when 
brought  to  them  after  years  of  insanity.  Jn 
England,  and  generally  in  Europe,  hospitals 
specially  for  incurables  have  been  establish 
ed  ;  but  this  plan  has  its  objections,  as,  ex 
cept  in  cases  of  fatuity,  it  is  almost  impossi 
ble  to  pronounce  positively  on  the  curability 
of  a  given  case,  and  the  association  with 
those  whose  recovery  is  more  probable  often 
exerts  a  beneficial  influence  upon  those  who 
have  long  been  insane.  Some  measures 
should  be  adopted  soon  for  the  relief  of  this 
large  class  of  the  insane. 

The  fifty  public  insane  hospitals  in  the 
country  have  cost  on  the  average  somewhat 
more  than  $250,000  each,  or  an  aggregate 
of  not  less  than  $13,000,000.  In  conjunc 
tion  with  private  asylums,  they  afford  ac 
commodations  for  a  little  more  than  ten 
thousand  patients.  According  to  the  esti 
mate  of  Miss  Dix,  recently  published,  the 
whole  number  of  persons  in  the  United 
States,  who  at  some  time  in  their  lives  are 
afflicted  with  insanity,  is  about  62,000.  This 
would  indicate  an  alarming  deficiency  of 
hospital  accommodations  for  this  unfortu 
nate  class.  That  there  is  a  great  deficiency 
is  undoubtedly  true,  but  it  is  not  quite  so 
large  as  these  figures  would  indicate.  The 
population  of  the  hospitals  is  a  constantly 
changing  one,  and  the  discharges  in  any  one 
year  will  amount  to  very  nearly  one  half  of 
the  number  in  the  hospital.  It  is  safe  there 
fore  to  conclude  that  the  present  hospital 
accommodations  are  sufficient  for  nearly  or 
quite  one  half  the  insane.  They  arc,  how 
ever,  unequally  distributed.  Massachusetts 
has  five  public  and  several  private  hospitals, 
furnishing  accommodations  for  nearly  1500 
insane  ;  Connecticut,  with  nearly  one  half  the 
population,  has  but  one  public  institution, 
having  accommodations  for  250,  and  one 
small  private  asylum.  New  York  lias  but 
five  public,  and  several  private  hospitals,  the 
public  hospitals  affording  accommodations 
for  not  more  than  1600  patients;  while 
Pennsylvania,  with  a  considerably  smaller 
population,  has  seven  public  hospitals,  with 
accommodations  for  about  1800  patients. 

The  newer  atates  are  not,  as  yet,  fully 
provided  with  hospital  accommodations  for 
the  insane,  though  most  of  them  have  com 
menced  their  erection. 

The  character  of  our  population,  active, 
restless,  eager,  and  impulsive,  is  such  as  to 
make  insanity  more  prevalent  than  in  most 
other  countries;  and  it  is  of  a  different 


444 


HUMANITARIAN    AND    CORRECTIVE    INSTITUTIONS. 


Tirr-r   "    *o"    ' -tc:'i-^o~    '  cf  ~  CM"   '    '    ' 


.         _  .       .        —  -.    ,  .    .  — 

•*  ^  tc  •*'    •  IQ  o  «'  —  «e  r/  c.'  •'/:'    •  tc  o  o  —  '  c'  o  —  '  en  c;  —  '  —  ci  rj    •    •  ci  i-'  c-i  ci  -r'  o  cc  t-  ci  c> 
-^r  Tf  rf  T      cc  rr  co  -^  cc  co  co  "^      ^  co  fr  OJ  ^  TJI  t-  CJ  --<  o  rr  •*?  co  CN  co  01  ^t  -y  cci  *.t  o  «o  »•» 

—  -f  C:  O  O>  O  CO  —  O  '^  C^  ^  O  CO  *f  O  O  Ci  C:  -^  -M  O  -t-  fM  O 

i^  .r:  i-  1-  o  -t  o  -c  ::  •/•  ic  =  o  jj  r     - 


-  ^-  c  **  CN  f—  «o  co  to  c  cr  t—  ^i  —  o  c  eo  sec.  —  h-r~  —  <y?--fc:o 

C5  —  <  O  —  O>  tt  •*  -      ~  CO  V  CC  CC  X  •  c.  ••>!      •      •  -C  >    3-l  CC  I-  •*  =  «  «C  O      • 


cc*  •— "  •-« oc  /  ci  »f  e;'  i.t  ?i     '  o-t  cc     "     '  oJ 


-  >—«——  a  ec  -1"  "  -  is  a  c  cc 

C  CN  —  T—  -^  CM  ^  C-l  *-  »—  T^  --<  »-<  »— 


O  O  CO  c-1  ^f  — j  — [  —  Tl  O  O  I-- 

c-l  »  CO  M' CO  *f  O  CO  •*  O  C5  ^t| 


M  T-H  ot»  rt«  ift     "     •  •rj1'  t-  ^5  TP  i-  j-v  cc  i"-  — •  o     •  i  -  ci     •     •  o  i     ' 

S 


'/:  -M  c;  /:  cr  */  r-<  -^:  ir:  cr  cc  o  t  -  '  ~  t  -  -M  cc  i—  co    •    •  t—  t—  CM  o  o  -M  c~  117  o  co     •  cc  CM    •    •  o 

-O  r-l  ./.  CO    A  r-i  —  I-  M  -T    /.    /    ~.  CC  •—    ^  -!•  O  -J      •      •  -f  S-.  C-l  -.•  CT.  -M  f  I i.l       .  <=  — .      •      •  f 


O  -<  O  r-  —I  O  CO'   '!t   IS   C«  Ift   1C   O   rH  -rtl   SO  CM  h-  -+   CC    X   -f   I-   CT5   O   CO  -f  1C  t-  1C  O  1—  IO  —  CS  —  CJ  r-   I-  -t  CO 

--s  co  x  c  cr  -:i  -M  c:  —  c  .-  —  _-. .-  fi  «  »«et-S5o  •*  o  co  i—  o  cc     •    •  =  cc  ~  -M  /- .  cc  -t ;  ~.  --2  i-  —  i  -  -<     •      i — 


THE  RELIEF  OF  THE  POOR. 


445 


type,  assuming  oftencr  the  violent  form ; 
while  in  Europe,  the  pauper  insane,  who 
form  the  largest  portion  of  those  afflicted, 
have  usually  become  so  under  the  influence 
of  insufficient  food  and  depressing  circum 
stances,  and  are  melancholy  and  dejected, 
rather  than  violent. 

The  preceding  table,  prepared  with  great 
care,  exhibits  the  condition  and  success  of 
nearly  all  the  public  insane  hospitals  of  the 
United  States,  up  to  January,  1860,  though 
a  few  of  the  returns  of  the  remoter  institu 
tions  are  of  the  previous  year. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE  RELIEF  OF  THE  POOR. 

IN  every  large  community  there  is,  of  ne 
cessity,  a  dependent  class,  to  be  in  some 
way  provided  for ;  their  poverty  and  help 
lessness  may  proceed  from  the  loss  of  their 
protectors,  the  husband  or  parents,  at  a  time 
when  they  were  unable  to  provide  for  them 
selves;  from  sickness;  from  mental  or  phys 
ical  incapacity  for  self-support ;  from  lack 
of  employment ;  or  from  intemperance  and 
vicious  indulgence. 

Whichever  of  these  causes  may  have  in 
duced  this  state  of  dependence,  it  is  a  recog 
nized  duty  in  all  civilized  communities  to 
diminish,  and  so  far  as  possible  prevent,  ex 
treme  suffering  on  the  part  of  those  thus 
helpless. 

The  methods  of  accomplishing  this  result 
arc  of  necessity  various.  All  who  need,  at 
times,  pecuniary  aid,  are  not  paupers;  and 
to  treat  them  as  such  would  not  only  wound 
and  distress  them  needlessly,  but  would  in 
the  end  produce  a  demoralization  and  indis 
position  /to  exertion  which  would  throw  an 
intolerable  burden  on  the  tax-paying  class, 
who  would  be  compelled  to  support  them. 

It  was  the  recognition  of  this  truth  which 
led  very  early  to  the  organization  of  asylums, 
dispensaries,  and  relief  societies  for  the  or 
phan  and  the  widow  (especially  those  of  cer 
tain  classes),  the  aged  and  infirm,  and  the  sick. 
It  led  also  to  the  administration  of  private 
charities,  which,  although  sometimes  inju 
dicious,  was  prompted  by  the  most  humane 
motives.  It  also  led  to  the  distinction  be 
tween  the  out-4oor  poor  and  the  pauper, 
which  is  commonly  established  in  our  large 
towns. 
.  The  methods  of  providing  for  the  poor,  as 


well  as  the  authorities  who  take  charge  of 
it,  vary  in  different  sections  of  the  country. 
In  New  England,  where  the  town  was  an 
older  political  organization  than  the  county, 
province,  or  state,  the  legal  care  of  the  poor 
has  always  devolved  upon  the  first  town 
officer,  or  selectman,  as  he  is  usually  called. 
To  him  all  applications  for  assistance  are 
made,  and  after  the  necessary  examination 
into  their  condition  and  necessities,  relief  is 
furnished,  to  a  limited  extent,  from  the  town 
treasury.  Those,  needing  only  temporary 
assistance  receive  small  sums,  and  are  en 
couraged  to  struggle  on  at  their  homes; 
those  wholly  dependent  are  provided  for,  in 
the  smaller  towns,  by  contract  with  some 
citizen,  who  for  a  stipulated  sum  agrees  to 
provide  them  with  food,  clothing,  and  Shel 
ter,  employing  such  of  them  as  are  able  to 
perform  some  labor,  in  such  Avork  as  their 
health  or  want  of  skill  will  permit.  In  the 
larger  towns,  this  class  are  received  into 
almshouses,  to  which  often  a  farm  is  at 
tached,  much  of  the  lighter  labor  of  which 
is  performed  by  the  paupers.  Paupers  of 
foreign  birth,  who  have  never  gained  a  resi 
dence  in  any  town,  as  well  as  vagrants  who 
have  no  fixed  abiding  place,  are  sent  to  a 
state  almshouse,  or  placed  in  charge  of  a 
state  contractor  for  the  poor. 

In  the  middle  and  western  states,  the  assist 
ance  to  the  poor  and  the  support  of  paupers 
are  a  county  charge,  and  are  under  the  control 
of  supervisors  elected  by  the  voters  of  the 
county.  Those  entirely  dependent  are  usu 
ally  quartered  in  a  county  almshouse,  and, 
where  practicable,  employed  in  light  labor. 
In  the  Southern  states,  with  a  milder  climate 
and  a  sparser  population,  there  is  less  occa 
sion  for  definite  preparation  for  the  wants  of 
a  pauper  class,  especially  as  a  very  consider 
able  portion  of  those  who  would  elsewhere 
be  dependent  upon  the  public  are,  from  the 
peculiar  constitution  of  their  institutions, 
cared  for,  when  infirm,  sick,  or  disabled,  by 
their  masters.  Hence,  except  in  the  cities 
and  large  towns  of  the  South,  there  has  been 
no  well-defined  provision  for  paupers. 

At  the  close  of  the  Eevolution,  there  was 
a  vast  amount  of  poverty  and  suffering,  the 
result  of  the  prostration  of  commerce,  the 
ravages  of  war,  the  loss  of  the  productive  in 
dustry  of  so  large  a  number  of  able-bodied  men 
for  several  successive  years,  and  the  complete 
and  ruinous  depreciation  of  the  continental 
currency.  From  this  condition,  however, 
under  the  stimulus  of  an  active  and  prosper- 


446 


HUMANITARIAN    AND    CORRECTIVE    INSTITUTIONS. 


ous  trade  and  commerce,  the  country  soon 
rallied,  and  though  the  war  of  1812  brought 
much  privation  and  loss  of  property,  3Tet  the 
constant  westward  emigration,  and  the  enter 
prise  of  the  people,  kept  the  pauper  popula 
tion  within  narrow  limits.  The  poor  were 
mostly  natives  of  the  country,  and  the  ties 
of  kindred  were  strong  enough  to  prevent 
the  burden  of  their  support  from  pressing 
heavily  on  the  public  treasury. 

In  the  larger  towns,  .and  especially  in  the 
seaports,  where  there  was  the  largest  influx 
of  persons  of  foreign  birth,  and  of  families 
reduced  to  poverty  through  the  vicissitudes 
of  a  seafaring  life,  there  were  benevolent  so 
cieties,  some  of  them  dating  back  almost  to 
the  revolutionary  period,  of  the  different  na 
tionalities,  which  bestowed  aid  on  their  own 
countrymen,  and  marine  societies  (that  of 
New  York  founded  as  early  as  1770)  to  pro 
vide  for  the  widows  and  orphans  of  seamen. 
There  were  also  one  or  two  dispensaries  in 
the  larger  towns,  for  providing  medical  at 
tendance  and  promoting  vaccination  among 
the  poor.  Between  1800  and  1830,  relief 
societies,  some  of  them  connected  with  par 
ticular  trades  or  professions,  such  as  the  tai 
lors',  house-builders',  firemen's,  etc.,  some 
composed  of  persons  of  particular  national 
ities,  as  the  Germans,  Irish,  etc.,  and  oth 
ers  of  n,  more  general  character,  like  the  Ma- 
sonic,0dd  Fellows',  and  Temperance  Lodges, 
were  organized,  having  for  their  object  the 
care  of  the  sick,  and  provision  for  the  wid 
ows  and  orphans  of  their  members.  The 
New  York  Hospital  opened  in  1792,  the 
City  Hospital  at  Bellevue,  the  New  York 
Eye  and  Ear  Infirmary  founded  in  1820,  the 
City  Dispensary  founded  in  1791,  the  North 
ern  Dispensary  founded  in  1827,  and  the  Ly 
ing-in  Asylum  founded  in  1824,  afforded  the 
necessary  medical  treatment  to  those  who 
were  without  means  to  pay  for  the  attend 
ance  of  a  physician.  Soon  after  1830,  how 
ever,  the  tide  of  European  emigration  began 
to  set  westward,  and  with  each  successive 
year,  larger  and  still  larger  numbers  of  emi 
grants,  at  first  mainly  from  Ireland,  but  sub 
sequently  in  quite  as  large  numbers  from  the 
German  states,  began  to  pour  in  upon  us. 
Many  of  these  possessed  a  small  amount  of 
money,  and  others,  stout  and  able-bodied, 
found  ready  employment  at  remunerative 
wages,  and  provided  well  for  themselves  and 
families. 

No  inconsiderable  portion,  however,  had 
either  been  paupers  at  home,  or  coming  here 


with  insufficient  means,  their  manners,  cus 
toms,  and  language  diverse  from  ours,  and 
the  climate,  under  their  privations,  proving 
far  more  severe  than  that  of  their  native 
country,  sunk  down  into  a  hopeless  and  de 
spondent  pauperism  almost  immediately  on 
their  arrival.  With  the  intent  of  .obviating 
this  influx  of  foreign  pauperism,  stringent 
laws  were  passed  by  the  states  having  exten 
sive  commercial  relations  with  Europe,  pro 
hibiting  the  reception,  by  captains  of  emi 
grant  ships,  of  pauper  emigrants,  and  a  tax 
of  two  dollars  per  head  required  of  all  emi 
grants  arriving  at  the  principal  ports,  or  a 
bond  by  the  ship-owners  to  the  state  that 
they  should  not  become  chargeable  to  the 
state  within  three  years.  These  laws  were  so 
constantly  evaded,  and  the  pressure  of  foreign 
pauperism  in  consequence  became  so  severe 
in  New  York,  the  great  port  of  entry  for  emi 
grant  ships,  that  a  modification  became  nec 
essary,  and  a  board  of  Commissioners  of  Emi 
gration  was  appointed  to  receive  the  emigrant 
tax,  which  was  raised  to  three  dollars,  and 
they  were  required  to  establish  hospitals, 
almshouses,  etc.,  and  to  assume  the  entire 
responsibility  for  the  pauperism  of  emigrants 
for  five  years  after  their  arrival. 

Measures  nearly  as  stringent  were  adopted 
by  Massachusetts  and  Pennsylvania. 

Notwithstanding  these  efforts  to  restrain 
Avithin  due  metes  and  bounds  the  influx  of 
foreign  pauperism,  and  prevent  its  becoming 
chargeable  upon  our  own  citizens,  its  in 
crease  in  New  York,  Massachusetts,  and 
Pennsylvania,  has  been  such  as  to  create  no 
small  degree  of  alarm  on  the  part  of  the  tax 
payers.  The  state  of  New  York  alone  had, 
in  1859,  above  260,000  paupers,  being  7.4 
per  cent,  of  her  population,  or  nearly  one 
pauper  for  every  13  persons.  This  propor 
tion  is  about  eight  times  that  of  Ireland,  and 
more  than  double  that  of  the  United  King 
dom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland ;  and  for 
midable  as  it  is,  it  does  not  include  any  of 
those  under  the  care  of  the  Commissioners 
of  Emigration.  The  increase  of  pauperism 
has  been  nearly  fifteen  times  that  of  the  pop 
ulation  within  the  last  thirty  years.  Of  this 
increase  more  than  75  per  cent,  are  either 
of  foreign  birth  or  the  children  of  foreigners. 
In  New  York  city  the  proportion  of  foreign 
ers  exceeds  eighty  per  cent. 

These  statistics,  however*,  by  no  means 
tell  the  whole  story  in  regard  to  the  depend 
ent  poor  of  the  great  cities.  Large  num 
bers,  who  are  unwilling  to  be  enrolled  on 


THE    RELIEF    OF   THE    POOR. 


447 


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418 


HUMANITARIAN    AND    CORRECTIVE    INSTITUTIONS. 


the  city  or  county  records  as  paupers,  are 
still  dependent  for  a  considerable  share  of 
their  support,  especially  during  the  winter 
months,  on  private  charity,  bestowed  either 
through  the  churches  with  which  they  are 
connected  or  some  of  the  societies  or  asso 
ciations  devoted  to  the  relief  of  the  poor. 
These  organizations  have  greatly  increased 
within  the  past  twenty  years,  in  all  our  large 
cities,  and  though  varied  in  their  specific 
purposes,  they  all  have  the  general  object  of 
ameliorating  the  condition  of  the  poor.  For 
the  sick  poor,  hospitals,  dispensaries,  and 
infirmaries  have  been  greatly  multiplied;  for 
the  aged  and  infirm  and  for  very  young 
children,  homes  and  nurseries  have  been  es 
tablished  ;  for  widows  and  orphans,  widows' 
societies,  assistance  societies,  and  orphan 
asylums ;  for  the  disabled,  relief  societies ; 
for  youthful  offenders  or  the  morally  en 
dangered,  asylums,  houses  of  reformation, 
.  houses  of  industry,  children's  aid  societies, 
and  "  missions ;"  for  the  intemperate  poor, 
inebriates'  homes  and  Samaritan  homes ; 
and  for  the  poor  in  general,  associations  for 
improving  the  condition  of  the  poor,  prov 
ident  societies,  soup  houses,  etc.,  etc. 

In  addition  to  these,  very  large  sums  in 
the  aggregate  are  bestowed  by  the  benevo 
lent  in  private  charity  to  the  poor  and  suf 
fering,  and  sums  almost  as  large  in  contribu 
tions  to  the  importunate  mendicant,  by  those 
who  give  from  impulse  and  a  naturally  gen 
erous  disposition. 

The  great  increase  of  mendicancy,  and  the 
annoying  importunity  of  the  beggars  who 
preferred  a  living  obtained  in  that  way  to 
one  acquired  by  honest  toil,  led  to  the  for 
mation  of  a  class  of  organizations  now  exist 
ing  in  most  of  the  large  cities  in  the  country, 
but  originating  in  the  city  of  New  York.  In 
different  cities  different  names  for  these  or 
ganizations  have  been  adopted,  but  their 
general  purpose  is  the  same.  "The  New 
York  Association  for  Improving  the  Condi 
tion  of  the  Poor,"  was  not  only  the  first  but 
has  been  the  most  efficient  in  its  action.  Its 
purposes,  and  those  of  its  kindred  associa 
tions,  of  which  there  arc  now  thirteen  in  as 
many  of  our  large  cities,  are,  "  to  discoun 
tenance  indiscriminate  almsgiving  and  put 
an  end  to  street  begging  and  vagrancy ;  to 
visit  the  poor  at  their  dwellings,  and  extend 
to  them  appropriate  relief;  and  through  the 
friendly  intercourse  of  visitors  to  inculcate 
among  them  habits  of  frugality,  temperance, 
industry,  and  self-dependence."  Each  city, 


where  one  of  these  associations  exists,  is  di 
vided  into  districts,  which  are  again  divided 
into  sections  (New  York  has  almost  four 
hundred  of  these  sections),  to  each  of  which 
a  visitor  is  appointed,  who  takes  upon  him 
self,  without  compensation,  the  entire  over 
sight  of  the  poor  of  his  section,  visiting 
them,  ascertaining  their  situation,  their  re 
sources,  if  any,  their  just  claims  upon  any 
other  organization  for  relief,  and  where  nec 
essary,  rendering  them  such  assistance  as 
will  enable  them  to  subsist  until  they  can 
obtain  work  or  aid  from  quarters  where  they 
have  a  claim  for  it,  or  if  they  need  assistance, 
bestowing  it  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  destroy 
their  desire  for  self-dependence  or  injure 
their  self-respect. 

To  check  street  begging,  every  member 
(and  any  person  contributing  to  the  funds 
of  the  association  is  a  member)  is  furnished 
with  printed  cards  and  a  directory  showing 
the  residence  of  the  visitors  and  the  section 
which  they  have  in  charge,  and  when  a  beg 
gar  applies  for  charity,  the  member  inquires 
his  residence,  and  instead  of  giving  him 
money,  gives  him  a  card  with  the  address 
of  the  visitor  upon  it,  and  directs  him  to  call 
upon  that  visitor,  who  will  investigate  his 
case,  and  if  proper,  render  him  aid. 

These  associations  have  also  been  active  in 
promoting  sanitary  reforms,  encouraging  the 
erection  of  well-arranged  tenement  houses,  in 
preventing  truancy,  in  aiding  in  the  forma 
tion  of  temperance  societies,  in  promoting 
the  establishment  of  dispensaries  and  houses 
of  reformation,  and  in  diffusing,  by  means  of 
tracts  and  handbills,  information  among  the 
poor  on  the  subject  of  cleanliness,  ventila 
tion,  and  household  economy. 

Ignorance,  intemperance,  licentious  indul 
gence,  the  congregation  of  such  large  num 
bers  in  filthy,  ill-arranged,  and  ill  ventilated 
tenement  houses,  and  disregard  of  sanitary 
laws  generally,  are  the  causes  of  more  than 
four  fifths  of  the  pauperism  of  our  great 
cities,  and  it  is  only  by  removing  these 
causes  that  any  considerable  diminution  in 
the  number  of  paupers  can  be  expected. 
The  small  dependent  class  whose  poverty 
is  not  traceable  to  either  of  these^,  can 
readily  be  provided  for;  but  the  terrible 
burden  of  taxation  to  maintain  those  who  are 
paupers  from  their  own  fault  or  that  of  their 
parents,  renders  it  certain  that  there  must  be, 
ere  long,  carefully  considered,  but  stringent 
legislation  to  prevent  the  evils  which  inflict 
such  a  burden  on  the  industry  of  our  people. 


HOSPITALS. 


449 


CHAPTER   IV. 

HOSPITALS. 

HOSPITALS  for  the  sick,  either  general  or 
special,  have  been  in  existence  in  Europe 
from  the  early  Christian  ages,  and  their  en 
dowment  has  been  a  favorite  form  of  Chris 
tian  charity.  In  this  country,  the  first  gen 
eral  hospital  was  the  Pennsylvania,  at  Phil 
adelphia,  opened  in  1752.  The  charter, 
granted  in  1751,  contemplated  "the  recep 
tion  and  relief  of  lunaticks  and  other  distem 
pered  and  sick  poor  in  this  province,"  and 
it  has  always  had  a  department  for  the  in 
sane,  who  occupied  a  portion  of  the  hospital 
building  until  1 841,  when  they  were  removed 
to  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital  for  the  Insane, 
then  completed,  which  we  have  described 
under  the  head  of  Hospitals  for  the  Insane. 
This  building,  now  the  female  department  of 
the  insane  hospital,  was  erected  mainly  from 
funds  resulting  from  the  sale  of  the  hospital 
land,  and  the  general  hospital  has,  aside 
from  this,  a  permanent  fund  of  nearly  $400,- 
000  invested,  the  income  of  which  sustains 
nearly  150  free  beds.  The  average  number 
of  inmates  is  below  200.  The  medical  staff, 
selected  by  the  managers,  serve  gratuitously, 
and  are  the  most  eminent  members  of  the 
profession  in  the  city.  There  is  a  library 
of  over  10,000  volumes  attached  to  the  hos 
pital.  Benjamin  West's  picture  of  "  Christ 
llealing  the  Sick"  was  painted  for  this  hos 
pital,  and  its  exhibition  added  $24,000  to  its 
funds. 

The  New  York  Hospital,  the  first  in  New 
York,  was  incorporated  in  1771  by  the  co 
lonial  legislature,  but  was  not  opened  for  the 
reception  of  patients  till  1791.     At  first  it 
had  wards  for  the  insane,  like  the  Pennsyl 
vania  Hospital,  but  in  1818  the  governors 
of  the  hospital  established  a  separate  asylum 
for  the  insane  at  Bloomingdale,  with  an  effi 
cient  superintendent  and  corps  of  officers, 
-jut  under  their  general  supervision,  and  sup 
ported  in  part  from  their  funds.     The  gen 
eral  hospital  has  grown  up  to  be  a  very  large 
tnd  admirably  managed  institution.     It  is  a 
•.lose  corporation,  under  the  control  of  26 
governors.     All  cases  of  serious  accident  or 
mcrgency  are  admitted  immediately,  with- 
•ut  regard  to  payment  or  recovery ;  other- 
rise,  persons  whose  cases  appear  not  to  ad- 
lit  of  cure  or  relief,  are  not  received.    It  has 
>ur  physicians  and  six  surgeons  in  regular 
ttcndancc,  besides  a  house  physician  and 
2veral  assistants.     The  entire  medical  staff 


.s  twenty-four.  There  are  about  500  beds. 
The  cost  of  each  patient  is  $4.32  per  week. 
The  rate  of  deaths  to  the  whole  number  of 
patients  is  only  about  5-J-  per  cent.;  being 
iess  than  that  of  any  hospital  in  Europe. 
Dnnected  with  the  hospital  is  a  library  of 
between  0000  and  7000  volumes. 

The  Massachusetts  General  Hospital  at 
Boston,  founded  in  1817,  is  an  institution 
of  high  character  and  reputation.  It  has 
funds  to  the  amount  of  about  $300,000  ;  a 
medical  staff  of  20  physicians  and  assistants, 
and  about  200  beds.  It  is  managed  by 
a  board  of  trustees,  and  a  president,  vice 
president,  secretary,  and  treasurer.  It  has 
an  out-door  department,  furnishing  medical 
and  surgical  aid  to  over  3000  out-patients. 
The  McjLean  Insane  Asylum,  at  Somerville, 
is  a  branch  of  the  hospital.  The  annual 
expenditure  is  nearly  $100,000. 

There  are  now  in  the  city  of  New  York 
fourteen  hospitals,  and  five  other  institutions 
having  hospital  accommodations.  Of  these, 
seven  are  general,  and  receive  patients  of  all 
classes  except  those  with  contagious  dis 
eases  ;  one  is  for  small  pox,  one  for  syphi 
litic  diseases,  one  for  quarantine  patients, 
two  exclusively  for  women,  one  for  children, 
and  one  for  diseases  of  the  eye.  Of  the 
five  institutions  having  hospital  accommo 
dations,  one  is  for  lying-in  women,  two  for 
young  children,  one  for  aged  females,  and 
one  for  colored  persons.  There  are  also 
hospitals  connected  with  the  Orphan  Asy 
lums,  House  of  Refuge,  and  Juvenile  Asy 
lum,  for  the  sick  inmates  of  those  institu 
tions.  The  entire  capacity  of  these  hospital 
accommodations  exceeds  7000  beds.  ' 

Philadelphia  has  eleven  hospitals,  four  of 
them  general,  one  naval,. one  for  infectious 
disease,  one  a  lying-in  charity,  one  for  dis 
eases  of  the  eye  and  limbs,  and  three  for 
aged  and  indigent  females.  The  entire  num 
ber  of  beds  docs  not  exceed  1600. 

Boston  has  eight  hospitals,  of  which  five 
are  general,  and  one  for  diseases  of  the  eye 
and  ear,  one  for  aged  and  indigent  females, 
and  one  a  lying-in  hospital. 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  has  five,  two  of  them 
general,  one  naval,  and  two  for  aged  women. 

Baltimore  has  three,  two  of  them  general, 
and  one  for  aged  women. 

Charleston  has  two  hospitals,  and  Norfolk, 
Va.,  two,  a  naval  and  city  institution. 

Cincinnati  has  three,  one  a  commercial 
hospital,  one  a  hotel  for  invalids,  and  one  a 
widows'  and  female  asylum  and  hospital. 


450 


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CH  -^  "-I  i-l 


•P9A9H03 


"d  jo 


•  Scooco    .ooccosococo    ••*» 

•COCNr-«T-l      -r-iTjl         OCO^-CO      -OCO 


jo 


»:    5 


fl      ^ 


HOSPITALS. 


451 


•sqi-nqjoaaquinK 

:,-»  :  :  :  :C  :  :  :    : 

1 

|| 

If  to  the  municipal  relief,  $624,482,  we  add  that  nfforded  by  the  Commissioners  of  Emigration,  $206,004,  and  that  furnished  by  the  voluntary  charitable  associations  of  the  city, 
which  ^by  careful  investigation  has  been  demonstrated  to  amount  to  $586.119  for  the  year  1860,  we  have  a  total  aggregate  of  $1,416,665  for  the  public  relief  of  the  poor  in  the  city  of 
New  York.  The  amount  bestowed  in  private  charity  cannot,  of  course,  be  estimated. 
*  Adults.  t  Children.  A  large  portion  of  these  are  children  of  foreigners,  though  themselves  born  in  this  country. 

:  .  .  .  __—  ,_  :  .  

jo   'p<>)U9tii3p   'ouuiui    jo    laqutnsj 

o  o  os  -^t 

CO 
ON 

1 

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*C^-iCOT-*COOC^Oi        OCQ 

csT 

CO 

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1 

CO" 

1 

1 

o» 

•auiotpaai  uj  paaapuoi  aouujsissy 

CO                                 rH  O  ^  -^ 

b- 
rf 

ft 

i-J.     C»  TO  CO^TO 

s 

•o;9  '[anj  ut  pajapnaj  aatniisissy 

|I  II  illSI*  | 

O 

i 

5 

g 

•TO 

ITO 

•pooj  u[  paiepua.!  gauB^sissy 

CM  O        OCO        Oi-—  CCI^-CO 

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00 

•guiqjop  ui  paaapnaj  aouBjsjssy 

iS  :li  :lll^i    : 

TO 

i| 

OO     .iCO      ,  10  TH  »—  (TO 
J&1"1 

•qaoAv  jod  pisoq  jad  ;sog 

SS    -o^     JooS^S     . 

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^  :SJS  :8iS3!||    • 

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o_as_ 

C>  Ci      ,  CI^CC  O    /^  I—  Ci  ^"  CO      *"- 

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CO  CM        O  Ci  CO                    CO           ^-H 

.—  iO        •*  Ci  C*                   Ca          O 
<N            •        O»04      •     •     •            •     *-H 

5T 

1 

.§ 

•sarouiaj 

l§  :§S  :g  :  .Is^g 

:              1     :1 

•,981'l^nuBf'^w 

Is  :IS    I  ••  :§S1S 

CO 

ut?9A*  aqi  inoq^nojq^ 
}uo«n.redap  aqj  jo  agasqa  ut  JB^OX 

13  .Sllliiii  I 

co" 

oo-. 

o'^r 

Or-<         r-IM^-TO                ,_             0 

'1981  'I  A-JtmuBf 
'juanqjBdap  jo  aSatiqo  ui  SumiBinaa: 

|i                               : 

i 

:t 

'0981  Jtla^  Suunp  paSjtjqasjci 

TO'O"  ''  "'S-.-r'0    ^     : 

o" 

TO 

1 

'TO" 

'09St  •"»3^  Suunp  P9A13D8JI 

Sis  .§g§si*£i  s 

0 

•  § 

T'  O"               r-  TH  TH                TH'           of 

s 

'OilSt  'I  Aremrep  '-ojo 

l^CO      •  t^  3JN  CO.S  5?  4#  "      O^ 

i 

co" 

1 

g.       o 
Q        ( 

o     -1 

It 

1  1 

«    1 

Almshotlse,  Blackwell's  Island.  . 
Belle  vue  Hospital  
City  Prison  (insane  paupers).  .  .  . 
City  Lunatic  Asylum,  B.  Island. 
Kaudall's  Island  Nursery  
"  Hospital 
Workhouse,  Blackwell's  Island.  . 
Colored  Home  
Colored  Orphan  Asylum  
Island  Hospital,  Blackwell's  Isl.. 
Small  Pox  Hospital,  Blackw's  Is. 

Out-door  poor  for  the  year  

1 

"3 

0, 

'3 

a 

1 

COMMISSION  BUS  OF  KMIOBATION. 
Total  assistance  afforded  
Eefuge  and  Hospital,  Ward's  Isl.. 

27 

452 


HUMANITARIAN    AND    CORRECTIVE    INSTITUTIONS. 


Chicago  has  a  marine  hospital. 

St.  Louis  has  four,  one  for  quarantine,  one 
marine,  and  two  general ;  one  of  them  under 
the  care  of  the  Sisters  of  Charity. 

New  Orleans  and  Mobile  arc  more  am 
ply  supplied  with  hospitals  in  proportion  to 
their  population  than  most  of  the  cities  of 
the  Union,  the  former  having  four,  one  of 
them  a  United  States  naval  hospital.  The 
Charity  Hospital  at  New  Orleans  is  the 
largest  in  this  country,  receiving  from  13,000 
to  20,000  patients  a  year,  and  having  about 
1000  beds.  Mobile  has  three,  one  marine 
and  two  general.  All  are  largo,  and  admira 
bly  managed. 

Most  of  the  cities  of  twenty  thousand  in 
habitants  and  over  have  one,  and  some  of 
them  more  than  one  hospital,  though  ordi 
narily  their  wards  are  by  no  means  full. 


CHAPTER   V. 

DISPENSARIES. 

ANOTHER  of  the  methods  of  relief  and  min 
istration  to  the  wants  of  the  poor  has  been 
the  establishment  of  Dispensaries.  The 
idea  of  such  institutions  originated,  we  sup 
pose,  in  Rome,  but  was  not  adopted  in  oth 
er  cities  till  the  latter  part  of  the  last  cen 
tury.  In  London,  a  dispensary  was  establish 
ed  in  1696.  There  was  none  in  Paris  till 
]  803.  At  first,  it  was  simply  an  apothecary's 
shop,  where  medicines  were  dispensed  gratu 
itously  to  the  poor.  After  a  time,  a  physi 
cian  attended  at  a  certain  hour  to  prescribe 
for  patients  who  might  require  treatment ; 
then,  as  the  number  of  patients  increased, 
they  were  classified,  and  other  physicians 
volunteered  to  take  charge  of  the  different 
classes,  and  a  house  physician  and  apothecary 
were  appointed  to  take  the  general  oversight, 
keep  the  records,  prepare  medicines,  arrange 
the  patients  for  the  classes,  etc. ;  then,  as  it 
was  found  that  many  of  the  sick  poor  were 
unable  to  come  to  the  dispensary  to  receive 
treatment,  and  some  of  those  who  came  once 
or  twice  were  unable  to  continue  to  attend, 
and  so  suffered  for  the  want  of  medical  care, 
the  plan  was  adopted  of  dividing  the  region 
appertaining  to  the  dispensary  into  districts, 
to  each  of  which  a  district  physician  was  ap 
pointed  who  visited  the  sick  at  their  dwell 
ings.  Vaccination,  from  its  first  introduction, 
was  largely  practised  at  the  dispensaries; 
and  nearly  all  of  them  now  give  attention 


to  it,  keeping  a  supply  of  the  vaccine  virus 
constantly  on  hand,  and  vaccinating  all  who 
apply,  and  at  some  seasons  of  the  year  call 
ing  the  attention  of  the  people  to  the  neces 
sity  of  it.  To  some  of  the  dispensaries  a 
lying-in  department  is  added. 

The  first  dispensary  in  this  country  was 
the  Philadelphia,  founded  in  1786. 

The  New  York  Dispensary,  the  first  in 
that  city,  was  founded  in  1791,  and  the  Bos 
ton  Dispensary  in  1796. 

There  are  now  in  New  York  five  public 
dispensaries,  covering  the  whole  city  below 
Sixtieth  street  west  of  Fifth  avenue,  and  be 
low  Fortieth  street  east  of  that  avenue.  The 
territory  of  the  city  below  these  streets  is 
parcelled  out  between  these  dispensaries,  in 
such  a  way  as  to  give  to  each  a  district  not 
excessive  either  in  size  or  population.  Each 
dispensary  employs  two  or  more  district 
physicians,  to  visit  the  sick  poor  at  their 
homes  when  they  are  unable  to  come  to  the 
dispensary.  The  patients  who  come  to  the 
dispensary  between  the  hours  of  10  A.  M. 
and  4  p.  M.,  are  divided  into  eight  or  nine 
classes,  each  of  which  has  its  room,  where 
the  physician  in  attendance  prescribes  for 
the  patients  belonging  to  his  class.  The 
medicines  prescribed  are  furnished  by  the 
institution,  and  though  plainly  put  up,  great 
care  is  taken  to  have  them  uniformly  of  the 
best  quality. 

Besides  these,  there  are  three  homeo 
pathic  dispensaries  in  the  city,  and  four  oth 
er  institutions  of  a  dispensary  character,  in 
tended  for  special  diseases,  two  of  them  for 
diseases  of  the  eye,  and  two  for  women  and 
children. 

Philadelphia  has  three  dispensaries,  two 
of  them  with  a  lying-in  department.  It  lias 
also  several  institutions  which  dispense  med 
icine  to  the  poor,  and  prescribe  for  them  in 
particular  forms  of  disease,  in  connection  with 
the  hospital  or  asylum  accommodations. 

Boston  has  one  central  dispensary,  which 
is  largely  endowed,  although  its  funds  are 
not  yet  available.  This  dispensary  has  two 
consulting  and  eight  attending  physicians, 
two  consulting  and  four  attending  surgeons, 
a  medical  superintendent  and  apothecary, 
and  eight  district  physicians,  who  divide  be 
tween  them  the  city  territory  and  visit  all 
the  sick  poor  who  apply,  and  who  are  un 
able  to  attend  at  the  dispensary.  The  Mas 
sachusetts  General  Hospital  also  affords 
medical  and  surgical  relief  to  out-patients,  to 
a  very  considerable  extent. 


DISPENSARIES. 


453 


pd    PH 
CO    ^ 


Nativity  of 
patients. 

•q;.iiq  uStajoj  JQ 

53§c?5 

i 

0                    IMC5OCO-2t-O 

4i                  o  co       a  ro  -* 
•-1  S  -3  °  I-  ^§ 

PP                      C^  O      _r-        O 

o                     N  <°  2      ^ 

32SS1-0 

•q^.iiq  uuojjamy  JQ 

S: 

inancial. 

qourt    o;     9Uiojp9tu 

ScSScSs 

(P 

-j. 

i- 

cs! 

o           :      :  \  '•  '. 

-JOS  JO  ^SOO  9xiBJ9Ay 

4**** 

TO  oi  •*'  (^  ci 

r. 

s- 

o 

•   '   '  a 

cc             .       :    I    t  .9 

f-i          •      '  •  ;  ts 
8         :     :  :  :  s 
S         :     :  i  :  £ 

•ivsA  wd 
9jn^ipti9dx9  P-^ojj 

<N  O  r*  CO  C-. 
O  CiJ-^r-c  O 
1-^CO^Sf.S  5» 

S 
•«• 

CO 

o 

i 

4!  "2 

11 

o  3 

"uoi^duosajd 
qo«a  jo  ^soo  eSoaaAy 

O  O  OOO 

9 

8 

LCS  of  the  New  York  Dispensaries.  Owing  to  the  loss  of  its  & 

r  has  been  dispensed  to  the  sick  poor  of  New  York  by  the  dispensaries.  .  . 
pensaries  since  1804  
cine,  and  medical,  surgical,  and  vaccine  service  gratuitously  since  1791.  . 
ispensaries  since  1791  
gical,  and  vaccine  service  to  each  dispensary  patient  since  1791 
le  average  twenty-nine  years  that  the  dispensaries  have  been  organized  an 
>  years  of  its  existence,  has  prescribed  for  

qoB9o?Uo°K9LaAy 

si  r-J  <M'  r^  cvi 

c 

5 

•suoiidijosajd 
jo    jgquinu    e[oq^ 

^ooocc  <o 

STJI  >O  U?  r— 
CO  O  -"I-  ^ 

r-t 

9 

_/ 

8 

Results. 

•paAaija.!  jo  pajno 

' 

§ 

S 

3 

0" 

•sqjwop  jo  jaqmnjj 

IM  1C  t-  CO  CO 
1-  CS  O  >-i  CO 

i 

1 

•rnjidsoq 
o^  ^aoa    jaquitifj 

S??i2u??2 

-*  rl  OS  CO  T-l 

o' 

1 

CO 

Vaccination. 

-otJA  jaquiuu  9[oq^ 

Sill1 

B 

-l03T!A8i  JO  JOqtntl^J 

of 

f; 

Xauiuud  jo  jaqiun^j 

1111- 

o 

-r 
=' 

Ij 

*ra..p,PW1T 

CO  »C  O-I  O  >O 

01 

aj. 

\ 

*"-*«"»" 

1 

•« 
o 
t-' 

•jfjusnadgjp  qous  jo  \ayv\  pmuf) 

Ci  '.C  <N  «O  O 

CO  CO  O  —  I— 
tfi  iO  O  «O  <C 

00 

1 

5 

3SS82 

| 

a 
.i 
"3 

£< 
O 

I 
tl) 

• 

•e 
a 
a 

1 

01 

-jy  aa'pun  uajp^qo 

lip 

S 

CS 

1 

We  subjoin  the  following  general  statist 
Dispensary  cannot  be  ascertained  :  — 

Average  number  of  years  in  which  medical  charity 
Whole  number  of  persons  vaccinated  in  all  the  dis 
Whole  number  of  persons  who  have  received  medi 
Aggregate  amount  of  expenditures  of  the  several  d 
General  average  cost  of  medicine,  and  medical,  sur 
Average  number  of  patients  treated  annually  for  tl 
The  New  York  Dispensary  alone,  in  the  sixty-nine 

•B,inpy 

iCOSCeCsCO 

1 

CO' 

***i 

4  1  c/>  co  crj  r/) 
G-!yj_r-_co^o. 

c~ 
l  - 

si 

*«* 

h—  CO  O  CS  O 
—  »Q  <M  C-i  CD 

i~ 

'Z 

•  ; 

gl 

Id 
,  o 

it 

IS 

si 

•5*0 

11 
* 

^iii 

Totals  

Boston  Dispensary.  A.D.  1796 

New  York,  A.  D. 
Northern,  '• 
Eastern,  " 
Dernllt, 
North-western,  "  : 

454 


HUMANITARIAN    AND    CORRECTIVE    INSTITUTIONS. 


In  Brooklyn  there  are  three  city  dispensa 
ries,  not  as  yet  systematized  like  those  of  New 
York,  and  having,  up  to  the  present  time, 
no  district  physicians.  There  is  also  an  eye 
and  car  infirmary,  at  which  persons  suffering 
with  diseases  of  these  organs  are  prescribed 
for  gratuitously,  and  a  homoeopathic  dis 
pensary. 

Baltimore  has  two  dispensaries  or  infirm 
aries  ;  Cincinnati,  Chicago,  St.  Louis,  New- 
Orleans,  and  Charleston,  as  well  as  some 
other  smaller  cities,  one  or  more. 

Besides  these  institutions,  there  are  in 
connection  with  nearly  all  the  medical  schools 
in  the  large  cities,  cliniques,  at  which,  at  a 
given  hour,  once,  twice,  or  thrice  a  week, 
patients  are  prescribed  for  gratuitously  by 
the  professors,  in  order  to  familiarize  the 
students  with  the  practical  diagnosis  of  dis 
ease.  Some  of  the  medical  schools  have 
hospitals,  with  quite  a  number  of  free  beds, 
for  the  same  purpose. 

We  insert  a  table  showing  the  annual 
amount  of  medical  service  rendered  by  the 
dispensaries  of  New  York  and  Boston,  and 
the  small  cost  at  which  so  large  an  amount 
of  good  is  accomplished. 


'  CHAPTER    VI. 

NURSERIES  AND  FOUNDLING  HOSPITALS. 

THERE  has  been  a  strong  prejudice  in  this 
country  against  foundling  hospitals,  mainly 
undoubtedly  the  result  of  the  mismanage 
ment  which  formerly  prevailed,  and,  to  some 
extent,  still  prevails  in  some  of  the  great 
European  hospitals  for  foundlings.  They 
have  been  stigmatized  as  offering  a.  premium 
for  licentiousness,  and  destroying  the  barri 
ers  against  illegitimate  births.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  has  been  urged  in  their  favor,  that 
they  tend  to  prevent  infanticide  and  those 
crimes  so  prevalent  in  communities  where  no 
such  institutions  exist.  After  long  delib 
eration,  the  public  authorities  of  New  York 
have  decided  in  favor  of  a  foundling  hospital, 
which  will  be  the  first  in  this  country. 

Provision  has  been  made  for  many  years 
past  for  the  care  of  the  young  children  of 
criminals,  and  of  paupers  deceased,  or  inca 
pable  of  taking  care  of  them,  in  all  our  large 
cities.  ^  The  usual  method,  if  they  are  in 
fants,  is  to  put  them  out  to  nurse  until  they 
are  three  or  four  years  of  age,  the  city  pay 
ing  a  dollar  a  week  or  thereabout  to  the  nurse. 


In  many  cases,  those  "who  have  thus  taken 
charge  of  them  were  utterly  unfit  for  their 
duty,  and  painful  instances  of  cruelty  and 
maltreatment  of  these  unfortunate  children 
have  come  to  light.  Closer  scrutiny  is  now 
exercised  in  regard  to  the  character  and  po 
sition  of  those  who  apply  for  employment 
as  nurses,  and  the  abuses  are  measurably 
checked.  If  the  children  survive  the  nurs 
ing  period,  they  are  placed  together  in  a 
public  nursery  or  farm  school,  and  there  re 
ceive  a  good  English  education,  and  are  then 
apprenticed  or  adopted  in  families  in  the 
country,  or,  in  some  instances,  sent  to  sea. 

The  neglect  and  evil  results  which  in 
many  instances  followed  from  the  course 
pursued  in  these  institutions,  as  well  as  the 
conviction  that  the  infant  children  of  vir 
tuous  parents,  who  were  deprived  of  their 
parents'  care  by  death  or  extreme  poverty, 
were  entitled  to  a  tenderer  watchfulness  and 
supervision,  has  led  in  most  of  the  large 
cities  to  the  establishment  of  nurseries,  in 
fants'  homes,  and  other  institutions  of  a  sim 
ilar  character,  for  children  of  this  class.  The 
"homes  for  the  friendless,"  a  class  of  insti 
tutions  we  have  clsew:here  described,  have 
received  very  considerable  numbers  of  these 
children,  and  after  carefully  rearing  them, 
have  provided  them  with  good  homes,  where 
they  have  been  adopted  by  those  who  re 
ceived  them.  There  are  also  in  New  York, 
Boston,  and  Philadelphia,  hospitals  for  in 
fants  of  legitimate  birth.  An  institution 
much  needed  in  all  our  large  cities,  and 
which  has  just  been  established  in  Boston,  is 
the  creche,  now  very  popular  in  most  of  the 
European  cities.  It  is  a  large  building,  with 
fine,  airy,  well-ventilated  rooms,  fitted  up 
with  cradles,  toys,  and  every  thing  necessary 
for  the  care  and  amusement  of  infants  and 
young  children,  and  provided  with  a  suffici 
ent  number  of  amiable  and  intelligent  nurses, 
where  the  poor  mother,  whose  daily  toil  sus 
tains  her  little  flock,  may  leave  them  for  the 
day,  certain  that  they  will  be  well  cared  for, 
and  receive  wholesome  food  and  pure  air. 
For  this  care  she  pays  a  trifling  sum,  grad 
uated  to  her  ability. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

HOMES    AND    ASYLUMS    FOR    THE    AGED 
AND   INFIRM. 

FROM  tne  care  of  children  who  have  been 
bereft  of  a  parent's  tender  love,  to  the  pro- 


HOMES  AND  ASYLUMS  FOR  THE  AGED  AND  INFIRM. 


455 


vision  for  those  whom  the  burden  of  years 
and  infirmity  has  reduced  to  an  almost 
childish  feebleness,  seems  a  natural  transi 
tion.  For  this  class,  and  especially  for 
women  who  in  the  time  of  old  age  find 
themselves  without  those  who  can  minister 
to  their  wants,  and  to  whom  the  almshouse 
seems  almost  as  terrible  as  the  grave,  the 
large-hearted  charity  of  the  philanthropic  in 
most  of  our  cities,  has  made  liberal  provision. 
New  York  has  five  institutions  for  this  class, 
besides  several  relief  societies  intended  main 
ly  for  them ;  Boston  three  or  four,  one  of 
them  largely  endowed ;  Philadelphia  four  ; 
Brooklyn  two,  one  the  Graham  Home,  nobly 


endowed  by  one  of  her  citizens ;  Baltimore 
two;  and  the  other  larger  cities  one  or  two 
each.  In  Boston  and  Philadelphia  there  are 
also  institutions  for  aged  clergymen,  mer 
chants,  and  others.  New  York  has  an  asy 
lum  for  infirm  seamen,  the  Sailor's  Snug 
Harbor,  located  on  Staten  Island,  and  found 
ed  and  amply  endowed  by  the  munificence 
of  a  retired  sea  captain,  Robert  R.  Randall. 
Provision  has  been  made  in  most  of 
the  Northern  cities  for  children,  the  aged 
and  infirm,  and  the  sick  of  the  African  race, 
in  separate  institutions,  but  with  accommo 
dations  fully  equal  to  those  provided  for 
whites. 


INDEX 


ACCORDION,  the,  433. 

Adriatic,  tho  (steamer),  picture  of,  237. 

Aged  and  infirm,  houses  and  asylums  for  the,  454. 

Agricultural  books,  98. 

Agricultural  exhibitions,  the  first,  25;  benefits  of,  26 ;  fruit 
culture  increased  by,  84. 

Agricultural  implements  in  old  times,  20,  24,  26;  improve 
ments  in,  30-37;  manufacture  of  in  Illinois,  70. 

Agricultural  literature,  progress  of.  97. 

Agricultural  newspaper,  tho  first,  25. 

Agricultural  periodicals,  97-8. 

"Agricultural  Kepository,"  97. 

Agricultural  societies  recommended  by  Washington,  24 ;  first 
establishment  and  increase  of,  25;  results  of,  20;  publi 
cation  of  the  proceedings  of,  99. 

A; 

A' 


,  ,  

dition  of,  a  century  ago,  22 ;  efforts  for  the  improvement 
of,  24;  stimulated  by  foreign  demand,  71 ;  by  canals  and 
railroads,  72 ;  total  value  of  the  products  of,  76 ;  scientific 
discoveries  relating  to,  99 ;  prospects  of,  101 ;  annual 
value  of,  157  (table).;  use  of  steam  in,  263. 

Albany,  penitentiary  of,  439. 

Allen,  Horatio,  account  of  his  first  locomotive  trip,  245. 

"American  Agriculturist,"  98. 

American  bottom,  first  settlement  of  the,  74 

"American  Farmer,"  97. 

American  Watch  Company,  871. 

America*,  large  ox,  48. 

Ambler's  mowing  machine,  35. 

Auioskeag  Locomotive  Works.  246;  illustration  of,  247. 

Amoskcag  steam  fire  engine,  260. 

Andrews,  Dr.,  permutation  lock  of,  897. 

Annealing,  process  of,  402. 

Apples,  primitive  culture  and  use  of,  81;  thirty  good  native 
varieties  of,  82 ;  at  the  South,  82. 

Apple  trees  in  California,  88. 

Apricots  in  California,  83. 

Arkwright's  cotton-spinning  invention,  108,  275. 

Astor,  John  Jacob,  139  ;  the  fur  trade  of,  844. 

All  inta  and  West  Point  railroad,  205. 

Atlantic,  llrst  crossing  of  the,  by  steam,  180. 

Atlantic  slope,  area  of  the,  101. 

Auburn  prison,  silk  manufacture  in,  395;  trial  of  solitary 
confinement  in,  430. 

Axes,  manufacture  of,  841. 

Ayrshire  cows,  good  milkers,  49 ;  importations  of,  50. 

Ayrshire  bull,  portrait  of,  45. 

Bakewell,  improvement  in  tho  breeding  of  cattle  by,  39. 

IJaldwin,  M.  W,  engine  builder.  240. 

Baldwin's  steam  car  for  cities,  251. 

Ballast,  use  of,  in  railroad  construction,  195. 

Baltimore,  the  oyster  trade  of,  385;  hospitals  of,  449. 

Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad,  192 ;  account  of,  203,  245 ;  pre 
mium  for  coal-burning  engine  offered  by,  246. 

Baltimore  and  Susquehanna  railroad,  anecdote  of  the  first 
engine  on,  251-2. 

Baltimore  clippers,  162. 

Bank  of  England,  145.  151. 

Bankrupt  law.  operation  of  tho,  152. 

Banks,  multiplication  of.  143,  151 ;  failure  of,  151. 

Bark,  oak  and  hemlock,  319. 


Barley,  production  and  geographical  distribution  of,  78. 

Batchelder.  John,  sewing-machine  patent  of,  414. 

Bay  State  Mills,  308. 

Beads,  glass,  manufacture  of,  405. 

Beam  engines.  252. 

Beans,  production  and  exports  of,  79. 

Bean's  sewing-machine  patent,  414. 

Beaver  cloth,  305. 

Bedford  hog,  the,  63. 

Beech-nut  hoc,  picture  of,  61. 

Bee  culture,  90. 

Beeswax  and  honey,  production  of.  90. 

Belting,  rubber,  manufacture  of,  411. 

Berkshire  hog,  picture  of,  62. 

Berlin  decree,  the,  139-40. 

Bernard,  General,  177. 

Beverly,  Mass.,  first  cotton  mill  at,  277,  280. 

Bigelow's  power  loom  for  carpets,  306. 

Black  Hawk  horses,  origin  and  qualities  of,  54. 

Black  Kiver  canal,  185. 

Blackstone  canal,  190. 

Blanchard,  Thomas,  hat-felting  process  of,  349. 

Bleaching,  improvements  in,  270;  of  cotton  goods,  2SS;  of 
paper  stock,  297. 

Blodgett  &  Lerow,  sewing  machine  of,  414. 

Blowers  for  steamboats,  introduced  by  R.  L.  Stevens,  241. 

Blue  grass,  Kentucky,  80. 

Bock,  Henry,  tambouring  machine  of.  414. 

Bohemia,  nvmiifacturo  of  glass  in,  399. 

Boilers,  water  gauges  for,  229;  pumps  connected  with,  233; 
act  for  the  inspection  of,  242;  stationary,  bad  manage 
ment  of,  254 ;  inspection  law  required  for,  255,  268. 

Bones  for  manure,  100. 

Bony  fish,  for  manure,  the  taking  of,  385. 

Book  forming,  prejudice  against,  25. 

Books,  agricultural,  98. 

Boots  and  shoes,  importations  and  manufacture  of,  316;  manu 
facture  of,  in  Massachusetts,  &c.,  324 ;  by  machinery, 
325 ;  qualities  and  prices  of,  325. 

Boston,  export  of  apples.  82 ;  lumber  business  of,  97 ;  railroad 
enterprise  of,  192,  197  ;  clothing  trade  of,  310;  shoe  trade 
of.  324 ;  ice  trade  of,  387.  3S8;  glassworks  in,  399 ;  Prison, 
Discipline  Society  of,  439 ;  hospitals  of,  449 ;  dispensa 
ries  of,  452,  453  (table). 

Boston  and  Maine  railroad.  197. 

Boston  and  Providence  railroad,  197. 

Boston  Locomotive  Works,  240. 

Bottles,  manufacture  of,  405. 

Hoydell's  engines,  204. 

Bradshaw,  John,  sewing-machine  patent  of,  414. 

Bramah  lock,  the.  397. 

Brazil,  export  of  flour  to,  107;  cotton  imported  from.  117. 

Breadstuff's,  fluctuations  in  European  demand  for,  71. 

Breaking  machine,  the,  802. 

Breech-loading  weapons,  332. 

Breed,  definition  of,  41. 

Breeding,  two  modes  of.  40. 

Bricks,  early  importation  of.  356;  material  of,  357;  manufac 
ture  of,  358 ;  machines  for,  858. 

Broadcloth,  the  fulling  of,  302-3. 

Brooks  Brothers,  clothing  establishment  of,  310. 

Brooklyn,  boiler  explosion  in,  254;  hospitals  of,  419;  dispen 
saries  of.  454. 

Brooklyn  Ship  Timber  Bending  Company,  267. 


458 


Brooklyn  Water  "Works,  pumping  engine  at,  258. 

Brown;  Noah,  240. 

Brown  stone  houses,  859. 

Brussels  carpet,  807. 

Buckskin  gloves,  326,  32". 

Buckwheat,  production  and  geographical  distribution  of,  78; 

land  cleansed  by  its  cultivation,  78. 
Buffalo  robes,  345. 

Buildings  and  building  material.  353. 
Bunker,  Elias,  sloop  of,  ITS  ;  captain  of  the  Fulton,  179. 
Burr  &  Co.,  hat  body  manufactory  of,  349. 
Butler,  Charles,  208. 
Butter,  great  production  of,  from  73  cows,  39  ;  from  an  Ayr 

shire  cow,  50  ;  production  of,  per  cow,  in  ditferent  States, 

51. 
Byfield  breed  of  hogs,  64. 


Calico  printing,  270;  improvements  in,  277;    processes  of, 
288  ;  statistics  of,  290. 


Caloric  engine,  the,  '270-71. 

Camden  and  Amboy  railroad,  202. 

Canada,  operation  of  the  treaty  with,  156. 

Canadian  ponies,  origin  of,  53. 

Canal  up  the  Potomac  projected  by  Washington,  71. 

Canals,  American,  173,  184;  mode  of  constructing  and  ope 
rating,  185-6;  principal,  table  of,  190;  of  New  York, 
financial  results  of.  190;  for  coal  transportation  (table), 
190  ;  sensation  produced  by,  191. 

Candy  and  confectionery,  392. 

Cane,  sugar.     See  Sugar  cane. 

Cane  carrier,  the,  description  of,  128. 

Cannon,  improvements  in,  834;  metal  for,  335  ;  casting,  335; 
proving,  336. 

Caoutchouc.     See  India-rubber. 

Carding,  hand,  picture  of,  299. 

Carding  machine,  Improvements  in,  276;  operation  of,  287; 
introduction  of,  301. 

Card-making  machine,  276,801. 

Cards,  wool,  300  ;  machine  for  making,  301. 

Carhart's  melodeons,  434. 

Carpenter  &  Plass's  pumping  engine,  263. 

Carpets,  use  and  manufacture  of,  in  America,  806;  kinds  of, 
306,  307  ;  quantity  of,  made  in  New  York  and  Massachu 
setts,  308. 

Carriages,  manufacture  of,  860  ;  materials  of,  861  ;  illustra 
tions  of,  863-6;  process  of  making,  367;  statistics  of.  368. 

Carrying  trade  in  colonial  times,  135;  during  the  French 
wars,  138  ;  English  decree  against  the,  139  ;  cessation  of, 
140. 

Car-springs,  rubber,  411. 

Cartwright,  power  loom  of,  108,  276. 

Gary's  boiler,  244,  259. 

Cast  iron,  best  metal  for  guns,  335. 

Cattle  two  centuries  ago,  20  ;  cruel  treatment  of,  20,  23  ;  in 
Virginia,  the  first  in  the  United  States,  37  ;  laws  for  the 
preservation  of,  87  ;  in  the  other  colonies,  37,  38;  Danish, 
in  New  Hampshire,  88;  native  sources  of,  38;  mode  of 
keeping  in  Virginia,  38;  increase  in  the  average  weight 
of,  40  ;  two  modes  of  improvement  of,  40  ;  native,  not  a 
race  or  breed,  41  ;  selection  of,  for  breeding,  42  ;  progress 
in  the  qualities  of,  47  ;  statistics  of,  47,  51  ;  importations 
of  improved  breeds  of.  47-50. 

Cavalry,  diminished  importance  of,  323. 

Cayuga  and  Seneca  Lake  canal,  184. 

Census  of  I860,  tables,  169-70. 

Census  statistics,  imperfection  of,  73. 

Central  railroad  of  New  York.  200  ;  of  New  Jersey,  202  ;  of 
Pennsylvania,  203  ;  of  Virginia.  204;  of  Georgia,  205;  of 
Illinois,  205;  of  Michigan,  208. 

Champlain  or  Northern  canal,  184. 

Charcoal  roads,  176. 

Charleston,  railroad  connections  of,  205. 

Cheese,  great  production  of,  from  one  farm,  39  ;  production 
of,  per  cow,  in  different  States,  51  ;  whole  amount  of,  51. 

Chemung  canal,  185. 

Chenango  canal,  185. 

Chicago,  rise  and  growth  of,  75;  preeminent  as  a  grain  depot, 
75;  statistics  of  the  grain  trade  of,  76;  preeminent  as  a 
lumber  market,  96;  receipts  of  lumber  at,  96;  effect  of 
railroads  upon  the  grain  trade  of,  220  (table)  ;  general  rail 
road  business  of,  221  (table)  ;  steam  elevators'of,  264. 

Chickering,  Jonas,  manufacture  and  improvement  of  the 
piano  by,  433. 

Chickering's  piano-forte  manufactory,  picture  of,  352. 

Childers,  trotting  horse,  portrait  of,  56. 

China,  American  cotton  goods  sent  to,  107  ;  former  course  of 
trade  with,  146;  English  war  with,  164;  American  treaty 


with,  164 ;  land  transportation  in,  172 ;  American  steam 
ers  in,  231. 

Chincha  islands,  guano  obtained  from.  100. 

Chouteau,  Pierre  &  Co.,  fur  traders,  345. 

Cigars,  manufacture  of,  in  Hamburg,  87. 

Cincinnati,  pork-packing  in,  65;  early  steam  transportation 
of,  181;  railroad  connection*  of,  205;  steam  fire  engines 
at,  259 :  hospitals  of,  449. 

Cities,  street  railroads  in,  223;   plans  of  steam  cars  for,  251; 

rrisons  in.  439. 
engineering,  American  triumphs  in,  230. 

Clark,  G.  B.,  mulberry  plantation  of,  394. 

Clay  for  brick,  358. 

Clay,  Henry,  importation  of  Ilercfords  bv,  4S;  compromise 
tariff  of,  147. 

Clearing  house,  exchanges  at  the,  160. 

Clermont,  the.  Fulton's  first  steamboat,  179. 

Clinton,  De  Witt,  72,184 

Clipper  ships,  162  ;  in  the  California  trade,  167. 

Clocks,  early  manufacture  of,  368;  wooden  and  brass,  process 
of  making,  309 ;  exportation  of,  370. 

Cloth,  home-spun,  301. 

Clothing  trade,  the,  rise  and  growth  of,  309;  management  of 
309-10. 

Cloth  manufacture,  wool  used  for,  302. 

Cloth  printing,  804. 

Cloths  and  cassimeres,  imports  of,  312. 

Clover  and  grass  seeds,  production  of,  by  sections,  79. 

Coal  discovered  in  Pennsylvania,  190 ;  quantity  of,  transport 
ed,  219;  public  works  built  for,  220. 

Coasters,  travelling  by,  179. 

Cod  fishery,  the,  mode  of  conducting,  378-81 ;  illustration  of, 
880. 

Ccelebs.  short-horn  bull,  47. 

Cole's  "  American  Fruit  Book,"  84. 

Colles,  Christ'r,  first  steam  engine  in  America  bnilt  by,  227. 

Collins,  Charles  and  Robert,  breeders  of  short-horns,  89. 

Colonies,  the  American,  restriction  of  commerce  and  manu 
factures  in.  133;  trade  of,  with  the  West  Indies,  &c..  134; 
fisheries  of,  135;  table  of  exports  from,  in  1770,  136;  the 
revolution  in,  137. 

Coloring  matters,  203. 

Colt,  Samuel,  invention  of  the  revolver  by,  331 ;  the  manufac 
tory  of,  331. 

Comet,  the,  second  western  steamboat,  239. 

Commerce,  foreign,  of  the  United  States,  history  of,  104-5; 
colonial,  restricted  by  Great  Britain.  133-7  ;  with  the  West 
Indies,  134;  effect  of  the  revolution  upon,  137;  activity 
of,  after  the  war  of  1812, 143;  after  tho  revulsion  of  1887, 
152;  table  of,  for  70  years,  157;  remarkable  advance  of, 
168;  of  the  great  lakes,  186-7. 

Commercial  disasters,  table  of  losses  from,  152. 

Conant,  J.  L.,  sewing-machine  patent  of,  414. 

Conestoga  horses,  54. 

Conestoga  wagon,  184. 

Connecticut,  the  clock  business  in,  868-70 ;  silk  culture  and 
manufacture  in,  893. 

Conner,  James,  fire-proof  chest  made  by,  396. 

Cooking  by  steam.  Papin's  account  of,  266-7. 

Cooks',  Messrs.,  carriage  manufactory,  361 ;  picture  of,  866. 

Corlies'  sewing-machine  patent,  414. 

Cooper,  William,  invention  of,  for  enamelling  glass,  405. 

Corliss  and  Nightengale's  stationary  engines,  253,  254. 

Corn.  Indian,  native  mode  of  cultivating,  21 ;  Ojibway  legend 
of  the  origin  of,  68;  first  cultivation  of,  by  tho  colonists, 
09 ;  early  exports  of,  69 ;  census  statistics  of,  70 ;  increased 
exportation  of,  70;  table  of  exports  of,  71 ;  late  introduc 
tion  of,  into  the  West,  75;  exports  of,  to  Great  Britain, 
1840-1858,  158. 

Corning  and  Sotham,  of  Albany,  importation  of  Herefords 
by",  49. 

Cornish  engines,  258. 

Corn  laws,  English,  repeal  of.  153, 157. 

Cotswold  sheep,  picture  of.  57. 

Cotton,  the  demand  for.  100;  the  high  prices  of  labor  sus 
tained  by,  106;  the  most  important  article  of  export, 
107;  importation  of,  into  England.  108 ;  improvements  in 
the  manufacture  of,  108;  increase  in  exportations  of,  109; 
prices  for  different  qualities  of.  109 ;  increase  in  American 
consumption  of.  110;  raw  and  manufactured,  decline  in 
cost  of,  110;  first  cultivation  and  exportation  of,  111; 
picture  of  cleaning,  by  hand  and  by  the  gin.  112;  progress 
of  the  production  of,  since  the  invention  of  the  gin,  118-16; 
monopoly  of  tho  foreign  market  for.  117;  sources  of  the 
supply  of,  117;  qualities  of,  from  different  countries.  118; 
process  of  cultivating,  120 ;  high  prices  maintained  by, 
122;  effect  of  the  war  upon  the  production  of,  124;  ef 
fects  of,  upon  American  commerce,  141  ;  exports  of, 
1790-1859,  158;  the  transportation  of,  favorable  to  rail 
roads,  205;  effect  of  railroads  upon,  220  (table);  raw, 
divisions  of,  286;  for  paper-making,  29& 


INDEX 


459 


Cotton  clothing,  demand  for,  15T. 

Cotton  gin,  invention  of  the,  111,  2T7;  description  of  the,  111; 
picture  of  a,  112;  infringements  of  the  patent  for,  113; 
effect  of,  upon  production,  113. 

Cotton  goods,  importation  of,  105;  sent  from  the  United 
States  to  China,  107. 

Cotton  manufactures,  progress  of,  274;  inventions  in,  275-6, 
236 ;  table  of  dates  of,  277 ;  in  the  United  States,  277, 280 ; 
in  1S09,  281 ;  protective  duties  on,  283;  table  of,  in  1831, 
283;  returns  of.  in  1840,  284;  table  of,  in  1860,  285;  the 
processes  of,  236-290 ;  exports  and  imports  of,  290 ;  table 
of  the  progress  of,  290. 

Cotton  plant  of  Europe  and  America,  110. 

Cotton  States,  the,  progress  of  the  population  of,  116 ;  supe 
riority  of  the  climate  and  labor  of,  119. 

Cotton  yarn,  prices  of,  110. 

Cows  in  New  England  at  its  settlement,  19;  in  Virginia,  23; 
in  Virsinia,  not  housed  nor  milked  in  winter  for  fear  it 
•would  kill  them.  38;  in  Rhode  Island  in  1750,39;  great 
prices  for,  in  England,  40;  selection  of,  for  breeding, 
42;  treatment  of,  in  New  England,  4'2;  comparative 
statement  of  the  products  of,  51;  proportion  of,  to  popu 
lation,  in  the  States,  51. 

Cranberry,  culture  of  the,  84. 

Creampots  (cows),  47. 

Creche,  the,  454. 

Credit,  system  of,  148;  evils  of,  14a 

Creole  cane,  origin  of,  127. 

Crocheting  machine,  Thimonier's,  414 

Crompton  s  mule  spinner,  108,  275-6. 

Crooked  Lake  canal,  185. 

"Cultivator,"  the,  98. 

Cumberland  national  road,  the,  174, 177. 

Currency,  inflation  of,  146. 

Currier,  operations  of  the,  319. 

Curves  in  railroads,  193-4. 

Gushing,  Caleb,  treaty  with  China  negotiated  by,  164. 

Cutlery,  American  manufacture  of,  839;  grinding  and  polish 
ing  of,  340;  statistics  of,  842. 

Cut-off,  steam,  the  theory  of  the,  232-3 ;  experiments  upon 
the,  272. 

Dahlgren,  Captain,  improved  guns  of,  835. 

Barker's  steam  car  for  cities,  251. 

Darlington  railroad,  191. 

Davis,  Phineas,  coal-burning  engine  built  by,  203,  246. 

Davy,  Sir  Humphry,  99. 

Deer  skins  as  a  medium  of  exchange,  844. 

Delano,  Jesse,  fire-proof  chests  of,  396. 

Delaware  and  Hudson  canal,  185;  enlargement  of,  186. 

Delaware  and  Raritan  cr.nal,  190,  202. 

Delaware  and  Schuylkill  Company,  173. 

Denison,  E.  B.,  on  American  locks,  398. 

Detectors,  low-water,  270. 

Devonshire  cattle,  qualities  and  importations  of,  49. 

Dewsbury  trade,  the,  815. 

Dismal  Swamp  canal,  173. 

Dispensaries  in  the  United  States,  452;  in  New  York  and 

Boston,  453  (table). 

Dix,  Dorothea  L  ,  efforts  of,  in  behalf  of  the  insane,  442. 
Dowley,  L.  A.,  importation  of  llerofords  by,  49. 
Donkey  engine,  the,  241 ;  use  of,  260,  263. 
Double  Duke,  short-horn  bull,  portrait  of,  43. 
Downing's  "  Fruit  and  Fruit  Trees  of  America  "  84. 
Drawing  frame,  the,  287, 302. 
Dressing  machine,  invention  of  the,  276. 
Dummy  engine,  the,  250. 
Dunderborg,  the,  838. 

Dwellings,  number  and  value  of,  854;  improved  style  of, 855. 
Dynamometer,  the,  176. 
Dyeing  of  cotton  goods,  289;  of  woollens.  801, 303 ;  of  leather 

320. 
Dye-stuffs  for  woollens,  804 

Eagle  Cotton  Mill,  Pittsbnrg,  284 

East  Indies,  cotton  imported  from,  117:  inferior  quality  of, 
118. 

Eggs,  consumption  of,  90. 

Esypt,  one  of  the  chief  sources  of  cotton,  117. 

Elevators,  the,  of  Chicago,  76. 

Electro-gildins,  877. 

Electro-plating,  872;  illustrations  of,  373-6. 

Eliot's  "Essays  on  Field  Husbandry,"  97. 

Embargo,  the,  of  1SU8,  140;  effects  of,  142. 

Emigration  into  the  United  States  explained,  106;  to  the 
United  States  from  Germany,  146;  of  planters  to  the 
west,  152;  from  New  England"  to  the  west,  188;  of  foreign 
paupers,  446,  Commissioners  of.  446. 

Engineers,  steam,  254,  268;  advice  to.  270. 

England,  importation  of  food  into,  71;  consumption  of  tobac 
co  in,  87;  sources  of  tho  cotton  supply  of,  117,  275,  277; 


restrictions  of,  upon  colonial  trade,  138,  139 ;  loss  of  the 
naval  supremacy  of,  143;  Bank  of,  145,  151;  warehouse 
system  of,  146;  short  harvests  in,  152;  navigation  laws 
of,  161 ;  cotton  manufactures  in,  275. 

Eolodicou,  the,  433. 

Ericsson's  screw  propeller,  167, 180,  240;  steam  fire  engine, 
259;  caloric  engine,  270-71;  turreted  war  steamers.  838. 

Erie  canal,  construction  of  the,  72,  166,  184;  effect  of  the 
opening  of,  180,  181;  enlargement  of,  186;  effect  of,  on 
western  New  York,  186. 

Erie  railroad,  account  of  the,  200. 

Essex,  the,  338. 

Essex  hog,  improved,  picture  of,  62. 

Evans,  Oliver,  228,  229;  "  Orukter  Amphibolos"  of,  235  (pic 
ture),  243 ;  on  steam  wagons,  244. 

Eve,  J.,  cotton  gin  of,  113;  rotary  engine  of,  253. 

Everett,  Edward,  anecdote  of,  about  American  ice  in  India, 
389. 

Exchanges  at  the  New  York  clearing  house,  160. 

Explosions,  steam,  242. 

Export,  three  chief  articles  of,  107. 

Exports,  table  of  colonial,  136;  of  domestic,  141, 158;  of  Ameri 
can,  British,  and  French,  1800-1865, 168.  (See  Imports 
and  exports.) 

Factory  operatives  in  New  England,  282. 
Faile,  Edward  G.,  Devon  cow  and  bull  owned  by,  44,  46. 
Fairbanks,  W.  W.,  engine  builder,  246. 

Farmers,  their  primitive  condition  a  century  ago,  22;  their 
fear  of  innovation,  23;  influence  of  the  Revolution  upon, 
24;  backward  in  joining  agricultural  societies,  25;  their 
improvement  by  means  otj  26. 
"  Farmers'  Cabinet,"  98. 
Farming  in  America  in  early  times,  19;  by  the  Indians,  21; 

by  the  early  settlers  of  Illinois,  74,  75. 
Farm  implements,  general  account  of,  26. 
Farms,  number  and  value  of,  in  the  United  States,  102. 
Fawkes  engine,  the,  264. 

Felting,  the  process  of,  804-5 ;  of  hat  bodies,  349. 
Finkle  &  Lyon's  sewing  machine,  illustrations  of.  418. 
Fire-arms,  introduction  and  improvements  of,  828;  illustra 
tions  of,  329-30. 

Fire  engines,  steam,  244;  origin  and  kinds  of,  259. 
Fish,  eating  of,  at  stated  times,  decreed  by  Queen  Elizabeth, 

162. 

Fisher,  steam  carriages  built  by,  244. 

Fisheries,  colonial,  of  New  England,  135;  growth  of  the,  162; 
account  of,  377 ;  European,  importance  of,  37S;  American, 
878;  of  the  lakes,  385;  statistics  of  the,  886. 
Fishing  bounties,  the,  162,  878. 
Fitch,  the  fur  of  the,  347. 

Fitch,  John,  picture  of  the  steamboats  of.  226;  first  condens 
ing  engine  built  by,  227;  his  boats,  how  propelled,  229; 
the  honor  due  to,  234;  picture  of  his  propeller,  235. 
Flat  boats  on  the  western  rivers,  165,  180,  182,  234  (picture). 
Flax  and  hernp,  culture  of,  89;  statistics  of,  90. 
Flax-seed,  exports  of,  89. 
Flint  glass,  404. 
Flock  paper,  298. 
Flora,  short-horn  cow,  47. 
Florida,  sugar-cane  cultivated  in,  127. 

Flour,  early  exports  of,  73;  trade  of  Chicago  in,  76;  demand 
for  Southern,  107;  exports  of,  1831-1888,  148;  to  Great 
Britain,  1840-1858,  158;  and  provisions,  1790-1858,  158; 
effect  of  the  Western  railroad  upon  tho  trade  in,  197 ;  the 
grinding  of,  432. 
Floyd  gun,  the,  837. 
Fly  frame,  the,  287. 

Food,  importation  of,  into  England,  71. 
Forest  trees  of  tho  United  States,  9L 
Fortunatus  or  llolderness,  short-horn  bull,  4S. 
Foundling  hospitals,  454. 
Fourdrinier  machine,  the,  295. 
Foster,  Win.,  first  importer  of  merino  sheep,  59. 
Fowls,  foreign  varieties  of,  90-91. 
Fox,  silver,  fur  of  the,  845. 

France,  revenue  from  tobacco  in,  85;  imports  of  cotton  into, 
109;  free  trade  with,  138;  effect  of  tho  revolution  of  ISIS 
in,  upon  commerce,  154;  system  of  roads  in,  174 
Free-trade  treaty  between  France  and  England,  188. 
French,  D.,  steamboat  built  by,  239. 

Fruit,  former  and  present  importance  of,  81 ;  native  varieties 
of,  82;  production  of,  82;   at  the  South,  82;  increasing 
exportation  of,  S3 ;  no  danger  of  a  glut  of,  83 ;  in  Califor 
nia,  83;  imports  of,  from  the  Mediterranean,  83;  census 
stati  sties  of.  84. 
Fruit-raising,  works  on,  84. 
Fruit  trees,  nnmml  sale  of,  82.  ' 
Fuel  for  locomotives,  249 ;  economy  in,  250 ;  for  stationary 

engines,  256. 
Fulling-mill,  the,  302. 


460 


INDEX 


Fulton.  Robert,  first  steamboat  of,  165, 179.  229,  230 (picture); 

builds    steamboats   at    Pittsburg,   239;    steam    battery 

built  by,  241. 

Fulton,  the,  navigation  of  Lons  Island  Sound  by,  179-80. 
Fur,  hat  bodies  formed  from,  305. 
Furs,  kinds  and  comparative  value  of,  345;   table  of,  346; 

preparation  of,  847. 
Fur  trade,  history  of  the,  343. 

G:illatin.  Albert,  on  cotton  manufactures  In  1809,  281. 

Gayler,  C.  J.,  fire-proof  safes  of,  396. 

"  Genesee  Fanner,"  98. 

Genesee  Valley  canal,  185. 

George's  Banks,  cod  fishery  of,  381 ;  halibut  fishery  of,  382. 

Georgetown  and  Pittsburg  casal,  188. 

Georgia,  colonial  exports  of,  137;  railroad  system  of,  205; 

silk  culture  in,  393. 

Gibbs,  James  E.  A.     See  Willcox  &  Gibbs. 
Gilding  metals,  various  modes  of,  372. 
Girard,  Stephen,  139. 
Glass,  importance  and  uses  of,  398;  history  of,  399;  statistics 

of,  401) ;  materials  of,  400 ;  process  of  manufacturing,  401 ; 

crown,  401 ;    cylinder,  402 ;   window,  consumption  and 

imports  of,  403  ;  plate,  403 ;  grinding  and  polishing,  403; 

silvering,  404;    bending,  404,    flint,  404;    colored,  405; 

enamelled,  405 ;  soluble,  405,  bottle,  &c.,  405. 
Gloucester,  Mass.,  the  mackerel  business  of,  383. 
Gloves,  skins  for,  318 ;  kinds  and  manufacture  of,  326. 
Glucose  or  grape  sugar,  180. 
Gold,  discovery  of,  in  California,  154;  effect  of,  on.  the  price 

of  labor,  107  ;  as  an  article  of  export,  157. 
Gold's  steam-heating  apparatus,  265. 
Goodale  and  Marsh's  steam  excavator,  264. 
Goodyear,  Charles,  invention  of  vulcanized  rubber  by,  410. 
Government  r«,ids,  177. 
Governor,  the,  of  steam  engines,  233. 
Grain,  trade  in.  at  Chicago,  &c.,  76. 
Granite  for  building,  3597 
Grapes  in  California,  immense  growth  of,  83. 
Grass  and  hay  crop,  importance  of  the,  at  the  North,  79. 
Grasses  first  cultivated  in  New  England,  20;  progress  in  the 

cultivation  of,  80. 
Grass  seed,  production  of,  79. 
Gravel  roads,  176. 
Gray,  William,  the  ships  of,  139. 
Grazing  in  Texas,  102. 
Great   Britain,  inadequate  home  production  in,  71 ;   trade 

with,  after  the  revolution,  ]38;  comparative  area  of.  157; 

corn  and  pork  exported  to,  158;  commercial  advantages 

of,  161  ;  sources  of  the  cotton  of,  275,  277;  progress  ol 

manufactures  in.  290. 
Great  Eastern,  the.  241. 

Greenough,  J.  J.,  first  sewing-machine  patentee,  414. 
Greenville  and  Columbia  railroad,  205. 
Greenwood,  Miles,  259. 
Grice  and  Long's  steam  car  for  cities,  251. 
Grover  &  Baker's  sewing  machine,  invention  of,  419 ;  de 
scription  of.  424;  warehouse  of,  423. 
Guano,  introduction  and  use  of,  100. 
Gulf  region,  the,  area  of,  101 ;  grazing  in,  102. 
Guns,  manufacture  of,  334.    (See  Cannon.) 
Gutta  percha,  manufactures  of,  411. 

Halibut  fishery,  the,  882;  growth  of,  8S3. 

If  all,  Adam,  truck  frame  in  front  of  the  engine  used  by,  246. 

Hamburg,  manufacture  of  cigars  in,  87. 

Hamilton,  report  of,  upon  manufactures,  141.  280,  300,  316. 

Hamlin,  Eimnons.  improved  melodeon  of,  434. 

Handles  of  cutlery,  341. 

Hanks.  William,  silk  produced  by,  373. 

Hannibal  and  St.  Joseph  railroad,  209. 

Hanson,  Timothy,  propagator  of  timothy  grass,  80. 

Hargreaves'  spinning  jenny,  108,  275. 

Harrow,  improvements  in  the,  82. 

Hat  bodies,  process  of  manufacturing,  349. 

Hats,  woollen,  manufacture  of,  805-6;  early  manufacture  of, 
343;  superiority  of  American,  349;  improvements  in 
making,  849. 

Hay,  importance  of,  at  the  North,  79;  progress  in  the  pro 
duction  of,  80;  statistics  of,  80;  advantages  and  disad 
vantages  of,  SO ;  geographical  distribution  of,  81 ;  im 
proved  quality  of.  81. 

Heating  by  steam,  265. 

"Hell-gate"  passage,  179. 

Hemp,  culture  of,  89 ;  at  the  West,  90. 

Herd,  discoverer  of  timothy  grass,  80. 

Herefbrds,  improved  by  Tornkins,  40 ;  imported  into  Ken 
tucky  by  Henry  Clay,  48;  characteristics  of,  49;  other 
importations  of. "49. 

Herring  fishery,  the,  mode  of  conducting,  881. 

Herring,  Silas  C.,  manufacturer  of  lire-proof  safes,  897. 


Hiawatha,  legend  of,  68. 

Hides,  sources  and  statistics  of,  317  ;  kinds  of,  317-18;  prep- 
aration  of,  for  tannins,  318,  320,  321 ;  growing  cost  of,  823. 

Hinckley  and  Drury,  locomotive  builders,  246. 

Hittinger,  Cook  &  Co.'s  portable  engine,  255 ;  hoisting  en 
gine.  256. 

Hobbs,  A.  C.,  lock-maker,  897,  398. 

Hogs,  illustrations  of,  61,  62;  first  importations  of,  63;  first 
attempts  at  improving,  64 ;  most  profitable  at  the  West, 
64;  proper  mode  of  breeding,  64;  mode  of  killing  and 
dressing  at  Cincinnati,  65;  packing,  66;  products  of,  66; 
statistics  of,  60,  67. 

Hoisting  engines,  256. 

Holland,  9.,  on  the  mode  of  ascertaining  horse-power,  228. 

Holly  on  the  caloric  engine,  271. 

Hollv,  of  Seneca  Falls,  rotary  engine  of,  252-3 ;  pump  of, 
2CO,  263. 

Homes  and  asylums  for  the  aged  and  infirm,  454. 

Honey,  production  of,  90. 

Hops,  culture  of,  88;  improvements  in  the  management  of, 
88;  inspection  and  classification  of,  89;  fluctuations  in 
price  of,  89  ;  statistics  and  geographical  distribution 
of,  89. 

Hopper,  Isaac  T.,  prison  associations  organized  bjr,  440. 

Horizontal  steam  engines,  252. 

Horrocks,  loom  patented  by,  276. 

Horse  railroads  in  cities,  223. 

Horse-power  of  steam  engines,  how  obtained,  228. 

Horses,  improvement  of,  in  half  a  century,  52;  first  importa 
tions  of,  53;  increase  in  speed  of,  53;  favorite  varieties 
of,  for  the  road,  54;  at  the  South,  54;  statistics  of,  54; 
kinds  used  by  the  early  colonists  at  the  West,  75. 

Horticultural  societies,  81. 

Horticulture,  works  on,  84. 

Hose,  rubber,  manufacture  of,  411. 

Hosiery  and  fancy  knit  work.  303. 

Hospitals  in  the  United  States,  449 ;  in  New  York,  Boston, 
and  Philadelphia,  table  of,  450. 

Hospitals  for  the  insane,  440;  convention  of  superintendents 
of,  442 ;  cost  and  accommodations  of,  443  ;  table  of,  444. 

Houses,  materials  of,  856;  building  of,  and  speculation  in, 
857. 

Hovey's  "Magazine  of  Horticulture,"  84. 

Howard.  E.,  originator  of  American  watch-making,  870. 

Howe,  Elias,  Jr.,  invention  of  the  sewing  machine  by,  414; 
proceedings  of,  419  ;  income  of,  421 ;  manufactory  of,  429. 

Howe,  John  j;,  pin  machines  of,  3KO. 

Hudson  river,  navigation  of,  234 ;  steamboats  on,  past  and 
present,  240. 

Hudson  river  steamboat,  picture  of,  194. 

Hudson's  Bay  Company,  843. 

Humanitarian  and  corrective  institutions,  435. 

Hull,  Jonathan.  240,  243. 

Husscy's  reaping  machine,  35. 

Ice,  uses  of,  3S6 ;  the  trade  in,  3S7 ;  mode  of  cutting  and 
storing,  388 ;  wastage  of,  389. 

Ice-houses,  construction  of.  388. 

Ichaboe,  the,  and  other  guano  islands,  100. 

Illinois,  settlement  of,  by  the  French,  74;  by  revolutionary 
soldiers,  75;  rapid  agricultural  development  of,  75;  man 
ufacture  of  agricultural  implements  in,  76;  public  im 
provements  of.  189. 

Illinois  Central  railroad,  history  of,  205;  working  of,  206; 
land  department  of,  207. 

Imports  and  exports,  table  of,  1790-1 807.  140 ;  1808-1820, 142; 
after  the,  war  of  1812,  143 ;  table  of,  1821-1880,  145 ;  1831- 
1S40,  147;  of  certain  articles,  148;  1S41-1850, 153;  1851- 
1860,  156;  for  70  years,  157. 

India,  cotton  imported  from.  117;  exports  nnd  imports  of  cot 
ton  and  cotton  goods.  15S;  muslins  of,  274;  American  ice 
in,  887,  889.  (See  East  Indies.) 

Indiana,  internal  improvements  of,  1S9. 

Indian  corn.     See  Corn,  Indian. 

Indians,  agriculture  of  the,  21 ;  their  astonishment  at  sight  of 
a  plough,  22. 

India-rubber,  source,  uses,  nnd  manufacture  of,  406;  illustra 
tions  of,  407-8;  vulcanized,  how  made,  410;  articles  made 
of,  411 ;  imports  and  exports  of,  412;  growth  of  the  man 
ufacture  of,  412. 

Infants,  institutions  for  the  care  of,  454. 

Innovation,  fear  of,  in  farming,  23. 

Insane,  the,  former  treatment  of.  440;  first  efforts  for  the 
amelioration  of,  44)  ;  hospitals  for,  in  the  United  States, 
441,  444  (table);  improvements  in  the  treatment  of,  443. 

Insanity,  American  works  on,  44'2. 

Interest,  made  high  by  cheap  lands,  103. 

Ireland,  Indian  corn  introduced  into,  153;  famine  in,  164; 
prison  system  of,  438. 

Iron,  Imported,  compared  with  that  of  Pennsylvania,  105. 

Iron-clad  war-steamers,  83S. 


INDEX 


461 


Ironsides,  the,  338. 

Isherwood,  Chief  Engineer,  steam  experiments  of,  272. 

Italy,  importation  of  rags  from,  292. 

"Jacketing,"  269. 

Jackson,  Patrick  8.,  281 ;  Lowell  originated  by,  2S2. 

Jails,  county,  433;  defects  of,  439. 

James,  William  T.,  246. 

James  I..  ''Counterblast  to  Tobacco,"  85. 

James  River  Cotton  Mill,  2S4. 

James  Hiver  nnd  Kanawha  Company,  190. 

James  Steam  Mills,  engines  used  in,  268. 

Jay,  treaty  concluded  by,  139. 

J.  C.  Cary,  the,  steam  fire  engine,  244 

Jenks,  ring  spindle  of,  2S6. 

Jenny,  Devon  cow,  portrait  of,  44. 

Jerome,  Chauncy,  manufacture  of  clocks  by,  369. 

Jerome  Manufacturing  Company,  370. 

Jersey  cows,  value  of,  as  milkers,  50 ;  diffusion  of,  50. 

J.  G.  Storm,  the,  steam  fire  engine,  244. 

.Johnson  and  Morey,  sewing  machine  of,  414. 

Jones,  H.  C.,  burglar-proof  lock  of,  897. 

"Journal  of  Prison  Discipline,"  440. 

Keel  boats  on  the  Ohio,  165, 

Kentucky,  importation  of  short-horns  into,  47;  their  improve 
ment  there,  48;  Herefords  imported  into,  by  Henry  Clay, 
48;  thorough-bred  horses  in,  54;  blue  grass,  80. 

"Kettle-bottoms"  (vessels),  163. 

Kip-skins,  definition  and  sources  of,  318. 

Knives,  manufacture  of,  340,  341. 

Knowles,  John,  first  sewing  machine  invented  by,  413. 

Labor,  high  wages  of,  103 ;  at  the  South,  cheapness  of,  119 ; 
comparison  of  free  and  slave,  120. 

Laclede,  St.  Louis  founded  by,  343. 

Lake  cities,  166. 

Lake  region,  area  of  the,  101 

Lakes,  the  great,  steamers  and  tonnage  on,  166;  ship-building 
on,167;  navigation  of,  ISO;  tonnage  on,  187 ;  lirst  steam 
boat  on,  239 ;  fisheries  of,  385. 

Lamb-skins,  uses  of,  318;  treatment  of,  320. 

Lancaster  gun,  the,  334. 

Land,  how  cleared  by  the  Indians,  21 ;  exhaustive  cropping 
of  the,  22 ;  effect  of  the  cheapness  of,  upon  wages  and 
interest,  103;  speculation  in,  147-8, 187;  public  sales  and 
grants  of,  157,  207. 

Land  grants  to  railroads,  207. 

Lard,  preparation  and  disposition  of,  66;  exports  of,  to  Great 
Britain,  1840-1858,  158. 

Lardner,  remarks  of,  on  England's  self-superiority,  234 ;  on 
the  speed  of  locomotives,  249. 

Lard  oil,  manufacture  and  uses  of,  67. 

LattVs  steam  car  for  cities,  251 ;  steam  fire  engines,  259. 

Leather,  316;  tables  of  manufactures  of,  316,326;  kinds  of, 
818;  treatment  of,  after  tinning,  319. 

Leather  splitting  machines,  323. 

Lee  &  Larned's  steam  fire  engines,  244,  259. 

Lceghwater  engine  compared  with  that  of  Brooklyn  Water 
Works,  258. 

Lenses,  manufacture  of,  405. 

Leopold  and  Trevithick,  inventors  of  the  high-pressure  en 
gine,  229. 

Libraries,  township  and  district,  99. 

Liebig  on  manuring,  100. 

Lillio's  safes,  397. 

Lime,  building,  qualities  and  sources  of,  858. 

Liverpool  and  Manchester  railway,  192. 

Live  stock,  number  and  value  of,  in  1850, 1860,  and  1866, 102. 
(See  Cattle  Stock.) 

Livingston,  Chancellor,  introducer  of  the  grass-fed  hog,  64; 
monopoly  of  the  Lower  Mississippi  trade  claimed  by,  181 ; 
opposed  railroads,  197;  associated  with  Fulton,  239. 

Loaf  sugar,  how  made,  892. 

Locks,  burglar-proof,  397-8. 

Locks,  canal,  1S5 ;  inclined  planes  substituted  for,  1SG. 

Locomotive,  the  first,  picture  of,  194;  coal-burning,  invention 
of,  20:J ;  the  first  successful  American,  205 ;  premium  for, 
246. 

Locomotive  engines,  principles  of,  196;  history  of,  243;  ex 
periments  with.  244;  the  first  in  the  United  States,  245; 
manufactures  and  exportation  of,  246  ;  difference  between 
English  and  American,  249 ;  cost,  proper  construction, 
and  speed  of,  249  ;  running  expenses  of,  250. 

Logging  operations  in  Maine,  92-6;  at  Green  Bay,  96. 

Long  and  Norris,  locomotive  builders,  246. 

Long  Dock,  the,  at  Jersey  City,  202. 

Long  shawls  for  men's  use,  308. 

Looms,  hand  and  power,  picture  of,  278.    (See  Power  loom.) 

Loper  propeller,  the,  167. 

Louisiana,  sugar  cane  cultivated  in,  127. 


Lowell,  Mass.,  manufactories  of,  steam  used  in,  208;  origin 
of,  282 :  factory  system  of.  285. 

Lowell  and  Jackson,  power  loom  of,  281:  cotton  mill  estab 
lished  by,  282. 

Lowell  locomotive  shop,  246. 

Lumber,  the  trade  in,  188 ;  for  building,  sources  and  supply 
of,  356,  357. 

Lumber  business,  the,  91;  in  Maine,  92;  at  Green  Bay,  96; 
statistics  of,  96. 

Lunatics.     See  Insane. 

Lynn,  shoe  manufacture  of,  324. 

Macadam  roads,  176. 

Machinery,  benefits  of,  269. 

Machines,  exportation  of,  prohibited  by  England,  281. 

Mackerel  fishery,  the,  mode  of  conducting,  333. 

McLean  Asylum,  the,  441,  449. 

Masic  lock,  the,  393. 

Mail  service  of  the  United  States,  174;  contracts,  177. 

Maine,  account  of  lumbering  in,  92-6;  prison  system  of,  436. 

Malthus,  theory  of,  disproved,  36. 

Manchester  Company,  the,  cotton  fabrics  made  by,  284. 

Manning,  William,  patentee  of  the  first  successful  mowing- 
machine,  135. 

Mansfield,  Conn.,  Bilk  culture  in,  893. 

Manufactures,  comparatively  small  exports  of,  107;  Northern, 
at  the -South,  122-3;  colonial,  home  restriction  of,  183 ; 
rise  of,  144;  in  New  England,  146 ;  progress  of,  1820-1880, 
147;  competition  of  home  and  foreign.  154;  annual  value 
of,  157;  exports  of,  1807-1859,  ISSTincrease  of,  159;  use 
of  steam  in,  268;  systematizins  of,  361. 

Manure,  early  neglect  of,  23;  artificial,  100;  the  taking  of 
bony  fish  for,  385. 

Maple  sugar  and  molasses,  production  of,  130. 

Marble  for  building,  859. 

Marietta,  Ohio,  brig  built  at,  165. 

Marten,  stone,  fur  of  the,  347. 

Maryland,  cotton  mills  in,  285. 

Mason,  Captain  John,  Danish  cattle  imported  by,  37. 

Mason,  William,  locomotive  builder,  246. 

Mason  &  Hamlin's  organ  harmonium,  &c.,  434. 

Massachusetts,  Agricultural  Society  of,  1792,  25 ;  introduction 
of  cattle  into,  37;  introduction  of  horses  into,  53:  of 
sheep,  59;  wool-growing  unprofitable  in,  60;  production 
of  fruit  in,  82;  law  for  the  inspection  of  hops  in.  89  ;  rail 
road  system  of,  196;  cotton  manufacture  in,  284;  table  of 
woollen  manufactures  of,  312;  boot  and  shoo  manufac 
ture  of,  324 ;  mackerel  fishery  of,  383 ;  the  ice  business 
of,  387;  silk  bounty  of,  894;  prison  system  of,  438;  Gen 
eral  Hospital  of,  449. 

Matanzas,  the,  propeller,  240. 

Mauch  Chunk  railroad,  192. 

Maumee  river,  fisheries  of  the,  885. 

Maysville  road  veto,  177. 

McCormick's  reapers,  85,  86. 

Melodeon,  the,  433. 

Memphis  and  Charleston  railroad,  208. 

Mercantile  agency,  statistics  of  the,  159. 

Merino  sheep,  first  exhibition  of,  25;  importations  and  in 
crease  of,  59. 

Merrimac  and  Monitor,  encounter  of  the,  338. 

Merryman,  John,  of  Baltimore,  his  herd  of  Herefords,  49. 

Mexican  war,  the,  164. 

Mexico,  ancient  use  of  cotton  in,  274. 

Miami  canal,  188. 

Michigan,  railroads  of.  20S. 

Michigan,  lake,  first  steamer  on,  166. 

Michigan,  U.  S.  steamer,  experiments  upon,  27'2. 

Middlesex  canal,  173. 

Milk,  yield  of,  by  an  Ayrshire  cow,  50 ;  value  of  Jerseys 
for,  50. 

Miller,  E.  L.,  builder  of  the  first  successful  American  locomo 
tive,  205. 

Mills,  flour  and  grist,  431 ;  statistics  and  operation  of,  431-2. 

Minie  ritle,  the,  828. 

Mink  fur,  347. 

Minnesota,  railroad  system  of,  207. 

Mississippi,  the,  flat  boats  and  steamers  on,  1S1-8 ;  navigation 
of,  234. 

Mississippi  railroad,  the,  208. 

Mississippi  valley,  &c.,  area  of,  102. 

Missouri,  railroads  of,  209. 

Mobile,  hospitals  of,  452. 

Mobile  and  Ohio  railroad,  207. 

Mohawk  and  Hudson  railroad,  197,  245. 

Mohawk  Valley  railroad,  picture  of  the  first  locomotive 
on,  194. 

Molasses,  how  drained  from  sugar,  128;  maple,  130:  use 
of,  891. 

Monitors,  the,  33& 

Moody,  Paul,  282 ;  Inventions  of,  286. 


462 


INDEX 


Mordecai,  Ma.jor,  experiments  of,  on  velocity  of  shot,  837. 

Morgan  horses,  origin  and  character  of,  64. 

Morocco  leather,  318;  tanning  of,  320. 

Morris  and  Essex  canal,  190. 

Morris,  Gouverneur,  the  Erie  canal  projected  by,  178;  report 

of,  upon  connecting  the  lakes  and  the  Hudson,  184. 
Morrison's  steam  crane,  265. 
Morus  multicaulis  speculation,  the, '90,  394. 
Mould-board,  the,  improvements  in,  30, 31 ;  Jefferson's  treatise 

on,  81. 

Mowatt,  John  E.,  towboat  business  established  by,  241,  243. 
Mower,  Excelsior,  picture  of,  33. 
Mowing  machines,  35;  utility  and  economy  of,  86. 
Mulberry,  culture  of  and  speculation  in  the,  893-4. 
Mule  spinner,  the,  275;  picture  of,  279. 
Mummy  cloths,  material  of,  275  ;  used  to  make  paper,  293. 
Mungo,  manufacture  and  uses  of,  315. 
Muscovado  sugar,  128. 
Musical  instruments,  manufacture  of,  433. 
Mutton  raising  profitable  at  the  East,  60. 

Nap,  the,  of  cloth,  how  formed,  808. 

Narcotics,  kinds  used  in  different  countries,  85. 

Nasmyth,  J.,  on  Colt's  revolver  factory,  831. 

Native  cattle,  not  a  race  or  breed,  41 ;  improvement  of,  42; 
at  the  West,  47. 

Naval  gunnery,  changes  in,  337,  838. 

Naval  power  of  the  United  States,  143. 

Navigation,  equality  in,  obtained  by  the  United  States,  171-2; 
internal,*in  early  times,  178. 

Navigation  act,  the,  145. 

Negroes,  lucrative  employments  of,  115;  condition  of,  at  the 
South,  119-21. 

Nelson,  short-horn  bull,  48. 

Newark,  carriage-making  at,  862. 

Newbold,  Charles,  first  patentee  of  a  cast-iron  plough,  81. 

NeweU's  burglar- proof  locks,  397. 

New  England,  early  farming  in,  19;  by  the  Indians,  21 ;  the 
cattle  in.  19, 20 ;  introduction  of  cattle  into,  87 ;  decline  of 
sheep-raising  in,  59,  60;  why  wheat  is  not.  a  prominent 
crop  in,  73  ;  rye  profitable  in,  78;  fisheries  and  colonial 
trade  of,  135 ;  emigration  from,  to  the  West,  1 88 ;  railroads 
in,  196-7;  locomotive  shops  in.  246;  cotton  manufactures 
In,  281 ;  factory  operatives  in,  282;  fisheries  of,  378. 

"  New  England  Farmer,"  9S. 

New  Hampshire,  importations  of  Danish  cattle  into,  37,  38. 

New  Haven,  the  oyster  business  of,  385. 

New  Haven  Clock  Company,  370. 

New  Jersey  once  preeminent  in  wheat  raising,  78;  prison 
system  of,  436. 

New  Jersey  Central  railroad.  202. 

New  Orleans,  hospitals  of.  452. 

New  Orleans,  Jackson  and  Great  Northern  railroad,  208. 

Newspapers,  quantity  of  paper  required  for.  298. 

New  York,  Agricultural  Society  of,  1791,  25;  introduction  of 
cattle  into,  37 ;  of  horses,  53  ;  of  sheep,  59  ;  four-fifths  of 
the  taxes  of,  paid  by  agriculture.  77 ;  road  system  of,  175; 
canals  of,  184;  railroads  of,  197;  table  of  woollen  manu 
factures  of,  812;  tanneries  in,  317;  leather  manufactures 
of,  326;  number  and  value  of  dwellings  in.  354;  amount 
of  building  materials  used  in,  360;  carriage-making  in, 
862 ;  prison  system  of,  436. 

New  York  city,  great  fire  of  1835  in,  148;  shipping  at,  1850- 
1865,  163;  omnibuses  and  horse  railroads  in,  223;  cloth 
ing  trade  of,  309  ;  leather  trade  of,  317  ;  fur  trade  of,  346; 
the  hat  business  in,  349;  Prison  Association  of,  439-40; 
relief  of  the  poor  in,  448;  hospitals  of,  449,  450  (table); 
pauperism  in,  451  (table)  ;  dispensaries  of,  452, 453  (table) ; 
other  institutions  of.  454-5. 

New  York  Central  railroad,  200. 

"New  York  Farmer,"  98. 

"New  York  Herald,"  engines  used  by,  209. 

Norris  locomotive  engine  works,  246. 

Norris,  Lue,  India-rubber  invention  of,  409. 

North  and  South,  no  competition  between,  121. 

North  Carolina,  colonial  exports  of,  136. 

North  Eiver  boats,  180. 

North  River  of  Clermont  (steamboat),  picture  of  the,  236. 

Northwest  Fur  Company,  343. 

Nurseries  and  foundling  hospitals,  454. 

Nurseries,  fruit,  in  the  United  States,  82. 

Oats,  production  and  geographical  distribution  of,  78. 

Ogeechee  canal.  190. 

Ohio,  increase  in  tho  value  of  stock  in,  50;  canal  system  of, 

188. 

Ohio  Company  for  Importing  English  Cattle,  48. 
Ohio  river,  navigation   of,  165;    drainage  of,  166;   the  first 

steamboat  on,  239. 
Omnibuses  in  New  York,  228;   introduction  and  increase 

of,  360. 


Oneida  canal,  185. 

Opium  war,  the,  in  China,  163-4. 

Optical  instruments,  glass  for,  404. 

Orange  and  Alexandria  railroad,  204. 

Orchard  grass,  80. 

Orchards,  planting  of;  81. 

Orleans,  the,  first  western  steamboat,  239. 

Oscillating  steam  engines,  252. 

Orukter  Amphibolos,  the,  picture  of,  235;  account  of,  248. 

Oswego  canal,  184. 

Otter,  sea,  the  fur  of  the.  845. 

Oxen,  New  England  working,  superiority  of,  42. 

Oyster  trade,  the,  884. 

Oysters,  planting  and  breeding  of,  384. 

Pacific  Fur  Company,  344. 

Pacific  railroad,  demand  for  the,  224;  acts  for  and  progress  of 
the,  225;  of  Missouri,  209. 

Pacific  slope,  area  of  the,  101 ;  agricultural  production  of 
the,  102. 

Paddle  wheel,  the.  240. 

Panama  railroad,  224. 

Panic,  the,  of  1837,  151. 

Paper,  importance  and  first  manufacture  of,  291 ;  materials 
for,  292-8;  machinery  for,  295;  sizes  of,  296:  process  of 
making,  296;  hand-made,  297;  census  statistics  of,  298. 

Paper-hangings,  manufacture  of,  298. 

Paper-soled  shoes,  326. 

Papin,  Denis,  his  account  of  cooking  by  steam,  266-7;  of  the 
safety-valve,  267. 

Parkersburg  branch  railroad,  204. 

Paterson,  locomotive  works  of.  246. 

Patersons,  the,  of  Baltimore,  139, 140. 

Patterson,  Mr.,  of  Baltimore,  breeder  of  Devons,  49. 

I'atton  stock  of  cattle,  47. 

Paul's  patent  for  carding  cotton,  108. 

Pauperism,  treatment  of,  445;  increase  of,  from  immigration, 
446;  in  New  York,  table  of,  451. 

Peach  trees  in  California,  S3. 

Peaches,  perfection  of,  at  the  South.  82. 

Pear  orchards  in  Mississippi  and  Georgia.  82;  in  Massachu 
setts,  S3. 

Pear  trees,  profit  of,  83 ;  in  California,  88. 

Pease  and  beans,  production  and  exports  of,  79. 

Peel,  Robert,  calico  printing  by,  276. 

Peltry,  347.     (See  Furs.) 

Penitentiaries,  city,  489. 

Penknives,  blades  of,  840. 

Penn  Cotton  Mil),  Pittsburg,  284 

Pennsylvania,  railroads  and  canals  of,  188-9;  line  of  improve 
ments  of,  202;  coal  transportation  of,  219-20;  cotton  mills 
in,  2S4;  silk  production  of,  393;  glass  manufacture  of, 
400;  prison  system  of,  435;  insane  hospitals  of,  441,  442 
(note). 

Pennsylvania  railroad,  2(13 ;  curves  and  high  grade  of,  230, 

Penobscot,  logging  boom  ou  the,  94. 

Perkins,  Jacob,  277.  30 1. 

Permutation  locks,  897. 

Perry,  the  fleet  of,  166. 

Petersham  cloths,  306. 

Petersham  Morgan,  horse,  portrait  of,  55. 

Philadelphia,  liicomotive  works  of,  246;  benefit  of  the  sta- 


Piano,  the,  American  manufactures  of  and  improvements  inf 
433. 

Pickering,  Col.  Timothy,  breeder  of  the  Woburn  hog,  64. 

Pierce,  of  Troy,  air-tube  patent  of,  256. 

Pinel,  Philip,  "reform  of  the  treatment  of  lunatics  by,  441. 

Pino  lumber,  classification  of,  94. 

Pine  woods  hog,  picture  of,  61. 

Pins,  manufacture  of.  889 ;  American  improvements  in,  890< 

Pistols,  revolving,  831 ;  breech-loading,  333. 

Pittsburg,  glass  manufacture  of,  399. 

Pittsburg,  Fort  Wayne,  and  Chicago  railroad,  203. 

Plank  roads,  176. 

Plaster  of  Paris,  use  of.  for  safes,  396. 

Plating,  processes  of,  872. 

Plough,  astonishment  of  the  Indians  at  first  sight  of  a,  22. 

'•  Plough,  Loom,  and  Anvil,"  98. 

Ploughs,  early  scarcity  and  inefficiency  of,  27;  description  of 
various  kinds,  27-30;  immense  saving  from  the  improve 
ment  of,  SO  •  cast-iron,  invention  and  manufacture  of;  81; 
patents  Cor.  31 ;  steam.  263-4. 

Plum  trees  in  California,  83. 

Plush,  silk,  for  hats,  850. 

Pomological  Society,  American.  82. 

Poor,  relief  of  the,  systems  of,  445;  comparative  statistics  of, 
447  (table) ;  associations  for,  446,  448. 


INDEX 


463 


Population,  excess  of,  in  Europe,  over  production,  71;  pro 
gress  of,  in  the  United  States.  132,  144. 

Pork,  packing  of,  66;  classification  and  disposition  of,  66;  ex 
ports  of,  to  Great  Britain,  1840-1858,  158. 

Portable  steam  engines,  2oo  ;  for  farmers,  268,  264. 

Postage,  reduction  of,  179. 

Post-office  Department,  early  operations  of  the,  174 

Potato  crops  in  Great  Britain,  failure  of,  1C3. 

Potatoes,  production  and  exports  of,  79. 

Poughkeepsie,  pin  manufactory  at,  890. 

Poultry  and  eggs,  9u. 

Poussin,  Capt,  177. 

Powell,  of  Philadelphia,  importer  of  short-horns,  48. 

Power  loom,  invention  of  the,  276;  picture  of,  278;  Lowell's, 
281 ;  for  woollens,  8U2;  for  carpets,  306. 

"  Prairie  whales,"  163. 

PreMe,  Commodore,  165. 

Preserves,  preparation  of,  392. 

Prince  &  Co.'s  melodeons,  434. 

Prince  Hupert's  drops,  4  2. 

Printing  of  calico,  276;  of  cloth,  304;  of  carpets,  307,  808. 

Print  works,  cotton,  2S8;  statistics  of,  290. 

Prison  discipline.     See  Prisons. 

"Prisoner's  Friend,"  the,  440. 

Prisons,  State,  solitary  plan  of,  435;  silent,  436;  comparison 
of  the  two,  437;  intermediate,  438;  county,  438;  city, 
439 ;  societies  for  the  improvement  of,  439-40. 

Products  of  the  soil,  68. 

Propeller,  the  first  ever  built,  picture  of,  235. 

Propellers,  lake,  character  of,  137 ;  packet,  between  Philadel 
phia  and  New  York,  190;  origin  of,  240;  advantages  and 
disadvantages  of,  241.  (See  Screw  propellers.) 

Protective  policy,  the,  144, 152. 

Providence,  cotton  mill  at,  280. 

Provisions  and  flour,  exports  of,  1790-1859, 158. 

Prussian  blue,  how  made,  67. 

Public  improvements,  early,  173.   (See  Canals,  Railroads,  &c.) 

Pump,  force,  for  steam  engines,  255. 

Pumping  engine  of  the  Brooklyn  Water  "Works,  258. 

Pumps,  steam,  258;  importance  of,  260. 

Pyes'  burglar-proof  lock,  397. 

Quincy  granite,  859. 
Quincy  railroad,  192. 

Rabbits'  fur,  845. 

Race,  definition  of,  41. 

Raiting  in  Maine,  94. 

Rag-pickers,  292. 

Rags,  table  of  imports  of,  292;  consumption  of,  293;  substi 
tutes  for,  293;  grades  of,  293-4;  woollen,  for  shoddy, 
813-14. 

Rake,  hand  and  horse,  86. 

Railroad  cars,  manufacture  of,  867. 

Railroad  companies,  object  of,  193. 

Railroad  iron,  importation  of,  156;  quantity  used,  &c.,  219. 

Railroads,  191;  the  earliest,  192;  benefits  of,  193;  principles 
of  construction  of,  193;  power  on,  196;  continuous  line 
of,  from  Bangor  to  New  Orleans,  204,  208  (table);  land 
grants  to,  207 ;  table  of,  in  the  United  States,  209-219; 
financial  results  of,  219  ;  travel  on,  221 ;  horse,  in  cities, 
223;  in  the  world,  table  of,  224;  comparative  cost  of,  224; 
early  origin  of,  244-5;  speed  on,  249;  aggregate  saving  of 
time  by  travel  on,  250. 

Rails,  iron,  195;  improvements  in,  245. 

Rat  skins  for  gloves,  826. 

Reaney  &  Neafy's  steam  fire  engine,  259. 

Reaper,  Wheeler's,  picture  of,  34. 

Reaping  machines,  great  value  of,  82 ;  kind  used  by  the  Gauls, 
82 ;  triumph  of  American,  at  Paris,  35. 

Reod  instruments,  musical,  433. 

Reed's  oscillator,  265. 

Revolution,  «-ff«ct  of  the,  upon  commerce,  137. 

Revolver,  Colt's,  invention  and  manufacture  of,  831 ;  other 
patents  for,  832. 

Ribbons,  manufactories  of,  395. 

Rice,  production  of,'114-15. 

Richelieu,  policy  of,  in  regard  to  tobacco,  85. 

Ridgeley,  Gen.,  breeder  of  the  Woburn  hog,  63. 

Rifl.-,  iiiipro vements  in  the,  328 ;  Sharp's,  382 ;  Whitney's,  888. 

Ring  spindle,  the,  286. 

Roads,  state  of.  half  a  century  ago,  52  ;  origin  and  progress  of, 
172;  different  kinds  and  systems  of,  174;  proper  con 
struction  of,  175;  national,  176-7;  of  Connecticut,  sati 
rized,  192. 

Roberts  &  Rich,  safe  manufacturers,  397. 

Rodman,  Lieut, improvement  of,  in  gun-casting,  836. 

Roger  &;  Co.,  carriage  factory  of,  362. 

Rogers,  Smith  &  Co.,  plated  goods  of,  illustrated,  373-6; 
manufactory  of,  377. 

Rogers  Locomotive  Works,  246. 


Rotary  steam  engines,  252. 
R.  R.  Cuyler,  the^  propeller,  240. 
Russia,  few  roads  in,  172. 
Rum  exported  from  the  colonies,  185. 

Rye,  diminished  cultivation  of,  77;  total  product  of,  T7; 
profitable  in  New  England,  78. 

Sable,  Russian  and  Hudson's  Bay,  346. 
Safes,  fire-proof,  history  of.  895-7  ;  burglar-proof,  397. 
Safety  valve,  use  of  ihe,  229 ;  account  of  the,  233 ;  Papin's  ac 
count  ot  the,  267. 
Sailors'  Snug  Harbor,  the,  455. 
St.  Anthony,  Minn.,  lumber  business  at,  257. 
Salmon  fishery,  the,  882. 
Sanders,  Col.,  of  Kentucky,  importation  of  cattle  by,  47. 

San  tee 'canal,  173. 
Savannah,  railroad  from,  205. 
Savannah,  the,  first  ocean  steamer,  180. 
SchaftVr,  materials  for  paper  used  by,  293. 
Schnebley's  patent  for  reaping  machine,  35. 

Schuylkill  and  Susquehanna  Company,  178. 

Scissors,  manufacture  of,  840. 

Scott,  John,  asbestos  safe  of,  897. 

Screw  propeller  used  by  John  Fitch,  229. 

Screw  propellers,  on  the  lakes,  losses  of,  166;  introduction  of, 
180.  (See  Propellers.) 

Scythes,  the  manufacture  of,  842. 

Sea  island  cotton,  111 ;  its  production  stationary,  117. 

Seamen,  American,  impressed  by  England,  139. 

Sewing  machines,  history  of,  413  ;  patents  for,  414;  illustra 
tions  of,  415-18,  421-2;  growth  of  the  manufacture  of, 
419;  combination  of  patentees  of,  420,  421 ;  classes,  ope 
ration,  and  description  of,  421-7;  applications  of,  428; 
sales  and  manufactories  of,  429 ;  process  of  manufactu 
ring,  429. 

Sewing  silk,  American.  395. 

Sharp's  rifle,  832 ;  manufactory  for,  333. 

Sheep,  first  exhibition  of  merino,  25;  importations  of,  59; 
statistics  of,  59,  60,  63 ;  decrease  of,  in  New  England,  59 ; 
increase  of,  in  the  South  and  West,  60;  protection  of, 
from  dogs,  GO;  most  valuable  of  domestic  animals,  60. 

Sherwood.  Benjamin,  revolving  safe  of.  397. 

Ship-building,  in  the  colonies,  185;  table  of,  in  1771,162;  dif 
ferent  styles  of,  162;  increase  of,  163  ;  on  the  lakes,  167; 
at  the  West  and  East  compared.  859  ;  table  of,  360. 

Shipping,  American  and  foreign  at  New  York,  1850-1865, 168. 

Ship  Timber  Bending  Company,  267. 

Shoddy,  313;  manufacture  of,  314 ;  uses  of,  315. 

Shoes.     See  Boots  and  shoes. 

Short-horns,  great  sales  of,  in  England,  40 ;  importations  of, 
47;  not  suited  to  New  England,  48;  improvement  of,  in 
Kentucky,  48. 

Sickle,  use  of  the,  82. 

Sido  -wheel,  the,  240. 

Silk,  culture  of,  90  ;  tricolor,  from  Lyons,  154 ;  efforts  to  pro 
mote  the  production  of,  393-4 ;  raw,  table  of  imports  of, 
895. 

Silk  hats,  process  of  making,  350. 

Silks,  imports  of,  1831-1840,  148;  increased  importation  of, 
156. 

Silk-worms,  management  of,  898-4. 

Silsby  and  Mynderse  steam  fire  engine,  260 ;  picture  of,  261. 

Sing  Sing  marble,  359. 

Singer's  sewing  machine,  illustrations  of,  417;  introduction 
of,  419 ;  description  of  the  manufacture  of,  429. 

Skinner,  J.  S..  agricultural  editor,  98. 

Skins  and  furs  used  as  currency,  75. 

Skins  of  animals  for  leather,  817-18. 

Skin-splitting  machine,  320. 

Skunk,  fur  of  the,  345. 

Slater,  Samuel,  cotton  machinery  introduced  by,  280. 

Slatersville,  cotton  mill  at,  280. 

Slave  population  in  the  United  States,  172. 

Slaves,  condition  of,  in  the  South,  119. 

Slave  trade,  inhibition  of  the,  141. 

Slide  valve,  the,  229. 

Sloops,  travelling  by,  178. 

Small,  James,  cast-iron  mould-boards  and  ploughs  made  by, 
81. 

Smith,  Adam,  upon  high  wages  and  interest,  103;  on  leather. 
827. 

Smith,  J.  B.,  paper  of,  on  cotton,  118. 

Soil,  products  of  the,  68 ;  fertility  of  the,  at  the  West,  74 ;  im 
poverishment  of  the,  87. 

Sorghum  syrup  and  sugar,  130. 

South,  the,  no  competition  with  the  North,  121 ;  Northern 
manufactures  in,  122-3  ;  results  of  the  railroads  of,  220; 
cotton  manufactures  at,  234;  supply  of  lumber  at,  857; 
silk  culture  in,  393. 

South  America,  cotton  imported  from,  117. 

South  American  wool,  813. 


464 


INDEX 


South  Carolina,  Agricultural  Society  of,  1784,  25;  colonial 
exports  of,  137. 

South  Carolina  railroad,  192;  account  of,  204-6. 

South  Downs,  improved  Kentucky,  picture  of,  58. 

Souther,  John,  locomotive  works,  246. 

Southern  staples,  156. 

Southern  States,  the,  fruit  in,  82;  labor  of,  concentrated  upon 
cotton,  110;  cotton  factories  in,  115;  character  of  the 
climate  and  labor  of,  119. 

Spear,  Mr.,  safe-filling  discovered  by.  897. 

Si  ecie,  imports  and  exports  of,  145, 147, 148, 153, 156 ;  exports 
of,  1821-1 659,  15S. 

Specie  circular,  the,  151. 

Specie  payments,  suspension  and  resumption  of,  151. 

Speculation,  rise  of,  147;  results  of,  151. 

Spindles  in  cotton  mills,  286,  288. 

Spinning  by  hand,  picture  of,  279. 

Spinning,  cotton,  288. 

Spinning-Jenny,  invention  of  the,  108,  275. 

Spirits,  imports  of,  1831-1838, 148. 

Spreading  machine,  for  cotton,  287. 

Springfield,  manufacture  of  guns  at,  334. 

Squirrel  furs,  847. 

Stafford's  breech-loading  pistol,  333. 

Stages,  system  of,  174,  178. 

Stamp  act,  the,  137. 

Stationary  engines,  252;  improvements  still  needed  in,  269; 
universal  use  of,  271.  (See  Steam  engines.) 

Steam,  progress  of,  on  the  Mississippi  (table).  188 ;  advantage 
of,  for  city  travel,  250;  laws  of,  256-7 ;  general  results  of 
the  use  of,  268;  universal  use  of,  271;  government  ex 
periments  with,  272. 

Steam  battery  built  by  Fulton,  241 ;  wagons,  advantages  of, 


ing,  vulcanized  rubber  for,  411. 

Bteam  engine,  the,  history  of,  227  ;  the  first  in  America,  227; 
wonders  of  the,  230-31 ;  patents  issued  on  account  of, 
281 ;  component  parts  of,  2:52 ;  applications  of,  to  naviga 
tion,  240. 

Steam  engines,  manner  of  obtaining  the  horse-power  of,  228; 
low  and  high  pressure,  22!) ;  American  improvements  in, 
230;  stationary,  different  kinds  of,  252;  improvements 
in,  253,  269;  bad  management  of,  254;  portab'.e,  255; 
hoisting,  256;  portable,  for  farmers,  263;  objections  to, 
269 ;  stationary,  271 ;  government  experiments  upon, 
272. 

Steam  engineers.  254,  208,  270. 

Steam  gauges,  kinds  of,  229 ;  value  of,  270. 

Steam  tonnage,  164;  ocean  and  inland,  165;  table  of  increase 
of,  at  the  West,  183. 

Steamboat,  the  first  nt  the  West,  165;  racing,  188. 

Steamboats,  introduction  of,  179 ;  speed  of,  ISO ;  illustration 
and  notice  of  Fitch's,  226,  229;  Fulton's,  229;  Stevens's, 
230;  superiority  of  American,  231;  history  of,  234;  the 
first  on  the  Hudson.  234 ;  at  the  West,  239  ;  on  the  lakes, 
239 ;  explosion  of.  242  ;  act  for  the  inspection  of.  242. 

Steamers,  ocean,  lines  of.  164;  losses  of,  165;  Western,  de 
scription  of,  183  ;  on  the  lakes,  187 ;  side-wheel,  241 ;  use 
of  coal  in,  241  :  iron-clad,  838. 

Stearine,  uses  of.  67. 

Stearns  «fc  Marvin,  safe  manufacturers,  397. 

Steel  for  cutlery,  treatment  of,  839-40 ;  tempering  of,  341. 

Steers,  George,  241. 

Steinway  &,  Sons'  pianos,  433. 

Stephenson's  locomotives,  245. 

Stern  wheel,  the,  240. 

Stern-wheel  boats,  183. 

Stevens,  Robert  L.,  improvements  in  steamboats  by,  230; 
blower  introduced  by,  241. 

St.  Louis,  the  founding  of,  343;  the  fur  trade  of,  344;  hospi 
tals  of,  452. 

Stock,  progress  in  the  raising  of,  37;  products  of,  by  States 
and  sections,  51 ;  in  California,  68 ;  total  value  of,  in  the 
United  States,  68;  proportion  of,  to  the  hay  crop,  in  dif 
ferent  States,  80. 

Stockton  gun,  the,  334. 

Stone,  bnildine,  359. 

St.  Paul,  the  fur  tra<le  of,  845. 

Strawberries,  culture  of,  82. 

Street  railroads,  advantages  of  steam  on,  250;  steam  cars 
for,  251. 

Stuart's  sugar  refinery,  392. 

Suffolk  hog,  improved,  picture  of,  61. 

Sugar,  the  culture  of,  at  the  South,  115-16;  boiling  of,  127; 
yield,  profit,  production,  and  consumption  of,  129;  other 
than  cane,  130;  imports  of,  1831-1840,  148;  large  impor 
tation  of,  156;  failure  of  the  Louisiana  crop  of,  156;  com 
parative  consumption  of,  391;  refined,  mode  of  making, 
291-2 ;  superiority  of  American,  392. 


Sugar  cane,  introduction  of,  127 ;  varieties  of,  127 ;  mode  of 

cultivating,  128;  mills  for,  128. 
Sun  and  planet  motion,  230. 
Sunday  school,  the  first  in  New  England,  280. 
Super-heated  steam,  256. 
Surat  cotton,  character  and  price  of,  118,  119. 
Surgical  instruments,  manufacture  of,  842. 
Swine,  introduction  and  improvement  of,  63.    (See  Hogs.) 
Symington,  William,  229. 

Table  cutlery,  manufacture  of,  840. 

Tambouring  machine.  Bock's,  414. 

Tannin,  quality  and  sources  of,  319. 

Tanning,  316;  materials  for,  819;  process  of,  821;  new  pro 
cess  of,  323. 

Tariff,  the,  effect  of,  122;  reduction  of,  147;  of  1642, 152;  of 
1816-1828,  144-5;  table  of  imports  and  exports  under, 
145;  on  cotton  and  woollen  goods,  283;  on  woollens, 
812. 

Taunton  Locomotive  Company,  246. 

Tawing,  the  process  of,  320. 

Tecumseh,  Devon  bull,  portrait  and  history  of,  46. 

Tennessee,  premium  fleece  at  the  London  World's  Fair,  raised 
in,  60;  railroads  of.  209. 

Terry,  Eli,  first  maker  of  wooden  clocks,  368. 

Texas,  grazing  in,  102 ;  sugar  cane  cultivated  In,  127. 

Thimonier,  crocheting  machine  of,  414. 

Thomas's  "  American  Fruit  Culturist,"  84. 

Thomaston  lime,  858. 

Threshing  machine,  the,  36. 

Timber,  varieties  of,  94-5 ;  for  ship-building,  359 ;  for  car 
riages,  362. 

Timber-bending  by  steam,  267,  359. 

lime,  modes  of  measuring.  368. 

Timothy  grass,  discovery  and  propagation  of,  80. 

Tires,  American  improvement  in,  861. 

Tobacco,  cultivation  of,  in  Virginia,  72;  impoverishment  of 
the  soil  by,  80 ;  use  of,  and  opposition  to,  85;  production 
and  exports  of,  86 ;  proper  cultivation  of,  86 ;  geographical 
distribution  of.  87;  manufacture  and  consumption  of,  87; 
and  rice,  exports  of,  1790-1859, 15& 

Tomkins,  breeder  of  Herefords,  40. 

Toucey,  Hon.  Isaac,  273. 

Tonnage,  American,  140  et  seq. ;  entered  and  cleared  in  1771, 
162;  comparative,  table  of,  1789-1858, 163;  of  the  interior, 
163 ;  steam,  1 64  ;  on  the  lakes.  166  (table),  187 ;  lessened 
by  steam  and  railroads,  167;  progress  of,  1851-1858,  167; 
effect  of  the  war  upon,  168:  steam,  table  of,  243. 

Tooke's  "  History  of  Prices,"  109. 

Trade,  domestic,  of  the  United  States,  159. 

Traders,  Indian,  operations  of,  187. 

Trades  carried  on  in  the  colonies,  133-4. 

Trading  voyage,  course  of  a,  146. 

Transportation,  means  of,  172 ;  reduction  of  the  cost  of,  184, 
186,  191,  1D3. 

Travel,  changes  in,  181-3,187,  221,  240;  aggregate  saving  of 
time  in,  by  railroads,  250  ;  and  transportation,  improve 
ments  in,  illustrated,  171. 

Trotting,  popularity  of,  in  the  United  States,  53. 

Tudor,  Frederick,  originator  of  the  ice  trade,  387. 

Tuke,  William,  improved  treatment  of  lunatics  by,  441. 

Tunnels  in  railroads,  195. 

Turnpike  companies,  176;  roads,  177. 

United  States,  the,  area  and  present  and  prospective  popula 
tion  of,  101;  number  of  farms  and  plantations  in,  102; 
value  of  live  stock  and  crops  in,  102 ;  high  prices  in,  103, 
et  aeq.;  progress  in  wealth  and  population  of,  132,  144; 
condition  of,  after  the  revolution,  137;  naval  power  of, 
143 ;  domestic  trade  of,  159 ;  table  of  the  growth  of,  160 ; 
shipping  of,  161 ;  commercial  prospects  of,  168;  table  of 
railroads  in  the.  209-219;  improvement  of,  through  steam 
navigation,  234;  freedom  of  industry  in,  839  ;  individual 
industries  of,  353 ;  dwellings  in,  854. 

United  States  Bank,  143, 146, 151. 

Van  Eensselaer,  Stephen,  197. 

Velocity  of  shot,  experiments  upon,  887. 

Vera  Cruz,  expedition  to,  under  Gen.  Scott,  164. 

Vesuvius,  the,  third  western  steamboat,  289. 

Vine,  culture  of  the,  in  California,  83. 

Virginia,  introduction  of  cattle  into,  37 ;  early  mode  of  keep 
ing  cattle  in,  38;  introduction  of  horses  into,  53;  neglect 
of  wheat  in,  72 ;  cultivation  of  tobacco  in,  86;  exhaustion 
of  the  soil  of,  by  constant  cropping,  87 ;  public  improve 
ments  in,  190 ;  the  oyster  trade  of,  384. 

Virginia  and  Tennessee  railroad,  204. 

Virginia  Central  railroad,  204. 

Walk-in-the- Water,  first  steamboat  on  Lake  Erie,  239. 
Wabash  and  Erie  canal,  189. 


INDEX 


465 


Wages,  high  rate  of,  from  cheap  lands,  103 ;  affected  by  the 
European  standard,  104 ;  how  maintained.  105;  by  the  cot 
ton  production,  106 ;  by  California  gold,  10T. 

"Wares,  internal  production  of,  159. 

Warehouse  system,  the  English,  146. 

Wagon -making,  367. 

Watt,  .Tames,  inscription  on  the  monument  of,  227 ;  inventor 
of  the  low-pressure  engine,  229. 

Waterbury,  pin  manufactory  at,  890. 

Waltham,  Mass.,  cotton  mill  at,  282 ;  watch  manufacture  at, 
871. 

War  of  1312,  143. 

Washington,  advocacy  of  agricultural  societies  by,  24  ;  canal 
projected  by,  71 ;  interest  of,  in  internal  improvement, 
173. 

Washington,  tho  steamboat,  explosion  of,  242. 

Washington  Iron  Works,  portable  engine  manufactured  at, 
255. 

Washington,  Pa.,  sewing  silk  made  at,  393. 

Watches,  American,  distinctive  character  of,  370 ;  process  of 
manufacturing,  371. 

Watson,  Elkanah,  first  exhibition  of  merino  sheep  by,  25. 

Wealth,  progress  of,  in  the  United  States,  132,  144 ;  present 
and  prospective,  16S. 

Weaving,  cotton,  2S8;  woollen,  302;  carpet,  306. 

West,  the,  agricultural  development  of,  74,  75 ;  interior  navi 
gation  of,  105;  ship-building  at,  359. 

West  India  colonies  shut  to  American  vessels,  163. 

West  Indies,  the,  cotton  imported  from,  117;  trade  of  the 
American  colonies  with,  134,  137;  cotton  first  obtained 
from,  275. 

Western  railroad  of  Massachusetts,  193 ;  history  and  connec 
tions  of,  196. 

Whale,  white,  leather  from  the,  319. 

Whale  fishery,  the,  rise  of,  135;  illustration  of,  379;  history 
of,  3S5-6;  mode  of  conducting,  3S6;  statistics  of,  3S6. 

Wheat,  early  cultivation  of,  72;  subject  to  great  casualties, 
73;  early  exports  of,  73;  at  tho  West,  74:  trade  of  Chi 
cago  in,  7C;  total  production  of,  by  sections,  77;  total 
exports  of,  77 ;  in  California,  77 ;  exported  from  the  South, 
115;  imported  from  Russia,  148;  value  of  the  crop  of 
I860,  156;  exports  of,  to  Great  Britain,  1S40-1S5S,  158; 
received  across  the  lakes  (table),  187. 

Wheeler's  patent  reaper,  picture  of,  34. 

Wheeler  &  Wilson's  sewing  machine,  illustrations  of,  415-16; 
invention  of,  419;  description  of,  422-3;  manufactory  of, 
429. 

Wheeling,  glass  works  at,  400. 


Wheels  of  steam  vessels,  240 ;  of  carriages,  361 ;  of  railroad 
cars,  367. 

Whiskey,  American,  in  demand  in  Europe,  155. 

White  leather,  how  made,  320. 

White  Kiver  canal,  189. 

White  Water  canal,  189. 

Whitehead,  patent  speeder  perfected  by,  284. 

Whittemore's  machine  for  making  cards,  801. 

Whitney's  cotton  gin.  111 ;  effect  of,  upon  commerce,  141. 

Whitney,  Eli,  rifle  factory  of,  333. 

Wilder,  Enos  and  B.  G.,  fire-proof  safe  of,  397. 

Willy,  patent,  for  cotton,  2S7. 

Willcox,  J.  M..  paper  mill  of,  291-2. 

Willcox  &  Gibbs's  sowing  machine,  invention  of,  420;  illus 
trations  of,  opposite  "420-21;  description  of,  425  (third 
class). 

Winans,  Messrs.,  locomotive  builders,  246. 

Wine,  production  and  quality  of,  in  California,  83;  census 
returns  of,  84. 

Wines,  imports  of,  1S31-1S3S,  148. 

Wilton  carpet,  307. 

Wilson,  Allen  B.    See  Wheeler  &  Wilson. 

Woburn  hog,  the,  63. 

Wolston  system,  the,  of  steam  ploughing,  264. 

Wood  used  in  house-building,  91 ;  for  fuel,  97. 

Wood  on  Kailroads,  extract  from,  193. 

Woodward's  steam  pump,  260,  263. 

Wool,  exportation  of,  prohibited  by  England,  2S1 ;  American 
manufacture  of,  1S1J-1S50,  300 ;  spinning  of.  302 ;  for  car 
pets,  source  and  preparation  of,  307 ;  home-grown,  312-]3 ; 
South  American,  313 ;  inadequate  supply  of,  313. 

Wool  and  woollens,  statistics  of,  60,  63. 

Wool-growing  in  the  United  States,  59 ;  most  profitable  nt  the 
South  and  West,  60  ;  statistics  of,  60. 

Woollen  manufactures,  development  of,  300 ;  processes  of, 
301 ;  various  kinds  of,  301-8;  census  statistics  of,  311. 

Women's  Prison  Association  of  New  York,  440. 

Worcester  railroad,  196. 

Worsted,  the  manufacture  of,  301 ;  zephyr,  308. 

Worthington's  steam  pump,  260,  263. 

Wright,  L.  W.,  solid-head  pin  machine  of,  390. 

Wyatt's  patent  for  spinning  cotton,  108. 

Yale,  Linus,  Sr.  and  Jr.,  burglar-proof  locks  of,  898. 

Yarn,  cotton,  prices  of,  110;  grades  of,  2SS;  decline  in  cost  of, 

290. 

Young,  Arthur,  labors  of,  99. 
Young  Denton,  short-horn  bull,  48. 


g4| 

«  -^^ 


EIGHTY  YEARS'  PROGRESS 


OP 


THE  UNITED  STATES: 

A  FAMILY  EECOED 

OF  AMERICAN  INDUSTRY,  ENERGY  AND  ENTERPRISE: 

SHOWING 

THE  VARIOUS  CHANNELS  OF  INDUSTRY  AND  EDUCATION  THROUGH  WHICH  THE 

PEOPLE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  HAVE  ARISEN  FROM  A  BRITISH 

COLONY  TO  THEIR  PRESENT  NATIONAL  IMPORTANCE; 

GIVING,   IN   AN   HISTORICAL  FORM, 

THE   VAST  IMPROVEMENTS   IN    MINING   INDUSTRY,   SETTLEMENT   OF  NEW  LANDS, 

INTERNAL  TRADE,  BANKING,  INSURANCE,  EMIGRATION,  SOCIAL  AND  DOMESTIC 

LIFE,  LITERATURE,  TELEGRAPHING,  FINE  ARTS,  EDUCATION,  EDUCATIONAL 

AND   HUMANE   INSTITUTIONS,   ETC.,   ETC. 

WITH  A  LARGE  AMOUNT  OF  STATISTICAL  INFORMATION, 

SHOWING   THE    COMPARATIVE   PROGRESS    OP   THE   DIFFERENT    STATES   WITH   EACH   OTHER,   AND, 
TO    SOME   EXTENT,    THIS    COUNTRY   WITH    OTHER   NATIONS. 

BY  EMINENT  LITERARY  MEN, 


EXTENSIVELY  EMBELLISHED  WITH  STEEL  AND  ELECTROTYPE  PLATE  ENGRAVINGS, 

EXECUTED  BY  THE  FIRST  ARTISTS  IN  THE   COUNTRY,  ILLUSTRATING  THE   PROGRESS  OF  THE  VARIOUS 

INTERESTS    TREATED    OF. 


FURNISHED  BY  .A.GHENTS  ONLY. 


VOL.  II. 


HARTFORD,  CONN.: 

PUBLISHED    BY   L.    STEBBINS. 

1867. 


SUBJECTS  AND  AUTHORS. 


MINING  INDUSTRY   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES, 

Including  Gold,  Silver,  Copper,  Lead,  Zinc,  Iron,  Coal,  Petroleum,  &c.,  showing  the 
Localities,  Richness  of  Ores,  Methods  of  Mining,  Smelting,  and  applying  the  different 
Minerals  to  practical  uses,  with  their  values,  &c.,  &c. 

FUR  TRADE,  various  kinds  and  values  of  Furs. 

HAT  MANUFACTURE. 
By  JAMES  T.   HODGE,  GEOLOGIST, 

Of  the  late   Pennsylvania,  and   other  '  Geological  Surveys ;    Contributor    to  Apple- 
ton's  "New  American  Cyclopcedia"  on  the  same  Subjects. 


LAND,  SETTLEMENT,  INTERNAL  TRADE,. 

"Western  Settlement,  Population,  and  Land  Sales,  Canals  and  Railroads,  Expenditures, 
Lake  Cities,  Reciprocity,  Annual  Sales  of  Land  by  the  Government,  River  Cities, 
Atlantic  Cities,  Date  of  Settlement,  Population,  Valuation,  Manufactures,  Exports, 
Imports,  Growth  of  New  York,  Express  Business. 

BANKS,  UNITED  STATES  MINT,  AND  INSURANCE. 

Bills  of  Credit,  Government  Issues,  United  States  Bank,  State  Banks,  Suffolk  System, 
Safety  Fund,  Banks,  Free  Banks,  Number  of  Banks  in  each  State,  Aggregate  Capi 
tal,  Clearing  Houses,  Private  Banking,  New  National  System,  &c.,  Establishment 
of  Mint,  Standard  of  Coins,  Laws  Regulating  Coinage,  Precious  Metals  in  the  Coun 
try,  Insurance, — Fire,  Marine,  Life,  Accident,  &c. 

EMIGRATION. 

General  Migrations,  Colonies  and  United  States,  Number  of  Aliens  arrived  in  the 
United  States  from  1820  to  1856,  and  their  Nationalities,  Landing  in  New  York, 
Future  Homes. 

AUTHORS,  BOOKS,  NEWSPAPERS,  BOOK-BINDING, 
PRINTING  PRESSES,  TELEGRAPH. 

Writers, — including  Theologians,  Statesmen,  Novelists,  Historians, — Short  Sketches  of 
their  Lives,  their  Literary  Productions  ;  Newspapers, — Dailies,  Weeklies,  Periodicals, 
Book  Trade,  Publishing,  Jobbing,  Retailing,  Selling  by  Subscription,  Book-Bind 
ing,  Printing  Presses,  Telegraph.  , 

By    THOMAS    P.    KETTELL 


SUBJECTS    AND    AUTHORS. 


SOCIAL  AND  DOMESTIC  LIFE. 

Domestic  Architecture,  Furniture,  Food,  Dress,  Social  Culture,  <fcc. 

By    FREDERICK    B.    PERKINS. 


ARTS  OF  DESIGN.     . 

Painters,  Sculptors,  Engravers,  «fec. 

By   T.    ADDISON    R  I  C  H  A  RD  S,  Artist, 

Editor  of  Appleton's  "  Railway   Guide"   Correspondent  of    "  Harpers 

Magazine" 


EDUCATION, 

Including  the  History  and  Statistics  of  Free  Schools,  Common  Schools,  Grammar  Schools, 
Academies,  Colleges,  Professional  Schools  of  Theology,  Law,  Medicine,  War,  Teaching, 
Engineering,  Agriculture,  Mechanics  and  Fine  Arts ;  with  Special  Schools  for  Deaf 
Mates,  Blind,  Idiots,  Juvenile  Criminals  and  Orphans,  and  Supplementary  Educational 
Agencies  and  Libraries,  Lyceums,  Lectures,  <fec. 

By    HENRY    BARNARD,    LL.  D., 

Superintendent  of  Common  Schools  in  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island ;  Chan 
cellor  of  the  State  University  of  Wisconsin  •  and  Editor  of  the 
"  American  Journal  of  Education" 


CONTENTS 


MINING  INDUSTRY. 

PAGE 

Introductory  Eemarks 17 

Iron  Works  in  Virginia  previous  to  1622. ...  17 

First  Blast  Furnace  in  1702 17 

IRON 18 

First  Trial  of  Anthracite  Coal  for  manufac- 

facturing 18 

Great  Britlan  produces  more  than  half  of  the 

whole  product  of  the  world 19 

Iron  produced  from  1828  to  1840 20 

MATERIALS  EMPLOYED  IN  THE  MANUFACTURE.  .  20 
Ore  in  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  Tennessee, 

New  York,  Canada,  and  Wisconsin 21 

Consumption  of  Charcoal  per  Ton  of  Iron. . .  22 

Quantities  of  Air  used  in  Blast  Furnaces 23 

Furnaces  in  the  Lehigh  Valley 23 

DISTRIBUTION  OF  ORES 24 

Ores  in  New  Jersey 25 

Ores  in  Pennsylvania 26 

Great  Chestnut  Hill  Ore-bed 27 

Ores  in  Maryland 28 

Ores  in  Southern  States 28 

Ores  in  Western  States 29 

IRON  MANUFACTURE 32 

Description  of  Blast  Furnaces 32 

WROUGHT  IRON 36 

PUDDLING 37 

List  of  Rolling  Mills  in  1856 40 

MMls  making  Railroad  Iron  in  1856 40 

Boiler  Plate  and  Sheet  Iron  Manufactories  in 

1856 41 

IRON  WIRE 41 

NAILS 41 

List  of  Nail  Manufactories  in  1856 42 

STEEL 43 


Cast  Steel 44 

Table  of  Iron  Works  in  operation  ana  aban 
doned  in  1856 45 

Production  of  Pig  Iron 46 

Distribution  of  Furnaces  by  States 46 

Product  of  Wrought  Iron 46 

Value  of  the  Iron  product  in  1 856 47 

COPPER 48 

New  Jersey  Mines 49 

Tennessee  Mines 50 

Lake  Superior  Mines 51 

Product  of  the  Pittsburgh  and  Boston  Com 
pany  Mines  from  1852  to  1860 53 

Minesota  Company 55 

Product  of      do       from  1848  to  1860 56 

Statistics  of  Lake  Superior  Mines 57 

COPPER  SMELTING 58 

USEFUL  APPLICATIONS  OF  COPPER 60 

Cost  of  Smelting  Copper 60 

Manufacture  of  Brass 62 

GOLD 63 

Vermont  Mines 64 

Virginia       do   64 

North  Carolina  Mines 69 

Georgia  do    69 

Pike's  Peak          do    70 

California  do    71 

Australia  do    71 

Annual  production  of  Gold  in  the  World  at 

the  time  of  its  discovery  in  California. ...  71 
Length  and  Cost  of  Artificial  Water-courses  in 

California 72 

Quartz  Mining 73 

Table  of  annual  productions  of  the  Mines  of 

California  from  1848  to  1857. .  73 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Various  Maclrnes  for  Mining  purposes  ...       74 
Tables  showing  the  amount  of  Gold  coined  by 
the  U.S.  Government,  and  where  produced  78-9 

The  uses  of  Gold 80 

LEAD,  „ 81 

Localities  of  Mines 82 

Iowa  Mines , . . .  0 84 

Table  showing  the  shipments  of  Lead  from 

the  Upper  Mississippi  from  1821  to  1841.     85 
Table  showing  the  production  and  importa 
tion  of  Lead  from  1832  to  1858. 87 

LEAD  SMELTINO ;' 87 

USEFUL  APPLICATIONS  OF  LEAD 91 

Lead  Pipe 91 

Shot  and  Bullets 92 

American  process  of  making  Shot, 93 

"WHITE  LEAD  94 

List  of  American  White  Lead  Works 96 

ZINC.,... 96 

New  Jersey  Mines 96 

Pennsylvania  do 97 

METALLURGIC  TREATMENT  AND  USES 98 

EUROPEAN  MANUFACTURE 100 

List  of  the  Silesian  Company  Works 102 

Schedule  of  the  cost  of  Zinc  Ore  on  ship 
board  at  Antwerp 103 

ZINC  PAINT 103 

Description  of  Manufacture. ...    104 

PLATINUJI 107 

IRIDIUM  AND  OSMIUM 110 

MERCURY 110 

California  Mines Ill 

Almaden  Mine  in  Spain Ill 

Total  annual  production  of  various  Mines. .   Ill 

METALLURGIC  TREATMENT 114 

USFFUL  APPLICATIONS  OF  MERCURY 114 

SILVER . .  115 

COBALT. 116 

NICKEL 117 

CHROME  OR  CHROMIUM 118 

MANGANESE 119 

TIN  ,. : 119 

COAL 120 

VARIETIES  OF  COAL 121 

Relative  value  of  different  kinds  of  Coal. . .   124 
GEOLOGICAL  AND  GEOGRAPHICAL  DISTRIBUTION 

OF  COAL 124 

AMOUNT  OF  AVAILABLE  COAL 133 

Extent  of  Coal  Fields  in  different  States 133 

Relative  amount  of  Coal  Fields  of  Europe 

and  America 134 

Table  showing  annual  amount  of  Lead  pro 
duced  in  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland  from 
1820  to  1860... .  134 


PAGH 

TRANSPORTATION  OF  COAL  TO  MARKET 135 

Table  of  Railroads  and  Canals  constructed 

for  transporting  Coal 142 

USEFUL  APPLICATIONS  OF  COAL 146 

ILLUMINATING  GAS 147 

List  of  Gas  Co.'s,  with  amount  of  Capital,&c.  148 

Process  of  making  Gas 152 

GAS  FOR  STEAMBOATS  AND  RAILROAD  CARS.  . .  156 

HYDROCARBON  OR  COAL  OILS 156 

Table  of  Coal  Oil  Works  in  the  United  States  157 

History  and  method  of  manufacture 158 

PETROLEUM  OR  ROCK  OIL 163 

Petroleum  in  the  United  States 164 

Daily  yield  of  seventy-four  Oil  Wells 165 

List  of  Petroleum  Refining  works 170 

LAND  SETTLEMENT,  INTERNAL  TRADE 169 

Land  Sales  iu  Ohio 170 

Canals  in  the  West 172 

First  Locomotive  built  in  this  Country 174 

Population  ofLand  States  in  1830  and  in  1860  175 

Detroit  and  Chicago 177 

RIVER  CITIES,  ATLANTIC  CITIES 180 

Statistics  of  New  Orleans. 182 

NEW  YORK,  TELEGRAPH,   GOLD 185 

Comparative  Exports  of  the  Atlantic  Cities  187 

Harnden  E  xpress 188 

Growth  of  New  York 190 

Bulls  and  Bears 195 

Hotels  in  New  York 197 

BANKS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

BILLS  OF  CREDIT 198 

Congress  Issues,  $358,465,000 199 

Ten  Thousand  Dollars  for  a  Cocked  Hat 1 9"J 

First  Bank  of  the  United  States 201 

One  Hundred  and  Twenty  Banks  go  into  ope 
ration  in  four  years 201 

Table  of  relative  growth  of  Banks 203 

Table  of  Number  of  Banks,  and  Capital. . .   204 

Banks  Located  in  New  York 204 

Alabama  with  Carolina,  do 208 

Clearing  House  System 209 

Table  of  Capital  of  all  Banks 209 

UNITED  STATES  MINT. 

ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  MINT,   STANDARD  OF 

COIN,  &c 212 

Value  of  the  Dollar  and  the  Pound  Sterling 

in  Colonial  Paper  Money 213 

Alloy  of  Gold  Coin 214 

United  States  Coinage 214 

California  Gold 215 

Weight  of  Silver  Coin 216 


CONTENTS 


Xlll 


PAGE 

Amount  of  New  Silver  Coin 216 

Deposit  of  Domestic  Gold  at  United  States 

Mint  and  Branches 216 

Amount  of  Specie  in  1821 217 

INSURANCE. 

FIRE,  MARINE,  AND  LIFE 219 

Number  and  Capital  of  New  York  Companies  222 
Capital,  Premiums,  and  Risks  of  the  Fire  Com 
panies  of  the  United  States 223 

Marine  Insurance 224 

Life  Insurance 225 

Comparative  Rates  of  Domestic  Life  Insurance  226 

IMMIGRATION. 

GENERAL  MIGRATION 228 

Colonies  of  the  United  States 228 

Early  Immigration 229 

Naturalization  Laws 230 

Number   of  Immigrants   for  the   last  forty 
years,  with  their  Birth-places 231 

EUROPEAN  MIGRATION — FRENCH  AND  GERMAN.  232 

Decrease  in  Population  of  Ireland 235 

Allowance  on  Passage 236 

Saving  part  of  the  Passage  Money 239 

LANDING  IN  NEW  YORK — FUTURE  HOMES 240 

Table  of  Immigration 240 

Location  of  Immigrants  in  the  United  States  242 
Amount  of  Money  received  in  the   United 

States  by  Immigrants 243 

Amount  of  Money  remitted  by  Friends  in 

aid  of  Immigration 243 

Number  of  Natives  arriving  from  abroad . . .   244 

SOCIAL  AND  DOMESTIC  LIFE. 

INTRODUCTION '. 245 

DOMESTIC  ARCHITECTURE 245 

Description  of  Buildings 246 

Houses  South 247 

Introduction  of  Anthracite  Coal 248 

Nott's  Stoves 248 

FURKITURE,  FURNISHING  GOODS,  &o 249 

China,  Glass,  Silver  Forks,  &c 251 

FOOD,  COOKING,  &c 252 

Cooking  Stoves 253 

DRESS 253 

SOCIAL  AND  MENTAL  CULTURE 259 

BOOKS. 

BOOK  TRADE,  PUBLISHING,  &c 262 

First  Booksellers  in  America 263  I 

American  Bible  Society 264  j 


Harper  and  Brothers,  Appletons 264 

Number  of  Book  Publishers  in  the  United 

States 265 

Gift-Book  Sales 265 

Sale  of  Old  Books 266 

Subscription  Sales 267 

Circulation  of  Popular  Works 267 

School  Book  Trade 268 

Reprints  and  American  Books 269 

BOOK  BINDING 269 

Books  of  Wood  and  Metal 272 

Description  of  Binding 273 

WRITERS  OF  AMERICA 274 

THEOLOGIANS,  STATESMEN,  NOVELISTS,  HISTO 
RIANS  274 

Early  Founders  of  the  Colony  Good  Wri 
ters 274 

Works  of  James  Madison 275 

Judge  Marshall,  Story,  Wheaton,  John  Quincy 

Adams,  and  others 276 

Cooper,  Hawthorne,  Willis 279-280 

Prescott  and  Bancroft. 284 

Lady  Authors 285 

PRINTING  PRESS ! 286 

Franklin's  Press 28G 

Hoe  and  Adams  Presses 297 

TYPES 298 

Machines  for  Casting  Types 298 

Stereotype,  Electrotype 300 

NEWSPAPERS 301 

City  Papers 303 

Number  of  Papers  in  the  United  States. . . .  307 

TELEGRAPH — ORIGIN 308 

Morse,  House,  and  Hughes  Machines 311 

First  Lines 313 

Various  Lines  and  Companies 313 

Penalty  for  refusing  to  transmit  Messages..   314 
Comparison  between  Telegraphs  and  Couriers  315 

THE  ARTS  OF  DESIGN  IN  AMERICA. 

Horace  Walpole 316 

American  Art  begins  with  Benjamin  West..   317 

Stuart,  Robert  Fulton 318 

Sketches  of  the  Lives  of  Prominent  Painters 

318  to  325 

Sculptors 326  to  328 

Engraving 333 

Dr.  Anderson 333 

Copper-Plato  Engraving 333 

American  Bank  Note  Company 333 

Descriptions  of  Engraving 334 

Lithography,   Daguerreotype,  Academies  of 
Art,  &c .   335 


XIV 


CONTENTS 


EDUCATION  AND  EDUCATIONAL  INSTITU 
TIONS. 

DEVELOPMENT  IN  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD 337 

Early  Efforts  in  Virginia 337 

do         do    in  New  York 338 

Early  Efforts  in   Colonies  of  Massachusetts 

and  Connecticut 338 

Town  Action  in  behalf  of  Schools 339 

COLONIAL  LEGISLATION  AND  ACTION  IN  THE 

ORDER  OF  THEIR  SETTLEMENT 341 

Virginia 341 

Massachusetts 342 

Rhode  Island,  Connecticut 344 

New  Hampshire 345 

New  York 346 

Maryland 347 

New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania 348 

Delaware,  North  Carolina 349 

South  Carolina,  Georgia 350 

RESULTS  AT  THE  CLOSE  OP  OUR  COLONIAL  HIS 
TORY 350 

REVOLUTIONARY  AND  TRANSITION  PERIOD 351 

Opinions  and  EffortSof  Noah  Webster,  George 
"Washington,  John  Adams,  Thomas  Jeffer 
son 352 

Opinions  and  Efforts  of  James  Madison,  John 
Quincy  Adams,  Benjamin  Rush,  John  Jay, 
De  "Witt  Clinton,  Chancellor  Kent,  Daniel 

Webster 353 

PROGRESS  OF  COMMON  OR  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS  355 

Letter  from  Noah  Webster 355 

do         do   Heman  Humphrey 356 

do         do  Joseph  T.  Buckingham 359 

do         do   Dr.  Nott 362 

Recollections  of  Peter  Parley 363 

The  Homespun  Era  of  Common  Schools,  by 

Horace  Bushnell.  D.D 369 

Letter  from  William  Darlington,  M.D.,  LL.D.  370 

Schools  in  Philadelphia 371 

School  Holiday  in  Georgia 373 

Old  Field  School  or  Academy  in  Virginia. . .  377 
Remarks. .  .  380 


What  is  Education? 383 

Remarks  on  the  Common  School  System  in 

the  United  States 384 

ACADEMIES,  HIGH  SCHOOLS,  &c 388 

Letter  of  Josiah  Quinqy 389 

Address  of  Hon.  Edward  Everett 391 

COLLEGES 392 

PROFESSIONAL,  SCIENTIFIC  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLS  393 

THEOLOGICAL  SCHOOLS 393 

LAW  SCHOOLS 394 

MEDICAL  SCHOOLS 394 

MILITARY  AND  NAVAL  SCHOOLS 395 

NORMAL  SCHOOLS,  &c 397 

SCHOOLS  OF  SCIENCE  FOR  ENGINEERS,  &c 400 

The  Lawrence  School 401 

SCHOOLS  OF  AGRICULTURE 402 

COMMERCIAL  SCHOOLS 403 

SCHOOLS  FOR  MECHANICS 403 

FINE  ARTS — FEMALE  EDUCATION 404 

SCHOOL-HOUSES,  APPARATUS,  AND  TEXT-BOOKS  406 

The  Horn-Book 413 

New  England  Primer 414 

Webster's  Spelling  Book 416 

School  Apparatus. 422 

LIBRARIES 423 

Astor  Library,  Boston  City  Library 424 

New  York  Mercantile  Library 426 

Table  of  Libraries  in  the  United  States 429 

LYCEUMS,  &c 432 

INSTITUTIONS  FOR  THE  INSTRUCTION  OF  DEAF 

AND  DUMB 434 

Rev.  Thomas  H.  Gallaudet 435 

INSTITUTIONS  FOR  THE  BLIND 439 

INSTITUTIONS  FOR  IDIOTS 440 

INSTITUTIONS  FOR  EDUCATION  OF  ORPHANS.  . . .  445 

REFORMATORY  INSTITUTIONS 446 

Educational  Statistics  of  the  United  States. .  451 

Table  of  American  Colleges 452 

do      Theological  Schools 454 

do      Law  Schools,  Medical  Schools 455 

do      Deaf  and  Dumb  Institutions 456 

do      Blind  Institutions ..  ,.457 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


1,  Fancy  Title, (Steel  Plate.) 

2,  Chestnut  Hill  Mine, 27 

3,  Blast  Furnace, (Fig.  A,)  35 

4,  "  "         (Fig.  B,)  35 

5,  Hydraulic  Mining, 65 

6,  Tunneling  at  Table  Mountain,  Gal  66 

7,  Large  Rocker, 67 

*  O  ' 

8,  Stamps  for  Crushing  Gold  Ores,  .       68 

9,  Burke  Rocker, 74 

10,  Crushing  Mill,  or  Arrastre, 75 

11,  Scotch  Hearth  Furnace, 88 

12,  Apparatus  for  working  Platinum,  .  108 

13,  View  of  New  Almaden  Quick  Sil 

ver  Mine, 113 

Map  of  the  Anthracite  region,  Pa., 
Mines, 126 

14,  Map  showing  Different  Strata,  in 

Coal  Regions,  Pa., 130 

15,  Map  showing  Different  Strata  in 

Coal  Regions,  Pa., 132 

16,  MtPisgah Plane, Mauch Chunk, Pa.  137 

17,  Great  Open  Quarry  of  the  Lehigh,  138 

18,  Baltimore  Company's  Mine,  Pa.,  .  139 

19,  Colliery  Slope, 140 

20,  View  at  Mauch  Chunk, 141 

Niagara  Falls,  (Steel  Plate,) 175 

Victoria  Bridge,  (Steel  Plate,)  .  .  178 

21,  Upper  Mississippi,  (Steel  Plate,)  .  182 

22,  U.  S.  Bank,  Pa.,  (Steel  Plate,)  .  .  206 

23,  Buildings  on  Fire, 219 

24,  Fashion,  1776, 255 

25,  Evening  Dress,  1780, 255 

26,  Fashion,  1780, 255 

27,  "  1785, 255 


28,  Evening  Dress,  1795, 255 

29,  "  "       1797, 255 

30,  Fashion,      1800, 255 

31,  "        1805, 255 

32,  Children,  1805, 255 

33,  Fashions,  1812, 255 

34,  Boys,  1812, 255 

35,  Men,  1812, 255 

36,  Women,  1815, 256 

37,  Men,  1818, 256 

38,  Women,  1820, 256 

39,  Men,  1825, 256 

40,  "  1828, 256 

41,  Winter  Dress,    1833, 256 

42,  Boys  and  Girls,  1833, 256 

43,  Men,  1833, 256 

44,  Women,  1833, 256 

45,  "  1840, 256 

46,  Men,  1844, 256 

47,  Women,  1850, 256 

48,  Franklin  Press, 289 

49,  Washington  Press, 289 

50,  Hand  Press,  Steam  Inking  machine,  290 

51,  Improved  Inking  Apparatus, ....  290 

52,  Patent  Single  Cylinder  Machine,  .  291 

53,  Eight  Cylinder  Machine, 292 

54,  Ten  Cylinder  Machine, 293 

55,  Four  Color  Machine, 294 

56,  Bed  and  Platen  Power  Machine, .  295 

57,  Railroad  Ticket  Machine, 296 

58,  Morse'  Telegraph  Apparatus, ....  309 

59,  Fishing  at  Newport, 33Q 

60,  Country  View, 330 

61,  Spring, 331 


LIST    OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


62,  Summer, 331 

63,  Fall, 331 

64,  School  Houses  as  they  were,  ....  406 

65,  "  "  "         406 

66,  "  "     as  they  are, 407 

67,  Village  School  House, 407 

68,  View  of  Girard  College, 408 

69,  Packer  Collegiate  Institute, 409 

70,  "  "          Garden  Front,  .  410 

71,  "  "  Interior, 410 

72,  Norwich  Free  Academy, 411 

73,  Chicago  City  University, 412 

74,  Horn  Book  of  18th  Century,  ....  413 

75,  John  Hancock, 414 

76,  Burning  of   John  Kogers  at  the 

Stake, 414 

77,  In  Adam's  Fall  we  sinned  all,.  .  . .  415 

78,  Heaven  to  Find,  the  Bible  mind,  .  415 

79,  Christ  Crucified,  for  Sinners  died,  415 

80,  The  Deluge  Drowned,  the  Earth 

around, 415 

81,  Elijah  hid,  by  Ravens  fed, 415 

82,  The  Judgment  made  Felix  afraid,  415 

83,  As  Runs  the  Glass, 415 

84,  My  Book  and  Heart  must  never 

part, 415 

85,  Job  feels  the  Rod, 415 

86,  Proud    Korah's    troop  was    swal 

lowed  up, 415 

87,  Lot  fled  to  Zoar, .  ., 415 

88,  Moses  was  he  who  Israel's  host  led 

through  the  Sea, 415 

89,  Noah  did  view  the  Old  World  and 

New, 415 

90,  Young  Obadias,  David,  Josias,.  .  .  415 

91,  Peter  denied  his  Lord  and  cried,  .  415 

92,  Queen  Esther  sues, 415 


93,  Young  pious  Ruth  left  all  for  Truth,  415 

94,  Young  Samuel  dear,  the  Lord  did 

fear, 415 

95,  Young  Timothy  learnt  Sin  to  fly, .  415 

96,  Vasthi  for  Pride  was  set  aside,  .  .  .  415 

97,  Whales  in  the  Sea, 415 

98,  Xerxes  did  die, 415 

99,  While  Youth   doth   cheer  Death 

may  be  near, 415 

100,  Zaecheus  he  did  climb  the  Tree,.  .  415 

101,  The  Boy  that  Stole  Apples, 416 

102,  Country  Maid, 417 

103,  Cat  and  Rat, 417 

104,  Fox  and  Swallow, 418 

105,  Fox  and  Bramble, 418 

106,  The  Partial  Judge, 418 

107,  Bear  and  Two  Friends,4 419 

108,  Two  Dogs, 419 

109,  Eye,  Nose,  &c., 420 

110,  Arm,  Hand,  &c., 420 

111,  Eagle's  Nest, 420 

112,  Vertebrates, 420 

113,  Articulates, 420 

114,  Mollusks, 420 

115,  Radiates, 420 

116,  Animals  of  the  Seal  Kind, 420 

117,  Birds, 421 

118,  Flowers, 421 

119,  Geological  Chart, 421 

120,  School  Apparatus  as  it  was, 422 

121,  School  Apparatus  as  it  is, 422 

122,  Boston  City  Library.     Exterior,.  .425 

123,  Boston  City  Library.     Interior, .  .  426 

124,  American  Asylum  for  Deaf  and 

Dumb, 437 

125,  Pennsylvania  Asylum  for  Blind,.  .  440 

126,  Asylum  for  Idiots,  Syracuse,  N.  Y.  444 


MINING  INDUSTRY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


INTRODUCTORY   REMARKS. 

THE  mineral  wealth  of  the  American 
colonies  does  not  appear  to  have  been  an 
object  of  much  interest  to  the  early  settlers. 
Congregated  near  the  coast,  they  were  little 
likely  to  become  acquainted  with  many  of 
the  mineral  localities,  most  of  which  are  in 
the  interior,  in  regions  long  occupied  by  the 
Indian  tribes.  The  settlers,  moreover,  prob 
ably  possessed  little  knowledge  of  mining, 
and  certainly  lacked  capital  which  they  could 
appropriate  in  this  direction.  Some  discov 
eries,  however,  were  made  by  them  very 
soon  after  their  settlement,  the  earliest  of 
which  were  on  the  James  river,  in  Virginia. 
Beverly,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Present 
State  of  Virginia,"  published  in  London  in 
1705,  makes  mention  of  iron  works  which 
were  commenced  on  Falling  Creek,  and  of 
glass-houses  which  were  about  to  be  con 
structed  at  Jamestown  just  previous  to  the 
great  massacre  by  the  Indians,  in  1622. 
This  undertaking  at  Falling  Creek  is  referred 
to  by  other  historians,  as  bv  Stith,  in  his 
"History  of  Virginia"  (1753),  p.  279.  A 
Captain  Nathaniel  Butler,  it  appears,  present 
ed  to  the  king,  in  1623,  a  very  disparaging 
account  of  the  condition  of  the  colony,  men 
tioning,  among  other  matters,  that  "  the  Iron 
Works  were  utterly  wasted,  and  the  People 
dead  ;  the  Glass  Furnaces  at  a  stand,  and  in 
small  Hopes  of  proceeding."  The  commit 
tee  of  the  company,  in  their  reply  to  this, 
affirm  that  "  great  Sums  had  been  expended, 
and  infinite  Care  and  Diligence  bestowed  by 
t-he  Officers  and  Company  for  setting  forward 
various  Commodities  and  Manufactures ;  as 
Iron  Works,"  etc.,  etc.  Salmon,  in  his 
"  Modern  History"  (1746),  vol.  iii,  pp.  439 
and  468,  refers  to  the  statement  of  Bever 
ly,  mentioning  that  "an  iron  work  was  set 
up  on  Falling  Creek,  in  James  River,  where 
they  found  the  iron  ore  good,  and  had  near 
brought  that  work  to  perfection.  The  iron 
proved  reasonably  good ;  but  before  they  got 
into  the  body  of  the  mine,  the  people  were 
VOL.  II.  2 


cut  off  in  that  fatal  massacre  (of  March, 
1622),  and  the  project  has  never  been  set  on 
foot  since,  until  of  late ;  but  it  has  not  had 
its  full  trial."  This  author  also  refers  to  the 
representations  of  the  Board  of  Trade  to 
the  House  of  Commons,  in  1732,  as  contain 
ing  notices  of  the  iron  works  in  operation  in 
New  England.  From  various  reports  of  the 
governor  of  Massachusetts  Bay  and  other 
officials  of  this  colony,  there  appear  to  have 
been,  in  1731,  as  many  as  six  furnaces  and 
nineteen  forges  for  making  iron  in  New  Eng 
land,  as  also  a  slitting  mill  and  nail  factory 
connected  with  it. 

The  first  blast  furnace  in  the  colonies  ap 
pears  to  have  been  built  in  1702,  by  Lambert 
Despard,  at  the  outlet  of  Mattakecset  pond, 
in  Plymouth  County,  Massachusetts,  and  a 
number  more  were  afterward  set  in  operation 
to  work  the  bog  ores  of  that  district.  Their 
operations  are  described  in  the  "  Collections 
of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society"  for 
1804,  by  James  Thacher,  M.  D.,  who  was 
himself  engaged  in  the  manufacture.  In 
Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plantations, 
the  same  kinds  of  ore  were  found  and  work 
ed  at  about  the  same  period.  Alexander 
gives  the  year  1715  as  the  epoch  of  blast 
furnaces  in  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  Pennsyl 
vania.  These  enterprises  were  regarded 
with  great  disfavor  in  the  mother  country. 
In  1719  an  act  was  brought  forward  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  forbidding  the  erection  of 
rolling  or  slitting  mills  in  the  American  col 
onies,  and  in  1750  this  was  made  a  law. 

In  Connecticut,  Governor  Winthrop  was 
much  interested  in  investigating  the  charac 
ter  of  the  minerals  about  Haddam  and  Mid- 
dletown.  In  1651  he  obtained  a  license  giv 
ing  him  almost  unlimited  privileges  for 
working  any  mines  of  "lead,  copper,  or  tin, 
or  any  minerals ;  as  antimony,  vitriol,  black 
lead,  alum,  salt,  salt  springs,  or  any  other 
the  like,  *  *  *  to  enjoy  forever  said 
mines,  with  the  lands,  woods,  timber,  and 
water  within  two  or  three  miles  of  said 
mines."  And  in  1 66 1 ,  another  special  grant 


18 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


was  made  to  him  of  any  mines  he  might 
discover  in  the  neighborhood  of  Middletown. 
It  does  not  appear,  however,  that  he  derived 
any  special  advantage  from  these  privileges, 
although  he  used  to  make  frequent  excur 
sions  to  the  different  localities  of  minerals, 
especially  to  the  Governor's  Ring,  a  moun 
tain  in  the  north-west  corner  of  East  Had- 
dam,  and  spend  three  weeks  at  a  time  there 
with  his  servant,  engaged,  as  told  by  Gover 
nor  Trumbull  to  President  Styles,  and  record 
ed  in  his  diary,  in  "roasting  ores,  assaying 
metals,  and  casting  gold  rings."  John  Win- 
throp,  F.R.S.,  grandson  of  Governor  "VYin- 
throp,  was  evidently  well  acquainted  with 
many  localities  of  different  ores  in  Connecti 
cut,  and  sent  to  the  Royal  Society  a  consid 
erable  collection  of  specimens  he  had  made. 
It  is  supposed  that  among  them  Hatchett 
found  the  mineral  columbite,  and  detected 
the  new  metal  which  he  named  columbium. 
At  Middletown,  an  argentiferous  lead  mine 
was  worked,  it  is  supposed,  at  this  period,  by 
the  Winthrops,  and  the  men  employed  were 
evidently  skilful  miners.  When  the  mine 
was  reopened  in  1852,  shafts  were  found 
well  timbered  and  in  good  preservation,  that 
had  been  sunk  to  the  depth  of  120  feet,  and, 
with  the  other  workings,  amounted  in  all  to 
1,500  feet  of  excavation.  The  oldest  Ameri 
can  charter  for  a  mining  company  was  grant 
ed  in  1709,  for  working  the  copper  ores  at 
Simsbury,  Connecticut.  Operations  were 
carried  on  here  for  a  number  of  years,  the 
ore  raised  being  shipped  to  England,  and  a 
similar  mining  enterprise  was  undertaken  in 
1719,  at  Belleville,  in  New  Jersey,  about  six 
miles  from  Jersey  City.  The  products  of 
the  so-called  Schuyler  mine  at  this  place 
amounted,  before  the  year  1731,  to  1,386 
tons  of  ore,  all  of  which  were  shipped  to 
England.  At  this  period  (1732)  the  Gap 
mine,  in  Lancaster  county,  Pennsylvania, 
was  first  opened  and  worked  for  copper,  and 
about  the  middle  of  the  century  various 
other  copper  mines  were  opened  in  New 
Jersey ;  also,  the  lead  mine  at  Southamp 
ton,  Mass.,  and  the  cobalt  mine  at  Chatham, 
Conn.  In  1754  a  lead  mine  was  success 
fully  worked  in  Wythe  county,  in  south 
western  Virginia,  and  this  is  still  productive. 
It  is  probable  that,  by  reason  of  the  higher 
value  of  copper  at  that  period,  and  the  lower 
price  paid  for  labor  than  at  present,  some  of 
the  copper  mines  may  have  proved  profit 
able  to  work,  though  it  is  certain  this  has 
not  been  the  case  with  them  of  late  years. 


The  existence  of  copper  in  the  region  about 
Lake  Superior  was  known,  from  the  reports 
of  the  Jesuit  missionaries,  in  1660,  and  one 
or  two  unsuccessful  attempts  were  made  to 
work  it  during  the  last  century  by  parties  of 
Englishmen.  The  lead  mines  of  the  upper 
Mississippi,  discovered  by  Le  Sueur  in  his  ex 
ploring  voyage  up  the  river  in  1700  and 
1701,  were  first  worked  by  Dubuque,  a 
French  miner,  in  1788,  upon  the  tract  of 
land  now  occupied  by  the  city  in  Iowa  bear 
ing  his  name. 

Such,  in  general,  was  the  extent  to  which, 
this  branch  of  industry  had  been  carried  up 
to  the  close  of  the  last  century.  The  only 
coal  mines  worked  were  some  on  the  James 
river,  twelve  miles  above  Richmond,  and  the 
capacity  of  these  for  adding  to  the  wealth 
of  the  country  was  not  by  any  means  appre 
ciated.  The  gold  mines  were  entirely  un 
known,  and  the  dependence  of  the  country 
upon  Great  Britain  for  the  supply  of  iron 
had  so  checked  the  development  of  this 
branch  of  manufacture,  that  comparatively 
nothing  was  known  of  our  own  resources  in 
the  mines  of  this  metal.  The  most  impor 
tant  establishments  for  its  manufacture  were 
small  blast  furnaces,  working  bog  ores,  and 
the  bloomaries  of  New  York  and  New  Jer 
sey,  making  bar  iron  direct  from  the  rich 
magnetic  ores. 

The  progress  of  the  United  States  in  these 
branches  will  be  traced  in  the  succeeding 
chapters,  one  of  which  will  be  devoted  to 
each  of  the  principal  metals. 


CHAPTER  I. 

IRON. 

THE  early  history  of  the  iron  manufacture 
in  the  American  colonies  has  been  noticed 
in  the  introductory  remarks  which  precede 
this  chapter.  Since  the  year  1750  the  re 
strictions  imposed  upon  the  business  by  the 
mother  country  had  limited  the  operations  to 
the  production  of  pig  iron  and  castings,  and 
a  few  blast  furnaces  were  employed  in  New 
England  and  the  middle  Atlantic  states.  A 
considerable  portion  of  the  pig  iron  was  ex 
ported  to  Great  Britain,  where  it  was  admit 
ted  free  of  duty,  and  articles  of  wrought 
iron  and  steel  were  returned  from  that  coun 
try.  In  1771  the  shipment  of  pig  iron  from 
the  colonies  amounted  to  7,525  tons.  By 
the  sudden  cessation  of  commercial  relations 


19 


on  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  the  country 
was  thrown  upon  its  own  resources,  but  was 
illy  prepared  to  meet  the  new  and  extraor 
dinary  demands  for  iron.  The  skill,  experi 
ence,  and  capital  for  this  business  were  all 
alike  wanting,  and  even  the  casting  of  can 
non  was  an  undertaking  that  few  of  the  fur 
nace  masters  were  prepared  to  venture  upon. 
The  bog  ores  found  in  Plymouth  county, 
Mass.,  together  with  supplies  from  New  Jer 
sey,  sustained  ten  furnaces ;  and  in  Bridge- 
water,  cannon  were  successfully  cast  and  bored 
by  Hon.  Hugh  Orr,  for  the  supply  of  the 
army.  They  were  also  made  at  Westville, 
Conn.,  by  Mr.  Elijah  Bachus,  who  welded 
together  bars  of  iron  for  the  purpose.  The 
Continental  Congress,  also,  was  forced  to 
establish  and  carry  on  works  for  furnishing 
iron  and  steel,  and  in  the  northern  part  of 
New  Jersey,  the  highlands  of  New  York,  and 
the  valley  of  the  Housatonic  in  Connecticut, 
they  found  abundance  of  rich  ores,  and  forests 
of  the  best  wood  for  the  charcoal  required 
in  the  manufacture.  At  their  armory  at  Car 
lisle,  Pa.,  the  first  trials  of  anthracite  for  manu 
facturing  purposes  were  made  in  1775.  But 
the  condition  of  the  country  was  little  favor 
able  for  the  development  of  this  branch  of 
industry,  and  after  the  war,  without  capital, 
a  currency,  or  facilities  of  transportation,  the 
iron  business  long  continued  of  little  more 
than  local  importance.  The  chief  supplies 
were  again  furnished  from  the  iron  works  of 
Great  Britain,  the  establishment  of  which 
had  in  great  part  been  owing  to  the  restric 
tions  placed  upon  the  development  of  our 
own  resources;  and  while  that  country  con 
tinued  to  protect  their  own  interest  by  pro 
hibitory  duties  that  for  a  long  period  exclu 
ded  all  foreign  competition,  the  iron  inter 
est  of  the  United  States  languished  under  a 
policy  that  fostered  rather  the  carrying  trade 
between  the  two  countries  than  the  building 
up  of  highly  important  manufactories,  and 
the  establishment  around  them  of  perma 
nent  agricultural  settlements  through  the 
home  market  they  should  secure.  Hence  it 
was  that  the  manufacture  in  Great  Britain 
was  rapidly  accelerated,  improved  by  new 
inventions,  strengthened  by  accumulated 
capital,  and  sustained  by  the  use  of  mineral 
coal  for  fuel,  almost  a  century  before  we  had 
learned  in  the  discouraging  condition  of  the 
art,  that  this  cheap  fuel,  mines  of  which 
were  worked  near  Richmond  in  Virginia, 
before  1790,  could  be  advantageously  em 
ployed  in  the  manufacture.  The  natural  ad 


vantages  possessed  by  Great  Britain  power 
fully  co-operated  with  her  wise  legislation  ; 
and  as  her  rich  deposits  of  iron  ore  and  coal 
were  developed  in  close  juxtaposition,  and 
in  localities  not  far  removed  from  the  coast, 
the  iron  interest  became  so  firmly  established 
that  no  nation  accessible  to  her  ships  could 
successfully  engage  in  the  same  pursuit,  until, 
by  following  the  example  set  by  Great  Britain, 
its  own  mines  and  resources  might  be  in  like 
manner  developed.  Thus  encouraged  and 
supported,  the  iron  interest  of  Great  Britain 
has  prospered  at  the  expense  of  that  of  all 
other  nations,  till  her  annual  production 
amounts  to  more  than  one-half  of  the  seven 
millions  or  eight  millions  of  tons  produced 
throughout  the  world ;  and  the  products  of 
her  mines  and  furnaces  have,  until  quite  re 
cently,  been  better  known,  even  in  the  ex 
treme  western  states,  where  the  cost  of 
"  Scotch  pig  iron "  has  been  more  than 
doubled  by  the  transportation,  than  has  that 
of  the  rich  ores  of  these  very  states.  And 
thus  it  is  the  annual  production  of  the  Uni 
ted  States  scarcely  yet  amounts  to  1,000,- 
000  tons,  notwithstanding  the  abundance 
and  richness  of  her  mines,  both  of  iron  ores 
and  of  coal,  and  the  immense  demands  of 
iron  for  her  own  consumption.  So  great  are 
the  advantages  she  possesses  in  the  quality 
of  these  essential  materials  in  the  production 
of  iron,  that  according  to  the  statement  of 
an  able  writer  upon  this  subject,  who  is  him 
self  largely  engaged  in  the  manufacture,  less 
than  half  the  quantity  of  raw  materials  is 
required  in  this  country  to  the  ton  of  iron, 
that  is  required  in  Great  Britain,  "  thus 
economizing  labor  to  an  enormous  extent. 
In  point  of  fact,  the  materials  for  making  a 
ton  of  iron  can  be  laid  down  in  the  United 
States  at  the  furnace  with  less  expenditure 
of  human  labor  than  in  any  part  of  the 
known  world,  with  the  possible  exception  of 
Scotland."  ("On  the  Statistics  and  Geog 
raphy  of  the  Production  of  Iron,"  by  Abram 
S.  Hewitt,  N.  Y.,  1856,  p.  20).  The  tables 
presented  by  this  writer,  of  the  annual  pro 
duction,  show  striking  vicissitudes  in  the 
trade,  which  is  to  be  accounted  for  chiefly 
by  the  fluctuations  in  prices  in  the  English 
market  depressing  or  encouraging  our  own 
manufacture,  and  by  the  frequent  changes  in 
our  tariff. 

"In  1810  the  production  of  iron,  en 
tirely  charcoal,  was  54,000  tons.  In  1820, 
in  consequence  of  the  commercial  ruin  which 
swept  over  the  country  just  before,  the  busi- 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


ness  was  in  a  state  of  comparative  ruin,  and 
not  over  20,000  tons  were  produced. 

Iu  1828  the  product  was  130,000  tons. 


1829 
1830 
1831 
1832 
1840 


142,000 
165,000 
191,000 
200,000 
315,000 


In  1842  it  fell  to  less  than  230,000  tons, 
the  result  of  the  remission  of  duties  under 
the  compromise  tariff.  In  1846  Secretary 
Walker  estimated  it  to  be  765,000  tons,  the 
result  of  the  combined  action  of  the  high 
tariff  of  1842  and  the  high  prices  in  Eng 
land,  caused  by  the  new  demand  for  railways. 
In  1847  and  1848  it  reached  800,000  tons. 
In  1849  it  fell  to  650,000  tons.  In  1850,  by 
the  census  returns  it  was  reduced  to  564,755 
tons ;  and  it  continued  to  fall  off  until  the 
first  of  January,  1853,  when  the  whole  prod 
uct  did  not  exceed  500,000  tons ;  still  leav 
ing  it,  even  at  the  lowest  point,  second  only 
to  Great  Britain.  The  make  then  began  to  in 
crease,  so  that  in  1855  it  had  reached  at 
least  1,000,000  of  tons.  This  estimate  is 
not  confirmed  in  the  tables  prepared  by  the 
committee  of  the  Association  of  Iron  Manu 
facturers  for  1856,  which  will  be  presented 
in  more  detail  in  the  course  of  this  chapter. 
Not  reckoning  the  bar  and  blooms  made 
direct  from  the  ore,  which  in  1856  is  given 
as  28,633  tons,  the  production  of  pig  metal 
in  1854  was  724,833  tons;  in  1855,  728,- 
973  tons;  and  in  1856,  812,917  tons.  The 
annual  production  at  the  present  time  proba 
bly  falls  short  of  this  amount. 

Until  the  year  1840,  charcoal  had  been  the 
only  fuel  used  in  the  manufacture  of  iron ; 
and  while  it  produced  a  metal  far  superior 
in  quality  \o  that  made  with  coke,  the  great 
demands  of  the  trade  were  for  cheap  irons, 
and  the  market  was  chiefly  supplied  with 
these  from  Great  Britain.  The  introduction 
of  anthracite  for  smelting  iron  ores  in  1840 
marked  a  new  era  in  the  manufacture,  though 
its  influence  was  not  decidedly  felt  for  several 
years  afterward. 

MATERIALS  EMPLOYED    IN  THE  MANUFACTURE. 

Before  attempting  to  exhibit  the  resources 
of  the  United  States  for  making  iron,  and 
the  methods  of  conducting  the  manufacture, 
it  is  well  to  give  some  account  of  the  mate 
rials  employed,  and  explain  the  conditions 
upon  which  this  manufacture  depends.  Three 
elements  are  essential  in  the  great  branch  of 
the  business — that  of  producing  pig  iron, 


viz :  ores,  fuel  to  reduce  them,  and  a  suit 
able  flux  to  aid  the  process  by  melting  with 
and  removing  the  earthy  impurities  of  the 
ore  in  a  freely  flowing,  glassy  cinder.  The 
flux  is  usually  limestone,  and  by  a  wise  pro 
vision,  evidently  in  view  of  the  uses  to 
which  this  would  be  applied,  limestone  is 
almost  universally  found  conveniently  near 
to  iron  ores ;  so  also  are  stores  of  fuel  com 
mensurate  with  the  abundance  of  the  ores. 

The  principal  ores  are  hematites,  magnetic 
and  specular  ores,  the  red  oxides  of  the  sec 
ondary  rocks,  and  the  carbonates.  Probably 
more  than  three-quarters  of  the  iron  made 
in  the  United  States  is  from  the  first  three 
varieties  named,  and  a  much  larger  propor 
tion  of  the  English  iron  is  from  the  last — 
from  the  magnetic  and  specular  ores  none. 
Hematites,  wherever  known,  are  favorite  ores. 
They  are  met  with  in  great  irregular-shaped 
deposits  (apparently  derived  from  other 
forms  in  which  the  iron  was  distributed),  in 
termixed  with  ochres,  clays,  and  sands,  some 
times  in  scattered  lumps  and  blocks,  and 
sometimes  in  massive  ledges ;  they  also 
occur  in  beds  interst ratified  among  the  mica 
slates.  Although  the  deposits  are  regarded 
as  of  limited  capacity,  they  are  often  worked 
to  the  depth  of  more  than  100  feet;  in  one 
instance  in  Berks  county,  Penn.,  to  165  feet; 
and  when  abandoned,  as  they  sometimes  are, 
it  is  questionable  whether  this  is  not  rather 
owing  to  the  increased  expenses  incurred  in 
continuing  the  enormous  excavations  at  such 
depths,  than  from  failure  of  the  ore.  Mines 
of  hematite  have  proved  the  most  valuable 
mines  in  the  United  States.  At  Salisbury, 
in  Connecticut,  they  have  been  worked 
almost  uninterruptedly  for  more  than  100 
years,  supplying  the  means  for  supporting 
an  active  industry  in  the  country  around, 
and  enriching  generation  after  generation  of 
proprietors.  The  great  group  of  mines  at 
Chestnut  Hill,  in  Columbia  county,  Penn., 
and  others  in  Berks  and  Lehigh  counties  in 
the  same  state,  are  of  similar  character. 

The  ore  is  a  hydrated  peroxide  of  iron, 
consisting  of  from  72  to  85  per  cent,  of  per 
oxide  of  iron  (which  corresponds  to  about 
50  to  60  per  cent,  of  iron),  and  from  10  to 
14  per  cent,  of  water.  Silica  and  alumina, 
phosphoric  acid,  and  peroxide  of  manganese 
are  one  or  more  present  in  very  small  quanti 
ties  ;  but  the  impurities  are  rarely  such  as  to 
interfere  with  the  production  of  very  excel 
lent  iron,  either  for  foundry  or  forge  pur 
poses — that  is,  for  castings  or  bar  iron.  It  is 


IRON. 


21 


easily  and  cheaply  mined,  and  works  easily 
in  the  blast  furnace.  On  account  of  its  de 
ficiency  in  silica  it  is  necessary  to  use  a  lime 
stone  containing  this  ingredient,  that  the 
elements  of  a  glassy  cinder  may  be  provided, 
which  is  the  first  requisite  in  smelting  iron  ; 
or  the  same  end  may  be  more  advantageously 
attained  by  adding  a  portion  of  magnetic 
ore,  which  is  almost  always  mixed  with 
silica  in  the  form  of  quartz ;  and  these  two 
ores  are  consequently  very  generally  worked 
together — the  hematites  making  two-thirds 
or  three-quarters  of  the  charge,  and  the  mag 
netic  ores  the  remainder. 

Magnetic  ore  is  the  richest  possible  com 
bination  of  iron,  the  proportion  of  which 
cannot  exceed  72.4  per  cent.,  combined  with 
97.6  per  cent  of  oxygen.  It  is  a  heavy, 
black  ore,  compact  or  in  coarse  crystalline 
grains,  and  commonly  mixed  with  quartz 
and  other  minerals.  It  affects  the  magnetic 
needle,  and  pieces  of  it  often  support  small 
bits  of  iron,  as  nails.  Such  ore  is  the  load 
stone.  It  is  obtained  of  various  qualities ; 
some  sorts  work  with  great  difficulty  in  the 
blast  furnace,  and  others  are  more  easily 
managed  and  make  excellent  iron  for  any 
use ;  but  all  do  better  mixed  with  hematite. 
The  magnetic  ores  have  been  largely  em 
ployed  in  the  ancient  processes  of  making 
malleable  iron  direct  from  the  ore  in  the 
open  forge,  the  Catalan  forge,  etc.,  and  at 
the  present  time  they  are  so  used  in  the 
bloomary  fires.  They  are  found  in  inex 
haustible  beds  of  all  dimensions  lying  among 
the  micaceous  slates  and  gneiss  rocks.  These 
beds  are  sometimes  so  extensive  that  they 
appear  to  make  up  the  greater  part  of  the 
mountains  in  which  they  lie,  and  in  common 
language  the  mountains  are  said  to  be  all 
ore. 

Specular  ore,  or  specular  iron,  is  so  named 
from  the  shining,  mirror-like  plates  in  which 
it  is  often  found.  The  common  ore  is  some- 
.,times  red,  steel  gray,  or  iron  black,  and  all 
these  varieties  are  distinguished  by  the 
bright  red  color  of  the  powder  of  the  ore, 
which  is  that  of  peroxide  of  iron.  Mag 
netic  ore  gives  a  black  powder,  which  is  that 
of  a  less  oxidized  combination.  The  specu 
lar  ore  thus  contains  less  iron  and  more  oxy 
gen  than  the  magnetic ;  the  proportions  of  its 
ingredients  are  70  parts  in  100  of  iron,  and 
30  of  oxygen.  Though  the  difference  seems 
slight,  the  qualities  of  the  two  ores  are  quite 
distinct.  The  peroxide  makes  iron  fast,  but 
some  sorts  of  it  produce  an  inferior  quality 


of  iron  to  that  from  the  hematite  and  mag 
netic  ores,  and  better  adapted  for  castings 
than  for  converting  into  malleable  iron.  The 
pure,  rich  ores,  however,  are  many  of  them 
unsurpassed.  It  is  found  in  beds  of  all  di 
mensions,  and  though  in  the  eastern  part  of 
the  United  States  they  prove  of  limited  ex 
tent,  those  of  Missouri  and  Lake  Superior 
are  inexhaustible.  Magnetic  and  specular 
ores  arc  associated  together  in  the  same  dis 
trict,  and  sometimes  are  accompanied  by 
hematite  beds ;  and  it  is  also  the  case,  that 
iron  districts  are  characterized  by  the  preva 
lence  of  one  kind  only  of  these  ores,  to  the 
exclusion  of  the  others. 

The  red  oxides  of  the  secondary  rocks 
consist,  for  the  most  part,  of  the  red  fossil- 
iferous  and  oolitic  ores  that  accompany  the 
so-called  Clinton  group  of  calcareous  shales, 
sandstones,  and  argillaceous  limestones  of 
the  upper  silurian  along  their  lines  of  out 
crop  in  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  east 
ern  Tennessee,  and  from  Oneida  county,  N. 
Y.,  westward  past  Niagara  Falls,  and  through 
Canada  even  to  Wisconsin.  The  ore  is  found 
in  one  or  two  bands,  rarely  more  than  one  or 
two  feet  thick,  and  the  sandstone  strata  with 
which  they  are  associated  are  sometimes  so 
ferruginous  as  to  be  themselves  workable 
ores.  The  true  ores  are  sometimes  entirely 
made  up  of  the  forms  of  fossil  marine  shells, 
the  original  material  of  which  has  been 
gradually  replaced  by  peroxide  of  iron.  The 
oolitic  variety  is  composed  of  fine  globular 
particles,  united  together  like  the  roc  of  a 
fish.  The  ore  is  also  found  in  compact 
forms,  and  in  Wisconsin  it  is  in  the  condi 
tion  of  fine  sand  or  seed.  Its  composition 
is  very  variable,  and  its  per-centagc  of  iron 
ranges  from  40  to  60.  By  reason  of  the 
carbonate  of  lime  diffused  through  some  of 
the  varieties,  these  work  in  the  blast  furnace 
very  freely,  and  serve  extremely  well  to  mix 
with  the  silicious  ores. 

Of  the  varieties  of  carbonate  of  iron,  the 
only  ones  of  practical  importance  in  the 
United  States  are  the  silicious  and  argilla 
ceous  carbonates  of  the  coal  formation,  and 
the  similar  ores  of  purer  character  found 
among  the  tertiary  clays  on  the  western 
shores  of  Chesapeake  Bay.  The  former  va 
rieties  are  the  chief  dependence  of  the  iron 
furnaces  of  Great  Britain,  where  they  abun 
dantly  occur  in  layers  among  the  shales  of 
the  coal  formation,  interstratified  with  the 
beds  of  coal — the  shafts  that  are  sunk  for 
the  exploration  of  one  also  penetrating  beds 


22 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


of  the  other.  The  layers  of  ore  are  in  flat 
tened  blocks,  balls,  and  kidney-shaped  lumps, 
which  are  picked  out  from  the  shales  as  the 
beds  of  these  are  excavated.  The  ore  is 
lean,  affording  from  30  to  40  per  cent,  of 
iron ;  but  it  is  of  easy  reduction,  and  makes, 
•when  properly  treated,  iron  of  fair  quality. 
In  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Avestern  Virginia, 
Kentucky,  and  Tennessee,  the  ores  occur 
with  the  same  associations  as  in  England ; 
but  the  supply  is,  for  the  most  part,  very  pre 
carious,  and  many  furnaces  that  have  de 
pended  upon  them  are  now  kept  in  opera 
tion  only  by  drawing  a  considerable  portion 
of  their  supplies  from  the  mines  of  Lake 
Superior,  more  than  one  thousand  miles  off. 
Among  the  horizontally  stratified  rocks  west 
of  the  Alleghanies,  the  same  bands  of  ore 
are  traced  over  extensive  districts,  and  are 
even  recognized  in  several  of  the  different 
states  named.  One  of  the  most  important 
of  these  bands  is  the  buhrstone  ore,  so  call 
ed  from  a  cellular,  flinty  accompaniment 
which  usually  underlies  it,  the  whole  con 
tained  in  a  bed  of  peculiar  fossilifcrous  lime 
stone.  So  much  carbonate  of  lime  is  some 
times  present  in  the  ore,  that  it  requires  no 
other  flux  in  the  blast  furnace.  Its  per-cent- 
age  of  iron  is  from  25  to  35.  Along  the  line 
of'  outcrop  of  some  of  the  carbonates  are 
found  deposits  of  hematite  ores,  the  result 
of  superficial  changes  in  the  former,  due  to 
atmospheric  agencies  long  continued.  In 
southern  Ohio,  at  Hanging  Hock  particularly, 
numerous  furnaces  have  been  supported  by 
these  ores,  and  have  furnished  much  of  the 
best  iron  produced  at  the  west. 

The  carbonates  of  the  tertiary  are  found 
in  blocks  and  lumps  among  the  clays  along 
the  shores  of  the  Chesapeake  at  Baltimore, 
and  its  vicinity.  The  ores  are  of  excellent 
character,  work  easily  in  the  furnace,  make  a 
kind  of  iron  highly  esteemed — particularly 
for  the  manufacture  of  nails — and  are  so 
abundant  that  they  have  long  sustained  a 
considerable  number  of  furnaces.  They  lie 
near  the  surface,  and  are  collected  by  exca 
vating  the  clay  beds  and  sorting  out  the 
balls  of  ore.  The  excavations  have  been 
carried  out  in  some  places  on  the  shore  be 
low  the  level  of  tide,  the  water  being  kept 
back  by  coffer  dams  and  steam  pumps. 

Bog  ores,  with  which  the  earliest  furnaces 
in  the  country  were  supplied,  are  now  little 
used.  They  are  rarely  found  in  quantities 
sufficient  for  running  the  large  furnaces  of 
the  present  day,  and,  moreover,  make  but  an 


inferior,  brittle  quality  of  cast  iron.  They 
are  chiefly  found  near  the  coast,  and  being 
easily  dug,  and  also  reduced  to  metal  with 
great  facility,  they  proved  very  convenient 
for  temporary  use  before  the  great  bodies  of 
ore  in  the  interior  were  reached.  Some  fur 
naces  are  still  running  on  these  ores  in  the 
south-west  part  of  New  Jersey,  and  at  Snow- 
hill,  on  the  eastern  shore  of  Maryland,  and 
the  iron  they  make  is  used  to  advantage  in 
mixing  at  the  great  stove  foundries  in  Albany 
and  Troy  with  other  varieties  of  cast  iron. 
It  increases  the  fluidity  of  these,  and  pro 
duces  with  them  a  mixture  that  will  flow 
into  and  take  the  forms  of  the  minutest 
markings  of  the  mould. 

Charcoal  has  been  the  only  fuel  employed 
in  the  manufacture  of  iron  until  anthracite 
was  applied  to  this  purpose,  about  the  year 
1840,  and  still  later — in  the  United  States — 
coke  and  bituminous  coal.  So  long  as  wood 
continued  abundant  in  the  iron  districts,  it 
was  preferred  to  the  mineral  fuel,  as  in  the 
early  experience  of  the  use  of  the  latter  the 
quality  of  the  iron  it  produced  was  inferior 
to  that  made  from  the  same  ores  with  char 
coal,  and  even  at  the  present  time,  most  of 
the  highest-priced  irons  are  made  with  char 
coal.  The  hard  woods  make  the  best  coal, 
and  after  these,  the  yellow  pine.  Hemlock 
and  chestnut  are  largely  used,  because  of 
their  abundance  and  cheapness.  The  char 
coal  furnaces  arc  of  small  size  compared 
with  those  using  the  denser  mineral  coal, 
and  their  capacity  rarely  exceeds  a  produc 
tion  of  ten  or  twelve  tons  of  pig  iron  in 
twenty-four  hours.  In  1840  they  seldom 
made  more  than  four  tons  a  day ;  the  differ 
ence  is  owing  to  larger  furnaces,  the  use  of 
hot  blast,  and  much  more  efficient  blowing 
machinery.  The  consumption  of  charcoal 
to  the  ton  of  iron  is  one  hundred  bushels  of 
hard-wood  coal  at  a  minimum,  and  from  this 
running  up  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  bushels 
or  more,  according  to  the  quality  of  the  coal 
and  the  skill  of  the  manager.  The  economy 
of  the  business  depends,  in  great  part,  upon 
the  convenience  of  the  supplies  of  fuel  and 
of  ores,  of  each  of  which  rather  more  than 
two  tons  weight  are  consumed  to  every  ton 
of  pig  iron.  As  the  woods  are  cut  off  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  furnaces,  the  supplies  are 
gradually  drawn  from  greater  distances,  till 
at  last  they  are  sometimes  hauled  from  ten 
to  fourteen  miles.  The  furnaces  near  Balti 
more  have  been  supplied  with  pine  wood  dis 
charged  from  vessels  at  the  coaling  kilns 


IRON. 


23 


close  by  the  furnaces.  Transportation  of 
the  fuel  in  such  cases  is  a  matter  of  second 
ary  importance. 

The  mineral  coals  are  a  more  certain  de 
pendence  in  this  manufacture,  and  are  cheap 
ly  conveyed  from  the  mines  on  the  great 
lines  of  transportation,  so  that  furnaces  may 
be  placed  anywhere  upon  these  lines,  with 
reference  more  especially  to  prpximity  of 
ores.  Thus  they  can  be  grouped  togeth 
er  in  greater  numbers  than  is  practicable 
with  charcoal  furnaces.  Their  establishment, 
however,  involves  the  outlay  of  much  capital, 
for  the  anthracite  furnaces  are  all  built  upon 
a  large  scale,  with  a  capacity  of  producing 
from  twenty  to  thirty  tons  of  pig  iron  a  day. 
This  requires  machinery  of  great  power  to 
furnish  the  immense  quantities  of  air, 
amounting  in  the  large  stacks  to  fifteen  tons 
or  more  every  hour,  and  propel  it  through 
the  dense  column,  of  fifty  to  sixty  feet  in 
height,  of  heavy  materials  that  fill  the  furnace. 
The  air  actually  exceeds  in  weight  all  the 
other  materials  introduced  into  the  furnace, 
and  its  efficiency  in  promoting  combustion 
and  generating  intensity  of  heat  is  greatly 
increased  by  the  concentration  to  which  it 
is  subjected  when  blown  in  under  a  pressure 
of  six  or  eight  pounds  to  the  square  inch. 
It  is  rendered  still  more  efficient  by  being 
heated  to  temperature  sufficient  to  melt  lead 
before  it  is  introduced  into  the  furnace;  and 
this  demands  the  construction  of  heating 
ovens,  through  which  the  blast  is  forced  from 
the  blowing  cylinders  in  a  series  of  iron 
pipes,  arranged  so  as  to  absorb  as  much  as 
possible  of  the  waste  heat  from  the  combust 
ible  gases  that  issue  from  the  top  of  the 
stack,  and  are  led  through  these  ovens  before 
they  are  finally  allowed  to  escape.  The 
weight  of  anthracite  consumed  is  not  far 
from  double  that  of  the  iron  made,  and  the 
ores  usually  exceed  in  weight  the  fuel.  The 
flux  is  a  small  and  cheap  item,  its  weight 
ranging  from  one-eighth  to  one-third  that  of 
the  ores. 

The  location  of  furnaces  with  reference  to 
the  market  for  the  iron  is  a  consideration  of 
no  small  importance,  for  the  advantages  of 
cheap  material  may  be  overbalanced  by  the 
difference  of  a  few  dollars  in  the  cost  of 
placing  in  market  a  product  of  so  little  value 
to  the  ton  weight  as  pig  iron. 

The  following  statement  presents  the  cost 
of  the  materials  and  of  other  items  which  go 
to  make  up  the  total  expense  of  the  produc 
tion  iil  different  localities  nearthe  sea-board. 
2* 


The  general  expenses  at  the  localities  named 
are  reduced  to  a  low  amount  by  the  large 
scale  upon  which  the  business  is  conducted. 

At  different  points  on  the  Hudson  river, 
anthracite  furnaces  are  in  operation,  which 
are  supplied  with  hematites  from  Columbia 
and  Dutchess  counties,  N.  Y.,  and  from  the 
neighboring  counties  in  Massachusetts,  at 
prices  varying  from  $2.25  to  $3.00  per  ton  ; 
averaging  about  $2.50.  They  also  use  mag 
netic  ores  from  Lake  Champlain,  and  some 
from  the  Highlands  below  West  Point,  the 
latter  costing  $2.50,  and  the  former  $3.50  to 
$4.50  per  ton ;  the  average  »being  about 
$3.50.  The  quantities  of  these  ores  pur 
chased  for  the  ton  of  iron  produced  are 
about  two  tons  of  hematite  and  one  of  mag 
netic  ore,  making  the  cost  for  the  ores  $6.75. 
Two  tons  of  anthracite  cost  usually  $9,  and 
the  flux  for  fuel  about  35  cents.  Actual  con 
tract  prices  for  labor  and  superintendence 
have  been  $4  per  ton.  Thus  the  total  ex 
pense  for  the  ton  of  pig  iron  is  about  $20.10  ; 
or,  allowing  for  repairs  and  interest  on 
capital,  fuir$21. 

In  the  Lehigh  valley,  in  Pennsylvania, 
are  numerous  furnaces,  which  are  supplied 
with  anthracite  at  the  low  rate  of  $3  per  ton, 
or  $6  to  the  ton  of  iron.  The  ores  are  mixed 
magnetic  and  hematites,  averaging  in  the 
proportions  used  about  $3  per  ton,  or,  at  the 
rate  consumed  of  2i  tons,  $7.50  to  the  ton 
of  iron.  Allowing  the  same  amount — $4.35 
— for  other  items,  as  at  the  Hudson  river 
furnaces,  the  total  cost  is  $17. 85;  or,  with 
interest  and  repairs,  nearly  $1 9  per  ton.  The 
difference  is  in  great  part  made  up  to  the 
furnaces  on  the  Hudson  by  their  convenience 
to  the  great  markets  of  New  York,  Troy,  and 
Albany. 

The  charcoal  iron  made  near  Baltimore 
shows  a  higher  cost  of  production  than  either 
of  the  above,  and  it  is  also  subject  to  greater  \ 
expenses  of  transportation  to  market,  which 
is  chiefly  at  the  rolling  mills  and  nail  fac 
tories  of  Massachusetts.  Its  superior  quality 
causes  a  demand  for  the  product  and 
sustains  the  business.  For  this  iron  per  ton 
2d  tons  of  ore  are  consumed,  costing  $3.62i 
per  ton,  or  $9.06  ;  fuel,  3i  cords  at  $2.50, 
$8.75 ;  flux,  oyster  shells,  30  cts. ;  labor  (in 
cluding  $1.50  for  charring)  $2.75 ;  other  ex 
penses,  $2  ;  total,  $22.86. 

At  many  localities  in  the  interior  of 
Pennsylvania  and  Ohio,  iron  is  made  at  less 
cost,  but  their  advantages  are  often  counter 
balanced  by  additional  expenses  incurred  in 


24 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


delivering  the  metal,  and  obtaining  the  pro 
ceeds  of  its  sale.  Increased  facilities  of 
transportation,  however,  are  rapidly  rcmov- 
inf  these  distinctions.  At  Danville,  on  the 
Susquehanna  river,  Columbia  county,  Penn 
sylvania,  the  cost  of  production  has  been  re 
duced  to  an  unusually  low  amount,  by  reason 
of  large  supplies  of  ore  close  at  hand,  the 
cheapness  of  anthracite,  and  the  very  large 
scale  of  the  operations.  Pig  iron,  as  shown 
by  the  books  of  the  company,  has  been  made 
for  811  per  ton.  Its  quality,  however,  was 
inferior,  so  that,  with  the  expenses  of  trans 
portation  added,  it  could  not  be  placed  in 
the  eastern  markets  to  compete  with  other 
irons.  The  rolling  mills  connected  with  the 
furnaces  afforded  the  means  of  converting  it 
into  railroad  bars,  with  which,  from  the  in 
creased  value  of  the  iron,  the  cost  of  trans 
portation  was  of  less  moment. 

DISTRIBUTION    OF   THE    ORES. 

The  magnetic  and  specular  ores  of  the 
United  States  are  found  in  the  belt  of 
metamorphic  rocks — the  gneiss,  quartz  rock, 
mica  and  talcose  slates,and  limestones — which 
ranges  along  to  the  east  of  the  Alleghanies, 
and  spreads  over  the  principal  part  of  the 
New  England  states.  It  is  only,  however, 
in  certain  districts,  that  this  belt  is  produc 
tive  in  iron  ores.  The  hematites  belong  to 
the  same  group,  and  the  important  districts 
of  the  three  ores  may  be  noticed  in  the  or 
der  in  which  they  are  met  from  Canada  to 
Alabama.  Similar  ores  are  also  abundant 
in  Missouri,  and  to  the  south  of  Lake 
Superior. 

NEW  ENGLAND  STATES. — In  New  Hamp 
shire  magnetic  and  specular  ores  are  found 
in  large  quantities  in  a  high  granitic  hill 
called  the  Baldface  Mountain,  in  the  town 
of  Bartlett.  The  locality  is  not  conveniently 
accessible,  and  its  remoteness  from  coal 
mines  will  probably  long  keep  the  ore,  rich 
and  abundant  as  it  is,  of  no  practical  value. 
At  Piermont,  on  the  western  border  of  the 
state,  specular  ore,  very  rich  and  pure,  is 
also  abundant,  but  not  worked.  At  Fran- 
conia  a  small  furnace,  erected  in  1811,  was 
run  many  years  upon  magnetic  ores,  obtain 
ed  from  a  bed  of  moderate  size,  and  which 
in  1824  had  been  worked  to  the  depth  of 
200  feet.  In  1830  the  iron  establishments 
of  this  place  were  still  objects  of  considerable 
interest,  though  from  the  accounts  of  them 
published  in  the  American  Journal  of  Science 
of  that  year,  it  appears  that  the  annual  pro 


duction  of  the  blast  furnace  for  the  preceding 
nine  years  had  averaged  only  about  "216 
tons  of  cast  iron  in  hollow  ware,  stoves, 
machinery,  and  pig  iron" — a  less  quantity 
than  is  now  produced  in  a  week  by  some  of 
the  anthracite  furnaces.  One  forge  making 
bar  iron  direct  from  the  ore  produced  forty 
tons  annually,  and  another  100  tons,  con 
suming  550  bushels  of  charcoal  to  the  ton. 
The  cost  of  this,  fortunately,  was  only  from 
.75  to  $4.00  per  hundred  bushels.  A 
portion  of  the  product  was  transported  to 
Boston, the  freight  alone  costing  $25  per  ton. 
In  Vermont  these  ores  are  found  in  the 
metamorphic  slates  of  the  Green  Mountains, 
and  are  worked  to  some  extent  for  mixing 
with  the  hematite  ores,  which  are  more 
abundant,  being  found  in  many  of  the  towns 
through  the  central  portion  of  the  state,  from 
Canada  to  Massachusetts.  In  1850  the 
number  of  blast  furnaces  was  ten,  but  their 
production  probably  did  not  reach  4,000 
tons  per  annum,  and  has  since  dwindled 
away  to  a  much  less  amount.  At  the  same 
time  there  were  seven  furnaces  in  Berkshire, 
Mass.,  near  the  hematite  beds  that  are  found 
in  the  towns  along  the  western  line  of  the 
state.  These  had  a  working  capacity  of 
about  12,000  tons  of  pig  iron  annually,  and 
this  being  made  from  excellent  ores,  with 
charcoal  for  fuel,  its  reputation  was  high  and 
the  prices  remunerative ;  but  as  charcoal  in 
creased  in  price,  and  the  cheaper  anthracite- 
made  iron  improved  in  quality,  the  business 
became  unprofitable ;  so  that  the  extensive 
hematite  beds  are  now  chiefly  valuable  for 
furnishing  ores  to  the  furnaces  upon  the 
Hudson  river,  where  anthracite  is  deliv 
ered  from  the  boats  that  have  come  through 
the  Delaware  and  Hudson  canal,  and  magnetic 
ores  are  brought  by  similar  cheap  conveyance 
from  the  mines  on  the  west  side  of  Lake 
Champlain.  Through  Connecticut,  down  the 
Housatonic  valley,  very  extensive  beds  of 
hematite  have  supplied  the  sixteen  furnaces 
which  were  in  operation  ten  years  ago.  The 
great  Salisbury  bed  has  already  been  named. 
In  the  first  half  of  the  present  century  it 
produced  from  250,000  to  300,000  tons  of 
the  very  best  ore ;  the  iron  from  which,  when 
made  with  cold  blast,  readily  brought  from 
$6  to  $10  per  ton  more  than  the  ordi 
nary  kinds  of  pig  iron.  The  Kent  ore  bed  was 
of  similar  character,  though  not  so  extensive. 
NEW  YORK. — Across  the  New  York  state 
line,  a  number  of  other  very  extensive  de 
posits  of  hematite  supported  seven  blast  fur- 


IRON. . 


25 


naces  in  Columbia  and  Dutchess  counties, 
and  now  furnish  supplies  to  those  along  the 
Hudson  river.  In  Putnam  county,  magnetic 
ores  succeed  the  hematites,  and  are  devel 
oped  in  considerable  beds  in  Putnam  Val 
ley,  east  from  Cold  Spring,  where  they  were 
worked  for  the  supply  of  forges  during  the 
last  century.  These  beds  can  again  furnish 
large  quantities  of  rich  ore.  On  the  other 
side  of  the  river,  very  productive  mines  of 
magnetic  ore  have  been  worked  near  Fort 
Montgomery,  six  miles  west  from  the  river. 
At  the  Greenwood  furnace,  back  from  West 
Point,  was  produced  the  strongest  cast  iron 
ever  tested,  which,  according  to  the  report 
of  the  officers  of  the  ordnance  department, 
made  to  Congress  in  1856,  after  being  re- 
melted  several  times  to  increase  its  density, 
exhibited  a  tenacity  of  45,970  Ibs.  to  the 
square  inch.  The  beds  at  Monroe,  near  the 
New  Jersey  line,  are  of  vast  extent;  but  a 
small  portion  of  the  enormous  quantities  of 
ore  in  sight,  however,  makes  the  best  iron. 
Mining  was  commenced  here  in  1750,  and  a 
furnace  was  built  in  1751,  but  operations 
have  never  been  carried  on  upon  a  scale 
commensurate  with  the  abundance  of  the 
ores.  In  the  northern  counties  of  New 
York,  near  Lake  Champlain,  are  numerous 
mines  of  rich  magnetic  ores.  Some  of  the 
most  extensive  bloomary  establishments  in 
the  United  States  are  supported  by  them  in 
Clinton  county,  and  many  smaller  forges  are 
scattered  along  the  course  of  the  Ausable 
river,  where  water  power  near  some  of  the 
ore  beds  presents  a  favorable  site.  Bar  iron 
is  made  at  these  establishments  direct  from 
the  ores;  and  at  Keeseville  nail  factories  are 
in  operation,  converting  a  portion  of  the 
iron  into  nails.  In  Essex  county  there  are 
also  many  very  productive  mines  of  the  same 
kind  of  ore,  and  Port  Henry  and  its  vicinity 
has  furnished  large  quantities,  not  only  to 
the  blast  furnaces  that  were  formerly  in 
operation  here,  but  to  those  on  the  Hudson, 
and  to  puddling  furnaces  in  different  parts 
of  the  country,  particularly  about  Boston. 
In  the  interior  of  Essex  county,  forty  miles 
back  from  the  lake,  are  the  extensive  mines 
of  the  Adirondac.  The  ores  arc  rich  as 
well  as  inexhaustible,  but  the  remoteness  of 
the  locality,  and  the  difficulty  attending  the 
working  of  them,  owing  to  their  contamina 
tion  with  titanium,  detract  greatly  from  their 
importance.  On  the  other  side  of  the  Adi 
rondac  mountains,  in  St.  Lawrence  county, 
near  Lake  Ontario,  are  found  large  beds  of 


specular  ores,  which  have  been  worked  to 
some  extent  in  several  blast  furnaces.  They 
occur  along  the  line  of  junction  of  the  gran 
ite  and  the  Potsdam  sandstone.  The  iron 
they  make  is  inferior — suitable  only  for  cast 
ings.  The  only  other  ores  of  any  importance 
in  the  state  are  the  fossiliferous  ores  of  the 
Clinton  group,  which  are  worked  near  Oneida 
Lake,  and  at  several  points  along  a  narrow 
belt  of  country  near  the  south  shore  of  Lake 
Ontario.  They  have  sustained  five  blast 
furnaces  in  this  region,  and  are  transported 
in  large  quantities  by  canal  to  the  anthra 
cite  furnaces  at  Scranton,  in  Pennsylvania, 
the  boats  returning  with  mineral  coal  for  the 
furnaces  near  Oneida  Lake. 

NEW  JERSEY. — From  Orange  county,  in 
New  York,  the  range  of  gneiss  and  horn 
blende  rocks,  which  contain  the  magnetic 
and  specular  ores,  passes  into  New  Jersey, 
and  spreads  over  a  large  part  of  Passaic  and 
Morris,  and  the  eastern  parts  of  Sussex  and 
Warren  counties.  The  beds  of  magnetic  ore 
are  very  large  and  numerous,  and  have  been 
worked  to  great  extent,  especially  about 
Ringwood,  Dover,  Rockaway,  Boonton,  and 
other  towns,  both  in  blast  furnaces  arid  in 
bloomaries.  At  Andover,  in  Sussex  county, 
a  great  body  of  specular  ores  furnished  for  a 
number  of  years  the  chief  supplies  for  the 
furnaces  of  the  Trenton  Iron  Company,  situ 
ated  at  Philipsburg,  opposite  the  mouth  of 
the  Lehigh.  On  the  range  of  this  ore,  a  few 
miles  to  the  north-east,  are  extensive  deposits 
of  Frankliniteiron  ore  accompanying  the  zinc 
ore  of  this  region.  This  unusual  variety 
of  ore  consists  of  peroxide  of  iron  about 
66  per  cent.,  oxide  of  zinc  17,  and  oxide  of 
manganese  16.  It  is  smelted  at  the  works 
of  the  New  Jersey  Zinc  Company  at  New 
ark,  producing  annually  about  2,000  tons  of 
pig  iron.  The  metal  is  remarkable  for  its 
large  crystalline  faces  and  hardness,  and  is 
particularly  adapted  for  the  manufacture  of 
steel,  as  well  as  for  producing  bar  iron  of 
great  strength. 

As  the  forests,  which  formerly  supplied 
abundant  fuel  for  the  iron  works  of  this  re 
gion,  disappeared  before  the  increasing  de 
mands,  attention  was  directed  to  the  inex 
haustible  sources  of  anthracite  up  the  Lehigh 
valley  in  Pennsylvania,  with  which  this  iron 
region  was  connected  by  the  Morris  canal 
and  the  Lehigh  canal ;  and  almost  the  first 
successful  application  of  this  fuel  to  the 
smelting  of  iron  ores  upon  a  large  scale  was 
made  at  Stanhope,  by  Mr.  Edwin  Post.  A  new 


26 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


era  in  tie  iron  manufacture  was  thus  intro 
duced,  and  an  immense  increase  in  the  pro 
duction  soon  followed,  as  the  charcoal  fur 
naces  gave  place  to  larger  ones  constructed 
for  anthracite.  The  Lehigh  valley,  lying  on 
the  range  of  the  iron  ores  toward  the  south 
west,  also  produced  large  quantities  of  ore, 
which,  however,  was  almost  exclusively 
hematite.  Hence,  an  interchange  of  ores 
has  been  largely  carried  on  for  furnishing 
the  best  mixtures  to  the  furnaces  of  the  two 
portions  of  this  iron  district ;  and  the  oper 
ations  of  the  two  must  necessarily  be  consid 
ered  together.  The  annual  production,  in 
cluding  that  of  the  bloomaries  of  New  Jer 
sey,  has  reached,  within  a  few  years,  about 
140,000  tons  of  iron.  But  in  a  prosperous 
condition  of  the  iron  business  this  can  be 
largely  increased  without  greatly  adding  to 
the  works  already  established,  while  the  ca 
pacity  of  the  iron  mines  and  supplies  of  fuel 
are  unlimited.  The  proximity  of  this  dis 
trict  to  the  great  cities,  New  York  and  Phil 
adelphia,  adds  greatly  to  its  importance. 

PENNSYLVANIA. — Although  about  one- 
third  of  all  the  iron  manufactured  in  the 
United  States  is  the  product  of  the  mines  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  of  the  ores  carried  into 
the  state,  the  comparative  importance  of  her 
mines  has  been  greatly  overrated,  and  their 
large  development  is  rather  owing  to  the 
abundant  supplies  of  mineral  coal  conveni 
ently  at  hand  for  working  the  ores,  and,  as 
remarked  by  Mr.  Lesley  ("  Iron  Manufac 
turer's  Guide,"  p.  433),  "to  the  energetic, 
persevering  German  use  for  a  century  of 
years  of  what  ores  do  exist,  than  to  any  ex 
traordinary  wealth  of  iron  of  which  she  can 
boast.  Her  reputation  for  iron  is  certainly 
not  derived  from  any  actual  pre-eminence  of 
mineral  over  her  sister  states.  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  Virginia,  and  North  Carolina, 
are  far  more  liberally  endowed  by  nature  in 
this  respect  than  she.  The  immense  mag 
netic  deposits  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey 
almost  disappear  just  after  entering  her  lim 
its.  The  brown  hematite  beds  of  her  great 
valley  will  not  seem  extraordinary  to  one 
who  has  become  familiar  with  those  of  New 
York,  Massachusetts,  Vermont,  Virginia,  and 
Tennessee.  Her  fossil  ores  are  lean  and  un 
certain  compared  with  those  of  the  south ; 
and  the  carbonate  and  hematized  carbonate 
outcrops  in  and  under  her  coal  measures 
will  hardly  bear  comparison  with  those  of 
the  grander  outspread  of  the  same  forma 
tions  in  Ohio,  Kentucky,  and  western  Vir 


ginia."  The  principal  sources  of  iron  in  the 
state  are,  first,  the  hematites  of  Lehigh  and 
Berks  counties — the  range  continuing  pro 
ductive  through  Lancaster,  also  on  the  other 
side  of  the  intervening  district  of  the  new 
red  sandstone  formation.  The  ores  are 
found  in  large  beds  in  the  limestone  valley, 
between  the  South  and  the  Kittatinny 
mountains  ;  those  nearest  the  Lehigh  supply 
the  furnaces  on  that  river,  already  amounting 
to  twenty-three  in  operation  and  four  more  in 
course  of  construction,  and  those  nearer  the 
Schuylkill  supply  the  furnaces  along  this 
river.  The  largest  bed  is  the  Moselem,  in 
Berks  county,  six  miles  west-south-west  from 
Kutztown.  It  has  been  very  extensively 
worked,  partly  in  open  excavation  and  partly 
by  underground  mining,  the  workings  reach 
ing  to  the  depth  of  165  feet.  Over  20,000 
tons  a  year  of  ore  have  been  produced,  at  a 
cost  of  from  $1.30  to  $1.50  per  ton. 

Magnetic  ores  are  found  upon  the  Lehigh, 
or  South  mountain,  the  margin  on  the  south 
of  the  fertile  limestone  valley  which  con 
tains  the  hematite  beds.  These,  how 
ever,  are  quite  unimportant,  the  dependence 
of  the  great  iron  furnaces  of  the  Lehigh 
for  these  ores  being  on  the  more  extensive 
mines  of  New  Jersey;  while  the  only  sup 
plies  of  magnetic  ores  to  the  furnaces  of  the 
Schuylkill  and  the  Susquehanna  are  from  the 
great  Cornwall  mines,  four  miles  south  of  Leb 
anon.  An  immense  body  of  magnetic  iron 
ore,  associated  with  copper  ores,  has  been 
worked  for  a  long  time  at  this  place,  at  the 
junction  of  the  lower  silurian  limestones 
and  the  red  sandstone  formation.  The  bed 
lies  between  dikes  of  trap,  and  exhibits  pe 
culiarities  that  distinguish  it  from  the  other 
bodies  of  iron  ore  on  this  range.  The  War 
wick,  or  Jones'  mine,  in  the  south  corner  of 
Berks  county,  resembles  it  in  some  particu 
lars.  Its  geological  position  is  in  the  upper 
slaty  layers  of  the  Potsdam  sandstone,  near 
the  meeting  of  this  formation  with  the  new 
red  sandstone.  Trap  dikes  penetrate  the 
ore  and  the  slates,  and  the  best  ore  is  found 
at  both  mines  near  the  trap.  Copper  ores 
are  also  found  in  connection  with  the  iron 
ores,  but  not  in  workable  quantities.  The 
Warwick  mine  has  been  worked  more  than 
seventy-five  years,  and  has  yielded  for  twenty 
years  together  an  average  of  7,000  tons  of 
ore.  Other  magnetic  ores  are  found  in  Lan 
caster  and  Chester  counties,  but  are  quite  un 
important  as  sources  of  iron.  Along  the 
Maryland  line,  on  both  sides  of  the  Susque- 


IRON. 


27 


hanna,  chrome  iron  has  been  found  in  con 
siderable  abundance  in  the  serpentine  rocks, 
and  has  been  largely  and  very  profitably 
mined  for  home  consumption  and  for  expor 
tation.  It  furnishes  the  different  chrome 
pigments,  and  their  preparation  has  been 
carried  on  chiefly  at  Baltimore. 

A  portion  of  the  hematites  which  supply 
the  furnaces  on  the  Schuylkill,  occur  along  a 
narrow  limestone  belt  of  about  a  mile  in 
width,  that  crosses  the  Schuylkill  at  Spring 
Mill,  and  extends  north-east  into  Montgomery 
county,  and  south-west  into  Chester  county. 
Their  production  has  been  very  large,  and 
that  of  the  furnaces  of  the  Schuylkill  valley 
dependent  upon  these  and  the  other  mines 
of  this  region  has  been  rated  at  100,000 
tons  of  iron  annually. 

The  great  Chestnut  hill  hematite  ore  bed, 
three  and  a  half  miles  north-east  of  Columbia, 
Lancaster  county,  covers  about  twelve  acres 
of  surface,  and  has  been  worked  in  numer 
ous  great  open  excavations  to  about  100  feet 
in  depth,  the  ore"  prevailing  throughout 
among  the  clays  and  sands  from  top  to  bot 
tom.  "  The  floor  of  the  mine  is  hard,  white 
Potsdam  sandstone,  or  the  gray  slaty  layers 
over  it.  The  walls  show  horizontal  wavy 
layers  of  blue,  yellow,  and  white  laminated, 
unctuous  clays,  from  forty  to  sixty  feet  deep, 
containing  ore,  and  under  these  an  irregular 
layer  of  hard  concretionary,  cellular,  fibrous, 
brown  hematite  from 
ten  to  thirty  feet 
thick  down  to  the 
sandstone."  ("  Iron 
Man  uf  actur  er's 
Guide,  p.  562.")  In 
the  accompanying 
wood-cut,  the  dark 
ly  shaded  portions 
represent  the  hema 
tites,  while  the  light 
er  portions  above  are 
chiefly  clays.  Pro 
fessor  Rogers  sup 
poses  that  the  ore 
has  leached  down 
.from  the  upper  slaty 
beds  through  which 
it  was  originally  dif 
fused,  and  has  col 
lected  upon  the  im- 


silurian  limestones  and  sandstones  along  the 
valleys  of  central  Pennsylvania,  from  the 
Susquehanna  to  the  base  of  the  Alleghany 
mountain,  is  accompanied  through  these  val 
leys  with  numerous  beds  of  hematite  ;  and 
to  the  supplies  of  ore  they  have  furnished 
for  great  numbers  of  furnaces,  is  added  the 
fossiliferous  ore  of  the  Clinton  group,  the  out 
crop  of  which  is  along  the  slopes  of  the  ridges 
and  around  their  ends.  Many  furnaces  have 
depended  upon  this  source  of  supply  alone. 
As  stated  by  Lesley,  there  were,  in  1857, 
14  anthracite  furnaces  that  used  no  other, 
and  11  anthracite  furnaces  which  mixed  it 
cither  with  magnetic  ore  or  hematite,  or  with 
both.  Montour's  ridge,  at  Danville,  Colum 
bia  county,  referred  to  on  page  24,  is  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  localities  of  this  ore. 
Professor  Rogers  estimated,  in  1847,  that 
there  were  20  furnaces  then  dependent  upon 
the  mines  of  this  place,  and  producing-annually 
an  average  of  3,000  tons  of  iron  each,  with 
a  consumption  of  9,000  tons  of  ore,  or  a 
total  annual  consumption  of  180,000  tons. 
At  this  rate,  he  calculated  that  the  availa 
ble  ore  would  be  exhausted  in  20  years. 

Between  the  Clinton  group  and  the  coal 
measures  are  successive  formations  of  lime 
stones,  sandstones,  shales,  etc.,  Avhich  form  a 
portion  of  the  geological  column  of  many  thou 
sand  feet  in  thickness;  and  among  these  strata, 
ores  like  the  carbonates  of  the  coal  measures 


pervious    sandstone, 

which   in   this   vicinity   is   the 

bearing  stratum  for  the  wells. 


CHESTNUT    HILL    MINE. 


The   repeated   occurrence   of  the   lower 


first   water  are   occasionally  developed,  and   these  are 
recognized  and  worked  at  many   localities 


along   the    outcrop    of    the   formations    to 


28 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


which  they  belong.  Though  of  some  local 
importance,  they  do  not  add  very  largely  to 
the  iron  production  of  the  state.  Along  the 
summit  of  the  Allcghany  mountain  the  base 
of  the  coal  measures  is  reached,  which 
thence  spread  over  the  western  portion  of 
the  state,  nearly  to  its  northern  line.  The 
ores  which  belong  to  this  formation  are 
chiefly  contained  among  its  lower"  mem 
bers,  and  found  in  the  outcrop  of  these 
aroitod  the  margin  of  the  basin.  At  some 
localities  they  have  been  obtained  in  consider 
able  abundance,  and  many  furnaces  have  run 
upon  them  alone ;  but  for  large  establish 
ments  of  several  furnaces  together,  they 
prove  a  very  uncertain  dependence. 

MARYLAND. — The  metamorphicbelt  crosses 
this  state  back  of  Baltimore,  and  is  pro 
ductive  in  chromic  iron  and  copper  ores, 
rather  than  in  magnetic  and  specular  ores. 
Some  of  the  former,  highly  titaniferous,  have 
been  worked  near  the  northern  line  of  the 
state,  on  the  west  side  of  the  Susquehanna ; 
and  at  Sykesville,  on  the  Potomac,  a  furnace 
has  been  supplied  with  specular  ores  from  its 
vicinity.  Several  hematite  beds  within 
twenty  miles  of  Baltimore  have  supplied 
considerable  quantities  of  ore  for  mixture 
with  the  tertiary  carbonates,  upon  which 
the  iron  production  of  the  state  chiefly 
depends.  Beds  of  these  occur  near  the  bay 
from  Havre  de  Grace  to  the  District  of 
Columbia.  In  the  western  part  of  the  state 
large  furnaces  were  built  at  Mount  Savage  and 
Lonaconing  to  work  the  ores  of  the  coal 
formation ;  but  the  supply  has  proved  in 
sufficient  to  sustain  them.  In  1853  the 
capacity  of  the  blast  furnaces  of  the  state 
was  equal  to  a  production  of  over  70,000 
tons  of  iron.  This,  however,  has  never  been 
realized. 

SOUTHERN  STATES. — South  of  Maryland 
the  same  iron  belt  continues  through  Vir 
ginia,  the  Carolinas,  and  Georgia ;  and  al 
though  it  is  often  as  productive  in  immense 
beds  of  the  three  varieties  of  ore — the 
magnetic,  specular,  and  hematite — as  in  the 
other  states  along  its  range,  these  resources 
add  comparatively  little  to  the  material 
wealth  of  the  states  to  which  they  belong. 
Through  Virginia,  east  and  west  of  the  Blue 
Ridge,  hematite  ores  abound  in  the  limestone 
valleys,  and  magnetic  ores  are  often  in  con 
venient  proximity  to  them.  Many  small 
furnaces  have  worked  them  at  different 
times,  but  their  product  was  always  small. 
Three  belts  of  magnetic  ore,  associated  with 


specular  iron  and  hematites,  are  traced 
across  the  midland  counties  of  North  Caro 
lina,  and  have  furnished  supplies  for  fur 
naces  and  forges  in  a  number  of  counties — 
as  Lincoln,  Cleveland,  Rutherford,  Stokes, 
Surry,  Yadkin,  Catawba;  and  Chatham, 
Wake,  and  Orange  counties  upon  the  east 
ern  belt.  The  belt  of  ore  from  Lincoln 
county  passes  into  South  Carolina,  and 
through  York,  Union,  and  Spartanburg 
districts.  It  crosses  the  Broad  River  at  the 
Cherokee  ford,  and  though  the  whole  belt 
is  only  half  a  mile  wide,  it  presents  numer 
ous  localities  of  the  three  kinds  of  ore,  and  of 
limestone  also  in  close  proximity,  and  finely 
situated  for  working.  Several  other  locali 
ties  •  are  noticed  in  the  "  State  Geological 
Report,"  by  M.  Tuomey,  who  remarks,  on 
page  278,  that  "if  iron  is  not  manfactured 
in  the  state  as  successfully  as  elsewhere,  it  is 
certainly  not  due  to  any  deficiency  in 
natural  advantages."  In  northern  Georgia 
the  ferruginous  belt  is  productive  in  im 
mense  bodies  of  hematite,  associated  with 
magnetic  and  specular  ores,  in  the  Allatoona 
hills,  near  the  Etowah  river,  in  Cherokee 
and  Cass  counties.  This,  which  appears  to 
be  one  of  the  great  iron  districts  of  the 
United  States,  though  bountifully  provided 
with  all  the  materials  required  in  the  manu 
facture,  and  traversed  by  a  railroad  which 
connects  it  with  the  bituminous  coal  mines 
of  eastern  Tennessee,  supports  only  six 
small  charcoal  furnaces  of  average  capacity, 
not  exceeding  600  or  700  tons  per  annum 
each.  In  Alabama,  hematites  and  specular 
ores  accompany  the  belt  of  silurian  rocks 
to  its  southern  termination,  and  are  worked 
in  a  few  bloomary  fires  and  two  or  three 
blast  furnaces.  The  fossiliferous  ore  of 
the  Clinton  group  is  also  worked  in  this 
state. 

TENNESSEE  in  1840  ranked  as  the  third 
iron-producing  state  in  the  Union.  The 
counties  ranging  along  her  eastern  border 
produced  hematite  ores,  continuing  the 
range  of  the  silurian  belt  of  the  great  val 
ley  of  Virginia ;  those  bordering  the  Clinch 
river  produced  the  fossil  ore  of  the  Clinton 
group,  there  known  as  the  dycstone  ore ; 
and  western  Tennessee  presented  a  very  in 
teresting  and  important  district  of  hematites 
belonging  to  the  subcarboniferous  limestone 
in  the  region  lying  east  of  the  Tennessee 
and  south  of  the  Cumberland  river.*  The 

*  "It  is  remarkable  that  most  of  these  deposits 


IRON. 


29 


furnaces  of  this  district,  which  have  num 
bered  42  in  all,  were  the  greater  part  of 
them  in  Dickson,  Montgomery,  and  Stewart 
counties.  They  were  all  supplied  with 
charcoal  for  fuel,  at  a  cost  of  $4  per  hundred 
bushels.  In  1854  the  product  of  pig  iron 
was  37,918  tons;  but  it  gradually  declined 
to  27,050  tons  in  1857;  and  in  August, 
1858,  only  15  furnaces  were  in  operation. 
The  secretary  of  the  American  Iron  Asso 
ciation,  in  his  report  of  1858,  remarks  that 
in  spite  of  the  old  establishments  of  the 
manufacture,  and  wealth  of  ore  deposits 
south  of  the  Kentucky-Tennessee  line,  the 
capital  and  energy  of  the  trade  is  moving 
northward  down  the  two  great  rivers  of  that 
region  toward  the  Ohio  and  its  rolling  mills. 
KENTUCKY. — The  western  part  of  this 
state  contains,  in  the  counties  of  Galloway, 
Trigg,  Lyon,  Caldwell,  Livingston,  and 
Crittenden,  an  important  district  of  hema 
tite  ores — the  continuation  northward  of 
that  of  Tennessee.  In  1857  10  charcoal 
furnaces  produced  15,600  tons  of  iron. 
Eastern  Kentucky,  however,  has  a  much 
more  productive  district  in  the  counties  of 
Carter  and  Greenup,  which  is  an  extension 
south  of  the  Ohio  of  the  Hanging  llock 
iron  district  of  Ohio.  The  ores  are  car 
bonates  and  hematite  outcrops  of  carbon 
ates,  belonging  to  the  coal  measures  and  the 
Bubcarboniferous  limestone.  They  are  in 
great  abundance ;  a  section  of  740  feet  of 
strata  terminating  below  with  the  limestone 
named,  presenting  no  less  than  14  distinct 
beds  of  ore,  from  three  inches  to  four  feet 
each,  and  yielding  from  25  to  60  per  cent, 
of  iron.  One  bed  of  32  per  cent,  iron  con 
tains  also  11  per  cent,  bitumen — a  composi 
tion  like  that  of  the  Scotch  "  black  band" 
ore.  Others  contain  so  much  lime,  that  the 
ores  are  valuable  for  fluxing  as  well  as  for 
producing  iron.  The  furnaces  use  charcoal 


are  of  what  is  called  pot  ore,  that  is,  hollow  balls  of 
ore,  which,  when  broken  open,  look  like  broken 
caldrons.  One  of  them,  preserved  by  Mr.  Lewis,  is 
8  feet  across  the  rirn  1  Another  is  six  feet  across. 
The  majority  are  crossed  within  by  purple  diaphragms 
or  partitions  of  ore,  and  the  interstitial  spaces  arc 
filled  with  yellow  ochre.  Some,  like  the  great  eight- 
foot  pot,  are  found  to  be  full  of  water.  The  inside  sur 
face  is  mammillary,  irregular,  sometimes  botryoidal 
or  knobby,  but  the  outside  is  pretty  smooth  and  reg 
ular.  All  these  pots  were  undoubtedly  once  balls 
of  carbonates  of  lime  and  iron  segregated  in  the  orig 
inal  deposit.  .  .  .  Gypsum  and  pyrites  are  both 
••ten  found  in  these  Tennessee  pots." — Iron  Manu- 
j  lecturer's  Guide,  p.  603. 


and  coke.  Their  production,  taken  with 
that  of  the  same  district  in  Ohio,  places 
this  region,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  tables  to 
follow,  among  the  first  in  importance  in  the 
United  States. 

OHIO. — The  ores  of  this  state,  like  those 
of  Kentucky,  belong  almost  exclusively  to 
the  coal  measures  and  the  limestone  forma 
tions  beneath.  In  both  states  some  of  the 
fossiliferous  ore  also  is  found,  but  it  is  com 
paratively  unimportant.  The  produdtive 
beds  are  near  the  base  of  the  coal  formation, 
ranging  from  the  Hanging  Rock  district  of 
Scioto  and  Lawrence  counties  north-east 
through  Jackson,  Hocking,  Athens,  Perry, 
Muskingum,  Tuscarawas,  Mahoning,  and 
Trumbull  counties,  to  the  line  of  Mercer 
county  in  Pennsylvania.  The  uncertain 
character  of  the  ores,  both  as  to  supply  and 
quality,  is  strikingly  shown  by  the  fact  that 
many  of  the  furnaces  of  the  more  northern 
counties  depend  for  a  considerable  portion 
— one-fourth  or  more — of  the  ores  they  use 
upon  the  rich  varieties  from  Lake  Superior 
and  Lake  Champlain.  Although  the  long 
transportation  makes  these  ores  cost  nearly 
three  times  as  much  per  ton  as  those  of  the 
coal  formation,  some  furnaces  find  it  more 
profitable  to  use  the  former,  even  in  the  pro 
portion  of  three-fourths,  on  account  of  the 
much  better  iron  produced,  the  greater  num 
ber  of  tons  per  day,  and  the  less  consump 
tion  of  fuel  to  the  ton.  The  fuel  employed 
is  charcoal  in  many  of  the  furnaces;  some 
have  introduced  raw  bituminous  coal  to  good 
advantage. 

INDIANA,  ILLINOIS,  and  IOWA  contain  no 
important  bodies  of  iron  ore.  The  coal 
measures,  which  cover  large  portions  of 
these  states,  are  productive  in  some  small 
quantities  of  the  carbonates,  in  the  two 
former,  which  give  support  to  a  very  few  fur 
naces  ;  but  in  Iowa  they  contain  no  worka 
ble  beds  at  all. 

MICHIGAN. — The  iron  region  of  this  state 
is  in  the  upper  peninsula,  between  Green 
Bay  and  Lake  Superior.  Magnetic  and 
specular  ores  are  found  throughout  a  large 
portion  of  this  wild  territory,  in  beds  more 
extensive  than  are  seen  in  any  other  part  of 
the  United  States — perhaps  than  are  any 
where  known.  The  district  approaches 
within  twelve  miles  of  the  coast  of  Lake 
Superior,  from  which  it  is  more  conveniently 
reached  than  from  the  south  side  of  the 
peninsula.  The  ores  are  'found  in  a  belt  of 
crystalline  slates,  of  six  to  ten  miles  in 


30 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


width,  that  extends  west  from  the  lake  shore, 
and  is  bounded  north  and  south  by  a 
granitic  district.  They  are  developed  in 
connection  with  great  dikes  and  ridges  of 
trap,  which  range  east  and  west,  and  dip 
with  the  slates  at  a  high  angle  toward  the 
north.  The  ores  also  have  the  same  direc 
tion  and  dip.  Localities  of  them  are  of 
frequent  occurrence  for  eighteen  miles  in  a 
westerly  direction  from  the  point  of  their 
nearest  approach  to  Lake  Superior.  A  second 
range  of  the  beds  is  found  along  the  south 
ern  margin  of  the  slate  district ;  and  about 
thirty  miles  back  from  the  lake,  where  the 
slates  extend  south  into  Wisconsin,  similar 
developments  of  ore  accompany  them  to  the 
Menomonee  river  and  toward  Green  Bay. 
The  quality  of  the  ore  found  at  different 
places  varies  according  to  the  amount  of 
quartz,  jasper,  hornblende,  or  feldspar  that 
may  be  mixed  with  it ;  but  enormous 
bodies  are  nearly  pure  ore,  yielding  from  68 
to  70  per  cent,  of  iron,  and  free  from  a  trace 
even  of  manganese,  sulphur,  phosphorus,  or 
titanium.  A  single  ridge,  traced  for  about  six 
miles,  rising  to  a  maximum  height  ot  fifty 
feet  above  its  base,  and  spreading  out  to  a 
width  of  one  thousand  feet,  has  been  found 
to  consist  of  great  longitudinal  bands  of 
ore,  much  of  which  is  of  this  perfectly  pure 
character.  Another  ridge  presents  precipi 
tous  walls  fifty  feet  high,  composed  in  part 
of  pure  specular  ore,  fine  grained,  of  imper 
fect  slaty  structure,  and  interspersed  with 
minute  crystals  of  magnetic  oxide ;  and  in 
part  of  these  minute  crystals  alone.  Another 
body  of  one  thousand  feet  in  width,  and 
more  than  a  mile  long,  forms  a  hill  one  hun 
dred  and  eighty  feet  high,  which  is  made  up 
of  alternate  bands  of  pure,  fine  grained,  steel- 
gray  peroxide  of  iron,  and  deep  red  jaspery 
ore — the  layers  generally  less  than  a  fourth 
of  an  inch  in  thickness,  and  curiously  con 
torted.  Their  appearance  is  very  beautiful 
in  the  almost  vertical  walls.  On  one  of  the 
head  branches  of  the  Esconaba  is  a  cascade 
of  thirty-seven  feet  in  height,  the  ledge  over 
which  the  water  falls  being  a  bed  of  peroxide 
of  iron,  intermixed  with  silicious  matter. 

For  the  supply  of  the  few  furnaces  and 
bloomary  establishments  already  in  operation 
in  this  district,  and  for  the  larger  demands 
of  distant  localities,  the  ores  are  collected 
from  open  quarries,  and  from  the  loose 
masses  lying  around.  A  railroad  affords  the 
means  of  transporting  them  to  Marquette,  on 
the  lake  shore,  whence  they  are  shipped  by 


vessels  down  the  lake.  The  business  already 
amounts  to  more  than  100,000  tons  per 
annum;  and  is  increasing  very  rapidly.  The 
name  Bay  de  Noquet  and  Marquette  railroad 
suggests  a  southern  terminus  of  this  road  on 
Green  Bay,  and  when  an  outlet  is  opened  in 
this  direction,  the  production  of  iron  ores 
will  no  doubt  exceed  that  of  any  other  region 
upon  the  globe.  Large  quantities  will  be 
reduced  with  charcoal  in  blast  furnaces  and 
bloomaries  in  the  region  itself;  and  when 
the  forests  in  the  vicinity  of  the  works  are  cut 
off',  the  extensive  timbered  lands  around 
Lake  Michigan  and  Lake  Huron  will  furnish 
inexhaustible  supplies  of  fuel,  which  may  be 
brought  in  vessels  to  the  furnaces,  as  the 
pine  wood  from  the  forests  around  Chesa 
peake  Bay  has  long  been  delivered  to  the 
furnaces  on  its  western  shore.  Anthracite 
and  bituminous  coal  will  also  be  brought 
back  as  return  cargoes  by  the  vessels  that 
carry  the  ores  to  the  coal  fields  of  Ohio  and 
Pennsylvania.  With  its  vast  inland  naviga 
tion  and  wonderful  resources  of  iron  and 
of  copper  also,  the  north-western  portion  of 
our  country  promises  to  be  the  scene  of  a 
more  extended  and  active  industry  than 
has  ever  grown  out  of  the  mines  of  any  part 
of  the  world. 

WISCONSIN. — Magnetic  and  specular  ores 
in  bodies,  somewhat  resembling  those  of  the 
region  just  described,  are  found  in  the  ex 
treme  northern  part  of  Wisconsin,  upon 
what  is  known  as  the  Penokie  range,  distant 
about  25  miles  from  Chegwomigon  Bay, 
Lake  Superior.  Bad  River  and  Montreal 
River  drain  this  district.  The  ores,  from 
their  remoteness,  are  not  soon  likely  to  be  of 
practical  importance.  Other  immense  bodies 
of  these  ores,  estimated  to  contain  many 
millions  of  tons,  are  found  on  Black  River, 
which  empties  into  the  Mississippi  below  St. 
Croix  river,  on  the  line  of  the  Land  Grant 
Branch  railroad.  A  furnace  has  been  built 
by  a  German  company  to  work  these  mines. 
In  the  eastern  part  of  Wisconsin  the  oolitic 
ore  of  the  Clinton  group  is  met  with  in  Dodge 
and  Washington  counties,and  again  at  Depere, 
seven  miles  south-east  of  Green  Bay.  In  the 
town  of  Hubbard,  Dodge  county,  forty  miles 
west  from  Lake  Michigan,  is  the  largest  de 
posit  of  this  ore  ever  discovered.  It  spreads 
in  a  layer  ten  feet  thick  over  500  acres,  and 
is  estimated  to  contain  27,000,000  tons.  It 
is  in  grains,  like  sand,  of  glistening  red 
color,  staining  the  hands.  Each  grain  has  a 
minute  nucleus  of  silex,  around  which  the 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


31 


oxide  of  iron  collected.  The  per-centage  of 
metal  is  about  fifty.  This  ore  will  probably 
be  worked  near  Milwaukee  with  Lake 
Superior  ores,  the  La  Crosse  railroad,  which 
passes  by  the  locality,  already  affording  the 
means  of  cheap  transportation. 

MISSOURI. — This  state  must  be  classed 
among  the  first  in  the  abundance  of  its  iron 
ores,  though  up  to  this  time  comparatively 
little  has  been  done  in  the  development  of 
its  mines.  t  The  ores  are  exclusively  hema 
tites,  and  the  magnetic  and  specular,  and  all 
occur  in  the  isolated  district  of  silurian 
rocks — formations  which  almost  everywhere 
else  in  the  western  middle  states  are  con 
cealed  beneath  the  more  recent  forma 
tions.  In  the  counties  along  the  line  of  the 
Pacific  railroad  south-west  branch,  Prof. 
Swallow,  the  state  geologist,  reports  no  less 
than  ninety  localities  of  hematite.  These 
are  in  Jefferson,  Franklin,  Crawford,  Phelps, 
Pulaski,  Marion,  Green,  and  other  counties. 
The  first  attempts  to  melt  iron  in  Missouri, 
and  probably  in  any  state  west  of  Ohio,  were 
made  in  Washington  county,  in  1823  or 
1824,  and  with  the  hematites  of  the  locality 
were  mixed  magnetic  ores  from  the  Iron 
mountain.  In  Franklin  county  there  is  but 
one  furnace,  though  on  both  sides  of  the 
Maramec  are  beds  of  hematite  pipe  ore, 
which  cover  hundreds  of  acres.  The  Iron 
mountain  district  is  about  sixty  miles  back 
from  the  Mississippi  river  (the  nearest  point 
on  which  is  St.  Genevieve),  and  extends  from 
the  Iron  mountain  in  the  south-east  part  of 
Washington  county  into  Madison  county. 
It  includes  three  important  localities  of 
specular  ore :  the  Iron  Mountain,  Pilot 
Knob,  and  Shepherd  mountain.  The  first  is 
a  hill  of  gentle  slopes,  228  feet  high  above 
its  base,  and  covering  about  500  acres — a 
spur  of  the  porphyritic  and  syenitic  range  on 
the  east  side  of  Bellevue  valley.  In  its 
original  state,  as  seen  by  the  writer  in  1841, 
it  presented  no  appearance  of  rock  in  place, 
its  surface  was  covered  with  a  forest  of  oak, 
the  trees  thriving  in  a  soil  wholly  composed 
of  fragments  of  peroxide  of  iron,  comminuted 
and  coarse  mixed  together.  Loose  lumps 
of  the  ore  were  scattered  around  on  every 
side  but  the  north,  and  upon  the  top  were 
loose  blocks  of  many  tons  weight  each. 
Mining  operations,  commenced  in  1845,  de 
veloped  only  loose  ore  closely  packed  with  a 
little  red  clay.  An  Artesian  well  was  after 
ward  sunk  to  the  depth  of  152  feet.  It  pass 
ed  through  the  following  strata  in  succession : 


iron  ore  and  clay,  16  feet ;  sandstone,  34 
feet;  magnesian  limestone,  7  £  inches;  gray 
sandstone,  7i  inches;  "hard  blue  rock,"  37 
feet ;  "  pure  iron  ore,"  5  feet ;  porphyritic 
rock,  7  feet;  iron  ore  50  feet  to  the  bottom. 
The  ore  appears  to  be  interstratificd  with 
the  silicious  rocks  with  which  it  is  associated 
in  a  similar  manner  to  its  occurrence  at  the 
other  localities,  and  data  arc  yet  wanting  to 
determine  how  much  may  exist  in  the  hill 
itself,  as  well  as  below  it.  Enough  is  seen  to 
justify  any  operations,  however  extensive, 
that  depend  merely  upon  continued  supplies 
of  ore.  In  quality  the  ore  is  a  very  pure 
peroxide;  it  melts  easily  in  the  furnace, 
making  a  strong  forge  pig,  well  adapted  for 
bar  iron  and  steel.  Two  charcoal  furnaces 
have  been  in  operation  for  a  number  of 
years,  and  up  to  the  close  of  1854  had  pro 
duced  24,600  tons  of  iron.  The  flux  is  ob 
tained  from  the  magnesian  limestone,  which 
spreads  over  the  adjoining  valley  in  horizon 
tal  strata. 

Pilot  Knob  is  a  conical  hill  of  580  feet 
height  above  its  base,  situated  six  miles  south 
of  the  Iron  mountain.  Its  sides  are  steep, 
and  present  bold  ledges  of  hard,  slaty,  sili 
cious  rock,  which  lie  inclined  at  an  angle  of 
25°  to  30°  toward  the  south-west.  Near  the 
top  the  strata  are  more  or  less  charged  with 
the  red  peroxide  of  iron,  and  loose  blocks 
of  great  size  are  seen  scattered  around, 
some  of  them  pure  ore,  and  some  ore  and 
rock  mixed.  At  the  height  of  440  feet 
above  the  base,  where  the  horizontal  section 
of  the  mountain  is  equal  to  an  area  of  fifty- 
three  acres,  a  bed  of  ore  is  exposed  to  view 
on  the  north  side,  which  extends  273  feet 
along  its  line  of  outcrop,  and  is  from  nineteen 
to  twenty-four  feet  in  thickness.  It  is  in 
cluded  in  the  slaty  rocks,  and  dips  with 
them.  Other  similar  beds  arc  said  to  occur 
lower  down  the  hill ;  and  higher  up  others 
are  met  with  to  the  very  summit.  The 
peak  of  the  mountain  is  a  craggy  knob  of 
gray  rocks  of  ore,  rising  sixty  feet  in  height, 
and  forming  so  conspicuous  an  object  as  to 
have  suggested  the  name  by  which  the  hill 
is  called.  The  ore  is  generally  of  more  slaty 
structure  than  that  of  the  Iron  mountain, 
and  some  of  it  has  a  micaceous  appearance. 
The  quantity  of  very  pure  ore  conveniently  at 
hand  is  inexhaustible.  The  production  of  iron 
will  be  limited  more  for  want  of  abundance 
of  fuel  than  of  ore.  Charcoal,  however,  may 
be  obtained  in  abundance  for  many  years  to 
come,  and  bituminous  coal  may  also  be 


32 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


brought  from  the  coal  mines  of  Missouri  and 
Illinois,  as  the  ores  also  can  be  carried  to 
the  river  to  meet  there  the  fuel.  The  local 
ity  is  already  connected  with  St.  Louis  by  a 
railroad.  A  blast  furnace  was  built  here  in 
1846,  and  another  in  1855.  A  bloomary 
with  six  fires  was  started  in  1850,  and  has 
produced  blooms  at  an  estimated  cost  of 
$30  per  ton. 

Shepherd  mountain,  about  a  mile  distant 
from  the  Pilot  Knob  toward  the  south-west, 
is  composed  of  porphyritic  rocks,  which  are 
penetrated  with  veins  or  dikes  of  both  mag 
netic  and  specular  ores.  These  run  in  vari 
ous  directions,  and  the  ores  they  afford  are 
of  great  purity.  They  are  mined  to  work 
together  with  those  of  the  Pilot  Knob.  The 
mountain  covers  about  800  acres,  and 
rises  to  the  height  of  660  feet  above  its  base. 
Other  localities  of  these  ores  arc  also  known, 
and  the  occurrence  of  specular  ore  is  reported 
by  the  state  geologists  in  several  other  coun 
ties,  as  Phelps,  Crawford,  Pulaski,  La  Clede, 
etc. 

In  other  parts  of  the  United  States  and 
its  territories  great  bodies  of  iron  ore  are 
known  to  exist,  which  will  probably  become 
valuable  at  some  future  time.  In  Arkansas 
are  found  very  pure  magnetic  ores,  remark 
able  for  their  high  magnetic  property.  Near 
Santa  Fe,  in  New  Mexico,  specular  ores 
abound,  which  must  before  long  be  used  to 
furnish  the  iron  required  for  that  region,  in 
stead  of  transporting  it,  as  at  present,  at  heavy 
cost  from  the  iron  districts  near  the  Missis 
sippi  river.  In  California  reports  are  made 
of  the  existence  of  masses  of  rich  ores,  com 
parable  in  extent  even  with  those  of  Lake 
Superior. 

IRON  MANUFACTURE. 

Iron  is  known  in  the  arts  chiefly  in  three 
forms — cast  iron,  steel,  and  wrought  iron. 
The  first  is  a  combination  of  metallic  iron, 
with  from  1^  to  5  or  54-  per  cent,  of  carbon  ; 
the  second  is  metallic  iron  combined  with  \ 
to  Id  per  cent,  of  carbon  ;  and  the  third  is 
metallic  iron,  free  as  may  be  from  foreign 
substances.  These  differences  of  composi 
tion  arc  accompanied  with  remarkable  differ 
ences  in  the  qualities  of  the  metal,  by  which 
its  usefulness  is  greatly  multiplied.  The 
three  sorts  are  producible  as  desired  directly 
from  the  ores,  and  they  are  also  convertible 
one  into  the  other;  so  that  the  methods  of 
manufacture  are  numerous,  and  new  processes 
are  continually  introduced.  The  production 


of  wrought  iron  direct  from  the  rich  natural  j 
oxides,  .was  until  modern  times  the  only  '•• 
method  of  obtaining  the  metal.  Cast  iron 
was  unknown  until  the  1 5th  century.  Rude 
nations  early  learned  the  simple  method  of 
separating  the  oxygen  from  the  ores  by  heat 
ing  them  in  the  midst  of  burning  charcoal ; 
the  effect  of  which  is  to  cause  the  oxygen  to 
unite  witli  the  carbon  in  the  form  of  carbonic 
acid  or  carbonic  oxide  gas,  and  escape,  leav 
ing  the  iron  free,  and  in  a  condition  to  be 
hammered  at  once  into  bars.  The  heat  they 
could  command  in  their  small  fires  was  in- 
suflicient  to  effect  the  combination  of  the 
iron,  too,  with  the  carbon,  and  produce  the 
fusible  compound  known  as  cast  iron.  In 
modern  times  the  great  branch  of  the  busi 
ness  is  the  production  of  pig  metal  or  cast 
iron  in  blast  furnaces;  and  this  is  afterward 
remelted  and  cast  in  moulds  into  the  forms 
required,  or  it  is  converted  into  wrought  iron 
to  serve  some  of  the  innumerable  uses  of 
this  kind  of  iron,  or  to  be  changed  again  into 
steel.  In  this  order  the  principal  branches 
of  the  manufacture  will  be  noticed. 

The  production  of  pig  metal  in  blast  fur 
naces  is  the  most  economical  mode  of  separa 
ting  iron  from  its  ores,  especially  if  these  are 
not  extremely  rich.  The  process  requiring 
little  labor,  except  in  charging  the  furnaces, 
and  this  being  done  in  great  part  by  labor- 
saving  machines,  it  can  be  carried  on  upon 
an  immense  scale  with  the  employment  of 
few  persons,  and  most  of  those  ordinary  la 
borers.  The  business,  moreover,  has  been 
greatly  simplified  and  its  scale  enlarged  by 
the  substitution  of  mineral  coal  for  charcoal — 
the  latter  fuel,  indeed,  could  never  have  been 
supplied  to  meet  the  modern  demands  of  the 
manufacture. 

Blast  furnaces  arc  heavy  structures  of  stone 
work,  usually  in  pyramidal  form,  built  upon 
a  base  of  30  to  45  feet  square,  and  from  30 
to  60  feet  in  height.  The  outer  walls,  con 
structed  with  immense  solidity  and  firmly 
bound  together,  inclose  a  central  cavity, 
which  extends  from  top  to  bottom  and  is 
lined  with  large  fire  brick  of  the  most  refrac 
tory  character,  and  specially  adapted  in  their 
shapes  to  the  required  contour  of  the  interior. 
The  form  of  this  cavity  is  circular  in  its  hori 
zontal  section,  and  from  the  top  goes  on  en 
larging  to  the  lower  portion,  where  it  begins 
to  draw  in  by  the  walls  changing  their  slope 
toward  the  centre.  This  forms  what  are 
called  the  boshes  of  the  furnace— the  part 
which  supports  the  great  weight  of  the  ores 


IRON. 


33 


and  fuel  that  fill  the  interior.  For  ores  that 
melt  easily  and  fast  they  are  made  steeper 
than  for  those  which  are  slowly  reduced. 
The  boshes  open  below  into  the  hearth — the 
central  contracted  space  which  the  French 
name  the  crucible  of  the  furnace.  The 
walls  of  this  are  constructed  of  the  most  re 
fractory  stones  of  large  size,  carefully  selected 
for  their  power  to  resist  the  action  of  fire, 
and  seasoned  by  exposure  for  a  year  or  more 
after  being  taken  from  the  quarry.  Being 
the  first  portion  to  give  out,  the  stack  is  built 
so  that  they  can  be  replaced  when  necessary. 
The  hearth  is  reached  on  each  side  of  the 
stack  by  an  arch,  extending  in  from  the  out 
side.  On  three  sides  the  blast  is  introduced 
by  iron  pipes  that  pass  through  the  hearth 
stones,  and  terminate  in  a  hollow  tuyere, 
which  is  kept  from  melting  by  a  current  of 
water  brought  by  a  lead  pipe,  and  made  to 
flow  continually  through  and  around  its  hol 
low  shell.  (See  fig.  d.}  The  fourth  side  is  the 
front  or  working-arch  of  the  furnace,  at  the 
bottom  of  which  access  is  had  to  the  melted 
materials  as  they  collect  in  the  receptacle  pro 
vided  for  them  at  the  base  of  the  hearth  or 
crucible.  This  arch  opens  out  into  the  cast 
ing-house,  upon  the  floor  of  which  are  the 
beds  in  the  sand  for  moulding  the  pigs  into 
which  the  iron  is  to  be  cast.  Upon  the  top 
of  the  stack  around  the  central  cavity  are 
constructed,  in  first-class  furnaces,  large  flues, 
which  open  into  this  cavity  for  the  purpose 
of  taking  off  a  portion  of  the  heated  gaseous 
mixtures,  that  they  may  be  conveyed  under 
the  boilers,  to  be  there  more  effectually  con 
sumed,  and  furnish  the  heat  for  raising  steam 
for  the  engines.  A  portion  of  the  gases  is 
also  led  into  a  large  heating-oven,  usually 
built  on  the  top  of  the  stack,  in  which  the 
blast  (distributed  through  a  series  of  cast  iron 
pipes)  is  heated  by  the  combustion.  These 
pipes  are  then  concentrated  into  one  main, 
which  passes  down  the  stack  and  delivers  the 
heated  air  to  the  tuyeres,  thus  returning  to 
the  furnace  a  large  portion  of  the  heat 
which  would  otherwise  escape  at  the  top,  and 
adding  powerfully  to  the  efficiency  of  the 
blast  by  its  high  temperature.  The  boilers, 
also  conveniently  arranged  on  the  top  of  the 
furnace,  especially  when  two  furnaces  are 
constructed  near  together,  are  heated  by  the 
escape  gases  without  extra  expense  of  fuel, 
and  they  furnish  steam  to  the  engines,  which 
are  usually  placed  below  them.  On  account 
of  the  enormous  volume  of  air,  and  the 
great  pressure  at  which  it  is  blown  into  the 


furnace,  the  engines  are  of  the  most  power 
ful  kind,  and  the  blowing  cylinders  are  of 
great  dimensions  and  strength.  Some  of 
the  large  anthracite  furnaces  employ  cylin 
ders  7^  feet  diameter,  and  9  feet  stroke.  One 
of  these  running  at  the  rate  of  9  revolutions 
per  minute,  and  its  piston  acting  in  both  di 
rections,  should  propel  every  minute  7,128 
cubic  feet  of.  air  (less  the  loss  by  leakage) 
into  the  furnace — a  much  greater  weight  than 
that  of  all  the  other  materials  introduced. 
It  is,  moreover,  driven  in  at  a  pressure  (pro 
duced  by  the  contracted  aperture  of  the 
nozzle  of  the  tuyeres  in  relation  to  the  great 
volume  of  air)  of  7  or  8  Ibs.  upon  the  square 
inch.  Two  such  cylinders  answer  for  a  pair 
of  the  largest  furnaces,  and  should  be  driven 
by  separate  engines,  so  that  in  case  of  acci 
dent  the  available  power  may  be  extended  to 
either  or  both  furnaces.  It  is  apparent  that 
the  engines,  too,  should  be  of  the  largest  class 
and  most  perfect  construction  ;  for  the  blast 
is  designed  to  be  continued  with  only  tem 
porary  interruptions  that  rarely  exceed  an 
hour  at  a  time,  so  long  as  the  hearth  may 
remain  in  running  order — a  period,  it  may  be, 
of  18  months,  or  even  4  or  5  years.  Fur 
naces  were  formerly  built  against  a  high  bank, 
upon  the  top  of  which  the  stock  of  ore  and 
coal  was  accumulated,  and  thence  carried 
across  a  bridge,  to  be  delivered  into  the 
tunnel-head  or  mouth  of  the  furnace.  The 
more  common  arrangement  at  present  is  to 
construct,  a  little  to  one  side,  an  elevator, 
provided  with  two  platforms  of  sufficient 
size  to  receive  several  barrows.  The  moving 
power  is  the  weight  of  a  body  of  water  let 
into  a  reservoir  under  the  platform  when  it 
is  at  the  top.  This  being  allowed  to  descend 
with  the  empty  barrows,  draws  up  the  other 
platform  with  its  load,  and  the  water  is  dis 
charged  by  a  self-regulating  valve  at  the 
bottom.  The  supply  of  water  is  furnished 
to  a  tank  in  the  top  cither  by  pumps  con 
nected  with  the  steam  engine  or  by  the  head 
of  its  source. 

The  furnaces  of  the  United  States,  though 
not  congregated  together  in  such  large  num 
bers  as  at  some  of  the  great  establishments 
in  England  and  Scotland,  are  unsurpassed  in 
the  perfection  of  their  construction,  apparatus, 
and  capacity  ;  and  none  of  large  size  are  prob 
ably  worked  in  any  part  of  Europe  with  such 
economy  of  materials.  The  accompanying 
wood-cut  (fig.  a)  will  give  an  idea  of"  the 
form  and  dimensions  of  one  of  first  class, 
and  may  be  taken  to  represent  one  of  the 


34 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


pair  of  furnaces  belonging  to  the  Thomas 
Iron  Company,  in  the  Lehigh  valley,  Penn 
sylvania,  though  the  plan  is  so  far  modified 
in  the  cut  as  to  place  the  working-arch  and 
casting-house  upon  a  different  side.  The 
boiler-stack,  which  extends  80  feet  in  length 
along  the  level  of  the  oven,  O,  for  heating 
the  blast,  is  not  represented.  A  duplicate 
boiler-stack  and  heating-oven,  connected 
Avith  the  other  furnace,  also  stand  upon  the 
high  platform,  which  extends  from  the  top 
of  one  furnace-stack  to  that  of  the  other — a 
distance  of  about  110  feet,  and  at  an  eleva 
tion  above  the  bottom  of  the  hearth  of  45 
feet.  The  furnace  is  carried  15  feet  higher 
than  this  by  a  low,  dome-like  structure,  in 
fire  brick,  which  contains  an  annular  flue, 
EE,  6  feet  high  and  4  feet  wide,  into  which 
the  gaseous  products  of  combustion  are 
drawn  through  the  horizontal  flues,  FF,  8  in 
all.  From  the  annular  ring  one-fourth  of  the 
gases  pass  into  the  heating-oven,  O,  and  are 
burned  around  the  pipes,  sufficient  atmos 
pheric  air  being  admitted  for  their  combus 
tion  ;  and  the  other  three-fourths  flow  under 
the  five  boilers,  and  are  consumed  in  the 
great  chamber,  80  feet  long,  6  feet  high,  and 
about  16  feet  wide,  beneath  them.  This  is 
seen  in  fig.  6,  which  is  a  horizontal  section 
on  the  top  of  the  stacks. 

In  fig.  a,  A  is  the  central  cavity  of  the 
furnace,  CO  feet  in  height,  18  feet  in  diam 
eter  at  the  top  of  the  boshes,  BB  (14  feet 
above  the  bottom),  and  8  feet  in  diameter 
at  the  tunnel-head,  on  the  level  of  the  charg 
ing  platform,  P.  The  boshes  form  a  cone 
like  a  funnel,  and  the  hearth,  H,  then  rep 
resents  the  neck  of  the  funnel.  This  is 
5  feet  high,  and  7  feet  across.  The  blast 
is  admitted  on  three  sides,  by  four  tuyeres, 
side  by  side,  in  each  arch.  It  is  brought 
down  from  the  heating-oven  by  the  main 
pipe,  y,  which  is  18  inches  in  diam 
eter.  On  the  fourth  side  of  the  furnace  is 
the  working-arch,  W,  by  which  access  is  had 
to  the  hearth  for  letting  out  the  cinder  and 
metal.  The  former  flows  from  time  to  time 
over  the  dam-stone,  d,  and  down  the  cinder- 
slope,  m,  and  the  latter  is  let  out  through  an 
opening  under  the  dam-stone  as  often  as  it 
rises  so  as  to  threaten  running  over.  The 
block,  T,  in  front  of  the  hearth,  is  supported 
by  the  side  stones,  and  stretches  across  from 
one  to  the  other.  Under  this  the  workmen 
thrust  long  iron  bars,  and  pry  up  and  loosen 
the  cinder  whenever  it  gets  thick  and  en 
dangers  obstruction  of  the  blast.  The  lining 


of  furnaces  is  made  of  the  best  of  fire  brick, 
a  foot  or  more  deep,  moulded  in  shapes  for 
the  circle.  Behind  this  lining  is  a  narrow 
space  filled  with  sand,  and  back  of  this  is 
another  fire-brick  lining.  The  heating-oven, 
as  designed  in  the  cut,  is  25  feet  high,  and 
about  the  same  length,  by  10  feet  wide. 
This  gives  abundant  space  for  the  gases  to 
circulate  freely  and  be  thoroughly  consumed 
before  escaping  through  the  chimneys  on  the 
top.  In  this  oven  are  5  rows  of  arched  oval 
pipes,  12  in  each  row.  They  stand  10  feet 
high,  arranged  on  6  bed-pipes,  and  their  size 
is  8  by  4  inches.  The  blast  set  in  operation 
in  the  space  below  the  platform,  is  conducted 
into  the  receiver,  R,  which  is  a  cylinder  of 
boiler-plate  iron,  108  feet  long  and  6i  feet 
diameter,  designed  to  give  uniformity  of 
pressure  to  the  current  of  air  which  passes 
from  it  to  the  heating-oven,  and  thence 
into  the  furnace.  These  receivers  are  of 
various  forms,  and  are  necessarily  of  great 
strength,  to  resist  the  pressure  of  the  blast 
over  their  expanded  surface.  The  chim 
ney,  S,  in  the  cut,  is  connected  wTith  one 
of  the  boiler-stacks.  This  is  more  clearly 
seen  in  fig.  b.  The  half  omitted  is  a  dupli 
cate  of  that  drawn,  and  would,  if  completed, 
show  the  other  furnace  to  which  the  boilers 
and  the  chimney,  S,  belong.  The  other  boil 
ers,  b  6,  are  connected  with  the  furnace,  A. 
The  manner  of  introducing  the  blast  through 
the  sides  of  the  hearth  is  shown  in  fig.  c,  which 
is  a  horizontal  section  through  the  tuyeres,  t. 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


Pig  iron,  as  obtained  from  the  blast  fur 
naces,  is  classed  as  forge  pig  and  foundry 
iron.  The  one  kind  is  especially  fitted  for 
puddling,  and  not  for  recasting;  while  the 
other  is  suited  for  the  latter  purpose,  and  is 
kept  for  the  use  of  the  foundry.  This  is  an 
establishment  for  remelting  iron  and  casting 
it  into  moulded  forms,  as  pipes,  cannon, 
stoves,  machinery,  and  the  innumerable  other 
articles  which  are  made  of  cast  iron.  It  is 
often  connected  Avith  blast  furnaces,  but  is 
also  to  be  found  in  almost  every  large  town, 
and  in  some  the  business  is  carried  on  upon 
a  very  extensive  scale,  the  supplies  of  both 
crude  iron  and  fuel  being  conveyed  from  a 
distance.  The  most  extensive  foundries  in 
the  United  States  are  those  of  Albany  and 
Troy,  the  great  business  of  which  is  the 
manufacture  of  stoves.  In  the  former  city 
it  has  been  stated  that  about  200,000  stoves 
are  made  every  year.  Cannon  are  cast  at 
the  foundries  in  Boston  and  Pittsburg,  and 
other  places  in  the  United  States.  The  prop 
erty  of  cast  iron  to  melt  readily  and  take 
the  form  of  the  mould  into  which  it  is 
poured  renders  this  of  great  value,  especially 
for  multiplying  in  great  numbers  the  same 
object.  But  this  kind  of  iron  being  brittle, 
it  is  not  suited  to  a  great  variety  of  articles 
which  require  some  strength,  and  which,  on 
account  of  their  complicated  forms  and 
great  numbers,  it  would  be  very  desirable  to 
make  by  some  cheaper  method  than  by  ham 
mering  them  out  of  wrought  iron.  To  meet 
this  want  a  method  was  invented  of  remov 
ing  from  small  articles  in  cast  iron  the  car 
bon,  which  makes  the  distinction  between 
this  and  malleable  iron,  and  of  doing  this 
without  affecting  the  shape  of  the  article. 
As  hitherto  practised,  the  articles  to  be  de 
carbonized,  as  the  crooked  mountings  of 
harness,  the  elbows  of  pipes,  and  numerous 
other  things,  are  placed  upon  shelves  in  an 
oven,  and  covered  with  some  pulverized  ox 
ide  of  iron,  as  common  iron  rust.  Here  they 
are  kept  hot  for  ten  days  to  two  weeks, 
when  it  is  found  the  oxygen  of  the  iron  rust 
and  the  carbon  of  the  cast  iron  have  disap 
peared — united  together  and  gone  off  in  the 
state  of  a  gaseous  mixture  of  the  two  ele 
ments — leaving  the  castings  in  a  malleable 
state,  and  the  rust  in  the  form  of  a  metallic 
incrustation  adhering  to  them.  Although 
the  process  is  slow  and  imperfect,  the  metal 
lic  crust  as  it  forms  interposing  itself  between 
the  carbon  and  oxygen  remaining,  and  the 
results  of  a  heat  are  often  unsatisfactory, 


the  business  has  been  prosecuted  with  great 
success  in  many  towns  in  New  England  and 
the  middle  states.  But  by  the  inventions  of 
Prof.  A.  K.  Eaton,  of  New  York,  its  charac 
ter  now  promises  to  be  essentially  modified. 
The  first  object  was  to  find  some  oxide,  the 
base  of  which  was  also  volatile,  so  that  when 
decomposed  all  of  it  would  escape,  leaving 
room  for  fresh  oxide  to  i-each  the  cast  iron. 
The  oxide  of  zinc  was  found  to  answer  this 
purpose,  especially  when  used  in  the  form 
of  the  native  carbonate  of  the  oxide.  This 
being  substituted  for  the  oxide  of  iron,  the 
decarbonization  was  rapidly  effected,  from 
18  to  24  hours  being  sufficient  to  accom 
plish  what  required  by  the  other  method 
10  days  to  two  weeks.  The  process,  more 
over,  effected  another  result.  The  vapors  of 
zinc  Avere  collected  and  condensed  in  water, 
and  thus  this  metal  was  obtained  from  its 
ore.  By  another  very  recent  discovery  of 
the  same  chemist,  it  appears  that  carbonate 
of  soda,  or  crude  soda  ash,  has  a  property, 
scarcely  ever  before  recognized,  of  removing 
carbon  from  cast  iron  which  is  immersed  in 
the  fused  alkali;  and  as  the  sodium  genera 
ted  in  the  process  tends  to  combine  with 
and  remove  from  the  iron  the  phosphorus, 
sulphur,  and  silicon,  which  in  very  small 
quantity  materially  injure  its  quality,  this 
method  is  likely  to  prove  still  more  impor 
tant  than  the  other.  It  is  applicable  also  to 
the  production  of  steel  from  cast  iron,  as  will 
be  noticed  in  treating  of  this  article. 

WROUGHT    IRON. 

Of  the  various  methods  of  producing  wrought 
iron  direct  from  the  ore,  the  most  simple  and 
the  one  in  most  extensive  use  is  that  of  the 
bloomary  fire.  It  consists  of  a  receptacle, 
open  in  front,  of  about  three  feet  from  front 
to  back,  two  feet  in  width,  and  depth  below 
the  opening  one  and  a  half  feet.  A  tuyere 
for  the  blast  enters  on  one  side  at  this  height 
above  the  bottom,  and  is  connected  with  the 
pipes  for  heating  the  blast,  which  are  arrang 
ed  in  the  wide  chimney  that  completes  the 
top  of  the  structure.  The  receptacle  is  filled 
with  rich  ores,  freed  as  much  as  possible 
from  all  foreign  mixtures,  and  mixed  with 
sufficient  charcoal  to  effect  their  reduction. 
This  being  fired,  the  blast  is  let  on,  and  as 
the  mass  becomes  softened  by  the  heat,  it  is 
stirred  up  by  heavy  ringers  or  iron  pokers,  and 
the  particles  of  iron  are  brought  together 
and  made  to  cohere  in  one  lump  or  loup. 
This  is  then  taken  out  and  immediately 


IRON. 


placed  under  the  forgo  hammer,  or  passed 
through  the   squeezer,   by  either  of  which 
processes  it  is  freed  from  the  cinder  and  ox 
ide  of  iron,  and  converted  into  a  bloom,  an 
oblong  block  of  wrought  iron  of  convenient 
size  for  handling  or  for  transportation.     The 
process  is  not  adapted  for  ores  of  less  than 
sixty-five  per  cent,   of  iron,  and  even  with 
these  the   waste   is  very  great,  two  tons  and 
a   half  being  required  to  make   one  ton  of 
blooms.      The   consumption  of  charcoal  is 
about  250  bushels.     Each  fire  can  produce 
about  one  ton  in  twenty-four  hours  ;  or  with 
rich  magnetic   ores  in  coarse  particles,  one 
hundred  pounds  per  hour  may  be  obtained. 
Two  men  are  required  to  each  fire,  and  their 
wages  by  contract  are  eleven  dollars  per  ton 
of  blooms.     With  ores  costing  nine  dollars, 
and  charcoal  from  fifteen  to  seventeen  dollars 
for  250  bushels — rates  which  are  common  in 
northern   New  York — the  cost  of  a  ton  of 
blooms   is  from   thirty-five   to   thirty-seven 
dollars.     The  quality  of  the  iron  is  better 
than  the   ores  can  be  made  to  produce  by 
other  processes ;    for  at  the  moderate  heat 
employed,  some  of  the  foreign  metallic  bases 
present  escape  reduction,  and  do  not  com 
bine  with  the  iron,  as  they  are   likely  to  do 
in  the  high  heat  of  the  blast  furnace.     But 
on  the  other  hand  the  quantity  of  iron  lost 
in  the  cinder  is  large,  and  so  is  the  consump 
tion    of  fuel.     The   process  is    particularly 
adapted  to  thinly  inhabited  districts,  where 
magnetic  ores  abound,  water  power  can  be 
had  upon  almost  every  stream,  and  charcoal 
is  worth  little  more  than  the  labor  of  prepar 
ing  and  hauling  it  to  the  works.     A  bloom- 
ary  fire  requires  little  capital  to  start  it,  and 
new  ones  can  be  added  as  fast  as  the  business 
warrants  the  increase.     As  this  declines,  the 
fires  may  be  stopped  for  a  longer  or  shorter 
time   without    involving   the   serious  losses 
occasioned  by  the  interruption  of  the  blast 
of   the   smelting   furnace.      The   extent   to 
which  the  business  can  be  increased  in  any 
locality  is  limited  by  the  necessary  depend 
ence    of    each   fire   upon   two    experienced 
workmen  (in  case  it  is  run  night  and  day), 
which  is  equivalent  to  the  employment  of 
two  skilful  men  for  every  ton  of  iron  made 
per  day.   Where  such  labor  is  not  abundant, 
great  difficulty  may  be  experienced  in  keep 
ing    the    works   in   operation.      The    great 
districts  for  bloomaries  are  the  counties  of 
Clinton  and  Essex,  New  York,  northern  New 
Jersey,  and  recently  the  iron  district  of  Lake 
Superior.     In  1850  there  were  no  less  than 


two  hundred  fires  in  the  two  counties  named 
above,  of  which  number  twenty-one  were 
in  one  establishment. 

In  order  to  reheat  the  blooms  for  hammer 
ing  them  into  bars,  a  separate  fire  was  for 
merly  employed  ;  but  by  a  recent  improve 
ment  the  gaseous  products  of  combustion 
that  escape  from  the  bloomary  fire  are  con 
veyed  into  a  reheating  furnace,  in  which  the 
blooms  are  placed,  and  into  which  the  hot- 
air  blast  is  blown  through  a  large  number 
of  tuyeres,  so  as  to  introduce  its  oxygen 
throughout  the  partially  consumed  gaseous 
mixture.  By  this  means  an  intense  heat  is 
generated,  without  extra  expense  of  fuel,  and 
two  bloomary  fires  supply  sufficient  gases  for 
one  reheating  furnace. 

A  great  number  of  processes  have  been 
patented  for  making  wrought  iron  direct 
from  the  ore,  most  of  which  are  based  on 
the  general  plan  introduced  by  Mr.  Clay,  of 
Great  Britain.  The  ore,  pulverized  and 
screened,  is  mixed  with  two-fifths  of  its 
weight  of  bituminous  coal,  and  the  whole  is 
introduced  into  a  side  chamber  connected 
with  a  puddling  furnace.  There  being  heat 
ed,  and  partially  deoxidized  by  the  reaction 
of  the  carbon  of  the  coal,  it  is  brought  into 
a  condition  ready  for  being  balled  up  into  a 
loup  in  the  puddling  furnace,  into  which  the 
charge  is  transferred.  Renton's  plan,  which 
has  been  in  use  in  New  Jersey,  is  to  intro 
duce  the  finely  pulverized  ore,  mixed  with 
twenty  per  cent,  of  charcoal,  into  vertical  fire 
brick  tubes,  arranged  over  a  puddling  fur 
nace  and  heated  by  its  escape  heat.  These 
tubes  are  twelve  feet  long,  and  five  by 
eighteen  inches  in  section  ;  open  at  top,  and 
so  contrived  at  bottom  that  the  charge  can 
be  let  out  as  desired  into  the  puddling  furnace. 
In  Harvey's  or  Salter's  process  the  ore,  pul 
verized  and  mixed  with  charcoal,  was  spread 
upon  an  inclined  shelf  in  the  upper  part  of 
the  chimney  of  the  puddling  furnace ;  and 
after  being  partially  heated,  it  was  pushed 
off  on  to  a  lower  and  hotter  shelf;  and  so  it 
was  kept  gradually  moving  down  till  it  was 
at  last  delivered  into  the  puddling  furnace, 
new  charges  being  introduced  at  the  top  to 
keep  the  charges  full. 

PUDDLING. — The  great  supplies  of  wrought 
iron  are  obtained  from  pig  metal  by  the  proc 
ess  called  puddling.  The  principle  of  this 
operation  is  the  removal  of  the  carbon  from 
the  pig  iron  by  exposing  the  melted  metal  to 
the  action  of  the  oxygen  of  the  air,  and 
causing  it  to  escape  in  combination  with 


38 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


tliis  in  the  form  of  carbonic  acid  gas.  The 
furnaces  employed  are  reverberatory ;  the 
fire,  of  bituminous  coal,  wood,  peat,  or  an- 
thracite,being  at  one  end,  and  the  flame  from 
it  playing  over  a  bridge  from  which  it  im 
pinges  upon  the  roof  of  a  long,  low  oven,  and 
is  reflected  down  upon  the  floor  of  this, 
where  the  metal  to  be  melted  is  placed.  By 
thus  separating  the  fuel  from  the  metal,  this 
is  kept  free  from  any  injurious  mixtures 
which  might  be  introduced  with  the  former. 
The  best  fuels  are  those  which  give  the  most 
flame,  and  when  anthracite  is  used  it  is  nec 
essary  to  increase  the  draught  by  means  of 
a  fan  blower ;  and  in  the  United  States  this 
is  commonly  employed  with  bituminous 
coals  also.  The  puddling  furnaces  are  either 
single  or  double.  The  former  are  only 
worked  on  one  side,  and  have  a  hearth  area 
of  sixteen  to  twenty-four  square  feet ;  while 
the  double  furnaces  have  a  hearth  area  of 
about  forty  feet,  and  are  worked  from  two 
opposite  sides.  Fire  brick  is  used  in  their 
construction,  and  the  whole  is  incased  in 
cast  iron  plates,  which  are  securely  bound 
together  with  bars  of  iron.  The  floor  of  the 
hearth  is  formed  of  cast  iron  plates,  covered 
with  pulverized  cinder  in  sufficient  quantity 
to  make,  when  it  is  melted,  a  complete  layer 
of  two  or  three  inches  in  thickness.  Around 
the  hearth  are  hollow  boshes  of  cast  iron, 
left  open  at  the  ends  for  the  free  circulation 
of  air  to  prevent  their  being  overheated. 
Sometimes  the  blast  is  passed  through  them, 
thus  taking  away  a  portion  of  the  heat  to  be 
returned  to  the  fire.  The  hearth  occupies  a 
depression  of  about  six  inches  in  depth  be 
low  the  sill  of  the  working-door.  When  the 
bed  of  cinder  has  become  hard  by  cooling, 
some  iron  scales  or  forge  cinder  are  added  to 
it,  and  usually  some  pulverized  magnetic  iron 
ore  also.  It  is  then  ready  for  the  cast  iron, 
which  may  be  either  in  pieces  of  the  origin 
al  pigs,  or  in  plate  metal,  which  is  pig  iron 
partially  refined  by  melting  it  in  a  refinery 
fire,  in  which  it  is  exposed  for  a  time  to  a 
current  of  air,  and  then  running  it  out  into 
flat  cakes,  and  chilling  these  with  cold  water. 
The  metal  is  improved  in  quality  by  this 
preliminary  operation,  and  where  fuel  is 
cheap  it  is  advantageously  practised.  In 
Pennsylvania  it  is  done  in  small  furnaces, 
called  run-out  fires.  The  charge  of  a  single 
puddling  furnace  is  from  350  to  500  pounds ; 
the  double  furnace  is  charged  with  twice  as 
much.  The  pieces  are  all  less  than  twenty- 
eight  pounds  each.  Before  being  introduced 


they  are  economically  heated  in  an  oven  in 
the  chimney.  After  being  placed  on  the 
hearth,  the  doors  are  tightly  closed,  and  a 
brisk  fire  is  kept  up  for  about  a  quarter  of 
an  hour,  until  the  pieces  are  at  a  bright  red 
heat.  Through  the  hole  in  the  side-door  the 
workman  then  places  them  by  means  of  an 
iron  bar  in  the  best  position  for  being  uni 
formly  heated  to  the  temperature  required. 
In  less  than  half  an  hour  the  pieces  are  so 
softened,  that  they  can  be  broken  into  frag 
ments  by  the  bar  working  through  the  same 
hole  in  the  door.  When  they  are  just  ready 
to  melt,  the  fire  is  checked  by  closing  the 
damper  on  the  top  of  the  chimney,  and 
water  is  thrown  in,  a  little  at  a  time,  to  cool 
the  charge  ;  or  pulverized  iron  ore,  or  iron 
scales,  or  cinder  are  used  instead  of  water. 
The  workman  then  begins  to  stir  the  pieces 
about,  beating  the  fragments  with  his  hook 
or  bar,  until  they  are  all  reduced  to  powder. 
The  fire  is  then  gradually  increased  by  rais 
ing  the  damper  and  adding  fuel,  while  the 
stirring  of  the  metal  is  continued.  In  less 
than  an  hour  from  the  beginning  the  iron 
commences  to  form  soft,  spongy  lumps, 
which,  if  well  worked  at  sufficiently  high 
heat,  adhere  to  each  other,  so  that  they  may 
be  collected  into  balls  of  any  size.  This  is 
what  is  called  "  coming  to  nature."  The 
making  up  of  the  iron  into  balls  requires 
active  work,  which  must  be  continued  with 
out  cessation  till  the  whole  is  converted  into 
these  globular  masses  of  seventy  to  one  hun 
dred  pounds  weight  each.  The  balls  as  they  are 
made  are  laid  up  against  the  fire  bridge  to 
protect  them  from  the  oxidizing  action  of  the 
flame,  as  well  as  to  get  them  out  of  the  way ; 
and  when  all  are  ready  the  furnace  is  closed 
for  a  few  minutes  to  give  them  a  thorough 
heat.  They  are  then  taken  out  one  by  one, 
and  dragged  in  tongs  or  upon  a  car  to  the 
hammer  or  squeezer,  to  be  forged  into  blooms. 
The  time  consumed  in  the  puddling  for  each 
heat  is  usually  an  hour  and  a  half,  but  some 
times  much  longer.  As  soon  as  one  charge 
is  out  another  is  introduced,  and  the  furnace 
is  kept  in  constant  operation,  thus  avoiding 
the  loss  of  fuel  that  would  attend  its  cool 
ing. 

A  method  of  puddling  is  much  practised, 
which  is  called  boiling.  The  furnace  used 
for  this  purpose  is  like  the  puddling  furnace, 
except  that  the  hearth  is  deeper,  in  order  to 
give  capacity  for  a  greater  quantity  of  forge 
cinder,  upon  a  large  supply  of  which  the 
operation  depends.  This  is  spread  over  the 


IRON. 


39 


bottom  in  sufficient  quantity  to  form  a  layer 
4  inches  deep,  and  as  it  begins  to  cool,  it  is 
drawn  up  around  the  sides,  so  as  to  leave  a 
depression  in  the  centre.  In  this  the  iron 
js  placed,  and  as  soon  as  may  be  is  melted 
down.  The  damper  is  then  closed  to  keep 
the  temperature  uniform,  and  the  iron  and 
cinder  are  busily  stirred ;  at  the  same  time 
more  cinder  is  thrown  in — a  handful  at  a 
time — till  the  contents  begin  to  swell  up  and 
boil.  This  is  owing  to  the  formation  of  car 
bonic  oxide  from  the  carbon  of  the  pig  iron 
and  the  oxygen  of  the  iron  scales  of  the 
cinder,  and  as  this  gas  rises  it  burns  with  a 
blue  flame.  Gradually  the  boiling  subsides, 
by  reason  of  the  removal  of  the  carbon,  and 
the  cinder  settles  down,  leaving  the  iron  in 
spongy  masses,  which  would  unite  into  one 
body  if  not  worked  over  and  broken  up  as  in 
ordinary  puddling.  This  being  thoroughly 
done,  it  is  then  well  heated  and  made  up  into 
balls  for  the  hammer.  The  process  requires 
more  time,  labor,  and  fuel  than  the  other; 
but  it  produces  better  iron,  and  more  of  it 
from  the  same  quantity  of  crude  metal. 
Thus  95  per  cent,  is  sometimes  obtained  from 
metal  which,  when  treated  by  the  other 
method,  may  yield  only  80  per  cent.  The 
extent,  however,  to  which  the  operation  may 
be  carried  on  is  limited  by  the  amount  of 
cinder  available,  which  is  supplied  wholly 
from  the  puddling  furnaces. 

The  consumption  of  fuel  in  puddling  is 
from  1,700  to  2,240  Ibs.  of  anthracite  or 
of  bituminous  coal  to  the  ton  of  rough  bars 
obtained.  The  waste  of  the  metal  is  in 
great  part  made  up,  and  sometimes  wholly 
so,  by  the  addition  of  rich  ores  to  the  charge. 
This  plan  was  first  adopted  in  the  United 
States,  and  is  now  generally  practised  wher 
ever  such  ores  can  be  obtained.  The  cost  of 
the  labor  employed  in  puddling  is  from  $3.50 
to  $4  per  ton.  The  forging  of  puddlers' 
balls  into  blooms  is  called  shingling,  and  was 
formerly  performed  altogether  under  the 
forge  hammer.  This,  however,  is  now  very 
generally  supplanted  by  the  squeezer,  of 
which  there  are  two  sorts — one  a  ponderous 
lever,  the  short  arm  of  which,  shaped  like  the 
upper  jaw  of  a  crocodile,  opens  and  closes  over 
a  fixed  lower  jaw.  The  ball  being  placed 
between  these  is  powerfully  compressed, 
and  being  properly  handled  at  the  same  time 
is  made  to  receive  the  desired  shape.  A 
more  perfect  machine  is  the  rotary  squeezer 
invented  by  Mr.  Henry  Burden,  of  Troy. 
It  consists  of  an  upright  cylinder  of  cast 
3* 


iron   about   4  feet   in   diameter,  the   same 
height  as  the  length  of  a  bloom,  and  its  face 


serrated  with  vertical  grooves.  It  is  made 
to  revolve  within  an  elliptical  shell,  which  is 
open  on  one  side  to  receive  the  ball.  As 
this  is  presented  at  the  larger  aperture  on 
one  side  of  the  opening,  it  is  drawn  in  by 
the  revolution  of  the  cylinder,  and  thoroughly 
squeezed,  as  it  is  rolled  around  between  the 
two  serrated  faces.  The  space  between  these 
grows  narrower  by  the  slight  eccentricity  of 
the  shell,  and  when  the  ball  is  brought  round 
to  the  other  side  of  the  revolution  of  the 
cylinder  and  is  there  discharged,  it  is  greatly 
reduced  in  diameter,  and  enlongated  in  the 
form  of  a  cylindrical  block. 

The  next  process  is  to  reduce  this  into 
rough  bars.  The  bloom,  without  reheating,  is 
taken  directly  to  the  roughing  rolls,  and 
passed  between  these ;  first  through  the 
largest  space,  and  then  successively  through 
smaller  and  smaller  grooves,  until  it  is  drawn 
out  in  the  shape  required.  The  iron  is  still 
very  imperfect,  being  hard  and  brittle,  with 
many  flaws  and  imperfections.  To  convert 
it  into  merchantable  iron,  it  is  cut  into  short 
lengths  by  shears  worked  by  machinery ;  and 
the  pieces  are  made  up  into  piles  or  faggots, 
which  are  placed  upon  the  hearth  of  a  "re 
heating  furnace."  This  is  made  like  a  pud 
dling  furnace,  with  a  very  low  roof,  so  de 
signed  that  the  space  may  be  entirely  occu 
pied  by  the  gaseous  products  of  combustion 
to  the  exclusion  of  atmospheric  air,  the 
effect  of  which  would  be  to  oxidize  and  waste 
the  metal,  besides  injuring  its  quality  by  in 
troducing  scales  of  the  oxide.  The  hearth 
is  made  to  slope  toward  the  base  of  the 
chimney-flue  at  the  back  end,  and  being  cov 
ered  with  pure  silicious  sand,  the  oxide  of 
iron  which  forms  combines  with  this,  and 
flows  down  as  a  silicate  of  the  protoxide  of 
iron  in  a  liquid  cinder.  When  at  a  good 
welding  heat  the  piles  or  faggots  are  taken 
out,  and  passed  through  the  finishing  rolls, 
which  are  of  much  superior  construction  to 


40 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


the  roughing  rolls,  their  faces  being  smooth 
and  polished,  and  the  shape  of  the  grooves 
made  as  perfect  as  possible,  to  give  all  the 
forms  of  iron  required  in  merchant  bars. 
From  faggots  thus  made  the  iron  is  prepared 
for  railroad  bars,  the  peculiar  forms  of  which 
require  rolls  of  complicated  designs. 

The  rolling  mills  of  the  United  States,  in 
operation  in  1856,  were  as  follows: — 

No.  of  Mills.       States.  ^Jf" 

1  1         Maine 4,500 

19         Massachusetts 55,292 

2  Rhode  Island. 4,475 

5        Connecticut 5,759 

1         Vermont 500 

13  New  York 55,172 

10  New  Jersey 28,403 

91  Pennsylvania 241,484 

4  Delaware.  2,211 

13  Maryland 14,812 

12  Virginia 26,355 

1  North  Carolina 215 

3  South  Carolina 1,210 

1  Georgia 900 

3  Tennessee 2,680 

15         Ohio 30,980 

7         Kentucky 16,865 

1         Indiana. Unfinished. 

1  Illinois " 

4  Missouri 4,420 

2  Michigan 1,848 

The  mills  making  railroad  iron  at  the 
same  time  were  the  following,  producing  the 
quantities  given : — 

Tons  of  Rails. 

The  Bay  State,  South  Boston 17,871 

Rensselaer,  Troy,  N.  Y 13,512 

Trenton,  N.  J.,  about 13,000 

Phoanixville,  Pennsylvania 18,592 

Pottsville,  Schuylkill  Co.,  Penn 3,021 

Lackawanna,  Luzerne  Co.,  Penn 11,338 

Rough  and  Ready,  Danville,  Penn 5,259 

Montour,  Danville,  Penn 17,538 

Safe  Harbor,  Lancaster  Co.,  Penn 7,347 

Mount  Savage,  Cumberland,  Maryland. .   7,159 

Cambria,  Cambria  Co.,  Penn 13,206 

Brady's  Bend,  Armstrong  Co.,  Penn 7,533 

Cosalo,  Lawrence  Co.,  Penn 0 

"Washington,  Wheeling,  Va 2,355 

McNickle,  Covington,  Ky 1,976 

Newbury,  near  Cleveland,  Ohio 0 

Railroad  Mill,  Cleveland,  Ohio 0 

Wyandotte,  near  Detroit,  Mich 1,848 

Chicago,  111 0 

Indianapolis.  Indiana 0 


141,555 

About  1,000  tons  in  addition  to  the  above 
•were  rolled  at  Pottsville,  in  the  Palo  Alto 
mill ;  making  a  total  production  of  142,555 
tons  of  railroad  iron,  two-thirds  of  which 
were  made  in  Pennsylvania. 

SHEET  IRON. — For  making  sheet  iron  the 


bars  are  gradually  spread  out  between  smooth 
rolls,  which  are  brought  nearer  together  as 
the  metal  grows  thinner.  The  Russians  have 
a  method  of  giving  to  sheet  iron  a  beautifully 
polished  surface,  and  a  pliability  and  dura 
bility  which  no  other  people  have  been  able 
to  imitate.  All  attempts  that  have  been 
made  to  learn  the  secret  of  this  process  have 
entirely  failed,  and  the  business  remains  a 
monopoly  with  the  Russians.  The  nearest 
imitation  of  this  iron  is  produced  at  Pitts- 
burg,  Pennsylvania,  and  several  eastern  estab 
lishments,  by  what  is  called  Wood's  process. 
This  consists  in  rolling  the  common  sheet  at 
a  certain  temperature  while  it  is  covered 
with  linseed  oil.  A  very  fine  surface  is  thus 
produced,  but  the  pliability  and  toughness 
of  the  Russian  iron  are  wanting,  even  though 
the  sheets  are  often  annealed  in  close  vessels, 
and  the  glaze  and  color  are  also  inferior. 
Sheet  iron  is  now  extensively  prepared  for 
roofing,  and  other  uses  requiring  exposure  to 
the  weather,  by  protecting  its  surface  with  a 
coating  of  zinc.  This  application  is  an 
American  invention,  having  been  discovered 
in  1827,  by  the  late  Prof.  John  W.  Revere, 
of  New  York.  In  March,  1859,  he  exhibited, 
at  a  meeting  of  the  Lyceum  of  Natural  His 
tory,  specimens  of  iron  thus  protected,  which 
had  been  exposed  for  two  years  to  the  action 
of  salt  water  without  rusting.  He  recom 
mended  it  as  a  means  of  protecting  the  iron 
fastenings  of  ships,  and  introduced  the  proc 
ess  into  Great  Britain.  Sheets  thus  coated 
are  known  as  galvanized  iron,  though  the 
iron  is  now  coated  with  zinc  by  other  means 
as  well  as  by  the  galvanic  current.  One 
method,  that  of  Mallet,  is  to  place  the 
sheets,  after  they  are  well  cleaned  by  acid 
and  scrubbed  with  emery  and  sand,  in  a  satu 
rated  solution  of  hydrochlorate  of  zinc  and 
sulphate  of  ammonia;  and  after  this  in  a 
bath  composed  of  202  parts  of  mercury  and 
1,292  of  zinc,  to  every  ton  weight  of  which 
a  pound  of  potassium  or  sodium  is  added. 
The  compound  fuses  at  680°  Fahrenheit, 
and  the  zinc  is  immediately  deposited  upon 
the  iron  surface.  Another  method  is  to  stir 
the  sheets  in  a  bath  of  melted  zinc,  the  sur 
face  of  which  is  covered  with  sal  ammoniac. 
The  use  of  heavy  sheets  or  plates  for  build 
ing  purposes  is  also  a  recent  application  of 
iron,  that  adds  considerably  to  the  demand 
for  the  metal.  The  plates  are  stiffened  by 
the  fluting,  or  corrugating,  which  they  re 
ceive  in  a  powerful  machine,  and  may  be 
protected  by  a  coating  of  zinc.  Their  prep- 


IROX. 


41 


aration  is  largely  carried  on  in  Philadelphia ; 
and  in  the  same  works  a  great  variety  of 
other  articles  of  malleable  iron,  for  domestic 
and  other  uses,  are  similarly  protected  with 
zinc,  as  window  shutters,  water  and  gas 
pipes,  coal  scuttles,  chains  for  pumps,  bolts 
for  ships'  use,  hoop  iron,  and  telegraph  and 
other  wire. 

The  production  of  the  principal  boiler-plate 
and  sheet  iron  establishments  of  the  United 
States  is  thus  given  for  the  year  1856  : — 

Tons. 

East  of  the  Delaware  there  are  but  two  mills, 
both  of  which  are  in  Jersey  City.   Product 

in  1856 ." 550 

In   K.  Pennsylvania,  on  the  Schuylkill  and 

lower  Susquehauna,  25  mills 21,218 

Near  Wilmington,  Delaware,  3  mills 1,374 

Between  Wilmington  and  Baltimore,  7  mills.    2,998 
Pi  Us  burg,  Penn..  14  mills.    Sheet  iron,  6,437; 
boiler  iron,  3,212;  besides  bars,  rods,  hoops, 

and  nails 9,649 

Sheet  iron  at  the  Sharon  mill,  Mercer  Go.  Penn.  500 
Bloom  mill,  Portsmouth,  S.  Ohio,  and  Globe 

mill,  Cincinnati,  about 2,000 

38,289 
A  mill  for  boiler  plate  has  been  erected  at  St.  Louis. 

IRON  WIRE. — The  uses  of  iron  wire  have 
greatly  increased  within  a  few  years  past. 
The  telegraph  has  created  a  large  demand 
for  it ;  and  with  the  demand  the  manufac 
ture  has  been  so  much  improved,  especially 
in  this  country,  that  the  wire  has  been  found 
applicable  to  many  purposes  for  which  brass 
or  copper  wire  was  before  required.  It  is 
prepared  from  small  rods,  which  are  passed 
through  a  succession  of  holes,  of  decreasing 
sizes,  made  in  steel  plates,  the  wire  being 
annealed  as  often  as  may  be  necessary  to 
prevent  its  becoming  brittle.  In  this  branch 
the  American  manufacturers  have  attained 
the  highest  perfection.  The  iron  prepared 
from  our  magnetic  and  specular  ore  is  un 
equalled  in  the  combined  qualities  of  strength 
and  flexibility,  and  is  used  almost  exclusively 
for  purposes  in  which  these  qualities  are  es 
sential.  But  where  stiffness  combined  with 
strength  is  more  important,  Swedish  and 
Norwegian  iron  also  are  used.  Much  of  the 
iron  wire  now  made  is  almost  as  pliable  as 
copper  wire,  while  its  strength  is  about  50 

Eer  cent,  greater.  In  Worcester,  Mass.,  a 
irge  contract  has  been  satisfactorily  filled 
for  No.  10  wire,  one  of  the  conditions  of 
which  was  that  the  wire,  when  cold,  might 
be  tightly  wound  around  another  wire  of  the 
same  size  without  cracking  or  becoming 
rough  on  the  surface.  Such  wire  is  an  ex 


cellent  material  for  ropes,  and  considerable 
American  iron  is  already  required  for  this 
use^especially  for  suspension  bridges.  Wires 
are  also  used  for  fences,  and  are  ingeniously 
woven  into  ornamental  patterns.  The  so- 
called  "  netting  fence,"  thus  made,  can  be 
rolled  up  like  a  carpet.  For  heavier  railing 
and  fences,  as  for  the  front  yards  of  hou&es, 
for  balconies,  window  guards,  etc.,  iron  bars 
and  rods  are  now  worked  into  ornamental 
open  designs,  by  powerfully  crimping  them 
and  weaving  them  together  like  wires. 

NAILS. — Among  the  multitude  of  other 
important  applications  of  malleable  iron,  that 
of  nail  making  is  particularly  worthy  of  no 
tice,  as  being  in  the  machine  branch  of  it — • 
the  preparation  of  cut  nails — entirely  an 
American  process.  Our  advance  in  this  de 
partment  is  ascribed  to  the  great  demand  for 
nails  among  us  in  the  construction  of  wooden 
houses.  In  England,  even  into  the  present 
century,  nails  were  wrought  only  by  hand, 
employing  a  large  population.  In  the  vi 
cinity  of  Birmingham  it  was  estimated  that 
60,000  persons  were  occupied  wholly  in  nail 
making.  Females  and  children,  as  well  as 
men,  worked  in  the  shop,  forging  the  nails 
upon  anvils,  from  the  "  split  iron  rods"  fur 
nished  for  the  purpose  from  the  neighboring- 
iron  works.  The  contrast  is  very  striking 
between  their  operations  and  those  of  the 
great  establishments  in  Pennsylvania,  con 
sisting  of  the  blast  furnaces,  in  which  the 
ores  are  converted  into  pig ;  of  the  puddling 
furnaces,  in  which  this  is  made  into  wrought 
iron  ;  of  the  rolling  and  slitting  mills,  by 
which  the  malleable  iron  is  made  into  nail- 
plates  ;  and  of  the  nail  machines,  which  cut 
up  the  plates  and  turn  them  into  nails — all 
going  on  consecutively  under  the  same  roof, 
and  not  allowing  time  for  the  iron  to  cool 
until  it  is  in  the  finished  state,  and  single 
establishments  producing  more  nails  than  the 
greater  part  of  the  workshops  of  Birming 
ham  fifty  years  ago.  Public  attention  was 
directed  to  machine-made  nails  as  long  ago 
as  1810,  by  a  report  of  the  secretary  of  the 
treasury,  in  which  he  referred  to  the  success 
already  attained  in  their  manufacture  in  Mas 
sachusetts.  "  Twenty  years  ago,"  he  states, 
"  some  men,  now  unknown,  then  in  ob 
scurity,  began  by  cutting  slices  out  of  old 
hoops,  and,  by  a  common  vice  gripping  these 
pieces,  headed  them  with  several  strokes  of 
the  hammer.  By  progressive  improvements, 
slitting  mills  were  built,  and  the  shears  and 
the  heading  tools  were  perfected,  yet  much 


42 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


labor  and  expense  were  requisite  to  make 
nails.  In  a  little  time,  Jacob  Perkins,  Jona 
than  Ellis,  and  a  few  others,  put  into  execu 
tion  the  thought  of  cutting  and  of  heading 
nails  by  water ;  but  being  more  intent  upon 
their  machinery  than  upon  their  pecuniary 
affairs,  they  were  unable  to  prosecute  the 
business.  At  different  times  other  men  have 
spent  fortunes  in  improvements,  and  it  may 
be  said  with  truth  that  more  than  a  million 
of  dollars  have  been  expended  ;  but  at  length 
these  joint  efforts  are  crowned  with  com 
plete  success,  and  we  are  now  able  to  manu 
facture,  at  about  one-third  of  the  expense 
that  wrought  nails  can  be  manufactured  for, 
nails  which  are  superior  to  them  for  at  least 
three-fourths  of  the  purposes  to  which  nails 
are  applied,  and  for  most  of  those  purposes 
they  are  full  as  good.  The  machines  made 
use  of  by  Odiorne,  those  invented  by  Jona 
than  Ellis,  and  a  few  others,  present  very 
fine  specimens  of  American  genius."  The 
report  then  describes  the  peculiar  character 
of  the  cut  nail — that  it  was  used  by  northern 
carpenters  without  their  having  to  bore  a 
hole  to  prevent  its  splitting  the  wood ;  that 
it  would  penetrate  harder  wood  than  the 
wrought  nail,  etc.  At  that  time,  it  states, 
there  were  twelve  rolling  and  slitting  mills 
in  Massachusetts,  chiefly  employed  in  rolling 
nail  plates,  making  nail  rods,  hoops,  tires, 
sheet  iron,  and  copper,  and  turning  out  about 
3,500  tons,  of  which  about  2,400  tons  were 
cut  up  into  nails  and  brads.  From  that  time 
to  the  present  the  manufacture  of  nails  by 
machinery  has  been  a  profitable  branch  of 
industry  in  the  south-eastern  part  of  Massa 
chusetts,  the  iron  and  the  coal  being  fur 
nished  from  the  middle  Atlantic  states,  and 
the  nails,  in  great  part,  finding  a  market 
at  the  south.  The  following  table  presents 
the  number  of  nail  mills  in  operation  in 
1856.  The  smaller  establishments  are  grad 
ually  going  out  of  the  business,  and  this  is 
becoming  more  concentrated  in  the  coal  and 
iron  regions,  thus  saving  the  cost  of  trans 
portation  in  these  heavy  articles.  The  man 
ufacturers  of  New  England,  however,  ingeni 
ously  divert  a  part  of  their  operations  to  the 
production  of  smaller  articles,  with  which 
the  cost  of  transportation  is  a  less  item  in 
proportion  to  their  value,  such  as  tacks,  riv 
ets,  screws,  butts,  wire,  and  numerous  fin 
ished  articles,  the  value  of  which  consists 
more  in  the  labor  performed  upon  them  and 
in  the  use  of  ingenious  machinery  than  in 
the  cost  of  the  crude  materials  employed. 


NAIL  FACTORIES  IN    THE  UNITED  STATES,  AND  THEIR  PRO 
DUCTION    IN   1656. 

Tons. 

In  south  New  England,  12  mills,  nails  prin 
cipally 25,000 

Troy,  New  York 4,000 

Rockaway,  Boouton,  New  Jersey,  nails  and 

spikes 8,250 

Southern  New  Jersey 4,1 67 

On  the  Schuylkill,  5  mills,  about. 9,000 

On  the  lower  Susquehanna,  2  mills,  about.. .    2,600 

Middle  Pennsylvania,  2  mills,  about 2,000 

Maryland,  2  mills 2,155 

Richmond,  1  mill- 1,075 

Pittsburg,  14  mills,  nails,  spikes,  rivets,  tacks  14,195 

Wheeling,  2  mills 6,465 

Ironton,  southern  Ohio,  1  mill   775 

Mahoning  Co.,  N.  E.  Ohio,  1  mill 380 

Buffalo 1,400 


Total 81.462 

The  number  of  nail  machines  employed  in  these 
mills  was  2,645. 

A  great  variety  of  machines  have  been 
devised  for  nail  making,  very  ingenious  in 
their  designs,  and  all  too  complicated  for 
description.  The  iron  is  rolled  out  into  bars 
for  this  manufacture,  of  10  or  12  feet  in 
length,  and  wide  enough  to  make  three  or 
more  strips,  each  one  of  which  is  as  wide  as 
the  length  of  the  nail  it  is  to  make.  The 
cutting  of  these  strips  from  the  wider  bars 
is  the  special  work  of  the  slitting  mill,  which 
is,  in  fact,  but  a  branch  of  the  rolling  opera 
tion,  and  carried  on  in  conjunction  with  it. 
The  slitting  machine  consists  of  a  pair  of 
rolls,  one  above  the  other,  each  having  5  or 
6  steel  disks  upon  its  axis,  set  as  far  apart  as 
the  width  required  for  the  nail-rod.  Those 
upon  one  roll  interlock  with  those  upon  the 
other,  so  that  when  the  wide  bar  is  intro 
duced  it  is  pressed  into  the  grooves  above 
and  below,  and  cut  into  as  many  strips  as 
there  are  spaces  between  the  disks.  This 
work  is  done  with  wonderful  rapidity,  several 
bars  being  passed  through  at  once.  In  the 
nail  factory  each  nail-making  machine  works 
upon  one  of  these  strips,  or  nail-rods,  at  a 
time,  first  clipping  off  a  piece  from  the  end 
presented  to  it,  and  immediately  another,  as 
the  flat  rod  is  turned  over  and  the  end  is 
again  presented  to  the  cutter.  The  reason 
of  turning  it  over  for  each  successive  cut  is 
because  the  piece  cut  off  for  the  nail  is 
tapering,  in  order  to  make  it  a  little  wider 
at  the  end  intended  for  the  head  than  at  the 
other,  and  thus,  making  the  wider  cut  on  al 
ternate  sides  of  the  rod,  this  is  regularly 
worked  up  into  pieces  of  the  proper  shape. 
In  the  older  operations  a  workman  always 
sat  in  front  of  each  machine,  holding  the 


IROU. 


43 


rod  and  turning  it  over  with  every  clip;  but 
by  a  modern  improvement  this  work  is  also 
done  by  mechanical  contrivance.  Each 
piece,  as  fast  as  it  is  clipped  off,  disappears 
in  the  machine.  There  it  is  seized  between 
powerful  jaws,  and  the  head  is  pressed  up 
from  the  large  end  by  the  short,  powerful 
motion  imparted  to  the  piece  of  apparatus 
called  the  header.  As  it  is  released,  it  slides 
down  and  drops  upon  the  floor,  or  in  a  Yessel 
placed  to  receive  the  nails. 

Machinery  has  been  applied  in  the  United 
States  to  the  manufacture  of  horse-shoe  nails, 
according  to  a  number  of  patented  plans. 
Of  these,  the  most  successful  is  probably  that 
invenlted  about  the  year  1848,  by  Mr.  L.  G. 
Reynolds,  of  Providence ;  also  the  inventor 
of  the  solid-headed  pin.  The  form  of  this 
nail  could  not  be  given  as  in  ordinary  cut 
nails  by  the  cutter,  but  the  sides  required  to 
be  pressed  as  well  as  the  head.  This  in 
volved  the  use  of  movable  plates  of  suitable 
figure  ;  and  as  it  was  found  that  the  nails 
could  not  be  shaped  except  when  the  metal 
was  softened  by  heat,  the  plates  must  neces 
sarily  be  of  the  hardest  steel,  and  protected 
as  effectually  as  possible  from  the  effects  of 
constant  working  of  heated  iron.  These 
difficulties  were  fully  overcome,  and  the 
nails,  after  being  turned  out,  were  toughened 
by  annealing,  giving  them  all  the  excellent 
qualities  of  hand-made  nails,  with  the  ad 
vantage  of  perfect  uniformity  of  size,  so  that 
one  nail  answers  as  well  as  another  for  the 
holes  in  the  horse-shoes.  They  are,  more 
over,  made  with  great  rapidity,  each  machine 
producing  half  a  ton  of  nails  in  12  hours. 
The  process  has  been  taken  to  Europe,  and 
is  there  in  successful  operation.  Spikes,  also, 
have  been  made  and  headed  in  similar  ma 
chines  ;  and  among  all  small  articles  in  iron, 
none,  perhaps,  has  proved  so  profitable  to 
the  inventor  as  the  hook-headed  spike,  used 
for  holding  down,  by  its  projecting  head,  the 
edge  of  the  iron  rails  to  the  sill.  This  was 
the  invention  of  Mr.  Henry  Burden,  of  Troy, 
whose  machines  for  wrought-iron  spikes  and 
for  horse-shoes  have  also  proved  very  success 
ful.  By  the  latter,  perfect  shoes  are  turned 
out  at  the  rate  of  60  in  a  minute.  This  proc 
ess  has  been  introduced  in  most  of  the 
European  countries. 

STEEL. 

As  already  remarked,  steel  differs  in  com 
position  from  metallic  iron  only  by  contain 
ing  from  i  to  Id  per  cent,  of  carbon,  and 


from  cast-iron  by  the  latter  containing  a 
larger  proportion  of  carbon,  which  may 
amount  to  5.5  per  cent.  To  readily  convert 
these  varieties  into  each  other  is  an  object 
of  no  small  importance,  for  their  properties 
are  so  entirely  distinct,  that  they  really  serve 
the  purposes  of  three  different  metals.  Steel 
is  particularly  valuable  for  its  extreme  hard 
ness,  fine  grain,  and  compact  texture,  which 
admits  of  its  receiving  a  high  polish.  It  is 
the  most  elastic  of  metals,  and  much  less 
liable  to  rust  than  iron.  It  has  the  peculiar 
property  of  assuming  different  degrees  of 
hardness,  according  to  the  rapidity  with 
which  it  is  chilled  when  heated  ;  and  it  may 
be  melted  and  run  into  moulds  like  cast  iron, 
and  the  ingots  thus  prepared  may  be  ham 
mered,  rolled,  and  forged  into  shapes  like 
wrought  iron  ;  and  these  may  finally  be  tem 
pered  to  any  degree  of  hardness  desired. 
Differing  so  little  in  composition  from  me 
tallic  iron  and  from  cast  iron,  and  being 
so  universally  in  demand  for  a  multitude  of 
uses,  it  would  seem  that  it  ought  to  be  pro 
duced  as  cheaply  as  one  or  the  other  of  the 
varieties,  between  which  its  composition 
places  it.  But  this  is  far  from  being  the 
case.  While  pig  iron  is  worth  only  $20  to 
$30  per  ton,  and  bar  iron  $60  to  $90,  cast 
steel  in  bars  is  worth  from  $250  to  $300  per 
ton.  This  is  chiefly  owing  to  the  difficulty 
of  procuring  in  large  quantities  steel  of  uni 
form  character,  which  the  consumers  of  the 
article  can  purchase  with  perfect  confidence 
that  it  is  what  they  require  and  have  been 
accustomed  to  use.  The  English  boast,  with 
good  reason,  of  the  position  they  occupy  in 
this  manufacture,  which  is  almost  a  monopoly 
of  the  steel  trade  of  the  whole  world.  Though 
producing  themselves  little  or  no  iron  fit  for 
making  alone  the  best  steel,  they  have  im 
ported  enough  of  the  Swedish  and  Norwe 
gian  bar  iron  to  insure  a  good  quality,  and 
have  been  especially  cautious  to  render  this 
as  uniform  as  possible.  Their  method  of 
manufacture  is  to  introduce  carbon  into  the 
wrought  iron  by  what  is  called  the  cementing 
process.  On  the  continent  of  Europe  steel 
is  made  to  some  extent,  in  Silesia  and  Styria, 
by  removing  from  cast  iron  enough  of  its 
carbon  to  leave  the  proper  proportion  for 
steel,  and  then  melting  the  product  and  cast 
ing  it  into  ingot  moulds.  But  this  cheaper 
method  does  not  appear  to  have  been  taken 
up  in  Great  Britain.  In  the  United  States 
several  processes  are  in  operation,  two  of 
which  are  peculiarly  American.  The  ce- 


44 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


meriting  method,  as  conducted  in  England, 
has  been  longest  known,  and  will  be  first  de 
scribed.  The  cementing  furnace  is  a  sort  of 
oven,  furnished  with  troughs  or  shelves,  upon 
which  charcoal  dust  is  laid  for  receiving  the 
bars.  These  are  placed  edgewise  in  the 
charcoal,  half  an  inch  apart,  and  the  spaces 
are  filled  in  with  more  sifted  coal.  Enough 
is  added  to  cover  the  bars,  and  upon  this  a 
second  tier  is  laid  in  the  same  way,  and  so 
on  till  the  trough  is  filled  with  several  tons 
of  iron,  all  of  which  is  perfectly  excluded 
from  the  air.  The  trough  being  secured 
with  others  in  the  oven,  a  fire  is  started 
under  them.  In  about  six  days  the  bars 
have  absorbed  enough  carbon  to  acquire  the 
properties  of  the  softer  kinds  of  steel,  such 
as  are  used  for  saws  and  springs.  In  a  day 
or  two  longer  it  answers  for  cutting  instru 
ments,  and  some  time  after  this  it  gains  in 
hardness,  so  as  to  be  fitted  for  cold  chisels, 
for  drills  such  as  miners  use,  etc.  Its 
character  is  ascertained  at  any  time  by 
drawing  out  one  of  the  bars.  After  the 
change  is  effected  the  fire  is  extinguished, 
and  about  a  week  is  allowed  for  the  furnace 
and  its  contents  to  cool.  When  at  last  the 
bars  are  obtained,  their  surface  is  found  to  be 
covered  with  blisters,  whence  the  steel  is 
called  blistered  steel.  The  fibrous  texture 
of  the  iron  has  given  place  to  a  granular 
structure,  but  is  so  irregular  and  uneven  that 
the  metal  requires  further  treatment  to  per 
fect  it.  To  make  the  English  shear-steel,  so 
called  from  its  being  originally  employed  for 
shears  used  in  sheep-shearing,  the  bars  are 
cut  into  lengths  of  a  foot  and  a  half,  and 
a  number  of  these  are  bound  together  to 
make  a  faggot.  This  is  brought  to  a  weld 
ing  heat,  and  drawn  down  first  under  a  forge- 
hammer,  and  then  under  the  tilt-hammer. 
This  weighs  from  150  to  200  pounds,  and 
strikes  from  150  to  360  strokes  a  minute. 
The  rapidity  of  the  work  keeps  the  steel  at 
a  glowing  heat,  and  it  is  soon  fashioned  into 
a  dense  bar  of  smooth  surface,  susceptible 
of  a  polish,  and  suited  for  the  manufacture 
of  cutting  instruments.  Sometimes  it  is  cut 
into  pieces  to  be  refaggoted,  and  drawn  down 
again  into  bars,  which  are  then  called  double- 
shear. 

Cast  steel  is  a  still  more  dense  and  perfect 
variety.  It  is  prepared  by  melting,  in  large 
crucibles,  blistered  steel  broken  into  small 
pieces,  and  pouring  the  metal  into  moulds. 
These  are  then  worked  into  shapes  by  the 
forge  hammer  and  the  rolls. 


The  American  methods  of  making  steel 
were  discovered  by  Prof.  A.  K.  Eaton,  of 
New  York,  and  the  one  now  employed  by  the 
Damascus  Steel  Company  was  practically 
demonstrated  by  him  in  Rochester  and  its  vi 
cinity  in  1851  and  1852.  This  consists  in  car 
bonizing  and  melting  malleable  iron  in  cruci 
bles  at  one  operation,  by  introducing  into  the 
pot  with  the  pieces  of  iron  a  carbonaceous  salt, 
such  as  the  fcrro-cyanide  of  potassium,  either 
alone  or  in  combination  with  charcoal  powder. 
At  an  intense  heat  this  salt  rapidly  carbon 
izes  the  iron,  which  thus  first  becomes  steel, 
then  fuses,  and  is  poured  into  moulds.  The 
quantity  of  the  salt  employed  is  proportional 
to  the  quantity  of  the  iron  and  the  Quality 
of  the  steel  required.  The  operation  is  suc 
cessfully  carried  on  in  different  establish 
ments  in  New  Jersey,  New  York,  and  Penn 
sylvania,  and  cast  steel  of  the  very  best 
quality  is  produced  at  less  expense  than  the 
article  has  ever  before  cost  in  this  country. 
For  bar  steel,  according  to  the  prospectus  of 
the  company,  the  best  charcoal-made  iron  is 
employed,  costing  $85  per  ton,  and  this,  to 
gether  with  the  coal  used  for  fuel,  the  chem 
ical  materials,  the  melting,  crucibles,  and 
hammering,  make  the  whole  cost  about  $142 
per  ton,  while  that  of  the  imported  article  is 
$300  or  more.  The  great  difficulty  in  the 
process  is  to  obtain  suitable  crucibles  for 
withstanding  the  intense  heat  required  to 
melt  the  charge  of  60  Ibs.  of  malleable  iron. 
Those  in  use  are  blue-pots,  costing  $1.60 
each.  Though  made  of  the  best  of  plum 
bago,  they  stand  only  two  or  three  meltings. 

The  other  process,  which  is  just  now  in 
troduced  into  practice,  is  based  upon  the  prop 
erty  of  carbonate  of  soda  to  remove  from  cast 
iron  the  carbon  it  contains,  when  the  metal  is 
kept  for  a  few  hours  in  a  bath  of  the  melted 
alkali.  The  decarbonizing  effect  is  in  part  due 
to  the  action  of  the  oxygen  of  the  alkaline 
base,  which  is  given  up  to  the  carbon  of  highly 
heated  cast  iron,  but  principally  to  the  decom 
position  of  the  combined  carbonic  acid,  which 
gives  to  the  carbon  one  of  its  atoms  of  oxygen, 
and  is  resolved  into  carbonic  oxide.  This  prop 
erty  of  soda  was  discovered  by  Prof.  Eaton  in 
1856,  but  the  fact  that  the  carbonated  or  bi- 
carbonated  alkalies  act  principally  by  virtue 
of  their  carbonic  acid,  was  only  recently  rec 
ognized  and  made  practically  available  by 
him.  The  action  of  soda  or  its  carbonates  is 
not  limited  to  the  removal  of  the  excess  of 
carbon  in  cast  iron.  It  combines  with  and 
removes  those  impurities  which  would  prove 


IRON. 


45 


fatal  to  the  quality  of  the  steel  if  remaining 
in  it,  as  sulphur,  phosphorus,  and  silicon ; 
and  the  method  thus  admits  of  the  use  of 
crude  irons,  such  as  could  never  be  applied 
to  this  manufacture  by  any  other  mode. 
The  cast  iron,  in  the  form  of  thin  plates,  hav 
ing  been  kept  at  a  bright  red  heat  in  the 
bath  of  melted  carbonate  for  a  sufficient  time, 
•which  is  determined  by  occasionally  taking 
out  and  testing  some  of  the  pieces,  is  trans 
ferred  to  the  crucible,  and  is  then  melted 
and  poured  into  moulds,  as  in  the  ordinary 
method  of  making  cast  steel.  The  crucibles, 
not  being  subjected  to  greater  heat  than  is 
required  for  melting  cast  steel,  endure  much 
longer  than  when  employed  for  melting 
wrought  iron  in  the  carbonizing  process ; 
thus  a  great  saving  is  effected  in  the  expense 
of  the  conversion  ;  and  this  economy  is  still 
further  increased  by  the  use  of  a  crude  ma 
terial,  costing  only  from  $20  to  $30  per  ton, 
in  place  of  the  superior  qualities  of  wrought 
iron,  worth  $85  per  ton.  So  great,  indeed, 
is  the  saving,  that  the  cost  of  the  cast  steel, 
when  obtained  in  ingots,  is  found  not  to  ex 


ceed  the  cost  of  the  malleable  iron  employed 
in  the  other  process. 

STATISTICS. — The  records  of  the  produc 
tion  of  iron  of  the  United  States  are  very  in 
complete  up  to  the  year  1854.  Even  the  cen 
sus  returns  are  highly  defective,  as  they  often 
make  no  distinction  between  iron  made 
from  the  ore  and  the  products  of  the  second 
ary  operations  of  remelting  and  puddling. 
The  first  systematic  attempts  to  obtain  com 
plete  accounts  of  the  business,  as  conducted 
in  Pennsylvania,  were  made  in  1850  by  the 
Association  of  Iron  Manufacturers,  organized 
in  Philadelphia.  Mr.  Charles  E.  Smith  col 
lected  the  returns,  and  published  them  in  a 
small  volume,  together  with  other  papers  re 
lating  to  the  manufacture.  In  1856  the  as 
sociation,  through  their  secretary,  Mr.  J.  P. 
Lesley,  and  their  treasurer,  Mr.  C.  E.  Smith, 
obtained  full  returns  from  832  blast  furnaces, 
488  forges,  and  225  rolling  mills  in  the  Unit 
ed  States,  besides  others  in  Canada,  exhibit 
ing  their  operations  for  the  preceding  three 
years.  Some  of  these  results  are  presented 
in  the  following  tables  : — 


NO  1.—  TABLE  OF  IRON  WORKS  IN  OPEEATION  AND  ABANDONED  IN  1858. 


Anthracite 


Maine 

New  Hampshire  ....... 

Vermont  ............. 

Massachusetts  ......       3 

Rhode  Island  ......... 

Connecticut  ........       1 

New  York   .........     14 

New  Jersey  .........       4 

Pennsylvania  .......     93 

Delaware  ............. 

Maryland  ...........       6 

Virginia  ............. 

North  Carolina  ........ 

South  Carolina  ........ 

Georgia  .............. 

Alabama  ............. 

Tennessee  ............ 

Kentucky  ............. 

Ohio  ................ 

Indiana  .............. 

Illinois  ............... 

Michigan  ............. 

Wisconsin  ............ 

Missouri  .............. 

Arkansas  ............ 


,. 
Furnaces.    pura;£es    Furnaces. 

1 
1 
5 


Abandoned  Bloomary  Abandoned  Refinery 
Forges.  Bloomaries.  Forges. 


Abandoned 
Refineries. 


Total 


121 


14 

29 

6 

150 

.. 

24 

39 

3 

4 

7 

3 

41 

30 

54 

2 

2 

7 

3 

7 


439 


6 

12 

102 

1 

7 

56 
3 
4 
1 
1 

33 

17 

,26 

3 


272 


42 

48 

1 


36 

2 

4 

14 

50 


1 

29 
3 


6 

3 

2 

110 


43 


2 
.  . 
44 


Rolling 
Mills!  b 


1 

19 

2 

5 

11 

10 

91 

4 

13 

12 

1 

3 

2 


15 
1 
1 
2 


206 


35 


186  64         210 

In  working  order,  560  Furnaces,  389  Forges,  210  Rolling  Mills.  Total,  1,159 
Abandoned,  272         "  99      "          15  "  "        386 


15 


In  all,          832 


488 


225 


1,545 


The  production  of  the  blast  furnaces  in  the 
different  iron  districts  for  the  years  1854, 
1855,  and  1856,  is  exhibited  in  Table  No. 


2  ;  their  arrangement  being  according  to  the 
fuel  employed  and  the  quantities  of  iron 
produced  in  each  district  in  1856 : — 


46 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


TABLE  NO.   2.— PRODUCTION  OF  PIG  IRON. 


Fuel. 


District. 


1854. 


1855. 


1S56. 


Anthracite  

..  .Pennsylvania  

208.603 

255,326 

« 

.  .  .  .  Out  of  Pennsylvania  

99.007 

87,779 

Charcoal  and  Coke  .  .  . 

....S.Ohio  
.  .  .E.  Kentucky  

...56,081  j.79010 
...2-2.929)   '9>010 

47.982 
16,18(1 

I  64,162 

...  W.  Pennsylvania  
....N   Ohio  

...  78,9*.*  |  QOOIA 
...  11,289  f90'216 

59,388 
9,926 

j-  69,314 

"          "        " 

...  E.  Pennsylvania  

62,724 

60,596 

Charcoal  

....W.Tennessee  

...  37,9181 

33,683 

] 

»       

...W.  Kentucky  
...S.Indiana  

•;;;  «$    53,054 

13,604 
1,500 

I  50,347 

"       

...8.  Illinois  

...    1,500  J 

1,500 

1 

Charcoal  and  Coke  .  .  , 

....8.  W.  Pennsylvania  
....N.  W.  Virginia  

..11,0521   .no™ 
.  .  .    3,930  f  12'9S2 

18,217 
2,342 

I  20.559 

"         "        "... 

.  .  .  .Maryland     

3f.,653 

36.309 

Charcoal  

...  E.  of  the  Hudson  

30,420 

82,826 

"       

.  .  .  N.  and  W.  New  York  

19.197 

19,736 

"       

...Missouri  

7,591 

10.181 

" 

...8.  New  York  and  N.New  Jersey  

13,435 

7,901 

"       

.  .  .E.  and  Middle  Virginia  

5,880 

6,926 

"       

.  ..North  and  South  Carolina  

..    1,820) 

1,830 

) 



.  .  .  Georgia  
.  ..E.  Tennessee  and  Alabama  

2,391  V    6,056 
...    1,845  j 

2,715 
1,516 

V    6,061 

"       

...Michigan  

990 

9CO 



.  .  .  Wisconsin  

70.455 
21,661 
59,597 
17,056 

32,162 
14,902 
1,800 
1,800 
29,400 
1,46 


1.956 

2,807 
2,931 
3,H78 
2,500 


Total  production  of  pig  iron  in  the  United  States Tons  .    725,823 


306,972 
87,537 

I  92,116 

I  76,653 
52,775 

I  50,664 

|  30,867 

30,998 
29.937 
18,847 
10,138 
5,683 
5,730 

7,694 
6,178 

812,789 


TABLE  NO.  3.— DISTRIBUTION   OF  THE  FUR 
NACES  BY  STATES. 

I.    ANTHRACITE   FURNACKS. 
TJo  Stnlpa  Product. 

No.  States.  Tong 

3  Massachusetts 4,443 

1  Connecticut 0 

14  New  York 47,257 

4  New  Jersey 26,117 

93  Pennsylvania 306,972 

6  Maryland 10,720 

121  394,509 

II.   COKE  FURNACES. 

21  Pennsylvania 39,953 

_3  Maryland 4,528 

24  44,481 

III.   EAW  BITUMINOUS  COAL  FURNACES. 

6  Pennsylvania 8,417 

_13  Ohio 16,656 

19  25,073 

IV.   CHARCOAL    FURNACES. 

1  Maine 2,100 

1  New  Hampshire 0 

5  Vermont 2,420 

7  Massachusetts 8,564 

14  Connecticut 12,876 

29  New  York 21,774 

6  New  Jersey 2,100 

143  Pennsylvania 96,154 

21  Maryland 26,470 

39  Virginia 14,828 

3  North  Carolina 450 

4  South  Carolina 1,506 

7  Georgia 2,807 

3  Alabama 1,495 

41  Tennessee 28,476 

30  Kentucky 36,563 

41  Ohio 70,355 

2  Indiana 1,800 

2  Illinois 1,900 

7  Missouri 10,138 

3  "Wisconsin    2,500 

7  Michigan 3,678 

416  348,954 


No.  of  Furnaces.  Tons. 

Anthracite,  as  above 121 394.509 

Coke,  "  24 44^481 

EawCoal,      "  19 25,073 

Charcoal,        "  4H5 348,954 

Total  pier 580  813,017 

TABLE  No.  4.— PRODUCT  OF  WROUGHT   IRON 
DIRECT  FROM  THE  ORE,  1856. 

States.  Product. 

Tons. 

Vermont 1,650 

New  York 18,710 

New  Jersey 4,487 

North  Carolina 1,182 

South  Carolina 640 


Bloomarles. 

5 

42 
48 
36 

2 


4  Georgia 40 

14  Alabama 252 

50  Tennessee 1,222 

3  Michigan 450 


204 
Pig  iron  as  above. 


28,633 
812,917 


Grand  total  production  of  iron  from 

the  ore  in  1856 841,550 

In  addition  to  this  amount,  the  importa 
tions  for  the  year  1856  of  iron  designed  for 
manufacture  are  estimated  at  363,998  tons, 
consisting  of  Scotch  pig,  55,403  tons  ;  rolled 
and  hammered  iron,  298,275  tons;  and  scraps, 
10,320  tons;  and  if  to  this  he  added  for  old 
rails  reworked,  1 00,000  tons,  and  for  scrap, 
25,000  tons,  the  total  amount  of  iron  enter 
ing  into  domestic  consumption  was  1,330,548 
tons.  The  importation  of  railroad  iron  not 
included  in  the  above  was  167,400  tons. 
The  proportion  of  foreign  iron  introduced 
into  the  general  consumption,  not  including 
rails,  was  about  30  per  cent. 

The  value  of  the  immediate  products  of 
the  manufacture  of  domestic  iron  is  thus 
given  at  the  prices  current  in  1856  : — 


IRON. 


Foundry  pig  .......  302,154  tons  a  $27,  $8,158,158 

Foundry  cold-blast  ) 

charcoal  iron   for  V  35,000  "  a    35,  1,225,000 

car  wheels,  &c.  .  .  .  ) 

Rails  .............  142,555  "  a    63,  8,980,965 

Boiler  and  sheet  ____  38,639  "  a  120,  4,636,680 

Nails  .............   81,462  "  a    84,  6,842,808 


235,425     •«     a    65,15,302,625 
Hammered  iron  ____   21,000     "     a  125,     2,625,000 


Total $47,771,236 

Mr.  Smith  presents  the  following  conclu 
sion  to  the  "  Statistical  Report  of  the  Iron 
Manufacture:"  "The  great  facts  demon 
strated  are,  that  we  have  nearly  1,200  effi 
cient  works  in  the  Union ;  that  these  pro 
duce  annually  about  850,000  tons  of  iron, 
the  value  of  which  in  an  ordinary  year  is 
$50,000,000;  of  this  amount  the  portion 
expended  for  labor  alone  is  about  $35,000,- 
000." 

Since  1856  no  attempts  have  been  made 
to  collect  the  statistics  of  the  iron  business 
of  the  United  States,  and  consequently  but 
a  very  general  statement  can  be  given  of 
the  changes  which  have  taken  place.  The 
total  annual  production  has  probably  not 
varied  much  from  800,000  tons — exceed 
ing  rather  than  falling  short  of  this  amount. 
In  the  Lehigh  valley  the  business  is  rapidly 
increasing,  while  the  charcoal  iron  manufac 
ture  in  different  parts  of  the  country  is 
steadily  diminishing.  In  the  vicinity  of 
Baltimore  only  one  furnace  was  in  operation 
in  November,  1860;  and  besides  another  at 
Texas,  in  Baltimore  county,  and  one  of  the 
bog  ore  furnaces  on  the  eastern  shore,  it  is 
believed  all  the  rest,  including  those  in  the 
bituminous  coal  region,  were  out  of  blast. 
The  business,  however,  in  general  is  in  a 
sound  condition,  and  great  improvements 
have  been  made  in  diminishing  the  cost  of 
the  manufacture,  by  means  of  more  care  in 
the  superintendence  and  by  reducing  the 
general  expenses  and  the  number  of  hands 
employed  to  the  ton  of  iron  produced. 

The  census  of  1860  gives  the  following 
statistics  of  the  iron  production  and  manu 
facture  of  that  year.  There  had  been  very 
little  progress  in  the  production  of  iron  in 
the  country  for  several  years  previous,  in 
consequence  of  the  very  low  rate  of  duty  at 
which  foreign  railroad  and  other  iron  was 
admitted. 

Iron  blooms,  valued  at $2,623,178 

Tig  iron 20,870,120 

Bar,  sheet  and  railroad  iron..   31,888,705 


Iron  wire 1,643,857 

Iron  forgings 1,907,460 

Car  wheels 2,083,350 

Iron  castings  of  all  kinds 36, 132,033 


$97,148,705 

The  opening  of  the  war,  in  1861,  gave  an 
extraordinary  impetus  to  iron  production 
and  manufacture.  The  tariff  and  other 
causes  reduced  the  importation  to  a  mini 
mum,  while  the  demand  for  iron  for  the 
fabrication  of  small  arms  and  cannon ;  for 
the  construction  of  the  large  fleet  of  iron 
clads,  and  for  the  other  war  vessels ;  for  the 
building  of  locomotives,  the  casting  of  car 
wheels  and  furnishing  the  vast  quantity  of 
railroad  iron  needed  to  repair  the  old  tracks 
destroyed  by  the  contending  armies,  and  to 
lay  the  tracks  of  new  roads,  extended  the 
business  vastly  beyond  all  former  precedent ; 
and  the  requirement  that  the  Pacific  railroad 
and  its  branches  shall  be  constructed  solely 
of  American  iron,  as  well  as  the  increase  in 
its  use  for  buildings,  and  for  shipping,  have 
maintained  it  in  a  prosperous  condition. 

The  manufacture  of  steel  and  the  other 
manufactures  of  iron,  aside  from  those  al 
ready  enumerated,  brought  the  aggregate 
production  and  manufacture  of  iron  and 
steel,  in  1860,  up  to  $285,879,510.  The 
revenue  tax  paid  on  iron  and  steel  manufac 
tures  in  1864  indicates  that  the  product  of 
the  branches  taxed  amounted  to  about 
$123,000,000.  This  estimate  was  far  below 
the  production,  as  many  branches  were  not 
taxed,  and  the  returns  of  that  year  were  im 
perfect.  The  production  and  manufacture  of 
1865  were  not  less  than  400  millionsof  dollars. 
There  is  every  reason  to  expect  that  the  de 
velopment  of  the  iron  mines  will  be  pushed 
forward  with  constantly  increasing  energy, 
and  that  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when 
many  of  the  great  repositories  of  ores  we 
have  described — now  almost  untouched — 
will  be  the  seats  of  an  active  industry  and 
centres  of  a  thriving  population,  supported 
by  the  home  markets  they  will  create.  The 
great  valley  of  the  west,  when  filled  with 
the  population  it  is  capable  of  supporting, 
and  intersected  in  every  direction  with  the 
vast  system  of  railroads,  of  which  the  present 
lines  form  but  the  mere  outlines,  will  itself 
require  more  iron  than  the  world  now  pro 
duces,  and  the  transportation  of  large  por 
tions  of  this  from  the  great  iron  regions  of 
northern  Michigan  and  Wisconsin,  and  of 


48 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


coal  back  to  the  mines,  will  sustain  larger 
lines  of  transportation  than  have  ever  yet  been 
employed  in  conveying  to  their  markets  the 
most  important  products  of  the  country. 
The  importation  of  foreign  iron — already 
falling  off  in  proportion  to  the  increased  con 
sumption — must,  before  many  years,  cease, 
and  be  succeeded  by  exports  for  the  supplies 
of  other  nations  less  bountifully  provided  for 
in  this  respect  than  the  United  States  and 
Great  Britain. 


CHAPTER  II. 

COPPER. 

THE  early  attempts  to  work  copper  mines 
in  the  United  States  have  already  been  al 
luded  to  in  the  introductory  remarks  to  the 
department  of  this  work  relating  to  mining 
industry.  The  ores  of  this  metal  are  widely 
distributed  throughout  the  country,  and  in 
almost  every  one  of  the  states  have  been 
found  in  quantities  that  encouraged  their  ex 
ploration — in  the  great  majority  of  cases  to 
the  loss  of  those  interested.  The  metal  is 
met  with  in  all  the  New  England  states,  but 
only  those  localities  need  be  named  which 
have  at  times  been  looked  upon  as  important. 

Copper  occurs  in  a  native  or  metallic  state, 
and  also  in  a  variety  of  ores,  or  combi 
nations  of  the  metal  with  other  substances. 
In  these  forms  the  metallic  appearance  is 
lost,  and  the  metal  is  obtained  by  different 
metallurgical  operations,  an  account  of  some 
of  which  will  be  presented  in  the  course  of 
this  chapter.  Until  the  discover}^  of  the 
Lake  Superior  mines,  native  copper,  from  its 
scarcity,  was  regarded  rather  as  a  curiosity 
than  as  an  important  source  of  supply.  The 
workable  ores  were  chiefly  pyritous  copper, 
vitreous  copper,  variegated  copper,  the  red 
oxide,  the  green  carbonate  or  malachite,  and 
chrysocolla.  The  first  named,  though  con 
taining  the  least  proportion  of  copper,  has 
furnished  more  of  the  metal  than  all  the 
other  ores  together,  and  is  the  chief  depen 
dence  of  most  of  the  mines.  It  is  a  double 
sulphuret  of  copper  and  iron,  of  bright  yel 
low  color,  and  consists,  when  pure,  of  about 
34  per  cent,  of  copper,  35  of  sulphur,  and 
30  of  iron.  But  the  ore  is  always  inter 
mixed  with  quartz  or  other  earthy  minerals, 
by  which  its  richness  is  greatly  reduced.  As 
brought  out  from  the  mine  it  may  not  con 
tain  more  than  1  per  cent,  of  copper,  and 
when  freed  as  far  as  practicable  from  foreign 


substances  by  the  mechanical  processes  of 
assorting,  crushing,  washing,  jigging,  etc., 
and  brought  up  to  a  percentage  of  6  or  7  of 
copper,  it  is  in  Cornwall  a  merchantable  ore, 
and  the  mine  producing  in  large  quantity  the 
poor  material  from  which  it  is  obtained  may 
be  a  profitable  one.  Vitreous  copper,  known 
also  as  copper  glance,  and  sulphuret  of  cop 
per,  is  a  lead  gray  ore,  very  soft,  and  con 
tains  79.8  per  cent,  of  copper,  united  with 
20.2  per  cent,  of  sulphur.  It  is  not  often 
found  in  large  quantity.  Variegated  or  pur 
ple  copper  is  distinguished  by  its  various 
shades  of  color  and  brittle  texture.  It  yields, 
when  pure,  from  56  to  63  per  cent,  of  copper, 
21  to  28  of  sulphur,  and  7  to  14  of  iron. 
The  red  oxide  is  a  beautiful  ore  of  ruby  red 
color,  and  consists  of  88.8  per  cent,  of  cop 
per  and  11.2  per  cent,  of  oxygen.  It  is 
rarely  found  in  sufficient  quantity  to  add 
much  to  the  products  of  the  mines.  Green 
malachite  is  a  highly  ornamental  stone,  of 
richly  variegated  shades  of  green,  famous  as 
the  material  of  costly  vases,  tables,  etc.,  man 
ufactured  in  Siberia  for  the  Russian  govern 
ment.  It  is  always  met  with  in  copper 
mines,  especially  near  the  surface,  but  rarely 
in  large  or  handsome  masses.  It  consists 
of  copper  57.5,  oxygen  14.4,  carbonic  acid 
19.9,  and  water  8.2  per  cent.  Chrysocolla 
is  a  combination  of  oxide  of  copper  and 
silica,  of  greenish  shades,  and  is  met  with  as 
an  incrustation  upon  other  copper  ores.  It 
often  closely  resembles  the  malachite  in  ap 
pearance.  It  contains  about  36  per  cent,  of 
copper. 

The  first  mines  worked  in  the  United 
States  were"  peculiar  for  the  rich  character 
of  their  ores.  These  were,  in  great  part, 
vitreous  and  variegated  copper,  with  some 
malachite,  and  were  found  in  beds,  strings, 
and  bunches  in  the  red  sandstone  formation, 
especially  along  its  line  of  contact  with  the 
gneiss  and  granitic  rocks  in  Connecticut,  and 
with  the  trap  rocks  in  New  Jersey.  The 
mine  at  Simsbury,  in  Connecticut,  furnished 
a  considerable  amount  of  such  ores  from  the 
year  1709  till  it  was  purchased,  about  the 
middle  of  the  last  century,  by  the  state, 
from  which  time  it  was  occupied  for  sixty 
years  as  a  prison,  and  worked  by  the  con 
victs  ;  not,  however,  to  much  profit.  In 
1830  it  came  into  possession  of  a  company, 
but  was  only  worked  for  a  short  time  after 
ward.  On  the  same  geological  range,  but 
lying  chiefly  in  the  gneiss  rocks,  the  most 
productive  of  these  mines  was  opened  in 


COPPER. 


49 


1836,  in  Bristol,  Conn.  It  was  vigorously 
worked  from  1847  to  1857,  and  produced 
larger  amounts  of  rich  vitreous  andpyritous 
ores  than  have  been  obtained  from  any  other 
mine  in  the  United  States.  No  expense  was 
spared  in  prosecuting  the  mining,  and  in 
furnishing  the  most  efficient  machinery  for 
dressing  the  ores.  It  is  stated  that  full  1,800 
tons  of  ore  were  sent  to  market,  which  pro 
duced  over  $200,000,  the  yield  ranging 
from  18  to  50  per  cent,  of  copper.  The 
mine  was  finally  abandoned  in  1857. 

The  New  Jersey  mines  have  all  failed, 
from  insufficient  supply  of  the  ores.  The 
Schuyler  mine,  at  Belleville,  produced  rich 
vitreous  copper  and  chrysocolla,  disseminated 
through  a  stratum  of  light  brown  sandstone, 
of  20  to  30  feet  in  thickness,  and  dipping  at 
an  angle  of  12°.  During  the  periods  of  its 
being  worked  in  the  last  century,  the  exca 
vations  reached  the  depth  of  200  feet,  and 
were  carried  to  great  distances  on  the  course 
of  the  metalliferous  stratum.  The  mine  was 
then  so  highly  valued  that  an  offer  of  £500,- 
000,  made  for  it  by  an  English  company,  was 
refused  by  the  proprietor,  Mr.  Schuyler.  In 
1857-58  attempts  were  made  by  a  New 
York  company  to  work  the  mine  again,  but 
the  enterprise  soon  failed.  Among  the  other 
mines  which  have  been  worked  to  consid 
erable  extent  in  New  Jersey  are  the  Flem- 
ington  mine,  which  resembled  in  the  char 
acter  of  its  ore  the  Schuyler  mine,  and  the 
Bridgewater  mine,  near  Somerville,  at  which 
native  copper  in  some  quantity  was  found  in 
the  last  century;  twopiecesmet  within  1754 
weighing  together,  it  was  reported,  1,900  Ibs. 
A  mine  near  New  Brunswick  also  furnished 
many  lumps  of  native  copper,  and  thin  sheets 
of  the  metal  were  found  included  in  the  sand 
stone.  At  different  times  this  mine  has  been 
thoroughly  explored,  to  the  loss  of  those  en 
gaged  in  the  enterprise.  In  Somerset  county, 
the  Franklin  mine,  near  Griggstown,  has  been 
worked  to  the  depth  of  100  feet.  Carbonate 
and  red  oxide  of  copper  were  found  in  the 
shales  near  the  trap,  but  not  in  quantity  suf 
ficient  to  pay  expenses.  In  Pennsylvania, 
near  the  Schuylkill  river,  in  Montgomery  and 
Chester  counties,  many  mines  have  been 
worked  for  copper  and  lead  at  the  junction 
of  the  red  sandstone  and  gneiss.  Those 
veins  included  wholly  in  the  shales  of  the 
red  sandstone  group  were  found  to  produce 
copper  chiefly,  while  those  in  the  gneiss  were 
productive  in  lead  ores.  At  the  Perkiomen 
and  Ecton  mines — both  upon  the  same  lode 


— extensive  mining  operations  have  been 
carried  on ;  a  shaft  upon  the  latter  having 
reached  in  1853  the  depth  of  396  feet.  The 
sales  of  copper  ores  during  the  three  years 
the  mines  were  actively  worked  amounted 
to  over  $40,500  ;  but  the  product  was  not 
sufficient  to  meet  the  expenditures. 

The  mines  in  Frederick  county,  Maryland, 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Liberty,  were  near 
the  red  sandstone  formation,  though  included 
in  argillaceous  and  talcose  slates.  A  num-; 
ber  of  them  have  been  worked  at  different 
times  up  to  the  year  1853,  when  they  were 
finally  given  up  as  unprofitable. 

A  more  newly  discovered  and  richer  cop 
per  district  in  Maryland  is  near  Sykesville, 
on  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad,  32  miles 
from  Baltimore,  in  a  region  of  micaceous, 
talcose,  and  chloritic  slates.  A  large  bed  of 
specular  iron  ore  lying  between  the  slates 
was  found  to  contain,  at  some  depth  below 
the  surface,  carbonates  and  silicates  of  cop 
per,  and  still  further  down  copper  pyrites. 
In  the  twelve  months  preceding  April  1, 
1857,  300  tons  had  been  mined  and  sent  to 
market,  the  value  of  which  was  $17,896.92, 
and  the  mine  was  reported  as  improving. 
The  ore  sent  to  the  smelting  works  at  Balti 
more,  in  December  of  that  year,  yielded 
16.03  per  cent,  of  copper.  Within  seven 
miles  of  Baltimore  the  Bare  Hill  mine  has 
produced  considerable  copper,  associated 
with  the  chromic  iron  of  that  region. 

Like  the  last  two  named,  all  the  other  lo 
calities  of  copper  ores  of  any  importance 
along  the  Appalachian  chain  and  east  of  it 
are  remote  from  the  range  of  the  red  sand 
stone,  and  belong  to  older  rock  formations. 
In  the  granites  of  New  Hampshire,  pyritous 
copper  has  been  found  in  many  places,  but  has 
nowhere  been  mined  to  any  extent.  In  Ver 
mont,  mining  operations  have  been  carried 
on  to  some  extent  upon  a  large  and  very 
promising  lode  of  pyritous  copper,  which  is 
traced  several  miles  through  Vershire  and 
Corinth.  At  Strafford,  pyritous  ores  were 
worked  in  1829  and  afterward,  both  for 
copperas  and  copper.  In  New  York,  excel 
lent  pyritous  ores  were  produced  at  the  Ul 
ster  lead  mine  in  1853.  Among  other  sales 
of  similar  qualities  of  ore,  one  lot  of  50  tons 
produced  24.3  per  cent,  of  copper. 

In  Virginia,  rich  ores  of  red  oxide  of  cop 
per,  associated  with  native  copper  and  pyri 
tous  copper,  are  found  in  the  metamorphic 
slates  at  Manasses  Gap,  and  also  in  many 
i  other  places  further  south  along  the  Blue 


50 


MINING  *NDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


Ridge.  The  very  promising  appearance  of 
the  ores,  and  their  numerous  localities,  would 
encourage  one  to  believe  that  this  will  prove 
to  be  a  copper  region,  were  it  not  that,  when 
explored,  the  ores  do  not  seem  to  lie  in  any 
regular  form  of  vein.  In  the  southern  part 
of  the  state,  in  Carroll,  Floyd,  and  Grayson 
counties,  copper  was  discovered  in  1852,  and 
mines  were  soon  after  opened  in  a  district 
of  metamorphic  slates,  near  their  junction 
with  the  lower  silurian  limestones.  The 
copper  was  met  with  in  the  form  of  pyritous 
ore,  red  oxide,  and  black  copper,  beneath 
large  outcropping  masses  of  hematite  iron 
ore,  or  gossan.  Some  of  the  shipments  are 
said  to  have  yielded  over  20  per  cent,  of 
copper.  The  amount  of  ores  sent  east,  over 
the  Virginia  and  Tennessee  railroad,  in  1855, 
was  1,931,403  Ibs. ;  in  1856,  1,972,834  Ibs.; 
and  in  the  nine  months  ending  June  30, 
1857,  ],085,997  Ibs.;  1858,  688,418  Ibs.; 
1859,  1,151,132  Ibs.;  and  1860,  2,679,673 
Ibs.  Copper  ores  are  very  generally  met  with 
in  the  gold  mines  of  this  state,  and  further 
south,  but  the  only  one  of  them  that  has  been 
worked  expressly  for  copper  is  that  of  the 
North  Carolina  Copper  Company,  in  Guilford 
county.  From  this  a  considerable  amount 
of  pyritous  copper  ores  were  sent  to  the 
north  in  1852  and  1853. 

In  Tennessee,  an  important  copper  region 
lies  along  the  southern  line  of  Polk  county, 
and  extends  into  Gilmer  county,  Georgia. 
The  ore  was  first  found  in  1847,  associated 
with  masses  of  hematite  iron  ores,  which 
formed  great  outcropping  ledges,  traceable 
for  miles  from  south-west  to  north-cast  along 
the  range  of  the  micaceous  and  talcose  slates. 
An  examination  of  the  ores,  made  to  ascer 
tain  the  cause  of  their  working  badly  in  the 
furnace,  was  the  means  of  corroborating  or 
giving  importance  to  the  discovery  of  the 
copper.  In  1851  copper  mining  was  com 
menced,  and  afterward  prosecuted  with  great 
activity  by  a  number  of  companies.  The 
ore  was  found  in  seven  or  eight  parallel  lodes 
of  the  ferruginous  matters,  all  within  a  belt 
of  a  mile  in  width.  At  the  surface  there 
was  no  appearance  of  it,  but  as  the  explora 
tions  reached  the  depth  of  seventy-five  or 
one  hundred  feet  below  the  surface  of  the 
hills,  it  was  met  with  in  various  forms,  re 
sulting  from  the  decomposition  of  pyritous 
copper,  and  much  mixed  with  the  ochreous 
matters  derived  from  a  similar  source.  In  a 
soft  black  mass,  easily  worked  by  the  pick, 
and  of  extraordinary  dimensions,  were  found 


intermixed  different  oxides  and  other  ores 
of  copper,  yielding  various  proportions  of 
metal,  and  much  of  it  producing  20  per  cent.  ' 
and  more,  fit  to  be  barrelled  up  at  once  for 
transportation.  This  ore  spread  out  in  a 
sheet,  varying  in  width  at  the  different 
mines ;  at  the  Eureka  mine  it  was  50  feet 
wide,  and  at  the  Hiwassee  45  feet,  while  at 
the  Isabella  mine  the  excavations  have  been 
extended  between  two  walls  250  feet  apart. 
In  depth  this  ore  is  limited  to  a  few  feet  only, 
except  as  it  forms  bunches  running  up  into 
the  gossan  or  ochreous  ores.  Below  the 
black  ore  is  the  undecomposed  lode,  consist 
ing  of  quartz,  more  or  less  charged  with 
pyritous  copper,  red  oxide,  green  carbonate, 
and  gray  sulphuret  of  copper ;  and  it  is  upon 
these  the  permanent  success  of  the  mines 
must  depend.  About  14  mining  companies 
have  been  engaged  in  this  district,  and  the 
production  of  the  most  successful  of  them 
was  as  follows,  up  to  the  year  1858:  Isa 
bella,  2,500  tons;  Galloway,  200;  Mary's, 
1,500  ;  Polk  county,  2,100  ;  Tennessee, 
2,200  ;  Hiwassee,  2,500  ;  Hancock,  2,000— 
making  a  total  of  13,000  tons,  yielding  from 
15  to  40  per  cent,  of  copper,  and  worth  $100 
per  ton,  or  $1,300,000.  In  addition  to  this, 
the  products  of  the  London  mine,  yielding 
an  average  of  45  per  cent,  of  copper,  amount 
ed  to  over  $200,000  in  value  ;  and  the  prod 
ucts  of  the  Eureka  mine  were  rated  for 
1855  at  $86,000;  for  1856  at  $123,000; 
and  for  1857  at  $136,000.  The  value  of  the 
ores  remaining  at  the  mines  too  poor  to 
transport,  but  valuable  to  smelt  in  furnaces 
on  the  spot,  was  estimated  at  $200,000  more. 
Furnaces  for  smelting,  on  the  German  plan, 
were  in  operation  in  1857,  and  produced 
the  next  year  850  tons  of  matt,  or  regulus. 
At  the  Eureka  mine,  in  1858,  there  were  4 
revcrberatory  furnaces,  2  blast,  and  2  cal 
cining  furnaces.  The  fuel  employed  is  wood 
and  charcoal.  By  the  introduction  of  smelt 
ing  operations,  ores  of  5  to  6  per  cent,  are 
now  advantageously  reduced. 

In  1857  the  mines  of  a  large  portion  of 
this  district  were  incorporated  into  the  so- 
called  Union  Consolidated  Mining  Company, 
and  most  of  the  other  mines  were  taken  up 
by  the  Burra  Burra  Company  and  the  Polk 
County  Cbmpany.  The  principal  interests 
in  the  last  two  are  held  in  New  Orleans. 
The  first  named  own  11  mines,  of  which 
they  are  working  three  only,  with  a  monthly 
production  of  750  to  800  tons  of  12  per  cent, 
copper,  besides  5  or  6  tons  of  precipitate 


COPPER. 


51 


copper.  This  is  metallic  copper,  precipitated 
from  the  waters  of  the  mine  by  means  of 
scrap  iron  thrown  into  tbe  vats  in  which 
these  waters  are  collected.  The  iron  being 
taken  up  by  the  acids  Avhich  hold  the  cop 
per  in  solution,  the  latter  is  set  free,  and  de 
posited  in  fine  metallic  powder.  The  ore  is 
smelted  in  furnaces  constructed  on  the  Ger 
man  plan,  and  being  put  through  twice,  pro 
duce  a  regulus  of  55  per  cent.  As  soon  as 
the  proper  furnaces  and  refineries  can  be 
constructed,  it  is  intended  to  make  ingot 
copper,  and  by  working  more  of  the  mines 
belonging  to  the  company  it  is  expected  the 
monthly  production  will  soon  be  raised  to 
2,000  tons  of  10  to  12  per  cent.  ore. 

The  two  other  companies  have  erected  ex 
tensive  smelting  works ;  and  the  mines  of 
the  Burra  Burra  are  producing  450  to  500 
tons  per  month  of  14  per  cent,  ore,  and 
those  of  the  Polk  County  Company  about 
300  tons  of  15  per  cent.  ore.  Both  com 
panies  will  soon  be  able  to  make  ingot  cop 
per.  The  report  of  the  Union  Consolidated 
Company  for  the  first  year  of  their  opera 
tions  presents,  against  expenditures  amount 
ing  to  8307,182.77,  receipts  of  $457,803.73, 
leaving  a  profit  of  $150,620.96.  A  large 
portion  of  the  regulus  is  shipped  to  England 
for  sale. 

The  profits  of  these  mines  were  greatly 
reduced  the  first  few  years  of  their  operation 
by  the  necessity  of  transporting  the  ores  40 
miles  to  a  railroad,  and  thence  more  than 
1,000  miles  by  land  and  water  to  the  north 
ern  smelting  works.  The  establishment  of 
furnaces  at  the  mines  not  only  reduces  this 
source  of  loss,  but  renders  the  great  body 
of  poorer  ores  available,  which  they  were  not 
before.  A  railroad  is  now  in  process  of  con 
struction  to  connect  the  mines  with  the 
Georgia  railroads. 

West  of  the  Alleghanies,  the  only  copper 
mines,  besides  those  of  Lake  Superior,  are 
in  the  lead  region  of  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  and 
Missouri.  A  considerable  number  of  them 
have  been  worked  to  limited  extent,  and 
small  blast  furnaces  have  been  in  operation 
smelting  the  ores.  These  were  found  only 
near  the  surface,  in  the  crevices  that  con 
tained  the  lead  ores ;  and  in  Missouri,  in 
horizontal  beds  in  the  limestone,  along  the 
line  of  contact  of  the  granite.  The  ores 
were  mixed  pyritous  copper  and  carbonate, 
always  in  very  limited  quantity.  The  amount 
of  copper  produced  has  been  unimportant, 
and  it  is  not  likely  that  any  considerable  in 


crease  in  the  supply  of  the  metal  will  be  de 
rived  from  this  source. 

The  existence  of  native  copper  on  the 
shores  of  Lake  Superior,  is  noticed  in  the 
reports  of  the  Jesuit  missionaries  of  1659 
and  1666.  Pieces  of  the  metal  10  to  20lbs. 
in  weight  were  seen,  which  it  is  said  the 
Indians  reverenced  as  sacred ;  similar  reports 
were  brought  by  Father  Dablouin  1670,  and 
by  Charlevoix  in  1744.  An  attempt  was 
made  in  1771  by  an  Englishman,  named 
Alexander  Henry,  to  open  a  mine  near  the 
forks  of  the  Ontonagon,  on  the  bank  of  the 
river,  where  a  large  mass  of  the  metal  lay  ex 
posed.  He  had  visited  the  region  in  1763, 
and  returned  with  a  party  prepared  for  more 
thoroughly  exploring  its  resources.  They, 
however,  found  no  more  copper  besides  the 
loose  mass,  which  they  Avere  unable  to  re 
move.  They  then  went  over  to  the  north 
shore  of  the  lake,  but  met  with  no  better 
success  there.  General  Cass  and  Mr.  II.  R. 
Schoolcraft  visited  the  region  in  1819,  and 
reported  on  the  great  mass  upon  the  Onton 
agon.  Major  Long,  also,  in  1823,  bore  wit 
ness  to  the  occurrence  of  the  metal  along 
the  shores  of  the  lake.  The  country,  till 
the  ratification  of  the  treaty  with  the  Chip- 
pewa  Indians  in  1842,  was  scarcely  ever 
visited  except  by  hunters  and  fur-traders, 
and  was  only  accessible  by  a  tedious  voyage 
in  canoes  from  Mackinaw.  The  fur  com 
panies  discouraged,  and  could  exclude  from 
the  territory,  all  explorers  not  going  there 
under  their  auspices.  Dr.  Douglass  Hough- 
ton,  the  state  geologist  of  Michigan,  in  the 
territory  of  which  these  Indian  lands  were 
included,  made  the  first  scientific  examina 
tion  of  the  country  in  1841,  and  his  reports 
first  drew  public  attention  to  its  great  re 
sources  in  copper.  His  explorations  were 
continued  both  under  the  state  and  general 
government  until  they  were  suddenly  termi 
nated  with  his  life  by  the  unfortunate  swamp 
ing  of  his  boat  in  the  lake,  near  Eagle  river, 
October  13,  1845. 

In  1844  adventurers  from  the  eastern  states 
began  to  pour  into  the  country,  and  mining 
operations  were  commenced  at  various  places 
near  the  shore,  on  Keweenaw  Point.  The 
companies  took  possession  under  permits 
from  the  general  land  office,  in  anticipation 
of  the  regular  surveys,  when  the  tracts  could 
be  properly  designated  for  sale.  Nearly 
on'e  thousand  tracts,  of  one  mile  square  each, 
were  selected — the  greater  part  of  them  at 
random,  and  afterward  explored  and  aban- 


52 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


doned.  In  1846  a  geological  survey  of  the 
region  was  authorized  by  Congress,  which 
was  commenced  under  Dr.  C.  T.  Jackson, 
and  completed  i>y  Messrs.  Foster  and  Whit 
ney  in  1850.  At  this  time  many  mines  were 
in  full  operation,  and  titles  to  them  had  been 
acquired  at  the  government  sales. 

The  copper  region,  as  indicated  by  Dr. 
Houghton,  was  found  to  be  nearly  limited  to 
the  range  of  trap  hills,  which  are  traced  from 
the  termination  of  Keweenaw  Point  toward 
the  south-west  in  a  belt  of  not  more  than  two 
miles  in  width,  gradually  receding  from  the 
lake  shore.  The  upper  portion  of  the  hills 
is  of  trap  rock,  lying  in  beds  which  dip  to 
ward  the  lake,  and  pass  in  this  direction 
under  others  of  sandstone,  the  outcrop  of 
which  is  along  the  northern  flanks  of  the 
hills.  Isle  Royale,  near  the  north  shore  of 
the  lake,  is  made  up  of  similar  formations, 
which  dip  toward  the  south.  These  rocks 
thus  appear  to  form  the  basin  in  which  the 
portion  of  Lake  Superior  lying  between  is 
held.  The  trap  hills  are  traced  from  Kewee 
naw  Point  in  two  or  three  parallel  ridges  of 
500  to  1,000  feet  elevation,  crossing  Portage 
lake  not  far  from  the  shore  of  Lake  Superior, 
and  the  Ontonagon  river  about  1 3  miles  from 
its  mouth.  They  thence  reach  further  back 
into  the  country  beyond  Agogebic  lake,  full 
120  miles  from  the  north-eastern  termina 
tion.  Another  group  of  trap  hills,  known  as 
the  Porcupine  mountains,  comes  out  to  the 
lake  shore  some  20  miles  above  the  mouth 
of  the  Ontonagon,  and  this  also  contains 
veins  of  copper,  which  have  been  little  de 
veloped  until  the  explorations  commenced 
near  Carp  lake  in  these  mountains  in  1859. 
These  have  resulted  in  a  shipment  of  over  20 
tons  of  rough  copper  in  1860,  and  give  en 
couragement  to  this  proving  a  copper-pro 
ducing  district.  The  formations  upon  Isle 
Royale,  which  is  within  the  boundary  of  the 
United  States,  although  they  are  similar  to 
those  of  the  south  shore,  and  contain  copper 
veins  upon  which  explorations  were  vigor 
ously  prosecuted,  have  not  proved  of  impor 
tance,  and  no  mines  are  now  worked  there. 
The  productive  mines  are  comprised  in  three 
districts  along  the  main  range  of  the  trap 
hills.  The  first  is  on  Keweenaw  Point,  the 
second  about  Portage  lake,  and  the  third 
near  the  Ontonagon  river.  All  the  veins 
arc  remarkable  for  producing  native  copper 
alone,  the  only  ores  of  the  metal  being 
chiefly  of  vitreous  copper  found  in  a  range 
of  hills  on  the  south  side  of  Keweenaw  Point, 


and  nowhere  in  quantities  to  justify  the  con 
tinuation  of  mining  operations  that  were 
commenced  upon  them.  The  veins  on  Ke 
weenaw  Point  cross  the  ridges  nearly  at  right 
angles,  penetrating  almost  vertically  through 
the  trap  and  the  sandstones.  Their  produc 
tiveness  is,  for  the  most  part,  limited  to  cer 
tain  amygdaloidal  belts  of  the  trap,  which 
alternate  with  other  unproductive  beds  of 
gray  compact  trap,  and  the  mining  explora 
tions  follow  the  former  down  their  slope  of 
40°,  more  or  less,  toward  the  north.  The 
thickness  of  the  veins  is  very  variable,  and 
also  their  richness,  even  in  the  amygdaloid. 
The  copper  is  found  interspersed  in  pieces 
of  all  sizes  through  the  quartz  vein  stones 
and  among  the  calcareous  spar,  laumonite, 
prehnite,  and  other  minerals  associated  with 
the  quartz.  These  being  extracted,  piles  are 
made  of  the  poorer  sorts,  in  which  the  metal 
is  not  sufficiently  clear  of  stone  for  shipment, 
and  these  are  roasted  by  firing  the  wood  in 
termixed  through  the  heaps.  By  this  proc 
ess  the  stone  entangled  among  the  copper 
is  more  readily  broken  and  removed.  The 
lumps  that  will  go  into  barrels  are  called 
"  barrel  work,"  and  are  packed  in  this  way 
for  shipment.  Larger  ones,  called  "  masses," 
some  of  which  are  huge,  irregular-shaped 
blocks  of  clean  copper,  are  cut  into  pieces 
that  can  be  conveniently  transported,  as  of 
one  to  three  tons  weight  each.  This  is  done 
by  means  of  a  long  chisel  with  a  bit  three- 
fourths  of  an  inch  wide,  which  is  held  by  one 
man  and  struck  in  turns  by  two  others  with 
a  hammer  weighing  7  or  8  Ibs.  A  groove  is 
thus  cut  across  the  narrowest  part  of  the 
mass,  turning  out  long  chips  of  copper  one- 
fourth  of  an  inch  thick,  and  with  each  suc 
ceeding  cut  the  groove  is  deepened  to  the 
same  extent  until  it  reaches  through  the  mass. 
The  process  is  slow  and  tedious,  a  single  cut 
sometimes  occupying  the  continual  labor  of 
three  men  for  as  many  weeks,  or  even  long 
er.  This  work  is  done  in  great  part  be 
fore  the  masses  can  be  got  out  of  the 
mine.  The  masses  are  found  in  working  the 
vein,  often  occupying  the  whole  space  be 
tween  the  walls  of  trap  rock,  standing  up 
on  their  edges,  and  shut  in  as  solidly  as  if 
all  were  one  material.  To  remove  one  of  the 
very  large  masses  is  a  work  of  many  months. 
It  is  first  laid  bare  along  one  side  by  extend 
ing  the  level  or  drift  of  the  mine  through 
the  trap  rock.  The  excavation  is  carried 
high  enough  to  expose  its  upper  edge  and 
down  to  iis  lower  line ;  but  on  account  of  ir- 


COPPER. 


53 


regular  shape  and  projecting  arms  of  copper, 
which  often  stretch  forward,  and  up  and  down, 
connecting  with  other  masses,  it  requires  long 
and  tedious  mining  operations  to  determine 
its  dimensions.  When  it  is  supposed  to 
be  nearly  freed  along  one  side,  very  heavy 
charges  of  powder  arc  introduced  in  the  rock 
behind  the  mass,  with  the  view  of  starting 
it  from  its  bed.  When  cracks  are  produced 
by  these,  heavier  charges  are  introduced  in 
the  form  of  sand-blasts,  and  these  are  re 
peated  until  the  mass  is  thrown  partly  over  on 
its  side  as  well  as  the  space  excavated  will 
admit.  In  speaking  further  of  the  Minesota 
mine,  the  enormous  sizes  of  some  of  the 
masses,  and  the  amount  of  powder  consumed 
in  loosening  them,  will  be  more  particularly 
noticed. 

To  separate  the  finer  particles  of  copper 
from  the  stones  in  which  they  are  contained, 
these,  after  being  roasted,  are  crushed  under 
heavy  stamps  to  the  condition  of  fine  sand, 
and  this  is  then  washed  after  the  usual 
method  of  washing  fine  ores,  until  the  earthy 
matters  are  removed  and  the  metallic  par 
ticles  are  left  behind.  This  is  shovelled  into 
small  casks  for  shipment,  and  is  known  as 
stamp  copper.  The  stamping  and  crushing 
machinery,  such  as  have  long  been  used  at 
the  mining  establishments  of  other  countries, 
were  found  to  be  entirely  too  slow,  for  the 
requirements  of  these  mines,  and  they  have 
been  replaced  by  new  apparatus  of  Amer 
ican  contrivance,  which  is  far  more  efficient 
than  any  thing  of  the  kind  ever  before  ap 
plied  to  such  operations.  The  stamps  here 
tofore  in  use  have  been  of  100  Ibs.  to  300  Ibs. 
weight,  and  at  the  California  mines  were  first 
introduced  of  800  Ibs.  to  1,000  Ibs.  weight. 
At  Lake  Superior  they  are  in  use  on  the  plan 
of  the  steam  hammer,  weighing,  with  the  rod 
or  stamp-leg,  2,500  Ibs.  and  making  90  to 
100  strokes  in  a  minute.  The  capacity  of 
each  stamp  is  to  crush  over  one  ton  of  hard 
trap  rock  every  hour.  It  falls  upon  a  large 
mortar  that  rests  upon  springs  of  vulcanized 
rubber,  and  the  force  of  its  fall  is  increased 
by  the  pressure  of  steam  applied  above  the 
piston  to  throw  it  more  suddenly  down.  The 
stamp-head  covers  about  one-fourth  of  the 
face  of  the  mortar,  and  with  every  succeed 
ing  stroke  it  moves  to  the  adjoining  quarter, 
covering  the  whole  face  in  four  strokes. 

The  only  other  metal  found  with  the  cop 
per  is  silver,  and  this  does  not  occur  as  an 
alloy,  but  the  two  are  as  if  welded  together, 
and  neither,  when  assayed,  gives  more  than 


a  trace  of  the  other.  It  is  evident  from  this 
that  they  cannot  have  been  in  a  fused  state 
in  contact.  The  quantity  of  silver  is  small  ; 
the  largest  piece  ever  found  weighing  a  little 
more  than  8  Ibs.  troy.  This  was  met  with 
at  the  mines  near  the  mouth  of  Eagle  river, 
where  a  considerable  number  of  loose  pieces, 
together  with  loose  masses  of  copper,  were 
obtained  in  exploring  deep  under  the  bed  of 
the  stream  an  ancient  deposit  of  rounded 
boulders  of  sandstone  and  trap.  The  veins 
of  even  the  trap  rocks  themselves  of  this  lo 
cality  exhibited  so  much  silver  that  in  the 
early  operations  of  the  mines  a  very  high 
value  was  set  upon  them  on  this  account. 
But  at  none  of  the  Lake  Superior  mines  has 
the  silver  collected  paid  the  proprietors  for 
the  loss  it  has  occasioned  by  distracting  the 
attention  of  the  miners,  and  leading  them  to 
seek  for  it  with  the  purpose  of  appropriating 
it  to  their  own  use.  Probably  they  have  car 
ried  away  much  the  greater  part  of  this 
metal  ;  at  least  until  the  stamp  mills  were  in 
operation. 

The  principal  mine  of  this  district  is  the 
Cliff  mine  of  the  Pittsburg  and  Boston  Com 
pany,  opened  in  1  845,  and  steadily  worked  ever 
since.  In  1858  the  extent  of  the  horizontal 
workings  on  the  vein  had  amounted  to 
12,368  feet,  besides  831  feet  in  cross-cuts. 
Five  shafts  had  been  sunk,  one  of  which  was 
817  feet  deep,  587  feet  being  below  the  adit 
level,  and  230  feet  being  from  this  level  to  the 
summit  of  the  ridge.  The  shaft  of  least 
depth  was  sunk  422  feet. 

The  production  of  the  mine  from  the  year 
1853  is  exhibited  in  the  following  table:  — 


Tear, 

1853, 
1354, 
1855, 
185fi, 
1857, 
1858, 
ia59, 
1860 


Mineral 
produced. 

Ibs. 

2,2fi8,182 
2.8.32,614 
2,995.837 
3,291.289 
8,363,557 
8,188,085 
2,139,682 
2,805,442 


22,374,588 


Price  per  Ib. 

Refined     TieM    deducting       Value 
copper,    per  cent,    cost  of        realized. 

Ibs.  smelting. 

1,071,288  4T.ttcte.37Ji  $292,647  05 
1,315,308  56.85  '.438  320,78:}  01 
1.874,197  62.56  2533  475.911  26 
2,220.934  67.48  24.12  535.84367 
2,863.850  70.28  20.44  497,870  47 
2,381,964  71.00  21.03  475.321  89 
1,415,007  64.35  20.50  290,097  97 


elusive  of  slag, 


The  quantities  of  the  different  sorts  for 
the  year  1857  are  as  follows:  — 

941  masses  ......................  1,958,181  Ibs. 

869  bbls.  of  barrel  work  ..........    618,781  " 

1,020     "    ofstampings  ............   791,645" 

Total  ..............  3,363,557  " 

The  Portage  lake  mining  district  is  from 
twenty  to  twenty-five  miles  west  from  the 


54 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


Cliff  mine  on  the  same  range  of  hills.  This 
region  is  of  more  recent  development,  the 
explorations  having  been  attended  with  little 
success  previous  to  1854.  The  veins  are 
here  found  productive  in  a  gray  variety  of 
trap  as  well  as  the  amygdaloidal,  and  instead 
of  lying  across  the  ridges,  follow  the  same 
course  with  them,  and  dip  in  general  with 
the  slope  of  the  strata.  Some  of  the  larger 
veins  consist  in  great  part  of  epidote,  and 
the  copper  in  these  is  much  less  dense 
than  in  the  quartz  veins,  forming  tangled 
masses  which  are  rarely  of  any  considerable 
size.  On  the  eastern  side  of  this  lake  are 
worked,  among  other  mines,  the  Quincy, 
Pewabic,  and  Franklin,  and  on  the  opposite 
side  the  Isle  Koyale,  Portage,  and  Columbian 
mines.  The  most  successful  of  these  has 
been  the  Pewabic.  Operations  were  com 
menced  here  in  1855  upon  an  unimproved 
tract,  requiring  the  construction  of  roads  and 
buildings,  clearing  of  land,  etc.  etc.,  all  in 
volving  for  several  years  a  continued  heavy 
outlay.  The  immediate  and  rapid  produc 
tion  of  the  mine  required  the  construction  of 
costly  mills,  without  which  a  large  propor 
tion  of  the  copper  would  be  unavailable  for 
the  market.  The  first  three  years  the  as 
sessments  were  $50,000,  and  the  shipments 
of  barrel  and  mass  copper  were  in  1856 

9WA  tons;  in  1857»  209wo  tons; in 

1858,  402  tons;  in  1859,  SlS^Yo  tons-  The 
proceeds  from  the  sales  up  to  this  time  paid 
oft'  all  the  expenditures,  and  left  besides  a 
considerable    surplus.      The  Franklin  Com 
pany,  working  the  same  lode  upon  the  ad 
joining  location,  commenced  operations  in 
July,  1857,  and  that  year  shipped  20  tons 
of  copper,  the  next  year   110  tons,  and  in 

1859,  218  tons;  the  total  amount  in  capital 
furnished  by  assessments  was  $10,000.  These 
two  mines  have  been  the  most  rapidly  de 
veloped  of  any  of  the  Lake  Superior  mines. 

The  Ontonagon  river  crosses  the  trap  hills 
about  forty  miles  south-west  from  Portage 
lake,  and  the  mines  worked  in  the  Onton 
agon  district  are  scattered  along  the  hills 
north-east  from  the  river  for  a  distance  of 
nearly  twenty  miles.  The  outlet  for  the 
greater  number  of  them  is  by  a  road  through 
the  woods  to  the  village  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river.  The  veins  of  this  district  also  lie 
along  the  course  of  the  ridges,  and  dip  with 
the  trap  rocks  toward  the  lake.  As  they 
are  worked,  however,  they  are  found  occsir 
sionally  to  cut  across  the  strata,  and  neighbor 
ing  veins  to  run  into  each  other.  In  some 


places  copper  occurs  in  masses  scattered 
through  the  trap  rock  with  no  sign  of  a 
vein,  not  even  a  seam  or  crevice  connecting 
one  mass  with  another.  They  appear,  how 
ever,  to  be  ranged  on  the  general  course  of 
the  strata.  At  the  Adventure  mine  they 
were  so  abundant,  that  it  has  been  found 
profitable  to  collect  them,  and  the  cliffs  of 
the  trap  rock  present 'a  curious  appearance, 
studded  over  with  numerous  dark  cavities  in 
apparently  inaccessible  places  leading  into 
the  solid  face  of  the  mountain. 

The  great  mine  of  this  district  is  the  Min- 
esota,  two  miles  east  from  the  Ontonagon 
river.  The  attention  of  the  explorers  in  this 
region  in  the  winter  of  1847-48  was  attract 
ed  by  parallel  lines  of  trenches,  extending 
for  miles  along  the  trap  hills,  evidently  made 
by  man  at  some  distant  period.  They  were 
so  well  marked,  as  to  be  noticed  even  under 
a  cover  of  three  feet  depth  of  snow.  On  ex 
amination  they  proved  to  be  on  the  course 
of  veins  of  copper,  and  the  excavations  were 
found  to  extend  down  into  the  solid  rock, 
portions  of  which  were  sometimes  left  stand 
ing  over  the  workings.  When  these  pits 
were  afterward  explored,  there  were  found  in 
them  large  quantities  of  rude  hammers,  made 
of  the  hardest  kind  of  greenstone,  from  the 
trap  rocks  of  the  neighborhood.  These 
were  of  all  sizes,  ranging  from  four  to  forty 
pounds  weight,  and  of  the  same  general 
shape — one  end  being  rounded  off  for  the 
end  of  the  hammer,  and  the  other  shaped 
like  a  wedge.  Around  the  middle  was  a 
groove — the  large  hammers  had  two — evi 
dently  intended  for  securing  the  handle  by 


STONK   HAM1IEB. 


which  they  were  wielded.    In  every  instance 
the  hammers  were  more  or  less,  broken,  eri- 


COPPER. 


55 


dently  in  service.  One  of  them  brought  from 
the  mine  by  the  writer,  and  now  in  the  col 
lection  of  the  Cooper  Union  of  New  York, 
is  represented  in  the  accompanying  sketch. 
It  measures  Qh  inches  in  length,  the  same  in 
breadth,  and  2^  inches  in  thickness. 

The  quantity  of  hammers  found  in  these 
old  workings  was  so  great  that  they  were  col 
lected  by  cart-loads.     How  they  could  have 
been  made  with   such  tools  as  the  ancient 
miners  had,  is  unaccountable,  for  the  stone 
itself  is  the  hardest  material  they  could  find. 
And  it  is  not  any  more  clear,  how  they  ap 
plied   such   clumsy  tools  to  excavating  solid 
rock  nearly  as  hard  as  the  hammers  them 
selves.     Every    hammer   is   broken    on  the 
edge,  as  if  worn  out  in  service.     The  only 
tools  found  besides  these  were  a  copper  gad 
or  wedge,  a  copper  chisel  with  a  socket  head, 
and  a  wooden  bowl.     The  great  extent  of 
the  ancient  mining  operations  indicates  that 
the  country  must  have  been  long  occupied 
by  an  industrious  people,  possessed  of  more 
mechanical  skill  than  the  present  race  of  In 
dians.    They  must  also  have  spread  over  the 
whole  of  the  copper  region,  for  similar  evi 
dences  of  their  occupancy  are  found  about 
all  the  copper  mines,  and   even  upon    Isle 
Royale.     It  is  not  improbable  that  they  be 
longed  to  the  race  of  the  mound  builders  of 
the  western   states,  among  the  vestiges  of 
whom,  found  in  the  mounds,  various  utensils 
of  copper  have  been  met  with.     But  of  the 
period  when   they   lived,  the  copper  mines 
afford  no  more  evidence  than  the  mounds. 
Some  of  the  trenches  at  the  Minesota  mine, 
originally  excavated  to  the  depth   of  more 
than   twenty-five  feet,  have  since  filled   up 
with  gravel    and  rubbish   to  within   a  few 
feet   of  the  surface,  a  work  which  in  this 
region  would  seem  to  require  centuries ;  and 
upon  the  surface  of  this  material  large  trees 
are  now  standing,  and  stumps  of  much  older 
ones  are   seen,  that  have  long  been  rotting. 
In  clearing  out  the  pits  a  mass  of  copper 
was  discovered,  buried  in  the  gravel  nearly 
twenty  feet  below  the  surface,  which  the  an 
cients  had  entirely  separated  from  the  vein. 
They  had  supported  it  upon  blocks  of  wood, 
and,  probably  by  means  of  fire  and  their 
hammers,  had  removed  from  it  all  the  adhering 
stone  and  projecting  points  of  copper.  Under 
it  were  quantities  of  ashes  and  charred  wood. 
The  weight  of  the  mass,  after  all  their  at 
tempts  to  reduce  it,  appears  to  have  been 
too  great  for  them  to  raise ;  and  when  it  was 
finally  taken  out  in  1848,  it  was  found  to 
4* 


weigh  over  six  tons.  It  was  about  ten  feet 
long,  three  feet  wide,  and  nearly  two  feet 
thick.  Beneath  this  spot  the  vein  after 
ward  proved  extremely  rich,  affording  many 
masses  of  great  size. 

The  veins  worked  by  the  Minesota  Com 
pany  all  lie  along  the  southern  slope  of  the 
northern  trap  ridge,  not  far  below  the  sum 
mit.  Three  veins  have  been  discovered  which/ 
lie  nearly  parallel  to  each  other.  The  lowest 
one  is  along  the  contact  of  the  gray  trap  of 
the  upper  part  of  the  hill  and  a  stratum  of 
conglomerate  which  underlies  this.  It  dips 
with  the  slope  of  this  rock  toward  the  north- 
north-west  at  an  angle  of  about  46°  with  the 
horizon.  The  next  upper  vein  outcropping,  80 
or  90  feet  further  up  the  hill,  dips  about  61°, 
and  falls  into  the  lower  vein  along  a  very 
irregular  line.  Both  veins  are  worked,  and 
the  greatest  yield  of  the  mine  has  been  near 
their  line  of  meeting. 

The  position  of  the  veins  along  the  range 
of  the  rocks,  instead  of  across  them,  gives  to 
the  mines  of  this  character  a  great  advantage, 
as  their  productiveness  is  not  limited  to  the 
thickness  of  any  one  belt  which  proves  favor 
able  for  the  occurrence  of  the  metal ;  and 
the  outcrop  of  the  vein  can  be  traced  a  great 
distance  along  the  surface,  affording  conve 
nient  opportunities  for  sinking  directly  upon 
it  at  any  point. 

The  Minesota  Company,  having  abund 
ant  room,  have  been  able  to  sink  a  large 
number  of  shafts  along  a  line  of  outcrop 
of  1,800  feet,  and  several  of  the  levels  be 
low  extend  considerably  further  than  this 
entire  length.  In  1858  nine  shafts  were 
in  operation,  and  ten  levels  were  driven  on 
the  vein,  the  deepest  at  535  feet  down  the 
slope.  The  ten  fathom  level  at  that  time 
was  1,9GO  feet  in  length.  This  mine  is  re 
markable  for  the  enormous  size  and  great 
number  of  its  masses.  The  largest  one  of 
these,  taken  out  during  the  year  1857,  after 
being  uncovered  along  its  side,  refused  to 
give  way,  though  1,450  pounds  of  powder 
had  been  exploded  behind  it  in  five  succes 
sive  sand-blasts.  A  charge  of  625  pounds 
being  then  fired  beneath  it,  the  mass  was  so 
much  loosened  that  by  a  succeeding  blast  of 
750  pounds  it  was  torn  off  from  the  masses 
with  which  it  connected,  and  thrown  over 
in  one  immense  piece.  It  measured  forty- 
five  feet  in  length,  and  its  greatest  thickness 
was  over  eight  feet.  Its  weight  was  estima 
ted  at  about  500  tons.  What  it  proved  to 
be  is  not  certain,  as  no  account  was  preserved 


'56 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


of  the  pieces  into  which  it  was  cut,  but  it  is 
known  to  have  exceeded  400  tons.  Other 
masses  have  been  taken  out  which  presented 
a  thickness  of  over  five  feet  solid  copper. 
The  value  of  the  silver  picked  out  from 


among  the  copper  has  amounted  in  one  year 
to  about  $1,000. 

The  reports  of  the  company  present  the 
folio  wing:   statistics    of    the   mine   from    its 

D 

earliest  operations: — 


Mineral 
Tears.       No.ofmen    Expenditure.         product.  Per-centage         Value  of       Assessments     Dividends, 
employed.                                     Tons.                               Copper.                paid. 
1848,               20           $14,000                      6|         ..                $1,700           $10,500 
1849,               60              28,000                    52            ..                14,000             16,500 
1850,               90             58,000                  103            ..                29,000             36,000 
1851,             175              88,000                 307*          ..                90,000               3,000 
1852,             212           108,000                  520            ..              196,000                   ..            $30,000 
1853,             280           168,000                  523            ..              210,000                   ..               60,000 
1854,             392           218,000                  763            ..              290,000                   ..               90,000 
1855,             471           280,933               1.434           71              549,876                   ..             200,000 
1856,             537            356,541               1.859           72.5          701,906                   ..             300,000 
1857,             615           402,538               2,058           74             736,000                   ..             300,000 
1858,             713           384,827               1,833            70.1          595,000                   ..             180,000 
1859,            718           384,394              1,626           71             515,786                  ..            120,000 
(  8  months  to  Sept.  1  1,431 

'     (  Estimate,  for  the  year  2,250 

In  consequence  of  recent  discoveries  of 
masses  of  copper  running  into  the  sandstone 
off  from  the  vein  itself,  the  product  of  the 
year  1860  will  considerably  exceed  that  of 
any  other  year  ;  the  profits,  however,  are  not 
proportionally  large,  owing  to  the  low  price 
of   copper.     To  this  the  diminished   prof 
its  of  1858  and  1859  are  partly  to  be  attrib 
uted.     The    product   for   1857,   1858,  and 
1859  was  divided  as  follows  :  — 

„                       Masses.          Barrel  work.    Stamp  work. 
Tears-                  Ibs.                   Ibs.                    Ibs. 

1857,           3,015,581           819,900           280,512 
1858,           2,429,989           903,871           333,352 
1859,           2,040,454          929,571           282,092 

Districts.                                          1855.            185 
Keweenaw  2,245         2,1 

Besides  the  dividends  named,  the  original 
stockholders  have  derived  large  profits  from 
the  sale  of  portions  of  the  extensive   terri 
tory,  three  miles  square,  which  belonged  to 
the   company,   and    the   organization   upon 
these  tracts  of  new  companies. 
Before  the  completion  of  the  St.  Mary's 
Canal,  no  exact  records  were  preserved  of 
the  amount  of  copper  sent  from  Lake  Su 
perior.     But  up  to  the  close  of  navigation  in 
1854  it  is  supposed  the  total  shipments  from 
the   commencement  of  mining  in  1845  had 
been  about  7642  tons  of  pure  copper. 
Since  that  time,  the  annual  product  of 
rough  copper  has  been  as  follows  :  — 

6.             1857.             1858.              1S59.                  1860. 
28         2,200         2,125         1,910.3         1,910.8 
62             704         1,116         1,533.1         3,064.8 
37          3,190         2,655         2,597.6         3,588.7 
28.1 

Portage  315            4 

Ontonagon     .          1,984         2,7 

Porcupine   Mo  ,  etc  

Total 4,544         5,357          6,094         5,896         6,041.0          8,543.4 


'"  The  condition  of  the  Lake  Superior  mines 
at  the  close  of  the  year  1860  is  well  pre 
sented  in  the  business  circular  of  Messrs. 
Dupee,  Beck,  &  Sayles,  of  Boston,  received 
since  the  preceding  pages  passed  through 
the  hands  of  the  printer  and  stereotyper. 
From  this  we  introduce  the  following  ad 
ditional  matter.  The  depreciation  in  the 
price  of  copper  from  a  maximum  of  29i 
cents  a  pound  of  the  few  preceding  years  to 
a  maximum  of  24£  cents  and  a  minimum  of 
19  cents,  had  induced  increased  economy 
and  care  in  the  administration  of  the  mines, 
the  good  effects  of  which  were  already  be 
ginning  to  be  experienced  : — 


"Freights  to  and  from  the  mines  from 
May  to  September  were  25  per  cent,  less 
than  in  1859.  The  transportation  of  a  ton 
of  copper  from  the  lake  shore  to  Boston, 
cost,  after  the  opening  of  St.  Mary's  Canal., 
1855,  $20;  in  1860,  to  Boston,  $11,  and  to 
New  York,  $9.  The  substitution  of  bitu 
minous  coal  for  wood,  which  has  been  de 
livered  during  the  past  summer  at  the 
wharves  of  Portage  Lake  for  $3.25  per  ton, 
will  save  much  money  and  leave  the  forests 
of  the  country  for  building  materials  and 
for  timbering  of  the  mines.  With  the  wants 
of  a  rapidly  increasing  population,  new  and 
cheaper  sources  of  supply  are  constantly 


coppKn. 


57 


opening  in  the  region  itself.  Many  agricul 
tural  products,  hitherto  sent  up  at  great  cost 
from  Lower  Michigan,  are  now  raised  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  mines,  and  at  the  new 
settlements  on  the  south-western  shores  of 
the  lake,  cheaply  and  abundantly.  At 
Portage  Lake,  a  machine  shop,  an  iron 
foundry,  and  a  manufactory  of  doors,  sash 
es,  blinds,  etc.,  have  been  put  in  operation 
during  1860.  The  smelting  works  of  the 
Portage  Lake  Company  are  now  success 
fully  refining  the  products  of  that  district. 
These  works  consist  of  four  reverberatory  and 
two  cupola  furnaces,  capable  of  refining  6000 
tons  per  annum.  The  buildings  are  of  the 
most  thorough  and  substantial  character, 
and  the  location  of  the  works  accessible,  at 
a  very  small  cost  of  transportation,  to  all  the 
mines  now  wrought,  or  likely  to  be  wrought 
for  many  years  hence,  in  that  neighbor 
hood.  Hitherto,  to  save  cost  of  transporta 
tion  to  the  smelting  companies  in  other 
states,  it  has  been  necessary  to  dress  the 
rough  copper  to  an  average  probably  of  70 
per  cent.  Now,  by  the  proximity  of  the 
furnaces  to  the  mines,  a  dressing  of  50  per 
cent,  will  answer  the  same  purpose,  while 
the  refined  copper,  hjtherto  rarely  ready  for 
the  market  before  the  1st  to  15th  July,  will 
be  sent  directly  from  the  lake  to  New 
York  or  Boston,  arriving  there  in  ordinary 
seasons  by  the  1st  of  June.  Further,  there 
will  be  added  the  new  facility  of  obtaining 
cash  advances  through  the  winter  on  the 
warehouse  receipts  of  the  smelting  company. 

"  The  opening  of  the  entry  into  Portage 
Lake  during  the  past  season  has  been  one  of 
the  greatest  improvements  in  the  navigation 
of  the  Lake  Superior  region  since  the  com 
pletion  of  the  ship  canal  'around  the  falls  of 
St.  Mary's  river.  At  the  comparatively 
small  cost  of  $50,000,  steamers  of  the  larg 
est  class  able  to  pass  through  the  St.  Mary's 
Canal  may  now  enter  Portage  Lake,  and  dis 
charge  their  cargoes  at  the  docks  of  the  sever 
al  companies  located  on  its  shores.  Besides 
avoiding  the  loss  of  time  and  expense  of  tran 
shipment  hitherto  necessary,  the  opening  of 
Portage  Lake  has  provided  one  of  the  most 
capacious  and  safest  harbors  in  the  world. 

''  In  the  Ontonagon  district,  a  plank  road 
has  been  completed  recently,  facilitating  to 
a  very  great  extent  the  transportation  to 
and  from  the  Minesota,  National,  Rock- 
land,  and  Superior  mines. 

"  The  iron  interests  of  Lake  Superior  are 
rapidly  attaining  great  importance.  The 


amount  brought  down  to  Marquette,  the 
port  of  shipment,  in  1860,  was  :  of  iron  ore 
from  the  Jackson  Company,  62,980  tons  ; 
Cleveland  Company,  47,889 ;  Lake  Superior 
Company,  39,394  ;  total,  150,263.  Of  pig 
iron,  Pioneer  Company,  3050  tons;  S.  R. 
Gay,  1800;  Northern  Company,  650;  total, 
6500.  Ore  valued  at  $3  ;  pig  at  '$25  ;  ag 
gregate  value,  $588,289." 

The  following  statistics  are  presented  of 
the  principal  mines  : — 

COMPARATIVE  TABLE  OF  SHIPMENTS  OF  ROUGH  COPPER 
FROM  LAKE  SUPERIOR  DURING  THE  SEASONS  OF  1859 
AND  1860. 

The  weights  of  the  barrels  have  been  deducted,  and  the 
results  are  given  In  tons  (2000  Ibs.)  and  tenths. 

KEWEENAW    DISTRICT. 

1859.  1860. 

Central 172.3  78.6 

Clark 5.6  7.2 

Connecticut 24.  6.3 

Copper  Falls 329.4  328. 

Kagle  River 6. 

North  American 8.7 

Northwest 73.8  103.5 

Phoenix 32.  31.2 

Pittsburg  and  Boston 1,254.5  1,357. 

Summit. .  4. 


1,910.3 

PORTAGE    DISTRICT. 

C.  C.  Douglass 

Isle  Royale 241.3 

Franklin   204.7 

Hancock 

Huron 7.4 

Mesnard .6 

Pewabic. .    734.4 

Portage 8.7 

Quincy 336. 

1,533.1 

ONTONAGON    DISTRICT. 

Adventure 139,4 

Aztec 15.3 

Bohemian 3. 

Evergreen  Bluff 27. 

Hamilton .7 

Mass 12.3 

Minesota 1.623  6 

National 323.2 

Nebraska 9.8 

Norwich 22. 

Ogima 36.4 

Ridge 27.8 

Rockland 347. 

Superior 1.7 

Toltec 9.4 


2,597.6 

Keweenaw  District 1,910.3 

Portage 1,533.1 

Ontonagon 2,597.6 

Porcupine  Mountain 

Sundry  mines 


G,  041.0 


1,910.8 

24. 
458.6 
267. 
7.2 

78. 

1,363.8 

866.2 

3,064.8 

29.7 
4.9 

41.9 
7.9 

2,183.4 

727.8 

26.4 


552.7 
14. 


3,588  7 

1,910.8 

3,050  8 

3,553.7 

20.5 

7.6 

8,543.4 


58 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


Franklin :  the  product  for  the  year  end 
ing  November  30  has  been  112  masses, 
weighing  72,166  Ibs. ;  721  barrels  of  barrel 
work,  469,116  Ibs.;  and  67  barrels  stamp 
work,  63,816  Ibs.  Total,  605,098  Ibs., 
equal  to  180T\  tons  refined  copper.  The 
actual  shipments  were  about  267  tons  rough, 
or  158  tons  ingot  copper.  The  stamps  are 
Ball's,  consisting  of  two  pairs  of  two  heads 
each.  They  did  not  commence  work  till 
November  19. 

Huron:  total  shipments  this  year,  65^ 
tons  of  641  per  cent,  barrel  work,  and  12,- 
311  Ibs.  of  refined  copper,  smelted  at  the 
Portage  Lake  works.  There  is  ready  for 
the  stamps  an  amount  equivalent,  at  a  fair 
estimate,  to  the  quantity  shipped  this  sea 
son. 

Isle  Royal  e  :  total  shipments  this  season 
458T67  tons,  averaging  over  70  per  cent. 
Preparations  have  been  made  for  opening  a 
large  amount  of  ground  during  the  winter, 
with  a  view  to  large  shipments  at  the  open 
ing  of  navigation. 

Minesota:  November  returns,  150  tons. 
The  total  shipments  in  1860  were  1992 
masses,  and  2127  barrels  of  barrel  and 
stamp  work.  Net  weight,  4,366,718  Ibs. 
This  is  the  largest  shipment  made  in  one 
year  by  any  mine  at  the  lake.  The  promise 
for  future  production  is  as  great,  at  least,  as 
the  result  for  this  year. 

Pewabic  :  November  product,  304T87  tons. 
The  actual  shipments  for  the  season  have 
been  2,727,632  Ibs.  The  product  for  one 
year  to  November  30  was  as  follows :  467 
masses,  weighing  348,658  Ibs. ;  2294  bar 
rels  kiln  or  barrel  work,  weighing  net, 
1,450,778  Ibs. ;  342  barrels  No.  1,  stamp, 
379,718  Ibs.;  399  barrels  No.  2,  stamp, 
389,973  Ibs.;  401  barrels  No.  3,  stamp, 
346,912  Ibs.;  add  on  tributers'  account, 
27,428.  Total,  2,943,467  Ibs. 

The  smelting  returns  are  not  yet  all  made, 
tut  on  an  estimate  based  on  past  experience, 
the  result  will  not  vary  much  from  2,030,- 
992  Ibs.,  or  about  1000  tons  of  ingot  cop 
per. 

During  the  year  there  have  been  shipped 
1533  ounces  of  silver. 

Pittsburg  and  Boston  :  November  prod 
uct,  114  tons.  Total  shipments,  1357  tons. 
Total  product  for  the  year,  1402  tons.  The 
annual  report  recently  published  gives  the 
result  of  the  year  ending  December  1, 1859. 
The  product  for  that  year  was  l,099T8o-  tons, 
yielding  64T3^  per  cent.,  or  707T\  tons  in- 


oot  copper.  The  receipts,  including  $2,- 
405  17  from  sales  of  silver,  were  $292,- 
503  14.  The  expenditures  were  $272,- 
175  75,  leaving  net  profit,  $20,327  39. 

COPPER    SMELTING 

The  ores  of  copper,  unlike  those  of  most 
of  the  other  metals,  are  not  in  general  re 
duced  at  the  mines ;  but  after  being  concen- 
rated  by  mechanical  processes  called  dress 
ing — which  consist  in  assorting  the  piles  ac 
cording  to  their  qualities,  and  crushing,  jig 
ging,  and  otherwise  washing  the  poorer  sorts 
— they  are  sold  to  the  smelters,  whose  estab 
lishments  may  be  at  great  distances  off,  even 
on  the  other  side  of  the  globe.  The  richer 
ores,  worth  per  ton  three  or  four  times  as 
many  dollars  as  the  figures  that  represent 
their  percentage  of  metal,  well  repay  the 
cost  of  transportation,  and  are  conveniently 
reduced  at  smelting  works  situated  on  the 
coast  near  the  markets  for  copper,  and  where 
the  fuel  required  for  their  reduction  is  cheap. 
At  Swansea,  in  South  Wales,  there  are  eight 
great  smelting  establishments,  to  which  all 
the  ores  from  Cornwall  and  Devon  are  car 
ried,  and  which  receive  other  ores  from  al 
most  all  parts  of  the  wprld.  It  is  stated  that 
in  this  district  there  are  nearly  600  furnaces 
employed,  which  consume  about  500,000 
tons  of  coal  per  annum,  and  give  employ 
ment  to  about  4,000  persons  besides  colliers. 
The  amount  of  copper  they  supply  is  more 
than  half  of  that  consumed  by  all  nations. 
The  total  product  of  fine  copper  produced 
bv  all  the  smelting  establishments  of  Great 
Britain  for  1857  is  stated  to  be  18,238  tons, 
worth  £2,079,323. 

The  copper  smelting  works  of  the  United 
States  are  those  upon  the  coast,  depending 
chiefly  upon  foreign  supplies  of  ores,  and 
those  of  the  interior  for  melting  and  refining 
the  Lake  Superior  copper.  There  are  also 
the  furnaces  at  the  Tennessee  mines,  which 
have  been  already  noticed.  The  former  are 
situated  at  the  following  localities :  At 
Point  Shirley,  in  Boston  harbor,  are  the 
furnaces  of  the  Revere  Copper  Company, 
which  also  has  rolling  mills  and  other  works 
connected  with  the  manufacture  of  copper 
at  Canton,  on  the  Boston  and  Providence 
railroad.  At  Taunton,  Mass.,  a  similar  estab 
lishment  to  that  at  Canton  is  owned  by  the 
Messrs.  Crocker,  of  that  town.  There  are 
smelting  furnaces  at  New  Haven,  Conn. ;  at 
Bergen  Point,  in  New  York  harbor  ;  and  at 
Baltimore,  on  a  point  in  the  outer  harbor. 


COPPER. 


59 


The  furnaces  established  for  working  the 
Lake  Superior  copper  are  at  Detroit,  Cleve 
land,  and  Pittsburg.  At  the  last  named 
are  two  separate  establishments,  with  each 
of  which  is  connected  a  rolling  mill,  at 
which  the  ingot  copper  is  converted  into 
sheets  for  home  consumption  and  the  eastern 
market.  A  furnace  was  also  built  at  Port 
age  lake,  Lake  Superior,  in  1860,  of  capacity 
equal  to  melting  6000  tons  of  copper  annu 
ally.  The  details  and  extent  of  the  opera 
tions  carried  on  by  the  smelting  works  ap 
pear  to  have  been  carefully  kept  from  publi 
cation.  In  a  work  on  "  Copper  and  Copper 
Smelting,"  by  A.  Snowdon  Piggott,  M.  D., 
who  had  charge  of  the  chemical  assays,  etc., 
for  the  Baltimore  Company,  published  in 
1858,  while  the  English  processes  are  fully 
described,  no  information  is  given  as  to  the 
methods  adopted  at  the  American  works ; 
and  of  their  production  all  the  information 
is  contained  in  the  two  closing  sentences  of 
the  appendix,  as  follows:  "Of  the  copper- 
smelting  establishments  of  the  United  States 
I  have  no  statistics.  Baltimore  turns  out 
about  8,000,000  pounds  of  refined  copper 
annually."  Applications  which  have  been 
made  by  the  writer  to  the  proprietors  of 
several  of  the  establishments  for  information 
as  to  the  business,  have  been  entirely  unsuc 
cessful.  The  total  production  of  copper  in 
1858  was  supposed  to  be  about  13,000  tons 
per  annum;  and  of  this  about  7000  tons 
were  required  by  the  rolling  mills  for  mak 
ing  sheet  copper,  sheet  brass,  and  yellow 
metal. 

The  French  treatise  on  Metallurgy  by 
Professor  Rlvot  contains  the  only  published 
description  of  the  American  method  of 
smelting  copper.  By  the  English  process, 
the  separation  of  the  metal  from  its  ores  is 
a  long  and  tedious  series  of  alternate  roast- 
ings  or  calcinations,  and  fusions  in  rever- 
beratory  furnaces.  The  system  is  particu 
larly  applicable  to  the  treatment  of  poor, 
sulphurous  ores  contaminated  with  other 
metals,  as  iron,  arsenic,  etc.,  and  can  only  be 
conducted  to  advantage  where  fuel  is  very 
cheap,  the  consumption  of  this  being  at  the 
rate  of  about  20  tons  to  the  ton  of  copper 
obtained.  The  process  employed  in  Ger 
many  is  much  more  simple,  and  the  methods 
in  use  at  the  American  smelting  works  are 
more  upon  the  plan  of  these.  Blast  or  cu 
pola  furnaces  supply  at  some  of  them  the 
place  of  reverberatories,  and  the  separation 
of  the  metal  is  completed  in  great  part  by 


one  or  two  smeltings.  The  treatment  of  the 
Lake  Superior  copper  is  comparatively  an 
easy  operation.  For  this  large  reverberatory 
furnaces  are  employed,  through  the  roof  of 
which  is  an  opening  large  enough  to  admit 
masses  of  3  to  3-J-  tons  weight,  which  are 
raised  by  cranes  and  lowered  into  the  fur 
nace.  The  barrels  of  barrel  work  are  intro 
duced  in  the  same  way,  and  left  in  the  fur 
nace  without  unpacking.  .  When  the  furnace 
is  charged,  the  opening  in  the  top  is  secure 
ly  closed  by  fire-proof  masonry,  and  the  fire 
of  bituminous  coal  is  started,  the  flame  from 
which  plays  over  the  bridge,  and,  reflected 
from  the  roof,  strikes  upon  the  copper,  caus 
ing  it  gradually  to  sink  down  and  at  last 
flow  in  a  liquid  mass.  A  small  portion  of 
the  copper  by  the  oxidizing  action  of  the 
heated  gases  is  converted  into  a  suboxide, 
which  is  partially  reduced  again,  and  in  part 
goes  into  the  slags  in  the  condition  of  a 
silicate  of  copper,  the  metal  of  which  is  not 
entirely  recovered.  The  mixture  of  quartz, 
calcareous  spar,  and  epidote  accompanying 
the  copper,  is  sometimes  such  as  to  melt 
and  form  a  good  cinder  without  addition  of 
any  other  substance,  but  usually  some  lime 
stone  or  other  suitable  material  is  added  as 
a  flux.  Complete  fusion  is  effected  in  12  to 
1 5  hours  according  to  the  size  of  the  masses, 
and  this  is  kept  up  for  about  an  hour  in 
order  that  the  fine  particles  of  copper  may 
find  their  way  through  the  fluid  slag,  which 
floats  upon  the  metal.  Working  tools  call 
ed  rabbles  are  then  introduced  through  the 
side-doors  of  the  furnace,  and  the  charge  is 
stirred  up  and  the  slag  is  drawn  out  through 
the  door.  It  falls  upon  the  ground,  and  is 
taken  when  sufficiently  cool  to  the  cupola  or 
slag  furnaces  where  it  is  chilled  with  water 
to  render  it  easy  to  break  up.  Those  por 
tions  which  contain  as  much  as  one  fourth 
per  cent,  of  copper  are  reserved  to  be  pass 
ed  through  the  slag  furnace.  The  total 
amount  of  slag  is  usually  less  than  20  per 
cent,  of  the  whole  charge.  In  the  melting 
the  copper  absorbs  carbon,  which  if  allow 
ed  to  remain  would  render  it  brittle  and 
unfit  for  use.  To  remove  it  the  fire  is  so 
arranged  that  the  gases  pass  through  with 
much  unconsumed  air ;  this  playing  on  the 
surface  of  the  copper  produces  a  suboxide 
of  the  metal,  which  in  the  course  of  half  an 
hour  is  quite  taken  up  by  the  copper,  and 
coming  in  contact  with  the  particles  of  car 
bon  the  oxygen  combines  with  this,  and  re 
moves  it  in  the  form  of  carbonic  acid  gas. 


60 


MIXING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


It  now  remains  to  remove  the  excess  of 
oxygen  introduced,  which  is  effected  by  the 
ordinary  method  of  refining.  A  large  pro 
portion  $f  fuel  is  employed  on  the  grate  for 
the  amount  of  air  admitted  through  it,  so 
that  the  flames  as  they  pass  over  the  bridge 
convey  little  free  oxygen,  and  the  surface  of 
the  metal  is  covered  with  fine  charcoal. 
After  a  little  time  a  pole  of  green  wood  is 
thrust  into  the  melted  copper  and  stirred 
about  so  long  as  gases  escape  from  the  sur 
face.  It  is  then  taken  out,  and  if  on  testing 
the  copper  some  suboxide  still  remains,  the 
refining  is  cautiously  continued  with  char 
coal,  and  just  when,  as  appears  by  the  tests, 
all  the  oxide  is  reduced,  the  work  of  dipping 
out  the  metal  is  commenced.  This  is  done 
by  large  iron  ladles,  the  whole  set  of  men 
employed  at  two  furnaces,  to  the  number 
of  about  12,  coming  to  this  work  and  tak 
ing  turns  in  the  severe  task.  They  protect 
themselves  from  the  intense  heat  by  wet 
cloths  about  their  arms,  and  as  quickly  as 
possible  bale  out  a  ladle  full  of  copper  and 
empty  it  into  one  or  more  of  the  ingot 
moulds,  of  which  36  are  arranged  in  front 
of  the  furnace-door  upon  three  parallel  bars 
over  a  trough  of  water.  As  the  metal  be 
comes  solid  in  each  mould,  this  is  upset, 
letting  the  ingot  fall  into  the  water.  The 
weight  of  the  ingot  being  20  pounds,  the 
filling  of  them  all  removes  720  pounds  of 
copper  from  the  furnace.  The  metal  that 
remains  is  then  tested,  and  according  to  its 
condition  the  discharging  may  be  continued 
or  it  may  be  necessary  to  oxidize  the  copper 
again  and  repeat  the  refining,  or  merely  to 
throw  more  charcoal  upon  the  surface  and 
increase  the  heat.  The  time  required  to 
ladle  out  the  whole  charge  is  from  four  to 
six  hours.  When  this  is  completed  the  sole 
of  the  furnace  is  repaired,  by  stopping  the 
cracks  with  sand  and  smoothing  the  surface 
to  get  all  ready  for  the  next  charge  ;  and  at 
the  same  time  the  second  furnace  has  reach 
ed  the  refining  stage  of  the  process.  One 
charge  to  a  furnace  is  made  every  evening, 
and  as  in  the  night  it  is  necessary  only  to 
keep  up  the  fires,  the  great  labor  of  the  proc 
ess  comes  wholly  in  the  day  time. 

The  following  is  the  estimated  cost  at 
Detroit  of  the  smelting,  on  a  basis  of  two 
furnaces,  each  of  which  is  charged  with  four 
and  a  half  to  five  tons  of  mass  copper,  con 
suming  two  and  a  half  tons  of  coal,  and  pro 
ducing  from  three  to  three  and  a  half  tons 
of  ingots : — 


Labor,  15  hands,  at  $1.50 $22.50 

Bituminous  coal,  5  tons,  at  $5 25.00 

Wood  and  charcoal 1.25 

Repairs  to  furnace,  average  for  the  season..        2.00 

$50.75 

To  this  should  be  added,  for  superintend 
ence,  office,  and  general  expenses,  perhaps 
ten  dollars  more,  which  would  make  the 
cost  for  six  or  seven  tons  of  ingot  copper, 
$60.75,  or  $9  to  $10  per  ton.  At  Pitts- 
burg  the  rate  charged  has  been  $11  per  ton; 
and  fuel  is  there  afforded  at  about  one  third 
the  amount  allowed  in  the  above  estimate. 

The  cupola  furnaces  for  .treating  the  slags 
are  of  very  simple  plan  and  construction. 
They  are  of  cylindrical  form,  about  ten  feet 
high,  and  three  feet  diameter  inside.  Their 
walls,  the  thickness  of  a  single  length  of 
fire  brick,  are  incased  in  boiler-plate  iron, 
and  stand  upon  a  cast-iron  ring,  which  is 
itself  supported  upon  four  cast-iron  columns 
about  three  feet  above  the  ground.  Trans 
verse  iron  bars  support  a  circular  plate,  and 
upon  this  the  refractory  sand  for  the  sole  of 
the  furnace  is  placed,  and  well  beaten  down 
to  the  thickness  of  a  foot,  with  a  sharp  slope 
toward  the  tapping  hole.  A  low  chimney 
conveys  away  the  gaseous  products  of  com 
bustion,  and  through  the  base  of  it  the 
workmen  introduce  the  charges.  The  blast 
is  introduced  by  three  tuyeres  a  foot  above 
the  sole ;  but  before  it  enters  the  furnace  it 
is  heated  bypassing  through  a  channel  around 
the  furnace.  A  steady  current  is  obtained  by 
the  use  of  three  double  acting  blowing  cylin 
ders,  which  give  a  pressure  equal  to  about 
three  and  a  half  inches  of  mercury. 

The  hands  employed  at  the  Detroit  es 
tablishment,  besides  the  superintendent  and 
head  smelter,  are  eighteen  furnace  men  and 
from  five  to  ten  workmen,  according  to  the 
arrivals  of  copper  during  the  season  of  navi 
gation.  After  the  stock  thus  received  is 
worked  up,  the  furnaces  remain  idle  during 
the  remainder  of  the  winter. 

USEFUL    APPLICATIONS    OF    COPPER. 

The  uses  of  copper  are  so  numerous  and 
important  that  the  metal  must  rank  next  in 
value  to  iron.  In  ancient  times,  indeed,  it 
was  the  more  useful  metal  of  the  two,  being 
abundant  among  many  nations  to  whom  iron 
was  not  known.  In  the  ancient  Scandina 
vian  tumuli  recently  opened  in  Denmark, 
among  the  various  implements  of  stone  were 
found  swords,  daggers,  and  knives,  the  blades 
of  which  were,  in  some  instances,  of  copper, 


61 


and  in  some  of  gold,  while  the  cutting  edges 
were  formed  of  iron,  showing  that  this  was 
more  rare  and  valuable  than  either  copper  or 
gold.  It  has  been  supposed  that  several  of 
the  ancient  nations,  as  the  Egyptians,  Greeks, 
etc.,  possessed  the  art  of  hardening  copper, 
so  as  to  make  it  serve  the  purposes  of  steel. 
That  they  employed  it  for  such  uses  as  those 
to  which  we  now  apply  tools  of  steel  is  cer 
tain,  and  also  that  the  specimens  of  some  of 
their  copper  tools  are  considerably  harder 
than  any  we  make  of  the  same  metal.  These 
are  found,  on  analysis,  to  contain  about  one 
part  in  ten  of  tin,  which,  it  is  known,  in 
creases,  when  added  in  small  proportions, 
the  hardness  of  copper,  and  this  was  prob 
ably  still  further  added  to  by  hammering. 

Among  the  most  important  uses  of  the  metal 
at  present  is  that  of  sheathing  the  bottoms 
of  ships  in  order  to  protect  the  timbers  from 
the  ravages  of  marine  animals,  and  present  a 
smooth  surface  for  the  easy  passage  of  the 
vessel  through  the  water.  The  metal  is  well 
'adapted,  from  its  softness  and  tenacity,  for 
rolling  into  sheets,  and  these  were  first  pre 
pared  for  this  use  for  the  Alarm  frigate  of 
the  royal  navy,  in  1761.  Sheet  lead  had 
been  in  use  before  this  time,  but  was  soon 
after  given  up  for  copper.  On  account  of 
the  rapid  deterioration  of  the  copper  by  the 
action  of  the  sea-water,  the  naval  department 
of  the  British  government  applied,  in  1823, 
to  the  Royal  Society  for  some  method  of 
preserving  the  metal.  This  was  furnished 
by  Sir  Humphry  Davy,  who  recommend 
ed  applying  strips  of  cast  iron  under  the 
copper  sheets,  which,  by  the  galvanic  cur 
rent  excited,  would  be  corroded  instead 
of  the  copper.  The  application  answered 
the  purpose  intended,  but  soon  had  to  be 
given  up,  for  the  copper,  protected  from 
chemical  action,  it  was  found,  became  cov 
ered  with  barnacles  and  other  shell-fish,  so 
as  seriously  to  impair  the  sailing  qualities  of 
the  vessels,  and  for  this  reason  it  has  been 
found  necessary  to  submit  to  the  natural  wast 
ing  of  the  metal,  and  replace  the  sheets  as  fast 
as  they  become  corroded. 

Various  alloys  have  been  proposed  as  sub 
stitutes  for  copper.  That  known  as  yellow 
metal,  or  Muntz's,  has  been  the  most  success 
ful  and  has  been  very  generally  introduced. 
It  consists  of  copper  alloyed  with  about  40 
per  cent,  of  zinc,  and  is  prepared  by  plung 
ing  cakes  of  zinc  into  a  bath  of  melted  cop 
ier  contained  in  a  reverbcratory  furnace. 

ie  volatilization  of  the  zinc  and  oxidation 


of  the  metals  is  guarded  against  by  a  cover 
ing  of  fine  charcoal  kept  upon  the  melted 
surface.  The  bolts,  nails,  and  other  fasten 
ings  for  the  sheathing,  and  for  various  other 
parts  of  the  ship,  are  made  also  of  copper 
and  of  yellow  metal ;  and  to  secure  the  great 
est  strength,  they  should  be  cast  at  once  in 
the  forms  in  which  they  are  to  be  used. 
The  manufacture  of  all  these  articles  is  ex 
tensively  carried  on  at  the  different  copper 
establishments  in  Massachusetts,  Connecti 
cut,  and  Baltimore. 

Sheet  copper  is  also  applied  to  many  other 
very  important  uses,  as  for  copper  boilers 
and  pipes,  for  large  stills  and  condensers, 
the  vacuum  pans  of  sugar  refineries,  and  a 
multitude  of  utensils  for  domestic  purposes, 
and  for  employment  in  the  different  arts. 
For  engraving  upon  it  is  prepared  of  the 
purest  quality  and  of  different  thicknesses,  ac 
cording  to  the  kind  of  engraving  for  which 
it  is  to  be  used.  The  engraver  cuts  it  to  the 
size  he  requires,  planishes  it,and  gives  to  it  the 
dead  smooth  surface  peculiar  to  engraving 
plates.  The  smaller  utensils  of  sheet  copper,  as 
urns,  vases,  etc.,  are  very  ingeniously  hammer 
ed  out  from  a  flat  circular  sheet.  As  the  ham 
mering  is  first  applied  to  the  central  portion, 
this  spreads  and  takes  the  form  of  a  boAvl. 
As  the  metal  becomes  harder  and  brittle  by 
the  operation,  its  softness  and  ductility  are 
restored  by  annealing,  a  process  that  must 
often  be  repeated  as  the  hammering  is  con 
tinued,  and  toward  the  last,  when  the  metal 
has  become  more  susceptible  to  the  change 
induced  by  the  application  of  the  hammer, 
the  annealing  must  be  very  carefully  attended 
to,  and  .the  whole  process  be  conducted  with 
much  skill  and  judgment  acquired  by  long 
experience. 

For  larger  and  more  common  hollow  ar 
ticles,  the  sheet  copper  is  folded  around,  and 
lapped  by  various  sorts  of  joints,  some  of 
which  are  secured  by  rivets,  and  some  by  a 
double  lap,  the  two  edges  locking  into  each 
other,  and  made  close  by  hammering.  The 
edges  are  also  soldered  either  with  soft 
or  hard  solder.  For  the  latter  an  alloy  is 
made  for  the  purpose,  by  melting  in  a  crucible 
a  quantity  of  brass,  and  then  stirring  in  one- 
half  or  one-third  as  much  zinc,  until  the  blue 
flame  disappears.  The  mixture  is  then  turn 
ed  out  into  a  shallow  pan,  and  when  cold  the 
plate  is  heated  nearly  red  hot,  and  beaten 
on  an  anvil  or  in  a  mortar.  This  is  the  hard 
solder  of  the  braziers. 

A  still  more  important  application  of  the 


62 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OP    THE    UNITED    STATES 


copper  is  in  the  manufacture  of  the  alloy 
known  as  brass ;  and  that  called  bronze  also 
serves  many  useful  purposes.  The  former  is 
composed  of  copper  and  zinc,  the  latter  of 
copper  and  tin.  It  is  a  curious  fact  in  met 
allurgy  that  brass  was  extensively  manufac 
tured,  and  used  more  commonly  than  any 
single  metal  or  other  alloy,  many  centuries 
before  the  existence  of  such  a  metal  as  zinc 
was  known.  It  was  prepared  by  melting 
copper  and  introducing  fragments  of  the 
lapis  calaminaris,  an  ore  of  zinc,  in  which 
the  oxide  of  the  metal  is  combined  with  car 
bonic  acid.  Charcoal  was  also  added  to  the 
mixture,  and  by  the  reaction  with  this  the 
zinc  ore  was  reduced  to  the  metallic  state, 
and  at  once  united  with  the  copper,  without 
appearing  as  a  distinct  metal.  This  process 
is  still  in  use  for  making  brass,  but  the  more 
common  method  is  to  introduce  slips  of 
copper  into  melted  zinc,  or  to  plunge  beneath 
melted  copper  lumps  of  zinc  held  in  iron 
tongs.  The  proportion  of  the  two  metals  is 
always  uncertain,  owing  to  the  unknown 
quantity  of  zinc  that  is  consumed  and  es 
capes  in  fumes.  This  is  prevented  as  much 
as  possible  by  covering  the  melted  metal 
with  fine  charcoal,  and  by  throwing  in  pieces 
of  glass,  which  melt  and  cover  the  mixture 
with  a  thin  protecting  layer.  Old  brass  is 
much  used  in  making  new,  and  the  addition 
of  quantities  of  this  to  the  pot  containingthe 
other  ingredients,  adds  to  the  uncertainty  of 
the  composition.  The  best  proportion  of 
the  two  metals  is  believed  to  be  two  parts  of 
copper  to  one  of  zinc,  which  is  expressed  by 
the  term  "  eight-ounce  brass,"  meaning  eight 
ounces  of  zinc  to  sixteen  of  copper.  Sixteen- 
ounce  brass — the  two  metals  being  equal — 
is  a  beautiful  golden  yellow  alloy  called 
prince's  metal.  But  all  brass  of  more  than 
ten  ounces  of  zinc  to  the  pound  of  copper  is 
whitish,  crystalline,  hard,  and  brittle  ;  of  less 
than  ten  ounces  it  is  malleable,  soft,  and 
ductile.  The  alloys  known  as  pinchbeck, 
Manheim  gold,  bath  metal,  etc.,  formerly 
much  in  use  as  imitations  of  gold,  are  about 
three  to  four  ounce  brass. 

Brass  combines  a  great  number  of  ex 
cellent  qualities,  which  render  it  adapted  for 
a  multitude  of  uses.  Its  compactness, 
durability,  strength,  and  softness,  render  it 
an  excellent  material  for  fine  work,  and 
nothing,  except  tin,  perhaps,  is  a  more  agree 
able  substance  for  shaping  in  the  lathe.  In  use 
it  is  not  liable  to  rust  by  exposure,  is  easily 
kept  clean,  and  takes  a  polish  almost  as  beau 


tiful  as  that  of  gold.  It  is  hence  a  favorite 
material  for  the  works  of  watches  and  clocks, 
almost  all  sorts  of  instruments  in  which  great 
hardness  is  not  essential,  and  for  various 
household  utensils,  and  ornaments  upon  fur 
niture.  In  thin  plates  it  is  stamped  and  em 
bossed  in  figures,  and  is  thus  cheaply  applied 
to  many  useful  and  ornamental  purposes. 
Its  ductility  is  such,  that  those  sorts  contain 
ing  little  zinc  can  be  beaten  out,  as  will  be 
described  in  the  account  of  gold-beating, 
almost  like  gold-leaf  itself,  so  as  to  be  used 
as  a  cheap  substitute  for  this  in  gilding  in 
some  cases.  It  is  also  drawn  out  into  wire, 
often  of  great  fineness ;  and  of  the  suitable 
sizes  of  this  there  is  a  very  large  consumption 
in  the  manufacture  of  pins,  and  hooks  and 
eyes.  The  consumption  of  copper  alone  for 
these  articles  at  the  factories  at  Waterbury, 
Connecticut,  has  amounted  for  some  years 
past  to  more  than  a  ton  a  day.  By  ingenious 
machinery  the  brass  wires  are  clipped  to  their 
proper  length  for  pins,  pointed,  headed,  and 
after  being  tinned,  are  stuck  in  paper,  with 
very  little  attention  from  the  workmen. 
This  manufacture  used  often  to  be  cited  as  an 
example  of  the  economical  division  of  labor, 
showing  the  great  number  of  workmen 
through  whose  hands  a  single  pin  passed  be-, 
fore  it  was  completed.  It  serves  better  now 
to  exemplify  the  perfection  of  machinery, 
and  some  of  the  most  admirable  of  this, 
particularly  that  by  which  the  finished  pins 
are  stuck  in  their  papers,  is  a  peculiarly 
American  invention,  and  worth,  to  the  manu 
facturers  at  Waterbury  alone,  many  thousand 
dollars  annually.  The  solid-headed  pin, 
made  somewhat  after  the  manner  in  which 
cut  nails  are  headed,  was  invented  by  two  cits 
izens  of  Rhode  Island,  Mr.  Slocum  and  Mr.  S. 
G.  Reynolds.  This  was  before  the  year  1840. 
The  covering  of  the  brass  pins  and  hooks 
and  eyes  with  the  slight  coating  of  tin  is 
effected  by  placing  a  quantity  of  them  in  a 
scouring  barrel,  together  with  about  twice 
their  weight  of  tin  in  grains,  several  ounces 
of  cream  of  tartar,  and  several  gallons  of 
warm  water.  The  barrel  is  then  made  to  re 
volve  upon  its  axis,  until  the  pins  or  other 
articles  are  perfectly  clean.  After  this  they 
are  boiled  in  a  similar  mixture. 

Much  of  the  brass  of  the  ancients  was 
properly  bronze — that  is,  a  compound  of  cop 
per  and  tin.  This  alloy,  in  different  propor 
tions  of  its  ingredients,  is  still  of  very  great 
service.  Gun  metal — the  material  of  the  so- 
called  brass  cannon — is  composed  of  copper 


GOLD. 


63 


96  to  108  parts,  and  tin  11  parts.  The  com 
pound  resists  wear  extremely  well,  but  its 
strength  is  only  about  one-half  that  of 
wrought  iron.  Statues,  and  hard  castings  for 
machinery,  are  formed  of  this  alloy,  and  the 
former  have  -very  commonly  been  cast  from 
cannon  captured  in  the  victories  of  the  com 
mander  in  whose  honor  the  statues  were 
made.  One  of  the  most  noted  foundries  for 
the  casting  of  cannon,  statues,  and  bronze  or 
naments  in  the  United  States  is  that  of  the 
Messrs.  Ames,  at  Chicopee,  Mass.  The  eques 
trian  statue  of  Washington,  in  Union  square, 
New  York,  is  one  of  their  most  successful  pro 
ductions.  The  French  bronze  contains  2  parts 
of  tin,  1  of  lead,  6  of  zinc,  and  91  of  copper. 
Bell-metal  is  a  bronze  usually  consisting  of  7 
parts  of  copper  and  22  of  tin.  Their  manu 
facture  has  been  carried  on  at  different  cop 
per  foundries  in  the  United  States  for  many 
years.  The  largest  bell  in  the  country,  that 
upon  the  City  Hall,  in  New  York,  weighs 
23,000  pounds,  and  was  cast  in  Boston. 
The  largest  number  of  bells  is  probably  pro 
duced  at  the  foundry  of  the  Messrs.  Men- 
eely,  at  Troy,  N.  Y.  The  Chinese  gong  is 
now  an  American  manufacture,  composed  of 
bell-metal,  which,  after  being  cast,  is  forged 
under  the  hammer,  between  two  disks  of 
iron.  The  casting  is  made  malleable  by 
plunging,  while  hot,  into  cold  water. 

As  with  zinc  copper  forms  an  alloy  made 
to  imitate  gold,  so  with  tin  and  nickel  it  is 
made  to  form  a  combination  resembling  sil 
ver,  and  known  as  German  silver.  The  pro 
portions  of  the  metals  are  8  parts  of  copper 
to  either  3  or  4  each  of  the  two  other  met 
als.  This  is  a  very  useful  alloy,  answering 
as  a  cheap  substitute  for  silver  in  spoons, 
forks,  and  other  utensils,  and  for  brass  in 
various  instruments.  It  takes  the  place  of 
the  old-fashioned  pewter,  and,  being  cheaply 
electro-plated  with  silver,  is  made  as  beauti 
ful  as  the  genuine  articles  of  the  richer 
metal. 

Another  alloy  of  the  copper  and  tin  is  the 
telescope  or  speculum  metal,  which  consists 
of  about  one-third  tin  and  two-thirds  copper. 
It  is  of  a  steel-white  color,  very  hard  and 
brittle,  and  susceptible  of  a  high  polish, 
which  is  not  soon  tarnished,  qualities  that 
cause  it  to  be  used  for  the  mirrors  of  tele 
scopes. 

In  coinage  copper  is  largely  employed 
— in  the  old  cent  unalloyed,  and  in  the 
new  combined  with  12  parts  in  100  of 
nickel. 


CHAPTER  III. 

GOLD. 

ALTHOUGH  the  discovery  of  gold  mines 
was  the  chief  motive  that  led  to  the  settle 
ment  of  the  American  continent,  those  of  the 
United  States  appear  to  have  escaped  notice 
until  the  present  century.  The  only  excep 
tion  to  this  may  be  in  the  discovery  made 
by  some  Europeans  of  the  gold  region  of 
northern  Georgia  at  a  period  long  antece 
dent  to  the  occupation  of  this  district  by  the 
whites.  Of  this  fact  no  written  record  is 
preserved  ;  but  in  working  the  deposit  mines 
of  the  Nacoochee  valley,  in  Ilabersham  coun 
ty,  there  were  discovered,  about  the  year 
1842,  various  utensils  and  vestiges  of  huts, 
which  evidently  had  been  constructed  by 
civilized  men,  and  had  been  buried  there 
several  centuries.  It  is  supposed  they  be 
longed  to  De  Soto's  party,  which  passed 
through  this  region  in  the  sixteenth  century 
on  their  exploring  expedition  from  Florida 
to  the  Mississippi  river.  The  earlier  his 
torians  hardly  mention  gold  as  even  being 
supposed  to  exist  in  the  colonies.  Salmon, 
in  the  third  volume  of  his  "Modern  His 
tory,"  1746,  merely  alludes  to  a  gold  mine 
in  Virginia,  which  of  late  "  had  made  much 
noise,"  but  does  not  even  name  the  locality, 
and  evidently  attaches  no  importance  to  it. 
In  Jefferson's  "  Notes  on  Virginia  "  mention 
is  made  of  the  discovery  of  a  piece  of  gold 
of  17  dwts.  near  the  Rappahannock.  In 
1799,  as  mentioned  by  Wheeler  in  his  "  His 
tory  of  North  Carolina,"  a  son  of  Conrad 
Reed  picked  up  a  piece  of  gold  as  large  as 
a  small  smoothing  iron  from  the  bed  of  a 
brook  on  his  father's  farm,  in  Cabarrus  coun 
ty,  and  its  value  not  being  known  it  was 
kept  for  several  years  in  the  house  to  hold 
the  door  open,  and  was  then  sold  to  a  silver 
smith  for  $3.50.  In  Drayton's  "  View  of 
South  Carolina,"  1802,  the  metal  is  stated 
to  have  been  found  on  Paris  Mountain,  in 
Greenville  district.  About  this  time  it  be 
gan  to  be  met  with  in  considerable  lumps  in 
Cabarrus  county,  N.  C.,  and  not  long  after 
ward  in  Montgomery  and  Anson  counties. 
At  Reed's  mine,  in  Cabarrus,  the  discovery 
by  a  negro  of  a  lump  weighing  28  Ibs.  avoir 
dupois,  near  the  same  stream  already  referred 
to,  led  to  increased  activity  in  exploring  the 
gravelly  deposits  along  the  courses  of  the 
brooks  and  rivers  of  this  region,  and  numer 
ous  new  localities  of  the  metal  were  rapidly 
discovered.  A  much  larger  proportion  of 


64 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


gold  was  collected,  during  these  earlier  work 
ings,  in  coarse  lumps  than  in  the  operations 
of  later  times — pieces  of  metal  of  one  to 
several  pounds  weight  being  often  found. 
Before  the  year  1820,  as  stated  in  Bruce1  s 
Mineralogical  Journal  (vol.  i.,  p.  125),  the 
quantity  of  American  gold  received  at  the 
mint  at  Philadelphia  amounted  to  $43,689. 
All  of  this  was  from  North  Carolina.  In 
1827  there  had  been  received  from  the  same 
source  $110,000.  But  besides  this  amount, 
a  considerable  proportion  of  the  gold  prod 
uct  was  consumed  by  jewellers,  who  paid  a 
better  price  than  was  received  from  the  mint, 
and  was  retained  by  the  banks,  in  which  it 
was  deposited.  It  also  circulated  to  some 
extent  as  a  medium  of  exchange  in  the  min 
ing  region,  being  carried  about  in  quills,  and 
received  by  the  merchants  usually  at  the  rate 
of  ninety  cents  a  dwt.  The  total  product 
of  the  mines  must,  therefore,  have  been 
much  larger  than  appears  from  the  mint  re 
turns.  In  1829,  Virginia  and  South  Caro 
lina  began  to  appear  as  gold-producing  states 
— there  being  deposited  in  the  mint  from 
the  former  gold  to  the  value  of  $2,500,  and 
from  the  latter  of  $.3,500.  The  same  year 
the  rich  gold  deposits  of  northern  Georgia 
were  discovered,  and  suddenly  became  very 
productive,  so  that  the  receipts  at  the  mint 
from  this  state  for  the  year  1830  amounted 
to  $212,000.  Gold  mining  had  now  become 
an  established  branch  of  the  productive  in 
dustry  of  the  states,  and  as  its  importance 
increased,  the  necessity  was  felt  of  the  estab 
lishment  of  branch  mints  in  the  mining 
region.  One  was  constructed  by  act  of  Con 
gress  at  Dahloncga,  Lumpkin  county,  Geor 
gia,  and  another  at  Charlotte,  Mecklenburg 
county,  N.  C. ;  and  both  commenced  coining 
gold  in  1838.  From  the  irregular  manner 
in  which  the  gold  deposits  were  worked,  and 
their  uncertain  yield,  the  annual  production 
of  the  mines  was  very  variable.  In  a  single 
year  the  mint  at  Dahlonega  received  and 
coined  gold  to  the  value  of  8600,000  ;  and 
until  the  discovery  of  the  California  gold 
mines,  the  American  production  was  estima 
ted  to  average  annually  about  $100,000.  It 
was,  however,  gradually  declining  in  impor 
tance  from  the  year  1845 ;  and  of  late  years 
has  dwindled  away,  so  as  not  to  amount  to 
enough  for  the  support  of  the  branch  mints, 
the  abolition  of  which  by  act  of  Congress 
was  generally  looked  for  in  1857  and  1858. 
The  late  introduction  at  the  mines  of  North 
Carolina  and  Georgia  of  the  hydraulic  and 


sluice  washing,  which  has  proved  highly  suc 
cessful  in  California,  gives  encouragement 
that  these  mines  may  again  soon  became  as 
productive  as  before. 

The  rock  formations  of  the  United  States, 
in  which  gold  mines  are  Avorked,  follow  the 
range  of  the  Appalachians,  and  are  produc 
tive  chiefly  along  their  eastern  side  in  a  belt 
of  country  sometimes  attaining  a  width  of 
75  miles,  as  along  the  southern  part  of  North 
Carolina,  and  in  Georgia  in  two  distinct  belts 
Avhich  are  separated  by  a  district  of  forma 
tions  unproductive  in  gold.  The  extreme 
northern  gold  mines  on  this  range  are  in 
Canada  East,  upon  the  Chaudicre  river  and 
its  tributaries,  the  Du  Loup  and  the  Touflfe 
dcs  Pins.  In  1851  and  1852,  deposits  were 
worked  upon  these  streams,  and  about  1,900 
dwts.  were  collected  —  found  among  the 
gravel  which  lay  in  the  crevices  formed  by 
the  ragged  edges  of  the  upturned  argillaceous 
and  talcose  slates.  The  pieces  were  all  small, 
only  one  weighing  as  much  as  4  ounces.  The 
returns  were  not  sufficient  to  cover  the  out 
lays,  and  the  working  was  consequently 
abandoned. 

The  next  localities  on  the  range  toward 
the  south  which  have  furnished  gold  arc  in 
Vermont,  on  the  western  border  of  Wind 
sor  county,  in  the  towns  of  Bridgewater  and 
Plymouth.  At  Newfane,  in  Windham  county, 
a  piece  of  gold  was  found  in  1826,  which 
weighed  84-  oz. ;  but  the  only  successful  at 
tempts  to  work  the  deposits  were  com 
menced  in  1859,  in  Windsor  county,  and 
have  since  been  prosecuted  to  limited  ex 
tent.  At  Bridgewater,  the  gold  has  been 
found  in  place,  in  a  quartz  vein,  associated 
with  galena,  and  pyritous  copper,  and  iron. 
It  has  not  proved  sufficiently  rich  to  work. 
Through  western  Massachusetts  and  Connect 
icut,  and  the  south-east  part  of  New  York, 
and  through  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania, 
the  talcose  and  argillaceous  slates,  and  the 
other  rocks  of  the  gold  belt,  appear  to  be 
unproductive  in  this  metal,  a  little  gold  only 
having  been  met  with  in  some  of  the  ores 
worked  for  lead  and  copper  in  Lancaster 
county,  near  the  borders  of  Maryland. 
Specimens  of  quartz  rich  in  gold  have  been 
found  in  Montgomery  county,  in  the  last- 
named  state  ;  but  no  mine  has  been  worked 
there. 

In  Virginia  the  deposit  mines  of  Louisa 
county  especially  were  very  productive  even 
in  1833,  and  they  had  not  been  worked  long 
before  rich  veins  were  found,  and  operations 


IIYDBAULIC  MIXING. 


By  this  operation,  as  described  in  the  text,  hills  of  loose  materials  or  of  decomposed  slates  and  other 
rocks  containing  gold,  are  washed  down,  and  the  earthy  matters  are  swept  away  through  the  sluices 
made  either  of  wooden  troughs  or  by  excavating  channels  in  the  bed-rock.  In  these  the  coarse  gold  is 
caught  against  the  bars  placed  at  intervals  across  the  sluices.  This  is  a  purely  Californian  method,  and 
has  proved  so  effectual  in  collecting  the  little  gold  buried  in  large  bodies  of  earth,  that  it  is  now  generally 
adopted  in  other  gold  regions  in  which  the  conditions  are  favorable  for  its  practice. 


TUNNELLING   AT   TABLE    MOUNTAIN,    CALIFORNIA. 


This  represents  a  common  method  of  reaching  beds  of  rich  ores  that  lie  at  considerable  depths 
below  the  surface,  by  which  the  labor  of  removing  the  superficial  deposits  is  avoided.  Veins  of  ores, 
whether  lying  at  a  steep  or  gentle  inclination,  are  often  explored  by  such  tunnels  driven  in  upon  their 
course.  The  sides  and  roof  may  be  protected  or  not,  as  the  ground  is  soft  or  solid,  by  timbering. 

At  the  outside  of  the  tunnel  below  the  railroad  track  is  the  machine  called  the  "long  torn,"  a  shallow 
trough,  ten  to  twenty  feet  long,  and  about  sixteen  inches  wide.  The  lower  end,  which  turns  up  gently 
from  the  plane  of  the  bottom,  is  shod  with  iron  and  perforated  with  holes.  The  water  from  the  mine  is 
turned  on  the  upper  end,  and  flows  up  this  slope  and  through  the  holes,  carrying  with  it  the  finer  mud 
and  sand  which  are  continually  thrown  into  the  torn.  One  man  at  the  lower  end  keeps  the  mud  in  motion 
and  removes  the  coarse  lumps.  Under  the  lower  end  of  the  torn  is  placed  a  "  riffle  box,"  in  which  mer 
cury  may  be  used  to  advantage  if  the  gold  is  in  fine  particles. 


LARGE    ROCKER    USED   IN    CALIFORNIA    WITH    QUICKSILVER. 


The  above  cut  represents  a  rocker  of  unusual  dimensions,  which  has  been  introduced  in  some  places 
in  California,  and  is  employed  particularly  for  auriferous  deposits  in  which  the  gold  is  in  too  fine  particles 
to  be  caught  in  the  long  torn.  It  is  slightly  inclined,  and  is  rocked  by  one  man  while  the  others  collect 
the  gravel  and  throw  it  upon  the  perforated  iron  plate.  Across  the  bottom  of  the  trough  are  placed 
"riffle  bars,"  and  behind  each  one  of  these  some  mercury.  The  fine  particles  of  gold  coming  in  contact 
with  this  are  caught  and  retained  in  the  form  of  amalgam.  The  coarse  gravel  falls  off  the  lower  end  of 
the  plate,  while  the  fine  mud  and  sand  are  washed  by  the  water  through  the  holes  in  the  plate. 


STAJIPS  FOR  CRUSHING   GOLD   ORES. 


This  cut  represents  a  common  form  of  stamps,  such  as  are  used  for  pulverizing  auriferous  quartz 
or  other  ores.  They  are  variously  arranged  at  different  mills ;  sometimes  four  or  five  running  in  one 
set,  and  several  sets  being  placed  on  the  same  line,  but  separate  from  each  other.  This  arrangement  is 
more  convenient  for  stopping  a  portion  at  a  time  as  may  be  required  for  repairs  or  for  collecting  the  very 
coarse  gold  under  the  stamps  which  cannot  pass  through  the  grating  or  the  plates,  perforated  with  many 
holes,  that  are  usually  employed  in  front  of  the  stamps. 


GOLD. 


69 


upon  these  had  been  carried  on  to  consider 
able  extent  previous  to  1836,  principally  in 
the  counties  of  Spottsylvania,  Orange,  Louisa, 
Fluvanna,  and  Buckingham.  Some  of  the 
mines  produced  at  times  very  rich  returns,  but 
their  yield  was,  for  the  most  part,  exceedingly 
irregular,  the  gold  occurring  in  rich  pockets 
or  nests,  very  unequally  scattered  in  the  vein. 
The  occasional  richness  of  the  veins  caused 
the  attention  of  wealthy  capitalists  in  this 
country  and  in  England  to  be  directed  to 
this  region,  and  large  outlays  were  made,  in 
providing  powerful  engines  and  other  suita 
ble  machinery  for  working  the  ores,  and  in 
opening  the  mines.  But,  although  the  oper 
ations  have  been  directed  by  the  best  mining 
skill,  supported  by  abundant  capital,  the  en 
terprise,  on  the  whole,  has  not  proved  suc 
cessful,  and  since  1853  the  business  has 
greatly  declined  in  importance. 

In  North  Carolina  numerous  quartz  veins 
have  been  worked  during  the  last  30  years, 
and  operations  are  still,  carried  on  with  mod 
erate  success  at  several  mines  in  Guilford, 
Davidson,  Montgomery,  Cabarrus,  Rowan, 
and  Mecklenburg  counties.  Deposit  mines 
have  been  worked  with  great  success,  also, 
in  Burke,  Rutherford,  and  McDowell  coun 
ties.  At  a  single  time,  it  is  stated,  there 
might  have  been  seen,  from  one  point  of 
view  in  McDowell  county,  no  less  than  3,000 
persons  engaged  in  washing  the  deposits. 
In  this  district  sluice-washing  has  recently 
been  successfully  introduced  by  Dr.  Van 
Dyke,  who  is  also  engaged  in  the  same  proc 
ess  in  Georgia.  The  most  important  group 
of  mines  is  at  Gold  Hill,  on  the  southern 
line  of  Rowan  and  Cabarrus  counties.  Min 
ing  operations  were  begun  here  in  1843,  and 
for  10  years  the  annual  product  averaged 
about  $100,000;  the  last  four  years  of  this 
period  more  than  one-third  of  all  the  gold 
coined  at  the  Charlotte  mint  was  from  Gold 
Hill.  In  1853  the  property  was  purchased 
by  a  New  York  company,  by  which  it  has 
since  been  worked,  but  with  greatly  reduced 
prolits,  although  the  mines  have  been  fur 
nished  with  the  most  efficient  machinery. 
These  are  the  deepest  gold  mines  in  the  At 
lantic  states,  one  of  the  shafts  having  now 
reached  the  depth  of  680  feet.  The  ore  is  pyr^ 
itous  iron,  containing  gold  in  particles  rarely 
visible,  and  probably  chemically  combined 
with  the  iron  and  sulphur  in  the  form  of  a 
double  sulphuret.  It  is  separated  with  difficul 
ty,  and  very  imperfectly,  by  the  processes  of 
crushing  and  amalgamating ;  and  the  immense 


heaps  of  tailings  collected  below  the  mines, 
amounting  probably  to  over  two  million  bush 
els,  still  retain  quantities  of  gold  worth  from 
fifty  cents  to  two  dollars  the  bushel.  In  Da 
vidson  county  a  mine  was  opened  in  1839, 
which  produced  in  the  three  succeeding 
years  about  $7,000  worth  of  gold,  when  the 
ore  was  proved  to  be  more  valuable  for  sil 
ver  than  for  gold.  These  metals  were  as 
sociated  with  a  variety  of  metallic  ores, 
among  which  the  sulphuret,  carbonate,  and 
phosphate  of  lead  were  especially  almndant. 
Furnaces  were  constructed  for  reducing  these, 
and  separating  the  silver  obtained  with  the 
lead.  This  is  the  only  mine  east  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  which  has  furnished  any 
considerable  amount  of  silver  to  the  mint. 
It  is  now  known  as  the  Washington  mine. 

Although  many  gold  mines  have  been 
worked  in  South  Carolina,  the  only  one  of 
much  note  is  the  Dorn  mine,  in  Abbeville 
district.  In  1850  this  mine,  then  quite  new, 
produced  gold  to  the  value  of  $19,000,  and 
in  1852  the  production  rose  to  $202,216,  al 
though  the  mine  was  provided  with  very  im 
perfect  machinery  and  worked  in  a  very 
rude  manner.  This  large  yield  was,  how 
ever,  of  short  duration,  the  gold  occurring 
in  great  quantity  only  in  streaks  or  pocketa 
upon  a  short  portion  of  the  vein. 

The  Georgia  gold  mines,  first  worked  in 
the  north-east  part  of  the  state  in  1829,  were 
soon  found  to  extend  south-west  into  the 
country  beyond  the  Chestatee  river,  which 
was  then  possessed  by  the  Cherokee  Indians. 
In  1830  the  borders  of  this  territory  were 
overrun  by  a  reckless  set  of  adventurers,  not 
withstanding  the  attempts  made,  first  by  a 
force  of  United  States  troops  stationed  for 
the  protection  of  the  Indians,  arid  afterward 
by  Georgia  troops,  when  the  state  extended 
her  laws  in  1830  over  the  Cherokee  country. 
On  the  removal  of  the  Indians,  their  lands 
were  distributed  in  40  acre  lots,  by  lottery, 
among  the  inhabitants  of  the  state,  and  thus 
titles  were  obtained  to  the  gold  mines.  The 
deposit  mines  yielded  richly  for  a  few  years, 
and  the  whole  product  of  gold  for  the  first 
ten  years  of  their  working  is  supposed  to 
have  amounted  to  $16,000,000,  a. large  por 
tion  of  which  never  reached  the  United  States 
mints,  but  was  distributed  in  barter  through 
out  the  neighboring  states  and  worked  up  in 
jewelry.  From  1839  to  1849  the  produc 
tion  did  not  probably  exceed  $4,000,000.  »  A 
number  of  quartz  veins  were  opened  in  Hab- 
ersham,  Lumpkin,  Cherokee,  Carroll,  Colura- 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


bia,   and  other   counties,  and    considerable 
amounts  of  gold  were  obtained  from  these. 
They  were,  however,  generally  abandoned  i 
when  the  workings  reached  a  depth  at  which  [ 
machinery  would  be  required  for  draining 
the  mines.     In  Columbia  county,  about  20  j 
miles  from  Augusta,  the  McCormack  mine 
has  been  worked  without  interruption  for  i 
about  20  years  steadily,  producing  very  fair ; 
profits.     The  gold  is  found  in  small  particles 
in  a  honey-combed  quartz,  which  contains 
but  little  pyrites  and  some  galena.     Nearly 
all  the  gold  was  obtained  within  70  feet  of 
the  surface. 

In  Lumpkin  county  the  gold  is  found  in 
immense  beds  of  decomposed  micaceous  and 
talcose  slates,  which,  too  poor  to  be  worked 
by  the  slow  process  of  crushing  the  whole 
material  in  mills  and  then  washing  away  the 
earthy  matter,  will  probably  well  repay  the 
more  thorough  system  of  operations  accord 
ing  to  the  California  hydraulic  process.  Af 
ter  these  beds  had  remained  neglected  for 
many  years,  Dr.  II.  M.  Van  Dyke,  who  had 
gained  experience  in  California,  and  already 
applied  it  in  introducing  the  system  into 
North  California,  found  in  Boston,  Mass., 
capitalists  who  agreed  to  furnish  the  money 
required  for  securing  the  richest  tracts  in  the 
vicinity  of  Dahlonega,  and  conveying  to 
them  the  water  for  washing  down  the  hills 
on  the  plan,  which  will  be  more  particularly 
noticed  in  speaking  of  the  California  mines. 
In  1858  he  commenced  operations,  which 
have  since  been  actively  conducted ;  taking 
the  water  of  the  Yahoola  river  at  a  point 
about  13  miles  above  the  spot  where  it  will 
be  first  used,  and  conveying  it  by  a  canal  or 
ditch  over  the  more  elevated  portion  of  the 
country,  crossing  the  valleys  by  means  of 
sluices  supported  upon  trestle-work,  the 
height  of  which  gradually  increases  with  the 
descent  of  the  streams,  until  at  the  crossing 
of  the  Yahoola  near  Dahlonega  the  high 
trestle  now  in  construction  is  at  the  level  of 
240  feet  above  the  bed  of  the  river,  with  a 
span  between  the  hills  of  1,400  feet.  Be 
yond  this  crossing  the  canal  is  to  be  extended 
two  miles  further,  to  reach  the  rich  deposits 
upon  which  the  hose  washing  will  be  first 
applied.  It  is  expected  that  the  arrange 
ments  will  be  completed  early  in  1861,  and 
that  from  the  numerous  localities  controlled 
by  the  company,  at  which  the  water  can  be 
used  to  advantage,  the  proceeds  will  revive 
the  reputation  of  the  Georgia  gold  mines. 

Another  association  was  formed  in  Boston 


in  1857,  called  the  Nacoochee  Hydraulic 
Mining  Company,  for  the  purpose  of  apply 
ing  the  same  system  to  the  high  grounds  in 
White  county,  recently  a  part  of  Haber- 
sham,  in  which  are  the  mines  of  the  Nacoo 
chee  valley  and  its  vicinity,  at  one  period 
highly  productive,  and  where  many  deposits 
exist  at  so  great  an  elevation,  that  no  water 
has  heretofore  been  brought  to  bear  upon 
them.  By  damming  the  Nacoochee  river, 
this  company  can  carry  water  to  these  points ; 
and  their  arrangements  are  already  nearly 
completed.  In  some  experimental  trials  they 
have,  by  the  use  of  a  current  of  water  that 
would  now  through  a  six-inch  pipe,  obtained 
several  hundred  dollars  per  week  with  the 
labor  of  two  miners.  From  one  spot  more 
than  1,500  dwts.  were  washed  out  in  small 
nuggets,  several  of  about  1 00  dwts.  each,  and 
one  of  387  dwts.  The  value  of  these  is  $1 
the  dwt.,  and  of  the  gold  dust  97  cents. 
The  auriferous  belt  of  rocks  consists  of  al 
ternating  beds  of  micaceous,  hornblende,  and 
talcose  slates  and  gneiss,  which  stand  nearly 
vertically,  and  contain  between  their  layers 
bands  of  quartz.  The  gold  is  found  in  the 
quartz  and  in  the  auriferous  pyrites  accom 
panying  it,  and  to  some  extent  in  the  slates 
also.  Detached  or  "  free"  gold  is  also  met 
with,  derived,  no  doubt,  from  pyrites  which 
has  decomposed  and  disappeared.  From 
the  general  disintegration  of  the  edges  of 
these  strata,  gold  has  been  distributed  in  the 
deposits  around. 

From  Georgia,  the  gold-bearing  rocks  are 
traced  into  eastern  Tennessee,  where  they 
have  been  worked  along  the  range  of  the 
Coweta  and  Smoky  Mountains;  and  from 
the  south  side  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  in  Georgia, 
they  have  proved  productive  in  a  south-west 
direction,  through  Carroll  county,  into  Ala 
bama  ;  but  the  formation  is  soon  lost  in  the 
last-named  state. 

The  gold  regions  along  both  slopes  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  are,  however,  the  most  re 
markable  yet  discovered  on  this  continent. 
In  COLORADO,  "the  whole  range  of  moun 
tains  seems  crowded  with  veins  of  rich 
mineral  ore.  They  run  into  and  through 
the  hill  sides  like  the  bars  of  a  gridiron — 
every  hundred  feet,  every  fifty  feet,  every 
twenty  feet."  The  first  and  largest  develop 
ment  of  these  mines  lies  along  and  up  the 
Clear  Creek  and  centres  around  its  sources. 
The  principal  mining  villages  of  this  section 
are  Central  City,  Black  Hawk  and  Nevada. 
Another  centre  of  productive  mining  interests 


GOLD. 


is  in  the  South  Park.  The  gold  in  Colorado 
is  combined  with  sulphur  and  forms  a  sort 
of  pyrites.  This  renders  its  extraction  more 
difficult ;  but  processes  have  lately  been  de 
vised  which,  without  increasing  materially 
the  expense,  will  raise  the  production  of  gold 
per  cord  of  ore  to  three  or  five-fold  what  it 
has  hitherto  been.  There  are  also  large 
deposits  of  gold  in  New  Mexico  and  Utah, 
which  are  not  yet  developed  to  any  con 
siderable  extent. 

IDAHO  and  MONTANA  are  also  immensely 
rich  in  gold  mines  and  placers.  The  Boise 
Basin,  in  Idaho,  has  yielded,  and  still  yields 
to  the  placer  miner  in  many  parts  a  fair  re 
turn  for  his  labor,  and  possesses,  beside, 
many  valuable  gold-bearing  quartz  leads. 
The  South  Boise  has  also  many  valuable 
leads.  The  Owyhee  mines,  sixty  miles  south 
of  Boise  City.  They  are  almost  entirely 
silver-producing,  though  some  gold  is  ex 
tracted  from  the  silver.  In  Montana,  the 
placer  diggings  are  yet  paying  largely,  and 
the  quartz  leads  are  richer  in  gold  than  in 
any  section  yet  discovered ;  and  the  two 
localities  which  have  been  thus  far  princi 
pally  worked,  Alder  Gulch,  and  the  vicinity 
of  Helena,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  apart,  are  yielding  both  gold  and  sil 
ver  in  great  profusion. 

Still  another  region  rich  in  gold,  richer 
perhaps  than  either  of  the  others,  though  as 
yet  developed  with  difficulty,  on  account  of 
the  hostile  and  treacherous  Indians  who 
roam  over  it,  is  the  Territory  of  Arizona.  Its 
gulches  and  canons  abound  in  the  precious 
metal,  and  it  cannot  be  long  before  they 
Yield  in  profusion  their  long  hidden  wealth. 
The  completion  of  the  Pacific  railroad  will 
soon  make  this  wealth  available. 

The  most  important  gold  region  of  the 
United  States  and  of  the  world  is  that  of 
California.  Its  development  has  not  only 
largely  multiplied  the  previous  gold  produc 
tion  of  the  globe,  but  it  has  been  the  means 
of  rapidly  bringing  into  the  use  of  civilized 
nations  large  territories  of  productive  lands, 
which  before  were  an  unprofitable  wilderness, 
founding  new  states,  enlarging  the  commerce 
of  the  world,  and  bringing  into  closer  inter 
course  nations  which  before  were  the  most 
widely  separated.  At  the  period  when  the 
wealth  of  the  gold  mines  of  California  began 
to  be  realized,  the  annual  production  of  gold 
throughout  the  world  had  gradually  fallen  to 
about  $20,000,000,  and  more  than  half  of 
this  was  furnished  by  Russia  alone.  In  1853, 


only  five  years  later,  California  produced  an 
amount  estimated  at  $70,000,000,  and  the 
total  production,  through  the  supplies,  nearly 
as  large,  furnished  at  the  same  time  by 
Australia,  had  increased  to  almost  double 
this  amount.  Little  was  known  of  California 
previous  to  the  discovery  of  gold  at  Sutter's 
mill,  on  the  American  fork  of  the  Sacramento, 
in  February,  1848;  yet  its  being  a  country 
containing  gold  was  made  known  by  Hak- 
luyt  in  his  account  of  Drake's  expedition  of 
1577-9,  and  by  Cavello,  a  Jesuit  priest  of 
San  Jose,  Bay  of  Francisco,  who  published  a 
work  on  the  country  in  Spain  in  1690.  Re 
ports  from  later  travellers  confirmed  these 
statements  at  various  times,  and  in  Hunfs 
Merchants'  Magazine  for  April,  1 847,  a  report 
is  presented  by  Mr.  Sloat,  which  speaks  in 
very  decided  terms  of  the  richness  of  the 
gold  placers  of  the  country,  as  noticed  by 
him  during  his  observations  of  the  two  pre 
ceding  years.  The  Rev.  C.  S.  Lyman,  in  a 
letter  written  to  the  editor  of  the  American 
Journal  of  Science  from  San  Jose,  in  March 
1848,  notices  the  discovery  of  the  preceding 
month  as  very  promising.  In  August  of  that 
year  it  was  reported  that  four  thousand  men 
were  engaged  in  working  the  deposits  on  the 
American  fork,  and  were  taking  out  from 
$30,000  to  $40,000  a  day.  This  com 
prised  a  large  portion  of  the  population  of 
California.  San  Francisco  was  almost  de 
serted,  and  people  were  pouring  in  from 
distant  regions.  The  next  year  the  emigra 
tion  commenced  in  the  United  States,  both 
by  sea  around  Cape  Horn,  and  across  the 
plains  and  Rocky  Mountains  in  large  parties. 
By  the  close  of  the  year  1849  the  number 
of  persons  engaged  in  mining  was  estimated 
at  from  40,000  to  50,000  Americans,  and 
about  5,000  foreigners:  the  total  product  of 
gold  at  about  $40,000,000.  The  mining 
district  was  traced  up  the  valley  of  the 
Sacramento  toward  the  north,  and  the  con 
tinuation  of  the  same  formations  up  that  of 
the  San  Joaquin  in  the  opposite  direction  was 
also  beginning  to  be  understood.  Along  the 
valleys  of  the  streams,  which  flowed  into 
these  rivers  from  the  Sierra  Nevada  range  to 
the  east,  gold  was  almost  everywhere  found, 
and  upon  the  hills  and  elevated  plains  it  was 
met  with  beneath  the  sands  and  clays  which 
covered  the  surface  to  the  depth  of  fifteen  to 
thirty  feet  or  more ;  all  the  materials,  earthy 
and  metallic,  appearing  either  to  have  been 
derived  from  the  superficial  disintegration  of 
the  slaty  formations,  or  to  have  been  depos- 


72 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


ited  by  ancient  rivers,  which  have  since  been 
diverted  in  other  directions.  Deposits  of 
this  character  were  called  dry  diggings,  and, 
except  iu  the  wet  season,  were  worked  to 
great  disadvantage  for  the  want  of  water  to 
separate  the  earthy  matters  from  the  gold. 
In  the  bottoms  of  the  streams  the  deposits 
contained  much  coarse  gold,  derived  from 
the  wearing  down  of  the  slate  formations 
through  which  they  had  made  their  way  in 
their  rapid  descent  from  the  Sierra  Nevada 
mountains.  By  the  excavation  of  the  vast 
gulches  or  ravines  of  these  streams,  some  of 
which  presented  precipitous  walls  of  about 
3,000  feet  in  height,  an  immense  amount  of 
gold  must  have  been  removed  from  its  orig 
inal  beds,  which,  as  the  lighter  earthy  mat 
ters  were  swept  down  the  rivers,  remained 
behind,  forming  the  riches  of  the  auriferous 
deposits.  The  country  of  this  peculiar 
character  was  found  to  extend  along  the 
western  slopes  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  for  400 
or  500  miles,  and  the  gold-bearing  slates  to 
spread  over  a  width  of  from  forty  to  sixty 
miles. 

Whether  or  no  the  natural  processes  by 
which  the  gold  had  been  collected  from  its 
original  beds  suggested  to  the  California 
miner  an  improved  method  of  washing  the 
auriferous  formations  upon  a  gigantic  scale, 
it  was  soon  found  that  the  richness  of  the  de 
posits  would  justify,  especially  in  the  dry 
diggings,  large  outlays  in  conveying  water 
from  great  distances  by  canals  or  ditches, 
and  applying  this,  either  under  the  pressure 
of  a  great  head,  to  tear  up  the  material  from 
its  bed  and  wash  away  the  earthy  portions, 
or  to  wash  the  auriferous  gravels  as  these 
were  carried  to  the  water  sluices  and  thrown 
into  them  for  this  purpose.  On  this  plan 
hydraulic  operations  were  soon  laid  out  of 
extraordinary  extent.  Currents  were  di 
verted  well  up  the  slope  of  the  Sierra  Nevada 
mountains,  and  conveyed  in  canals  along  the 
sides  of  the  hills,  and  in  sluices,  supported 
upon  trestle-work,  from  one  hill  to  another, 
sometimes  at  a  height  of  more  than  200  feet 
above  the  bottoms.  On  the  hills  where  the 
water  was  required  for  "  hose  washing,"  it 
was  taken  from  the  canal  or  sluice  in  a  large 
and  strong  canvas  hose,  to  the  lower  end  of 
which  a  nozzle,  like  that  of  a  fire  engine,  was 
attached.  The  least  head  for  efficient  ser 
vice  was  about  60  feet,  and  a  head  of  100 
feet  was  used  where  it  could  be  had  and  the 
bose  would  bear  it.  Large  hose  and  nozzles 
proved  much  more  efficient  than  several 


smaller  ones  of  equal  or  even  greater  capac 
ity.  As  estimated  by  Mr.  Wm.  P.  Blake, 
with  a  pipe  of  an  inch  and  a  half  or  two  inches 
aperture,  and  a  pressure  of  90  feet  head, 
a  boy  can  excavate  and  wash  as  much  aurif 
erous  earth  as  10  or  15  men  by  the  ordinary 
methods.  In  suitable  places,  Avhcre  the  waste 
water  can  flow  rapidly  away  though  the 
sluices  made  for  its  channel  and  for  catching 
the  gold,  the  jet  of  water  is  directed  against 
the  side  of  a  hill,  which  it  rapidly  excavates, 
sweeping  off  the  earthy  portions,  undermin 
ing  the  trees,  and  rolling  down  the  loose 
stones,  and,  where  the  ground  is  favorable 
for  the  operation,  cutting  every  thing  away, 
it  may  be  to  a  depth  of  100  feet  from  the 
top  to  the  bottom  of  the  excavation,  leaving 
behind  barren  acres  of  loose  stone  in  un 
sightly  piles — a  perfect  picture  of  desola 
tion.  At  the  close  of  the  year  1858  it  was 
estimated  that  the  artificial  water-courses  al 
ready  constructed  for  mining  purposes  in. 
California  amounted  to  5,726  miles  in  length, 
and  their  cost  to  $13,575,400;  and  besides 
these  there  were  branches  not  enumerated, 
and  others  in  construction,  to  the  extent  of 
about  1,000  miles  more.  Among  the  prin 
cipal  of  these  canals  are  the  Columbia  and 
Stanislaus,  in  Tuolumne  county,  which  is 
80  miles  long,  and  cost  $600,000  ;  the  Butte, 
in  Amador  county,  50  miles  long,  cost 
$400,000;  that  of  the  Union  Water  Com 
pany,  in  Calaveras  county,  78  miles  long, 
cost  $320,000 ;  and  that  of  the  Tuolumne 
Hydraulic  Company,  CO  miles  long,  cost 
$300,000.  Notwithstanding  the  cost  of 
these  enterprises,  they  have  proved  in  gen 
eral  highly  profitable,  paying,  after  deducting 
the  expenses  of  keeping  them  up,  from  one  to 
more  than  five  per  cent,  a  month.  The  water 
is  sold  to  the  miners  by  the  canal  companies 
at  so  much  per  inch  of  the  discharge — this 
being  from  a  horizontal  aperture,  one  inch 
high,  at  the  bottom  of  a  box  in  which  the 
water  is  kept  six  inches  deep.  The  length 
of  the  aperture  is  regulated  by  a  slide.  The 
price  has  fallen  from  $3.00  an  inch  per  day 
in  1851,  to  50  cents  in  1854,  and  is  now 
still  less. 

Sluice-washing,  which  is  a  necessary  part 
of  the  hydraulic  or  hose  process,  is  also 
carried  on  independently  of  it,  and  by  a 
method  which  was  first  adopted  in  Califor 
nia.  Channels  are  made  sometimes  upon 
the  surface  of  the  slaty  beds  in  place,  the 
ragged  edges  of  which  are  very  favorable  for 
catching  the  gold,  or  sometimes  of  boards, 


GOLD. 


in  the  form  of  an  open  trough,  a  foot  or  15 
inches  in  width,  and  8  or  ten  inches  deep, 
which  are  extended  to  several  hundred  feet 
in  length.  These  are  set  at  a  suitable  slope, 
usually  about  one  in  twelve,  and  "  riffle"  bars 
are  laid  across  to  obstruct  the  flow  of  the 
heavy  metallic  particles  which  sweep  along 
the  bottom,  while  the  muddy  portions  and 
stones  are  carried  over  with  the  flow  of  the 
water,  and  discharged  at  the  lower  end. 
Fresh  gravel  is  continually  shovelled  into 
the  sluices,  and  once  a  day,  or  oftener,  these 
are  cleaned  up  to  collect  the  gold  from  the 
riffles  and  pools,  which  are  sometimes  used 
at  the  head  of  one  joint  of  the  sluice  to  re 
ceive  the  discharge  from  the  next  one  above. 
Where  the  descent  is  rapid  enough  to  keep 
the  pool  "  in  a  boil,"  a  considerable  portion 
of  the  gold  may  be  caught  in  it,  especially  if 
mercury  be  introduced. 

lu  1851  attention  began  to  be  turned  to 
the  quartz  veins,  or  "ledges,"  as  they  were 
called,  and  numerous  companies  were  soon 
established  in  the  United  States  and  in  Eng 
land  for  carrying  on  regular  mining  opera 
tions  upon  these.  Within  five  years  after, 
many  deep  shafts  had  been  sunk  upon  veins 
in  different  parts  of  the  country,  and  mills 
were  in  operation,  furnished  with  the  most 
efficient  machinery  for  crushing  and  wash 
ing  the  ore.  The  uncertain  supply  of  wa 
ter,  and  the  great  expense  attending  the  pro 
curing  it  by  canals  from  a  distance,  have  oper 
ated  strongly  against  the  success  of  these 
works.  They  have,  however,  added  con 
siderably  to  the  production  of  gold,  and  are 
still  vigorously  prosecuted.  Upon  the  estate 
of  Col.  Fremont,  in  Mariposa  county,  sev 
eral  veins  are  worked  to  considerable  extent 
on  the  northern  ridge  of  Mount  Bullion,  and 
the  quartz  is  transported  to  the  Benton  Mills, 
on  Bear  River,  and  to  the  steam  mills  at 
Bear  Valley,  Ophir,  Guadaloupe,  and  Agua 
Fria.  The  principal  vein,  called  the  Pine 
Tree,  has  been  traced  about  20  miles  from 
Mount  Ophir,  through  Bear  Valley,  and 
along  Mount  Bullion  to  Merced  River,  with 
an  average  thickness  of  30  feet.  Among  its 
contents  arc  found  oxides  and  carbonates  of 
copper,  and  its  ores  arc  often  exceedingly 
rich  in  gold.  Those  of  Ifce  neighboring 
vein,  called  the  Josephine,  are  variously 
valued  at  from  $50  to  $2,000  per  ton.  On 
account  of  the  precipitous  character  of  the 
hills,  the  transportation  of  the  ore  was  al 
most  impracticable  until  Col.  Fremont  had 
constructed  a  railroad,  3^  miles  long,  down 


the  steep  slopes,  in  zigzag  lines,  upon  grades 
varying  from  2  to  ?f  feet  in  100,  and  with 
17  curves  of  radii,  varying  from  53  to  84 
feet.  The  width  of  the  track  is  36  inches, 
and  the  rails  are  of  iron  bars  set  on  edge. 
The  cars  carry  each  2£  tons  of  rock,  and  are 
run  down  in  45  minutes,  their  movement 
being  regulated  by  a  brake.  By  the  con 
struction  of  this  road  and  the  completion  of 
new  mills,  furnished  with  powerful  stamp 
ing  machinery,  and  with  inexhaustible  sup 
plies  of  ore  at  command,  Col.  Fremont  is 
now  in  a  position  to  thoroughly  test  the 
question  as  to  the  dependence  that  may  be 
placed  upon  quartz  mining  in  California  as 
a  permanent  business. 

The  total  production  of  the  mines  of  Cali 
fornia,  as  nearly  as  can  be  made  up  from  the 
official  returns,  has  been  presented  in  the 
following  values,  in  pounds  sterling,  for  the 
years  named : — 


1848 £11,700 

1849 1,612,000 

1850 5,000,000 

1851 8,250.000 

1852 11,700,000 


1853 £12,500,000 

1854 14,100,000 

1855 13,400,000 

1856 14.000,000 

1857 13,110,000 


The  quantities  deposited  in  the  mints  of 
the  United  States  will  be  given,  together 
with  those  from  other  states,  in  the  course 
of  this  article. 

Gold  is  almost  universally  found  native, 
or  uncombined  with  other  substances,  and 
the  processes  for  separating  it  from  the 
stony  matters  with  Avhich  it  is  associated 
may  be,  and  commonly  are,  wholly  mechani 
cal.  It  occurs  in  the  alluvial  deposits,  mixed 
with  their  lowest  beds  of  sand  and  gravel ; 
also  in  veins,  usually  of  quartz,  which  often 
contain  various  metallic  ores  besides  the 
gold;  and  it  is  disseminated  through  the 
mass  of  great  beds  of  slate,  which  are  fre 
quently  in  a  more  or  less  decomposed  con 
dition.  From  such  beds  it  is  often  distribu 
ted  in  fine  particles  through  the  soil  in  their 
vicinity.  Not  subject  to  be  chemically  af 
fected  by  any  of  the  ordinary  agents  of 
change,  the  particles  of  gold,  large  or  small, 
remain  unaltered  in  the  soil,  always  seeking 
by  their  great  weight  the  lowest  level ;  and 
they  may  at  any  time  be  collected  by  wash 
ing  away  the  earthy  matters.  New  locali 
ties  are  tested  by  trying  tltc  earth  in  differ 
ent  places,  by  washing  it  in  an  iron  pan  or 
upon  the  blade  of  a  shovel,  an  experienced 
hand  readily  throwing  the  heavy  particles 
by  themselves,  while  the  lighter  are  allowed 
to  flow  away.  This  method  is  one  of  the 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES 


means  in  use  for  collecting  gold  upon  a 
small  scale,  and  the  Mexicans  of  the  gold 
regions,  by  long  practice,  are  particularly 
expert  in  it.  If  a  vein  is  to  be  tested,  the 
quartz  is  finely  crushed,  and  the  powder  is 
then  washed  in  the  same  manner.  Gold 
may  be  thus  brought  to  view  when  none 
was  visible  in  the  stones,  however  closely  ex 
amined.  By  placing  a  little  mercury  or 
quicksilver  in  the  pan,  the  gold  will  be  more 
perfectly  secured,  as,  by  coming  in  contact 
with  each  other,  these  metals  instantly  unite 
to  form  a  heavy  amalgam,  and  the  mercury 
thus  holds  the  finest  particles  of  gold  so  that 
they  cannot  escape.  The  mixture,  separated 
from  the  sand,  is  squeezed  in  a  piece  of  thick 
linen  or  deerskin,  through  which  the  excess 
of  mercury  escapes,  leaving  the  amalgam. 
This  may  then  be  heated  on  a  shovel,  when 
the  mercury  goes  off  in  vapor,  and  the  gold 
is  left  in  its  original-shaped  particles,  coher 
ing  together  in  a  cake.  If  the  quantity  of 
amalgam  is  considerable,  it  is  distilled  in  a 
retort,  and  the  mercury  is  condensed  to  be 
used  again.  This  amalgamation  fails  entirely 
if  the  slightest  quantity  of  any  greasy  sub 
stance  is  present,  as  a  film  of  the  grease  coats 
every  portion  of  the  mercury,  and  effectually 
prevents  its  contact  with  the  gold.  These 
processes  contain  the  principles  of  nearly  all 
the  methods  in  use  for  separating  gold.  A 
great  variety  of  machines  have  been  based 
upon  them,  the  simplest  of  which  have  proved 
the  most  valuable.  The  Burke  rocker  has 
always  been  a  favorite  machine  in  the  south 
ern  states,  and  has  been  largely  used  in  Cali 
fornia  by  small  companies  of  miners,  and  in 
localities  where  operations  were  not  carried 


BCRKE    BOOKER. 


on  upon  a  very  extensive  scale.  It  is  a  cradle- 
shaped  trough,  about  six  feet  long,  set  on 
two  rockers,  the  upper  end  a  few  inches 
higher  than  the  lower,  and  placed  so  as  to 
receive  at  its  head  a  current  of  water  from 
the  end  of  a  leading  trough  above.  This 
falls  upon  a  perforated  iron  plate,  set  as  a 
shelf  in  the  machine,  and  upon  this  the 
auriferous  gravel  is  thrown.  The  finer  par 
ticles  fall  through  as  the  rocker  is  kept  in 
motion  by  hand,  and  the  coarse  gravel  rolls 
down  to  the  lower  end,  and  falls  off  upon 
the  ground.  Across  the  bottom  of  the 
rocker  are  placed,  at  intervals  of  6  or  8 
inches,  low  bars  or  partitions  which  catch 
the  heavy  sands,  and  prevent  their  being 
washed  out  of  the  lower  end  with  the  water 
and  mud.  This  lower  portion  is  sometimes 
arranged  as  a  drawer,  which  can  be  secured 
by  a  lock,  so  that  the  gold  which  falls  into 
it  is  safe  against  robbery.  The  drawer  is 
called  the  "  riffle  box."  Some  rockers  are 
mere  open  troughs  without  a  shelf.  The 
"  torn"  is  often  preferred  to  the  rocker,  which 
it  resembles,  except  in  its  being  a  trough 
without  rockers,  on  the  plan  of  the  sluices 
already  described.  Both  it  and  the  rocker 
are  of  convenient  size  for  moving  about  from 
one  place  to  another,  as  the  working  of  the 
deposit  advances. 

Vein  mining  requires  more  efficient  ma 
chinery,  and  stamping  mills  are  constructed 
as  near  as  may  be  to  the  mines,  for  reducing 
the  stony  materials  to  powder,  and  the  sands 
from  the  stamps  are  passed  through  a  variety 
of  machines  designed  to  catch  the  gold. 
Stamps  are  solid  blocks  of  the  heaviest  cast 
iron  attached  to  the  end  of  a  wooden  or  iron 
rod  called  the  leg,  to  which  the  lifting  cam 
is  applied  for  raising  them.  They  common 
ly  weigh  about  300  Ibs.  each,  though  in 
California  they  are  made  of  twice  and  even 
three  times  this  weight.  Several  of  them 
are  set  together  in  a  frame  side  by  side,  and 
are  lifted  in  succession  by  the  cams  upon  a 
horizontal  shaft,  which  revolves  in  front  of 
them.  The  bed  in  which  they  stand,  and 
into  which  the  ore  to  be  crushed  is  thrown, 
is  sometimes  a  massive  anvil,  hollow  in  the 
top,  firmly  imbedded  in  a  heavy  stick  of 
timber,  or  is  formed  of  stones,  beaten  by  the 
stamps  themselves  into  a  solid  bed.  Water 
is  usually  supplied  in  small  currents  to  the 
stamps,  and  sometimes  mercury  alsq  is  pour 
ed  into  the  bed.  The  only  exit  for  the 
crushed  materials  is  through  small  holes 
punched  in  a  sheet  of  copper,  of  which  the 


GOLD. 


side  of  the  boxing  around  the  stamps  is  form 
ed,  opposite  to  that  at  which  the  ore  is  fed. 
Through  these  holes  the  mud  and  water 
arc  projected  with  every  blow  into  a  capa 
cious  box,  the  floor  of  which  inclines  gently 
back  toward  the  stamp,  and  contains  along 
this  edge  a  quantity  of  mercury,  in  which  a 
considerable  portion  of  the  gold  is  caught. 
From  the  box  a  spout  leads  the  current  into 
the  other  machines,  often  through  an  inclined 
trough,  in  the  bottom  of  which  baize  or 
blanket  stuff  is  laid  for  the  purpose  of  en 
tangling  in  its  fibres  the  particles  of  gold 
that  are  swept  along.  These  are  frequently 
taken  up  and  cleaned.  Much  of  the  gold, 
however,  always  escapes  them,  and  the  cur 
rent  is  variously  treated  before  it  is  finally 
allowed  to  flow  away.  The  sands  require  to 
be  more  finely  pulverized,  and  the  current 
first  flows  into  mills  of  some  sort,  as  the 
Chilian  mill,  arrastrc,  etc.  The  former  con 
sists  of  a  pair  of  heavy  wheels  of  granite,  from 
four  to  six  feet  in  diameter  when  new,  set  in 
a  horizontal  frame,  one  on  each  side  of  an 
upright  shaft,  and  carried  around  with  the 
shaft  as  it  revolves  upon  its  axis.  The  stones 


They  revolve  in  a  water-tight  box  or  tub 
upon  a  granite  floor.  Sometimes  they  are 
used  in  the  place  of  stamps  for  breaking  up 
the  coarse  ore ;  and  worked  at  the  rate  of 
eight  to  twelve  revolutions  a  minute,  they 
should  crush  to  fine  sand  from  one  to  two 
tons  of  quartz  in  twelve  hours.  The  water, 
which  flows  in  one  side  the  tub,  passes  out 
over  the  opposite  edge  with  the  light  slim^ 
and  fine  mud,  while  much  of  the  gold  re 
mains  in  the  bottom,  caught  by  the  mercury 
placed  there  to  secure  it.  The  arrastre  is 
something  like  the  Chilian  mill,  only  instead 
of  revolving  stones,  heavy  flat  ones  are  drag 
ged  round  with  the  shaft  by  chains,  secured 
to  the  horizontal  arms.  These  machines  in 
Mexico  are  worked  by  horses  or  mules,  but 
in  this  country  by  water  or  steam  power. 
The  slowness  of  their  operation  is  not  regard 
ed  as  an  objectionable  feature,  but  on  the 
contrary  is  favorable  for  effectually  securing 
the  gold.  Among  the  simplest  and  best 
contrivances  employed  below  the  Chilian 
mill  are  the  "  shaking  tables."  These  are 
platforms  seven  or  eight  feet  long,  of  plank 
in  a  single  piece,  as  wide  as  can  be  procured. 


CRUSHING    HILL,     OR    ABRASTRE. 


being  as  close  as  possible  to  the  shaft,  have 
a  twisting  motion  which  acts  powerfully  to 
grind  the  particles  crushed  by  their  weight. 


The  planks,  of  two  inches  thickness,  are 
worked  down  from  a  line  across  the  middle 
to  a  thin  edge  at  one  end,  and  from  the  other 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


end  they  are  made  to  diminish  to  half  an 
inch  thickness  at  the  line  across  the  middle. 
Each  one  is  furnished  with  sides,  and  a  strip 
across  the  thin  end  of  six  inches  in  height, 
the  joining  made  perfectly  tight,  and  is  then 
swung  between  four  posts  in  a  horizontal 
position  by  four  rods  or  chains,  which  should 
be  at  least  eight  feet  long.  Mercury  is  pour 
ed  into  the  two  divisions,  until  they  are 
more  than  half  filled.  The  sands  are  made 
to  flow  in  upon  the  thin  end,  and  are  receiv 
ed  upon  the  face  of  the  mercury ;  and  the 
table  is  made  to  swing  forward  and  back  by 
the  revolution  of  a  crank.  By  the  motion 
the  sands  are  mixed  in  with  the  mercury, 
and  swept  along  in  successive  waves,  and 
falling  over  the  middle  ridge  are  treated  in 
the  same  manner  in  the  succeeding  division. 
The  mercury  is  retained  by  its  weight  in  the 
depressed  portions  of  the  table,  and  the  wa 
ter  and  sands  are  discharged  over  the  open 
end.  Many  machines  designed  for  effecting 
the  amalgamation  of  the  gold  in  the  most 
thorough  manner  have  been  patented  within 
the  last  few  years,  and  have  been  introduced 
at  the  mines  under  various  names ;  few  of 
them,  however,  involve  any  new  principles, 
but  are  merely  modified  forms  of  the  old  con 
trivances.  The  use  of  hot  water  was  found 
several  years  ago  to  hasten  the  amalgama 
tion,  and  the  employment  of  steam  engines 
provided  a  cheap  way  of  obtaining  it  in 
the  large  quantities  required.  Prof.  A.  K. 
Eaton,  of  New  York,  found  that  amalga 
mated  metallic  surfaces  could  be  made  to 
collect  most  completely  the  very  fine  parti 
cles  of  gold,  which  by  all  other  processes  it 
lias  been  found  impossible  to  secure.  The 
•use  of  copper,  brass,  or  zinc  proved  trouble 
some  and  impracticable  from  the  rapidity 
•with  which  they  were  dissolved  in  the  mer 
cury,  adulterating  the  amalgam.  An  amal 
gamated  iron  surface  proved  to  be  free  from 
this  objection,  and  the  following  description 
«  of  apparatus  was  finally  decided  on  as  the 
most  efficient :  A  circular  plate  of  wrought 
iron  is  amalgamated  over  what  is  intended 
to  be  its  inferior  surface,  and  an  open  tube 
is  fixed  in  its  centre,  rising  three  or  four  feet 
high,  and  furnished  at  the  top  with  a  bowl 
or  funnel.  This  tube  and  disk  are  supported 
upon  a  surface  of  mercury  contained  in  a 
shallow  tub  of  larger  diameter  than  the  disk, 
a  frame-work  being  attached  to  the  tub  for 
this  purpose.  A  pulley  is  fixed  upon  the 
hollow  shaft,  so  that  a  belt  may  be  attached 
for  causing  the  disk  to  rotate  upon  the  mer 


cury.  The  sands  are  fed  with  water  into 
the  funnel  at  the  top  of  the  tube,  and  the 
pressure  caused  by  the  height  of  the  column 
carries  them  down  upon  the  mercurial  sur 
face,  and,  by  reason  of  this  pressure  and  the 
centrifugal  action  of  the  revolving  disk,  they 
gradually  work  outward  between  this  sur 
face  and  the  amalgamated  surface  above,  be 
ing  pressed  and  rubbed  between  them  till 
they  escape  round  the  circumference  of  the 
disk,  and  flow  over  the  edge  of  the  tub. 
Hot  water,»as  in  all  other  modes  of  amalga 
mating,  is  preferable  to  cold.  By  this  proc 
ess  all  free  gold,  however  fine  the  particles, 
must  come  in  contact  with  the  amalgamated 
surface,  and  be  taken  up  by  the  mercury. 
It  perfectly  separates  the  gold  that  in  other 
machines  floats  off  in  the  fine  slime,  for  the 
reason  that  simply  pressed  into  the  mercury 
and  left  to  themselves,  the  impalpable  parti 
cles  immediately  rise  upon  its  surface,  with 
out  coming  into  actual  contact  with  the  fluid 
metal.  In  gold  ores,  especially  those  of  sul 
phurous  character,  much  of  the  gold  is  so 
fine  that  it  remains  suspended  a  long  time 
in  water,  and  is  entirely  lost.  The  impor 
tant  feature  of  this  invention  is  the  use  of  an 
inferior  amalgamated  surface,  against  which 
these  floating  particles  are  pressed.  The 
pressure  is  secured  by  any  desired  depth  of 
the  mercury,  but  in  practice  less  than  an  inch 
'above  the  lower  edge  of  the  plate  is  found 
to  be  sufficient.  The  efficiency  of  the  ma 
chine  was  fully  tested  in  November,  1860, 
at  the  Gold  Hill  mine,  in  North  Carolina, 
where  better  results  were  obtained  with  it 
than  by  any  other  machine  ever  before  ap 
plied  to  the  separation  of  the  gold  from  its 
pyritous  sands.  In  the  same  month  it  was 
tried  at  the  United  States  assay  office,  in 
New  York  city,  upon  the  tailings  of  the 
sweeps  from  which  all  the  gold  had  been  ex 
tracted  that  could  be  removed  by  the  amal 
gamating  machines  in  use,  and  from  these  it 
readily  separated  the  remaining  portion. 

As  remarked  in  the  mention  made  of  the 
Gold  Hill  mines,  when  gold  is  associated 
with  iron  and  copper  pyrites  it  is  held  very 
tenaciously,  as  if  combined  itself  with  the 
sulphur,  like  the  other  metals.  However 
finely  such  ores  are  pulverized,  every  micro 
scopic  particle  of  pyrites  appears  to  retain  a 
portion  of  gold,  and  prevent  its  uniting  with 
the  mercury.  This  portion  of  the  gold,  con 
sequently,  escapes  in  the  tailings ;  and  if 
these  are  kept  in  refuse  heaps,  exposed  to 
the  weather,  the  pyrites  slowly  decompose, 


GOLD. 


and  more  gold  is  continually  set  free.  Thus 
it  is  the  heaps  may  be  washed  over  with 
profit  for  many  successive  years.  Artificial 
roasting  of  the  ores  is  recommended  by  high 
authorities  as  a  sure  method  of  freeing  the 
gold  at  once,  the  effect  of  it  being  to  break 
up  the  sulphurets,  causing  the  sulphur  to 
escape  in  vapor,  and  the  iron  to  crumble 
down  in  the  state  of  an  oxide,  or  an  ochreous 
powder,  from  which  the  gold  is  readily  sepa 
rated  by  the  ordinary  methods.  This  is  ob 
jected  to  by  others,  who  assert  that  it  in 
volves  a  great  loss  of  gold,  which  is  volatilized 
or  carried  off  mechanically  in  the  sulphur 
fumes.  In  California  complete  separation 
is  sought  to  be  attained  by  long-continued 
arid  most  thorough  pulverization  of  the  ores, 
the  heavy  sands  of  the  first  concentration 
being  received  into  Chilian  or  other  mills, 
and  repeatedly  ground  to  the  extreme  of  fine 
ness,  and  always  in  the  presence  of  mercury. 
Various  chemical  processes  have  been  de 
vised  for  the  treatment  of  these  ores,  and  in 
Russia  it  has  been  proposed  to  smelt  the 
sands  after  they  had  been  concentrated,  and 
cause  the  gold  to  be  taken  up  by  iron  re 
duced  by  the  same  smelting  operation  from 
its  ores.  The  mechanical  and  amalgamating 
treatment,  however,  appears  to  be  the  only 
one  in  successful  use. 

The  great  value  of  gold  renders  it  profit 
able  to  work  deposits  and  ores  which  con 
tain  an  exceedingly  small  per-centage  of 
metal.  In  the  "  branch  mining"  of  the 
southern  states,  deposits  worked  by  the 
rocker  are  regarded  as  profitable  which  pay 
a  pennyweight  or  nearly  one  dollar  per  day 
to  the  hand  employed.  The  yield  is  always 
uncertain,  and  sometimes  runs  up,  for  a  short 
time,  to  very  large  amounts ;  but  it  has,  for 
the  most  part,  ceased  to  be  followed  as  a 
regular  pursuit.  The  production  of  the  ores 
is  quite  as  uncertain  as  that  of  the  deposits, 
and  their  value  depends  upon  a  variety  of 
circumstances :  as  the  hardness  of  the  ma 
terial,  the  tenacity  with  which  it  holds  the 
fine  gold  when  crushed,  the  convenience  of 
the  locality  to  mills,  and  the  expenses  at 
tending  the  working  of  the  mines.  The 
great  beds  of  decomposed  slates  of  Georgia 
can  be  worked  to  profit  when  they  yield  from 
four  to  five  cents  worth  of  gold  to  the  bushel 
of  stuff,  or  about  100  Ibs.  weight;  but  the 
mill  for  crushing  and  washing  it  must  then 
be  close  at  hand.  The  proportion  of  the 
gold,  in  this  case,  is  less  than  2  parts  in 
1,000,000.  The  hard  quartz  ores  must  con 


tain  nearly  or  quite  20  cents  worth  of  gold  in 
the  bushel,  especially  if  they  are  pyritiferous. 

Although  the  gold  is  obtained  in  a  metal 
lic  state,  it  differs  very  much  in  value  in  dif 
ferent  localities.  That  of  the  deposits  is  the 
proper  representative  of  the  character  of  the 
gold  of  any  district,  and  always  brings  a 
higher  price  at  the  mint  than  the  imperfectly 
cleaned  gold  derived  from  the  veins  of  the 
same  locality.  It  has  peculiarities  in  its  ap 
pearance  by  which  its  source  may  often  be 
recognized.  This  is  commonly  owing  to  the 
different  proportions  of  silver  with  which  it 
is  alloyed.  Deposit  gold  from  the  vicinity 
of  Dahlonega,  in  Georgia,  is  worth  93  cents 
the  pennyweight;  that  of  Hart  county,  in 
the  same  state,  98  cents ;  of  Carroll  county, 
Georgia,  and  Chesterfield  district,  South 
Carolina,  $1.02;  of  Union  county,  Georgia, 
or  the  Tennessee  line,  72  cents ;  Charlotte, 
North  Carolina,  $1.00;  and  that  of  Burke 
county,  North  Carolina,  only  50  cents.  The 
value  appears  to  decrease  toward  the  western 
margin  of  the  gold  region.  The  average 
fineness  of  California  gold  is  found  to  be 
from  875  to  885  parts  in  1,000,  which  is 
very  near  that  of  our  gold  coin,  viz.,  900  in 
]  ,000.  The  native  gold  from  Australia  has 
from  960  to  966  parts  in  1,000  pure  gold,  and 
some  from  the  Chaudiere,  in  Canada,  877.3 
pure  gold,  and  122.3  silver;  another  speci 
men  892.4,  silver  107.6.  The  specific 
gravity  of  the  metal  has  been  increased  by 
casting  from  14.6  in  the  native  state  to  17.48. 

At  the  mint  and  branch  mints  of  the  United 
States,  records  are  preserved  of  the  source 
whence  the  gold  offered  for  coinage  is  ob 
tained,  and  tables  are  thus  prepared,  copies 
of  which  are  given  on  the  succeeding  pages. 
These  are  interesting  for  reference,"  although 
they  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  presenting 
even  an  approximate  estimate  of  the  amount 
of  gold  derived  from  the  mines  of  the  United 
States.  As  already  stated,  considerable  por 
tions  of  this  never  reach  the  mints ;  and  from 
California  particularly  large  quantities  have 
been  carried  to  Europe  in  the  form  of  gold 
dust.  The  product  of  its  mines  is  more  nearly 
presented  in  the  tables  accompanying  the  de 
scription  of  the  gold-mining  operations  of 
that  region.  Gold  has  been  coined  at  private 
mints  in  California  and  at  Pike's  Peak ;  but 
this  coinage,  not  recognized  by  the  govern 
ment,  after  circulating  for  a  time,  finds  its 
way  to  the  government  mint,  and  the  gold  is 
credited  in  the  accounts  as  the  production  of 
the  region  where  it  was  converted  into  coin. 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


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$37,289  07  $21,784  29  $93,601  28  $4,902  65 

HE  ENTIRE  DEPOSITS  OF  DOMESTIC  GOLD  A 

irolina.  8.  Carolina.  Georsria.  Tennessee.  Alahan 
4,853  00  $540,467  00  $2,413,348  50  $35,808  00  $54,944 

741  00  16  217  00  41,241  00  2,888  12  77,282 
6,239  f>2  894,965  04 
5,286  70  807.171  54  4,252,688  55  42,119  75  59,629 
7,28907  21,78429  93,b01  28  ..  4,902 

4,409  39  $1,280,604  87  $6,800,879  33  $80,810  87  $196,75) 

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80 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


The  most  important  use  of  gold  is  as  a 
medium  of  exchange.  For  this  purpose  it 
is  converted  into  coin  at  the  mints,  and  into 
bars  or  bullion  at  the  government  assay  of 
fice.  In  this  form  a  large  portion  of  the  re 
ceipts  from  California  is  immediately  ex 
ported  from  New  York  to  make  up  the  bal 
ance  of  foreign  trade.  Each  bar  is  stamped 
with  marks,  representing  its  fineness  and 
weight,  and  may  continue  to  be  thus  used, 
or  when  received  at  foreign  mints,  is  convert 
ed  into  coin.  A  large  amount  of  gold  is 
consumed  in  jewelry,  trinkets,  watches,  and 
plate,  and  still  more  in  the  form  of  gold- 
leaf.  This  last  being  worn  out  in  the  using, 
or  being  distributed  in  too  small  quantities 
together  to  pay  for  recovering  it,  is  altogether 
lost  to  the  community,  after  the  articles  have 
served  the  purpose  intended.  This  loss  in 
the  time  of  James  I.  was  considered  so 
serious,  that  a  special  act  was  passed,  re 
stricting  the  use  of  gold  and  silver-leaf,  ex 
cept  for  specified  objects,  "which,  singularly 
enough,  were  chiefly  for  military  accoutre 
ments.  Gold  employed  in  the  recently  in 
vented  process  of  electrotyping,  in  which 
large  quantities  are  consumed,  is  similarly 
lost  in  the  using. 

Besides  the  use  of  gold-leaf  in  gilding,  it  is 
employed  quite  largely  by  dentists  as  the 
best  material  for  filling  teeth.  They  also 
use  much  gold  plate  and  wire  for  securing 
the  artificial  sets  in  the  mouth.  In  book 
binding,  gold  is  consumed  to  considerable 
extent  for  lettering  and  ornamenting  the 
backs  of  the  books.  The  manufacture  of 
gold-leaf  is  carried  on  in  various  places,  both 
in  the  cities  and  country.  It  is  a  simple 
process,  known  in  ancient  times,  but  only  of 
late  years  carried  to  a  high  degree  of  per 
fection.  The  ingots,  moulded  for  the  pur 
pose,  and  annealed  in  hot  ashes,  are  rolled 
between  rollers  of  polished  steel,  until  the 
sheet  is  reduced  from  its  original  thickness 
of  half  an  inch  to  a  little  more  than  ^1^  of 
an  inch,  an  ounce  weight  making  a  strip  ten 
feet  long  and  11  inches  wide.  This  is  an 
nealed  and  cut  into  pieces  an  inch  square, 
each  weighing  about  six  grains.  A  pile  is 
then  made  of  1 50  of  these  pieces,  alternating 
with  leaves  of  fine  calf-skin  vellum,  each  one 
of  which  is  four  inches  square,  and  a  number 
of  extra  leaves  of  the  vellum  are  added  at 
the  top  and  bottom  of  the  pile.  The  heap, 
called  a  tool  or  kutch,  is  slipped  into  a 
parchment  case  open  at  the  two  ends,  and 
this  into  a  similar  one,  so  that  each  side  of 


the  pack  is  protected  by  one  of  the  case.  It 
is  placed  upon  a  block  of  marble,  and  then 
beaten  with  a  hammer  weighing  sixteen 
pounds,  and  furnished  with  a  convex  face, 
the  effect  of  which  is  to  cause  the  gold  to 
spread  more  rapidly.  The  workman  wields 
this  with  great  dexterity,  shifting  it  from  one 
hand  to  the  other,  without  interfering  with 
the  regularity  of  the  blow.  The  pack  is  oc 
casionally  turned  over,  and  is  bent  and  rolled 
in  the  hands  to  cause  the  gold  to  extend 
freely  between  the  leaves,  as  it  is  expanded. 
The  gold-leaves  are  also  interchanged  to  ex 
pose  them  all  equally  to  the  beating.  When 
they  have  attained  the  full  size  of  the  vellum, 
which  is  done  in  about  twenty  minutes,  they 
are  taken  apart,  and  cut  each  one  into  four 
pieces,  making  600  of  the  original  150. 
These  are  packed  in  gold-beater's  skin,  and 
the  pack  is  beaten  as  before,  but  with  a 
lighter  hammer,  until  they  are  extended 
again  to  sixteen  square  inches.  This  oc 
cupies  about  two  hours.  The  gold-leaves 
are  then  taken  out,  and  spread  singly  upon 
a  leather  cushion,  where  they  are  cut  into 
four  squares  by  two  sharp  edges  of  cane,  ar 
ranged  in  the  form  of  a  cross.  To  any 
other  kind  of  a  knife  the  gold  would  adhere. 
These  leaves  are  again  packed,  800  together, 
in  the  finest  kind  of  gold-beater's  skin,  and 
expanded  till  each  leaf  is  from  3  to  Si- 
inches  square.  The  aggregate  surface  is 
about  1 92  times  larger  than  that  of  the  orig 
inal  sheet,  and  the  thickness  is  reduced  to 
about  the  j^Vo''^  °f  an  inch.  The  beating 
is  sometimes  carried  further  than  this,  es 
pecially  by  the  French,  so  that  an  ounce  of 
gold  is  extended  over  160  square  feet,  and 
its  thickness  is  reduced  to  •j^jVo'o'  °^  an  incn> 
or  even  to  -^ joW^r-  When  *^e  Pack  is  open 
ed,  the  leaves  are  carefully  lifted  by  a  pair 
of  wooden  pliers,  spread  upon  a  leather 
cushion  by  the  aid  of  the  breath,  and  cut 
into  four  squares  of  about  3}  inches  each, 
which  are  immediately  transferred  one  by 
one  between  the  leaves  of  a  little  book  of 
smooth  paper,  which  are  prevented  from  ad 
hering  to  the  gold-leaves  by  an  application 
of  red  ochre  or  red  chalk.  Twenty-five 
leaves  are  put  into  each  book,  and  when  fill 
ed,  it  is  pressed  hard,  and  all  projecting  edges 
of  the  gold  are  wiped  away  with  a  bit  of 
linen.  The  books  are  then  put  up  in  pack 
ages  of  a  dozen  together  for  sale. 

An  imitation  gold-leaf,  called  Dutch  gold- 
leaf,  is  used  to  some  extent.  It  is  prepared 
from  sheets  of  brass,  which  are  gilded,  and 


LEAD. 


81 


beaten  down  in  the  manner  already  described. 
"When  new  it  appears  like  genuine  gold- 
leaf,  but  soon  becomes  tarnished  in  use. 
Party  gold-leaf  is  formed  of  leaves  of  gold 
and  of  silver,  laid  together  and  made  to  unite 
by  beating  and  hammering.  It  is  then  beaten 
down  like  gold-leaf. 

The  gold-beater's  skin  used  in  this  manu 
facture  is  a  peculiar  preparation  made  from 
the  .caecum  of  the  ox.  The  membrane  is 
doubled  together,  the  two  mucous  surfaces 
face  to  face,  in  which  state  they  unite  firmly. 
It  is  then  treated  with  preparations  of  alum, 
isinglass,  whites  of  eggs,  etc.,  sometimes 
with  creosote,  and  after  being  beaten  be 
tween  folds  of  paper  to  expel  the  grease,  is 
pressed  and  dried.  In  this  way  leaves  are 
obtained  5|  inches  square,  of  which  moulds 
are  made  up,  containing  each  850  leaves. 
After  being  used  for  a  considerable  time,  the 
leaves  become  dry  and  stiff,  so  that  the  gold 
cannot  spread  freely  between  them.  To 
remedy  this,  they  are  moistened  with  wine 
or  with  vinegar  and  water,  laid  between 
parchment,  and  thoroughly  beaten.  They 
are  then  dusted  over  with  calcined  selenite 
or  gypsum,  reduced  to  a  fine  powder.  The 
vellum,  which  is  used  before  the  gold-beater's 
skin,  is  selected  from  the  finest  varieties, 
and  this,  too,  after  being  well  washed  and 
dried  under  a  press,  is  brushed  over  with 
pulverized  gypsum. 

In  the  great  exhibition  at  London  in  1851, 
machines  were  exhibited  from  the  United 
States,  and  also  from  Paris,  which  were  de 
signed  for  gold-beating,  and  it  was  supposed 
they  would  take  the  place  of  the  hand  proc 
ess.  They  have  been  put  into  operation  at 
Hartford,  in  Connecticut,  but  after  being 
tried,  they  have  been  laid  aside  for  the  old 
method. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

LEAD. 

LEAD  is  met  with  in  a  great  number  of 
combinations,  and  has  also  been  found  in 
small  quantity, at  a  few  localities  in  Europe, 
in  a  native  state.  The  common  ore,  from 
which  nearly  all  the  lead  of  commerce  is  ob 
tained,  is  the  sulphuret,  called  galena,  a  com 
bination  of  86.55  per  cent,  of  lead  and  13.45 
of  sulphur.  It  is  a  steel  gray  mineral  of  bril 
liant  metallic  lustre  when  freshly  broken,  and 
is  often  obtained  in  large  cubical  crystals :  the 


fragments  of  these  are  all  in  cubical  forms. 
The  ore  is  also  sometimes  in  masses  of  gran 
ular  structure.  Very  frequently  galena  con 
tains  silver  in  the  form  of  sulphuret  of  that 
metal,  and  gold,  too,  has  often  been  detected 
in  it.  The  quantity  of  silver  is  estimated  by 
the  number  of  ounces  to  the  ton,  and  this 
may  amount  to  100  or  200,  or  even  more; 
but  when  lead  contains  three  ounces  of  silver 
to  the  ton  this  may  be  profitably  separated. 
Ores  of  this  character  are  known  as  argentif 
erous  galena ;  if  the  silver  is  more  valuable 
than  the  lead  they  are  more  properly  called 
silver  ores.  In  Mexico  and  Germany  such, 
are  worked,  but  not  in  the  United  States. 
Galena  is  easily  melted,  and  in  contact  with, 
charcoal  the  sulphur  is  expelled  and  the  lead 
obtained.  The  ore  is  found  in  veins  in  rocks 
of  different  geological  formations,  as  in  the 
metamorphic  rocks  of  New  England,  the 
lower  silurian  rocks  of  Iowa,  Wisconsin, 
and  Missouri,  in  limestones  and  sandstones 
of  later  age  in  New  York  and  the  middle 
states,  belonging  to  higher  groups  of  the  Ap 
palachian  system  of  rocks,  and  in  the  new  red 
sandstone  of  Pennsylvania  at  its  contact  with 
the  gneiss. 

Carbonate  of  lead  is  another  ore  often  as 
sociated  with  galena,  though  usually  in  small 
quantity.  It  is  of  light  color,  whitish  or 
grayish,  commonly  crystallized,  and  in  an  im 
pure  form  is  sometimes  obtained  in  an  earthy 
powder.  At  St.  Lawrence  county,  New 
York,  large  quantities  of  it  have  been  col 
lected  for  smelting,  and  were  called  lead 
ashes.  The  ore  may  escape  notice  from  its 
unmetallic  appearance,  and  at  the  Missouri 
mines  large  quantities  were  formerly  thrown 
aside  as  worthless.  It  contains  7*7.5  per 
cent,  of  lead  combined  with  6  per  cent,  of 
oxygen,  and  this  compound  with  1C. 5  per 
cent,  of  carbonic  acid.  Beautiful  crystals  of 
the  ore,  some  transparent,  have  been  ob 
tained  at  the  mines  on  the  Schuylkill,  near 
Phcenixville.  Pennsylvania ;  the  Washington 
mine,  Davidson  county,  North  Carolina ;  and 
Mine  La  Motto,  Missouri. 

Another  ore,  the  phosphate  or  pyromor- 
phite,  has  been  known  only  as  a  rare  min 
eral  until  it  was  produced  at  the  Phoenixville 
mines  so  abundantly  as  to  constitute  much 
the  larger  portion  of  the  ores  smelted.  It  is 
obtained  in  masses  of  small  crystals  of  a  green 
color,  and  sometimes  of  other  shades,  as 
yellow,  orange,  brown,  etc.,  derived  from  the 
minute  portions  of  chrome  in  combination. 
With  these  a  variety  of  other  compounds  of 


82 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


lead  are  mixed,  together  with  phosphate  of 
lime  and  fluoride  of  calcium,  so  that  the  per 
centage  of  the  metal  is  variable.  The  com 
pounds  of  lead  met  with  at  these  mines  arc 
the  sulphuret,  sulphate,  carbonate,  phosphate, 
arseniate,  molybdatc,  chromate,  chromo-mol- 
ybdate,  arsenio-phosphate,  and  antimonial 
argentiferous.  Besides  all  these,  a  single 
vein  contained  native  silver,  native  copper, 
and  native  sulphur,  three  compounds  of  zinc, 
four  of  copper,  four  of  iron,  black  oxide  of 
manganese,  sulphate  of  barytes,  and  quartz. 

The  eastern  portion  of  the  United  States 
is  supplied  with  lead  almost  exclusively  from 
Spain  and  Great  Britain,  but  the  western 
states  are  furnished  with  this  metal  from 
mines  in  Iowa,  Wisconsin,  and  Missouri. 
The  lead  veins  of  the  eastern  and  southern 
states  are  of  little  importance.  In  Maine  the 
ores  are  found  in  Cobscook  Bay,  near  Lubcc 
and  Eastport,  in  limestone  rocks  near  dikes 
of  trap.  A  mine  was  opened  in  1832,  and 
a  drift  was  carried  in  about  155  feet  at  the 
base  of  a  rocky  cliff  on  the  course  of  the 
vein  ;  it  was  then  abandoned,  but  operations 
have  recently  been  recommenced.  In  New 
Hampshire  argentiferous  galena  is  found  in 
numerous  places,  but  always  in  too  small 
quantity  to  pay  the  expenses  of  extraction. 
At  Shelburne  a  large  quartz  vein  was  worked 
from  1846  to  1849,  and  three  shafts  were 
sunk,  one  of  them  275  feet  in  depth.  The 
ore  was  found  in  bunches  and  narrow  streaks, 
but  in  small  quantity.  Some  of  it  was 
smelted  on  the  spot,  and  five  tons  were 
shipped  to  England,  which  sold  for  £16  per 
ton.  The  richest  yielded  84  ounces  of  silver 
to  the  ton.  Another  vein  of  argentiferous  ga 
lena  has  been  partially  explored  at  Eaton,  and 
this  is  most  likely  of  any  to  prove  valuable. 

Massachusetts,  also,  contains  a  number  of 
lead  veins,  none  of  which  have  proved  prof 
itable,  though  some  of  them  have  been 
worked  to  considerable  extent.  The  most 
noted  are  those  of  Southampton  and  East- 
hampton.  Operations  Avere  commenced  at 
the  former  place  in  1765  upon  a  great  lode 
of  quartz  containing  galena,  blende,  copper 
pyrites,  and  sulphate  of  barytes.  It  is  in  a 
coarse  granitic  rock  near  its  contact  with  the 
red  sandstone  of  the  Connecticut  valley. 
About  the  year  1810  an  adit  level  was 
boldly  laid  out  to  be  driven  in  from  1,100  to 
1,200  feet,  to  intersect  the  vein  at  140  feet 
below  the  surface.  A  single  miner  is  said  to 
have  worked  at  it  till  his  death,  in  1828, 
when  it  had  reached  the  length  of  900  feet. 


At  different  times  this  adit  has  been  pushed 
on,  and  when  last  abandoned,  in  1854,  it  was 
supposed  to  be  within  a  few  feet  of  the  vein. 
The  rock  was  so  excessively  hard  that  the 
cost  of  driving  the  adit  was  about  $25  per 
foot.  Lead  veins  are  found  in  Whately,  Hat- 
field,  and  other  towns  in  Hampshire  county. 

In  Connecticut,  also,  several  veins  have 
been  worked  to  some  extent.  That  at  Mid- 
dletown,  referred  to  in  the  introductory  re 
marks  as  one  of  the  earliest  opened  mines  in 
the  United  States,  is  the  most  noticeable. 
It  is  unknown  when  this  mine  was  first 
worked.  In  1852  operations  were  renewed 
upon  it,  and  a  shaft  sunk  120  feet  below  the 
old  workings.  The  vein  is  among  strata  of 
a  silicious  slate,  in  some  places  quite  rich, 
but  on  the  whole  it  has  proved  too  poor  to 
work.  The  ore  contained  silver  to  the  value 
of  from  $25  to  $75  to  the  ton  of  lead. 

Lead  mines  have  been  opened  in  New 
York,  in  Dutchcss,  Columbia,  AVashington, 
Rensselaer,  Ulster,  and  St.  Lawrence  coun 
ties.  In  the  first  four  of  these  the  ore  is 
found  in  veins  near  the  junction  of  the  meta- 
morphic  slates  and  limestones.  The  Ancram 
or  Livingston  mine,  in  Columbia  county,  has 
been  worked  at  different  times  at  consider 
able  expense,  but  with  no  returns.  A  mine  in 
Northeast,  Dutchess  county,  was  first  opened 
by  some  German  miners  in  1740,  and  ore 
from  it  was  exported.  The  Committee  of 
Public  Safety,  during  the  revolutionary  war, 
sought  to  obtain  supplies  of  lead  from  it. 
The  lead  veins  of  this  part  of  New  York  have 
attracted  more  interest,  on  account  of  their 
highly  argentiferous  character,  than  the  quan 
tity  of  ore  they  promise  would  justify ;  but 
it  seems  to  be  almost  universally  the  case 
throughout  the  United  States  that  the  galena 
yielding  much  silver  fails  in  quantity.  The 
Ulster  county  mines  are  found  on  the  west 
side  of  the  Shawangunk  mountain  in  the 
strata  of  hard  grit  rock  which  cover  its  west 
ern  slope.  At  different  places  along  this 
ridge  veins  have  been  found  cutting  across 
the  strata  in  nearly  vertical  lines,  and  have 
produced  some  lead,  zinc,  and  copper.  The 
Montgomery  mine,  near  Wurtsboro,  in  Sul 
livan  county,  was  chiefly  productive  in  zinc. 
Near  Ellenvillc,  Ulster  county,  several  veins 
have  been  followed  into  the  mountain,  and 
one  of  these,  which  was  worked  in  1853, 
afforded  for  a  short  time  considerable  quan 
tities  of  rich  lead  and  copper  ores.  From 
the  former  there  were  smelted  about  459,000 
pounds  of  lead,  and  the  sales  of  the  latter 


LEAD. 


83 


amounted  to  from  60  to  70  tons,  of  which  50 
tons  yielded  24.3  per  cent,  of  copper.  Where 
the  vein  was  productive  it  contained  the  rich 
ores  unmixed  with  stony  gangues,  and  some 
times  presenting  a  thickness  of  five  feet  of 
pure  ore ;  where  it  became  poor  it  closed  in 
sometimes  to  a  mere  crack  in  the  grit  rock, 
and  then  the  expense  of  extending  the  work 
ings  became  very  great  from  the  extreme 
hardness  of  this  rock.  Open  fissures  were 
met  with,  one  of  which  was  more  than  100 
feet  long  and  deep,  and  in  places  12  feet  or 
more  wide.  It  was  partially  filled  with 
tough  yellow  clay,  through  which  were  dis 
persed  fragments  of  sandstone,  magnificent 
bunches  of  quartz  crystals,  and  lumps  of  lead 
and  copper  ores.  The  walls  on  the  sides 
also  presented  a  lining  in  places  of  the  same 
ores.  A  drift  was  run  into  the  base  of  the 
mountain  about  200  feet,  and  a  shaft  was 
sunk  at  the  foot  of  the  slope  about  100  feet. 
The  expense  of  working  in  the  hard  rock 
proved  to  be  too  great  for  the  amount  of  ore 
obtained,  and  the  mine  was  abandoned  in 
1854,  although  its  production,  for  the  extent 
of  ground  opened,  has  been  exceeded  by  but 
few  other  mines  in  the  eastern  states.  The 
most  promising  veins  in  the  state  are  those 
of  St.  Lawrence  county  in  the  vicinity  of 
Rossic.  They  occur  in  gneiss  rock,  which 
they  cut  in  nearly  vertical  lines.  One  of 
these  was  opened  along  the  summit  of  Coal 
Hill,  and  was  worked  in  1837  and  1838  by 
an  open  cut  of  440  feet  in  length,  to  the 
depth,  in  some  places,  of  180  feet.  In  1839 
the  mine  was  abandoned,  after  the  company 
had  realized  about  $241,000  by  the  sale  of 
some  1,800  tons  of  lead  they  had  extracted. 
The  galena  was  remarkably  free  from  blende, 
and  from  pyritous  iron  and  copper,  which 
(especially  the  first-named)  are  so  often  asso 
ciated  with  the  ore,  rendering  it  difficult  to 
smelt.  Calcareous  spar,  often  finely  crystal 
lized,  formed  the  gangue  of  the  vein.  A 
nearly  transparent  crystal,  weighing  1 65  Ibs., 
is  preserved  in  the  cabinet  of  Yale  College. 
Other  attempts  have  been  made  to  work  the 
mine ;  and  the  cause  of  its  being  allowed  to 
lie  idle  appears  to  be  the  difficulty  of  nego 
tiating  a  mining  right  with  the  proprietors. 

In  Pennsylvania  the  most  productive  lead 
mines  are  those  of  Montgomery  and  Chester 
counties,  found  in  a  small  district  of  5  or  6 
miles  in  length  by  2  or  3  in  width,  at  the 
line  of  contact  of  the  gneiss,  and  red  shale 
and  sandstone.  About  12  parallel  veins 
have  been  discovered,  extending  north  32° 


to  35°  east,  and  dipping  steeply  south-east. 
In  'the  gneiss  they  are  productive  in  lead  ores, 
and  in  the  red  shale  in  copper.  The  gneiss 
is  decomposed,  and  the  vein  itself  is  in 
considerable  part  ochreous  and  earthy,  ow 
ing  to  decomposition  of  pyritous  ores.  In 
this  material,  called  by  the  miners  gossan, 
silver  has  been  discovered  amounting  to  10 
ounces  to  the  ton.  The  two  principal  mines 
of  this  group  are  the  Wheatlcy  and  the  Ches 
ter  County.  The  former  was  opened  in  1 851, 
and  up  to  September,  1854,  had  produced 
1,800  tons  of  ore,  principally  phosphate,  esti 
mated  to  yield  60  per  cent,  of  metal.  In 
this  vein  the  great  number  of  varieties  of 
lead  and  other  ores  enumerated  above  were 
met  with.  The  Chester  County  Mining  Com 
pany  commenced  operations  in  1850,  and 
up  to  November,  1851,  had  raised  and  smelted 
190,400  Ibs.  of  ore,  almost  exclusively  phos 
phate,  which  produced  about  47  per  cent,  of 
lead.  The  silver  in  this  ore  amounted  to 
about  1.6  ounce  in  2,000  Ibs. ;  in  the  galena 
associated  with  it  the  silver  was  found  in 
quantities  varying  from  11.9  to  16.2  ounces ; 
the  coarser  grained  galena  giving  the  most, 
and  the  fine  grained  the  least.  In  connec 
tion  with  the  furnaces  for  smelting  the  ores, 
was  one  for  separating  the  silver  by  cupella- 
tion,  and  a  considerable  amount  of  silver  was 
obtained  before  the  mining  operations  were 
abandoned,  in  1854. 

Lead  ores  are  found  along  the  Blue  Ilidge, 
in  Virginia,  and  at  one  point,  near  the  cen 
tral  portion  of  its  range  across  the  state,  a 
mine  has  been  worked  for  a  number  of  years. 
They  are  also  met  with  in  several  of  the  gold 
mines,  but  not  in  workable  quantities.  In 
south-west  Virginia  and  east  Tennessee  the 
ores  are  found  in  the  silurian  limestones,  and 
a  considerable  number  of  mines  have  been 
worked  to  moderate  extent  in  both  states. 
The  most  important  one  is  the  Wythe  lead 
mine,  16  miles  from  Wytheville,  which  was 
worked  in  1754.  It  is  in  a  steep  hill  on  the 
border  of  New  River,  a  fall  upon  which,  near 
the  mine,  affords  power  for  raising  the  water 
required  in  dressing  the  ores,  and  also  for 
producing  the  blast  for  the  furnace.  Several 
shafts  have  been  sunk,  one  of  which  extend 
ing  down  to  the  adit — a  depth  of  225  feet — 
is  used  as  a  shot  tower.  The  ores  are  ga 
lena,  with  more  or  less  carbonates  intermixed. 
The  product  for  1855  is  stated  to  have  been 
500  tons  of  lead.  The  transportation  of 
lead,  in  pigs,  bars,  and  shot,  from  the  south 
west  part  of  Virginia  toward  the  east,  by  the 


84 


MINING   INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


Virginia  and  Tennessee  railroad,  for  the  years 
named,  has  been  as  follows : — 

1656.            1857.            1858.  1859. 

Ibs.              Ibs.              Ibs.  Ibs. 

Pig  Lead 409,649        514,878        168,405  854,695 

Bar  Lead     234,037          52,230  22,580 

Shot  364,660        120,142        104.623  254,970 


Total 774,309        869,057        320,258     1,132,245 

In  the  other  direction  the  transportation 
of  the  same  articles  was  comparatively  unim 
portant. 

(South  of  Virginia  the  only  lead  mine 
of  importance  is  the  Washington  mine,  Da 
vidson  county,  N.  C.  This  was  opened  in 
1836,  in  the  silicious  and  talcose  slates  of 
the  gold  region,  and  was  worked  for  the 
carbonate  of  lead,  which  was  found  in  a  dull, 
heavy  ore  of  earthy  appearance,  with  which 
were  intermixed  glassy  crystals  of  the  same 
mineral.  Some  galena  and  phosphate  of 
lead  were  also  met  with.  After  a  time  native 
silver  was  detected,  and  the  lead  that  had 
been  obtained  was  found  to  be  rich  in  silver. 
Till  1844  the  mine  continued  to  produce  ores 
containing  much  silver,  and  afforded  the  first 
deposits  of  this  metal  in  the  mint  from  do 
mestic  mines.  The  character  of  the  ores 
changed,  however,  below  the  depth  of  125 
feet,  the  silver  almost  disappearing.  The 
actual  product  of  the  mine  is  not  known. 
That  of  1844  is  said  to  have  been  $24,209 
in  value  of  silver,  and  $7,253  of  gold,  ob 
tained  from  160,000  Ibs.  of  lead — an  average 
of  240  oz.  of  auriferous  silver  to  2,000  Ibs. 
of  metal.  In  1851  the  production  was  56,896 
Ibs.  of  lead  and  7,942.16  oz.  of  auriferous 
silver — equal  to  279  oz.  to  the  ton  of  metal. 
Zinc  blende  and  galena  became  at  last  the 
prevailing  ores,  the  silver  varying  from  2.5 
to  195  oz.  to  the  ton;  and  the  workings  were 
extended  upon  two  parallel  veins  which  lay 
near  each  other  in  the  slates.  lu  1852  min 
ing  operations  were  abandoned  as  unprofita 
ble,  but  were  soon  after  renewed,  and  are 
still  continued. 

The  great  lead  mines  of  the  United 
States  are  the  upper  mines,  in  a  district 
near  the  Mississippi,  in  Iowa,  the  south-west 
part  of  Wisconsin,  and  the  north-west  part 
of  Illinois ;  and  the  lower  mines,  in  Missouri. 
The  existence  of  lead  ores  in  the  upper  dis 
trict  was  made  known  by  Le  Sueur,  who  dis 
covered  them  in  his  voyage  up  the  Missis 
sippi  in  1700  and  1701.  They  attracted  no 
further  attention,  however,  till  a  French  miner, 
Julien  Dubuque,  commenced  to  work  them  in 
1788 ;  and  in  this  employment  he  continued, 


on  the  spot  whore  now  stands  the  city  in 
Iowa  bearing  his  name,  until  his  death  in 
1809.  When  the  United  States  acquired 
possession  of  the  country  in  1807,  the  min 
eral  lands  were  reserved  from  the  sales,  and 
leases  of  mining  rights  were  authorized. 
These  were  not,  however,  issued  until  1822, 
and  little  mining  was  done  before  1826. 
From  that  time  the  production  of  lead  rap 
idly  increased ;  and  the  government  for  a 
time  received  the  regular  rates  for  the  leases. 
But  after  1 834  the  miners  and  smelters  refused 
to  pay  them  any  longer,  on  account  of  so  many 
sales  having  been  made  and  patents  granted 
of  mineral  lands  in  Wisconsin.  In  1839  the 
United  States  government  authorized  a  geo 
logical  survey  of  the  lead  region,  in  order  to 
designate  precisely  the  mineral  tracts,  and 
this  was  accomplished  the  same  year  by  Dr. 
D.  D.  Owen,  with  the  aid  of  139  assistants. 
In  1844  it  was  decided  to  abandon  the  leas 
ing  system,  and  throw  all  the  lands  into  the 
market.  The  lead  region,  according  to  the 
report  of  Dr.  Owen,  extends  over  about  62 
townships  in  Wisconsin,  10  in  the  north-west 
corner  of  Illinois,  and  8  in  Iowa — a  territory 
altogether  of  about  2,880  square  miles.  Its 
western  limit  is  about  12  miles  from  the 
Mississippi  river ;  to  the  north  it  extends 
nearly  to  Wisconsin  river ;  south  to  Apple 
river,  in  Illinois ;  and  east  to  the  east  branch 
of  the  Pekatonica.  From  east  to  west  it  is 
87  miles  across,  and  from  north  to  south  54 
miles.  Much  of  the  region  is  a  rolling 
prairie,  with  a  few  isolated  hills,  called 
mounds,  scattered  upon  its  surface,  the  high 
est  of  them  rising  scarcely  more  than  200 
feet  above  the  general  level.  The  prevailing 
limestone  formations  give  fertility  to  the  soil, 
and  the  country  is  well  watered  by  numer 
ous  small  streams,  which  flow  in  valleys  ex 
cavated  from  100  to  150  feet  below  the 
higher  levels.  The  limestone,  of  gray  and 
yellowish  gray  colors,  lies  in  nearly  horizon 
tal  strata,  and  the  portion  which  contains 
the  lead  veins  hardly  exceeds  50  feet  in 
thickness.  Beneath  it  is  a  sandstone  of  the 
age  of  the  Potsdam  sandstone,  and  above  it 
are  strata  of  limestone  recognized  as  belong 
ing  to  the  Trenton  limestone,  so  that  it 
proves  to  be  a  formation  interposed  between 
these,  quite  western  in  character,  as  it  is  not 
met  Avith  east  of  Wisconsin.  The  veins  oc 
cupy  straight  vertical  fissures,  and  several 
near  together  sometimes  extend  nearly  a 
mile  in  an  east  and  west  direction.  They 
never  reach  downward  into  the  sandstone, 


LEAD. 


85 


but  are  lost  in  the  lower  strata  of  the  lime 
stone,  and  where  the  upper  strata  of  the  for 
mation  appear,  these  cover  over  the  veins, 
«nd  are  consequently  known  as  the  cap-rock. 
In  the  fissures  or  crevices  the  galena  is  found, 
sometimes  in  loose  sheets  and  lumps  embed 
ded  in  clay  and  earthy  oxide  of  iron,  and 
sometimes  attached  to  one  or  both  walls. 
It  is  rarely  so  much  as  a  foot  thick.  No 
other  ores  are  found  with  it,  except  some 
zinc  blende  and  calamine,  and  occasionally 
pyritous  iron  and  copper.  The  lead  con 
tains  but  a  trace  of  silver.  The  fissures,  as 
they  are  followed  beneath  the  surface,  some 
times  expand  in  width  till  they  form  what 
is  called  an  "  opening ;"  and  the  hollow 
space  may  go  on  enlarging  till  it  becomes  a 
cave  of  several  hundred  feet  in  length  and 
30  or  40  in  width.  Their  dimensions  are, 
however,  usually  within  40  or  50  feet  in 
length,  4  to  8  in  width,  and  as  many  in 
height.  The  walls  of  the  openings  often  afford 
a  thick  incrustation  of  galena,  besides  more 
or  less  loose  mineral  in  the  clay,  among  the 
fragments  of  rock,  with  all  of  which  the 
caves  are  partially  filled.  Flat  sheets  of  ore 
often  extend  from  the  vertical  fissures  be 
tween  the  horizontal  limestone  strata;  these 
are  more~apt  to  contain  blende,  and  pyrites, 
and  calcareous  spar  than  the  ore  of  the  verti 
cal  crevices.  Besides  these  modes  of  occur 
rence,  galena  is  found  in  loose  lumps  in  the 
clayey  loam  of  the  prairies.  This  is  called 
float  mineral,  and  is  regarded  as  an  evidence 
of  productive  fissures  in  the  vicinity. 

The  galena  occurs  under  a  variety  of  sin 
gular  forms  in  the  crevices.  It  lines  curious 
cavities  which  extend  up  in  the  cap-rock,  ter 
minating  above  in  a  point,  and  which  are 
known  as  chimneys.  Upon  the  roofs  of  the 
openings  it  is  found  in  large  bunches  of  cu 
bical  crystals,  and  the  same  are  obtained  lying 
in  the  clays  of  the  same  openings.  A  flat 
sheet  of  the  ore  was  worked  in  Iowa  that 
was  more  than  20  feet  across  and  from  2  to 
3  feet  thick,  each  side  of  which  turned  down 
in  a  vertical  sheet,  gradually  diminishing  in 
thickness.  It  yielded  1,200,000  Ibs.  of  rich 
galena,  and  more  still  remained  behind  in 
sight.  The  crevices  near  Dubuque  are  the 
most  regular  and  productive  of  any  in  the 
district.  One  called  the  Langworthy,  on  a 
length  of  about  three-fourths  of  a  mile,  has 
produced  10,uOO.O<)0  Ibs.  of  ore.  On  the 
main  fissure  there  were  usually  three  ranges 
of  crevices  one  above  another,  widening  out 
to  15  or  20  feet. 


The  smelters  of  this  region  form  a  distinct 
class  from  the  miners,  of  whom  the  former 
buy  the  ores  as  these  are  raised,  and  convert 
them  into  metal  in  the  little  smelting  estab 
lishments  scattered  through  the  country. 
The  lead  has  been  principally  sent  down  the 
Mississippi  river  to  Saint  Louis  and  New 
Orleans ;  but  a  portion  has  always  been  con 
sumed  in  the  country,  and  some  has  been 
wagoned  across  to  Milwaukee  before  the  con 
struction  of  railroads,  which  since  1853  have 
afforded  increased  facilities  for  distributing 
in  different  directions  the  product  of  the 
mines.  The  only  records  of  the  amount  of 
lead  obtained  are  those  of  the  shipments 
down  the  river.  The  following  table  presents 
the  number  of  pigs  shipped  from  the  earlier 
workings  to  1857  ;  the  figures  for  1841  to 
1 850,  inclusive,  being  furnished  to  Dr.  Owen's 
Report  of  1852  by  Mr.  James  Carter,  of  Ga 
lena.  The  pigs  weigh  about  70  Ibs.  each. 


SHIPMENTS    OF     LEAD     FROM 

Years.          Pigs. 
1821  to  1823...  4,790 

1824 2,503 

1825 9,490 

1826 13,700 

1827 74,130 

1828 158,655 

1829 190,620 

1830 119,060 

1831 91,170 

1832 61,164 

1833 113,440 

1834 ...113,648 

1835 158,330 

1836 191,750 

1837 219,360 

1838 200,465 

1839 357,785 

1840 317,845 

1841 452,814 


THE     UPPER     MISSISSIPPI. 

Tears.  1'igs. 

1842 447,859 

1843 56L321 

1844 624,601 

1845 778450 

1846 730.714 

1847 771,679 

1848 680,245 

1849 ,..628,934 

1850 569.521 

1851 474,115 

1852 408,628 

1853 425,814 

1854 423,617 

1855 430,365 

1856 .-.435,654 

1857 485,475 

1858 

1859 


The  lead  region  of  Missouri  was  first 
brought  into  public  notice  by  the  explora 
tions  of  the  French  adventurer,  Renault, 
who  was  sent  out  from  Paris  in  1720,  with 
a  party  of  miners,  to  search  for  precious 
metals  in  the  territory  of  Louisiana,  under 
a  patent  granted  by  the  French  government 
to  the  famous  company  of  John  Law. 
Their  investigations  were  carried  on  in  the 
region  lying  near  the  Mississippi  and  south 
of  the  Missouri  river ;  and  here,  though 
they  failed  to  find  the  precious  metals  they 
were  in  search  of,  they  discovered  and 
opened  many  mines  of  lead  ore.  A  large 
mining  tract  in  the  northern  part  of  Madi 
son  county  is  still  called  by  the  name  of 
their  mineralogist,  La  Motte.  Their  opera- 


86 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


tions,  however,  were  altogether  superficial, 
and  the  lead  they  obtained  was  wholly  by 
the  rude  and  wasteful  process  of  smelting 
the  ores  upon  open  log-heaps — a  practice 
•which  even  of  late  years  is  followed  to  some 
extent.  Up  to  Renault's  return  to  France, 
in  1742,  little  progress  had  been  made  in 
the  development  of  this  mining  district.  The 
next  step  was  made  by  one  Moses  Austin, 
of  Virginia,  who  obtained  from  the  Spanish 
government  a  grant  of  land  near  Potosi,  and 
commenced  in  1798  regular  mining  opera 
tions  by  sinking  a  shaft.  He  also  started 
a  reverberatory  furnace  and  built  a  shot 
tower.  Schoolcraft  states  in  his  "View  of 
the  Lead  Mines  of  Missouri,"  that  there 
were  in  1819  forty-five  mines  in  operation, 
giving  employment  to  1,100  persons.  Mine 
&  Burton  and  the  Potosi  diggings  had  pro 
duced  from  1798  to  1816  an  annual  average 
amount  exceeding  500,000  pounds  ;  and  in 
1811  the  production  of  Mine  Shibboleth 
was  3,125,000  pounds  of  lead  from  5,000,- 
000  pounds  of  ore.  At  a  later  period,  from 
1834  to  1837,  the  several  mines  of  the  La 
Motte  tract  produced,  it  is  estimated,  1,035,- 
820  pounds  of  lead  per  annum.  From  1840 
to  1854  the  total  yield  of  all  the  mines  is 
stated  by  Dr.  Litton  in  the  state  geological 
report  to  amount  to  over  3,833,121  pounds 
annually.  At  the  close  of  this  period  it  had, 
however,  greatly  fallen  off,  there  being  at 
that  time  scarcely  200  persons  engaged  in 
mining,  besides  those  employed  at  the  three 
mines  known  as  Perry's,  Valle's,  and  Skew 
ers'.  The  principal  mines  have  been  in 
Washington,  St.  Francis,  and  other  neigh 
boring  counties.  The  ores  are  found  in 
strata  of  magnesian  limestone  of  an  older 
date  than  the  galena  limestone  of  Wiscon 
sin,  and  supposed  to  lie,  with  the  sandstones 
•with  which  they  alternate,  on  the  same 
geological  horizon  as  the  calciferous  sand 
rock,  which  is  found  in  the  eastern  states 
overlying  the  Potsdam  sandstone.  Some 
of  the  mines  are  at  the  contact  of  the  hori 
zontal  limestone  with  granite  rocks,  but  the 
ores  in  this  position  are  only  in  superficial 
deposits  or  in  layers  included  in  the  lime 
stone.  In  their  general  features  the  veins 
do  not  differ  greatly  from  those  of  the  north 
ern  mines.  Some  of  them,  however,  con 
tain  a  larger  proportion  of  other  ores  be 
sides  galena,  as  well  as  a  greater  variety  of 
them.  Carbonate  of  lead,  called  by  the 
Miners  dry  bone  and  white  mineral,  is 
more  abundant,  and  also  blende,  called  by 


them  black  jack,  and  the  silicate  of  zinc. 
Iron  and  copper  pyrites  are  often  seen,  and 
at  Mine  la  Motte  are  found  the  black  oxides 
of  cobalt  and  manganese  associated  with 
the  carbonates  of  lead  and  copper.  Nearly 
all  the  mining  operations  have  been  mere 
superficial  excavations  in  the  clay,  which 
were  soon  exhausted  of  the  loose  ore  and 
abandoned.  But  to  this  there  are  some  re 
markable  exceptions  of  deeper  and  more 
permanent  mines  than  are  known  in  the 
northern  lead  regions.  Such  are  Valle's 
and  Perry's  mines,  both  situated  on  the 
same  group  of  veins,  which  form  a  network 
of  fissures  and  openings  running  in  every 
direction  and  spreading  over  an  area  of 
about  1,500  feet  in  length  by  500  in 
breadth,  the  extension  of  which  is  from  north 
west  to  south-east.  These  mines  have  been 
steadily  worked  since  1824,  and  22  shafts 
have  been  sunk  upon  the  fissures,  six  of 
which  are  over  110  feet  deep,  one  is  170 
feet  deep,  and  only  two  are  less  than  50 
feet.  For  the  first  10  to  30  feet  they  pass 
through  gravel  and  clay,  below  this  through  a 
silicious  magnesian  limestone  of  light  color, 
and  then  enter  a  very  close-grained  variety 
of  the  same,  called  by  the  miners  the  cast 
steel  rock.  A  succession  of  openings  are 
encountered,  which  are  distributed  with 
considerable  regularity  upon  three  different 
levels.  Those  of  the  middle  series  have 
been  the  most  productive.  Sometimes 
chimneys  connect  them  with  the  caves  of 
the  tier  above  or  below.  The  portion  of 
these  mines  on  the  Valle  tract  produced, 
according  to  the  state  report,  from  1824  to 
1834  about  10,000,000  pounds  of  lead,  and 
in  the  succeeding  20  years  about  as  much 
more;  and  Perry's  mine  from  1839  to  1854 
has  produced  about  18,000,000  pounds. 

No  accurate  estimates  have  been  pre 
served  of  the  total  production  of  the  Mis 
souri  mines.  This  has  always  fallen  far 
short  of  the  yield  of  the  northern  mines. 
From  1832  to  1843  it  is  reported  as  running 
from  2,500  to  3,700  tons  per  annum,  while 
that  of  the  northern  mines  in  the  same  time 
was  from  5,500  to  14,000  tons,  and  in 
1 845  it  even  exceeded  24,000  tons.  In  1852 
Mr.  J.  D.  Whitney  estimated  that  the  pro 
duction  in  Missouri  had  fallen  to  1,500  tons, 
or  less  ;  and  from  that  period  it  has  prob 
ably  not  advanced.  As  this  decrease  in. 
the  supply  has  been  going  on  while  the 
price  of  lead  has  risen  to  nearly  three  times 
what  it  was  in  1842,  the  cause  is  probably 


LEAD. 


owing  to  the  mines  themselves  being  in 
great  part  exhausted.  The  only  sufficient 
sources  known  from  which  the  increasing 
supplies  required  from  year  to  year  can  be 
furnished,  are  the  mines  of  Great  Britain 
and  Spain,  though  should  the  argentiferous 
lead  mines  of  Mexico  ever  be  worked  for 
the  lead  as  well  as  the  silver  they  contain, 
they  might  furnish  large  quantities  of  the 
former  metal.  As  the  production  of  the 
United  States  has  fallen  off,  that  of  Great 
Britain  has  increased  from  64,000  tons  in 
1850  to  73,129  tons  in  1856,  and  96,266 
tons  in  1857,  thus  considerably  exceeding 
one-half  of  the  whole  production  of  the 
globe  in  this  metal,  which  in  1854  was  rated 


Pig  lead  from 

American  mines 

received  at  St. 

Tears.         Louis  and  Nevr 

Orleans. 

Ibs. 

1832 8,540,000 

1833 12,600,000 

1834 14,140,000 

1835 16,000,000 

1836 18,000,000 

1837 20,000,000 

1838 20,860,000 

1839 24,000,000 

1840 27,000,000 

1841 30,000,000 

1842 33,110,000 

1843 39,970,000 

1844 44,730,000 

1845 51,240,000 

1846 54,950,000 

1847 46,130,000 

1848 42,420,000 

1849 35,560,000 

1850 40,313,910 

1851 34,934,480 

1852 28,593,180 

1853 31,497,950 

1854 21,472,990 

1855 21,441,140 

1856 15,347,880 

1857 14,028,140 

1858 21,210,420 


at  about  133,000  tons.  At  that  time  the 
production  of  Spain  was  rated  at  30,000 
tons,  and  of  the  United  States  at  15,000 
tons.  The  following  table,  from  Hunfs 
Merchants'  Magazine,  of  July,  1859.  pre 
sents  several  features  of  interest  in  the  his 
tory  of  this  business.  The  amount  of 
domestic  lead  received  at  St.  Louis  and  New 
Orleans  is  not,  however,  a  true  index  of  the 
production  of  the  American  mines,  and  the 
falling  off  of  the  figures  in  the  second 
column  for  several  years  past,  is  properly  ac 
counted  for  to  some  extent  by  the  new  out 
lets  opened  from  the  northern  mines  eastward, 
and  also  by  the  largely  increased  consump 
tion  of  the  metal  in  the  western  states. 


Average 

Pig,  bar,  and 

Invoice  value 

rate  of 

sheet  lead 

of  yearly 

duty  per 

imported. 
Ibs. 

importations. 

100  Ibs. 

5,333,588 

$124,311 

$3.00 

2,282,068 

60,660 

3.00 

4,997,293 

168,811 

2.77 

1,006,472 

35,663 

2.77 

919,087 

35,283 

2.55 

335,772 

13,871 

2.57 

165,844 

6,573 

2.34 

528,922 

18,631 

2.31 

519,343 

18,111 

2.08 

62,246 

2,605 

2.07 

4,689 

155 

3.00 

290 

3 

3.00 

.  . 

,   m 

3.00 

19,609 

458 

3.00 

214 

6 

3.00 

224,905 

6,288 

0.56 

2,684,700 

85,387 

0.64 

Invoice 

White  and 

value  of 

red  lead 

yearly  im 

imported 

portations. 

Ibs. 

557,781 

$30,791 

625,069 

36,049 

1,024,663 

57,572 

832,215 

50,225 

908,105 

62,237 

599,980 

47,316 

522,681 

38,683 

720,408 

50,9-05 

643,418 

41,043 

532,122 

31,617 

479,738 

28,747 

93,166 

5,600 

36,997,751 
43,470,210 
37,544,588 
43,174,447 
47,714,140 
56,745,247 
55,294,256 
47,947.698 
41,230,019 


1,182,597 
1,517,603 
1,283,331 
1,618,058 
2,095,039 
2,556,523 
2,528,014 
2,305,768 
1,972,243 


0.64 
0.70 
0.70 
0.70 
0.90 
0.90 
0.91 
0.72 
0.72 


231,171 

14,744 

215,434 

15,685 

298,387 

15,228 

318,781 

19,703 

853,463 

43,756 

1,105,852 

52,631 

842,521 

43,365 

1,224,068 

69,058 

1,865,893 

102,812 

2,319,099 

134,855 

3,548,409 

174,125 

1,793,377 

113,075 

1,785,851 

109,426 

For  the  year  ending  June  30,  1859,  the 
imports  of  lead  are  given  at  64,000,000 
pounds,  worth  nearly  $2,700,000.  Of  this 
about  $57,000  worth  were  re-exported  to 
foreign  countries,  besides  American  lead  to 
the  value  of  $30,000,  and  a  small  amount  of 
manufactured  lead. 

LEAD  SMELTING.  The  lead  mines  of  the 
United  States  being  scattered  over  wide  ter 
ritories,  and  their  products  being  nowhere 
brought  together  in  large  quantities,  the  proc 
ess  of  reducing  the  ores  has  been  conducted 
in  small  establishments  and  by  the  most  sim 


ple  methods.  The  earlier  operations  were 
limited  to  smelting  the  ores  in  log  furnaces. 
Upon  a  layer  of  logs  placed  in  an  inclosure 
of  logs  or  stones  piled  up,  split  wood  was 
set  on  end  and  covered  with  the  ore,  and 
over  this  small  wood  again.  The  pile  was 
fired  through  an  opening  in  front.  The 
combustion  of  the  small  wood  removed  from 
the  ore  a  portion  of  the  sulphur,  and  the  re 
duction  was  completed  by  the  greater  heat 
arising  from  the  burning  of  the  logs.  The 
lead  run  down  to  the  bottom  and  out  in 
front  into  a  basin,  whence  it  was  ladled  into 


88 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


the  moulds.  The  loss  of  metal  was  of 
course  very  large ;  but  a  portion  was  recov 
ered  by  treating  the  residue  in  what  was 
called  an  ash  furnace.  The  process  is  still 
resorted  to  in  places  where  no  furnaces  are 
within  reach.  But  wherever  mines  are  open 
ed  that  promise  sufficient  supplies  of  ore, 
furnaces  are  soon  constructed  in  their  vicini 
ty.  Those  in  use  are  of  two  sorts :  the 
Scotch  hearth  and  the  reverberatory.  Besides 
these,  another  small  furnace  is  often  built 
for  melting  over  the  slags.  This  is  little 
else  than  a  crucible  built  iu  brick-work,  and 
arranged  for  the  blast  to  enter  by  an  aper 
ture  in  the  back,  and  for  the  metal  to  flow 
out  by  another  opening  in  front. 

The  Scotch  hearth  is  a  small  blast  furnace, 
but  resembles  the  open  forge  or  bloomary 
fire  for  iron  ores.  It  has  long  been  in  use  in 
Europe,  and  is  the  most  common  furnace  at 
our  own  mines.  In  this  country  it  has  been 

greatly  improved  by  the  introduction  of  hot 
last ;  and  in  its  most  perfect  form  is  rep 
resented  in  the  accompanying  figures ;  figure 
a  being  a  vertical  section  from  front  to  back, 
and  figure  b  a  horizontal  section. 


SCOTCH   HEARTH   FURNACE. 


A  is  the  reservoir  of  lead  of  the  furnace, 
consisting  of  a  box,  open  at  top,  about  two 
feet  square  and  one  foot  deep,  formed  of 
cast  iron  2  inches  thick.  From  its  upper 
front  edge  a  sloping  hearth,  H,  is  fixed  so  as 


to  receive  the  melted  lead  that  overflows, 
and  conduct  it  by  the  groove  into  the  basin, 
B.     In  this  it  is  kept  in  a  melted  state  by  a 
little  fire  beneath,  and,  as  convenient,  the  lead 
is  ladled  out  and  poured  into  moulds.     D  is 
a  hollow  shell  of  cast  iron  |  of  an  inch  thick, 
its  inner  and  outer  sides  inclosing  a  space  of 
4  inches  width.     Into  this  space  the  blast  is 
introduced    at   E,    and    becoming   heated, 
passes  out   at  F,   and   thence   through  the 
curved  pipe  into  a  tuyere,  T,  cast  in  the  air- 
chest  2  inches  above  the  level  of  the  lead 
reservoir.      Before   commencing  operations 
this  reservoir  is  to  be  filled  with  lead,  and  is 
thus  kept  so  long  as  the  furnace  is  in  use ; 
the  process  being  conducted  upon  the  sur 
face  of  the  melted  metal.     The  furnace  may 
be   kept   in  continual    operation  by  adding 
new  charges  of  galena  every  ten   or  fifteen 
minutes,  and  working  them  down  after  they 
have  become  roasted  at  the    surface.     The 
fuel  employed  is   dry  pine  wood   split  into 
small  pieces,  and  billets  of  these  are  thrown 
in  against  the  tuyere  just  before  each  new 
charge  of  ore,  that  already  in  the  furnace 
being   raked   forward   upon  the  hearth   to 
make  room  for  the  fuel,  and  the  blast  being 
temporarily  turned  off.     The   old  charge  is 
then  thrown,  together  with  fresh  ore,  upon 
the  wood,  and  the  blast  is  let  on,  when  the 
heat  and  flame  immediately  spread  through 
the  materials.    The  sulphur  in  the  ore  serves 
itself  as  fuel,  accelerating  the  process  by  its 
combustion,    and    in    a    few   minutes    the 
whole  charge  is  stirred  up,  spread  out  on  the 
hearth,  and  the  hard,  unreduced  fragments 
are  broken  in  pieces  by  blows  of  the  shovel. 
Slaked    lime  is  sometimes  added  in    small 
quantity  when  the  partially  reduced .  ore  be 
comes  too  soft  and  pasty  by  excess  of  heat. 
Its  effect  is  to  lessen  this  tendency  rather  by 
mechanical  than  chemical  action.       If  any 
flux  is  used,  it  is  fluor  spar,  blacksmith's 
cinders,  or  bits  of  iron.     The  latter  hasten 
the  reduction  by  the  affinity  of  the  iron  for 
the  sulphur  of  the  ore.     The  cast  iron  of  the 
air-chest  is  protected  from  the  action  of  the 
ulphur  by  the  cooling  influence  of  the  air 
blown  in ;   and  this  is  also  advantageous  by 
its   keeping  the  furnace  from  becoming  so 
hot,  that  the  galena  would  melt  before  losing 
its  sulphur,  and  thus  form  combinations  of 
exceedingly  difficult  reduction.     A  fan,  run 
by  steam  or  water  power,  is  commonly  em 
ployed  for  raising  the  blast ;  but  as  this  gives 
ittle  pressure,  it  is  replaced  to  great  ad  van- 
age    by   blowing   cylinders,    with   an    air- 


LEAD. 


receiver  for  giving  regularity  to  the  current 
of  air.  With  such  an  apparatus,  the  smelter 
can  apply  the  blast  with  great  advantage  at 
times  to  help  loosen  up  the  charge  and 
throw  the  flame  through  every  part  of  it. 
The  ores  are  prepared  for  smelting  by  sep 
arating  from  them  all  the  stony  and  clayey 
particles,  and  as  much  as  possible  of  the 
blende  and  other  impurities  that  may  ac 
company  them.  This  may  require  a  succes 
sion  of  mechanical  processes,  in  which  the 
ores  are  crushed  to  fine  fragments  and  dress 
ed  by  jigging  and  screening  under  water. 
Not  only  is  the  labor  and  cost  of  smelting  re 
duced  by  the  purity  of  the  ore,  and  espe 
cially  its  freedom  from  blende  and  pyrites, 
but  the  quality  also  of  the  metal  is  thereby 
improved.  Lead  that  contains  iron  is  not 
adapted  for  the  manufacture  of  white-lead. 
The  American  metal  being  generally  free 
from  this  brings  a  higher  price  than  Spanish 
or  English  lead.  With  pure  ore  a  cord  of 
wood  may  be  made  to  produce  four  tons  of 
lead  ;  and  each  furnace  7,500  Ibs.  every  24 
hours  ;  a  smelter  and  his  assistant  managing 
the  operation  for  12  hours.  At  Rossie 
large  quantities  of  lead  have  thus  been 
smelted  at  a  daily  cost  for  labor  of  $5,  and 
for  fuel  of  f  1.50,  making  $1.75  per  ton.  In 
Wisconsin,  before  the  use  of  the  hot  blast, 
each  furnace-shift  was  continued  from  8  to  10 
hours,  until  30  pigs  of  lead  were  produced 
of  2,100  Ibs.  weight,  at  an  expense  of  about 
$4  for  labor,  and  Si. 50  for  fuel. 

The  other  form  of  furnace — the  rever- 
beratory — resembles  others  of 'this  class  em 
ployed  in  smelting  copper  ores.  The  sole, 
or  hearth,  upon  which  the  ores  are  spread,  is 
about  8  feet  in  length  by  6  in  breadth,  and 
is  made  to  incline  rapidly  toward  an  aper 
ture  on  one  side,  or  at  the  end  under  the 
chimney,  and  out  of  which  the  lead  is 
allowed  at  the  end  of  each  smelting  to 
flow  into  a  receiver  outside.  The  charge  is 
supplied  either  through  a  hopper  in  the 
arched  roof,  or  through  the  holes  in  the 
sides,  which  also  serve  for  admitting  the 
pokers  used  by  the  workmen  to  stir  up  the 
charge.  Unless  the  galena  has  been  pre 
viously  calcined  or  roasted — a  process  neces 
sary  for  poor  ores  only — this  is  the  first 
thing  to  be  attended  to  in  all  the  smelting 
operations.  In  the  large  charge  of  30  cwt. 
of  ore  this  usually  takes  the  first  two  hours 
of  the  process,  and  is  effected  in  great  part 
by  the  heat  remaining  in  the  furnace  from 
the  preceding  operation,  the  doors  at  the 


sides  being  kept  open  at  the  same  time  to  al 
low  free  access  of  air.  The  oxidation  of  the 
sulphur  is  expedited  by  almost  constant 
stirring  of  the  charge,  which  brings  fresh 
portions  to  the  surface,  causing  an  evolution 
of  white  fumes.  As  these  begin  to  diminish, 
the  fire  is  started  on  the  grate,  and  the  heat 
is  raised  till  the  charge  softens  and  the  pieces 
of  ore  adhere  to  the  rake.  The  doors  are 
then  closed,  and  the  fire  is  urged  for  a 
quarter  of  an  hour,  when  the  smelter  opens 
the  door  to  see  if  the  metal  separates  and 
flows  down  the  inclined  hearth.  If  the  sep 
aration  does  not  go  on  well,  it  is  hastened 
by  opening  one  of  the  doors,  pai'tially  cool 
ing  the  furnace,  and  stirring  the  charge.  The 
fire  is  then  again  urged.  If  the  slags  which 
form  seem  to  require  it,  he  treats  them  with 
a  few  shovelfuls  of  lime  and  fine  coal ;  and 
when,  after  having  flowed  down  into  the 
lower  portion  of  the  hearth,  they  are 
brought  into  a  doughy  consistency,  the 
smelter  pushes  the  slag  to  the  opposite  upper 
edge  of  the  hearth,  from  which  it  is  taken 
out  through  a  door  on  that  side  by  his  as 
sistant,  while  he  lets  off  the  lead  into  the 
receiver. 

The  separation  by  this  method  is  not  so 
perfect  as  by  the  Scotch  hearth,  and  the 
expense  of  fuel  is  greater ;  but  the  reverbe- 
ratory  is  worked  without  the  necessity  of 
steam  or  water  power,  which  is  required  to 
raise  the  blast  for  the  other  process.  The 
slags  of  the  reverberatory  contain  so  much 
lead  that  they  are  always  remelted  in  the 
slag  furnace.  Those  of  the  Scotch  hearth, 
when  pure  ores  are  employed,  are  sufficiently 
clear  of  metal  without  further  reduction.  In 
Europe  other  sorts  of  furnaces  are  in  use, 
which  are  adapted  particularly  for  ores  of 
poorer  quality  than  are  ever  smelted  in  the 
United  States. 

In  the  Hartz  mountains,  at  Clausthal, 
argentiferous  silver  ores  containing  much 
silica  are  worked  in  close  cupola  furnaces, 
into  which  only  enough  air  is  admitted  to 
consume  the  fuel.  The  object  is  not  to 
roast  out  the  sulphur,  but  to  cause  this  to 
combine  with  the  granulated  cast  iron  or 
with  the  quick-lime,  either  of  which  is  mixed 
with  the  ores  to  flux  them  and  form  a  fusible 
compound  with  the  sulphur,  through  which 
the  metallic  lead  can  easily  find  its  way  to 
the  bottom.  The  production  of  a  silicate  of 
lead  is  thus  avoided,  which  is  a  difficult 
compound  to  reduce,  and  is  always  formed 
when  much  silica  is  present.  This  process 


90 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


will  probably  be  applied  to  some  of  the  si- 
licious  ores  of  the  United  States,  and  may 
be  particularly  suited  to  the  Washoe  ores  of 
California. 

By  all  the  methods  of  reducing  lead  a 
great  loss  is  incurred  by  the  volatilization  of 
a  portion  of  the  lead  in  white  fumes,  called 
lead  ashes.  These  are  carried  up  through 
the  chimney  of  the  furnace  and  fall  upon 
the  ground  in  the  neighborhood,  poisoning 
the  vegetation  and  the  water  by  the  carbon 
ate  of  lead,  which  results  from  the  fumes. 
Trees  even  are  killed,  and  the  dogs  die  off, 
and  also  the  cattle.  In  Scotland  the  lead 
has  been  detected  in  chemical  examinations 
of  the  bodies  of  animals  thus  killed,  and  it 
was  particularly  noticeable  in  the  spleen. 
For  the  injury  thus  occasioned  at  the  fur 
naces  of  the  United  States  no  remedy  has 
been  applied,  but  at  many  of  the  great  es 
tablishments  in  Europe,  where  the  loss  of 
lead  and  the  damage  to  the  neighborhood 
is  much  more  serious,  attempts  have  been 
made  to  arrest  the  fumes,  by  causing  them 
to  pass  through  long  flues  in  the  chimney 
stacks,  in  which  the  particles  on  cooling 
would  settle  down;  and  their  cooling  has 
been  hastened  by  showers  of  water  falling 
among  the  vapors.  Flues  have  been  extended 
great  distances  beyond  the  works,  and  have 
been  found  much  more  efficient  than  any 
form  of  condensation  by  sudden  cooling. 
Some  of  the  works  constructed  for  this  pur 
pose  are  very  remarkable  for  their  great 
extent  and  the  saving  they  have  effected, 
and  similar  ones  may  perhaps  be  found  well 
worthy  of  construction  at  some  of  the  smelt 
ing  establishments  in  the  United  States.  At 
the  works  of  Mr.  Beaumont,  in  Northum 
berland,  England,  horizontal  or  slightly  in 
clined  galleries  have  been  completed  in  stone 
work,  8  feet  high  and  6  feet  wide,  for  an 
extent  of  8,789  yards  (nearly  five  miles). 
This  is  from  one  mill  alone.  The  same  pro 
prietor  has  connected  with  other  mills  in 
the  same  district  and  in  Durham  four  miles 
of  galleries  for  the  same  purpose.  The 
writer  who  gives  the  account  of  these  in  the 
recent  edition  of  Ure's  Dictionary,  by  Rob 
ert  Hunt,  remarks:  "The  value  of  the 
lead  thus  saved  from  being  totally  dissipated 
and  dispersed,  and  obtained  from  what  in 
common  parlance  might  be  called  chimney 
sweepings,  considerably  exceeds  £10,000 
sterling  annually,  and  forms  a  striking  illus 
tration  of  the  importance  of  economizing 
our  waste  products."  Not  only  is  lead  lost 


in  the  fumes,  but  in  the  working  of  argentif 
erous  lead  ores,  a  portion  of  the  silver  too 
is  carried  off  and  deposited  with  them.  The 
fumes  collected  at  the  works  of  the  Duke 
of  Buccleuch  yield  one-third  their  weight  of 
lead,  and  five  ounces  of  silver  to  the  ton.  The 
loss  of  silver  is  of  little  importance  in  this 
country,  where  this  metal  is  not  obtained  at 
the  present  time,  unless  it  be  at  the  Wash 
ington  mine,  in  North  Carolina,  and  at  the 
Washoe  mines,  in  California;  and  conse 
quently  methods  of  separating  it  from  the 
lead  possess  little  more  than  scientific  interest. 
In  the  smelting  of  argentiferous  lead  ores, 
the  silver  goes  with  the  lead,  being  com 
pletely  dissolved  and  diffused  throughout  its 
substance.  The  usual  way  of  separating  it  is 
founded  on  the  principle  of  the  lead  being  a 
metal  easily  oxidized  and  converted  into  the 
substance  called  litharge,  in  which  condi 
tion  it  lets  go  the  silver,  which  has  no  affinity 
either  for  the  new  compound  of  oxygen  and 
lead,  or  for  the  oxygen  alone.  The  change 
is  effected  by  melting  the  lead  in  the  shallow 
basins  called  cupels,  formed  of  a  porous 
earthy  material,  as  the  pulverized  ashes  of 
burned  bones,  kneaded  with  water,  and 
mixed  in  a  framework  of  iron.  When  dried, 
these  are  set  in  a  reverberatory  furnace,  and 
the  pigs  of  lead  are  melted  upon  their  sur 
face.  After  being  thoroughly  heated,  a  cur 
rent  of  air  is  made  to  draw  through  an  open 
ing  in  the  side  of  the  furnace  directly  upon 
the  face  of  the  melted  metal.  This  oxidizes 
the  lead,  and  the  yellow  litharge  with  more 
or  less  red  oxide,  called  minium,  collects  in 
a  thin  film  upon  its  surface,  and  floats  off  to 
the  edge,  sinking  into  and  incrusting  the 
cupel  and  falling  over  its  side  into  a  recep 
tacle  placed  to  receive  it.  This  process  goes 
on,  the  lead  gradually  disappearing  as  the 
oxygen  combines  with  it,  till  with  the  re 
moval  of  the  last  films  of  oxide  the  melted 
silver  suddenly  presents  its  brilliant,  perfectly 
unsullied  face.  The  oxide  of  lead  may  be 
collected  and  sold  for  the  purposes  of 
litharge,  as  for  a  pigment,  for  use  in  the 
manufacture  of  glass,  etc. ;  or  it  may  be 
mixed  with  fine  coal  and  converted  back 
into  lead,  the  carbon  of  the  coal  effecting 
this  change  by  the  greater  affinity  it  has  at 
a  high  heat  for  the  oxygen,  than  the  lead  has 
to  retain  it.  By  this  process,  known  as 
cupellation,  lead  is  hardly  worth  treating  for 
silver,  unless  it  contain  about  10  ounces  to 
the  ton  of  the  precious  metal ;  and  it  was 
therefore  an  important  object  to  devise  a 


LEAD. 


91 


method  of  saving  with  economy  the  silver 
lost  in  the  large  quantities  of  the  poorer 
argentiferous  leads.  Such  a  method  was 
accidentally  discovered  in  1829  by  Mr. 
Pattirison,  of  Newcastle,  and  is  now  exten 
sively  in  use  in  Europe  for  the  poorer  silver- 
leads,  cupellation  being  preferred  for  the 
richer.  He  observed  that  when  the  lead 
containing  silver  forms  crystals,  as  it  is 
stirred  while  in  a  melted  state,  the  crystals 
contain  little  or  none  of  the  silver,  and  may 
be  removed,  thus  concentrating  the  silver 
in  the  portions  left  behind.  This  crystal 
lizing  process  is  applied  in  the  large  way  as 
follows :  Cast  iron  pots  are  set  in  brick 
work  side  by  side,  capable  of  holding  each 
one  4  or  5  tons  of  lead.  The  middle  one 
is  first  charged,  and  when  the  lead  is  melted 
and  stirred,  the  fire  is  removed  under  the 
next  pot  to  the  right ;  and  into  this  crystals 
of  lead  as  they  form  are  ladled  by  means  of 
a  sort  of  cullender,  which  lets  the  fluid  lead 
fall  back.  This  instrument  is  kept  hotter 
than  the  lead  by  frequently  dipping  it  in  a 
pot  of  lead  over  a  separate  fire.  When  four- 
fifths  of  the  lead  have  been  transferred  to 
the  pot  to  the  right,  the  remainder,  which 
contains  all  the  silver,  is  removed  to  the  next 
pot  to  the  left,  and  the  middle  pot  is  then 
charged  with  fresh  lead,  which  is  treated  in 
the  same  manner.  The  process  is  repeated 
with  each  pot,  as  it  becomes  full,  four-fifths 
of  its  contents  going  to  the  next  pot  to  the 
right,  and  one-fifth  to  the  next  to  the  left, 
and  thus  the  lead  is  finally  discharged  into 
moulds  at  one  end,  and  the  argentiferous 
alloy,  concentrated  to  the  richness  of  300 
ounces  of  silver  to  the  ton,  is  run  into  bars 
about  2  inches  square.  From  these  the 
silver  is  obtained  by  cupellation.  At  one 
establishment  in  England,  that  of  Messrs. 
Walker,  Parker  «fe  Co.,  the  weekly  product 
of  silver  is  from  8,000  to  10,000  ounces. 
Whenever  the  lead  mines  of  the  eastern 
states  are  made  to  yield  regular,  returns  of 
lead,  the  separation  of  its  silver  is  likely  to 
be  carried  on  in  independent  establishments, 
supplied  like  the  copper-smelting  works  with 
material  from  various  sources.  Works  hav- 
inrr  these  objects  in  view  were  established 
in  the  fall  of  1 860,  at  Brooklyn,  New  York, 
by  Messrs.  Bloodgood  &  Ambler,  and  will 
commence  operations  with  the  smelting  of 
the  Washoe  silver-lead  ores  from  California, 
of  which  over  sixty  tons  have  been  delivered 
at  the  works  for  reduction.  Their  success 
ful  treatment  will  no  doubt  be  followed  by 
6* 


the  shipment  of  other  ores  of  the  different 
metals  from  various  sources ;  and  it  is  to  be 
hoped  that  it  will  hereafter  be  found  more 
advantageous  to  send  ores  to  New  York  to 
be  reduced,  than  to  the  smelting  establish 
ments  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

USEFUL  APPLICATIONS  OF  LEAD. — A  con 
siderable  part  of  the  lead  product  of  the  world 
is  converted  into  the  carbonate,  known  as 
white  lead,  and  used  as  a  paint.  The  prin 
cipal  articles  of  metallic  lead  are  sheet  lead,' 
lead  pipe,  and  shot.  Sheet  lead  is  manu 
factured  in  two  ways.  The  melted  lead  is 
upset  from  a  trough  suspended  over  a  per 
fectly  level  table,  covered  with  fine  sand,  and 
furnished  with  a  raised  margin ;  and  when 
the  metal  has  spread  over  this,  a  couple  of 
workmen,  one  on  each  side,  carry  along  a 
bar  supported  upon  the  margin,  pushing 
forward  the  excess  of  lead  above  that  neces 
sary  for  the  required  thickness,  till  it  falls 
over  the  end  of  the  table.  By  the  other 
method,  called  milling,  the  lead  is  cast  in  a 
plate,  6  or  7  feet  square,  and  6  inches  thick, 
and  this  being  taken  up  by  a  crane,  is  placed 
upon  a  line  of  wooden  rollers,  which  form 
a  flooring  for  the  length  it  may  be  of  70  or 
80  feet  and  a  width  of  8  feet.  Across  the  mid 
dle  of  this  line  are  set  the  two  heavy  iron 
rolls  by  which  the  lead  plate  is  compressed, 
as  it  is  passed  between  them.  The  top  of 
the  lower  roll  is  on  a  level  with  the  top  of 
the  wooden  rollers,  and  the  upper  roll  is  so 
arranged  that  it  can  be  set  nearer  to  or  further 
from  the  lower  one,  as  the  thickness  of  the 
plate  requires. 

Lead  pipe  was  formerly  made  by  turning 
up  sheet  lead  and  soldering  the  edges ;  and 
is  still  prepared  in  this  way  for  the  large 
sizes,  as  those  over  six  inches  diameter.  Af 
ter  this  a  method  was  contrived  of  casting 
the  lead  in  a  hollow  cylindrical  plug,  its 
inner  diameter  of  the  bore  required,  and  then 
drawing  this  down  through  slightly  conical 
dies  of  decreasing  diameter,  a  mandril  or 
steel  rod  being  inserted  to  retain  the  uniform 
diameter  of  the  bore.  Pipes  made  in  this 
way  were  limited  to  15  to  18  feet  in  length, 
and  the  metal  was  full  of  flaws.  Many  at 
tempts  have  been  made  to  cast  long  lengths 
of  lead  pipe,  all  of  which  have  proved  unsuc 
cessful.  In  1820  Thomas  Burr,  of  England, 
first  applied  the  hydraulic  press  to  forcing 
lead,  when  beginning  to  solidify  in  cooling, 
through  an  annular  space  between  a  hollow 
ring  and  a  solid  core  secured  in  its  centre. 
He  thus  produced  pipes  of  considerable 


92 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


length.  The  method  of  forcing  the  liquid 
metal  through  dies  to  form  pipes  was,  how 
ever,  first,  patented  in  1797  by  Bramah,  who 
used  a  pump  for  this  purpose.  The  process 
was  introduced  into  this  country  in  1840-41 
by  Messrs.  Tatham  &  Brothers,  now  of  New 
York,  who  invented  and  patented  an  impor 
tant  improvement  in  the  method  of  secur 
ing  the  die  and  core.  In  this  operation  the 
melted  lead  is  made  to  flow  from  the  furnace 
into  a  cylindrical  cavity  in  a  block  of  cast 
iron,  which,  may  be  of  1 800  Ibs.  weight,  and 
from  this,  when  cooled  to  the  proper  tem 
perature,  it  is  forced  out  through  the  die  by 
a  closely-fitting  piston.  By  one  process  the 
piston,  starting  from  the  bottom  of  the  cylin 
drical  cavity,  moves  upward,  carrying  with  it 
the  slender  core  or  rod  which  determines  the 
diameter  of  the  bore  of  the  pipe,  and  pushes 
the  melted  lead  before  it  through  the  die 
fixed  in  the  top  of  the  cast  iron  block.  The 
pipe  as  it  is  formed  passes  out  from  the  top 
of  the  machine,  and  is  coiled  around  a  re 
ceiving  drum.  By  the  machine  contrived  by 
Mr.  Cornell  of  New  York,  the  great  iron 
block  containing  the  lead  rises  by  the  press 
ure  of  the  hydraulic  machine,  and  the  piston 
which  is  fixed  above  it  enters  the  cavity. 
The  piston  in  this  case  is  hollow  and  the  die 
is  set  in  its  lower  end.  The  core  is  secured 
in  the  bottom  of  the  block,  and  is  carried 
upward  as  this  rises.  The  pressure  applied 
in  this  operation  amounts  to  200  to  300  tons. 
Dies  are  used  of  a  great  variety  of  sizes,  accord 
ing  to  the  kind  of  pipe  required.  Lead  wire 
is  made  in  this  way  with  a  die  of  very  small 
size  without  a  core.  It  is  used  for  securing 
vines  and  attaching  tags  to  fruit  trees  and 
shrubs.  The  principal  works  in  the  United 
States  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  sheet 
lead  and  lead  pipe  are  in  New  York,  Boston, 
Philadelphia,  Chicago,  Cincinnati,  and  Saint 
Louis. 

Lead  pipe  is  in  general  use  as  the  most 
convenient  conduit  for  water  for  domestic 
purposes.  It  is  readily  bent  to  any  angle, 
and  is  made  to  adapt  itself  to  any  position. 
When  water  freezes  within  and  bursts  it,  the 
damage  is  easily  repaired;  joints  are  also 
made  with  little  trouble.  The  lead  is  not 
liable  to  become  rusty  like  iron,  and  is 
cheaper  than  tin  or  copper.  These  qualities 
give  to  it  a  preference  over  other  kinds  of 
pipe,  notwithstanding  the  very  serious  objec 
tion  that  the  lead  is  often  acted  upon  by  the 
water,  and  produces  poisonous  salts  of  a  very 
dangerous  character.  Some  waters  more  than 


others  have  a  tendency  to  promote  the  oxid 
ation  of  the  lead.  This  is  particularly  likely 
to  occur  with  nearly  all  waters  in  pipes  which 
are  alternately  exposed  to  the  action  of  air 
and  water,  as  when  the  water  being  drawn 
out,  the  air  enters  and  takes  its  place.  The 
oxide  of  lead  is  converted  by  carbonic  acid 
gas,  which  is  present  in  almost  all  water,  into 
a  carbonate  of  lead  which  is  soluble  to  some 
extent  in  an  excess  of  the  gas,  and  is  carried 
along,  bearing  no  indication  of  its  presence, 
Avhile  the  lead  pipe  continues  to  be  corroded 
until  it  may  be  in  places  eaten  nearly  through. 
The  water  used  for  drinking  and  for  culinary 
purposes  is  thus  continually  introducing  an 
insidious  poison  into  the  system,  the  effect 
of  which  is  at  last  experienced  in  the  disease 
known  as  the  painters'  colic,  often  followed 
by  paralysis.  As  this  occurs  without  a  sus 
picion  being  awakened  of  the  real  source  of 
the  disease,  and  is  produced  by  quantities  so 
small  as  from  T^  to  -£-$  of  a  grain  in  the  gal 
lon,  the  use  of  lead  pipe  is  properly  regard 
ed  by  scientific  men  as  always  unsafe ;  and 
some  substitute  for  this  metal  in  pipes  and 
in  sheets  used  for  lining  water  cisterns,  is 
highly  desirable.  It  has  been  proposed  to 
coat  the  pipe  with  some  insoluble  lining ; 
but  such  an  application  necessarily  increases 
its  cost,  it  may  perhaps  be  removed  by  hot 
water  flowing  through  the  pipe,  and  the  pur 
chaser  may  have  no  confidence  in  the  coating 
being  faithfully  applied,  or  as  certain  to  be 
efficient  during  long-continued  use.  Block 
tin  is  perfectly  safe,  but  it  is  expensive,  and 
is  moreover  likely  to  be  alloyed  with  the 
cheaper  metal  lead,  which  in  this  condition 
is  thought  to  be  equally  dangerous  as  when 
used  alone.  As  no  popular  substitute  for 
lead  is  provided,  it  is  a  reasonable  precaution 
for  those  employing  it  to  be  always  watchful 
and  on  their  guard  against  its  evil  effects — 
using  as  little  of  it  as  necessary,  causing  the 
water  to  be  occasionally  tested,  and,  when 
ever  opportunity  offers,  cutting  open  and  ex 
amining  pieces  of  the  pipe  to  see  whether  its 
internal  surface  is  corroded,  and  every  morn 
ing  before  using  the  water  that  has  stood  in 
the  pipes,  to  cause  this  to  flow  away  to 
gether  with  enough  more  to  thoroughly  wash 
out  the  pipes  and  remove  any  salts  of  lead 
that  may  have  formed  in  them  during  the 
night. 

Large  quantities  of  lead  are  consumed  in 
the  United  States  in  the  manufacture  of  shot 
and  bullets ;  and  one  ingenious  method  of 
producing  shot  is  an  American  invention. 


LEAD. 


The  quality  of  the  lead  employed  for  this 
purpose  is  of  little  importance.  The  harder 
and  inferior  sorts,  which  would  not  answer 
for  the  white  lead  manufacture,  are  economi 
cally  diverted  to  this  object.  If  too  brittle, 
from  the  iron  and  antimony  combined  with 
the  lead,  the  metal  is  made  to  assume  the  right 
quality  by  mixing  with  it  a  small  proportion 
of  arsenic,  which,  for  most  kinds  of  lead, 
may  amount  to  one  per  cent.  To  introduce 
this  into  the  lead  a  large  pot  of  the  metal  is 
melted,  and  powdered  charcoal  or  ashes  is 
laid  around  its  edge.  The  arsenical  com 
pound,  either  of  white  arsenic  or  of  orpi- 
mcnt  (the  sulphuret  of  arsenic),  is  then  stir 
red  into  the  centre  of  the  mass,  and  a  cover 
is  tightly  luted  over  the  pot.  In  the  course 
of  a  few  hours,  the  mixture  being  kept  hot, 
the  combination  of  the  lead  with  the  arsenic 
is  completed,"  and  a  portion  of  litharge  floats 
upon  the  surface.  This  is  formed  from  the 
oxygen  of  the  white  arsenic  uniting  with 
some  of  the  lead,  and  it  retains  a  portion  of 
the  arsenic.  The  alloy  is  now  tried  by  let 
ting  a?small  quantity  of  it  fall  from  a  mod 
erate  height  through  a  strainer  into  water. 
From  the  appearance  of  the  globules  the 
quality  of  the  mixture  is  judged  of.  If 
they  are  lens-shaped,  too  much  arsenic  has 
been  used ;  'but  if  they  are  flattened  on  the 
side,  or  hollowed  in  the  middle,  or  drag  with 
a  tail  behind  them,  the  proportion  of  arsenic 
is  too  small.  When  a  proper  mixture  is  ob 
tained  it  is  run  into  bars,  and  these  are  taken 
to  the  top  of  a  tower,  from  100  to  200  feet 
high,  where  the  lead  is  melted  and  poured 
through  cullenders,  which  are  kept  hot  by 
being  placed  in  a  sort  of  chafing-dish  con 
taining  burning  charcoal.  The  lead  is  thus 
divided  into  drops  that  fall  to  the  bottom, 
and  are  received  in  a  vessel  of  water.  Each 
cullender  has  holes  all  of  the  same  size,  which 
is  considerably  less  than  that  of  the  shot 
produced  by  them.  This  is  owing  to  the 
drop  of  melted  lead  first  assuming  an  elon 
gated  form,  which  is  concentrated  into  the 
globular  by  the  air  impinging  equally  upon 
all  sides  in  the  course  of  its  descent.  When 
it  reaches  the  water,  it  is  important  that  it 
should  have  cooled  throughout,  so  that  no 
solid  crust  be  suddenly  formed  over  a  fluid 
interior ;  and  hence,  for  large  shot  it  is  evi 
dent  the  height  of  the  fall  must  be  greater 
than  is  required  for  small  shot.  The  tem 
perature  of  the  lead  also,  when  it  is  dropped, 
must  vary  according  to  the  size  of  the  shot; 
for  the  largest  size  being  so  low  that  a  straw 


is  hardly  browned  when  thrust  into  it.  A 
portion  of  the  lead  becomes  oxidized  and  is 
caught  in  the  cullender,  the  bottom  of  which 
it  coats,  and  serves  a  useful  purpose  by 
checking  the  too  rapid  flow  of  the  melted 
lead  through  the  holes.  The  holes  vary 
in  size,  from  ~  of  an.  inch  for  shot  larger 
than  No.  1,  to  —•$  of  an  inch  for  No.  9. 
The  shot  being  taken  out  of  the  water  and 
dried  upon  the  surface  of  a  long  steam  chest, 
are  transferred  to  an  iron  cask  suspended 
upon  an  axis  passing  through  its  ends,  and 
a  little  plumbago  being  introduced  with 
them,  the  cask  is  made  to  revolve  until  the 
shot  are  thoroughly  cleaned  and  polished. 
The  next  operation  is  to  separate  the  imper 
fect  ones  from  the  good.  This  is  done  by 
rolling  them  all  together  down  a  succession 
of  inclined  platforms,  separated  by  a  narrow 
space  between  each.  The  good  shot  clear 
these  spaces  and  are  caught  below,  while  the 
bad  ones  fall  through  upon  the  floor.  The 
good  are  then  introduced  into  the  sifters  for 
assorting  them  according  to  their  sizes. 
Several  sieves  are  arranged  like  drawers  in  a 
case ;  the  coarsest  above,  and  finer  ones  suc 
ceeding  below.  The  upper  tier  of  sieves  be 
ing  charged,  the  case  is  set  rocking,  and  the 
shot  are  soon  assorted,  and  are  then  ready  for 
packing  in  bags.  Bullets  and  buck-shot  are 
moulded  by  hand  from  a  large  pot  of  the 
metal  into  moulds  with  many  receptacles. 

The  American  process  of  shot-making  was 
invented  in  1848  by  David  Smith,  of  the 
firm  of  T.  0.  Lcroy  &  Co.,  of 'New  York, 
by  whom  it  is  exclusively  used.  Its  object 
is  to  dispense  with  the  use  of  the  costly  high 
towers,  by  substituting  for  them  a  lower  fall 
against  an  ascending  current  of  air.  This 
current  is  produced  by  a  fan-blower  operat 
ing  at  the  base  of  an  upright  hollow  shaft 
into  which  the  shot  are  dropped  from  a 
moderate  height.  The  power  required  to 
run  the  fan  is  not  much  more  than  that  or 
dinarily  expended  in  raising  the  lead  to  the 
top  of  the  high  towers ;  and  it  is  found  that 
the  lead,  in  consequence  of  its  being  more 
rapidly  and  equally  cooled  in  the  short  de 
scent  against  the  current  of  air,  may  be  used 
at  a  higher  temperature  than  is  practicable 
with  that  dropped  from  high  towers ;  and 
thus  it  may  not  only  be  poured  more  rapidly, 
but  it  has  not  the  tendency  to  burst  in  falling 
and  form  imperfect  shot,  as  is  the  case  with 
that  dropped  from  high  towers,  to  guard 
against  which  the  lead  is  kept  at  a  low  tem 
perature. 


94 


MINING-    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


There  are  in  New  York  city,  besides  this 
operation,  which  is  carried  on  by  Messrs. 
Leroy,  in  Water  street,  three  shot  towers, 
and  a  fourth  is  nearly  completed  on  Staten 
Island.  The  ordinary  capacity  of  these  is 
from  3000  to  4000  tons  of  shot  per  annum. 
The  annual  shot  production  of  St.  Louis  is 
about  the  same  as  that  of  New  York,  though 
there  is  now  only  one  shot  tower  in  use. 
There  were  formerly  seven  more  on  the  river 
bluffs  below  the  city,  but  these  have  hardly 
been  used  since  1847.  In  Baltimore  is  a 
tower  the  height  of  which,  including  ten 
feet  constructed  below  the  surface  of  the 
ground,  is  256  feet,  which  exceeds  by  one 
foot  the  height  of  the  famous  tower  in  Vi 
enna,  described  by  Dr.  lire  as  the  highest 
structure  of  the  kind  in  the  world,  being 
249  feet  above  the  surface  of  the  ground. 
Its  production  is  stated  to  be  about  400 
tons  per  annum.  In  Philadelphia  there  is 
one  tower  which  makes  about  300  tons  an 
nually  ;  in  Wythe  county,  Virginia,  is  one 
formed  in  one  of  the  shafts  of  the  mine, 
making  about  200  tons;  and  on  the  Wis 
consin  river,  at  Helena,  is  a  small  tower 
probably  making  about  as  much  more.  The 
actual  production  of  the  country  in  shot  and 
bullets  is  supposed  to  be  about  7000  tons, 
and  to  have  made  but  little  advance  for 
•many  years  past. 

WHITE  LEAD. — Before  the  introduction 
of  the  oxide  of  zinc  as  a  paint,  one  of  the 
most  important  uses  of  lead  was  its  conver 
sion  intc*»the  carbonate  or  white  lead.  The 
manufacture  was  originally  carried  on  almost 
exclusively  in  Holland ;  and  it  was  not  until 
near  the  close  of  the  last  century  that  it  was 
introduced  into  England.  In  the  United 
States  it  was  unknown  until  after  the  late 
war,  and  being  first  undertaken  in  Philadel 
phia,  it  was  afterward  extended  to  New  York 
and  Brooklyn,  and  in  the  latter  city  has  pros 
pered  more  than  in  any  other  part  of  the 
country.  Various  attempts  have  been  made 
to  introduce  new  methods  of  manufacture,  but 
the  old  Dutch  process  has  continued  in  gen 
eral  use ;  the  modifications  of  it  which  have 
raised  the  manufacture  in  this  country  to  a 
higher  state  of  perfection  than  in  any  other 
part  of  the  world  being  merely  improve 
ments  in  the  details,  by  which  ingenious 
machinery  has  been  made  to  diminish  the 
labor  expended  in  the  process. 

White  lead  is  a  combination  of  oxide  of 
lead  with  carbonic  acid,  and  is  obtained  in 
the  form  of  a  soft,  very  white,  and  heavy 


powder.  It  mixes  readily  with  oil,  giving 
to  it  a  drying  property,  spreads  well  under 
the  brush,  and  perfectly  covers  the  surfaces 
to  which  it  is  applied.  It  is  not  only  em 
ployed  alone  as  the  best  sort  of  white  paint, 
but  is  the  general  material  or  body  of  a  great 
number  of  paints,  the  colors  of  which  are 
produced  by  mixing  suitable  coloring  mat 
ters  with  the  white  lead.  Besides  its  use  as 
a  paint  it  is  also  in  demand  to  a  considerable 
extent  as  an  ingredient  in  the  so-called  vul 
canized  india-rubber.  To  prepare  it,  the 
purest  pig  lead,  such  as  the  refined  foreign 
lead  and  the  metal  from  the  upper  mines  of 
the  Mississippi,  is  almost  exclusively  used. 
This  was  by  the  old  methods  made  in  thin 
sheets,  and  these  into  small  rolls,  to  be  sub 
jected  to  the  chemical  treatment.  But  ac 
cording  to  the  American  method  devised  by 
Mr.  Augustus  Graham  of  Brooklyn,  and  now 
generally  adopted,  the  lead  is  cast  into  cir 
cular  gratings  or  "buckles,"  which  closely 
resemble  in  form  the  large  old-fashioned 
shoe-buckles,  from  which  they  receive  their 
name.  They  are  six  or  eight  inches  in  di 
ameter,  and  the  lead  hardly  exceeds  one 
sixth  of  an  inch  in  thickness.  Ingenious 
methods  of  casting  them  are  in  use  in  the 
American  factories,  by  which  the  lead  is  run 
upon  moulds  directly  from  the  furnace,  and 
the  buckles  are  separated  from  each  other 
and  delivered  without  handling  into  the 
vessels  for  receiving  them.  They  are  then 
packed  in  earthen  pots  shaped  like  flower 
pots,  each  of  which  is  provided  with  a 
ledge  or  three  projecting  points  in  the  in 
side,  intended  to  keep  the  pieces  above  the 
bottom,  in  which  is  placed  some  strong  vine 
gar  or  acetic  acid.  It  is  recommended  that 
on  one  side  the  pot  should  be  partially  open 
above  the  ledge,  and  if  made  full  all  round, 
it  is  well  to  knock  out  a  piece  in  order  to 
admit  a  freer  circulation  of  vapors  through 
the  lead.  In  large  establishments  an  im 
mense  supply  of  these  pots  is  kept  on  hand, 
the  number  at  one  of  the  Brooklyn  works 
being  reckoned  at  not  less  than  150,000. 
They  continue  constantly  in  use  till  acciden 
tally  broken  below  the  ledge.  Being  packed 
with  the  buckles  and  the  acid,  they  are  set 
close  together  in  rows  upon  a  bed  of  spent 
tan,  a  foot  to  two  feet  thick,  and  thin  sheets 
of  lead  are  laid  among  and  over  the  pots  in 
several  thicknesses,  but  always  so  as  to  leave 
open  spaces  among  them.  An  area  is  thus 
covered,  it  may  be  twenty  feet  square  or 
of  less  dimensions,  and  is  enclosed  by  board 


LEAD. 


95 


partitions,  which,  upon  suitable  framework, 
can  be  carried  up  twenty-five  feet  high  if 
required.  When  the  pots  and  the  inter 
stices  among  them  are  well  packed  with 
'lead,  a  flooring  of  boards  is  laid  over  them, 
and  upon  this  is  spread  another  layer  of 
tan ;  and  in  the  same  manner  eight  or  ten 
courses  are  built  up,  containing  in  all,  it  may 
be,  12,000  pots  and  50  or  60  tons  of  lead, 
all  of  which  are  buried  beneath  an  upper 
layer  of  tan.  As  the  process  of  conversion 
requires  from  eight  to  twelve  weeks,  the 
large  factories  have  a  succession  of  these 
stacks  which  are  charged  one  after  another, 
so  that  when  the  process  is  completed  in 
one,  and  the  pots  and  lead  have  been  re 
moved  and  the  chamber  is  recharged,  anoth 
er  is  ready  for  the  same  operation. 

The  conversion  of  metallic  lead  into  car 
bonate  is  induced  by  the  fermenting  action, 
which  commences  in  the  tan  soon  after  the 
pile  is  completed.  The  heat  thus  generated 
evaporates  the  vinegar,  and  the  vapors  of 
water  and  acetic  acid  rising  among  the  lead 
oxidize  its  surface  and  convert  it  externally 
into  a  subacetate  of  lead;  at  the  same  time 
carbonic  acid  evolved  from  the  tan  circulates 
among  the  lead  and  transforms  the  acetate 
into  carbonate  of  the  oxide,  setting  the 
acetic  acid  free  to  renew  its  office  upon 
fresh  surfaces  of  lead.  AVhen  the  tan  ceases 
to  ferment  the  process  is  at  an  end,  and  the 
stack  may  then  be  taken  to  pieces.  The 
lead  is  found  in  its  original  forms,  but  of 
increased  bulk  and  weight,  and  more  or  less 
completely  converted  into  the  white  carbo 
nate.  The  thoroughness  of  the  operation 
depends  upon  a  variety  of  circumstances ; 
even  the  weather  and  season  of  the  year 
having  an  influence  upon  it.  The  pieces 
not  entirely  converted  have  a  core  of  me 
tallic  or  "  blue"  lead  beneath  the  white  car 
bonate  crust.  The  separation  is  made  by 
beating  off  the  white  portion,  and  this  being 
done  upon  perforated  copper  shelves  set  in 
large  wooden  tanks  and  covered  with  water, 
the  escape  of  the  fine  metallic  dust  is  entire 
ly  prevented  and  its  noxious  effect  upon 
the  health  of  the  workmen  is  avoided.  In 
Europe,  rolling  machines  closely  covered 
are  applied  to  the  same  purpose,  but  less 
effectually.  The  white  lead  thus  collected 
is  next  ground  with  water  between  mill 
stones  to  a  thin  paste,  and  by  repeated 
grindings  and  washings  this  is  reduced  to 
an  impalpable  consistency.  The  water  is 
next  to  be  removed,  and,  according  to  the 


European  plan,  the  creamy  mixture  is  next 
turned  into  earthen  pots,  and  these  are  ex 
posed  upon  shelves  to  a  temperature  not  ex 
ceeding  300°  until  perfectly  dry.  Instead 
of  this  laborious  method,  the  plan  is  adopted 
in  the  American  works  of  employing  shal 
low  pans  of  sheet  copper,  provided  with  a 
false  bottom,  beneath  which  steam  from  the 
exhaust-pipe  of  the  engine  is  admitted  to 
promote  evaporation.  These  pans  or  "  dry 
ing  kilns"  arc  sometimes  100  feet  long  and 
6  feet  broad,  and  several  are  set  in  the  build 
ing  one  above  another.  The  liquid  lead 
paste  is  pumped  up  into  large  tanks,  and  the 
heavier  portion  settling  down,  is  drawn  off 
into  the  pans,  while  the  thinner  liquid  from 
the  surface  is  returned  to  be  mixed  with 
fresh  portions  of  white  lead.  Beside  pans, 
tile  tables  heated  by  flues  in  the  masonry  of 
which  they  are  built,  are  also  employed. 
From  four  to  six  days  are  required  for  thor 
oughly  drying  the  white  lead.  This  is  the 
finishing  process,  after  which  the  lead  is 
ready  for  packing  in  small  casks  for  the 
market. 

The  manufacture  of  white  lead,  which 
was  formerly  an  unhealthy  and  even  dan 
gerous  occupation,  has  been  so  much  im 
proved  by  the  expedients  for  keeping  the 
material  wet  and  thus  preventing  the  rising 
of  the  fine  dust,  that  the  peculiar  lead  dis 
ease  now  rarely  attacks  the  workmen.  The 
business  is  conducted  altogether  upon  a  large 
scale,  and  though  diminishing  in  importance, 
still  supports  a  number  of  extensive  factories 
in  different  parts  of  the  country.  Some  of 
these  have  arrangements  for  converting-stacks 
that  extend  under  cover  200  feet  in  length, 
and  their  facilities  for  grinding  and  drying 
are  proportionally  extensive.  These  and 
the  time  required  for  fully  completing  the 
process  and  getting  the  white  lead  ready  for 
market — which  is  from  three  to  four  months 
— involve  the  use  of  large  capital  and  tend 
to  keep  the  business  in  few  hands. 

There  is  still  a  considerable  demand  for 
pure  white  lead,  and  the  competition  and 
watchfulness  of  the  trade  insure  the  gen 
uineness  of  the  article  thus  warranted  by 
the  manufacturers.  The  large  class  of  cus 
tomers,  the  grinders,  who  form  a  distinct 
trade,  can  use  and  mix  the  pure  article  with 
other  substances  and  with  coloring  matters 
to  suit  their  purposes.  The  mineral,  sul 
phate  of  barytes  or  heavy  spar,  is  the  chief 
article  used  to  adulterate  white  lead,  and  for 
this  purpose  it  is  obtained  from  mines  in 


96 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


Connecticut  and  other  places,  and  is  exten 
sively  ground  in  mills  for  this  use  alone. 
When  perfectly  pure,  the  powder  is  abso 
lutely  white ;  it  has  about  the  same  weight 
as  white  lead,  and  is  quite  as  indestructible; 
it  is,  indeed,  less  acted  upon  or  discolored 
by  noxious  vapors.  It  lacks,  however,  the 
body  of  Avhite  lead,  and  is  not  so  brilliant : 
hence  it  may  be  us^ed  in  such  proportion  as 
to  materially  injure  the  paint  in  those  good 
qualities.  Oxide  of  zinc  is  also  largely  mix 
ed  with  white  lead,  as  will  be  noticed  more 
particularly  in  the  succeeding  chapter. 

The  principal  white  lead  works,  together 
with  the  probable  amount  of  their  annual 
production,  in  the  United  States  are  as 
follows : — 

No.  of  Works.         Tons. 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y 3  6000 

Staten  Island,  N.  Y 1  1000 

Hudson  River  (Saugerties),  N.  Y...  2  1000 

Buffalo,  N.  Y 1  1000 

Philadelphia,  Pa 2  3000 

Pittsburg,         "   1 

Baltimore,  Md 1  600 

Boston,  Mass 1  ) 

Salem,        "    1  ) 

Cincinnati,  0 2 

Louisville,  Ky 1 

Chicago,  111 1 

St.  Louis,  Mo 1 


1500 


CHAPTER  V. 

ZINC. 

WHILE  the  production  of  the  lead  mines 
has  been  falling  off  in  the  United  States, 
that  of  the  zinc  mines  has  been  steadily  in 
creasing  since  they  were  first  worked  about 
ten  years  since  ;  and  the  metal  is  applied  to 
many  purposes  for  which  lead  has  heretofore 
been  almost  exclusively  used.  The  growing 
importance  of  this  product  in  the  United 
States  will  justify  a  reference  to  the  zinc 
manufacture  of  Europe. 

The  metal,  as  mentioned  in  the  chapter 
on  COPPER,  very  curiously  escaped  the  no 
tice  of  the  ancients,  though  they  obtained  it 
from  its  ores  in  preparing  brass,  an  alloy  of 
copper  and  zinc.  In  the  metallurgical  proc 
esses  it  is  readily  sublimed  by  heat,  and 
when  its  fumes  come  in  contact  with  the  air 
they  are  immediately  oxidized,  burning  with 
a  greenish  white  flame,  and  are  then  con 
verted  into  the  white  oxide  of  zinc — a  com 
pound  of  one  equivalent  of  the  metal  =  34, 
and  one  of  oxygen  =  8 ;  which  correspond 


respectively  to  81  and  9  per  cent.  These 
fumes  when  collected  are  found  to  be  a 
white  flocculent  powder,  now  known  as  the 
white  oxide  of  zinc,  or  zinc  paint.  If  the 
vapor  of  zinc  be  protected  from  contact 
of  air  and  passed  through  pipes  into  water, 
it  is  condensed  into  metallic  drops,  and 
these  may  be  melted  in  close  vessels  and 
poured  into  moulds.  Cast  zinc  is  a  brittle 
metal  of  bluish  white  color  and  greater  lus 
tre  than  that  of  lead.  By  heating  it  to  the 
temperature  of  212°  to  300°  F.  it  entirely 
loses  its  brittlcness,  and  is  made  malleable 
and  ductile,  so  that  it  can  be  rolled  out  into 
sheets.  Its  melting  point  is  680°,  while 
that  of  lead  is  608°. 

A  variety  of  ores  are  worked  for  this 
metal ;  as  the  sulphuret,  called  blende  ;  the 
carbonate,  called  smithsonite ;  and  the  sil 
icate  of  zinc,  or  calamine.  The  last  two 
usually  occur  associated  together.  The  red 
oxide  is  an  important  ore,  but  found  only  in 
New  Jersey.  Blende  almost  universally  ac 
companies  galena,  and  in  some  lead  mines 
is  the  prevailing  ore.  The  miners  call  it 
black  jack.  When  pure,  it  consists  of  zinc 
67,  sulphur  33.  Being  more  difficult  to  re 
duce  than  the  other  ores,  it  has  been  com 
paratively  little  used,  though  the  Chinese 
are  known  to  have  been  successful  in  their 
management  of  it.  In  the  United  States  it 
lies  valueless  in  immense  quantities  about 
many  of  the  lead  mines;  but  it  is  not  improb 
able  the  old  refuse  heaps  will  yet  be  turned  to 
profit.  At  the  zinc  works  near  Swansea,  in 
Wales,  it  has  been  worked  for  many  years ; 
and  in  England  it  has  for  a  few  years  past 
come  into  use.  In  1855,  it  is  reported  that 
9620  tons  of  this  ore  from  various  mines 
were  sold ;  while  of  the  calamine  ores,  the 
produce  of  the  Alston  Moor  mines,  sales  of 
only  182  tons  were  reported.  More  ores 
of  each  sort  were  no  doubt  smelted,  but  the 
proportion  of  each  was  probably  not  very 
different  from  that  stated.  Dr.  Ure,  in  his 
Dictionary,  speaks  of  this  ore  selling  at 
Holywell  for  £3  per  ton.  In  France  there 
are  now  five  establishments  working  blende; 
while  in  1840  all  the  zinc  consumed  in  the 
country  was  imported.  Smithsonite  resem 
bles  some  yellowish  or  whitish  limestones, 
and  usually  accompanies  these  rocks,  being 
irregularly  bedded  among  their  strata.  In 
its  best  condition  it  is  obtained  in  largo 
blocks  of  botryoidal  and  reniform  shapes, 
sometimes  crystallized.  But  usually  it  is  in 
porous  crumbly  masses,  much  mixed  and 


ZINC. 


97 


stained  with  reddish   oxide   of  iron.     The 
pure  ore  contains  05  per  cent,  of  oxide  of 
zinc    (which   is   equivalent   to    52    of    the 
metal)  and  35  of  carbonic  acid.     The  sili 
cate  of  zinc  is  found  intermixed  with  the 
carbonate,  which  it  resembles  in  appearance. 
It   contains,  when    pure,  silica   25.1,  water 
7.5,  and  oxide  of  zinc  67.4,  corresponding 
to  54  per  cent,  of  the  metal.      The  red  ox 
ide  is  found  only  at  Mine  Hill  and  Stirling 
Hill,  near  Franklin,  in  the  extreme  north 
ern  county  of  New  Jersey.    The  pure  oxide, 
of  which  it  is  almost  exclusively  composed, 
contains  80.26  per  cent,  of  zinc  and  19.74 
of  oxygen.    The  bright  red  color  is  probably 
derived  from  the  small  quantity  of  oxide  of 
manganese  present.     The  ore  is  mixed  with 
franklinite  iron  ore,  each  being  in  distinct 
grains,  one   red  and  the  other  black ;    and 
with  these  is  associated  a  white  crystalline 
limestone,  either  in  disseminated  grains  with 
the  ores,  or  forming   the   ground  through 
which  they  are  dispersed.     Two  beds,  con 
sisting  of  the  zinc  and  iron  ores,  lie  in  con 
tact  with  each  other  along  the  south-eastern 
slope  of  the  Stirling  Hill,  between  the  lime 
stone   of  the  valley  and  the  gneiss   of  the 
ridge,  dipping  with  the  slope  of  these  rocks 
about  40°  toward  the  valley,  and  ranging 
north-east  and  south-west.     The  upper  bed, 
varying  from  3  to  8  feet  in  thickness,  con 
sists  of  more  than  50  per  cent,  red  oxide 
of  zinc;  and  the  lower  bed,  which  is  12  feet 
thick  and  in  some  places  more  than  this,  is 
chiefly  franklinite,  changing  to  limestone  be 
low,  interspersed  with  imperfect  crystals  of 
franklinite.     At  Mine  Hill,  1£  miles  north 
east  from  Stirling  Hill,  two  distinct  beds  arc 
again  found   together,  that  containing  the 
most  zinc  in  this  case  being  the  under  one 
of  the  two,  lying  next  the  gneiss.     These 
localities  have  been  well  explored ;  the  bed 
have    been    traced    considerable    distance 
along  their  line  of  outcrop  ;   and  at  Stirling 
Hill  the  red  oxide  of  zinc  has  been  minec 
for  more  than  ten  years  by  the  New  Jersey 
Zinc  Company.   Their  workings  have  rcachec 
to  a  depth  of  about  250  feet,  and  have  af 
forded  the  finest  specimens  of  zinc  ore  ever 
seen.     A  single  mass  of  the  red  oxide  was 
sent  in   1851    to  the  Great   Exhibition  in 
London,  which  weighed  16,400  Ibs.,  and  at 
tracted  no  little  attention,  from  the  purity 
rarity,  and  extraordinary  size  of  the   speci 
men.     The  Passaic  Mining  and  Manufactur 
ing  Company  also  have  opened  two  beds  of 
the  same  ore  on  their  property  at  Stirlin, 


[lill,  adjoining  that  of  the  New  Jersey  Zinc 
ompany,  and  since  June,  1854,  have  taken 
out  about  30,000  tons  of  rich  and  lean  ores. 
At  the  depth  of  178  feet,  the  principal  bed 
is  21  feet  wide,  of  which  about  2k  feet  is 
rich  ore,  and  the  rest  limestone  sufficiently 
interspersed  with  oxide  of  zinc  to  render  it 
worth    dressing.      This    company  have   re- 
ently  completed  at  the  mines  very  extensive 
works  for  dressing  the  lean  ores  before  they 
are  shipped  to  their  furnaces  at  Jersey  City. 
The  principal  supplies  of  their  ores  for  the 
last  year  have  been  of  the  smithsonite  and 
calamine  from  the  mines  in  the  Saucon  val 
ley,  Lehigh  county,  Pennsylvania,  of  which 
they  have  mined  about   5000  tons  during 
the  year  1860.     These  ores  are  extensively 
worked  to  the  north  of  Friedcnsvillc,  both  by 
this  company  and  the  Pennsylvania  and  Le 
high  Zinc  Company,  whose  furnaces  are  at 
Bethlehem,  in  Lehigh  county.     The  mines 
of  the  two  companies,  which  are  near  to-- 
gcther,  are  known  as  the  Saucon  mine  and 
the   Lehigh   Zinc   Company's   mine.     They 
were  first  opened  in  1853.     The  two  kinds 
of  ore  are  found  together,  as  is  common  in. 
the  European  mines,  and  more  or  less  blende 
is   interspersed   among   them.     They  form 
very  large  irregular  beds  in  limestone  of  the 
lower  Silurian  period,  and  are  penetrated  by 
veins  of  quartz,  which  traverse  both  the  ore 
and  limestone.     Huge  masses  of  limestone 
lie  interspersed  among  the  ores.     The  deep 
est  workings  at  the  Saucon  mine  are  about 
100  feet  below  the  surface;   and  from  this 
depth  galleries  have  been  run  in  every  direc 
tion,  exposing  to  view  more  than    50,000 
tons  of  ore.     The  ores  of  best  quality  are 
found  in  the  lower  workings. 

About  the  same  time  that  these  mines 
were  opened  in  Lehigh  county,  another,  pro 
ducing  similar  kinds  of  zinc  ore,  was  dis 
covered  near  Lancaster,  in  Pennsylvania; 
but  after  being  explored  it  was  found  to 
contain  so  much  blende  and  galena,  that  it 
was  abandoned  as  worthless.  Large  de 
posits  of  the  same  varieties  of  zinc  ore  are 
known  to  exist  in  Tennessee  ;  one  locality 
at  Mossy  Creek,  a  few  miles  north-east  of 
Knoxvillc,  and  another  at  Powell's  river,  a 
branch  of  the  Clinch  river,  in  Campbell 
county,  about  40  miles  north  of  Knoxville. 
These  beds,  examined  by  the  writer  in  1858, 
unquestionably  contain  very  large  quantities 
of  excellent  ore.  The  former,  being  close  to 
the  East  Tennessee  and  Virginia  railroad, 
is  very  conveniently  situated ;  and  the  other 


98 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


is  within  half  a  mile  of  a  river  navigable  at 
certain  seasons  by  flat-boats.  Below  its 
junction  with  the  Clinch  river  are  beds  of 
bituminous  coal,  and  the  river  is  thence  nav 
igable  by  steamboats.  At  Kingston  it  is 
crossed  by  a  railroad. 

Very  pure  ores  of  similar  character  have 
been  found  in  Arkansas.  The  localities  are 
in  a  lead  mining  region  in  Lawrence,  Marion, 
and  Independence  counties ;  but  chiefly  in 
the  first  named.  The  ores  occur  in  a  forma 
tion  of  magnesian  limestone,  imbedded  in 
red  ferruginous  clay.  They  are  almost  ex 
clusively  smithsonite,  containing  very  small 
proportions  of  silicate  of  zinc.  Crystals  of 
smithsonite  and  of  blende  are  found  upon 
the  lumps  of  pure,  flesh-colored  ore.  The 
district  promises  to  become  an  important  one 
for  the  supply  of  zinc  to  the  western  states. 

The  following  are  analyses  of  ores  from 
the  Saucon  valley  mines  ;  the  first  three  by 
Prof.  John  Torrey,  of  the  New  York  Assay 
Office,  being  of  specimens,  and  the  last  two 
of  samples  of  large  shipments.  No.  4  was 
made  at  the  Assay  Office,  Hatton  Gardens, 
London  ;  and  No.  5  in  Paris. 

No.   1. 

Oxide  of  zinc 48.90 

Carbonic  acid 26  40 

Peroxide  of  iron 3.15 

Carbonate  of  magnesia .62 

Silica 18.50 

Water 30 

Loss..  2.13 


100.00 

Metallic  zinc 39.30 

No.   2. —  Granular  Sulphuret  of  Zinc. 

Sulphuret  of  zinc 13.27 

Sulphuret  of  iron 1.49 

Silica...    25.50 


100.26 

Metallic  zinc 49.09 

No.  3. —  Waxy  Sulphuret  of  Zinc. 

Sulphuret  of  zinc 97.53 

Sulphuret  of  iron 1.54 

Silica  . .  1.40 


100.57 

Metallic  zinc 65.41 

No.  4. — Mixture  of  Bknde  and  Carbonate  of  Zinc. 

Zinc 61.70 

Sulphur 19.82 

Iron  4.76 

Silica 1.00 

Carbonic  acid 9.90 

'    Phosphate  of  lime 88 

Oxygen,  water,  and  loss 1.94 


100.00 
Contains  of  silver  4.15  ozs.  to  the  ton  of  20  cwt. 


No. 


Zinc 


Oxygen  ....  V  Carbonate  of  zinc,  75.1 
Carbonic  acid 


42.0 
10.5 
22.6 

Protoxide  of  iron  )  n    ,      ~  .         ,  n  „  (       7.3 
„    ,  .,         }•  Carb.  of  iron.  10.2  <       „  _ 

Carbonic  acid  . . .  )  (2.9 

Silica 11.8 

Moisture. .  2.9 


100.0 
METALLURGIC    TREATMENT    AND     USES. 

Zinc  ores  are  applied  to  practical  purposes, 
not  only  to  produce  the  metal,  but  also  the 
white  oxide  of  zinc,  which  is  largely  em 
ployed  as  a  paint.  The  ancients  used  an 
ore  they  called  lapis  calaminaris,  to  make 
brass,  by  melting  it  with  copper  in  cruci 
bles,  not  knowing  that  another  metal  was 
thus  formed  which  produced  an  alloy  with 
the  copper.  Although  the  metal  was  dis 
covered  in  the  16th  century,  the  nature  of 
its  ores  was  little  known  before  the  middle 
of  the  last  century.  It  is  now  prepared 
upon  a  large  scale  in  Belgium  and  Silesia, 
and  small  quantities  are  produced  in  Eng 
land,  France,  and  different  parts  of  Ger 
many.  The  simple  method  of  obtaining 
zinc  from  its  ores,  called  distillation  per  de- 
scensum,  was  introduced  into  England  about 
the  year  1740,  and  was  derived  from  the 
Chinese,  who  appear  to  have  been  acquainted 
with  the  metal  long  before  it  was  known  to 
the  Europeans.  As  now  practised  in  Great 
Britain,  the  ores  are  first  calcined,  the  effect 
of  which  is  to  expel  a  portion  of  the  water, 
carbonic  acid,  and  sulphur  they  contain. 
They  are  then  ground  to  powder,  and  mixed 
with  fine  charcoal,  or  mineral  coal,  and  in 
troduced  into  stationary  earthen  pots,  or 
crucibles.  When  set  in  the  furnace,  an  iron 
pipe,  passing  up  through  the  bottom  of  the 
hearth,  enters  the  crucible,  and  connects 
with  an  open  vessel  directly  beneath.  About 
six  pots  are  set  together  under  a  low  dome 
of  brick-work,  through  which  apertures  are 
left  for  filling  them.  Each  one  has  a  cover, 
which  is  luted  down  with  fire  clay  ;  and  the 
iron  tube  in  each  is  stopped  with  a  wooden 
plug,which,  as  the  operation  goes  on,  becomes 
charred  and  porous,  so  as  to  admit  through  it 
the  passage  of  the  zinc  vapors.  The  tubes 
are  prevented  from  being  clogged  with  de 
positions  of  the  condensed  zinc,  by  occa 
sionally  running  a  rod  through  them  from 
the  lower  end.  The  zinc  collects  in  the 
dishes  under  the  tubes,  in  the  form  of  drops 
and  powder,  a  portion  of  which  is  oxidized. 
The  whole  is  transferred  to  melting-pots, 


ZINO. 


99 


and  the  oxide  which  swims  upon  the  sur 
face  of  the  melted  metal  is  skimmed  off  and 
returned  to  the  reducing  crucibles,  while 
the  metal  is  run  into  moulds.  The  ingots 
are  known  in  commerce  as  spelter. 

In  the  United  States  zinc  was  first  made 
by  Mr.  John  Hitz,  under  the  direction  of 
Mr.  llassler,  who,  by  order  of  Congress, 
was  engaged  about  the  year  1838  to  manu 
facture  standard  weights  and  measures  for 
the  custom-houses.  The  work  was  done  at 
the  U.  S.  arsenal  at  Washington,  the  ores 
used  being  the  red  oxide  of  New  Jersey.  The 
expense  exceeded  the  value  of  the  metal  ob 
tained,  and  it  has  generally  been  supposed 
that  we  could  not  produce  spelter  so  cheaply 
as  it  can  be  imported  from  Europe.  The 
next  experiments  were  made  at  the  works  of 
the  New  Jersey  Zinc  Company,  1850,  on  the 
Belgian  plan.  In  these  great  difficulties  were 
experienced  for  want  of  retorts  of  suffi 
ciently  refractory  character  to  withstand  the 
high  temperature  and  the  chemical  action  of 
the  constituents  of  the  ore.  The  ffanklin- 
ite,  which  always  accompanies  the  red  ox 
ide  ores,  was  particularly  injurious  by  rea 
son  of  the  oxide  of  iron  forming  a  fusible 
silicate  with  the  substance  of  the  retorts 
These  trials  consequently  failed  after  the 
expenditure  of  large  sums  of  money.  The 
next  important  trial  was  made  in  1856,  by  a 
Mr.  Hoofstctter,  who  built  a  Silesian  furnace 
of  20  muffles  for  the  Pennsylvania  and  Le 
high  Zinc  Company  at  their  mine  near 
Fricdensville.  This  proved  a  total  failure, 
and  seemed  almost  to  establish  the  impracti 
cability  of  producing  spelter  with  the  Amer 
ican  ores,  clays,  and  anthracite.  About  this 
time  Mr.  Joseph  Wharton,  the  general  man 
ager  of  the  Pennsylvania  and  Lehigh  Zinc 
Company,  and  Mr.  Samuel  Wetherill,  of 
Bethlehem,  both  hit  upon  the  same  plan  of 
treating  zinc  ores  in  an  open  furnace,  and 
leading  the  volatile  products  through  incan 
descent  coal,  in  order  to  reduce  the  zinc  ox 
ide  so  formed,  and  draw  only  metallic  and 
carbonaceous  vapors  into  the  condensing 
apparatus.  Mr.  Wharton  constructed  his 
furnace  in  Philadelphia,  and  Mr.  Wetherill 
his  in  Bethlehem.  The  former  having  com 
pleted  his  trials,  filed  a  caveat  for  the  proc 
ess,  but  soon  after  abandoned  it  as  econom 
ically  impracticable.  The  latter  continued 
his  operations,  patented  the  method,  and 
produced  some  zinc,  eight  or  ten  tons  of 
which  were  sold  to  the  U.  S.  Assay  Office 
in  New  York.  The  manufacture  was  not, 


however,  long  continued.  In  1858,  Mr. 
Wetherill  recommenced  the  production  of 
zinc,  adopting  a  plan  of  Upright  retorts, 
somewhat  like  that  in  use  in  Carinthia,  in 
Austria,  and  that  of  the  English  patent  of 
James  Graham.  Mr.  Wetherill  had  suc 
ceeded  in  procuring  good  mixtures  of  fire 
clays,  and  his  retorts  made  of  these  and 
holding  each  a  charge  of  400  Ibs.  of  ore, 
proved  sufficiently  refractory  for  the  opera 
tion.  The  works  now  under  his  charge  at 
Bethlehem,  erected  in  1858—9,  and  belong 
ing  to  the  owners  of  the  Saucon  mine,  have 
a  capacity  of  about  two  tons  of  metal  daily. 

Mr.  Wharton,  after  abandoning  the 
method  of  reduction  by  incandescent  coals, 
continued  his  experiments  on  different  plans, 
and  finally  decided  on  the  Belgian  furnace 
as  the  best,  after  having  actually  made  spel 
ter  from  silicate  of  zinc,  with  anthracite,  in 
muffles  of  American  clays,  at  a  cost  below 
its  market  value.  These  trials  were  made  in 
the  zinc  oxide  works  of  the  Pennsylvania 
and  Lehigh  Zinc  Company.  Their  success 
encouraged  the  company  to  construct  a  fac 
tory  at  Bethlehem  for  reducing  zinc  ores, 
and  this  was  done  under  the  direction  of 
Mr.  Wharton  in  1860.  The  capacity  of 
the  works  is  about  2000  tons  per  annum, 
and  their  actual  daily  product  in  the  winter 
of  1860—1,  is  over  three  tons.  Four  stacks 
or  blocks  are  constructed,  each  containing 
four  furnaces.  To  each  furnace  there  are 
56  retorts,  making  in  all  896,  working  two 
charges  in  twenty-four  hours.  Their  total 
capacity  is  about  five  tons  of  metal.  Be 
sides  the  ordinary  spelter  of  this  manufac 
ture,  which,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  remarks 
that  follow,  is  remarkable  for  its  freedom  from 
injurious  mixtures,  and  is  the  best  commer 
cial  zinc  in  the  world,  Mr.  Wharton  also 
prepares  from  selected  ores  a  pure  zinc 
for  the  use  of  chemists,  and  for  purposes  in 
which  a  high  degree  of  purity  is  essential. 
This  is  cast  in  ingots  of  about  nine  pounds 
each,  and  is  sold  at  the  price  of  ten  cents 
per  pound.  For  the  supply  of  chemists,  and 
for  the  batteries  employed  by«the  telegraph 
companies,  the  American  zinc  of  this  manu 
facture  is  preferred  to  all  others.  The  total 
annual  consumption  of  crude  spelter  in  the 
United  States  amounts  to  the  value  of  about 
$600,000  ;  and  the  value  of  sheet  zinc,  nails, 
etc.,  is  about  as  much  more. 

The  commercial  zincs,  it  has  long  been 
known,  are  contaminated  by  various  foreign 
substances,  the  existence  of  some  of  which 


100 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


is  indicated  in  the  finely  divided  black  sub 
stance  which  remains  floating  or  sinking  in 
the  liquid,  when  the  metal  is  dissolved  in 
dilute  acids.  The  impurities  have  been 
stated  by  different  chemists  to  consist  of  a 
great  variety  of  substances,  such  as  lead, 
cadmium,  arsenic,  tin,  iron,  manganese,  car 
bon,  etc.  They  injuriously  affect  the  quality 
of  the  metal  for  many  of  its  uses  ;  and  the 
presence  of  one  of  them,  arsenic,  is  fatal  to 
the  highly  important  use  of  zinc  by  chemists, 
as  a  reagent  in  the  detection  of  arsenic  in 
other  substances.  Arsenic  in  the  form  of  a 
sulphuret  often  accompanies  the  native  sul- 
phurets  of  zinc,  and  its  oxide,  being  volatile, 
is  readily  carried  over  with  the  zinc  fumes 
in  the  inctallurgic  treatment  of  blende,  and 
may  thus  be  introduced  into  the  spelter.  It  is 
evidently,  therefore,  a  matter  of  consequence 
to  know  the  qualities  of  the  different  zincs 
of  commerce,  and  the  exact  nature  of  the 
impurities  they  contain.  Very  thorough  in 
vestigations  having  these  objects  in  view 
have  recently  been  made  in  Cambridge, 
Massachusetts,  by  Messrs.  Charles  W.  Eliot 
and  Frank  H.  Storer  of  Boston,  and  the  re 
sults  of  these,  with  a  full  description  of  their 
methods  of  examination,  were  communicated, 
May  29,  1860,  to  the  American  Academy 
of  Arts  and  Sciences,  and  published  in  the 
eighth  volume  of  the  new  series  of  their 
Memoirs.  Eleven  varieties  of  zinc  from  dif 
ferent  parts  of  Europe,  and  made  from  the 
ores  of  New  Jersey,  and  of  the  Saucon  val 
ley,  Pennsylvania,  were  experimented  upon, 
of  all  of  which  large  samples  were  at  hand. 
These  varieties  were  the  following  :  1 ,  Sile- 
sian  zinc ;  2,  Vieille  Montagne  zinc ;  3,  New 
Jersey  zinc  ;  4,  Pcnnsylvanian  zinc,  Beth 
lehem,  Pennsylvania ;  5,  Vieille  Montagne 
zinc,  employed  at  the  United  States  mint, 
Philadelphia;  6,  zinc  of  MM.  Rousseau, 
Freres,  Paris,  labelled  and  sold  as  zinc  pur ; 
7,  sheet  zinc  obtained  in  Berlin,  Prussia;  8, 
zinc  made  near  Wrexham,  North  Wales;  9, 
zinc  from  the  Mines  Royal,  Neath,  South 
Wales  ;  10,  zinc  from  the  works  of  Dillwyn 
&  Co.,  Swansea,  South  Wales;  11,  zinc 
from  the  works  of  Messrs.  Vivian,  Swansea. 
All  of  these,  except  the  Pennsylvania  zinc, 
furnished  an  insoluble  residue,  which  was 
found  to  consist  chiefly  of  metallic  lead,  and 
this  proved  to  be  the  principal  impurity  of 
all  the  samples  examined ;  "  the  carbon,  tin, 
copper,  iron,  arsenic,  and  other  impurities 
found  in  the  metal  by  previous  observers, 
occur  either  in  very  minute  quantities,  or 


rarely,  and  doubtless  accidentally."  The 
proportions  of  lead  present  in  100  parts  of 
each  of  the  varieties  examined  were  respect 
ively  as  follows  :  in  No.  1,  1.46  ;  2,  0.292  ; 
3,0.079;  4,0.000;  5,0.494;  6,0.106;  7, 
1.297;  8,1.192;  9,0.823;  10,1.661;  11, 
1.516.  The  New  Jersey  zinc  was  found  to 
contain  a  sensible  quantity  of  tin,  copper 
amounting  to  0.1298  per  cent.,  iron  0.2088 
per  cent.,  and  an  unusually  large  amount  of 
arsenic.  Traces  of  this  were  also  detected 
in  the  white  oxide  prepared  from  the  ores 
of  the  New  Jersey  mines,  and  in  the  red 
oxide  ore  itself;  but  the  same  ore  afforded 
no  clue  as  to  the  source  whence  the  copper 
was  derived,  a  metal  of  which  not  the  slight 
est  traces  were  discoverable  in  the  other 
zincs.  None  of  the  samples  contained  suf 
ficient  arsenic  to  admit  of  its  proportion  be 
ing  determined,  and  some  were  entirely  free 
from  it,  as  some  of  the  Belgian  and  Pennsyl 
vania  spelter,  but  traces  of  it  were  met  with 
in  other  samples  from  the  same  regions,  in 
dicating  that  the  occasional  use  of  inferior 
ores,  such  as  blende,  intermixed  with  the 
carbonates  and  silicates,  might  introduce 
this  substance,  or  possibly  it  might  come 
over  only  in  the  first  part  of  the  distillation, 
and  the  zinc  collected  in  the  latter  part 
might  be  quite  free  from  it.  The  Silesian 
zinc  contained  minute  quantities  of  sulphur 
and  arsenic  ;  and  the  English  zinc  more  ar 
senic  than  any  other,  except  perhaps  the 
New  Jersey.  The  purest  of  all  the  samples 
was  that  from  Bethlehem,  Pennsylvania, 
some  of  it  yielding  no  impurity,  except  a 
trace  of  cadmium.  The  source  of  a  trace 
of  arsenic  in  another  sample  is  supposed  to 
be  in  the  use  of  the  crust  of  oxide  of  zinc 
from  the  operations  connected  with  the 
manufacture  of  white  oxide  of  zinc,  no  par 
ticular  care  being  taken  in  that  process  to 
reject  inferior  ores,  and  this  crust  being 
taken  to  the  other  works  where  the  metal  is 
prepared  and  mixed  with  the  selected  ores 
employed  for  this  use,  it  has  thus  introduced 
the  arsenic.  As  the  authors  of  the  paper 
remark,  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  why 
zinc  of  uniform  purity  should  not  be  ob 
tained  from  the  excellent  ores  of  the  Saucon 
valley  mines. 

EUROPEAN    MANUFACTURE. 

A  largo  portion  of  the  zinc  of  commerce 
is  furnished  by  the  works  of  the  Vieille 
Montagne  Company,  established  near  the 
frontier  of  Belgium  and  Prussia,  chiefly  in 


ZINC. 


101 


the  province  of  Liege  of  the  former  country. 
A  large  number  of  mines  are  worked  in  this 
region,  the  most  important  of  which  is  that 
of  the  Vieille  Montagne  or  Altenberg,  sit 
uated  in  the  village  of  Moresnet,  between 
Aix-la-Chapelle  and  the  town  of  Liege.  It 
is  said  that  the  great  body  of  carbonate  of 
zinc  found  here  was  worked  as  long  ago  as 
the  year  1435,  and  that  for  four  centuries  it 
was  not  known  that  the  ore  was  of  metallic 
character,  but  it  was  used  as  a  peculiar  earth 
adapted  for  converting  copper  into  brass. 
The  ore  lies  in  a  basin-like  depression  in 
strata  of  magnesian  limestone,  and  is  much 
mixed  with  beds  of  clay  intercalated  among 
its  layers.  The  ore  is  chiefly  carbonate 
mixed  with  the  silicate  and  oxide  of  zinc. 
Some  of  it  is  red,  from  the  oxide  of  iron  in 
termixed,  and  this  produces  only  about  33 
per  cent,  of  metal.  The  purer  white  ore 
yields  about  46  per  cent.,  and  is  moreover 
much  preferred  on  account  of  its  working 
better  in  the  retorts.  The  furnaces  em 
ployed  in  the  distillation  of  these  ores  are 
constructed  upon  a  very  large  scale,  and  on 
a  different  plan  from  those  in  use  in  Great 
Britain.  The  general  character  of  the  oper 
ations,  however,  is  the  same.  The  ores  are 
first  calcined,  losing  about  one  fifth  of  their 
weight.  They  are  then  ground  in  mills,  and 
charges  are  made  up  of  1100  Ibs.  of  the 
powdered  ore  mixed  with  550  Ibs.  of  fine 
coal.  The  mixture  being  well  moistened 
with  water,  is  introduced  into  cylindrical  re 
torts,  which  are  three  feet  8  inches  long 
and  6  inches  diameter  inside,  set  inclining 
outward,  to  the  number  of  42  in  a  single 
furnace,  and  4  such  furnaces  are  constructed 
in  one  stack.  The  open  end  of  each  retort 
connects,  by  means  of  an  iron  adapter  16 
inches  long,  with  a  wrought-iron  cone,  the 
little  end  of  which,  projecting  out  from  the 
furnace,  is  only  an  inch  in  diameter.  After 
the  charges  have  been  sufficiently  heated, 
the  sublimed  zinc  condenses  in  the  neck  of 
the  retort  and  in  the  adapter  and  cone.  The 
last  two  are  then  removed,  and  the  zinc  and 
oxide  are  collected  from  them,  and  the  liq 
uid  metal  in  the  neck  of  the  retorts  is 
drawn  out  and  caught  in  a  large  ladle,  from 
which  it  is  poured  into  moulds.  The  zinc 
thus  obtained  is  remelted  before  it  is  rolled. 
Two  charges  are  run  through  in  twenty-four 
hours,  each  furnace  producing  from  2200  Ibs. 
of  ore  about  620  Ibs.  of  metal,  which  is 
about  30  per  cent.  From  a  late  report  of 
these  operations  it  appears  that  there  are 


seven  large  smelting  establishments  belong 
ing  to  the  Vieille  Montagne  Zinc  Mining 
Company,  on  the  borders  of  Belgium  and 
Prussia,  comprising  230  furnaces.  The  an 
nual  product  of  thcs-3  is  2,9,000  tons  of]  sp^cl- 
ter,  of  which  23,000'tc-'nV{iro  cynyerte"d,  iijto 
sheet  zinc,  and  about  70pO  tojis,  arejrolled  at 
mills  not  the  property'cf  the  'cbtt&fpSjj  TJiey, . 
also  manufacture  oxide  o£  zinc  in  three  es 
tablishments  devoted  to  this  operation,  to 
the  amount  of  about  6000  tons  annually.  The 
company  also  purchases  spelter  very  largely. 
The  metallurgy  of  zinc  has,  within  a  few 
years  past,  become  an  important  branch  of 
industry  in  Upper  Silesia  on  the  borders  of 
Poland,  and  not  far  from  Cracow.  In  1857 
there  were  no  less  than  47  zinc  works  in  this 
part  of  Prussia,  one  of  which,  named  Lydog- 
niahiitte,  at  Konigshutte,  belonged  to  the 
government,  and  the  remainder  were  owned 
by  private  companies  and  individuals.  In 
that  year  their  total  production  was  31,480 
tons  of  spelter,  valued  at  about  17,660,000 
francs.  Many  of  the  establishments  belong 
to  the  Silesian  Company,  which  also  owns 
several  coal  mines  near  their  works,  and  a 
number  of  zinc  mines.  The  government 
works  are  supplied  with  ores  from  their  own 
mines,  and  also  from  all  the  others,  being 
entitled  to  one  twentieth  of  their  product. 
From  a  description  of  the  operations  pub 
lished  in  the  sixteenth  volume  of  the  Amialcs 
des  Mines,  fifth  series,  1859,  it  appears  that 
the  processes  are  the  same  which  had  been 
employed  for  full  twenty  years  previously, 
and  each  establishment  presents  little  else 
than  a  repetition  of  the  works  of  the  others. 
The  furnace  in  use  is  a  double  stack,  fur 
nished  along  each  side  with  horizontal  ovens, 
into  each  of  which  three  muffles  or  retorts 
are  introduced.  These  are  constructed  of 
refractory  fire  clays,  and  are  charged,  like 
the  retorts  of  gas  furnaces,  by  conveying  the 
material  upon  a  long  charger  or  spoon  into 
the  interior.  Their  dimensions  are  about  4 
feet  long,  22  inches  high,  and  84  inches  wide, 
and  the  weight  of  the  charge  introduced  is 
only  about  55  pounds.  The  ovens  on  each 
side  of  the  stacks  contain  as  many  as  20  and 
sometimes  30  retorts.  The  same  stack  con 
tains  besides,  1st,  an  oven  in  which  the  ores 
belonging  to  it  are  roasted  for  expelling  the 
water  and  a  portion  of  the  carbonic  acid  they 
contain  (a  process  in  which  they  lose  about 
i  their  weight) ;  2d,  an  oven  for  baking  the 
retorts,  each  establishment  making  its  own  ; 
a«d  3d,  a  furnace  for  remelting  and  purifying 


102 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


the  zinc  obtained  from  the  retorts.  Several 
stacks  are  arranged  in  a  large  building  with 
close  walls  and  open  along  the  top  of  the 
roof  to  allow  the  smoke  to  escape.  On  one 
sidft  -connected 'vr"i£K  ft,  'are  the  workshops 
in  which  thb  muffles'ai'cr  made  and  various 
other  operations  are 'carried' on. 

Tbe'p'i'iac^pal!zirc 'mili-os.  are  in  the  vicin 
ity  of  Beuthen,  and  are  found  in  the  magne- 
sian  limestones  of  the  new  red  sandstone 
formation.  They  are  connected  with  the 
zinc  works,  which  are  principally  near  Ko- 
nigshuttc,  by  branch  railroads  connecting 
with  the  principal  line  of  road  between 
Tarnowitz  and  Kattowitz.  The  ores  arc 
chiefly  carbonates,  always  mixed  with  much 
oxide  of  iron,  which  is  sometimes  present  to 
the  extent  of  20  per  cent.,  and  with  them  is 
also  associated  more  or  less  silicate  of  zinc, 
blende,  galena,  and  cadmium.  Their  per 
centage  of  zinc  is  very  variable,  rarely  reach 
ing  35,  and  probably  averaging  21  or  22  per 
cent.  Much  that  is  worked  does  not  exceed 
12  per  cent.  They  lie  in  irregular  deposits, 
and  it  is  found  that  their  yield  of  zinc  has 
been  gradually  falling  off,  so  that  it  is  now 
only  about  two  fifths  of  what  it  was  formerly. 
This  low  yield  involves  a  large  consumption 
of  fuel,  which  is  20  tons  for  one  of  zinc  ob 
tained  ;  and  if  this  deterioration  continues, 
the  mines  must  some  time  hence  be  aban 
doned.  The  coal  employed  in  working  the 
ores  is  of  poor  quality,  burning  without 
flame ;  but  it  leaves  no  cinder,  and  is  pro 
cured  from  mines  very  near  the  works,  and 
at  the  extraordinary  low  price  of  6  to  7 
francs  the  1000  kilogrammes  (about  one  ton). 
The  retorts  are  charged  every  24  hours  with 
roasted  ore  reduced  to  the  size  of  huts,  and 


mixed  with  oxide  of  zinc  from  previous  op 
erations,  with  the  dross  from  the  crucible 
employed  in  rcnielting,  with  the  incrustations 
from  the  muffles  and  their  connections  out 
side  the  furnaces,  and  in  fine  with  cinders 
that  have  fallen  through  the  grates,  these  last 
making  about  J  the  bulk  of  the  charge. 
The  workmen  having  discharged  a  muffle  of 
the  liquid  zinc  and  oxide  remaining  from  the 
previous  operation  by  drawing  them  forward, 
so  that  they  full  upon  an  iron  shelf  placed 
below  to  catch  them,  and  having  repaired 
any  cracks  and  holes  in  the  muffle,  they  in 
troduce  the  new  charge  in  small  portions  at  a 
time,  and  immediately  adjust  the  outer  con 
nection,  which  is  also  of  earthenware  bent 
down  at  a  right  angle,  and  close  up  the 
openings  in  front.  The  zinc  soon  begins  to 
distil  over,  and  drops  down  upon  the  iron 
shelf,  forming  pieces  of  all  shapes  ;  and  it  is 
more  or  less  mixed  with  oxide  colored  yel 
low  by  the  oxide  of  cadmium.  When  re- 
melted  and  run  into  moulds,  the  spelter  is 
stated  to  have  about  the  following  composi 
tion  :  zinc,  97.50,  cadmium,  1.00,  lead,  0.20, 
arsenic,  0.84,  sulphur,  0.05,  together  with 
traces  of  tin,  iron,  and  carbon  ;  but  the  char 
acter  and  proportion  of  the  impurities  are 
probably  very  variable.  The  expenses  of 
the  manufacture  at  the  royal  works  amount 
ed  for  the  year  1856  to  48.60  francs  the 
metrical  quintal  (220.47  Ibs.),  and  in  1858 
to  54.84  francs ;  consisting  in  the  latter 
year  of  the  following  items :  ore,  26.84 ; 
fuel,  14.30 ;  labor,  7.00 ;  materials  employ 
ed.  3.70  ;  general  expenses,  3.00.  The  oper 
ations  of  the  Silesian  Company  at  their 
several  works  for  the  first  half  of  the  year 
1858  are  thus  presented  : — 


COST    OP 
Name  of  Works. 
Gabor  Silesia  

THE    SEVERAL 

Ores  treated. 
Met.  quint. 
...112,399 

ITEMS    PER 

Zinc 
obtained. 
Met.  quint. 
19,703 

METRIC. 

Cost  of 
labor. 
Francs. 
4.98 

Paulsliiitte  

..  .   40,784 

4,928 

7.10 

Tliuruohutte  

....   37,458 

4,495 

7.57 

Friedenshiitte  

...    15,345 

2,346 

5.96 

Stariislashiitte  

...   40,534 

3,978 

8.83 

Caiishiitte  

..  .   45,918 

5,723 

6.06 

Fuel. 
Francs. 
10.35 
14.69 
12.08 
10.66 
16.18 
14.80 


Ores. 
Francs. 
11.40 
14.24 
12.92 
13.98 
15.66 
13.23 


Sundry 
expenses.  Total  cost. 


Francs. 
4.27 
4.77 
4.90 
4.62 
6.23 
6.91 


Francs. 
31.00 
40.80 
37.47 
35.22 
46.90 
41.00 


292,438         41,173 

The  general  consumption  of  spelter 
throughout  the  world  is  estimated  in  the 
report  to  which  we  have  already  referred,  re 
lating  to  the  Vieille  Montague  Company, 
to  be  about  67,000  tons,  of  which  about 
44,00u  tons  are  sheet  zinc  applied  as  fol 
lows  : — 


Tons. 

For  roofing  and  architectural  purposes 23,000 

sheathing  of  ships 3,500 

lining  packing  cases 2,500 

domestic  utensils 12,000 

stamped  ornaments 1,500 

miscellaneous  uses 1,500 


ZINC. 


103 


The  estimate  of  67,000  tons  as  the  total 
annual  production  of  zinc  is  probably  too 
small  for  Europe  alone.  Taking  the  product 
above  given  of  the  works  of  the  Vieille  Mon- 
tagne  Company,  viz.,  29,000  tons,  and  that 
of  the  Silesian  furnaces,  31,480  tons,  there 
remain  only  6,520  tons  to  be  divided  among 
the  other  zinc-producing  countries.  These 
are  Poland,  on  the  borders  of  Silesia,  the 
annual  production  of  which  is  usually  given 
as  4000  tons  ;  England,  which  has  rapidly 
advanced  from  1000  tons  of  spelter  per  an 
num  to  6900  tons  in  1858;  Austria,  which 
produces  1500  tons;  Sweden,  40 tons;  and  the 
Ilartz  10  tons.  Zinc,  it  is  believed,  is  also 
manufactured  to  some  extent  in  Spain.  The 
European  production  would,  therefore,  seem 
to  exceed  73,000  tons,  and  for  the  total 
production  of  the  world,  that  of  the  United 
States  and  of  China  should  be  added.  Of 
the  extent  of  the  manufacture  of  the  latter 
country  we  know  nothing.  The  United 
States  produces  of  oxide  of  zinc  and  spelter 
over  7000  tons  annually. 

The  value  of  the  ores  at  different  costs  of 
the  metal  is  given  in  the  following  recently 
prepared  table  from  one  of  the  European 
houses : — 

SCHEDULE    OF   THE  COST  OF   ZINC   0KB   ON   SHIPBOARD  AT 


ANTWERP. 
CARBONATE    OF  ZINC. 


Metal  worth  BO  francs  the 

100  kilogrammes.  . 

Percentage   Value  of  100    Value  of  100 
of  zinc  by    kilogrammes.  kilozramrues. 


40 
45 
50 
55 
60 
65 
70 

40 
45 
50 
55 
60 
65 
70 


Francs. 
80.00 
102.50 
125.00 
147.50 
170.00 
192.50 
215.00 


Francs. 
94.50 
119.50 
144.50 
169.50 
194.50 
219.50 
244.50 


SILICATE    OF    ZINC. 


45.00 

67.50 
90.00 
112.50 
135.00 
157.50 
180.00 


57.00 
82.00 
107.00 
132.00 
157.00 
182.00 
207.00 


Metal  worth  60 

f.  the  100 

kilogrammes. 

Value  of  100 

kilogrammes. 

Francs. 

109.00 

136.50 

164.00 

191.50 

219.00 

246.50 

274.00 

69.00 
96.50 
124.00 
151.50 
179.00 
206.50 
234.00 


A  kilogramme  is  equivalent  to  2205  Ibs. 
avoirdupois. 

Fifteen  years  ago  the  quantity  of  zinc 
used  for  roofing  did  not  exceed  5000  tons 
per  annum,  and  no  zinc  was  employed  for 
sheathing  ships,  or  lining  packing  cases. 
The  stamped  ornaments  in  this  metal  only 
came  into  use  in  1852.  In  Germany  zinc  is 
now  very  generally  used  for  roofing ;  and  in 
Paris  it  has  been  employed  for  nearly  every 


roof  constructed  during  the  last  fifteen 
years.  In  laying  the  sheets  great  care  is 
taken  that  the  metal  has  sufficient  room  to 
expand  and  contract  by  change  of  tempera 
ture  ;  and  especially  that  it  is  fastened  with 
zinc  nails,  and  is  allowed  to  come  nowhere 
in  contact  with  iron — even  with  nail  heads. 
The  purer  the  metal  the  longer  it  lasts.  It 
is  supposed  the  English  do  not  apply  it 
much  to  roofing  on  account  of  the  poor  suc 
cess  attending  the  use  of  bad  metal,  such 
as  they  manufacture  from  inferior  ores. 

Besides  the  uses  named  for  this  metal,  it 
is  employed  for  coating  sheet  iron,  making 
what  is  called  galvanized  iron,  though  the 
use  of  the  galvanic  current  is  now  dispensed 
with  in  its  preparation ;  for  pipes  for  con 
veying  liquids ;  for  baths,  water-tanks,  milk 
pans  and  pails,  plates  for  engraving  upon  ; 
for  galvanic  batteries ;  for  nails,  spikes,  and 
wire,  which  is  made  of  great  flexibility  and 
of  all  sizes.  It  has  also  been  cast  into 
statues,  and  made  to  imitate  bronze.  The 
Vieille  Montagne  Company  sent  to  the 
Great  Exhibition  in  London  a  statue  of 
Queen  Victoria,  which  with  its  pedestal  of 
zinc  was  twenty-one  feet  high.  Zinc  is 
also  an  important  reagent  in  chemical  oper 
ations,  and  is  especially  employed  with  sul 
phuric  acid  to  decompose  water  for  obtain 
ing  hydrogen  gas. 

ZINC    PAINT. 

White  oxide  of  zinc  was  first  recom 
mended  as  a  substitute  for  white  lead  by 
the  celebrated  Guyton  de  Morveau  about 
the  close  of  the  last  century,  during  his  in 
vestigations  on  the  subject  of  lead  poison 
ing  ;  and  to  him  it  was  suggested  by  Cour- 
tois,  a  manufacturer  at  Dijon.  The  high 
price  of  zinc  at  that  time,  and  ignorance 
respecting  the  proper  manner  of  using  the 
oxide  of  zinc,  prevented  its  introduction. 
It  was  many  years  after  this  that  methods  of 
producing  it  as  cheaply  as  white  lead  were 
devised  by  M.  Leclaire,  a  house-painter  of 
Paris  ;  and  he  also  first  prepared  to  use  with 
it  a  series  of  yellow  and  green  unchangeable 
colors,  to  replace  those  before  in  use  having 
noxious  bases  of  lead,  copper,  or  arsenic  ; 
and  also  a  drying  oil,  prepared  by  boiling 
linseed  oil  with  about  five  per  cent,  of  oxide 
of  manganese.  His  process,  which  is  still 
the  one  in  general  use  in  Europe,  is  based 
on  the  treatment  of  the  metal  instead  of  the 
ore,  as  practised  in  this  country,  and  scarcely 
any  white  oxide  of  zinc  is  there  made  by 


104 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


any  other  method.  The  furnaces  employed 
are  similar  to  those  for  producing  the  metal, 
or  like  those  of  the  gas  works.  When  the 
retorts  set  in  these  furnaces  have  become 
very  hot,  they  are  charged  with  the  ingots 
of  zinc.  The  metal  soon*  melts,  and  its 
vapor  passes  off  through  the  outlets  of  the 
retorts,  where  it  meets  a  current  of  air,  arid 
both  together  are  drawn  on  through  the 
condensing  apparatus  either  by  the  draught 
of  a  chimney,  or  by  an  exhausting  fan  at  the 
further  extremity  of  the  apparatus.  The 
metallic  vapors  become  oxidized  by  mixing 
•with  the  air,  and  are  converted  into  a  light, 
flaky,  white  powder,  which  is  the  oxide  of 
zinc.  The  arrangements  for  condensing 
and  collecting  this  are  similar  in  principle 
to  those  employed  for  the  same  purposes  in 
the  American  process.  By  making  use  of 
the  metal  in  retorts,  instead  of  subliming  it 
from  ores  contaminated  with  their  own  im 
purities,  and  mixed  with  the  coal  required 
for  conducting  the  process,  a  much  purer 
oxide  of  zinc  is  obtained ;  and  by  selecting 
the  purest  sorts  of  spelter,  the  beautiful 
article,  called  by  the  French  Mane  de  neicfe, 
or  "  snow-white,"  is  produced,  which  is 
employed  by  painters  in  the  place  of  the 
"  silver-white."  With  the  use  of  other  zinc, 
the  product  is  fit  to  be  substituted  for  the 
best  white  lead.  But  if  the  metal  has  been 
made  from  ores  containing  cadmium  or  iron, 
or  if  old  zinc  has  been  introduced  to  which 
any  solder  adheres,  according  to  the  French 
chemists  oxides  of  other  metals  are  pro 
duced,  and  are  taken  up  in  small  quantities 
with  the  zinc  vapors,  imparting  to  the  oxide 
a  slightly  yellow  or  greenish  tint,  which  if 
not  very  decided  may  however  disappear 
when  the  paint  is  mixed ;  but  the  expe 
rience  of  American  manufacturers  does  not 
accord  with  this  explanation. 

The  manufacture  of  white  oxide  of  zinc 
direct  from  the  ore  is  a  purely  American 
process,  established  by  the  experiments  of 
Mr.  Richard  Jones  of  Philadelphia  in  the 
year  1850.  The  great  bodies  of  the  rich 
ores  of  northern  New  Jersey  had  at  various 
times,  for  the  past  two  centuries,  attracted 
the  attention  of  many  persons  interested  in 
metallurgical  operations ;  and  of  late  years 
numerous  attempts  had  been  made  to  devise 
some  method  of  converting  them  to  useful 
purposes.  Zinc,  however,  was  a  metal  not 
much  in  demand,  and  nothing  was  known 
of  the  useful  qualities  of  the  white  oxide. 
When  the  value  of  this  had  been  demon 


strated  in  Europe,  and  the  practicability  of 
producing  it  economically  from  the  red 
oxide  was  shown,  a  company  was  organized 
in  New  York  under  the  name  of  the  New 
Jersey  Zinc  Company,  for  the  purpose  of 
carrying  on  this  manufacture  upon  a  large 
scale.  This  association  was  incorporated  by 
the  Legislature  of  New  Jersey,  February 
15,  1849,  and  the  report  of  their  operations, 
made  December  31,  1853,  by  their  presi 
dent,  C.  E.  Dctmold,  Esq.,  showed  a  pro 
duction,  for  1852,  of  2,425,506  Ibs.  of  oxide  ; 
and  for  1853,  of  4,043,415  Ibs.;  and  the 
total  production  for  10  years,  ending  with 
1800,  has  amounted  to  above  19,500  tons. 
Their  works  were  established  at  Newark,  N. 
J.,  to  which  place  the  ores  are  brought  by 
the  Morris  and  Essex  canal ;  and  the  an 
thracite  consumed  in  the  manufacture  is 
also  delivered  by  water  transportation.  The 
company  has  forty  furnaces,  that  may  be 
kept  in  constant  operation.  The  character 
of  the  process  is  like  that  which  Avill  be 
given  below,  as  conducted  by  the  Passaic 
Mining  and  Manufacturing  Company. 

The  success  of  the  enterprise  of  the  New 
Jersey  Zinc  Company,  and  the  discovery  in 
1853  of  the  great  beds  of  silicate  and  car 
bonate  of  zinc  in  the  Saucon  valley,  Penn 
sylvania,  led  to  the  organization  in  that  year 
of  the  Pennsylvania  and  Lehigh  Zinc  Com 
pany,  and  the  erection  of  furnaces  for  mak 
ing  the  oxide  at  Bethlehem,  on  the  Lehigh 
river.  The  operations  were  conducted  by 
Samuel  Wetherill,  Esq.,  by  a  patented  proc 
ess  of  his  own  invention,  and  at  a  contract 
price  of  $50  per  ton ;  the  ore  being  deliv 
ered  by  the  company  at  the  works  for  $1.50 
per  ton.  About  four  tons  are  consumed  to 
the  ton  of  oxide.  The  company  have  mined 
up  to  the  present  time  about  60,000  tons  of 
ore,  and  are  manufacturing  about  320,000 
Ibs.  of  oxide  of  zinc  per  month. 

A  third  company  was  established  in  1 855, 
called  the  Passaic  Mining  and  Manufactur 
ing  Company,  and  their  works,  constructed 
at  Communipaw,  on  the  Morris  canal  near 
Jersey  City,  went  into  operation  in  June  of 
that  year.  They  obtain  their  ores  both 
from  the  mines  of  red  oxide  in  Sussex 
county,  and  from  the  Saucon  valley  mines 
in  Pennsylvania.  They  employ  24  furnaces, 
built  in  3  stacks,  of  8  each,  in  which  they 
are  arranged  like  ovens,  half  of  them  open 
ing  on  one  side  and  half  on  the  opposite 
side.  Each  one  is  about  6  feet  in  depth 
(from  front  to  back),  4  feet  in  width,  and 


ZINC. 


105 


about  3£  feet  in  height.  The  roof  is  arched, 
with  an  opening  throngh  it  for  the  pipe 
which  conveys  away  the  vapor  and  products 
of  combustion.  The  sole  is  formed  of  cast- 
iron  plates,  which  are  perforated  full  of  small 
holes  for  admitting  the  blast  to  penetrate 
every  portion  of  the  charge,  as  the  wind  is 
driven  by  two  large  fan-blowers  into  the  re 
ceptacle  under  the  furnace  corresponding  to 
the  ash  pit.  The  ores  are  prepared  by  first 
crushing  them  to  powder,  which  is  done  by 
passing  them  through  two  pairs  of  Cornish 
rolls,  and  then  mixing  them  thoroughly 
with  about  half  their  weight  of  the  dust  of 
anthracite.  A  fire  is  kindled  upon  the  grate- 
bars  of  250  Ibs.  of  pea  coal,  and  when 
ignited  to  full  whiteness  the  charge  of  600 
Ibs.  of  ore,  mixed  with  300  of  coal  dust,  is 
added,  and  when  exhausted  the  charge  is 
withdrawn,  leaving  only  sufficient  coal  to 
ignite  the  next  charge,  thus  working  off' 
4  charges  in  every  24  hours.  The  pro 
portion  of  oxide  obtained  from  the  ore  is 
variable,  as  the  charge  is  not  of  uniform 
quality ;  but  it  is  usually  between  30  and 
40  per  cent.  As  the  coal  rapidly  consumes 
from  the  effect  of  the  blast,  the  ores  arc 
decomposed,  and  metallic  zinc  sublimes. 
The  vapor  rises  with  the  gaseous  products 
of  combustion,  and  all  are  carried  up  the 
pipe,  which  just  above  the  roof  of  the  stack 
terminates  under  an  inverted  funnel,  the  base 
of  which  covers  the  lower  pipe  like  a  hood, 
and  the  upper  portion  is  a  pipe  like  that 
below.  A  strong  current  of  air  is  created 
by  two  exhausting  fan-blowers  at  the  other 
extremity  of  the  apparatus,  and  the  vapors 
are  drawn  up  together  with  much  air  which 
flows  in  around  the  open  base  of  the  fun 
nel,  and  causes  at  this  point  a  vivid  com 
bustion  of  the  zinc  vapors,  which  burn  with 
a  pale  blue  flame,  and  are  thus  converted 
into  oxide.  The  appearance  presented  by 
this  combustion  actively  going  on  in  full 
view  under  each  hood  is  very  striking,  and 
is  far  from  suggesting  to  an  observer  unac 
quainted  with  the  process,  the  possibility 
that  from  the  pale  flames  rushing  up  the 
pipes  any  valuable  product  can  be  recovered. 
The  pipes  connect  above  with  a  cylindrical 
sheet-iron  receiver  that  extends  over  the  three 
stacks,  so  as  to  secure  the  products  of  all 
the  furnaces.  It  is  a  huge  pipe,  6£  feet  in 
diameter,  and  130  feet  long,  and  passes 
along  under  the  roof,  against  a  line  of  win 
dows  on  each  side,  through  which  air  is 
admitted  for  hastening  the  cooling  of 


the  products.  The  pipe  discharges  into  a 
square  tower  in  masonry,  and  in  this  the 
particles  are  washed  and  cooled  by  a  continual 
falling  sheet  of  water.  The  light  flocculent 
oxide  of  zinc  is  not  carried  down  by  this 
to  any  great  extent,  but  is  drawn  on  by  the 
exhaust  through  3  large  pipes  to  a  second 
tower  with  three  divisions,  in  which  the  fans 
are  placed  that  create  the  draught.  From  this 
the  current,  still  propelled  by  the  fans,  moves 
on  through  other  pipes  that  connect  with 
the  system  of  flannel  bags,  which  in  great 
numbers,  and  of  extraordinary  sizes,  are  sus 
pended  throughout  the  portion  of  the  build 
ing  devoted  to  the  final  cooling  of  the  oxide, 
and  filtering  it  from  the  gaseous  matters  in 
termixed.  Some  of  the  bags  extend  the  whole 
length  of  the  rooms,  which  arc  120  feet 
long  by  64  wide,  and  the  diameter  of  the 
largest  of  them  is  over  4  feet.  They  are 
arranged  near  together,  and  some  are  carried 
vertically  from  the  horizontal  ones  up  to  the 
roof.  Through  the  pores  of  the  flannel  the 
gases  escape,  and  the  oxide  of  zinc  remains 
thoroughly  purified.  Nearly  200,000  square 
feet  of  flannel  are  worked  into  these  bags ; 
and  one  person  is  almost  constantly  em 
ployed  with  a  sewing  machine,  and  two 
others  working  by  hand,  in  making  and  re 
pairing  them.  Along  the  under  side  of  the 
horizontal  bags  pipes  of  cotton  cloth,  ten  or 
twelve  inches  in  diameter,  reach  down  nearly 
to  the  floor,  and  are  kept  tied  around  their 
lower  ends.  These  are  called  the  teats ;  and 
the  oxide  of  zinc  is  collected  by  lifting  up 
the  portions  of  the  bags  where  it  has  set 
tled,  and  shaking  these  so  as  to  make  it  fall 
into  the  teats.  The  ends  of  these  are  then 
opened,  and  the  white  zinc  is  received  in 
strong  bags,  which  being  tied  up  are  laid 
upon  a  truck,  and  this  is  run  by  steam  power 
back  and  forth  under  a  compressing  roller. 
The  air  dispersed  through  it,  rendering  it  so 
light  and  bulky,  is  thus  expelled,  and  the 
oxide  is  converted  into  a  dense,  heavy  pow 
der.  The  last  process  is  to  grind  this  with 
bleached  linseed  oil,  which  is  done  in  the 
ordinary  paint  mills.  The  paint  is  then 
transferred  into  small  kegs  for  the  market. 

The  residuum  of  the  furnace  charge,  when 
of  red  oxide,  consists  of  some  unsublimed 
zinc  ore  mixed  with  franklinite  and  more  or 
less  unconsumed  coal.  It  is  raked  out  in  the 
form  of  slags,  and  is  accumulated  in  immense 
piles  about  the  works.  In  1 853,  Mr.  Detmold 
succeeded  in  using  this  as  an  iron  ore,  and  pro 
duced  excellent  iron  which  proved  to  be  also 


106 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


well  adapted  for  the  manufacture  of  steel. 
The  iron  manufacture  has  been  continued,  and 
has  become  a  profitable  branch  of  the  opera 
tions  of  the  United  States  Zinc  Company,  pro 
ducing  about  2000  tons  of  zinc  per  annum. 
The  franklinite  itself  had  been  used  a  year  ear 
lier  for  the  same  purposes  by  Mr.  Edwin  Post, 
at  Stanhope,  and  from  this  he  obtained  both 
iron  and  steel ;  but  when  the  manufacture 
was  undertaken  upon  a  large  scale  by  the 
New  Jersey  Franklinite  Company,  at  Frank 
lin,  New  Jersey,  it  proved  unsuccessful  in 
practice. 

The  product  of  the  zinc  works  of  the  Pas- 
saic  Company  for  the  year  1856,  was  2,327,- 
920  Ibs.  of  oxide  of  zinc ;  and  the  monthly 
production  for  the  year  1860  h.as  been  about 
400,000  Ibs.  from  16  furnaces.  With  the  24 
in  blast  their  monthly  capacity  is  from  280  to 
300  tons  of  2000  Ibs.  to  the  ton.  The  total 
annual  product  of  the  three  establishments  is 
from  6000  to  7000  tons  of  oxide ;  and  the 
consumption  of  this  large  quantity  in  the 
United  States  is  good  evidence  of  the  im 
portance  of  this  paint,  and  of  the  great  ex 
tent  to  which  it  must  have  superseded  the 
use  of  white  lead. 

The  items  which  make  up  its  cost  are  of 
such  nature  that  no  exact  estimate  can  be 
given  of  this.  The  ores  are  of  no  definite 
composition,  and  according  to  their  percent 
age,  as  obtained  from  the  mine  or  afterward 
dressed,  the  quantity  required  to  produce  a 
ton  of  oxide  must  vary,  while  with  poor  ores 
a  proportionably  larger  amount  of  fuel  is  con 
sumed  than  that  required  for  rich  ores. 
These  items  consequently  vary  between  con 
siderable  extremes ;  and  then  the  cost  of  the 
bags,  barrels  for  packing,  and  the  numerous 
incidentals,  including  repairs  and  general  ex 
penses,  can  only  be  arrived  at  by  a  careful 
computation  of  the  operations  of  each  estab 
lishment.  The  market  price  of  the  oxide  is 
from  4d  to  5i  cents  per  Ib. 

The  importance  of  the  application  of  white 
zinc  to  painting  in  the  place  of  white  lead 
appears  to  have  been  much  more  fully  appre 
ciated  in  France  and  the  United  States  than  in 
Great  Britain.  Soon  after  the  discoveries  of 
Leclaire  that  white  oxide  of  zinc  could  be 
thus  used,  arid  produce,  with  the  colored 
bases  he  prepared  of  this  and  other  innocu 
ous  oxides,  all  the  tints  required,  the  French 
government,  recognizing  the  importance  of 
his  inventions,  conferred  upon  him  the  cross 
of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  and  adopted  the 
paints  for  the  public  buildings.  By  the  year 


1849,  over  6000  public  and  private  build 
ings  had  been  painted  with  his  prepara 
tions,  and  the  testimony  was  very  strong  in 
their  favor.  Not  one  of  his  workmen  had 
been  attacked  by  the  painter's  colic,  though 
previously  a  dozen  or  more  suffered  every 
year  from  it.  The  colors  were  pronounced 
more  solid  and  durable  than  the  old,  were 
made  brighter  by  washing,  and  were  not  tar 
nished  by  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  as  occurs 
to  white  lead.  The  best  white  paint  was 
moreover  so  pure  and  brilliant  a  white,  that 
it  made  the  best  white  lead  paint  by  its  side 
look  disagreeably  yellow  and  gray.  No  dif 
ficulty  was  experienced  in  making  the  new 
colors,  mixed  with  the  prepared  oil,  dry 
rapidly  without  the  use  of  the  ordinary  dryers 
of  lead  compound  ;  and  used  in  equal  weight 
with  lead,  the  zinc  was  found  to  cover  bet 
ter,  and  was,  consequently,  more  economical 
at  equal  prices  per  Ib.  The  English,  how 
ever,  found  many  objectionable  qualities  in 
the  new  paint.  Its  transparency,  which  is 
the  cause  of  its  brilliancy,  by  reflecting  in 
stead  of  absorbing  the  light,  was  regarded  as 
a  defect,  and  the  painters  complained  that  it 
had  not  the  body  or  covering  properties  oi 
the  carbonate  of  lead.  It  would  not  dry 
rapidly  for  the  second  coat  without  the  use 
of  the  patent  dryers,  which  contain  lead,  and 
therefore  it  was  no  better  than  the  lead. 
Messrs.  Coates  &  Co.,  who  now  import  into 
Great  Britain  about  1000  tons  of  oxide  of 
zinc  per  annum,  wrote  to  the  editor  of  the 
Lancet  in  March,  1860,  that  the  consumption 
of  white  lead  is  still  nearly  100  to  1  of  white 
zinc,  and  that  in  1856  the  importation  of  the 
latter  amounted  to  only  235  tons.  They  as 
cribe  the  real  cause  of  the  larger  consumption 
of  white  lead,  to  the  almost  entire  exclusion  of 
zinc,  to  the  fact,  that  white  lead  can  be  adul 
terated  with  barytes  and  other  cheap  ingre 
dients  without  the  adulteration  being  detected 
by  the  eye,  thus  securing  large  profits  to  the 
manufacturer  and  contractor,  which  cannot 
be  realized  in  the  use  of  zinc  paint,  for  the 
reason  that  it  has  little  affinity  for  foreign  sub 
stances.  The  experience  of  the  manufacturers 
of  the  United  States  does  not  substantiate 
this  statement  as  to  the  difficulty  of  using  the 
oxide  of  zinc  in  mixture  with  other  substances. 
It  is  employed  not  only  alone,  but  mixed 
with  either  barytes  or  white  lead,  or  with 
both  of  them ;  and  large  quantities  are  thus 
sold  and  give  satisfaction  to  consumers,  who 
would  reject  the  paint,  if  they  supposed  it  to 
be  any  thing  else  than  white  lead.  As  to  its 


PLATINUM. 


107 


covering  quality,  it  is  found  that  the  oxide  of 
zinc  varies  according  to  the  manner  in  which 
it  has  been  prepared.  The  light  flocculent 
oxide  mixes  readily  with  oil  without  grinding; 
but  though  pressed,  it  covers  much  less  sur 
face  than  the  same  oxide  moulded  when  mois 
tened  with  water,  and  dried  by  artificial  heat. 
This  preparation  also  causes  any  yellowish  or 
greenish  tints  to  disappear,  and  the  article 
may  be  supplied  to  the  consumer  in  cakes, 
which  when  ground  with  oil  will  cover  more 
surface  than  the  same  weight  of  white  lead. 
The  body  of  the  white  zinc  may  be  still  fur 
ther  improved  by  calcination  before  grinding. 

The  inferior  colored  sorts  of  oxide  of  zinc, 
such  as  are  collected  in  the  iron  receivers 
near  the  furnaces,  and  that  made  from  the 
pulverized  ores  of  zinc,  have  been  largely 
employed  for  painting  iron  surfaces,  espec 
ially  on  board  of  ships,  the  paint  being  found 
to  possess  a  peculiar  quality  of  protecting 
the  iron  it  covers  from  rusting. 

Besides  its  use  as  a  paint,  oxide  of  zinc  is 
applied  to  the  preparation  of  the  mastic  for 
rendering  metallic  joints  tight ;  and  to  that  of 
glazed  papers  and  cards,  for  which  white  lead 
and  carbonate  of  barytes  have  heretofore 
been  used.  The  French  use  it  in  preparing 
the  paste  for  artificial  crystals  instead  of 
oxide  of  lead  or  other  metallic  oxides ;  and 
they  have  also  made  with  it  some  of  the 
finest  sorts  of  cut  glass  and  especially  lenses. 
In  the  Great  Exhibition  of  1851,  an  award 
was  made  to  specimens  of  zinc  glass  which 
presented  a  very  pleasing  and  white  appear 
ance,  and  were  regarded  as  especially  suited 
to  achromatic  purposes.  It  was  remarkable 
for  its  being  purer  and  more  pellucid  than 
lead  glass,  and  also  of  greater  specific  gravity. 

A  patent  has  been  granted  in  the  United 
States  for  the  manufacture  of  flint  glass  with 
oxide  of  zinc,  and  specimens  of  glass  were 
produced  with  it  in  1860,  which  were  re 
markable  for  their  brilliancy  and  beautiful 
surface,  or  "  skin,"  as  it  is  called.  The  glass 
is  more  infusible  than  that  made  with  oxide 
of  lead,  and  there  seems  to  be  no  good  rea 
son  to  prevent  it  coming  rapidly  into  use. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

PLATINUM. 

ALTHOUGH  this  metal  is  not  obtained  in 
large  quantity  in  the  United  States,  it  is 
found  associated  with  the  gold  in  many  lo- 


calities  in  California  and  Oregon,  and  has 
been  detected  in  Rutherford  county,  North 
Carolina,  and  in  traces  in  the  lead  and  cop 
per  ores  of  Lancaster  county,  Pennsylvania. 
From  the  states  on  the  Pacific  it  has  been 
supposed  that  it  would  yet  be  afforded  as  a 
commercial  article.  It  is  a  metal  of  consid 
erable  interest  from  the  extent  to  which  it  is 
used  in  the  United  States,  and  the  success 
that  has  attended  the  attempts  to  work  it  in 
Philadelphia  and  New  York.  The  metal  is 
supplied  to  commerce  from  no  certain  source, 
and  finds  its  way  into  the  United  States  in 
a  great  variety  of  forms,  as  in  native  grains 
found  in  washing  the  gold  deposits  of  Cauca 
on  the  western  coast  of  South  America,  of 
Brazil,  and  Oregon,  and  in  manufactured  ar 
ticles  imported  from  Europe  and  chiefly 
from  France.  Russia  produced  between  the 
years  1824  and  1845  many  times  as  much 
platinum  as  all  the  rest  of  the  world,  and 
introduced  the  metal  into  her  coinage ;  but 
after  1845  it  was  no  longer  coined,  and  the 
yield  of  the  deposits  in  the  Ural  has  dwin 
dled  away  to  almost  nothing.  The  supply 
from  Borneo  has  been  very  large  for  some 
years,  the  whole  product  of  the  island  some 
times  amounting  to  '600  Ibs.  a  year.  It  is 
found  in  small  grains  and  lumps  in  the 
sands  that  are  washed  for  gold ;  and  pieces 
of  several  pounds  have  been  met  with  in  Si 
beria,  the  largest  weighing  over  22  Ibs.  troy. 
The  properties  which  give  to  the  metal  its 
great  value,  as  its  power  of  resisting  the  ef 
fects  of  heat  and  many  of  the  most  powerful 
chemical  agents,  also  render  it  exceedingly 
difficult  to  work  and  to  convert  into  useful 
shapes.  The  crude  grains  are  generally  al 
loyed  to  the  amount  of  about  20  per  cent,  of 
their  weight  with  the  very  refractory  metal 
iridium,  with  osmium,  rhodium,  iron,  and 
sometimes  other  metals  also.  It  is  separated 
from  the  chief  part  of  these  and  purified  by 
dissolving  the  grains  in  aqua  regia,  a  mixture 
of  nitric  and  hydrochloric  acid,  and  causino- 
the  metal  to  be  precipitated  by  sal-ammoniac. 
It  falls  in  a  yellowish  powder,  which  is  a 
compound  of  platinum,  ammonia,  and  chlo 
rine.  To  decompose  this  the  compound  is 
separated  from  the  liquid,  and  being  well 
washed  and  dried,  is  heated  red  hot  in  a  cast- 
iron  crucible.  This  drives  off  the  ammonia 
and  chlorine,  and  the  platinum  remains  in 
the  crucible  in  a  spongy  condition.  This  is 
condensed  into  solid  metal  by  repeated 
heatings  and  hammerings.  It  has  always 
been  a  matter  of  great  difficulty  to  raise 


PLATINUM. 


109 


sufficient  heat  to  soften  the  platinum,  even  in 
quantities  less  than  an  ounce,  so  that  it  could 
be  worked  under  the  hammer.  It  used  for 
merly  to  be  brought  into  a  metallic  cake  by 
making  a  fusible  alloy  of  it  with  arsenic,  and 
then  burning  out  the  latter  as  much  as  pos 
sible,  and  hammering  or  rolling  the  cake  into 
sheets,  but  the  arsenic  remaining  in  the 
platinum  always  injures  its  quality.  Dr. 
Robert  Hare,  of  Philadelphia,  was  the  first 
to  fuse  the  metal  for  any  practical  purpose, 
and  in  May,  1838,  he  exhibited  a  cake  of 
about  23  ounces,  which  was  run  together 
from  grains  and  scraps  by  means  of  the  in 
tense  heat  produced  by  his  oxy-hydrogen 
blowpipe.  From  a  reservoir  of  oxygen,  and 
from  another  of  hydrogen,  a  gas-pipe  con 
veyed  the  gases  into  one  tube,  in  which  they 
were  mixed  just  back  of  the  igniting  jets ; 
and  in  this  the  explosive  mixture  was  kept 
cool  by  ice  around  the  tube.  Explosion  was 
moreover  guarded  against  by  the  extreme 
fineness  of  the  apertures  through  which  the 
gases  were  made  to  pass. 

This  means  of  working  platinum  has  been 
applied  very  successfully  by  Dr.  E.  A.  L. 
Roberts,  of  Bond  street,  New  York,  in  the 
preparation  of  platinum  plate  and  various 
articles  in  this  metal  employed  by  dentists, 
such  as  the  plates  and  fastenings  for  sets  of 
artificial  teeth,  and  the  little  pins  which  se 
cure  each  tooth  in  its  setting.  The  annual 
consumption  of  these  last,  it  is  estimated, 
amounts  throughout  the  United  States  to 
about  $60,000  in  value,  which  is  nearly  J 
of  the  annual  supply  of  the  metal.  The  ap 
paratus  consists  of  two  cylindrical  copper 
gas-holders,  one  for  hydrogen,  holding  220 
gallons,  and  one  for  oxygen,  holding  80  gal 
lons.  The  Croton  water,  with  a  pressure  of 
about  60  Ibs.  upon  the  square  inch,  is  ad 
mitted  into  the  bottom  of  these  gas-receivers, 
for  propelling  the  gases  as  they  are  required. 
The  discharge  pipes  have  each  at  their  ex 
tremity  a  short  brass  tube,  which  is  full  of 
pieces  of  wire  of  nearly  the  same  length  as 
the  tube,  jammed  in  very  tightly.  These 
unite  in  another  brass  tube  which  is  packed 
in  a  similar  way,  and  connects  by»  a  metallic 
pipe  of  only  i  inch  bore,  with  the  burner. 
This  is  a  little  platinum  box,  one  end  of 
which  terminates  in  a  disk  of  platinum  or 
copper  i  by  i  inch  in  size,  perforated  with 
21  very  minute  holes  in  3  rows.  This  box 
is  buried  in  plaster  of  Paris  mixed  up  with 
fibres  of  asbestus,  forming  a  lump  sufficiently 
large  to  contain  around  the  box  a  receptacle 


into  which,  by  means  of  flexible  pipes,  a  cur 
rent  of  water  is  admitted  and  discharged  on 
the  same  principle  that  the  water-tuyeres 
of  iron  forges  and  furnaces  are  constructed 
and  kept  cool  while  in  use.  The  burner 
points  downward,  so  that  the  jet  is  directed 
immediately  upon  the  face  of  the  metal  held 
up  beneath  it.  The  method  of  using  the 
apparatus  is  as  follows  :  the  platinum  scraps 
being  first  consolidated  by  pressure  in 
moulds  into  compact  cakes  of  10  to  20 
ounces  each,  these  are  placed  upon  a  plate 
of  fire-brick,  and  brought  to  a  full  white 
heat  in  a  powerful  wind  furnace.  The  plate 
with  the  platinum  is  then  removed  from  the 
furnace  and  set  in  a  large  tin  pan  thickly 
lined  with  asbestus  and  plaster  of  Paris,  and 
is  brought  directly  under  the  jet,  which  at 
the  same  time  is  ignited.  The  platinum  im 
mediately  begins  to  melt  upon  the  surface, 
and  the  pieces  gradually  run  together  into 
one  mass  as  the  different  par^s  of  the  cakes 
are  brought  successively  under  the  jet. 
Though  the  metal  melts  and  flows  upon 
itself,  it  cools  too  rapidly  to  be  cast  in  a 
mould ;  nor  is  this  necessary  or  desirable 
for  the  uses  to  which  it  is  applied.  These 
require  a  soft  and  tough  material,  while  the 
fused  metal  is  hard  and  sonorous,,  and  of 
crystalline  texture,  breaking  like  spelter. 
It  is  made  malleable  and  tough  by  repeated 
heatings  and  hammerings.  It  is  introduced 
into  the  muffle  of  the  assay  furnace  con 
structed  by  Dr.  Roberts  especially  for  pro 
ducing  the  high  heat  required  in  these  and 
similar  operations,  and  is  heated  so  intensely 
that  when  the  door  of  the  furnace  is  opened 
the  cake  of  metal  is  too  dazzlingly  hot  to  be 
visible.  It  is  then  taken  out  with  tongs 
plated  with  platinum,  and  hammered  with  a 
perfectly  clean  hammer  upon  a  clean  anvil, 
both  of  which  should  be  as  hot  as  possible 
without  drawing  the  temper  of  the  steel.  If 
the  process  is  one  of  welding,  when  the  pla 
tinum  has  cooled  so  as  to  be  distinctly  visi 
ble,  it  should  be  heated  again,  for  in  this 
condition  every  blow  tends  to  shatter  and 
shake  it  to  pieces.  The  lump  is  forged  by' 
hammering  it  to  a  thickness  of  about  i  of  an 
inch,  and  then  being  again  heated  very  hot, 
is  passed  instantly  through  the  rolls.  It  is 
thus  obtained  in  sheets,  which  are  easily  con 
verted  into  the  various  uses  to  which  the 
metal  is  applied. 

Upon  the  opposite  page,  the  apparatus 
employed  and  manner  of  conducting  the 
operations  are  exhibited  in  the  wood-cut; 


110 


MINING-   INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


and   tile  articles  designated  by  the  figures 
are  thus  explained  : — 

1 .  Reservoir  for  oxygen. 

2.  "          "   hydrogen. 

3.  Hydrogen  generator. 

4.  Oxygen  " 

5.  Blowpipe. 

6.  Tuyere. 

7.  Rolls  for  converting  the  metal  into  sheets. 

8.  Gasometer. 

9.  Water  pipes. 

10.  Pan. 

11.  Moulds  in  which  the  loose  pieces  of  metal  are 

compressed. 

Crucibles  for  chemical  use  are  prepared  by 
the  ingenious  method  called  spinning.  A 
disk  of  the  metal  is  securely  fixed  against  the 
end  of  the  mandrel  of  a  lathe,  and,  as  it  re 
volves  rapitlly,  a  blunt  point  is  pressed  upon 
its  surface,  causing  the  plate  to  gradually 
bend  over  and  assume  the  desired  form. 
The  large  platinum  retorts  used  in  the  man 
ufacture  of  sulphuric  acid  are  imported  from 
Paris.  The  whole  amount  of  platinum 
brought  to  the  United  States  for  the  year 
1850  was  34,000  oz.  troy,  which,  at  the 
custom-house  valuation  of  $6.10  per  oz., 
amounts  to  $200,000.  Probably  the  whole 
amount  of  native  metal  worked  over  does 
not  exceed  1500  oz.  The  amount  of  scraps 
remelted  by  Dr.  Roberts  is  about  1000  oz.  a 
year. 

IRIDIUM    AND    OSMIUM. 

An  alloy  of  these  metals  in  fine  grains  of 
excessive  hardness  is  found  very  frequently 
with  platinum  and  with  the  gold  which  is 
refined  at  the  mints.  It  is  of  interest  from 
the  use  to  which  it  is  applied  in  forming  the 
nibs  of  gold  pens ;  and  for  this  purpose  the 
small  grains  are  purchased  by  the  pen-makers 
sometimes  at  the  rate  of  $250  an  ounce. 
From  this  quantity  they  may  select  from 
8000  to  12,000  points  of  suitable  size  and 
shape  for  use.  The  alloy  is  known  as  iridos- 
mium,  and  is  also  very  generally  called  irid- 
iurn.  At  some  seasons  it  has  been  quite 
abundant  in  the  gold  presented  at  the  New 
York  assay  office  ;  but  •  recently  it  is  more 
rare.  As  it  does  not  fuse  and  alloy  with  the 
gold,  it  appears  in  specks  upon  the  bars  of 
this  metal.  The  method  of  separating  it  is 
to  melt  the  gold  with  a  certain  portion  of 
silver,  as  in  the  usual  refining  process.  The 
alloy  thus  obtained  being  less  dense  than  the 
melted  gold,  the  particles  of  iridium  settle  in 
the  lower  portions  ;  the  upper  is  then  ladled 
off,  and  the  metals  are  parted.  More  of  the 


impure  gold  is  added,  and  the  process  thus 
goes  on  till  a  considerable  amount  of  iridium 
is  concentrated  into  the  alloy  of  gold  and 
silver,  from  which  it  is  at  last  obtained  by 
dissolving  these  metals.  According  to  the 
statement  of  Dr.  Thevenct  published  in  the 
Annales  des  Mines  (vol.  xvi.,  1859),  irid 
ium  is  collected  at  the  gold-washings  along 
the  sea-coast  of  Oregon,  and  is  sometimes 
quite  equal  in  quantity  to  the  gold.  He 
describes  it  as  white,  glistening,  very  heavy, 
its  specific  gravity  being  20  to  21,  very  hard, 
and  resembling  sand,  its  angles  slightly  flat 
tened  and  rounded  by  friction.  It  is  accom 
panied  by  platinum  and  rhodium.  After 
one  of  the  storms  that  prevail  along  this 
coast,  the  miners  at  low  tide  collect  the 
black  sand  and  carry  it  to  the  Avashing  and 
amalgamating  apparatus,  in  which  it  is  stirred 
with  mercury  and  then  treated  upon  the 
shaking  tables.  Though  by  their  rude  proc 
esses  they  probably  lose  &  of  the  precious 
metals,  they  sometimes  collect  several  ounces 
a  day  of  gold  to  the  man.  Near  Fort  Or- 
ford,  to  the  north  of  Rogue  River,  about 
1 5  per  cent,  of  iridium  is  found  with  the 
gold.  Still  further  north,  between  Cape 
Blanco  and  Coquille,  the  metals  collected 
consist  of  about  45  per  cent,  iridium  and  5 
per  cent,  platinum.  Between  Randolph  and 
Cape  Arago  the  metallic  grains  are  very 
light  and  in  extremely  thin  scales  ;  they  con 
sist  of  70  per  cent,  iridiurn  and  6  per  cent, 
platinum.  Further  north,  the  iridium  con 
tinues  almost  as  abundantly,  but  mostly  in 
very  fine  particles.  One  piece  was  shown  to 
Dr.  Thevenet  as  a  great  curiosity  which  was 
as  large  as  a  grain  of  rice.  In  sifting  more 
than  50  Ibs.  of  iridium,  he  states  that  he  had 
not  seen  a  single  specimen  of  one  quarter 
this  size. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

MERCURY. 

THIS  metal,  which  is  extensively  employed 
in  the  arts,  especially  in  the  treatment  of  gold 
and  silver  ores  by  amalgamation,  in  the  com 
bination  of  amalgams  for  coating  mirrors,  etc., 
in  the  construction  of  barometers  and  ther 
mometers,  and  other  philosophical  instru 
ments,  in  the  manufacture  of  the  paint  called 
vermilion,  for  several  medicinal  preparations, 
and  for  a  variety  of  other  purposes,  was  not 
classed  among  the  productions  of  the  United 
States  until  after  the  acquisition  of  Califor- 


MERCURY. 


Ill 


nia,  when  mines  of  its  principal  ore  were 
opened,  which  have  been  extensively  worked, 
as  will  be  described  below.  Mercury,  which 
is  the  only  fluid  metal,  is  found  both  in  a 
native  state,  dispersed  in  drops  among  the 
slates  that  contain  the  veins  of  its  ores,  and 
also  occurs  in  combination  with  sulphur  in  the 
ore  called  cinnabar,  a  compound  of  one  atom 
of  mercury  and  one  of  sulphur,  or  of  86.2 
per  cent,  of  the  former,  and  13.8  per  cent, 
of  the  latter.  Some  other  natural  compounds 
are  known,  which  are  not,  however,  of  much 
importance.  Cinnabar  is  almost  the  exclu 
sive  source  of  the  metal.  This  is  a  very 
heavy,  brilliant  ore  of  different  shades  of  red; 
is  readily  volatilized  at  a  red  heat,  giving  off 
fumes,  when  exposed  to  the  air,  both  mer 
curial  and  sulphurous  ;  but  in  tight  vessels  it 
sublimes  without  decomposition,  and  if  lime 
or  iron  be  introduced  with  the  ore  into  re 
torts,  the  sulphur  is  retained  in  combination 
with  the  new  element,  and  the  mercury  es 
capes  in  vapor,  which  may  be  condensed 
and  recovered  in  the  metallic  state.  On 
this  principle  the  process  for  collecting  mer 
cury  is  based.  The  ores  of  mercury  are 
found  in  almost  all  the  geological  formations, 
but  the  productive  mines  are  only  in  the 
mctamorphic  or  lowest  stratified  rocks,  and  in 
the  bituminous  slates  of  the  coal  measures. 

In  order  to  appreciate  the  importance  of 
the  mines  of  California,  it  is  necessary  to  un 
derstand  the  extent  of  the  demand  for  this 
metal,  and  the  sources  which  have  supplied  it. 
From  the  time  of  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Ro 
mans,  mercury  has  been  held  in  high  estima 
tion,  and  has  been  furnished  from  the  same 
mines,  which  have  ever  since  produced  the 
chief  part  of  the  product  of  the  world.  Pliny 
states  that  the  Greeks  imported  red  cinnabar 
from  Almaden  in  Spain,  700  years  before 
the  Christian  era,  and  in  his  own  time  it  was 
brought  to  Rome  from  the  same  mines  to 
the  amount  of  700,000  Ibs.  annually.  In 
modern  times  the  production  amounts  to 
2,700,000  to  3,456,000  Ibs.  per  annum,  and 
is  chiefly  obtained  from  two  veins,  one 
about  2  feet,  and  the  other  14  feet  thick, 
•which,  meeting  in  a  hill  about  125  feet  high, 
spread  out  to  a  thickness  of  nearly  100  feet. 
The  ores  are  of  small  percentage,  yielding 
about  ~-0  only  of  mercury.  The  greatest 
depth  of  the  workings  was  only  about  330 
yards  several  years  ago.  After  the  metal  has 
been  extracted  from  the  ores,  it  is  packed  in 
iron  bottles  or  flasks  holding  76d  Ibs.  each, 
and  is  taken  to  Cadiz  for  shipment.  For 


many  years  past,  the  lessees  from  the  Span 
ish  government,  in  whom  the  title  is  vested, 
have  been  the  Rothschilds  and  other  bank 
ers  of  Europe  ;  but  their  contracts  with  the 
government  have  varied  from  time  to  time, 
thus  affecting  the  price  at  which  the  product 
was  held.* 

The  mines  next  in  importance  have  been 
those  of  Idria  in  Carniola,  belonging  to  the 
Austrian  government.  These,  for  some 
years  previous  to  1847,  had  produced  an 
annual  average  of  358,281  Ibs.  of  mercury, 
and  since  that  time,  the  production  has  va 
ried,  sometimes  reaching  600,000,  and  even 
over  1,000,000  Ibs.  per  annum.  The  other 
mines  of  Europe  do  not  probably  produce 
200,000  Ibs.  On  the  American  continent 
many  localities  of  the  ores  have  been  worked 
to  some  extent ;  but  although  the  consump 
tion  is  very  great  at  the  silver  mines  of 
Mexico,  amounting,  as  estimated  by  Hum- 
boldt,  to  16,000  quintals  of2<>0  Ibs.  each, 
three  fourths  of  the  supply  was  then  derived 
from  the  European  mines.  In  1782,  mer 
cury  was  even  brought  to  South  America 
from  China,  Avhere  it  was  formerly  largely 
extracted  in  the  province  of  Yunnan.  Yet 
in  the  early  years  of  the  Spanish  conquest 
Peru  was  a  large  producer  of  the  metal,  its 
most  important  mines  being  in  the  province 
of  Iluancavclica,  where  no  less  than  41  dif 
ferent  localities  of  the  ore  have  been  known  \ 
but  at  present  the  whole  product  of  the 
country  is  supposed  not  to  exceed  200,000 
Ibs.  A  large  portion  of  this  product  is  from 
the  Santa  Barbara,  or  the  "  Great  Mine," 
which  has  been  worked  since  1566.  The 
mines  of  Chili  and  the  numerous  localities  at 
which  the  ores  have  been  found  in  Mexico 
supply  no  metal  of  consequence.  Dumas 
estimated,  not  long  since,  the  total  annual 
production  as  follows  : — - 

Ibs.  avoirdupois. 

Almaden,  Spain 2,700,000  to  3,450.000 

Idria 648,000  "  1,080,000 

Hungary  and  Transylvania.  .       75,000  "        97,200 

Deux  Fonts 42,200"        54,000 

Palatinate 19,400  "        21,000 

Huancavelica . .  324,000 

California ..          2,000,000 


Total 7,032,800 


*  In  1 839  the  royalty  demanded  by  the  govern 
ment  was  $59  per  quintal  of  10G  Ibs.,  to  which  it 
had  reached  by  successive  advances  from  $51,25; 
and  in  1843  it  had  advanced  to  $82.50  per  quintal. 
The  opening  of  the  California  mines  soou  caused  this 
to  be  considerably  reduced. 


112 


MIXING  INDUSTRY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


In  California  the  existence  of  large  quan 
tities  of  cinnabar  was  known  long  before  the 
real  character  of  the  ore  was  understood.  It 
was  found  along  a  range  of  hills  on  the 
southern  side  of  the  valley  of  San  Jose, 
about  GO  miles  south-cast  from  San  Fran 
cisco.  For*  an  unknown  period  the  Indians 
had  frequented  the  locality,  coming  to  it 
from  distant  places,  even  from  the  Columbia 
river,  to  obtain  the  bright  vermilion  paint 
with  which  to  ornament  their  persons.  With 
rude  implements,  such  as  the  stones  they 
picked  from  the  streams,  they  extracted 
the  ore  from  the  flinty  slates  and  shales  in 
which  it  was  found,  and  in  their  search  for 
it  they  excavated  a  passage  into  the  moun 
tain  of  about  sixty  feet  in  length.  In 
1824  the  attention  of  the  whites  began  to 
be  directed  to  this  curious  ore,  and  some  of 
the  Mexicans  sought  to  extract  from  it  gold 
or  silver.  Other  trials  made  of  it  in  1845 
resulted  in  the  discovery  of  its  true  charac 
ter,  and  operations  were  thereupon  com 
menced  to  work  it  by  one  Andres  Castil- 
lero.  Owing,  however,  to  the  disturbed 
state  of  the  country,  little  was  done  until 
1850,  when  a  company  of  Mexicans  and 
English  engaged  vigorously  in  the  extraction 
and  metallurgical  treatment  of  the  ore,  and 
established  the  mine  which  they  called  the 
New  Almaden.  In  1858  a  stop  was  put 
upon  their  further  proceedings  by  an  injunc 
tion  issued  by  the  United  States  court  on 
the  question  of  defective  title.  From  the 
testimony  presented  in  the  trial,  it  appeared 
that  the  company  in  the  course  of  eight 
years  had  produced  full  20,000,000  Ibs.  of 
metal,  and  realized  a  profit  of  more  than 
$1,000,000  annually.  The  Americans  who 
claimed  the  mine  directed  their  attention  to 
the  discovery  of  new  localities  of  the  ore, 
and  succeeded  in  finding  it  upon  the  same 
range  of  hills  within  less  than  a  mile  of  the 
old  workings.  Here  they  opened  a  new 
mine  in  December,  1858,  which  they  named 
the  Enroquita,  and  in  June,  1800,  a  com 
pany  was  formed  in  New  York  for  working 
it  under  the  name  of  the  "  California  Quick 
silver  Mining  Association."  The  following 
are  the  returns  of  their  operations  to  the 
latest  dates:  in  September,  1859,  the  prod 
uct  of  mercury  was  14,400  Ibs. ;  October, 
28,650  ;  November,  27,525  ;  December, 
28,425;  January,  1860,  27,000;  February, 
16,950;  March,  25,500;  April,  33,700; 
May,  46,275  ;  June,  48,750;  July,  50,000.; 
August,  79,866  ;  September,  66,096.  The 


increase  of  production,  hereafter,  will  be 
limited  rather  by  the  capacity  of  the  re 
ducing  apparatus  than  by  that  of  the  mine. 
Twenty-four  retorts  for  distilling  the  mer 
cury  are  now  in  operation,  6  of  which  have 
I  been  started  since  August,  1860,  From  the 
report  of  October  11,  1860,  it  appears  that 
a  new  vein  has  also  been  opened,  in  which 
20  men  are  employed,  working  in  solid  cin 
nabar  without  having  encountered  the 
boundary  walls  of  the  lode.  The  total  ex 
penditure  for  mining,  for  machinery,  etc., 
up  to  October  15,  1860,  had  amounted  to 
$275,000,  all  of  which  has  been  paid  out  of 
the  proceeds  of  the  mine,  leaving  a  consid 
erable  balance  on  hand.  The  company 
owns  another  mine  also,  called  the  Provi- 
dencia,  which  has  produced  some  cinna 
bar. 

The  operations  at  the  Enrequita  mine  are 
carried  on  from  the  face  of  the  hill,  some  5 
or  6  levels  one  above  another  being  carried 
into  the  mountain  up  and  down  its  slope. 
The  most  extensive  of  these  is  the  adit  level 
at  the  base,  which  is  about  600  feet  long. 
Shafts  are  sunk  from  this  to  the  depth  of 
about  50  feet ;  but  the  principal  workings 
arc  in  the  upper  levels  for  300  feet  over  the 
adit.  These  are  exceedingly  irregular,  ow 
ing  to  the  unequal  distribution  of  the  ore 
through  the  argillaceous  slates.  It  lies  in 
beds  included  between  the  strata  of  these 
lower  silurian  rocks,  dipping  with  them  at 
a  very  steep  angle,  and  winding  with  the 
contortions  of  the  strata.  The  workings 
follow  the  bunches  of  ore  as  they  lead  up  or 
down,  and  to  the  right  or  left.  Shafts  occa 
sionally  penetrate  from  one  level  to  another, 
but  no  regular  system  of  Avorking  appears  to 
have  been  adopted.  With  the  cinnabar  is 
intermixed  some  arsenical  iron  and  copper 
pyrites,  and  the  ore  and  slates  are  both  trav 
ersed  by  veins  of  carbonate  of  lime,  some 
of  which  are  retained  in  hand  specimens  of 
the  cinnabar. 

On  the  same  range  of  hills,  at  its  western 
extremity,  the  Santa  Clara  Mining  Company, 
of  Baltimore,  has  opened  a  mine  called  the 
Guadalupe,  the  product  of  which  for  the 
year  1860  was  about  200,000  Ibs. 

The  total  production  of  the  quicksilver 
mines,  derived  from  the  custom-house  re 
turns  and  the  supposed  consumption  of 
35,576  flasks  in  California,  has  been  esti 
mated  to  amount,  from  the  commencement 
of  1853  to  near  the  close  of  1858,  to  about 
177,578  flasks,  or  13,318,350  Ibs. 


114 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


MKTALLURGIC    TREATMENT. 

From  cinnabar  not  contaminated  with 
strange  metals,  the  method  of  obtaining  the 
fluid  mercury  is  very  simple.  In  the  early 
workings  of  the  New  Almaden  mine,  the 
clean  ores  were  placed  in  the  common  "  try 
pots,"  such  as  are  used  by  the  whalers,  and 
a  cover  being  tightly  luted  on,  a  fire  was 
started  under  them,  and  the  mercurial  vapors 
escaped  through  a  tube  inserted  in  the  lid 
and  were  condensed  in  cold  vessels.  After 
ward  furnaces  were  constructed  in  brick-work 
upon  a  large  scale,  each  one  provided  with  a 
chamber  or  oven  7  feet  long,  4  feet  wide,  and 
5  feet  high,  corresponding  to  the  chamber 
of  the  reverberatory  furnaces  ;  and  into  this 
was  introduced  a  charge  of  10,000  Ibs.  of 
clean  ore  separated  from  the  poorer  portions 
after  the  whole  had  been  broken  up.  With 
the  ore  was  mixed  a  portion  of  lime  to  com 
bine  with  and  retain  the  sulphur.  A  parti 
tion  of  brick-work  separated  the  oven  from 
the  fire-room,  and  the  bricks  in  this  partition 
were  so  laid  as  to  leave  open  spaces  for  the 
flame  from  the  burning  wood  to  pass 
through.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  oven 
another  partition  separated  this  from  a 
chamber  of  its  own  size,  the  only  communi 
cation  between  them  being  by  a  square  hole 
in  one  of  the  corners  close  to  the  roof. 
This  chamber  connected  with  another  by  an 
opening  in  the  opposite  corner  near  the 
floor,  and  this  arrangement  was  extended 
through  eight  chambers.  Between  the  last 
one  and  the  tall  wooden  flues  through  which 
the  smoke  and  vapors  finally  passed  out  into 
the  open  air  was  placed  a  long  wooden  box 
provided  with  a  showering  apparatus.  As 
the  cinnabar  was  volatilized  by  the  flame 
playing  over  the  charge,  the  vapors  were 
carried  through  the  condensing  chambers, 
depositing  in  each  a  portion  of  mercury,  and 
in  the  showering  box  they  underwent  their 
final  condensation.  From  the  bottom  of 
each  chamber  the  metal  flowed  in  gutters  to 
the  main  conduit  which  led  to  the  great  iron 
reservoir  sunk  in  the  ground.  From  this  it 
was  poured  into  flasks  through  brushes 
which  intercepted  the  scum  of  oxide  of  mer 
cury.  The  method  proved  very  wasteful, 
from  the  leakage  of  the  vapors  through  the 
brick-work  ;  and  it  has  been  abandoned  for 
an  improved  process,  in  which  the  pulverized 
ores  mixed  with  quicklime  are  charged  into 
large  cast-iron  retorts  very  similar  in  their 
form  and  setting  to  those  employed  at  the 


gas-works.  Three  are  set  together  in  a 
bench  of  brick-work,  and  each  one  is  fur 
nished  with  an  eduction  pipe  inserted  in 
the  end  and  leading  down  into  water  con 
tained  in  a  large  cylindrical  condenser  of 
iron.  This  is  placed  along  the  front  line  of 
the  furnace,  so  as  to  receive  the  vapors  from 
all  the  retorts.  The  mercury,  as  it  is  con 
densed,  falls  down  to  the  bottom,  and  is  let 
out  through  a  pipe  by  a  contrivance  that  pre 
vents  the  water  flowing  with  it  from  the  con 
denser.  At  the  Enrequita  mine  each  bench 
of  three  retorts  requires  a  little  over  a  cord 
of  oak  wood  a  day  for  heating.  Four  bench 
es,  in  operation  from  September,  1859,  em 
ployed  6  men  in  charging  and  discharging, 
working  in  2  shifts  of  3  men,  besides  3  fire 
men,  each  working  8  hours.  Two  men  be 
sides  these  were  employed  in  mixing  the  ores 
for  the  retorts.  In  June,  1860,  the  produc 
tion  of  these  furnaces,  from  1000  cargas  of 
ore  of  300  Ibs.  each,  was  about  50,000  Ibs., 
or  about  17  per  cent. 

In  conducting  the  furnaces,  the  workmen 
are  seriously  affected  by  inhaling  the  mercu 
rial  vapors.  They  are  sometimes  even  sali 
vated,  and  are  often  obliged  to  abandon  the 
business  for  a  time.  The  horses  and  mules 
also  suffer  from  the  noxious  fumes,  and  many 
are  lost  in  consequence.  But  no  injurious 
effects  are  experienced  among  those  em 
ployed  in  the  mines,  the  cinnabar  being  al 
ways  handled  with  impunity. 

The  view  of  the  works  presents  their  ap 
pearance  in  1852,  as  sketched  by  J.  R.  Bart- 
lett,  Esq.  It  was  first  published  in  his  "  Per 
sonal  Narrative"  (New  York,  1854). 

USEFUL  APPLICATIONS  OF  MERCURY. 

The  principal  uses  to  which  mercury  is 
applied  have  already  been  named.  The 
largest  quantities  are  consumed  in  working 
gold  and  silver  ores.  The  principle  of  the 
amalgamating  process  is  explained  in  the 
account  of  the  treatment  of  gold  ores.  In 
the  arts  amalgams  are  applied  to  many  use 
ful  purposes,  of  which  the  most  important  is 
coating  the  backs  of  looking-glass  plates  with 
tin  amalgam.  Silver  was  originally  em 
ployed  instead  of  tin,  and  the  process  is  still 
called  "  silvering."  It  is  conducted  at  sev 
eral  establishments  in  the  United  States  on 
the  old  "Venetian  plan,  which  has  been  in 
use  for  300  years.  The  largest  mirrors  are 
prepared  by  Messrs.  Roosevelt  &  Sons,  in 
New  York,  from  the  French  plates  which 
they  import.  The  process  is  a  simple  one, 


SILVER  —  COBALT — NICKEL — CHROME MANGANESE — TIN. 


115 


but  is  attended  with  some  difficulties  arising 
from  the  imperfections  which  will  sometimes 
appear  upon  the  coating,  notwithstanding 
the  particular  care  taken  to  avoid  them. 
The  health  of  the  workmen  also  suffers,  so 
that  they  cannot  pursue  the  business  more 
than  a  few  years.  The  only  precaution 
taken  to  protect  them  from  the  effects  of 
the  mercury  is  thorough  ventilation.  Fre 
quent  use  of  sulphur  baths  also  is  very  ben 
eficial.  The  method  of  silvering  is  as  fol 
lows  :  tables  are  prepared  of  stone  made 
perfectly  smooth,  with  grooves  sunk  around 
the  edges.  These  are  set  horizontally,  but 
can  be  raised  a  little  at  one  end  by  a  screw. 
Each  table  is  covered  with  tinfoil  carefully 
spread  out  over  a  larger  surface  than  the 
plate  will  cover,  and  slips  of  glass  being  laid 
around  three  of  the  sides,  the  mercury  is 
poured  on  till  it  covers  the  foil  to  the  depth 
of  about  I  of  an  inch.  Its  affinity  for  the 
tin,  and  the  slips  of  glass,  prevent  its  flowing 
off.  The  glass  plate  rendered  perfectly 
clean  is  then  slidden  along  the  open  side, 
the  advancing  edge  being  kept  in  the  mer 
cury,  so  that  no  air  nor  oxide  of  the  metal 
can  get  between  the  plate  and  the  amalgam. 
The  plate,  when  in  place,  is  secured  and 
pressed  down  by  weights  laid  upon  it,  and 
the  table  is  raised  a  little  to  allow  the  excess 
of  mercury  to  trickle  ofT  by  the  grooves  and 
collect  in  a  vessel  placed  on  the  floor  to  re 
ceive  it.  After  remaining  thus  for  several 
hours,  the  plate  is  taken  off  and  turned  over 
upon  a  frame.  After  several  weeks  the 
amalgam  becomes  hard,  and  the  glass  may 
then  be  set  on  edge. 

Amalgams  of  the  precious  metals  are  used 
for  what  arc  called  the  water-gilding  and 
water-silvering  methods  of  gilding  and  silver 
ing  applied  to  buttons  and  various  other  metal 
lic  articles.  These,  being  made  chemically 
clean,  are  washed  over  with  the  amalgam 
contained  in  a  large  excess  of  mercury,  and 
are  then  placed  in  a  furnace  and  heated  till 
the  mercury  is  driven  off  by  the  heat,  leaving 
a  thin  film  of  the  precious  metal,  which  may 
then  be  burnished. 

Mercurial  medicines,  as  calomel,  (the  chlo 
ride,)  and  blue  mass,  which  is  the  metal  re 
duced  to  fine  particles  by  long-continued 
trituration,  and  incorporated  with  twice  its 
weight  of  confection  of  roses  and  liquorice 
root,  are  very  largely  prepared,  especially 
for  the  southern  and  western  states  and  the 
West  India  islands.  The  labor  of  triturating 
the  mercury  for  blue  mass  has  led  to  the  in 


troduction  of  ingenious  machinery  for  the 
purpose,  invented  by  Mr.  J.  W.  W.  Gordon 
of  Baltimore,  and  by  Dr.  E.  li.  Squibb  of 
Brooklyn,  and  worked  by  the  latter  at  his 
pharmaceutical  laboratory  by  steam  power. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

SILVER  —  COBALT  —  NICKEL  —  CHROME  — 
MANGANESE— TIN. 

BUT  few  other  ores  of  much  importance 
are  found  in  the  United  States,  besides  those 
of  which  accounts  have  been  given  ;  and  it 
remains  to  describe  the  occurrence  and  ap 
plications  of  the  ores  of  those  metals  only 
which  are  comprised  in  the  heading  of  this 
chapter. 


The  occurrence  of  this  metal  in  the  United 
States  is  chiefly  limited  to  some  of  the  lead 
ores ;  and  in  very  few  of  these,  as  noted  in 
the  chapter  upon  lead,  has  it  been  found 
in  sufficient  quantity  to  justify  the  working 
of  the  mines  and  separation  of  the  silver. 
The  Washington  mine  in  Davidson  co.,  N. 
C.,  is  still  worked  with  moderate  success 
for  both  metals ;  but  the  only  promising 
silver  mines  are  those  of  Arizona,  near 
the  Gila  river  in  New  Mexico,  and  the 
Washoe  mines  on  the  extreme  western 
verge  of  the  Utah  territory. 

In  the  territory  of  Arizona,  especially  in 
that  portion  of  it  ceded  to  the  United 
States  under  the  Gadsden  treaty,  are  numer 
ous  mines  productive  in  silver,  some  of 
which  were  worked  when  the  territory  be 
longed  to  old  Spain.  These  are  now  at 
tracting  the  attention  of  Americans,  and  in 
1859  and  1860,  companies  were  organized 
in  Cincinnati,  New  York,  and  St.  Louis,  for 
exploring  and  working  them.  The  princi 
pal  mine  is  that  of  the  Sonora  Company, 
of  Cincinnati.  The  locality  is  about  75 
miles  south  of  Tucson,  and  about  270 
miles  north  of  Guaymas,  which  is  the  chief 
port  of  the  Gulf  of  California.  Several 
mines  in  the  vicinity  were  formerly  worked 
by  the  Mexicans  for  silver,  and  abandoned 
in  consequence  of  Indian  depredations  and 
political  troubles.  The  Sonora  Company 
commenced  operations  in  1858  upon  a  new 
discovery,  and  have  produced  a  considerable 
amount  of  silver,  reduced  from  the  ores  at 
their  works,  at  Arivaca,  7  miles  from  the 


116 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


mines.  Seventy  miles  north  of  Tucson, 
operations  were  commenced  in  1860,  in 
another  locality,  on  the  same  mining  range, 
by  a  company  organized  in  New  York,  called 
the  Maricopa  Mining  Company.  Their  mine 
affords  rich  argentiferous  copper  ores,  sam 
ples  of  which  have  been  brought  to  New 
York,  and  assayed  by  Prof.  John  Torrey, 
and  other  chemists.  They  proved  to  be 
vitreous  copper,  associated  with  carbonates, 
and  yielded  an  average  of  over  50  per  cent, 
of  copper.  The  metal  contained  variable 
amounts  of  silver,  worth  from  $40  to  $80 
per  ton.  Gold  was  also  detected  in  it.  The 
outlet  for  this  is  also  by  Guaymas,  420  miles 
distant,  through  a  region  easily  traversed  by 
wagons,  and  upon  long-established  routes. 
The  cost  of  transportation,  by  contracts  of 
Mexicans,  is  at  the  rate  of  5£  cents  per  lb., 
for  the  whole  distance.  In  the  vicinity  of 
the  mines,  on  the  Gila  river,  it  is  proposed 
to  reduce  the  ores.  The  region  is  on  the 
Pacific  slope  of  the  range  of  the  silver  min 
ing  districts  of  Sonora  and  Durango,  and  its 
rock  formations  are  granitic  and  metamor- 
phic,  traversed  by  dikes  of  trap,  and  con 
taining  beds  of  quartz. 

On  the  Rio  Mimbres,  240  miles  east  of 
Tucson,  are  the  Santa  Rita  del  Cobre  and 
Mimbres  mines,  from  which  333,000  Ibs. 
of  copper  are  reported  as  having  been  de 
livered  in  New  York  in  1860.  The  metal 
was  smelted  at  the  mines,  transported  through 
Texas  to  Port  Lavacca,  and  thence  to  New 
York.  Whether  the  ores  contain  silver  or 
not,  is  not  known.  Besides  the  operations 
above  named,  others  are  in  progress  in  Ari 
zona,  of  which  we  have  no  details.  The 
region  is  described  in  the  "  Personal  Narra 
tive"  of  J.  R.  Bartlett,  Esq.,  and  in  the  Con 
gressional  Pacific  Railroad  reports. 

The  Washoe  ores  are  argentiferous  gale 
nas  of  richness  varying  between  great  ex 
tremes,  some  of  the  best  sorts  which  have 
been  shipped  to  New  York,  and  thence  to 
England,  containing  enough  silver  to  -give 
them  a  value  of  $2000  per  ton.  The  mines 
are  in  the  inferior  range  of  hills  along  the 
eastern  base  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  and  are 
met  with  over  an  extensive  territory  in  the 
valley  of  the  upper  portion  of  Carson's 
River  and  many  miles  beyond  this  to  the 
north.  Those  of  most  importance  are  in 
the  vicinity  of  several  new  towns,  called 
Virginia  City,  Silver  City,  Carson  City,  etc., 
about  160  miles  north-east  from  Sacramento. 
From  that  point  the  crest  of  the  Sierra  Ne 


vada  is  reached  in  100  miles,  nearly  due 
east,  and  the  remaining  60  miles  is  down 
the  valley  of  Carson's  River.  The  discov 
eries  of  the  silver  ores  were  made  the  latter 
part  of  the  year  1859,  but  it  was  known  be 
fore  this  that  gold  existed  in  the  valley, 
and  that  the  value  of  this  metal  was  deteri 
orated  by  the  silver  with  which  it  was  usu 
ally  alloyed.  The  opening  of  permanent  veins 
of  silver  ores  produced  a  great  excitement 
throughout  California,  and  led  to  an  ex 
traordinary  emigration  to  the  new  mining 
district,  and  rapid  development  during  the 
year  1860  of  its  resources.  The  consid 
erable  number  of  mines  already  in  opera 
tion,  upon  veins  of  unquestionable  perma 
nency,  and  the  great  richness  of  some  of 
the  ores,  together  with  the  variety  of  those 
already  found,  leave  no  room  for  doubting 
that  this  is  a  mining  region  of  great  impor 
tance,  and  must  largely  add  to  the  metallic 
productions  of  the  extreme  western  states. 

The  ores,  on  account  of  their  complex 
character,  are  difficult  to  reduce  with  econ 
omy,  and  the  ordinary  methods  of  obtain 
ing  the  lead  fail,  when  applied  to  compounds 
like  these,  which  contain  a  large  proportion 
of  silica,  from  which  the  galena  cannot  be 
mechanically  separated.  The  German  method 
of  treating  such  ores,  employed  at  Clausthal, 
is  to  reduce  them  in  small  blast  furnaces, 
with  a  flux  of  granulated  cast  iron,  or  of  iron 
turnings,  admitting  only  air  enough  to  keep 
up  the  combustion  of  the  fuel.  The  lead 
and  silver  are  set  free  by  the  sulphur  of  the 
ore  combining  with  the  iron,  and  the  forma 
tion  of  infusible  silicates  of  oxide  of  lead  is 
prevented  by  guarding  against  the  oxidation 
of  lead,  through  too  great  access  of  air.  The 
separation  is,  however,  very  imperfect  in  a 
single  operation,  and  the  rich  slags  obtained 
are  roasted  in  order  to  convert  the  sulphuret 
of  iron  into  oxide  of  iron,  which,  combining 
with  the  silicates  of  the  scorias,  forms  very 
fusible  compounds,  which  are  then  returned 
to  the  furnace  mixed  with  fresh  charges  of 
ore.  The  silver  goes  with  the  lead,  and  is 
separated  by  cupellation. 

COBALT. 

The  ores  of  this  metal  are  of  rather  rare 
occurrence,  and  are  applied  to  practical  pur 
poses  not  to  furnish  the  metal  but  its  ox 
ide,  which  is  of  value  for  its  property  of 
giving  a  beautiful  blue  color  to  glass  with 
which  it  is  melted,  and  of  producing  other 
fine  colors  when  mixed  with  some  other  sub- 


SILVER COBALT NICKEL CHROME MANGANESE TIN. 


117 


stances.  The  ores  are  sought  for  all  over 
the  world  for  the  supply  of  the  British  man 
ufactories  of  porcelain,  stained  glass,  etc. 
They  are  chiefly  combinations  of  cobalt 
with  arsenic,  sulphur,  and  sometimes  with 
nickel  and  iron.  The  compound  known  as 
smaltine,  or  arsenical  cobalt,  was  obtained 
at  Chatham,  Conn.,  as  far  back  as  1787,  and 
the  mine  has  been  worked  for  cobalt  at  dif 
ferent  times  in  the  present  century.  The  co 
balt  in  the  ore  is  associated  with  about  an 
equal  amount  of  nickel,  and  its  proportion 
is  said  to  have  been  less  than  two  per  cent. 
Cobaltine,  which  is  a  compound  of  sulphur 
19.3  per  cent.,  arsenic  45.2,  and  cobalt 
35.5,  is  the  most  productive  ore  of  this 
metal,  but  is  not  met  with  in  this  country. 
Varieties  of  pyritous  cobalt  have  been  found 
in  Maryland  in  quantities  too  small  for 
working ;  and  also  at  Mine  la  Motto  in  Mis 
souri,  associated  with  a  black  earthy  oxide 
of  cobalt  and  black,  oxide  of  manganese. 
In  other  places,  also,  oxide  of  cobalt,  in 
small  quantity,  is  a  frequent  accompaniment 
of  manganese  ores.  Mine  la  Motte  has  fur 
nished  a  considerable  amount  of  the  cobalt 
oxide,  but  the  beds  in  which  it  is  found  are 
not  of  permanent  character,  and  are  so  far 
exhausted  as  to  be  no  longer  worked  with 
profit.  A  similar  ore,  accompanied  with 
nickel,  appears  to  be  very  abundantly  dis 
tributed  among  the  talcose  and  quartzose 
slates  in  Gaston  and  Lincoln  counties,  North 
Carolina.  It  is  thrown  out  with  a  variety 
of  other  ores,  as  galena,  blende,  titaniferous 
iron,  etc..  in  working  the  gold  mines  of  this 
region ;  and  it  is  mixed  among  the  great 
beds  of  hematite,  found  in  the  same  district, 
which  are  the  product  of  the  decomposition 
of  beds  of  pyritous  iron.  In  some  places  it 
is  so  abundant  that  the  strata  containing  it 
are  conspicuous  where  the  roads  pass  over 
them,  by  the  blackness  of  the  gossan  (de 
composed  ore)  or  wad.  Prof.  H.  Wurtz, 
who  describes  these  localities  (see  "American 
Journal  of  Science,"  2d  series,  vol.  xxvii.,  p. 
24),  is  of  opinion  that  the  earthy  oxide  of 
cobalt  is  the  gossan  of  the  sulphuret  of  this 
metal,  existing  unaltered  in  the  rocks  below. 
Oxide  of  cobalt,  obtained  in  a  crude 
state  from  the  washed  arsenical  ores,  is 
known  as  zaffre  or  saflor,  and  in  this  condi 
tion  it  is  a  commercial  article.  It  is  refined 
by  separating  the  arsenic,  iron,  and  other  for 
eign  substances,  by  precipitating  them  from 
the  solution  in  hydrochloric  acid ;  and  the  ox 
ide  is  finally  obtained  by  precipitating  with 


chloride  of  lime,  and  heating  the  product  to 
redness.  Smalt  is  a  preparation  of  cobalt 
largely  used  in  the  arts  as  a  coloring  material, 
and  consists  of  silicate  of  potash  and  cobalt. 
It  is  in  fact  a  potash  glass  colored  by  silicate 
of  cobalt,  and  is  prepared  as  follows:  Zaf 
fre  is  melted  in  pots,  with  suitable  propor 
tions  of  pure  sand  and  potash  and  a  little 
saltpetre.  The  other  metals  combine  to 
gether  and  sink  in  a  metallic  mass,  which 
is  called  speiss.  The  glass  containing  the 
oxide  of  cobalt  is  ladled  out  and  pour 
ed  into  water  to  granulate  it,  and  is  then 
ground  to  powder.  This  being  introduced 
into  vats  of  water,  the  colored  glass  sub 
sides  in  deposits,  which  gradually  diminish 
in.  their  proportions  of  oxide  of  cobalt. 
The  first  are  of  the  deepest  blue,  and  are 
called  azure ;  but  of  this,  and  of  the  succeed 
ing  fainter  shades,  there  are  many  varieties, 
distinguished  by  peculiar  names.  When 
finely  powdered,  smalt  is  applied  to  col 
oring  wall  papers,  and  blueing  linen,  be 
sides  being  incorporated  with  porcelain  to 
impart  to  it  permanent  blue  shades.  The 
great  value  of  oxide  of  cobalt,  amounting  to 
several  dollars  per  lb.,  renders  it  an  impor 
tant  object  to  fully  develop  the  resources  of 
the  country  in  its  ores,  as  well  for  export  as 
for  domestic  use.  In  1856  there  were  im 
ported  into  Great  Britain  428  tons  of  co 
balt  ore,  and  34  tons  of  oxide  of  cobalt. 


Nickel  is  a  metal  of  some  commercial  im 
portance,  and  is  employed  chiefly  for  pro 
ducing,  with  copper  and  zinc,  the  alloy 
known  as  German  silver.  The  proportions 
of  these  metals  are  not  constant,  but  the 
most  common  in  use  are  eight  parts  of  copper 
to  three  each  of  nickel  and  zinc.  The  larger 
the  proportion  of  copper,  the  more  easily  the 
plates  are  rolled ;  but  if  more  is  used  than 
the  relative  amounts  named,  the  copper  soon 
becomes  apparent  in  use.  The  new  cent 
contains  12  parts  of  nickel  to  88  of  copper, 
and  the  manufacture  of  this  adds  somewhat 
to  the  demand.  The  metal  has  been  mined 
at  Chatham,  Conn.,  and  is  met  with  at  Mine 
la  Motte  and  other  localities  where  cobalt 
is  found.  It  occurs  in  greatest  abundance  at 
an  old  mine  in  Lancaster  county,  Penn., 
where  it  is  associated  with  copper  ores.  The 
mine  was  originally  worked  for  copper,  it  is 
said,  more  than  one  hundred  and  thirty  years 
ago,  and  was  reopened  for  supplying  nickel 
for  the  U.  S.  Mint,  on  the  introduction  of 


118 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


the  new  cent  in  1857.  The  sulphuret  of 
nickel,  containing,  when  pure,  64.9  per  cent. 
of  nickel,  and  35.1  per  cent,  of  sulphur,  is  in 
very  large  quantity,  in  two  veins  of  great  size, 
one  of  which  has  been  traced  over  600  feet, 
and  the  other  over  900  feet  in  length.  In 
1859  it  was  producing  at  the  rate  of  200  tons 
of  nickel  ore  and  ten  tons  of  copper  ore  per 
month.  A'  pyritous  variety  of  nickel  ore, 
called  siegenite,  is  found  at  Mine  la  Motte, 
Missouri,  and  in  Carroll  county,  Maryland. 
In  Gaston  and  Lincoln  counties,  North  Car 
olina,  similar  ore  was  found  by  Prof.  Wurtz, 
as  noticed  in  the  remarks  on  cobalt,  above. 

CHROME     OR    CHROMIUM. 

The  ore  of  this  metal,  known  as  chromic 
iron  or  chromate  of  iron,  has  been  mined 
for  many  years  in  the  United  States,  both 
for  exportation  and  domestic  use.  It  is  the 
source  whence  the  chrome  colors  are  ob 
tained  that  are  largely  used  in  the  arts,  es 
pecially  in  dyeing  and  calico  printing.  The 
name  of  the  metal,  from  a  Greek  word 
meaning  color,  was  given  in  consequence  of 
the  fine  colors  of  its  compounds.  It  usually 
consists  of  the  sesquioxide  of  chromium  in 
proportion  varying  from  36  to  60  per  cent., 
protoxide  of  iron  from  20  to  37  per  cent., 
alumina  sometimes  exceeding  20  per  cent., 
and  more  or  less  silica,  and  sometimes  mag 
nesia.  Its  value  consists  only  in  the  first- 
named  ingredient.  The  localities  of  the  ore 
are  in  the  serpentine  rocks  of  different  parts 
of  the  United  States,  as  in  the  Bare  Hills, 
near  Baltimore,  and  near  the  Maryland  state 
line  on  the  southern  edge  of  Chester  and 
Lancaster  counties,  Pennsylvania.  In  small 
quantities  the  ore  is  met  with  at  Hobo- 
ken,  Staten  Island,  and  other  places  near 
New  York  city.  It  is  found  in  several 
towns  in  Vermont,  but  the  largest  veins  of 
it  are  in  Jay,  in  the  northern  part  of  the 
state.  The  composition  of  this  ore  was 
found  by  Mr.  T.  S.  Hunt  to  be  49.9  of 
green  oxide  or  sesquioxide  of  chromium, 
48.96  of  protoxide  of  iron,  and  4.14  per 
cent,  of  alumina,  silica,  and  magnesia. 
Though  the  quantity  of  the  ore  in  this  re 
gion  is  reported  to  be  large,  the  principal 
supplies  of  the  country  have  been  obtained 
in  Maryland,  and  from  the  mines  just  over 
the  state  line  in  Pennsylvania.  The  ore, 
as  recently  as  1854,  was  found  in  loose  frag 
ments  among  the  disintegrated  materials  of 
the  serpentine  upon  the  tracts  called  the 
barrens,  and  was  gathered  up  from  the  val 


leys  and  ravines,  and  dug  out  in  sinkinf 
shallow  pits  and  trenches  over  the  surface. 
The  ore  thus  obtained  was  called  "  sand 
chrome,"  and  for  a  time  it  had  been  worth 
$45  per  ton,  and  thousands  of  tons  had 
been  collected  and  shipped,  principally  to 
Baltimore.  At  the  period  named  these  su 
perficial  deposits  were  mostly  exhausted, 
and  the  value  of  the  ore  was  only  about 
$25  per  ton.  This,  however,  was  sufficient 
to  sustain  regular  mining  operations,  which 
were  then  carried  on  upon  the  veins  found 
in  the  serpentine,  a  little  west  of  the  east 
branch  of  the  Octorara  Creek.  Wood's 
chrome  mine,  near  the  Horse-shoe  Ford, 
was  at  that  time  about  150  feet  deep,  and 
the  workings  had  been  extended  north-east 
and  south-west  about  300  feet,  upon  an 
irregular  vein  of  chrome  ore,  which  lay  at 
an  inclination  of  about  45°  with  the  hor 
izon  toward  the  north-west.  The  ore,  in 
places,  formed  bunches,  which  attained  a 
width  of  20  feet,  and  then  thinned  away 
to  nothing.  Four  men  obtained  from  the 
mine  7  or  8  tons  of  excellent  ore  a  day, 
the  best  of  which  was  directly  placed  in 
barrels  for  the  foreign  market,  and  the 
poorer  was  dressed  and  washed  for  the  Bal 
timore,  and  other  home  markets.  The  state 
line  mine,  in  the  same  vicinity,  worked  to 
about  the  same  depth,  had  produced  several 
thousand  tons.  The  supplies  of  this  ore  are 
always  of  uncertain  continuance. 

USEFUL  APPLICATIONS.  —  Chromate  of 
iron  is  used  chiefly  in  the  production  of 
chromate  of  potash,  and  from  this  the 
other  useful  chromatic  salts  are  obtained. 
The  object  in  view  in  the  chemical  treat 
ment  of  the  ore  is  to  convert  the  sesqui 
oxide  of  chromium  into  the  peroxide  or 
chromic  acid,  and  cause  this  to  combine 
with  potash.  This  may  be  effected  by  vari 
ous  methods,  as  by  exposing  a  mixture  of 
the  pulverized  ore  and  of  saltpetre  (nitrate 
of  potash)  to  a  strong  heat  for  some  hours. 
The  chrome  is  peroxidized  at  the  expense  of 
the  oxygen  of  the  nitric  acid  of  the  salt 
petre,  and  the  chromic  acid  combines  with 
the  potash  ;  or  if  the  ore  is  mixed  with  car 
bonate  of  potash  and  calcined,  the  peroxida- 
tion  of  the  chrome  is  effected  by  admission 
of  air  into  the  furnace,  and  the  same  prod 
uct  is  obtained  as  in  the  employment  of 
saltpetre.  The  introduction  of  lime  hastens 
the  operation.  Other  mixtures  also  are 
used  for  the  same  purpose.  When  the  cal 
cined  matter,  having  been  drawn  out  from 


SILVER COBALT — NICKEL — CHROME  —  MANGANESE TIN. 


119 


the  furnace,  is  lixiviated  with  water,  the 
chromate  of  potash  is  dissolved  and  washed 
out,  aild  is  afterward  recovered  in  the  form 
of  yellow  crystals  on  evaporating  the  water. 
From  chromate  of  potash  the  other  salts  are 
readily  produced.  Chrome  yellow,  used  as 
a  paint,  is  prepared  by  mixing  chromate  of 
potash  with  a  soluble  salt  of  lead,  and  col 
lecting  the  yellow  precipitate  of  chromate  of 
lead  which  falls.  A  bright  red  precipitate 
is  obtained  by  thus  employing  a  salt  of  mer 
cury,  and  a  deep  red  with  salts  of  silver. 
Chrome  green  is  produced  by  mixing  Prus 
sian  blue  with  chrome  yellow.  Some  new 
and  very  interesting  compounds  of  the  ses- 
quioxide  of  chromium  with  different  bases 
have  been  recently  obtained  by  Prof.  A.  K. 
Eaton  of  New  York,  and  in  consequence 
of  their  decided  colors  and  the  extraordi 
nary  permanency  of  these  against  powerful 
reagents  applied  to  remove  them,  the  salts 
were  employed  for  printing  bank-notes. 
Though  they  proved  to  be  all  that  was  re 
quired  as  to  the  colors  themselves,  the  steel 
plates  were  so  rapidly  cut  by  the  excessively 
sharp  and  hard  powders,  however  finely  they 
were  ground,  that  it  was  found  necessary  to 
abandon  their  use.  The  new  salts  were  chro- 
mites — that  of  iron  having  a  dark  purple  col 
or  ;  of  manganese,  a  lighter  shade  of  the 
same ;  of  copper,  a  rich  blueish  black ;  of 
zinc,  a  golden  brown  ;  of  alumina,  a  green, 
somewhat  paler  than  that  of  the  sesquiox- 
ide. 

MANGANESE. 

Though  this  is  a  metal  of  no  value  of  it 
self,  one  of  its  ores,  called  pyrolusite,  is  a 
mineral  of  some  commercial  importance, 
chiefly  on  account  of  the  large  proportion 
of  oxygen  it  contains,  part  of  which  it 
can  be  easily  made  to  give  up  when  simply 
heated  in  an  iron  retort.  The  composition 
of  pyrolusite,  or  black  oxide  of  manganese, 
is  63.4  per  cent,  of  manganese,  and  36.6 
per  cent,  of  oxygen.  It  is  a  hard,  steel- 
gray  ore,  resembling  some  of  the  magnetic 
iron  ores,  and  is  often  found  accompanying 
iron  ores,  especially  the  hematites.  In  the 
United  States  it  is  met  with  in  various  lo 
calities  along  the  range  of  the  hematites, 
from  Canada  to  Alabama,  and  has  been 
mined  to  considerable  extent  at  Chittenden 
and  Benriington,  Vermont ;  West  Stockbridge 
and  Sheffield,  Mass. ;  on  the  Delaware  river, 
and  near  Kutztown,  Berks  co.,  Penn. ;  and 
abounds  in  different  parts  of  the  gold  region, 


as  on  Hard-labor  Creek,  Edgefield  District, 
S.  C.  Usually  the  ore  is  found  in  loose 
pieces  among  the  clays  which  fill  the  irregu 
lar  cavities  between  the  limestone  strata ; 
its  quantity  is  of  course  very  uncertain, 
and  its  mines  are  far  from  being  of  a  perma- 
nent  character.  Oxide  of  iron  is  commonly 
mixed  with  the  manganese  ore,  reducing  its 
richness,  and  at  the  same  time  seriously  in 
juring  it  for  some  of  the  purposes  to  which 
it  is  applied.  As  obtained  from  the  mines, 
the  assorted  ore  is  packed  in  barrels  and 
sent  to  the  chemical  establishments,  where 
it  is  employed  principally  in  the  manufac 
ture  of  chloride  of  lime  or  bleaching  pow 
der.  For  this  purpose  the  pulverized  black 
oxide  of  manganese  is  introduced  into  hydro 
chloric  acid,  and  this  being  heated  a  double 
decomposition  takes  place,  a  portion  of  its 
chlorine  is  expelled,  and  the  hydrogen  that 
was  combined  with  it  unites  with  a  part  of 
the  oxygen  of  the  pyrolusite.  The  chlo 
rine,  which  it  was  the  object  of  the  process 
to  obtain,  is  then  brought  in  contact  with 
hydrate  of  lime,  and  uniting  with  the  cal 
cium  base,  forms  the  bleaching  powder.  A 
similar  result  is  obtained  by  mixing  the  ox 
ide  of  manganese  with  chloride  of  sodium 
(common  salt),  and  adding  sulphuric  acid. 
By  these  operations  a  weight  of  oxygen 
equal  to  about  one  third  that  of  the  pure 
ore  may  be  obtained,  and  this  may  be  ap 
plied  to  any  of  the  purposes  for  which  oxy 
gen  not  absolutely  pure  is  required.  Black 
oxide  of  manganese  is  also  used  to  decolor 
ize  glass  stained  green  by  the  presence  of 
the  protoxide  of  iron.  Its  own  amethystine 
tint  is  supposed  to  neutralize  the  optical  ef 
fect  of  the  greenish  hue  of  the  iron.  The 
market  for  manganese  ore  is  as  uncertain  as 
the  supply,  and  the  price  varies  greatly  with 
the  quality  of  the  ore.  Pure  pyrolusite,  free 
from  iron,  might  be  shipped  to  profit  to  Liv 
erpool,  where  it  is  worth  $35  to  $40  per  ton, 
but  inferior  ore  would  involve  bills  of  cost. 

TIN. 

The  very  useful  metal,  tin,  is  not  one  of 
the  products  of  this  country,  and  there  is 
no  encouragement  for  hoping  that  its  ores 
will  ever  be  found  in  workable  quantity.  Its 
presence  has  been  recognized  in  a  few  small 
crystals  of  oxide  of  tin,  found  in  Chester 
field  and  Goshen,  Mass.,  and  it  has  been  de 
tected  as  a  mere  trace  in  the  iron  ores  of 
the  Hudson,  and  iron  and  zinc  ores  of  New 
Jersey ;  it  is  also  associated  with  some  of 


120 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


the  gold  ores  of  Virginia.  In  the  town  of 
Jackson,  N.  H.,  is  a  vein  of  arsenical  iron, 
containing  thin  streaks  of  oxide  of  tin  ;  and 
this  is  the  only  place  that  has  afforded 
enough  of  the  ore  for  crucible  experiments. 
The  commercial  supplies  are  furnished  chiefly 
from  the  mines  of  Cornwall,  England,  and 
from  Banca,  and  other  islands  of  the  Malay 
archipelago.  The  United  States  is  one  of 
the  largest  consumers  of  tin  of  any  nation, 
sheet  tin  having  been  applied,  through  the 
industry  and  ingenuity  of  the  workers  of 
this  article  in  Connecticut,  to  the  manufac 
ture  of  a  great  variety  of  useful  utensils, 
which  have  been  widely  distributed  through 
out  the  states.  What  is  called  sheet  tin  is 
really  sheet  iron  coated  with  a  very  thin 
layer  of  tin.  The  sheets  are  prepared  in 
England  by  dipping  the  brightened  iron 
sheets  into  a  bath  of  melted  tin.  The  proc 
ess  has  been  applied  to  coating  various  arti 
cles  made  of  iron,  which  are  thus  protected 
from  rusting ;  and  zinc  is  also  used  for  sim 
ilar  purposes.  Such  are  stirrups,  bridle-bits, 
etc.  Cast-iron  pots  and  saucepans  are  tin 
ned  on  the  inside  by  melted  tin  being  poured 
in  and  made  to  flow  over  the  surface,  which 
has  been  made  chemically  clean  to  receive 
the  metal.  The  surface  is  then  rubbed  with 
cloth  or  tow.  Tin  is  imported  in  blocks  or 
ingots,  and  the  metal  is  applied  to  the  prep 
aration  of  various  alloys,  as  bronze  or  bell- 
metal,  composed  of  copper  and  tin  in  vari 
able  proportions,  commonly  of  78  parts  of 
copper,  and  22  of  tin  ;  gun-metal,  copper  90, 
and  tin  10;  pewter,  of  various  proportions 
of  tin  and  lead,  or  when  designed  for  pewter 
plates,  of  tin  100,  antimony  8,  bismuth  2, 
and  copper  2  ;  and  soft  solder,  consisting  of 
tin  and  lead,  usually  of  two  parts  of  the 
former  to  one  of  the  latter.  Bismuth  is 
sometimes  added  to  increase  the  fusibility 
of  the  alloy. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

COAL. 

To  the  early  settlers  of  the  American  colo 
nies  the  beds  of  mineral  coal  they  met  with 
were  of  no  interest.  In  the  abundance  of  the 
forests  around  them,  and  with  no  manufac 
turing  operations  that  involved  large  con 
sumption  of  fuel,  they  attached  no  value  to 
the^  black  stony  coal,  the  real  importance  of 
which  was  not  in  fact  appreciated  even  in 


Europe  until  after  the  invention  of  the  steam 
engine.  The  earliest  use  of  mineral  coal  was 
probably  of  the  anthracite  of  the  Lehigh  re 
gion,  though  it  may  be  that  the  James  River 
bituminous  coal  mines,  12  miles  above  Rich 
mond,  were  worked  at  an  earlier  period  than 
the  Pennsylvania  anthracites.  The  region 
containing  the  latter  belonged  to  the  tribes 
of  the  Six  Nations,  until  their  title  was  ex 
tinguished  and  the  proprietary  government 
obtained  possession,  in  1749,  of  a  territory 
of  3750  square  miles,  including  the  southern 
and  middle  of  the  three  anthracite  coal-fields. 
In  1768  possession  was  acquired  of  the  north 
ern  coal-field,  and  at  the  same  time  of  the 
great  bituminous  region  west  of  the  Alle- 
ghany  mountains.  The  existence  of  coal  in 
the  anthracite  region  could  not  have  escaped 
the  notice  of  the  whites  who  had  explored 
the  country,  for  its  great  beds  were  exposed 
in  many  of  the  natural  sections  of  the  river 
banks  and  precipitous  hills,  and  down  the 
mountain  streams  pieces  of  coal,  washed  out 
from  the  beds,  were  abundantly  scattered. 
The  oldest  maps  now  known,  dating  as  far 
back  as  1770,  and  compiled  from  still  older 
ones,  designate  in  this  region  localities  of 
"  coal ;"  but  these  were  probably  not  re 
garded  as  giving  any  additional  value  to  the 
territory.  The  first  recorded  notice  of  its 
use  was  in  the  northern  basin  by  some  black 
smiths  in  1.770,  only  two  years  after  the 
whites  came  in  possession;  and  in  1775  a 
boat  load  of  it  was  sent  down  from  Wilkes- 
barre  to  the  Continental  armory  at  Car 
lisle.  This  was  two  years  after  the  laying 
out  of  the  borough  of  Wilkesbarre  by  the 
Susquehanna  Land  Company  of  Connecti 
cut.  From  this  time  the  coal  continued  to 
be  used  for  mechanical  operations  by  smiths, 
distillers,  etc. ;  and  according  to  numerous 
certificates  from  these,  published  in  1815, 
in  a  pamphlet  by  Mr.  Zachariah  Cist  of 
Wilkesbarre,  they  had  found  it  very  much 
better  for  their  purposes,  and  more  econom 
ical  to  use  than  Virginia  bituminous  coal, 
though  at  the  enormous  price  of  90  cents 
a  bushel.  Gunsmiths  found  it  very  conven 
ient  for  their  small  fires,  and  one  of  them, 
dating  his  certificate  December  9,  1814, 
stated  that  he  had  used  it  for  20  years,  con 
suming  about  a  pec'k  a  day  to  a  fire,  which 
was  sufficient  for  manufacturing  8  musket- 
baiTcls,  each  barrel  thus  requiring  a  quart 
of  coal.  Oliver  Evans,  the  inventor  of  the 
steam  engine,  certifies  in  the  same  pamphlet 
to  his  having  used  it  for  raising  steam,  for 


COAL. 


121 


which  it  possessed  properties  superior  to  those 
of  any  other  fuel.  Judge  Fell  of  Wilkes- 
barre  applied  it  to  warming  houses  in  1808, 
and  contrived  suitable  grates  for  this  use  of 
it ;  but  the  cheapness  of  wood  and  the 
greater  convenience  of  a  fuel  which  every 
one  understood  how  to  use,  long  prevented 
its  general  adoption.  In  the  first  volume 
of  the  "  Memoirs  of  the  Historical  Society 
of  Pennsylvania,"  T.  C.  James,  M.D.,  gives 
"  a  brief  account  of  the  discovery  of  anthra 
cite  coal  on  the  Lehigh,"  in  which  he  de 
scribes  a  visit  he  made  to  the  Mauch  Chunk 
mountain  in  1804,  where  he  saw  the  immense 
body  of  anthracite,  into  which  several  small 
pits  had  then  been  sunk,  and  which  was 
afterward  worked,  as  it  is  still,  as  an  open 
quarry.  He  states  that  he  commenced  to 
burn  the  coal  that  year,  and  had  continued 
to  use  it  to  the  time  of  making  this  commu 
nication  in  1826.  The  discovery  of  this  fa 
mous  mass  of  coal  was  made  in  1791,  and 
in  1793  the  "  Lehigh  Coal  Mine  Company" 
was  formed  to  work  it.  But  as  there  were 
no  facilities  for  transporting  the  coal  down 
the  valley  of  the  Lehigh,  nothing  was  done 
until  1814,  when,  at  great  labor  and  expense, 
20  tons  were  got  down  the  river  and  were 
delivered  in  Philadelphia.  Two  years  be 
fore  this  a  few  wagon  loads  had  been  re 
ceived  there  from  the  Schuylkill  mines ;  but 
the  regular  trade  can  hardly  be  said  to  have 
commenced  until  1820,  when  the  receipts  in 
Philadelphia  amounted  to  365  tons.  Such 
was  the  commencement  of  the  great  anthra 
cite  trade  of  Pennsylvania,  which-  in  the 
course  of  40  years  has  been  steadily  in 
creasing,  till  it  now  reaches  the  enormous 
amount  of  8,450,053  tons  for  the  year  1860, 
and  sustains  numerous  branches  of  metallur 
gical  and  mechanical  industry,  the  possible 
dependence  of  which  upon  this  fuel  and 
source  of  power  was  hardly  dreamed  of 
when  its  mines  were  first  opened. 

The  existence  of  bituminous  coal  west  of 
the  Alleghanies  was  probably  known  as  early 
as  was  that  of  anthracite  in  the  eastern  part 
of  Pennsylvania;  and  on  the  western  rivers 
it  could  not  fail  to  have  been  noticed  by  the 
early  missionaries,  voyageurs,  and  hunters. 
In  the  old  maps  of  1770  and  1777  the  oc 
currence  of  coal  is  noted  at  several  points 
on  the  Ohio.  A  tract  of  coal  land  was  taken 
dp  in  1785  near  the  present  town  of  Clear- 
aeld,  on  the  head-waters  of  the  west  branch 
of  the  Susquehanna,  by  Mr.  S.  Boyd,  and  in 
1804  he  sent  an  ark  load  of  the  coal  down 


the  Susquehanna  to  Columbia,  Lancaster 
county,  which,  he  states,  caused  much  sur 
prise  to  the  inhabitants,  that  "an  article  with 
which  they  were  wholly  unacquainted  should 
be  thus  brought  to  their  own  doors."  This 
was  the  commencement  of  a  trade  which  has 
since  been  prosecuted  to  some  extent  by 
running  rafts  of  timber  loaded  with  coal,  and 
sometimes  with  pig  iron  also,  from  the  head1 
waters  to  the  lower  portion  of  the  Susque 
hanna.  The  bituminous  coal  mines  on  the 
James  River,  12  miles  above  Richmond,  in 
Virginia,  were  also  worked  during  the  last 
century,  but  at  how  early  a  period  we  are 
ignorant.  In  an  account  of  them  in  the  first 
volume  of  the  "  American  Journal  of  Sci 
ence,"  published  in  1818,  they  are  spoken, 
of  as  already  having  been  worked  30  years. 

VARIETIES    OF    COAL. 

The  mineral  coals  are  found  of  various 
sorts,  which  are  distinguished  by  peculiari 
ties  of  appearance,  composition,  and  proper 
ties.  Derived  from  vegetable  matters,  they 
exhibit  in  their  varieties  the  successive  chang 
es  which  these  have  undergone  from  the 
condition  of  peaty  beds  or  deposits  of  lig 
neous  materials — first  into  the  variety  known 
as  brown  coal  or  lignite,  in  which  the  bitu 
minous  property  appears,  while  the  fibre 
and  structure  of  the  original  woody  masses 
is  fully  retained  ;  next  in  beds  of  bituminous 
coal  comprised  between  strata  of  shales,  fire 
clay,  and  sandstones ;  and  thence  through 
several  gradations  of  diminishing  proportions 
of  bitumen  to  the  hard  stony  anthracite,  the 
composition  of  which  is  nearly  pure  carbon; 
and  last  of  all  in  this  series  of  steps  attend 
ing  the  conversion  of  wood  into  rock,  the 
vegetable  carbon  is  locked  up  in  the  miner 
al  graphite  or  plumbago.  These  steps  are 
clearly  traceable  in  nature,  and  in  all  of  them 
the  strata  which  include  the  carbonaceous 
beds  have  undergone  corresponding  changes. 
The  clayey  substratum  that  supports  the 
peat  appears  under  the  beds  of  mineral  coal 
in  the  stony  material  called  fire-clay  (used 
when  ground  to  make  fire-brick)  ;  the 
muddy  sediments  such  as  are  found  over 
some  of  the  great  modern  peat  deposits,  ap 
pear  in  the  form  of  black  shales  or  slates, 
which  when  pulverized  return  to  their  muddy 
consistency ;  the  beds  of  sand,  such  as  are 
met  with  in  some  of  the  peat  districts  of 
Europe  interstratified  with  different  peat 
beds,  are  seen  in  the  coal-measures  in  beds 
of  sandstones ;  and  the  limestones  which  alto 


122 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


occur  in  the  same  group  of  strata,  represent 
ancient  beds  of  calcareous  marls.  The  slow 
progression  of  these  changes  is  indicated  by 
the  different  ages  of  the  geological  formations 
in  which  the  several  varieties  occur.  Beds 
of  peat  are  of  recent  formation,  though 
some  of  them  are  still  so  old,  that  they  are 
found  at  different  depths,  one  below  another, 
separated  by  intervening  layers  of  sand, 
clay,  and  earth.  Brown  coal,  or  lignite,  is 
commonly  included  among  the  strata  of 
the  tertiary  period ;  the  bituminous  coals 
are  in  the  secondary  formations;  and  the  an 
thracites,  though  contained  in  the  same  ge 
ological  group  with  the  great  bituminous 
coal  formation,  are  in  localities  where  the 
strata  have  all  been  subjected  to  the  action 
of  powerful  agents  which  have  more  or  less 
metamorphosed  them  and  expelled  the  vola 
tile  bitumen  from  the  coal.  The  graphite  or 
plumbago  is  in  still  older  groups,  or  in  those 
which  have  been  still  more  metamorphosed 
by  heat. 

All  these  varieties  of  fossil  fuel  are  found 
in  the  United  States.  Peat  beds  of  small 
extent  are  common  in  the  northern  portion 
of  the  country,  and  in  some  parts  of  New 
England  are  much  used  for  fuel,  and  the 
muck,  or  decomposed  peat,  as  a  fertilizer  to 
the  soil.  In  the  great  swamps  of  southern 
Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  and  Georgia,  vegeta 
ble  deposits  of  similar  nature  are  found  upon 
a  scale  more  commensurate  with  the  extent 
of  the  ancient  coal-beds.  Lignite  is  not 
found  in  workable  beds,  as  in  some  parts  of 
Germany  and  England,  but  in  scattered  de 
posits  of  small  extent  among  the  tertiary 
clays,  chiefly  near  the  coast  of  New  Jersey, 
Delaware,  and  Maryland,  and  in  the  west 
ern  territories.  The  distribution  of  the  true 
coal  formations  will  be  pointed  out  after  des 
ignating  more  particularly  the  characters  of 
the  different  coals.  All  of  these  consist  of 
the  elements  carbon,  hydrogen,  oxygen,  and 
nitrogen;  the  carbon  being  in  part  free, 
and  in  part  combined  with  the  other  ele 
ments  to  form  the  volatile  compounds  that 
exist  to  some  extent  in  all  coals.  Earthy 
matters  which  form  the  ash  of  coals  are  al 
ways  intermixed  in  some  proportion  with 
the  combustible  ingredients,  and  water,  also, 
is  present.  When  coals  are  analyzed  for 
the  purpose  of  indicating  their  heating  qual 
ity  by  their  composition,  it  is  enough  to  de 
termine  the  proportions  of  fixed  carbon,  of 
rolatile  matter,  and  of  ash  which  they  con 
tain.  How  the  combined  carbon,  hydrogen, 


oxygen,  and  the  little  nitrogen  in  their  com 
position,  may  be  distributed  in  the  forms  of 
carburetted  hydrogen,  ammonia,  the  bitu 
minous  oils,  etc.,  cannot  be  ascertained  by 
analysis,  as  the  means  employed  to  separate 
most  of  these  compounds  cause  their  ele 
ments  to  form  other  combinations  among 
themselves:  the  determination  of  the  ulti 
mate  proportions  of  all  the  elements  would 
serve  no  practical  purpose.  So,  if  it  be  re 
quired  to  prove  the  fitness  of  any  coal  for 
affording  illuminating  gas,  or  the  coal  oils,  it 
must  be  submitted  to  experiments  having 
such  objects  only  in  view ;  and  even  their 
capacity  for  generating  heat  is  better  deter 
mined  by  comparative  experiments  in  evapo 
rating  water,  than  by  any  other  mode.  The 
bituminous  coals  are  characterized  by  their 
large  proportion  of  volatile  matter,  which, 
when  they  are  heated,  is  expelled  in  various 
inflammable  compounds,  that  take  fire  and 
burn,  accompanied  by  a  dense,  black  smoke 
and  a  peculiar  odor  known  as  bituminous. 
If  the  operation  is  conducted  without  access 
of  air,  as  in  a  closed  platinum  crucible,  the 
fixed  carbon  remains  behind  in  the  form  of 
coke ;  and  by  removing  the  cover  to  admit 
air,  this  may  next  be  consumed,  and  the  re 
siduum  of  ash  be  obtained.  By  several 
weighings  the  proportions  are  indicated. 
Coals  containing  18  per  cent,  or  more  of 
volatile  matter  are  classed  among  the  bi 
tuminous  varieties ;  but  as  the  proportion  of 
this  may  amount  to  70  per  cent,  or  more, 
there  is  necessarily  a  considerable  difference 
in  the  characters  of  these  coals,  though  their 
most  marked  peculiarities  are  not  always 
owing  to  the  different  amounts  of  volatile 
matter  they  contain.  Thus,  some  sorts,  called 
the  "  fat  bituminous,"  and  "  caking  coals," 
that  melt  and  run  together  in  burning,  and 
are  especially  suitable  for  making  coke,  con 
tain  about  the  same  proportion  of  volatile 
matter  with  the  "  dry  coals,"  as  some  of  the 
cannol  and  other  varieties,  which  burn  with 
out  melting,  and  do  not  make  good  coke. 
Other  varieties  are  especially  distinguished 
for  their  large  proportion  of  volatile  ingre 
dients  ;  such  are  the  best  cannels,  and  those 
light  coals  which  have  sometimes  been  mis 
taken  for  asphaltum,  as  the  Albert  coal  of 
the  province  of  New  Brunswick.  These  va 
rieties  are  eminently  qualified  for  producing 
gas  or  the  coal  oils ;  but  have  little  fixed  car 
bon,  and  consequently  can  produce  little 
coke.  Coals  that  contain  from  11  to  1 8  per 
cent,  volatile  matter,  are  known  as  semi-bi- 


COAL. 


123 


tuminous,  and  partake  both  of  the  qualities 
of  the  true  bituminous  coals,  in  igniting  and 
burning  freely,  and  of  the  anthracite  in  the 
condensed  and  long-continued  heat  they 
produce.  The  Maryland  coals,  and  the  Ly- 
kens  valley  coal  of  Pennsylvania,  are  of 
this  character.  The  true  anthracites  con 
tain  from  2  to  6  per  cent,  of  gaseous  mat 
ters,  which  by  heat  are  evolved  in  carbu- 
retted  hydrogen  and  water,  even  when  the 
coal  has  been  first  freed  from  the  water  me 
chanically  held.  Their  greatest  proportion 
of  solid  carbon  is  about  95  per  cent.  There 
remains  a  class  which  has  been  designated 
as  semi-anthracite,  containing  from  6  to  11 
per  cent,  of  combustible  volatile  matter. 
These  coals  burn  with  a  yellowish  flame,  un 
til  the  gas  derived  from  the  combination  of 
its  elements  is  consumed. 

The  earthy  ingredients  in  coals,  forming 
their  ash,  are  derived  from  the  original  wood 
and  from  foreign  substances  introduced 
among  the  collections  of  ligneous  matters 
that  make  up  the  coal-beds.  The  ash 
is  unimportant,  excepting  as  the  material 
which  produces  it  takes  the  place  of  so  much 
combustible  matter.  In  some  coals,  espec 
ially  those  of  the  Schuylkill  region,  it  is  red, 
from  the  presence  of  oxide  of  iron,  and  in 


others  it  is  gray,  as  in  the  Lehigh  coals. 
This  distinction  is  used  to  designate  some 
of  the  varieties  of  anthracite ;  but  the  qual 
ity  of  these  coals  is  more  dependent  on  the 
quantity  of  the  ash,  than  on  its  color.  From 
numerous  analyses  of  the  Schuylkill  red  ash 
coals  an  average  of  7.29  per  cent,  of  ash 
was  obtained,  and  of  the  white  ash  anthracite, 
4.62  per  cent.  Coals  producing  red  ash  are 
more  likely  to  clinker  in  burning  than  those 
containing  an  equal  amount  of  white  ash.  * 
In  some  varieties  of  coal  the  proportion  of 
earthy  matter  is  so  great  that  the  substance 
approaches  the  character  of  the  bituminous 
shales,  and  may  be  called  indifferently  ei 
ther  shale  or  coal.  Though  such  materials 
make  but  poor  fuel,  some  of  them  have 
proved  very  valuable  from  the  large  amount 
of  gas  and  of  oily  matters  they  afford.  The 
most  remarkable  of  this  class  is  that  known 
as  the  Boghead  cannel.  This  is  largely 
mined  near  Glasgow,  in  Scotland,  and  is  im 
ported  into  New  York  to  be  used  in  the 
manufacture  of  coal  oil.  It  is  a  dull  black, 
stony-looking  substance,  having  little  resem 
blance  to  the  ordinary  kinds  of  coal.  Its 
composition  is  given  for  comparison  with 
that  of  other  coals,  in  the  following  ta 
ble :— 


Localities. 


Authority. 


Specific 
Gravity. 


<  I  Shenowith  Vein,  Penn  ..........................  H.  D.  Rogers  ..... 

a  I  Peacli  Mountain,  Penn.;  mean  of  40  analyses  ____  W.  R.  Johnson  ____ 

*\ 

~     Lackawanna  ...................................  "W.  R.  Johnson  ____ 

•<  I  Heaver  Meadow  .  .  .............................  ____ 

a  -{  Price's  Mountain,  Montgomery  Co.,  Virginia  .....  A.  H.  Everett  ..... 

~  |  Portsmouth,  Khoile  Island  ......................  Dr.  C.  T.  Jackson. 

jj      Mansfleld,  Mass  .........    .  .    ...................  " 


5b  5 
H    3 

« s  - 


Atkinson's  and  Templeman's,  Maryland  ;  aver-  J  ™-  T>    T  v 

age  of  2  specimens  .....  .......     ....  ......  fW'  R-  Johnson.. 

George's  Creek,  Maryland  .......................  " 

Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania  ........................  B.  Silliman,  jr 

Cannelton,  Indiana  .............................  W.  R.  Johnson 

Black  Heath,  James  River,  Virginia  ............. 

Monroe  Co.,  S.  Illinois  ..........................  J.  G.  Norwood. 

j  La  Salle  Co.,  N   Illinois  ........................ 

Albert  Coal,  New  Brunswick  ...................  B.  Silliman,  jr 

Gniyson  (Ky.)  cannel     .........................  , 

Breckenridge  (Ky.)  cannel  ......................  "  . 

Boirhoad,  black  cannel  ...........................  Dr.  Penny 

Uoghead,  brown  .  ,  .............................  " 


1.50 
1.46 

1.42 
1.56 
1.37 
1.85 
1.69 

1.813 
1.35 

1.272 


1.246 
1.28T 
1.129 
1.3T1 
1.150 
1.218 
1.160 


Carbon. 


94.10 
86.09 

88.99 
91.fi4 
89.25 
85.84 
87.40 

76.69 
70.75 

64.72 
59.47 
58.79 
58.70 
55.10 
86.04 
14.36 
27.16 
9.25 
7.10 


Water  and 

other 
Vol.  Mat. 

1.40 
6.96 

6.36 

6.89 

2.44 

10.50 

6.20 

15.53 
16.03 

82  95 
86.59 
82.57 
86.20 
89.90 
61.74 
62.03 
64.  :(0 
62.70 
71.06 


Ashes. 


4.50 
6.95 

4.66 
1.47 
8.80 
8.  (56 
6.40 

7.83 
18.22 

2.81 

3.94 

8.64 

4.50 

3.00 

2.22 

23.62 

8.43 

26.50 

213.20 


A  complete  description  of  the  coals,  such 
as  may  be  found  in  the  Report  of  Prof. 
Walter  R.  Johnson  (Senate  Document,  28th 
Congress,  No.  386),  and  presented,  in  a 
condensed  form,  in  Johnson's  Edition  of 
"  Knapp's  Chemical  Technology,"  presents 
many  other  .features  affecting  the  qualities 
of  the  coals,  and  their  adaptation  to  special 
uses.  Such  are — 1,  their  capacity  for  raising 
8* 


steam  quickly  ;  2,  for  raising  it  abundantly 
for  the  quantity  used;  3,  freedom  from 
dense  smoke  in  their  combustion ;  4,  freedom 
from  tendency  to  crumble  in  handling ;  5, 
capacity,  by  reason  of  their  density,  and  the 
shapes  assumed  by  their  fragments,  of  close 
stowage  ;  and  6,  freedom  from  sulphur.  The 
last  is  an  important  consideration,  affecting 
the  value  of  coals  proposed  for  use  in  ths 


124 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


iron  manufacture,  sulphur,  which  is  often 
present  in  coal  in  the  form  of  sulphuret  of 
iron,  having  a  very  injurious  effect  upon  the 
iron  with  which  it  is  brought  in  contact 
when  heated.  It  is  again  to  be  cautiously 
guarded  against  in  selecting  bituminous 
coals  to  be  employed  in  steam  navigation  ; 
for  by  the  heat  generated  by  spontaneous 
decomposition  of  the  iron  pyrites,  the  eas 
ily  ignited  bituminous  coals  may  be  readily 
set  on  fire.  This  phenomenon  is  of  frequent 
occurrence  in  the  waste  heaps  about  coal 
mines,  and  large  bodies  of  coal  stored  in 


yards  and  on  board  ships  have  been  thus 
inflamed,  involving  the  most  disastrous  con 
sequences.  In  stowage  capacity  coals  dif 
fer  greatly,  and  this  should  be  attended  to 
in  selecting  them  for  use  in  long  voyages. 
Tendency  to  crumble  involves  waste.  Dense 
smoke  in  consuming  is  objectionable  in  coals 
required  for  vessels-of-war  in  actual  service, 
as  it  must  expose  their  position  when  it  may 
be  important  to  conceal  it.  The  following 
table  was  prepared  by  Prof.  Johnson  to  pre 
sent  some  of  the  general  results  in  these 
particulars  of  his  experiments  : — 


GENERAL     SCALE    OF    RELATIVE    VALUES     FORMED     FROM  THE    AVERAGES    OF    EACH     CLASS    OF     COAL 

SUBJECTED  TO     TRIAL. 

1.  2.  8.  4.                          5. 

Maryland  free-burning  coals 1000  1000  395  880             682 

Pennsylvania  anthracite 977  '986  1000  893             319 

Pennsylvania  bituminous 951  938  390  1000             914 

Virginia  (James  River)  bituminous 850  757  242  948             730 

Foreign  bituminous 801  741  331  948  1000 


Column  1  gives  the  relative  evaporative 
powers  of  equal  weights  of  the  coals ;  2, 
the  same  of  equal  bulks ;  3,  their  relative 
freedom  from  tendency  to  clinker ;  4.  rapid 
ity  of  action  in  evaporating  water ;  5,  facil 
ity  of  ignition,  or  readiness  with  which 
steam  is  gotten  up.  The  general  results  of 
experience  in  use,  as  well  as  of  special  trials 
systematically  conducted  upon  a  large  scale, 
agree  in  these  particulars — that  while  the 
bituminous  coals  are  valuable  for  the  greater 
variety  of  uses  to  which  they  are  applica 
ble,  and  especially  for  all  purposes  requiring 
flame  and  a  diffusive  heat,  as  under  large 
boilers ;  and  while  they  are  quickly  brought 
into  a  state  of  combustion,  rendering  the 
heat  they  produce  more  readily  available  ; 
the  anthracites  afford  a  more  condensed  and 
lasting  heat,  and  are  to  be  preferred  in  many 
metallurgical  operations,  especially  where 
great  intensity  of  temperature  is  required. 
And  for  many  purposes,  the  free-burning, 
semi-bituminous  coals,  which  combine  the 
useful  properties  of  both  varieties,  are  found 
most  economical  in  use. 

GEOLOGICAL    AND     GEOGRAPHICAL     DISTRIBU 
TION. 

The  United  States  is  supplied  with  coal 
from  a  number  of  coal-fields  belonging  to 
what  are  called  the  true  coal-measures,  or 
the  carboniferous  group,  a  series  of  strata 
sometimes  amounting,  in  aggregate  thick 
ness,  to  2000  and  even  3000  feet,  and 
whether  found  in  this  country  or  in  Europe, 
readily  recognized  by  the  resemblance  in 


the  various  members  of  its  formation,  its 
fossil  organic  remains,  its  mineral  accompa 
niments,  and  by  its  position  relative  to  the 
other  groups  of  rock  which  overlie  and  un 
derlie  it.  The  principal  one  of  these  fields 
or  basins  is  that  known  as  the  Appalachian, 
which,  commencing  in  the  north-eastern 
part  of  Pennsylvania,  stretches  over  nearly 
all  the  state  west  of  the  main  Alleghany 
ridge,  and  takes  in  the  eastern  portion  of 
Ohio,  parts  of  Maryland,  Virginia,  Ken 
tucky,  Tennessee,  the  north-west  corner  of 
Georgia,  and  extends  into  Alabama  as  far  as 
Tuscaloosa.  Its  total  area,  including  a  num 
ber  of  neighboring  basins,  as  those  of  the 
anthracite  region  to  the  east  of  the  Alle 
ghany  ridge,  which  were  originally  a  part  of 
the  same  great  field,  is  estimated  at  about 
70,000  square  miles.  A  second  great  basin 
is  that  Avhich  includes  the  larger  part  of  Il 
linois,  and  the  western  portion  of  Indiana 
and  of  Kentucky.  Its  area  is  estimated  at 
about  50,000  square  miles ;  but  its  coal-beds 
are  few  and  thin  compared  with  those  of  the 
great  Appalachian  coal-field.  The  same  may 
be  said  of  the  third  coal-field,  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Mississippi.  This  extends  over  a 
large  part  of  Iowa  and  of  Missouri,  and  to 
the  Red  River  in  the  western  part  of  Ar 
kansas.  The  Kansas  coal-beds  are  contained 
in  this  field,  which  along  its  western  bor 
ders  is  more  or  less  broken  up  at  the  sur 
face  by  patches  of  rock  of  later  formation, 
as  the  cretaceous  and  middle  secondary. 
Beneath  these  groups,  the  coal-bearing  stra 
ta  disappear  toward  the  great  plains.  Tha 


MAP  OF  THE  ANTHRACITE  R 

Copied  by  permission 


C  O  .A   L 


5 
NNSYLVA, 

A.  H.JO 

American  Cyclopedia. 


COAL. 


129 


whole  area  of  this  field  has  been  computed 
at  57,000  square  miles  ;  but  its  limits  have 
never  been  accurately  defined.  A  fourth 
coal-field  occupies  the  central  portion  of 
the  southern  peninsula  of  Michigan,  its  area 
being  about  13,350  square  miles.  Several 
small  beds  of  bituminous  coal  are  worked  in 
this  district,  but  they  have  only  local  impor 
tance.  A  fifth  coal-field  is  that  of  Rhode  Isl 
and  and  south-eastern  Massachusetts.  The 
strata  of  this  district  are  considered  as  be 
longing  to  the  true  coal-measures,  although, 
from  the  metamorphic  action  to  which  they 
have  been  subjected,  their  true  character  is 
very  obscure.  They  contain  a  few  beds  of 
anthracite,  very  irregular  in  their  dimen 
sions,  and  much  crushed.  A  number  of 
mines  have  been  opened,  but  the  only  one 
now  worked  is  at  Portsmouth,  8  miles 
north  of  Newport.  In  south-eastern  Vir 
ginia  is  a  bituminous  coal-field,  lying  on 
both  sides  of  the  James  River,  a  few  miles 
above  Richmond.  The  strata  which  contain 
the  coal-beds  of  this  district  are  recognized 
as  members  of  later  formation  than  those  of 
the  true  coal-measures,  being  classed  with 
the  geological  group  known  as  the  oolite, 
or  lias  ;  and  the  coal-beds  of  central  North 
Carolina,  on  Deep  River,  probably  belong  to 
the  same  position  in  the  geological  column. 
Notwithstanding  the  limited  area  of  this 
coal-field  in  Virginia,  which  is  only  about  25 
miles  long  and  8  to  10  miles  wide,  it  has  pro 
duced  for  more  than  sixty  years  past  large 
quantities  of  coal  chiefly  for  the  supply  of  iron 
manufacturing  establishments,  and  the  gas 
works  along  the  seaboard  to  the  north.  The 
strata  of  these  coal-measures  occupy  a  deep 
depression  in  the  granitic  rocks  of  this  re 
gion,  attaining  in  the  centre  of  the  basin  a 
thickness  of  nearly  2000  feet.  They  con 
sist  in  great  part  of  a  micaceous  sand 
stone,  and  the  two  or  three  coal-beds  arc 
contained  in  the  lower  150  feet.  A  great 
bed  at  the  bottom,  which  in  some  places 
exceeds  40  feet  in  thickness,  and  in  others 
dwindles  away  to  4  or  5  feet  only,  appears 
to  have  been  deposited  upon  the  uneven 
granitic  floor,  from  which  it  is  separated  by 
only  a  few  inches  of  slate.  Shafts  have  been 
sunk  near  the  east  border  of  the  coal-field  to 
the  depth  of  nearly  900  feet.  The  amount 
of  coal  obtained  of  late  years  does  not  prob 
ably  exceed  130,000  tons  per  annum.  A 
singular  phenomenon  is  observed  at  one 
point  in  this  district,  where  a  coal-bed  is 
penetrated  and  overlaid  by  a  body  of  trap- 


rock.  The  coal  near  this  rock  is  converted 
into  a  mass  of  coke,  resembling  that  artifi 
cially  produced,  except  that  it  is  more  com 
pact  and  of  a  duller  lustre. 

A  large  amount  of  bituminous  coal  has 
been  brought  to  Boston  and  New  York,  for 
many  years  past,  from  a  coal-field  belonging 
to  the  true  coal-measures,  in  Nova  Scotia 
and  Cape  Breton.  The  same  formation  ex 
tends  into  New  Brunswick,  and  ranges  along 
the  western  part  of  Newfoundland,  and  has 
been  estimated  as  comprising  in  all  an  area 
of  9000  square  miles.  The  productive  por 
tions,  however,  are  limited  to  a  few  locali 
ties  upon  the  coast  of  Nova  Scotia  and 
Cape  Breton,  and  at  these,  beds  of  great 
thickness  have  been  opened,  and  worked  to 
the  depth  of  from  200  to  450  feet.  At  the 
Pictou  mines,  opposite  the  southern  point 
of  Prince  Edward's  Island,  one  bed  is  29 
feet  thick.  Another  bed,  at  the  Albion 
mines,  8i  miles  from  Pictou,  affords  24  feet 
of  good  coal,  and  12  more  of  inferior  quali 
ty  ;  and  in  Sydney,  Cape  Breton,  are  beds  of 
11  feet,  9  feet,  and  6  feet,  besides  at  least 
11  others  of  less  thickness.  At  the  South 
Joggins  cliffs,  in  Nova  Scotia,  the  total 
thickness  of  all  the  strata  of  the  coal-meas 
ures  was  found  by  Mr.  Logan  to  amount  to 
14,571  feet,  very  much  exceeding  the  thick 
ness  of  the  formation  as  observed  in  other 
places  on  the  American  continent. 

The  strata  which  make  up  the  coal  forma 
tion,  the  principal  varieties  of  which  have 
already  been  named,  are  regularly  laid  one 
upon  another  in  no  particular  order,  and 
amount  in  aggregate  thickness  to  several 
thousand  feet,  rarely  exceeding  in  the 
United  States  3000  feet.  Their  thickness 
is  ascertained  by  sections  measured  at  dif 
ferent  localities,  some  giving  one  part  of  the 
column,  and  others  other  portions.  In  west 
ern  Pennsylvania  the  nearly  horizontal  beds 
of  rock  are  often  exposed  in  the  sides  of  the 
precipitous  hills,  so  that  sections  of  several 
hundred  feet  may  be  fully  made  up.  Any 
peculiar  member  of  the  pile,  as  a  bed  of 
limestone,  occurring  near  the  top  of  the 
section,  may  be  recognized  in  other  locali 
ties,  where  by  the  dip  of  the-  strata  it  is 
brought  to  the  lower  levels,  and  the  hills 
above  it  then  present  the  succession  of  the 
higher  members  of  the  column;  or  if  the 
layer  taken  as  the  starting  point  be  in  the 
one  case  at  the  base,  it  will  be  found  in  the 
direction  of  the  rising  of  the  strata,  at  higher 
and  higher  elevations,  and  the  lower  mem- 


110  Gray   and    buff 
micaceous  slaty 


Coal  O.  10  • 


56    Blue,  buff,   and 
olive  shales. 


Limestone,  thin. 


69  Variegated  shale* 
and  sandstone. 


0.4  Limestone. 

3  Limestone. 

15  Shall-  &  sandstone. 

2  Limestone. 

18  Dark  grav  shale. 
I  Coal. 

12  Shale  &  limestone. 
IS  to  55  Thin  bedded 

3  Limestone,  [saudstn. 


0.10  Coal. 
Blue  and  buff  sha\e. 
7^-:   \3  Flaggy  sandstonei 


15  Yellow  shale. 
14  Slaty  sandstone, 
17  to  20  Buff  shales. 

11    to   14  Gray  mica 
ceous  sandstone. 


e^Er^Ers— F^  3.8  Limestone. 
20  Buff  shales. 
0.9  Coal. 
20  Sandstone. 
4  Shale. 
1  CoaL 


56  Shales,  «and- 
stones  &  lime 
stones. 

2  Coal. 

4  Blue  friable  shale. 


6  Waynesburg  coal. 
5  Soft  shale. 


35  Gray  sandstone. 


20  Flaggy  sandstone. 

10  Shale. 

18  Limestone. 

6  Black  slate. 

18  Slaty  sandstone. 

8    Black    calcareous 

slate. 
16  Limestone. 


20  Shale. 


35  Brown  shale. 
14  Pittsburg  coal. 


60    Shales,  calcareou 
and  arenaceous. 


60  to  70  Calcareous  and 
shaly  beds,  slaty 
sandstone,  Ac. 


Green  and  olive  shalo. 


160   to     200  Greenuh 
slate  A  sandstone. 


30  Green,  purple,  and 
brown  shale. 


40  to  80  Sandstone  A 
green  shale. 


•  or  Tionesta  coal. 


;  'iv .  '  •  • 

7/.'  •-...- 


70  to  ISO  Slates,  shales, 
and  sandstones. 


3.6  Up'r  Freeport  coaL 
4  to  7  Limestone. 


to  40  Slate  and 
slaty  sandstone. 


Lower  Freeport  coal, 
often  cannel. 


75  Slate,  shale,  or  sand 
stone. 


3to4Kittanningcoal. 

30    Slate,  shale,  or 

sandstone. 
0.4  to  6  Iron  ore. 
15    Ferriferous    lime 

stone. 
30  Slate  and  shale. 


3  to  4  Clarion  coaL 
25  Slate  and  shale. 
1  to  2  Brookville  coal. 
5  to  15  Shale. 

60  to  60  Massire  sand 
stone. 


2  to  25  Brown  A  black 

shale. 
1  to  4 

15  Shale  and  sand 
stone. 

15  Shale  and  sand 
stone. 
15  Shale  and  sand- 


100    Sandstone   find 


'20  Slaty  sandstone. 
1  to  4  Sharon  coal. 


COAL. 


131 


bers  of  the  column  will  then  be  brought 
into  view  at  the  base  of  the  hills.  Thus,  at 
Pittsburg,  the  hills  opposite  the  city  afford 
a  section  of  300  or  400  feet,  and  the  marked 
stratum  is  here  the  great  coal-bed,  which  up 
the  Alleghany  river  toward  the  north  rises 
to  higher  and  higher  levels  in  the  hills,  and 
toward  the  south,  up  the  Monongahela,  sinks 
to  lower  levels,  till  it  passes  beneath  the  bed 
of  the  stream.  By  extending  these  obser 
vations  over  the  coal-field,  it  is  found  that 
the  whole  series  of  strata  maintain  their 
general  arrangement,  and  the  principal  mem 
bers  of  the  group,  such  as  an  important  coal- 
bed,  a  peculiar  bed  of  limestone,  etc.,  may  be 
identified  over  areas  of  thousands  of  square 
miles.  It  is  thus  the  sections  have  been  pre 
pared  at  many  localities  to  complete  the 
series,  as  presented  on  the  opposite  page, 
of  the  bituminous  coal-measures  of  the  ex 
treme  western  part  of  Pennsylvania.  The 
coal-beds  introduced  are  those  which  are 
persistent  over  the  greatest  areas.  Others 
occasionally  appear  in  different  parts  of  the 
column,  and  various  other  local  differences 
may  be  detected,  owing  to  the  irregularities 
in  the  stratification;  thus  sandstones  and 
slates  often  thin  out,  and  even  gradually 
pass  from  one  into  the  other.  By  their 
thinning  out  beds  of  coal  separated  by  them 
in  one  locality  may  come  together  in  another, 
and  form  one  large  bed ;  and  again,  large  coal- 
beds  may  be  split  by  hardly  perceptible  di 
visional  seams  of  slate  or  shale,  which  may 
gradually  increase,  till  they  become  thick 
strata,  separating  what  was  one  coal-bed 
into  two  or  more.  The  limestones,  though 
generally  thin,  maintain  their  peculiar  char 
acters  much  better  than  the  great  beds  of 
sandstone  or  shale,  and  are  consequently 
the  best  guides  for  designating  in  the  col 
umns  the  position  of  the  strata  which  ac 
company  them,  above  and  below.  The  fire 
clay  is  almost  universally  the  underlying 
stratum  of  the  coal-beds.  In  the  sections 
it  is  not  distinguished  from  the  shale-beds. 
The  total  thickness  of  all  the  measures,  is 
from  2000  to  2500  feet. 

Such  is  the  general  system  of  the  coal- 
bearing  formation  west  of  the  Alleghan- 
ies.  Every  farm  and  every  hill  in  the  coal 
field  is  likely  to  contain  one  or  more  beds 
of  coal,  of  limestone,  of  good  sandstone  for 
building  purposes,  of  fire  clay,  and  some 
iron  ore  ;  and  below  the  surface,  the  series  is 
continued  down  to  the  group  of  conglom 
erates  and  sandstones,  which  come  up 


around  the  margins  of  the  coal-fields  and 
define  their  limits.  At  Pittsburg  this 
group,  it  is  found  by  boring,  as  well  as  by 
the  measurements  of  the  strata  in  the  hills 
toward  the  north,  is  about  600  feet  below 
the  level  of  the  river.  The  coal-measures 
in  this  portion  of  the  country  are  the  high 
est  rock  formation;  but  in  the  western  terri 
tories  beyond  the  Mississippi  they  pass 
under  later  geological  groups,  as  the  creta 
ceous  and  the  tertiary.  All  the  coals  are 
bituminous,  and  the  strata  in  which  they  are 
found  are  little  moved  from  the  horizontal 
position  in  which  they  were  originally  de 
posited.  They  have  been  uplifted  with  the 
continent  itself,  and  have  not  been  subjected 
to  any  local  disturbences,  such  as  in  other 
regions  have  disarranged  and  metamorphosed 
the  strata. 

East  of  the  Alleghanies,  in  the  narrow, 
elongated  coal-fields  of  the  anthracite  re 
gion,  a  marked  difference  is  perceived  in  the 
position  assumed  by  the  strata,  and  also  in 
the  character  of  the  individual  beds.  They 
evidently  belong  to  the  same  geological  se 
ries  as  the  bituminous  coal-measures,  and 
the  same  succession  of  conglomerates,  sand 
stones,  and  red  shales,  is  recognized  below 
them ;  but  the  strata  have  been  tilted  at  va 
rious  angles  from  their  original  horizontal 
position,  and  the  formation  is  broken  up  and 
distributed  in  a  number  of  basins,  or  canal- 
shaped  troughs,  separated  from  each  other 
by  the  lower  rocks,  which,  rising  to  the 
surface,  form  long  narrow  ridges  outside  of 
and  around  each  coal-field.  Those  on  each 
side  being  composed  of  the  same  rocks,  sim 
ilarly  arranged,  and  all  having  been  sub 
jected  to  similar  denuding  action,  a  striking 
resemblance  is  observed,  even  on  the  map, 
in  their  outlines ;  and  in  the  ridges  them 
selves  this  is  so  remarkable  that  their  shapes 
alone  correctly  suggest  at  once  to  those  fa 
miliar  with  the  geology  of  the  country,  the 
rocks  of  which  they  are  composed.  Upon 
the  accompanying  map,  from  the  first  vol.  of 
the  "New  American  Cyclopaedia,"  these  ba 
sins  are  represented  by  the  shaded  portions, 
and  the  long,  narrow  ridges  which  surround 
the  basins,  and  meet  in  a  sharp  curve  at  their 
ends,  are  indicated  by  the  groups  of  four 
parallel  lines.  Within  the  marginal  hills 
the  strata  of  the  coal-measures,  and  of  the 
underlying  formations,  while  retaining  their 
arrangement  in  parallel  sheets,  are  raised 
upon  their  edges  and  thrown  into  undulat 
ing  lines  and  sharp  flexures ;  and  the  extrac- 


132 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


Sharp  Mf. 


Eiy.  i 


Lacustilb 


tion  of  the  coal,  instead  of  being  con 
ducted  by  levels  driven  into  the  side 
of  the  hills,  is  effected  by  means  of 
inclined  shafts  following  down  the 
course  of  the  beds  from  the  surface, 
or  by  vertical  slopes  sunk  so  as  to 
cut  them  at  considerable  depths.  The 
arrangement  of  the  strata  in  its  gen 
eral  features  is  represented  in  the  ac 
companying  wood  cuts.  Fig.  1  is  a 
section  from  Sharp  Mountain,  on  the 
south  side  of  the  Mauch  Chunk  sum 
mit  mine,  across  this  great  body  of 
coal,  and  the  higher  coal-beds  of  the 
formation  repeatedly  brought  to  the 
surface  by  their  changes  of  dip,  to 
Locust  Mountain,  which  bounds  the 
basin  on  the  north.  Fig.  2  is  a  sec 
tion  across  the  same  basin  at  Ta- 
maqua,  six  miles  west  from  Mauch 
Chunk  mine.  In  this  section  it  is 
seen  how  the  coal-measures  are  sepa 
rated  into  basins  by  the  lower  rocks 
coming  up  to  the  surface  and  forming 
anticlinal  axes.  Fig.  3  represents  the 
position  of  single  beds,  as  they  occur 
among  the  slates  and  sandstones,  and 
the  manner  in  which  they  are  some 
times  reached  by  means  of  a  tunnel 
driven  in  from  the  base  of  the  hill. 
The  curved  portion  of  the  coal  at 
the  top  is  formed  by  the  coal-beds 
at  their  outcrop  becoming  disinte 
grated,  and  their  fragments  and  de 
composed  smut  being  spread  down 
the  slope  of  the  hill.  The  Roman 
numerals,  "IX,"  "X,"  "XI,"  "XII," 
in  fig.  2,  designate  the  lower  forma 
tions  of  rock,  known  respectively  as 
the  red  sandstones  (corresponding  to 
the  "Old  Red  Sandstone");  a  series  of 
gray  sandstones ;  one  of  red  shales ;  and 
lastly,  the  conglomerate.  The  dotted  lines 
above  ami  below  the  section  mark  the  con 
tinuity  of  the  conglomerate  beneath  the  base 
of  the  section  and  its  original  course  above 
the  present  surface  before  this  portion  had 
been  removed  by  diluvial  action.  The  other 


formations  obviously  accompany  the   con 
glomerate  with  similar  flexures. 

The  same  cause,  that  threw  the  strata  into 
their  inclined  and  contorted  positions,  no 
doubt  changed  the  character  of  the  coal  by 
dispelling  its  volatile  portions,  converting 
it  in  fact  into  coke,  while  the  pressure 
of  the  superincumbent  beds  of  rock  pro 


COAL. 


133 


vented  the  swelling  up  of  the  material,  as 
occurs  in  the  ordinary  process  of  producing 
coke  from  bituminous  coal,  and  caused  it 
to  assume  the  dense  and  compact  structure 
of  anthracite.  As  the  anthracite  basins  are 
traced  westward,  it  is  observed  that  the 
coals  in  those  districts  which  have  been 
less  disturbed,  retain  somewhat  of  the  bi 
tuminous  character ;  and  if  the  continuity 
were  uninterrupted  between  the  anthracite 
and  the  bituminous  coal-fields,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  a  gradual  passage  would  be  ob 
served  from  the  one  kind  of  coal  to  the 
other,  and  that  this  would  be  accompanied 
by  an  amount  of  disturbance  in  the  strata 
corresponding  to  the  degree  in  which  the 
coal  is  deficient  in  bitumen. 

AMOUNT    OF    AVAILABLE    COAL. 

In  estimating  the  quantities  of  workable 
coal  in  any  district,  several  points  are  to  be 
taken  into  consideration  besides  the  amount 
of  surface  covered  by  the  coal-measures  and 
the  aggregate  thickness  of  all  the  beds  they 
contain.  Where  the  strata  spread  out  hor 
izontally,  as  in  the  western  coal-fields,  ex 
tensive  regions  may  be  covered  with  a  very 
thin  portion  of  the  coal-bearing  strata,  espec 
ially  near  the  margins  of  the  coal-fields; 
while  in  the  deep  basins,  like  those  of  the 
anthracite  region,  a  number  of  large  beds 
may  be  accumulated  together  in  very  limited 
districts.  Then  again,  out  of  the  total  num 
ber  of  coal-beds,  there  arc  more  or  less  of 
them  that  must  be  excluded  from  the  esti 
mate,  on  account  of  their  being  too  thin  to 
work ;  and  as  the  thickness  of  all  of  them 
varies  in  different  localities,  a  fair  average 
thickness  of  workable  beds  is  as  difficult  to 
arrive  at  as  a  fair  average  area  into  which  this 
thickness  is  to  be  multiplied.  The  problem 
is  rendered  still  more  complex  by  the  slopes 
and  flexures  of  the  strata  in  the  districts  east 
of  the  Alleghanies,  and  by  the  gaps  between 
the  hills  which  cut  off  the  beds  whose  plane 
is  above  the  lowest  levels.  The  great  depth 
at  which  lie  the  lower  beds  in  the  central 
parts  of  the  Appalachian  coal-field  must 
probably  prevent  their  ever  being  worked; 
but  for  this  no  allowance  is  ever  made  in  the 
estimates  of  quantities  of  coal. 

The  most  careful  and  complete  computa 
tions  of  this  nature  which  have  been  made 
are  those  of  Professor  II.  D.  Rogers,  in 
vol.  ii.  of  the  Geology  of  Pennsylvania, 
page  1015.  From  this  source  we  obtain  the 
following  estimates : — 


EXTENT   OF  COAL-FIELD  IN  THE  SEVERAL  STATES   POSSESS 
ING  THK    COAL    FORMATION. 

Sq.  miles. 

Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island 100 

Pennsylvania 12,656 

Ohio 7,100 

Maryland 550 

Virginia 15,900 

Kentucky 13,700 

Tennessee 3,700 

Alabama 6,130 

Georgia 170 

Indiana 6,700 

Illinois 40,000 

Michigan 13,350 

Iowa 24,000 

Missouri 21,329 

Nebraska 3,712 

Kansas 11,880 

Arkansas 12,597 

Indian  Territory 10,395 

Texas 2,970 


Total 196,939 

In  the  anthracite  basins  of  Pennsylvania 
the  number  of  workable  beds  varies  from  2 
or  3  to  25,  according  to  the  depth  of  the  ba 
sin  ;  the  average  number  is  supposed  to  be 
10  or  12.  The  maximum  thickness  of  coal 
is  in  the  Pottsville  basin,  and  amounts  to 
207  feet.  Rejecting  the  thin  seams,  the 
average  thickness  in  the  south  anthracite 
field  is  reckoned  at  1 00  feet ;  in  the  middle 
or  north  field  at  about  60  feet ;  and  the  gen 
eral  average  of  the  whole,  70  feet. 

The  maximum  thickness  of  the  15  or  16 
coal-beds  of  the  central  part  of  the  Appala 
chian  coal-field  is  about  40  feet,  but  the 
average  of  the  whole  basin  is  considered  to 
be  25  feet. 

The  basin  extending  over  Illinois  and 
into  Indiana  and  Kentucky,  contains  in  the 
last-named  state  16  or  17  workable  beds, 
with  a  maximum  thickness  af  about  50  feet. 
The  average  over  the  whole  area  is  supposed 
to  be  20  or  25  feet. 

The  basin  of  Iowa,  Missouri,  and  Arkan 
sas  contains  only  2  or  3  workable  beds, 
of  total  thickness  not  exceeding  10  feet; 
while  the  average  for  the  whole  area  must 
be  considerably  less. 

The  following  estimates  of  the  number 
and  thickness  of  the  beds  in  some  of  the 
British  coal-fields  are  introduced  for  com 
parison.  The  great  coal-field  of  South 
Wales  contains  23  workable  beds  of  92  feet 
thickness,  averaging  over  the  whole  area 
probably  60  feet.  The  coal-beds  in  the 
South  Staffordshire  basin  amount  to  57  feet 
in  thickness,  and  in  one  quarter  to  70  feet. 
The  average  for  the  whole  area  is  assumed 


134 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


to  be  40  feet.  The  Derbyshire  coal-field 
has  about  20  workable  beds ;  aggregate 
thickness  66  feet,  average  40  feet.  The 
Lancashire  and  Cheshire  coal-field  in  one 
district  has  150  feet  of  coal  in  75  beds,  and 
in  another  93  feet  in  36  beds,  some  of  which 
are  too  thin  to  be  worked.  Average  thick 
ness  of  workable  coal  over  the  whole  field  is 
supposed  to  be  50  or  60  feet.  The  Durham 


and  Newcastle  coal-field  has  total  thickness 
of  coal  60  feet,  of  workable  coal  30  feet,  and 
average  about  20  feet.  Over  a  total  area  of 
coal-fields  in  Great  Britain,  amounting  to 
5400  square  miles,  the  average  thickness  of 
workable  coal  is  supposed  to  be  35  feet.  Ex 
tending  these  computations  to  Belgium  and 
France  also,  Prof.  Rogers  presented  the  re 
sults  of  his  calculations  in  tons  as  follows : — 


RELATIVE     AMOUNT     OF     COAL,     IN     THE    SEVERAL.     GREAT     COAL-FIELDS     OF    EUROPE     AXD     AMERICA. 

Tons.  Ratio. 
Belgium  (assuming  an  average  thickness  of  about  60  feet  of  coal)  contains 

about 36,000,000,000  1 

France  (with  same  thickness)  contains  about 59,000,000,000  1.64 

The  British  Islands  (averaging  35  feet  thickness)  contain  nearly 190,000,000,000  5.28 

Pennsylvania  (averaging  25  feet  thickness)  contains 316,400,000,000  8.8 

The  great  Appalachian  coal-field  (including  Pennsylvania,  averaging  25  feet).  1,387, 500, 000,000  38.5 

Goal-field  of  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  western  Kentucky  (average  thickness  25  feet).  1,277, 500,000,000  35.5 

The  Missouri  and  Arkansas  basin  (averaging  10  feet) 739,000,000,000  20.5 

All  the  productive  coal-fields  of  North  America  (with  an  assumed  thickness  of 

20  feet  of  coal,  and  a  productive  area  of  200,000  square  miles) 4,000,000,000,000  111. 

All  the  coal-fields  of  Europe . .  8.75 

The  following  table   contains  the  yearly   sylvania  and  Maryland,  from  the  commence- 
returns  of  the  coal  product  of  eastern  Penn-   ment  of  the  trade  in  1820  : — 

STATISTICS  OF  PRODUCTION. 


"Vfiar 

SCHUYLKILL. 

•WYOMING    REGION. 

JL  car. 

Canal. 

Railroad. 

Total. 

Del.  <fc  Hud. 
Coal  Co. 

Penn. 
Coal  Co. 

By  canal. 

D.  L.  A,  W. 

railroad. 

Total 
tons. 

1820 

1821 

B 

1822 

1,480 

1,480 

1823 

1,128 

1,128 

1824 

1,587 

1,587 

. 

1825 

6,500 

6,500 

B 

1826 

16,763 

16,763 

§ 

1827 

31,360 

81,360 

1828 

47,284 

47,284 

1829 

79,973 

79,973 

7,000 

V'ooo 

laso 

89,984 

89,984 

48,000 

43,000 

1831 

81,854 

81,854 

54,000 

t 

64,000 

1832 

209,271 

209,271 

84,600 

84,600 

1838 

252.971 

252,971 

111,777 

111,777 

1834 

226,692 

226,692 

43,700 

48.700 

1835 

339,508 

339,508 

90,000 

90,000 

1836 

432,045 

432,054 

103,851 

103,861 

1837 

523,152 

523,152 

115,387 

115,887 

1S3S 

433,875 

433,875 

78,207 

78,207 

1839 

442,608 

442,608 

122,300 

122,300 

1840 

452,291 

452,291 

148,470 

148,470 

1841 

514,692 

'850 

515,542 

192,270 

192.270 

1842 

461,602 

49,902 

502,504 

205,253 

47,846 

252,599 

1843 

447,058 

230,254 

677,312 

227,605 

58,000 

285.605 

1844 

393.887 

441,491 

835,288 

251,005 

114,906 

365,911 

1845    ' 

263.587 

820,287 

1,083,824 

278,435 

178,401 

451,836 

1846 

8,440 

1,263,144 

1,266,584 

820,000 

192,503 

512,503 

1847 

222,693 

1,860.361 

1,583,054 

888,203 

284,898 

672,601 

1848 

436,602 

1,216,233 

1,652,835 

437,500 

237,271 

674,771 

1849 

489,208 

1,115,918 

1,605,126 

454,240 

259,080 

713.320 

1850 

288,080 

1,423,977 

1,712,057 

441,403 

Ill  014 

243,250 

795,667 

1851 

579,156 

1,602,727 

2,181,883 

479,078 

816  017 

386.000 

6000 

1,131.095 

1852 

800,932 

1,663,117 

2,464,049 

497,105 

426164 

319,341 

67487 

1,810,097 

1853 

888,869 

1,587,211 

2,476,080 

494,327 

51:  659 

442,511 

97358 

1,546.855 

1854 

907,354 

1,983,478 

2.890,832 

440,944 

496  648 

492.689 

133964 

1,564,245 

1&55 

1,105,263 

2,218,292 

3,319,555 

565,460 

504803 

464,039 

188865 

1,723,167 

1856 

1,169,286 

2,148,903 

3,818,189 

499,650 

612500 

510,631 

296  282 

1,919,013 

1857 

1,275,989 

1,672,544 

2,948,533 

480,677 

543873 

405,822 

490023 

1.920,395 

1S5S 

1,323,804 

1,542,592 

2.866,396 

848,789 

630056 

850,000 

6S0500 

2,009,845 

1859 

1,371,753 

1,683,150 

3,004,903 

590,839 

688855 

433,548 

830000 

2,543.242 

I860 

1,356,688 

1,878,867 

3,285,555 

499,568 

691465 

430,242 

1,077  500 

2,698,775 

jTotal, 

17,970,239 

25,848,158 

43,S18,3S2 

9,089,64=3 

5,534,054 

5,799.978 

3,867,929 

24,291,604 

COAL. 


135 


STATISTICS  OF  PKODUCTION.— CONTINUED. 


T*mm 

LKHIGII. 

SEMI-ANTHRACITE. 

BITUMINOUS. 

Aggre 

ear. 

Canul. 

Kail- 
road. 

Total. 

Shamo- 
kin. 

Lykens 
Valley. 

Dauphin 
&8.  R. 

Tre- 

vorton. 

Broad- 
top. 

Bloss- 
burg. 

Bar 
clay. 

gate. 

1820 

865 

365 

365 

1821 

1,078 

1,073 

1,073 

1822 

2,240 

2.240 

8,720 

1S23 

5,823 

5,823 

6,951 

1824 

9,541 

9,541 

11,103 

1S25 

28,393 

28,893 

84,  693 

1S26 

81,280 

31,280 

48,043 

1S27 

32,074 

32,074 

63  430 

1S2S 

80.232 

30,282 

84.613 

1829 

25,110 

25,110 

148.083 

1830 

41.750 

41,750 

>t 

f. 

.  . 

185.734 

1831 

40,966 

40,966 

.  

207.420 

1S32 

70,000 

70,000 

863.871 

1S33 

123,000 

123,000 

487,748 

1N34 

106,244 

106,244 

876.636 

1835 

131,250 

131.250 

560,758 

1836 

148.211 

148,211 

684,126 

1S37 

223,902 

223,902 

862.441 

1S3S 

213,615 

213,615 

725,  69T 

1*39 

221.025 

221,025 

11,930 

797,saar 

ISM) 

896.K18 

225,318 

15,505 

4,235 

845,819 

1841 

143,037 

143,087 

21,468 

25,966 

898,278 

1842 

272,546 

272,546 

10,000 

13,164 

1,050,818 

1S43 

267.798 

267,793 

10,000 

6,268 

1,246,978 

1844 

877,002 

877,002 

13,087 

14,234 

1,605,522 

1845 

429.453 

429,453 

10,000 

29.836 

2,004,949 

1846 

517,116 

517,116 

12,572 

16,509 

2,325,284 

1S4T 

633,507 

633,507 

14,904 

29.087 

2.923,158 

1848 

670,321 

670,321 

19,356 

33,762 

8,042,045 

1849 

781,656 

781,656 

19,650 

25,325 

82,095 

3,177,112 

1S50 

690,456 

690.456 

19,921 

87,763 

23,161 

8,279.025 

1851 

964.224 

964.224 

24,899 

52.060 

20,000 

t  . 

25,000 

4,400,1  «1 

1852 

1,072,136 

1,072,136 

25,846 

55,000 

83,639 

20,000 

4,980,767 

1853 

1,054,309 

1,054,309 

15,500 

60.000 

29,000 

45,571 

5,227,313 

1854 

1,207,186 

1,207,186 

63,500 

53.000 

63,000 

70.554 

5,912,317 

1855 

1,275,050 

9063 

1,284,113 

116,117 

112.000 

52,494 

73,201 

6,630.64T 

1S56 

1,186,230 

165  740 

1,354,970 

117,406 

100,000 

77,307 

73,142 

42,000 

70,670 

4,115 

7,106,782 

1857 

900.314 

418236 

1,318,550 

153.525 

121.550 

82,285 

110,711 

78,812 

94,314 

6,239 

6,834,914 

185S 

908,800 

471  029 

1.379,829 

137,000 

127,750 

106,686 

105,478 

40,001 

18,000 

6,790,485 

1859 

1,050,592 

577651 

1,628,243 

180,000 

139,200 

124,250 

130,387 

80,143 

7,780,368 

1860 

1,091,032 

780642 

1,821,674 

211,100 

176,290 

89,515 

188,250 

30,000 

8,451,159 

Total, 

17,204,172 

2,372,361 

19,576,533 

1,253,281  11,059,938 

357,725  I    504,274 

544,927 

667,626 

88,597 

92,222,526 

In  presenting  the  statistics  of  the  product 
of  the  principal  coal  districts  of  the  United 
States,  it  will  be  observed  that  these  are  lim 
ited  to  the  eastern  portion  of  Pennsylvania 
and  the  Cumberland  district  of  Maryland.  It 
is  from  these  sources  almost  exclusively  that 
the  great  markets  of  the  New  England 
states,  of  the  states  of  New  York  and  New 
Jersey,  and  of  the  eastern  portion  of  Penn 
sylvania  and  Maryland  have  been  supplied; 
and  it  is  from  the  records  preserved  by  the 
lines  of  transportation  from  the  mines  that 
any  statistics  of  the  coal  products  are  now 
available.  In  the  Western  states,  where  the 
bituminous  coal-beds  are  very  generally  dis 
tributed  over  large  territories,  there  exists 
no  concentration  of  the  business,  as  at  the 
East,  and  no  means  are  afforded  of  obtain- 
in^  even  an  approximate  estimate  of  the 
amount  of  coal  annually  mined. 

TRANSPORTATION    OF    COAL    TO    MARKET. 

The  first  anthracite  from  the  Schuylkill 
mines  was  brought  to  Philadelphia  in  wag 


ons.  The  navigation  of  the  river  and  canal 
was  hardly  practicable  for  boats  previous  to 
the  year  1822  ;  and  though  from  that  year 
anthracite  was  conveyed  to  Philadelphia  and 
the  trade  continued  to  increase,  it  was  not 
until  after  the  improvements  were  comple 
ted  in  1825,  that  a  large  amount  of  coal 
could  be  transported  by  this  route.  The 
effect  of  these  improvements  was  experienced 
in  the  transportation  of  6500  tons  in  1825, 
which  was  more  than  four  times  the  busi 
ness  of  1824  ;  and  in  1826  it  increased  to 
16,763,  and  this  nearly  doubled  in  the  suc 
ceeding  year.  As  for  successive  years  the 
trade  steadily  and  rapidly  increased  in  im 
portance,  the  capacity  of  the  canal  proved 
at  last  insufficient  for  it,  and  the  Reading 
railroad  was  laid  out  especially  for  its  ac 
commodation,  and  constructed  with  a  uni 
form  descending  grade  from  the  mining 
region  at  Pottsville  to  the  Delaware  river. 
This  went  into  operation  in  1841,  and 
proved  a  formidable  competitor  to  the 
Schuylkill  canal,  but  the  still  increasing 


136 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


trade  lias  well  nigh  reached  the  capacity  of 
both  these  routes.  The  greatest  amount  of 
coal  transported  in  one  year  by  any  one  line 
was  in  1855  over  the  Reading  road,  being 
2,213,392  tons.  The  number  of  tons  carried 
by  canal  the  same  year  was  1,105,263  tons. 
Since  that  time  the  business  has  been  more 
equally  divided  between  them,  the  railroad 
still  doing  the  larger  portion  of  it. 

As  seen  by  the  table,  the  first  shipments 
of  anthracite  were  from  the  Lehigh  region, 
two  years  before  any  were  sent  from  the 
Schuylkill.  The  transportation  was  effected 
by  arks  or  large  boxes  built  of  plank,  and 
run  down  the  rapid  and  shoal  river  with  no 
little  risk.  To  return  with  them  was  im 
practicable,  nor  was  this  desired,  for  the 
arks  themselves  were  constructed  of  the 
product  of  the  forests,  which  in  this  form 
was  most  conveniently  got  to  market.  They 
had  before  been  the  chief  means  of  convey 
ance  down  into  the  Delaware  of  the  products 
of  the  country,  which  indeed  were  little  else 
than  lumber.  As  the  coal  trade  increased 
in  importance,  the  improvement  of  the  river 
was  undertaken  by  the  Lehigh  Coal  and 
Navigation  Company  to  insure  greater  fa 
cility  in  running  the  arks.  They  constructed 
dams  across  the  shoaler  places  in  the  river, 
by  which  the  water  was  held  back,  thus  in 
creasing  the  depth  above.  As  the  arks  com 
ing  down  the  river  reached  one  of  these 
dams,  the  sluice  gates  were  opened  and  the 
boats  descended  into  the  next  division  in 
which  the  water  was  kept  up  by  the  next 
dam  below.  At  first  two  arks  were  used 
together,  being  connected  by  hinges  at  the 
ends  ;  and  as  the  facilities  for  running  them 
were  improved,  more  of  them  were  thus 
joined  together,  till  they  reached  nearly  200 
feet  in  length.  In  1831  the  slack-water 
navigation  of  the  Lehigh  was  so  far  perfect 
ed,  that  it  was  used  by  canal  boats  ascend 
ing  and  descending  through  regular  locks. 

Up  to  the  year  1827  the  transportation 
of  anthracite  to  Mauch  Chunk  from  the 
mines,  nine  miles  distant,  had  been  by  a 
wagon  road.  In  January  of  that  year  the 
construction  of  a  railroad  was  commenced, 
and  in  May  the  road  was  completed.  This 
was  the  second  railroad  built  in  the  United 
States,  the  first  one  being  a  short  road  from 
the  granite  quarries  in  Quincy,  Massachu 
setts.  The  Mauch  Chunk  road  was  made 
with  a  descending  grade  all  the  way,  aver 
aging  about  100  feet  to  the  mile,  so  that 
the  loaded  cars  ran  down  by  gravity.  Each 


train  carried  down  with  it  in  cars  appropri 
ated  to  this  use  the  mules  for  drawing  the 
empty  cars  back  ;  and  it  is  stated  that  after 
the  animals  once  became  accustomed  to 
the  routine  of  their  duties  they  could  never 
be  made  to  travel  down  the  road  if  acciden 
tally  left  behind.  The  trade  before  many 
years  outgrew  these  increased  facilities  of 
transporting  the  coal,  and  it  was  found  es 
sential  to  provide  a  new  track,  upon  which 
the  empty  cars  could  be  returned  by  some 
more  economical  method.  On  account  of 
the  heavy  up-grade,  locomotives,  it  was  con 
cluded,  could  not  be  advantageously  em 
ployed,  and  hence  a  system  of  inclined 
planes  and  gravity  roads  was  devised,  by 
which  the  cars  hoisted  by  stationary  power 
to  the  summit  of  the  planes  and  thence  de 
scending  the  gravity  roads  might  be  return 
ed  to  the  mines,  and  the  use  of  mules  and 
horses  be  entirely  dispensed  with.  In  the 
accompanying  sketches  a  part  of  this  ar 
rangement  of  roads  is  exhibited. 

The  high  hill  cafled  Mount  Pisgah,  above 
the  village  of  Mauch  Chunk,  is  the  termina 
ting  point  at  the  Lehigh  river  of  the  long 
ridge  called  Sharp  Mountain.  The  great 
mines  of  the  Lehigh  are  on  its  summit  about 
nine  miles  west  of  the  village.  The  lower 
road  seen  in  the  sketch  is  called  the  loaded 
track.  The  cars  come  by  this  from  the 
mines,  and  being  let  down  the  inclined  plane 
at  its  terminus,  their  loads  are  discharged  in 
to  the  great  bins  over  the  edge  of  the  river. 
They  are  then  hauled  a  short  distance  to  the 
foot  of  the  long  plane  that  reaches  to  the 
summit  of  Mount  Pisgah,  and  by  the  sta 
tionary  steam  engine  are  drawn  up  in  about 
six  minutes  to  an  elevation  850  feet  above 
that  at  the  foot.  The  length  of  this  plane 
is  2250  feet.  From  its  summit  the  empty 
cars  run  down  the  inclined  road  constructed 
along  the  south  side  of  the  ridge,  and  at  the 
distance  of  six  miles,  having  descended  about 
300  feet,  they  reach  the  foot  of  another  in 
clined  plane  at  Mount  Jefferson.  This  plane 
is  2070  feet  long,  rising  462  feet.  The  as 
cent  is  accomplished  in  three  minutes,  and 
from  the  top  another  gravity  road  extends 
about  a  mile,  descending  44  feet  to  the 
Summit  Hill  village.  From  this  point 
branch  roads  lead  to  the  different  mines  in 
Panther  Creek  valley,  and  all  meet  again  in 
the  loaded  track  road  by  which  the  cars 
return  to  Mauch  Chunk. 

The  transportation  of  coal  from  Mauch 
Chunk  was  conducted  by  the  river  and  canal 


HOUNT  PISOAU   PLANE,    MAUCH   CHUNK,   PA. 


TITE   GREAT   OPEN   QUARRY   OF   THE   LEHIGn. 


In  •working  this  great  quarry  of  anthracite  at  the  Summit  mine,  above  Mauch  Chunk,  blocks  of  coal 
were  occasionally  left  standing  for  a  time,  one  of  which,  surmounted  by  the  soil  of  the  original  surface  and 
the  relics  of  the  vegetation,  is  represented  in  the  above  cut.  In  this  block  are  discerned  the  lines  of  strati 
fication  of  the  coal ;  and  an  idea  of  its  extraordinary  thickness  and  extent  is  conveyed  by  the  appearance  of 
the  cliffs  upon  the  further  side  of  the  excavated  area.  Upon  the  floor  of  the  quarry  are  seen  the  mining 
wagons  used  for  conveying  away  upon  temporary  tracks  the  coal  and  rubbish  of  the  excavations. 


BALTIMORE  COMPANY'S  MINE,   WILKESBARRE,   PA. 


COLLIERY  SLOPE   AND  BREAKER  AT   TUSCARORA,    PA. 


COAL. 


139 


MOUNT   PISGAII   PLANES   AND   TUB   GRAVITY    KAILKOAD,    MAUCH   CHUNK. 


exclusively  until  the  partial  construction  of 
the  Lehigh  railroad  in  1846.  But  it  was 
not  until  its  completion  in  1855,  that  this 
began  to  be  an  important  outlet  of  the  coal 
region  and  a  powerful  competitor  for  the 
trade  with  the  canal. 

A  considerable  amount  of  anthracite  finds 
a  market  on  the  borders  of  Chesapeake  Bay, 
being  transported  from  the  mines  near  the 
Susquehanna  river  by  the  Susquehanna  tide 
water  canal,  and  by  the  Baltimore  and  Sus 
quehanna  railroad.  Its  consumption  is  ex 
tending  in  this  region  by  its  use  in  the  blast 
furnaces  in  the  place  of  charcoal,  for  smelt 
ing  iron  ores,  and  the  receipts  of  this  fuel  in 
the  city  of  Baltimore  are  steadily  gaining 
upon  those  of  the  semi-bituminous  coals  of 
.he  Cumberland  region,  which  are  brought 
;o  the  city  by  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  rail- 
•oad.  For  four  years  past  these  receipts  have 
been  as  follows  : — 


1S5T.  185S. 

Tons.  Tons. 

Bituminous 443JS2  331.365 

mthrucite 257,884  277,961 


1859.  1860. 

Tons.  Tons. 

344,223  397,684 

258,189  825,129 


701,116        609,832        602,412        722,813 


The  principal  outlet  of  the  Northern 
field  had  been  from'  1829  to  1850  by  the 
Delaware  and  Hudson  canal.  Since  1847 
there  have  been  taken  every  year  to  the- 
Hudson  river  by  this  route  from  about 
440,000  to  499,650  tons,  except  in  1855, 
when  the  quantity  was  565,460  tons.  A 
number  of  railroads  now  connect  this  basin, 
with  the  central  railroad  across  northern 
New  Jersey,  and  in  other  directions  it  is 
connected  both  by  railroad  and  canals  with 
the  Erie  railroad  to  the  North  and  the  Sus 
quehanna  river  to  the  South-west.  As  large 
an  amount  of  coal  is  now  transported  over 
each  one  of  three  of  these  lines  as  by  the 
Delaware  and  Hudson  canal. 

The  various  railroads  and  canals  which 
have  been  constructed  with  especial  refer 
ence  to  the  transportation  of  anthracite,  ares 
more  than  40  in  number,  and  have  cost 
about  $93,000,000.  Most  of  them  are  pre 
sented  in  the  following  table;  of  some  cf 
them  only  those  portions  which  may  fairly 
be  counted  as  constructed  for  coal  pur 
poses  : — 


140                                                MINING   INDUSTRY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

Names  of  railroads  and  canals. 

Canals.    Kailroads. 

Total  cost 

No.  miles.  No.  miles. 

Lehigh  Navigation  

87 

$4,455,000 

Lehigh  and  Susquehanna  railroad  

20 

1,350,000 

Mauch  Chunk  and  Summit  railroads  

36 

831,684 

Delaware  division  of  the  Pennsylvania  canal  

43 

1,734,958 

Beaver  Meadow  railroad  and  branch  

38 

360,000 

Hazleton  railroad  

10 

120.000 

Buck  Mountain  railroad  

4 

40,000 

Summit  railroad  

2 

20,000 

Lehigh  Valley  railroad  

45 

3,500,000 

Delaware  arid  Hudson  canal  

108 

3,250,000 

Morris  canal  

102 

4,000,000 

The  Schuylkill  Navigation  

108 

5,785,000 

'Heading  and  Pottsville  railroad  

98 

19,004,000 

Shamokin  and  Pottsville  Valley  railroad  

30 

900,000 

Little  Schuylkill  railroad  

28 

1,416,187 

Danville  and  Pottsville  railroad  (44|  miles  unfinished)..  . 

29 

680,000 

Mine  Hill  and  Schuylkill  Haven  railroad  and  branches.  . 

100 

2,800,000 

Mount  Carbon  railroad  

7 

155,000 

Port  Carbon  railroad  

2 

120,000 

Schuylkill  Valley  railroad  and  branches   

25 

300,000 

Mill  Creek  railroad  

6 

120,000 

Lykens   Valley  railroad  

16 

200,000 

Wiconisco  canal  

12 

370,000 

Swatara  railroad  

4 

20,000 

North  Branch  canal  

163 

3,790,310 

Union  canal  and  Pine  Grove  branch  

90 

1,000,000 

Schuylkill  and  Susquehanna  railroad  

52 

1,500,000 

Northern  Central  railroad  

60 

1,000,000 

Pennsylvania  canal  (from  Wilkesbarre  to  Columbia)  

....100 

3,000,000 

Susquehanna  tidewater  canal  

45 

1,000,000 

York  and  Cumberland  railroad  /  

26 

600,000 

Cumberland  Valley  railroad  

56 

1,192,111 

Franklin  railroad  

22 

450,000 

Nesquehoning  railroad  

5 

50,000 

Room  Run  railway  

6 

40,000 

Delaware,  Lacka  wanna,  and  "Western  railroad  

170 

9,995,000 

Lacka  wanna  and  Bloomsburg  railroad  

68 

1,600,000 

Quakake  railroad   

14 

280,000 

Catawissa,  Williamsport,  and  Erie  railroad  

65 

4,145.096 

Elmira  and  Williamsport  

78 

2,000,000 

Pennsylvania  Coal  Company's  railroad  

52 

3,745,500 

New  Jersey  Central  railroad  

63 

5,746,366 

Railroads  by  individuals  

120 

180,000 

Underground  railroads  

200 

75,000 

Total 858         1,557       $92,921,212 


COAL    MINING. 

Coal-beds  are  discovered  and  worked  by 
different  methods,  varying  according  to  the 
circumstances  under  which  they  occur.  In 
regions  where  they  lie  among  the  piles  of 
strata  horizontally  arranged,  and  passing 
with  the  other  members  of  the  group  upon 
a  level  or  nearly  so  through  the  hills,  their 
exact  position  is  often  detected  by  their  ex 
posure  in  the  precipitous  walls  of  rock  along 
the  rivers ;  or  it  is  indicated  by  peculiar  in 
dentations,  known  as  "benches,"  around  their 
line  of  outcrop,  caused  by  their  crumbling 
and  wearing  away  more  rapidly  than  the 
harder  strata  above  and  below  them ;  and 
again  by  the  recurrence  of  springs  of  water 


and  wet  places  at  the  foot  of  the  benches, 
which  point  to  an  impervious  stratum  with 
in  the  hill  that  prevents  the  water  percolat 
ing  any  further  down ;  and  lastly,  in  the 
little  gorges  worn  by  the  "  runs,"  the  beds 
are  often  uncovered,  and  loose  pieces  of  coal 
washed  down  lead  to  their  original  source 
above.  However  discovered,  the  method  of 
working  them  is  simple.  A  convenient  place 
is  selected  upon  the  side  of  a  hill,  and  an  ex 
cavation  called  a  drift,  usually  about  four 
feet  wide,  is  made  into  the  coal-bed.  The 
height  of  the  drift  is  governed  by  the  thick 
ness  of  the  coal-bed  and  the  nature  of  the 
overlying  slate.  Miners  sometimes  work  in 
drifts  only  2£  feet  high.  Coal-beds  three  or 
four  feet  thick  are  very  common,  and  are 


COAL. 


worked  without  the  necessity  of  removing  the 
overhanging  slate,  unless  it  is  too  unsound 
to  serve  as  a  roof.  Beds  of  ten  feet  thick 
ness  or  more  require  much  additional  care 
over  those  of  smaller  size,  both  in  removing 
the  coal  and  supporting  the  roof;  and  in 
many  cases  it  is  found  expedient  to  leave  a 
portion  of  the  bed,  either  at  the  top  or  bot 
tom,  untouched,' especially  if  the  upper  lay 
ers  contain,  as  they  often  do,  sound  sheets  of 
slate.  At  the  entrance  of  the  mines,  and  in 
general  in  all  places  where  the  cover  is  not 
sound,  the  materials  overhead  are  prevented 
from  falling  by  timbers  across  the  top  of  the 
drifts,  rudely  framed  into  posts  set  up  against 
the  walls  on  each  side  ;  and  Avhere  the  strata 
are  very  loose,  slabs  are  driven  in  over  the 
cross  timbers  and  behind  the  posts.  In  such 
ground  the  coal  cannot  be  excavated  over 
large  areas  without  leaving  frequent  pillars 
of  coal  and  introducing  great  numbers  of 
posts  or  props.  But  previous  to  abandon 
ing  the  mine  the  pillars  may  be  removed, 
commencing  with  those  furthest  in,  and  all 
the  strata  above  are  thus  allowed  to  settle 
gradually  down.  When  drifts  or  gangways 
have  been  extended  into  the  coal-beds  far 
enough  to  be  under  good  cover,  branches 
are  commenced  at  right  angles,  and  a  system 
of  chambers  is  laid  out  for  excavation,  leav 
ing  sufficient  blocks  or  pillars  of  coal  to  pro 
vide  for  the  support  of  the  overlying  strata. 
Thus  the  work  is  carried  on,  ventilation  be 
ing  secured  by  connections  made  within  the 
hill  with  gangways  passing  out  in  different 
directions,  and  sometimes  also  by  shafts 
sunk  from  the  surface  above,  or,  when  these 
means  are  not  practicable,  by  ventilating 
fans  worked  by  hand,  and  thus  forcing  air 
through  long  wooden  boxes  which  lead  into 
the  interior  of  the  mine.  Drainage  is  often 
a  serious  trouble,  and  unless  the  strata  slope 
toward  the  outlet  of  the  mine,  it  can  be  ef 
fected  only  by  a  channel  cut  to  the  required 
depth  for  the  water  to  flow  out,  or  else  by 
the  use  of  pumping  machinery.  When  the 
strata  lie  nearly  upon  a  horizontal  plane,  it 
is  very  common  for  a  slight  descent  to  be 
found  from  the  exterior  of  a  hill  toward  its 
centre,  as  if  the  beds  of  rock  had  been  com 
pressed  and  settled  by  their  greater  weight 
in  the  middle  of  the  hill.  In  such  positions 
the  coal  is  extracted  with  much  expense  for 
drainage,  and  it  is  therefore  an  important 
consideration  in  judging  of  the  value  of  coal- 
beds  to  ascertain  whether  or  no  the  water 
will  flow  freely  out  from  the  excavations,  lu 


the  bituminous  coal-fields  west  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  owing  to  the  general  distribution  of 
the  coal-beds  above  the  level  of  the  water 
courses,  it  has  not  yet  been  found  worth 
while  to  work  any  of  the  beds  that  are 
known  to  lie  below  this  level.  Coal  must 
reach  a  much  higher  value  before  beds  of 
the  moderate  size  of  those  in  that  region  can 
be  profitably  explored  below  water  level. 

It  is  rare  that  bituminous  coal  is  obtained 
by  open  quarrying.  Where  the  beds  lie 
near  the  surface,  so  that  they  might  be  un 
covered,  the  coal  is  almost  invariably  in  a 
rotten  condition  and  worthless.  Conse 
quently  one  of  the  first  points  to  be  assured 
of  in  judging  of  the  value  of  a  coal-bed  is 
that  it  has  sufficient  rock  cover.  After  this 
may  be  considered  the  quality  of  the  coal, 
its  freedom  from  sulphur,  etc.,  the  sound 
ness  of  its  roof,  and  the  facilities  offered  for 
drainage  and  ventilation.  The  quality  of  a 
coal-bed  undergoes  little  or  no  change  after 
it  is  once  reached  under  good  cover  beyond 
atmospheric  influences ;  and  hence  no  en 
couragement  can  be  given  to  continue  to 
work  a  poor  bed  in  hopes  of  its  improving. 

Coal  is  excavated  chiefly  by  light,  slender 
picks.  With  one  of  these  a  miner  makes  a 
shallow,  horizontal  cut  as  far  as  he  can  reach 
under  the  wall  of  coal  before  him,  stretching 
himself  out  upon  the  floor  to  do  this  work, 
and  then  he  proceeds  to  make  a  vertical  cut 
extending  from  each  end  of  that  along  the 
floor  up  to  the  roof.  By  another  horizontal 
cut  along  the  roof,  a  cubical  block  of  coal  is 
thus  entirely  separated  from  the  bed,  except 
on  the  back  side  which  cannot  be  reached. 
The  separation  is  completed  by  wedges 
driven  into  the  upper  crevice,  or  sometimes 
by  small  charges  of  powder.  By  this  means 
blocks  of  coal  are  thrown  down  amounting 
to  70  or  80  tons  in  weight,  and  with  the 
least  possible  loss  by  the  reduction  of  por 
tions  of  it  to  dust  and  fine  coal. 

The  cost  of  mining  and  delivering  coal  at 
the  mouth  of  the  mines,  varies  with  the  size 
and  character  of  the  beds.  Under  the  most 
favorable  conditions  the  horizontal  beds  of 
bituminous  coal,  as  those  in  the  hills  oppo 
site  Pittsburg,  have  been  worked  and  the 
coal  delivered  outside  for  li  cents  a  bushel, 
or  45  cents  a  ton  ;  but  in  general  the  total 
expenses  are  nearly  double  this  rate.  In  es 
timating  the  capacity  of  production  of  coal- 
beds  it  is  usual  to  allow  a  ton  of  coal  to 
every  cubic  yard,  and  a  bed  of  coal  a  yard 
thick  should  consequently  contain  a  ton  to 


142 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


every  square  yard,  or  4840  tons  to  the  acre : 
but  the  actual  product  that  can  be  depended 
on,  after  the  loss  by  fine  coal,  by  pillars  left 
standing,  etc.,  may  not  safely  be  reckoned  at 
more  than  3000  tons,  or  for  every  foot  thick 
ness  of  the  bed  1000  tons. 

In  the  anthracite  region,  and  in  other  coal 
districts  where  the  beds  are  of  large  size  and 
lie  at  various  degrees  of  inclination  with  the 
horizon,  the  methods  of  mining  differ  more 
or  less  from  those  described.  The  anthra 
cite  beds  frequently  extend  in  parallel  lay 
ers  longitudinally  through  the  long  ridges, 
dipping,  it  may  be,  nearly  with  the  out 
er  slope,  and  descending  to  great  depths 
below  the  surface.  In  such  positions  they 
are  conveniently  reached  at  the  ends  of  the 
ridges  and  in  the  gaps  across  these,  by  a 
level  driven  on  the  course  of  the  bed,  and 
rising  just  enough  for  the  water  to  drain 
freely.  A  level  or  gangway  of  this  sort  is 
the  great  road  of  the  mine,  by  which  all  the 
coal  is  to  be  brought  out  in  case  other  sim 
ilar  gangways  are  not  driven  into  the  same 
bed  at  points  further  up  or  down  its  slope. 
Unless  the  dip  is  very  gentle,  one  at  the 
lowest  point  should  be  sufficient.  At  dif 
ferent  points  along  its  extension  passage 
ways  are  cut  in  the  coal,  directed  at  right 
angles  up  the  slope  of  the  bed,  and  as  soon 
as  one  of  them  can  be  brought  through  to 
the  surface,  a  ventilating  current  of  air  is 
established,  which  may  afterward  be  divert 
ed  through  all  the  workings.  The  passage 
ways  together  with  other  levels  above  divide 
the  coal-bed  into  great  blocks,  and  also  serve 
as  shutes  by  which  the  coal  excavated  above 
is  sent  down  to  the  main  gangway.  At  the 
bottom  of  each  shute  a  bin  is  constructed 
for  arresting  the  coal  and  discharging  it,  as 
required,  into  the  wagons  which  are  run  in 
beneath  on  the  tracks  laid  for  this  purpose. 
Coal-beds  in  this  position  are  also  worked 
from  the  gangway  by  broad  excavations  car 
ried  up  the  "  breast"  or  face  of  the  bed,  suf 
ficient  pillars  of  coal  from  12  to  25  feet  long 
being  left  in  either  case  to  support  the  roof. 
These  pillars  usually  occupy  the  most  room 
just  above  the  gangways,  and  on  passing  up 
between  them,  the  chambers  are  made  to 
widen  out  till  they  attain  a  breadth  of  about 
40  feet,  and  thus  the  breast  is  extended  up 
to  the  next  level.  Props  are  introduced 
wherever  required  to  support  the  roof,  and 
the  rubbish,  slates,  etc.,  are  stacked  up  for 
the  same  purpose,  as  well  as  to  get  them  out 
of  the  way. 


It  often  occurs  that  coal  beds  within  the 
ridges  can  be  reached  only  by  a  tunnel 
driven  in  from  the  side  of  the  mountain 
across  their  line  of  bearing.  Tunnels  of  this 
kind  are  sometimes  extended  till  they  cut 
two  or  more  parallel  coal-beds.  Each  one 
may  then  be  worked  by  gangways  leaving 
the  tunnel  at  right  angles  and  following  the 
coal-beds,  and  the  tunnel  continues  to  be 
the  main  outlet  of  them  all. 

When  it  is  desirable  to  obtain  the  coal 
from  the  portion  of  the  bed  below  the  level 
of  the  gangway,  preparations  must  first  be 
made  for  raising  the  water,  which  may  be 
done  for  a  time  by  bucket  and  windlass,  and 
as  the  slope  is  carried  down  and  the  flow  of 
water  increases,  then  by  mining  pumps 
worked  by  horse  or  steam  power.  The 
slope  may  commence  from  the  exterior  sur 
face  or  from  the  lower  gangway  of  a  mine 
already  in  operation,  and  is  made  large 
enough  to  admit  wagons,  which  ascend  and 
descend  upon  two  tracks  extending  down  its 
floor.  At  the  depth  of  200  or  300  feet 
a  gangway  is  driven  at  right  angles  with 
the  slope  in  each  direction  on  the  course  of 
the  bed,  and  from  this  the  workings  are  car 
ried  up  the  breast  as  already  described. 
Other  gangways  are  started  at  lower  levels 
of  100  feet  or  more  each,  dividing  the 
mine  into  so  many  stories  or  floors.  The 
coal  above  each  gangway  is  sent  down  to 
its  level  and  is  received  into  wagons.  By 
these  it  is  conveyed  to  the  slope,  and  here 
running  upon  a  turn-table,  each  wagon  is 
set  upon  the  track  in  the  slope  and  is  imme 
diately  taken  by  the  steam  engine  to  the  sur 
face,  another  car  at  the  same  time  coming 
down  on  the  other  track.  Reservoirs  are 
constructed  upon  the  different  levels  to  ar 
rest  the  water,  that  it  may  not  all  have  to 
be  raised  up  from  the  bottom,  and  the 
pumps  are  constructed  so  as  to  lift  the  wa 
ter  from  the  lower  into  the  higher  reservoirs 
and  thence  to  the  surface.  Many  mines  of 
this  character  are  opened  from  the  surface, 
one  of  which  is  represented  in  the  cut  of  the 
"  Colliery  Slope  and  Breaker,  at  Tuscarora, 
Pennsylvania."  An  empty  wagon  is  seen  in 
this  cut  descending  the  track  from  the  en 
gine  house  down  into  the  mouth  of  the  pit, 
and  through  the  end  of  the  building  pass 
es  the  pump  rod  which  by  means  of  a  vi 
brating  "  bob"  is  turned  down  the  pit  and 
works  by  the  side  of  the  track.  The  men 
pass  down  into  the  mines  of  this  character, 
sometimes  by  the  wagons,  and  sometimes  by 


COAL. 


ladders  or  steps  arranged  for  the  purpose 
between  the  two  tracks.  Though  the  open 
ing,  as  represented,  appears  insignificant  for 
an  important  mine,  such  a  slope  may  extend 
several  hundred  feet  in  depth,  and  many 
gangways  may  branch  off  from  it  to  the 
right  and  left,  extending  several  miles  un 
der  ground  in  nearly  straight  lines  along  the 
course  of  the  bed.  These,  however,  to  se 
cure  ventilation,  must  have  other  slopes  com 
ing  out  to  the  surface,  and  at  these  may  be 
other  arrangements  for  discharging  the  coal 
and  water.  In  extensive  mines  the  gang 
ways  are  made  wide  and  capacious  for  the 
continual  passing  back  and  forth  of  the  wag 
ons  drawn  by  mules.  These  animals  once 
lowered  into  the  mine  are  kept  constantly 
under  ground,  where  they  are  provided  with 
convenient  stables  excavated  from  the  coal 
and  rock.  The  men  continue  at  work  from 
eight  to  ten  hours,  and  in  well-ventilated 
mines  the  employment  is  neither  very  labo 
rious,  hazardous,  nor  disagreeable.  The  pur 
suit  has,  however,  little  attraction  for  Ameri 
cans,  and  is  mostly  monopolized  by  Welsh, 
English,  Irish,  and  German  miners. 

In  the  anthracite  region  there  have  been 
some  remarkable  instances  of  open  quarries 
of  coal.  That  of  the  Summit  mine  of  the 
Lehigh  is  unsurpassed  in  the  history  of  coal 
mining,  for  the  enormous  body  of  coal  ex 
posed  to  view.  The  great  coal-bed,  which 
appears  to  have  been  formed  by  a  num 
ber  of  beds  coming  together  through  the 
thinning  out  of  the  slates  that  separated 
them,  arches  over  the  ridge,  forming  the  up 
permost  layers  of  rock,  and  dipping  down 
the  sides  at  a  steeper  angle  than  their  in 
clination.  It  thus  passes  beneath  the  higher 
strata.  On  the  summit  a  thin  soil,  formed 
chiefly  of  the  decomposed  coal  itself,  covered 
the  beds  and  supported  a  growth  of  forest 
trees.  For  several  feet  down  the  coal  was 
loose  and  broken  before  the  solid  anthracite 
was  reached.  As  the  excavations  were  com 
menced  and  carried  on  from  this  point,  it 
appeared  as  if  the  whole  mountain  was  coal. 
Shafts  were  sunk  into  it  and  penetrated  re 
peated  layers  of  anthracite,  separated  by  thin 
seams  of  slate,  to  the  depth,  in  some  places, 
of  more  than  55  feet.  The  work  of  strip 
ping  off  and  removing  the  covering  of  yellow 
and  greenish  sandstones  and  refuse  coal  was 
carried  on,  till  the  quarry  had  extended  over 
about  50  acres,  and  on  the  north  side  the 
overlying  sandstone,  which  had  been  steadily 
increasing  in  thickness,  presented  a  wall  of 


30  to  40  feet  in  height.  Over  this  area  rail 
tracks  were  laid  for  removing  the  waste 
northward  to  the  slope  of  the  hill  toward 
the  Panther  Creek  valley ;  and  when  the 
piles  thus  formed  had  grown  into  large  hills, 
the  rubbish  was  deposited  in  the  spaces  left 
after  the  coal  had  been  removed.  During  the 
progress  of  this  work  the  scenes  presented 
were  of  the  most  picturesque  and  novel  char 
acter.  The  area  laid  bare  was  irregularly 
excavated  into  steps,  upon  which  temporary 
rail  tracks  were  laid  in  every  direction.  Up 
on  these  the  wagons  were  kept  busily  run 
ning,  some  carrying  off  the  coal,  some  load 
ed  with  slates  and  waste,  and  others  return 
ing  empty  for  their  loads.  Here  and  there 
stood  huge  isolated  masses  of  anthracite, 
with  their  covering  of  sandstone,  soil,  and 
the  relics  of  the  original  forest  growth,  reach 
ing  to  the  height  of  50  or  60  feet,  monu 
ments  of  the  vast  amount  of  excavation  that 
had  been  carried  on,  and  presenting  in  their 
naked,  vertical  walls,  fine  representations  of 
the  extraordinary  thickness  of  the  bed  and 
of  the  alternating  layers  of  slate  and  coal  of 
which  it  was  composed.  In  the  accompa 
nying  cut  of  the  great  open  quarry  of  the 
Lehigh  is  represented  one  of  these  blocks. 
Gradually  these  masses  disappeared  as  the 
miners  continued  their  operations ;  but  in 
the  boundary  walls  of  the  quarry  there  are 
still  to  be  seen  black  cliffs  of  solid  coal  more 
than  50  feet  high,  and  overtopped  by  a  wall 
of  yellow  sandstone  of  nearly  equal  addi 
tional  height.  Under  these  walls  opera 
tions  have  been  carried  on  by  the  regular 
system  of  underground  mining.  From  ten 
acres  of  the  quarry  it  has  been  estimated 
that  850,000  tons  of  coal  have  been  sent 
away,  the  value  of  which  in  the  ground  at 
the  usual  rate  of  30  cents  per  ton,  would  be 
$255,000,  or  $25,500  per  acre.  Estimating 
the  average  working  thickness  of  the  coal 
in  this  part  of  the  coal-field,  from  the  Lit 
tle  Schuylkill  to  Nesquehoning,  at  40  feet, 
which  according  to  the  report  of  the  state 
geologist  is  not  exaggerated,  every  availa 
ble  acre  contains  not  less  than  65,000  tons. 
The  expense  of  extracting  and  preparing 
the  coal  from  the  great  bed  for  market,  is 
stated  by  the  same  authority  to  be  37i 
cents  per  ton  for  mining  and  delivering 
ready  for  breaking  and  cleaning.  For  this 
operation  121  cents;  and  for  raising  it  to 
the  summit  and  running  it  to  Mauch  Chunk 
25  cents. 

Another    locality  where   coal  has  been 


144 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


worked  by  open  quarrying  is  at  the  mines 
of  the  Baltimore  Company,  near  Wilkes- 
barre.  Here,  too,  an  immense  bed  of  coal 
was  found  so  close  to  the  surface  that  it  was 
easily  uncovered  over  a  considerable  area. 
As  the  overlying  slates  and  sandstone  in 
creased  in  thickness,  it  was  found  at  last 
more  economical  to  follow  the  coal  under 
cover ;  and  it  was  then  worked  after  the 
manner  of  mining  the  bituminous  coal-beds 
west  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains.  Horizon 
tal  drifts  25  feet  high,  which  was  the  thick 
ness  of  the  bed,  were  carried  in  from  the 
abrupt  wall,  several  of  them  near  together 
and  separated  by  great  pillars  of  coal  left  to 
support  the  roof.  The  gangways  were  so 
broad  and  spacious  that  a  locomotive  and 
train  of  cars  might  have  been  run  into  the 
mine.  Within  they  were  crossed  by  a  suc 
cession  of  other  levels,  and  through  the  wide 
spaces  thus  left  open,  the  light  of  day  pene 
trated  far  into  the  interior  of  the  hill,  grad 
ually  disappearing  among  the  forest  of  black 
pillars  by  which  it  was  obstructed  and  ab 
sorbed. 

In  the  anthracite  region,  several  coal-beds 
of  workable  dimensions  are  often  found  in 
close  proximity,  so  that  when  dipping  at  a 
high  angle  they  are  penetrated  in  succession 
by  a  tunnel  driven  across  their  line  of  bear 
ing.  Larger  quantities  of  coal  are  thus  con 
centrated  in  the  same  area  than  are  ever  met 
with  in  the  bituminous  coal-field.  In  the 
northern  coal-fields,  between  Scranton  and 
Carbqndale,  tracts  have  brought  $800  or 
more  per  acre,  and  single  tracts  of  650  to 
700  acres  are  reported  upon  by  competent 
mining  engineers  as  containing  five  Avorkable 
beds,  estimated  to  yield  as  follows — each 
one  over  nearly  the  whole  area :  one  bed 
working  Y  feet,  11,200  tons  per  acre;  a  sec 
ond,  working  8  feet,  12,800  tons  per  acre; 
a  third,  6  feet,  9600  tons  per  acre  ;  a  fourth, 
the  same ;  and  a  fifth,  3  feet,  4800  tons — 
altogether  equalling  a  production  of  48,000 
tons  per  acre,  from  which  20  per  cent,  should 
be  deducted  for  mine  waste,  pillars,  etc. 

The  anthracite  as  usually  brought  out  from 
the  mines  is  mostly  in  large  lumps  of  incon 
venient  size  to  handle.  In  this  shape  it  was 
originally  sent  to  market,  and  when  sold  to 
consumers  a  man  was  sent  with  the  coal  to 
break  it  up  in  small  pieces  with  a  hammer. 
At  present  every  mine  is  supplied  with  an 
apparatus  called  a  coal-breaker,  which  is  run 
by  steam  power,  and  which  crushes  the  large 
pieces  of  coal  in  fragments.  It  consists  of 


two  rollers  of  cast  iron,  one  solid,  with  its 
surface  armed  with  powerful  teeth,  and  the 
other  of  open  basket-work  structure.  These 
revolve  near  together,  and  the  coal,  fed  from 
a  hopper  above,  is  broken  between  them,  and 
the  pieces  discharged  below  into  another  hop 
per  are  delivered  into  the  upper  end  of  a  re 
volving  cylindrical  screen,  made  of  stout  iron 
wire,  and  set  on  a  gentle  incline.  The  meshes 
of  this  screen  are  of  four  or  more  degrees  of 
coarseness.  At  the  upper  end  the  finer  par 
ticles  only  drop  through ;  passing  this  por 
tion  of  the  screen,  the  coarser  meshes  which 
succeed  let  through  the  stove  coal  sizes,  next 
the  "  egg  coal,"  and  next  the  "  broken  coal," 
while  the  coarsest  pieces  of  all,  called  "  lump 
coal,"  are  discharged  through  the  lower  end 
of  the  screen.  Under  the  screen  are  bins  or 
shutes,  separated  by  partitions,  so  as  to  keep 
each  size  by  itself.  Their  floor  slopes  down 
to  the  railway  track,  and  each  bin  at  its  lower 
end  is  provided  with  a  trap-door,  through 
which  the  coal  is  delivered  as  required  into 
the  wagons.  The  general  plan  of  this  ar 
rangement  is  seen  in  the  preceding  wood-cut 
of  the  Colliery  Slope  and  Breaker  at  Tusca- 
rora.  The  coal  wagons  are  here  run  from 
the  mine  up  into  the  top  of  the  engine  house, 
and  thence  through  the  building  to  the 
breaker  at  the  upper  end  of  the  slope  over 
the  shutes.  As  the  coal  falls  from  the  screen 
into  these,  boys  are  employed,  one  in  each 
bin,  to  pick  out  and  throw  away  the  pieces 
of  slate  and  stone  that  may  be  mixed  with 
the  coal.  This  they  soon  learn  to  do  very 
thoroughly  and  with  great  activity ;  and  up 
on  the  faithfulness  with  which  their  work  is 
done  depends  in  no  small  measure  the  repu 
tation  of  the  coal. 

USEFUL    APPLICATIONS. 

While  anthracite,  by  reason  of  its  simple 
composition,  is  fitted  only  for  those  uses  in 
which  the  combustion  or  oxidation  of  its 
carbon  is  required  to  generate  heat,  or  else 
to  extract  oxygen  from  other  substances, 
the  bituminous  coals,  containing  a  greater 
variety  of  ingredients,  serve  to  produce  from 
their  volatile  ingredients  illuminating  gas 
and  coal  oils.  These  two  subjects  will  be 
treated  in  distinct  chapters,  an.,  that  upon 
the  oils  may  properly  include  an  account 
of  the  wells  of  natural  oil  recently  devel 
oped  in  the  north-west  part  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  and  in  neighboring  districts  in  New- 
York  and  Ohio,  as  also  in  Virginia  and 
Kentucky. 


ILLUMINATING    GAS. 


145 


CHAPTER  X. 

ILLUMINATING  GAS. 

THE  supply  of  artificial  light  in  abun 
dance  and  at  little  cost  is  one  of  the  most 
important  benefits  which  science  and  me 
chanics  can  confer.  It  contributes  not 
merely  to  physical  comfort  and  luxurious 
living,  but  supplies  the  means  to  multitudes 
of  obtaining  instruction  during  those  hours 
after  the  cessation  of  their  daily  labors, 
which  are  not  required  for  sleep,  and 
which  among  the  poor  have  in  great 
measure  been  spent  in  darkness,  on  ac 
count  of  the  expense  of  artificial  light.  At 
the  present  day  it  is  not  unusual,  in  the  less 
cultivated  portions  of  the  country,  to  see  a 
farmer's  family  at  night  gathered  around  a 
blazing  fire,  and  some  among  them  seeking 
by  its  fitful  light  to  extract  the  news  from 
a  public  journal,  or  perhaps  conning  their 
school  tasks,  and  making  some  attempts  at 
writing  or  ciphering ;  and  when  the  hour  to 
retire  has  come,  the  younger  members  dis 
appear  in  the  dark,  and  the  more  honored 
are  favored  with  a  home-made  tallow  can 
dle,  just  sufficient  for  this  use,  and  endura 
ble  only  to  those  who  are  unaccustomed  to 
a  more  cleanly  and  efficient  method  of  il 
lumination.  With  the  advance  of  cultivation 
and  learning,  the  demand  for  better  light 
has  increased  the  more  rapidly  it  has  been 
met.  The  sea  has  been  almost  exhaust 
ed  of  whales  for  furnishing  supplies  of  oil. 
The  pork  of  the  West  has  been  largely  con 
verted  by  new  chemical  processes  into  lard 
oil  and  the  hard  stearine  for  candles ;  and 
numerous  preparations  of  spirits  of  turpen 
tine,  under  the  name  of  camphcne  and  burn 
ing  fluid,  have  been  devised  and  largely  in 
troduced  with  ingenious  lamps  contrived  to 
secure  the  excellent  light  they  furnish,  with 
the  least  possible  risk  of  the  awful  explo 
sions  to  which  these  fluids  are  liable  when 
their  vapor  cornes  in  contact  with  fire.  The 
bituminous  coals  have  been  made  to  give  up 
their  volatile  portions — by  one  process  to 
afford  an  illuminating  gas,  and  by  another 
to  produce  burning  oils  ;  and  the  earth  it 
self  is  bored  by  deep  wells  to  exhaust  the 
newly-found  supplies  of  oil  gathered  be 
neath  the  surface  at  unknown  periods  by 
natural  processes  of  distillation.  The  res 
inous  products  of  the  pine  tree  are  applied 
to  the  production  of  oil  and  gas  for  the 
same  purposes ;  and  peat,  wood,  and  other 
9* 


combustible  bodies — even  water  itself — are 
all  resorted  to  as  sources  from  which  the  cry 
for  "more  light"  shall  be  satisfied. 

The  distillation  of  carbonaceous  and  bi 
tuminous  substances  to  obtain  an  illuminat 
ing  gas  is  a  process,  the  practical  applica 
tion  of  which  hardly  dates  back  of  the  pres 
ent  century.  The  escape  of  inflammable 
gases  from  the  earth,  in  different  parts  of 
the  world,  had  been  observed,  and  the 
phenomenon  had  been  applied  to  supersti 
tious  ceremonials,  especially  at  Bakoo  on 
the  shores  of  the  Caspian.  The  Chinese 
are  said  to  have  applied  such  natural  jets 
of  gas  to  purposes  of  both  illumination  and 
heating;  but  the  first  attempts  to  light  build 
ings  by  gas  distilled  from  bituminous  coal 
were  made  about  the  year  1798  by  Mr. 
Murdock  in  the  manufactory  of  Messrs. 
Boulton  and  Watt,  at  Soho,  England,  and 
about  the  same  time  in  France  by  a  French 
man  named  Le  Bow.  The  London  and 
Westminster  Chartered  Gas  Light  and  Coke 
Company  was  incorporated  in  1810,  and 
Westminster  bridge  was  lighted  with  gas, 
Dec.  31,  1813.  The  process  was  introduced 
into  this  country  about  the  year  1821.  Some 
attempts  had  been  made  at  an  earlier  date, 
as  in  Baltimore  according  to  some  state 
ments  in  1816,  and  in  New  York  four  years 
before  this.  In  the  New  York  News  of 
August  15,  1859,  is  an  account  of  the  ef 
forts  made  by  Mr.  David  Melville  of  that 
city  to  establish  the  use  of  coal  gas  in  1812. 
He  lighted  his  own  house  with  it,  and  then 
a  factory  at  Pawtucket.  He  also  succeeded 
in  having  it  applied  to  one  of  the  light 
houses  on  the  coast  of  Rhode  Island,  and 
for  one  year  its  use  was  continued  with  suc 
cess.  But  on  account  of  the  disturbed  state 
of  the  times  and  the  prejudices  against  the 
use  of  a  new  material,  the  enterprise  fell 
through.  In  1822  the  manufacture  of  gas 
was  undertaken  in  Boston ;  and  the  next 
year  the  New  York  Gas  Light  Company 
was  incorporated  with  a  capital  of  $1,000,- 
000.  The  works,  however,  were  not  com 
pleted  and  in  operation  until  1827.  An 
other  company,  called  the  Manhattan  Gas 
Light  Company,  was  incorporated  in  1830 
with  a  capital  of  $500,000,  which  has  since 
been  increased  to  $4,000,000.  Such  were 
the  beginnings  of  this  branch  of  manufac 
ture,  which  has  of  late  rapidly  extended 
itself  throughout  all  the  cities  and  many  of 
the  towns  of  the  United  States,  having 
works  in  operation  representing  a  capital  of 


146 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THK    UNITED    STATES. 


more  than  $35,000,000,  which  in  1859  were 
owned  by  237  companies.  Some  of  these 
works  are  among  the  largest  and  most  ex 
pensive  manufacturing  establishments  of  any 
kind  in  the  country,  including  besides  the 
apparatus  employed  for  generating  and  hold 
ing  the  gas,  the  pipes  extending  throughout 
the  cities  for  the  supply  of  consumers.  In 
New  York  city  the  pipes  belonging  to  the 
Manhattan  Gas  Light  Company,  of  diam 
eters  varying  from  3  to  20  inches,  amounted 
in  1858  to  207  miles  in  length;  and  those 
of  the  New  York  Gas  Light  Company,  of 
diameters  from  4  to  18  inches,  amounted 
to  138  miles.  The  former  company  sup 
plies  that  portion  of  the  city  which  lies 
above  Grand  street  as  far  as  Seventy-ninth 
street,  and  the  latter  that  portion  below 
Grand  street. 

Within  the  last  few  years  the  use  of  gas 
has  increased  with  great  rapidity  throughout 
the  cities  and  towns  of  the  United  States, 
till  the  number  of  companies  in  operation 
in  the  year  1860  amounted  to  381,  accord 
ing  to  the  statistics  published  in  July  of 
that  year,  in  the  American  Gas  Light  Jour 


nal.  These  companies  represented  a  capi 
tal  of  $47,911,215;  and  it  is  since  ascer 
tained  that  this  sum  must  be  considerably 
increased  by  adding  to  the  list  over  50 
other  companies  from  which  no  returns  had 
then  been  received.  The  interest  it  appears 
must  already  rank  among  the  important 
branches  of  industry  of  the  country.  For 
much  of  the  statistical  information  on  this 
subject  we  are  chiefly  indebted  to  the  rec 
ords  collected  for  the  journal  above  named. 
The  first  table  below  will  serve  to  present 
some  idea  of  the  extent  of  the  larger  estab 
lishments,  and  the  range  in  the  cost  of  gas, 
which  varies  according  to  the  cost  of  the 
coal  employed,  the  scale  of  the  operations, 
etc.  The  lowest  price  paid  for  gas  is  at 
Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania,  $1.50  per  1000 
cubic  feet,  the  bituminous  coal  employed 
costing  only  $1.25  per  ton.  In  many  of 
the  smaller  towns  $7  is  the  price,  which 
is  the  maximum  on  the  Atlantic  side  of  the 
continent. 

The  second  table  gives  the  aggregate  num 
ber  of  gas  works  in  the  several  states, 
amount  of  capital  invested,  etc. 


SOME  OF  THE  PRINCIPAL  GAS  LIGHT  COMPANIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


Char 
tered. 

1830, 
1823, 
1825, 
1859, 
18-41, 

1822, 
1851, 
1849, 
1846, 
1839, 
1835, 
1848, 
1845, 
1838, 
1850, 
1848, 
1851, 
1852, 
1849, 
1848, 
1849, 
1853, 

1849, 
1849, 
1857, 
1852, 
1858, 


Localities. 


Chartered 
capital. 


Manhattan,  N.  Y $4,000,000 

New  York,  N.  Y 1,000,000 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y 2,000,000 

Citizens'  Co.,  Brooklyn 1,000,000 

Philadelphia 3,000,000 

Northern  Liberties 400,000 

Boston,  Mass 1,000,000 

Cincinnati,  Ohio 1,600,000 

Chicago,  111 1,300,000 

Charleston,  S.  C 723,800 

St.  Louis,  Mo 600,000 

Pittsburg,  Penn 300,000 

Providence,  R.  1 1,000,000 

Albany,  N.  Y 250,000 

Louisville,  Ky 600,000 

Williamsburg,  N.  Y 500,000 

Troy,  N.  Y 200,000 

Richmond,  Va. 341,975 

Rochester,  N.  Y 200,000 

Lowell,  Mass 200,000 

Cleveland,  Ohio 200,000 

Detroit,  Mich 500,000 

Jersey  City,  N.  J 300,000 

Milwaukee,  Wis 400,009 

Hartford,  Conn 200,000 

Portland,  Maine 250,000 

Columbia,  California. 
San  Francisco,  " 
Marysville,         " 
Stockton, 


50,000 
1,000,000 
50,000 
50,000 
1857,        Sacramento,       "      500,000 


Approximate 

Prices  to  private 

annual 

consumers 

production. 

per  1000  cubic 

Cubic  feet. 

feet. 

725,321,000 

$2  50 

430,000,000 

2  50 

163,000,000 

2  00 

2  00 

432,000,000 

2  25 

70,000,000 

2  50 

200,000,000 

2  50 

96,708,900 

2  50 

86,250,810 

3  50 

4  00 

74,500,000 

3  50 

54,720,000 

1  50 

41,437,883 

3  00 

40,250,000 

3  00 

33,750.000 

2  70 

33,493^082 

3  50 

28,000,000 

3  60 

27,000,000 

3  00 

25,000,000 

2  50 

21,000,000 

3  25 

20,000,000 

3  00 

20,000,000 

3  50 

19,234,000 

3  00 

19,049,560 

3  50 

15,000,000 

3  00 

3  60 

10  00 

8  00 

12  50 

10  00 

10  00 

Average  cost  of 
coal  used  per  ton. 

$6  50  to  $11 

00 

7  28  to       8 

'l5 

6*50            ! 

6  29 

5  00  to    12 

00 

3  40 

6  78 

7  50           ! 

* 

1  25         ..* 

7  20 

6  75  to      8 

'oo 

6  25  to       9 

50 

7  20 

4  15 

5  38 

6  50 

4  25 

. 

5  00 

. 

7  89 

6  00 

. 

8  68 


ILLUMINATING    GAS. 


147 


TOTAL  OF  GAS  COMPANIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  FROM  RETURNS  OF  JULY, 

Coal         Average  Bosin 

gas.  price.  gas. 

3  $5   16 


State. 


Companies.         Capital. 


Alabama 3 

Arkansas None 

California 9 

Connecticut 14 

Delaware 3 

District  of  Columbia 1 

Florida , 1 

Georgia 6 

Illinois 13 

Indiana 7 

Iowa 5 

Kansas 1 

Kentucky 5 

Louisiana 2 

Maine 10 

Maryland 6 

Massachusetts 49 

Michigan 8 

Minnesota 1 

Mississippi 4 

Missouri 4 

New  Hampshire 9 

New  Jersey 19 

New  York 71 

North  Carolina 8 

Ohio   30 

Oregon 1 

Pennsylvania 48 

Rhode  Island 7 

South  Carolina 2 

Tennessee 4 

Texas 3 

Vermont 8 

Virginia 11 

Wisconsin. .  8 


1860. 

Average 
price. 


$320,000 


1,790,000  9     10  05 

953,000  14      3  83 

244,300  3      3  50 

500.000  1      3  25 

30,000  1     7  00 

559,160  4      4  68 

2,595,000  13      3  91 

605,000  7     3  97 

355,000  5 

200,000  1 

905,000  5 

1,540,000  2 

905,300  9 

780,000  3 

4,759,000  45 

745,000  8 

200,000  1 

212,000  4 

775,000  4 

425,000  9 

1,849,610  17 

12,780,250  61 

187,000 

3,338,600  29 

50,000  1 

5,657,700  48 

1,344,000  6 

767,800  2 

663,000  4 

225,000  3      6  33 

216,000  6     4  25 

1,030,000  10      3  68 

778,500  8      4  44 


40 
00 
04 
50 
90 

3  49 

3  43 

3  78 

00 

75 

50 

98 

72 

70 


$G 


50 


3  85 
8  00 
3  55 

3  58 
5  00 

4  00 


10 
8 
1 


Grand  total 381  $47,911,215    346 


35 


•7  00 
6  60 
6  37 


6  50 

6  70 
5  93 

7  00 


7  00 


6  50 

7  00 


The  preparation  of  illuminating  gas  from 
bituminous  coal,  wood,  rosin,  and  other 
bodies  of  organic  nature,  is  a  chemical  proc 
ess,  too  complicated  to  be  very  fully  treated 
in  this  place.  When  such  bodies  are  intro 
duced  into  a  retort  and  subjected  to  strong 
heat,  the  elements  of  which  they  consist,  as 
carbon,  hydrogen,  oxygen,  and  nitrogen,  re 
solve  themselves  into  a  great  variety  of  com 
pounds,  and  escape  (with  the  exception  of 
a  fixed  carbonaceous  residue  of  charcoal  or 
of  coke)  through  the  neck  of  the  retort  in 
the  form  of  gas  or  vapors,  some  of  Ijie 
latter  of  which  condense  on  cooling  into 
liquids  and  solids.  These  compounds  are 
rendered  more  complicated  by  appropriating 
the  elements  of  air  and  moisture  that  may 
be  present  in  the  retort  or  in  the  crude  ma 
terial,  and  also  of  the  foreign  substances  or 
impurities  contained  in  the  latter.  In  proc 
esses  of  this  kind,  the  products  vary  great 
ly  in  their  character  and  relative  proportions 
according  to  the  degree  of  heat  employed, 


and  the  rapidity  with  which  the  operation  is 
conducted.  The  object  in  this  special  dis 
tillation  is  to  obtain  the  largest  proportion 
of  the  gases  richest  in  carbon,  particularly 
that  known  as  defiant  gas,  which  consists 
of  86  parts  by  weight  of  carbon  and  14  of 
hydrogen,  represented  by  the  formula  C4 
H4.  This  and  some  other  gaseous  hydro 
carbons  of  similar  composition,  or  oven  con 
taining  a  much  larger  amount  of  carbon  in 
the  same  volume,  and  hence  having  a  cor 
respondingly  greater  illuminating  capacity, 
it  is  found,  are  produced  most  freely  from 
carbonaceous  substances  which  contain  a 
large  proportion  of  hydrogen  compared  with 
that  of  oxygen.  Many  of  the  common  bi 
tuminous  coals  contain  about  5'5  per  cent 
each  of  hydrogen  and  oxygen,  the  rest  be 
ing  carbon.  Boghead  cannel  of  Scotland 
contains  11  per  cent,  of  hydrogen  and  6-7 
of  oxygen;  rosin  10  per  cent,  hydrogen  and 
10-6  oxygen;  wood  5-5  hydrogen  and  44-5 
oxygen.  Of  such  compounds  the  cannel 


148 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


yields  the  richest  gas  and  in  largest  quan 
tity.  Still,  as  will  be  more  fully  explained 
hereafter,  the  process  may  be  so  conducted 
as  to  obtain  chiefly  liquid  instead  of  gaseous 
products.  With  the  defiant  gas  and  the 
others  of  similar  composition,  a  number  of 
other  gases  also  appear,  some  of  which  seem 
to  be  essential  for  producing  the  effect  re 
quired  in  illuminating  gas,  though  they  do 
not  themselves  afford  light  by  their  combus 
tion.  Their  part  is  rather  like  that  of  nitro 
gen  in  the  atmosphere,  to  moderate  the  in 
tensity  of  the  more  active  agent  of  the  mix 
ture.  Such  are  the  light  carburetted  hydro 
gen,  carbonic  oxide,  and  hydrogen,  all  of 
which  are  inflammable,  but  possess  little  or 
no  illuminating  power.  The  first  named 
contains  in  an  equal  volume  only  half  as 
much  carbon  as  olefiant  gas,  its  composition 
being  represented  by  the  formula  C2  H4, 
and  if  its  proportion  is  too  great  for  the 
purpose  it  serves  as  a  diluent,  the  quality  of 
the  gas  is  impaired,  and  must  be  corrected 
by  the  use  of  richer  material  or  increased 
care  in  the  process. 

The  light  produced  by  the  combustion 
of  gas  is  variable,  not  only  according  to  the 
quality  of  the  gas,  but  also  according  to  the 
manner  in  which  it  is  burned.  If  its  ele 
ments  undergo  the  chemical  changes  which 
constitute  combustion  simultaneously,  the 
hydrogen  combining  with  the  oxygen  of  the 
air  to  form  aqueous  vapor,  and  the  carbon 
with  oxygen  to  produce  carbonic  acid,  no 
yellow  flame  appears,  but  instead  of  this,  a 
pale  blue  flame  like  that  of  hydrogen  alone. 
Such  an  effect  is  produced  when  air  is 
thoroughly  intermixed  with  the  gas  as  it 
passes  through  a  tube  to  the  jet  Avhere  it  is 
ignited.  But  if  the  conditions  of  the  com 
bustion  are  such  that  the  hydrogen  burns 
first  and  appropriates  the  oxygen  in  contact 
with  the  gas,  the  particles  of  carbon  are 
brought  to  an  incandescent  state  and  pro 
duce  the  yellow  light  before  they  reach  the 
oxygen  with  which  they  combine.  The 
particles  may  even  be  arrested  while  in  trans- 
itu  and  be  deposited  upon  a  cold  surface  in 
the  form  of  soot.  The  greatest  heat  is  pro 
duced  with  the  most  thorough  mode  of 
combustion  .and  the  appearance  of  the  pale 
blue  flame ;  and  lamps  designed  to  give 
great  heat  are  now  in  general  use  among 
chemists,  in  which  gas  is  burned  in  this 
manner.  When  the  air  is  impelled  by  a 
bellows  they  even  produce  an  intensity  of 
heat  sufficient  for  many  crucible  operations. 


If  too  much  carbon  be  present  a  part  of 
it  escapes  unconsumed  and  produces  a 
smoky  flame,  hence  the  necessity  of  the  di 
luents  or  gases  deficient  in  carbon  for  neu 
tralizing  the  too  large  proportion  of  those 
gases  richest  in  carbon.  The  noxious  com 
pounds  in  illuminating  gas,  and  which 
should  be  as  far  as  possible  extracted  from 
it  before  it  is  delivered  for  consumption,  are 
the  sulphurous  ingredients  formed  by  the 
combination  of  the  sulphur  of  the  iron 
pyrites  commonly  present  in  bituminous 
coals  with  the  carbon,  and  with  the  hydro 
gen  and  the  ammoniacal  products.  They 
are  the  highly  offensive  sulphurets  of  carbon, 
the  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  etc.  Carbonic 
acid,  nitrogen,  oxygen,  carbonate  of  ammo 
nia  and  aqueous  vapors  are  to  be  regarded 
as  foreign  substances,  though  always  present 
to  some  extent  in  the  gas. 

The  liquids  generated  by  the  distillation 
mostly  condense  in  two  layers  on  cooling, 
the  upper  an  aqueous  fluid,  rendered  strong 
ly  alkaline  by  the  ammoniacal  compounds  in 
solution;  and  the  lower  a  black  tarry  mix 
ture  commonly  known  as  coal  tar,  which  is 
composed  of  more  than  a  dozen  different 
oily  hydrocarbons,  as  benzole,  tuluole,  etc., 
and  contain  in  solution  the  solid  oily  com 
pounds  of  carbon  and  hydrogen,  as  naph 
thaline,  para-naphthaline,  and  several  others. 
Many  of  these  are  likely  to  prove  of  con 
siderable  practical  importance.  Benzole  is 
a  highly  volatile  fluid,  a  powerful  solvent  of 
the  resins,  india-rubber,  gutta  percha,  greasy 
matters,  etc.  A  most  beautiful  light  is  pro 
duced  by  the  flame  of  benzole  mixed  with 
due  proportions  of  common  air,  and  the 
mixture  is  effected  by  passing  a  current  of 
air  through  the  fluid,  the  vapor  of  which  it 
takes  up  and  carries  along  with  it.  The 
difficulty  attending  this  application  is  the 
condensation  of  the  benzole  and  its  separa 
tion  from  the  air  at  temperatures  below  50°. 
Above  70°  too  much  vapor  is  taken  up, 
and  the  effect  is  a  smoky  flame.  In  Europe 
much  attention  has  been  directed  to  the 
separation  of  the  more  hidden  products  of 
coal  tar ;  and  among  these  the  following  are 
enumerated  in  a  statement  exemplifying  the 
rapid  increase  in  the  value  of  these  prod 
ucts  as  they  are  obtained  by  more  extend 
ed  researches.  Benzole  worth  about  25 
cents  a  pound ;  nitro-benzole,  a  substance 
having  the  odor  and  taste  of  bitter  almonds 
and  used  as  a  flavoring,  worth,  crude,  70 
cents,  or  refined,  $1.50  per  pound.  The  or- 


ILLUMINATING    GAS. 


dinary  aniline  dye  for  producing  the  mauve 
color,  $4.50  to  $8  per  pound,  and  the  pure 
aniline  violet  in  powder  $240  to  $325  per 
pound,  or  about  its  weight  in  gold. 

Gas  works  established  in  cities  and  towns 
are  commonly  built  in  places  where  the 
property  and  buildings  around  are  least  like 
ly  to  be  injured  by  the  escape  of  the  prod 
ucts,  and  rather  upon  a  low  than  a  high 
level,  for  the  reason  that  the  gas  on  account 
of  its  lightness  compared  with  the  atmos 
pheric  air  ascends  more  freely  than  it  de 
scends  to  its  points  of  communication  with 
the  external  air.  The  works  consist  of  the 
apparatus  for  distilling  the  coal  and  receiv 
ing  the  products  of  the  distillation,  that  for 
purifying  the  gas,  and  that  for  conveying  it 
to  the  places  where  it  is  consumed,  and 
there  measuring  the  quantities  supplied  to 
each  customer.  The  retorts  in  general  use 
are  either  of  cast  iron  or  of  fire  clay.  The 
latter  are  a  late  improvement  highly  recom 
mended,  and  introduced  at  the  present  time 
into  a  few  of  the  gas  works.  Various  forms 
have  been  tried ;  the  most  approved  are  of 
O  shape,  7  to  9  feet  long,  1  or  2  feet  wide, 
and  12  or  15  inches  high.  They  are  set  in 
the  furnace  stacks,  commonly  two  on  the 
same  horizontal  plane,  two  more  over  these, 
and  a  fifth  at  the  top.  A  single  furnace  fire 
"below  is  sufficient  for  heating  them,  and  the 
capacity  of  the  works  is  increased  by  multi 
plying  these  fires  along  the  length  of  the 
stacks.  Sometimes  the  stacks  are  made 
double,  so  as  to  take  two  retorts  set  end  to 
end,  each  opening  on  opposite  sides  of  the 
stack.  In  place  of  two  retorts  a  single  long 
one  has  been  substituted,  passing  entirely 
through  and  having  at  each  end  an  opening 
for  charging  and  discharging.  In  large  es 
tablishments  as  many  as  600  or  more  retorts 
may  be  set,  all  of  which  may  be  kept  em 
ployed  in  the  winter  season,  when  the  con 
sumption  of  gas  is  largest.  The  outer  end 
of  each  retort  projects  a  little  way  in  front 
of  the  wall  of  the  furnace,  and  is  provided 
with  a  movable  mouth-piece  covering  the 
entire  end,  which  may  be  readily  removed 
for  admitting  the  charge  of  coal.  Upon  the 
top  of  this  projecting  end  or  neck  stands 
the  cast-iron  pipe  of  about  4  inches  in  di 
ameter,  called  the  stand  pipe,  through  which 
the  volatile  products  pass  from  the  retort. 
It  rises  a  few  feet,  then  curves  over  back,  and 
passes  down  into  a  long  horizontal  pipe  of 
large  diameter,  which  is  laid  upon  the  out 
er  edge  of  the  brick-work,  and  extends  the 


whole  length  of  the  furnace  stacks.  This 
is  called  the  hydraulic  main,  and  into  it  all 
the  volatile  products  from  the  retorts  be 
neath  are  discharged.  It  is  kept  about  half 
filled  with  water  or  the  liquid  tarry  matters, 
and  the  dip  pipes  terminate  about  three 
inches  below  this  fluid  surface.  By  this  ar 
rangement  the  retorts  are  kept  entirely  inde 
pendent  of  each  other,  while  their  products 
all  meet  in  one  receptacle. 

In  manufacturing  gas  it  is  found  neces 
sary  to  introduce  the  charge  into  the  retorts 
already  at  a  full  red  heat,  and  bring  it  as 
rapidly  as  possible  to  the  high  temperature 
required  for  producing  the  richest  gaseous 
hydrocarbons.  A  low  and  slowly  increas 
ing  heat  causes  the  ingredients  of  the  charge 
to  form  a  large  proportion  of  liquid  and  oily 
substances,  and  little  gas.  It  is  only  while 
the  coal  is  approaching  a  vivid  red  heat 
that  the  best  gaseous  mixtures  arc  obtained ; 
and  even  these  are  deteriorated  by  change 
in  the  composition  of  the  olefiant  and  other 
rich  gases  of  which  they  are  in  part  com 
posed,  if  the  mixture  is  exposed  to  too  high 
temperature,  or  remains  in  contact  with  red 
hot  surfaces  of  iron.  The  duration  of  the 
charge  used  formerly  to  be  from  8  to  10 
hours ;  but  from  the  observations  of  the 
qualities  of  the  gases  evolved  at  different 
stages  of  the  process,  it  has  gradually  been 
reduced  to  4  to  6  hours,  varying  according 
to  the  character  of  the  coal  employed.  The 
richest  gases  are  obtained  in  the  first  hour, 
and  after  this  the  proportional  quantity  per 
hour  steadily  diminishes  at  the  same  time 
that  the  quality  gradually  deteriorates.  The 
temptation,  however,  to  obtain  the  largest 
amount  of  a  commodity  which  is  sold  only 
by  measure,  and  to  consumers  who  have  no 
means  of  assuring  themselves  of  its  real 
quality,  no  doubt  often  leads  to  extending 
the  operation  to  the  separation  of  gaseous 
mixtures  having  very  little  illuminating  pow 
er.  The  manufacturers  knowing  their  ma 
terials,  and  checking  their  operations  by 
regular  photometrical  tests,  can  control  the 
quality  of  the  product  as  they  see  fit. 

In  order  that  the  least  loss  may  be  incur 
red  in  bringing  the  charge  up  to  the  proper 
temperature,  the  retorts  are  kept  at  a  full  red 
heat ;  and  when  ready  for  a  new  charge  the 
mouth-piece  is  partially  removed,  and  the 
gas  that  escapes  is  ignited.  When  the  danger 
of  explosion  by  sudden  admission  of  air  has 
passed  the  lid  is  removed,  and  the  red  hot 
coke  is  raked  out  and  quenched  with  water. 


1BO 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


The  new  charge  is  then  introduced  by  means 
of  a  long  iron  scoop  bent  up  at  the  sides, 
which  is  pushed  into  the  retort,  and  being 
turned  over,  discharges  its  contents.  The 
mouth-piece  is  then  replaced,  and  tightly 
secured  with  a  luting  of  clay  or  lime.  It  is 
obvious  that  the  more  perfectly  the  coal  is 
freed  from  moisture,  the  better  must  be  the 
gas ;  and  if  it  were  also  first  somewhat 
heated,  the  result  would  be  still  more  satis 
factory.  The  coals  employed  at  the  differ 
ent  gas  works  of  the  United  States  are  gen 
erally  mixtures  of  the  caking  coals  of  the 
interior,  or  of  those  of  Richmond,  Virginia, 
and  of  Nova  Scotia,  with  cannel  coal,  which 
for  the  cities  near  the  coast  is  imported 
from  Great  Britain,  and  for  those  in  the  in 
terior  is  obtained  from  the  mines  of  this  coal 
in  western  Virginia  and  in  Kentucky.  The 
larger  the  proportion  of  cannel,  the  better 
should  be  the  gas,  under  the  same  method 
of  manufacture.  In  the  works  in  New 
York  city,  the  proportion  of  cannel  is  gen 
erally  from  one  third  to  one  fourth  of  the 
whole.  Other  establishments  generally  use 
a  less  proportion  of  it.  The  amount  of  gas 
it  may  produce  varies  with  the  kind  of  can 
nel  from  9500  cubic  feet  to  the  ton  to 
15,000  cubic  feet.  The  last  is  the  yield  of 
the  Boghead  cannel.  In  general,  the  greater 
the  yield  the  better  also  is  the  quality  of  the 
gas,  as  is  indicated  by  its  increased  specific 
gravity,  that  of  the  cannel  last  named  being 
.752,  while  the  gas  from  other  cannels  yield 
ing  about  10,000  cubic  feet  may  not  exceed 
.500.  The  best  Newcastle  coals  are  not  infe 
rior,  either  in  the  amount  or  quality  of  the  gas 
they  afford,  to  most  of  the  cannels.  They 
produce  about  12,000  cubic  feet  of  gas  to 
the  ton,  and  of  specific  gravity  sometimes 
exceeding  .550  or  even  .600.  The  specific 
gravity  is  not  depended  upon  as  a  certain 
test  of  the  quality  of  the  gas,  the  density 
of  which  may  be  increased  by  presence  of 
impure  heavy  gases,  or  even  of  atmospheric 
air  ;  but  it  is  resorted  to  only  as  an  indica 
tion  in  the  absence  of  more  exact  tests. 

The  coke  obtained  from  the  retorts, 
amounting  to  about  40  bushels  to  the  ton 
of  coals,  furnishes  all  the  fuel  required  for 
the  fires  beneath,  and  three  times  as  much 
more,  which  is  sold  for  fuel.  As  the  vola 
tile  products  pass  through  the  hydraulic 
main,  the  principal  portions  of  the  oily  and 
ammoniacal  compounds  are  deposited  in  it ; 
but  some  of  these  pass  on  in  vapors,  and 
would,  if  not  separated,  cause  obstructions 


in  the  pipes  in  which  they  might  condense 
in  liquids  and  solids.  They  are  consequent 
ly  passed  through  a  succession  of  tall  iron 
pipes  standing  in  the  open  air,  and  some 
times  kept  cool  by  water  trickling  down 
their  outside.  A  pipe  from  the  bottom  of 
each  pair  conveys  the  condensed  tar  and 
ammonia  into  a  cistern  in  the  ground.  To 
still  further  separate  the  condensable  por 
tions,  the  gas  at  some  works  is  next  passed 
into  the  bottom  of  a  tower  filled  with  bricks, 
stones,  etc.,  among  the  interstices  of  which 
it  finds  its  way  up,  at  the  same  time  that 
water  constantly  sprinkled  on  the  top  is 
working  down  and  keeping  the  whole  cool. 
The  water  washes  away  the  remaining  am 
monia;  but  it  is  to  be  feared  that  it  also  re 
moves  some  of  the  richest  hydrocarbons, 
and  the  use  of  the  wet  scrubber,  as  it  is 
called,  is  already  abandoned  at  some  of  the 
gas  works  for  similar  methods  of  condens 
ing,  except  that  the  water  is  dispensed 
with.  The  gas  makes  its  exit  from  the  top 
of  the  scrubber ;  and  its  passage  being  al 
ready  somewhat  impeded  so  as  to  throw 
considerable  pressure  back  into  the  retorts, 
thus  effecting  chemical  changes  in  the  gas, 
which  impair  its  quality,  it  is  found  neces 
sary  to  introduce  a  revolving  exhauster, 
which  takes  off  this  pressure,  and  at  the 
same  time  propels  the  gas  forward  into  the 
succeeding  apparatus.  This  is  first  a  puri 
fier,  the  object  of  which  is  to  arrest  the  car- 
'bonic  acid  and  sulphurous  gases.  Dry 
quicklime,  and  also  the  solution  of  this  in 
water,  known  as  milk  of  lime,  have  the  prop 
erty  of  absorbing  these  gases  as  they  are 
made  to  pass  among  the  particles  of  the  one 
spread  upon  shelves,  or  interspersed  among 
a  porous  substance  such  as  dry  moss ;  or  to 
bubble  up  through  the  aqueous  solution. 
The  lime  as  it  becomes  saturated  with  the 
impure  gases  is  replaced  with  fresh  portions. 
The  cleansing  process  is  now  complete, 
and  the  gas  is  in  proper  condition  to  be  de 
livered  to  the  consumer.  It  must  first,  how 
ever,  be  measured,  that  a  record  may  be  kept 
of  the  quantity  produced,  and  it  is  next  con 
ducted  into  the  great  gas-holders  in  which 
it  is  stored.  The  measurement  is  effected 
by  means  of  a  large  station  meter,  construct 
ed  on  the  principle  of  the  small  service- 
meters,  with  one  of  which  each  consumer  is 
supplied.  A  revolving  drum  with  four  com 
partments  of  equal  capacity  is  made  to  rotate 
in  a  tight  box  by  the  gas  entering  and  fill 
ing  one  of  these  compartments  after  another. 


ILLUMINATING    GAS. 


151 


Their  capacity  being  known,  and  the  number 
of  revolutions  being  recorded  by  a  train  of 
wheel-work  outside  the  box,  the  quantity  of 
gas  which  passes  through  is  exactly  indica 
ted.  The  largest  meters  pass  about  650 
cubic  feet  by  one  revolution  of  the  drum,  or 
about  70,000  cubic  feet  in  an  hour. 

The  gas-holders  are  the  large  cylindrical 
vessels  of  plate  iron,  the  most  conspicuous 
objects  at  the  gas  works.  Each  one  is  set 
with  its  open  end  down,  and  immersed  in  a 
cistern  of  water  of  diameter  a  little  exceed 
ing  its  own.  It  is  buoyed  up  by  the  water, 
and  also  counterbalanced  by  weights  passing 
over  pulleys.  The  gas  admitted  under  the 
inverted  cylinder  lifts  this  up,  and  fills  all 
the  portion  above  the  water.  The  weight 
of  the  cylinder  when  the  influx  is  shut  off, 
and  the  discharge  pipes  are  opened  presses 
the  gas  out  and  through  the  mains  to  the 
points  where  it  is  consumed.  The  gas-hold 
ers  of  the  largest  works  are  of  immense 
size.  In  Philadelphia,  there  is  one  160  feet 
in  diameter  and  95  feet  high,  holding  1,800,- 
000  cubic  feet  of  gas.  Even  this  is  exceeded 
by  one  at  the  Imperial  Gas  Company's  works, 
London,  which  is  201  feet  in  diameter,  80 
feet  high,  and  of  the  capacity  of  2,500,000 
cubic  feet.  This  cost  upward  of  $200,000  ; 
and  contains  1500  tons  of  iron,  5000  cubic 
feet  of  stone  work,  and  2,000,000  bricks. 
No  advantage  is  gained  in  a  single  structure 
of  this  immense  size  over  several  smaller 
ones.  On  the  contrary,  this  involves  heavy 
expenditures  to  protect  them  against  the 
force  of  the  wind,  and  render  them  manage 
able.  Those  of  great  height  are  made  in 
sections,  which  shut  one  within  another  in 
descending,  like  the  parts  of  a  telescope. 
As  each  section  is  lifted  in  turn  out  of  the 
water,  its  lower  edge,  which  is  turned  up  in 
an  outward  direction,  forming  an  annular 
cup,  includes  a  portion  of  water,  into  which 
the  upper  edge  of  the  next  lower  section 
catches,  being  turned  over  inward  for  this 
purpose.  A  gas-tight  jofat  between  the  two 
gections  is  thus  formed. 

To  insure  uniformity  of  pressure,  as,  the 
gas  enters  the  mains  it  is  first  made  to  pass 
through  the  apparatus  called  a  governor,  in 
which,  according  to  the  force  or  slowness 
with  which  it  moves,  it  causes  a  valve  to  rise 
and  partially  close  an  aperture  within  the 
machine  through  which  the  gas  flows,  or  to 
descend  and  open  this  aperture.  The  in 
crease  of  pressure  as  the  gas  is  carried  to 
higher  levels,  amounting  to  one  fifth  of  an 


inch  of  water  in  every  30  feet,  renders  it 
important  in  hilly  towns  to  have  governors 
upon  different  levels.  In  high  buildings  a 
very  sensible  difference  is  perceived  in  the 
force  with  which  the  gas  issues  from  the 
burners  on  the  different  stories.  This  in 
volves  a  waste  of  gas  where  the  pressure  is 
great,  for  under  such  conditions  a  consider 
able  portion  of  that  consumed  adds  little 
to  the  illuminating  effect.  Various  govern 
ors  or  regulators  have  been  devised  for  the 
use  of  consumers  with  a  view  of  producing 
an  increase  of  light  with  reduced  consump 
tion  of  gas ;  and  when  judiciously  applied, 
some  of  them,  as  Kidder's  and  Stirling's,  have 
proved  very  successful.  The  latter  has  been 
introduced  into  some  of  the  public  buildings 
of  New  York  city,  controlled  by  the  Street 
Department,  and  according  to  the  report  of 
the  Street  Commissioner,  the  saving  has 
been  in  many  instances  very  remarkable. 

Each  consumer  of  gas  is  supplied  with  a 
meter,  which  is  under  the  control  of  the 
gas  company ;  and  from  its  indications  the 
amount  furnished  is  determined  by  inspec 
tion  every  month. 

Though  in  the  use  of  gas  the  consumer  is 
in  a  great  measure  dependent  on  the  manu 
facturer  as  regards  the  economy  of  the  light, 
there  are  several  points,  by  giving  personal 
attention  to  which,  he  may  more  fully  real 
ize  the  saving  it  affords.  In  the  first  place, 
he  must  be  aware  that  every  one  employing 
this  source  of  light  uses  it  more  freely  than 
that  derived  from  lamps  and  candles.  It  is 
enjoyed  with  so  little  trouble  and  apparent 
cost,  that  much  more  light  is  soon  regarded 
essential,  than  was  perfectly  satisfactory  un 
der  the  old  methods  of  producing  it.  He 
should  next  see  that  the  area  of  the  delivery 
pipe  bears  such  proportion  to  the  quantity 
usually  required,  that  tkere  is  no  undue  pres 
sure  upon  the  burners,  as  is  evident  when, 
the  gas  "blows"  through  them  as  it  burns. 
This  should  be  checked  by  shutting  off  a 
part  of  the  supply  by  means  of  the  stop-cock 
at  the  meter ;  and  this  should  be  looked  to 
after  every  visit  of  the  gas  man  to  the  meter. 
The  regulator  also  is  intended  to  remedy 
this  over  supply,  but  it  may  still  be  neces 
sary  to  keep  part  of  the  gas  turned  off,  and 
by  so  doing  the  regulator  may  be  dispensed 
with.  Attention  should  next  be  directed  to 
the  burners,  that  those  of  largest  size,  such  as 
consume  with  the  ordinary  pressure  six  feet 
or  more  of  gas  an  hour,  should  be  placed 
only  where  the  greatest  quantity  of  light,  is 


152 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


required,  and  that  burners  of  four  feet,  three 
feet,  two  feet,  or  even  one  foot  an  hour,  be 
placed  where  the  light  they  give  will  be  suf 
ficient.  The  burners  called  Scotch  tips,  giv 
ing  what  is  called  the  fish-tail  flame,  are  in 
common  use,  but  a  great  variety  of  others 
have  been  contrived,  and  some  of  them  are 
highly  recommended  for  affording  more  light 
with  the  same  amount  of  gas.  All,  however, 
are  liable  to  become  foul  after  a  time,  and 
should  be  occasionally  cleaned  or  replaced. 
The  iron  of  which  they  are  made  is  corrod 
ed  by  the  ingredients  of  the  gas,  espccialty 
when  not  in  use,  and  air  entering  its  ele 
ments  form  acid  compounds  with  those  of 
the  gas  which  remain  in  the  open  portion 
of  the  pipe.  The  argand  burner  is  recom 
mended  for  the  powerful  and  steady  ligh£  it 
gives,  but  it  is  far  from  being  economical,  and 
moreover  produces  great  heat.  For  a  steady 
light  Gleason's  "  American  gas-burner"  com 
bines  the  advantages  of  brilliant  light,  steadi 
ness  of  flame,  and  moderate  consumption. 

The  quality  of  gas  is  determined  either  by 
analysis,  or  more  conveniently  by  testing 
with  the  photometer  its  comparative  capac 
ity  of  producing  light.  The  standard  adopt 
ed  for  comparison  is  spermaceti  candles,  each 
one  burning  120  grains  in  an  hour.  An  ar 
gand  burner  consuming  five  feet  of  gas  an 
hour  (tho  quantity  carefully  proved  by  the 
meter)  is  used  in  making  the  trial ;  and  the 
number  of  candles  required  to  produce  an 
equal  amount  of  light  indicates  the  quality 
of  the  gas.  At  the  points  of  consumption 
this  is  sometimes  inferior  to  that  of  the  gas 
at  the  works  before  it  enters  the  gas-holders 
and  passes  through  the  mains ;  but  in  very 
cold  weather,  by  the  condensation  of  the 
richest  hydrocarbon  vapor  in  the  pipes,  the 
gas  that  reaches  the  burners  is  poorer  than 
that  which  left  the^vorks.  Consequently 
these  facts  should  be  taken  into  consider 
ation  in  estimating  the  quality  of  gas  fur 
nished  by  any  establishment.  Again,  after 
a  period  of  excessive  cold  weather,  when  the 
gas  has  burned  dimly  by  the  condensation 
of  its  best  portions  in  the  pipes — it  may  be 
to  the  extent  at  times  of  obstructing  the  flow 
through  them — and  with  the  return  of  milder 
weather  the  vapors  are  released  and  mix  with 
the  new  gas,  they  sometimes  so  overburden 
this  with  an  undue  proportion  of  the  richest 
compounds,  that  with  the  ordinary  burners 
the  gas  cannot  be  consumed,  and  the  result 
is  a  smoky  flame,  of  which  the  consumers 
make  great  complaint,  believing  it  to  be 


caused  by  inferior  gas.  Such  are  some  of 
the  causes,  over  which  the  manufacturers 
have  no  control,  that  involve  more  or  less  ir 
regularity  in  the  quality  of  the  gas  supplied. 

The  gas  produced  at  different  works  is  of 
various  qualities.  That  of  the  Manhattan. 
Gas  Light  Company  is  rated  at  sixteen  can 
dles,  and  is  probably  as  good  as  any  furnish 
ed  in  our  cities.  It  is  tested  daily  with  the 
photometer  at  their  office,  at  the  corner  of 
Irving  Place  and  Fifteenth  street,  New  York. 
In  England,  the  gas  of  the  London  works  va 
ries  from  eleven  to  eighteen  candles.  That 
of  Liverpool  is  much  better,  sometimes  being 
equal  to  twenty-two  candles. 

Other  materials  than  coal  have  been  ap 
plied  to  some  extent  in  the  United  States 
for  producing  gas,  chiefly  for  small  supplies 
for  single  buildings.  The  most  successful  of 
these  processes  is  that  with  rosin  oil.  The 
apparatus  is  exceedingly  simple,  and  is  placed 
in  an  apartment  in  an  out-building.  It  con 
sists  of  a  stove  containing  a  chamber  in  the 
top,  into  which  the  rosin  oil  is  allowed  to 
drop  slowly.  It  is  decomposed  by  the  heat 
of  the  surface  upon  which  it  falls,  and  the 
gaseous  products  pass  immediately  through 
the  pipes  into  the  gas-holder,  whence  they  are 
distributed  as  at  the  large  gas  works.  The 
supply  for  a  week  may  be  made  in  less  than 
an  hour  with  very  little  attention  from  the 
person  in  charge.  The  gas  is  superior  to 
that  from  coal,  and  the  expense,  not  reckon 
ing  the  cost  of  the  gas-holder  and  the  appa 
ratus,  is  less  than  the  price  ordinarily  paid 
for  gas. 

In  Philadelphia  wood  has  been  success 
fully  used  at  the  Market  street  bridge  works. 
Six  retorts  have  been  kept  in  operation  with 
it  for  some  time,  and  the  yield  and  quality 
of  the  gas  have  proved  very  satisfactory.  As 
in  the  use  of  coal,  it  is  found  necessary  to 
charge  the  material  into  retorts  already  at  a 
high  heat,  otherwise  the  gaseous  products 
have  little  illuminating  power.  Gas  thus 
made  from  pine  wood  has  been  found  to 
contain  10.57  per  cent,  of  olefiant  gas,  and 
that  from  oak  6.46  per  cent. 

HYDROCARBON  GAS. — What  is  known  as 
the  hydrocarbon  or  water  gas  manufacture 
was  introduced  into  Philadelphia  in  1858, 
and  according  to  the  published  reports,  its 
application  to  lighting  a  portion  of  the  Girard 
House  in  that  city,  proved  for  several  months 
perfectly  satisfactory.  It  was  introduced 
into  the  town  of  Aurora,  Indiana,  in  January, 
1861,  and  according  to  the  statements  pub- 


ILLUMINATING    GAS. 


153 


lished  in  the  Cincinnati  Daily  Commercial, 
the  operation  had  been  very  successful. 
The  light  is  described  as  very  brilliant,  and 
the  gas  almost  free  from  odor.  The  process 
appears  to  be  similar  to  that  of  Mr.  White, 
of  Manchester,  England,  which  consists  in 
the  generation  of  the  non-illuminating  gases 
by  the  action  of  steam  upon  charcoal  highly 
heated  in  a  retort,  the  aqueous  vapor  being 
thereby  decomposed,  and  various  gaseous 
compounds  produced  by  its  hydrogen  and 
oxygen  combining  with  the  carbon  of  the 
charcoal.  If  the  operation  is  properly  con 
ducted  these  compounds  should  be  almost 
entirely  carbonic  oxide  and  free  hydrogen; 
if  carbonic  acid  is  produced,  as  it  may  well 
be,  even  to  the  extent  of  one  per  «cent.,  it 
may  involve  the  expense  of  purification  by 
means  of  a  lime  purifier.  These  gases  are 
immediately  passed  through  another  retort, 
in  which  the  illuminating  gases  are  genera 
ted,  and  mixing  with  them  the  whole  is  im 
mediately  swept  forward  out  of  the  reach  of 
the  high  decomposing  temperature.  The 
material  employed  for  furnishing  the  illumi 
nating  gas  is  cither  rosin  or  rosin  oil  gadual- 
ly  dropped  into  the  heated  retort ;  and  it  is 
stated  that  various  other  carbonaceous  sub 
stances,  as  the  tar  from  the  gas  works  and 
cheap  greasy  compounds,  may  be  economi 
cally  applied. 

Although  this  method  of  producing  gas 
has  been  highly  recommended  by  eminent 
English  authorities,  especially  by  Dr.  Frank- 
land,  an  account  of  whose  experiments  and 
conclusions  is  given  in  the  recent  edition  of 
lire's  Dictionary  (London,  1860),  vol.  i.,  p. 
778,  it  has  not  been  adopted  by  gas  compa 
nies,  whose  first  interest  it  would  be  to  avail 
themselves  of  such  improvements,  and  it  is 
reasonable  to  suppose  there  are  some  insu 
perable  objections  to  it.  Indeed,  in  the  last 
edition  of  Clegg's  "Treatise  upon  the  Man 
ufacture  and  Use  of  Gas,"  the  subject  is 
passed  by  with  scarcely  any  notice,  although 
it  had  been  in  the  previous  edition  treated 
in  detail  and  with  commendation.  In  the 
English  Gas  Journal,  it  is  decidedly  con 
demned.  No  analyses  of  the  gas  thus  pro 
duced  in  this  country  have  ever  been  pub 
lished,  nor  any  reports  of  photometrical  ex 
periments  that  might  establish  its  light-giv 
ing  capacity.  As  the  subject  has  attracted 
so  much  interest  of  late,  and  has  given  rise 
to  extravagant  expectations  of  cheap  pro 
duction  of  gas,  it  is  very  desirable  that  such 
trials  and  reports  should  bo  made  by  some 


competent  chemist.  In  Philadelphia,  the 
subject  has  given  rise  to  a  newspaper  con 
troversy,  and  the  publications  were  embod 
ied,  in  1860,  in  a  pamphlet  entitled  "The 
Water  Gas  Correspondence."  They  contain 
ed  nothing,  however,  to  determine  the  real 
merits  of  the  gas. 

GAS  FOB  STEAMBOATS  AND  RAILROAD 
CARS. — Several  methods  have  recently  been 
put  in  practice  of  furnishing  gas  for  the  con 
venience  of  passengers  in  steam  vessels,  or 
upon  railroads.  One  plan  is  to  place  in  the 
boats  or  under  the  cars  large  cases  of  sheet 
iron,  each  one  provided  with  a  diaphragm 
or  partition  of  india-rubber  across  its  upper 
portion.  A  connection  being  made  between 
the  receptacle  under  the  diaphragm  and  the 
street  main,  the  gas  fills  this  portion  of  the 
case  and  the  connection  is  then  shut  off. 
When  required  for  use,  the  gas  is  forced  out 
by  the  pressure  of  air  uniformly  applied  upon 
the  upper  surface  of  the  india-rubber  sheet 
by  means  of  a  meter  running  by  clock  work. 
This  method  has  so  far  been  successful ;  but 
danger  is  apprehended  by  some  that  atmos 
pheric  air  may  find  its  way  through  the 
flexible  sheets,  all  of  which  are  more  or  less 
permeable  when  used  to  separate  different 
gaseous  compounds,  and  that  an  explosive 
mixture  may  thus  be  introduced.  By  an 
other  plan  of  a  New  York  company,  the  gas 
by  means  of  force  pumps  is  compressed  into 
strong  cylindrical  gas-holders  made  like  the 
boilers  of  steam  engines.  The  gas  is  thus 
made  to  occupy  a  diminished  space  in  pro 
portion  to  the  pressure  used,  that  of  20  at 
mospheres  placing  1000  cubic  feet  of  gas  in 
50  feet  space.  In  Jersey  City,  where  this 
method  has  been  applied  to  furnishing  gas 
for  railroad  cars,  the  pressure  employed  is 
about  450  Ibs.  upon  the  square  inch.  Un 
der  this  pressure  the  gas  is  conveyed  through 
pipes  to  the  points  where  the  cars  receive 
from  them  their  supplies.  The  gas  by  its 
elasticity  presses  through  the  burners,  and 
uniformity  of  discharge  while  this  force  is 
constantly  diminishing  is  secured  by  a  gov 
ernor  or  regulator  constructed  on  the  princi 
ple  already  described. 

GAS  FOR  FUEL. — Besides  its  use  for  pro 
ducing  light,  gas  has  lately  been  applied  to 
other  domestic  purposes  for  the  sake  of  the 
heat  it  can  be  made  to  afford  in  burning.  It 
was  thus  first  used  by  chemists,  and  mechan 
ics,  as  bookbinders,  then  applied  it  in  suit 
able  stoves  to  the  heating  of  such  tools  as 
they  required  of  a  high  temperature.  After 


154 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


this  stoves  were  contrived  on  different  plans 
in  which  various  culinary  operations  might 
be  conducted,  and  some  also  for  warming 
rooms.  Though  it  would  appear  to  be  an 
expensive  fuel,  it  has  been  found  for  many 
purposes,  in  which  only  a  certain  amount  of 
heat  is  required,  and  this  for  a  short  time, 
not  merely  exceedingly  convenient,  but  even 
economical.  No  more  need  be  consumed 
than  is  required  to  effect  the  desired  pur 
pose,  and  it  is  moreover  applied  directly  to 
the  object  to  be  heated  with  little  dispersion 
or  waste  of  heat.  But  for  warming  rooms,  it 
is  objectionable,  not  only  on  account  of  its 
cost,  but  also  from  its  vitiating  the  atmos 
phere  by  the  large  amount  of  the  noxious 
gases  produced  by  its  combustion.  If  these 
are  conveyed  away  by  ventilating  flues,  they 
carry  with  them  a  considerable  portion  of 
the  caloric  set  free.  No  doubt  when  gas  is 
afforded  at  lower  rates,  means  will  be  devised 
of  applying  it  more  advantageously  to  this 
purpose. 

CHAPTER  XI. 

HYDROCARBON  OR  COAL  OILS. 

NOTWITHSTANDING  the  substitution  in  the 
cities  and  most  of  the  towns  of  considerable 
size  throughout  the  country  of  gas  for  oils, 
the  demand  for  the  latter  has  increased  much 
faster  than  the  supply,  as  is  shown  by  the 
price  for  sperm  oil  being  now  more  than 
three  times  what  it  was  in  1843,  when  it 
brought  about  fifty-five  cents  per  gallon. 
Besides  its  use  for  illuminating  purposes, 
the  consumption  of  oil  is  enormous  for 
lubricating  machinery.  The  railroads  and 
steamboats,  and  the  increasing  numbers  of 
large  factories,  demand  such  quantities  of  it 
that  all  the  ordinary  sources  of  supply  were 
overtasked,  and  the  whaling  business  former 
ly  so  prosperous  in  New  England,  has  fallen 
off  in  the  face  of  advancing  prices,  or  been 
forced  to  gather  itself  in  fewer  centres,  where 
by  concentration  of  its  operations  the  busi 
ness  could  be  conducted  with  the  greatest 
economy.  From  many  seaports  of  New  Eng 
land  this  business  has  quite  disappeared,  and 
the  following  changes  in  others  are  reported 
to  have  taken  place  between  the  years  1843 
and  1859.  In  the  former  period  New  Bed 
ford  had  214  whale  ships,  and  in  1859  the 
number  had  increased  to  316.  In  New  Lon 
don,  Conn.,  the  number  had  increased  from 
45  to  56,  and  in  Mattapoiset  from  11  to  19. 


In  other  towns  the  number  of  ships  had  fallen 
off  as  follows:  Nantucket,  to  33  from  85;  Sag 
Harbor,  to  20  from  43  ;  Warren,  R.  I.,  to  15 
from  21,  etc.  At  Fairhaven,  46  ships  were 
owned  at  both  periods.  The  manufacture  of 
lard  oil,  which  of  late  years  has  been  exten 
sively  carried  on  in  the  Western  states,  failed 
to  meet  the  increasing  demands,  when  at  last 
attention  began  to  be  directed  to  the  extrac 
tion  of  oils  from  the  bituminous  coals  and 
shales,  by  processes  of  recent  introduction  in 
France  and  England.  The  success  attained 
by  Mr.  James  Young,  of  Glasgow,  in  his  treat 
ment  of  the  "  Torbane  Hill  mineral,"  or  Bog 
head  cannel  of  Scotland,  served  more  than 
any  thing  else  to  give  encouragement  to  this 
enterprise.  In  1854,  according  to  the  testi 
mony  of  this  practical  chemist,  in  a  lawsuit 
in  London,  he  was  producing  about  8000 
gallons  a  week  of  an  oil  he  called  paraffine 
oil,  which  sold  for  5s.  a  gallon,  the  sales 
amounting  in  all  to  about  $500,000  per  an 
num,  of  which  the  greater  portion  was  profit. 
Operations  of  a  similar  character  had  for 
some  time  previously  been  conducted  upon 
a  large  scale  at  Autun,  Department  of  the 
Saone  and  Loire,  in  France ;  the  materials 
employed  being  highly  bituminous  shales, 
probably  not  essentially  different  from  the 
Torbane  Hill  mineral,  except  in  producing 
much  less  oil  to  the  ton. 

The  first  factory  for  making  coal  oil  in  the 
United  States  was  established  on  Newtown 
Creek,  Long  Island,  opposite  New  York  city, 
and  commenced  operations  in  June,  1854. 
This  was  known  as  the  Kerosene  Oil  Works, 
and  was  designed  to  work  the  Boghead  can 
nel,  or  coal  of  similar  character  from  the 
province  of  New  Brunswick,  or  from  the 
West,  by  the  patented  process  of  Mr.  Young. 
In  Kentucky,  Ohio,  Virginia,  and  Pennsyl 
vania  cannel  coals  were  found  of  suitable 
qualities  for  this  manufacture;  and  in  1856 
the  Breckenridge  Coal  Oil  Works  were  in  suc 
cessful  operation  at  Cloverport,  on  the  Ohio 
river,  in  Breckenridge  county,  Ky.  The  same 
year  a  factory  was  built  in  Perry  county, 
Ohio,  by  Messrs.  Dillie  and  Robinson,  and 
others  rapidly  sprung  up  in  the  vicinity  of 
Newark,  which  soon  became  an  important 
centre  of  this  new  business.  In  1858,  sev 
eral  large  factories  were  built  in  New  Eng 
land,  one  in  Boston,  and  one  in  Portland, 
Maine.  The  following  is  an  incomplete  list 
of  factories  which  have  been  put  in  oper 
ation,  not  including  some  which  have  been 
destroyed  by  fire : — 


HYDROCARBON    OR    COAL    OILS. 


155 


TABLE  OF  THE  COAL  OIL  WORKS  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES. 
State.  Town  or  county.  Name  of  works.  No.  of  factorie 

Maine,  Portland Portland  Company 1 

Massachusetts,  Boston Downer  Kerosene  Co 1 

"  "      Page&Co 1 

"  "      Suffolk  Company 1 

"  "      Pinkham 1 

"  "      Peasley 1 

East  Cambridge B.  Cambridge  Company 1 

"  New  Bedford New  Bedford  Company 1 

Connecticut,      Hartford Hartford  Company 1 

"  Stamford Stamford  Company 1 

New  York,       Newtown  Creek,  L.  I Kerosene  Oil  Company 1 

Hunter's  Point,  L.  I Luther  Atwood   1 

Carbon  Company 1 

"  South  Brooklyn Empire  State  Company 1 

Franklin  Company 1 

Williamsburgh Long  Island  Company 1 

Knickerbocker  Company 1 

Fountain  Oil  Co 1 

Harlem Beloni  &  Co 1 

"  "       Excelsior  Company 1 

Pennsylvania,    Darlington,  Beaver  Co Anderson  &  Co 1 

" 1 

Kiskiminitas. .    Aladdin  Company 11 

Lucesco  Company 1  I 

Freeport,  Armstrong  Co North  American  Company 1  [ 

New  Galilee New  Galilee ij 

Euon  Valley Enon  Valley  Company 1 

Ohio,  E.  Palestine,  Columbiana  Co Palestine  Company 1 

Canfield,  Mahoning  Co Cornell  &  Company I 

"  "     Sherwood 1 

"     Phoenix 1 

"     Mystic 1 

"     Canfield 1 

Cleveland Dean 1 

Zanesville Brooks 1 

Cox 1 

Newark,  Licking  Co Great  Western 1 

"     Three  others 3 

Steubenville,  Jefferson  Co 2 

Coshocton  Co , 7 

Columbus,  Franklin  Co 1 

Cincinnati Grasseli 1 

, Western  Company 1 

Phoenix  Company 1 

Perry  Co Robinson  &  Co 1 

Virginia,  Kanawha  region Falling  Rock  Company 1 

Forest  Hill  Company 1 

Greers 1 

Great  Kanawha  Company 1 

Staunton  Company 1 

Atlantic  Company 1 

Union  Company 1 

K.  C.  C.  M.  and  0.  M.  Company 1 

Preston  Co Preston  Company 1 

Monongalia  Co White  Bay  Company 1 

Ritchie  Co Ritchie  Company 1 

Wheeling New  York  arid  Wheeling  Company 1 

Taylor  Co Marion  Company 1 

Kentucky,         Maysville,  Mason  Co Union  Company 1 

"  "  "     Ashland 1 

Carried  forward . « 69 


Daily 

capacity 

in  I860. 

Gallons. 

4000 

4000 

600 

300 


800 
300 
200 

4000 

2000 

300 

300 

500 


400 
50 


2000 


500 


156 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


State. 

Kentucky 

11 

11 
Missouri, 


Town  or  county.  No.  factories. 

Brought  forward. ...    69 

Cloverport,  Breckenridge  Co 1 

(  Covington  and  Newport,  op-  |  „ 

(         posite  Cincinnati )    


Owsley  Co. 
St.  Louis. 


Total 74 


Supposing  these  works  to  average  400 
gallons  of  light  oil  daily,  the  total  produc 
tion  would  be  32,400  gallons,  or  for  300 
days  in  the  year,  9,720,000  gallons.  The 
figures  of  capacity  of  production  represent 
the  amount  of  light  oils  only ;  besides  these 
about  half  as  much  more  heavy  oils  and  par- 
affine  are  obtained,  which  are  more  or  less 
converted  to  useful  purposes.  The  quanti 
ties  named  are  approximate  averages  of  the 
production,  which  it  is  impossible  to  give 
with  accuracy,  as  the  factories  are  constantly 
varying  in  their  capacity  by  the  introduction 
of  more  retorts  and  stills.  They  are  pre 
sented  rather  to  show  the  rapid  progress 
made  in  this  branch  of  manufacture  than  to 
attempt  to  give  its  real  extent.  A  correct 
list  of  all  the  works  cannot  yet  be  made  out. 

HISTORY  AND  METHOD   OF  THE   MANUFACTURE. 

The  possibility  of  extracting  oil  from  bitu 
minous  minerals  appears  to  have  been  known 
since  the  year  1694,  a  patent  having  been 
granted  in  January  of  that  year  to  Martin 
Eele,  Thomas  Hancock,  and  William  Port- 
lock,  for  "  a  way  to  extract  and  make  great 
quantities  of  pitch,  tarr,  and  oyle  out  of  a 
sort  of  stone,  of  which  there  is  a  sufficient 
found  within  our  dominions  of  England  and 
Wales."  This  stone  proved  to  be  a  bitumi 
nous  shale ;  and  in  1716  it  was  again  applied 
to  similar  use  under  another  patent,  granted 
to  M.  &  T.  Belton,  of  Shrewsbury.  In  the 
course  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  oily 
product  obtained  was  employed  to  some  ex 
tent  as  a  medicine,  under  the  name  of  Brit 
ish  or  petroleum  oil.  Though  from  time  to 
time  other  patents  were  granted  in  England 
for  the  same  process,  the  business  never  be 
came  of  importance  there  until  the  success 
ful  trials  were  made  by  Mr.  James  Young, 
of  Glasgow,  upon  the  Boghead  cannel  al 
ready  referred  to.  On  the  continent  the 
subject  was  brought  before  the  public  by  the 
researches  of  Baron  Von  Reichenbach  in 
1829,  '30,  and  '31,  when  he  discovered  and 
separated  numerous  new  compounds  from 
the  products  of  the  slow  distillation  of  bitu 
minous  substances.  The  compound  he  named 


eupion  is  the  same  thing  as  the  rectified  oil 
now  known  as  coal  oil,  paraffine  oil,  kerosene, 
photogenic,  pyrogenic  oil,  and  by  other  local 
or  commercial  names.  He  appreciated  its 
useful  properties,  and  recommended  the  pros 
ecution  of  further  trials  with  the  object  of 
establishing  the  best  mode  of  separating  it'. 
In  France  its  character  was  understood  in 
1824,  when  a  patent  was  granted  for  its  man 
ufacture  ;  and  in  1833  factories  were  in  op 
eration  for  producing  it.  In  1834  the  meth 
od  adopted  by  Selligue  was  first  published, 
and  in  the  specification  of  the  patent  granted 
to  him,  March  19,  1  845,  is  a  full  account  of 
the  process  as  conducted  in  the  works  at 
Autun.  This  is  still  the  best  treatise  pub 
lished  upon  the  manufacture,  and  notwith 
standing  the  numerous  patents  which  have 
since  been  issued,  the  improvements  are  lim 
ited  to  comparatively  unimportant  modifica 
tions  of  the  apparatus.  In  the  United  States 
the  first  patent  granted  in  this  manufacture 
was  in  March,  1852,  to  James  Young  for  his 
process,  which  in  this  country  was  first  intro 
duced  at  the  kerosene  oil  works  on  Newtown 
Creek.  The  next  year  two  patents  were  grant 
ed,  in  1854  and  1855  one  each,  in  1856  six, 
in  1858  seven,  and  in  1859  twenty-two. 

As  mentioned  in  the  preceding  chapter, 
the  products  obtained  by  the  distillation  of 
bituminous  substances  vary  according  to  the 
amount  of  heat  employed  and  the  manner 
01  its  application,  whether  sudden  or  grad 
ual.  Coals  thrown  into  red  hot  retorts  are 
resolved  into  large  quantities  of  gas,  with 
the  production  of  inconsiderable  quantities 
of  oily  compounds  heavier  in  the  aggregate 
than  water,  and  called  eoal  tar.  They  con 
sist  of  a  variety  of  hydrocarbons,  as  the 
fluids  designated  by  the  name  of  naphtha, 
the  white  crystalline  substance  called  naph 
thaline,  the  very  volatile  fluid  benzole,  be 
sides  carbolic  acid  and  a  great  number  of 
other  curious  and  interesting  compounds  of 
hydrogen  and  carbon.  In  general  they  con^ 
tain  a  less  proportional  amount  of  hydrogen 
than  the  products  obtained  by  slow  distilla 
tion,  the  fluids  are  denser,  and  their  boiling 
points  higher. 


HYDROCARBON    OR    COAL    OILS. 


151 


When  tlie  bituminous  substances  are  grad 
ually  and  moderately  heated  in  retorts,  the 
production  of  gas  is  small,  the  carbon  and 
hydrogen  separating  chiefly  in  the  form  of 
oily  compounds  of  a  greenish  color,  the  spe 
cific  gravity  of  which  is  less  than  water. 
These  compounds  form  what  is  called  crude 
coal  oil,  and  are  similar  in  appearance  and 
composition  to  the  natural  petroleum,  or  rock 
oil,  obtained  in  some  places  from  the  earth, 
as  will  be  described  in  the  next  chapter. 
Benzole  and  naphthaline,  'products  of  the 
other  method  of  distillation,  are  found,  if  at 
all,  as  a  result  of  the  employment  of  too 
high  heat,  and  instead  of  the  latter  the  Avaxy 
or  spermaceti-like  substance  called  paraffine 
is  generated  and  is  held  in  solution  in  the 
oils,  from  which  it  may  be  separated  by  re 
peated  distillations,  and  draining  off  through 
filters  and  pressing  out  the  fluid  portions  of 
the  concentrated  residues,  at  the  lowest  avail 
able  temperatures.  The  oily  products  are 
divisible  into  a  great  number  of  distinct 
compounds  by  means  of  repeated  distilla 
tions,  each  one  being  carefully  conducted  at 
a  certain  degree  of  temperature,  and  the 
product  which  comes  over  at  this  degree  be 
ing  kept  by  itself.  But  in  the  large  way 
they  are  separated  into  only  three  classes, 
which  are  distinguished  as  the  light  oils  for 
lamps,  the  heavy  oils  which  are  suitable  for 
lubricating  purposes,  and  paraffine.  Some 
times  a  mixture  of  the  heaviest  oils  and  par 
affine  is  made  use  of  and  sold  for  wagon 
grease  and  such  purposes;  and  the  first  prod 
ucts  which  come  over  in  the  distillation  are 
kept  by  themselves,  and  sold  under  the  name 
of  naphtha  (or  incorrectly  as  benzole)  to  be 
used  as  a  solvent  for  the  resins,  caoutchouc, 
etc.,  and  for  removing  grease  spots  from  fab 
rics. 

The  proportions  obtained  from  a  ton  of 
coal  or  shale  are  very  variable.  The  Bog 
head  cannel  yields,  in  well-conducted  opera 
tions,  about  117  gallons  of  crude  oil,  from 
which  the  product  of  refined  oil  is  about  60 
gallons.  It  can  be  made  to  produce  even 
1 30  gallons  of  crude  oil,  containing  a  larger 
proportion  of  refined  oil  than  the  117  gal 
lons  ordinarily  obtained.  The  Brcckenridge 
coal  yields  from  90  to  100  gallons  of  crude 
oil,  and  this  50  to  60  of  refined  oil.  The 
Cannelton  coal  of  Virginia  is  of  similar 
quality  to  the  Breckenridge  cannel.  The 
coals  of  Ohio  run  from  55  to  87  gallons  of 
crude  oils  to  the  ton,  and  those  of  Darling 
ton,  Perm.,  from  45  to  55  gallons.  Besides 


the  oils  there  also  come  over  from  the  re 
torts,  as  in  the  gas  manufacture,  a  quantity 
of  water  rendered  alkaline  by  the  ammonia 
it  holds.  This  collects  at  the  bottom  of  the 
reservoirs  into  which  the  products  are  re 
ceived,  and  the  oil  that  floats  upon  the  sur 
face  being  removed  the  arnmoniacal  liquors 
are  allowed  to  escape. 

While  the  general  plan  of  the  operations 
is  the  same  in  all  the  factories,  the  apparatus 
is  variously  modified.  By  Mr.  Young's  proc 
ess  the  coal  is  distilled  in  cast-iron  Pi  -shaped 
retorts,  like  those  employed  in  making  gas, 
and  the  volatile  products  are  passed  by  a 
worm  through  a  refrigerator  kept  at  a  tem 
perature  of  about  55°  F.  The  oils  as  they 
condense  drop  from  the  end  of  the  worm 
into  a  receiver.  Many  patents  have  been 
granted  in  Europe  and  in  this  country  for 
different  kinds  of  retorts.  Some  are  made 
of  cylindrical  form  and  set  upright  in  the 
furnace ;  the  charge  is  introduced  at  the  top 
and  drawn  out,  when  exhausted,  at  the  bot 
tom;  the  volatile  products  making  their  exit 
cither  through  pipes  at  the  top  or  at  differ 
ent  heights.  Some  have  been  constructed 
of  fire  clay  instead  of  cast  iron.  In  order 
that  the  charge  may  be  uniformly  heated, 
revolving  cylindrical  retorts  have  been  con 
trived  and  patented,  first  in  France  many 
years  ago,  and  recently  in  the  United  States. 
They  are  sometimes  eight  feet  long  and  six 
feet  diameter,  suspended  upon  an  axle  at  each 
end.  They  are  charged  through  a  manhole 
in  the  front  end  like  the  common  horizontal 
retorts,  and  the  vapors  pass  out  through  the 
axle  at  the  opposite  end,  which  is  made  hol 
low  for  this  purpose.  Retorts  of  the  size 
named  arc  charged  with  about  a  ton  of  can 
nel  coal,  and  four  such  charges  may  be 
worked  off  in  twenty-four  hours.  They  re 
volve  slowly,  about  twice  in  a  minute,  thus 
turning  the  charge  over  and  causing  it  to  be 
uniformly  exposed  to  the  fire  beneath.  At 
the  Lucesco  works,  thirty  miles  above  Pitts- 
burg,  on  the  Alleghany,  ten  large  revolving 
retorts  are  stated  to  be  in  operation,  each 
one  of  the  capacity  of  two  and  a  half  tons. 
They  are  recommended  for  the  rapidity  with 
which  the  process  is  conducted,  and  the  large 
amount  of  oil  obtained  to  the  ton  of  coal 
while  they  continue  in  good  order ;  and  on. 
the  other  hand  it  is  objected  to  them  that 
the  coal  is  apt  to  be  ground  to  powder,  and 
the  dust  is  carried  along  with  the  vapors,  ob 
structing  the  condensing  worm  and  adding 
to  the  cost  of  purification.  They  are,  more- 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


over,  expensive  to  construct  and  liable  to  get 
out  of  order. 

By  all  these  arrangements  the  fire  which 
causes  the  expulsion  of  the  volatile  matters 
is  outside  of  the  retorts.  But  the  same  ob 
ject  is  also  attained  by  the  use  of  ovens  and 
pits  similar  to  those  used  for  producing 
charcoal  and  coke,  in  which  the  material 
operated  upon  is  itself  partially  consumed, 
to  generate  the  heat  required  to  drive  off  so 
much  of  its  volatile  constituents  as  may  es 
cape  combustion.  Kilns  thus  designed  for 
extracting  coal  oils  have  been  in  use  in  this 
country  and  in  Europe ;  and  in  Virginia, 
near  Wheeling,  the  plan  has  been  adopted 
of  distilling  the  coal  or  shale  in  large  pits 
dug  in  the  ground  of  capacity  sufficient  to 
contain  100  tons  of  the  raw  material.  These 
are  covered  with  earth,  and  the  fire  being 
started  at  one  end,  the  heat  spreads  the  vol 
atile  products  forward,  and  they  are  drawn 
out  at  the  opposite  end  by  the  exhausting 
action  caused  by  a  jet  of  steam,  and  received 
into  suitable  condensing  apparatus.  Some 
of  the  kilns  are  constructed  to  be  fired  at 
the  bottom,  and  the  vapors  then  pass  up 
ward  through  the  charge,  and  are  conveyed 
in  pipes  from  the  top  to  the  condensers. 
The  kilns  of  the  Kerosene  Oil  Company, 
patented  by  Mr.  Luther  Atwood,  are  made 
open  at  the  top,  and  a  downward  draught 
through  the  charge,  which  is  fired  on  the 
upper  surface,  is  produced  by  a  steam  jet 
thrown  into  the  eduction  pipe  that  passes 
out  from  the  bottom  of  the  kiln.  A  partial 
vacuum  is  thus  produced,  causing  a  current 
of  air  to  flow  in  from  the  kiln.  At  the 
works  of  this  company  there  are  1 8  of  these 
kilns  in  shape  like  a  circular  lime  kiln,  built 
of  ordinary  brick  and  lined  with  fire  brick. 
They  are  20  feet  high  and  12  feet  diameter 
inside,  each  one  having  a  capacity  of  over 
25  tons  of  coal.  When  this  amount  of 
Boghead  cannel  is  introduced  it  is  covered 
with  about  four  tons  of  Cumberland  coal  and 
a  quantity  of  pine  wood.  This  is  set  on 
fire,  and  at  the  same  time  the  steam  jet  is 
let  on.  The  heated  gases  from  the  com 
bustibles  above  pass  through  the  bituminous 
materials  below  ;  but  little  air  reaches  these 
that  is  not  already  deprived  of  its  power  of 
sustaining  further  combustion.  The  volatile 
products  are  gradually  expelled  before  the 
slowly  increasing  heat,  and  the  operation  is 
not  completed  till  the  expiration  of  foor 
days.  It  is  hastened  or  checked,  as  may  be 
necessary,  by  means  of  the  steam  jet  by 


which  the  draught  is  controlled.  What  is 
left  in  the  kiln  is  unconsumed  coal  and  ashes 
— no  good  coke  is  produced.  The  condens 
ers  at  these  works  are  tall  cylinders  of  boil 
er-plate  iron.  Passing  through  a  succession 
of  these  the  vapors  collect  and  trickle  down 
their  sides,  and  the  mixed  oily  and  aqueous 
products  are  received  into  iron  vats  placed 
in  the  ground.  The  uncondensable  gases 
escape  into  the  open  air  from  the  top  of  the 
last  of  the  cylinders.  From  the  vats  the  oil 
rising  to  the  surface  flows  over  into  a  con 
duit  that  leads  to  a  large  cistern  in  the 
ground  of  the  capacity  of  40,000  gallons. 
The  water  at  the  same  time  is  discharged  by 
a  pipe,  one  end  of  which  is  at  the  bottom 
of  the  vat,  and  the  other  is  bent  over  its  up 
per  edge,  the  flow  being  caused  by  the  dif 
ference  of  an  inch  in  the  elevation  of  the 
surface  of  the  two  vats.  Some  oil  is  car 
ried  over  into  the  second  vat,  and  this  is 
separated  by  a  repetition  of  the  same  ar 
rangement,  and  so  on  through  several  vats, 
till  the  ammoniacal  waters  are  finally  allowed 
to  escape  after  being  first  received  into  a 
large  cistern,  where  some  oil  still  collects 
upon  the  surface,  and  is  removed  by  occa 
sional  skimming. 

Still  another  method  of  conducting  the  dry 
distillation  is  by  the  introduction  of  highly 
heated  steam  into  the  retorts,  as  patented 
by  Mr.  William  Brown,  in  1853,  in  England 
and  in  this  country,  though  this  seems  also 
to  have  been  used  in  the  original  operations 
of  Selligue  in  France.  The  effect  of  the 
steam  is  to  aid  in  heating  the  charge,  while 
at  the  same  time  the  vapors  are  taken  up 
and  carried  along  by  it,  and  protected  from 
being  burned  or  decomposed  by  remaining 
in  contact  with  the  hot  surfaces  of  the  re 
tort.  In  the  subsequent  distillation  of  the 
crude  oil,  high  steam  is  similarly  applied  in 
the  stills. 

Nearly  the  same  process  of  refining  is 
practised  at  all  the  factories.  The  crude  oil 
is  pumped  up  into  large  stills  of  cast  or 
boiler-plate  iron,  with  cast-iron  bottoms  two 
inches  thick.  The  capacity  of  these  at  the 
works  above  referred  to  is  1500  gallons 
each,  and  the  time  required  for  distilling  off 
this  amount  of  oil  is  24  hours.  They  are 
heated  by  fires  of  anthracite  and  coke,  the 
latter  being  itself  a  product  of  the  distilla 
tion  and  obtained  from  the  inside  of  the  stills 
after  each  heat.  It  is  deposited  from  the  crude 
oil  and  forms  a  solid  and  extremely  hard  in 
crustation  which  is  sometimes  nearly  a  foot 


HYDROCARBON    OR    COAL    OILS. 


159 


thick  upon  the  bottom  of  the  stills.  It 
is  a  much  superior  coke  to  that  obtained 
from  the  gas  retorts,  and  in  its  structure  is 
coarsely  honey-combed  in  the  upper  or  last 
formed  portions,  gradually  growing  closer 
and  more  compact  toward  the  bottom 
upon  which  it  adheres.  The  distillation 
should  be  conducted  at  a  temperature  not 
exceeding  800°  R,  and  the  process  may  be 
rendered  continuous  by  admitting  a  small 
stream  of  oil  into  the  stills.  The  vapors 
passing  through  the  goose-neck  are  con 
densed  in  a  long  worm  kept  in  the  water  con 
denser,  which  should  be,  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  distillation,  at  a  temperature  of  80°  or 
more.  It  is  necessary  to  guard  against  so  low 
temperature  as  might  cause  the  paraffine  to 
solidify  in  the  worm,  which  by  stopping  the 
flow  of  the  products  might  result  in  blowing 
up  the  still.  The  heat  is  carefully  regulated 
so  that  the  oil  comes  over  uniformly,  flowing 
from  the  end  of  the  worm  in  a  steady  stream. 
It  is  still  of  a  greenish  color,  with  more  or  less 
of  its  peculiar,  disagreeable  odor.  Yet  it  is 
evidently  purified  to  a  considerable  extent 
by  its  separation  from  the  free  carbon  and 
other  impurities,  usually  amounting  to  10 
or  12  per  cent.,  which  are  left  behind  in 
the  stills.  The  oils  are  next  pumped  into 
large  cylindrical  cisterns  called  agitators,  to 
undergo  the  chemical  treatment,  which  is 
in  general  the  same  as  that  practised  by 
Selligue.  An  addition  is  made  to  them  of  a 
quantity  of  sulphuric  acid,  it  may  be  to  the 
amount  of  5  per  cent.  The  mixture  is 
then  violently  agitated  or  made  to  sweep 
rapidly  round  by  stirrers  in  the  cisterns, 
moved  by  machinery.  The  pure  oil  and 
paraffine  are  unaffected  by  the  chemical 
agents,  but  the  carbonaceous  particles  and 
coloring  matters  are  more  or  less  charred  and 
oxidized,  and  their  condition  is  so  changed 
that  when  the  mixture  is  left  for  some  hours 
to  repose,  they  subside  in  great  part  togeth 
er  with  the  acid,  and  these  can  then  be 
drawn  off  leaving  the  partially  purified  oil  in 
the  upper  portion  of  the  cisterns.  This  is 
next  washed  with  about  one  fifth  its  quantity 
of  water,  which  removes  the  soluble  impu 
rities  and  a  portion  of  the  remaining  acid. 
These,  after  subsiding,  being  drawn  off,  a 
strong  lye  of  potash  or  soda  is  introduced 
into  flic  oil,  which  neutralizes  and  fixes  what 
acid  remains,  and  causes  the  precipitation  of 
further  portions  of  the  coloring  and  tarry 
matters.  The  mixture  is  again  agitated  and 
is  then  left  six  hours  to  repose,  after  which 


the  sediment  being  drawn  off,  it  is  again 
washed  with  water,  and  this  too,  with  the 
matters  it  has  taken  up,  are  drawn  off.  In 
some  places  chalk  or  lime  has  been  employ 
ed  instead  of  the  alkaline  lye  to  neutralize 
and  fix  the  acid,  and  the  chemical  treatment, 
as  it  is  called,  is  in  other  respects  variously 
modified.  Though  this  has  been  designated 
the  "  cold"  treatment,  the  temperature  should 
not  be  allowed  to  fall  below  90°  during  these 
processes. 

At  last  the  oils  freed  from  most  of  their 
impurities  are  introduced  into  stilts  like 
those  of  the  first  set.  The  product  which 
first  comes  over  is  a  very  light  oil  somewhat 
discolored,  which  is  soon  followed  by  a  clear 
oil  having  little  odor.  This  gradually  in 
creases  in  density  from  0.733  to  0.820,  up 
to  which  point  the  mixture  of  oils  is  class 
ed  as  illuminating,  and  is  without  further 
preparation  sufficiently  pure  to  be  at  once 
barrelled  for  the  market.  After  this  the  in 
creasing  depth  of  the  color  and  the  greater 
density  of  the  product  indicate  that  the 
light  oils  have  been  nearly  exhausted,  and 
the  remaining  portions  are  hence  kept  by 
themselves  to  afford  the  heavy  lubricating 
oils,  and  also  it  may  be,  by  means  of  frac 
tional  distillation,  the  additional  quantities 
of  light  oils  they  still  contain,  and  finally 
the  paraffine  which  is  chiefly  concentrated 
with  the  last  portions.  This  substance  when 
separated  from  the  oils  by  filtration  and 
pressure  at  low  temperatures,  is  of  a  dark 
color  and  somewhat  offensive  odor ;  and  to 
bleach  and  deodorize  it  have  proved  to  be 
somewhat  troublesome  and  expensive  opera 
tions.  Exposure  to  the  sunlight  has  a  bleach 
ing  effect;  but  the  processes  for  this  purpose 
have  not  yet  been  made  public.  When  ob 
tained  perfectly  pure  and  white,  difficulties 
have  been  encountered  in  running  it  into 
candles,  which  are  not  common  to  other  ma 
terials  used  for  this  purpose.  When  cooled 
in  ordinary  moulds  the  paraffine  would  crack 
in  lines  radiating  from  the  wick,  and  the  ex 
terior  would  present  a  clouded,  mottled  sur 
face.  The  method  of  obviating  this  difficul 
ty,  as  described  in  the  French  work,  "  Le 
Technologiste,"  of  1859,  is  to  use  a  mould 
in  two  parts,  that  part  for  the  point  of  the 
candle  working  in  the  other  like  a  piston. 
These  moulds  being  brought  to  the  temper 
ature  of  melted  paraffine  are  filled  and  then 
immediately  plunged  into  water  at  nearly  the 
freezing  point.  Having  remained  3  or  4 
minutes,  they  are  taken  out  and  exposed  to 


160 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


a  current  of  cool  air  for  15  or  20  minutes. 
The  candles  then  come  out,  as  the  movable 
part  of  the  mould  is  pushed  in,  free  from 
defects.  This  method  is  successfully  intro 
duced  into  the  United  States.  Paraffin c 
candles  have  been  made  at  some  of  the  coal 
oil  works,  as  at  those  of  New  York,  New 
Bedford,  and  Portland.  They  are  of  beauti 
ful  appearance,  resembling  the  best  sperm 
candles,  and  at  the  same  time  are  more  eco 
nomical  for  the  amount  of  light  they  afford. 
The  oil  that  is  pressed  out  from  the  paraffine 
is  useful  chiefly  as  a  lubricator,  and  from  the 
low  temperature  at  which  it  is  obtained,  if 
for  no  other  reason,  it  is  insured  against 
chilling  in  cold  weather.  The  residue  in 
the  stills,  is  a  mixture  of  the  tarry  matters 
with  the  portion  of  the  chemical  ingredients 
that  was  introduced  with  the  oils.  For  this 
no  use  is  found.  The  heavy  oils  find  their 
principal  application  in  lubricating  machin 
ery,  and  large  quantities  are  consumed  for 
this  purpose  upon  the  Western  railroads. 
The  heavier  natural  oils  of  Ohio,  when  wash 
ed  clean  from  the  sand  that  comes  up  with 
them,  are  also  very  well  adapted  for  this 
use ;  but  it  is  found  advantageous  to  mix 
cither  the  crude  or  manufactured  article 
with  an  equal  quantity  of  lard  oil.  The 
petroleum  corrects  the  tendency  of  this  to 
gum  and  chill,  while  it  receives  additional 
body  from  the  lard  oil.  Another  use  for 
the  heavy  oils  is  for  cleansing  wool  in  the 
woollen  factories,  and  where  they  have  been 
tried  for  this  purpose,  they  have  been  pre 
ferred  to  other  oils.  In  currying  leather, 
also,  they  arc  said  to  have  proved  a  good 
substitute  for  fish  oil.  Experiments  have 
been  made  with  them  in  Ohio,  for  mixing 
paints,  and  the  crude  heavier  kinds,  as  those 
of  Mecca,  treated  in  the  same  manner  as 
linseed  oil,  boiling  them  with  dryers,  etc., 
formed  a  good  body,  covered  the  wood  well, 
dried  rapidly  and  perfectly,  and  formed  a 
smooth,  hard  surface,  retaining  no  odor. 
The  great  abundance  of  the  supply  of  petro 
leum  at  the  West  has  led  to  some  speculation 
as  to  the  probability  of  the  hydrocarbon 
oils  being  used  for  fuel  for  steamboats,  loco 
motives,  and  wherever  a  highly  concentrated, 
portable,  and  manageable  fuel  is  required. 
For  domestic  uses,  also,  such  as  require  a 
fire  only  a  little  while  at  a  time,  the  petro 
leum  might  be  conveniently  used  in  suitable 
stoves  in  the  same  manner  that  gas  is  ap 
plied  to  the  same  purpose.  But  experi 
ments  are  wanting  to  establish  the  rate  per 


gallon  at  which  it  might  enter  into  competi 
tion  with  other  fuels  upon  a  larger  scale. 
Besides  the  heavy  and  light  oils,  no  other 
valuable  products  result  from  the  distilla 
tion  of  the  coal  oils.  Benzole  is  not  a 
product  of  this  process.  It  belongs,  togeth 
er  with  a  special  class  of  hydrocarbons  des 
ignated  as  the  benzole  series,  to  the  tar 
of  the  gas  works ;  and  if  ever  obtained  in 
the  coal  oil  distillation,  it  must  be  by  bad 
management  and  the  use  of  excess  of  heat. 
Some  of  the  light  oils,  which  first  come  over 
in  the  distillation,  are  often  sold  as  benzole, 
and  are  used  for  removing  grease  spots — a 
purpose  they  answer  nearly  as  well  as  ben 
zole  itself. 

The  light  oils  are  superior  in  many  re 
spects  to  any  other  portable  materials  em 
ployed  for  illumination.  The  light  they  give 
is  exceedingly  brilliant,  and  at  the  same  time 
pleasant  to  the  eye.  They  have  not  the  dis- 
agreeable^odor  of  sperm  oil,  nor  when  spill 
ed  upon  articles  of  dress  or  furniture  are  the 
spots  difficult  to  remove.  At  present  prices, 
the  cost  of  the  light  is  less  than  half  that 
produced  by  sperm  oil.  Coal  oils  are  free 
from  the  danger  of  explosion,  which  all  the 
so-called  "  burning  fluids"  are  liable  to  ;  and 
on  the  score  of  prudence  and  humanity  their 
use  ought  to  be  encouraged  in  the  place  of 
these  dangerous  preparations,  the  employ 
ment  of  which,  in  spite  of  the  numerous  and 
ingenious  safety  lamps  and  expedients  to 
guard  against  explosion,  is  continually  re 
sulting  in  terrible  accidents  and  loss  of  life. 
The  only  objection  to  the  coal  oils,  and  the 
only  cause  that  checks  their  more  general 
use  in  the  place  of  all  other  portable  means 
of  producing  light,  is  that  the  lamps  in 
which  they  are  burned  are  somewhat  more 
expensive  than  other  lamps,  and  are  incum- 
bered  with  a  glass  chimney,  which  is  found 
necessary  for  producing  a  flame  free  from 
smoke.  Possibly  some  lamps  may  yet  be 
contrived  in  which  thorough  combustion 
and  a  clear  flame  may  be  obtained  without 
this  inconvenient  appendage.  In  the  use 
of  the  coal  oils  a  very  mistaken  preference 
is  given  by  consumers  to  the  most  highly 
rectified — such  as  are  clear  like  water ;  and 
these  are  now  selling  freely  at  75  cents  a 
gallon,  while  the  oils  of  a  slightly  yellow 
color  hardly  find  a  sale  at  60  cents.  As  re 
gards  illuminating  power,  the  latter  are  act 
ually  to  be  preferred  to  the  former  at  the 
same  cost,  so  that  the  preference  given  to 
the  clear  oils  is  merely  for  their  appearance. 


PETROLEUM,    OR    ROCK    OIL. 


161 


CHAPTER  XII. 

PETROLEUM,  OR  ROCK  OIL. 

THE  occurrence  of  an  oily  fluid  oozing  in 
some  regions  from  the  surface  of  the  earth, 
coming  out  with  the  springs  of  water,  and 
forming  a  layer  upon  its  surface,  has  been 
noticed  from  ancient  times,  and  the  oil  has 
been  collected  by  excavating  pits  and  canals, 
and  also  by  sinking  deep  wells.  Bakoo,  a 
town  on  the  west  side  of  the  Caspian  Sea  in 
Georgia,  has  long  been  celebrated  for  its 
springs  of  a  very  pure  variety  of  petroleum 
or  naphtha,  and  the  annual  value  of  this 
product,  according  to  M.  Abich,  is  about 
3,000,000  francs,  and  might  easily  be  made 
as  large  again.  Over  a  tract  about  25  miles 
long  and  half  a  mile  wide,  the  strata,  which 
are  chiefly  argillaceous  sandstones  of  loose 
texture,  belonging  to  the  medial  tertiary 
formation,  are  saturated  with  the  oil,  and 
hold  it  like  a  sponge.  To  collect  it  large 
open  wells  are  sunk  to  the  depth  of  16  to 
20  feet,  and  in  these  the  oil  gathers  and  is 
occasionally  taken  out.  That  obtained  near 
the  centre  of  the  tract  is  clear,  slightly  yel 
low,  like  Sauterne  wine,  and  as  pure  as  dis 
tilled  oil.  Toward  the  margins  of  the  tract 
the  oil  is  more  colored,  first  a  yellowish 
green,  then  reddish  brown.  In  the  environs 
of  Bakoo  are  hills  of  volcanic  rocks  through 
which  bituminous  springs  flow  out.  Jets 
of  carburetted  hydrogen  are  common  in  the 
district,  and  salt,  which  is  almost  always 
found  with  petroleum  springs,  abounds  in 
the  neighborhood. 

Another  famous  locality  of  natural  oils  is 
in  Burmah,  on  the  banks  of  the  Irrawaddy, 


near  Prome.  Fifty  years  ago  it  was  reported 
there  were  about  520  wells  in  this  region, 
and  the  oil  from  them  was  used  for  the  sup 
ply  of  the  whole  empire  and  many  parts  of 
India.  The  town  of  Rainanghong  is  the 
centre  of  the  oil  district,  and  its  inhabitants 
are  chiefly  employed  in  manufacturing  earth 
en  jars  for  the  oil,  immense  numbers  of 
which  are  stacked  in  pyramids  outside  the/ 
town,  like  shot  in  an  arsenal.  The  forma 
tion  containing  the  oil  consists  of  sandy 
clays  resting  on  sandstones  and  slates.  The 
lowest  bed  reached  by  the  open  wells,  which 
are  sometimes  60  feet  deep,  is  a  pale  blue 
argillaceous  slate.  Under  this  is  said  to  be 
coal  (tertiary  ?)  The  oil  drips  from  the 
slates  into  the  wells,  and  is  collected  as  at 
Bakoo.  The  annual  product  is  variously 
stated  at  412,000  hogsheads,  and  at  8,000,- 
000  pounds. 

The  Burmese  petroleum  has  recently  been 
imported  into  Great  Britain,  and  is  employ 
ed  at  the  great  candle  manufactory  of 
Messrs.  Price  &  Co.,  at  Belmont  and  Sher 
wood.  It  is  described  as  a  semi-fluid  naph 
tha,  about  the  consistence  of  goose  grease, 
of  a  greenish  brown  color,  and  a  peculiar, 
but  not  disagreeable  odor.  It  is  used  by  the 
natives,  in  the  condition  in  which  they  ob 
tain  it,  as  a  lamp-fuel,  as  a  preservative  of 
timber  against  insects,  and  as  a  medicine. 
It  is  imported  in  hermetically  closed  metal 
lic  tanks,  to  prevent  the  loss  of  any  of  its 
constituents  by  evaporation.  At  the  works 
it  is  distilled  first  with  steam  under  ordinary 
pressure,  and  then  by  steam  at  successively 
increasing  temperatures,  with  the  following 
results : — 


Temperature. 

Fahr. 

Below  212° 
230°  to  293° 
293Q  to  320° 
320°  to  612° 
About  612° 

Above  612° 


Proportional 

product. 

11 

10 


Character  of  product. 

Mixture  of  fluid  hydrocarbons  free  from  paraffine.  .    [ 

"  containing  a  little  paraffine. 

Distillate  very  small  in  quantity. 
Containing  paraffine,  but  still  fluid  at  32°. 

Product  which  solidifies  on  cooling,  and  maybe  submitted  to  pressure. 
Fluids  with  much  paraffiue. 
Pitchy  matters. 
Residue  of  coke,  and  a  little  earthy  matter  in  the  stilL 


Nearly  all  the  paraffine  may  be  separated 
from  the  distillates  by  exposing  these  to 
freezing  mixtures ;  and  the  total  product  of 
this  solid  hydrocarbon  is  estimated  at  10  or 
11  per  cent. 

Many  other  localities  might  be  named 
which  furnish  the  natural  oils  upon  a  less 
extensive  scale,  as  in  Italy,  France,  and  Switz 
erland.  In  Cuba  impure  varieties  of  bitu- 
10* 


men  are  met  with  flowing  up  through  fissures 
in  the  rocks  and  spreading  over  the  surface 
in  a  tarry  incrustation,  which  sometimes  so 
lidifies  on  cooling.  In  the  island  of  Trin 
idad,  three  fourths  of  a  mile  back  from  the 
coast,  is  a  lake  called  the  Tar  Lake,  a  mile 
and  a  half  in  circumference,  apparently  filled 
with  impure  petroleum  and  asphaltum.  The 
latter,  more  or  less  charged  in,  it*  numerous 


162 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 


cavities  with  liquid  bitumen,  forms  a  solid 
crust  around  the  margin  of  the  lake,  and  in 
the  centre  the  materials  appear  to  be  in  a 
liquid  boiling  condition.  The  varieties 
contain  more  or  less  oil,  and  methods  have 
been  devised  of  extracting  this ;  but  the 
chief  useful  application  of  the  material  seems 
to  be  for  coating  the  timbers  of  ships  to 
protect  them  from  decay.  By  the  patent 
ed  process  of  Messrs.  Atwood  of  New  York, 
the  crude  tar  of  this  locality  having  been 
twice  subjected  to  distillation,  and  treated 
with  sulphuric  acid  and  afterward  with  an 
alkali,  as  in  the  method  of  piirifying  the 
coal  oils,  is  then  further  purified  by  the  use 
of  permanganite  of  soda  or  of  potash.  Be 
ing  again  distilled  it  yields  an  oil  of  specific 
gravity  0.900,  which  is  fluid  at  32°  R,  and 
boils  at  600°  F. 

In  the  United  States  the  existence  of  pe 
troleum  has  long  been  known,  and  the  arti 
cle  has  been  collected  and  sold  for  medicinal 
purposes  ;  chiefly  for  an  external  application, 
though    sometimes    administered  internally. 
It.  was  formerly  procured  by  the  Seneca  In 
dians  in  western    New  York  and  Pennsyl 
vania,  and  wras  hence  known  as  Seneca  or 
Genesee   oil.     At  various  places  it  was  rec 
ognized    along  a  belt    of   country  passing 
from  this  portion  of  New  York  across  the 
north-west  part  of  Pennsylvania  into  Ohio. 
In  the   last-named  state  it  was  obtained  in 
such  quantity  in  the  year  1819,  by  means 
of  wells  sunk  for  salt  water,  that  it  is  a  little 
remarkable  the  value  of  the  material  was  not 
then  appreciated,  and  the  means  perceived 
of  obtaining  it  to  any  amount.     The  follow 
ing  description  of  the  operations  connected 
with  the  salt  borings  then  in  progress  on 
the  Little  Muskingum,  in  the  south-western 
part  of  the  state,  written  in  1819,  was  first 
published  in  the  American  Journal  of  Sci 
ence  in  1826:    "They  have  sunk  two  wells 
which  are  now  more  than  400  feet  in  depth; 
one  of  them  affords  a  very  strong  and  pure 
water,  but  not  in  great  quantity.     The  other 
discharges  such  vast  quantities  of  petroleum, 
or  as  it  is  vulgarly  called,  '  Seneka  oil,'  and 
besides  is  subject  to  such  tremendous  explo 
sions  of  gas,  as  to  force  out  all  the  water 
and  afford  nothing  but  gas  for  several  days, 
that  they  make  but  little  or  no  salt.     Never 
theless,  the   petroleum  affords    considerable 
profit,  and  is  beginning  to  be  in  demand  for 
lamps  in  workshops  and  manufactories.     It 
affords  a  clear  bright  light,  when  burnt  in 
this  way,  and  will  be  a  valuable  article  for 


ighting  the  street  lamps  in  the  future  cities 
of  Ohio."  Several  coal-beds  were  penetrated 
in  sinking  these  wells. 

In  north-western  Pennsylvania  the  exist 
ence  of  oil  in  the  soil  along  the  valleys  of 
.ome  of  the  streams  was  known  to  the  early 
settldrs.  One  stream,  in  consequence  of  its 
appearance  in  the  banks,  was  called  Oil 
Creek.  In  other  localities  also  it  was  no 
ticed,  and  similar  occurrences  of  oil  were 
observed  at  some  places  in  western  Virginia 
and  eastern  Kentucky.  At  Tarcntum  above 
Pittsburg,  oil  was  obtained  by  boring  about 
the  year  1845.  Two  springs  were  opened 
in  boring  for  salt,  and  they  have  continued 
to  yield  small  quantities  of  oil,  sometimes  a 
barrel  a  day.  This  has  been  used  only  for 
medicinal  purposes.  On  Oil  Creek  two  lo 
calities  were  especially  noted,  one  close  to 
the  northern  line  of  Venango  county,  half  a 
mile  below  the  village  of  Titusville,  and  one 
14  miles  further  down  the  stream,  a  mile 
above  its  entrance  into  the  Alleghany  river. 
All  the  way  below  the  upper  locality  through 
the  narrow  valley  of  the  creek  are  ancient 
pits  covering  acres  of  ground,  once  dug  and 
used  for  collecting  oil  after  the  method  now 
practised  in  Asia.  Cleared-  from  the  mud 
and  rubbish  with  which  they  are  mostly  fill 
ed,  some  of  them  are  found  to  be  supported 
at  the  sides  with  logs  notched  at  the  ends  as 
if  done  by  whites,  and  it  has  been  supposed 
by  some  that  this  is  the  work  of  the  French 
who  occupied  that  region  the  first  half  of  the 
last  century.  Others  think  the  Indians  dug 
the  pits,  and  in  proof  of  this  they  cite  the 
account  given  by  Day,  in  his  "  History  of 
Pennsylvania,"  of  the  use  of  the  oil  by  the 
Serteca  Indians  as  an  unguent  and  in  their 
religious  worship.  They  mixed  with  it  their 
paint  with  which  they  anointed  themselves 
for  war  ;  and  on  occasions  of  their  most  im 
portant  assemblages,  as  was  graphically  de 
scribed  by  the  commandant  of  Fort  Du- 
quesne  in  a  letter  to  General  Montcalm,  they 
set  fire  to  the  scum  of  oil  which  had  collect 
ed  on  the  surface  of  the  water,  and  at  sight 
of  the  flames  gave  forth  triumphant  shouts 
which  made  the  hills  re-echo  again.  In  this 
ceremony  the  commandant  thought  he  saw 
revived  the  ancient  fire  worship,  such  as  was 
once  practised  in  Bakoo.  the  sacred  city  of 
the  Guebres  or  Fire  Worshippers. 

The  old  maps  of  this  portion  of  Pennsyl 
vania  indicate  several  places  in  Venango  and 
Crawford  counties  where  oil  springs  had  been 
noted  by  the  early  settlers.  They  made  some 


PETROLEUM,    OR    ROCK    OIL. 


163 


use  of  the  oil,  collecting  it  by  spreading  a 
woollen  cloth  upon  the  pools  of  water  below 
the  springs,  and  when  the  cloth  was  satu 
rated  with  the  oil  wringing  it  out  into  vessels. 
The  two  springs  referred  to  on  Oil  Creek 
furnished  small  quantities  of  oil  as  it  was  re 
quired,  and  from  a  third,  twelve  miles  below 
Titusville  in  the  middle  of  the  creek,  the  own 
er  has  procured  20  barrels  or  more  of  oil  in 
a  year.*  In  1854  Messrs  Eveleth  and  Bissell 
of  New  York  purchased  the  upper  spring, 
and  leased  mineral  rights  over  a  portion  of 
the  valley.  They  then  obtained  from  Prof. 
B.  Silliman,  jr.,  of  New  Haven  a  report  upon 
the  qualities  of  the  oil,  and  in  1855  organ 
ized  a  company  in  New  York  called  the 
"  Pennsylvania  Rock  Oil  Company,"  to  en 
gage  in  its  exploration.  The  same  year  a 
new  company  under  the  same  name,  formed 
in  New  Haven  and  organized  under  the  laws 
of  Connecticut,  succeeded  to  the  rights  of 
the  old  company ;  but  for  two  years  they 
made  no  progress  in  developing  the  re 
sources  of  the  property  they  had  acquired. 
In  December,  1857,  they  concluded  an  agree 
ment  with  Messrs.  Bowditch  and  Drake  of 
New  Haven  to  undertake  the  search  for  oil. 
To  the  enterprise  of  Col.  E.  L.  Drake,  who 
removed  to  Titusville  and  prosecuted  the 
business  in  the  face  of  serious  obstacles,  the 
region  is  indebted  for  the  important  results 
which  followed.  After  a  well  had  been 
sunk  and  curbed  near  the  spring,  ten  feet 
square  and  sixteen  feet  deep,  boring  was 
commenced  in  the  spring  of  1859,  and  on 
the  V6th  of  August,  at  the  depth  of  seventy- 
one  feet,  the  drill  suddenly  sank  four  inches, 
and  when  taken  out  the  oil  rose  within  five 
inches  of  the  surface.  At  first  a  small  pump 
threw  up  about  400  gallons  daily.  By  in 
troducing  a  larger  one  the  flow  was  increased 
to  1000  gallons  in  the  same  time.  Though 
the  pumping  was  continued  by  steam  power 
for  months  no  diminution  was  experienced 
in  the  flow.  The  success  of  this  enterprise 
produced  great  excitement,  and  the  lands  up 
on  the  creek  were  soon  leased  to  parties,  who 
undertook  to  bore  for  oil  for  a  certain  share 
of  the  product,  sometimes  advancing  besides 
a  moderate  sum  to  the  owner. 

The  country  was  overrun  by  explorers  for 
favorable  sites  for  new  wells,  and  borings 
were  undertaken  along  the  valley  of  the  Al- 


*  See  a  pamphlet  by  Thomas  A.  Gale,  published 
In  Erie,  Perm,  1860,  entitled  "Rock  Oil  in  Pennsyl 
vania  and  elsewhere." 


leghany  river,  and  up  the  French  Creek 
above  Franklin.  The  summer  of  1860  wit 
nessed  unwonted  activity  and  enterprise  in 
this  hitherto  quiet  portion  of  the  state,  where 
the  population  had  before  known  no  other 
pursuits  than  farming  and  lumbering.  Every 
farm  along  the  deep,  narrow  valleys,  sudden 
ly  acquired  an  extraordinary  value,  and  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  most  successful  wells  vil 
lages  sprung  up  as  in  California  during  the 
gold  excitement,  and  new  branches  of  manu 
facture  were  all  at  once  introduced  for  sup 
plying  to  the  oil  men  the  barrels  required 
for  the  oil  and  the  tools  employed  in  boring 
the  wells.  From  Titusville  to  the  mouth  of 
Oil  Creek,  about  1 5  miles,  the  derricks  of  the 
well  borers  were  everywhere  seen.  On  the 
Alleghany  river  the  number  below  Tidioute 
in  Warren  county,  south  into  Venango  coun 
ty,  showed  that  this  portion  of  the  district 
was  especially  productive,  and  the  same 
might  be  said  of  the  vicinity  of  the  town 
of  Franklin,  both  up  the  Alleghany  river  and 
French  Creek.  The  wells  had  amounted  to 
several  hundred,  or  according  to  one  pub 
lished  statement,  to  full  2000  in  number  be 
fore  the  close  of  the  year,  and  from  an  esti 
mate  published  in  the  Venango  Spectator, 
(Franklin)  74  of  these  on  the  21st  of  No 
vember  were  producing  the  following  daily 
yield  : — 

No.  of  wells.  Prod.  bbls. 

On  Oil  Creek, 33 485 

"    Upper  Alleghany  river,   20 442 

Franklin, 15 139 

Two  Mile  Run, 3 64 

French  Creek, 3 35 


Total, 74 


.1165 


The  capacity  of  the  barrel  is  40  gallons,  and 
at  the  low  estimate  of  only  20  cents  the  gal 
lon  the  total  value  of  the  daily  product  is 
not  far  from  $10,000.  The  depth  of  the 
wells  is  in  a  few  instances  less  than  100  feet. 
The  shallowest  one  reported,  belonging  to 
the  Tidioute  Island  Oil  Company,  was  67 
feet  deep,  and  its  product  was  30  barrels  a 
day.  In  general  the  depth  is  from  180  to 
280  feet;  one  well  in  Franklin  is  502  feet  in 
depth,  and  one  on  Oil  Creek  425  feet.  The 
deepest  wells  are  not  the  most  productive, 
and  the  fact  of  their  being  extended  beyond 
the  ordinary  depths  may  generally  be  con 
sidered  an  evidence  of  their  failure  to  pro- 
d\ice  much  oil.  There  are  exceptions,  how 
ever,  to  this,  one  of  the  deepest  wells,  that 
of  Hoover  and  Stewart,  three  miles  below 
Franklin,  producing  largely  of  excellent  oil. 


164 


MIXING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


The  selection  of  localities  for  boring  is 
very  much  a  matter  of  chance.  Proximity 
to  productive  wells  is  the  first  desideratum ; 
but  this,  when  attainable,  is  not  always  at 
tended  with  success.  The  oil  does  not  ap 
pear  to  be  spread  out,  as  the  rocks  lie  in 
horizontal  sheets,  or  if  so  there  are  many 
places  where  it  does  not  find  its  way  between 
the  strata,  and  wells  near  together  from 
which  oil  is  pumped  do  not  always  draw 
upon  each  other.  No  doubt  the  system  of 
crevices  and  pervious  strata  through  which 
the  oil  flows  in  its  subterranean  currents,  is 
very  irregular  and  interrupted.  The  valleys 
to  which  the  operations  are  limited  are  nar 
row,  and  are  bounded  on  each  side  by  hills, 
the  summits  of  which,  from  250  to  400  feet 
above  the  bottoms,  are  on  the  general  level 
of  the  country.  The  increased  expense  that 
would  be  incurred  in  sinking  from  the  upper 
surface  and  in  afterward  raising  the  oil  to 
this  height,  as  also  the  uncertainty  of  find 
ing  oil  elsewhere  than  in  the  valleys,  have  so 
far  prevented  the  explorations  being  extend 
ed  beyond  the  creek  and  river  bottoms ;  but 
it  cannot  be  long  before  the  capacity  of  the 
broad  districts  between  the  streams  to  pro 
duce  oil  is  thoroughly  tested.  At  present 
the  most  favorable  sites  are  supposed  to  be 
near  a  break  in  the  hills  that  form  the  mar 
gin  of  the  valley,  as  where  a  branch  comes 
into  the  main  stream.  An  experiment  is  al 
ready  undertaken  to  test  the  high  grounds 
west  of  Tidioute  branch. 

As  the  bituminous  coals  are  known  as  a 
source  of  hydrocarbon  oils,  it  is  natural  to 
suppose  that  the  springs  of  oil  found  near 
the  coal  region  are  fed  from  the  coal  beds  or 
bituminous  shales  of  the  coal  formation. 
But  it  happens  that  only  a  few  oil  springs 
of  western  Pennsylvania  have  been  struck 
in  the  coal-measures  themselves,  and  that 
some  of  these  are  sunk  into  the  underlying 
groups  of  rock  to  reach  the  supplies  of  oil. 
The  oil  districts  are  in  general  outside  of  the 
coal-field  and  upon  the  outcrop  of  lower 
formations  which  pass  beneath  the  coal-meas 
ures,  the  whole  having  a  general  conformity 
of  dip.  Hence  the  slope  of  the  strata  is 
toward  the  coal,  and  an  obstacle  is  thus  pre 
sented  to  the  flow  of  the  oil  from  the  coal 
field  toward  its  margin ;  and  though  under 
some  circumstances  the  elastic  pressure  of 
the  carburetted  hydrogen  gas  might  force 
the  oil  considerable  distances  from  its  source, 
it  is  hardly  to  be  supposed  that  this  should 
first  find  its  way  down  into  lower  formations 


and  then  be  carried  many  miles  (30  to  50) 
and  find  its  outlet  in  another  district,  rather 
than  to  the  surface  at  some  nearer  point. 
The  strata  of  north-western  Pennsylvania 
lie  nearly  horizontally,  their  general  inclina 
tion  being  toward  the  south.  The  highest 
rock  upon  the  summits  of  the  hills  of  the 
oil  region  is  the  conglomerate  or  pebbly 
rock  (the  floor  of  the  coal-measures).  Be 
neath  this  are  series  of  thin  bedded  sand 
stones,  slates,  and  shales,  alternating  with 
each  other  with  frequent  repetitions.  The 
shales,  often  of  an  olive  green  color,  are  read 
ily  recognized  as  belonging  to  the  Chemung 
and  Portage  groups  of  the  New  York  geol 
ogists — a  formation  which  overspreads  this 
portion  of  the  country,  extending  in  New 
York  two  thirds  of  the  way  toward  Lake 
Ontario  and  as  far  east  as  Binghamton.  It 
is  also  continued  through  Ohio,  crossing  the 
Ohio  river  at  Portsmouth,  and  in  this  state, 
is  known  as  the  Waverley  series.  Under  this 
is  a  heavy  bed  of  bituminous  shale,  200  or 
300  feet  thick,  called  in  Ohio  the  black  slate 
and  in  New  York  the  Hamilton  shales.  This 
group  contains  an  immense  amount  of  car 
bonaceous  matter,  and  oil  is  often  dissem 
inated  through  it.  Sometimes  it  runs  out 
in  springs  and  finds  an  outlet  by  the  occa 
sional  fissures  in  the  beds.  Dr.  J.  S.  New- 
berry,  who  has  given  much  attention  to  this 
subject,  is  of  opinion  that  this  formation 
contains  sufficient  carbonaceous  material  to 
be  the  source  of  the  oil,  and  that  the  more 
porous  and  open  shales  and  sandstones  of 
higher  formations  are  its  reservoirs.  Such 
is  the  geological  formation  of  the  Seneca  oil 
region  and  of  the  oil  springs  of  Canada 
West,  which  are  the  districts  affording  this 
product  most  remote  from  the  coal-field. 
But  from  whatever  source  the  oil  may  be 
derived,  its  origin  is  at  the  best  very  ob 
scure,  and  little  light  can  be  thrown  upon 
the  probability  of  the  supply  long  enduring 
the  heavy  drain  made  upon  it  by  hundreds 
of  wells  worked  by  powerful  steam  pumps. 
But  though  actual  experience  alone  must 
determine  the  extent  of  the  quantities  of  oil 
stored  up  and  the  period  they  will  last,  there 
is  certainly  encouragement  to  be  drawn  from 
the  never-failing  yield  of  the  oil  districts  of  . 
Asia,  which  for  centuries  have  poured  forth 
without  stint  their  rivers  of  oil. 

The  sinking  of  wells  is  conducted   after 
the  usual  method  of  boring  artesian  wells.   ; 
After  much  uncertain  consideration  of  the 
chances,  a  particular  spot  is  selected,  more, 


PETROLEUM,    OR    ROCK    OIL. 


165 


perhaps,  from  the  hope  of  its  being  the  right 
one  than  from  any  very  practical  grounds 
for  the  choice ;  but  as  the  oil  flows  only  in 
crevices  among  the  strata,  the  location  is 
frequently  determined — other  things  being 
equal — by  the  prospect  of  reaching  the  rock 
at  a  few  feet  from  the  surface,  and  thereby 
avoiding  the  necessity  of  sinking  an  open  well 
or  driving  pipes  through  unknown  obstacles 
down  to  the  rock.  If  the  bed  rock  is  found 
within  ten  or  fifteen  feet,  the  boring  is  be 
gun  at  once.  The  derrick  being  raised,  an 
elm,  hickory,  hemlock,  or  other  elastic  tim 
ber  is  cut  down,  some  25  or  30  feet  in  length. 
The  larger  end  is  fixed  in  a  notch  of  a  tree,  or 
heavy  post  planted  in  the  ground,  and  another 
post  is  set  under  it  at  a  distance  from  the 
but  determined  by  the  elasticity  of  the  tim 
ber.  The  spring  of  the  pole  should  be  suf 
ficient  to  raise  the  drill  quickly,  with  its 
iron  connecting  rods,  weighing  often  300 
pounds.  The  rods  are  suspended  from  the 
free  end  of  the  pole  by  a  swivel  or  simple 
bolt-head,  turning  freely  around.  At  the 
commencement  of  the  boring,  the  rods  being 
very  short  do  not  weigh  more,  including  the 
drill,  than  70  or  80  pounds.  Two  men, 
therefore,  jerk  them  forcibly  down,  to  in 
crease  the  momentum  of  the  drill;  the  spring 
of  the  pole  immediately  raises  the  drill  for 
the  next  stroke,  while  at  each  blow  a  man 
gives  it  a  slight  turn  so  that  it  may  cut  a 
round  hole.  Several  other  methods  are  em 
ployed  for  making  the  pole  spring ;  by  one, 
which  is  conveniently  worked  without  em 
ploying  steam  or  horse  power,  a  sort  of 
double  stirrup  is  suspended  from  the  pole 
into  which  two  men  place  each  a  foot,  and 
pressing  the  stirrup  suddenly  down  it  imme 
diately  springs  up  again  with  the  drill.  This 
is  much  used,  though  some  wells  are  sunk  by 
horse-power  machinery,  and  some  by  steam 
engines  of  four  or  five  horse  power. 

As  the  well  is  constantly  deepening,  while 
the  stroke  of  the  spring-pole  (about  30  inch 
es)  remains  constant,  a  vertical  adjusting 
screw  about  18  inches  in  length  is  attached 
to  the  end  of  the  spring-pole ;  the  rope  is 
clamped  to  the  lower  end  or  nut  of  this 
screw,  and  then  extended  to  the  pulley  above. 
As  the  well  deepens,  a  slight  turn  of  the 
screw  lowers  the  rope  with  the  rods  attached 
to  it,  and  thus  keeps  the  drill  always  free  to 
fall  to  the  bottom  with  an  equal  stroke.  The 
work  is  continued,  by  a  constant  succession 
of  strokes,  to  a  depth  of  about  fifty  feet, 
successive  lengths  of  iron  rods  being  screw 


ed  on  as  the  hole  deepens — increasing  the 
weight  of  the  tools  to  about  300  pounds. 
The  use  of  any  additional  rods  is  then  dis 
pensed  with,  and  the  upper  rod  is  suspended 
by  a  rope  attached  to  the  spring-pole,  and 
continued  above  the  pole  around  a  pulley 
and  windlass,  used  to  raise  the  boring  tools 
when  it  is  necessary  to  draw  them  out. 
They  are  drawn  up  in  this  manner  at  inter 
vals  of  an  hour  or  two,  in  order  to  sharpen 
and  temper  the  drill,  and  to  make  room  for 
the  sand  pump.  This  is  a  thin  iron  tube,  a 
little  more  than  half  the  diameter  of  the  hole, 
with  a  simple  valve  at  the  bottom  opening  up 
ward.  It  is  lowered  by  a  cord  to  the  bottom 
of  the  well,  then  raised  up  with  a  jerk,  and  suf 
fered  to  drop  again  by  its  own  weight.  This  is 
repeated  quickly  eight  or  ten  times ;  a  whirl 
is  thus  produced  in  the  water  below  which 
stirs  up  the  mud  and  small  pieces  of  broken 
stone ;  as  the  tube  drops,  the  mud  and  small 
stones  enter  the  open  valve  and  are  retained 
when  the  tube  is  drawn  out. 

The  jarrers  are  employed  to  increase  the 
force  of  the  spring-pole  when  the  drill  hap 
pens  to  be  wedged  in  the  hole  by  broken 
pieces  of  stone  or  by  other  obstructions. 
They  are  two  rectangular  links  about  18 
inches  in  length,  formed  of  stout  bars  of 
iron,  and  connecting  the  upper  rods  with  the 
lower.  When  the  drill  descends  to  the  bot 
tom,  the  upper  link,  as  it  descends,  slips 
down  eight  or  ten  inches  in  the  lower  link, 
and  when  the  pole  springs  up  the  upper  link 
has  the  advantage  of  moving  through  this 
space,  and  thereby  giving  a  sudden  upward 
jerk  to  the  drill  rod.  The  force  of  this  up 
ward  jerk  is  greatly  increased  by  a  heavy  rod 
introduced  above  the  upper  link,  and  which, 
as  it  moves  up,  lends  its  momentum  to  the 
stroke. 

The  hole  is  carried  down  by  three  men 
at  different  rates  according  to  the  nature 
of  the  strata  encountered,  varying  from  a 
foot  or  less  to  six  feet  in  a  day.  In  the 
hard  sandstones  of  quartz  pebbles  firmly  uni 
ted  together,  two  or  three  inches  sinking  in 
1 2  hours  may  be  all  the  progress  practicable. 
The  material  brought  up  is  carefully  scanned 
for  any  oily  appearance  indicating  the  prox 
imity  of  oil,  and  the  well  is  watched  to  ob 
serve  if  any  carburetted  hydrogen  gas  escapes 
from  it,  which  is  considered  a  favorable  sign. 

The  process  of  drilling  in  the  rock  is  con 
sidered  by  all  concerned  in  boring  for  petro 
leum,  a  very  simple  and  even  welcome  oper 
ation,  especially  when  contrasted  with  the 


166 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


uncertainties  and  apprehensions  that  sur 
round  the  driving  of  pipes.  At  the  outset, 
the  cost  of  four  iron  pipes  and  bands  long 
enough  to  reach  a  depth  of  forty  feet,  is 
equal  to  that  of  a  complete  set  of  boring 
tools  with  the  rods  and  ropes  sufficient  to 
bore  half  a  dozen  wells  of  300  feet  each  in 
depth.  There  is  often  great  uncertainty  of 
knowing  how  deep  the  pipes  will  have  to  be 
driven,  and  it  is  impossible  to  foresee  the 
various  obstacles  through  which  they  have 
to  go.  When  the  work  has  gone  down  suc 
cessfully  70  or  even  100  feet,  the  lowest  pipe 
is  often  suddenly  broken  or  takes  an  oblique 
direction.  The  pipes  in  the  ground  are  then 
abandoned,  and  a  new  set  driven  in  another 
place,  although  in  several  instances  pipes 
reaching  60  feet  in  depth  have  been  pulled 
up  by  a  lever  and  axle,  with  chains  or  rods 
attached  to  a  lewis  wedge  driven  into  the 
bottom  pipe. 

The  pipes  are  of  cast  iron,  generally  ten 
or  twelve  feet  long,  about  five  inches  bore, 
and  the  shell  full  an  inch  thick.  The  lower 
end  of  the  first  pipe  is  not  sharpened,  but 
is  driven  down  blunt  as  it  comes  from  the 
mould.  The  pipes  are  fastened  together  in 
the  simplest  manner  possible,  by  wrought- 
iron  bands,  the  ends  being  turned  off,  leav 
ing  a  neck  somewhat  larger  than  the  interior 
diameter  of  the  bands,  to  receive  them  when 
expanded  by  heat. 

Through  common  earth  or  gravel  the 
pipes  are  forced  down  by  the  ordinary  proc 
ess  of  pile-driving ;  but  when  large  stones 
are  encountered,  or  round  boulders  as  large 
as  a  man's  head,  there  is  great  risk  of  break 
ing  or  turning  the  pipes.  As  soon,  there 
fore,  as  the  pipes  meet  with  any  great  resist 
ance  the  driving  is  suspended  and  the  drill 
is  applied  to  break  up  the  stone  or  to  bore 
a  circular  hole  in  it,  which  is  afterward 
reamed  out  as  large  as  the  interior  diameter 
of  the  pipes.  The  driving  is  then  resumed, 
and  in  soft  shales  the  pipes  are  often  forced 
on,  crushing  down  the  sides  of  the  hole,  and 
making  their  way  through  to  the  depth  of 
12  or  15  inches  in  the  rocky  stratum. 

The  cost  of  boring  a  well  200  feet  deep 
is  generally  estimated  at  from  $1000  to 
81500.  The  latter  sum  includes  the  cost 
of  all  the  tools  and  materials,  and  also  of  a 
small  steam  engine,  a  large  tank  of  .pine 
plank,  in  which  the  product  is  collected  for 
the  oil  and  water  to  separate,  and  it  also  al 
lows  for  such  accidents  and  delays  as  are 
common  to  these  operations. 


When  the  oil  is  struck  it  often  rises  up  in 
the  well,  sometimes  flowing  over  the  top,  and 
in  several  instances  it  has  burst  forth  in  a  jet 
and  played  like  a  fountain,  throwing  the  oil 
mixed  with  water  high  up  into  the  air.  Such 
jets  have  rarely  lasted  long,  and  are  usually 
interrupted  by  discharges  of  gas,  the  elasticity 
of  which  drives  out  with  violence  the  fluids 
mixed  with  it,  as  champagne  wine  is  pro 
jected  from  a  bottle  on  removing  the  cork. 
Hundreds  of  barrels  of  oil  have,  however, 
been  wasted  at  some  of  the  wells  for  Avant 
of  means  to  collect  it  or  stop  its  flow  in  its 
sudden  first  appearance.  At  Williams'  well, 
half  a  mile  below  Titusville,  about  100  bar 
rels  of  oil  were  collected  the  first  night  the 
oil  was  reached,  and  a  large  quantity  besides 
was  lost.  A  similar  event  occurred  near 
Tidioute,  the  oil  rushing  up  so  violently  as 
to  knock  over  the  laborer  who  held  the  drill 
and  to  pass  through  the  derrick  and  over 
the  trees  around.  After  a  time  the  spouting 
wells  become  quiet  and  the  oil  settles  down, 
so  that  it  has  to  be  raised  by  pumpirig.  The 
pumps  are  contrived  to  work  at  any  depth, 
and  by  men,  or  by  horse  power,  or  the  steam 
engine.  For  a  time  at  some  of  the  wells 
the  product  has  been  water  alone  or  water 
mixed  with  a  little  oil ;  and  after  pumping 
several  days  this  has  given  place  to  oil  with 
a  moderate  proportion  of  water.  If  the 
pumping  be  suspended  for  a  day  water  accu 
mulates,  and  it  may  be  several  days  before 
this  is  drawn  out  and  the  former  yield  of  oil 
recovered.  The  water  is  generally  salt.  The 
flow  of  oil  has  rarely  if  ever  been  known  to 
fail  entirely  except  by  reason  of  some  ob 
struction  in  the  Avells,  and  in  such  cases  it 
has  usually  returned  after  the  hole  has  been 
bored  out  larger  or  made  deeper.  The  sup 
ply  is  not,  however,  altogether  regular  in 
any  of  the  wells,  even  after  the  flow  has  set 
tled  down  to  a  moderate  production  of  10 
or  15  barrels  a  day.  The  maximum  yield 
of  a  well  for  a  considerable  time  is  about  50 
barrels  a  day,  and  from  this  the  production 
ranges  down  to  4  barrels,  below  which  it  is 
considered  insufficient  to  pay  expenses. 

The  oil  and  water  are  conducted  from  the 
pumps  into  the  large  receiving  vats,  and 
after  the  water  has  subsided  the  oil  is  bar 
relled  for  the  market.  From  the  upper  Oil 
Creek  it  is  mostly  wagoned  to  the  Union 
Mills  station  in  Erie  county,  on  the  Erie  and 
Sunbury  railroad ;  and  from  Tidioute  to  Ir 
vine,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Broken  Straw,  on 
the  same  road.  But  most  of  the  oil  along 


PETROLEUM,    OR    ROCK    OIL. 


167 


the  Allcghany  river  and  French  Creek  is 
taken  by  steamboats  down  the  river  to  Pitts- 
burg.  New  York  city  is  at  present  the  prin 
cipal  market,  but  the  country  refineries  are  al 
ready  taking  a  considerable  share  of  the  oil. 

The  product  of  the  different  wells  varies 
somewhat  in  quality  and  value.  At  Frank 
lin  the  oil  for  the  most  part  is  heavy,  mark 
ing  as  low  as  33°  Baume,  which  corresponds 
to  specific  gravity  0.864.  Some  of  the  wells 
furnish  oils  of  35°  or  36° — on  Oil  Creek  the 
range  is  from  38°  to  46°,  at  Tidioute  43°. 
The  French  Creek  oils  are  heavy.  It  is  not 
unlikely  that  the  depth  of  the  wells  may 
have  some  effect  upon  the  quality  of  the  oil, 
as  from  very  shallow  wells  those  of  the  light 
er  varieties  must  be  likely  to  escape  by  evap 
oration,  leaving  the  heavier  portions  behind. 
The  oils  obtained  at  Mecca,  Trumbull  coun 
ty,  Ohio,  are  heavy  oils,  being  thick  like 
goose  grease  and  marking  26°  or  27°,  which 
is  equivalent  to  specific  gravity  0.900.  At 
Grafton,  Lorain  county,  Ohio,  the  oil  is  even 
darker  and  thicker  than  this,  marking  about 
25°  B. 

With  the  exception  of  some  light,  clear 
oils  of  reddish  color,  the  petroleum  is  usu 
ally  of  a  greenish  hue,  more  or  less  deep  and 
opaque.  It  has  an  offensive  smell  which  is 
not  entirely  removed  by  the  ordinary  meth 
ods  of  deodorizing  practised  in  the  refineries. 
The  process  of  purification  is  similar  to  that 
of  the  coal  oil  manufacture,  as  already  de 
scribed.  The  proportion  of  light  oils  sepa 
rated  by  distillation  varies  with  the  crude 
petroleum  employed.  The  largest  product 
is  about  90  per  cent.,  and  from  this  less 
amounts  are  obtained  down  to  about  50  per 
cent.  The  properties  and  uses  of  these  prod 
ucts  have  already  been  considered  in  treat 
ing  of  coal  oil. 

To  complete  this  account  of  the  petroleum 
of  the  United  States  more  particular  men 
tion  should  be  made  of  the  extension  of  the 
district  from  north-western  Pennsylvania  in 
to  New  York  on  one  side,  and  Ohio  on  the 
other.  In  Chautauqua,  Cattaraugus,  and  Al- 
legany  counties,  N.  Y.,  are  many  places 
where  the  appearace  of  small  quantities  of 
oil  upon  the  surface,  and  the  escape  of  jets 
of  carburetted  hydrogen,  indicate  the  exist 
ence  of 'petroleum  below;  and  the  names  of 
Clean  and  another  Oil  creek,  a  branch  of  the 
Genesee  river,  suggest  the  probability  of  this 
proving  another  oil  district.  About  a  mile 
north-west  from  Cuba  in  Allegany  county, 
is  a  pool  about  20  feet  across  and  10  feet 


deep  that  has  always  been  called  an  oil 
spring,  its  surface  being  covered  with  a  coat 
ing  of  oil  from  which  supplies  have  been  ob 
tained  for  medicinal  purposes.  A  pipe  was 
sunk  into  this,  and  on  the  3d  of  January,  1861, 
when  it  had  been  driven  down  20  or  30  feet, 
oil  mixed  with  water  suddenly  gushed  up 
with  great  force.  Oil  also  appeared  on  the 
water  drawn  up  from  an  artesian  well  sunk 
to  the  depth  of  130  feet  in  the  same  vicini 
ty.  Arrangements  are  now  in  progress  for 
thoroughly  testing  the  capacity  of  this  dis 
trict.  ^ 

In  Ohio  the  oil-producing  counties  are 
Noble,  Adams,  Franklin,  Medina,  Lorain, 
Cuyahoga,  Trumbull,  Mahoning,  and  some 
others.  Near  Cleveland  and  in  the  valley 
of  the  Cuyahoga  oil  appears  in  many  places, 
but  it  has  not  yet  proved  of  much  impor 
tance.  The  vicinity  of  Mecca,  Trumbull 
county,  is  the  most  productive  locality.  Op 
erations  were  commenced  there  in  February, 
1860,  and  in  November  it  was  stated  that 
between  600  and  700  wells  had  been  sunk, 
and  75  steam  engines  were  in  operation 
pumping  oil.  Two  of  the  wells  were  yield 
ing  from  50  to  100  barrels  a  day  each.  This 
statement  is  probably  much  exaggerated,  and 
while  others  report  that  several  hundred  wells 
have  been  sunk,  a  dozen  or  more  are  said  to  be 
working  profitably.  These  wells  pass  through 
the  same  formation  as  those  near  Titusville, 
but  for  the  most  part  they  are  shallow,  rang 
ing  in  depth  from  30  to  100  feet,  and  the  most 
of  them  not  much  exceeding  50  feet.  About 
30  miles  south-east  from  Mecca,  at  Lowell- 
ville,  Mahoning  county,  a  well  was  sunk  157 
feet  which  proved  very  successful,  yielding 
20  barrels  of  oil  a  day.  This  well  was  com 
menced  in  the  conglomerate  and  ended  in 
the  Chemung  strata.  Duck  Creek,  Noble 
county,  was  formerly  noted  for  the  oil  which 
appeared  with  the  brine  of  the  salt  wells. 

In  Ritchie  and  Wirt  counties,  Virginia,  near 
the  Ohio  river,  some  wells  are  producing  oil, 
and  this  promises  to  be  an  important  oil  dis 
trict.  Canada  West  also  contains  an  oil  re 
gion,  extending  from  London  toward  the  St. 
Clair  river,  from  which  petroleum  has  been 
obtained  the  last  two  years.  The  value  of 
the  product,  however,  is  considerably  dete 
riorated  by  its  insufferable  odor.  On  the 
southern  coast  of  California  petroleum  is 
said  to  be  found  in  considerable  quantities ; 
and  springs  of  it  are  described  by  Captain 
Stansbury  in  the  report  of  his  expedition  to 
the  Great  Salt  Lake,  in  1849,  as  occurring 


168 


MINING    INDUSTRY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


about  83  miles  east  from  Salt  Lake  City,  in 
the  vicinity  of  sulphur  springs  and  beds  of 
bituminous  coal. 

The  works  for  refining  petroleum  (except 


ing  some  originally  designed  for  manufacture 
ing  coal  oil)  were  all  constructed  in  1860-61. 
Their  localities  and  approximate  capacity,  as 
far  as  known,  are  given  below : — 


Localities.  No.  factories. 

Pittsburg,  Penn 2 

Tidioute,  Warren  Co.,  Penn.. 
Union,  Erie  Co.,  "     . 

Meadville,  Crawford  Co.,  "     . 
Franklin,  Venango  Co., 


] 
1 
1 
1 
Titusville,  Crawford  Co.,  "  2 


Daily  capacity. 
Bbls. 

35 
35 
50 
10 
30&40 


Oil  City,  mouth  of  Oil  Creek. 
Buffalo,  N.  Y. . . 

Cleveland,  Ohio 

Columbus,     " 
Canfield,        " 


Remarks. 
Built  for  coal  oil. 

Destroyed  by  fire. 


Not  completed. 


Built  for  coal  oil, 
recently  burnt. 

Built  for  coal  oil. 


LAND  SETTLEMENT-INTERNAL  TRADE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

WESTERN  SETTLEMENT  AND  TRADE. 

PURCHASE    OF    LOUISIANA POPULATION"   AND 

LAND     SALES AVENUES    TO     THE     VALLEY 

CANAL   AND    RAILROAD  EXPENDITURES 

LAKE    CITIES    AND    TRADE RECIPROCITY. 

THE  original  colonies,  settled  as  they  were 
under  different  grants,  circumstances,  and 
powers,  had  many  and  conflicting  claims  to 
the  then  comparatively  unknown  land  run 
ning  back  to  the  Mississippi  river,  bounded 
on  the  north  by  the  chain  of  lakes,  and  on 
the  south  by  the  Spanish  territories  of  Flori 
da  and  Louisiana,  when  there  was  a  question 
of  union  into  a  confederacy.  These  various 
claims  were  a  matter  of  dispute,  which,  from 
being  serious,  was  settled  by  a  mutual  ces 
sion  of  the  lands  to  the  federal  government, 
in  trust,  for  the  common  benefit  of  all  the 
states  then  existing,  or  thereafter  to  be 
come  members  of  the  Union.  The  federal 
government  having  thus  become  owner  of 
the  lands,  the  constitution  conferred  upon 
Congress  the  power  "  to  dispose  of  and 
make  all  needful  rules  and  regulations  re 
specting  the  territory  and  other  property 
belonging  to  the  United  States."  The  ob 
vious  policy  of  the  government,  like  that  of 
every  other  thrifty  owner,  was  at  once  to 
attract  settlers  to  these  lands,  thereby  mak 
ing  them  serviceable  to  the  whole  people  as 
fast  as  possible.  To  do  so,  the  lands  were 
to  be  sold  cheap,  and  as  few  formalities  as 
possible  placed  in  the  way  of  the  settlers. 
The  domain  was  organized  under  the  control 
of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  being  ad 
ministered  under  him  by  a  commissioner  of 
the  land  office.  The  whole  domain  is 
divided  into  districts,  for  each  of  which 
there  is  a  surveyor  general,  under  whom  the 
territory  is  subdivided  for  survey  into  dis 
tricts.  For  each  district  there  is  a  land 
office,  occupied  by  a  register  and  a  receiver. 
A  plan  is  prepared  of  each  district  by  the 
surveyors,  with  the  utmost  care,  showing 


ranges,  sections,  and  townships,  with  topo 
graphic  characteristics.  Of  this  plan  there 
are  three  copies;  one  is  retained  at  the 
land  office,  one  by  the  surveyor,  and  the 
third  is  sent  to  the  general  office  at  Wash 
ington,  where  it  serves  to  regulate  all  tran 
sactions.  The  land  being  all  surveyed  into 
sections  of  640  acres  each,  is  offered  for 
sale  by  the  government  at  auction,  at  a 
minimum  price  of  $1.25  per  acre.  After 
the  land  has  been  on  sale  two  weeks,  it  may 
be  sold  in  40  acre  lots,  at  a  less  price.  The 
actual  occupant  of  any  land  offered  has  the 
pre-emption  to  it.  The  buyer  of  the  land 
pays  the  money  to  the  receiver,  and  gets  for 
it  a  receipt,  of  which  the  register  sends  a 
duplicate,  with  a  certificate  of  the  sale,  to 
Washington.  On  the  verification  of  the 
sale  there,  the  deed  of  the  land,  called  a 
"patent,"  is  made  out,  and  sent  to  the  local 
land  office  register,  who  gives  it  to  the  pur 
chaser  in  exchange  for  the  receipt  he  holds, 
and  his  title  is  then  complete.  In  addition 
to  the  attractions  of  low  prices  and  pre 
emption  rights,  long  credits  were  originally 
given,  to  enable  the  settler  to  pay  for  the 
land  out  of  its  proceeds.  But  these  speed 
ily  led  to  abuses,  and  the  cash  plan  was 
finally  adopted.  There  have  been,  however, 
large  grants  of  land  for  military  purposes, 
to  schools  and  universities,  to  states  for  in 
ternal  improvements,  for  seats  of  govern 
ment,  public  buildings,  benefit  of  Indians, 
salines,  swamp  lands,  and  lastly,  in  aid  of 
canals  and  railroads — the  construction  of 
which  aided  the  settlement  of  those  lands  at  a 
distance  from  large  water  courses,  and  there 
fore  from  markets.  Some  time  elapsed  be 
fore  the  organization  of  the  department  was 
effected,  and  the  first  land  office  was  opened 
in  1800,  at  Chillicothe,  Ohio.  The  first  sales 
of  land,  however,  took  place  in  New  York 
three  years  before,  and  in  that  year  a  tri 
angle  on  the  lake  was  sold  to  Pennsylvania, 
in  order  to  give  her  a  port  on  the  lake.  That 
port  is  Erie,  and  is  famous  for  the  building 


170 


LAND  SETTLEMENT INTERNAL  TRADE. 


of  Perry's  fleet  there  in  1812,  in  seventy 
days  from  the  time  the  wood  stood  in  the 
forest  until  the  stars  and  stripes  floated  to 
the  breeze  of  the  lake  from  the  mast-head. 
That  fleet  was  fatal  to  British  supremacy  on 
the  lakes.  Almost  all  the  land  sales  took 
place  in  Ohio,  until  1807,  when  offices  were 
opened  in  Indiana  and  Mississippi.  In  1809 
an  office  was  opened  in  Alabama,  and  in 
1814  one  in  Illinois;  in  1818  in  Missouri, 
Louisiana,  and  Michigan.  The  sales  of  the 
lands  proceeded  with  great  activity  in  most 
of  these  states  up  to  1821,  particularly 
after  the  embargo  and  war  had  turned 
attention  from  commerce  and  navigation  to 
agriculture  and  manufacture.  Nearly  all 
the  lands  of  the  government  were  then  in 
the  great  valley  of  the  Mississippi.  This  is 
a  vast  basin,  the  sides  of  which  are  the 
eastern  slopes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  on 
the  west,  and  the  western  slopes  of  the  Al- 
leghany  Mountains  on  the  east.  The  chain 
of  great  lakes  stretches  across  the  northern 
end  of  the  basin,  and  the  Mississippi  river 
flows  through  its  centre  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexi 
co,  receiving  on  its  eastern  side  the  Illinois, 
the  Ohio  with  its  affluents,  and  other 
large  rivers  which  flow  generally  west  from 
the  water-shed  of  the  Alleghanies ;  and  on 
its  western  side  the  Missouri  and  other  large 
rivers  whose  waters  descend  from  the  east 
ern  slopes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The 
only  outlets  to  this  vast  basin  were  by  the 
St.  Lawrence  River  (not  then  navigable,  how 
ever)  north  to  the  ocean,  and  the  Mississippi 
river  south  to  the  gulf.  Hardy  pioneers 
did  penetrate  across  the  mountains,  by  a 
perilous  seven  weeks'  journey,  to  the  Ohio ; 
but  once  there,  intercourse  was  but  limited 
with  the  cast.  The  fertile  soil  was,  how 
ever,  attractive,  and  the  Indian  trade  profit 
able.  In  1790  the  whole  population  west 
of  the  mountains  was  108,868  souls,  or 
about  3  per  cent  of  the  whole  population  of 
the  Union.  In  1800  that  population  had 
increased  to  nearly  400,000,  but  the  only 
outlet  for  their  produce  was  down  the  Mis 
sissippi  through  the  French  territory  of 
Louisiana.  That  circumstance  led  to  great 
dissatisfaction,  and  being  adroitly  handled 
by  the  political  adventurers  of  that  day, 
threatened  disunion,  by  dissolving  the  states 
east  and  west — the  latter  to  form  a  new 
confederacy  with  the  south-west  and  Mexico. 
The  remedy  was  to  purchase  Louisiana. 
Fortunately,  at  the  moment  Napoleon  had 
relinquished  his  projects  of  forming  French 


colonies ;  also  being  determined  on  war  with 
England,  he  feared  the  seizure  of  Louisiana 
by  that  power,  and  determined  to  sell  it  to 
the  United  States  for  $14,984,872.  This 
money,  in  1803,  gave  him  the  sinews  of  war, 
and  also  the  hope  that  the  transaction  would 
embroil  the  United  States  with  his  enemy. 
England  did  at  a  later  period  attempt  to 
take  the  territories.  But  the  troops  who 
had  driven  the  French  out  of  Spain,  em 
barked  from  France  for  the  enterprise  only 
to  encounter  the  bloodiest  defeat  before 
cotton  bags  and  western  rifles.  Louisiana 
was  then  possessed  of  a  certain  amount  of 
population  and  wealth,  which,  from  being 
French,  by  annexation  became  American.  A 
considerable  commerce  had  grown  up.  The 
amount  of  trade  then  existing  between  the 
eastern  and  western  states  may  be  gathered 
from  the  official  returns  of  exports  to  New 
Orleans,  in  the  four  years  before  it  was  an 
nexed,  as  follows  : — 

STATES.         1799.         1800.         1801.         1802. 
Atlantic,    3,504,092  2,035,789  1,907,998  1,224,710 
•Western,      1,124,842  1,596,640 

Total,  $3,504,092  2,035,789  3,032,840  2,821,350 

The  exports  from  the  Atlantic  States  were 
mostly  foreign  merchandise  destined  for  ex 
port  up  the  western  rivers.  The  exports  of 
the  western  states  were  the  produce  sent 
down  for  sale.  Those  exports  were  the 
productions  of  hardy  adventurers,  whom 
circumstances  had  induced  to  seek  their  for 
tunes  in  the  west.  As  long  as  the  commerce 
of  the  country  was  active,  and  the  sales  of 
the  farm  products  of  the  Atlantic  states 
profitable,  there  was  less  inducement  to  mi 
grate  west  than  there  was  after  the  embargo 
had  wrought  a  change  in  that  respect,  and 
the  means  of  communication  via  New  Or 
leans  had  improved.  When  that  port  be 
came  an  American  city,  and  the  mighty 
river  to  its  mouth  an  American  stream,  a 
new  attraction  was  added  to  the  fair  lands 
of  the  valley,  and  in  1810  its  population 
had  risen  to  878,315.  The  impulse  thus 
given  to  western  settlement  was  strength 
ened  by  the  effects  of  war  upon  the  Atlantic 
states.  The  interruption  of  commerce  and 
stagnation  of  exports  threw  out  of  employ 
ment  large  numbers,  who  now  turned  an 
inquiring  gaze  beyond  the  mountains.  The 
capital  of  the  east  thrown  out  of  commercial 
employment  by  the  same  circumstances, 
flowed  eagerly  into  banking,  in  the  hope  of 


WESTERN    SETTLEMENT    AND    TRADE. 


171 


deriving  large  profits  from  the  growing  re 
sources  of  the  west;  although  inevitable 
disaster  followed  the  erroneous  principles 
on  which  that  banking  was  conducted,  the 
capital,  so  lost  to  stockholders,  really  pro 
moted  agriculture.  Instead  of  confining 
themselves  to  advances  on  produce  shipped, 
the  institutions  loaned  money  to  make  im 
provements  and  build  houses  that  the  farm 
profits  could  not  pay  for.  The  result  was 
ruin  to  those  accepting  such  advances,  and 
insolvency  to  the  banks  making  them. 
From  1810  to  1820  six  states  grew  into  the 
Union,  while  in  the  fifteen  years  that  fol 
lowed  1821  none  were  admitted. 

•This  is  an  instructive  fact,  and  it  indicates 
that  western  land  speculation,  so  much  over 
done  at  those  periods,  was  a  long  time 
in  recovering  itself.  The  process  of  forming 
new  states  is  mostly  a  speculative  one.  The 
shrewdest  operators  get  possession  of  the 
leading  "  sites "  of  future  cities,  and  by 
stimulating  and  guiding  the  tide  of  migra 
tion,  become  wealthy  in  the  rise  of  prices  that 
the  tide  creates  around  them.  As  the  wealth 
iest  names  of  the  eastern  cities  wero  men 
eminent  in  commercial  enterprise,  so  were 
those  of  the  western  cities  the  earliest  and 
most  extensive  land-holders.  The  political 
influence  which  brings  the  government  pat 
ronage  upon  the  theatre  of  such  locations, 
is  a  part  of  the  machinery  to  guide  the  pop 
ular  movement.  When  in  seasons  of  specu 
lation,  these  operators  become  possessed  of 
considerable  tracts,  a  period  of  steady  and 
healthy  migration  is  required  to  distribute 
possession  among  settlers  and  clear  the  way 
for  a  new  excitement.  Yearly  the  trade  grows 
by  reason  of  the  increasing  surplus  that  the 
settlers  throw  off  for  market,  and  which 
being  sold  increases  their  ability  to  buy 
merchandise  in  return. 

There  are  no  data  by  which  to  measure  the 
growth  of  trade  in  those  western  states  after 
the  admission  of  Louisiana,  up  to  within 
twenty  years,  since  the  accounts  were  kept 
only  for  the  foreign  trade,  and  when  Louisi 
ana  became  a  state,  reports  were  no  longer 
made.  The  sales  of  lands,  and  population 
of  the  new  states,  progressed  as  follows,  how 
ever  : — 

1790  to  1800         1800  to  1810 

492,678 
3,008,982 


Population,  increase,        276,769 
Sales  of  land,  acres,      1,536,152 


1810  to  1820          Total,  1820 
Population,  increase,     1,201,248  2,079,563 

Sales  of  land,  acres,     8,499,673  13,044,807 


So  rapid  had  been  the  settlement  from 
1810  to  1820.  The  agricultural  productions 
of  that  region,  as  a  matter  of  course,  fol 
lowed  this  rapid  settlement  of  lands,  and  the 
exchange  of  those  productions  created  a 
large  trade  of  which  there  is  little  record. 
The  mines  and  manufactures  sprung  up  in 
the  several  towns,  following  the  wants  of  the 
people. 

The  cession  of  Louisiana  to  the  United 
States  had  produced  a  dispute  in  relation  to 
its  boundaries  between  this  country  and 
Spain,  which  then  owned  Florida.  This  dis 
pute  became  very  warm  in  1810,  when  it  was 
settled  through  the  mediation  of  the  French 
minister,  by  a  cession  of  east  and  west  Flor 
ida  by  Spain  to  the  United  States,  in  con 
sideration  of  being  released  from  claims  for 
spoliation  of  American  property  to  the  extent 
of  $4,985,599,  which  the  United  States  gov 
ernment  undertook  to  pay  its  own  citizens. 
The  coast  line  of  the  United  States  thus 
became  complete.  There  were  now  large 
interests  west  of  the  mountains,  a  population 
6f  over  2,000,000  souls,  occupying  fertile 
land,  capable  of  any  development,  and  great 
numbers  were  interested  in  the  rapid  •  appre 
ciation  of  those  lands  by  settlement.  The 
want  of  communication  was  a  great  obstacle. 
It  required  seven  weeks  to  reach  the  newly 
settled  cities  of  the  west;  and  when  during 
the  war  it  was  necessary  to  send  a  gun  from 
New  York  city  to  Buffalo  for  defense,  it  cost 
six  weeks  of  time  and  §1,000  in  money  to 
do  it.  There  could  be  little  trade  .under 
such  circumstances,  and  the  question  was 
to  open  communication.  A  canal  from  the 
lakes  to  tide  water  on  the  Hudson  was 
commenced  in  1817,  and  completed  in  1825. 
This  Erie  canal  cost  $7,143,789,  and  soon 
paid  for  itself,  being  the  most  profitable,  as  it 
was  the  greatest  of  modern  improvements. 
It  opened  the  door  for  the  great  western  val 
ley  to  tide  water,  and  by  doing  so  wrought  an 
immense  change  in  the  condition  and  pros 
pects  of  all  that  region.  In  October,  1823, 
New  York  had  also  completed'  the  Cham- 
plain  canal,  running  63  miles,  from  Albany 
to  Lake  Champlain,  at  a  cost  of  $1,179,871. 
Pennsylvania,  in  1825,  passed  an  act  for  the 
connection  of  Pittsburg,  on  the  Ohio,  with 
Philadelphia,  a  distance  of  394  miles.  This 
line  was  not  completed  until  1834.  In  1828, 
a  company  was  chartered  to  connect  the 
Ohio  with  Georgetown,  on  the  Potomac,  by 
the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  canal.  These 
works  gave  three  outlets  from  the  great  basin 


172 


LAND    SETTLEMENT INTERNAL    TRADE. 


to  tide  water.  While  yet  they  were  in  pro 
cess  of  construction,  however,  a  new  power 
was  being  developed  to  supersede  them  for 
trade  and  light  freights.  In  1828,  Massa 
chusetts  had  three  miles  of  railroad ;  from 
that  nest-egg,  capital  has  since  hatched  28,270 
miles,  which  cover  the  country  like  a  net 
work.  The  opening  of  the  Erie  canal  was 
attended  with  great  results,  since  it  placed 
the  produce  of  western  lands  cheaply  in  com 
petition  with  that  of  the  valley  of  the  Hud 
son,  and  of  the  less  productive  states  of  the 
Atlantic  coast.  Commerce  and  manufactures 
increased,  for  the  reason  that  agriculture  paid 
less.  The  supply  of  labor  changed  direction, 
and  the  increasing  numbers  in  manufacturing 
employments  drew  their  subsistence  from  the 
west.  The  natural  water  courses  that  dis 
charged  themselves  into  the  lakes  were  lined 
with  settlers,  and  soon  Ohio  connected  the 
lakes  with  the  Ohio  river,  by  a  canal  from 
Cleveland  to  Cincinnati,  and  also  to  Ports 
mouth.  Indiana  projected  a  canal  from 
Toledo,  on  the  lakes,  to  the  Ohio  river,  cut 
ting  the  state  nearly  longitudinally;  and 
Illinois  projected  one  from  Chicago  to  the 
navigable  waters  of  the  Illinois  river,  thus 
connecting  the  lakes  with  the  Mississippi 
river,  nearly  opposite  the  old  French  town 
of  St.  Louis — across  the  state.  These  works 
were  not  completed,  some  of  them,  until  ten 
or  fifteen  years  after  they  were  undertaken. 
That  of  Ohio,  however,  gave  a  new  impulse 
to  trade,  not  only  by  Cleveland,  on  the  lakes, 
but  by  way  of  Cincinnati,  down  the  river  to 
New  Orleans.  These  -circumstances  gave  a 
new  impulse  to  the  sales  of  land  and  the 
settlement  of  the  west.  The  expenditure  of 
money  for  the  construction  of  canals,  arid  by 
the  federal  government  for  the  construction 
of  the  great  national  road  running  west  from 
the  seat  of  government  to  the  Mississippi, 
inaugurated  the  speculative  movement  in 
that  direction.  The  bank  fever  then  raged 
once  more  in  support  of  the  land  move 
ment,  as  it  had  done  in  the  six  years  end 
ing  with  1820,  and  with  the  same  results. 
$200,000,000  of  money  went  from  east  to 
west,  feeding  the  flame,  until  all  real  capital 
was  nearly  consumed,  and  the  speculation 
ran  wild  until  it  burst  in  1837.  At  that 
time  a  large  quantity  of  land  had  passed, 
under  the  credit  sales  of  the  federal  govern 
ment,  into  the  hands  of  private  speculators, 
and  the  western  fever  lay  dormant  up  to  the 
revival  that  it  experienced  in  1846-7,  by 
reason  of  the  famine  abroad,  and  the  growing 


strength  of  the  migration.  Attention  was 
then  again  turned  to  the  lands,  and  the  rail 
road  expenditure  began  to  exert  the  same 
influence  that  canal  and  bank  expenditure 
had  exercised  in  1836,  and  the  movement 
was  progressive  until  the  revulsion  of  1857. 

The  natural  water  courses  of  the  country 
had  been  followed  by  early  migrations,  and 
the  settlement  of  the  land  bordering  them 
had  been  stimulated  by  the  bank  paper 
speculation  of  1810  to  1820.  Following  the 
excitement  came  the  construction  of  the 
artificial  means  of  navigation,  involving  an 
expenditure  of  some  $50,000,000  for  canals 
through  new  lands  opened  up  by  their  opera 
tion  ;  and  these  enterprises  were  again  at 
tended  with  a  great  bank  expansion,  that, 
although  ending  disastrously,  nevertheless 
had  the  effect  of  drawing  capital  from  Eng 
land  and  the  wealthier  Atlantic  states  to 
spread  it  upon  the  fertile  lands  of  the  west. 
The  subsidence  of  that  speculation  left  the 
west  in  comparative  quiet,  although  of  gene 
ral  progress,  for  some  years,  during  which  a 
new  and  more  powerful  element  of  internal 
development  was  coming  into  action.  This 
was  the  railroad  system. 

The  first  railroad  of  the  country  was  three 
miles,  built  in  Quincy,  Massachusetts,  and  in 
operation  in  1828,  about  the  time  the  suc 
cess  of  the  Manchester  railroad  in  England 
astonished  the  world  with  the  new  phenom 
ena  of  locomotion.  The  example  was  not 
slow  of  imitation  in  this  country;  and  the 
Boston  and  Providence  railroad,  uniting  those 
cities  by  forty  miles  of  rail,  to  connect  with 
the  steamboats  to  New  York,  was  soon  in 
operation.  Its  success  caused  other  works  to 
be  undertaken  in  New  England,  and  when 
the  Western  road  was  projected,  to  con 
nect  Albany  with  Boston,  it  gave  the  city  a 
direct  connection  with  the  Hudson  river  and 
the  Erie  canal.  New  York  projected  the  Har 
lem  railroad  ;  and  from  Albany  several  roads 
extended  west,  connecting  city  after  city, 
until  the  united  lengths  of  380  miles  made  a 
continuous  route  to  Buffalo — afterward,  in 
1850,  consolidated  in  the  New  York  Central 
railroad.  Another  road — the  Erie — to  con 
nect  New  York  with  Lake  Erie  at  Dunkirk 
(459  miles),  through  the  lower  tier  of  coun 
ties,  was  commenced  in  1842  and  completed 
in  1 853.  Baltimore  projected  the  connection 
with  Wheeling,  on  the  Ohio,  380  miles,  by 
rail,  and  Philadelphia  connected  Pittsburg,  on 
the  Ohio,  329  miles,  by  a  line  of  works  which 
became  subsequently  a  continuous  railway. 


WESTERN    SETTLEMENT    AND    TRADE. 


173 


The  New  York  railroads  were  not  allowed 
by  law  to  carry  freight  until  1850,  except  on 
payment  of  the  canal  tolls.  These  four  routes 
opened  the  western  valley  by  rail  to  tide 
water.  The  Canada  roads,  connecting  De 
troit  and  Buffalo,  and  Detroit  and  Portland, 
make  five  routes,  with  distances  as  follows : — 

N.  York  to  Chicago,  via  Erie,  Lake  Shore,  and 

Mich.  Southern, 957 

N.  York  to  Chicago,  via  Central,  Canada,  and 

Mich.  Central, 957 

Philadelphia   to   Chicago,    via   Pittsburg    and 

Fort  Wayne, 

Baltimore  to  Chicago,  via  Ohio  Central,  -  942 
Portland  to  "  "  Canada  and  Michigan 

Central, 1,133 

There  had  been,  meanwhile,  many  western 
roads  built  in  important  localities,  which  had 
much  favored  the  export  of  food  in  answer 
to  the  foreign  demand  growing  out  of  the 
famine  of  1846-7.  In  the  year  1850,  the 
federal  government  made  a  grant  of  land  of 
about  2,500,000  acres  to  the  state  of  Illinois, 
in  aid  of  the  construction  of  the  Central 
railroad,  which  was  to  connect  Galena,  on 
the  Mississippi,  and  Chicago,  on  the  lake, 
with  Cairo,  at  the  junction  of  the  Ohio  and 
Mississippi  rivers.  The  two  roads  leaving 
respectively  Galena  and  Chicago,  run  south, 
converging  until  they  meet  at  a  point  50 
miles  from  Cairo,  and  thence  proceed  to 
gether.  The  state  not  being  able  to  do  this 
herself,  made  over  the  lands  to  a  company, 
on  condition  that  they  should  construct  the 
road.  This  was  commenced  in  1852,  and 
finished  in  1857,  at  a  cost  of  $35,000,000. 
The  tract  given  by  the  government  was  in 
size  equal  to  the  whole  state  of  Connecticut, 
and  was  a  part  of  11,000,000  acres  that  had 
been  over  fifteen  years  in  the  market  without 
finding  buyers.  The  fact  that  the  railroad  was 
to  run  through  them,  and  spend  $25,000,000, 
and  employ  10,000  men  in  the  building  of 
the  road,  made  the  lands  attractive,  and  ex 
cited  speculation.  At  about  the  same  time 
the  state  of  Michigan  sold  the  Michigan  Cen 
tral  road  and  the  Southern  Michigan  road  to 
two  companies,  on  the  condition  of  their 
finishing  them,  which  was  done  in  1852, 
establishing  a  connection  between  Detroit 
and  Chicago.  About  the  same  time  the  Gale 
na  and  Chicago  railroad  was  commenced  and 
finished  in  1850,  making  a  direct  communi 
cation  from  the  river  at  Galena  to  Chicago, 
prolonged  by  the  Michigan  roads  to  Detroit, 
and  thence  by  the  Lake  Shore  to  New  York, 
by  the  Erie  or  the  Central  railroads,  or  via 


the  Canada  route  to  Portland  or  to  Boston. 
Subsequent  connections  have  been  made  with 
the  Pennsylvania  and  the  Baltimore  roads  ; 
and  the  western  connections  of  Chicago  and 
Milwaukee  have  been  pushed  under  a  vast  ex 
penditure  of  money.  The  inauguration  of 
land  grants  by  government,  in  the  case  of 
the  Illinois  Central,  has  been  followed  by 
grants  to  other  states  for  the  same  object, 
until  all  the  grants  amount  to  25,403,993 
acres.  These  grants  have  rapidly  developed 
southern  connections,  until  the  route  is  now 
complete  between  Chicago  and  New  Orleans, 
shortening  the  river  route  by  over  400  miles. 
While  these  "  trunk  lines"  were  in  process 
of  construction,  cross  roads  were  multiplied 
to  an  immense  extent,  and  the  connections 
of  them  form  a  continuous  route  from  Bangor, 
Maine,  to  New  Orleans,  1,996  miles.  This 
vast  chain  of  railways  is  composed  of  eigh 
teen  independent  roads,  costing  in  the  aggre 
gate,  for  2,394  miles  of  road,  $92,784,084, 
or  nearly  one-tenth  of  the  whole  railway 
system  of  the  United  States. 

The  progress  of  the  construction  by  miles 
in  each  locality  has  been  as  follows,  in 
periods  of  ten  years : — 


Kmt'rn. 

Middle.  SoutVrn 

Weit'ra. 

Total  Mile«.          Co«t. 

1828.     .        3 

3 

221,101 

1830. 

3 

33 

1 

6 

43 

3,501,100 

1840. 

.    444 

1,436 

461 

28 

2,Sfi9 

98.170,001 

1850. 

.2,89ti 

2,925 

1,415 

1,041 

7,777 

291,482,101 

1860. 

.3,824 

8,176 

5,552 

10,718 

28,270 

$1,009,172,000 

A  vast  sum  of  money,  amounting  in  all  to 
$717,689,899,  has  been  expended  in  the  last 
ten  years  in  the  construction  of  20,493  miles  of 
road,  of  which  rather  more  than  one  half  has 
been  built  at  the  west.  There  are,  in  addi 
tion  to  these  roads,  some  16,000  miles  of 
road  incomplete.  A  considerable  amount 
of  this  money  was  drawn  from  abroad.  The 
iron  was  got  in  exchange  for  bonds,  which 
have  not  in  all  cases  been  paid ;  but  if  the 
bonds  were  poor,  the  iron  has  not  been  of 
good  quality.  The  quantity  of  railroad  iron 
imported  in  ten  years,  to  1850,  was  242,449 
tons,  at  a  cost  of  $9,603,587.  In  the  nine 
years  ending  with  1857,  the  quantity  im 
ported  was  1,765,693  tons,  at  a  cost  of 
$59,196,300.  This  number  of  tons  suffices 
for  about  15,000  miles  of  road,  at  70lbs.  to  the 
yard.  The  money  expended  upon  the  roads 
in  the  employment  of  men  and  in  the  manu 
facture  of  superstructure,  rolling  stock,  etc., 
of  itself  caused  an  immense  activity  and  de 
mand  for  produce,  which,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  became  scarce  and  high  upon  the 
theatre  of  such  expenditure.  The  manufac- 


LAND    SETTLEMENT INTERNAL   TRADE. 


ture  of  superstructure,  cars,  locomotives,  sta 
tions,  etc.,  were   the   means  of  employing 
great  numbers  of  men.     The  railroad  iron, 
of  which  the  manufacture  requires  the  in 
vestment  of  much  capital,  was  alone  import 
ed  to  any  great  extent.     The  remaining  por 
tions  of  the  railroads  were  manufactured  at 
home.     The  first  locomotives  in  the  United 
States  were  imported  from  England  in  the 
fall  of  1829   or  spring  of  1830.     The  first 
Stephenson  locomotive   ever  imported  was 
the  "Robert  Fulton,"  in  1831,  for  the  Mo 
hawk  and  Hudson  railroad.     The  first  loco 
motive  built  in  this  country  was  constructed 
at  the  West  Point  foundry  in  1830,  for  the 
South  Carolina  railroad.     Since  then  the  im 
provement  and  manufacture  of  railroads  has 
been  so  successful  as  to  admit  of  the  export 
of  many  American  machines.     As  the  roads 
were  completed,  and  the  hands,  numbering 
at  least  200,000  men  so  employed,  were  dis 
charged,  '  they  naturally  turned  their  atten 
tion  to  the  agriculture  of  the  neighborhood 
where  they  had  been  employed,  and  produc 
tion  thus  succeeded  to  consumption.     The 
effect  of  the  railroad  expenditure  upon  the 
grain  crops  is  to  some  extent  indicated  in 
the  following  table  of  'miles  of  roads  in  oper 
ation  in  the  western  states  at  the   periods 
named,  and  the  population  and  corn  product 
of  those  states  :  — 

1850.          Miles         P^^H™                 Bushels 
of  Koad.       Population.                of  norn. 

Ohio  299         1,980329           59,078,695 

the  cost  of  the  railroads  built,  extracted  each 
year  from  the  soil  through  their  influence. 
We  may  now  observe  what  had  been  the 
actual  sales  of  the  public  lands  by  the  govern 
ment  in  the  forty  years  ending  with  1860, 
to   June    30th,  when  the  fiscal  year  ends, 
divided  into  periods  of  ten  years  each  ;  the 
first,  being  that  of  recovery  from  the  specu 
lation  that  attended  the  close  of  the  war; 
the  second,   embracing  the  period  of  bank 
and  canal  building  excitement;   the  third, 
that  of  recovery  from  that  excitement  ;  and 
the  fourth,  that  of  the  last  great  railroad 
building    excitement.       The    quantity    sold 
during    the    forty    years    was,    it    appears, 
140,883,740  acres. 

ANNUAL    SALES    OF    LAND    BY    THE    FEDERAL 
GOVERNMENT. 

Acre^                                       Acres. 
1821,          822,185              1831,       2,804,745 
1822,           763,811              1832,       2,411,952 
1823,          638,749              1833,       3,856.227 
1824,          723,038             1834,       4668,218 
1825,           871,619              1835,     12,564,478 
1826,           839,203              1836,     20,074,870 
1827,           905,937              1837,       5,601,103 
1828,           946,650             1838,       3,414,907 
1829,       1,236,445              1839,       4,976,382 
1830,        1,880,019              1840,       2,236,889 

Total.  .9,627,716                           62,599,771 
Population.  .2,233,880                             3,707,299 

1841,        1,164,796              1851,       1,846,847 
1842,        1,129,217              1862,       1,553,071 
1843,        1,605,264              1853,        1,083,495 
1844,       1,754,763             1854,       7,035,735 
1845,        1,843,527              1855,     15,729,524 
1846,       2,263,730              1856,       9,227,878 
1847,       2.521,305              1857,       4,142,744 
1848,       1,887,553              1858,       3,804,908 
1849,       1,329,902              1859,       3,961,580 
1850,           769,364             1860,       4,000,000 

Indiana  86            982  405            62  964  363 

Illinois  22            851  4.70           57  646  984 

Iowa   192214             8656799 

Michigan  344            397654             5641,420 

Wisconsin  305,391             1,988,379 
Missouri  682044           36214537 

751         5,391,507         222,191,177 

1S57. 

Ohio  2,988         2,580,011           82555186 

Total..  16,269,421                          62,385,782 
Population.  10,454,245                          15,081,894 

The  total  sales  of  lands,  from  the  opening 
of  the  land  offices  to  1860,  were  153,928,547 
acres.     There  had  been  issued  land  warrants 
to  the  soldiers  of  the  Mexican  war,  and  for 
mer  wars,  which  have  taken  up  large  portions 
of  the  land.     These  warrants  are  for   160 
acres,  120  acres,  80  acres,  and  40  acres,  and 
have  been  sold  in  the  markets  at  $1  per  acre 
for  the  smaller  lots,  and  about  80  cts.  the 
larger  warrants,  by  which  means  the  lands 
come  less  to  the  buyer.     In  addition  to  the 
lands    sold,    the   government    has    donated 
67,736,572  acres  to  schools;  10,897,313  to 
internal    improvements;    279,972    to    indi 
viduals;    50,060  to   seats   of   government; 

Indiana  1,291         1,146,717           80111416 

Illinois  2,714         1,358,960         119,186,921 

Iowa  344            596251           32111502 

Michigan  1,032            637,514              8  322  756 

Wisconsin  822             822,606           14,186,822 
Missouri  547         1,023,888           98,712,561 

Total  9,738         8,165,947         435187164 

Increase  ...  8,987         2,774,440         212,995,987 

The  corn  crops  had  nearly  doubled,  and 
the  wheat  crop  in  the  same  states  had  risen 
from  43,840,637  to  107,275,641  bushels  in 
1857  —  an  increase  of  63,400,000  per  annum, 
worth  as  many  dollars  ;  and  estimating  the 
corn  at  the  same  aggregate,  there  had  been 
a  sum  of  $126,000,000  per  annum,  or  half 

WESTERN    SETTLEMENT    AND    TRADE. 


175 


44,109,979  to  military  services;  432,325 
salines  to  states;  3,400,725  Indian  reserves ; 
8,923,908  private  claims  ;  21,948,916  swamp 
lands,  granted  to  states;  25,463,993  to  rail 
roads  ;  and  there  remain  unsold  lands  on 
hand,  1,088,732,498  acres,  as  a  small  supply 
for  new  comers. 

The  population  of  the  land  states  had  in 
creased,  it  appears,  from  2,233,880  in  1830, 
to  about  15,000,000  in  1860,  during  which 
period  of  thirty  years,  131,255,074  acres  of 
land  were  sold  by  the  Government.  These 
land  sales  and  population  are  the  ground 
work  of  the  national  trade,  which  grows  with 
the  surplus  produced  by  the  land  settlers. 
Those  people  at  first  make  few  purchases  of 
goods,  but  increase  them  as  their  surplus 
produce  sells  and  enables  them  to  do  so. 

The  people  who  seek  new  lands  on  which 
to  rear  their  future  homes  and  fortunes,  are, 
for  the  most  part,  not  possessed  of  much 
capital,  and  under  ordinary  circumstances 
much  is  required  for  a  family  to  perform  a 
distant  journey,  locate  and  prepare  land  and 
wait  until  the  crops  are  grown.  Neverthe 
less,  pioneers  have  ceaselessly  pushed  for 
ward  into  the  wilderness  and  battled  with 
nature  in  the  shape  of  forests,  animals  and 
savages,  until  twenty  new  states  and  millions 
of  wealth  have  bee'n  added  to  the  Union. 
The  great  instrument  of  this  progress,  has, 
under  Providence,  and  in  the  hands  of  skil 
ful  and  determined  men,  been  Indian  corn. 
That  grain  has  been  the  poor  man's  capital, 
enabling -him  to  conquer  the  wilderness.  It 
needed  on  his  locating  his  future  home  but 
to  drop  the  seed  in  the  fertile  soil,  and 
while  he  busied  himself  with  his  new  dwel 
ling,  a  sure  crop  grew  up,  which  in  a  few 
months  became  food  for  his  family  and  his 
animals.  The  husks  furnish  his  bed  and 
the  cobs  his  fuel.  He  is  thus  by  the  gift  of 
nature  furnished  with  capital  for  the  coming 
year,  until  his  other  crops  and  young  ani 
mals  have  grown.  Indian  corn  has  thus 
given  the  pioneer  a  hold  upon  the  land  and 
made  his  footing  firm  where  otherwise  he 
might  have  been  compelled  to  succumb  to 
hardships.  With  every  such  remove  on  to  new 
land  the  circle  of  trade  has  increased.  A 
few  months  only  suffice  for  the  settler  to 
furnish  a  surplus  of  production  in  return  for 
comforts  that  he  desires.  For  this  reason 
chiefly  corn  figures  so  largely  in  the  agricul 
ture  of  the  west.  The  prolific  soil  throws 
out  quantities  far  beyond  the  wants  of  the 
planter,  and  in  a  region  where  all  are  plant 


ers,  the  supply  becomes  superabundant  and 
must  find  distant  markets  only  at  rates  so 
low  as  to  leave  little  to  the  grower.  Two 
local  demands  are  created  for  it.  The  most 
important  of  them  is  to  feed  hogs,  and  pork 
becomes  a  leading  staple  export ;  the  other 
is  for  distillation,  and  whiskey  is  largely 
exported.  The  quantity  of  corn  required 
to  make  a  certain  quantity  of  pork  becomes 
accurately  known,  and  the  price  of  meat 
rises  and  falls  with  that  of  the  grain,  as  does 
whiskey  also.  Thus  out  of  the  great  staple 
grain  Indian-corn  come  directly  the  three 
great  articles  of  export,  corn,  pork  and  its 
manufacture,  and  whiskey.  Lumber  in  most 
new  countries  is  also  an  important  export, 
As  the  settlements  progress,  beef,  wool, 
wheat  and  other  grains  follow,  and  trade 
increases.  While  Indian  corn  has  been  the 
indispensable  instrument  of  settlement  at 
the  west,  the  nature  of  the  country  and  the 
fertility  of  machine  inventions  have  been  no 
less  necessary  in  securing  a  surplus  for  sale. 
If  the  corn  grows  readily  it  could  not  under 
the  old  system  be  so  readily  harvested  in  a 
region  where  land  belonged  to  every  man, 
and  every  man's  labor  could  be  applied  only  to 
his  own  service.  At  the  same  time  no 
man's  labor  more  than  suffices  for  the  wants 
of  his  own  family.  Here  machinery  steps 
in,  and  favored  by  the  level  nature  of  the 
soil  operates  to  a  charm.  A  man  who  could 
with  the  scythe  cut  from  one  to  one  and  a  half 
acres  of  grass  per  day,  may  ride  round  a 
field  and  cut  ten  acres  in  a  day  Avithout 
fatigue.  Instead  of  a  gang  to  rake  and  turn 
and  cock,  his  horse  and  himself  may  with  a 
patent  rake  perform  all  that  labor  and  more 
effectually  when  driven  by  a  shower  of  rain, 
than  any  gang.  His  grain  is  cut  by  the 
same  means  and  light  labor  as  his  grass.  It 
is  threshed  out  by  a  similar  process ;  his 
corn  is  husked  and  shelled  by  machines ; 
and  when  drawn  to  the  railroad  depots  it  is 
elevated  into  vast  receptacles  to  be  trans 
ported  rapidly  and  at  small  cost  to  the  best 
market.  All  these  machine  aids  enable 
the  man  whose  own  labor  would  scarcely 
supply  the  demands  of  his  family  to  turn 
out  a  vast  surplus.  This  surplus  seeks  the 
river  and  lake  cities  by  rail,  canal,  and  steam, 
to  be  transported  to  the  Atlantic  markets 
for  consumption  or  export,  or  may  now  leave 
Chicago  and  Milwaukee  on  the  lakes,  or  St. 
Louis  and  Cincinnati  on  the  rivers  for  Liver 
pool  direct  without  breaking  bulk.  The 
table  of  land  sales  above  gives  a  very  good 


176 


LAND    SETTLEMENT INTERNAL    TRADE. 


indication  of  the  accumulating  force  behind 
the  forwarding  cities  to  push  forward  the 
trade.  As  every  bushel  of  grain  they  receive 
requires  an  equivalent  from  them  in  goods, 
each  grows  under  the  double  demand. 
Their  combined  growth  is  the  basis  of  lake 
and  river  trade,  distributing  the  produce  for 
consumption,  and  bearing  back  goods  in 
return,  while  the  foreign  commerce  of  the 
country  grows  with  the  aggregate  surplus 
to  be  exported  and  the  consequent  increase 
of  the  merchandise  received  in  exchange. 
Having  glanced  at  the  settlement  of  the 
western  lands,  it  becomes  no  matter  of  sur 
prise  that  the  cities  which  were  the  focus  at 
which  such  large  quantities  of  surplus  pro 
ducts  concentrated  grew  rapidly,  and  grew 
in  proportion  to  the  rapidity  of  settlement 
and  the  perfection  of  the  means  of  internal 
communication.  It  may  be  worth  while  to 
sketch  the  leading  ones,  first  those  of  the 
lakes. 

BUFFALO,  on  Lake  Erie,  was  laid  out 
originally  in  1801,  but  was  of  small  import 
ance  until  in  1825  by  the  opening  of  the 
Eric  canal,  it  became  the  gateway  from  the 
great  valley  to  the  Atlantic  states.  Its 
population  was  then  3,000.  As  the  "  great 
valley  "  at  that  time  had,  however,  but  little 
to  spare,  the  importance  of  Buffalo  was  to 
swell  with  the  growth  of  the  west  which 
was  rapid  indeed.  In  1832,  thirty-one  years 
from  its  settlement,  Buffalo  became  a  city 
with  8,653  inhabitants.  In  the  twenty-eight 
years  that  have  since  elapsed  the  population 
has  risen  to  81,131.  In  1825,  the  tonnage 
belonging  to  the  port  was  200  tons.  It  has 
grown  to  91,974,  valued  at  $3,640,950,  be 
sides  600  canal  boats.  The  steam  tonnage 
running  to  Buffalo  is  60,740  tons.  The 
exports  of  Buffalo  by  canal  are  820,000,000 
and  by  railroad  as  much  more.  The  open 
ing  of  Dunkirk  to  New  York  over  the  Erie 
road  created  a  rival  to  Buffalo,  and  the 
Welland  canal  round  the  falls  permitted 
vessels  to  go  to  Oswego,  where  they  take 
either  canal  or  railroad  on  a  shorter  route  to 
New  York,  also  rivaling  Buffalo.  It  is  obvious 
that  a  few  miles  longer  trip  adds  little  to 
the  cost  of  a  loaded  ship,  and  by  reducing 
the  canal  and  railroad  transportation  the 
cost  is  diminished.  Hence  Oswego  has  an 
advantage  over  Buffalo. 

The  imports  into  Buffalo  by  lake  and  rail 
road,  showing  the  relative  and  aggregate  val 
ues,  indicate  the  gain  of  "rails"  over  "sails." 
They  were,  for  a  number  of  years,  as  follows  : 


1850, 
1851, 
1852, 
1853, 
1854, 
1855, 
1856, 
1857, 


Lake. 

$22,525,781 
31,889,951 
34,943,855 
36,881,230 
42,030,931 
50,346,819 
42,684,079 
36,913,166 


Railroad. 


2,234,273 

6,397.923 

10,968^384 

16,422,505 

15,020,580 


Total. 

$22,525,781 
31.889,951 
34^943,855 
39,115,503 
48,428,854 
61,313,203 
59,106,584 
51,933,746 


OSWEGO,  settled  in  1820  on  Lake  Ontario 
has  been  mostly  the  creation  of  the  Oswego 
canal  and  of  the  railroad  communication  since 
established,  which  makes  its  position  on  the 
lake  with  reference  to  the  Canada  and  lake 
trade  very  desirable.  The  canal  was  com 
pleted  in  1828,  and  the  Oswego  and  Syra 
cuse  railroad  in  1848,  when  Oswego,  having 
10,305  inhabitants,  was  incorporated  as  a 
city.  The  modification  of  the  English  colo 
nial  trade  system,  and  the  admission  by  the 
United  States  of  goods  in  bond  under  the  ware 
house  system,  laid  the  foundation  for  a  great 
development  of  the  business  of  Oswego  on  the 
occasion  of  the  famine  of  1847,  when  the 
trade  of  the  place  took  a  sudden  start,  which 
it  has  since  sustained.  The  Welland  canal, 
connecting  Lakes  Erie  and  Ontario,  gave 
Oswego  a  line  of  communication  Avith  the 
west,  by  which  freight  coming  thence  to  the 
east,  would  have,  via  Oswego,  less  canal  navi 
gation  than  by  other  routes.  In  May,  1857, 
the  Welland  railway,  running  along  the  banks 
of  the  canal,  was  projected,  and  is  now  com 
pleted,  thus  giving  a  communication  all  the 
year  round.  By  these  means  Oswego  draws 
its  supplies  from  every  western  state  ;  Oswe 
go  also  is  a  great  salt  depot,  and  has  a  large 
lumber  trade  with  Canada.  The  imports 
from  Canada  in  1859  were  $3,831,041,  and 
the  exports  $1,918,798  ;  the  tonnage  of  the 
port  amounts  to  26,395.Pop.  in  1860  16,817 

CLEVELAND. — The  place  was  settled  by 
one  family  in  1799,  but  its  population  did 
not  increase  beyond  500  in  1825,  when  the 
Erie  canal  was  opened.  Its  greatest  impulse 
was  derived  from  the  construction  of  the 
Ohio  canal,  connecting  it  with  Cincinnati, 
the  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio  canal,  connecting 
'it  with  Pittsburg,  and  the  Welland  canal 
in  Canada,  connecting  Lake  Erie  with  Lake 
Ontario.  Since  that  event  a  considerable 
Canadian  trade  has  sprung  up  in  Cleveland. 
The  canals  of  Ohio  brought  down  the  in 
creasing  quantities  of  produce  that  were  then 
exported  in  exchange  for  the  merchandise 
that  was  delivered  by  lake  for  the  consump 
tion  of  the  interior.  In  1832  there  were  26 
sail  vessels  and  one  steamer  belonging  to 


WESTERN    SETTLEMENT    AND    TRADE. 


m 


Cleveland;  there  are  now  14  steamers  and 
142  sail  vessels,  with  an  aggregate  tonnage  of 
39,984  tons  owned  there.  The  multiplica 
tion  of  railroads  has,  however,  added  of  late 
more  to  the  city  business  than  either  canals 
or  tonnage.  There  are  six  roads  running 
into  Cleveland,  of  an  aggregate  length  of 
754  miles,  and  their  annual  receipts  are 
$4,520,452.  These  crossing  Ohio  in  every 
direction,  connect  the  city  with  Toledo, 
Columbus,  Pittsburg,  and  New  York.  With 
these  advantages,  under  the  action  of  the 
reciprocity  treaty  with  Canada,  a  large 
foreign  trade  sprung  up.  In  1858  the  im 
ports  and  exports  were  as  follows  : — 

Vessels.   Tons.    Coastwise.  Foreign.        Total. 
Exports.. ..  2,081    705,577  $13,166,256  $224,986    $13,391,S42 
Imports....  2,187    721,519    26,087,849    168,409      26,250,25* 

The  trade  between  Cleveland  and  Lake 
Superior  has  also  become  important  within 
four  or  five  years,  in  which  time  it  has  risen 
to  $3,000,000  in  value,  mostly  in  copper  ore. 
The  most  remarkable  development  of  trade 
is,  however,  the  direct  trade  between  Cleve 
land  and  Europe.  In  1856  a  vessel  built 
in  Cleveland,  loaded  wheat  at  Chicago 
for  Liverpool,  where  she  was  sold  to  advan 
tage,  and  now  runs  to  Brazil.  In  the  follow 
ing  year  others  were  sent,  and  a  vessel 
arrived  from  Liverpool  at  Chicago  with  hard 
ware,  etc.  In  the  following  year  a  fleet  of 
ten  vessels,  3,600  tons,  owned  by  Cleveland 
merchants,  sailed  for  Liverpool,  and  since 
run  to  the  Mediterranean,  South  America, 
and  elsewhere.  The  coal  trade  of  Cleve 
land  has  become  large  for  the  supply  of  the 
steamers  and  factories  on  and  around  the 
lakes;  the  supply  is  about  250,000  tons  per 
annum.  Population  in  1860,  36,054. 

DETROIT. — This  is  the  oldest  of  the  west 
ern  cities,  having  been  early  occupied  by 
the  French,  but  its  progress,  like  the  others, 
was  slow  until  the  opening  of  the  Erie  canal. 
In  137  years,  up  to  1820,  the  population 
had  risen  only  to  1,442  souls.  The  greatest 
impulse  has  been  given  to  Detroit  by 
the  formation,  in  the  last  ten  years,  of 
the  railroad  system,  which  connects  it  with 
the  interior  country.  The  Great  Western 
railway  of  Canada,  coming  229  miles,  has 
its  terminus  virtually  in  Detroit.  From  De 
troit  west  run  the  Michigan  Central  road, 
228  miles,  to  Chicago,  and  connecting  with 
the  whole  western  net-work  of  rails ;  the 
Detroit  and  Milwaukee  railroad,  crossing  the 
Peninsula,  185  miles,  to  Grand  Haven; 
the  Michigan  Southern  road  running  also  to 
11* 


Chicago.  The  earnings  of  the  three  roads  last 
year  were  $5,700,000.  Pop.  in  1860,45,619. 
CHICAGO  is  probably  the  most  remarkable 
of  the  western  cities  for  its  growth.  The 
place  in  1812  was  but  a  garrison  that  was 
abandoned.  Subsequently,  and  as  an  In 
dian  trading  post,  it  collected  some  sixty  or 
seventy  persons  in  1823.  Although  situated 
at  the  bottom  of  the  lake,  with  a  fine  harbor^ 
sufficient  for  any  lake  trade,  it  could  noli 
thrive  until  the  back  country  supplied  it 
with  produce  to  sell,  and  required  of  it  mer 
chandise  in  exchange.  To  procure  this  the 
Illinois  and  Michigan  canal,  connecting  the 
lake  with  the  navigable  waters  of  the  Illinois, 
was  commenced  in  1836,  100  miles  in  length. 
In  aid  of  this  work  the  federal  government 
donated  alternate  six  mile  sections  of  the  pub 
lic  lands.  The  state  had  also  projected  a  large 
system  of  railroad  improvements  on  a  scale 
far  beyond  its  means,  and  it  failed  in  1840. 
Subsequently  the  means  was  raised  to  com 
plete  the  canal,  which  was  effected  in  1850. 
Since  that  date  numerous  railroads  have 
been  constructed,  leading  to  the  Mississippi 
river  in  a  fan-like  form,  having  Chicago  for 
the  centre.  The  expenditure  of  some 
8150,000,000  for  the  construction  of  those 
roads,  over  a  circle  of  country  of  which 
Chicago  is  the  natural  market,  has  had  a 
prodigious  effect  upon  its  welfare.  The 
effect  of  that  expenditure  attracted  immi 
grants  and  speculators,  whose  outlay  reflected 
prosperity  upon  the  city.  The  means  of 
communication  thus  formed  by  2,900  miles 
of  railroad  diverging  from  the  city,  over  a 
vast  circle  of  fertile  country,  has  made  Chi 
cago  the  first  primary  grain  port  in  the 
world,  shipping  as  it  does  more  than 
20,000,000  bushels  of  grain  per  annum.  It  has 
millions  of  tonnage  yearly  entered  and  cleared, 
importing  and  exporting  to  the  amount  of 
$50,000,000.  Chicago  is  only  six  or  eight 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  lake,  but  the  har 
bor  has  a  depth  of  thirteen  feet  of  water,  and 
will  always  be  ample  for  the  commerce  of 
the  lakes.  The  number  of  vessels  arriving 
here  in  1857  was  7,557.  The  new  Cana 
dian  rules  in  relation  to  navigation  enable 
Chicago  vessels  to  clear  direct  for  Europe, 
and  there  are  a  number  in  the  trade  by 
which  produce  and  goods  are  shipped  direct 
to  Europe.  The  total  value  of  produce  ex 
ported  in  1 859  was  $24,280,890.  Inasmuch 
as  breadstuff's  are  the  principal  product  of 
the  country  between  Chicago  and  the  Mis 
sissippi,  and  furnish  so  important  an  item  in 


178 


LAND    SETTLEMENT INTERNAL    TRADE. 


the  commerce  of  the  place,  the  following  ta 
ble  will  best  illustrate  as  well  the  development 
of  agriculture  as  the  chief  element  of  trade  : 

SHIPMENTS    OF    FLOUR    (REDUCED    TO     WHEAT)    AND 
GRAIN  FROM  CHICAGO  FOR  TWENTY-THREE  YEARS. 

Bushels.  Bushels.  Bushels. 

1888  78         1845,    1,024,620         1858,      6,412,181 

1839,  8,678         1846,    1,599,819         1854,     12,932,320 

1840,  10,000         1847,    2,248,201          1855,     16,683,700 

1841,  40,000         1848,    8,001,740         1856,    21,583,221 

1842,  586,907         1849,    2,769,111         1857,     18,082,678 
18'I3,     688,907         1850,    1,830,930         1858,    20,035,166 
1844,     928,494         1851,    4,64fi,291          1859,    16,753,795 

1852,    5,878,141          I860,    30,000.000 

The  famine  abroad  in  1845-6-7,  conse 
quent  upon  the  failure  of  the  potato  crops, 
caused  a  demand  for  grain  that  was  felt  in 
Chicago.  The  development  was  not  large, 
however,  until  1852,  when  the  Galena  road 
pushed  out  on  to  the  prairie,  and  since  then 
the  receipts  have  not  ceased  to  increase  by 
every  line  of  road  ;  the  quantity  that  came 
in  the  first  six  months  of  1860  is  larger  than 
ever  before.  These  grain  receipts  are  said  to 
make  Chicago  the  largest  primary  grain  port 
in  the  world.  Pop.  in  1860,  109,263. 

MILWAUKEE  is  one  of  the  chief  cities  of 
the  western  shore  of  Lake  Michigan.       It 
was  settled  in  1834,  and  up  to  1840  could 
boast  of  but  1,700  inhabitants.     The  pop 
ulation  had  grown  to  nearly  20,000  in  1850, 
to  30,000  in  1853,  and  to  45,254  in  1860. 
The  growth  has  been  most  rapid  under  the 
settlement   of  the   country  west  of  it,  by 
means  of  the  large  expenditures  there  made 
in  the  last  four  years  for  railroads.     These 
in  the  state  of  Wisconsin,  have  an  aggregate 
length  of  2,403  miles,  and  have  been  con 
structed  mostly  in  the  last  ten  years  at  an 
expense  of  $36,742,063.     The  expenditure 
of  this  large  sum  of  money,  in  addition  to 
that  laid  out  by  speculators  and  emigrants, 
imparted  an  impulse  to  the  prosperity  of  the 
city  which  is  reflected  in  its  population  and 
valuation.      The    circle    of  fertile    country 
poured  into  the  city  products  which  were 
exported  from  it  to  the  value  of  $27,974,748 
in  1856,  and  in  return  $20,274,000  worth 
of  goods  was  imported.     The  manufactures 
of  the  city  were  also  valued  at  $8,057,000. 
The   quantity  of  grain  shipped   from    Mil 
waukee  in  1858  was  6,155,507  bushels,  and 
from  other  lake  ports  of  Wisconsin  1,561,881 
bushels.     The  grain  movement,  which  is  the 
basis  of  the  city's  commerce,  indicates  the 
ratio  of  its  growth,  and  this  has  been  as 
follows : — 

Bushels.  Bushels.  Bushels. 

1851,  576,580        1854,    2,5.14,617        1857,    8,727,468 

1852,  1,029,879       1855,    8,758,965        1858,    6,155,507 

1853,  1,476,998        1856,    8,720,103        1859,    6,488,038 


We  may  recapitulate  these  lake  cities  in 
the  following  table,  showing  the  date  of  set 
tlement,  of  incorporation,  and  population  at 
that  date,  with  the  population  and  valuation 
in  1850  and  1860  :— 

Settled.  Incorporated.  Population. 

Buffalo 1801               1882  8,653 

Oswego 1820               18-48  10,305 

Cleveland..  .1799               1S36  4,000 

Detroit 1683               1S02  700 

Chicago 1628               1885  800 


Milwaukee..  1830 


1840 


9,655 


Total 84,118 


Population        Total 
in  1850.        Valuation. 


Population       Total 
in  1800.      Valuation. 


Buffalo . . . 
Osweeo  . . . 
Cleveland.. 
Detroit. . . . 
Chicago 


49,764 
12,205 
17,034 
21.057 
29,963 


Milwaukee.  81,077 


$18,427,000 
9,107,202 
12.102,101 
10,741,657 
81,205,  OdO 
18,421,000 


81,181 
16.817 
36.054 
45'G19 
109.263 
45,254 


$37,487,061 
21,500,000 
21,951,428 
28,141,591 
76,291,000 
85.458,130 


Total. .  .161,100     $100,003,960 


884,138    $222,829,210 


Thus  these  prominent  cities  have  grown 
up,  so  to  speak,  in  25  years,  as  points  where 
farm  produce  is  received  from  the  country 
for  sale  and  where  goods  are  furnished  in 
exchange.  The  whole  value  of  the  lake 
trade  has  been  estimated  at  $600,000,000 
per  annum,  and  the  transaction  of  this  busi 
ness  has,  it  appears,  created  six  cities,  with 
a  population  of  347,000  and  a  taxable  valu 
ation  of  $222,829,210.  The  manufactures 
have  gradually  increased  in  those  cities  in 
order  to  produce  a  local  supply  instead  of 
importing,  and  new  inventions  in  sewing 
and  other  machines  have  promoted  that 
change,  as  machinery  aided  the  development 
of  surplus  produce.  The  aggregate  trade 
poured  upon  the  lakes  from  all  these  sources 
has  been  increasingly  large.  The  aggregate 
quantities  of  grain  shipped  from  the  grain 
regions  are  seen  in  the  following  table,  which 
shows  the  routes  taken  to  market : — 

1857.            1858.  1859. 

Via  Lake  Ontario 18,044,354  11,872,995  14,874,961 

Via  Suspension  Bridge  ....   1,049,108  1,900,000  837,778 

Via  Lake  Erie ."    ....22,031,164  29,432,121  24,730.582 

From  Ohio  Kiver  eastward  4,352,036  6,242,441  4,446,281 

Grand  total 45,476,662    49,447,557    44,3^9,602 

The  totals  were  composed  of  these  follow 
ing  grains : — 

Flour.  Wheat.  Corn.  Oth.  Grain.  Total  in 
barrels.  bushels.  bushels,  bushels.  bushels. 
1856,  3,879,189  19,956,025  14,282,632  4,634,969  58.269,571 
8,779,832  2,270,149  45,476,662 
10,558,527  5,080,615  49,447,557 
4,423,096  4,310,269  44,889,602 

These  fluctuations  follow  the  course  of 
western  business.  In  1857  there  was  a 
heavy  decline  under  the  influence  of  the 
panic  of  that  year.  In  1858  the  speculative 
consumption  of  the  interior  having  ceased, 
the  quantities  that  sought  market  were  less 


1857,  3,412,904 

1858,  4,602,780 

1859,  3,760,285 


17,362,161 
20,794,515 

16,864,812 


WESTERN    SETTLEMENT    AND    TRADE. 


179 


than  in  1856.  The  railroads  also  delivered 
considerable  quantities. 

The  rapid  settlement  of  the  west  attracted 
the  attention  of  the  Canadians,  and  they  be 
gan  early  with  some  energy  to  take  measures 
that  should  give  them  their  share  of  it. 
The  St.  Lawrence  river  was  for  them  the 
only  outlet,  and  to  make  that  serviceable,  ex 
tensive  works  were  necessary  to  pass  around 
the  rapids,  and  make  navigation  practicable 
from  the  lakes  to  the  sea.  The  Welland 
canal,  passing  around  the  Falls  and  connect 
ing  Lakes  Erie  and  Ontario,  was  constructed, 
with  other  necessary  works,  completing,  in 
1846,  a  system,  at  a  cost  of  $20,000,000. 
The  tolls  on  these  works  were  considerable, 
and  duties  on  goods  imported  into  Canada 
from  the  United  States  were  so  high  as  to 
check  trade — the  more  so  that  similar  duties 
were  imposed  in  the  United  States  on  Cana 
dian  goods.  In  1850  the  navigation  laws 
were  repealed,  opening  the  canals  and  rivers 
to  foreign  vessels.  The  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  navigating  the  St.  Lawrence  have 
since  that  date  been,  to  a  great  extent,  re 
moved.  Many  light-houses  have  been  con 
structed,  the  system  of  pilotage  has  been 
revised,  a  service  of  tug-boats,  of  great  power, 
and  working  at  moderate  rates,  has  been 
organized,  and  the  depth  of  water  between 
Quebec  and  Montreal  has  been  increased  by 
dredging,  so  as  to  permit  the  passage  of 
vessels  drawing  eighteen  feet  six  inches. 
With  these  changes  and  improvements  a 
new  element  has  been  introduced.  The 
construction  of  railways  had  begun  to  occupy 
the  attention  of  the  public  mind  in  Canada. 
In  1849  an  act  of  the  Colonial  Legislature 
was  passed  guaranteeing  6  per  cent,  on  half 
the  cost  of  all  the  railways  seventy-five  miles 
in  extent.  Three  years  later  the  Grand 
Trunk  line,  from  Montreal  to  Toronto,  and 
from  Quebec  to  Riviere-du-Loup,  was  incor 
porated  as  a  part  of  the  Main  Trunk  line, 
and  the  line  from  Quebec  to  Richmond  had 
been  commenced.  In  1853  the  amalgama 
tion  of  all  the  companies  forming  the  Main 
Trunk  line  was  completed,  under  a  Parlia 
mentary  sanction  with  powers  to  construct 
the  Victoria  Bridge  across  the  St.  Lawrence, 
and  thereby  connect  the  lines  west  of  Mon 
treal  with  those  leading  to  Quebec  and  Port 
land. 

By  the  aid  of  all  these  enterprises  com 
bined,  there  is  now  in  operation  in  Canada 
2,093  miles  of  railway,  including  1,112  miles 
of  the  Grand  Trunk,  the  whole  connected 


Domestic 

Total  exports 

Total  imports 

exports. 

to  Canada. 

from  Canada. 

$6,655,097 

$10,509,016 

$  6,110,299 

7,404,087 

13,140,642 

7,550,718 

15,204,144 

24,566,860 

8,927,560 

15,806,642 

27,806,020 

15,136,734 

22,714,697 

29,029,349 

21,310,421 

19,936,113 

24,262,482 

22,124,296 

19,638,959 

23,651,727 

15,806,519 

21.769,627 

28,154,174 

19,727,551 

with  the  great  winter  harbor  of  Portland,  in 
the  state  of  Maine. 

To  give  effect  to  this  great  system  of 
communication,  the  whole  system  of  tolls 
upon  inland  navigation  has  been  abandoned. 
The  whole  line  of  navigation  from  Chicago 
to  the  Atlantic  is  now  free  from  tolls  and 
lake  dues,  the  ports  of  Sault  Stc.  Marie 
and  Gaspe  have  been  made  free  ports,  and  it 
is  probable  many  more  will  be  thrown 
open.  While  these  measures  have  been  in 
progress  to  facilitate  trade,  a  most  important 
measure  was  adopted  in  1854.  This  was 
the  reciprocity  treaty  of  that  year,  which 
designated  a  number  of  articles  that  were  to 
be  free  on  both  sides.  The  treaty  went  into 
operation  in  the  latter  part  of  1854,  and  the 
trade  has  been  affected  by  it  as  follows : — 


1852, 
1853, 
1854, 
1855, 
1856, 
1857, 
1858, 
1859, 


'$129,129,366     $181,120,270     $116,694,098 

The  exports  of  United  States  produce  to 
Canada  have  been  in  this  period  of  eight  years 
over  $12,000,000  in  excess  of  all  the  imports 
from  Canada.  In  addition  there  have  been  ex 
ported  to  Canada  fifty  millions  of  foreign 
goods  that  have  been  imported  on  the  sea 
board.  The  domestic  exports  are  composed 
of  the  produce  shipped  from  the  American 
lake  ports,  and  entered  at  the  Canadian 
ports.  The  freedom  of  navigation  on  the 
canals  and  rivers  enjoyed  by  the  American 
vessels  has  also  opened  a  large  trade  from 
Cleveland,  Chicago,  and  other  ports,  direct 
to  Europe.  Last  year  the  number  of  vessels 
passing  through  the  canals  of  Canada  was 
26,466,  with  a  tonnage  of  2,455,021.  Of 
these  22,800  were  Canadian,  with  a  tonnage 
of  1,828,383.  Deduct  300,000  tons  for  the 
traffic  on  the  local  canals,  from  which  the 
tolls  are  not  removed,  and  there  is  still  a 
balance  of  Canadian  over  American  tonnage 
of  926,638.  The  lake  ports  also  enjoy  more 
or  less  import  trade  on  which  duties  are 
collected.  Those  duties  at  all  lake  ports  for 
the  last  four  years  have  amounted  to 
$288,508. 

The  efforts  of  Canada  to  obtain  the  trade, 
and  cause  it  to  pass  down  the  St.  Lawrence, 


180 


LAND    SETTLEMENT INTERNAL    TRADE. 


had  to  overcome,  however,  the  climate,  to  be 
successful ;  for  four  months  in  the  year  that 
outlet  is  ice-hound,  while  the  ports  of  Lake 
Ontario  are  never  closed  by  the  ice,  and  offer 
railroad  connection  with  New  York,  Boston, 
and  Philadelphia,  the  former  for  export  and 
the  latter  for  supplies  of  manufacture. 


CHAPTER  II. 

RIVER  CITIES— ATLANTIC  CITIES. 

THE  development  given  to  the  lake  cities 
by  the  canal  and  railroad  construction,  was 
participated  in.  to  as  great  an  extent  by  the 
river  cities,  the  course  of  whose  trade  flowed 
downward  toward  New  Orleans  as  an  out 
let. 

PITTSBURG  is  situated  at  the  point  where 
the  junction  of  the  Monongahela  and  Alle- 
ghany  forms  the  Ohio  river,  which  thence 
flows  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  origin  of 
the  place  dates  from  its  occupation  by  the 
French  as  a  post,  and  its  growth  is  due  to 
its  commanding  position.  It  is  301  miles 
east  by  north  from  Philadelphia,  and  is  130 
miles  from  Lake  Erie.  The  traveller  de 
scends  the  river  450  miles  to  Cincinnati; 
583  to  Louisville,  Kentucky ;  977  to  Cairo, 
where  the  Ohio  pours  into  the  Mississippi ; 
1,157  to  St.  Louis,  and  2,004  miles  to  New 
Orleans.  That  vast  valley  collects  in  its 
course  the  produce  coming  right  and  left 
by  streams,  canals,  and  railroads,  to  deliver 
it  at  New  Orleans,  whence  ascend  the  mer 
chandise,  tropical  products,  and  materials  of 
manufacture,  to  be  distributed  at  the  com 
mercial  and  manufacturing  ports.  The 
position  of  Pittsburg  was  the  most  impor 
tant,  commercially,  until  the  opening  of  the 
Erie  canal.  Its  resources  were  highly 
favorable  to  ship-building,  and  it  supplied 
the  first  boats  that  descended  the  Ohio.  The 
commerce  and  ship-building  prospered 
largely  during  the  war  of  1812,  but  after  the 
peace  it  declined.  Since  that  period  manu 
facture  has  taken  the  place  of  commerce,  and 
it  ranks  next  to  Philadelphia  as  a  manufac 
turing  town.  The  facilities  and  resources 
for  manufacture  are  immense.  The  popula 
tion  in  1800  was  1,565,  and  in  1816  it  was 
incorporated  as  a  city  with  about  6,150  in 
habitants.  The  population  of  Pittsburg  in 
the  present  year  is  given  at  130,000,  but 
this  includes  Alleghany  City  and  other  sub 
urbs  ;  the  city  proper  is  stated  at  49,220. 


The  progress  of  the  city  has  been  as  fol 
lows  : — 


1816, 
1836, 
1850, 
18GO, 


Population. 

6,182 
15,481 
46,601 
49,220 


Value  of  manufactures. 
$1,896,366 
15,575,440 
55,287,000 


CINCINNATI  was  located  at  the  month  of 
the  Licking  river  in  1788,  in  the  centre  of 
an  area  which  commanded  the  commerce  of 
the  Miami,  the  Wabash,  the  Scioto,  the 
Muskingum,  and  the  Kanawha  rivers.  These 
streams  delivered  large  quantities  of  produce 
to  foster  the  trade  of  Cincinnati,  which  greAV 
with  great  rapidity,  corresponding  mostly 
with  New  Orleans,  to  which  its  merchants 
sent  the  produce,  and  made  purchases  of 
goods  in  the  eastern  states,  which  came  up 
the  river  from  New  Orleans  by  a  long  voy 
age,  charged  with  heavy  expenses  for  freight, 
insurance,  etc.  The  exchanges  ran  on  New 
Orleans  against  the  produce  sent  down,  and 
these  credits  were  the  means  of  payments 
for  goods.  The  opening  of  the  Ohio  canal 
to  the  lakes,  to  correspond  with  the  Erie 
canal  to  tide-water,  gave  a  new  outlet  for 
produce  of  the  northern  part  of  Ohio  by  way 
of  Cleveland,  and  also  a  better  channel  for 
the  receipt  of  goods.  The  net-work  of  rail 
roads  has  still  further  multiplied  the  means 
of  communication.  Portland,  Boston,  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore,  are  almost 
equidistant  from  Cincinnati,  which  by  the 
same  means  has  its  markets  extended  in  a 
broader  circle  west.  The  progress  of  the 
city  has  been  as  follows  : — 


isoo, 

1810, 
18-20, 
1S30, 
1836, 
1S40, 
" 


Population.    Imports.     Manufactures,    Exports. 
t  »-*0 


3 1. '207 
46,a(!8 
115, '136 
111,044 


$1,619,030 
2,528.590 
8,270,000 
16,972,000 
41.250,199 
96,218,274 


$1,059,459 

1.850,000 

]2.->S8.2  0 

17,780,038 

54.550,134 


$1,834,080 

1,01)3,660 

8,101,000 

1 5.480,000 

SS,J34,S96 

6l>,007,707 


These  figures  give  the  rapid  growth  of  the 
city  since  the  railroads  have  opened  a  broader 
field  from  which  to  draw  the  materials  of 
trade  in  exchange  for  merchandise  demanded 
by  the  growers. 

LOUISVILLE,  Kentucky,  was  a  port  early 
in  1781,  and  it  made  little  progress  as  a 
city.  Its  population  grew  but  to  600  in 
1800,  and  was  only  4,012  in  1820.  The 
difficulties  of  navigation  were  a  drawback 
upon  its  commerce,  until  the  Portland  canal, 
two  miles  long,  which  had  been  authorized 
in  1804,  around  the  falls  of  the  Ohio,  was 
opened  in  1830.  The  cost  of  the  work, 
§600,000,  was  paid,  one-third  by  the  United 


RIVER    CITIES ATLANTIC    CITIES. 


181 


States,  and  the  balance  mostly  in  eastern 
cities  interested  in  getting  goods  up  the 
river.  A  bridge  over  the  Ohio  was  built  in 
1836,  at  a  cost  of  $250,000.  The  city  was 
incorporated  in  1828,  and  its  population 
was  then  10,336.  In  1836  the  population 
was  19,967,  and  the  annual  amount  of  busi 
ness  transacted  was  $29,004,202.  In  1840 
the  population  was  21,210,  and  in  1850  it 
had  again  doubled,  reaching  43,194. 

ST.  Louis  was  occupied  as  a  French  trad 
ing  post  in  1763,  and  the  town  was  laid  out 
in  the  following  year,  with  the  name  of  St. 
Louis,  in  honor  of  that  Louis  XV.  who  had 
so  little  claim  to  saintship.  The  first  im 
pulse  to  its  growth  was,  however,  the  annex 
ation  of  Louisiana  to  the  United  States, 
when  emigrants  poured  into  the  new  coun 
try,  bringing  with  them  a  spirit  of  enterprise 
which  soon  made  visible  effects  upon  St. 
Louis,  the  commerce  of  which  struggled 


against  the  difficulties  inherent  in  barge 
and  keel  boat  navigation.  In  1817  the 
General  Pike,  the  first  steamboat,  arrived  at 
St.  Louis.  That  event  marked  a  new  era, 
and  in  1822,  the  population  being  4,598,  the 
city  was  incorporated.  It  was  not  until  the 
settlement  of  the  north-western  states,  under 
the  influence  of  the  canals  and  railroads,  that 
the  prosperity  of  St.  Louis  became  marked. 
In  1836  the  sales  of  merchandise  in  St. 
Louis  were  given  at  $6,335,000  ;  in  1858  the 
local  insurance  was  $31,800,232.  The  popu 
lation  of  the  city,  which  had  been  63,491  in 
1848,  rose  to  151,780  in  1860,  and  the  city 
valuation  was  $78,463,375.  The  settlements 
of  the  upper  Mississippi,  east  and  west,  pour 
naturally  an  increasing  trade  into  the  city, 
and  its  railroad  connections  are  now  push 
ing  out  toward  the  Pacific.  We  may  re 
capitulate  the  leading  river  cities  as  fol 
lows  : — 


Settled.  Incorporated.  1840.  1S50.                    .                    1860. 

Date.  Date.  Populat'n  Populat'n.  Population.   Valuation.     Population.  Valuation. 

Pittsburg 1784,  ISiO,          6,150  21,115  4G.<01  $27,960,600  49.220  $46,866,600 

Cincinnati 178S,  1802,            S90  4fi,838  115,436  55,670,631  161,044  -      91.861,978 

Louisville 1773,  1828,        10,336  21,210  43,191  17,277,600  69,740  30,042,800 

St.Louis 1764,  1822,          4,598  16,469  77,800  38,921,201  151,780  78,463,375 

Total   21,974  105,221  283,091  $139,830,032  431,784  $247,234,753 


The  numbers  and  wealth  of  the  river  cities 
have  increased  in  a  ratio,  perhaps,  larger  than 
the  lake  cities.  They  divide  with  the  latter 
the  trade  of  country  lying  between  the  lakes 
and  the  Ohio  river,  drawing  produce  and 
shipping  merchandise,  while  they  have  also  a 
strong  hold  upon  southern  trade.  The  busi 
ness  of  all  those  cities,  as  well  lake  as  river,  is 
but  a  reflection  of  the  growth  of  the  great  sea 
ports.  The  canals,  streams,  and  railroads  that 
pour  forth  their  products  in  a  southerly  di 
rection,  and  feed  the  river  cities,  combine 
with  the  other  business  points  of  the  region  to 
swell  the  trade  of  New  Orleans,  the  common 
correspondent  of  all ;  the  roads,  rivers,  and 
streams  that  deliver  their  trade  in  a  northerly 
and  easterly  direction,  glut  the  great  trunk 
lines  with  the  merchandise  which  they  pour 
into  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and 
Baltimore. 

The  city  of  NEW  ORLEANS,  at  the  Delta 
of  the  Mississippi,  is  commercially  the  second 
city  of  the  Union,  and  in  respect  to  the  ex 
ports  of  domestic  produce,  it  ranks  first.  Its 
position  is  very  advantageous,  and  its  growth 
has  been  proportional  to  the  development 
of  the  country,  the  resources  of  which  sup 
ply  it  with  produce  and  depend  upon  it  for 
merchandise  in  return.  The  city  itself  was 


founded  by  the  French  in  1717,  and  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  Spanish  in  1762.  By 
them  it  was  reconveyed  to  the  French  in 
1 800,  and  was  sold  by  Napoleon  to  the  United 
States  in  1804.  At  that  time  its  population, 
mostly  French,  was  8,056,  and  it  was  rapidly 
increased  by  the  fact  of  annexation,  which 
not  only  carried  enterprising  men  thither,  but 
settled  the  upper  country,  which  was  the 
source  of  trade.  The  city  was  chartered  in 
1 805.  In  1 820  the  population  had  increased 
to  27,176  persons,  but  the  exports  of  the 
city  still  consisted  mostly  of  the  produce  of 
the  upper  country,  which  a  population,  in 
creased  rapidly  by  the  influence  of  war  and 
speculation,  had  greatly  developed,  although 
the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  had  not  yet 
attracted  cotton  planters.  In  1830  the  trade 
of  the  city  marked  a  larger  production  of 
farm  produce.  In  the  succeeding  ten  years 
the  migration  from  the  Atlantic  cotton  states 
to  the  new  lands  of  the  valley  produced  a 
great  change  in  the  trade  of  NCAV  Orleans. 
The  cotton  receipts  rose  from  300,000  bales 
in  1830,  to  954,000  in  1840,  and  tobacco 
from  twenty-four  to  forty-three  thousand 
hogsheads,  and  the  sugar  crop  also  had  risen 
to  85,000  hhds.  The  exports  were  now 
swollen  by  the  sales  of  cotton  and  tobacco, 


182 


LAND    SETTLEMENT INTERNAL    TRADE. 


but,  with  the  operation   of  the   canals  and!  been  as  follows.     The  figures  for  1860  are 


railroads  in  the  upper  country,  the  supplies 
of  home  produce  had  again  become  impor 
tant.  The  progress  of  New  Orleans  has 


not  published,  but  thecotton  is  30  per  cent, 
higher,  and  the  amount  Avill  be  about  $200,- 
000,000  received  from  the  interior. 


Population. 

Imports. 

Exports. 

Receipts  from 
Interior. 

Receipts  of 
Specie. 

Valuation  of 
Keal  Estate. 

1804, 

8,056 

$1,392.093 

1810, 

17,242 

1,753,974 

1820, 

27,176 

$3,379,717 

7,242,415 

1830, 

46,310. 

7,599,083 

13,042,740 

1840, 

102,193 

10,673,190 

34,236,936 

$45,76'l,045 

1850, 

116,375 

10,760,499 

38,105,350 

96,897,873 

$3,792,662 

.  . 

1851, 

12,528,460 

54,413,963 

106,924,083 

7,938,119 

1852, 

12,057,724 

49,058,885 

108,051,708 

6,278,523 

$66,350,260 

1853, 

13,654,113 

67,768,724 

134,233,731 

7,865,226 

1854, 

14,402,150 

60,172,628 

115,336,798 

6,967,056 

1855, 

12,923,608 

55,688,552 

117,106.823 

3,746,037 

1856, 

17,183,327 

80,547,963 

144,256^081 

4,913,540 

1857, 

24,981,150 

91,514,286 

158,061,369 

6,500,015 

1858, 

19,586,013 

88,382,438 

167,155,546 

13,268,013 

108,651,135 

1859, 

168,472 

18,349,516 

101,734,952 

172,952,664 

15,627,016 

111,193,802 

This  table  embraces  the  official  figures  for 
population,  trade,  and  valuation.  The  most 
marked  feature  is  the  small  amount  of  im 
ports  as  compared  with  exports.  This  we 
shall  find  to  be  the  reverse  with  the  trade  of 
New  York  ;  the  trade  of  the  two  cities  for 
the  past  year  having  been  as  follows  : — 

New  York.  New  Orleans. 

Imports $220,247,307         $18,349,516 

Exports. 106,604,097          101,734,952 

The  domestic  exports  from  New  York,  ex 
clusive  of  specie,  were  but  54,000,000,  show 
ing  an  excess  of  about  $166,000,000  im 
ported  ;  while  at  New  Orleans  the  excess  is 
$83,385,436  exported.  These  figures  repre 
sent  the  course  of  trade.  The  receipts  from 
the  interior  at  New  Orleans  rose  from 
$96,897,873  in  1850,  to  $172,952,664  in 
1859.  This  embraces  sugar  and  molasses, 
of  which  the  value  was  nearly  $32,000,000, 
but  which  being  sent  up  the  western  rivers 
and  to  the  Atlantic  ports,  is  not  exported. 
Cotton  was  $92,037,794  of  the  amount,  and 
tobacco  $9,324,326.  These  sums  together 
make  $133,362,120,  leaving  $39,590,544  as 
the  value  of  farm  produce,  which  comes 
down  the  western  rivers  as  the  readiest  con 
veyance.  On  the  other  hand,  the  lighter 
merchandise  which  forms  the  sum  of  imports 
into  N  ew  York,  instead  of  going  round  by  way 
of  New  Orleans,  goes  across  the  country  on 
railroads.  It  follows,  that  when  the  west 
sends  forty  millions  of  produce  to  New  Or 
leans  for  sale,  and  has  purchased  an  equal 
amount  of  goods  in  the  east,  that  its  money 
is  in  New  Orleans  and  its  debts  in  New  York. 
It  draws  upon  New  Orleans  then  to  pay 
New  York.  New  Orleans  being  so  large  an 


exporter,  has  large  sums  due  it,  for  which  it 
draws  to  meet  what  it  owes  to  the  west  for 
produce.  This  state  of  affairs  is  the  basis  of 
bill  operations.  Firms  being  connected,  one 
at  Liverpool,  one  at  New  Orleans,  and  one  at 
New  York,  the  New  Orleans  house  buys 
cotton  for  shipment  to  England,  and  draws 
for  it  at  sixty  days  on  the  New  York  firm ; 
the  bill  being  discounted,  places  him  in  funds 
to  pay  for  the  cotton,  which  will  arrive  in 
Liverpool  in  thirty  days.  The  New  York 
firm  draws  a  sterling  bill  against  it  at  sixty 
days,  and,  with  the  proceeds,  meets  the  bill 
drawn  on  it  from  New  Orleans.  The 
sterling  bill  is  then  met  by  the  sales  of  cotton 
four  months  after  it  was  bought.  In  the 
mean  time,  the  bill  on  New  York  passes  into 
the  hands  of  the  western  debtors  of  New 
York,  who  send  it  thither  in  payment  of 
goods  purchased.  The  sterling  bill  is  sold 
to  the  New  York  importer,  who  remits  it 
abroad  in  payment  of  goods  imported.  The 
receipts  of  cotton  and  sugar  have  been  very 
large  of  late  years,  but  the  quantities  of  west 
ern  produce  resulting  from  the  more  rapid  set 
tlement  of  the  land  under  the  influence  of 
the  railroads,  have  also  greatly  increased.  In 
1840,  the  value  of  cotton,  sugar,  and  to 
bacco  received  was  $36,124,275,  leaving  but 
$9,591,770  for  western  produce.  In  the 
year  of  famine  the  aggregate  receipts  at 
New  Orleans  rose  to  $90,033,251,  of  which 
$42,599,361  was  western  produce.  In  1857, 
those  articles  were  valued  at  $49,009,976 ; 
flour  and  grain  counting  in  that  year  for 
nearly  $1 5,000,000.  By  means  of  time  bills, 
New  Orleans  thus  furnishes  a  large  capital  to 
dealers ;  and  in  years  of  economy  and  re- 


RIVER    CITIES ATLANTIC    CITIES. 


183 


trencliment,  when  the  purchases  of  goods  arc 
diminished,  it  shows  a  large  inward  current 
of  specie.  In  1851,  California  supplied  a 
good  deal  of  gold  at  that  point,  but  changed 
direction  after  the  establishment  of  a  mint 
at  San  Francisco,  and  the  receipts  of  specie 
were  small  at  New  Orleans  in  1855 — a  specu 
lative  year.  They  became  large  with  the 
panic  year,  and  have  since  so  continued. 
The  large  sales  of  produce  bring  a  balance 
in  favor  of  that  point,  giving  great  stability 
to  its  banking  institutions. 

While  New  Orleans  thus  expanded  its 
trade,  and  grew  in  wealth  under  the  influ 
ence  of  western  production,  the  proportion 
that  it  enjoyed  was  by  no  means  the  largest. 
Each  Atlantic  city  had  made  efforts  to  ob 
tain  a  share,  and,  with  more  or  less  success, 
Canada  sought  to  attract  it  down  the  St. 
Lawrence.  New  York  built  two  railroads  to 
aid  the  canals  in  connecting  the  lakes  with 
tide  water.  Boston  formed  a  connection 
with  the  Hudson  river,  and  another  with  the 
lakes  at  Ogdcnsburgh.  Philadelphia  im 
proved  its  hold  on  Pittsburg.  Baltimore 
thrust  out  its  iron  arm  to  Wheeling,  and  all 
these  offered  inducements  to  trade.  The 
tonnage  of  these  works  shows  the  progress 
of  trade : — 


Tons. 
Erie  canal,  1840 

New  York  canals,  1S5S,  8,344,061 


New  York  Central  railroad,  1853, 

New  York  and  Erie,  1358, 

Northern.  Ogdensburgh  to  Boston, 
Pennsylvania,  to  Philadelphia, 
Baltimore  and  Ohio,  to  Baltimore, 


838,791 
978,OR6 
177,723 
530.4UO 

876,289 


Tons. 
1,416,046 


6,745,105 


Increase  in  tonnage,  , 


a  century  later,  viz.  :  in  1783,  when  its  popu- 

ation  was  nearly  16,000.     The  commerce  of 

harleston  is  not  extensive,  but  its  facilities 

or  internal  communications  are  large,  and 

njoys  the  trade  of  the  whole  state,  together 

vith  much  of  that  of  North  Carolina  and 

reorgia.      A   canal,  twenty-two  miles   long, 

connects  the  Cooper  with  the  Santee  river. 

t  has  a  fleet  of  steamboats  that  are  running 

o  the  neighboring  cities,  and  several  lines 

>f  packets  running  to  New  York  regularly. 

ts  most  important  connection  is,  however, 

he    South  Carolina  railroad,  running   136 

miles  to  Hamburg,  on  the  .  Savannah  river, 

opposite  Augusta,  Georgia.     The  population 

and  business  have  been  as  follows  :  — 


5,329,059 

The  valuation  of  this  tonnage  is  nearly 
$350,000,000  per  annum,  and  this  affords  an 
indication  only  of  the  wealth  which  has 
passed  eastward.  Thus,  in  1 840,  the  value  of 
western  produce,  that  found  market  by  New 
Orleans  and  the  Erie  canal,  was  $51,000,000 ; 
in  1858,  it  was  nearly  $400,000,000,  or  an 
increase  ten-fold,  and  on  this  mainly  has 
the  prosperity  of  the  eastern  cities  depended 
The  exports  of  the  southern  ports  have 
grown  mostly  with  the  direct  export  of  cot 
ton,  and  those  at  the  north  have  added  grad 
ually  food  and  manufactures  thereto.  The 
general  course  of  trade  has  been  to  con 
tralize  imports  in  New  York. 

CHARLESTON  owes  its  origin  to  a  stock 
similar  to  that  of  New  England,  since  a 
colony  of  French  Huguenots,  flying  from 
persecution,  settled  there  in  1690.  It  was 
not  chartered  as  a  city,  however,  until  nearl) 


Population. 

Imports. 

Exports. 

1790, 

16,359 

$4,516,205 

$2,693,268 

1820, 

24,480 

3,007,113 

8,882,940 

1830, 

30,289 

1,054.619 

7,627,031 

1840, 

29,261 

2,318,791 

11,042,070 

1850, 

42,985 

1,933,785 

11,447,800 

1860, 

51,210 

2,070  249 

16,888,262 

The  importations  have  not  apparently  in- 
rcased,  while  the  exports  have  grown  in 
proportion  to  the  improvement  of  means  of 
intercourse  with  the  interior,  affording  better 
freights  outward  from  Charleston. 

BALTIMORE  was  laid  out  as  a  town,  by 
Roman  Catholics,  in  1729,  and  up  to  1765 
it  contained  but  fifty  houses.  The  persua 
sion  of  the  founders  still  predominates.  It 
is  situated  on  the  Patapsco  river,  fourteen 
miles  from  Chesapeake  bay,  and  two  hundred 
miles  from  the  ocean.  The  harbor  is  a  very 
fine  one.  The  city  enjoys  great  facilities  for 
commerce,  and  possesses  the  trade  of  Mary 
land  and  part  of  Pennsylvania,  while  it  has 
of  late  obtained  a  good  share  of  that  of  the 
western  states,  ft  was  the  great  tobacco 
market  of  the  country,  but  Richmond  now 
rivals  it  in  that  respect.  As  a  flour  market, 
it  has  few  equals.  The  building  of  railroads 
to  connect  with  the  interior  has  greatly  pro 
moted  the  city  trade,  which  has  progressed 
as  follows  :  — 


Population. 

Imports. 

Exports. 

1700, 

13,503 

$6,018,500 

$2,239,691 

1800, 

26,514 

12,264,331 

1410, 

46,555 

6,489,018 

1820, 

62,738 

4,070,842 

6,609,364 

1830, 

80,625 

4,523,866 

3,791,482 

1840, 

102,313 

5,701,869 

4,524,575 

1850, 

169,054 

6,124,201 

6,967,353 

I860, 

212,419 

8,930,157 

10,442,616 

The  importations  have  been  mostly  fol 
lowed  with  increase  in  exports,  that  have 


184 


LAND    SETTLEMENT INTERNAL    TRADE. 


been  promoted  since  1850  by  the  opening 
of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad. 

PHILADELPHIA,  at  the  close  of  the  last  cen 
tury,  was  the  first  city  of  America,  and  since 
that  period,  although  it  has  not  ceased  to 
expand  in  wealth  and  population  in  a  ratio 
far  beyond  the  examples  of  the  old  world, 
yet  New  York,  by  force  of  natural  advanta 
ges,  has  come  to  exceed  it  as  a  commercial 
city.  Its  resources  for  manufacturing  are 
such,  however,  as  to  have  given  it  a  high 
rank  in  the  interior  trade  of  the  country. 
The  water-power  of  the  neighborhood  is  very 
important,  and  rails  and  canals  give  it  com 
mand  of  limitless  supplies  of  raw  materials, 
coal  and  iron  in  particular.  The  position  of 
the  city  was  early  improved  by  the  construc 
tion  of  canals  to  the  extent  of  336  miles,  at 
a  cost  of  $24,000,000 ;  and  seven  lines,  com 
posed  oftwelve  railroads,of  567miles  in  length, 
radiate  to  every  point  of  the  compass,  having 
cost  $53,716,201.  The  canals  and  roads 
have  swollen  the  coal  receipts  of  Philadel 
phia  from  365  tons  in  1820,  to  7,781,100 
tons  in  1859,  valued  at  nearly  $35,000,000 
per  annum.  The  population  and  external 
trade  of  Philadelphia  have  been  as  follows: — 

Population.  Imports.  Exports.  Total  valuation. 
1684,           2,5HO 

1790,  42,520  $3,436,893 

1820,  108,116  $8,158,922  5,743,549       $40,487,239 

1840,  2.">8,03T  Il,fi80,lll  8,841,599         99,321,Sbl 

1850,  408,762  12,066,154  4,501,606 

1858,  550,000  12,892,215  6,036,411        155,697,669 

The  city  of  Philadelphia  was  first  settled 
in  1627  by  the  Swedes,  but  was  regulated 
and  laid  out  in  1682  according  to  the  views  of 
William  Penn,  and  its  population  in  1684  was 
2,500.  The  city  is  one  hundred  miles  from 
the  ocean,  eighty-seven  miles  from  New  York, 
and  130  miles  from  Washington.  It  is  five 
miles  from  the  junction  of  the  Schuylkill  and 
Delaware  rivers,  extending  from  one  to  the 
other,  and  its  harbor  is  on  theDelaware, or  east 
ern  side.  Vessels  drawing  more  than  twenty 
feet  water  cannot  reach  Philadelphia,  and  the 
navigation  for  large  ships  below  is  a  little 
difficult.  Pilots  take  inward  bound  ships  at 
sea.  These  circumstances  have  aided  to  give 
Philadelphia  less  of  a  commercial  character 
as  compared  with  the  commanding  harbor 
of  New  York. 

If  the  foreign  commerce  of  Philadelphia 
does  not  show  large,  owing  to  physical  diffi 
culties,  the  internal  commerce,  from  sales  of 
manufactures  and  goods  imported  at  New 
York,  is  very  large — and  the  real  growth 
of  the  city  is  indicated  by  her  external  trade 
less  than  that  'of,  perhaps,  any  other  city  of 


the  Union.  The  census  of  1860  has  been 
estimated  at  650,000.  The  manufacturing 
industry  of  Philadelphia  has  increased  in  a 
remarkable  ratio.  In  1845  the  capital  em 
ployed  in  the  city  proper  was  $18,000,000, 
the  production  $21,000,000,  and  of  the 
neighborhood  $33,000,000. 

In  1858  the  capital  invested  in  the  various 
industries  was  given  at  $72,000,000,  employ 
ing  132,000  hands,  and  producing  $145,348,- 
738  of  annual  value.  In  the  vicinity  the  amount 
is  $26,500,000  additional.  These  figures  de 
note  that  Philadelphia  is  probably  the  great 
est  manufacturing  city  of  the  Union,  and 
will  continue  to  grow  in  that  direction  by 
the  force  of  the  same  influences  which  tend 
to  give  New  York  the  commercial  prepon 
derance.  The  trade  of  the  city  is  on  a  grand 
scale,  and  second  to  none  in  the  world  for 
magnitude  of  operations,  or  successful  method 
in  conducting  them.  A  leading  store  of  that 
city  is  a  model  of  mercantile  method.  Each 
department  in  the  store  is  alphabetically 
designated.  The  shelves  and  rows  of  goods 
in  each  department  are  numbered,  and  upon 
the  tag  attached  to  the  goods  is  marked  the 
letter  of  the  department,  the  number  of  the 
shelf,  and  row  on  that  shelf  to  which  such 
piece  of  goods  belongs.  The  cashier  receives 
a  certain  sum  extra  per  week,  and  he  is  res 
ponsible  for  all  worthless  money  received. 
Books  are  kept,  in  which  the  sales  of  each 
clerk  are  entered  for  the  day,  and  the  salary 
of  the  clerk  cast,  as  a  per-centage  on  each 
day,  week,  and  year,  and,  at  the  foot  of  the 
page,  the  aggregate  of  the  sales  appears,  and 
the  per-centage  that  it  has  cost  to  effect 
these  sales  is  easily  calculated  for  each  day, 
month,  or  year.  The  counters  are  desig 
nated  by  an  imaginary  color,  as  the  blue, 
green,  brown,  etc.,  counter.  The  yard-sticks 
and  counter-brush  belonging  to  it  are  painted 
to  correspond  with  the  imaginary  color  of 
the  counter ;  so  by  a  very  simple  arrange 
ment,  each  of  these  necessaries  is  kept  where 
it  belongs ;  and  should  any  be  missing,  the 
faulty  clerks  are  easily  known. 

All  wrapping  paper  coming  into  the  store 
is  immediately  taken  to  a  counter  in  the 
basement,  where  a  lad  attends  with  a  pair 
of  shears,  whose  duty  it  is  to  cut  the  paper 
into  pieces  to  correspond  with  the  size  of  the 
parcels  sold  at  the  different  departments,  to 
which  he  sees  that  it  is  transferred.  All 
pieces  too  small  for  this,  even  to  the  smallest 
scraps,  are  by  him  put  into  a  sack,  and  what 
is  usually  thrown  away  by  our  merchants, 


NEW    YORK TELEGRAPH EXPRESS GOLD. 


185 


yields  to  the  systematic  man  some  $20  per 
year.  In  one  part  of  the  establishment  is  a 
tool  closet,  with  a  work-bench  attached  ;  the 
closet  occupies  but  little  space,  yet  in  it  is 
seen  almost  every  useful  tool,  and  this  is 
arranged  with  the  hand-saw  to  form  the  cen 
tre,  and  the  smaller  tools  radiating  from  it 
in  sun  form  ;  behind  each  article  is  painted, 
with  black  paint,  the  shape  of  the  tool  be 
longing  in  that  place. 

It  is,  consequently,  impossible  that  any 
'thing  should  be  out  of  place  except  through 
design,  and  if  any  tool  is  missing,  the  wall 
will  show  the  shadow  without  the  substance. 
The  proprietor's  desk  stands  at  the  further 
end  of  the  store,  raised  on  a  platform  facing 
the  front,  from  which  he  can  see  all  the 
operations  in  each  section  of  the  retail  de 
partment.  From  this  desk  run  tubes,  con 
necting  with  each  department  of  the  store, 
from  the  garret  to  the  cellar,  so  that  if  a 
person  in  any  department,  either  porter,  re 
tail,  or  wholesale  clerk,  wishes  to  communi 
cate  with  the  employer,  he  can  do  so  with 
out  leaving  his  station.  Pages  are  kept  in 
each  department  to  take  the  bill  of  parcels, 
together  with  the  money  paid,  and  return 
the  bill  receipted,  and  change,  if  any,  to  the 
customer.  So  that  the  salesman  is  never 
obliged  to  leave  the  counter ;  he  is  at  all 
times  ready  either  to  introduce  a  new  article 
or  watch  that  no  goods  are  taken  from  his 
counter,,  excepting  those  accounted  for. 

By  a  peculiar  method  of  casting  the  per 
centage  of  a  clerk's  salary  on  his  sales,  coup 
ling  it  with  the  clerk's  general  conduct,  and 
the  style  of  goods  he  is  selling,  a  just  esti 
mate  may  be  formed  of  the  relative  value  of 
the  services  of  each,  in  proportion  to  his 
salary.  By  the  alphabetic  arrangement  of 
departments,  numbering  of  shelves,  and  form 
of  the  tools,  any  clerk,  no  matter  if  lie  has 
not  been  in  the  store  more  than  an  hour,  can 
arrange  every  article  in  its  proper  place ;  and 
at  any  time,  if  inquired  of  respecting,  or  re 
ferred  to  by  any  clerk,  the  proprietor  is  able 
to  speak  understandingly  of  the  capabilities 
and  business  qualities  of  any  of  his  employees. 
Population  in  1860,  665,531. 

BOSTON  was  settled  early  in  the  seven 
teenth  century,  and  in  1684  was  the  most 
populous  of  the  Atlantic  cities,  having  6, .300 
inhabitants.  It  is  216  miles  from  New 
York,  and  although  possessed  of  one  of  the 
finest  harbors  on  the  coast,  it  had  no  facilities 
for  reaching  the  back  country,  which  was  for 
the  most  part  rocky  and  mountainous,  until 


railroads  were  constructed.  Its  early  trade 
was  in  navigation  and  the  fisheries.  Its  first 
adventure  was  in  1627,  Avhcn  a  sloop,  loaded 
with  corn,  was  sent  to  Narraganset  to  trade, 
and  made  an  encouraging  voyage.  Its  in 
habitants  soon  became  rich  by  doing  the 
trade  of  others  in  their  celebrated  ships,  un 
til  manufacturing  became  possible.  The 
energy  and  intelligence  of  the  race,  when 
turned  in  that  direction,  soon  drew  large 
profits  from  their  industry,  and  more  freight 
for  their  coasting  tonnage,  which  increased 
as  the  numbers  engaged  in  manufacture  re 
quired  more  food  and  raw  materials.  The 
greatest  start  was  given  to  the  trade  of  the 
city  when  railroads  had  laid  open  even  the 
remotest  regions  of  the  interior  to  its  enter 
prise.  The  general  course  fof  its  population, 
trade,  and  valuation  has  been  as  follows : — 


Population.  Imports. 
1684,         f',800 

1T90,       18,038  $5,519.500 

1820,       43,1298  14,826,782 

1830,        61,392  10,453,544 

1840,        Ot!,8!-3  13,300,925 

1850,  136,881  30,374,664 

1855,  162,629  45,113,774 

1858,  170.000  40,432,710 


Exports.  Valuation. 

12,517,651  $6,990,390 

11,008,922  88,288,200 

7,213,194  61,760,210 

9,104,862  102,101,201 

10,681,763  180,000,500 

28,190.925  249.262,500 

20,979,b53  262,014,500 


The  exports  of  Boston  have  taken  a  great 
start  since  1830,  and  since  then  there  have 
been  constructed  nine  lines  of  railroad,  which 
radiate  from  Boston  in  every  direction ; 
placing  every  town  in  New  England  in  con 
nection  with  it,  and  by  continuous  lines,  every 
city  of  the  Union,  from  Bangor  to  New 
Orleans,  St.  Louis,  Chicago,  and  St.  Paul. 
The  running  of  the  line  of  Cunard  steamers 
gives  it  a  European  connection  more  prompt 
and  regular  than  any  other.  Its  extensive 
trade  shows  the  effect  of  these  connections, 
and  its  taxable  valuation  the  wealth  that 
accumulates  from  its  manufacturing  industry. 
That  valuation  is  this  year  (1860)  $276,339- 
900,  and  the  population  177,481. 

CHAPTER   III. 

NEW  YORK— TELEGRAPH— EXPRESS- 
GOLD. 

THE  city  of  New  York,  at  the  close  of  the 
revolution,  was  the  second  city  of  the  new 
world,  taking  rank  after  Philadelphia.  Its  in 
ternal  trade  was  limited  to  the  capacity  of  the 
Hudson  river,  but  its  traders  pushed  across  to 
Lake  Champlain,  and  even  to  Lake  Ontario, 
whence  they  drew  skins  and  furs  from  the 
Indians,  and  brought  down  some  of  the  prod 
uce  of  Vermont  and  New  Hampshire.  At 
this  date  there  was  little  trade  west  of 
Albany.  The  trade  was  mostly  with  the 


186 


LAND    SETTLEMENT INTERNAL    TRADE. 


towns  on  the  east  side  of  the  river,  and  with 
Rutland,    Burlington,    and   other   Vermont 
towns,  as  well  as  the  western  towns  of  Massa 
chusetts.      Remittances   were    made    from 
these  towns  in  ashes,  wheat,  etc.,  and  during 
the  embargo  and  war,  smuggling  was  very  ex 
tensively   carried  on,  taking  pay  in  specie. 
The  goods  went  up  the  river  in  sloops.     The 
New  England  cities  had  equal  commercial 
advantages,  and  Philadelphia  enjoyed  many 
others  in  addition.     The  valley  of  the  Hud 
son  furnished,   however,   large   supplies   of 
farm  produce   during  the  wars  of   Europe, 
which   gave    a   preponderance  to  the  New 
York  trade,  and  it  began  to  gain  strength. 
In  1807  the  passage  of  Fulton's  steamer  to 
Albany  gave   a  great  impulse  to  the  river 
trade.     Her  statesmen,  however,  soon  saw 
the  necessity  of  a  more  extended  inland  com 
munication,  and  the  canal,  which  had  been 
projected  before  the  peace,  became  a  legal 
reality  in  1817,  and  a  physical  fact  in  1825. 
The  capital  of  the  New  York  merchants  be 
gan  to  be  invested  in  enterprises  which  re 
sulted  in  centring  trade  in  the  city.     The 
canal  connection  opened  the  vast  circle  of 
the  lake  trade  to  New  York  city,  and  poured 
into  its  basin  the  western  farm  produce  at 
rates  far  below  what  the  same  articles  could 
be  raised  for  at  the  east.     As  a  necessity, 
therefore,  New  York  became  the   point  of 
supply,  not  only  for  the  foreign  trade,  but 
for   the   neighboring  states.     The   growing 
manufactures    of  Philadelphia   and  Boston 
found  cheaper  food  in   New  York  than  in 
their   own  neighborhood,   and  North  river 
sloops    and   schooners    continued   the    Erie 
canal  to  the  Delaware  and  the  Charles  river. 
As  new  routes  to  the  west,  and  more   ex 
tended  settlements  in   that   region   opened 
new  sources  for  the  supply  of  produce,  and 
new  markets  for  goods,  the  tendency  was  to 
New  York.     The  capital  engaged    in  com 
merce  at  that  point  being  the  largest,  prod 
uce     found    readier     advances     and    more 
prompt  realization,  while  the  large  imports 
and  consignments  of  foreign  goods  made  the 
assortment  larger  and  the  average  cost  less 
there  than    elsewhere.     The   same    circum 
stance   that   drew  produce   into  New  York 
bay,  also  drew  eastern  manufactures  to  the 
same  point,  and  this  increased   the   assort 
ment  which  was  to  be  found  at  the  common 
centre.     The  fact  that  produce  tended  gen 
erally  to  New  York,  as  a  matter  of  course 
made  it  the  centre  of  finance.     The  United 
States  government,  and  bank,  and  mint  had 


been  established  at  Philadelphia.  Those 
circumstances  could  not,  however,  control 
the  currents  of  trade.  The  pork,  and  corn, 
and  wheat  of  the  west,  the  manufactures  of 
the  east,  the  tobacco,  cotton,  and  rice  of  the 
south,  being  sent  to  New  York  to  obtain 
advances,  it  followed  that  from  all  quarters 
bills  drawn  against  produce  ran  on  New 
York.  Those  bills  found  buyers  among 
the  country  dealers,  who,  in  all  directions, 
wanted  to  remit  to  New  York  to  pay  for 
goods  there  purchased.  Capital  could  not 
keep  aloof  from  the  focus  of  transactions,  and 
all  loans  to  be  made  or  financial  operations 
to  be  conducted,  sought  New  York.  For 
the  same  reason  all  funds  seeking  investments 
went  there  to  find  them.  Produce,  goods, 
raw  material,  capital,  all  operated  in  refer 
ence  to  New  York,  and  the  foreign  trade 
was  the  motor  which  kept  up  the  circulation. 
This  tendency  to  a  centre  once  commenced, 
cannot  be  turned,  but  it  strengthens  with 
the  general  increase  of  the  country.  The 
other  cities  strive  to  turn  a  portion  of  the 
current  each  in  its  own  direction,  but  the 
result  of  those  efforts  is  only  to  increase  the 
aggregate  trade  of  the  whole. 

If  the  amount  of  specie  exported,  and  for 
the  most  part  that  is  but  a  transit  trade  from 
California,  is  deducted  from  the  New  York 
account,  New  Orleans  will  be  found  to  ex 
ceed  it  in  exports  by  $32,000,000.  The  lines 
of  communication  with  the  interior,  and  the 
facilities  for  advancing  on  produce,  drew  to 
New  York  a  considerable  portion  of  the 
western  produce,  and  operations  are  now 
there  carried  on  which  partake  of  a  specula 
tive  character.  Pork,  flour,  etc.,  are  often  sold 
largely  for  future  delivery  on  the  New  York 
exchange ;  and  much  of  the  cotton  shipped 
from  southern  ports  direct  to  Europe,  is 
resold  in  New  York  many  times  before  it 
arrives  out.  When  the  cotton  is  put  on 
board  ship  for  Liverpool,  samples  and  bills 
of  lading  are  sent  to  New  York,  and  the 
cotton  sold  "  in  transitu  " — that  is,  during 
its  passage  to  Europe.  Should  the  ocean 
telegraph  come  into  operation,  this  system 
could  be  carried  to  a  much  greater  extent, 
since  news  from  the  Liverpool  market  could 
be  received  at  least  thirty  days  after  a  cargo 
is  shipped  before  its  arrival  out;  and  in 
speculative  times,  other  articles  will  be  sub 
ject  to  the  same  operations.  The  export  of 
corn  first  became  a  large  business  in  the 
famine  years  of  1847-8,  and  the  sub 
divisions  of  qualities,  round  and  flat,  yellow, 


NEW  YORK TELEGRAPH EXPRESS GOLD. 


187 


white,  etc.,  then  manifested  themselves.  In 
the  present  year,  the  crops  are  greatly  beyond 
any  former  experience,  and  every  available 
means  of  transportation  is  taken  up  to  convey 
it  to  market.  The  realization  of  them  de 
pends  upon  the  quantities  that  Europe  may 
require,  and  this  depends  upon  the  events 
of  a  few  weeks.  The  steamers  now  give 
intelligence  in  ten  days,  when  formerly 
thirty  were  required.  If  the  ocean  tele 


graph  had  worked,  the  price  of  corn  in 
Liverpool  would  have  been  known  simulta 
neously  in  Chicago,  and  water  transporta 
tion  pressed  to  its  utmost  before  the  frost 
closed  it. 

The  proportion  which  each  of  the  cities 
named  enjoys  of  the  aggregate  export  trade 
of  the  whole  country,  is  seen  in  the  following 
table : — 


EXPORTS   OF   THE   LEADING    ARTICLES    OF    DOMESTIC    PRODUCE    FROM    THE    CHIEF   ATLANTIC    CITIES. 


Boston.  Philadelphia.  Baltimore. 

Beef      $79,427  $281,010  $52,219 

Pork 379,998  205,154  317,737 

Lumber 368,597  46,901  49,753 

Furniture 328,654  24,274  22,704 

Stoves,  &c 5,140  2,749  53,983 

Butter 61,836  83,289  74,043 

Cheese 15,113  9,742  21,797 

Hams,  &c 34,559  68,072  75,056 

Lard 144,047  163,319  254,713 

Tallow 42,813  176,253  9,286 

Cotton.. 815,968  87,512  10,985 

Tobacco,  manufactured.  404,569  52,138  55,965 

"        leaf. 143,653  78,019  3,430,287 

Rice 92,128  76,834  72,743 

Naval  stores 34,076  34,419  22,577 

Brass  manufactures 45,024  34,398  1.205 

Iron             "            402,228  755,403  75,661 

Cotton         "             1,860,885  62,642  442,863 

Wood                        584,685  193,578  156,614 

Gold  and  silver  coin  . . .  3,679,027  124,887  62,050 

"             bullion.  917,395 

Corn 30,112  439,017  334.576 

Wheat 3,491  251,991  308,657 

Flour 955,257  1,293,228  2,909,679 

Spirits 753,693  18,385  43,169 

Other  articles 3,191,437  1,050,005  1,220,064 


New  Orleans. 

$170,715 

154,101 

13,425 

3,894 

395,550 

36,048 

9,626 

184,634 

1,962,121 

149,206 

73,152,768 

5.929 

7,564,247 

18,097 

7,161 

973 

40,719 

169,011 

23,233 

1,009 

682,839 

632,221 

2,257,152 

65,135 

570,710 


New  York. 

$1,312,957 

1,169,707 

751,334 

331,281 

960,390 

236,928 

561,45L 

1,485,958 

1,172,950 

258,226 

8,368,500 

1,113,428 

1,482,970 

664,969 

1,219,553 

1,705,426 

1,922,734 

2,113,225 

413,806 

14,917,585 

12,456,256 

1,331,570 

5,451,491 

7,017,790 

729.220 

14,253,857 


Total. 

$2,081,856 

2,852,942 

3,428,530 

922,499 

],.975,852 

541,863 

731,910 

1,957,423 

3,809,501 

829,970 

131,386,661 

2,400,115 

17,009,767 

1,870,578 

1,464,210 

1,985,223 

4,059,528 

5,651,504 

2,234,678 

19,474,040 

22,933,206 

3,259,039 

9,061,504 

19,328,834 

1.993,845 

30,513,151 


Total $15,373,812     $5,613,224  $10,078,386    $88,270,524     $83,403,562     $293,758,279 


The  opening  of  the  Erie  canal,  in  1825, 
gave  the  first  decided  impulse  to  the  city 
business,  and  produced  a  powerful  effect 
upon  its  prosperity.  The  impulse  was  pro 
longed  under  the  bank  excitement  that  ex 
ploded  in  1837.  The  effect  of  railroad 
extension  at  the  west  has,  in  the  last  fifteen 
years,  had  a  still  more  powerful  influence  upon 
its  growth.  The  following  table  gives  the 
population,  imports,  exports,  and  taxable 
valuation,  for  a  long  period : — 


1684, 
1760, 
1790, 
IhUO, 
1820. 
1S30, 
18-10, 
1S50, 
1865, 
1860, 


Population. 
2,600 
10,331 
88,181 


128,706 
208,007 
812,710 
615,M7 
6-29.904 
818,603 


Imports. 

$4,5:9 

267.130 

10,739,250 

26,201,0(10 

23.629.246 

36,624,070 

60440,750 

111,123,524 

164,776.511 

233,718,718 


Exports. 

$10093 

86,632 

2,505.415 

14.045,079 

18,160,9!S 

19.b97.983 

34,264.080 

52,712,7^9 

n3,73l.'.'8S 

l:(8,036,550 


Valuation. 


$25,645,867 
69,530,753 
125,2S\5I8 
5!52,283,515 
286,061,818 
4-i6.998.278 
677,280,656 


Up  to  the  year  1840,  the  business  of  the 
west  depended  mostly  on  the  canal,  and  by 


way  of  New  Orleans.  The  city  held  then  a 
kind  of  monopoly,  but,  like  all  monopolies, 
it  cramped  the  producers.  The  large  ex 
penditure  at  the  west  for  bank  capital,  in 
the  years  1836-37,  caused  a  great  credit 
demand  for  goods  upon  New  York,  which 
was  generally  met.  The  facilities  granted  in 
those  years  by  the  American  bankers  in 
London,  for  the  purchase  of  goods  on  credit, 
placed  these  within  the  reach  of  any  dealer 
who  could  make  a  fair  show ;  and  the  goods 
obtained  on  credit  required  to  be  sold  on 
the  same  terms.  The  rivalry  thus  produced 
among  those  who  could  command  goods,  was 
very  great,  and  the  utmost  efforts  were  made 
to  obtain  paper  in  exchange  for  goods.  The 
banks  showed  the  same  eagerness  to  discount 
the  paper  that  the  merchants  did  to  obtain 
it,  and  the  mass  grew  in  a  rapid  ratio,  from 
the  small  country  dealers  to  city  jobbers  and 
importers,  and  London  bankers,  until  the 


188 


LAND    SETTLEMENT INTERNAL    TRADE. 


Bank  of  England,  in  August,  1836,  issued  a 
warning  to  those  houses  to  curtail  their 
credits.  This  was  the  "  hand  writing  on  the 
wall " — settling  day  had  come.  The  business 
south  and  west  had  then  been  eagerly  sought 
after  by  the  jobbing-houses,  who  employed 
drummers  to  haunt  the  New  York  hotels 
and  beset  every  new-comer  with  tempta 
tions  to  buy.  The  drummers  of  the  day  had 
usually  no  limit  placed  upon  their  expenses, 
which  were  intended  to  cover  the  "  atten 
tions  "  shown  to  the  country  dealer.  These 
revelled  in  the  dissipations  of  the  town  at  the 
apparent  expense  of  their  entertainer,  and 
they  could  do  no  less  than  buy  of  such  atten 
tive  friends,  when  the  bill,  whether  they  dis 
covered  it  or  not,  would  often  cover  their 
own  and  other  people's  expenses.  The 
mode  of  business  then  in  vogue,  when  banks 
were  multiplying  so  rapidly  all  over  the 
country,  was  to  take  the  paper  of  the  dealers, 
payable  at  their  own  local  bank.  It  was 
supposed  that  the  dealer  would  be  sure  to 
keep  his  credit  good  at  home.  The  result 
showed  that  the  dealer,  in  order  to  pay  the 
New  York  bill,  got  an  accommodation  note 
done  at  his  bank,  which  thus  became  the 
debtor  of  the  New  York  collecting  bank. 
By  this  means,  although  the  New  York 
merchant  got  his  money,  the  west  was  still 
in  debt  to  the  east ;  and  this  continued  as 
long  as  capital  was  sent  from  the  east  to  the 
west  to  start  banks.  The  whole  system  ex 
ploded  in  1837,  and  the  bank  capitals  were 
sunk  in  these  credits.  From  that  date  there 
was  to  be  "  no  more  credit,"  a  threat  which 
has  often  been  repeated  without  being  put 
in  practice.  The  only  permanent  change 
seemed  to  be  to  require  notes  payable  in  New 
York.  Those  are  given  at  dates  longer  or 
shorter,  but  the  system  is  an  improvement 
on  the  old  mode.  With  1840  also  began 
the  railroad  building,  which  brought  stocks 
and  bonds  to  New  York  for  negotiation,  and 
the  money  being  expended  west  promoted 
consumption  of  goods,  which  caused  a  greater 
demand  in  New  York.  The  exports  of  prod 
uce  increased  at  higher  prices,  and  the 
sales  of  these  gave  the  producers  the  means 
of  buying  more  goods.  In  1808,  thirty-one 
years  after  the  first  successful  steamboat,  ar 
rived  the  first  ocean  steamer,  the  Sirius,  at 
New  York,  marking  a  new  era  in  foreign 
trade,  since  communication  with  Europe 
was  now  reduced  to  half  the  time,  a  circum 
stance  which  was  equivalent  to  an  increase  of 
capital  engaged  in  commerce,  because  it 


could  be  turned  oftener.  From  that  date 
ocean  steam  navigation  rapidly  increased. 
The  electric  telegraph  of  Morse  began  a  few 
years  later  to  exert  its  influence  in  facili 
tating  intercourse,  and  the  express  sys 
tem  was  also  introduced.  It  is  somewhat 
singular,  that  with  the  breakdown  of  the  old 
credit  system  and  the  adoption  of  the  plan 
of  making  notes  payable  in  New  York,  four 
important  elements,  having  the  highest  cen 
tralizing  tendencies,  began  to  operate.  These 
were,  first,  ocean  navigation ;  second,  the 
more  extended  construction  of  railroads ; 
third,  the  invention  and  construction  of  tele 
graphs — there  are  now  25,000  miles  of  wires, 
that  have  cost  over  $2,000,000,  consolidated 
in  one  company,  and  New  York  is  the  centre 
for  the  whole  :  and,  fourth,  the  express  system 
of  intercourse.  All  these,  centring  in  New 
York,  came  into  active  operation  at  the  mo 
ment  when  gold  was  discovered  in  California, 
to  give  them  an  extraordinary  impetus.  The 
express  business  is  peculiarly  American,  and 
has  grown  with  a  vigor  which  places  it  among 
the  most  important  trading  facilities  of  the 
country.  In  the  spring  of  1839,  a  year  after 
the  arrival  of  the  Sirius  at  New  York,  W. 
F.  Harnden,  then  out  of  employ  in  Boston, 
was  advised  by  his  friends  to  get  a  valise  and 
take  small  packages  and  parcels  from  his 
acquaintances  in  Boston  to  their  correspond 
ents  in  New  York,  and  return  with  what 
they  had  to  send,  making  a  small  charge  for 
his  services.  He  did  so,  and  discovered  that 
a  great  public  want  was  to  be  supplied.  He 
soon  contracted  with  the  railroad  to  send  a 
car  through  with  his  goods,  and  with  busi 
ness  tact  he  opened  offices,  employed  mes 
sengers,  pushing  the  business  with  American 
energy.  In  1840  an  opposition  was  started 
by  Adams.  In  1 841  new  fields  were  explored 
by  Harnden,  who  ran  an  express  between 
Albany  and  Boston,  and  one  between  Albany 
and  New  York.  Route  after  route  was  then 
opened  to  express  agents,  penetrating  further 
and  further,  and  multiplying  their  lines  in 
the  densely  settled  portions  of  the  country; 
not  only  between  cities,  but  between  different 
portions  of  the  same  city.  In  1845,  Buffalo 
was  reached  by  Wells  &  Co.  In  1849,  the 
gold  fever  brought  California  within  the 
scope  of  express  operations,  and  from  San 
Francisco  as  a  centre,  "  pony  "  expresses  ran 
to  the  diggings  with  great  success,  placing 
the  solitary  miners  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  in 
direct  connection  with  the  mint  and  with  Wall 
street.  As  these  busy  agents  continued' to 


NEW    YORK TELEGRAPH EXPRESS GOLD. 


189 


increase,  and  lessen  the  difficulty  of  commu 
nication,  trade  multiplied  as  a  consequence. 
The  telegraph  had  also  penetrated  most 
direct  routes  between  cities,  and  that  instru 
ment  came  in  aid  of  the  express,  which 
executed  an  order  transmitted  by  telegraph. 
Instead  of  waiting  the  slow  course  of  the 
post  for  a  reply,  the.  telegraph  gave  an  in 
stantaneous  order  for  goods  that  the  express 
conveyed.  Thus,  the  three  months  that 
would  once  have  been  consumed  in  coming 
from  Cincinnati  for  goods  and  returning,  was 
reduced  to  three  days.  All  the  cities  of  the 
union  were  brought  within  similar  speaking 
distance.  In  1850  it  was  estimated  that  the 
expresses  travelled  twenty  thousand  miles 
daily,  in  discharge  of  orders,  and  the  service 
has  since  doubled.  Steam,  the  telegraph, 
and  the  express,  had  thus  greatly  facilitated 
trade,  by  making  the  long  semi-annual  ex 
peditions  to  the  large  cities,  for  the  pur 
chase  of  goods,  unnecessary.  The  small 
dealers  could  now  buy  frequently  in  small 
parcels  the  goods  they  found  most  in  demand, 
instead  of  buying  a  six  months'  stock,  and 
taking  the  risk  of  the  goods  being  well  se 
lected  for  the  market.  This  also  brought 
with  it  another  change.  It  had  been  the 
case,  that  most  of  the  goods  sent  to  America 
formerly  were  the  surplus  stock  of  the  British 
manufacturers.  That  is,  where  patterns  had 
been  got  up  for  the  home  consumption  and 
the  regular  trade  supplied,  there  would  remain 
a  stock  that  had  become  comparatively  dead 
by  age.  This  dead  stock  was  "  good  enough 
for  the  American  market,"  and  was  sent  out 
almost  for  what  it  would  bring,  and  being 
transported  into  the  interior  for  six  months' 
sales,  became  a  sort  of  Hobson's  choice  for 
the  consumers.  When,  however,  frequent 
arrivals  of  new  goods  came  to  be  laid  before 
the  customers,  they  immediately  displayed 
a  taste  and  exercised  a  choice.  Ill-assorted 
goods  would  now  not  sell  at  all.  English 
refuse  became  of  no  value,  because  American 
taste  was  developing  itself  with  considerable 
strength.  The  customer  was  no  longer  to 
take  what  was  laid  before  him ;  but  in  order 
to  sell,  the  dealer  was  now  to  exercise  his 
sagacity  as  to  what  would  please  his  taste 
in  selecting  it,  and  his  judgment  in  buying  it. 
The  manufacturer  of  dry  goods  was  obliged 
to  follow  in  the  same  direction,  and  the  em 
ployment  of  designers  became  important.  It 
was  now  that  the  sagacity  and  taste  of  the 
factory  agents  were  felt  to  be  an  indispensa 
ble  element  in  the  success  of  a  concern.  The 


production  of  a  design  was  promptly  followed 
by  the  judgment  of  the  public,  and  manu 
facturing  became,  as  it  were,  one  of  the  fine 
arts. 

The  joint  operation  of  these  new  agencies 
manifested  itself  in  1850,  when  the  west  had 
become  enriched  with  the  large  sales  it  had 
made  of  its  produce  during  the  famine  years, 
and  the  railroads  and  canals,  then  in  opera 
tion,  had  profited  largely  by  the  high  freights 
and  tolls  paid  by  produce  on  its  way  to 
market.  The  gold  of  California  was  now  in 
its  turn  adding  a  new  stimulus  to  the  busi 
ness  of  the  city.  In  1852  the  Michigan 
roads  had  opened  through  to  Chicago,  and 
New  York  was  now,  by  rail,  within  thirty- 
six  hours  of  that  city.  The  projection  and 
construction  of  railroads  went  on  rapidly, 
constantly  adding  to  the  business  of  New 
York — the  common  centre,  whence  the 
means  to  build  were  drawn,  and  to  which 
these  means  returned  in  the  purchase  of 
goods.  The  Crystal  Palace,  in  1853,  drew 
great  numbers  of  persons  to  the  city,  and 
gave  a  start  to  retail  trade,  which  had  an 
important  effect  upon  the  value  of  real 
estate  and  the  location  of  business.  In  the 
above  table  we  find  that  the  imports  into 
the  city  from  abroad  rose  fifty  per  cent, 
in  the  five  years  to  1855,  and  the  total 
valuation  two  hundred  millions.  This  valu 
ation  followed  the  changed  location  of  busi 
ness.  In  the  speculative  times  of  183G-7, 
the  old  Pearl  street  house,  in  Hanover  square, 
was  the  headquarters  of  country  dealers,  and 
that  square  the  centre  of  the  dry  goods  trade, 
around  which  all  others  agglomerated.  The 
great  fire  of  December,  1835,  by  which  the 
lower  part  of  the  city  and  a  value  of  $18,000,- 
000  was  destroyed,  broke  up  the  location, 
which,  however,  was  speedily  rebuilt,  and, with 
the  rebuilding,  the  Merchants'  Exchange  was 
enlarged  and  reconstructed  at  an  expense  of 
$1,800,000.  The  usual  fate  overtook  occu 
piers  in  the  inordinate  demands  of  landlords, 
and  the  leading  firms  pushed  across  Wall 
street  and  made  Pine  and  Cedar  streets  the 
great  centre.  Gradually  firm  after  firm  ven 
tured  upon  Broadway,  which,  in  1845,  was 
visited  by  a  fire  that  caused  the  rebuilding  of 
the  lower  portion,  no  longer  for  dwellings, 
but  for  substantial  stores.  One  firm  went 
up  to  the  corner  of  Rector  street,  one-quarter 
of  a  mile  from  the  Battery,  and  took  the  site, 
long  vacant,  of  the  old  Grace  church,  at  a 
lease.  "Too  high  up,"  said  conservatism, 
as  the  crowd  rushed  by,  and  the  great  retail 


190 


LAND    SETTLEMENT INTERNAL    TRADE. 


firm  of  Stewart  &  Co.  took  the  old  Washing 
ton  hotel  at  the  corner  of  Chambers,  and 
occupied  the  block  with  a  marble  store  which 
lias  no  equal  in  any  city.  Here  importing, 
jobbing,  and  retailing  are  carried  on  to  the 
extent  of  $10,000,000  by  one  who,  by  his  ener 
gy  and  enterprise,  has  increased  a  capita!  of 
a  few  hundreds  to  millions,  and  now  employs 
two  hundred  and  fifty  clerks  and  others. 
There  were  handsome  stores  before  this  was 
built,  but  this  may  be  said  to  have  com 
menced  the  era  of  expensive  structures.  The 
demands  of  luxury  have  led  to  the  erection 
on  Broadway  of  elegant  trade  palaces  of  iron, 
marble,  and  freestone  for  the  leading  firms 
in  the  dry  goods,  jewelry,  clothing,  porcelain, 
and  other  branches  of  trade  ;  while  the  whole 
sale  dealers,  invading  the  old  college  ground, 
have  covered  it  with  marble  stores  of  great 
size  and  beauty.  The  centre  of  business 
which,  twenty  years  since,  was  within  a  quar 
ter  of  a  mile  of  the  Battery  is  now  a  mile 
distant,  and  the  value  of  roal  estate  has  fol 
lowed  like  a  "  ground  swell,"  reaching  incred 
ible  rates.  A  marble  store  on  Broadway 
•was  rented  in  1860  for  $50,000  per  annum, 
or  nearly  a  thousand  dollars  per  week.  A 
lot  on  Broadway,  near  Broome,  sold  lately 
at  private  sale  for  $110,000;  it  had  been 
bought  at  auction,  in  1852,  for  $35,000.  An 
elderly  gentleman  present  remarked,  "  This 
lot  was  part  of  the  old  Colonel  Bayard,  farm, 
and  was  given  by  the  colonel  to  his  barber 
for  a  hair-dressing  bill.  I  have  seen  it  sold 
at  auction  four  times,  and  each  time  people 
decided  the  buyer  crazy  to  give  such 
a  price."  The  "Central  Park,"  to  cover  800 
acres,  was  projected,  and  has  since  been  pros 
ecuted,  at  a  cost  of  $5,406,193,  having  em 
ployed,  in  the  four  years,  over  10,000  men. 
The  city  has  spread  toward  the  upper 
wards  through  the  agency  of  railroads,  which 
have  enabled  workmen  and  merchants  to  live 
further  from  their  places  of  occupation  than 
formerly.  The  importance  of  consuming  as 
little  time  as  possible  in  coming  from  and 
going  to  occupation  made  it  requisite  for 
merly,  when  roads  were  barely  paved,  and 
conveyances  not  to  be  thought  of,  that  per 
sons  should  live  near  their  business.  The 
old  cities  of  Europe  are  thus  built  with 
narrow  streets  and  very  high  houses,  to  ac 
commodate  many  in  a  little  space.  Modern 
cities  are  built  on  a  broader  scale.  Omni- 
busses  first  came  into  play  to  give  a  greater 
breadth  to  the  dwellings  of  the  people,  and 
horse-railroads  have  still  further  expanded 


the  area.  The  island  of  Manhattan,  from  the 
Battery,  which  forms  a  point,  runs  northerly 
between  the  North  and  East  rivers.  From 
the  park  the  city  spreads  in  a  fan-like  form 
east  and  west,  and  from  that  point  radiate 
the  railroads.  Of  these  there  are  six,  includ 
ing  the  Harlem,  which  runs  by  the  Fourth 
avenue  to  Albany.  The  five  other  roads  run 
on  as  many  avenues,  and  carry  their  passen 
gers  from  three  to  eight  miles,  returning 
with  them  to  a  common  centre  every  morn 
ing  to  business.  These  four  roads  cost 
$4,600,000,  and  the  receipts  for  1859  were 
$1,481,010.  In  1858  they  transported 
27,900,388  people,  and  in  1859,  32,718,351. 
If  the  Brooklyn  railroads  are  included,  the 
receipts  would  be  swollen  to  $1,978,340  for 
1859,  and  the  number  of  passengers  to 
39,560,000  per  annum.  The  passengers  on 
the  Brooklyn  roads  are  mostly  coming  to 
business  in  New  York,  and,  therefore,  are 
part  of  its  trade.  The  telegraph  also  comes 
to  play  an  important  part  in  the  city  busi 
ness.  Many  large  firms,  whose  offices  are 
in  the  lower  part  of  the  city,  and  warehouses 
and  manufactories  in  the  upper  part,  connect 
the  two  by  telegraph,  to  transmit  orders  and 
for  information.  All  the  police  stations  con 
nect  by  telegraph  to  give  alarms  of  robbery, 
and  fire  alarms  are  also  conveyed  by  the  same 
means.  The  "  time  ball"  also  operates  by 
telegraph.  On  the  top  of  the  Custom  House, 
sixty  feet  high,  is  a  mast  on  which  slides  a 
black  ball  some  20  feet  in  diameter.  This 
can  be  seen  from  any  part  of  the  bay.  It  is 
hoisted  to  the  top  of  the  pole,  and  is  so 
arranged,  that  the  moment  the  sun  reaches 
the  zenith,  by  observation,  at  Albany,  it  is 
released  by  electricity  and  falls,  marking 
twelve  o'clock,  by  which  every  ship-master 
in  the  port  may  set  his  chronometer. 

All  the  railroads,  continually  running  night 
and  day,  aided  by  twenty-five  stage  routes, 
on  which  run  four  hundred  and  forty-four 
two-horse  stages,  bring  the  business  and 
working  population  to  their  occupations,  and 
back  at  night.  By  all  these  conveyances 
there  travel  in  New  York  every  year  a  num 
ber  of  persons  equal  to  twice  the  population 
of  the  whole  United  States.  This  makes  a 
much  larger  breadth  of  land  possible  to  a 
great  city  than  otherwise,  and  allows  of  the 
thorough  concentration  of  business.  The 
country  dealer,  in  making  his  purchases  of 
different  goods,  is  prone  to  buy  of  those 
nearest  to  his  most  important  bills.  The 
dry  goods  are  to  be  selected,  and  the  hard- 


NEW  YORK TELEGRAPH EXPRESS GOLD. 


191 


ware,  earthenware,  cutlery,  millinery, 
and  the  thousand  and  one  subdivisions 
into  which  business,  formerly  one,  now 
branches,  arc  also  to  be  purchased  to  the 
best  advantage,  and  much  time  spent  in 
going  from  one  to  the  other  cannot  be  af 
forded.  Hence  the  importance  of  concen 
tration  and  the  value  of  "business  sites." 
Manufacturers  of  small  wares  also  spring  up 
in  such  locations.  The  transformation  in 
trade  itself  is  quite  as  noticeable  as  the 
change  in  its  locality;  and  there  are  those 
whose  heads  are  not  yet  silvered,  who  can 
remember  when  the  mode  of  doing  business 
bore  less  resemblance  to  its  present  fashions, 
than  the  pants  now  in  vogue  do  to  the  knee 
breeches  worn  by  our  grandsires.  Formerly, 
a  young  man  engaged  in  business  for  him 
self  only  after  a  long  course  of  training,  and 
then  usually  by  uniting  himself  with  his 
seniors ;  now  beardless  clerks  dash  into  trade 
as  if  it  were  a  holiday  sport,  requiring  only 
a  full  flow  of  animal  spirits.  Then  the  prin 
cipals  of  every  house  were  working  men, 
who  lived  frugally,  and  waited  until  their 
fortunes  were  made  before  they  spent  them  ; 
now,  a  start  in  business  gives  sufficient  war 
rant  for  a  generous  expenditure,  and  many 
are  too  impatient  to  wait  for  their  income, 
but  spend  the  fortune  they  have — in  pros 
pect.  Then,  the  word  of  a  merchant  was  as 
good  as  his  bond,  and,  with  a  few  exceptions, 
his  honesty  was  proverbial ;  now,  there  is 
more  finesse  in  the  place  of  open  dealing, 
and  the  exceptions  almost  balance  the  rule. 
Then,  insolvency  was  a  bitter  word,  and 
failures  in  business  from  recklessness  brought 
overwhelming  shame ;  now,  the  gazette  has 
lost  its  terrors,  and  bankruptcy  is  to  many 
but  a  slight  annoyance.  Perhaps,  however, 
the  greatest  difference  which  purchasers  who 
come  to  the  New  York  market  are  called 
to  observe,  is  in  the  division  of  the  goods. 
Formerly,  a  dry  goods  jobber  kept  a  full 
assortment  of  every  thing  in  his  line,  and  it 
required  no  little  tact  and  exercise  of  memory 
to  keep  each  line  full.  Now,  one  house  con 
fines  itself  to  woolens,  another  to  cottons, 
another  to  silks,  and  yet  another  to  fancy 
articles ;  and  even  these  are  subdivided,  as 
in  woolens  one  will  keep  tailors'  goods,  an 
other  dress  goods  and  women's  wear ;  in 
cottons,  one  confines  himself  to  prints,  an 
other  to  the  plain  goods ;  in  silks,  we  have 
establishments  for  pi'ece  goods,  and  others 
for  ribbons  and  smaller  articles.  The  ten 
dency  is  to  a  still  more  minute  division,  and 


thus  we  have  a  dealer  in  hosiery,  a  dealer  in 
lace,  a  dealer  in  perfumery,  a  dealer  in 
pocket  handkerchiefs,  a  dealer  in  shawls, 
and  one  house  keeps  nothing  but  suspenders  ! 
Twenty  years  since  the  manufacture  of  cloth 
ing  became  a  separate  business,  and  it  has 
since  subdivided  into  many  branches.  In 
ten  years  more  there  may  be  an  establish 
ment  for  spool  cotton,  and  another  for  corset- 
laces,  if  such  instruments  of  torture  shall 
then  be  in  vogue.  We  are  not  prepared  to 
say  that  the  division  of  goods  here  noticed 
may  not  be  a  positive  convenience,  although 
it  certainly  increases  the  labor  of  the  pur 
chaser.  It  may,  however,  induce  more  me 
thod  in  the  selection  of  goods,  and  we  think 
it  has  already  led  to  some  change  in  this 
respect.  Buyers  now  make,  to  a  consider 
able  extent,  a  corresponding  division  of  their 
time,  and  one  day  is  set  apart  for  woolens, 
another  for  silks,  and  so  on  through  the 
whole  catalogue.  Could  some  staid  customer 
of  the  last  century,  awaking  from  a  Rip  Van 
Winkle  sleep,  be  set  down  at  this  day  in 
some  of  our  thronged  thorough-fares,  he 
would  get  sorely  jostled  and  footweary  be 
fore  he  had  made  a  black  cross  against  all 
the  articles  upon  his  memorandum. 

The  supplies  of  goods  for  the  country 
dealers  are  derived  from  various  sources ; 
small  wares  from  city  manufacturers ;  domes 
tics  from  the  mills  or  agents ;  foreign  goods 
from  importers  or  agents  of  foreign  manufac 
turers.  The  local  manufactures  are  generally 
purchased  by  the  jobbers  to  make  good  their 
assortments,  as  is  also  the  case  with  hardware, 
and  most  articles  of  domestic  manufacture,  ex 
cept  the  productions  of  the  large  mills,  which 
have  agents  in  the  city  for  their  special  sale. 
These  grant  more  or  less  credits,  and  sell 
goods  for  paper  to  turn  into  money.  The 
agents  of  foreign  manufacturers  tempt  buyers 
by  granting  long  credits  for  paper  which  may 
be  converted  into  money  at  the  banks.  The 
regular  importing  houses  remit  for  their 
goods  when  they  give  the  order,  and  sell  at 
six  and  eight  months  to  the  jobbers,  the 
largest  purchases  being  made  in  the  spring 
and  fall ;  sometimes  through  the  auction 
houses,  whose  paper  is  a  favorite  means  of 
raising  money.  The  jobbers,  in  their  turn, 
sell  at  eight  and  twelve  months'  credit,  seek 
ing  custom  in  the  country  by  means  of 
agents,  instead  of  the  old  system  of  drum 
mers,  and  allure  buyers  by  the  liberality  of 
credits,  depending  upon  the  mercantile  agen 
cies  for  information  in  relation  to  the  relia- 


192 


LAND    SETTLEMENT INTERNAL    TKADE. 


bility  of  the  buyer.  These  agencies  have 
ramifications  in  every  town  of  the  country, 
but  their  usefulness  is  not  what  was  at  one 
time  expected  from  them.  The  jobbers  grant 
credits  far  beyond  their  own  capital,  and 
when  they  buy  at  eight  months  and  sell  at 
twelve,  their  notes  are  to  be  discounted  at 
the  banks  with  the  paper  they  have  taken 
from  their  customers  as  collateral,  to  meet 
their  own  notes  to  the  importers.  In  times 
of  panic,  like  the  fall  of  1857,  the  banks  re 
fuse  to  do  this,  and  then  the  importer  must 
renew  the  paper  or  the  bank  grant  the  ex 
tension  needed,  to  avoid  absolute  stoppage. 
The  credits  granted  by  foreign  manufacturers 
at  such  times  are  not  met.  The  lapse  of 
time,  with  fair  crops,  generally  brings  up  the 
payment  of  the  country  paper,  and  the  "  ex 
tensions"  are  gradually  extinguished.  The 
grocers  who  sell  sugar,  etc.,  do  so  generally 
at  four  months,  and  get  their  money  before 
the  dry  goods  people,  who  also  come  after 
the  hardware  and  earthenware  dealers. 
The  supply  of  capital  in  the  city,  under  these 


circumstances,  brings  to  it  the  largest  assort 
ment  of  goods,  and  of  course  it  is  the  best 
point  at  which  to  buy,  the  more  so  that  at 
times  there  is  an  over-supply  of  goods,  which 
being  worked  off  at  auction,  realizes  a  loss 
sometimes  of  25  to  30  per  cent,  to  the  im 
porter  and  foreign  owner,  and  of  course  to 
the  advantage  of  the  country  buyer.  The 
general  attractions  offered  to  buyers  make  it 
to  the  advantage  of  sellers  elsewhere  to  send 
their  merchandise  to  New  York  to  meet  the 
purchasers.  Boston  made  recently  an  at 
tempt  to  break  up  this,  by  establishing  sales 
of  her  manufactures  there,  instead  of  sending 
them  to  New  York.  The  force  of  centraliza 
tion  is,  however,  difficult  to  overcome,  and 
the  imports  at  New  York  show  an  increas 
ing  share  of  the  arrivals  into  the  whole 
country.  Thus,  in  1859,  New  York  im 
ported  $220,000,000  out  of  an  aggregate  of 
$338,000,000;  in  1840,  $60,000,000  out 
of  an  aggregate  of  $121,000,000.  The  pro 
portionate  imports  at  the  Atlantic  ports,  are 
as  follows : — 


IMPORTS  OF  CERTAIN  GOODS   INTO  THE  LEADING  ATLANTIC  PORTS,  AND  ALSO  THE  TOTAL  IMPORTS  INTO  THE  UNION. 


Boston. 

Gold  bullion $1,975,795 

"     coin    306,113 

Silver  bullion 112,085 

"      coin 3,613 

Coffee 1,091,146 

Tea 142,889 

Linseed 2,211,684 

Guano 28,539 

Wool,  free 2,493,470 

dutiable 137,036 

Watches 184,900 

Coal 37,361 

Woollens 1,453,519 

Cotton  hose 33,881 

"       goods 2,010,601 

"       laces 500,682 

Silks 1,621,388 

Linen 532,836 

Gloves 36,777 

Window  glass 141,308 

Gunny  bags  and  cloth. .  1,108,730 

Iron,  bar 1,016,541 

"       pig 218,695 

"       railroad 8,862 

Cutlery 85,920 

Jute 1,294,026 

Leather 46,338 

Hides 2,784,442 

Molasses 717,742 

Sugar 3,154,026 

Oilier  articles 14,939,245 


Philadelphia.      Baltimore.  New  Orleans 

$1,115           $9,950  $275 

76,785             .  .  424,542 

2,500 

36,683             .  .  4,096,034 

2,163,947      2,766,095  4,360,432 


30,501 

117 

5,606 

1,547,052 

235,246 

1,180,172 

4,093 

76,491 

551,531 

11,709 

5,299 

31,847 

298,186 

74,612 

7,397 

42,609 

5,009 

2,495 

377,635 

223.616 

1,955,243 

3,935,373 


195,470 

130,690 

4,528 

2,402 

263,320 

139,546 

184,848 

281 

5,254 

73,224 

4,005 


95,376 

4,069 

35,743 

15,475 

1,953 

422,466 

183,352 

1,712,744 

2,656,766 


2,714 

20,388 

16,448 

514,020 

70,691 

1,385,594 

50,138 

356,843 

457,098 

19,127 

22,879 

57,118 

119,476 

47,650 

340,699 

142,456 

8,738 

55,670 

30,263 

761,708 

5,704,033 


New  York. 

Tot'l  into  Union. 

$269,833 

$2,286,099 

8,096,651 

9,279,969 

271,027 

408,879 

689,533 

7,299,549 

6,730,168 

18,341,081 

6,414,700 

6,777,297 

940,077 

3,243,174 

242,648 

525,376 

1,173,075 

3,843,320 

4.961 

179.365 

1,980,864 

2,118,838 

521,774 

772,925 

21,987,784 

26,489,091 

1,625,833 

2,120,868 

9,917,270 

15,057,398 

2,274,033 

2,845,029 

19,238,760 

21,471,488 

4,823,264 

6,527,894 

1,362,096 

1,449,672 

454.344 

626,747 

147,571 

1,437,767 

1,610,970 

3,318,713 

329,785 

739,947 

1,556,538 

2,987,576 

1,155,761 

1,489,054 

970,723 

2,298,708 

1,205,714 

1,259,711 

5,629,029 

9,884,358 

1,414,168 

4,116,759 

13,514,098 

23,317,435 

53,727.835 

100,099,063 

Total $40,430,100    $12,860,369   $8,920,157    $19,155,034   $170,280,887    $282,013,150 


The  aggregate  imports  at  these  five  ports 
are  thus  $251,666,637,  which,  deducted  from 
$282,613,150,  leaves  $30,946,513,  as  the 


imports  of  all  other  ports  of  the  Union. 
The  imports  of  coffee  at  New  Orleans  from 
Brazil,  to  go  up  the  river,  are  large  ;  and  at 


NEW    YORK — TELEGRAPH EXPRESS — GOLD. 


193 


Boston,  coffee  and  hides,  from  the  same 
source,  figure  high.  But  both  Baltimore 
and  Philadelphia  receive  much  coffee  direct ; 
in  fact,  that  is  the  largest  item  of  import  at 
those  two  cities.  Boston  imports  many  ma 
terials  for  her  manufacture — linseed,  free 
wool,  jute,  hides,  etc.  Philadelphia  also 
imports  similar  articles.  The  great  mass  of 
the  goods  for  the  consumption  of  the  interior 
passes  into  the  port  of  New  York.  It  is  to  be 
borne  in  mind,  however,  that  many  of  the 
importations  at  New  York  are  really  for 
Philadelphia,  Albany,  and  other  cities,  even 
western  ones.  They  are  entered  at  the 
custom-house  by  a  broker,  who  pays  the  duty 
and  forwards  them  by  express  to  their  desti 
nation,  for  a  small  commission.  The  express, 
the  rails,  and  the  telegraph,  facilitate  such 
operations. 

The  gold  and  silver  imported  at  New  York 
are  from  various  sources,  but  in  the  last  few 
yearshave  consisted  mostly  of  doubloons  and 
Spanish  gold  from  Europe,  to  re-export  to 
Havana  for  the  purchase  of  the  sugar  crop. 
In  1857,  that  movement  was  very  large,  early 
in  the  year,  to  the  island,  and  subsequently, 
when  the  stock  of  sugar  accumulated  very 
largely  in  New  York,  the  gold  came  back  from 
Havana  to  prevent  it  from  being  sacrificed. 
The  bulk  of  the  gold  that  forms  the  amount 
exported,  is  direct  from  California,  and  has 
been  annually  since  the  discovery,  in  sums 
of  nearly  fifty  millions. 

The  gold  extracted  from  the  earth  by  the 
miners  of  California  has  a  considerable  degree 
of  purity,  and  before  refining  establishments 
were  set  up  in  the  state,  sold  at  from  $16  to 
$20  per  ounce.  Much  was  used  as  a  currency. 
It  was  carried  in  little  leather  pouches,  and 
weighed  out  to  shopmen  in  exchange  for 
goods.  A  large  portion  of  it  was  carried  to 
New  York,  in  the  pockets  of  home-bound 
adventurers,  and  sold  in  New  York  at  such 
rates  as  were  possible.  The  buyers  mostly 
had  it  sent  to  Philadelphia,  by  express,  at  an 
expense  of  3-8  per  cent.  It  was  then  assayed 
and  coined  at  the  public  mint,  and  the  pro 
ceeds  returned  to  the  owner.  This  expensive 
and  round-about  process  led  to  the  establish 
ment  of  a  mint  in  San  Francisco  and  an  assay 
office  in  New  York,  where  the  miners  them 
selves  could  deposit  the  dust  and  get  the  full 
value  in  return.  When  the  dust  is  deposited, 
a  certificate  of  weight  is  given  and  the  gold 
in  bars  returned.  There  are  a  number  of 
private  assaying  houses  in  San  Francisco, 
where  the  dust  is  cast  into  bars  of  large  size. 
12* 


Most  of  these  are  connected  with  banking 
houses,  and  the  bars  are  the  basis  of  ex 
change.  The  express  companies  deal  in  this 
gold.  The  miner  now  having  a  lot  of  dust, 
sells  it  to  an  express  agent,  or  sends  it  down 
to  a  banker  in  San  Francisco,  who  has  it 
assayed  and  cast  into  bars.  The  value  is 
credited  to  the  depositor,  less  the  commis 
sions.  The  bars  are  mostly  shipped  to  New 
York,  and  the  bankers  draw  bills  against 
them  in  favor  of  those  who  have  remittances 
to  make  to  the  bank.  The  competition 
among  the  bankers  reduces  the  rate  at  which 
these  bills  can  be  sold  to  a  point  that  leaves 
apparently  no  profit,  and  it  is  charged  in 
some  cases  that  they  draw  at  a  loss,  in  the 
view  of  monopolizing  the  business.  The  re 
fining  leaves  a  small  profit.  The  cost  .of 
shipping  the  gold  to  New  York  may  be  thus 
stated :  freight,  etc.,  $157;  state  stamp  on 
bill,  20  cents;  insurance,  $1  50 — making 
$3  27  on  $100.  But  the  insurer  gets  from 
the  Mutual  companies  scrip,  worth  on  an 
average  35  cts.,  which  reduces  the  cost  to 
82  92.  The  bars  sometimes  command  a 
higher  price  in  New  York  than  in  San  Fran 
cisco.  Thus,  a  bar  of  100  ounces,  880  fine, 
is  at  this  moment  worth  par  in  San  Fran 
cisco,  and  900  fine  it  is  worth  87^  cts.  pre 
mium  in  New  York.  This  price  has  reference 
to  the  gold  only  of  the  bar.  There  is  some 
silver  in  each.  Thus,  in  the  bar  880  fine 
there  is  88  ounces  of  gold,  1H  of  silver,  and 
1-2  oz.  copper.  In  the  other,  90  oz.  gold,  9 
1-2  silver,  and  a  half  copper.  This  makes 
the  gold  worth  i  per  cent,  more  in  New  York 
than  in  San  Francisco,  and  reduces  the  cost 
of  the  bill  to  $1  92  per  cent.  It  is  evident 
that  he  who  sells  his  bills  at  2  per  cent, 
makes  but  8-10  of  1  per  cent,  or,  including 
other  items,  a  small  loss.  If  the  house  feels 
strong  enough  to  insure  itself,  it  saves 
the  insurance ;  but  this  must  be  more  or  less 
a  risk  to  those  who  take  the  bills.  Thus 
the  operation  is  one  of  mere  cost  of  ship 
ment  of  the  gold ;  but  the  control  of  so 
much  gold  on  paper  issued  is  an  object  with 
large  firms.  The  higher  value  of  gold  at 
New  York  arises  from  the  fact  that  it  is  the 
financial  centre  of  the  Union.  The  ex 
changes  of  the  country  with  Europe  and 
with  the  interior  of  the  states  turn  there. 
The  south  ships  its  cotton,  and  tobacco,  and 
rice ;  the  west  its  produce ;  and  the  At 
lantic  states  their  manufactures.  These,  as 
we  have  seen,  give  an  aggregate  value  of  over 
000,000  sent  abroad  in  a  year.  The 


194 


LAND    SETTLEMENT INTERNAL    TRADE. 


shippers  of  these  goods  draw  bills  against 
them,  and  offer  them  for  sale.  The  market 
of  sale  must  be  where  the  greatest  demand 
for  them  for  remittance  exists.  New  York 
imports  two-thirds  of  all  the  goods  received 
into  the  country,  consequently  the  demand 
is  there  the  greatest  for  the  bills,  and  they  are 
sent  there  for  sale.  It  happens  that  the  great 
majority  of  bill-drawers  are  unknown  to  the 
buyers,  hence  there  is  hesitation  in  taking 
their  bills.  To  obviate  this,  a  number  of  large 
banking-houses  connected  abroad,  and  having 
great  capital,  buy  the  bills  that  have  "  bills 
lading"  attached,  and  the  goods  are  sent  to 
their  correspondents  abroad.  In  the  seasons 
of  the  year  when  shipments  are  most  active, 
these  bills  are  plenty  and  low.  They  are 
then  purchased  and  endorsed,  and  sold  with 
the  endorsement  at  a  higher  rate  when  the 
season  advances  and  the  cotton-bills  run 
short.  If  the  demand  is  active,  and  the  rate 
of  money  higher  here  than  abroad,  the  bank 
ers  draw  on  their  own  resources,  and  lend 
them  the  proceeds  of  the  bills  they  sell  on 
stocks  or  other  securities.  They  are  also  the 
buyers  of  the  gold  bars  as  they  arrive  from 
California,  and  pay  such  rates  as  the  demand 
for  exchange,  or  the  rate  of  money,  or  the 
price  of  gold  on  the  continent,  present  or 
prospective,  will  warrant.  A  demand  for 
silver  to  go  to  Asia,  causes  a  demand  for  gold 
with  which  to  buy  it  on  the  continent,  and 
this  demand  draws  upon  New  York,  and  in 
directly  upon  the  whole  country.  It  is  ob 
vious  that  the  bill  business  is  thus  mostly  in 
the  hands  of  large  bankers.  This  grows  out 
of  the  fact  that  there  is  abroad  no  market 
for  bills  on  New  York.  Thus,  the  New  York 
importer  of  goods,  in  order  to  pay  for  them, 
buys  a  bill  on  ships'  specie,  instead  of  order 
ing  his  creditor  abroad  to  draw  upon  him, 
•which  would  be  done  if  a  bill  on  New  York 
were  saleable  in  the  London  market.  It  is 
understood,  that  when  such  amounts  of  bills 
from  the  south  and  elsewhere  are  sent  to 
New  York  for  sale,  the  proceeds  of  those 
sales  form  a  large  fund  due  by  New  York  to 
those  sections.  These  funds  are  deposited 
in  the  New  York  banks,  and  by  them  em 
ployed  in  loans  upon  stocks,  or  in  such  other 
ways  as  will  pay  an  interest.  Thus  the 
whole  country  contributes  to  the  supply  of 
•capital  at  that  common  centre.  The  New 
York  banks,  some  fifteen  years  since,  in 
order  to  encourage  that  centralization,  allow 
ed  interest  of  4  per  cent,  on  the  funds  so 
deposited.  This  caused  a  greater  sum  to  be 


so  employed,  and  imposed  on  the  banks  the 
necessity  of  lending  it,  in  order  to  make  a 
profit.  The  amount  of  funds  lying  in  New 
York  varies  from  816,000,000  to  $35,000, 
000,  according  to  the  season  of  the  year.  The 
banks  in  all  sections  of  the  country  that  have 
such  funds  in  New  York  do  not  draw  against 
it  directly  in  favor  of  those  who  want  to  re 
mit  to  New  York,  but  they  use  the  funds  to 
buy  up  their  own  or  other  paper  cheap. 
The  eft'ect  is  to  swell  the  supply  of  funds  in 
New  York,  and  at  times  foster  speculation 
there. 

The  funds  that  accumulate  in  New  York, 
make  it  also  the  mart  for  stock  operations ; 
and  these  are  very  large,  as  well  for  regular 
investments,  as  for  merely  gambling  opera 
tions. 

With  the  creation  of  any  commodity 
whatever,  there  springs  up  almost  simul 
taneously  a  class  of  persons  to  deal  in  it,  and 
to  appropriate  more  or  less  capital  to  its 
prosecution.  This  capital  is  most  generally 
applied  to  the  purchasing  of  it  when  it  is 
thought  to  be  cheap,  in  order  to  hold  it  un 
til  it  can  be  disposed  of  to  better  advantage, 
or  in  advancing  money  to  the  needy  seller. 
The  persons  so  engaged,  by  devoting  their 
time  and  attention  to  the  subject  of  their 
traffic,  reduce  it  to  science,  and  soon  deter 
mine  and  classify  the  kinds  and  qualities 
adapted  to  the  markets  and  wants  of  the 
public.  The  dealing  in  stocks  is  compara 
tively  of  modern  origin,  and  commenced  with 
the  credit  system  of  the  European  govern 
ments,  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  cen 
tury,  when  William  of  Orange  avoided  the 
dangers  that  beset  the  throne  of  the  Stuarts, 
by  borrowing  money  instead  of  extorting  it 
by  illegal  taxation  like  Charles  L,  or  steal 
ing  it  like  Charles  II.  The  moment  that 
government  stocks — or  certificates  of  debt 
issued  to  the  government  creditors — made 
their  appearance,  they  became  subjects  of 
traffic,  and  with  the  certificates  of  stock  in 
corporate  companies,  formed  the  material  for 
speculation,  and  the  exchange  markets, 
where  the  surplus  wealth  of  communities 
seek  investment,  became  the  theatre  for 
operations  in  securities.  The  American 
colonies  had  no  stock  debts  or  corporate 
companies,  since  little  surplus  capital  existed 
for  such  investments.  The  paper  money 
that  they  issued,  however,  afforded  by  its 
fluctuation  many  opportunities  of  jobbing  at 
the  expense  of  the  public.  When  the  revo 
lutionary  war  broke  out,  the  continental 


NEW    YORK TELEGRAPH EXPRESS GOLD. 


195 


money  of  the  federal  government  gave  a 
larger  field  for  these  operations,  which  were 
based  mostly  on  the  rapid  depreciation  of 
their  value.  Thus,  a  person  would  borrow  a 
sum,  returnable  in  the  same  description  in  a 
fixed  time.  Its  value  in  that  time  having 
fallen,  he  could  return  it  at  a  profit.  Sup 
posing  the  money  to  be  par,  a  person  would 
pledge  a  bag  of  $1,000  for  paper ;  a  fall  of 
eight  or  ten  per  cent,  in  sixty  days  would 
enable  him  to  redeem  his  dollars  with  $100 
profit.  In  the  time  of  the  revolution,  a 
stage  driver,  having  a  talent  that  way,  made 
money  in  the  traffic,  and  subsequently  be 
came  the  head  of  the  largest  bank  and  stock 
house  of  his  time  in  New  York,  ending  a 
lono-  and  respected  life  by  suicide.  This 
paper  soon  perished,  and  was  succeeded  by 
the  government  stock,  representing  the  pub 
lic  debt.  This  was  soon  accompanied  by 
United  States  and  other  bank  stock,  insu 
rance,  canal,  mining,  railroad,  etc.,  to  an 
immense  amount.  Up  to  1825  the  majority 
of  the  stocks  were  banks  and  insurance,  but 
there  was  no  regular  stock  market.  There 
were  brokers  who  bought  and  sold  stocks, 
but  there  was  no  concentration  of  operations. 
In  that  year  the  legislature  of  New  York 
authorized  the  New  York  stock  board,  which 
has  since  continued  to  be  the  stock  market. 
Within  the  last  few  years  a  board  of  brokers 
has  been  started  in  Philadelphia  and  also  in 
Boston.  Their  operations  are,  however,  to 
a  very  great  extent,  based  upon  those  of 
New  York,  with  which  they  communicate  by 
telegraph.  The  board  of  brokers  sits  with 
closed  doors  from  10  1-2  A.  M.  to  12  M. ; 
an  irregular  session  is  held  about  2  1-2  P.  M. 
There  is  a  president,  a  treasurer,  and  a 
secretary ;  the  latter  keeps  a  list  of  all  the 
stocks  dealt  in  in  the  market ;  the  members 
are  admitted  by  ballot  after  notice  of  nomi 
nation  by  one  of  the  board.  He  must  have 
been  at  least  a  year  a  broker,  and  on  his 
admission  pays  a  fee  of  $450.  When  the 
members  are  assembled,  the  president  pro 
ceeds  to  call  the  list,  and  as  each  stock  is 
named  in  succession,  those  who  have  orders 
to  buy  or  sell  make  their  offers,  and  the 
transactions  are  recorded,  when  they  become 
binding  upon  the  members.  If  any  of  these 
defaults  he  loses  his  scat  until  he  can  pay  or 
arrange  the  claim.  The  theory  of  the  board 
is  that  it  is  the  reservoir  where  all  stocks 
held  by  the  public  are  brought  for  sale,  and 
where  all  buyers  come,  through  brokers,  to 
purchase.  The  number  of  brokers  is  some 


150,  and  the  commission  charged  is  a  quar 
ter  of  one  per  cent.,  that  is  to  say  $25  on 
$10,000.  The  board  requires  each  member 
to  charge  not  less  than  a  quarter,  but  as 
most  of  them  sell  again  for  their  customers  for 
nothing,  the  charge  is  practically  one-eighth. 
The  quantities  of  stocks  to  be  dealt  in 
have  rapidly  increased  of  late  years.  A 
late  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
gives  an  approximation  of  the  amount  of 
stocks  now  in  the  country ;  to  that  return 
we  have  prefixed  the  amount  of  the  same  at 
a  previous  date  : — 

1S40.  1859. 

United  States  stocks $25,000,000  $55,155,977 

State  stocks 174,906,997  210,487,000 

1 1 3  cities'  and  towns'  stocks 13, 107,000  85,382,201 

350  counties' stocks 1,500,000  15,927.292 

1562  bank  stocks 290,772,09 1  421,880,095 

150  insurance  stocks 40,101,000  70,500,000 

400  railroad  stocks 45,102,208  506,746,893 

"        bonds.. 40,897,792  411,199.702 

16  canal  and  navigation  stocks  . . .  31,219,911  85,888.918 

"          bonds...  19,207,101  22,180,^69 

45  mining  and  other  co.'s  stocks. .  10,101,201  44,208,006 

bonds...  1,000,000  3,971,201 

$692,915,301  $1,883,477,862 

This  vast  increase  of  stocks  is  manipulated 
mostly  upon  the  New  York  stock  board,  and 
the  stocks  are  to  a  considerable  extent 
caused  to  float  by  the  sums  sent  to  brokers 
by  their  correspondents  in  the  country  and 
neighboring  cities,  with  which  to  "  operate." 
The  speculative  transactions  far  exceed  those 
of  other  kinds.  The  actual  investments  of 
capital  are  not  large  at  the  board.  Those  who 
take  stocks  for  income  do  so  of  the  issuers 
when  the  proposals  are  put  out,  and  they 
hold  them  like  the  United  States  and  state 
stocks,  which  rarely  come  on  the  stock  ex 
change.  The  mass  of  the  transactions  then 
are  of  non-dividend  paying  stocks,  that  are 
the  foot-ball  of  speculation,  and  so  pay  the 
operators  profits.  The  brokers  are  mostly 
cliques  of  operators,  who,  when  the  market 
is  dull  and  prices  are  low,  combine,  as  "bulls," 
to  purchase,  producing  a  rapid  rise,  in  the 
hope,  seldom  disappointed,  that  the  spec 
ulative  community  will  be  tempted  by  that 
rise  to  come  in  and  buy  ;  as  they  do  so  the 
brokers  unload  themselves  upon  the  buyers, 
and  then  become  "  bears,"  combining  to  de 
press  the  market,  and  to  compel  a  fall  at  least 
equal  to  the  rise,  skinning  the  outsiders  in 
the  process.  The  speculators  generally  buy 
on  time,  that  is,  to  pay  for  the  stock  at  their 
option,  any  day  within  thirty  or  sixty,  as  the 
case  may  be.  In  this  way  the  buyer  pays 
interest  on  the  purchases.  He  may  also  sell 
to  deliver  at  any  day  he  pleases  within  a 
specified  time,  or  "seller's  option,"  or  to 


196 


LAND    SETTLEMENT INTERNAL    TRADE. 


deliver  at  the  "  buyer's  option ;"  he  may 
borrow  stock  and  sell  it  in  the  hope  of  buy 
ing  it  back  cheaper  on  delivery ;  he  may 
buy  a  privilege  to  deliver  a  stock  at  a  certain 
price  at  a  specified  time,  or  not,  as  it  suits 
him ;  or  he  may  sell  or  buy  a  privilege  of 
taking  and  paying  for  a  stock  or  not  as  it 
suits  him ;  he  may  buy  cash  stock  and  sell 
on  time.  To  produce  a  fall,  cliques  will  sell 
for  cash  all  the  stock  they  have  or  can  bor 
row,  and  then  offer  time  contracts  without 
limit,  until  other  holders  are  frightened  and 
sell.  Confederates  keeping  up  a  clamor  to 
alarm  the  public  at  such  times,  all  offers  to 
buy  are  smothered,  and  orders  to  purchase 
are  suppressed.  On  the  other  hand,  a  com 
bination  for  a  rise  is  accompanied  by  the 
most  astonishing  prophecies  of  a  "  good 
time."  Considerable  quantities  are  bought  on 
time,  the  sellers  hoping  to  get  them  cheaper. 
Meanwhile  the  cash  stock  is  bought  up  and 
pledged  for  more  money  to  repeat  the  opera 
tion  ;  the  demand  for  the  stock  bought  on 
time  runs  up  the  rate,  and  the  public  are 
expected  to  come  in  with  sufficient  strength 
to  let  the  clique  all  sell  out  at  a  profit,  when 
•they  will  be  ready  for  a  bear  operation. 
There  are  numberless  modes  of  varying  and 
combining  speculative  operations,  which 
would  fill  a  volume.  All  these  time  operations 
were  illegal  until  1859,  when  they  were  all 
legalized,  and  a  stock  debt  may  now  be  col 
lected  like  any  other. 

The  amount  of  the  transactions  is  immense. 
In  1840,  the  aggregate  of  sales  for  the  month 
of  June  was  $3,684,460 ;  of  this  one-half  was 
bank  stock  and  one-half  Delaware  and  Hud 
son  canal.  In  June,  1857,  previous  to  the 
panic,  the  sales  reached  $250,000,000,  mostly 
railroad  stocks.  In  the  present  year  the 
sales  have  been  for  June  nearly  $70,000,000, 
mostly  non-dividend  paying  railroad  stocks. 
In  a  speculative  year  the  transactions  will  run 
to  two  or  three  thousand  millions.  Those  trans 
actions  require  a  great  deal  of  money  to  con 
duct  them,  and  these  funds  come  to  New 
York  to  a  considerable  extent  from  neigh 
boring  cities,  as  well  as  from  the  west.  They 
also  employ  a  large  portion  of  the  funds  of 
the  banks  put  out  "  at  call,"  and  also  the 
proceeds  of  bills  sold  by  large  exchange 
houses.  Thus  we  may  suppose  a  house  sells 
on  the  departure  of  a  steam-packet  $500,- 
000  of  sterling  bills.  This  money  is  paid 
into  bank,  and  is  loaned  out  on  stock  secu 
rities  at  7  per  cent,  on  call,  until,  by  a  suc 
ceeding  packet,  it  may  be  called  in  and  re 


mitted  in  gold  to  Europe.  This  operation, 
on  a  large  scale,  will  induce  •  the  banks  to 
call  in  their  loans  to  protect  their  specie, 
and  the  value  of  money  will  rise  in  the 
market.  The  rule  in  stock  speculation  is 
loss,  and  the  experience  of  the  most  fortu 
nate  dealers  is  that  the  interest  and  com 
missions  absorb  the  whole  average  profits. 
The  funds  sent  to  New  York,  therefore,  for 
stock-dealing,  only  contribute  to  the  central 
profits. 

If  we  were  to  throw  into  a  tabular  form 
the  new  agencies  of  business  centring  in  New 
York,  we  should  have  results  as  follows: — 

Cost. 
Ocean  navigation,  11  lines,  33  ships.      $22,000,000 

Telegraphs 20,000  miles.    2,000,000 

Express  companies 30,000     "        3,000,000 

Railroads 2,000     "    128,000,000 

City  railroads 19     "        5,364,360 

Canals 395     "      26,000,000 


$186,364,360 

The  number  of  strangers  that  are  drawn 
to  the  city  in  a  year  by  ocean  steamers  is 
nearly  50,000,  and  they  fill  the  hotels  that 
have  of  late  taken  such  splendid  proportions, 
and  have  been  carried  up  to  Twenty-third 
street  and  Broadway,  a  distance  of  three 
miles  from  the  old  business  centre.  The 
march  of  hotels  up-town  has  been  steady. 
The  Astor  House  was,  in  1833,  the  up-town 
house.  From  the  Astor  House  to  Chambers 
street  was  a  long  remove,  in  1849.  In  1852 
the  St.  Nicholas  advanced  a  mile  to  Spring 
street,  and  became  not  only  the  up-town,  but 
the  "upper-crust"  of  all  hotels.  In  1854, 
Niblo's  Garden,  on  Prince  street,  was  occu 
pied  by  the  Metropolitan;  and,  soon  fol 
lowing,  the  Everett  House,  taking  ground  a 
mile  higher,  opened  on  Sixteenth  street ;  and 
last  year,  superior  in  distance,  size,  magnifi 
cence,  and  expense,  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel 
opened  on  Twenty-third  street.  These  mag 
nates  were  accompanied  by  a  crowd  of  lesser 
note :  the  New  York,  St.  Denis,  St.  Germain's, 
etc.,  etc.,  all  followed,  and  with  each  new  open 
ing  the  visitors  seemed  to  spring  from  the 
walls  to  people  and  to  pay.  Extravagance 
is  only  an  allurement.  Indeed,  the  hotel- 
keepers  seem  to  have  followed  the  advice  of 
Boyden,  when  he  first  gave  popularity  to 
the  Astor.  His  cracker-baker  complained 
that  the  waiters  were  inattentive:  "Kill  me 
two  of  them,  and  put  it  in  your  bill,"  he 
briskly  replied.  And  to  his  partner,  who 
spoke  of  the  exactions  of  guests,  he  replied, 
"  Furnish  a  gold-dust  pudding,  with  diamond 


NEW  YORK TELEGRAPH EXPRESS GOLD. 


197 


plums,  if  they  require,  but  charge  accord 
ingly."  That  is  the  secret  of  hotel-keep 
ing  in  New  York — let  nothing  be  wanting, 
not  even  a  sufficient  charge.  Immense  waste, 
no  doubt,  attends  the  system,  but  it  attracts. 
The  splendid  arrangements  tempt  many  city 
families  to  take  up  their  abode  in  them ;  and 
a  small  family,  even  at  $2.50  per  day  per  head, 
do  better  than  to  pay  the  extravagant  rents 
demanded  for  fashionable  houses,  with  the  at 
tendant  expenses.  That  these  things  are  not 
done  cheaply,  the  bill  of  $91,000,  presented 
to  the  city  of  New  York  by  the  Metropolitan 
Hotel  for  the  entertainment  of  the  Japanese 
ambassadors,  is  ample  evidence.  The  nu 
merous  visitors  to  New  York  from  the  south 
and  west,  as  well  as  the  constant  current  of 
traders,  better  class  of  emigrants,  and  Cali 
fornia  passengers,  fill  the  hotels  of  the  lower 
parts  of  the  city;  and  the  whole  mass,  by 
their  purchases  for  personal  use,  make  an 
important  part  of  the  city  retail  trade,  of 
which  Broadway  is  the  main  locality.  The 
records  of  arrivals  show  the  average  number 
per  day  at  all  the  hotels  is  not  far  from 
2,000,  or  the  immense  number  of  730,000 
per  annum.  This,  at  an  average  of  82,  gives 
81,460,000  for  hotel-bills  alone,  but  all  the 
expenses  cannot  be  estimated  under  $7,000,- 
000.  The  facilities  of  railroads  and  ferries 
also  induce  a  great  deal  of  trade  from  sur 
rounding  cities  and  towns  within  a  reason 
able  distance.  Within  an  area  of  fifty  miles 
there  arc  few  who  do  not  do  their  shopping 
in  New  York,  and  very  many  of  the  small 
local  shops  send  daily  messages  to  the  city 
to  complete  orders  they  may  have  received. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  large  quantity  of  manu 
factures  that  Avcre  formerly  confined  to  the 
city  are  now  sent  long  distances  into  the 
country,  particularly  in  the  winter,  where  they 
are  done  cheaply  by  those  who  are  not  de 
pendent  upon  them  for  a  living.  The  large 
circle  of  country  thus  loses  its  rural  charac 
ter,  and  partakes  of  the  metropolitan  nature. 
It  follows  that,  as  city  localities  become 
known  for  particular  business,  and  visitors 
seek  them  to  trade,  all  of  that  class  of  deal 
ers  seek  business  places  there,  and  thus  con 
centrate  the  business.  The  fixed  population 
of  the  city  is  given  by  the  census  at  813,068, 
and,  with  the  neighborhood  more  or  less 
connected,  the  wants  of  2,000,000  require 
to  be  met  from  the  retail  stores  of  the  cities, 
in  addition  to  the  crowds  of  visitors  from 


abroad.  The  retail  trade  is  therefore  a  very 
important  one,  and  its  vigor,  apart  from  the 
purchases  of  visitors,  depends  in  some  degree 
upon  the  cheapness  of  food.  Where  immi 
gration  has  reached  over  1,000  souls  per 
day,  composed  of  persons  skilled  in  almost 
all  employments,  and  all  eager  to  obtain 
work,  competing  with  those  in  the  city  who 
live  by  their  occupation,  and  with  those  in 
the  country,  who  are,  so  to  speak,  amateurs, 
it  is  evident  the  wages  cannot  be"  extravagant, 
and  the  amount  that  can  be  spared  from 
them,  after  deducting  house-rent  and  food, 
is  not  much  in  the  average.  Food  is,  how 
ever,  the  important  item.  When  that  is 
cheap,  trade  is  more  active.  An  indication 
may  be  afforded  in  flour.  The  quantity  used 
in  New  York  is  2,000,000  bbls.  per  annum. 
In  some  years  the  price  has  been  as  low  as  $4, 
in  others  as  high  as  $15.  The  difference  be 
tween  these  sums  is  $22,000,000  in  one  year. 
The  tax,  in  years  of  dear  food,  thus  thrown 
upon  the  city  is  enormous.  It  fortunately 
happens,  that  in  years  of  dear  food  the  food- 
sellers  make  more  purchases.  The  influence 
of  such  times  is  very  perceptible  in  the 
operations  of  the  pawnbroker,  whose  busi 
ness  it  is  to  lend  small  sums  on  the  pledge 
of  almost  any  conceivable  article  that  may 
be  offered.  They  charge  24  per  cent,  per 
annum,  arid  the  article,  unredeemed  at  the 
end  of  a  year,  becomes  forfeit  by  sale  at 
auction.  The  amount  of  loans  in  one  year 
was  given  at  $3,000,000,  and  the  number  of 
pledges  4,875,000,  which  would  give  an 
average  of  about  68  cents  each  loan. 

While  cheap  food  is  an  important  item  in 
the  ability  to  purchase,  yet  employment  is 
the  main  consideration,  and  this  depends 
upon  the  prosperity  of  those  sources  on 
which  the  city  depends  for  its  business. 
These  in  the  long  run  are  progressive,  not 
withstanding  the  reactions  that  sometimes 
take  place,  and  the  diffusion  of  employments 
which  machine  inventions  tend  to  bring- 
about. 

The  general  prosperity  of  the  whole  country 
docs  not,  however,  depend  upon  any  locality : 
all  production  and  all  business  is  constantly 
seeking  the  conditions  under  which  it  can 
best  thrive.  These  cannot  be  dictated ;  but, 
being  found,  the  general  welfare  is  as  a  con 
sequence  the  greater,  and  with  the  general 
prosperity  the  common  centre  must  only 
become  the  more  magnificent. 


BANKS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


CHAPTER  I. 

BILLS  OP  CREDIT— GOVERNMENT  ISSUES- 
UNITED  STATES  BANK. 

THE  use  of  paper  money  is  a  modern  in 
vention,  and  may  yet  be  considered  but  as 
an  experiment,  since,  from  its  first  emission 
in  the  colonies  to  the  present  day,  paper 
money  has  constantly  changed  its  form  and 
the  conditions  of  its  circulation.  It  is  not  to 
be  inferred  that  paper  money  originated  on 
this  continent,  since  it  was  used  long  before 
in  the  countries  of  Europe.  Its  nature  has, 
however,  been  more  developed  here,  and 
every  phase  of  it  has  had  full  scope  of  action. 
The  circulating  paper  is  of  many  forms,  such 
as  bills  of  exchange,  promissory  notes,  gov 
ernment  bonds  bearing  interest,  government 
bonds  bearing  no  interest  and  not  converti 
ble  into  coin,  but  receivable  for  taxes  and 
dues,  and  lastly,  corporation  or  bank  prom 
ises  to  pay  coin  on  demand.  There  are  many 
other  descriptions  of  circulating  paper,  but 
these  are  the  chief  that  are  used.  The  last 
two  are  those  which  have  figured  most  as 
money.  The  intention  of  paper  money  is  to 
supply  the  place  of  coin  where  that  article  is 
not  sufficiently  abundant,  as  was  eminently 
the  case  with  the  early  colonies.  The  colo 
nies  were  none  of  them  rich,  and  had  not 
been  able  to  import  and  keep  as  much  of  the 
precious  metals  as  would  serve  for  a  currency, 
that  being  as  much  an  instrument  of  com 
merce  as  a  road  or  a  ship.  In  substituting 
paper  for  coin  there  is  no  difficulty  as  long 
as  the  quantity  emitted  does  not  exceed  the 
demands  of  business  for  a  currency.  If  there  is 
no  trade — that  is,  if  no  one  wants  to  exchange 
his  commodities  for  others — there  is  no  want 
of  currency.  As  the  desire  to  trade  increases, 
a  want  of  money  to  represent  commodities 
is  experienced,  and  the  want  is  proportioned 
to  the  numbers,  wealth,  and  activity  of  the 
traders  up  to  a  certain  point ;  because  when 
trade  is  very  active,  money  itself  changes 
hands  rapidly  and  performs  more  transfers 


than  when  it  is  sluggish.  There  must  be, 
however,  great  confidence  in  the  value  of  the 
money,  because  doubt  in  that  respect  in 
stantly  checks  traffic.  The  early  colonists 
Avere  in  that  position.  They  had  commodi 
ties  which  they  had  raised  and  made,  but 
they  had  no  currency,  or  not  enough.  In 
this  position,  in  1690,  it  became  necessary  for 
Massachusetts  to  send  a  military  expedition 
to  Quebec  to  drive  the  French  out  of  Canada. 
The  expedition  failed,  and  the  troops  came 
back  clamorous  for  pay.  The  colony  had  no 
money  to  pay  with,  and  it  adopted  the  expe 
dient  of  issuing  promises  in  convenient 
amounts.  The  faith  of  the  colony  was 
pledged  for  the  payment  of  these,  and  they 
would  be  received  for  taxes  and  dues.  It 
will  be  observed,  that  these  bore  no  interest, 
and  were  not  convertible  into  coin.  They 
were,  in  fact,  mere  orders  of  the  government 
upon  farmers  and  others  for  food,  clothing, 
etc.,  in  favor  of  the  soldiers,  to  be  called  in 
by  taxes,  not  to  be  paid  in  money.  The 
paper  was  worth  nothing  to  export.  Its  only 
value  consisted  in  its  being  good  to  pay  taxes 
with.  It  is  at  once  obvious  that  no  man 
wanted  more  than  would  suffice  for  that  pur 
pose.  The  aggregate  amount  that  could  be 
issued  was  then  measured  by  the  sum  of  the 
taxes.  In  order  to  increase  the  amount,  the 
colonial  government  made  it  a  legal  tender, 
that  is,  compelled  creditors  to  take  it  for  pri 
vate  debts.  This  was  so  palpably  unjust,  and 
was  productive  of  so  many  evils,  that  the 
home  government  suppressed  it.  Neverthe 
less,  the  same  necessities  produced  similar 
devices,  and  other  colonies  followed  the  ex 
ample  of  Massachusetts  with  similar  results. 
In  1745,  Massachusetts,  to  defray  the  ex 
pense  of  an  expedition  to  Louisburg,  again 
issued  bills  of  credit  to  the  extent  of 
£3,000,000.  This  paper  speedily  deprecia 
ted  to  11  for  1:  that  is,  £l  in  silver  was 
worth  £11  in  those  bills.  The  English  gov 
ernment  then  sent  out  £180,000  in  silver,  to 
pay  the  cost  of  the  expedition,  and  with  this 


BILLS    OF    CREDIT GOVERNMENT    ISSUES UNITED    STATES    BANK. 


199 


the  thrifty  colony  bought  up  its  own  paper 
at  11  for  1.  New  York,  during  the  period 
1709  to  1786,  made  thirty-four  issues  of  bills 
of  credit,  amounting  in  the  aggregate  to 
£1,563,407,  and  the  depreciation  was  about 
2  to  1 ;  in  other  colonies  much  more.  The 
evils  attending  these  issues  were  very  great, 
but  the  cause  continued  to  operate,  and  when 
the  war  broke  out  in  1775,  the  Congress  of 
the  Confederation  was  forced  upon  the  issue 
of  §3,000,000  worth  of"  continental  money," 
as  distinguished  from  the  state  issues;  and 
to  give  these  issues  some  firmness,  they  made 
them  a  legal  tender.  This  supply  of  paper, 
in  addition  to  the  colonial  emissions,  in 
creased  the  difficulties,  and  some  of  the  colo 
nies  went  a  step  further  and  made  personal 
property  a  legal  tender,  according  to  apprais 
als  to  be  made  for  the  purpose.  Notwith 
standing  the  general  discredit,  Congress  was 
obliged  to  push  the  issues.  In  1779  the 
amount  outstanding  was  $160,000,000,  and 
by  1780  it  reached  $200,000,000,  when  the 
value  fell  so  fast  that  before  the  end  of  the 
year  the  bills  ceased  to  circulate.  There  arc 
those  still  living  who  remember  giving  $100 
for  "a  cake  of  gingerbread,"  or  $10,000  for 
a  hat  cocked  in  the  fashion  of  the  day. 
The  whole  amount  issued  by  Congress  was 
$359,456,000,  and  on  the  formation  of  the 
new  government  they  were  purchased  at  the 
rate  of  1  cent  for  $1.  The  state  issues  met 
with  similar  fate.  The  entire  absence  of 
money  thus  brought  about,  with  the  attendr 
ant  evils,  mainly  induced  the  adoption  of  the 
federal  constitution,  which  at  once  prohib 
ited  the  states  from  ever  again  issuing  "  bills 
of  credit,"  or  making  "any  thing  but  gold 
.and  silver  a  tender  for  the  payment  of  debts." 
That  is,  those  prohibitions  are  a  record  of 
the  experience  derived  from  the  colonial  ex 
periments  in  paper  money. 

The  condemnation  of  "bills  of  credit"  was 
a  great  good.  The  important  question  was, 
however,  what  to  do  next ;  and  this  engaged 
all  minds.  Specie  had  vanished,  and  govern 
ment  paper  money  was  dead.  Mercantile 
sagacity  had,  however,  on  the  death  of  the 
continental  money,  devised  a  partial  remedy 
in  1781.  This  consisted  of  the  substitution 
of  private  corporate  credit  in  place  of  gov 
ernment  credit,  and  took  shape  in  the  char 
tering  of  the  Bank  of  North  America,  at 
Philadelphia ;  the  Bank  of  New  York,  in 
the  city  of  New  York ;  and  the  Bank  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  in  Boston. 

It  is  an  erroneous  idea,  that  was  enter 


tained  for  a  long  time,  that  banks,  by  the 
issues  of  credit,  create  capital,  and  on  this 
idea  many  new  banks  were  started,  impart 
ing  much  activity  to  trade.  The  good 
effects  of  their  operation  were  due,  however, 
rather  to  the  concentration  and  application 
of  capital  to  mercantile  uses,  than  to  an  in 
crease  in  the  quantity  of  capital.  Before  the 
establishment  of  banks,  individuals  kept  the 
money  they  received  in  their  own  houses, 
tempting  robberies,  and  subjecting  them 
selves  to  loss  of  interest,  and  to  risk  and 
trouble  in  seeking  small  investments.  The 
shopkeeper  and  merchant  who  received 
money  in  the  course  of  business  in  small 
sums,  kept  it  by  him  until  he  made  his 
wholesale  purchases,  when  he  paid  it  out 
altogether.  The  aggregate  sum  thus  lying 
entirely  idle  was  very  large.  On  the  estab 
lishment  of  a  bank,  the  owners  of  money 
deposited  it  in  the  vaults.  The  institution 
thus  became  the  common  receptacle  for  all 
idle  funds.  Inasmuch  as  that,  although  all 
the  depositors  were  entitled  to  draw  their 
money  whenever  they  chose,  yet  but  a  small 
proportion  did  so,  the  banks  might  safely 
lend  the  money  so  deposited  on  notes  at 
short  dates,  sixty  to  ninety  days,  and  still 
have  as  much  within  their  control  as  would 
meet  the  probable  demand  of  the  depositors 
for  payment.  It  was  necessary,  however, 
that  the  notes  discounted  should  be  prompt 
ly  paid  at  maturity,  in  order  that  the  bank, 
itself  subject  to  be  called  upon  to  pay  on 
demand,  might  have  control  of  the  means  of 
payment.  The  discount  of  mercantile  notes 
with  two  good  endorsers  then  became  the 
business  of  banks  ;  and  we  may  here  remark 
in  passing,  that  this  wrought  a  change  in  the 
mode  of  borrowing  money  in  the  communi 
ty.  Up  to  that  period,  good  character,  in 
dustry,  and  sobriety  were  security  for  loans. 
An  illustration  of  this  is  afforded  in  a  be 
quest  of  Dr.  Franklin  in  trust  to  the  city 
(then  town)  of  Boston,  of  a  sum  of  money 
from  which  young  mechanics  of  the  above 
characteristics  were  to  be  loaned  two  hun 
dred  dollars  to  start  them  in  business.  They 
were  to  repay  the  money  with  interest,  and 
the  sum,  with  its  accumulation,  was  to  con 
tinue  a  fund  for  the  same  purpose.  The 
fund  still  continues  to  exist,  but  without 
accumulation.  Under  the  newly  established 
banking  system,  character  was  no  longer  an 
element  of  credit.  A  note  with  two  good 
names  became  indispensable.  The  capitals 
of  the  banks  were  seldom  paid  in  loanable 


200 


BANKS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


money.  They  were  notes  of  the  subscriber, 
or  real  estate,  and  were  mostly  designed  to 
inspire  confidence.  A  portion  of  Lb  was  req 
uisite  to  be  kept  on  hand  in  specie  to  meet 
the  calls  of  depositors  and  note-holders. 
The  banks,  in  order  to  increase  their  loan 
able  funds,  were  permitted  to  issue  their  own 
promises  to  pay  specie  on  demand,  these 
promises  to  circulate  as  money.  The  old 
colonial  issues  of  credit  bills  did  not  pretend 
to  be  payable  on  demand,  and  the  applica 
tion  of  that  principle,  it  was  now  supposed, 
would  obviate  the  evils  that  had  grown  out 
of  the  old  system.  The  bills  were  freely 
taken  and  circulated.  The  institutions  were 
not  limited  in  the  amount  that  they  might 
issue,  and  they  increased  the  currency  al 
most  at  pleasure.  It  became  obvious,  how 
ever,  that  if  one  bank  issued  a  larger  quan 
tity  in  proportion  than  the  other  banks,  its 
notes,  paid  into  the  rival  institutions,  would 
immediately  be  sent  back  to  it  for  redemp 
tion,  and  it  would  have  to  pay  in  specie  the 
balance  above  what  it  held  of  their  notes. 
Hence  the  laws  of  trade  compelled  each 
bank  to  keep  its  credits  within  a  safe  ratio 
to  those  of  other  institutions.  This,  how 
ever,  did  not  prevent  all  from  increasing 
their  issues  to  any  extent  as  long  as  their 
mutual  balances  were  adjusted.  When, 
however,  the  whole  of  them  increased  their 
circulation,  the  mass  of  currency  became 
cheap,  a  fact  which  manifests  itself  in  a  rise  in 
prices  of  all  commodities.  The  effect  of  this 
is,  that  the  produce  of  the  country  ceases  to 
be  exported,  because  it  is  too  high  to  pay  a 
profit  to  the  merchant,  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  goods  arc  imported  to  avail  of  the  high 
prices.  This  state  of  affairs  involves  an  ex 
port  of  specie,  which  drains  the  banks,  and 
forces  back  upon  them  their  bills  for  re 
demption.  Hence,  if  the  banks  regulate 
each  other  by  their  balances,  the  foreign 
trade  becomes  the  common  regulator  of  all. 
Kept  within  a  certain  limit,  governed  by 
produce  and  business,  the  bank  circulation 
is  useful.  Although  it  does  not  in  any  de 
gree  create  capital,  it  supplies  the  place  of 
the  precious  metals  as  currency.  If  we  sup 
pose  a  miller  wishes  to  purchase  grain  ;  he 
gets  a  note  or  acceptance  at  sixty  days,  on 
New  York,  discounted  at  a  local  bank, 
•which  pays  out  to  him  circulating  notes. 
With  these  he  purchases  wheat  of  the  farmer, 
flours  it,  and  forwards  it  to  New  York  for 
sale,  and  the  proceeds  are  applied  to  the 
taking  up  of  his  draft  that  the  bank  had  dis 


counted.  In  the  mean  time  the  farmer  lias 
paid  away  the  notes  he  took  for  his  wheat, 
probably  to  the  storekeeper  in  discharge  of 
his  bill.  The  storekeeper  has  now  to  remit 
to  New  York  to  pay  a  note  that  falls  due  for 
merchandise  previously  purchased,  and  fur 
nished  to  the  farmer.  To  do  so  he  goes  to 
the  bank,  and  buys  of  it  the  draft  on  New 
York  that  the  institution  had  discounted  for 
the  miller.  This  he  remits  to  his  merchant, 
who  gets  it  paid  from  the  proceeds  of  the 
flour.  The  transaction  is  thus  closed,  and 
by  it  farm  produce  has  been  got  to  market, 
and  merchandise,  in  return,  has  passed  from 
the  manufacturer  to  the  consumer,  effecting 
an  exchange  of  commodities  without  the  use 
of  any  money  at  all.  The  notes  that  the 
bank  put  out  on  a  draft,  after  performing 
the  functions  of  money,  returned  to  it  in  ex 
change  for  the  draft,  and  all  obligations 
were  cancelled.  This  is  the  operation  of 
paper  when  confined  to  actual  business 
transactions.  The  number  and  kinds  of 
these  are  almost  infinite,  but  the  principle  is 
the  same  when  the  paper  is  only  issued  on 
actual  commodities,  the  exchange  of  Avhich 
cancels  the  obligations  that  grow  out  of 
them.  There  is,  in  this,  no  creation  of  capi 
tal,  only  the  facilitating  the  exchange  of  that 
already  created.  Under  such  circumstances, 
the  quantity  of  currency  rises  and  falls  with 
the  quantities  of  produce  and  merchandise. 
The  moment  the  banks  lend  their  notes  to 
speculative  operators,  who  seek  to  borrow 
capital  itself,  rather  than  credits  with  which 
to  interchange  capital,  it  becomes  insolvent, 
because  it  lends  what  it  has  not  got  to  spare. 
The  early  banks  mostly  confined  themselves 
to  sound  rules,  and  with  the  rapid  increase 
of  business  which  followed  the  formation  of 
the  new  government,  their  business  being 
profitable,  stimulated  the  increase  of  institu 
tions,  mostly  in  New  England,  where  com 
merce  was  concentrated.  The  three  origi 
nal  state  banks  were  eminently  success 
ful,  and  they  suggested  a  resource  to  the 
federal  government.  This  was  developed 
in  the  celebrated  report  of  Alexander  Ham 
ilton,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  favor  of 
a  National  Bank.  The  proposition  at  once 
called  up  the  right  of  Congress  to  charter  a 
bank  under  the  constitution.  After  a  warm 
congressional  debate  upon  the  subject,  Presi 
dent  Washington  demanded  written  opinions 
of  his  four  cabinet  officers.  The  Attorney 
General  and  the  Secretary  of  State  declared 
the  bank  unconstitutional.  The  Secretary 


BTLLS    OF    CREDIT GOVERNMENT   ISSUES UNITED    STATES    BANK. 


201 


of  War  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
were  of  a  contrary  opinion,  and  the  celebra 
ted  paper  of  the  latter  upon  the  subject  de 
cided  Washington,  who  signed  the  bill,  and 
the  bank  went  into  operation  with  a  capital 
of  $10,000,000,  of  which  $2,000,000  was  sub 
scribed  by  the  government,  and  $8,000,000 
by  individuals.  Of  this  latter  amount, 
$2,000,000  was  to  be  paid  in  specie  and 
$6,000,000  in  six  per  cent,  stock  of  the 
United  States.  The  charter  Avas  to  continue 
until  March  4,  1811.  Immediately  on  the 
organization  of  the  bank,  the  shares  rose  25 
to  45  per  cent,  premium,  and  the  institution 
paid  81-2  per  cent,  dividend.  The  creation 
of  this  bank  was  attended  by  the  rapid  mul 
tiplication  of  banks  in  the  various  states,  be 
coming  rivals  to  each  other,  and  gradually 
consolidating  an  interest  which  was  strong 
enough  in  1811,  with  other  interests,  to  defeat 
the  recharter  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States.  The  recharter  was  opposed  on  the 
grounds:  1st,  that  it  was  unconstitutional; 
2d,  that  too  much  of  its  stock  was  owned  by 
foreigners ;  3d,  that  state  banks  were  better. 
It  is  singular  that  at  a  time  when  capital 
was  scarce  in  the  country,  objections  should 
have  been  made  to  its  coming  in  from  abroad. 
Nevertheless,  the  bank  was  closed,  and  on 
settlement  paid  $108  1-2  to  each  share  of 
$100.  From  that  date,  gold  and  silver  only 
were  by  law  receivable  for  government  dues. 
The  winding  up  of  the  National  Bank  was  the 
signal  for  creating  state  banks  to  fill  the 
vacuum.  The  old  bank  and  its  business  was 
purchased  by  Stephen  Girard,  who  conducted 
with  it  a  large  private  banking  business  with 
great  success  on  a  capital  of  $1,000,000.  In 
four  years,  to  1815,  120  banks,  with  an  ag 
gregate  capital  of  $40,000,000,  went  into 
operation.  Pennsylvania  alone,  by  act  of 
March  21,  1814,  created  41  banks.  The 
ainount  of  notes  emitted  by  these  institutions 
was  never  known  with  certainty,  but  was  es 
timated  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  1814,  as  high  as 
$200,000,000.  A  large  portion  of  these,  in 
the  middle  states,  were  issued  as  loans  to  the 
government ;  and  the  Avar  pressure  became 
such,  that  in  September,  1814,  all  the  banks 
out  of  New  England  stopped  payment.  The 
bills  immediately  depreciated  20  per  cent, 
in  Baltimore,  and  1 5  per  cent,  in  New  York. 
The  news  of  peace,  in  February  1815,  caused 
some  improvement,  but  in  1816  the  difficul 
ties  were  greater  than  ever.  The  discount 
in  Baltimore  was  20  per  cent.,  Philadelphia 
17,  New  York  12  1-2.  This  kind  of  paper 


being  the  only  currency,  the  government  was 
compelled  to  take  it  for  dues,  in  violation  of 
law.  This  caused  the  greatest  injustice,  since 
the  funds  received  in  one  place  were  more 
depreciated  than  in  another,  and  New  Eng 
land,  where  the  currency  was  sound,  had 
great  cause  of  complaint.  In  such  a  state  of 
affairs,  although  the  state  banks  had  multi 
plied  to  246,  with  $89,822,422  capital,  anew 
National  Bank  became  inevitable,  and  Con 
gress,  by  act  of  April,  1816,  again  chartered 
a  National  Bank,  which  went  into  operation 
January  1817.  Its  charter  was  to  last  until 
March  4,  1836;  its  capital  was  $35,000,000, 
of  which  the  United  States  subscribed 
$7,000,000  in  a  5  per  cent,  stock,  and  the 
remaining  $28,000,000  was  to  be  subscribed 
by  individuals — one-fourth  in  gold  and  silver 
and  three-fourths  in  the  funded  debt  of  the 
United  States.  The  debts  of  the  bank,  in 
excess  of  its  deposits,  were  not  to  exceed 
$35,000,000.  The  bank  was  to  pay  a  bonus 
of  $1,500,000,  and  perform  the  money  busi 
ness  of  the  government  free  of  charge.  In 
return  it  received  the  public  funds  on  deposit, 
and  nothing  was  to  be  taken  for  public  dues 
except  specie,  treasury  notes,  notes  of  specie 
paying  banks,  and  the  National  Bank  notes. 
When  the  bank  went  into  operation  it  became 
necessary  for  the  state  banks  to  resume  or 
wind  up.  Those  of  New  York,  Philadelphia, 
Baltimore,  and  Virginia  resumed,  and  those 
which  did  not  were  gradually  purged  off. 
From  1811  to  1830,  165  banks,  with  a  capital 
of  $30,000,000,  closed  business.  The  loss 
of  the  government  by  these  was  estimated  at 
$1,390,707,  and  the  public  lost  much  larger 
sums.  The  bank,  in  the  first  few  years  of 
its  operation,  encountered  many  perils,  grow 
ing  out  of  the  foreign  trade.  Imports  poured 
into  the  country  in  prodigious  amounts,  and 
an  active  demand  for  silver  sprung  up  for 
Europe  and  Asia.  The  institution  had,  how 
ever,  in  the  public  stock  and  in  its  own  stock, 
forming  its  capital,  the  means  of  drawing 
specie  from  Europe,  which  it  did  to  an  ex 
tent  that  subjected  it  to  a  loss  of  over  half  a 
million  dollars. 

The  institution  was  of  much  service  to 
the  government,  and  enjoyed  great  facilities 
from  the  use  of  the  public  funds.  The  prin 
cipal  bank  was  at  Philadelphia,  with  branches 
in  most  of  the  large  cities.  This  organiza 
tion  of  the  bank  made  it  very  powerful  as  a 
means  of  exchange,  and  this  power  was  likely 
to  grow  with  the  increasing  wealth  of  the 
country,  up  to  the  time  when  railroads  and 


202 


BANKS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


telegraphs  made  communication  more  rapid. 
The  power  of  the  bank  was  based  upon  the 
federal  finances,  of  which  it  was  the  agent, 
and  it  •  operated  through  the  growing  busi 
ness  of  the  country,  which  was  conducted 
largely  upon  the  credit  system.  As  the 
country  increased  in  prosperity,  other  banks, 
under  state  charters,  sprung  up,  and  these 
became  the  recipients  of  mercantile' deposits, 
or,  in  other  words,  of  the  money  which  each 
merchant  received  in  the  course  of  his  busi 
ness,  and  also  of  private  funds.  The  mer 
chants  who  thus  placed  their  funds  with  the 
banks  were  constantly  debtors  of  the  govern 
ment  for  duties  and  taxes ;  these  they  paid 
by  checks  on  their  respective  banks.  The 
United  States  Bank,  being  the  common  re 
cipient  of  all  these  checks,  was  thus  always 
the  creditor  of  the  local  banks,  and  could 
always  force  them  to  contract  their  loans  by 
compelling  them  to  pay,  or  could  permit 
them  to  increase  their  loans  by  being  indul 
gent  in  regard  to  balances.  The  govern 
ment  funds  thus  collected  by  the  United 
States  Bank  were  paid  out  by  it  wherever 
the  government  required.  Thus  the  Boston 
and  New  York  branches  would  collect  the 
largest  amounts,  but  the  branches  in  Rich 
mond  and  elsewhere,  or  the  parent  bank  in 
Philadelphia,  would  pay  the  drafts  of  the 
government.  In  the  first  year  of  the  old 
bank  it  received  $3,652,000  of  the  pub 
lic  money.  As  business  prospered,  the 
amount  rose  annually,  until  it  reached 
$17,038,859  in  1808,  before  the  embargo. 
Thus  the  receipts  and  payments  on  govern 
ment  account  were  thirty-four  millions  in  a 
year,  when  the  whole  population  was 
5,200,000  souls.  The  new  bank  in  1817  re 
ceived  $32,786,662  for  accounts  of  the  gov 
ernment.  The  sum  declined  year  by  year 
to  $21,347,000  in  the  year  of  crisis,  1825, 
and  subsequently  continued  at  about  twenty- 
four  millions  per  annum,  until  1833,  when 
the  deposits  were  removed  by  the  govern 
ment.  These  large  sums  annually  flowed  in 
and  flowed  out  of  the  bank  on  account  of 
the  government,  and  a  large  proportion  of 
the  payments  were  on  account  of  the  public 
debt.  "  This  reached  $127,334,934  in  1816, 
and  was  by  annual  payments  extinguished 
in  1835,  a  period  of  nineteen  years;  the 
average  amount  paid  off  annually  by  the 
government  Avas  thus  $6,700,000.  The 
government  bank,  being  furnished  with  such 
machinery,  was  necessarily  the  best  medium 
of  collecting  bills  ;  thus  the  New  York  mer 


chants,  as  an  instance,  sold  their  goods  to 
the  shopkeepers  all  over  the  Union,  and 
they  took  notes  payable  at  the  local  banks. 
The  credits  thus  granted  could  be  collected 
by  the  United  States  Bank  cheaper  than  by 
any  other  bank.  Hence,  in  New  York,  the 
"  branch"  would  be  the  receptacle  for 
accounts  to  be  collected  in  all  other  cities  ; 
the  bank  would  forward  these  to  its  appro 
priate  branch,  say  Richmond ;  the  branch 
there  would  notify  the  local  merchants  of 
the  notes  it  held  against  them  ;  these  would 
pay  in  checks  upon  the  local  banks  where 
they  kept  their  deposits,  and  all  these  checks 
collected  by  the  United  States  branch  would 
make  it  the  common  creditor  of  all  the  local 
banks,  whose  specie  it  thus  controlled ;  it 
would  notify  the  New  York  branch  of  what 
collections  had  been  made,  and  these  would 
credit  the  mercantile  owners  with  the 
amounts.  The  power  of  the  bank  from  this 
source,  operating  through  all  its  branches, 
was  much  greater  than  from  the  use  of  the 
government  funds,  and  the  state  banks  com 
plained  loudly  of  the  tyranny  that  they 
alleged  it  exerted  over  them.  A  stormy 
opposition  was  thus  formed  against  it,  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  a  generation  of  merchants 
had  grown  up  under  its  administration  of  the 
exchanges,  and  they  feared  the  results  of  a 
change.  Meanwhile,  the  question  became 
political,  and  a  great  party,  as  early  as  1829, 
gave  indication  that  the  recharter  in  1836 
would  not  be  granted.  A  struggle  between 
the  bank  and  the  government  ensued,  and 
in  1833  the  President  removed  the  public 
deposits  from  the  bank  and  placed  them 
with  numerous  state  banks.  These  ran  a 
race  of  expansion  with  the  United  States 
Bank ;  the  consequence  was  an  immense  spec 
ulation,  which  resulted  in  general  bankruptcy 
in  1837.  The  government,  on  removing  the 
deposits  to  the  state  banks,  enjoined  them 
to  be  liberal  to  the  merchants.  This  was 
done  in  the  view  of  counteracting  the  strin 
gency  which  the  closing  up  of  the  United 
States  Bank  was  expected  to  cause.  This 
did  not  occur,  however,  since  that  institu 
tion  also  was  liberal  with  its  loans.  A  rapid 
expansion  resulted  from  this  rivalry,  and 
speculation  ran  wild,  particularly  in  public 
lands.  In  the  midst  of  this  excitement,  the 
government  issued  the  famous  "  specie  cir 
cular,"  by  Avhich  the  lands  were  to  be  sold 
for  cash,  gold  and  silver  only.  The  effect  of 
this  would  be  cither  to  kill  the  speculation 
or  to  drain  all  the  specie  into  the  land  offices ; 


BILLS    OF    CREDIT GOVERNMENT    ISSUES UNITED    STATES    BANK. 


203 


it  did  the  former.  This  was  followed  by  a 
resolution  of  the  Bank  of  England  to  cut 
off  credits  to  American  merchants,  and  the 
revulsion  was  precipitated.  The  charter  of 
the  United  States  Bank  was  not  renewed  by 
Congress,  but  the  same  institution  obtained 
a  charter  from  the  State  of  Pennsylvania, 
February  18,  1836,  under  the  name  of  the 
United  States  Bank  of  Philadelphia.  The 
terms  of  this  charter  were  very  onerous,  such 
as  no  institution  could  pay  from  profits  ;  the 
bank  consequently  failed,  in  common  with 
all  others  in  the  Union,  in  1837.  It  resumed 
its  payments,  following  those  of  New  York, 
January,  1839,  and  struggled  on  until  Octo 
ber  1839,  when  it  finally  failed.  On 
going  into  liquidation,  it  was  found  that 
more  than  the  whole  of  its  large  capital, 
$35,000,000,  had  been  swallowed  up,  sub 
jecting  the  stockholders  to  a  total  loss.  This 
disaster  was  no  doubt  brought  about  by  its 
abandonment  of  sound  principles  in  the  vain 
hope  of  compelling  the  government  to  re- 
charter  it.  But  the  institution  had  outlived 
its  usefulness ;  the  country  had  outgrown 
the  circumstances  for  which  such  a  bank 
was  fitted.  We  have  thus  sketched  the 
outline  of  that  bank  before  glancing  at  the 
progress  of  the  state  institutions,  because, 
up  to  1840,  that  bank  was  the  controlling 
power.  The  progress  of  banking  among  the 
states  has  been  step  by  step  with  the  grow 
ing  wealth,  population,  and  commerce  of  the 
country.  This  growth  was  manifestly  too 
vigorous  to  permit  of  the  continued  existence 
of  any  regulating  power. 

The  relative  growth  of  the  state  banks, 
and  the  business  of  the  country  proportional 
to  the  national  bank,  was  as  follows  : — 


1791, 
1811, 
1817, 
1837, 


No. 
3 

89 
246 
634 


State  banks. 

Capital. 

2,000.000 

52,601,601 

89,822,422 

290,772,091 


1860,         1,562         421,880,095 


National  bank. 

Capital. 
10,000,000 
10,000,000 
35,000,000 
35,000,000 


Thus  the  national  bank,  which  began 
with  a  capital  five  times  as  large  as  all  the 
state  banks,  was  only  one-fifth  of  their 
aggregate  in  1811.  In  1817  the  state  capi 
tal  was  two  and  a  half  times  the  new  Na 
tional  Bank  capital,  arid  in  1836  it  was  eight 
times  that  capital.  Had  it  then  been  re- 
chartered,  with  the  same  amount,  it  would 
now  have  been  but  one-twelfth  of  the  capital 
of  the  state  banks. 


CHAPTER   II. 

STATE  BANKS— SUFFOLK  SYSTEM-SAFETY 
FUNDS— FREE  BANKS. 

THE  growth  of  state  banks  has  fluctuated 
from  time  to  time,  under  different  circum 
stances  of  local  trade,  and  the  general  nature 
of  banks  has  changed  in  obedience  to  similar 
conditions.  The  nature  of  the  banking  sys- 1 
terns  of  each  locality  has,  however,  under 
gone  repeated  modifications,  and  the  general 
tendency  is  to  the  circulation  of  less  paper. 
We  shall  endeavor  to  give  a  sketch  of  each. 
The  first  attempt  at  banking  in  New  England 
was  the  creation  of  a  land  bank  in  1740. 
At  that  time  about  eight  hundred  persons 
subscribed  a  capital  in  real  estate,  and  hav 
ing  appointed  ten  directors,  agreed  to  issue 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pounds  in 
paper,  to  circulate  as  money.  This  was  dis 
solved  by  Parliament,  and  the  stockholders 
held  individually  liable  for  the  bills.  In 
1784  a  bank  was  chartered  by  the  Massachu 
setts  Legislature,  and  the  other  New  England 
states  followed  the  example  from  time  to 
time.  In  1805  there  were  in  existence 
forty-seven  banks  in  the  six  New  England 
states,  with  an  aggregate  capital  of  $13,- 
353,000.  In  1815,  at  the  close  of  the  war, 
these  had  risen  to  sixty-three  banks,  and 
$19,053,902  of  capital,  and  the  circulation 
had  become  large.  In  1860  the  number  of 
banks  in  those  states  had  risen  to  five  hun 
dred  and  five,  with  a  capital  of  $90,186,990. 
In  the  course  of  this  increase,  the  system  of 
banking  there  had  undergone  less  changes 
than  in  other  states. 

The  paper  currency  of  New  England  was 
generally  of  small  denominations,  and  emit 
ted  by  a  larger  number  of  banks  with  small 
capitals  than  that  of  most  other  sections. 
These  institutions  were  scattered  over  the 
six  New  England  states,  and  the  bills  of 
each  bank  forming  the  currency  of  its  neighr 
borhood,  would,  in  the  course  of  trade,  ulti 
mately  find  their  way  to  Boston,  the  com 
mon  centre  of  business.  There  being  no 
provision  for  their  redemption,  they  circu 
lated  at  a  discount,  and  this  discount  was 
increased  in  proportion  to  the  issues  of  each 
bank,  inflicting  loss  upon  the  comrmmity. 
To  remedy  this,  the  Suffolk  Bank  of  Boston, 
in  1825,  undertook  to  receive  all  the  bills 
and  send  them  home  by  an  agent  to  the 
issuing  bank,  requiring  each  to  redeem  in 


204 


BANKS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


specie  at  its  own  counter.  This  compelled 
each  bank  to  keep  a  large  amount  of  specie 
on  liand,  at  an  expense  which  ate  up  the 
profits  of  the  circulation.  They  all  agreed, 
in  consequence,  to  keep  at  the  Suffolk  about 
three  thousand  dollars  deposited,  to  redeem 
any  balance  of  notes  that  might  be  there 
found  against  them.  To  keep  down  that 
balance  each  was  then  compelled  to  restrict 
its  circulation  to  the  actual  business  wants 
of  its  locality,  that  there  might  be  no  surplus 
currency  ;  in  other  words,  that  the  course 
of  trade  might  carry  to  Boston  no  more  of 
its  bills  than  would  be  paid  by  the  produce 
of  the  locality  sent  thither  for  sale,  and  also 
to  send  promptly  to  the  Suffolk  any  bills  of 
other  banks  that  might  come  into  its  hands, 
as  an  offset  to  its  own  balances.  Thus  all 
the  banks  in  New  England  are  actively  en 
gaged  in  running  each  other,  and  five  hun 
dred  streams  pour  country  money  daily  into 
the  Suffolk  receptacle,  to  be  assorted  and 
sent  back  to  the  issuers.  This  keeps  down 
the  volume  of  the  currency  in  that  section. 
Since  the  creation  of  railroads  and  tele 
graphs,  the  difficulty  of  keeping  out  an  excess 
of  circulation  is  the  greater.  To  be  "  thrown 
out  of  the  Suffolk,"  or,  in  other  words,  not 
be  able  to  meet  a  balance  there,  is  fatal 
to  the  reputation  of  a  bank.  The  system 
has  worked  well  to  the  present  day.  It  has 
been  the  case,  however,  that  although  those 
institutions  cannot  put  out  an  excessive  cir 
culation  in  New  England,  many  of  them 
lend  their  notes  on  securities,  on  condition 
that  the  notes  shall  be  paid  out  at  the  far 
west,  whence  they  will  be  very  slow  in  re 
turning  for  redemption.  The  Suffolk  mode 
of  regulation  by  the  laws  of  trade  has,  upon 
the  whole,  been  very  successful. 

In  New  York  the  same  evils  manifested  them 
selves  as  in  New  England,  and  in  1829  a  rem 
edy  was  attempted  in  the  shape  of  the  "  safety 
fund."  This  did  not  undertake  to  restrain  the 
issues  of  the  banks,  but  to  protect  the  public 
from  loss  by  failure.  Under  it  all  the  banks 
doing  business  in  the  state  were  required  to 
contribute  one-half  of  one  per  cent  of  their 
aggregate  circulation  to  a  fund  to  be  called 
the  "  Safety  Fund,"  out  of  which  the  notes 
of  a  broken  bank  were  to  be  paid  in  full. 
This  worked  very  well  during  a  number  of 
years  of  prosperity,  but  in  the  revulsion  of 
183Y  a  number  of  banks  failed  under  disas 
trous  circumstances,  and  the  fund  was  found 
to  be  entirely  insufficient — besides  being 
wrong  in  principle,  since  it  called  upon  the 


honest  and  well-conducted  banks  to  pay  the 
debts  of  the  dishonest  ones.  It  is  hardly 
worth  while,  in  a  short  history  like  this,  to 
enumerate  all  the  restrictions  as  to  discounts, 
specie  on  hand,  and  emission  of  bills,  that 
the  various  states  have  incorporated  in  bank 
laws.  It  may  suffice  to  say,  that  all  are 
powerless  to  prevent  evil.  On  the  failure  of 
the  safety  fund  system  of  New  York,  how 
ever,  a  radical  change  took  place  in  the  policy 
in  regard  to  banks.  The  privilege  of  issuing 
notes  to  circulate  as  money  at  their  own  will 
and  pleasure,  had  been  found  to  be  danger 
ous  to  the  public,  and  the  law  of  April,  1838, 
called  the  "  free  banking  law,"  was  passed, 
by  which  the  power  to  issue  bills  directly 
was  taken  from  the  banks.  Under  that  law, 
the  Comptroller  of  the  state  prepares  the 
plates,  and  delivers  the  bills  to  the  banks, 
upon  their  lodging  with  him  such  securities, 
mostly  state  stocks,  as  amply  secure  the  re 
demption  of  the  bills.  The  name,  "  free 
banking,"  is  given  to  the  law,  because  it  re 
moves  from  the  banks  the  restrictions  relative 
to  discounts,  and  the  necessity  for  a  charter. 
This  law  has  been  altered  in  some  respects 
almost  every  year  of  its  existence,  but  its 
main  features  remain  the  same,  and  it  has  in 
New  York  become  the  sole  law  to  regulate 
banking.  All  the  old  banks,  as  their  charters 
expire,  reorganize  under  it,  since  the  state 
constitution  provides  that  no  new  charters 
can  be  granted  or  old  ones  renewed.  The 
working  of  this  law  has  been  so  efficient  and 
popular,  that  it  has  spread  into  most  of  the 
northern  and  western  states.  The  progress 
of  banking  in  New  York  has  been  as  fol 
lows  : — 


NUMBER    OF    BANKS     AND    AGGREGATE    CAPITAL. 


1801, 
1811, 

1816, 
1S36, 

1838, 

1857, 


No. 
5 


Capital. 
4,720,000 
7,522,760 
27      18,766,756 

S6      31,281,461 

S4  35,401.460 
294  107,449,143 
303  111,441,370 


Expiration  of  first  U.  8.  bank. 
Recharter  U.  8   bank. 

{  Expiration  of  U.  S.  bank;   sui 
pension. 
Free  banking  law;  resumption. 


Suspension. 
Recovery. 


The  New  York  laAv  requires  the  banks  to 
issue  the  bills  at  the  place  of  their  location, 
and  to  redeem  them  at  not  more  than  one- 
half  per  cent,  discount  in  the  city  of  New 
York.  These  institutions,  however,  have  an 
arrangement  with  the  Metropolitan  Bank,  in 
New  York,  by  which  they  are  redeemed  at 
a  less  rate. 

Pennsylvania,  in  the  early  part  of  the  cen 
tury,  was  slow  to  create  banks,  and  it  had 
but  three  up  to  1814,  in  which  year  41  new 


STATE  BANKS — SUFFOLK  SYSTEM SAFETY  FUNDS FREE  BANKS. 


205 


banks  were  incorporated.  Subsequently,  it 
created  numbers,  and  has  probably  suffered 
more  than  any  other  state  from  its  abused 
bank  credits.  The  progress  of  affairs  there 
was  as  follows,  exclusive  of  the  United  States 
Bank,  which  was  situated  at  Philadelphia : — 


1801, 
ISM, 
1815, 
1820, 

1836, 

1839, 
1859, 


No. 

I 

4 

42 

36 

49 

49 
87 


Capital. 
5,000,000 
(i.  15', 000 
15,068.000 
14,681,000 

23,750,333 

25,255,783 
24,565,805 


Expiration  of  U.  S.  Bank. 

Low  credit;  41  new  banks. 

Twenty-two  banks  failed. 
I  State  charter  of  the  U.  8.  Bank; 
|  supension. 

Kesunfption. 


There  was,  up  to  1830,  a  great  number  of 
unauthorized  banks  doing  business  in  Penn 
sylvania,  and  they  presented  a  constant  suc 
cession  of  bankruptcies.  The  authorized 
capital  down  to  the  present  time  has  not  kept 
pace  with  that  of  other  states,  taking  the 
wealth  and  population  of  Pennsylvania  into 
consideration. 

Maryland  chartered  its  first  bank  in  1790, 
the  Bank  of  Maryland,  capital  $300,000,  and 
continued  to  increase  them  moderately  up  to 
the  present  time.  The  progress  of  capital 
there  has  been  as  follows : — 


No.  Capital. 

1801,  2  $1,600,000 

1811,  6  4,885,202 

1814,  17  7,882,000 

1820,  14  6,708,180 

1837,  21  10,438,655 

1859,  32  12,560,635 


U.  S.  Bank  expired. 
Banks  suspended. 

Suspension. 


New  Jersey  has  been  influenced  to  some 
extent  in  her  banking  operations,  by  the  state 
of  things  in  New  York  and  Pennsylvania, 
and  in  1850  it  adopted  the  general  banking 
law  of  New  York.  Its  progress  has  been  as 
follows : — 


1805, 
1811, 
1815, 
1820, 
1837, 
1850, 
1855, 
1857, 
1859, 


No. 

2 

11 
14 
25 
24 
32 
48 
46 


Capital. 

$1,000,000 

789,740 

2,121,933 

2,130,949 

3,970,090 

3,565,283 

6,314,885 

7,494,912 

7,359,122 


U.  S.  Bank  expired. 
Suspension. 

Suspension. 
Pree  law. 

Suspension. 


The  multiplication  of  banks  in  New  Jersey, 
under  the  new  law,  was  mostly  for  the  benefit 
of  circulating  their  issues  in  New  York  at  a 
discount,  and  they  were  of  but  little  service 
to  New  Jersey. 

Delaware  has  created  banks  in  proportion 
to  its  size,  in  the  following  ratio : — 


1801, 
1815, 
1819, 
1837, 
1849, 
1859, 


No. 
1 
5 
6 
4 
2 

12 


Capital. 

$110,000 
966,000 
974,000 
817,775 
210,000 

1,638,185 


Suspension. 

Suspension. 
Gold  discovery. 


Ohio  has  been,  of  all  the  states,  the  most 
diversified  in  its  policy  in  regard  to  banks. 
Its  first  bank  was  chartered  in  1803,  but  it 
did  not  increase  charters  much  until  migra 
tion  set  thither  after  the  war  of  1812,  when 
the  neAV  United  States  Bank  established  two 
branches,  one  in  Cincinnati  and  one  in  Chil- 
licothe.  The  progress  of  banks  was  then 
rapid  up  to  the  explosion  of  1 837,  when  about 
36  of  the  banks  of  that  state  failed,  under 
disastrous  circumstances,  leaving  but  few  in 
existence  on  the  resumption  of  specie  pay 
ments  in  1840.  In  1845,  a  new  system  of 
banking  was  introduced,  designed  to  restore 
that  confidence  in  banks  which  had  been  so 
rudely  shaken  by  the  previous  failures.  It 
was  called  the  "safety  fund  system,"  being 
composed  of  some  forty  banks  which,together, 
form  the  State  Bank,  under  a  board  of  con 
trol,  composed  of  delegates  from  each  bank, 
which  furnishes  the  notes  to  all  for  circula 
tion.  Each  bank  must  deposit  with  the  board 
10  per  cent,  of  its  circulation  in  securities. 
Of  42  banks  started  under  this  law,  36  re 
main,  with  capital  of  $4,034,525.  The  same 
law  created  the  "  independent  system,"  by 
which  the  banks  doing  business  under  it 
must  deposit  Ohio  or  United  States  stock 
with  the  State  Treasurer  to  secure  the  circu 
lation.  There  arc  1 2  of  these  banks.  There 
remained  the  old  chartered  banks,  of  which 
the  Ohio  Life  and  Trust — whose  disastrous  ex 
plosion  in  1857  precipitated  the  panic  which 
had  been  prepared  for  the  public  mind — was 
the  last.  In  1851,  the  free  banking  law  of 
New  York  was  adopted  in  addition  to  the 
other  systems,  and  under  this  1 3  banks  were 
started.  In  the  same  year,  by  the  new  con 
stitution  of  the  state,  the  legislature  was  de 
prived  of  the  right  to  grant  banking  powers 
until  the  law  for  so  doing  should  be  approved 
by  the  people.  The  general  progress  in 
Ohio  has  been  as  follows : — 


No. 

1805,  1 

1811,  4 

1816,  21 

1837,  32 

1845,  8 

1851,  56 

1854,  66 

1859,  53 


Capital. 

$200,000 

895,000 

2,061,927 

10,870,089 

2,171,807 

7,129,227 

7,166,581 

6,701,151 


New  U.  S.  Bank- 
Suspension. 
State  bank  law. 
Free  law. 

ii          i: 

Recovery. 


206 


BANKS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


Indiana  became  a  state  in  1816,  and  in 
1819  there  were  two  banks,  with  a  capital 
of  $202,857,  and  so  continued  until  1834, 
when  the  State  Bank  of  Indiana  was  created, 
capital  $1,600,000,  and  with  ten  branches, 
which  were  mutually  liable  for  each  other's 
debts,  and  notes  under  $5  were  prohibited. 
The  bank  stopped,  partially,  in  1837,  and 
resumed  payment  October,  1841.  In  1852 
the  general  banking  law  of  New  York  was 
adopted,  and  under  it  ninety-four  banks  were 
speedily  organized,  and  fifty-one  of  them  soon 
failed.  The  charter  of  the  State  Bank  of 
Indiana  having  expired,  the  legislature  char 
tered  a  new  one,  with  capital  of  $6,000,000, 
and  twenty  branches,  which  buys  out  the 
state  interest  in  the  old  bank,  the  charter  to 
be  paid  up  January  1,  1857.  The  prog- 


ress  01 

tne  st 

No. 

ate  lias  oeen 

Capital. 

as  lonows  :  — 

1819, 

2 

$202,857 

1835, 

10 

800.000 

State  bank. 

1837, 

11 

1,845.000 

Suspension. 

1839, 

11 

2,216,700 

Resumption. 

1841, 

11 

1852, 

44 

6,554,552 

Free  banking  law. 

1854, 

59 

7,281,934 

New  state  bank. 

1859, 

37 

3,617,629 

There  are  of  these  17  free  banks,  capital 
$1,236,070. 

Illinois  came  into  the  union  in  1818,  and 
in  1819  there  were  two  banks,  capital 
$140,910 — one  of  which  had  been  chartered 
in  1813,  under  the  territory.  It  stopped  in 
1815  and  remained  so  until  1835,  when  the 
legislature  revived  it  and  increased  its  capital 
to  $1,400,000.  The  constitution  of  the 
state  in  1818  forbade  the  creation  of  any 
new  banks  except  a  state  bank,  which 
was  chartered  in  1819,  with  a  capital  of 
$4,000,000.  This  was  repealed  and  a  new 
bank  chartered,  which  speedily  failed.  In 
1835  a  new  bank  was  chartered,  capital 
$1,500,000  to  $2,500,000.  These  banks  sus 
pended  in  1837,  going  into  liquidation  in 
1842,  and  no  banks  existed  in  the  state  until 
the  adoption  of  the  free  banking  law  in  1851. 
The  general  progress  has  been  as  follows : — 


No. 

1819,  2 

1835,  2 

1838,  2 
1843, 

1854,  29 

1857,  45 

1859,  103 


Capital. 
$140,910 

278,739 
5,473,050 

2,513,790 
4,679,325 
8,900,000 


State  bank  charter. 

Failure. 

Liquidation. 

Free  banking  law. 

Suspension. 

Recovery. 


Michigan  was  admitted  as  a  state  in  Jan 
uary,  1837,  but  there  had  been  already  a 


number  of  small  banks  authorized  by  the 
territorial  legislature.  These  rapidly  multi 
plied  under  the  state,  during  the  speculative 
year  1837.  In  the  early  part  of  that  year 
there  existed  20  banks,  with  a  capital  of 
$1,918,361.  These  were  a  total  wreck,  and 
in  March,  1838,  a  general  banking  law 
was  passed,  in  order,  as  was  alleged,  to  throw 
the  business  open.  In  one  year,  49  banks, 
with  a  capital  of  &3, 9 15,000,  were  projected. 
Of  these,  43  went  into  operation.  Those 
banks  were  not  required  to  redeem  their 
issues  on  demand.  The  result  was  utter  in 
solvency,  inflicting  a  heavy  loss  upon  the 
public.  In  1849,  the  "free  banking  law" 
was  adopted,  with  personal  liabilities  to  stock 
holders.  The  progress  was  as  follows  :— 

No.  Capital. 

1835,          8  $658,980     Territorial  gov'nment. 

1837,  9  1,400,000     State  and  general  law. 

1838,  43  2,317,765  Revulsion. 
1844,  3  202,650  Liquidation. 
1849,  5  392,530  Free  law. 
1859,  4  755,461 

Iowa  was  admitted  into  the  union  in  1 846. 
It  had  at  Dubuquc  the  Miners'  Bank,  char 
tered  by  Wisconsin  before  the  erection  of 
Iowa  territory,  in  operation  since  1838,  but 
with  little  credit.  In  1858,  the  free  banking 
law  was  adopted,  and  also  the  State  Bank 
of  Iowa  was  authorized.  The  latter,  with 
twelve  branches,  went  into  operation  in  1859. 

Wisconsin  was  admitted  into  the  Union 
in  1848.  It  had,  during  some  ten  years,  two 
banks,  that  of  Mineral  Point  and  the  Bank 
of  Wisconsin  ;  these  came  to  grief,  and  in 
1851  a  new  bank  was  started  at  Milwaukee. 
In  1854  the  free  banking  law  was  adopted  ; 
since  that  time  the  progress  has  been  rapid, 
as  follows : — 


No. 

2 

2 


Capital. 

$119,625 

139,125 


1837, 

1839,  2  139,125  Suspension. 

1848,  State  admitted. 

1854,  10  600,000  Free  law. 

1857,  38  2,635,000  Suspension. 

1859,  98  7,995,000  Plxpansion. 

1860,  108  7,620,000  Expansion. 

The  operation  of  the  free  law,  by  retarding 
the  convertibility  of  the  bills  of  the  Wis 
consin  banks,  causes,  at  a  time  when  crops 
are  short,  the  rate  of  exchange  on  the  east 
to  rule  high,  in  other  words  depreciates  the 
currency.  The  bank  circulation  is  about 
$5,000,000. 

Minnesota  has  made,  as  yet,  little  prog 
ress  in  banking.  It  adopted  the  free  bank 
ing  law  in  1858,  and  two  banks  have  been 
started  under  it ;  the  Bank  of  the  State,  at 


STATE  BANKS SUFFOLK  SYSTEM SAFETY  FUNDS FREE  BANKS. 


207 


St.  Paul,  capital  $25,000,  and  the  Exchange 
Bank,  at  Glencoc,  capital  $25,000. 

Nebraska  has  also  two  banks,  the  survivors 
of  a  number  recently  started,  but  they  were 
swept  down  by  the  ruin  of  1857  ;  the  capi 
tals  are  856,000. 

No.  Capital. 

Jan.  1857,         4  $205,000 

"     1858,         6  15,000 

"     1859,         2  56,000 

Kentucky  was  admitted  into  the  Union  in 
1792,  and  in  1801  it  authorized  a  bank,  with 
a  capital  of  $150,000,  under  the  guise  of  an 
Insurance  Company,  authorized  to  issue 
notes.  In  1804  it  chartered  the  Bank  of 
Kentucky,  capital  $1,000,000 ;  this  bank 
failed  in  1814,  but  resumed  in  1815.  In 
1817  a  batch  of  forty  banks,  with  $10,000,000 
capital,  was  authorized  to  redeem  their  notes 
by  paying  out  Kentucky  bank-notes  for 
them  instead  of  specie.  The  result  was  a 
flood  of  irredeemable  paper,  which  stimu 
lated  all  kinds  of  speculation  and  jobbing, 
and  ended  in  a  general  explosion  and  dis 
tress  within  the  year.  To  "  relieve  "  the 
people,  the  state  chartered  the  Common 
wealth  Bank,  capital  $3,000,000,  pledging 
lands  south  of  the  Tennessee  river,  in  addi 
tion  to  the  faith  of  the  state,  for  the  redemp 
tion  of  the  bills,  which  creditors  were  re 
quired  to  take  at  par  for  their  claims,  or 
wait  two  years  for  their  pay.  The  bills  fell 
at  once  to  fifty  cents  on  the  dollar,  and 
which  proportion  of  their  debts  creditors 
were  thus  required  to  lose.  This  gave  rise 
to  party  strife,  which,  at  the  end  of  five  years, 
resulted  in  the  repeal  of  the  law  and  the 
suppression  of  the  paper.  The  United  States 
Bank  had  two  branches  in  the  state,  one  at 
Lexington  and  one  at  Louisville.  When,  in 
1833,  it  became  evident  that  that  institution 
would  not  be  rechartered,  three  new  banks, 
with  branches,  were  authorized,  capital 
$7,030,000  ;  subsequently  another  was  start 
ed.  These  went  into  operation,  but  sus 
pended  in  1837,  resuming  in  1839  with  the 
United  States  Bank,  and  again  suspended  on 
the  final  failure  of  that  concern.  In  1842, 
the  banks  again  resumed,  and  since  then  the 
number  has  gradually  increased,  as  follows  : 

No.  Capital. 

1819,  18  $4,307,431  Irredeemable. 

1833,  2              792,427  New  charter. 

1835,  4           4,106,262  With  ten  branches. 

1837,  4           8,499,094  Suspension. 

1851,  26           7,536,927 

1857,  35  10,596,305  Suspension. 

1859,  37  12.216,725  Eecovery. 

.1860,  45  12,835,670 


Tennessee  commenced  banking  in  1807, 
with  the  Bank  of  Nashville,  which  soon 
failed  with  great  loss.  In  1811  it  again 
chartered  ten  banks,  and  a  number  of  others 
were  from  time  to  time  started,  but  failed 
disastrously.  In  1852  the  free  banking  law 
was  adopted,  and  the  progress  of  affairs  has 
been  as  follows  : — 

No.  Capital. 

1319,  3  $1,545,867         Disastrous  failure. 

1820,  1  737,817         State  bank  charter. 

1835,  3  2,890.381         Four  branches. 

1837,  3  6,293J079         Suspension. 

1852,  23  6,881,568 

1857,  45  9,083.693         Suspension. 

1859,  39  8,361,357 

Arkansas  had  two  banks  that  were  started 
upon  state  bonds.  These  the  state  issued 
to  the  extent  of  $3,500,000  to  the  banks  to 
form  their  capitals.  The  bonds  were  sold 
through  the  United  States  Bank,  and  the 
money  obtained  for  them  was  loaned  out 
pro  rata  to  the  stockholders,  who  became  so 
by  filing  mortgages  on  their  plantations  and 
lands.  Speedy  ruin,  of  course,  overtook 
both  banks.  These  are  now  in  liquidation, 
owing  the  state  some  $3,000,000  on  the 
bonds,  which  are  not  paid.  There  have 
been  no  banks  started  since. 

Mississippi  is  a  state  in  which  banking 
for  a  long  time  ran  riot,  but  which  has  had 
but  little  in  the  last  ten  years.  When  the 
state  came  into  the  Union  in  1817  it  had 
one  bank,  which  continued  with  an  increased 
capital  to  1830.  In  that  year  the  state 
chartered  the  Planters'  Bank,  with  a  capital 
of  $3,000,000,  two-thirds  to  be  subscribed 
by  the  state  in  stock,  which  was  issued,  and 
the  bank  went  into  operation.  Other  banks 
were  then  chartered,  and  in  1837  there  were 
seventeen,  with  eighteen  branches,  and  a 
capital  of  $16,760^951.  In  that  year  the 
Union  Bank  was  chartered,  with  a  capital  of 
$15,000,000  in  state  stock;  of  this  amount 
$5,000,000  was  issued,  and  repudiated  on 
the  ground  of  illegality  of  sale,  and  in  1852 
the  people  refused,  by  a  large  vote,  to  pay 
those  bonds.  All  the  banks  of  Mississippi 
failed,  and  there  has  since  been  but  little 
movement,  as  follows  : — 

No.  Capital. 

1820,  $900,000 

1830,  1              950,600         Capital  increased. 

1834,  1  2,666,805 

1837,  17  16,760,951         18  branches. 

1838,  11  19,231,123         Suspension. 
1840,  18  30,379,403         Failure. 

1850,  0  Liquidation. 

1851,  1  118,460 
1859,          2           1,110,000 


208 


BANKS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


Missouri  had  one  bank  when  it  came 
into  the  Union  in  1821,  but  it  failed  disas 
trously.  The  State  Bank  of  Missouri  and 
branches  continued  to  be  the  only  institu 
tion  up  to  1856,  when  a  law  was  passed  au 
thorizing  others,  and  the  progress  has  been 
as  follows : — 

No.  Branches.          Capital. 

1819,  1  $250,000 

1837,          1  1  533,350  State  bank. 

1839,  1     1  1,027,870 

1856,  1     5      2,215,405 

1857,  5     5     2,620,615  Suspension. 

1859,  17     5     5,796.781  Expansion. 

1860,  9    29      9,082,951 

Louisiana  came  into  the  Union  in  1812, 
with  one  bank,  having  a  capital  of  $500,000, 
This  was  increased  to  three  banks  in  1815, 
capital  $1,432,000.  The  progress  subse 
quently  was  not  great  until  after  1830,  when 
the  speculative  spirit  of  those  years  was 
largely  developed  in  Louisiana,  and  the  prog 
ress  was  as  follows : — 

No.  Brunches.          Capital. 

1830,  3  $4,665,980 

1837,  16  31           36,769,455  Suspension. 

1840,  16  31  41,711,214  Failure. 
1843,  6  22            20,929,340  Liquidation. 
1851,  6  22           12,370,390  Free  bank  law. 
1857,  6  22,800,830  Suspension. 
1859,  12  24,215,689 

The  free  banking  law  was  adopted  in 
1853,  and  four  banks  have  been  started  un 
der  its  provisions,  which  require  the  banks 
to  keep  one-third  of  their  liabilities  in  specie 
on  hand. 

Alabama  has  had  experience  of  a  disas 
trous  nature  in  state  banking,  and  there  has 
been  little  enterprise  in  that  direction  since 
the  failure  of  the  State  Bank.  When  she 
came  into  the  Union  in  1819  she  had  one 
bank,  with  a  capital  of  $321,112.  In  1830 
she  had  two  banks.  It  was  then  supposed 
that  by  embarking  in  banking,  the  state 
might  derive  profits  enough  to  pay  all  the 
state  expenses  and  dispense  with  taxation. 
Accordingly,  state  bonds  were  issued  to  form 
the  capital  of  the  State  Bank,  which,  how 
ever,  soon  failed,  and  the  state  was  saddled 
with  a  debt  of  some  $11,000,000.  The 
progress  was  as  follows  : — 

No.  Capital. 

1819,  1  $321,112 

1830,  2  781,010 

1837,  3  10,141,806        Suspension. 

1840,  3  14,379,255         Liquidation. 

1843,  1  1,500,000         Bank  of  Mobile. 

1851,  1  1,500,000         Free  banking  law. 

1857,  4  2,297,800         Suspension. 

I860,  8  4,901,000 

Virginia  chartered  a  bank  as  early  as  1804 


'or  53  years,  the  Bank  of  Virginia,  capital 
?1, 500,000,  since  enlarged.  In  1830  there 
were  four  banks,  and  the  change  was  not  great 
lown  to  1 851,  when  the  free  law  was  adopted, 
out  the  charters  of  the  old  banks  are  renewed 
as  they  expire.  The  course  of  events  was  as 
follows : — 

No.  Branches.    Capital. 
1819,  3  $5,112,192 

1830,          4         18         5,571,181 
1837,          5         18         6,732,500  Suspension. 

1839,  5          20         7,458,248 

1840,  6  10,363,362 

1851,          6         20         9,731,370  Free  banking  law. 
1857,        22         40       14.651,600  Suspension. 
1860,         24         41       16,005,156 

North  Carolina  began  her  bank  career  in 
1804,  in  granting  a  charter  for  $250,000 
capital.  From  that  time  the  number  and 
amount  of  capital  has  been  steadily  increased, 
without  any  material  deviations  from  a  steady 
course,  which  has  been  as  follows : — 

No.  Branches.    Capital. 
1819,  3  $2,964,887 

1830,          3  3,195,000 

1837,          3  7         2,880,590     Suspension. 

1850,          3          12         3,789,250 
1859,         12         16         6,525,200 

South  Carolina  has  been  more  variable  in 
its  banking  movement.  Its  first  institution 
was  the  State  Bank,  owned  by  the  state,  and 
had  more  the  character  of  a  loan  office  than 
a  bank.  In  1820  the  capital  of  the  bank 
was  pledged  as  security  for  the  state  debt, 
and  it  became  a  regular  bank.  The  progresa 
of  the  state  has  been  as  follows : — 


No. 

1792,  1 

1811,  4 

1820,  3 

1836,  10 

1837,  4 
1839,  11 
1850,  14 
1859,  20 


Capital. 

$675,000 

3,475,000 

2,475,000 

8,636,118 

4,100,000 

9,153,498 

13,179,131 

14,888,451 


Suspension. 

Eight  new  charters. 


Georgia  has  had  a  regular  supply  of  banks 
since  the  expiration  of  the  first  United  States 
Bank  in  1811,  when  she  chartered  an  insti 
tution  with  $215,000  capital.  In  1820  this 
had  increased  to  four  banks,  with  a  capital 
of  $3,401,510,  and  the  progress  has  been 
as  follows : — 

No.  Capital. 

1811,  1         $215,000  Old  U.  S.  Bank  expired. 

1816  3  1,502,000  New       "        chartered. 

1820^  4  3,401,510 

1833,  13  6,534,691  Deposits  removed. 

1837,  16  11,438,828  Suspension. 

1840,  39  15,098,694 

1846,  22  8,970,789 


1857, 
1860, 


30 
29 


16,015,256  Suspension. 
16,689,560 


BANKS    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES CLEARING    HOUSES PRIVATE    BANKING. 


209 


District  of  Columbia  banks  were  estab 
lished  as  early  as  1792,  in  the  district,  and 
increased  pretty  rapidly,  as  follows  : — 


1792, 
1802, 
1811, 
1815, 
1820, 
1830, 
1837, 
1844. 


No. 
1 
2 

4 
10 
13 

9 

7 
6 


Capital. 
$500,000 
1,500,000 
2,341,395 
4,078,295 
5,525,319 
3,879,574 
2,204,445 
1,649,280 


Most  of  the  charters  expired,  and  not 
being  renewed,  the  concerns  are  in  process 
of  liquidation. 

Florida  came  into  the  union  in  1845,  with 
a  load  of  five  banks  that  had  been  chartered 
by  the  territory  in  1838,  with  an  aggregate 
capital  of  $2,113,000.  These  were  mostly 
based  upon  $3,500,000  territorial  bonds, 
issued  to  the  banks  for  capital,  and  sold  in 
London.  The  concerns  failed  almost  as  soon 
as  they  got  the  money,  and  went  into  liqui 
dation^  when  the  state  repudiated  the  bonds, 


and  there  have  since  been  no  banks  in 
Florida,  until  this  year  two  are  started,  with 
$300,000  capital. 

From  this  sketch  of  banking  in  each  state, 
it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  creation  of  banks 
has  been  due  .more  to  the  desire  to  borrow 
money  through  their  operation  than  to  lend 
it.  The  mistaken  idea  that  they  could  sup 
ply  capital,  has  been  the  temptation  to  their 
creation,  and  disastrous  failure  has  every 
where  attended  the  experiment.  Gradually 
a  principle  of  sound  banking  vindicates  itself 
amid  numerous  disasters,  and  actual  capital 
has  come  to  be  employed  in  the  business. 


CHAPTER   III. 

BANKS  OF  THE   UNITED    STATES— CLEAR 
ING  HOUSES— PRIVATE  BANKING. 

HAVING  sketched  the  course  of  events  in 
each  state,  we  may  recapitulate  the  leading 
features  of  all  the  state  banks : — 


BANKS    OF    ALL    THE    UNITED     STATES — TOTAL    OF    IMPORTS    AND    KXPORTS — POPULATION. 


1791, 

No. 
3 

Capital. 
$2,000,000 

^oans. 

Circulation. 

Specie. 

Deposits.  Imports  <fc  exports.  Population. 
$48,212,041   3,929,827 

1800, 

32 

23,550,000 

162,224,548 

5,305,925 

1811, 

89 

52.601,601 

$28,100,000 

$15,400,000 

144,716,833 

7,449,960 

1815, 

208 

82,259,590 

45.500,000 

17,000,000 

165,599,027 

8,353,338 

1816, 

246 

89,822,422 

68,000,000 

19,000,000 

229,024,452 

8,595,806 

1820, 

308 

137,110,611 

44,863,344 

19,820,240 

$35,950,470 

144,141,669 

9,638,131 

1830, 

330 

145,192,268 

200,451,214 

61,323,898 

22,114,917 

55,559,928 

144,726,428 

12,866,020 

1837, 

634 

290,772,091 

525,115,702 

149,185,890 

37,915,340 

127,397,185 

258,408,593 

15,681,467 

1840, 

901 

358,442,692 

462,896,523 

106,968,572 

33,105.155 

75,686,857 

239,227,465 

17,069,453 

1843, 

691 

228.861,948 

254,544,937 

58,563.608 

33,515,806 

56,168,628 

149,100,279 

18,713,479 

1846, 

707 

196,894,309 

312,114,404 

105,552,427 

42,012,095 

96,913,070 

235,180,313 

20,515,871 

1854, 

1,208 

301,376,071 

557,397,779 

204,689,207 

59,410,253 

188,188,744 

582,803,445 

26,051,890 

1857, 

1,416 

370,834,686 

684,456  889 

214,778,822 

58,349,838 

230,351,352 

723,850,823 

28,406,974 

I860, 

1,562 

421,880,095 

691,945,580 

207,102,477 

83,594,537 

253,802,129 

854,500,000 

3l'429,891 

This  table  shows  the  number  of  banks, 
with  their  aggregate  capital,  at  important 
eras.  As  in  1791,  when  the  national  bank 
and  mint  went  into  operation ;  1811,  when 
the  bank  charter  expired;  1815,  when  the 
numerous  banks  that  had  sprung  into  being 
on  the  dissolution  of  the  National  Bank,  were 
all  suspended;  in  1816,  when  the  peace, 
bringing  with  it  large  imports  of  goods,  and 
a  heavy  drain  of  specie  to  Europe  and  Asia, 
increased  the  confusion  and  aided  the  re- 
establishment  of  a  national  bank;  1820, 
when  that  bank,  in  full  operation,  was  stag 
gering  under  adverse  exchanges  and  the  ope 
ration  of  local  banks;  1830,  when  five  years 
of  successful  working,  after  the  revulsion  of 
1825,  and  under  a  high  tariff,  had  given  con 
fidence  to  the  public ;  1837,  when  the  rivalry 
between  the  state  and  the  national  banks 

13* 


had,  aided  by  the  state  of  affairs  in  Europe, 
stimulated  speculation,  which  resulted  in  the 
revulsion  of  that  year;  1840,  when  the 
number  of  banks  had  reached  the  highest 
point,  under  efforts  to  restore  prosperity 
by  paper  credits;  1843,  the  lowest  point  of 
depression  after  the  failure  of  those  efforts, 
and  the  liquidation  of  the  unsound  banks ; 
1846,  when  the  bank  capital  was  at  a  low 
point,  but  bank  credits  had  begun  to  multiply 
under  the  effects  of  the  famine  abroad ;  1854, 
when  the  activity  growing  out  of  the  gold 
discoveries  was  in  full  blast,  and  five  hundred 
new  banks  were,  through  the  medium  of 
credit,  urging  the  public  toward  the  panic 
of  1857.  In  the  last  two  years  there  has 
been  a  renewed  movement. 

The  mere  figures,  showing  the  magnitude 
of  the  bank  movement,  do  not  indicate  tha 


210 


BANKS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


changes  in  the  manner  of  doing  business,  nor 
do  they  indicate  any  unsafe  expansion,  except 
as  in  connection  with  the  business  they 
represent.  Thus,  in  1837,  the  bank  loans 
were  $525,000,000,  and  their  circulation 
$149,000,000.  Events  proved  that  those 
loans  were  of  the  most  speculative  and  un 
safe  character.  In  1860,  the  loans  were 
$691,900,000,  and  the  circulation  $207,000,- 
000.  Yet  these  larger  figures  were  very  far 
from  being  excessive.  They  represent  but 
$6  circulation  per  head  of  the  people,  while 
that  of  1837  was  nearly  $10  per  head.  The 
business  of  the  country,  as  represented  by 
imports  and  exports,  was,  in  1837,  but  half 
the  amount  of  bank  loans.  In  1860  they 
exceeded  the  amount  of  bank  loans.  It  is 
thus  evident,  that  the  larger  sum  of  bank 
loans  represents  actual  business,  while  those 
of  1837  represented  only  speculative  values. 
This  fact  of  the  nature  of  loans  made  is  the 
key  to  sound  banking.  It  is  a  matter  which 
depends  upon  the  judgment  and  skill  of  the 
banker,  and  it  cannot  be  regulated  by  law. 
Hence  the  futility  of  all  the  laws  that  have 
been  devised  to  prevent  banks  from  breaking. 
It  is  to  be  remembered,  that  the  bank  loans 
form  but  a  portion  of  the  credits  which  are 
the  great  purchasing  power  in  trade.  Almost 
all  the  wholesale  business  of  the  country  is 
done  with  the  notes  of  individuals,  running 
for  a  longer  or  less  time.  These  are  entirely 
independent  of  law  or  banks.  In  a  time  of 
great  mercantile  confidence  and  speculative 
activity,  business  men  are  disposed  to  buy 
on  credit,  and  their  competition  for  produce 
and  merchandise  causes  a  rise  in  prices.  This 
rise  stimulates  greater  activity,  which  reacts 
upon  prices  until  revulsion  is  brought  about. 
The  agency  which  the  banks  have  in  this 
matter  is  to  discount  a  portion  of  the  notes 
which  a  dealer  takes  in  exchange  for  the  mer 
chandise  he  sells.  The  bank  in  discounting 
does  not  actually  lend  any  money.  It 
merely  operates  a  canceling  of  credits  by 
book  accounts.  Thus,  a  merchant  buys  goods 
and  gives  his  note  at  six  months.  He  then 
deposits  what  money  he  receives  in  the 
course  of  business  to  await  the  maturity  of 
the  note.  As  the  period  approaches,  he  finds 
that  he  has  not  money  enough,  but  he  has  in 
his  pocket-book  a  number  of  notes  that  he 
has  taken  for  goods.  These  he  takes  to  the 
bank  and  offers  as  collateral  security  for  his 
own  note,  that  he  offers  for  discount.  The 
bank  making  the  discount  places  the  amount 
to  his  credit.  He  draws  a  check  against  that 


credit  in  favor  of  the  note  he  has  to  pay,  and 
the  two  entries  cancel  each  other.  There 
has  been  no  money  used,  but  one  kind  of 
promise  has  supplanted  another.  As  the 
crops  come  forward  from  the  country,  the 
drafts  drawn  against  them  pay  the  notes  held 
by  the  merchant  and  lodged  as  collateral. 
Dearness  or  scarcity  of  money  in  the  market 
depends  mainly  upon  the  disposition  of  the 
banks  to  facilitate  the  canceling  of  credits, 
and  in  this  the  institution  affects  to  be  gov 
erned  by  the  state  of  the  foreign  trade.  If 
the  disposition  to  buy  goods  has  been  very 
active  and  prices  are  consequently  so  high  as 
to  pay  good  profits  on  imports,  the  arrivals 
of  merchandise  will  be  large  and  the  exports 
proportionably  small.  This  involves  a  demand 
for  specie  which  the  banks  avoid,  by  refusing 
to  come  under  new  obligations.  A  competi 
tion  in  curtailment  sets  in.  The  bank  that 
curtails  the  most  rapidly  will  have  the 
balances  in  its  favor  from  the  other  banks, 
and  will  command  their  specie.  Each  en 
deavors  to  attain  such  a  position.  The  pres 
sure  becomes  greaf,  the  public  alarmed,  and 
individual  depositors  draw  their  specie,  which 
exhausts  the  banks,  and  they  stop.  This  was 
the  state  of  affairs  in  1857. 

The  general  tendency  of  the  banks  has 
been,  under  the  teachings  of  experience,  to 
equalize  balances  and  to  insist  on  prompt 
payment.  In  the  case  of  circulation  this  is 
done  in  New  England  by  the  Suffolk  system, 
and  in  New  York  and  most  other  states  by 
the  free  law,  which  requires  a  deposit  of  state 
stocks  of  dollar  for  dollar  of  the  circulation. 
It  is  obvious,  however,  that  these  regulations 
in  no  degree  affect  discounts  and  those  ope 
rations  where  circulation  is  not  in  question ; 
as  in  the  checks  of  individuals,  by  which  a 
large  portion  of  credits  are  transferred.  In 
New  York  city  there  are  some  fifty  banks,  each 
of  which  receives  checks  on  all  the  other 
banks,  and  has  checks  drawn  upon  it  in  favor 
of  all  others.  There  are  also  drafts  and  bills 
from  abroad,  constantly  coming  to  each 
to  be  paid  by  others.  Up  to  1853,  all 
the  banks  employed  each  a  man  to  go  round 
and  collect  all  these  checks  and  drafts  each 
day,  and  each  bank  kept  fifty  accounts  open. 
To  obviate  this  and  to  enforce  settlement, 
the  "  clearing  house  "  was  devised.  By  this 
system,  each  bank  sends  thither  every  day  a 
clerk,  with  all  the  demands  it  has  against  all 
other  banks.  The  fifty-four  clerks  thus  as 
sembled  make  a  mutual  exchange  of  all 
claims,  and  the  balance,  if  any,  is  struck,  and 


BANKS    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES — CLEARING    HOUSES PRIVATE    BANKING.  211 


each  bank  pays  in  cash  the  amount  of  that 
balance.  This  occupies  an  hour,  within 
which  all  accounts  are  adjusted.  The  amount 
of  accounts '  depends  upon  the  activity  of 
business.  The  clearing  house  has  been  in 
operation  since  October,  1853,  and  its  opera 
tions  have  been  as  follows  : — 


Amount  exchanged. 

Balances  paid. 

1854, 

5,750,455,987 

297,411,493 

1855, 

5,362,912,098 

289,694,137 

1856, 

6,906,213,328 

334,714,489 

1857, 

8.333,226,718 

365,313,901 

1858, 

4,756,664,386 

314,238,910 

1859, 

6,448,005,956 

363,984,682 

1860, 

7,180,000,000 

351,000,000 

The  emergencies  of  the  war  required  the 
issue  of  demand  notes  by  the  Government, 
of  small  denominations  to  serve  for  circula 
tion,  as  well  as  the  putting  forth  of  bonds, 
treasury  notes,  and  loans  of  various  kinds. 
At  first  these  demand  notes  were  the  equiva 
lent  of  gold  and  silver,  and  were  receivable 
in  payment  of  customs  duties,  as  well  as  all 
other  moneys  due  to  the  United  States  ;  but 
the  gradual  advance  in  the  price  of  gold  made 
them  so  valuable  as  to  take  them  out  of  the 
circulation,  and  cause  them  to  be  hoarded  as 
gold.  Congress  then  authorized  the  issue 
of  legal-tender  notes  of  small  denomina 
tions,  receivable  for  the  payment  of  all  dues 
to  the  United  States  except  customs,  which 
must  be  paid  in  gold,  the  coin  being  needed 
to  pay  the  interest  on  that  portion  of  the 
national  debt  upon  which  interest  in  gold 
was  guaranteed.  Of  this  currency,  usually 
known  as  greenbacks,  four  hundred  and  fifty 
millions  of  dollars  was  authorized,  but  only 
about  $431,000,000  was  issued.  Beside 
this,  Congress  authorized  the  issue  of  postal 
and  fractional  currency,  to  the  extent  of  fifty 
millions  of  dollars,  but  there  have  never 
been  more  than  thirty  millions  in  circulation, 
and  the  amount  Jan.  1,  1866,  did  not  exceed 
twenty-three  millions. 

It  was  soon  found,  however,  that  to  pre 
vent  financial  disorders  and  panics,  it  was 
necessary  that  the  Government  should  be 
able  to  control  the  banking  operations  of  the 
country  to  some  extent.  For  this  purpose 
the  National  banking  system  was  devised. 
The  act  providing  for  the  National  banks 
was  based,  with  such  modifications  as  the 
circumstances  and  experience  required,  upon 
the  New  York  Free  Banking  system.  The 
capital  on  which  circulation  was  granted  con 
sisted  of  the  bonds,  treasury  notes,  &c.,  of 
the  United  States,  and  these  being  deposited 


with  the  Controller  of  the  Currency,  Na 
tional  bank  notes  of  different  denominations, 
having  the  name  of  the  bank  and  the  coat  of 
arms  of  the  state  inserted,  were  delivered  to 
an  amount  not  exceeding  ninety  per  cent,  of 
the  bonds.  No  banks  could  be  organized 
with  a  less  capital  than  $50,000,  and  in 
places  of  more  than  6,000  inhabitants  the 
capital  must  be  $100,000,  or  more.  The 
amount  of  circulation  to  be  issued  to  these 
National  banks  must  not  exceed  in  the  aggre 
gate  $300,000,000.  The  National  banks  in 
the  larger  cities  were  required  to  keep  jm 
hand  at  all  times  an  amount  of  coin  and 
legal  tender  equal  to  one-fourth  of  their 
circulation  and  deposits ;  the  country  banks 
an  amount  equal  to  fifteen  per  cent.  The 
bills  of  the  National  banks  were  receivable, 
like  the  legal  tenders,  for  all  dues  to  the 
United  States  except  customs,  and  such 
arrangements  were  made  for  their  redemp 
tion  as  made  them  virtually  at  par  in  all 
parts  of  the  country.  At  first  they  had,  in 
some  sections,  a  severe  struggle  with  the 
state  banks,  but  it  was  not  of  long  duration, 
and  in  the  autumn  of  1864  the  state  and  local 
banks  began  to  come  under  the  National 
banking  law,  and  by  July,  1866,  there  were 
not  more  than  500  of  the  old  banks  through 
out  the  United  States  which  had  not  either 
become  National  banks  or  closed  up  their 
affairs.  On  the  ^t  of  January,  1866,  the 
number  of  Nationll  banks  was  1,579,  their 
authorized  capital  $403,357,346,  and  their 
circulation  $213,239,530.  Of  these,  218 
banks,  with  an  aggregate  capital  of  $172,- 
498,545,  and  a  circulation  of  $73,964,619, 
were  located  in  the  large  cities.  The  average 
loans  and  discounts  of  the  National  banks 
for  the  last  quarter  of  1865  were  nearly 
500  millions  of  dollars,  about  four  times 
the  amount  of  the  loans  of  all  the  banks  in 
1 859.  Their  deposits  in  the  last  quarter  of 
1865  ayeraged  513  millions.  The  circulation 
of  the  state  banks  was,  after  August,  1866, 
taxed  by  the  Government  ten  per  cent. 

Private  banking,  which,  previous  to  the  war, 
had  attained  to  very  considerable  propor 
tions,  has  since  greatly  increased.  The  private 
banks,  having  no  circulation  to  take  care  of, 
and  dealing  with  their  customers  at  the 
market  price  of  money,  conducting  at  the 
same  time  large  transactions  in  Government 
securities,  railroad  bonds,  &c.,  have  pos 
sessed  remarkable  facilities  for  a  profitable 
traffic,  and  many  of  the  bankers  have 
realized  gigantic  fortunes. 


UNITED    STATES    MINT. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ESTABLISHMENT  OF  MINT— STANDARD  OF 
COINS— LAWS  REGULATING  COINAGE- 
PROGRESS  OF  COINAGE— PRECIOUS  MET 
ALS  IN  THE  COUNTRY. 

THE  currency,  or  circulating  medium  of 
a  country,  is  of  itself  a  very  simple  matter, 
although  complicated  at  times  by  the  theo 
ries  of  financiers,  and  the  efforts  to  make 
promises  of  a  thing  pass  for  the  thing  it 
self.  In  the  early  stages  of  society  the  pro 
ducts  of  industry  constitute  the  wealth  of 
the  people,  after  they  have  ceased  to  be 
merely  herdsmen.  These  products  being 
exchanged  against  each  other,  the  transac 
tions  form  barter  trade.  As  wealth  in 
creases  and  wants  become  more  diversified, 
as  well  as  the  products  of  industry,  by  being 
subdivided,  some  common  medium  of  value 
becomes  requisite  to  meetaall  the  wants  of 
interchange.  The  precious  metals  have  gen 
erally  been  adopted  as  this  medium,  because 
the  supply  is  the  most  steady,  the  equivalent 
value  most  generally  known,  and  the  trans 
portation  most  convenient.  Hence  all  trade 
comes  to  be  represented  by  a  weight  of  pure 
gold  or  its  equivalent  of  pure  silver,  and  all 
commodities  come  to  be  valued,  or  called 
equivalent,  to  certain  quantities  of  these 
metals.  To  ascertain  the  purity  and  weight 
of  the  metal  offered  in  payment  at  each 
transaction  would,  however,  involve  difficul 
ties  that  would  neutralize  the  value  of  the 
metals  as  a  common  medium  of  exchange. 
Every  man  would  require  to  be  an  assayer, 
and  to  be  provided  with  scales.  To  obviate 
this  the  government  steps  in,  and  by  means 
of  a  mint  assays  the  metals,  and  weighs 
them  into  convenient  pieces,  placing  on  each 
a  stamp,  which  soon  becomes  universally 
known,  and  this  is  called  "  money."  Every 
nation  makes  the  pieces  of  different  weights, 
and  puts  in  more  or  less  pure  metal.  To  as 
certain  the  "par  of  exchange"  between  two 


countries,  the  coin  of  each  is  assayed,  and 
the  quantity  of  pure  metal  in  each  being 
ascertained,  the  par  of  exchange  is  known. 
When  this  continent  was  discovered,  its  in-  . 
habitants  were  savages,  who  had  no  idea  of 
property,  and  no  trade  beyond  the  mere  ex 
change  of,  perhaps,  a  skin  for  a  bow  or  a 
bunch  of  arrows.  Money  was  unknown, 
and  the  value  of  the  precious  metals  was  not 
understood.  The  little  gold  and  copper  that 
they  had  was  twisted  into  rude  ornaments ; 
but  no  man  would  work  for  a  piece  of  these 
metals.  When  the  first  emigrants  landed, 
they  commenced  the  cultivation  of  the  earth 
and  the  interchange  of  its  products.  The  ac 
cumulation  of  industrial  products  formed 
wealth.  Their  first  exchanges  were  mere 
barter.  As  late  as  1652  the  payment  of 
taxes  and  other  dues  was  made  in  cattle, 
skins,  and  other  products  in  Massachusetts  ; 
and  tobacco  was  a  medium  of  trade  in  Vir 
ginia.  Some  money  existed,  but  this  Avas 
mostly  the  coins  brought  by  the  immigrants 
from  the  mother  country,  and  did  not  suffice 
for  the  daily  Avants.  Massachusetts,  there 
fore,  established  a  mint  for  the  coinage  of 
shillings,  sixpences,  and  threepences  of  ster 
ling  silver,  which  Avere  "  two  pence  in  the 
shilling  of  less  valew  than  the  English 
coyne."  This  "  pine  tree  shilling,"  so  called 
from  a  pine  tree  on  the  reverse,  was  worth 
about  twenty  cents.  This  coinage  gave 
umbrage  to  the  mother  country,  and  when 
Governor  Winslow  Avas  introduced  to 
Charles  II.,  that  usually  good-natured  mon 
arch  took  him  roughly  to  task  for  the  pre 
sumption  of  the  colony  in  assuming  to  coin 
money,  at  the  same  time  producing  the  coin 
Avith  the  pine  tree  upon  it.  The  ready  wit 
of  the  governor,  however,  turned  the  rebuke, 
by  assuring  his  Majesty  that  it  Avas  an  evi-  ^ 
dence  of  the  devotion  of  the  colony,  which 
struck  these  medals  in  commemoration  of 
the  escape  of  his  Majesty  in  the  Royal  Oak,  ! 
Avhich  was  executed  as  well  as  the  poor  state 
of  the  arts  in  the  colony  would  permit.  The 


UNITED    STATES    MINT. 


213 


coinage  was  nevertheless  suppressed,  and  the 
example  of  Massachusets  was  followed  by 
Maryland  with  the  like  results.  Carolina 
and  Virginia  struck  some  copper  coins,  but 
without  much  effect.  There  being  no  mint, 
therefore,  in  any  of  the  colonies,  foreign  coins 
were  circulated  freely  as  a  legal  tender.  The 
country  produced  none  of  the  precious 
metals,  but  as  the  trade  of  the  colonies  in 
creased,  and  they  began  to  have  a  surplus  of 
fish,  provisions,  food,  tobacco,  etc.,  beyond 
their  own  wants,  to  sell,  they  built  vessels, 
and  carried  these  articles,  mostly  fish,  to  the 
West  Indies  and  the  catholic  countries  of 
Europe  ;  and  as  the  mother  country  did  not 
allow  the  colonies  to  buy  manufactures  ex 
cept  from  herself,  money  was  mostly  had  in 
exchange  for  this  produce.  Guineas,  joes, 
half  joes,  doubloons,  and  pistoles  of  various 
origin  constituted  the  gold  currency,  while 
the  silver  was  mostly  the  Spanish  American 
dollar  and  its  fractions :  the  half,  quarter, 
eighth,  and  sixteenth,  with  the  pistareen  and 
half  pistareen.  This  silver  coin  flowed  into 
the  colonies  from  the  Spanish  West  Indies, 
in  exchange  for  fish  and  food ;  and  the 
Spanish  dollar  thus  came  to  be  the  best 
known  and  most  generally  adopted  unit  of 
money.  The  coin  had  upon  its  reverse  the 
pillars  of  Hercules,  and  was  known  as  the 
pillar  dollar ;  hence  the  dollar  mark  ($),  which 
represents  "  S,"  for  "  Spanish,"  entwining  the 
pillars.  Inasmuch  as  the  "  balance  of 
trade"  was  in  favor  of  England,  the  largest 
portion  of  the  coin  that  flowed  in  from  other 
quarters  was  sent  thither,  and  this  tendency 
was  increased  by  the  pernicious  issues  of 
paper  money  by  the  colonies.  This  paper 
displaced  the  coin,  and  drove  it  all  out  of  the 
country.  The  exigencies  of  the  several 
colonial  governments  caused  them  to  make 
excessive  issues  of  this  "  paper"  or  "  bills  of 
credit,"  and  it  fell  to  a  heavy  discount  as 
compared  with  coin.  Not  being  convertible 
at  the  date  of  the  Revolution  the  deprecia 
tion  in  the  several  colonies  was  nearly  as 
follows : — 

VALUE     OF     TUB     DOLLAR     AND     THE      £     STERLING     IN 
COLOK1AL   PAPER   MONEY. 

£  sterling.  Dollar. 

£.      B.     ~d.  8.     d. 

New  England  and  Virginia  ...   1       68  60 

New  York  and  North-eastern  .    1     15     6i  80 

Middle  states 1     13     4  76 

South  Carolina  and  Georgia. ..    1       0     8$  48 

On  the  formation  of  the  new  government, 
the  terrible  state  of  the  currency  first  attract 


ed  attention.  The  country  had  been  flooded 
with  "  continental  money,"  which  had  been 
issued  to  the  extent  of  three  hundred  and 
sixty  millions  for  war  expenses.  The  states 
had  issued  "  bills  of  credit,"  which  were  de 
preciated  as  in  the  table  ;  and  the  debased 
and  diversified  foreign  coins  that  circulated 
were  very  few  in  number.  Private  credit 
hardly  existed.  Frightful  jobbing  took 
place  in  the  government  paper,  and  industry 
could  Avith  difficulty  get  its  proper  reward. 
The  first  effort  was  to  give  the  federal  gov 
ernment  alone  the  right  to  coin  money,  to 
prohibit  the  states  from  issuing  any  more 
"  bills  of  credit,"  and  to  get  the  continental 
money  out  of  circulation  by  providing  for 
its  payment.  Robert  Morris  had  been  di 
rected  to  report  upon  the  mint  and  a  system 
of  coinage,  and  he  did  so  early  in  1782. 
Many  plans  were  based  upon  his  report,  and 
finally  that  of  Mr.  Jefferson  was  adopted. 
It  conformed  to  the  decimal  notation,  with 
the  Spanish  dollar  as  the  unit :  A  gold  piece 
of  ten  dollars,  to  be  called  the  eagle,  with 
its  half  and  quarter ;  a  dollar  in  silver ;  a 
tenth  of  a  dollar  in  silver  ;  a  hundredth  of  a 
dollar  in  copper. 

In  accordance  with  the  plan  of  Mr.  Jeffer 
son,  a  law  of  April  2,  1792,  enacted  regula 
tions  for  a  mint,  located  at  Philadelphia,  and 
the  coinage  proceeded.  It  Avas  found  that, 
owing  to  the  rise  in  the  value  of  copper,  the 
cent  had  been  made  too  heavy,  and,  Janu 
ary  14,  1790,  it  was  reduced  to  two  hundred 
and  eight  grains,  and  January  26,  1796,  it 
was  again  reduced  to  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
eight  grains,  at  which  rate  it  remained  until 
the  late  introduction  of  nickle.  The  mint 
being  established  at  Philadelphia,  the  work 
of  coinage  went  on  slowly,  for  two  principal 
reasons.  The  first  was  that  the  material  for 
coin — that  is,  gold  and  silver,  no  matter  in 
what  shape  it  may  be — was  obtained  only,  by 
the  operation  of  trade,  from  abroad,  and 
nearly  all  of  it  arrived  at  New  York,  the 
property  of  merchants.  Now,  although  the 
government  charged  nothing  for  coining, 
yet,  to  send  the  metal  from  New  York  to 
Philadelphia  during  the  first  forty  years 
of  the  government,  when  there  was  none  but 
wagon  conveyance,  was  expensive,  and  ac 
companied  with  some  risk.  It  was  not, 
therefore,  to  be  expected  that  the  merchants 
would  undertake  this  without  any  benefit ; 
the  more  so,  as  the  same  law,  in  the  second 
place,  still  allowed  the  foreign  coins  to  be 
legal  tender.  The  merchant  who  received, 


214 


UNITED    STATES    MINT. 


say  ten  thousand  dollars  in  gold  coin  at 
New  York  had  only  to  lodge  that  coin  in  the 
local  bank,  and  use  the  paper  money  issued 
by  the  bank.  There  was  no  necessity  to 
send  the  coin  to  Philadelphia  merely  to  be 
recoincd  without  profit.  It  was  also  the 
case  that  in  the  course  of  the  newly  devel 
oped  commerce  between  the  United  States 
and  the  countries  of  Europe,  it  was  found 
that  silver  had  been  valued  too  high  at  the 
mint.  It  was  coined  in  the  ratio  of  fifteen 
to  one  of  gold,  when  its  real  value  was  near 
er  sixteen  to  one.  This  relative  value  of  the 
two  metals  depends  upon  the  respective  de 
mand  and  supply  in  the  markets  of  the 
world.  At  about  the  date  of  the  discovery 
of  America  it  was  ten  to  one  ;  that  is,  ten 
ounces  of  pure  silver  were  equal  to  one 
ounce  of  pure  gold.  When  Peru  and  Span 
ish  America  poured  in  their  large  supplies 
of  silver,  the  rate  gradually  fell  to  fifteen  to 
one.  At  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  centu 
ry,  and  with  the  greater  freedom  of  com 
merce  in  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  cen 
tury,  it  was  found  still  to  decline.  The 
reason  of  this  is  obvious,  since,  in  any  local 
ity,  the  relative  value  of  the  metals  will  be 
proportioned  to  the  local  supply  of  either, 
influenced  by  the  expense  of  sending  either 
to  other  localities.  Thus,  silver  may  have 
been  really  fourteen  to  one  in  one  place,  and 
sixteen  to  one  in  another,  and  the  difficul 
ties  of  transportation  prevented  an  equaliza 
tion.  As  soon  as  communication  became 
prompt  and  cheap  the  equalization  took 
place,  and  the  general  relative  value  was 
found  to  be  somewhat  changed.  The  effect 
of  this  was  that  silver  came  here  and  gold 
went  away.  Nearly  all  the  coinage  of  the 
mint  was  silver.  This  evil  attracted  the  at 
tention  of  the  government,  and  a  remedy 
was  sought.  This  was  finally  found  in 
changing  the  relative  value  of  the  silver  to 
gold  in  the  coinage  by  simply  putting  less 
pure  gold  into  the  eagle,  and  letting  the 
silver  remain  as  it  was.  The  quantity  of 
pure  gold  in  the  eagle  was,  therefore,  by  the 
law  of  June  28,  1834,  reduced  from  247.5 
grains  to  232  grains,  or  rather  more  than 
six  and  five-eighths  per  cent,  and  the  quan 
tity  of  alloy  was  slightly  increased,  so  as  to 
make  the  fineness  of  the  gold  nine-tenths, 
or  nine  grains  of  fine  gold  to  one  of  alloy  in 
each  piece. 

This  was  found  not  to  be  exact,  and  in 
183*7  the  pure  gold  was  slightly  increased, 
and  this  regulation  remains.  Under  all 


the  laws  the  gold  coins  have  been  as  fol 
lows  : — 


1792, 
1 s:<4, 

1837, 


Pure 
g<il<l. 
Grains. 
247.5 
232.0 
232.2 


Alloy. 


Total 


Total 


Silver.     Copper.     Alloy.   ^elfnl- 
'     Grains. 


5.G2|    16.87^ 
6.50       19.50 
6.45       19.35 


22. 

26.0 

25.8 


270 
253 
258 


Fine 
ness. 

916.7 
S99.2 
900.0 


These  proportions  remain  now  the  same 
for  gold.  In  order  to  bring  the  silver  to  the 
same  standard,  the  law  of  1837  reduced  the 
alloy  in  dollars  three  and  a  half  grains,  mak 
ing  the  dollar  weigh  4121-2  grains  instead 
of  410. 

In  all  this  period,  up  to  1838,  there  had 
been  but  one  mint,  and  that  at  Philadelphia. 
In  1831,  under  the  desire  of  the  government 
to  enlarge  the  metallic  basis  of  the  national 
currency,  three  branches  were  authorized, 
one  at  New  Orleans,  one  at  Charlotte,  North 
Carolina,  and  one  at  Dahlonega,  Georgia. 
These  two  latter  were  in  mining  districts, 
where  gold  began  to  be  produced  to  some 
extent,  and  all  three  went  into  operation  in 
1838.  The  coinage  progressed  down  to 
1853,  when,  in  consequence  of  the  change 
brought  about  by  the  gold  discoveries  in 
California,  a  new  law  in  relation  to  the  silver 
currency  was  enacted.  Before  giving  an 
account  of  that  change,  we  may  take  a  table 
of  the  coinage  at  the  mint  since  its  organiza 
tion  for  several  periods. 


UNITED     STATES    COINAGE. 


1793  to  1820, 
18-^1  "  Is34, 


Gold. 

7,431,545 
4,894,845 


Total  to  1831,  11,825,590 
1884  to  1837,  11,424,450 
1838  "  1S4S  53,329,965 
1S49  "  J852,  60,211.315 
1853  "  18GO,  818,169,102 


10.9Sn.48 1 
25,814,647 

36.295,078 
J'J,560.115 
24,351.769 
6,014,509 
42,803,767 


a"&.      Total. 
421,795      18.S33,77I 
230,795     .29,945,787 


65^.590  48,779,558 

137,323  24,121,898 

5!8,8'!6  7>s,  195,570 

311,207  ltffi.567,031 

553,365  871,526,234 


|5('4,960,722     122,025,288    2,203,821     689,190,281 

In  the  first  twenty-seven  years  of  the  mint 
operation,  the  gold  coinage  was  about  seven 
ty-five  per  cent,  of  the  silver  coinage.  That 
whole  period  embraced  the  European  war, 
and  the  first  operations  of  the  mint  were  to 
coin  as  much  of  the  metals  already  in  the 
country  as  came  within  their  reach.  In  the 
second  period,  from  1821  to  1834,  the  effect 
of  the  change  in  the  relative  value  of  the 
metals  of  which  we  have  spoken,  became 
manifest,  and  the  gold  coinage  was  about 
one-sixth  only  of  the  silver  coinage.  In 
1834  the  new  gold  bill  produced  a  change, 
and  the  gold  coinage  became  nearly  equal  to 
that  of  silver.  Soon  after  the  passage  of 
this  law,  the  payment  of  the  French  indem- 


UNITED    STATES    MINT. 


215 


nity,  enforced  under  the  administration  of 
General  Jackson,  took  place,  and  it  was  paid 
in  the  form  of  gold  bars,  of  weight  varying 
from  twenty-five  to  six  hundred  and  fifty 
ounces  each.  The  first  of  them  were  received 
at  the  United  States  mint  September,  1834, 
and  from  that  date  to  September,  1838,  six 
hundred  of  these  bars  were  deposited  at  the 
mint;  the  value  was  $3,500,000.  In  1838 
the  branches  came  into  operation,  and  the 
coinage  was  increased  by  their  operations 
and  by  13,705,250  of  gold  of  domestic  pro 
duction,  to  the  close  of  1848.  In  1849 
California  gold  began  to  make  its  appear 
ance,  and  $7,079,144  worth  of  it  was  coined 
in  that  year.  The  great  influx  of  gold  bul 
lion  upon  the  mint  by  far  exceeded  its  capac 
ity  to  do  the  work,  and  Congress  author 
ized,  by  the  act  of  March  3d,  1849,  the  coin 
age  of  double  eagles,  or  $20  pieces,  and 
also  one  dollar  pieces  to  supply  the  place  of 
the  silver  coin,  which  had  been  drained  off 
to  California  in  exchange  for  the  gold,  which 
sold  as  low  as  $15  and  $16  per  ounce, 
although  worth  $20  and  $21.  The  law  of 
May,  1852,  authorized  the  coinage  of  $3 
pieces. 

In  ten  years,  to  the  close  of  1848,  the 
gold  coinage  had  amounted  to  double  the  sil 
ver  coinage,  and  the  new  influx  of  gold  excited 
fears  that  the  value  of  silver  would  rise  rap 
idly  as  compared  with  gold.  From  1848 
to  1857  the  coinage  of  silver  was  very  small, 
while  the  demand  for  it  was  large.  To  avoid 
inconvenience  from  this  cause,  a  new  bill 
was  passed,  to  take  effect  April  1st,  1853. 
By  this  bill  it  was  enacted  that  gold  or  sil 
ver  deposited  with  the  mint,  might  be  cast 
into  bars  or  ingots  of  pure  metal,  or  standard 
fineness,  at  the  option  of  the  depositor,  with 
a  stamp  designating  the  weight  and  fineness ; 
no  pieces  less  than  ten  ounces  shall  be  other 
than  of  standard  fineness ;  the  charge  for 
this  is  one-half  per  cent.  Inasmuch  as  most 
of  the  gold  arrives  at  New  York,  efforts  were 
made  to  procure  the  establishment  of  a  mint 
at  that  point.  Instead,  however,  of  a  mint, 
an  assay  office  was  established  there,  and  a 
branch  mint  at  San  Francisco,  in  1854.  The 
law  allows  the  depositor  to  draw  either  bars 
or  coin  in  return,  the  description  desired  to 
be  stated  at  the  time  of  the  deposit.  The 
production  of  bars  and  coins  under  all  these 
regulations  has  been  large,  for  gold  as  well 
as  silver. 

Until  the  law  of  1834,  the  quantity  of 
gold  coin  in  circulation  was  not  large.  The 


banks  supplied  so  large  a  quantity  of  small 
bills  as  to  fill  the  channels  of  circulation  for 
sums  above  a  dollar,  and  under  that  amount 
the  circulation  was  almost  altogether  small 
Spanish  coins,  which,  being  much  depreci 
ated  by  wear  and  tear,  passed  for  more  than 
their  intrinsic  value,  and  consequently  flood 
ed  the  country,  greatly  influencing  retail 
prices.  This  was  particularly  the  case  with 
the  pistareens,  which,  up  to  1827,  were 
taken  at  twenty  cents,  or  five  to  the  dollar, 
although  they  were  really  worth  but  eighteen 
and  a  half  cents,  consequently  there  was  lit 
tle  other  change  to  be  had.  In  consequence 
of  a  report  of  the  Mint  Director  of  that  year, 
they  were  refused  at  more  than  seventeen 
cents,  and  they  very  speedily  disappeared 
from  circulation,  arid  have  not  now  been 
seen  for  a  quarter  of  a  century.  The  quar 
ters  continued  to  circulate  at  twenty-five 
cents,  although  the  average  value  was  twen 
ty-three  and  a  half  cents  ;  the  eighths  were 
taken  at  twelve  and  a  half,  although  they 
were  worth  only  eleven  and  one-eighth  ;  the 
sixteenth  was  taken  at  six  and  a  quarter, 
although  worth  but  five  cents.  It  resulted 
that  these  coins  became  very  abundant,  driv 
ing  out  the  dimes  and  half  dimes,  and  in 
1843  the  post-office  and  the  banks  refusing 
them  altogether,  they  were  supplanted  by 
the  American  coin,  until  the  gold  discover 
ies  of  1848.  After  that  event,  owing  to  the 
increased  production  of  gold,  and  the  fact 
that  some  of  the  European  states  changed 
their  monetary  policy,  making  silver  the 
sole  standard  of  value,  the  latter  metal  be 
came  worth  more  in  market  than  its  nominal 
value  in  United  States  coin,  and  was  gradu 
ally  withdrawn  from  the  currency,  until,  in 
1852,  silver  coin  became  very  scarce,  and 
there  was  not  sufficient  left  in  circulation  for 
the  purposes  of  change.  A  premium  of  four 
per  cent,  was  paid  for  dollars  and  half  dol 
lars  for  export,  and  the  smaller  coins  com 
manded,  in  many  cases,  a  still  higher  price, 
for  use  among  shop-keepers  and  small  traders. 
It  was  easy  to  see  that,  unless  the  weight  of 
our  silver  coin  was  reduced,  there  would 
soon  be  none  left  in  the  country.  Already 
the  eating-houses  and  drinking  saloons  had 
issued  their  tickets,  or  shinplaster  tokens,  in 
place  of  coin  ;  and  the  poor,  who  purchased 
the  necessaries  of  life  in  small  amounts, 
were  put  to  great  inconvenience,  or  obliged 
to  submit  to  ruinous  shaves  upon  their  paper 
money.  To  remedy  these  evils,  Congress 
passed  the  act  of  February  21st,  1853  (to 


216 


UNITED    STATES    MINT. 


take  effect  the  1st  of  April  following),  au 
thorizing  the  coinage  of  half  dollars,  quarter 
dollars,  dimes,  and  half  dimes,  weighing 
about  seven  per  cent,  less  than  the  old  coin. 
The  'change  will  be  better  understood  by 
comparing  the  weight  of  the  several  pieces 
under  the  old  law,  with  the  weight  of  the 


new  coin:- 


Half  dollar,  grains 
Quarter  dollar,  do. 
Dime,  do. 

Half  dime,         do. 


Old  coin. 
...2061 

..103i 
...    41* 

.    20* 


New  coin. 

192 
96 

38  2-5 
19  1-5 


The  dollar  was  not  changed,  and  the 
weight  of  that  piece  is  412  1-2  grains,  the 
weight  which  it  has  borne  since  1836  ;  this 
reduction  of  weight  being  fourteen  and  a 
half  grains  in  the  half  dollar,  or  nearly  seven 
per  cent.  The  silver  currency  was  not 
debased,  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word, 
the  same  fineness  (nine  hundred  parts  pure 
silver,  and  one  hundred  of  alloy)  being  re 
tained,  and  the  only  change  in  the  coin  itself 
being  in  the  weight.  A  very  important  pro 


vision,  however,  was  made  in  regard  to  it ; 
it  is  not  a  legal  tender  in  payment  of  debts 
in  sums  exceeding  five  dollars.  The  old 
"silver  coins  have  been  mostly  taken  out  of 
circulation.  A  few  dollars  are  kept  to  pay 
depositors  at  the  mint,  who  are  entitled  to 
silver  coin,  but  the  silver  extracted  from 
California  gold  is  paid  for  in  gold  coin  at  a 
premium  to  the  depositor.  To  prevent  the 
government  from  forcing  this  silver  currency 
upon  the  people,  the  right  to  make  payments 
in  it  was  restricted  as  above  noticed  ;  but  to 
go  further,  and  to  prevent  the  mints  from 
coining  more  than  was  needed,  the  purchase 
and  coinage  of  the  silver  was  placed  under 
the  control  of  the  Secretary  of  the  United 
States  Treasury.  The  law  went  into  opera 
tion  at  the  date  fixed,  and  the  supply  of  coin 
was  very  acceptable  to  the  people. 

The  continued  active  operation  of  the 
mint  is,  however,  producing  an  excess  of 
these  coins.  The  quantity  of  silver  coined 
at  the  mint  and  branches,  under  the  law  of 
1853,  has  been  as  follows  : — 


Philadelphia. 
Pieces. 

Dollars    335,250 

Half  dollars 15,038,208 

Quarter  do 55,685,220 

Dimes 31,838,010 

Half  dimes 36,495,020 

3-cent  pieces 16,314,000 


New  Orleans. 
Pieces. 

200,000 

22,440,000 

5,940,000 

6,030,000 

9,226,000 

720,000 


S.  Francisco. 
Pieces. 

15,000 

1,099,950 

961,400 

120,000 


Total  pieces. 
550,250 
38,578,158 
62,586,020 
37,988,010 
45,721,020 
17,034,000 


Value. 

$  550,250 

19,289,079 

13,146.655 

3,798,801 

2,286,051 

511,0?0 


155,705,708         44,556,000         2,196,350       202,458,058       $39,581,856 


This  is  a  curious  table,  inasmuch  as  that  it 
indicates  the  large  amount  of  silver  money 
in  the  hands  of  the  people.  This  coin,  it  will 
be  borne  in  mind,  is  undervalued  six  per 
cent.,  and  is  a  legal  tender  only  to  the  extent 
of  five  dollars.  These  two  conditions  prevent 
its  export,  and  also  its  retention  by  the  banks. 
It  appears,  then,  assuming  the  number  of 
people  to  be  thirty  millions,  that  there  arc 
nearly  seven  pieces  of  silver  coin  for  every 
soul,  and  in  value,  a  dollar  and  thirty-three 
cents  each  person.  There  are  more  than  two 
quarter  dollars  for  each  person ;  nearly  three 
half  dimes  for  every  two  persons.  In  addi 
tion  to  this  small  silver  coin,  there  has  been 
coined  since  1849,  $17,046,053  in  one  dollar 
gold  pieces.  These  have  not  been  a  popular 
coin,  however,  and  do  not  remain  in  circula 
tion.  The  remaining  coins  are  of  a  large 
amount,  but  the  quantity  that  remains  in  cir 
culation  cannot  be  ascertained. 

The  main  source  of  supply  of  the  precious 
metals  to  the  mint  was,  until  the  discovery 
of  California  gold,  from  abroad,  through  the 


operations  of  commerce.  Since  that  event, 
the  Pacific  state  has  been  the  leading  source. 
The  Atlantic  states  had,  however,  previously 
supplied  important  sums.  The  quantity  of 
domestic  gold  deposited  at  the  mint,  up  to 
1851  and  since,  has  been  as  follows: — 

DEPOSITS    OF   DOMESTIC  GOLD  AT    MINT    AND    BRANCHES. 
To  1S51. 

Virginia 1.197,333 

North  Carolina 

South  Carolina 

Georgia 

Tennessee 

Alabama 

New  Mexico 

California 

Kansas 

Oregon 

Other  places 

Total $46,922,437      $423,418,614      $470,341,1  H 

This  large  amount,  $423,418,437,  of  raw- 
material  of  money,  was  supplied  to  the  mint 
in  the  past  nine  years,  but  after  supplying 
the  money  required  for  circulation,  it  flowed 
off  to  Europe  as  an  export,  in  the  shape  of 
bars.  The  domestic  silver  Avhich  has  been 
supplied  to  the  mint,  has  been  $23,398  re 
ceived  from  North  Carolina,  for  the  first 


To  1S51. 

1851  to  18.-.9. 

Total  1859. 

1.197,333 

S-.27.977 

1,525.315 

6,707,458 

2.236.951 

8,944.409 

8l7,t>9:i 

402,913 

1.280.605 

6,OIS,f03 

7S2.'_'70 

6,300,S73 

7(i,574 

4,337 

80,911 

186,627 

10.131 

190,758 

8S.H63 

9.709 

4S673 

81.838,079 

419,472,761 

451,310,840 

4  172 

4,172 

f  9.27  2 

69,272 

41,103 

s?,m 

79,224 

UNITED    STATES    MINT. 


217 


time,  in  1859;  $45,745  from  Lake  Superior, 
and  $3,221,225  parted  from  California  gold. 
In  the  past  few  months  the  Washoe  mines 
begin  to  furnish  supplies. 

The  amount  of  specie  actually  in  the  coun 
try  cannot  be  ascertained  with  any  great 
degree  of  accuracy.  The  amount  coined,  the 
quantity  imported  and  exported,  afford  data 
by  which  to  estimate  it,  and  these  estimates 
have  been  made  from  time  to  time.  Taking 
the  amounts  coined,  the  amounts  in  bank, 
and  other  data,  the  officers  in  the  treasury 
estimated  the  amount  in  the  country  in  1821 
to  be  $37,000,000.  The  calculation,  then, 
up  to  1849,  upon  official  figures,  would  be  as 
follows : — 


242,289,061 
180,596,664 


$37,000,000 
13,811,206 

5(1,811,200 
61,642,397 


Specie  In  the  country  in  1S21, 
Product  of  U.  8.  mines  to  1849, 

Imported  1^21  to  1849, 
Exported    "  " 

Specie  in  the  country  in  1849,  $112,453,603 

Of  this  amount,  $43,619,000  was  in  the 
banks  and  $5,700,925  in  the  federal  treas 
ury.  Of  the  remainder,  $32,133,688  was  es 
timated  to  be  in  circulation,  and  $31,000,000 
in  plate  and  ornaments.  From  1849  to  1859 
the  amount  has  been  as  follows : — 


$11 2,453, 60S 
529,619,919 


$642,073,522 


356,185,042 


$285,888,480 


In  the  eountry  in  1S49, 
Coinage,  1849  to  1859, 

Supply  to  1859, 

Import  of  the  metals,  1849  to  1859,    78,838. 8f.4 
Export  "  "  "       435,023,906 

Excess  export, 

In  the  country  in  1859,  $285,888,480 

This  gives  an  increase  of  $173,434,877  of 
specie  in  the  country  in  ten  years,  to  the  first 
of  1860.  The  distribution  of  this  money 
was  nearly  as  follows  : — 

Stock  m  the  country, 
United  States  treasury,  $10,000,000 
Jn  all  the  banks,  104,537,818 

In  plate,  ornaments,  &c ,    50,000,000 
In  general  circulation,     121,350,662 

$285,888,480 

There  are  large  sums  of  money  and  metals 
that  come  into  the  country  in  the  hands  of 
emigrants.  As  these  are  no  longer  a  legal 
tender,  they  find  their  way  either  to  the  mint 
or  to  the  broker  for  export.  We  may  now, 
on  this  basis,  ascertain  the  amount  of  money 
that  circulates  in  the  country,  as  follows : — 

1819.  1859. 

Bank  circulation $128,506,000       $193,306,818 

Less  notes  on  hand       16,427,000  18,858,289 


Bank  notes  in  circulat'u  112, 079,000          174,448,529 
Specie  in  circulation       32,133,688         121,;550,662 


Total  mixed  circulat'n  $144,212,688      $295,799, 191 


The  specie,  as  we  have  seen,  is  one-third 
in  small  silver  coins,  and  the  mixed  mass  is 
largely  of  the  precious  metals.  The  country, 
as  a  whole,  has  had  its  specie  capital,  which 
is  a  "  machine  of  trade,"  increased  over 
$173,000,000  in  the  last  ten  years. 

The  mint  operates  upon  the  various  forms 
of  the  metals  brought  to  it,  and  these  are  of 
great  variety,  from  the  most  delicate  plates 
and  ornaments  down  to  base  alloys,  and  these 
are  all  included  under  the  general  term  bul 
lion,  except  United  States  coins.  The  bullion 
is  either  unwrought  or  manufactured.  The 
first  description  embraces  gold  dust,  amalga 
mated  cakes  and  balls,  laminated  gold,  melted 
bars  and  cakes.  The  "  dust"  is  the  shape  in 
which  it  is  derived  by  washing  in  North 
Carolina,  Georgia,  South  Carolina,  Virginia, 
and  various  states,  besides  California.  In 
South  America,  Russia,  and  elsewhere,  amal 
gamated  gold  is  that  which  litis  been  procured 
by  the  use  of  quicksilver,which  combines  with 
it,  forming  a  lump.  Laminated  gold  is  that 
which  is  combined  with  silver,  and  derived 
mostly  from  Central  America.  Bars  and 
cakes  of  six  inches  in  length,  and  from  one-half 
to  one  inch  in  breadth  and  thickness,arethc 
forms  into  Avhich  the  metal  is  cast  at  the 
mines.  A  bar  of  fine  gold,  six  inches  long, 
three  wide,  and  one  and  a  half  thick,  would 
weigh  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  ounces, 
and  its  value  would  be  five  thousand  nine 
hundred  dollars.  These  arc  mostly  the  forms 
of  unwrought  gold  received  at  the  mint.  The 
manufactured  is  mostly  jewelry,  plate,  and 
coin.  The  first  mentioned  is  received  at  the 
mint  in  every  variety  of  article  into  the  manu 
facture  of  which  gold  enters.  These  are  of 
every  form  and  fashion  and  degree  of  fine 
ness.  The  value  of  all  depends  upon  the 
quantity  of  pure  gold  in  them,  and  this  re 
quires  to  be  extracted  by  the  mclters'  and 
assaycrs'  art.  The  range  of  fineness  of  most 
jewelry  is  300  to  600,  or  from  1-3  to  2-3  the 
value  of  coin  of  the  same  weight.  In  other 
words,  where  coin  is  94  cts.  per  dwt.,  jewelry 
is  worth  31  to  60  cts.  the  dwt.  A  good  deal 
of  "  fair "  jewelry  is  found  to  be  worth  4  to 
10  cts.  the  dwt.  All  this  mass  of  metal  must, 
by  the  melters  and  refiners,  be  reduced  to  a 
uniform  material,  containing  the  exact  pro 
portion  of  alloy  allowed  by  the  law.  They 
are  then  in  the  shape  of  bars,  twelve  inches 
long,  half  inch  thick,  and  from  one  to  one 
and  a  half  in  breadth,  according  to  the  size 
of  the  coin  to  be  struck.  They  are  subjected 
to  a  test  to  see  if  they  are  of  the  legal  fine- 


218 


UNITED    STATES    MINT. 


ness.  They  are  then  annealed,  or  heated  to 
a  red  heat.  This  is  to  soften  them  for  roll 
ing,  which  is  done  into  long  thin  strips  by 
the  power  of  a  steam  engine.  These  strips 
are  then  passed  through  plates  of  the  hardest 
steel,  by  which  they  are  "drawn"  to  their 
proper  thickness.  This  being  done,  they  are 
by  a  steam  press  cut  into  "planchets"  or 
pieces  of  the  exact  size  of  the  coin  wanted. 
This  "  press  "  cuts  one  hundred  and  sixty  per 
minute.  •  The  strip  remaining  full  of  holes  is 
rolled  up  and  sent  back  to  the  melting  pot 
to  be  reformed  into  a  bar.  The  planchets 
are  then  cleaned,  annealed  and  whitened,  and 
their  weights  accurately  adjusted.  They  arc 
then  placed  in  a  tube,  which  slides  them  one 
by  one  into  a  steel  collar,  in  which  they  fit. 
The  piece  is  then  instantly  pressed  on  both 
sides  by  the  dies,  and  is  instantly  pushed 


away  with  perfect  impressions  on  both  sides, 
to  be  followed  as  promptly  by  another  piece. 
The  "  dies  "  that  make  these  impressions  are 
of  alabaster  work.  The  devices  are  first  cut 
in  soft  steel,  those  parts  being  sunk  which 
are  raised  on  the  coin.  This  "original  die" 
is  then  hardened,  and  is  used  to  impress  a 
piece  of  soft  steel,  which  is  then  like  a  coin 
with  the  figures  raised,  and  is  called  a  "  nub." 
This  being  again  hardened,  is  used  to  impress 
dies,  with  which  the  coining  is  done,  and  a 
pair  of  them  will  do  two  weeks'  work.  The 
coining  presses  are  of  sizes  proportionate  to 
the  work.  That  which  impresses  a  half  dime 
is  a  toy  compared  with  the  massive  structure 
required  for  a  dollar.  The  dollar  and  half 
dollar  are  struck  at  the  rate  of  sixty  per 
minute,  the  quarter  dollar  seventy-five,  and 
the  dime  and  half  dime  ninety  per  minute. 


INSURANCE. 


CHAPTER    I. 

FIRE— MARINE— LIFE. 

WHEN  industry  and  commerce  began,  in 
modern  times,  to  develop  themselves,  after 
the  "  age  of  chivalry"  was  gone,  capital  aug 
mented  itself  in  the  hands  of  individuals,  for 
the  prosecution  of  various  enterprises.  It 
soon  became  evident,  however,  that  the  capi 
tal  in  these  employments  was  exposed  to 
entire  loss  from  the  accidents  of  fire,  storms, 
and  other  vicissitudes,  over  which  the  owner 
had  no  control,  and  which  his  utmost  fore 
sight  or  sagacity  could  not  prevent.  This 
fact  was  a  drawback  upon  enterprise,  since 
every  undertaking  involved  the  chance  of 
total  ruin  to  the  projectors;  but  when  the 


commercial  spirit  became  more  largely  de 
veloped,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  some  of  the 
inventive  spirits  of  that  age  devised  the 
principle  of  insurance,  by  which  a  possible 
loss  would  be  divided  among  a  great  num 
ber  of  persons,  in  such  a  mariner  that  each 
would  feel  it  but  in  a  small  degree.  The  in 
dividual  merchant  would  thus  be  enabled  to 
embark  in  his  adventures  secure  from  ruin 
ous  accidents.  The  principle  of  insurance 
thus  devised  was  that  of  "  average,"  or  an 
application  of  the  law  of  chances,  which,  it 
was  discovered,  obey  certain  rules.  Nothing 
is  more  uncertain  than  winds  and  weather, 
or  the  accidents  of  fire,  which  occur  in  the 
face  of 'the  utmost  care  to  prevent  them. 
Births  and  deaths,  and  many  other  con- 


220 


INSURANCE. 


tingencies,  seem  to  obey  no  law  whatever, 
yet,  taken  in  great  numbers,  it  is  found  that 
the  average  that  occurs  in  a  given  time  is 
almost  certain.  If  we  look  at  single  fami 
lies,  we  find  that  some  are  all  boys,  others 
all  girls,  and  many  are  of  both  sexes,  with 
out  any  apparent  proportion.  Yet  the  cen 
sus  returns  of  all  civilized  countries  show  that 
there  are  twenty-two  males  for  every  twenty- 
one  females ;  and  that,  notwithstanding  the 
uncertainty  of  death,  this  proportion  will 
hold  good  through  the  lives  of  generations. 
The  number  of  houses  burned  in  a  year,  in 
any  given  locality,  obeys  the  same  law  of 
average  as  do  all  the  accidents  of  life.  The 
number  of  ships  engaged  in  any  trade,  that 
are  lost,  comes  under  the  same  rule.  To  fix 
the  rate  of  average,  however,  a  very  large 
scale  of .  experience  is  necessary,  and  the 
rate  of  premium  is  adjusted  on  the  basis 
of  the  average.  Thus,  if  there  are  forty 
ships  engaged  in  a  particular  trade,  and  of 
them  one  is  lost  every  year,  then  the  chance 
of  loss  is  one  to  forty,  and  the  owner  of  the 
ship  insured  should  pay  one-fortieth  part,  to 
cover  his  risk,  exclusive  of  the  sums  requir 
ed  for  the  expenses  and  profits  of  the  in 
surers.  Upon  this  principle  the  whole  com 
munity  came,  as  it  were,  to  be  responsible 
for  the  losses  of  individuals,  and  commerce 
received  an  impulse  in  consequence,  since 
enterprises  could  be  undertaken  with  more 
confidence.  Toward  the  close  of  the  seven 
teenth  century,  the  same  principle  was  ap 
plied  to  fire  risks,  and  any  description  of 
property  came  to  be  protected  from  loss  by 
the  payment  of  a  rate  of  insurance  which 
experience  showed,  properly  improved,  would 
cover  the  average  losses.  Some  half  a  cen 
tury  later,  the  principle  was  applied  to  life 
insurance,  by  which  a  person,  on  the  pay 
ment  of  a  certain  sum  annually,  at  a  rate 
fixed  by  the  largest  experience,  will  insure 
to  his  heirs  the  sum  covered  by  the  amount 
he  pays. 

These  three  descriptions  of  insurance  have 
flourished  greatly  in  the  United  States  in 
the  last  fifty  years — the  marine  and  fire 
risks  particularly.  Before  the  formation  of 
the  present  government,  insurance  in  this 
country  seems  to  have  been  confined  to  in 
dividual  underwriters,  who  took  risks  in 
their  own  names.  In  1792,  their  was 
however,  incorporated  in  Philadelphia,  the 
Insurance  Company  of  North  America;  in 
1799,  the  Providence  Company,  at  Provi 
dence;  in  1806,  the  Eagle  Company,  of 


New  York,  and  some  were  chartered  at 
Boston.  All  these  companies  were  organized 
as  stock  companies,  and  are,  with  many 
more,  still  in  existence.  The  fire  insurance 
of  the  country  has  naturally  grown  more 
than  either  of  the  other  branches,  since  every 
citizen  in  the  country  is  more  or  less  inter 
ested  in  protection  against  fire.  The  im 
mense  quantities  of  goods  that  are  sent 
from  the  factories  and  merchants,  to  be  dis 
tributed  in  the  interior,  and  all  the  produce 
which  seeks  a  market,  require  protection 
against  the  accidents  of  fire,  as  well  as  those 
of  internal  transportation.  The  multiplica 
tion  of  houses  and  stores,  with  their  contents, 
in  all  parts  of  the  country,  involves  a  grow 
ing  necessity  for  insurance;  and  this  every 
prudent  man  effects,  not  only  to  protect  his 
own  property  from  loss,  but  as  a  means  of 
credit.  The  credit  system,  on  which  so  much 
of  the  business  of  the  country  is  transacted, 
makes  it  necessary  that  the  utmost  security 
should  be  given  to  the  goods  sold,  and  insur 
ance  is  insisted  on  very  generally  by  the  sell 
ers.  A  man  who  does  not  keep  his  goods  in 
sured  has  far  less  standing  than  one  who  does. 
The  object  of  being  insured  is,  of  course, 
safety.  The  premium  is  paid  annually,  in 
the  hope  of  receiving  back  the  amount  of 
loss  in  case  of  fire.  At  the  same  time,  the 
insurer  seeks  to  get  this  done  at  as  low  a 
rate  as  possible ;  nevertheless,  there  is  a 
point  below  which  the  premium  cannot  be 
reduced  without  involving  the  solvency  of 
the  company.  The  law  of  average  fixes  the 
rate  which  the  company  must  charge,  in  or 
der  that  its  income,  improved  at  compound 
interest,  shall  suffice  to  meet  the  liability  it 
undertakes;  but  this  charge  is  "loaded" 
with  a  sum  to  meet  profit  and  expenses. 
The  great  competition  among  companies 
guarantees  that  the  charges  shall  be  kept  at 
a  low  point,  and  inducements  are  sometimes 
held  out,  of  lower  rates,  to  attract  business. 
There  are  three  modes  of  organization  of 
insurance  companies;  these  are  the  stock 
companies,  the  mutual  companies,  and  the 
mixed  companies.  The  first  mentioned  have 
a  capital  subscribed  by  any  number  of  per 
sons,  who  become  incorporated  in  a  compa 
ny.  This  capital  is  a  guarantee  that  the 
company  is  able  to  pay  if  losses  occur.  The 
capital  must  be  safely  invested  in  such  a 
manner  that  it  can  be  called  in,  if  wanted. 
They  then  issue  policies  on  certain  terms,  at 
certain  rates  of  premium,  dividing  all  the 
profits  of  the  business  among  the  stock- 


FIRE MARINE LIFE. 


221 


holders.  The  premiums  paid  in,  if  fixed  on 
sound  principles  and  well  employed,  will 
generally  suffice  to  make  good  all  the  liabil 
ities  until  the  reserve,  or-  surplus  profits  re 
tained,  have  grown  into  a  guarantee  fund. 
Out  of  this  fact,  resulting  from  experience, 
grew  the  mutual  system  of  insurance.  This 
was  contrived  after  the  "  great  fire"  in  Lon 
don,  1666,  and  was  introduced  in  New  York 
after  the  great  fire  of  1835.  By  this  system 
the  company  has  no  capital — the  premiums 
paid  in  become  the  fund  from  which  all 
losses  are  paid.  The  rates  are  charged  on  a 
sound  principle,  and  the  aggregate  improved 
at  compound  interest.  After  the  expenses 
and  losses  are  paid,  a  certain  portion  of  the 
surplus  remains  to  increase  the  assets  of  the 
company,  and  the  balance  is  divided  among 
the  insured  according  to  the  amounts  they 
have  paid.  Thus  the  profits,  instead  of 
going  to  stockholders,  go  back  to  those  who 
paid  them  into  the  company.  This  system, 
on  its  face,  is  by  far  the  most  economical  in 
its  action  and  beneficial  in  its  results.  It 
has  been  objected  to  it,  however,  that  in  a 
new  company,  with  the  small  business  inci 
dent  to  beginners,  before  there  has  been  any 
accumulation  of  profits,  the  security  is  insuf 
ficient.  To  meet  this  objection,  among  oth 
ers,  mixed  companies  are  sometimes  started. 
They  have  a  capital  paid  in,  and  this  draws 
dividends  from  their  first  profits,  to  a  certain 
extent,  the  insured  getting  a  share  of  the  re 
mainder  of  the  profits.  Where  the  business 
is  skilfully  conducted  on  sound  principles, 
the  mutual  system  seems  to  command  the 
most  advantages.  The  stock  companies  as 
sert  that  nothing  is  gained  by  the  insured 
paying  in  money,  in  the  shape  of  a  premium, 
for  the  chance  of  getting  it  back  again  as 
profits.  The  object  is,  however,  security  ; 
while  the  funds  are  in  the  hands  of  the  com 
pany,  the  liabilities  are  well  covered,  and 
they  are  not  divided  until  replaced  by  new 
accumulation.  In  the  case  of  the  stock 
companies,  the  accumulations  are  paid  over 
to  stockholders,  the  insured  getting  nothing. 
In  some  of  these  companies,  the  stockhold 
ers  get  their  whole  capital  back  every  four 
years  !  yet  the  means  of  the  company  do  not 
grow.  The  funds  of  a  company  require  to 
be  invested  in  securities  of  the  utmost  safe 
ty,  and  these,  for  the  most  part,  only  give 
the  lowest  rates  of  interest.  It  is  only  when 
a  sum  sufficient  to  meet  all  incurred  claims 
is  set  apart  in  the  best  securities  that  can  be 
had,  that  a  company  is  justified  in  seeking, 


for  the  remainder  of  its  means,  second-class 
securities  that  give  a  higher  rate  of  interest. 
The  mutual  system  has  been  a  favorite  in 
some  states,  but  in  New  York  its  reputation 
has  been  sadly  damaged  by  the  explosions 
of  fraudulent  companies.  Thus  in  1849,  a 
general  law  for  the  organization  of  insurance 
companies  was  passed,  and  under  it,  forty- 
two  companies  were  organized  and  reported 
in  1853.  Of  these,  thirty-three  have  gone 
down,  under  circumstances  of  outrage  and 
wrong  inflicted  upon  citizens,  which  have 
gone  far  to  destroy  the  reputation  of  that 
class  of  companies. 

In  Massachusetts  the  mutual  principle  has 
been  more  successful  than  the  stock  organi 
zation.  The  amount  at  risk  in  the  former  is 
$214,725,821,  and  in  the  latter  it  is  $132,- 
854,841.  The  movement  does  not  appear  to 
be  entirely  safe,  however.  There  are  sixty- 
nine  mutual  fire  companies  in  the  interior  of 
Massachusetts,  most  of  them  so  small  as  to 
make  the  policies  of  little  value,  since  to  pay 
losses,  assessments  would  be  required,  and 
these  are  fatal  to  the  standing  of  the  com 
panies.  -The  losses  by  fire  in  Massachusetts 
were,  last  year,  $1,241,669  ;  of  this,  two- 
thirds  was  borne  by  the  stock  companies,  and 
it  is  a  sum  double  the  losses  of  the  previous 
year. 

The  laws  of  New  York,  where  the  largest 
amount  of  insurance  has  been  done,  indicate 
the  changes  which  have  taken  place  in  the 
course  of  business.  Up  to  the  revision  of 
the  state  constitution  in  1846,  it  was  usual 
to  grant  special  charters  for  the  incorpora 
tion  of  companies,  and  fire,  marine,  and  life 
powers  were  often  granted  to  a  single  com 
pany.  In  1849  a  general  insurance  law  was 
passed,  by  which  any  number  of  persons 
exceeding  fifteen  might  organize  into  a  com 
pany  for  fire  and  marine  insurance,  but  it 
was  expressly  ordered  that  no  company  in 
suring  lives  should  take  any  other  kind  of 
risks.  In  1853  another  act  was  passed,  by 
which  it  was  ordered  that  no  fire  company 
should  be  incorporated  to  take  any  risks  but 
fire  and  internal  navigation.  In  1836,  when 
the  great  fire  in  New  York  had  swept  down 
nearly,  if  not  quite  all  the  existing  compa 
nies,  there  were  started  eleven  mutual  com 
panies,  that  still  exist.  In  1837,  four  more 
were  started,  and  the  number  was  increased 
by  four  more  up  to  1849.  Under  the  act 
of  that  year,  forty-two  were  started,  of  which 
nine  remain.  The  mutual  fire  companies 
now  in  New  York  state  compare  as  follows  : — 


INSURANCE. 


1853, 
1859, 
1860, 


No. 
62 
28 
27 


Assets. 

$11,621,914 
4,793,506 
4,128,101 


Cash  on  hand. 

$766,284 

161,802 


This  shows  the  decline  of  the  mutual 
principle  in  New  York ;  and  a  number  of 
those  now  existing  show  such  returns  as 
point  to  winding  up.  The  stock  companies, 
on  the  other  hand,  showing  a  rapid  increase, 
are  most  of  them  in  the  city  of  New  York, 
while  the  mutual  companies  are  all  in  the 
interior.  Of  the  existing  stock  companies, 
twenty-one  were  organized  prior  to  1838; 
under  the  act  of  1849,  thirty-eight;  and  un 
der  that  of  1853,  thirty-seven  were  organ 
ized,  making  ninety-six  now  in  operation, 
with  a  capital  of  820,007,000.  Of  these 
companies,  eleven,  with  a  capital  of  $1,900,- 
000,  were  organized  in  1859.  In  addition 
to  the  New  York  state  companies  doing  bus 
iness  in  New  York,  there  are  companies 
chartered  in  other  states,  and  English  com 
panies,  doing  business  within  the  state. 
Formerly,  or  up  to  1836,  foreign  companies 
could  do  business  in  New  York  by  paying  a 
tax  of  ten  per  cent,  of  the  premiums.  This 
assessed  them  about  $2,369  per  annum.  The 
tax  was  then  reduced  to  two  per  cent.,  which, 
in  the  ten  years  ending  in  1846,  amounted 
to  $3,183  per  annum,  being  an  increase  in 
amount  of  $813  per  annum  arising  from 
one-fifth  of  the  tax.  The  capitals  and 
premiums  of  the  New  York  fire  companies 
were  as  follows : — 

No.  Capital.  Premiums.  Risks. 

1844,       20  $5,710,000  $837,000  $119,571,000 

1859,  92  19,407,000  7,692,635  701,215,624 

1860,  96  20,007,060  8,032,493  719,267,809 

In  the  year  1845  again  occurred  a  large 
fire,  which,  burning  the  lower  end  of  Broad 
way,  and  a  large  amount  of  property, 
swept  into  bankruptcy  many  of  the  fire 
companies.  The  law  of  1849  favored  the 
establishment  of  new  ones,  causing  great 
progress  in  the  fire  companies  in  New 
York  in  the  last  eleven  years.  This  large 
and  increasing  business  has  been  of  great 
profit  to  the  companies,  as  appears  from  the 
handsome  dividends  declared.  In  the  last 
eight  years,  the  twenty-one  companies  or 
ganized  prior  to  1838  have  declared  divi 
dends  ranging  from  106  to  236  per  cent. 
The  average  is  142  per  cent.,  or  18  percent, 
per  annum  on  the  stock.  The  dividends  of 
the  other  companies  are  not  so  large,  but 
they  show  a  handsome  investment.  Some  of 
the  companies  are  mixed;  these  declare 


dividends  in  cash  on  the  stock,  perhaps  5 
per  cent,  semi-annual,  and  20  or  30  per  cent, 
in  scrip  on  the  earned  premiums  of  the 
participating  policies.  All  the  policies  are 
not  participating.  The  plans  are  much 
diversified.  The  policies  participate  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent,  as  declared  upon  their 
face.  The  principle  is  this :  if  the  year's 
business  is  $100,000,  and  of  this,  $40,000  is 
found  to  be  profits,  one-fourth  of  this  will 
go  to  the  stockholders,  and  there  remains 
$30,000  for  the  participating  policies.  These 
policies  may  compose  a  greater  or  less  pro 
portion  of  the  business.  Under  the  supposi 
tion  that  it  is  six-tenths,  or$60, 000,  then  the 
dividend  is  called  50  per  cent. 

The  law  of  1853  permitted  companies 
of  other  states  to  do  business  if  possessed 
of  the  active  capital  required  of  companies 
in  New  York,  and  on  compliance  with  cer 
tain  conditions  prescribed.  Under  this  per 
mission,  many  companies  of  Rhode  Island, 
Connecticut,  Philadelphia,  New  Jersey,  Mas 
sachusetts,  and  Georgia  have  transacted  bus 
iness  to  a  considerable  extent. 

In  New  England  the  insurance  business 
has  taken  dimensions  second  only  to  those 
of  New  York.  The  ./Etna  Company  of 
Hartford  is  one  of  the  most  successful  com 
panies  of  the  world.  It  was  founded  in 
1819.  It  has  a  capital  of  $3,000,000,  and 
its  whole  assets  are  1867,  $4,478,000  ;  while 
its  risks  are  $285,000,000  on  fire,  and  $46,- 
000,000  on  inland  navigation.  This  com 
pany,  in  the  last  year,  added  $500,000  to  its 
capital  from  accumulated  profits,  and  divided 
$200,000  cash. 

The  amount  insured  against  fire  by  these 
companies,  the  annexed  table  gives  at  nearly 
$2,000,000,000.  The  companies  of  other 
states  than  those  mentioned,  and  of  which  we 
have  no  returns,  would  add,  probably,  $500,- 
000,000  to  this  amount ;  and  there  are  some 
risks,  probably  $50,000,000,  taken  by  the 
English  companies  doing  business  here. 
This  vast  sum  of  property  insured  against 
fire,  is  the  growth  of  the  last  fifty  years,  and 
we  may  compare  it  with  the  insurances  of 
some  of  the  European  countries.  Thus,  in 
Great  Britain,  the  fire  risks  amounted  to 
$3,905,432,665,  or  double  those  of  the 
annexed  table;  in  France,  the  fire  risks  are 
$6,500,000,000 ;  in  Germany,  the  fire  risks 
are  $4,075,000,000.  Thus  the  United 
States  have  already  a  fair  proportion  of 
property  covered  by  policies,  and  the  system 
extends  itself  gradually. 


FIRE — MARINE — LIFE. 


223 


In  New  York  the  company  having  the 
largest  risks  is  the  Home,  of  $51,045,691. 
If  we  bring  together  the  returns  of  the  leading 


Companies  of  the  several  states,  as  far  as  re 
turns  are  obtained,  we  have  the  following 
figures : — 


CAPITAL,    PREMIUM,   AND  RISKS,    OF  FIRE    COMPANIES  IN  THE   UNITED    STATES. 

No.  Capital. 

New  York  Stock 96  $20,007,000 

Mutual 28 

Massachusetts 99  6,353,100 

New  Hampshire 23 

Providence 6  900,000 

Connecticut 12  4,550,000 

Philadelphia 10  2,908,181 

Jersey  City 1  150,000 

Peoria,  111 1  300,000 

Augusta,  Ga 1  375,000 

Charleston 2  833,558 

New  Orleans 9  4,500,000 


isets,  including 

Cash 

Fire  risks. 

capital. 

premiums. 

$26,323,384 

$6,421,342 

$719,267,809 

4,793,506 

87,310,910 

1,266,183 

347,580,662 

33,000 

39.784,084 

1,519,688 

552,153 

26,648,143 

5,364,686 

3,715,320 

279,322,184 

6,510,601 

1,913,417 

139,229,374 

179,713 

36,109 

5,231,061 

363,995 

89,375 

6,806,377 

962,588 

194,407 

7,000,000 

472,000 

98,000,800 

6,738,031 

2,910,000 

221,100,000 

The  Illinois  company  has  $1,572,387  ma 
rine  risks,  in  addition. 

The  losses  by  fire  in  the  United  States  in 
1859,  where  the  damage  was  $20,000  and 
upward,  amounted  to  $16,058,000,  and  the 
estimated  total  losses  incurred  by  the  under 
writers  was  $22,000,000 — burned  up  in  a 
single  year.  The  losses  above  $20,000 
amounted  in  six  years,  ending  with  1859,  to 
$98,197,000;  and  the  total  estimate  was 
$127,500,000 — an  enormous  amount  to  be 
destroyed.  This  amount  is  apparently  borne 
by  the  insurance  offices,  but  it  is  really  paid 
by  all  those  who  get  insurances.  It  is  their 
aggregate  premium  which  forms  the  fund 
which  pays  not  only  this  loss,  but  the  large 
profits  derived  by  the. stockholders  in  insur 
ance  companies.  The  companies  contribute 
nothing  toward  it.  The  extent  of  their  ser 
vices  is  to  collect  the  premiums  from  the  in 
sured,  and,  after  paying  salaries  and  ex 
penses,  meet  the  losses  and  divide  the  sur 
plus  among  the  shareholders  of  the  compa 
nies.  This  service  is,  of  course,  an  indis 
pensable  one.  It  brings  all  the  property  of 
the  community  to  guarantee  individuals 
against  serious  losses. 

Marine  insurance  differs  from  both  fire 
and  life  insurance,  both  in  the  mode  of 
transacting  the  business,  and  in  the  diversi 
fied  nature  of  the  risks  against  which  secu 
rity  is  sought.  The  great  emporium  of  ma 
rine  insurance  for  the  commercial  world  is 
London,  and  it  is  there  done  through  the 
medium  of  individual  underwriters,  who 
congregate  at  Lloyd's,  which  may  be  consid 
ered  as  the  focus  of  the  commerce  of  the 
world.  There  is  not  a  seaport  of  any  con- 


$52,746,192     $17,603,306      $1,977,281,404 

sequence,  where  it  has  not  an  agent  to  give 
intelligence  of  all  departures  and  arrivals, 
ships  spoken,  wrecks,  accidents,  weather,  and 
every  item  that  affects  navigation.  In  this 
way  they  are  supplied  with  information  from 
all  quarters,  and  almost  all  vessels  that  float 
are  registered,  with  every  minute  particular 
in  regard  to  them  ;  and  vessels  of  all  nations 
are  more  or  less  thus  insured.  In  the  United 
States,  marine  insurance  was  the  first  that 
engaged  the  attention  of  the  eastern  states, 
and  it  has,  as  a  matter  of  course,  been  con 
fined  mostly  to  the  great  cities.  In  New 
York  there  are  seven  companies  incorporat 
ed  by  special  charters  before  1849  ;  one  of 
these  is  at  Buffalo.  There  are  also  seven 
which  are  organized  under  the  act  of  1849; 
of  these,  two  were  started  in  1859.  There 
are  no  companies  organized  in  other  states 
or  foreign  countries,  that  do  business  in  New 
York,  none  having  complied  with  the  pro 
visions  of  the  law  of  1859;  and  a  fine  of 
$500  each  offence  is  imposed  upon  those 
who  transact  business  without  being  author 
ized.  The  fourteen  marine  companies  of 
New  York  have  assets,  $20,932,067,  and  re 
ceived  premiums  during  the  year,  $13,730,- 
438 ;  losses  and  expenditures  during  the 
year,  $9,446,293.  In  the  marine  companies, 
after  the  profits  of  the  year  are  made  up, 
certificates  are  issued  to  each  of  the  insured 
for  his  proportion  of  the  profits ;  these 
bear  interest,  and  have  a  market  value. 
When  the  funds  accumulate,  these  certifi 
cates  are  called  in  and  paici  off.  As  an  ex 
ample,  the  Atlantic  Mutual  was  organized  in 
1842.  The  profits,  as  they  were  earned, 
were  yearly  paid  to  the  insured  in  the  shape 


224 


INSURANCE. 


of  the  certificates.  Thus,  a  dividend  of 
thirty-five  per  cent,  was  declared  Dec.  31st, 
1859,  and,  for  this,  certificates  bearing  inter 
est  were  issued.  It  was  then  found,  after 
paying  all  expenses  and  interest  on  the  out 
standing  certificates,  that  the  reserve  fund 
of  the  company  amounted  to  $3,809,250  af 
ter  paying  off  the  certificates  issued  previous 
to  1858 ;  and  it  was  resolved  to  pay  off  those 
of  that  year.  The  whole  account  stood 
thus : — 

Profits,  July  1,  1842,  to  June  1,  1860,  $10,428,470 
Certificates  redeemed  previous  to  1858,  6,619,220 


Net  earnings  on  hand,  Jan.  1, 


$3,809,250 


The  dividends  of  scrip  of  the  marine  in 
surance  companies  of  New  York,  as  shown 
by  the  official  returns,  were  as  follows : — 

Capital  and    Premiums  Scrip  rate  per 

assets.       marked  off.  ceut. 

1859  1860 

Atlantic $6,002,732      $4,497,4fi8  40        35 

Anchor 872,559            49,127  —        — 

Commercial 928,783          603,571  40        15 

Great  Western   8,396,258        2,801,664  20        10 

Mercantile 1,125,102          894,775  20        11 

New  York 1,002.637          812,519  35        12 

Orient 1,316,552          566,092  21        20 

Pacific 1,005,966          823,655  43        80 

Union 1,647,181           5f  1,544  45        86 

Columbian 1,264,443          755,142  12        — 

Bun 1,914,280        1,025,167  80        — 

Neptune 268. 161  (new)  43,133  —        — 

Washington 150,201  (new)    —  —       — 

264      169 
Average 83        2H 


The  totals  and  average  are  exclusive  of  the 
Columbian  and  Sun,  which  have  not  yet  is 
sued  scrip. 

In  Massachusetts,  the  marine  risks  for  the 
past  year  were  $101,972,974;  of  this,  $45,- 
545,105  was  in  stock  companies.  The  ma 
rine  losses  reached  $3,905,186. 

A  large  proportion  of  the  risks  taken  in 
the  eastern  cities,  is  for  internal  navigation, 
and  the  loss  by  steam  and  sail  in  1859  was 
$1,020,100  ;  about  two-thirds  sail.  The  ag 
gregate  marine  losses  are  very  nearly  $40,- 
000,000  for  the  year. 

Life  insurance  has  taken  large  proportions 
of  late  years,  and  the  amounts  now  at  risk 
involve  many  millions.  In  1825,  the  first 
company  chartered,  the  Massachusetts  Hos 
pital  and  Life  Insurance  Company,  com 
menced  its  business.  In  1829  the  New 
York  Life  Insurance  and  Trust  Company 
was  chartered.  Though  of  the  highest 
standing,  and  possessing  fully  the  public 
confidence,  both  of  these  institutions  found 
the  trust  business  authorized  by  their  char 
ter  to  be  more  attractive  than  life  assur 


ance  ;  and  for  several  years  neither  of  these 
companies  has  made  any  effort  to  increase 
the  number  of  its  policies.  Most  of  the 
remaining  companies  in  this  country  are  of 
recent  date,  and  very  few  of  the  number  have 
seen  the  period  of  half  a  generation,  yet  the 
magnitude  of  this  business  is  such  that  the 
following  facts  appear  in  the  reports :  In 
New  York  there  are  twelve  companies  doing 
business.  The  oldest  of  these  was  organized 
in  1830;  two  in  1859;  and  two  more  were 
established  in  the  present  year,  1860.  These 
companies  have  a  capital,  with  accumulation, 
amounting  to  $12, 090, 81 5,  and  the  outstand 
ing  risks  are  $72,147,436;  the  annual 
premiums  are  $2,762,366.  There  are  a  num 
ber  of  companies  of  other  states  doing  a 
life  business  in  New  York,  and  three  Eng 
lish  companies.  These  are  required  to  com 
ply  with  the  New  York  law  of  1853  in  re 
lation  to  security.  This  requires  that  a  sum 
of  $100,000  shall  be  lodged  with'  the  insur 
ance  department  for  the  security  of  the 
policy  holders. 

In  life  insurance  the  principle  is  based  on 
the  average  continuance  of  life,  than  which 
nothing  is  more  uncertain  as  regards  individ 
uals  or  a  limited  number  of  persons.  Never 
theless,  in  a  large  number,  the  average  of 
those  who  arrive  at  a  certain  age  is  ascer 
tained  with  much  precision.  To  ascertain 
this,  Mr.  Milson,  of  the  Sun  Life  Office  of 
England,  constructed  a  table  at  Carlisle  from 
observations  made  upon  10,000  persons 
born  nearly  at  the  same  time ;  the  number 
of  these  that  were  alive  in  each  subsequent 
year,  until  the  whole  were  extinct.  These 
are  called  the  "  Carlisle  tables,"  and  are  sup 
posed  to  give  pretty  accurately  the  average 
English  life,  and  they  are  used  mostly  in  this 
country,  although  it  is  supposed  that  life  here 
is  really  shorter  than  in  England.  The  tables 
show  that  of  10,000  born  at  the  same  time, 
4000  lived  to  be  56.  The  number  of  those 
who  died  at  66  was  124.  Hence  the  prob 
ability  that  a  person  now  56  will  die  in  his 
66th  year  is  as  124:4000.  The  probability 
of  life  being  ascertained,  it  remains  to  find 
what  sum  per  annum  a  person  must  pay  in 
order  to  obtain  a  fixed  sum,  say  $1,000,  for 
his  heirs  at  his  death.  It  is  to  be  borne  in 
mind  that  insurance  creates  nothing ;  all  that 
it  does  for  the  individual  is  to  take  his 
money,  and  improve  it  at  compound  interest 
into  a  sum  that  it  agrees  to  pay  his  heirs. 
The  time  of  payment  is  the  uncertain  part, 
and  this  in  a  company  where  great  numbers 


FIRE MARINE LIFE. 


225 


are  insured,  is  fixed  by  the  principle  of 
average.  Suppose  a  person  35  years  old 
wants  to  be  insured  for  $1,000.  The  tables 
say  his  expectation  of  life  is  31  years.  The 
company  assume  that  as  a  fact,  and  with 
them  it  is  an  agreement  to  pay  $1,000  at  the 
end  of  31  years.  What  sum  paid  annually 
and  improved  at  4  per  cent,  compound  in 
terest  will  come  to  $1,000  in  31  years  ?  This 
would  be  $17,  but  the  company  add  to  or 
load  this  with  a  certain  per-centage  to  defray 
expenses  and  for  profit,  and  the  charge  will 
probably  be  827.  This  amount  per  annum  for 
31  years  will,  without  interest,  amount  to 
8839,  and  improved  at  6  per  cent.,  will 
amount  to  $1,560  in  31  years.  Thus,  if  the 
individual  lives  the  whole  time,  and  im 
proves  his  own  money,  he  will  have  50  per 
cent,  more  than  the  company  agrees  to  pay. 
The  company  have  many  sources  of  profit, 
however.  The  first  is  that  they  put  the  ex 
pectation  of  life  lower  than  the  fact.  This 
is  necessary  in  young  companies.  Thus,  if 
among  10,000  persons,  4,000  live  to  be  50,  it 
will  not  do  to  take  that  as  the  rule  for  200 
persons ;  but  a  less  rate  must  be  assumed, 
and  a  higher  charge  made.  If  the  company's 
business  increases,  so  that  they  get  out  10,000 
policies,  they  will  have  the  full  benefit  of 
the  average,  or,  in  other  words,  the  insured 
pay  more  than  they  ought.  In  the  second 
place,  the  company  calculates  the  premiums 
improved  at  4  per  cent.,  when  they  get  really 
from  C  to  7.  This  makes  the  amount  at  the 
end  of  a  year's  time  50  per  cent,  more  than 
the  estimate.  In  the  third  place,  the  calcula 
tion  of  expectation  of  lives  is  for  ordinary 
lives,  whereas  the  lives  taken  are  only  those 
carefully  selected.  Those  that  are  less  likely 
to  die  are  only  chosen.  Hence,  this  makes 
the  rate  of  premium  higher  than  the  tables 
justify.  In  the  fourth  place,  the  profits  of 
a  company  are  increased  by  the  forfeiting  of 
policies  by  persons  who  do  not  pay  up. 
There  is  also  a  profit  when  a  policy  is  pur 
chased  from  those  who  surrender.  All  those 
sources  together  tend  to  make  the  profits  far 
larger  than  the  simple  compounding  of  the 
rates  indicated  in  the  tables  would  show. 
In  the  mutual  system  it  is  claimed  that  these 
profits  are  paid  over  with  the  amount  in 
sured  at  the  end  of  the  time,  or  at  the 
death  of  the  insured.  There  is  no  limit, 
however,  on  the  expenses,  which  are  an  item 
in  making  up  profits.  It  is  apparent,  from 
all  these  facts,  that  the  money  does  not  ac* 
cumulate  with  the  company  faster  than  it 
14* 


would  if  the  individual  improved  it  him 
self,  since  the  advantages  of  the  company, 
in  lapse  of  policies,  etc.,  only  offset  the 
expenses  they  incur.  The  advantage  is  in 
the  security  offered  for  the  repayment  of  the 
money.  The  idea  that  money  will  grow  by 
the  operation  of  interest  any  faster  in  the 
hands  of  a  company  than  in  those  of  an  in 
dividual  is  a  fallacy,  which  was  some  years 
since  applied  to  building  associations.  These 
drew  in  large  amounts  of  money  in  small 
payments  from  numbers  of  persons  who 
were  to  obtain  house  lots,  through  some 
magical  mode  of  making  money  grow.  Dis 
appointment  generally  attended  them.  In 
the  case  of  the  life  companies,  however,  the 
contingency  exists  that  the  person  insured 
may  not  live  to  accumulate  his  money.  He 
may  die  as  soon  as  he  has  made  his  first 
payment,  in  which  case  the  operation  is  a 
good  one  for  his  family.  This  is  the  chance 
feature  which  is  the  great  attraction,  since 
the  payment  once  made,  there  is  the  cer 
tainty  that  the  family  will  not  be  destitute  in 
case  of  death.  It  is  only  those  in  the  best 
of  health,  however,  that  can  avail  themselves 
of  this  opportunity  for  security,  since  the 
lives  in  any  degree  doubtful  are  rejected. 

In  Massachusetts  there  are  five  life  com 
panies,  which  have  issued  7,007  policies,  and 
the  risks  are  $17,408,713.  The  Mutual 
Benefit  Company  of  New  Jersey  has  out 
standing  risks,  $22,559,177,  and  the  Con 
necticut  Mutual,  $22,701,294. 

The  largest  life  company  in  the  world  is 
the  Gotha,  of  Germany ;  it  has  1 5,000  pol 
icy  holders.  The  united  German  companies 
have  insured  for  $35,000,000.  The  Equita 
ble,  of  London,  has  the  largest  accumulated 
capital,  having  been  in  operation  more  than 
ninety  years.  It  received,  during  a  period 
of  eighty-six  years,  premiums  and  dues  to 
the  amount  of  $95,338,180,  which  accumu 
lated  at  compound  interest  to  such  an  ex 
tent,  that  the  company  has  been  enabled  to 
pay  out  $126,683,158  to  families  of  deceased 
members  and  other  policy  holders ;  and  for 
expenses,  $2,091,180,  retaining  in  hand  an 
accumulated  fund  of  $44,000^000  to  meet 
running  policies,  and  claims  outstanding  to 
the  amount  of  $70,500,000.  During  one 
period  of  ten  years,  the  Equitable  paid  out 
about  $40,000,000.  Its  annual  income  is 
$2,850,000,  and  the  number  of  policy  hold 
ers  about  5,200.  The  profits  are  divided 
among  the  oldest  5,000,  in  the  order  of 
their  admission.  The  amount  of  life  in- 


226 


INSURANCE. 


surance  effected  in  great  Britain,  is  $750,- 
000,000. 

The  usual  method  adopted  by  the  Life  In 
surance  companies  has  been  to  base  their 
estimates  of  the  cost  of  insurance  on  the 
Carlisle  tables,  which  are  explained  on  a 
previous  page,  and  taking  their  statement  of 
the  sum,  which,  placed  at  compound  interest 
at  four  per  cent.,  would,  on  the  average  of 
duration  of  human  life,  produce  $1,000  ;  add 
to  that  a  "  loading  "  of  a  per-centage  suffi 
cient  to  cover  commissions,  expenses  of  rent, 
salaries,  &c.,  failures,  depreciation  of  stocks, 
and  the  prevalence  of  any  fatal  epidemic. 
These  several  items  are  supposed  to  be  fully 
covered  by  an  addition  of  about  thirty-one 
per  cent,  to  the  amount  given  by  the  Carlisle 
tables.  Thus,  by  these  tables,  a  healthy 
man  of  thirty  years  old  could  be  insured 
safely  at  $17.50  per  annum,  that  sum  com 
pounded  at  four  per  cent,  producing  81,000 
at  the  average  duration  of  life.  The  ad 
ditional  "  load  "  of  thirty-one  per  cent,  makes 
the  amount  $22.92  ;  and,  in  order  to  be  safe, 
the  mutual  companies  charge  from  $23.02  to 
$23.60  per  $1,000  for  insurance  to  a  man  of 
thirty  years. 

But  further  and  more  careful  observation 
has  demonstrated  that  the  Carlisle  tables 


are  inaccurate,  the  error  being  largely  in 
favor  of  the  companies  ;  the  average  chances 
of  life  under  forty-five  years  in  selected  lives 
being  at  the  present  day  nearly  forty  per 
cent,  better  than  those  tables  show.  There 
is  also  no  difficulty  in  this  country  in  com 
pounding  the  amount  received  for  premiums 
at  six  per  cent.,  and  but  little  at  seven  per 
cent. ;  so  that  there  is  a  gain  of  at  least  fifty 
per  cent,  from  this  source.  Added  to  this, 
is  the  large  per-centage  of  gain  from  the 
lapsing  of  policies.  The  Mutual  Insurance 
companies  might  therefore  make  their  terms 
considerably  lower  than  they  now  are,  and 
still,  if  they  were  managed  judiciously,  re 
tain  a  sufficient  reserve  to  reinsure  all  their 
patrons.  But  most  of  them  pay  very  large 
commissions  to  their  agents,  the  competition 
being  very  strong,  and  expend  large  sums  in 
fitting  up  elegant  offices,  paying  high  sala 
ries,  &c.  The  joint-stock  companies,  which 
make  dividends  only  to  their  stockholders, 
and  none  to  the  insured,  insure  at  much 
lower  rates,  some  of  them  even  putting  the 
rates  of  insurance  to  persons  under  forty- 
five  years  below  those  of  the  Carlisle 
tables.  The  following  table  shows  the 
comparative  rates  of  the  two  classes  of 
companies  : — 


COMPARATIVE  RATES  OF  DOMESTIC  LIFE  INSURANCE. 

I. — PARTICIPATION,    OR   MUTUAL    SCALE    FOR   INSURANCE   OF   ONE   THOUSAND   DOLLARS. 


£J 

| 

x 

o~a 

a* 

m 

ti 

h.  =  22 

« 

o    . 

3 

i-s 
•Sfc 

•E'l 

.*r 

§g,=* 

AGE. 

•|rt<2 

"S 

A 

a 

H3 
*3 

"gizi 

B  2  O 

I  Iff 

2<  C  .f 

H^ 

*3 

~u  3 
C  3 

0  w- 
pQ 

1^ 

|P| 

M  " 

cj 

0^ 

S   3 

Wa 

1 

|5 

S  a 

°3 

!<2fi 

1 

' 

fc 

* 

X 

£; 

O 

« 

S 

^3 

20  

17.26 

17.80 

17.30 

19.89 

17.30 

17.70 

17.30 

17.70 

17.70 

17.70 

25   .  . 

19.85 

20.40 

19.89 

19.89 

19.80 

20.40 

20.40 

20.40 

20.40 

20.40 

30  

,  .  .     23.08 

23.60 

23.02 

23.02 

22.70 

23.60 

23.50 

23.60 

23.60 

23.60 

35  

26.82 

27.30 

26.87 

26.87 

26.50 

27.50 

27.50 

27.50 

27.50 

27.50 

40  

31.71 

32.00 

31.73 

31.73 

31.50 

32.00 

32.00 

32.00 

32.00 

32.00 

45  

37.76 

37.40 

38.04 

38.04 

38.00 

37.30 

38.00 

37.30 

37.30 

37.30 

50 

45.91 

45.40 

46.42 

•'46.42 

47.00 

46.00 

47.70 

46.00 

46.00 

46.00 

55  

57.75 

57.80 

57.58 

57.58 

59.40 

57.80 

59.40 

57.80 

57.80 

57.80 

60.. 

74.30 

74.60 

76.40 

70.00 

. — NON-PARTICIPATION,    OR   JOINT-STOCK   SCALE   FOR   INSURANCE    OF    ONE   THOUSAND   DOLLARS. 


i  a 
i  5.2 
«  c  'S 

1 

<s 
3 

4 

£3 

ild 

t* 
o   . 

"i 

1* 

Q>    C    *^ 

LGK. 

•9h# 

1 

S.l 

«"§ 

sSl 

J3JS 

C   Q 

|M 

l^la53 

3|| 

•°  S. 

1 
1 

M 

ri 

|l 

III 

1 

Bl 

5«i 

H 

20 

15.54 

16.00 

14.14 

16.50 

14.80 

14.70 

16.50 

13.70 

12.16 

25.... 

1796 

18.40 

16.44 

19.00 

17.10 

17.00 

19.00 

15.30 

14.92 

13.86 

30 

20.77 

21.30 

19.20 

21.90 

19.90 

19.60 

21.90 

17.42 

17.02 

16.06 

35 

24  14 

24.60 

22.20 

25.30 

23.00 

22.90 

25.30 

20.50 

19.78 

18.92 

40 

28  54 

28,80 

26.28 

29.70 

27.30 

26.70 

29.60 

23.98 

23.47 

22.75 

45 

33  98 

33.70 

30.72 

34.70 

32.00 

31.00 

34.70 

29.80 

28.48 

28.04 

50 

41.32 

40.90 

37.68 

42.10 

39.10 

38.40 

42.10 

37.51 

35.38 

35.18 

55 

51.97 

52.10 

48.60 

53.60 

50  60 

48.20 

53.50 

44.80 

60 

66.87 

67.20 

67.50 

66.20 

58.40 

66.80 

67.74 

FIRE MARINE — LIFE. 


227 


Within  the  past  four  or  five  years  most  of 
the  Life  Insurance  companies  have  granted 
what  are  termed  Ten  years  non-forfeitable 
policies,  in  which  the  insurance  premiums 
are  paid  in  ten  annual  payments,  and  the 
policy  is  paid  at  death ;  and  when,  from  any 
cause,  the  premiums  are  paid  for  only  a  por 
tion  of  the  time,  the  party,  for  whose  benefit 
the  insurance  is  effected,  receives  an  amount 


proportioned  to  the  number  of  payments 
which  have  been  made.  By  this  plan  it  is 
claimed  that  a  man  can  effect  an  insurance 
for  life,  and  bring  the  payments  for  it  within 
the  most  active  business  portion  of  his  life, 
when  the  premiums  can  be  paid  with  least  in 
convenience  to  himself.  The  following  table 
shows  the  rates  of  insurance  on  this  plan  of 
several  Mutual  and  Joint-Stock  companies. 


TEN  YEARS  NON-FORFEITABLE  PLAN  FOR  ONE   THOUSAND  DOLLARS  INSURANCE. 
MUTUAL  SYSTEM.  JOINT-STOCK  SYSTEM. 


AOK. 


20 41.95 

30 4651 

40   57.44 

50..  72.31 


as  S  g 

S^* 

O  M 

42.00  42.10 

52.65  52.34 

64.61  64.78 

82.35  79.72 


Several  new  features  have  been  adopted 
by  the  new  companies  organized  during 
the  past  two  or  three  years.  One  of  these, 
adopted  by  the  Universal  Life  Insurance 
Co.,  is  the  insurance  of  invalids,  or  persons 
of  impaired  health  or  constitution,  on  the 
payment  of  a  larger  premium  than  that  of 
selected  lives,  the  rate  being  fixed  by  the 
report  of  the  medical  examiner.  Another, 
is  the  reduction  of  the  rate  in  first-class  cases 
to  that  of  an  age  two,  three,  or  five  years 
younger,  and  the  advance  in  doubtful  cases 
to  a  corresponding  degree,  above  the  normal 
rate  for  their  age. 

Accident  insurance,  though  no  novelty  in 
England — companies  having  been  organized 
there  in  1848  and  1849 — had  never  been 
attempted  here  till  1864,  when  the  Travelers' 
Insurance  Company  of  Hartford  was  char 
tered  by  the  Legislature  of  Conn.  It  had 
a  capital  of  $500,000,  and  its  surplus  in 
October,  1866,  was  $242,000.  At  first  it 
confined  itself  to  insuring  against  death  or 
disability  from  accidents,  paying  a  weekly 
compensation  to  those  totally  disabled,  or  a 
sum  agreed  to  the  heirs,  in  case  of  the  death 
from  accident  of  the  insured  party,  or  both, 
where  the  policy  was  issued  with  that  pro 
vision. 

At  the  end  of  two  years,  it  organized  a 
department  of  general  life  insurance,  on  the 
joint-stock  plan,  and  put  its  rates  of  premium 
lower  than  the  other  companies  ;  which  it  was 
able  to  do  by  having  lighter  expenses,  its 
accident  business  defraying  the  larger  share 
of  expenses,  and  by  paying  smaller  commis- 


30.00 
38.40 
48.80 
62.00 


29.02 
36.22 
45.70 
61.73 


36.44 
45.51 
59.19 


26.14 
32.66 
42.44 
57.90 


sions ;  while  it  scrutinized  very  carefully  the 
chances  of  life  of  all  applicants,  and  rejected 
many  whom  other  companies  received.  It 
combined  with  this,  when  desired,  at  a  small 
additional  premium,  weekly  compensation 
for  total  disability  caused  by  accident. 

Other  Accident  Insurance  companies  have 
since  been  formed,  one  of  them  on  the 
mutual  plan  ;  but  none  of  the  others  have 
combined  a  general  life  policy  with  accident 
insurance.  The  Accident  Insurance  com 
panies  sell  tickets  of  insurance  from  the 
danger  of  railroad  and  steamboat  travel,  viz., 
from  accident  or  injury  from  the  destruction 
or  partial  injury  of  the  vehicle  in  which  the 
passenger  is  travelling,  at  a  given  rate  per 
day.  The  ordinary  accident  policy  pays 
a  weekly  compensation  for  all  injuries  from 
any  accident  producing  a  temporary  total 
disability,  however  it  may  have  occurred,  or 
a  fixed  sura  on  death  induced  by  accident, 
or  both,  as  may  be  provided  in  the  policy, 
according  to  the  premium  paid. 

The  application  of  the  insurance  principle 
to  other  objects  has  recently  been  attempted. 
Thus  we  have  one  or  more  Live-Stock  Insur 
ance  companies,  protecting  the  owners  of 
live-stock  against  losses  by  debt  or  theft, 
based  on  the  experience  of  English  com 
panies,  where  this  description  of  insurance 
has  been  conducted  for  fifty  years ;  a  com 
pany  to  insure  the  owners  of  steam  boilers 
against  their  explosion  ;  and  a  Fidelity  In 
surance  company,  to  furnish  bonds  for  men 
who  are  appointed  to  positions  of  trust  and 
responsibility. 


IIMIGKATION. 


CHAPTER  I. 

GENERAL  MIGRATION  — COLONIES   AND 
UNITED   STATES. 

AT  the  date  of  the  last  national  census,  in 
1850,  more  than  one-tenth  part  of  all  the 
inhabitants  of  the  United  States  were  foreign 
born,  that  is,  one  soul  in  every  ten  had  been 
born  in  a  foreign  land.  Since  that  census,  viz. : 
from  1850  to  the  close  of  1859,  two  million 
five  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  more  aliens 
have  arrived  in  this  country,  which,  added 
to  the  number  then  reported  as  foreign  born, 
would  make  very  nearly  one  foreigner  out 
of  four  citizens  at  the  date  of  1859.  The 
natives  have,  however,  since  progressed  in 
numbers,  as  have  also  the  emigrants,  and  the 
progeny  of  these  latter  will  class  as  "natives" 
in  the  forthcoming  census. 

The  term  "  native"  has  been  used  to  dis 
tinguish  the  born  citizen  from  the  newly  ar 
rived  foreigner,  as  well  as  the  former  from  the 
"  red  man,"  who  was  also  an  emigrant  in  the 
view  of  the  lost  races  that  preceded  him,  and 
of  which  monumental  traces  alone  remain  in 
evidence  that  they  ever  existed.  The  history 
of  the  human  race,  adopting  the  Mosaic  ac 
count,  is  a  history  of  migration.  Twice  has 
the  race  comprised  only  a  single  family,  occu 
pying  a  single  point  on  the  earth's  surface, 
and  twice  has  it  spread  in  all  directions,  form 
ing  nations  and  founding  empires.  The  ante 
diluvian  world  was  swept  away  by  the  deluge, 
and  all  traces  of  the  race  of  Adam  had  been 
washed  away  by  the  obliterating  waters  from 
the  earth's  surface  when  the  ark  gave  up  its 
freight.  From  its  door  migration  was  re 
sumed,  and  three  continents  owe  their  popu 
lations  to  the  several  sons  of  the  patriarch. 
Asia,  Africa,  and  Europe  were  settled  by 
Shem,  Ham,  and  Japhet  and  their  descend 
ants,  who  have  stamped  their  characteristics 
upon  each.  From  that  day  to  the  present  the 
same  recurring  circumstances  have  from  time 
to  time  produced  the  same  results.  As  each 
locality  became  overcrowded  by  increase,  the 


most  adventurous  sallied  forth  in  quest  of 
new  homes,  which,  in  their  turn,  filled,  and 
overflowed  into  some  more  distant  region. 
These  successive  waves  rolling  on  until  the 
remotest  shores  of  each  continent  were  occu 
pied,  were  succeeded  by  more  formidable 
hosts  of  armed  invaders,  who  came,  sword  in 
hand,  to  dispossess  occupiers  and  seize  accu 
mulated  wealth.  Successive  empires  have 
gone  down  before  these  barbarian  hordes, 
and  modern  Europe  has  but  lately  recovered 
from  the  shock  that  attended  the  fall  of  the 
Roman  empire  amid  a  deluge  of  barbarians. 
With  the  growth  of  modern  civilization 
migration  has  no  longer  a  destructive  charac 
ter.  It  seeks  to  build  up  by  bringing  industry 
in  aid  of  natural  resources,  rather  than  to 
destroy  by  seizing  what  others  have  pro 
duced.  It  is  more  steady,  penetrating,  and 
effective  in  its  commercial  character — having 
industry  for  a  means  and  prosperity  for  an 
object — than  in  its  old  turbulent  military 
form,  plundering  by  force  and  leaving  deso 
lation  in  its  train. 

The  British  Islands  were  the  last  subjects 
of  European  incursions.  The  Britons,  of 
mythic  origin,  were  plundered  by  Norse  en 
terprise,  and  the  Saxons  alternated  with  the 
Danes  in  dominating  the  nation  on  the  with 
drawal  of  the  Romans,  to  be  in  their  turn 
subjected  to  the  Normans.  Since  then  800 
years  have  been  spent  in  amalgamating  the 
races  and  in  peopling  the  islands.  Even  at 
that  date  the  adventurous  Norsemen,  in 
search  of  the  whale,  had  discovered  the  new 
continent  and  formed  a  colony  on  what  is 
now  known  as  Newfoundland.  It  required 
long  centuries,  however,  in  that  barbarous 
age,  for  the  people  to  struggle  successfully 
against  the  effects  of  feudal  oppression,  civil 
wars,  and  their  consequences,  famine  and 
plague.  Nevertheless,  progress  was  made  and 
commerce  a  good  deal  developed,  when,  at 
the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  the  dis 
covery  of  the  West  Indies  by  Columbus  was 
followed  by  an  influx  of  the  precious  metals 


GENERAL    MIGRATION COLONIES    AND    UNITED    STATES. 


229 


into  Europe,  giving  a  renewed  impetus  to 
industry  and  enterprise.  The  Spanish  were 
attracted  by  gold,  and  the  commercial  Dutch 
by  the  desire  to  found  colonies,  and  their 
example  was  followed  by  the  English  and 
French.  In  both  these  cases,  however,  the 
desire  of  civil  and  religious  freedom  was  a 
powerful  incentive  to  the  emigrants.  These 
motives  were  more  strongly  developed  when 
the  English  revolution  began  to  operate  in  the 
first  half  of  the  17th  century.  The  new  world 
was  then  looked  upon  as  the  place  of  refuge, 
and  Cromwell  himself,  with  his  companions, 
were  only  prevented  from  migrating  by  the 
interposition  of  that  government  that  they 
afterward  overthrew.  Of  the  four  leading 
nations  that  planted  colonies  on  this  conti 
nent,  the  English  alone  became  permanently 
successful.  The  Spaniards  sought  gold  only. 
The  French  settlement  of  the  Mississippi  was 
more  a  financial  bubble  of  Law  than  a  move 
ment  of  settlers.  The  Dutch  had  not  suffi 
cient  breadth  at  home  to  sustain  the  under 
taking  ;  and  the  English  necessarily  absorbed 
the  whole,  with  their  steady  industry  and 
abiding  religious  faith.  The  numbers  of  the 
colonists  were  continually  reinforced  by  new 
settlers,  and  a  trade  soon  sprang  up  which 
gave  prosperity  and  wealth  to  the  provinces. 
The  disposition  to  emigrate  to  America 
gradually  gained  ground  as  the  eighteenth 
century  advanced,  more  particularly  in  Ireland 
and  the  north  of  Scotland,  Avhich  already  en 
joyed  the  advantage  of  some  intercourse 
with  friends  in  America,  and  whose  descrip 
tions  of  it  formed  a  strong  contrast  to  the 
distress  at  home.  Just  before  the  Revolu 
tionary  war,  this  disposition  to  emigrate 
showed  itself  strongly.  The  linen  weavers 
in  the  northern  part  of  Ireland  were,  by  the 
decline  in  that  trade,  induced  to  migrate. 
For  the  two  years,  1771  and  1772,  sixty-two 
vessels,  of  seventeen  thousand  three  hundred 
and  fifty  tons,  left  with  eighteen  thousand 
passengers  for  America,  paying  passages  sev 
enteen  dollars  each.  Most  of  these  were 
linen  weavers  and  farmers,  possessed  of  prop 
erty,  and  they  carried  with  them  so  much 
money  as  to  attract  the  notice  of  the  govern 
ment.  The  movement,  however,  continued 
in  1773  and  extended  itself  to  the  north  of 
Scotland,  whence  the  highlanders  migrated 
in  great  numbers.  There  were  then  no  means 
of  ascertaining  the  actual  numbers,  nor  were 
there,  as  since,  in  existence  any  of  those  ad 
mirable  arrangements  by  the  government  or 
private  companies  for  the  comfort  and  aid 


of  emigrants.  Knox,  in  his  view  of  the 
British  empire  at  that  time,  asserts  that  in 
the  twelve  years  ending  in  1775,  above  thirty 
thousand  highlanders  emigrated,  exclusive 
of  the  lowlanders ;  and  it  was  computed  that 
there  were  sixty  thousand  highlanders  citi 
zens  of  the  United  States  in  1799.  In  the 
report  of  the  committee  on  the  linen  manu 
factures  in  the  Irish  Parliament  in  1774,  it 
is  stated  that  the  whole  emigration  from  the 
province  of  Ulster  was  estimated  at  thirty 
thousand  people,  of  whom  ten  thousand  were 
weavers,  who,  with  their  tools  and  money, 
departed  for  America  ;  thus  adding  to  the 
numbers  and  wealth  in  the  new  world,  in  the 
proportion  that  the  British  Islands  lost  from 
the  same  cause. 

The  breaking  out  of  the  War  of  Inde 
pendence,  naturally  interrupted  the  commu 
nication  between  America  and  the  old 
world;  but  with  the  return  of  peace,  in  1783, 
the  migration  revived,  notwithstanding  the 
incredible  hardships  which  at  that  time  at 
tended  the  transit.  The  shipping  was  little 
adapted  to  the  trade,  and  no  special  laws 
protected  the  rights  of  the  poor  emigrant. 
As  an  instance  of  this,  it  is  related  that  in 
September,  1784,  a  ship  left  Greenock  with 
a  large  number  of  passengers,  who  had  paid 
twenty-five  dollars  each  for  their  passage. 
They  were  robbed  of  their  chests  and  pro 
visions  by  the  master,  and  one  hundred  of 
them  turned  ashore  on  the  Island  of  Eathlin, 
coast  of  Ireland.  Another  vessel  rescued 
seventy-six  emigrants  from  a  desert  island, 
where  t^hey  had  been  turned  adrift  by  the 
master  of  a  brig,  who  had  engaged  to  carry 
them  from  Dunleary,  in  Ireland,  to  Charles- 
town.  In  the  same  year  there  were  great 
numbers  landed  at  Baltimore,  Philadelphia, 
and  elsewhere.  The  movement  continued 
with  more  or  less  vigor  to  the  close  of  the 
century.  Blodget's  Statistical  Manual,  pub 
lished  in  1806,  states  that  from  1784  to  1794, 
the  arrivals  were  four  thousand  per  annum. 
In  the  year  1794,  ten  thousand  persons  were 
estimated  to  have  arrived  in  the  United 
States.  Adam  Seybert,  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  in  his  "  Statistical 
Annals,"  admitting  the  number  for  that  year, 
states  that  so  large  a  movement  did  not  again 
occur  until  1817. 

When  the  colonies  separated  from  the 
mother  country,  the  population  of  the  latter 
was,  for  England  and  Wales,  7,225,000,  and 
about  2,000,000  for  Ireland,  making  to 
gether  9,225,000  souls,  or  about  one-third 


230 


IMMIGRATION. 


tlie  number  of  whites  now  in  the  United 
States.  The  population  of  the  newly  formed 
United  States  in  the  year  1790  was  3,174,- 
167  whites,  or  about  one-third  the  numbers 
in  England  and  Wales.  The  founders  of 
the  nation  were  then  not  unmindful  of  the 
fact  that  these  three  millions  of  people, 
occupying  163,746,686  acres  of  land  al 
though  possessed  of  a  vast  territory,  had 
little  else  to  depend  upon.  Capital  was 
scarce,  and  manufactures  had  not  been  per 
mitted  under  imperial  rule,  hence  skilled 
artisans  were  not  to  be  found.  While 
all  these  things  were  indispensable  to  the 
new  country,  crowds  of  poorly  paid  and 
oppressed  operatives  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic  were  impatient  to  enjoy  the  privi 
leges  that  our  new  form  of  government  held 
out  to  them.  The  French,  German,  and 
English  troops,  that  returned  home  after  the 
war,  had  not  only  left  a  portion  of  their 
numbers  here  as  settlers,  but  had  carried 
home  favorable  reports  of  the  advantages  to 
be  here  enjoyed.  It  was  manifestly  to  the 
interest  of  the  new  government  here  to  in 
vite  and  encourage  these  settlers,  at  the 
same  time  to  guard  against  possible  political 
abuse  of  the  privilege.  The  new  Constitu 
tion  therefore  required  Congress  to  pass 
uniform  laws  for  naturalization.  This  was 
not  done  until  April  14th,  1802,  when  the 
regulations  that  have  since  mainly  continued 
were  enacted.  By  that  law,  those  aliens 
who  were  in  the  country  prior  to  1795 
might  be  admitted  to  citizenship  on  proof 
of  two  years'  continuous  residence  in  the 
United  States,  sustaining  a  good  moral 
character,  and  abjuring  allegiance  to  foreign 
nations.  Any  alien  arriving  in  the  United 
States  after  the  passage  of  the  act  was  to 
comply  with  the  following  conditions : — 

1.  He  shall,  before  some  competent  court, 
swear,  at  least  three  years  before  his  admis 
sion,  that  it  is  his  bona  fide  intention  to  re 
nounce  forever  all  allegiance  to  any  sover 
eign  state  to  which  he  was  a  subject. 

2.  He  shall  swear  to  support  the  Consti 
tution  of  the  United  States. 

3.  Before  he  can  be  admitted  he   must 
show  that  he  has  resided  within  the  United 
States  five  years,  and  within  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  court  one  year.     He  must  also  show 
that  he  has  been  of  good  moral  character, 
and  well  disposed  to  the  happiness  of  the 
United  States. 

4.  He  must  renounce  all  titles  of  nobility. 
The  law  of  March  3, 1 81 3,  required  that  the 


residence  of  five  years  should  have  been  con 
tinuous  in  the  United  States.  This  restric 
tion  was  repealed  Jan.  26,  1848.  The  law 
of  May  26,  1824,  reduced  the  term  of  notice 
of  intentions  from  three  to  two  years. 
These  were  the  chief  regulations  of  the  fed 
eral  government  in  relation  to  naturalization. 
Many  of  the  states  have,  however,  from  time 
to  time,  passed  laws  relative  to  immigrants, 
importation  of  paupers,  convicts,  lunatics, 
etc.  Xew-York  and  many  other  states  have 
laws  requiring  of  the  owner,  or  master,  or 
consignee  of  the  passenger  ship,  a  well  se 
cured  bond  to  the  people  of  the  state  against 
loss  for  the  relief  or  support  of  such  pas 
sengers.  In  lieu  of  this  bond,  commutation 
money  may  be  pakl. 

The  federal  government  having  smoothed 
the  way,  the  migration  proceeded  until 
unfriendly  relations  between  the  United 
States  and  Great  Britain,  growing  out  of  the 
wars  of  Europe,  checked  intercourse.  The 
claim  enforced  by  Great  Britain  to  the  prin 
ciple,  "  Once  a  subject  always  a  subject," 
served  to  take  from  emigrants  the  security 
they  sought  under  the  American  flag ;  and 
in  1806  Great  Britain  declared  France  in  a 
state  of  blockade,  and  France  retorted  upon 
the  British  Isles.  These  proceedings  being 
succeeded  by  others,  compelled  the  United 
States,  in  1809,  to  prohibit  intercourse  with 
France  and  Great  Britain.  In  1810  Napo 
leon  annulled  his  decree,  but  Great  Britain 
continued  her  vexations,  seizing  American 
seamen,  and  riding  rough-shod  over  their 
rights.  The  embargo  was  then  succeeded 
by  the  war  of  1812,  during  which  migration 
was  very  limited.  In  February,  1815,  peace 
was  concluded,  and  the  stream  of  migration, 
long  pent  up,  resumed  its  flow  with  greater 
force.  The  accommodation  was,  of  course, 
limited,  and  the  more  restrained  that  a  law 
of  Parliament  restricted  the  number  that 
might  be  carried  to  the  United  States  to  one 
for  every  five  tons,  although  one  for  every 
two  tons  might  be  carried  to  any  other  coun 
try.  In  the  year  1817,  22,240  persons  ar 
rived  in  the  United  States,  including  Ameri 
cans  who  returned  home.  This  large  mi 
gration,  at  a  time  when  the  business  was  not 
systematized,  and  when  shipping  was  not 
built  with  a  view  to  its  accommodation,  was 
attended  with  immense  suffering.  The  at 
tention  of  Congress  was  called  to  it,  and  a 
law  was  passed,  March  2,  1819,  to  regulate 
the  transportation  of  passengers.  That  act 
limited  the  number  to  two  for  every  five 


GENERAL    MIGRATION COLONIES    AND    UNITED    STATES. 


tons  of  measurement,  and  provided  for  an 
ample  allowance  of  food  and  fuel.     When  the 
famine  of  1846-7  gave  a  new  impulse  to 
the   movement,  more  complete    laws  were 
found  requisite,  and  a  number  were  passed  : 
that  of  Feb.  22,  1847  ;  March  2,  1847  ;  May 
17,  1848;  March  3,  1849  ;  and  finally,  March 
3,  1857,  the  present  passenger  act  was  en 
acted,   repealing  all  former  laws  upon  the 
subject,  and  establishing  the  regulations  now 
in  force.     This  regulates  the  space  for  each 
passenger,  the  number  and  construction  of  the 
berths,  requires  a  house  upon  deck,  the  venti 
lation  of  the  ship,  regulates  the  number  and 
size  of  cooking-stoves,  obliges  the  ship  to 
furnish  each  passenger  with  food,  viz.  :  twenty 
pounds   bread,  fifteen   pounds   rice,  fifteen 
pounds  .oatmeal,  fifteen    pounds   peas    and 
beans,  twenty  pounds  potatoes,  one  pint  vine 
gar,  sixty  gallons  water,  ten  pounds  salt  pork, 
ten  pounds  beef  free  of  bones  ;  this  food  is 
to  be  dealt  out  one-tenth  part  weekly,  and  if 
any  passenger  is  put  on  short  allowance,  the 
master  or  owner  shall  pay  him  three  dollars 
each  day  of  short  allowance  ;  enforces  per 
fect  cleanliness.     There  are  also  a  number 
of  other  rules  in  relation  to  the   mode  of 
carrying   out   and    enforcing    these    requi 
sitions.     The   laws  and   regulations  in  the 
United   States   have   come   in   aid  of   the 
efforts  of  foreign  governments  in  ameliorat 
ing   the  difficulties  of  the    emigrant;    and 
these  laws  have,  no  doubt,  tended  to  swell 
the  numbers  of  the  passengers. 
The  first  authentic  accounts  of  the  num 
bers  of  immigrants,  therefore,  commenced  in 
1820,  under  the  law  of  1819.     These  ac 
counts   have   been   continued  down  to  the 
present  moment  with  great  regularity,  and 
the  aggregate  results  are  seen  in  the  follow 
ing  table,   showing  the  birth-places  of  the 
emigrants  that  have  arrived  in  forty  years  :  — 

NUMBER   OF   ALIENS  ARRIVED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

From                        1820              1836               1S46 
to  1888.         to  1845.          to  I860. 
Finland                          21  595       10  327          23  608 

From                           1820              1836                 1846 
to  1835.         to  1845.          to  1850. 
Denmark  4G7            959               365 

Sweden  &  Norway.           509         5,521            9,168 
Poland  164            310                 21 

Russia  325            263               329 

Turkey  23              31                 33 

Switzerland  6,020         5,155            1,597 

Greece      29             50                  6 

Italy,  Malta,  &c.  .  .  .        2,339         1,136            1,200 
Europe  2             48                  3 

British  America  ...        6,677       20,735          30,421 
South  America  1,004            918            3,055 
Central  America  .  .  .           147              38               334 
Mexico  9033         4232            1423 

West  Indies.  9,528       12,115            8,184 

Asia  46              50                 49 

Africa  and  Australia           546            174               329 
All  Other    87707        10  H88          50796 

Total  397017      77(5767    1282915 

From                        1851               1856               Total 
to  1855.         to  1859.          40  years. 
England  151,592       82,172        289  29  1 

Ireland  529,304     170,799        918  729 

Scotland  25,000       11,718          46,277 

Wales  3,916         2,544             8076 

United  Kingdom...    221,242       61,823     1,410,505 

Great  Britain  931,054     329,056     2,672,881 

France-  57,020       15,377        204,511 

Spain  4,301         4,065          15,316 

Portugal  490            443            2,492 

Belgium  1,867         2,818            9809 

Prussia  19,450       20,692          56,607 

Germany  627,823     229,211     1,434298 

Holland  6,793         3  645          21  228 

Denmark  1,268         1,939            4998 

Sweden  &  Norway.      14,253         7,390          36,841 
Poland  823            259            1  577 

Russia  21            371            1  309 

Turkey  36              43               166 

Switzerland  13349         5,749          31  S70 

Greece  23               7              115 

Italy,  Malta,  &c.  .  .  .        3,670         3,249          11,594 
Europe  473              10               536 

British  America  33,866       20,929        112.628 
South  America  463             553             5,993 
Central  America  .  .  .           121            320               960 
Mexico         1281         1  568          17537 

West  Indies  5  490         3  786          39'l03 

Asia  16,693       19296          Wl34 

Africa  and  Australia        1,074         1,843            3,9H6 
All  other  19,772       23,531        192^194 

Total  1,761,474     696,150     4914723 

Ireland     50,304       29,430        138,892 

The  returns  gave  the  number  from  Great 
Britain  in  many  cases  without  distinguishing 
the  particular  divisions  where  all  the  passen 
gers  were  born.     A  very  large  portion  of  the 
whole,  however,  came  from  Ireland.     The 
return  shows,  then,  that  Ireland  and  Germany 
furnish  the  largest  proportion  of  the   emi 
grants.      Other    nations    have   supplied  a 
greater    or   less    number,    but    irregularly. 
Sinco  1850,  or  the  era  of  trold  discover^ 

Scotland  5,658            680            3,221 

Wales  347            115            1,154 

United  Kingdom...    108,362     405,481        613,597 

Great  Britain  186,266     446,033        780  472 

France  26,638       51,488          53,588 

Spain    3,565         2,232            1,153 

Portugal  891            202               466 

Belgium  33         1,008            4,083 

Prussia  433       13,321           2,771 

Germany  62,868     197,729        326,667 

Holland..                       1,757         2,631           6.402 

232 


IMMIGRATION. 


Asia — that  is  to  say  China — has  sent  a  con 
siderable  number  to  California.  Those  do 
not,  however,  as  a  general  thing,  intend  re 
maining.  They  are  for  the  most  part  fitted 
out  with  small  sums  borrowed  of  friends  and 
neighbors,  who  share  in  the  profits  of  the 
adventurer  on  his  return.  Numbers  of 
those  who  come  from  other  countries,  as 
France,  West  Indies,  and  Southern  Europe, 
as  well  as  to  some  extent  from  England,  are 
merchants  and  travellers,  who  are  not  to  be 
embraced  in  the  aggregate  of  settlers  in  new 
homes.  The  great  sources  of  migration  are, 
then,  British  and  German,  and  the  latter  arc 
confined  mostly  to  the  valley  of  the  Ehine. 
The  people  of  the  north  of  Europe  do  not 
migrate  much.  They  seem  to  have  lost  the 
nomadic  character  of  their  ancestors.  It  is 
true  that  then  they  were  led  by  chiefs  and 
tempted  by  plunder  to  overrun  the  richer 
countries  of  the  west,  while  at  the  present 
day  migration  has  no  object  but  to  seek  an 
honest  living  in  countries  where  labor  is  in 
demand,  and  where  hospitality  and  protec 
tion  await  the  worker.  The  Russian,  unless 
in  charge  of  his  master,  cannot  quit  his  na 
tive  soil,  of  which  he  is,  as  it  were,  a  portion. 
Whoever  should  penetrate  into  Russia  for 
the  purpose  of  recruiting  emigrants,  would 
be  treated  as  a  robber  of  property,  and  the 
Russians  in  the  table  are  mostly  merchants 
and  travellers.  The  Swede  and  the  Norwe 
gian  are  more  free  in  their  choice,  but  the 
greater  freedom  they  enjoy  is  an  inducement 
to  remain  at  home  ;  nevertheless,  they  figure 
as  high  in  the  tables  as  the  Swiss.  These 
latter  are  to  a  considerable  extent  free  and 
thrifty  in  their  mountain  homes,  but  great 
divisions  exist  in  respect  of  religion  as  well 
as  politics,  and  there  is  among  them  a  want 
of  nationality.  The  cantons  of  Vaud  and 
Geneva  are  mostly  French,  and  threaten  to 
become  quite  so.  On  the  side  of  the  Tyrol 
the  Swiss  become  Italians.  The  German 
Swiss  are  mostly  connected  with  Baden,  and 
are  embraced  in  the  German  movement. 
Although  the  Swiss  is  attached  to  his  coun 
try,  he  is  enterprising,  and  is  to  be  found  in 
almost  all  countries.  Every  important  city 
has  Swiss  firms  among  its  most  considerable 
merchants,  and  one  of  the  early  secretaries 
of  the  United  States  treasury,  A.  Gallatin, 
was  a  Swiss.  The  Hollanders  migrate  to 
some  extent,  and  often  from  motives  of  re 
ligion.  The  Moravian  Brethren  thus  founded 
colonies  in  Pennsylvania.  Gold  seems, 
since  its  discovery  in  California,  to  have  stim 


ulated  Dutch  enterprise.  The  Italians  and 
Spanish  do  not  migrate  in  the  true  sense 
of  the  word ;  they  leave  their  homes  to  some 
extent  for  the  countries  that  border  the  Medi 
terranean,  but  they  do  not,  unless  under 
the  ban  of  exile,  cross  the  Atlantic.  The 
Sardinians  and  Basque  Spaniards  go  to  some 
extent  to  the  La  Plata  in  South  America; 
they  do  not  frankly  abandon  their  country 
to  adopt  a  new  one.  The  French  are  more 
markedly  attached  to  their  native  soil  and 
national  character,  and  colonise  little  ;  they 
migrate  hardly  at  all.  Even  Algiers  has 
grown  but  very  slowly  under  thirty  years  of 
governmental  fostering  care,  and  there  are 
now  but  60,000  French  in  that  colony. 
Of  those  French  who  arrived  in  the  United 
States  up  to  1850,  but  14  per  cent,  remained 
in  the  country  according  to  the  census. 

The  great  continental  movement  is,  then, 
on  the  part  of  the  Germans,  and  of  these 
the  valley  of  the  Rhine  is  the  chief  source. 


CHAPTER  II. 

EUROPEAN   MIGRATION— FRENCH  AND 
GERMAN— NEW  TRADE. 

THE  peace  of  1815,  in  re-establishing  the 
liberty  of  the  seas,  so  long  suppressed, 
opened  new  countries  to  European  com 
merce.  On  the  other  hand,  many  interests  un 
derwent  adverse  changes;  numerous  armies 
were  newly  disbanded,  and  great  numbers  of 
men  were  forced  to  leave  home  in  search  of  a 
useful  application  of  their  talents  and  energies. 
America  was  to  them  the  chief  point  of  at 
traction  ;  those  who  knew  only  the  trade  of 
arms,  offered  their  swords  to  the  Spanish 
colonies  then  fighting  for  emancipation.  Of 
these  a  majority  found  early  graves  from 
excess,  fatigue,  and  misery  ;  many  turned 
their  attention  to  agriculture,  and  the  wisest 
sought  refuge  in  the  United  States,  where 
services  were  well  requited,  and  the  broad 
territories  offered  a  limitless  field  for  activity. 
At  first  the  emigrants  were  isolated  individ 
uals  ;  soon  entire  families  went  in  quest  of 
new  homes,  and  their  success  was  a  tempting 
example  to  other  families,  each  of  whom 
drew  others  in  their  train,  until  a  regular 
and  continuous  movement  was  established 
from  the  valley  of  the  Rhine  to  America. 

This  developed  a  new  era  in  the  inter 
national  commerce.  The  cotton  of  the  south 
ern  states  had  up  to  that  tune  found  a  limited 


EUROPEAN  MIGRATION: 


233 


market  in  Havre,  but  being  carried  thither 
in  American  ships,  there  being  little  return 
freight  for  those  vessels,  the  cotton  was 
charged  with  freight  both  ways,  out  and 
home.  The  moment  that  considerable  num 
bers  of  passengers  offered  themselves  for  the 
return,  that  trade  of  itself  became  an  object, 
affording  a  profitable  home  freight.  It  was 
then  apparent  that  the  light  and  elegant 
models  of  the  American  ships,  which  had  so 
well  answered  the  purpose  of  speed  and 
efficiency  during  the  war,  were  not  adapted 
to  the  transportation  of  passengers.  A  differ 
ent  style  of  construction  was  needed,allowing 
of  greater  stowage  of  cotton  out,  and  better 
accommodation  to  passengers,  in  accordance 
with  the  provisions  of  the  law  prescribing  the 
room  to  be  allowed  to  each  passenger.  This 
change  causing  greater  attractions  to  the 
American  ships,  drew  increasing  crowds  from 
the  valley  of  the  Rhine  across  France  to 
Havre.  Many  of  these  poor  people  could 
raise  only  the  sum  needful  for  the  passage, 
and  depended  upon  begging  their  way 
across  France  to  the  port.  These  crowds 
of  beggars  alarmed  the  government,  and  it 
took  measures  to  stop  them.  It  was  ordered 
that  no  one  should  be  admitted  to  cross 
France  unless  he  had  previously  paid  his 
passage  in  the  ship,  was  possessed  of  $150 
for  every  member  of  the  family  over  eigh 
teen  years  of  age,  and  had  his  passport 
signed  by  the  French  embassador  at  Frank 
fort.  The  effect  of  these  absurd  regulations 
was  to  destroy  the  trade  of  Havre,  and  turn 
the  migration  down  the  Rhine  to  Antwerp, 
Bremen,  and  Hamburg.  The  Havre  mer 
chants  made  great  efforts  to  remedy  the  evil 
by  sending  agents  to  aid  the  emigrants, 
lending  them  the  money  to  pass  the  frontier, 
and  to  be  returned  immediately  after.  A 
great  rivalry  was  thus  engendered  between 
the  northern  ports  and  Havre,  which  still 
had  great  advantages  in  respect  of  the  num 
ber  of  American  vessels  that  arrived  with 
cotton,  and  finally  the  obstacles  interposed 
by  the  government  were  removed.  The 
city  of  Bremen  was  prompt  to  take  advan- 
vantage  of  the  error  of  the  French  govern 
ment,  and  used  every  effort  to  attract  the 
emigrants  to  that  port,  by  granting  facilities 
and  protecting  them  from  imposition.  A 
law  was  passed  regulating  in  the  most  min 
ute  particular  the  accommodations  to  be 
given  to  emigrants  on  shipboard.  They  are 
not  to  be  taken  on  board  until  the  moment 
of  departure.  To  accommodate  them  prior 


to  shipment,  an  immense  building  was  con 
structed  to  hold  2,000  people  ;  it  has  a  front 
of  200  feet,  and  is  100  in  depth.  It  has 
public  rooms,  sleeping  apartments,  kitchens, 
baggage-rooms,  etc.,  and  is  warmed  by  steam 
throughout.  There  are  also  chapels  for  cath 
olic  and  protestant  worship,  and  a  hospital, 
with  thirty-three  beds.  The  price  charged 
with  board  is  fourteen  cents  per  day.  By 
these  and  other  means  Bremen  has  acquired 
a  large  share  of  the  emigrant  business. 
Hamburg  did  not  make  the  same  efforts ;  and 
it  is  only  recently  that  societies  for  the  pro 
tection  of  emigrants  have  been  there  formed. 

One-third  only  of  the  Germans  leave  Ger 
man  ports.  The  expense  of  reaching  there  is 
about  the  same  as  to  go  to  Havre.  They, 
indeed,  find  in  the  language  greater  facilities, 
but  the  voyage  thence  is  longer  and  the  ves 
sels  are  mostly  German,  whereas  at  Havre 
they  find  Americans,  where  the  accommoda 
tions  are  better,  and  once  on  board  of  them, 
they  feel  as  if  they  had  already  reached  the 
country  of  their  adoption.  The  passage 
across  France  is  also  greatly  facilitated  by 
the  freight  agents.  The  Bremen  vessels  have 
not  the  same  facilities  for  return  freight  as 
the  Americans  at  Havre.  The  Germans  go 
nearly  all  to  the  United  States,  that  is  from 
Havre  to  New  York  or  to  New  Orleans.  There 
are  numbers  who  go  from  Rotterdam,  Ostend, 
or  Hamburg,  to  England,  and  depart  thence 
to  their  final  destination.  From  Bremen  the 
destinations  are  more  numerous  than  from 
Havre.  The  United  States  is,  however,  the 
ultimate  destination  of  nearly  all. 

The  motives  that  impel  German  migration 
are  variously  understood.  The  reports  of  the 
numerous  emigration  societies  give  evidence 
of  the  highest  traits  of  character.  The  Ger 
man  is  described  as  a  persevering  worker, 
seeking  to  ameliorate  his  condition.  He  is 
always  ready  to  go  where  his  services  will  be 
the  best  paid,  and  certain  professions  have 
long  been  pursued  by  him  in  all  countries. 
If  his  feeling  of  nativity  is  strong,  his  love 
of  family  is  still  stronger.  And,  moreover,  the 
Teutonic  race  may  now  be  said  to  be  at 
home  on  half  the  entire  globe.  There  are, 
however,  other  motives,  and  these  are  evi 
dently  the  desire  to  find  civil,  political,  and 
religious  liberty,  of  which  they  have  not  the 
perfect  enjoyment  at  home.  The  Germans 
have  never  succeeded  in  founding  colonies 
of  their  own  under  good  government,  but 
they  are  a  valuable  acquisition  where  others 
have  established  liberty  and  order.  They 


234 


IMMIGRATION. 


seek  exemption  from  military  service.  They 
wish  to  contribute  in  just  proportion  to  the 
public  expenses,  of  which  they  enjoy  the 
benefits,  as  equal  citizens.  They  seek  to 
escape  the  trammels  of  corporations.  They 
wish  also  freely  to  dispose  of  the  fruits  of 
their  own  industry,  and  by  so  doing  to  avoid 
the  misery  of  destitution.  All  this  that  they 
seek  is  evidently  that  which  they  have  not 
got,  or  at  least  very  imperfectly,  at  home. 

The  emigrants  belong  to  many  different 
states,  and  the  same  reproaches  do  not  at 
tach  to  all  governments,  neither  in  the  same 
proportion  to  all.  The  very  divisions  of  Ger 
many  are  an  injury  to  industry.  They  cause 
the  proportion  of  the  general  expenses  to  be 
heavier  for  each  individual,  and  destroy  the 
spirit  of  nationality.  The  idea  of  "  German 
unity"  cannot  be  strongly  impressed  on  the 
minds  of  people  who  leave  the  soil  annually 
by  tens  of  thousands. 

The  German  governments  have  all,  more 
or  less,  occupied  themselves  with  the  ques 
tion  of  migration,  and  in  some  cases  have 
sought  to  check  it.  Among  these  attempts 
was  that  by  Prussia  to  found  agricultural 
colonies.  The  king  offered  lands  in  the 
duchy  of  Posen,  and  agents  were  sent  among 
the  emigrants  from  the  valley  of  the  Rhine. 
The  conditions  were,  that  the  settlers  should 
not  leave  the  country  without  permission, 
and  never  without  having  performed  military 
service. 

These,  it  may  be  supposed,  were  without 
success.  Emigrant  agents  are,  by  some 
governments,  required  to  submit  to  regula 
tions  ;  sometimes  the  number  is  limited,  and 
sometimes  they  must  give  security.  In  Ba 
varia  only  two  houses  are  authorized  to  treat 
with  emigrants  for  their  passages  across 
France,  and  the  contracts  must  be  inspected 
by  the  consul  at  Havre.  There  results  a 
large  clandestine  emigration  to  avoid  these 
restrictions,  and  at  the  frontiers  numerous 
agents  are  ready  to  assist  —  a  sort  of  under 
ground  railroad.  The  governments  of  Wur- 
temberg,  Baden,  and  the  two  Hesses,  are  less 
rigorous,  but  nowhere  can  passports  be  ob 
tained  until  every  effort  has  been  made  to 
dissuade  the  emigrant.  In  case  he  persists, 
he  must  renounce  all  rights  of  citizenship 
and  nationality.  On  the  other  hand,  meas 
ures  are  taken  to  aid  the  emigrant.  When 
the  cause  of  departure  is  destitution,  the 
communes  and  the  government  subscribe, 
while  stipulating  that  the  emigrant  shall 
renounce  all  right  to  ulterior  aid.  All  the 


persons  so  aided  go  from  one  canton  together. 
When  the  emigrants  pay  their  own  expenses 
and  have  a  small  capital,  bands  of  numerous 
families  from  divers  points  assemble  and  de 
part  together.  Political  exiles  are  very  few, 
but  these  have  generally  considerable  means. 
It  is  melancholy,  however,  to  reflect  in 
how  great  a  degree  destitution  becomes  the 
cause  of  migration.  Singularly  enough,  the 
valley  of  the  Rhine,  of  which  the  German 
poets  sing  the  beauty  and  the  fertility,  is 
precisely  the  spot,  of  all  Europe,  where  the 
misery  of  Ireland  is  most  nearly  reproduced. 
From  the  Lake  of  Constance  to  the  frontiers 
of  Holland,  that  famous  valley  has  so  long 
felt  the  oppression  of  feudalism  and  been 
the  battle-field  of  contending  powers,  as  to 
have  become  completely  impoverished.  In 
the  duchy  of  Baden  the  day's  wages  of  a 
skilled  workman  is  twenty-eight  cents — a  sum 
which  may  sustain  life  in  a  year  of  good  har 
vest,  but  which  is  utterly  insufficient  in  time 
of  dearth,  as  in  1846,  when  potatoes  became 
diseased.  The  insurrection  of  1849  added 
to  the  calamities,  and  in  1852,  of  a  popula 
tion  of  1,356,943  souls,  14,400  emigrated, 
or  one  per  cent  in  one  year.  The  thrift  and 
endurance  of  the  Germans  are  well  devel 
oped  in  a  land  of  such  hardships,  and  on 
their  arrival  in  the  United  States  they  are 
not  slow  in  turning  their  persevering  indus 
try  to  account.  It  is  singular  that  the  dis 
tress  and  destitution  which  centuries  of 
misrule  have  produced  in  Ireland,  so  famed 
for  its  natural  advantages,  should  be  repro 
duced  in  Europe  only  in  the  Rhine  valley, 
the  garden  of  Europe.  The  two  localities 
best  endowed  by  nature  are  precisely  those 
where  man  is  most  anxious  to  escape  by  mi 
gration  from  an  accumulation  of  miseries. 
The  highest  migration  from  Germany,  by 
the  four  ports  of  Hamburg,  Havre,  Antwerp, 
and  Bremen,  rose  to  203,537  in  1854.  The 
movement  has  since  declined,  fluctuating 
with  the  harvests.  There  are,  however,  con 
siderable  numbers  who  go,  by  other  convey 
ance  from  those  ports  than  the  emigrant 
ships,  to  Liverpool,  and  embark  thence  for 
America.  This  aggregate  German  move 
ment  has  come  of  late  years  to  rival,  and  in 
some  cases  to  exceed  the  broad  stream  of 
British  migration.  The  migration  from 
Great  Britain  has  always  been  largest  in  the 
years  of  dear  food,  and  it  has  again  subsided 
when  good  harvests  have  diminished  the 
prices  of  bread.  The  number  that  went 
abroad  in  1843  was  57,212,  and  it  continued 


EUROPEAN    MIGRATION. 


235 


to  augment  year  by  year  until  it  reached 
368,764  in  the  year  1852.  Several  causes 
concurred  to  produce  this  increase.  The 
first  was  the  famine  of  1845-46-47,  and  the 
consequent  means  adopted  by  the  British 
government  for  the  relief  of  Ireland;  the 
second  was  the  gold  fever,  which  carried  off 
thousands ;  and  the  third  was  the  prosperity 
of  the  emigrants  in  the  United  States,  where 
railroad  building  and  other  employments 
gave  the  means  to  send  for  friends  in  unu 
sual  numbers.  The  most  important  cause 
was,  probably, '  the  condition  of  Ireland. 
The  conquest  of  that  country,  which  was 
commenced  seven  centuries  since,  is  but  now 
being  completed.  We  now  see  the  insub- 
missive  Celts  quitting,  with  the  aid  of  their 
conquerors,  the  disputed  country,  to  seek 
new  homes  beyond  the  seas.  They  cannot 
assimilate  to  the  conquering  race,  and  not 
being  able  to  defend  themselves,  they  aban 
don  the  country  rather  than  submit.  Du 
ring  all  the  time  of  religious  persecution, 
from  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  to  George  III., 
the  economical  condition  of  Ireland  was  de 
plorable,  and  misery  made  incessant  prog 
ress.  The  landed  population  became  in 
volved  in  debt,  and  a  fatal  subdivision  of 
the  land  was  introduced  in  the  mode  of  cul 
ture.  Farms  were  subdivided  as  fast  as  the 
people  multiplied,  which  was  fully  equal  to 
the  proverbial  fecundity  of  a  state  of  ex 
treme  poverty,  and  the  potato  came  to  be  the 
sole  dependence  of  all  for  food.  The  sud 
den  destruction  of  that  dependence  by  rot 
was  an  overwhelming  calamity,  that  brought 
matters  to  a  crisis.  It  was  felt  that  migra 
tion  could  not  remedy  the  evil,  but  that  a 
radical  change  in  a  wrong  system  was  be 
come  indispensable.  The  system  pursued 
had  been  for  the  landlords,  mostly  in  debt, 
to  absent  themselves  altogether.  The  land 
was  then  taken  by  "  middle  men,"  at  a  rate 
which  hardly  met  the  interest  on  incum- 
brances.  This  land  was  then  parcelled  out  to 
the  poor  cotters  in  lots  down  to  one-fourth  acre 
or  less,  mere  patches,  at  rates  which  gave  a 
large  aggregate  rent  to  the  "  middle  man." 
Those  patches  were  planted  with  potatoes, 
which  were  the  sole  dependence  of  the 
family  for  food  in  the  year.  They  were 
gathered,  when  ripe,  into  a  pile,  and  that 
pile  diminished  by  daily  consumption  until 
an  approaching  new  crop  found  it  exhausted. 
The  supply  of  food  for  the  year  depended 
entirely  upon  the  amount  of  the  crop.  Its 
yield  was  the  sole  dependence  of  the  family 


to  sustain  life.  The  cotter  had  no  property 
or  capital  of  any  kind  to  be  made  available 
in  case  of  emergency.  His  only  means  of 
paying  rent  was  an  annual  migration  to 
England  in  harvest  time  to  earn  the  necessa 
ry  sum.  That  done,  the  balance  of  the  year 
was  idly  spent  in  watching  the  sinking  pile 
of  potatoes.  It  may  well  be  imagined  how 
great  was  the  horror  that  seized  such  a  peo 
ple  when  the  sole  barrier  between  themselves 
and  starvation  was  found  rotten,  suddenly 
perishing  under  their  eyes.  The  scenes  that 
followed  were  aAvful  to  contemplate.  All 
that  could,  fled,  and  these  were  mostly  the 
robust  males,  leaving  the  infirm,  the  old,  and 
the  young  to  encounter  the  slow  death  that 
was  gradually  approaching,  and  which  over 
took  multitudes.  The  greatest  efforts  were 
made  by  the  British  government  to  purchase 
and  distribute  food,  and  to  employ  hands 
upon  roads.  At  one  time  over  500,000 
were  so  employed.  The  introduction  of  the 
Indian  corn  was  attempted  as  a  substitute  ; 
but  it  was  nearly  impossible  amid  a  people 
entirely  ignorant  of  its  use.  Hand-mills 
were  furnished  to  grind  it,  and  the  priests 
and  others  used  great  exertions  to  teach 
them  to  cook  it.  It  was  frequently  the  case, 
however,  that  the  grain  did  not  agree  with 
the  people,  but  exhibited  poisonous  effects 
on  being  eaten.  The  body  swelled,  and  se 
vere  illness  ensued.  Migration  and  famine 
did  its  work  in  spite  of  all  efforts  of  human 
ity,  and  the  census  of  1851  showed  how 
awful  had  been  the  havoc. 

The  population  of  Ireland   has   been  as 
follows,  per  official  reports : — 


1821,  6,801,827 
1831,  7.767,401 
1841,  8,175,124 


1851, 
1859, 


6,553,291 

6,988,820 


Decrease  from  1841 2,186,304 

In  the  ten  years  ending  with  1831,  the 
increase  was  one  and  a  half  per  cent,  per 
annum.  From  that  date  to  1841  it  was 
nine-tenths  of  one  per  cent,  and  that  was  a 
period  of  much  comparative  prosperity.  The 
crops  were  still  good,  and  the  failure  of  the 
English  wheat  crops  in  1837  raised  the  prices 
of  Irish  grain,  and  gave  much  employment  to 
its  agriculturists.  If  it  had  continued  the  same 
rate  up  to  1847,  the  famine  year,  the  popula 
tion  would  then  have  been  8,616,680  souls, 
when  the  migration  took  place  in  large  num 
bers,  and  continued  the  succeeding  thirteen 
years  down  to  1859.  The  same  increase  in 
that  thirteen  years  would  have  made  the 


236 


IMMIGRATION. 


population    9,651,678    persons,    or   as    fol 
lows  : — 

Population  in  1841 8,175,124 

Ten  years'  increase  at  9  per  cent 735,761 


The  population  should  have  been  in  1851  8,910,885 
Actual  population 6,553,291 


Loss  by  famine  and  migration 2.357,594 

Number  emigrated     1,422,000 

Population  in  1851 6,553,291 

Ten  years'  increase  at  9  per  cent 595,500 


The  population  should  have  been  in  1859  7,148,791 
Actual  population 5,988,820 


Loss  by  migration,  etc 1,159,971 

Number  emigrated 1,742,260 

In  tlie  famine  years,  up  to  1851,  935,594 
persons  disappeared  more  than  were  account 
ed  for  by  migration.  From  1851  to  1859, 
there  migrated  582,289  more  persons  than 
should  have  been  lost  by  the  census.  This 
shows  that  there  were  numbers  returned, 
and  that  the  natural  increase  was  large. 
The  numbers  who  have  returned  have  been, 
it  is  known,  upwards  of  twenty  thousand 
per  annum,  and  these  have  carried  back 
much  larger  sums  than  they  brought  with 
them.  In  this  view  the  emigration  reacts 
upon  the  northern  states,  the  emigrants  car 
rying  off  all  that  they  have  created.  The 
•whole  operation  above  was  as  follows  for 
thirteen  years : — 

Population  in  1847 8,616,680 

'•  1859   5,988,820 


Decrease 2,627,860 

Emigrated 3,163,260 


Excess 535,400 

If  this  was  all  natural  increase  it  would  be 
in  the  ratio  of  one-half  per  cent,  per  annum. 
This  year  the  failure  of  crops  in  Ireland  has 
given  a  renewed  impetus  to  the  movement, 
and  migration  promises  to  be  larger  this 
year  than  for  several  previous  ones. 

The  first  reformatory  efforts  of  the  English 
government  were  to  throw  the  support  of  the 
Irish  poor  upon  the  parishes,  and  as  the  tax 
became  onerous  the  forced  sale  of  the  encum 
bered  estates  was  authorized.  The  two  mea 
sures  have  succeeded.  The  land  has  passed 
into  thrifty  hands ;  the  bankrupt  landlord  is 
dispossessed,  and  the  extortionate  "  middle 
man"  is  abolished ;  and  the  excessively  poor 
population  has  been  purged  off  by  migra 
tion.  The  "  clearing  of  the  lands"  was  in 
many  cases  conducted  with  much  barbarity. 
The  little  huts  of  the  peasants  were  pulled 


or  burned  down,  and  the  hapless  people 
driven  forth  to  seek  homes  beyond  the  seas 
as  they  best  could.  In  other  cases  the  land 
lords,  the  government,  or  societies  furnished 
the  means  of  shipments.  The  government 
soon  found  the  necessity  of  interposing  by 
law,  as  the  United  States  had  done,  to  pro 
tect  them  from  the  rapacity  of  shippers  and 
their  agents.  The  law  of  1849  was  passed 
with  that  object.  By  its  provisions  no  ship 
shall  carry  more  than  one  person  for  every 
two  registered  tons  ;  nor  shall  there  be  more 
than  one  person  for  every  twelve-  superficial 
feet  on  the  main  deck  and  below  it.  The 
size,  number,  and  constniction  of  the  berths 
are  regulated,  and  the  captain  is  required  to 
issue  food  as  follows  to  each  person  twice  a 
week : — 

Bread 21  Ibs. 

Wheat  Flour 1     " 

Oatmeal 5     " 

Rice 2     " 

Tea 2  oz. 

Sugar 1  Ib. 

Molasses £  " 

A  surgeon  must  be  carried  where  there 
are  one  hundred  or  more  passengers,  and 
many  other  regulations  that  experience  has 
pointed  out  as  necessary,  are  enforced  upon 
the  carriers.  The  food  is  to  be  furnished 
entirely  irrespective  of  the  price  of  the  pas 
sage,  which  fluctuates  almost  daily  between 
$16  and  $24  each  adult,  and  half  price  for 
children.  The  starving  and  destitute  race 
each  year  sends  forth  crowds  from  all  parts 
of  Ireland  to  embark  at  Liverpool.  The 
means  are  mostly  furnished  by  Irish  in 
America,  who  consider  it  their  duty  to 
appropriate  their  first  earnings  in  their  new 
homes  to  the  rescue  of  their  relatives,  and 
small  remittances,  aggregating  millions  in  a 
year,  find  the  way  into  every  cabin  and 
workhouse  as  messengers  of  life  to  the  des 
pairing.  Those  poor  people,  once  started 
on  their  travels,  encounter  numerous  perils 
before  reaching  their  destination.  As  soon 
as  a  party  of  emigrants  arrives  in  Liverpool, 
they  are  beset  by  a  tribe  of  people,  both 
male  and  female,  who  are  known  by  the 
name  of  "  man-catchers"  and  "  runners." 
The  business  of  these  people  is,  in  common 
parlance,  to  "  fleece"  the  emigrant,  and  to 
draw  from  his  pocket,  by  fair  means  or  by 
foul,  as  much  of  his  cash  as  he  can  be  per 
suaded,  inveigled,  or  bullied  into  parting 
with.  The  first  division  of  the  man-catching 
fraternity  are  those  who  trade  in  commissions 


EUROPEAN    MIGRATION. 


237 


on  the  passage  money,  and  call  themselves 
the  "runners"  or  agents  of  the  passenger 
brokers.  The  business  of  the  passenger 
broker  is  a  legitimate  and  necessary  one. 
Under  the  passenger  act  of  the  12th  and 
13th  Victoria  cap/3,  the  licenses  of  all  the 
passenger  brokers  expired  on  the  1st  of 
February,  1850,  subject  to  renewal  after 
their  being  approved  of  by  the  government 
emigration  agent,  and  to  their  entering  into 
bonds,  with  two  sureties,  in  the  sum  of 
$1,000,  for  the  due  fulfilment  of  all  the  re 
quirements  of  the  act  of  Parliament  relating 
to  the  comfort  and  security  of  emigrants. 
The  passenger  brokers  at  Liverpool,  in  com 
mon  with  the  unwary  and  unsuspecting  emi 
grants,  have  suffered  greatly  from  the  mal 
practices  of  the  "runners,"  who  pretend  to 
be  their  agents.  These  man-catchers  pro 
cure  whatever  sums  they  can  from  emigrants 
as  passage  money — perhaps  $25  or  $30,  or 
even  more — and  pay  as  little  as  they  can  to 
the  passenger  broker,  whose  business  they 
thus  assume — often  as  little  as  £3,  or  £3  5s. 
In  addition  to  these  large  and  knavish  prof 
its,  they  demand  a  commission  of  seven  and 
a  half  per  cent,  from  the  passenger  broker, 
and  they  have  been  often  known  to  obtain 
and  enforce  this  commission,  although  their 
whole  concern  in  the  matter  may  have  been 
to  watch  the  number  of  emigrants  going 
into  or  coming  out  of  the  brokery  office, 
and  to  put  in  a  claim  for  having  brought  or 
"  caught"  them. 

To  form  an  idea  of  the  sums  paid  in  any 
one  year  as  commission  to  the  man-catchers, 
in  the  item  of  passage  money,  we  have  but 
to  take  the  total  steerage  emigration  of  that 
year  and  multiply  it  by  £3  iOs.,  or  seven 
teen  dollars — the  average  amount  of  passage 
money — and  calculate  what  a  per-centage  of 
seven  and  a  half  per  cent,  would  amount  to. 
The  total  steerage  emigration  of  1859  was 
one    hundred   and    forty-six   thousand   one 
hundred  and  sixty-two  souls,  which,  at  seven 
teen   dollars  a  head,   would  amount  to  no 
less  than  two  million  four  hundred  and  eighty- 
four  thousand  seven  hundred  and  fifty-four 
dollars,  on  which,  taking  the  commission  a1 
the  low  rate  of  six  per  cent.,  they  draw  one 
hundred  and  forty-nine  thousand  and  forty 
dollars,  which  is  generally  stated  to  be  aboui 
the  sum  actually  paid  to  this  particular  class 
of  people,  on  the  average  of  the  last  three 
years,  by  the  passenger-brokers  of  Liverpool 
But  these  are  not  the  only  class  of  the  man 
catching  fraternity,  nor  do  they  confine  their 


>perations  to  an  exorbitant  profit  upon  pas' 
age  money.  The  man-catchers  keep  lodging- 
louses  for  emigrants — wretched  cellars  and 
rooms,  destitute  of  comfort  and  convenience, 
n  which  they  cram  them  as  thickly  as  the 
)lace  can  hold.  The  extra  profits  they  draw 
'rom  this  source  cannot  be  inferior  in  amount 
o  their  previously  mentioned  gains,  and  the 
;herished  hoards  of  the  poor  pay  a  large  per- 
sentage  to  their  unscrupulous  rapacity. 

In  addition  to  this  trade,  some  of  them 
deal  in  the  various  articles  composing  the 
outfit  of  emigrants,  such  as  bedding,  clothes, 
'ood,  cooking  utensils,  and  the  nick-nacks 
of  all  kinds  which  they  can  persuade  them 
,o  purchase.     Some  of  the  store-keepers  in 
this  line  of  business  pay  their  "  runners "  or 
'  man-catchers  "  as  much  as  ten  per  cent,  com 
mission   on  the   purchases  effected  by  the 
migrants,  from  which  the  reader  may  form 
some  estimate  of  the  enormous  plunder  that 
must  be  drained  from  the  poor  ignorant  peo 
ple.     As  every  emigrant  must  provide  his 
own  bedding,  the  sale  of  mattresses,  blankets, 
and   counterpanes,    enters  largely    into   this 
trade.     After  the  bedding  is  provided,  the 
man-catchers,  who  are  principally  Irishmen 
themselves,  and  know  both  the  strength  and 
weakness  of  the  Irish  character,  fasten  upon 
their  countrymen — many  of  whom,  poor  and 
miserable  as  they  look,  have  sovereigns  se 
curely  stitched  amid  the  patches   of  their 
tattered  garments — and  persuade  them  into 
the  purchase  of  various  articles,  both  useful 
and  useless.   Among  these  may  be  mentioned 
clothes  of  all  kinds — shirts,  trowsers,  waist 
coats,  shawls,  petticoats,  south-westers,  caps, 
boots  and  shoes,  slippers,  cooking  utensils, 
cans  for  the  daily  allowance  of  water,  and 
tins  to  hold  their  meal,  rice,  and  sugar.  Pro 
visions,  such  as  bacon,  herrings,  salt  beef,  and 
other  articles  not  found  them  on  board,  and 
luxuries,  in  which  whiskey  and  tobacco  are 
generally  included,  come  next  on  the  list, 
after   reiterated   assurances   from   the  man- 
catchers  that  no  emigrant  will  be  taken  on 
board  without  them.    These  being  provided, 
and  an   Irishman   being  easily  squcczeable 
when  a  friend  and  a  countryman  is  the  man- 
catcher  who  has  him  in  hand,  and  when  he 
fears  that  his  passage-money  will  be  lost  for 
non-compliance    with    the   regulations,   his 
attention  is  next  directed  to  such  articles  as 
pocket-mirrors,  razors,  bowie-knives,  pistols, 
telescopes,  etc. 

The  stranger  in  Liverpool,  who  takes  a 
walk  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  Water- 


IMMIGRATION. 


loo  Dock,  whence  the  greater  number  of 
emigrant  vessels  take  their  departure,  will 
see  a  profuse  display  of  the  various  articles 
upon  which  the  man-catcher  makes  his 
gains — articles  generally  of  the  most  inferior 
quality,  and  sold  at  the  most  extravagant  and 
ridiculous  prices.  The  man-catching  busi 
ness,  in  all  its  various  departments,  has  been 
reduced  to  a  regular  system,  and  no  London 
sharper  can  be  more  sharp  than  the  Liverpool 
runners.  Perhaps  the  most  complicated  and 
ingenious  trick  is  the  following :  When  a 
steam-vessel  laden  with  emigrants  leaves  an 
Irish  port  for  Liverpool,  one  of  the  Liverpool 
fraternity,  dressed  up  as  a  raw  Irishman,  with 
the  usual  long-tailed,  ragged,  and  patched 
gray  frieze  coat,  the  battered  and  napless  hat, 
the  dirty  unbuttoned  knee-breeches,  the  black 
stockings,  the  shillelah,  and  the  short  pipe, 
takes  his  place  among  them,  and  pretends  to 
be  an  emigrant.  Before  the  vessel  arrives  at 
Liverpool  he  manages  to  make  acquaintance 
with  the  greater  portion  of  them,  learns  the 
parish  they  came  from  and  the  names  of  the 
relatives  whom  they  have  left  behind,  not 
forgetting  those  of  the  parish  priest  and  the 
principal  people  of  the  neighborhood.  He 
also  ascertains  the  names  of  the  friends  in 
America  whom  they  are  going  to  join.  He 
tells  them  of  the  roguery  of  Liverpool,  and 
warns  them  against  thieves  and  man-catchers, 
bidding  them  take  especial  care  of  their 
money.  On  arriving  at  the  quay,  in  Liver 
pool,  he  jumps  ashore  among  the  first,  where 
a  gang  of  his  co-partners  are  waiting  to  re 
ceive  him.  He  speedily  communicates  to 
them  all  the  information  he  has  gained,  and 
the  poor  people  on  stepping  ashore  are  beset 
Tby  affectionate  inquiries  about  their  friends 
in  Ireland,  and  that  good  old  man  the  parish 
priest.  They  imagine  that  they  have  fortu 
nately  dropped  among  old  acquaintances, 
and  their  friend  of  the  steamboat  takes  care 
to  inform  them  that  he  is  not  going  to  be 
"  done  "  by  the  man-catchers,  but  will  lodge 
while  at  Liverpool  at  such  and  such  a  place, 
which  he  recommends.  They  cannot  imagine 
that  men  who  know  all  about  the  priest  and 
their  friends  and  relatives  can  mean  them 
any  harm,  and  numbers  of  them  are  usually 
led  off  in  triumph  to  the  most  wretched  but 
most  expensive  lodging-houses.  Once  in  the 
power  of  the  man-catchers,  a  regular  siege 
of  their  pockets  is  made,  and  the  poor  emi 
grant  is  victimized  in  a  thousand  ways  for 
his  passage  money,  for  his  clothes  and  uten- 
jsids,  and  for  his  food.  Even  after  they  have 


drained  him  as  dry  as  they  can,  they  are  loth 
to  part  with  him  entirely,  and  they  write  out 
per  next  steamer  a  full,  true,  and  particular 
account  of  him — his  parish,  his  relations,  his 
priest,  and  his  estimated  stock  of  money — to 
a  similar  gang  in  New  York.  Paddy — simple 
fellow — arrives  in  New  York  in  due  time, 
and  is  greeted  on  landing  by  the  same  affec 
tionate  inquiries.  If  his  eyes  have  not  been 
opened  by  woeful  experience,  he  thinks  once 
more  that  he  has  fallen  among  friends,  and 
is  led  off  by  the  "  smart"  man-catchers  of  the 
New  York  gang,  to  be  robbed  of  the  last 
farthing  that  he  can  be  persuaded  to  part 
with ;  and  he  is  possibly  induced  to  spend 
the  savings  of  years  in  the  purchase  of  land, 
supposed  to  be  in  the  far  west,  but  having 
no  other  existence  but  such  as  paper  and  lies 
can  give  it. 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  from  the  state 
ments  in  reference  to  the  rogueries  practised 
by  runners  and  man-catchers  upon  the 
simple,  emigrants  themselves  do  not  occa 
sionally  endeavor  to  commit  frauds,  both 
upon  each  other  and  upon  the  owners  and 
captains  of  ships.  The  Irish  emigrant,  with 
the  passion  for  hoarding  which  is  so  common 
among  his  countrymen,  often  hides  money 
in  his  rags,  and  tells  a  piteous  tale  of  utter 
destitution,  in  order  to  get  a  passage  at  a 
cheaper  rate.  The  shameless  beggary,  which 
is  perhaps  the  greatest  vice  of  the  lower 
classes  of  Irish,  does  not  always  forsake  them, 
even  when  they  have  determined  to  bid  fare 
well  to  the  old  country ;  and  I  have  several 
times  been  accosted  by  men  and  women,  on 
board  emigrant  ships  in  dock,  and  asked  for 
contributions  to  help  them  when  they  got  to 
New  York.  "  Sure,  yer  honor,  and  may  the 
Lord  spare  you  to  a  long  life ;  I've  paid  my 
last  farden  for  my  passage,"  said  a  sturdy 
Irish  woman,  with  a  child  in  her  arms,  when 
accosted  on  the  quarter-deck  of  a  fine  ship, 
in  the  Waterloo  Dock,  "  and  when  I  get  to 
New  York  I  shall  have  to  beg  in  the  strates, 
unless  yer  honor  will  take  pity  on  me."  On 
being  asked  to  show  me  her  ticket,  she  said 
her  husband  had  it ;  and  her  husband — a 
wretched-looking  old  man — making  his  ap 
pearance  and  repeating  the  same  story,  was 
pressed  to  show  the  document.  He  did  so 
at  last,  when  it  was  apparent  that  he  had 
paid  upwards  of  seventeen  pounds — eighty- 
two  dollars  and  twenty-five  cents — for  the 
passage  of  himself  and  wife  and  his  family  of 
five  children.  "And  do  you  mean  to  say 
that  you  have  no  money  left  ?"  was  inquired 


EUROPEAN    MIGRATION. 


239 


of  him.  "  Not  one  blessed  penny,"  said  the 
man.  "  No,  nor  a  fardin,"  said  the  woman, 
"and  God  knows  what'll  become  of  us." 
"  Do  you  know  nobody  in  New  York  ?"  "  Not 
a  living  sowle,  yer  honor."  "  Have  you  no 
luggage  ?"  "  Not  a  stick  or  a  stitch,  but  the 
clothes  we  wear."  As  the  good  ship  was 
detained  two  days  beyond  her  advertised 
time  of  sailing,  all  the  emigrants,  as  usual, 
had  liberty  to"  pass  to  and  from  the  ship  to 
the  streets,  as  caprice  or  convenience  dicta 
ted.  On  the  following  day,  this  sturdy 
woman  and  her  husband  were  seen  entering 
the  Waterloo  Dock  gates  with  a  donkey-cart, 
tolerably  well  piled  with  boxes,  bedding,  and 
cooking  utensils.  When  they  were  down  in 
the  steerage,  and  she  was  asked  whether  that 
was  her  luggage,  she  replied  it  was.  "  You  said 
yesterday,  however,  when  you  were  begging, 
that  you  had  no  luggage."  "  Sure,  it's  a  hard 
world,  ycr  honor,  and  we're  poor  people — 
God  help  us." 

An  incident  of  a  kind  not  very  dissimilar 
occurred  on  board  of  another  American  liner. 
When  the  passenger  roll  was  called  over, 
it  was  found  that  one  man,  from  the  county 
of  Tipperary,  had  only  paid  an  instalment 
upon  his  passage  money,  and  that  the  sum 
of  86  each  for  three  persons,  or  $18,  was 
still  due  from  him.  On  being  called  upon 
to  pay  the  difference,  he  asserted  vehemently 
that  he  had  been  told  in  the  broker's  office 
that  there  was  no  more  to  pay,  and  that  to 
ask  him  for  more  was  to  attempt  a  robbery. 
The  clerk  insisted  upon  the  money,  and 
showed  him  the  tickets  of  other  passengers 
to  prove  the  correctness  of  the  charge.  The 
man  then  changed  his  tone,  and  declared 
that  he  had  not  a  single  farthing  left  in  the 
world,  and  that  it  was  quite  impossible  he 
could  pay  any  more.  "  Then  you  and  your 
family  will  be  put  on  shore,"  said  the  clerk, 
"  and  lose  the' money  you  have  already  paid." 
The  intending  emigrant  swore  lustily  at  the 
injustice,  and  declared  that  if  put  on  shore 
he  would  "  get  an  act  of  Parliament"  to  put 
an  end  to  such  a  system  of  robbery.  The 
clerk,  however,  was  obdurate,  and  the  man 
disappeared,  muttering  as  he  went  that  he 
would  have  his  "  act  of  Parliament  to  pun 
ish  the  broker,  the  clerk,  and  the  captain." 
He  returned  in  a  few  minutes  from  below, 
and,  without  saying  a  word  of  what  had 
happened,  and  looking  as  unconcerned  as  a 
stranger,  coolly  presented  a  £5  note,  or 
$24  25,  and  asked  for  his  change.  Such  is 
a  specimen  of  the  rogueries  attempted  by 


those  who  have  money.  Those  who  really  have 
none  at  all,  or  who  possibly  have  not  suffi 
cient,  to  pay  their  passage,  resort  to  other 
schemes  for  crossing  the  Atlantic  at  a  re 
duced  rate,  or  free  of  charge  altogether,  and 
"  stow  away."  This  is  a  practice  which  is 
carried  on  to  a  great  and  increasing  extent. 

After  encountering  these  perils  of  poverty 
and  cheating,  the  crowd  becomes  finally 
located  on  board  of  ship,  and  assigned  their 
quarters  for  the  voyage.  It  is  a  strange 
place  for  the  new-comers,  and  their  admiration 
of  the  new  life  they  have  entered  upon  be 
gins  with  the  first  day's  issue  of  regulation 
food.  The  experience  of  most  of  them  in 
the  edible  way,  has  hitherto  been  confined 
to  "murphys"  or,  at  most,  Indian  meal, 
which  they  heartily  detest  as  "  starvation 
porridge."  They  now  come  to  the  allow 
ances,  as  above,  handed  them  by  law.  The 
meal,  the  tea,  the  rice,  the  sugar,  and  molas 
ses  prove  frequently  a  puzzler — tea  in  par 
ticular — and  it  is  not  unfrequently  the  case 
that  a  brawny  Pat,  who  could  do  a  good 
turn  at  Donnybrook  fair,  but  whose  knowl 
edge  of  drinkables  is  confined  to  whisky, 
will,  after  gravely  surveying  the  tea  for  a 
while,  deliberately  fill  his  pipe  with  a  por 
tion,  and  smoke  it  with  much  satisfac 
tion.  Others,  with  more  expansive  ideas, 
will  at  times  mix  the  whole  in  a  mass,  and 
boil  it  into  a  thick  soup  or  pudding,  well 
specked  with  the  expanded  tea  leaves.  In 
formation  comes  with  experience,  however, 
and  the  first  serious  experience  is  sea-sick 
ness,  which  utterly  prostrates  them,  mind 
and  body,  aggravating  every  dirty  habit 
they  may  have  formed.  Then  is  ex 
erted  the  utmost  power  of  the  captain  to 
enforce  cleanliness ;  he  usually  selects  a 
dozen  or  two  of  the  more  intelligent,  and 
investing  them  with  authority,  a  general 
turn-out,  and  a  thorough  cleaning  every 
morning,  and  in  all  weathers,  is  compelled. 

By  the  rigid  observance  of  this  rule,  much 
of  the  former  sickness  and  mortality  has 
been  avoided.  A  voyage  of  some  thirty 
days  usually  brings  the  human  freight  with 
in  sight  of  New  York  harbor.  It  almost  in 
variably  occurs  that  in  the  first  delight  of 
farrival  every  utensil  and  article  of  bedding 
is  pitched  overboard.  No  matter  how  poor 
are  the  people,  or  how  hardly  the  things 
may  have  been  come  by,  over  they  go ;  and 
cleaning  for  the  landing  takes  place.  How 
full  of  anxieties  is  that  landing ! 


240 


IMMIGRATION. 


CHAPTER  III. 

LANDING  IN  NEW-YORK—FUTURE  HOMES. 
THE  Castle  Garden,  at  New  York,  is  allot 
ted  for  the  reception  of  the  passengers  under 
the  Commission  of  Emigration,  which  was 
organized  by  law  in  1847,  and  which 
charges  a  tax  of  two  dollars  per  head  on 
each  immigrant,  applying  the  proceeds  to 
the  support  of  the  needy  and  destitute 
among  them.  The  operations  of  this  com 
mission  have  become  very  extensive.  It  has 
charge  of  the  Quarantine.  Since  its  organ 
ization  it  has  raised  large  hospitals  on 
Ward's  Island,  where  the  sick  are  cared  for. 
They  are  also  sent  to  the  Marine  Hospital 
and  the  New  York  Hospital,  and  they  re 
imburse  the  towns  and  counties  of  the  state 
for  the  charges  they  incur  for  support  of 
poor  aliens,  and  advance  money  to  immigrants 
on  pledge  of  baggage,  without  interest.  In 
the  year  1859  $2,180  was  so  advanced  to  162 
families,  and  $2,031  was  paid  back.  The 
operations  of  the  commission  in  1859  were: — 

Receipts  for  commutation $159,112 

Other  receipts 23,454 


Total  receipts 182,566 

Balance  in  hand,  January,  1859 5,656 


Office $16,486 

Hospitals 6,380 

Counties  for  support 23,555 

Castle  Garden 34,727 

Agent  at  Rochester 1,087 

"            Albany 2,160 

"            Buffalo 2,601 

NUMBER    OF     PASSENGERS    THAT     ARRIVED    IX 
SCOTLAND,    GREAT    BRITAIN,    AND 

England.      Ireland.  Scotland 


$188,222 


Ward's  Island 54,890 

Marine  Hospital 18,360 

Floating       "        4,647 

Forwarding  Immigrants,  &c.,  Ac.  32,130 

Incidental..  721 


1820, 
1821, 
1822, 
1823, 
1824, 
1825, 
1826, 
1827, 
1828, 
1829, 
1830, 
1831, 
1832, 
1833, 
1834, 
1835, 
1836, 
1837, 
1838, 
1839, 
1840, 
1841, 


1,782 

1,036 

856 

851 

713 

1,002 

1,459 

2,521 

2,735 

2,149 

733 

251 

944 

2,966 

1,129 

468 

420 

896 

157 

62 

318 

147 


1,725 
1,518 
1,346 
1,051 
1,575 
4,157 
3,333 
3,282 
5,266 
3,106 

747 
1,647 
5,120 
4,511 
6,772 
5,148 
2,152 

737 
1,225 
1,199 

677 
3,291 


268 

293 

198 

180 

257 

113 

230 

460 

1,041 

111 

29 

226 

158 

1,921 

110 

63 

106 

14 

48 

21 
35 


$197,744 

This  account  gives  a  general  idea  of  the 
operations  of  the  commission.  The  whole 
amount  disbursed  by  the  commission,  May 
5,  1847,  to  Jan.  1,  1860,  was  $834,786.  The 
proportion  who  go  into  hospital  appears  to 
be  about  six  per  cent,  of  the  arrivals. 

A  large  majority  of  those  who  here  land 
have  their  friends  awaiting  them  to  guide 
them  to  their  future  homes.  Numbers  have 
to  seek  their  way  amid  numberless  perils.  But 
nearly  all  these  have  come  provided  with  in 
structions  more  or  less  minute,  derived  from 
the  numerous  agents  in  Europe  of  the  Ameri 
can  land  companies,  who  hold  out  induce 
ments  to  settlers.  The  Germans  are  mostly 
inclined  to  agriculture,  and  they  soon  find 
their  way,  by  the  emigrant  trains  of  the  great 
trunk  lines  of  railroads.  Those  lines  have  all 
exerted  themselves  to  profit  by  the  movement. 
The  following  table,  from  official  sources, 
gives  the  number  of  Germans  and  British 
under  each  head,  and  also  the  aggregate  of 
all  the  aliens  arrived  since  the  returns  have 
been  regularly  kept.  Some  of  the  passengers 
report  themselves  from  Great  Britain,  with 
out  stating  which  portion.  These  are  under 
the  head  "  Great  Britain."  Thus,  the  total 
from  Great  Britain  to  1859,  is  2,670,059,  of 
which,  1,415,399  are  reported  from  Great 
Britain,  289,654  from  England,  918,729from 
Ireland,  46,277  from  Scotland. 

EACH     YEAR    IN    THE    UNITED     STATES    FROM     ENGLAND,    IRELAND, 
GERMANY,  WITH    THK    TOTAL    FROM    ALL    COUNTRIES. 

Gt.  Britain.    Germany.  Switzerland.  Prussia. 


2,249 

1,881 

1,088 

926 

1,064 

1,711 

2,705 

7,689 

8,798 

5,228 

2,365 

6,123 

11,545 

4,166 

26,953 

24,218 

41,006 

39,079 

16,635 

32,973 

41,027 

50,487 


948 
365 
139 
179 
224 
448 
495 
435 
1,806 
582 
1,972 
2,395 
10,168 
6,823 
17,654 
8,245 
20,139 
23.036 
11,369 
19,794 
88,581 
13,727 


31 

93 
110 

47 
253 
166 
245 
297 
1,592 
314 
109 

63 
129 
634 
1,389 
548 
445 
383 
123 
607 
500 
751 


20 
18 
9 
4 
6 
2 

16 
7 

45 

15 

4 

18 

26 

155 

32 

66 

568 

704 

314 

1,234 

1,123 

1,564 


Total. 
8,385 
9,127 
6,911 
6,354 
7,912 
10,199 
10,837 
18,875 
27,382 
22,520 
23,322 
22,633 
53,179 
58,640 
65,365 
45,374 
76,242 
79,3*0 
38,714 
68,069 
84,066 
80,289 


LANDING    IN    NEW    YORK FUTURE    HOMES. 


241 


England. 

Ireland. 

Scotland. 

Gt.  Britain. 

Germany.  Switzerland.  Prussia. 

Total. 

1842, 

1,743 

4,844 

24 

66,736 

18.287 

483 

2,083 

104,565 

1843, 

3,517 

1,173 

41 

23,369 

11,432 

553 

3,009 

62,496 

1844, 

1,357 

5,491 

23 

40,972 

19,226 

839 

1,505 

t8,615 

1845, 

1,710 

8,641 

368 

53,312 

33,138 

471 

1,217 

114,371 

184(5, 

2,854 

12,949 

305 

57,824 

57,010 

698 

551 

154,416 

1847, 

3,476 

29,640 

337 

95,385 

73,444 

192 

837 

234,968 

1848, 

4,445 

24,802 

659 

118,277 

58,014 

319 

451 

226,527- 

1849, 

6,036 

31,321 

1,060 

175,841 

60,062 

13 

173 

297,024 

1850, 

6,797 

40,180 

860 

167,242 

78,137 

375 

759 

369,980 

1851, 

5,306 

55,874 

966 

210,594 

71,322 

427 

1,160 

379,466 

1852, 

30,007 

159,548 

8,148 

2,544 

143,575 

2,788 

2,343 

371,603 

1853, 

28,867 

162,649 

6,006 

2,703 

140,653 

2,748 

1,293 

368,645 

1354, 

48,901 

101,606 

4,605 

5,141 

206,054 

2,953 

8,955 

427,883 

1855, 

38,871 

49,027 

5,275 

1,176 

66,219 

4,433 

5,699 

200,877 

1856, 

25,904 

54,349 

3,297 

15,457 

63,807 

1,780 

7.221 

200,436 

1857, 

27,804 

54,361 

4,182 

26,493 

83,798 

2,080 

7,983 

251,306 

1858, 

14,638 

26,873 

1,946 

12,372 

42,291 

1,056 

3,019 

123,126 

1859, 

13,826 

35,216 

2,293 

10,045 

39,315 

833 

2,469 

121,282 

289,654     918,729     46,277      1,415,399      1,495,308     31,870     5G,677     4,901,321 


The  return?  e;ive  1,495,308  Germans,  mostly 
from  the  valley  of  the  Khine,  a  large  portion 
of  whom  have  arrived  since  the  taking  of  the 
census  of  1850.     If  we  take  the  numbers  of 
persons  who  had  arrived  from  each  country 
up  to   1850,  and  compare  them  with  the 
numbers  reported  by  that  census  as  living  in 
the  Union,  we  may  be  satisfied  in  how  far 
two  distinct  official  accounts  correct  each 
other. 

STATEMENT    OF    THE     NUMBER   OF   ALIENS     ARRIVED     IN 
THE    UNITED    STATES     UP    TO    1850,  AND    THE    NUMBER 
OF     EACH      NATION      RESIDENT     IN     THE     UNION      PEE 
CENSUS   OF    1350. 

Arrived         Resident        Excess 
1320  to  1850.       in  I860.      of  arrivals. 
England  55530         278675 

Arrived        Resident         Excess 
1820  to  1850.       in  1850.      of  arrivals. 
Central  America.  .             519                141            378 
South  America...          4,977             1,443         3,434 
West  Indies  29,827             5,772       24055 

Sandwich  Isles.  ..               36                588 
Other  1,171            8,214 

Total  2,309,805      2,210,839 

These  figures  indicate  the  true  currents  of 
migration,    as    distinct    from   visitors.      In 
thirty  years  there    came  from  the   British 
Islands   71,949  persons  more  than  remained 
here.     These  represent  those  who  returned 
home   and   those   who   died.     Although  a 
large  number  were  reported  as  from  Great 
Britain,  their  nativities,  as  reported  by  the 
census,  inform  us  more  than  two-thirds  were' 
Irish.     The  French  who  arrived,  it  appears, 
did  not  remain  in  a  proportion  larger  than 
forty  per  cent.     The  Belgians  and  Dutch 
returned    to  some  extent.      It  is  the   case 
with  these  nations  mentioned  that  the  pro 
portion    of  females    is   small,    showing  the 
character  of  the  passengers  to  be  more  that 
of  visitors  than  settlers.     With  some  other 
nationalities  more  are  reported  resident  than 
arrived.     This  may  arise  from  the  desire  on 
the  part  of  many,  on  arrival,  to  conceal  their 
origin,  because  of  some  claims  of  the  govern 
ment  upon  them  for  military  duty,  such  as 
we  have  seen  exemplified  in  the  correspond 
ence  of  General  Cass  upon  that  point.     In, 
the  case  of  British  America,  great  numbers 
came  over  the  lines  not  reported  as  emi* 
grants  in  ships.      With  the  West   Indies^ 
there  are  numbers  come  north  in  the  sumr 
mer  season  who  return  to  their  own  homes 
in   the   winter.     The   aggregate   results   of 
arrivals   and   residences   correspond  pratty, 
well. 

Ireland  218,626         961719 

Scotland  9  559           70  550 

Wales  1616           29  868 

Great  Britain  1,127,440 

Total  Gt.  Britain..  1,412,771      1,340,812       71,959 
Germany   577264         573225         4039 

France  131714           54069       77645 

Spain  6950              3113         3837 

Portugal  1  550              1  274            276 

Belgium  5724             1313         4411 

Holland  10,790             9848            942 

Turkey  87                106 

Italy  4675             3645         1030 

Austria  946 

Switzerland  12772           13358 

Russia  917             1  414 

Norway  &  Sweden.       15,198        j  ^'559 
Denmark  1,791             1838 

Prussia  16,525           10,549         5,976 

Sardinia  360                  34            326 

Greece  85                 86 

China  386                758 

Asia  145                377 

Africa  1,049                651 

British  America...        67,833         147,711 
Mexico  14689           13317,         1372 

15* 

242 


IMMIGRATION. 


Having  traced  these  people  from  their 
various  homes  in  Europe,  and  appreciated 
the  motives  that  led  them  to  migrate,  and 
the  difficulties  that  they  encountered  in  so 
doing,  we  may  now  follow  them  to  their 
final  homes  on  this  continent,  as  far  as  offi 


cial  returns  permit.  The  French  and  Eng 
lish  seem  to  cling  to  the  sea  coast,  while  the 
Germans  push  west  into  agricultural  states, 
Ohio  getting  a  large  share  of  the  whole. 
The  "total"  column  includes  all  others,  as 
well  as  English  and  German : — 


LOCATION    OF  LEADING  EMIGRANTS  IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

England.  Ireland.  Germany.  Switzerl'nd.  Prussia.  Total  foreign. 

Maine 1,949  13,871  290  11  2T  31,456 

New  Hampshire 1,469  8,811  147  9  2  13,571 

Vermont 1,546  15,377  218  2  6  32.831 

Massachusetts 16,685  115,917  4,319  72  98  160,909 

Rhode  Island 4,490  15,944  230  8  5  23,111 

Connecticut 5,091  26,689  1,671  55  42  37,473 

New  York 84,820  343,111  118,398  1,850  2,211  651,801 

New  Jersey 11,377  3'1,092  10,686  204  57  58,364 

Pennsylvania 38,048  151,723  78,592  914  413  294,871 

Etelaware 952  3,513  343  22  28  5,211 

Maryland 3,467  19,557  26,936  68  188  53,288 

District  of  Columbia- 682  2,373  1,404  36  11  4,967 

Virginia 2,998  11,643  5,511  83  36  22,394 

North  Carolina 394  567  344  3  19  2,524 

South  Carolina 921  4,051  2,180  18  44  8,662 

Georgia 679  3,202  947  38  25  5,907 

Florida 300  878  307  7  17  2,757 

Alabama •. .  941  3,639  1,068  113  45  7,638 

Mississippi 593  1,928  1,064  41  71  4,958 

Louisiana     3,550  24,266  17,507  723  380  66,413 

Texas 1,002  1,403  8,191  134  75  16,774 

Arkansas 196  514  516  12  24  1,628 

Tennessee 706  2,640  1,168  266  32  5,740 

Kentucky 2805  9,466  13.607  279  198  29,189 

Ohio 25,660  51,562  111.257  3,291  765  218,512 

Michigan 10,620  13,430  10,070  118  190  •    54,852 

Indiana 5,550  12,787  28,584  724  740  54.426 

Illinois 18,628  27,786  38.160  1,635  286  110,593 

Missouri 5,379  14,734  44,352  984  697  72,474 

Iowa 3,785  4,885  7,152  175  88  21.232 

Wisconsin    18,952  21,043  34,519  1,244  3,545  106^695 

California 3,050  2,452  2,926  177  158  22,358 

TERRITORIES. 

Minnesota   84  271  141  22  5  2,048 

Oregon 207  196  155  8  1  1,159 

Utah 1,056  106  50  1  6  1,990 

New  Mexico 43  292  215  11  14  2,063 


Total 278,675     961,719     573,225     13,358     10,549     2,210,839 


In  this  manner  were  distributed  in  1850 
among  the  several  states  those  of  our  citi 
zens  who  were  born  abroad.  In  the  aggre 
gate,  Wisconsin  had  the  largest  proportion 
of  foreign  citizens.  Out  of  a  population  of 
305,391,  there  were  106,691,  or  more  than 
one  out  of  three,  born  abroad.  Of  that  num 
ber,  nearly  40,000  were  Germans.  Next  to 
Wisconsin,  New  York  had  tho  largest  share 
of  foreigners,  these  forming  more  than  1  out 
of  5  of  the  whole  number.  The  New  York 
state  census  of  1855  also  reported  the  nativi 
ties,  and  these  compare  with  1850  as  follows : 

English.  Irish.  Germans.  Total  For'gn.  Native. 
1:850,  84,820  848,111  122,459  651,801  2,445,593 
185T),  102,286  469,753  218,997  922,019  2,528,444 

Iucreasel7,46G        126,642          96,533        270,218  82,851 


The  foreign  element,  it  appears,  increased 
in  these  five  years  270,218,  while  the  na 
tive  born  only  increased  82,851,  showing 
how  greatly  the  enterprise  of  those  years 
sent  people  to  the  west.  The  natural 
increase  of  the  white  population  in  the 
United  States  is  three  per  cent,  per  an 
num.  Thus,  on  the  2,445,593  native  whites 
in  New  York  in  1850,  the  excess  of  births 
over  deaths  in  one  year  would  be  73,367 ; 
and  for  five  years,  to  1855,  it  would  be 
226,835  persons.  But  the  census  showed 
an  increase  of  only  82,851,  consequently 
143,984  of  the  native  population  must  have 
emigrated  from  the  state  during  that  period. 
Their  places  were  more  than  supplied  by  the 


LANDING    IN    NEW    YORK — FUTURE    HOMES. 


243 


emigrants.  The  same  movement  is  apparent 
in  all  the  northern  states.  The  number  of 
persons  born  in  the  northern  states  and  liv 
ing  at  the  time  of  the  census,  was  8,370,089. 
Of  these,  only  6,941,510  were  living  where 
they  were  born;  the  remainder,  1,428,579, 
were  living  in  other  states,  south  and  west. 
But  there  were  also  living  in  the  northern 
states,  at  the  date  of  the  census,  1,292,241 
persons  who  Avere  born  abroad.  These  for 
eigners  were  mostly  Irish — factory  opera 
tives,  domestics,  and  artisans.  It  appears, 
then,  that  business  enterprise  had  drawn 
1,428,579  northern  born  men  into  other 
states,  and  their  places  had  been  supplied 
by  1,292,241  emigrants  from  abroad.  This 
was  up  to  1850,  and  since  then,  as  we  have 
seen  in  the  case  of  New  York,  the  movement 
has  been  much  more  rapid  ;  to  how  great 
an  extent,  the  forthcoming  census  will  show. 
The  amount  of  money  or  capital  drawn 
from  Europe  by  the  emigrants  is  a  question 
of  much  importance.  The  cost  of  prepara 
tion  for  the  voyage  in  Europe,  the  cost  of  the 
passage,  and  the  expenses  incurred  after  ar 
riving  until  the  new  home  is  finally  reached, 
cannot,  together,  fall  short  of  one  hundred 
dollars  each ;  and  many  have  a  small  capital, 
in  addition,  with  which  to  begin  the  world. 
The  sums  transported  arc  often  much  larger. 
In  1854  the  migration  from  the  Palatinate, 
as  stated  in  a  Bremen  report,  was  8,908,  and 
they  carried  81,024,000.  The  reports  of  the 
New  York  commissioners  of  emigration,  as 
the  result  of  their  investigation,  show  that  the 
average  of  money  brought  is  very  near  one 
hundred  dollars  per  head — an  amount  which 
becomes  formidable  when  taken  in  connec 
tion  with  the  aggregate  numbers  arriving. 
This  is  exhibited  in  the  following  summary 
of  arrivals : — 


Ten  years  to  Sept.  30,  1829. 
"  "         1839, 

1849, 


Whole  Number  Sums  at 

No.  of            of  $!<'() 

Arrivals.  Aliens.  per  head. 

151  fi'!6       12^  50^  12  8t)0  200 

572J16  538^81  53',S88!lOO 

1,479,478  1,427.*37  14-2,733,700 


Dec.  81,  1869,     3,075,900    2,814,554    281,455,400 
Total  arrived 5,279,730    4,908,7  74  $490,877,400 

This  is  an  immense  sum,  and  poured  forth 
even  in  small  streams,  has  had  an  important 
effect  upon  the  prosperity  of  the  country  at 
large,  independent  of  the  larger  sums  invested 
in  land,  stock,  and  utensils.  On  the  other 
hand,  very  considerable  sums  are  sent  out  of 
the  country  in  aid  of  the  emigrants,  by  their 
friends  here,  who  have  earned  the  money  at 
service  and  otherwise.  On  this  point,  in- 


House  A,  number  of  drafts. . .  1,934 
"      B,      "  "  6,193 

"       C,       •'  "  ]3,4-J5 

"       D,       "  «    .       18,175 

"      E,      "  "          40,542 


formation  has  from  time  to  time  been  gath 
ered,  of  the  houses  through  which  remittances 
are  made.  These  remittances  are  mostly 
small  drafts,  purchased  in  New  York,  for  sums 
varying  from  five  to  one  hundred  dollars. 
The  latter  sum  is  seldom  reached,  however. 
The  remittances  of  five  of  these  houses,  in 
one  year,  were  as  follows: — 

Average 
amount. 
135125          $161 
123,290  .19  j 

2G(i,395  )9i 

3<>3,I40  iy-£r 

810,835  20 

Total  5  houses  1  year.  .8!),2Tt          $1,595,785 

These  do  not  include  the  large  banking- 
houses,  of  which  there  are  no  returns,  but  it 
is  stated  the  Baring  Brothers  alone  send 
$2,500,000.  The  British  emigrant  commis 
sioners  reported  $2,160,000  so  sent  in  1848; 
$2,589,000  in  1849;  $4,871,204  in  1850; 
$5,172,010  in  1851  ;  $6,960,107  in  1852, 
and  with  the  prosperous  years  during  the 
great  rail  expenditures,  up  to  1857,  large 
sums  were  remitted.  It  is  to  be  remembered, 
however,  that  the  sums  so  remitted  come  back 
mostly  to  American  ship  owners  for  passage 
money,  so  that,  in  fact,  it  does  not  all  leave 
the  country.  In  the  same  manner  a  good 
deal  of  the  United  States  gold  coin  exported 
to  Havre,  Bremen,  etc.,  is  purchased  there 
by  emigrants  in  exchange  for  their  native 
coin,  and  disbursed  here  on  the  arrival  of 
the  passengers.  It  results,  then,  that  Europe 
sustained  in  the  last  ten  years  a  drain  of 
2,814,554  souls,  and  at  least  $281,000,000 
of  money,  which  went  to  enrich  the  United 
States.  This,  without  taking  into  account 
the  productive  value  of  the  people  after  they 
arrived. 

The  legal  rights  of  the  emigrants,  after 
they  become  naturalized,  are  the  same  in 
all  respects  as  those  of  the  native  born  citi 
zens,  with  the  single  exception  that  they  are 
not  eligible  to  the  office  of  president  or 
vice-president  of  the  United  States.  .  No 
law  can  be  passed  to  abridge  the  freedom  of 
their  speech,  or  the  free  exercise  of  their  re- 
ligion,whatcver  that  may  be — even  the  enjoy 
ment  of  Mormonism  has  been  an  attraction 
to  some.  Their  right  to  hold  real  estate  is 
perfect,  as  is  the  security  afforded  to  persons, 
property,  and  papers,  and  they  may  be  elec 
ted,  or  may  elect  to  any  office  except  those 
named. 

Another  very  interesting  feature  of  the 
passenger  movement,  although  not  strictly 
embraced  within  the  emigration,  is  the  num- 


244 


IMMIGRATION. 


ber  of  United  States  citizens  who  annually 
arrive  from  abroad.  There  is  no  record  of 
the  number  who  go  abroad  each  year,  nor  of 
the  sums  they  expend  in  so  doing ;  never 
theless,  these  are  very  considerable,  and  form 
an  important  element  in  the  exchanges  of 
the  country.  As  a  guide  to  the  numbers 
who  go,  the  returns  of  those  who  arrive  each 
year  become  very  interesting.  These,  dis 
tinguishing  males  and  females,  have  been  as 
follows : — 

NUMBER   OP  NATIVE  CITIZENS  ARRIVED   EACH  TEAR 
FROM   ABROAD. 


Males. 


Females.  Not  stated.      Total. 


1820, 

1,576 

287     63 

1,926 

1821, 

2,215 

302 

2,517 

1822, 

1,502 

136 

1,638 

1823, 

1,715 

196 

1,911 

1824, 

1,547 

168 

1,715 

1825, 

2,289 

370 

2,659 

1826, 

2,516 

555 

3.071 

1827, 

2,362 

540 

2.902 

1828, 

2,185 

617 

2^802 

1829, 

1,635 

358 

1,993 

1830, 

1,075 

440 

1,515 

1831, 

1,008 

239 

1.247 

1832, 

1,003 

169 

1,172 

1833, 

1,002 

283 

1,285 

1834, 

1,934 

640     9 

2.583 

1835, 

2,556 

764     22 

3,342 

1836, 

3,594 

1,136 

4,730 

1837, 

4,566 

1,053 

5,629 

1838, 

5,030 

1,215 

6,245 

1839, 

5,268 

1,329 

6,597 

1840, 

6,115 

2,026 

8,141 

1841, 

5,733 

1,783 

7,516 

1842, 

4,847 

1,568 

6,415 

1843, 

3,103 

930 

4,033 

1844, 

4,466 

•1,683 

6,149 

1845, 

4,164 

1,196    165 

5,525 

1846, 

3,197 

1,036 

4,233 

1847, 

3,081 

1,408     25 

4,514 

1848, 

2,222 

734 

2,956 

1849, 

2,024 

635 

2,659 

1850, 

9,863 

1,059 

10,926 

1851, 

27,836 

1,526 

29.362 

1852, 

23,262 

2,478 

25,740 

1853, 

28,774 

3,563 

32,337 

1854, 

28,710 

3,931 

32,641 

1855, 

24,874 

4,716 

29,599 

1856, 

20,058 

4,002 

24,060 

1857, 

16,701 

3,974 

20,676 

1858, 

17,291 

4,489 

21,780 

1859, 

27,041 

7,186 

34,227 

309,940  60,710         284         370,968 

At  the  era  of  the  gold  discoveries  in  1849, 
a  sudden  movement  in  American  travel  took 
placej  it  appears.  In  the  ten  years  ending 
with  1849,  51,951  persons  arrived  home;  of 
these,  one-fourth  were  females.  In  the  ten 
years  ending  with  1859,  261,138  Americans 
arrived  home.  The  amount  of  money  spent 
by  these  persons  abroad  cannot  be  ascer 


tained  with  precision,  but  it  is  known  that 
the  passage  out  and  home,  with  a  three 
months'  expense,  cannot  be  done  inside  of 
$600,  at  which  rate  the  amount  expended 
would  be  $156,682,800  for  the  ten  years,  or 
$15,000,000  per  annum.  The  probability  is 
that  it  is  three  times  that  amount;  the  pas 
sage-money  alone  would  reach  $52,227,000. 
This  constitutes  a  very  heavy  drain  upon  the 
national  resources,  although  the  money  paid 
for  passages  is  mostly  to  American  interests  ; 
as  a  whole  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  financial 
balance  arising  from  migration  is  in  favor  of 
the  country.  The  numbers  of  former  emi 
grants  who  return  home  with  accumulated 
means,  added  to  the  sums  expended  abroad 
by  Americans,  will  probably  at  least  cancel 
the  amounts  actually  brought  into  the  country 
by  emigrants.  But  the  vast  amount  of  pro 
ductive  skill  and  labor  that  is  brought  into 
the  country,  and  applied  to  the  vast  waste  of 
land,  develops  more  capital  in  a  ratio  which 
astonishes  the  observer.  The  number  of 
persons  who  arrive  in  the  United  States  in  a 
single  years  equals  the  population  of  a  whole 
state.  Thus  the  numbers  that  arrived  in 
1857  were  427,883;  the  total  white  popula 
tion  of  the  state  of  Alabama  was,  in  1850, 
428,779. 

From  1859,  the  tide  of  immigration,  which 
for  two  or  three  years  previous  had  ebbed, 
began  to  flow  again  in  something  like  its  old 
abundance,  and,  though  checked  in  1861  and 
1862  by  the  war  and  the  presence  of  rebel 
privateers  in  the  Atlantic,  it  soon  increased 
again,  and  in  1863,  '4,  '5,  and  '6,  has  been 
very  large.  In  1860,  the  whole  number  of 
alien  emigrants  was  153,640.  We  have  no 
returns  from  the  whole  country  since  that 
date,  but  the  immigrants  landed  at  New  York 
since  that  time,  which  comprise  about  three- 
fourths  of  the  whole  number  who  enter  the 
country,  were,  in  1861,  68,311;  in  1862, 
81,458;  in  1863, 161,648;  in  1864, 184,700  ; 
in  1865,  200,031;  in  ten  months  of  1866, 
202,440.  It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  the 
later  immigrants,  those  of  the  last  three  or 
four  years,  are,  socially  and  pecuniarily,  of  a 
much  higher  class  than  those  of  former  years. 
A  very  large  proportion  of  them  are  well,  or 
at  least  tolerably  educated,  and  many  of 
them  possessed  sufficient  means  to  enable 
them  to  go  to  the  West  and  procure  farms, 
or  engage  in  other  employments.  Of  the 
immigrants  in  1865,  83,451  were  from  Ger 
many,  70,462  from  Ireland,  27,286  from 
England,  and  15,153  from  other  countries. 


SOCIAL  AND  DOMESTIC  LIFE. 


;  INTRODUCTORY. 

THREE  quarters  of  a  century  ago,  there 
were  in  the  whole  United  States  only  about 
as  many  people  as  there  are  now  in  the  state 
of  New  York ;  and  now  we  have  grown  from 
less  than  four  millions  to  thirty  millions — 
having  increased  nearly  eight-fold. 

These  large  numbers  will  indistinctly  rep 
resent  the  general  progress  of  the  nation  ; 
and  the  average  social  prosperity  of  each 
citizen  has  increased  in  a  ratio  materially 
larger.  The  actual  amount  of  this  increase 
in  intelligence,  wealth,  and  comfort,  cannot 
be  set  down  in  figures,  but  will  be  under 
stood  as  well  as  the  case  will  permit,  from 
an  enumeration  of  details  of  improvements 
in  social  and  domestic  life. 

There  were  sufficient  reasons  for  a  some 
what  uncommonly  low  average  of  comfort 
at  the  end  of  the  Revolution.  The  seven 
years'  war  had,  of  course,  almost  destroyed 
all  industry,  except  farming  and  a  few  indis 
pensable  manufactures  and  trades.  It  had 
also  drained  all  the  specie  out  of  the  country, 
or  frightened  it  into  secret  hoards ;  in  con 
sequence  of  which  the  currency  was  entirely 
disorganized.  Government  credit  was  at 
such  a  low  ebb,  that  the  bills  of  the  Unit 
ed  States  (known  as  "  continental  money") 
would  not  purchase  even  such  articles  of 
comfort  or  luxury  as  existed,  except  at  enor 
mous  nominal  rates ;  nor  was  the  paper 
money  of  the  separate  states  in  much  better 
reputation.  Thus,  a  hundred  dollars  in  these 
depreciated  bills  was  paid  for  a  mug  of  ci 
der  ;  five  hundred  dollars  for  a  bowl  of 
punch ;  a  thousand  dollars  for  a  pair  of 
shoes  ;  twenty-seven  thousand  dollars  for  an 
ordinary  horse  ;  and  "  part  of  an  old  shirt" 
was  set  in  an  inventory  at  fifteen  dollars. 
The  worthlessness  of  this  money  rendered 
it  necessary  to  make  payments,  to  a  great 
extent,  in  barter — a  mode  of  trading  which 
always  keeps  the  average  of  comfort  and 
luxury  down  at  a  standard  little  above  that 
of  the  better  class  of  savages. 


But  even  if  this  paper  currency  had  been 
worth  its  face,  or  if  specie  had  been  plenty, 
it  would  have  been  possible  to  buy  only  a 
small  share  of  comforts  or  luxuries  compared 
with  those  now  attainable,  for  the  plain  rea 
son  that  they  did  not  exist. 

Beginning  at  this  low  period  of  average 
prosperity,  we  shall  now  rapidly  sketch  the 
progress  of  the  country,  up  to  the  present 
time,  under  the  general  heads  of 

1.  Domestic  Architecture. 

2.  Furniture. 

3.  Food. 

4.  Dress. 

5.  Mental  culture,  intercourse,  etc. 


CHAPTER  I. 

DOMESTIC   ARCHITECTURE. 

Eighty  years  ago,  houses  were  much  more 
evenly  distributed  over  the  country  than  is 
now  the  case.  There  has  ever  since  been  a 
continual  tendency  to  draw  together  into 
towns ;  and  this  tendency  has  been  much 
assisted  by  the  increased  ease  of  travelling 
and  transportation.  At  that  time,  therefore, 
there  was  much  less  difference  between  a 
country  house  and  a  city  house  than  at 
present. 

In  the  older  parts  of  the  northern  states, 
the  houses  then  built  were  often  of  the  style 
called  "lean-to,"  or  "linter;"  that  is,  with 
one  side  of  the  roof  carried  down  so  far  as 
to  cover  an  additional  tier  of  rooms  on  the 
ground  floor,  or  a  wide  shed.  Another  com 
mon  style,  rather  later  in  use,  was  the  "gam- 
bril  roofed,"  where  the  roof  rose  at  a  very 
steep  pitch  from  the  eaves,  about  half  the 
length  of  the  rafters,  and  then  fell  in  to  the 
ridge-pole  at  a  much  flatter  angle.  This 
gave  a  very  roomy  garret.  Dormer  win 
dows  were  very  common,  to  light  rooms  fin 
ished  off  in  the  garrets. 

Timber  was  plenty,  and  houses  were  built 


246 


SOCIAL    AND    DOMESTIC    LIFE. 


almost  exclusively  of  wood,  and  often  with 
beams  and  rafters  of  dimensions  that  would 
now  seem  truly  enormous.  Brick  was  com 
paratively  little  used,  until  lumber  grew 
scarcer  in  the  older  parts  of  the  country, 
and  "brick  machines,"  first  invented  by 
Kinsley  a  little  before  1800,  had  rendered 
the  production  of  brick  more  rapid  and 
cheaper  than  could  be  afforded  by  hand  la 
bor.  Stone  was  scarcely  used  at  all,  except 
by  a  very  few  wealthy  persons.  Sometimes 
the  spaces  between  the  timbers  of  a  frame 
house  were  filled  in  with  brick,  so  as  to 
make  a  sort  of  brick  body  to  the  house,  with 
wooden  bones,  and  with  the  clapboards  put 
on  over  these. 

A  beam  was  very  often  left  running  across 
the  ceiling  of  a  room,  six  or  eight  inches  be 
low  the  plaster,  and  was  a  convenient  place 
for  driving  nails  or  pegs  on  which  to  hang 
dried  apples,  seed-corn,  peppers,  hams,  bas 
kets,  rope,  etc.,  etc.  In  like  manner  the 
uprights  often  projected  into  the  corner  of 
the  room,  giving  it  a  kind  of  coarse  cornice. 
The  centre  of  the  house  was  usually  occu 
pied  by  the  chimney  stack — an  immense 
pile  of  brick  or  stone,  sometimes  occupying 
almost  a  quarter  of  the  ground  plan.  In  the 
different  sides  of  this  huge  mass  opened  the 
great  old-fashioned  fire-places,  in  many  of 
which  one  could  sit  in  the  corner  while  the 
fire  burned,  and  see  the  sky  through  the 
chimney-top.  Half  a  cord  of  wood  might 
burn  at  once  in  some  of  these  great  fire 
places,  and  yet,  in  the  bitter  cold  of  a  north 
ern  winter,  water  would  freeze  at  the  other 
side  of  the  room.  This  was  by  reason  of 
the  thinness  of  the  walls,  the  imperfect  fit 
ting  of  doors  and  windows,  and  above  all, 
the  great  proportion  of  heat  that  went  off 
up  chimney,  and  of  cold  that  came  down. 
Hinged  to  staples  at  the  chimney-back  was 
a  crane,  with  its  pot-hooks  and  hangers,  or 
trammels,  to  accommodate  the  machinery 
of  the  cook.  At  one  side  of  the  fire-place 
was  the  oven — a  cave  in  the  masonry  of  the 
chimney-stack — and,  usually,  with  an  ash- 
hole  underneath  it.  A  great  shovel,  or 
"slice,"  with  a  handle  five  or  six  feet  long, 
and  a  big  pair  of  tongs  to  match,  were  for 
oven  use  ;  and  to  heat  this  affair  thoroughly 
enough  to  bake  bread,  usually  occupied  an 
hour  or  an  hour  and  a  half,  and  consumed 
two  or  three  good  annfuls  of  dry  wood. 

Houses  were  commonly  low  "  between 
joints,"  to  economize  heat.  Roofs  were 
shingled,  with  split  shingles;  the  sawed 


shingles  being  little  used  until  a  little  after 
1800,  from  which  time  many  patents  for 
shingle  sawing  were  taken  out.  A  machine 
for  getting  out  shingles  was  patented,  how 
ever,  as  early  as  1797.  Slate  roofs  have 
never  been  much  used,  and  tiles  scarcely  at 
all.  Cypress  wood  is  used  for  shingles  at 
the  south,  instead  of  pine  ;  exposure  to  the 
weather  turns  it  to  a  quite  distinct,  but  dis 
agreeable  black.  Sheet  tin  has  been  quite 
extensively  used  for  roofing  during  the  last 
quarter  of  a  century,  being  laid  upon 
tongued  and  grooved  boards ;  but  most  of 
such  roofs  leak  vexatiously,  from  the  alternate 
expansion  or  contraction  of  the  tin  from  heat 
and  cold.  Since  about  1840,  quite  a  num 
ber  of  modes  have  been  invented  for  cover 
ing  roofs  with  oiled  cloth,  asphalt,  mineral 
paints,  etc. ,  etc. ;  but  no  roof  is  better  than 
a  well  made  shingle  roof. 

A  quite  recent  invention  in  domestic  ar 
chitecture  is  the  plan  of  building  what  are 
called  "  gravel  walls,"  by  moulding  gravel 
and  loose  stone  with  mortar  into  a  kind  of 
concrete  wall  on  the  spot,  lifting  up  the 
moulding  cases  when  the  contents  are  firmly- 
set,  and  moulding  another  section.  This 
results  in  a  house  which  may  be  said  to  be 
of  one  stone,  for  if  the  materials  are  good 
and  well  put  together,  they  harden  into  an 
artificial  breccia.  This  plan  has  not,  how 
ever,  been  sufficiently  proved  ;  and  a  wrong 
choice  of  sand,  or  gravel,  or  lime  might 
after  a  while  cause  the  crumbling  and  ruin 
of  the  whole  fabric. 

Walls  were  usually  finished  inside  with 
whitewash,  paper,  or  paint ;  the  use  of  stucco, 
or  "  hard  finish,"  being  quite  rare  until  a  late 
period.  All  house  iron-work  and  trimmings 
of  a  better  kind  were  imported  from  Eng 
land,  until  within  the  present  century. 
Wrought  nails  were  used  ;  cut  nails  having 
been  invented,  and  their  manufacture  va 
riously  perfected  by  several  Americans,  from 
about  1791,  when  the  earliest  patent  on  the 
subject  was  issued,  down  to  the  present  time. 
Jacob  Perkins,  of  Newburyport,  and  Bying- 
ton,  of  Connecticut,  were  two  of  the  most 
prominent  inventors  in  this  line.  Such 
latches,  hinges,  etc.,  as  were  then  made  iu 
this  country,  were  wrought  iron,  and  clumsy 
and  inconvenient.  All  such  trimmings  are, 
however,  now  manufactured  to  great  perfec 
tion  in  our  own  workshops.  Among  the 
improvements  of  the  last  forty  years  in  house 
trimmings,  a  very  .convenient  one  is  the  in 
troduction  of  balance  weights  running  over 


DOMESTIC    ARCHITECTURE. 


24Y 


pullies,  to  facilitate  opening  and  shutting 
windows.  Before  these  were  used,  the  prac 
tice  was  to  use  various  kinds  of  catches,  all 
of  which  made  it  necessary  to  lift  the  whole 
weight  of  the  sash  ;  and  instead  of  which 
were  often  found  merely  a  wooden  button 
to  turn  under,  and  hold  the  cash  open,  or 
even  nothing  but  a  stick  to  hold  it  up. 

The  invention  of  the  planing  machine, 
first  successfully  introduced  by  William 
Woodworth  in  1837,  though  many  patents 
had  preceded  his,  and  of  the  circular  saw, 
first  patented  by  Cox,  of  Georgia,  in  1795, 
were  important  improvements  in  dressing 
lumber,  and  cutting  it ;  as  the  former  could 
turn  out  boards  smoothed,  tongued  and 
grooved,  and  fit  for  flooring,  and  the  latter 
could  cut  thin  work  much  more  cheaply 
than  a  common  saw  movement.  Another 
machine  has  been  introduced  within  fifteen 
years,  for  boring  auger  holes,  and  others 
for  cutting  wooden  mouldings,  which  save 
much  time  and  labor  in  framing  and  in 
finishing  respectively.  During  the  last  .ten 
or  twelve  years,  also,  various  new  paints 
have  been  introduced,  none  of  which,  how 
ever,  have  entirely  superseded  the  old-fash 
ioned  oil  vehicle  and  ordinary  mineral 
colors.  Of  these,  the  principal  are  prepara 
tions  of  zinc,  to  be  used  instead  of  lead,  and 
also  for  a  variety  of  browns  and  grays  ;  and 
several  "mineral  paints,"  usually  finely 
pulverized  stone,  which  are  recommended  as 
good  defences  against  fire. 

The  improvement  of  the  last  twenty  years 
in  architectural  designs  has  been  great.  Up 
to  that  time,  dwelling  houses  were  built  in 
the  north  most  frequently  on  a  plain  paral 
lelogram  plan  with  the  common  ridge-pole 
roof.  A  style  at  that  time  quite  frequently 
adopted  for  houses  of  a  somewhat  preten 
tious  character  was  that  of  a  Greek  temple, 
usually  with  a  row  of  pillars  across  one  end. 
This  absurd  misapplication  did  not  flourish 
long,  and  was  succeeded  by  the  Gothic 
cottage  style ;  and  this  again,  and  with  ex 
tensive  and  well- deserved  success,  by  the 
very  various  and  graceful  modifications  of 
the  Italian  villa  style.  In  cities,  where  land 
is  very  expensive,  a  style  called  the  "  Eng 
lish  basement  house"  is  much  used  ;  with  a 
front  of  brick,  or  stone,  or  both  ;  a  ground 
floor  occupied  by  a  library  or  dressing-room, 
and  a  dining-room  ;  with  the  kitchen  in  the 
basement  below,  and  the  parlors  and  bed 
rooms  on  the  floors  above.  This  arrangement 
economizes  land,  but  the  great  number  of 


stories  and  stairs  makes  them  very  wearisome 
to  the  feeble  frames  of  our  American  city 
housekeepers,  unless  they  content  them 
selves  with  sitting  comfortably  in  the  parlor, 
and  letting  Bridget  govern,  uncontrolled,  in 
all  the  rest  of  the  house.  A  modification 
of  this  house,  known  as  the  Boston  style, 
has  a  front  door  sunk  within  a  recess  in  the 
front,  as  a  shelter  from  the  weather. 

A  very  common  arrangement  of  old-fash 
ioned  houses  was  to  set  the  house  with  the 
side  toward  the  street,  with  the  front  door 
in  the  middle,  opening  into  a  little  vestibule. 
From  this  the  stairs  passed  up,  often  turning 
round  three  sides  of  the  vestibule ;  and  at 
each  side  a  door  led  to  two  front  rooms. 
These,  often  occupying  all  the  ground  floor 
of  the  two-story  part,  were  parlors,  or  a  par 
lor  and  a  bed-room.  Behind  these,  under 
the  "lean-to"  roof,  was  very  probably  one 
long  room,  used  as  kitchen,  nursery,  and 
sitting-room ;  for  the  parlor  was  used  only 
for  great  occasions.  The  second  floor  was 
laid  off  as  might  be  convenient. 

The  better  houses  of  the  southern  states 
were  built  to  suit  the  different  demands  of 
the  climate — more  airily,  and  usually  with 
much  piazza  room,  and  not  much  provision 
for  warmth.  Early  settlers  in  the  south  and 
west  invariably  put  up  log  houses,  whose 
chimneys  were  built  outside  against  one  end, 
of  sticks  laid  in  clay.  A  mode  often  used 
was  to  build  two  separate  square  rooms  of 
logs,  and  then  to  throw  one  roof  over  both 
and  the  space  between,  thus  securing  an  out 
door  shelter.  These  log  houses  were  floored 
with  "  puncheons,"  that  is,  small  logs  split 
once  and  hewed  even.  A  standing  table  of 
puncheons,  some,  three-legged  stools,  a  rude 
bedstead,  with  a  bed  of  leaves  or  corn- 
husks  covered  with  buffalo-hide  or  bear-skins 
instead  of  sheet,  blanket,  and  coverlet ;  a 
shelf,  and  a  variety  of  pegs  driven  into  the 
wall,  completed  almost  the  entire  outside 
and  inside  of  these  rugged,  but  Comfort 
able  homes,  the  nurseries  of  so  many  brave 
and  great  men.  In  such  houses  were  born 
and  brought  up  Andrew  Jackson,  Henry 
Clay,  and  the  numberless  heroic  Indian 
fighters  and  mighty  hunters  of  the  west. 
And  such  houses  are  still  the  homes  of 
thousands  of  the  bold  pioneers  who  are  ad 
vancing  westward,  carrying  forward  the 
limits  of  civilized  society  toward  the  Pacific 
ocean.  As  the  newer  states  increase  in 
population  and  wealth,  the  domestic  architec 
ture  of  the  older  ones  is  copied,  and  dwell- 


248 


SOCIAL    AND    DOMESTIC    LIFE. 


ing  houses  of  the  same  general  character  are 
now  commonly  used  in  city  and  country. 

Among  the  chief  improvements  in  domes 
tic  architecture  are  those  which  have  been 
applied  to  modes  of  warming  houses.  The 
earliest  improvement  on  the  ancient  fire 
place  was  the  Franklin  stove,  invented  by 
the  great  philosopher  whose  name  it  bears, 
and  which  was  in  use  before  the  revolution 
ary  war.  These  were  only  shallow  iron  fire 
places,  with  a  draft  which  could  be  modified 
by  a  sort  of  valve,  and  were  used  only  for 
•wood.  Large  box-stoves,  also  for  Avood, 
were  the  first  means  used  for  warming 
churches.  Even  these  were  not  introduced 
until  within  the  memory  of  many  persons 
now  living,  and,  as  is  well  known,  were  vio 
lently  resisted  by  the  conservatives,  who 
fought  hard  to  retain  the  privilege  of  morti 
fying  the  flesh  by  freezing  fingers  and  toes 
all  day  Sunday. 

The  introduction  of  anthracite  coal  was 
the  next  step  in  this  department.  This  had 
been  known  for  years  to  the  hunters  and 
trappers  of  the  wild  interior  of  Pennsylva 
nia,  as  a  black  stone  sometimes  found  on  the 
mountains,  but  was  not  thought  combustible, 
any  more  than  granite. 

Some  successful  attempts  had,  however, 
been  made  to  burn  anthracite  ;  one  by  Dr. 
C.  T.  James,  in  1804  ;  and  one  by  Judge 
Jesse  Fell,  of  Wilkesbarre,  who  burned  it  in 
a  grate,  in  1808.  This  brought  it  gradually 
into  use  in  that  vicinity.  In  1814,  White 
&  Hazard,  iron-masters  in  Carbon  county, 
bituminous  coal  becoming  scarce,  resolved 
to  try  anthracite  in  their  rolling  mill.  They 
got  a  cart-load,  at  a  dollar  a  bushel,  and 
wasted  it  all  in  vain  endeavors  to  kindle  it. 
Procuring  another  load,  they  tried  again  ; 
but  after  fruitless  endeavors  for  a  whole 
night,  the  hands  shut  the  furnace  door  in 
despair  and  left  the  mill.  Half  an  hour 
afterward,  one  of  them  came  back  after  his 
jacket,  and  to  his  surprise  found  the  fur 
nace  door  red-hot,  and  the  inside  at  a  strong 
white  heat.  The  discovery  was  made  ;  and 
•with  the  use  of  a  similar  let-alone  policy  in 
kindling,  anthracite  was  afterward  used  in 
furnaces  with  entire  success,  an  improve 
ment  in  quality  of  product,  and  a  large 
saving  of  expense. 

Thus  introduced,  the  use  of  the  new  fuel 
gradually  spread,  although  so  slowly  that  in 
1820,  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  tons  com 
pletely  stocked  the  Philadelphia  market 
for  a  year.  Many  patents  were  now  taken 


out  for  grates,  blowers,  cooking-stoves,  par 
lor  and  hall  stoves,  ranges,  and  hot-air  fur 
naces.  R.  Trexler,  of  Berks  county,  manu 
factured  stoves  for  anthracite  in  1815  ;  and 
the  earliest  patent  for  furnaces  seems  to  have 
been  that  of  Thomas  Gregg,  of  Connells- 
ville,  Pa.,  in  1814.  Three  or  four  years 
now  brought  the  new  fuel  into  extensive 
use,  and  from  the  three  hundred  and  sixty- 
five  tons,  which  was  all  that  was  mined  in 
1820,  the  amount  had  risen  in  1849,  in 
thirty  years,  to  three  millions  and  a  quarter 
of  tons,  and  has  been  continually  increasing 
ever  since. 

Nott's  stoves  were  early  much  used  for 
warming  houses  with  anthracite  ;  Olmsted's 
stove  and  Bushnell's  were  in  fashion  next ; 
the  first  invented  by  a  college  president,  the 
second  by  a  college  professor,  and  the  third 
by  an  eminent  clergyman.  It  would  be 
vain  to  enumerate  the  numberless  patents 
and  designs  that  have  since  been  intro 
duced.  About  1836,  Isaac  Orr,  a  man  of 
great  inventive  talent,  patented  the  air-tight 
stove  for  wood,  which  was  for  a  time  so 
extensively  used  as  to  cause  a  sort  of  inter 
regnum  in  the  reign  of  anthracite,  and 
which  is  yet  frequently  seen.  Grates,  long 
used  in  England  to  burn  the  bituminous 
coal  there,  were  early  adapted  to  anthracite, 
and  their  cheerful  open  appearance  has  kept 
them  to  some  extent  in  vogue.  Hot-air 
furnaces  were  also  invented,  as  early,  at 
least,  as  1813;  but  various  faults,  from  the 
too  great  fierceness  and  dryness  of  the  heat, 
imperfect  defence  against  fire,  etc.,  rendered 
them  on  the  whole  quite  unsatisfactory,  un 
til  about  1840,  when  great  improvements 
began  to  be  made ;  and  many  of  the  fur 
naces  now  employed  afford  a  bountiful  sup 
ply  of  air,  almost  fresh  from  out-doors,  and 
not  too  warm  and  dry  for  health. 

Apparatuses  have  also  been  devised  for 
heating  buildings  by  systems  of  hot-water 
pipes,  and  by  systems  of  steam  pipes ;  of 
which  the  latter,  especially  in  manufacturing 
establishments,  offices,  public  rooms,  etc., 
succeed  very  well,  though  the  heat  would 
sometimes  be  somewhat  too  slowly  diffused 
for  private  residences. 

Until  within  twenty  years,  scarcely  any 
care  had  been  given  to  the  ventilation  of  any 
buildings,  whether  public  or  private.  At 
earlier  periods,  an  abundant  circulation  of 
air  was  secured  by  the  open  chimney, 
through  which  a  strong  current  of  warm  air 
continually  rushed  up,  taking,  as  has  been 


FURNITURE FURNISHING    GOODS,    ETC. 


249 


computed,  at  least  nine-tenths  of  all  the  heat 
with  it.  With  the  introduction  of  stoves 
and  furnaces,  this  ventilator  was  closed,  and 
the  air  of  warm  rooms  became  unhealthily 
dry  and  hot,  or  vitiated  by  use,  especially  in 
schools,  ball-rooms,  court-rooms,  public  as 
semblies,  etc.  Many  disorders  were  aggra 
vated  or  made  more  common  by  this  state 
of  things  ;  such  as  headaches,  nervous  affec 
tions,  and  lung  complaints.  Various  plans 
of  ventilation  have  been  adopted  to  remedy 
these  evils,  but  the  principles  of  the  science 
of  pneumatics  are  even  yet  so  imperfectly 
understood  that  no  entirely  satisfactory  sys 
tem  of  ventilation  has  yet  been  devised. 
The  modes  commonly  used  are,  for  large 
public  buildings,  such  as  churches,  an  open 
ing  at  the  ceiling,,  with  a  device  outside  for 
forming  an  upward  current  by  the  help  of 
the  wind ;  in  private  houses,  openings  at  the 
sides  of  rooms,  communicating  indirectly 
with  the  external  air  ;  and  where  hot-air 
furnaces  are  used,  a  pipe  supplying  air  from 
without,  which  is  warmed  by  the  furnace 
and  passed  on  into  the  apartments.  Stove- 
heat  is,  however,  still  not  usually  applied  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  promote  health. 

City  residences  are  at  present  frequently 
furnished  with  two  kinds  of  improvements 
rarely  found  elsewhere — gas  and  water. 

The  use  of  gas  for  lighting  streets  and 
houses  was  first  invented  by  an  Englishman 
named  Murdoch,  and  tried  at  Redruth,  in 
Cornwall,  in  1792.  It  was  first  introduced 
in  the  city  of  New  York  by  the  old  New 
York  Gas  Company,  chartered  in  1823.  It 
is  now  used  in,  most  of  our  cities,  and  its 
deprivation  would  be  thought  a  very  serious 
misfortune. 

An  equally,  and  indeed  much  more  labor- 
saving  and  convenient  improvement  in  our 
modern  domestic  architectural  arrangements, 
is  the  introduction  of  water  from  water 
works.  Water  works  were  commenced  in 
New  York  before  the  Revolution,  in  1774  ; 
but  none  were  erected  there  until  1797, 
when  the  Manhattan  Company  put  up  a  res 
ervoir  on  what  is  now  Chambers  street. 
These  small  works  were  superseded  by  the 
Croton  aqueduct,  opened  in  1842.  Phila 
delphia  was  first  supplied  by  a  steam  engine 
in  1799;  and  this  was  replaced  by  the 
celebrated  Fairmount  works,  commenced  in 
1811.  A  number  of  our  larger  or  more 
enterprising  cities  are  now  provided  with 
aqueducts. 

The   fountains   thus   set   flowing   in  our 


houses  save  all  water-carrying,  for  bathing 
or  cleaning  purposes,  either  up  or  down 
stairs ;  for  a  proper  connection  with  a  sew 
erage  system  will  admit  of  a  sink  as  well  as 
a  water  pipe  in  every  story.  The  burden 
some  daily  details  of  housework  are  thus 
very  greatly  lightened,  and  health,  and  time, 
and  exertion  very  much  economized  by  the 
various  appliances  of  the  modern  city  bath 
ing-room. 

Within  about  ten  years,  there  have  been 
introduced  into  one  or  two  very  luxurious 
city  houses,  hoistways,  somewhat  like  those 
used  in  stores,  but  upholstered,  and,  in  fact, 
fitted  up  like  little  rooms  ;  these  are  raised 
and  lowered  so  as  to  save  the  exertion  of 
using  the  stairs,  and  are  exceedingly  con 
venient  for  the  old  and  feeble. 

This  brief  enumeration  of  improvements 
in  domestic  architecture  could  not  properly 
include  what  may,  however,  in  conclusion, 
be  merely  mentioned ;  that  is,  those  large 
and  splendidly  finished  houses  which  are 
erected  by  the  great  millionaires  of  the  pres 
ent  day.  The  costly  frescoes,  the  statues, 
the  extravagant  splendor  of  their  fitting, 
the  picture-galleries,  conservatories,  libra 
ries,  etc.,  etc.,  though  good  and  beautiful 
in  themselves,  are  exceptions,  and  not  yet 
numerous  enough  to  be  considered  domesti 
cated  in  this  country. 


CHAPTER  II. 

FURNITURE— FURNISHING  GOODS,  ETC. 

THE  furniture  of  country  dwellings  during 
the  latter  part  of  the  last  century  was  scantier 
than  now,  and,  on  the  whole,  of  much 
cheaper  quality  and  poorer  make,  although 
that  of  the  wealthy  was  often  handsomely 
designed,  well  and  massively  made,  and 
heavily  and  tastefully  ornamented.  Little 
machinery  was  used  in  manufacturing  fur 
niture,  which  had,  therefore,  to  be  made 
by  hand  labor.  This  made  patterns  more 
numerous,  as  one  design  often  served  for  a 
single  side-board,  set  of  chairs,  etc.,  and  for 
those  made  by  one  workman  only ;  while 
now,  one  pattern  may  serve  for  thousands  of 
sets.  There  was,  therefore,  greater  variety, 
and  often  remarkably  fine  workmanship,  and 
even  artistic  skill.  The  greater  cheapness 
of  wood,  and  the  little  use  made  of  veneer 
ing,  occasioned  much  furniture  to  be  made 
of  solid  wood.  Many  pieces  of  this  ancient, 


250 


SOCIAL    AND    DOMESTIC    LIFE. 


solid  furniture  now  bring  extravagant  prices 
at  auction,  or  from  a  second-hand  store, 
where  chance  supplies  a  buyer  with  taste 
and  means.  As  much  as  ten,  or  even  twen 
ty  dollars  each  have  been  given  for  old- 
fashioned,  carved,  mahogany  chairs ;  from 
twenty-five  to  forty  dollars  for  a  tall  clock, 
etc.,  etc. 

The  increase  in  the  supply  of  money,  the 
decrease  of  any  distinction  between  classes 
of  society,  and  the  general  diffusion  of 
wealth  and  comfort,  render  the  difference 
between  the  furniture  of  the  rich,  and  that 
of  the  poor,  much  less  at  the  present  day 
than  formerly.  Comparatively  few  luxuries 
of  any  kind  are  now  accessible  to  the  rich, 
which  are  not  so  to  the  farmer  and  the  me 
chanic.  This  is  not,  of  course,  to  be  under 
stood  of  the  very  poor,  nor  the  very  rich ; 
nor  of  the  most  expensive  luxuries ;  for 
Gobelin  carpets  an  inch  thick,  marble  stat 
ues  by  Powers,  pictures  by  Church,  Johan- 
nisberg  wine,  Strasburg  pies,  and  the  like, 
can  never  be  possessed  except  by  very  few. 

The  bedsteads  of  our  grandparents  and 
great-grandparents  were  very  commonly 
"four-posters;"  that  is,  they  consisted  of 
four  tall  posts,  into  which  were  framed  the 
side  and  end  pieces.  These  posts  often  sup 
ported  a  wooden  frame  covered  with  cloth, 
somewhat  like  a  roof,  and  called  a  "tester," 
from  whose  four  sides  hung  down  the  cur 
tains.  Feather  beds  were  universally  used. 
Sheets  were  of  linen  ;  and  coverlets  of  patch 
work,  marseilles,  chintz,  etc. 

Carpets  were  comparatively  little  used; 
most  people  contenting  themselves  with  a 
floor,  washed  clean,  sanded,  or,  at  most, 
painted.  _  The  carpets  used  eighty  years  ago 
were  mostly  English  or  Scotch  ingrain,  though 
a  good  many  home-made  rag-carpets  were 
also  used ;  and  the  price  per  yard  was,  per 
haps,  $1.50  to  $1.75;  not  varying  very  much 
from  the  present  price  of  a  fair  article,  though 
the  same  sum  represented  more  value  then. 
There  is  a  well-known  anecdote  of  an  honest 
old  farmer  who  was  one  day  introduced,  for 
the  first  time,  to  a  carpeted  room.  The  car 
pet,  as  was  usual  in  those  days,  was  a  sort 
of  patch  in  the  middle  of  the  room,  sur 
rounded  with  a  wide  margin  of  bare  floor. 
The  visitor  skirted  cautiously  along  the  sides 
of  the  room,  and  when  invited  by  the  lady 
of  the  house  to  walk  across,  excused  himself 
with  rustic  politeness,  because,  he  said,  "his 
boots  were  too  dirty  to  walk  on  the  "  kiver- 


Chairs  were  of  hard  wood — maple,  oak, 
cherry,  or  mahogany — with  seats  of  wood, 
basket-work,  or  cushion,  covered  with  cloth, 
haircloth,  or  leather.  Much  skill  and  taste 
was  expended  on  many  of  the  costly  solid 
mahogany  parlor  chairs,  and  they  are  even 
now  much  more  stately  than  most  of  their 
modern  successors.  The  rocking-chair — a 
truly  American  invention — dates  back  to  a 
point  not  ascertained,  but  certainly  not  less 
than  seventy  or  eighty  years  ago.  No  rock 
ing-chairs  of  so  antique  a  pattern  as  common 
chairs  can,  however,  be  found.  An  early 
improvement  upon  the  old-fashioned  wooden 
or  wicker  chair-seat  was  the  straw-seat,  of 
straw  or  rushes,  woven  together  in  four  com 
partments,  which  converged  to  the  middle 
of  the  seat.  The  cane-seat,  woven  like  fine 
basket-work  of  slender  strips  of  ratan,  came 
afterward,  and  is  still  much  used;  it  ia 
strong,  neat,  light,  and  convenient.  Many 
business  and  study  chairs  are  now  made 
with  the  seat  pivoted  on  a  stout  iron  pin — a 
very  convenient  invention,  rendering  it  very 
easy  to  turn  round  from  writing-desk  to  cus 
tomer  or  client. 

Tables  were  made  of  oak,  pine,  cher 
ry,  black  walnut,  and  mahogany.  In  old- 
fashioned  houses  may  sometimes  still  be 
seen  a  small  table  hinged  to  the  wall  at  one 
side,  so  as  to  turn  up  flat  against  it,  secured, 
when  not  in  use,  by  a  button.  A  leg  hinged 
on  beneath  hung  flat  to  the  table  Avhen  thus 
raised,  and  swung  to  its  right  place  when 
lowered.  Some  old  tables  were  enormously 
heavy,  framed  almost  as  strongly  as  a  house, 
and  with  curiously  complicated  swinging  legs 
to  hold  up  the  leaves.  Such  tables  were  of 
ten  heirlooms,  as  was  much  household  furni 
ture.  The  substantial  strength  and  solid 
materials  used  rendered  it  much  more  fit  to 
serve  generation  after  generation  than  the 
lighter  and  cheaper  articles  now  made.  The 
present  "  extension  tables,"  which  are  fre 
quently  used  in  dining-rooms,  were  first 
patented  in  1843;  they  draw  out  within 
certain  limits  to  any  length,  when  additional 
boards  supply  the  top.  Thus  the  same  ta 
ble  accommodates  either  a  large  party  or  a 
small  one. 

The  sideboard  was  an  indispensable  arti 
cle  in  dining-rooms  where  it  could  be  afford 
ed,  being  used  instead  of  a  closet,  to  hold 
plate,  wine,  table-linen,  cake,  etc. 

Bureaus,  or  chests  of  drawers,  were  made 
on  a  larger  scale  than  now,  sometimes  tow 
ering  far  toward  the  ceiling,  containing  a 


FURNITURE FURNISHING    GOODS,    ETC. 


251 


great  number  of  drawers,  large  and  small, 
and  often  ornamented  in  a  peculiar  and 
striking  manner  at  the  handles  and  keyholes, 
with  brass  escutcheons  elaborately  and  fanci 
fully  pierced  or  carved. 

The  movable  wash-stands,  still  commonly 
used,  have  been  replaced  in  some  cases,  where 
aqueduct  water  in  pipes  is  used,  by  fixed 
stands,  sometimes  luxuriously  topped  with 
marble,  having  fixed  basins  sunk  in  them, 
faucets  for  water,  and  a  hole  below  to  let  it 
off.  A  "  water-back,"  or  boiler,  attached  to 
the  kitchen  range  or  stove,  is  sometimes 
made  to  supply  hot  water  through  pipes, 
from  which  another  faucet  supplies  hot  water 
as  desired  to  each  basin — a  most  comfort 
able  provision  in  cold  weather. 

China  and  glass  ware  were  much  more 
costly  than  at  present ;  pressed  glass,  now 
so  extensively  used,  having  been  introduced 
only  within  the  present  century.  Pewter 
platters  and  plates  were  frequently  the  only 
dishes  on  a  country  table.  Table  crockery 
was  most  commonly  of  white  stoneware, 
with  blue  edges,  or  of  the  "  Avillow  pat 
tern."  There  was  very  little  silver  warCj 
and  what  there  was,  was  much  more  solidly 
manufactured  than  is  now  usually  the  case. 
Block  tin  was  much  used,  until  to  a  great 
extent  superseded  by  Britannia  metal,  which 
came  into  use  about  twenty-five  years  since ; 
"albata,"  a  sort  of  white  metal,  introduced 
within  about  ten  years,  and  German  silver, 
an  invention  dating  back,  in  this  country, 
about  twice  as  far.  A  still  later  substitute 
for  the  precious  metals  is  "  oreide,"asort  of 
brass,  very  closely  resembling  gold  ;  and 
another,  discovered  within  the  last  three 
years  by  a  French  chemist,  is  aluminium,  a 
light,  strong  metal,  resembling  silver  in  ap 
pearance,  which  can  be  extracted  from  com 
mon  clay,  and  other  aluminous  earths.  It  is 
by  no  means  improbable  that  this  last  metal 
will  come  into  very  extensive  use,  for  house 
hold  as  well  as  other  purposes. 

Silver  forks  were  first  brought  into  gen 
eral  use  about  twenty-five  or  thirty  years 
since.  Those  previously  used  were  the 
common  three-pronged  steel  forks,  or  two- 
pronge.d  ones,  either  of  them  sufficiently 
inconvenient  for  carrying  loose  food  to  the 
mouth.  Another  improvement,  about  as 
old,  in  table  furniture,  is  the  invention  of 
balanced  knife-handles,  the  weight  in  the 
handle  keeping  the  blade  off  the  table  cloth 
when  laid  down ;  a  little  tiling,  but  very 
promotive  of  cleanliness. 


Instead  of  the  modern  Yankee  clock,  the 
first  patent  for  which  was  taken  out  by  Eli 
Terry,  of  Plymouth,  Conn.,  in  1797,  were 
used  either  small  Dutch  clocks,  stuck  up  on 
the  wall,  like  a  swallow's  nest,  or  the  old- 
fashioned  tall  clocks,  in  cases  seven  feet 
high,  which  were  sometimes  very  hand 
somely  ornamented  with  carving,  brass  dec 
orations,  and  richly  painted  dials.  On  the 
broad  faces  of  these  old  clocks  were  some-' 
times  given,  besides  the  hour  and  the  min- ' 
ute,  a  whole  almanac  of  indications :  the 
time  of  high  tide,  moon's  age,  day  of  the 
week  and  month,  name  of  month,  year, 
etc.,  etc.  Occasionally,  a  wooden  bird 
came  out  and  was  supposed  tossing,  or  a 
tune  was  played  when  the  hour  struck. 
Quite  a  large  number  of  these  old  clocks, 
most  of  the  best  of  which  were  made  during 
the  first  quarter  of  this  century,  are  still  iu 
use,  and  are  frequently  excellent  time 
keepers. 

These  observations  do  not  include  the 
Mississippi  valley,  which  was  just  beginning 
to  be  settled  by  Anglo-American  pioneers 
at  the  close  of  the  revolutionary  war.  In 
all  that  extensive  region,  the  rudest  substi 
tutes  for  all  the  supposed  indispensable  in 
struments  of  civilized  life  were  used.  Fur 
niture,  indeed,  scarcely  existed.  A  bedstead 
and  a  table,  rudely  hewn  out  by  the  sharp 
axe  of  the  master  of  the  house,  some  stools 
of  the  same  manufacture,  a  shelf,  a  row  of 
pegs  in  the  log  wall,  an  iron  kettle,  which 
often  served  in  its  own  proper  person  the 
various  purposes  of  wash-basin,  cooking- 
kettle,  soup-tureen,  slop-dish,  dish-pan, 
swill-pail,  and  hog-trough  ;  a  few  tins,  or  a 
little  crockery,  a  chest  or  two,  a  stump  hol 
lowed  at  the  top  for  a  mortar  to  pound  corn, 
and  a  stick  for  a  pestle  —  such  was  the 
scanty  furnishing  of  that  day  in  that  region. 
As  the  population  has  increased,  it  has 
brought  with  it  from  the  older  states  all 
their  improvements,  and  now  no  di-stinc- 
tioji  can  be  found  between  the  two  sections — 
at  least,  so  far  as  concerns  those  of  moderate 
or  liberal  means. 

Lamps,  for  oil,  or  candles  of  tallow, 
sperm,  or  wax,  were  the  only  means  of 
lighting  either  rooms  or  streets,  eighty 
years  ago.  The  amount  of  ingenuity  which 
has  been  exercised  in  this  department  of 
housekeeping  is  astonishing ;  a  hundred 
and  thirty-seven  patents  for  lamps  alone 
having  been  issued  from  1798  to  1847. 
The  variety  of  these,  and  of  the  substances 


252 


SOCIAL    AND    DOMESTIC    LIFE. 


to  the  use  of  which  they  are  adapted,  is 
remarkable.  There  are  yet  some  families 
which  make  their  own  mould  or  dip  tallow 
candles ;  but  only  a  few.  Those  who  still 
use  candles  mostly,  either  indulge  in  the 
costly  luxury  of  wax  or  sperm,  or  use  some 
of  the  various  lately  invented  substitutes, 
introduced  within  ten  or  fifteen  years,  such 
as  the  so-called  "margarine,"  "  stearine," 
etc.,  made  from  lard,  or  the  still  more 
recent  "  paraffine"  candles,  of  a  material 
extracted  from  bituminous  coal.  The  first 
innovation  upon  the  old-fashioned  custom 
of  using  oil  lamps — not,  however,  including 
in  this  term  the  argand  and  similar  modifi 
cations  of  U — was  the  introduction  of  lamps 
for  the  use  of  burning-fluid  and  of  cam- 
phene,  which  are  preparations  of  oil  of  tur 
pentine  and  alcohol,  and  though  neat  and 
convenient  to  use,  and  giving  a  pleasant 
light,  have,  in  careless  hands,  been  the  occa 
sion  of  a  terrible  number  of  deaths  and 
maimings  by  burning.  These  fluids  have 
been  in  use  during  somewhat  more  than 
twenty  years.  The  use  of  gas  has  been  al 
ready  referred  to  for  the  lighting  of  cities  and 
dwellings.  Not  long  after  the  introduction 
of  camphene,  a  large  number  of  lamps  were 
invented  for  burning  lard  oil,  just  beginning 
to  be  manufactured,  and  also  lard,  tallow, 
and  other  gross  animal  fats.  About  thirty 
patents  were  issued  for  lard  lamps  alone, 
during  1842  and  1843,  including  lamps  of 
the  .common  standard  style,  argand  and 
solar  patterns,  etc.  These  lamps,  in  some 
cases,  gave  a  very  good  light,  but  it  proved 
troublesome  to  light  them  during  cold  weath 
er,  and  they  required  much  greasy  work  in 
cleaning,  etc. 

During  the  last  five  years,  another  class 
of  illuminators  has  come  into  use,  and  is  at 
present  spreading  extensively.  These  are 
the  various  oils  known  as  coal  oil,  kerosene, 
helion  oil,  etc.,  etc.  They  are  all,  or  near 
ly  all,  distilled  or  purified  from  the  crude 
coal  oil  of  the  wells  of  western  Pennsylvania, 
or  from  the  products  of  the  more  bituminous 
varieties  of  coal.  It  has  thus  far  been 
found  necessary  to  use  a  chimney  in  burn 
ing  them,  and  they  smoke  very  easily  while 
burning ;  but  the  light  they  give  is  clear 
and  pleasant,  they  are  much  more  cleanly 
than  any  of  the  animal  oils,  and  of  an  aro 
matic  odor. 

Improvements  in  furniture  are  gradually 
introduced,  and  in  a  manner  which  renders 
it  peculiarly  difficult  to  fix  precise  dates.  It 


may  be  said  in  general,  that  the  uniform 
tendency  has  been  toward  lightness  and  con 
venience  of  form.  The  artistic  beauty  of 
the  designs  has  not  materially  improved. 


CHAPTER  III. 

FOOD— COOKING,    ETC. 

THE  general  character  of  the  food,  drink, 
and  cooking  of  three  quarters  of  a  century 
ago,  was  very  similar  to  that  of  to-day. 
Meats  were  the  same,  but  less  fresh  meat 
was  eaten ;  salt  beef,  salt  pork,  and  bacon 
being  the  ordinary  meat,  and  the  beef  and 
pork  barrel  being  almost  as  universal  and 
necessary  in  the  household  as  the  flour 
barrel.  The  common  vegetables  were  pota 
toes,  turnips,  cabbages,  and  onions,  with  a 
few  beets  and  parsnips.  Carrots  were  scarce 
ly  used  at  all.  At  the  south,  sweet  potatoes 
were,  as  at  present,  used  in  place  of  Irish 
potatoes,  and  okra,  tomatoes,  etc.,  were  also 
cultivated  as  at  present.  Tomatoes  were 
scarcely  known  at  the  north,  until  about 
1820  or  1825,  when  they  were  occasionally 
brought  from  the  south,  and  gradually  began 
to  be  cultivated,  under  the  name  of  "love- 
apples."  The  egg-plant,  spinach,  cauliflower, 
broccoli,  and  other  kitchen-garden  plants, 
have  also  been  introduced  since  the  begin 
ning  of  the  century,  from  abroad. 

Bread  of  rye,  "  rye-and-Indian,"  or  In 
dian  meal  alone,  and  Indian  puddings, 
johnny-cake,  and  the  like,  were  more  used 
than  at  present ;  for  most  grinding  was  done 
at  the  small  country  mills  ;  transportation 
was  slow,  difficult,  and  costly ;  neither  the 
great  wheat  fields  of  the  east,  nor  the  great 
er  ones  of  the  west,  were  yielding  their  in 
crease  ;  and  the  great  flouring  mills  that  are 
supported  by  them  had  not  grown  up. 
Every  farmer's  family,  therefore,  commonly 
used  breadstuff  of  its  own  raising ;  and  but 
a  very  small  share  of  that  used  in  the  towns 
was  brought  from  any  other  than  the  imme 
diate  neighborhood. 

All  the  labor  of  preparing  the  raw  mate 
rial  for  food  was  performed  in  the  family. 
All  the  coffee  had  to  be  burnt  and  ground, 
spices  pulverized,  salt  powdered,  yeast  made, 
soap  manufactured,  meat  pickled,  etc.,  etc., 
by  each  housekeeper  for  herself,  or  under 
her  immediate  supervision. 

Throughout  the  extensive  western  forest 
frontier,  a  large  proportion  of  the  inhabi- 


DRESS. 


253 


tants  lived  in  great  part  upon  game  ;  but 
this  was,  from  the  difficulty  of  transportation, 
even  less  accessible  in  the  older  settlements 
than  now,  when  it  must  be  brought  from 
the  distant  lakes,  and  streams,  and  woods  of 
Canada  or  Maine. 

The  use  of  spirituous  and  malt  liquors  was 
universal.  It  was  thought  no  impropriety 
for  distinguished  clergymen  to  own  a  share 
in  a  distillery  ;  and  the  meetings  of  ministers 
on  religious  business  were  made  occasions  of 
jollity,  often  even  to  such  an  extent  that  the 
reverend  companions  went  home  quite  tipsy. 
Cider  was  drank  in  the  country,  and  cider, 
rum,  brandy,  or  wine  in  town,  at  every 
meal.  Spirits  were  expected  to  be  offered 
to  every  visitor,  and  if  not,  the  host  was 
thought  mean  and  stingy. 

Cooking  was  performed  over  an  open 
wood  fire ;  a  mode  in  many  respects  more 
laborious  and  less  convenient  than  the  pres 
ent  use  of  stoves  and  ranges ;  but  which,  if 
skilfully  conducted,  gives  the  food  a  flavor 
more  perfect  and  delicate  than  can  be  attain 
ed  in  any  other  manner. 

As  has  been  implied,  the  changes  in  food 
have  thus  been  more  in  the  treatment  than 
in  the  materials  of  it.  The  chief  of  these 
changes,  like  those  in  warming  houses,  have 
arisen  from  the  introduction  of  anthracite 
coal  into  use,  which  has  caused  the  employ 
ment  of  cooking-stoves  and  ranges,  instead 
of  the  open  fire.  Nearly  four  hundred 
patents  for  cooking-stoves  and  ranges  were 
issued  from  1812  to  1847,  and  great  num 
bers  of  others  have  been  granted  since  ;  the 
total  number  of  such  patents  may  safely  be 
estimated  at  not  less  than  six  hundred. 

An  early  style  of  cooking-stove,  and  quite 
a  favorite  one  in  its  day,  was  the  rotary, 
whose  top  could  be  swivelled  round  by  a 
crank  and  cog-wheel  geared  to  a  ratchet 
underneath  its  edge,  so  as  to  bring  any 
sauce  pan  or  kettle  forward  to  the  cook. 
This  variety  is,  however,  now  nearly  obso 
lete,  and  innumerable  later  inventions  have 
succeeded,  each  enjoying  a  brief  reputation, 
usually  conferred  rather  by  diligent  adver 
tisement  than  by  any  real  peculiar  merits  in 
the  stove  itself. 

The  cooking  range  may  be  described  as  a 
modified  stove  bricked  into  a  fireplace,  in 
stead  of  standing  out  in  the  room.  Its  oven, 
instead  of  being  back  of  the  fireplace,  as  in 
a  stove,  is  above  it ;  and  in  most  patterns, 
so  far  back  as  to  render  it  very  hot  and  in 
convenient  for  use.  Some  late  patterns, 


however,  have  brought  the  oven  sufficiently 
far  forward  to  remedy  this  objection. 

The  use  of  stoves  and  ranges  has  rendered 
cooking  much  more  convenient,  but  has,  in 
a  great  measure,  substituted  the  baking  of 
meats  in  the  oven  for  the  better  old  fashion 
of  roasting.  Their  advantages,  however, 
are  greater  than  their  disadvantages;  they 
are  far  cheaper  and  easier  in  management 
than  an  open  fire ;  and  in  all  the  older  por 
tions  of  the  country  are  necessary,  because 
wood  could  not  be  furnished  to  supply  the 
kitchens. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

DRESS. 

IN  discussing  the  changes  of  costume  since 
the  revolutionary  war,  it  will  be  more  con 
venient  to  divide  it  with  reference  to  female 
than  to  male  costume.  On  this  principle, 
the  period  from  1783  or  thereabouts  may  be 
divided  into  five,  thus : — 

1.  1783  to  French  Revolution. 

2.  French  Revolution  to  1815. 

3.  1815  to  1830. 

4.  1830  to  1845. 

5.  1845  to  present  time. 

Speaking  generally,  the  changes  thus  suc 
ceeding  each  other  have  been  improvements; 
although  almost  all  of  them  have  been  suffi 
ciently  absurd  in  themselves.  These  fash 
ions  have  always  come  from  England  or 
France  ;  since  about  1815,  almost  entirely 
from  France. 

1.  Period  first,  1783  to  French  Revolu 
tion.  At  the  close  of  the  Revolution  in  1783, 
the  costume  of  gentlemen  was  in  the  Eng 
lish  style  of  the  day,  viz. :  a  single-breasted 
low-collared  coat  of.  broadcloth,  commonly 
of  some  gay  color,  often  scarlet,  bright  blue, 
claret  color,  peach-blossom,  with  full  skirts, 
and  ample  pocket-flaps,  sleeves,  and  cuffs ; 
a  waistcoat,  with  long  flaps ;  knee-breeches, 
often  also  of  gay  colors,  fastened  at  the  outer 
side  of  the  knee  with  a  buckle ;  long  stock 
ings,  black,  white,  or  colored ;  shoes  with 
the  well-known  showy  buckles,  or  boots  with 
a  broad  piece  of  white  or  unstained  leather 
turned  down  around  the  tops,  and  therefore 
called  top-boots ;  a  ruffled  shirt,  a  lace  cra 
vat,  powdered  hair,  a  queue,  not  unfrcquent- 
ly  a  wig,  and  a  three-cornered  cocked  hat. 
A  very  few  aged  men  still  wear  or  have  worn 
this  costume  within  the  last  ten  years,  even 
to  the  queue  and  the  shirt-frill.  The  cocked 


254 


SOCIAL    AND    DOMESTIC    LIFE. 


hat  did  not  maintain  its  place  so  long, 
though  quite  often  to  be  seen  during  the 
first,  quarter  of  the  present  century. 

The  formal  stateliness  of  this  old  costume 
suited  well  the  more  careful  manners  and 
stiff  politeness  of  the  day ;  for  even  in  our  re 
publican  country,  the  distinctions  of  social 
rank  and  station  prevailed  to  an  extent  which 
few  people  now  realize.  Old  persons  now 
living  can  remember  when  "  Mr."  was  a  title 
considered  exclusively  proper  for  the  "  gen 
try ;"  when  a  "gentleman's"  son  would  have 
been  reproved  by  his  father  for  calling  a  far 
mer  "  Mr.".  A  farmer  or  mechanic  was  call 
ed  "goodman,"  and  his  wife  not  "Mrs."  or 
"mistress,"  but  "goody." 

Female  costume  was  on  the  whole,  per 
haps,  less  strikingly  different  from  that  now 
in  vogue,  except  in  head-dress.  Its  other 
most  distinguishing  characteristics  were 
high-heeled  shoes,  often  of  bright  red  or 
other  strong  colors ;  sleeves  to  the  elbows, 
•with  heavy  lace  ruffles ;  a  tight,  close,  long 
waist,  and  a  skirt  stiffened  out  by  hoops 
very  nearly  as  much  as  by  the  "skeleton 
skirts"  now  used. 

The  head-dresses  then  fashionable  were, 
however,  most  monstrous,  and  furnished  an 
endless  theme  for  satire  and  jest.  The  hair 
was  greased,  and  powdered,  and  "craped,"  as 
it  was  called— that  is,  combed  up  over  artificial 
hair,  a  mass  of  tow,  or  a  cushion ;  artificial 
flowers  were  worked  into  it,  broad  ribbons 
hung  around  it,  feathers  three  feet  high 
stuck  into  it,  all  sorts  of  vegetable-looking 
leaves  and  even  fruit  and  vegetables  them 
selves  (imitated)  were  piled  on,  and  a  mass 
constructed  which  it  seemed  totally  impossi 
ble  for  a  lady's  neck  to  uphold  or  endure  ; 
which  was  often,  literally  and  truly,  quite  as 
large  as  a  bushel  basket.  A  caricature  of 
those  days  represents  a  lady  sitting  in  a  chair 
during  her  head-dressing,  while  one  barber, 
mounted  on  a  tall  pair  of  steps,  is  frizzling  a 
curl,  and  another  stands  off  at  one  side,  tak 
ing  the  altitude  of  the  edifice  he  has  helped 
to  build,  with  a  quadrant.  Calashes,  whose 
gig-top  appearance  almost  every  one  may 
remember  to  have  seen,  were  invented  long 
before  this  time,  as  early  as  1765,  as  the 
only  contrivance  in  the  nature  of  a  bonnet 
which  would  cover  these  vast  machines. 
Such  head-dresses  required  great  skill  in 
preparation  and  adjustment,  and  could,  of 
course,  not  be  made  up  by  the  owner  herself. 
It  was  the  business  of  the  barber,  and  often 
occupied  two  or  three  tedious  hours.  The 


idea  of  going  through  such  an  operation 
daily  was  out  of  the  question,  and  these 
"heads,"  as  they  were  called,  were  made  to 
last  sometimes  for  weeks  together.  Indeed, 
they  were  continually  corrupting,  even  so 
that  worms  bred  in  them,  among  the  flour 
used  for  hair-powder  and  the  pomatum  ;  and 
numerous  recipes  were  in  use  for  poisons  to 
prevent  vermin  from  breeding  in  them. 
Sleeping  in  the  natural  posture  was,  of 
course,  impossible  ;  ladies  slept  sitting  up  or 
with  a  carefully  arranged  support  for  the 
neck  and  head,  adapted  to  the  precious  mass 
of  absurdities  that  crowned  it. 

Period  second,  French  Revolution  to 
1815.  The  French  Revolution  may  be 
called  the  conclusion  of  the  era  of  those 
strange  fashions.  The  freedom  of  that  period, 
so  licentious  in  politics,  was  equally  so  in 
dress,  and  in  this  department,  as  in  the  other, 
caused  many  and  great  changes  both  at 
home  and  abroad.  In  this  country,  which 
had  before  that  time  followed  the  English 
fashions  almost  exclusively,  those  of  France 
now  began  to  take  the  lead,  and  the  ancient 
caprices  of  dress  to  be  replaced  by  others 
more  modern,  but  not  less  absurd. 

From  about  1780,  down  to  about  1800, 
women's  skirts  grew  more  and  more  scanty 
in  circumference,  until  they  were  "gored," 
and  cut  so  close  as  to  almost  impede  walk 
ing.  The  waist  was  also  carried  up  some 
times  to  one  inch  below  the  arm-pit,  and  the 
neck  at  the  same  time  cut  indecently  low. 
The  skirt  was  fitted  closely  to  the  figure,  no 
wrinkles  being  admissible,  and  the  fewest 
possible  underclothes  were  worn ;  a  fashion 
both  abominably  ugly  and  very  unhealthy. 
These  ungainly  waists  excited  much  deserved 
ridicule.  A  well-known  song  beginning — 

"  Shepherds,  I  have  lost  my  love — 
Have  you  seen  my  Anna  ?" 

was  parodied  so  as  to  apply  to  them,  com 
mencing  with — 

"  Shepherds,  I  have  lost  my  waist — 
Have  you  seen  my  body?" 

The  variations  in  bonnets  and  head 
dresses  during  this  same  period  were  many 
and  wonderful.  In  1786,  women  wore  their 
hair  frizzed  and  powdered;  and  for  riding 
costume,  a  man's  jacket  with  broad  lapels, 
and  a  broad -brimmed  hat.  In  1789,  the 
hair  was  frizzled  out  into  an  enormous  bush, 
sometimes  with  a  quantity  of  dangling  curls 
besides;  and  bonnets,  to  hold  this  affair, 


1776. 


EVENING  DRESS.      1780. 


1780. 


EVENING  DRESS.     1795.          EVENING  DRESS.     1797. 


1800. 


1805. 


1805. 


1812. 


1812. 


1815. 


1818. 


1820. 


1825. 


1828. 


WINTER  DRESS.  1833. 


1833. 


1833. 


1833. 


1840. 


1844. 


1S50. 


DRESS. 


257 


•were  made  like  an  upright  bag  stiffened  out. 
In  1794  a  fashion  came  in  of  finishing  up 
the  head-dress  with  feathers  half  a  yard  high. 
About  1795  these  styles  of  expansive  head 
dress  disappeared,  and  small  bonnets  came 
into  use  all  at  once,  like  a  helmet  or  a  straw 
cap,  with  a  vizor  such  as  is  now  worn  on  a 
boy's  cap. 

From  1805  to  1810,  bare  arms  were  much 
in  fashion  with  women,  and  a  singular  mode 
of  wearing  gloves  prevailed.  The  glove 
was  worn  with  a  long  armlet  attached, 
which  was  drawn  on  smoothly  up  to  the 
elbow,  and  then  pushed  down  again  so  as  to 
lie  in  irregular  wrinkles  on  the  arm,  which 
was  reckoned  remarkably  pretty.  These 
were  termed  "  rucked  gloves."  About  1808 
was  introduced  the  "gunboat"  style  of 
bonnet,  which  consisted  of  a  moderate-sized 
crown,  and  a  wide  expanse  of  brim,  spread 
ing  out  around  the  face,  in  a  form  fancied  to 
resemble  the  peculiar  shape  of  a  gunboat, 
which  is  very  wide  toward  the  bows. 

About  1810  appeared  the  plaid  cloaks, 
used  both  by  men  and  women,  which  may 
still  sometimes  be  found  hung  up  in  an  old 
closet ;  very  wide  and  long,  and  for  women 
having  a  great  clumsy  hood  hanging  at  the 
back  of  the  neck.  In  1814  the  bonnets  all 
at  once  spread  out  into  an  immense  crown, 
leaving  very  little  brim. 

Men's  costume  varied  during  this  time  no 
less.  The  reign  of  powder  and  pigtails  may 
be  said  to  have  ended  about  1793,  imme 
diately  after  the  French  Revolution ;  and 
about  the  same  time  the  round  hat  took  the 
place  of  the  three-cornered  cocked  hat.  A 
little  later,  perhaps  about  1800,  people  began 
to  leave  otf  wearing  wigs  when  they  had 
hair  of  their  own.  It  is  hard  to  comprehend 
how  people  could  submit  so  long  to  a  cus 
tom  so  disfiguring,  inconvenient,  and  cum 
brous — for  every  wig-wearer  had  to  have  his 
whole  head  shaved  every  few  days,  and 
lived  in  constant  peril  of  making  a  fantastic 
appearance  if  his  clumsy  and  unsafe  head 
gear  should  be  knocked  off.  Yet  the  mode 
prevailed  for  two  hundred  years  ;  nearly  from 
1600  to  1800. 

One  of  the  early  costumes  which  replaced 
the  ante-revolutionary  fashions  for  men,  and 
which  was  the  height  of  the  ton  in  1786, 
consisted  of  a  very  broad-brimmed  hat ;  a 
powdered  wig  with  a  pig-tail ;  a  coat  with  a 
very  short  waist,  broad  lapels,  and  tremen 
dous  swallow-tails ;  buckskin  breeches,  and 
top-boots. 


During  this  period,  and,  indeed,  down  to 
about  1830,  gentlemen's  necks  were  often 
swathed  with  an  enormous  thickness  of 
cravat ;  a  fashion  said  to  have  been  intro 
duced  by  George  IV.,  while  a  leader  of 
fashion,  to  hide  the  scrofulous  swelling  of 
his  neck.  Two  or  three  handkerchiefs, 
each  a  full  yard  square,  were  thus  worn ; 
giving  the  neck  an  appearance  which  now 
seems  excessively  dowdy  and  uncomfortable. 

During  the  closing  years  of  the  last  cen 
tury,  knee-breeches  began  to  yield  to  the 
pantaloon,  which  came  from  France ;  and 
shoe-buckles  disappeared  to  give  place  to  a 
mere  string  or  ribbon.  The  prince-regent 
of  England,  afterward  George  IV.,  first  led 
this  fashion,  although  he  resumed  buckles 
at  the  petition  of  the  buckle-makers,  who 
represented  that  the  ruin  of  their  trade 
would  starve  them.  It  was  ruined,  however, 
in  spite  of  them  and  him,  and  notwithstand 
ing  that  he  was  the  inventor  of  a  shoe-buckle. 

This  introduction  of  the  pantaloon  and 
the  shoe-string,  and  the  disuse  of  wigs,  marks 
the  era  of  the  modern  costume.  The  dress- 
coat,  however,  or  a  garment  much  like  it, 
was  worn  at  intervals,  as  early  as  1750; 
although  it  did  not  definitely  occupy  the 
place  of  the  old-fashioned  broad  skirts  until 
about  1800.  It  should  be  observed  that 
"  pantaloon"  means,  in  its  first  strict  sense, 
a  garment  fitting  quite  tightly  to  the  shape 
of  the  leg,  and  buttoning  close  around  the 
ankles,  as  if  a  prolongation  of  the  knee- 
breeches.  The  present  pantaloons  are  in 
strictness  "  trowsers,"  having  been  intro 
duced  as  such,  and  by  that  name,  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  after 
the  battle  of  Waterloo. 

High-heeled  shoes,  for  women,  went  out 
of  use  about  1789,  and  were  replaced  by 
something  very  like  the  present  graceful, 
low-quartered  shoe.  Round  toes,  for  men's 
shoes  and  boots,  came  in  about  the  same 
time,  and  prevailed  until  about  1804  or 
1806,  when  the  first  beginnings  appeared  of 
square  toes. 

Period  third,  1815  to  1830.  The  last 
period  may  be  characterized  as  that  of  tight, 
scant  dresses.  The  present  one  may  be  de 
scribed  as  that  of  big  bonnets,  puffed  hair, 
and  leg-of-mutton  sleeves,  which  last,  how 
ever,  appeared  only  toward  its  end. 

Knee  breeches,  which  had  continued  to  be 
"full  dress,"  were  now  quite  out  of  date. 
Frock-coats  had  been  introduced  by  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  and  his  officers  after  the 


258 


SOCIAL    AND    DOMESTIC    LIFE. 


peninsular  war,  together  with  the  boot  called 
after  hirn.  In  1815  trowsers  began  to  be 
•worn,  being  also  introduced  under  his  aus 
pices  ;  although  the  original  pantaloon,  with 
its  tight,  close  fit  and  ankle-buttons,  main 
tained  itself  for  ten  years  or  more  before 
quite  disappearing.  In  1815,  also,  bonnets 
underwent  a  great  revolution,  shrinking  to 
small  dimensions  in  the  crown,  and  spread 
ing  into  a  portentous  brim. 

Not  far  from  1820  began  what  may  be 
called  the  modern  era  of  tight  lacing,  which 
was  adopted  as  the  short  waists  began  to  be 
replaced  by  longer  ones,  and  the  modern 
type  of  female  dress,  viz.,  a  long  waist, 
bulging  with  a  sudden  angle  into  a  volumi 
nous  skirt,  became  established.  About  1825 
was  adopted  a  method  of  wearing  the  hair 
in  great  puffs  at  the  sides  and  on  the  top  of 
the  head,  dressed,  also,  with  large  bows  of 
ribbon.  To  hold  this  array,  an  enormous 
bonnet  was  required,  and  was  used.  Skirts 
now  began  to  be  a  very  little  fuller ;  two  or 
three  plaits  at  the  waist  being  all  that  were 
at  first  admitted,  and  more  being  introduced 
from  time  to  time.  About  1828  began  the 
"  leg-of-mutton  sleeves,"  which  grew  at  once 
to  enormous  proportions.  These  ridiculous 
and  most  inconvenient  appendages  were 
stuffed  out  with  down,  or  held  out  with  reed, 
millinet,  or  whalebone  ;  but  they  were  con 
tinually  becoming  crushed,  and  were  very 
troublesome.  They  had  a  certain  absurd 
harmony  with  the  big  bonnets  and  puffed 
hair  of  the  day,  as  well  as  with  the  broad- 
shouldered,  stiffly-cut  capes  that  were  worn 
with  them. 

Period  fourth,  1830  to  1845.  The  be 
ginning  of  this  period  is  marked  by  the 
introduction  of  the  costume  of  the  days 
of  Jackson — the  bell-crowned  hat,  long, 
swallow-tailed  coat,  with  high  collar  and 
"bishop"  sleeves,  and  loose  trowsers.  The 
bishop  sleeves  were  distinguished  by  rising 
into  a  ridge  where  they  were  set  in  at 
the  shoulder,  as  do  the  sleeves  of  the 
episcopal  vestments;  this  ridge  being  in 
1830-35,  stuffed  with  cotton  to  hold  them 
up.  The  big  bonnets  and  puffed  hair, 
wide  capes  and  leg-of-muttons  still  prevailed. 
Boots  arid  shoes  were  worn  with  very  broad, 
square  toes  until  about  1840,  when  narrow 
toes  took  their  place  ;  and  the  calash,  invent 
ed  almost  a  hundred  years  before,  was  still 
employed  to  cover  the  elaborate  head-dress. 
The  decrease  in  the  size  of  women's  sleeves 
is  the  chief  feature  of  this  period  ;  the  minor 


details  of  the  successive  changes  of  style 
were  innumerable,  as  usual. 

Period  fifth,  1 845  to  1 860.  This  period, 
also,  may  be  dismissed  with  brief  considera 
tion.  Its  first  years  were  marked  by  the  in 
troduction  of  the  sack  coat,  or,  as  it  is 
called  in  France,  the  paletot.  This  easy, 
commodious,  and  cheap  garment  is  infinitely 
more  becoming  than  a  dress-coat,  and  very 
much  more  convenient  than  either  that  or  a 
frock  coat.  This  garment,  though  introduced 
in  the  present  century  later  than  either  the 
dress  or  frock  coat,  may  be  traced  to  a  far 
greater  antiquity  ;  a  very  similar  garment 
having  been  worn  at  the  courts  of  France 
and  England  about  the  year  1450 — nearly 
half  a  century  before  the  discovery  of  Amer 
ica.  At  about  the  same  time  was  introduced 
that  most  preposterous  of  all  feminine 
fashions,  the  bustle,  which  was  a  sort  of  pad 
tied  on  behind  to  make  the  skirts  stand  out 
with  the  desirable  degree  of  fulness.  This 
was  made  of  various  materials:  cloth  stuffed 
with  bran,  hair,  cotton,  rags,  old  newspapers, 
etc.,  and  sometimes  of  India-rubber,  inflated 
with  air.  The  bustle  marked  the  beginning 
of  the  present  period  of  expanded  skirts.  As 
this  machine  did  not  sufficiently  spread  out 
these  garments,  various  other  means  were  re 
sorted  to  ;  the  use  of  an  enormous  number  of 
skirts — a  habit  most  pernicious  to  health — 
and  skirts  fewer  in  number,  of  stiffly-starched 
cloth  with  cords  sown  on,  or  of  grass  cloth,  or 
hair-cloth,  or  stiffened  out  with  many  cords 
of  new  manilla  rope  or  common  clothes-line, 
or  with  whalebone  or  coils  of  brass  wire.  All 
these  having  been  tried  and  failed,  the  pres 
ent  fashion  came  up,  of  "skeleton-skirts," 
made  of  strips  of  iron  somewhat  similar  to  a 
watch-spring.  These  seem  at  present  to  be 
quite  adequate  to  their  purpose ;  although 
what  the  real  reason  of  that  purpose  is,  it 
would  be  impossible  to  say.  Why  women's 
skirts  should  constitute  a  great  stiff,  hollow 
cone  about  their  lower  limbs,  within  which 
they  must  wear  an  entire  second  suit  of 
clothes  for  warmth  and  protection,  is  as  un 
answerable  a  riddle,  as  would  be  the  inquiry 
why,  during  the  first  years  of  this  century, 
they  should  be  so  scanty  in  dimensions,  so 
thin,  and  clinging  so  closely  to  the  figure. 

Another  fashion  introduced  during  this 
period  is  that  of  wearing  soft  felt  hats  in 
stead  of  the  round  hats,  which  last  are  now 
often  described  as  "hard-shells,"  or  "stove 
pipe"  hats ;  nick-names  well  applied,  and 
which  may  aid  in  driving  out  this  very  un- 


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259 


comfortable  and  unreasonable  fashion.  The 
felt  hat  was  not  often  seen  among  us  until 
the  enthusiasm  which  attended  Kossuth's 
visit  to  the  United  States,  in  1851  and 
1852;  after  which  it  was  brought  out,  at 
first  with  a  feather,  in  close  imitation  of  the 
national  hat  of  the  Hungarian  hero,  and 
called  a  "  Kossuth  hat."  The  feather  was 
soon  left  off,  being  not  much  more  suitable 
to  our  national  characteristics  than  a  nose 
ring  would  be ;  but  the  hat  itself,  being 
found  both  comfortable  and  graceful,  was 
retained,  though  many  different  patterns  have 
since  been  used. 

The  size  of  bonnets,  so  large  about  1830, 
gradually  decreased  until  a  minimum  was 
reached  in  the  very  small  ones  worn  during 
the  last  few  years.  These  scarcely  covered 
the  back  half  of  the  head,  and  were,  there 
fore,  kept  in  place  by  a  sort  of  skewer 
thrust  through  two  holes  in  the  back  lining 
and  the  knotted  back  hair.  The  bonnets 
worn  now  are  a  very  little  larger,  and 
we  may,  perhaps,  be  on  the  verge  of  a 
return  to  large  ones.  Among  the  latest 
styles  of  ladies'  head-dress  are  two  quite  re 
markable  ones.  One  is  a  very  homely  hat, 
singularly  like  an  inverted  tin  wash-basin  in 
form  ;  the  other  is  as  graceful  as  this  is 
awkward ;  namely,  the  "  Spanish  hat,"  a 
small,  low-crowned  hat  of  black  felt,  velvet, 
etc.,  with  a  brim  turned  up  at  the  sides, 
usually  worn  with  a  feather,  and  with  a  net 
for  the  hair. 

Perhaps  the  very  latest  invention  of  the 
tailors  is  one  for  men,  similar  in  purpose  to 
the  artificial  means  often  used  by  women  to 
remedy  natural  defects  of  form.  This  is  a 
sort  of  pad,  or  frame  of  wire  covered  with 
cloth,  to  be  worn  under  the  shirt-bosom,  to 
give  the  chest  an  appearance  of  manly  ful 
ness.  No  criticism  is  necessary  upon  such 
a  trick ;  for  no  dandy  so  silly  as  to  use  it 
could  be  reached  by  any  argument  what 
ever. 

In  reviewing  the  whole  series  of  fashions 
as  thus  briefly  presented,  it  will  appear  that, 
on  the  whole,  there  has  been  a  decided  im 
provement.  There  are,  doubtless,  a  suffi 
cient  number  of  not  very  wise  fashions  in 
dress  now  prevailing  ;  but  the  preposterous, 
filthy  head-dress  of  1783,  the  indecent, 
scanty  costume  of  1800,  the  pudding-like 
cravat  of  the  same  period,  the  broad  shadow 
of  the  gunboat  bonnet,  the  balloon-like 
appendage  of  the  leg-of-mutton  sleeve,  have 
each,  in  turn,  been  superseded  by  something, 
16* 


on  the  whole,  less  foolish ;  and  it  may  be 
claimed  with  safety,  that  at  this  present 
writing,  the  fashions,  both  for  men  and 
women,  are  based  upon  something  more 
like  common-sense  principles,  and  admit 
more  freedom  in  adaptation,  and,  therefore, 
greater  convenience  and  grace,  than  has 
ever  before  been  the  case.  It  is  matter  of  con 
gratulation,  however,  that  an  American  taste 
is  being  developed,  and  our  ladies  becom 
ing  less  dependent  on  fashions  from  abroad  ; 
and  every  year  is  yielding  a  larger  liberty  to 
our  female  population,  in  adopting  such 
forms  and  colors  as  suit  the  peculiarities  of 
each  individual,  without  regard  to  any  abso 
lute  or  universal  decree,  and  this  is  still 
more  the  case  with  men.  Thus  we  seem  to 
be  approaching  that  condition  of  eclectic 
philosophy  which,  if  it  becomes  actually  a 
received  law,  will  afford  the  utmost  possible 
variety,  comfort,  and  elegance. 


CHAPTER  V. 

SOCIAL   AND   MENTAL    CULTURE— INTER 
COURSE— HEALTH— ART,  ETC. 

NEARLY  all  the  increase  in  comfort  and 
happiness  which  is  the  pride  of  modern 
civilization  is  traceable  to  scientific  discov 
ery  and  to  mechanical  invention.  These 
causes  have  supplied  the  means  of  the  labor- 
saving  machines  and  processes  of  the  last 
three-quarters  of  a  century.  The  use  of 
these  machines  and  processes  has  brought 
it  to  pass  that  men  can  earn  their  living  by 
the  labor  of  a  less  proportion  of  their  time 
than  formerly.  And  this  power  enables 
them  to  devote  a  correspondingly  larger 
share  of  effort  to  the  task  of  gaining  knowl 
edge,  and  of  pressing  forward  in  the  path 
of  moral  and  mental  improvement.  The 
amount  of  mental  activity  which  has  been 
devoted  to  these  material  processes  is  aston 
ishing,  and  is  only  feebly  indicated  by  the 
statistical  fact  that  from  1801  to  1848,  in 
clusive,  the  number  of  patents  issued  in  the 
United  States  reached  the  large  total  of 
15,844. 

The  readiest  way  to  sketch  the  general 
progress  of  society  at  present  sought  to  be 
described,  will  be  to  set  forth  briefly,  in. 
chronological  succession,  the  periods  or 
occurrences  which  have  marked  the  com 
mencement  or  maturity  of  any  important 
influence  upon  the  prosperity  of  the  com- 


260 


SOCIAL    AND    DOMESTIC    LIFE. 


munity,  without  attempting  to  classify  them 
particularly. 

In  1796  was  taken  out  the  first  American 
patent  for  a  pianoforte,  by  J.  S.  McLean, 
of  New  Jersey.  The  manufacture  of  these 
instruments  has  become  very  extensive ;  the 
larger  manufactories  sometimes  turning  out 
thousands  a  year.  Many  improvements  have 
been  made  in  their  construction  ;  and  they 
are  now  so  good  and  so  numerous,  as  to  be 
an  important  means  in  the  increasing  diffu 
sion  of  musical  knowledge. 

In  1799  Dr.  Waterhouse,  of  Harvard  Uni 
versity,  first  introduced  Jenner's  discovery  of 
vaccine  inoculation  ;  a  measure  which  has 
substantially  freed  our  community  from  the 
fear,  the  pain,  and  the  disfigurement  of  the 
small-pox.  This  single  discovery  has  had 
no  inconsiderable  influence  in  lengthening 
life,  and  increasing  its  happiness  by  dispelling 
the  apprehensions,  always  felt  before,  of  suf 
fering  and  death. 

The  importance  of  regular,  rapid,  and 
cheap  modes  of  travel  and  transportation,  to 
the  general  improvement  of  society  in  wealth 
and  intelligence,  is  exceedingly  great.  Dis 
tance  of  residence,  difficulty  of  travelling, 
difficulty  of  carrying,  has,  through  all  the 
history  of  the  world,  been  a  chief  means  of 
keeping  nations  poor,  because  thus  they 
could  not  exchange  what  they  had  for  what 
they  had  not ;  and  thus,  however  much  they 
possessed  of  one  thing,  they  were  poor.  For 
wealth  does  not  consist  in  mass  of  posses 
sions.  Not  mountains,  even  of  gold,  if  un 
exchangeable,  are  wealth.  Wealth  is  mass 
and  variety  of  possessions  together,  and 
must  therefore  necessarily  arise  by  exchange, 
that  is,  travel  and  transportation.  The  sea- 
coast  nations,  commanding  water-carriage, 
have  thus  always  been  the  rich  ones ;  it  was 
not  until  steam  destroyed  the  obstacles  of 
river  currents,  and  of  wide  plains  and  rugged 
mountains,  that  inland  nations  could  be  rich 
in  any  sufficient  sense. 

In  the  same  way,  speed  and  certainty  of 
intercourse  promotes  exchange  of  mental 
wealth,  by  correspondence,  visiting,  etc. ; 
maintains  a  sense  of  nationality,  and  keeps 
up  acquaintance  and  good  feeling.  Were  it 
not  for  ease  of  travel,  there  would  be  but 
slight  hopes  of  keeping  Maine  and  Georgia 
in  the  same  republic  with  California  and 
Oregon.  As  it  is,  they  will  remain. 

In  1811  commenced  a  movement  of  a 
very  different  character  from  that  of  the 
inventor  Fulton,  but  which  has  exerted  an 


influence  upon  the  health  and  morals  of  our 
nation,  even  more  important  than  the  bene 
fits  of  cheap  and  rapid  locomotion.  Tb,is 
was  the  temperance  reform. 

The  laxity  of  manners  and  morals  which 
must  attend  war,  had  greatly  increased  the 
use  of  intoxicating  liquor  during  the  Revolu 
tion,  and  it  continued  to  spread  after  the 
peace.  Dr.  Rush  had  published  his  "  In 
quiry  into  the  Effects  of  Ardent  Spirits,"  in 
1804;  but  no  decided  movement  against 
their  use  was  made  until  1811,  when  the 
Presbyterian  General  Assembly  appointed 
a  committee  on  the  subject.  That  and  other 
ecclesiastical  bodies,  at  various  times,  passed 
different  resolutions  and  recommendations 
intended  to  limit  the  use  of  liquor,  but  with 
no  very  great  success.  The  first  total  absti 
nence  society  was  formed  in  Boston  in  1826, 
and  during  the  following  ten  years,  others 
multiplied  with  great  rapidity,  liquor-selling 
became  disreputable,  and  the  common  use 
of  ardent  spirits  was  to  a  very  great  extent 
broken  up.  For  the  last  quarter  of  a  century 
it  has  been  a  generally  received  belief  that 
the  use  of  any  intoxicating  liquors  as  a 
beverage  is  hurtful,  demoralizing,  and  an 
unmitigated  evil  in  every  respect ;  and  the 
consequence  has  been  perceptible  improve 
ment  in  health,  diminution  of  crime,  and 
saving  of  money  both  public  and  private.  It 
must,  however,  be  admitted  that  the  temper 
ance  cause  has  stood  still,  if  it  has  not  ac 
tually  retrograded,  during  the  last  few  years; 
and  that  the  so-called  "Maine  law,"  which 
its  advocates  hoped  would  prove  a  final  bar 
to  the  folly  and  wretchedness  of  intemper 
ance,  has,  in  some  cases  at  least,  produced 
rather  a  reaction  than  a  progress.  Still, 
the  practice  of  total  abstinence,  and  the  very 
great  diminution  in  the  quantity  of  liquors 
drank  by  those  not  total  abstincnts,  has  ac 
complished  an  inestimable  amount  of  good, 
and  immensely  promoted  the  prosperity  of 
the  nation,  both  in  material  and  in  moral 
respects. 

In  1832  the  study  of  phrenology  was  in 
troduced  into  this  country  by  Spurzhcim. 
This  system,  whatever  the  correctness  of  its 
doctrines  as  to  indications  by  the  shape  and 
size  of  the  head,  which  are  certainly  believ 
ed  by  many  intelligent  persons,  is  at  any  rate 
entitled  to  the  merit  of  having  furnished  a 
new  and  very  clear  classification  of  the  men 
tal  faculties,  which  has  become  the  means  of 
a  great  improvement  in  mental  philosophy. 

Two  years  later,  viz.,  in  1834,  the  homoeo- 


SOCIAL    AND    MENTAL    CULTURE INTERCOURSE — HEALTH ART,    ETC. 


261 


pathic  system  of  medicine  was  introduced, 
which  has  since  become  very  extensively  be 
lieved.  As  in  regard  to  phrenology,  it  may 
be  said  of  this  system,  that  whether  all  its 
peculiar  doctrines  are  true  or  false,  it  has  at 
least  done  good  indirectly,  by  operating  to 
reduce  the  quantity  of  medicines  given  by 
the  old-fashioned  practitioners,  and  to  direct 
their  attention  more  than  before  to  the  very 
important  points  of  regimen,  ventilation, 
and  the  other  collateral  departments  of  gen 
eral  hygiene. 

About  1840  was  introduced  into  this 
country  the  greatest  improvement  in  picto 
rial  art  since  the  discovery  of  painting  in 
oils  by  John  Van  Eyck  in  the  fifteenth  cen 
tury  ;  the  greatest  discovery  ever  made  in 
that  department  of  human  knowledge;  viz., 
the  art  of  taking  pictures  by  the  chemical 
action  of  light,  named,  from  its  discoverer, 
daguerreotyping ;  and  various  modifications 
of  which  are  known  as  the  talbotype,  photo 
graph,  arnbrotype,  crystalotype,  etc.  These 
methods  render  it  both  easy  and  cheap  to 
procure  an  absolutely  and  necessarily  per 
fect  representation  of  a  person  or  a  thing. 
Besides  the  pleasure  of  thus  being  enabled, 
it  a  trifling  cost,  to  possess  a  whole  gallery 
}f  perfect  portraits  of  friends — a  privilege 
leretofore  scarcely  attainable,  even  at  an  im- 
nense  price,  by  the  great  men  of  the  earth 
— this  new  art  has  already  been  made  ex 
ceedingly  useful  in  securing  diagrams  of  lu- 
lar  and  other  astronomical  phenomena,  and 
n  taking  pictures  of  buildings,  landscapes, 
statues,  etc.  ;  and  promises  in  many  ways 
o  promote  the  progress  of  many  other  arts, 
>y  means  of  its  wonderful  power  of  perfect 
epresentation. 

Not  far  from  the  same  time,  another  sys- 
\  cm  of  medical  treatment  was  introduced — 
he  "  water-cure,"  or  "  hydropathic"  sys- 
!  em,  which  has  proved  very  useful  in  certain 
lasses  of  diseases,  and  has,  like  homceopa- 
hy,  done  its  part  in  relaxing  the  dogmatic 
,nd  extreme  severity  of  much  of  the  old,  or 
egnlar  practice.  This  treatment,  besides 
.  very  simple  mode  of  life,  consists  only  in 
he  application  of  water,  at  various  tempera- 
ures  and  in  various  ways ;  and  it  is  success- 
ally  practised  in  many  establishments  de- 
oted  to  it,  which  have  been  put  in  opera- 
ion  at  places  where  water  of  the  requisite 
urity  could  be  had. 

In   1845  the  principle  of  cheap  postage 
'as  established  in  this  country  by  a  law  of 


Congress,  and  another  step  thus  taken  to 
ward  the  entire  release  from  tax  or  encum 
brance  of  the  intercourse  of  one  mind  with 
another.  Cheap  postage  is  one  of  the  latest 
signs  of  a  high  civilization  ;  it  is  one  of  the 
most  promising  indications  of  our  own 
future. 

Still  one  year  later  was  discovered  the 
medical  process,  since  termed  "  anesthesia,"' 
which  consists  in  rendering  persons  insensi 
ble  by  the  inhalation  of  certain  gases' 
(usually  an  ether,  or  chloroform),  thus  af 
fording  an  opportunity  of  performing  surgi 
cal  operations  quite  without  the  knowledge 
of  the  patient.  The  agonies  suffered  in  the 
dentist's  chair,  or  under  the  hands  of  the 
surgeon,  and  the  not  less  tormenting  pain  of 
many  nervous  diseases,  may  thus  be  much 
alleviated,  and  even  entirely  relieved. 

In  the  same  year  was  issued  the  first  pat 
ent  for  sewing  machines,  to  Elias  Howe,  jr. 
It  is  only  necessary  to  allude  to  the  very 
great  saving  of  time,  and  strength,  and 
health  which  these  machines  have  effected ; 
their  effects  are  before  the  eyes  of  all.  They 
are  performing  in  a  day  the  work  of  weeks, 
and  doing  very  much  to  relieve  women  of  a 
species  of  labor  which  was  principally  con 
fined  to  them,  but  which  consumed,  in  the 
merest  petty  drudgery,  a  wretchedly  great 
proportion  of  their  time,  and  often  ruined 
health  and  destroyed  life. 

An  important  outgrowth  of  one  of  the 
departments  of  improvement  which  have 
been  described,  is  the  modern  hotel.  The 
American  first-class  hotel  is  an  institution 
quite  peculiar  to  this  country,  and  in 
cludes  within  itself  many  of  the  various 
inventions  which  have  just  been  cata 
logued  :  splendid  furniture,  elaborate  food, 
economical  and  yet  liberal  housekeeping, 
labor-saving  machinery  ;  in  short,  an  unri 
valled  combination  of  the  applications  of 
human  ingenuity  to  the  improvement  of  do 
mestic  life. 

To  recapitulate  :  It  has  thus  been 
shown,  though  briefly  and  with  many  im 
perfections,  that  the  course  of  our  nation 
during  the  seventy-seven  years  since  the 
Revolution  has  been  one  of  steadfast,  and  es 
sential,  and  solid  improvement  in  things 
material  and  immaterial,  physical  and  men 
tal,  practical  and  ornamental ;  in  business, 
travel,  dress,  homes  and  home  comforts, 
wealth,  morals,  intellect — in  short,  in  every 
department  of  human  activity. 


BOOKS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

BOOK    TRADE  — PUBLISHING— JOBBING- 
RETAILING. 

"  YANKEE  curiosity"  is  frequently  a  sub 
ject  of  remark  with  the  flippant  writers  and 
travellers  of  the  old  world,  and  if  not  always 
urged  as  a  reproach,  it  is  not  seldom  re 
ferred  to  in  a  deprecating  sense  by  those  who 
do  not  appreciate  the  immense  activity  of 
intellect  of  which  it  is  one  manifestation. 
There  is  no  doubt  either  of  the  existence  of 
the  alleged  curiosity,  or  that  it  sometimes 
exhibits  itself  in  a  ludicrous  light;  but  it 
also  manifests  itself  in  the  indefatigable  in 
vestigations  to  which  nature  and  art  are  con 
tinually  subjected  by  the  ever  inquiring 
American  mind.  There  result  from  those 
investigations,  not  the  dreary  metaphysical 
theories  that  are  evolved  from  German  con 
templation,  but  those  countless  inventions, 
improvements,  and  applications  of  mechani 
cal  principles  that  are  every  year  recorded  in 
the  patent  office,  and  the  effects  of  which  are 
seen  in  every  department  of  industry.  The 
religious  and  political  assemblies  ;  the  amu 
sing,  instructive,  and  scientific  addresses  of 
the  lecture-room ;  and  the  marvellous  circu 
lation  of  the  public  press,  all  reflect  that  thirst 
for  knowledge  which  is  a  part  of  Yankee  cu 
riosity.  This,  however,  gives  a  still  stronger 
evidence  of  its  vigor  in  the  book  trade,  which, 
in  the  United  States,  shows  an  extent  of 
sales  that  no  other  country  can  hope  to  ap 
proach.  It  is  based  on  the  universal  ability 
of  the  people  to  read,  and  on  that  "  curi 
osity,"  or  thirst  for  knowledge,  which  induces 
them  to  do  so,  accompanied  by  means  to 
purchase  books.  The  word  "means"  compre 
hends  not  only  greater  wealth  on  the  part 
of  the  purchaser,  but  reduced  prices  for  the 
books.  The  existence  of  20,000,000  of 
people  who  can  all  read,  composes  an  im 
mense  market  for  books,  that  must  be  sup 
plied  ;  and  happily,  busy  intellects  have  writ 
ten,  while  the  mechanical  processes  of  pub 
lishing  have  been  developed  in  a  manner 


to  supply  the  demand.  In  order  to  compare 
the  book  market  of  the  United  States  with 
that  of  Europe,  we  may  refer  to  the  census  re 
turns  of  1850.  That  informs  us  that  in  that 
year  there  were  19,553,068  white  persons  in 
the  country.  Of  these,  9,421,557  were  over 
20  years  of  age,  and  of  these,  962,898  could 
neither  read  nor  write,  of  whom  195,114 
were  aliens.  We  now  turn  to  France,  and 
we  find  that  there  were  17,000,000  persons 
over  20  years  of  age ;  and  of  these,  3,400,000 
only  could  read  and  write,  and  the  re 
mainder,  13,600,000,  could  not.  In  other 
words,  there  were,  in  the  United  States, 
8,458,000  readers  of  books,  against  3,400,000 
in  France.  But  there  were,  also,  in  the 
United  States,  4,530,845  persons  between 
10  and  20.  Of  these,  4,063,046  attended 
school,  and,  as  a  consequence,  bought  and 
read  school-books.  The  ratio  of  these  scholars 
to  the  whole  number  who  can  read  and 
write  must  be  the  same  in  France.  Hence 
there  are,  in  fact,  three  times  as  many  read 
ers  in  the  United  States  as  in  France. 

The  making  of  books  has  kept  pace  with 
the  increasing  demand  for  them.  If  we 
look  back  to  the  library  of  King  Alfred,  we 
find  that  he  gave  8  hydcs  of  land  for  a  book 
on  cosmography,  brought  from  Italy  by 
Bishop  Biscop.  At  such  rates,  none  but  a 
king  could  afford  to  buy  a  book ;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  there  were  few,  even  among 
nobles,  who  could  read  if  they  had  them ! 
There  was  no  market,  and  no  manufacture. 
As  the  art  of  reading  became  so  far  progres 
sive  that  the  old  barons  could  sign  their 
names,  instead  of  punching  the  seals  of  in 
struments  with  their  sword  pummels,  some 
little  demand  for  books  sprung  up,  but  at 
enormous  rates.  The  state  of  the  book 
market,  when  literature  began  to  dawn  in 
those  iron  age-s,  Scott  makes  old  Douglas  de 
scribe  in  terse  phrase  : — 

"  Thanks  be  to  God  !  no  son  of  mine, 
Save  Gawain,  e'er  could  pen  a  line." 

A  modern  canvasser  would  not  have  gotten 


BOOK    TRADE — PUBLISHING — MOBBING RETAILING. 


263 


his  name  in  advance  for  numbers  to  be  left. 
Louis  XL,  of  France,  in  1471,  was  obliged 
to  give  security  and  a  responsible  endorser 
to  the  Paris  faculty  of  medicine,  in  order  to 
obtain  the  loan  of  the  works  of  an  Arabian 
physician.  The  art  of  printing,  which  was 
introduced  into  England  in  1474,  had  an 
important  influence  upon  the  production  of 
books,  and  this,  probably,  was  the  cause  of 
a  greater  spread  of  learning,  that  reacted  upon 
the  demand.  The  Bible  was  the  most  com 
monly  used,  and  these,  in  noble  houses,  with 
heavy  covers  and  clasps,  were  chained  to 
shelves  and  reading-desks.  In  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries,  books  were  mostly 
folio  and  quarto.  But  the  dimensions  of 
books  decreased  as  they  became  popularized, 
and  this  was  in  proportion  to  the  spread  of 
learning  among  the  people.  This  went  en 
gradually,  until  both  the  market  and  supply 
were  considerable,  up  to  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury.  With  the  colonies  of  America — 
among  whom  both  religious  and  political 
views  were  based  upon  general  education — 
schools  became  an  institution,  and  in  New 
England  the  use  of  them  an  obligation. 
From  that  time  the  market  for  books  in 
creased  with  the  numbers  of  the  people. 
The  first  bookseller  mentioned  is  Ilezekiah 
Usher,  of  Boston,  in  1652  ;  and  his  son, 
John  Usher,  is  mentioned  by  a  writer  in 
1686,  as  very  rich,  and  as  having  "got  his 
estate  by  bookselling."  That  books,  in  the 
early  part  of  the  century,  were  by  no  means 
abundant,  or  easy  to  be  got  at,  is  evident 
from  what  Franklin  tells  us  of  the  difficulties 
he  encountered,  and  the  great  advantage  he 
enjoyed,  in  having  access  to  the  library  of  a 
merchant.  The  most  of  them  were  imported 
at,  no  doubt,  such  expense  as  confined  their 
general  use  to  the  better  classes.  Some 
years  after,  viz.,  in  1732,  at  the  time  Franklin 
commenced  the  publication  of  "  Poor  Rich 
ard's  Almanac,"  in  Philadelphia,  a  Boston 
bookseller  advertised  as  follows  : — 

"Whereas  it  has  been  the  common  method 
of  the  most  curious  merchants  of  Boston  to 
procure  their  books  from  London,  this  is  to 
acquaint  those  gentlemen  that  I,  the  said  Fry, 
will  sell  all  sorts  of  account  books,  done  after 
the  most  acute  manner,  for  20  per  cent, 
cheaper  than  they  can  have  them  from 
London. 

"  For  the  pleasing  entertainment  of  the 
polite  parts  of  mankind,  I  have  printed  the 
most  beautiful  poems  of  Mr.  Stephen  Duck, 
the  famous  Wiltshire  poet.  It  is  a  full 


demonstration  to  me  that  the  people  of  New 
England  have  a  fine  taste  for  good  sense  and 
polite  learning,  having  already  sold  1,200  of 
those  poems." 

This  was  pretty  well  for  Richard  Fry,  and 
we  hope  he  had  not  then  introduced  the  art 
of  magnifying  his  sales  on  paper.  That 
there  were  a  number  of  booksellers  then 
doing  well,  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  Mr. 
John  Usher  had  made  his  fortune  at  it  50 
years  before;  and  in  1724  there  was  held  a 
convention  of  Boston  booksellers,  to  regulate 
the  trade,  and  raise  the  price  of  some  de 
scriptions  of  books.  The  publication  and 
sale  of  books  increased  slowly,  until  the 
events  of  the  war  began  to  excite  the  minds 
of  the  public,  and  works  on  those  subjects 
were  eagerly  taken  up.  The  practice  was,  to 
some  extent,  to  sell  books  in  sheets,  to  be 
bound  as  the  purchaser  might  fancy — per 
haps  to  be  uniform  with  his  library.  This 
is  now  done  only  where  the  work  is  sold  in 
numbers  by  subscription.  There  was  then 
less  capital  in  the  trade,  and  few  were  dis 
posed  to  risk  the  amount  required  to  get 
out  large  works  of  a  standard  character. 
The  cost  was  then  more  than  it  now  is,  and 
the  time  required  much  longer  to  complete 
and  dispose  of  it.  There  was  then  formed, 
in  1801,  the  American  company  of  booksell 
ers,  and  these  generally  subscribed  together 
in  the  publication  of  a  work,  to  guarantee 
the  outlay.  There  was  a  sort  of  union,  that 
regulated  the  principles  of  publication,  and 
those  who  did  not  conform  to  these  regula 
tions  were  repudiated.  School-books  were, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  as  having  the  largest 
and  steadiest  market,  the  first  that  were  ex 
tensively  published.  A  type  of  this  class  of 
books  is  Webster's  Spelling-Book,  which  has 
grown  with  the  country  in  a  remarkable 
manner.  In  1783,  with  the  advent  of  the 
peace,  Mr.  Noah  Webster  published  his  ele 
mentary  spelling-book.  The  work  became 
a  manual  for  all  schools,  and  its  influence 
has  been  immense,  in  giving  uniformity  to 
the  language  throughout  the  whole  country. 
The  "  Yankee  schoolmaster,"  who  was  raised 
upon  that  book,  has  gone  forth  into  every 
section  of  the  Union,  spreading  the  fruits  of 
that  seed  of  knowledge,  as  writes  Fitz-Greene 
Ilalleck :— 

''  Wandering  through  the  southern  countries,  teaching 
The  A,  B,  C,  from  Webster's  spelling-book." 

When  it  was  first  published,  there  were 
3,000,000  people  in  the  United  States ;  there 


264 


BOOKS. 


are  now  30,000,000,  and  there  have  been 
sold  32,000,000  copies  of  the  work,  or  one 
for  every  soul  in  the  Union.  The  spelling- 
Look  was  enlarged  into  a  dictionary  in  1806, 
and  immediately  Dr.  Webster  went  on  with 
preparations  for  a  still  larger  work.  This  oc 
cupied  him  20  years  of  unremitting  research, 
during  which  the  sales  of  his  spelling-book 
supported  his  family;  and  in  1828  the  work 
was  published  in  two  quarto  volumes.  Twelve 
years  after,  viz.,  in  1840,  a  new  edition  made 
its  appearance,  greatly  improved;  and  the 
last  edition  contains  a  vocabulary  of  more 
than  80,000  words.  These  works  have  ex 
erted  a  wonderful  influence  in  giving  uni 
formity  to  the  use  and  pronunciation  of  the 
language.  There  have  been  sold  more  than 
200,000  copies  of  the  large  dictionary ; 
and  the  sales  of  the  spelling-book  arc 
1,500,000  per  annum  by  D.  Applcton  & 
Co.,  New  York.  During  70  years  the  spell 
ing-book  grew  into  a  dictionary  superior  to 
what  any  other  nation  could  boast  of  in  its 
language,  and  with  its  growth,  its  sales 
spread  in  proportion.  It  is  a  type  of  the 
country  itself,  and  its  future  is  still  before  it. 

The  publication  of  religious  works  was 
greatly  promoted  by  the  societies  formed, 
particularly  the  American  Bible  Society, 
which  was  formed  in  1816;  the  Bible  So 
ciety  of  Philadelphia  in  1808;  one  in  Con 
necticut  in  1809  ;  and  also  one  in  Massachu 
setts.  The  American  Society  in  New  York 
published,  in  its  first  year,  6,410  volumes, 
mostly  Bibles  and  Testaments.  In  1854, 
the  issues  were  815,399,  and  the  whole  num 
ber  during  42  years,  was  12,804,083  vol 
umes  of  the  Bible.  A  good  copy  of  the  Bi 
ble  is  sold  for  45  cents,  and  a  cheaper  edition 
at  25  cents;  Testaments  as  low  as  6£  cents. 
Contrast  this  with  the  Bible  copied  in  22 
years  by  Alcuin  for  Charlemagne  about  800, 
and  which  was  sold  in  modern  times  to  the 
British  Museum  for  $3,750,  and  the  distance 
we  have  gone  appears  great. 

The  American  Bible  Union  was  organized 
in  1850,  and  it  has  since  issued  59,748,804 
pages  of  matter,  including  Bibles.  The  pub 
lications  by  other  societies  have  been  con 
siderable. 

These  societies  were  not  a  portion  of  the 
regular  book  trade,  which  continued  to  be 
mostly  under  the  association,  until  the  ap 
pearance  of  the  Waverley  Novels  in  1820  to 
1830.  The  competition  to  which  the  large 
demand  for  these  works  gave  rise,  broke 
down  old  arrangements  of  the  trade.  The 


publishers  thenceforth  acted  independently. 
At  the  same  time,  the  supply  of  desirable 
books  from  abroad,  upon  which  there  was  no 
charge  for  copyright,  was  much  increased ; 
and  as  all  the  publishers  were  upon  the  same 
footing  in  respect  to  those  books,  the  com 
petition  extended  only  to  the  mechanical 
process,  reducing  its  cost  to  the  lowest  rates. 
The  capitals  of  the  publishing  houses  gradu 
ally  increased,  but  there  was  still  great  diffi 
culty  in  getting  an  American  book  printed. 
Cooper  tells  us,  in  the  preface  to  his  Pilot, 
that  so  great  was  the  difficulty  he  en 
countered  in  getting  a  printer  to  undertake 
it,  that  he  was  obliged  to  write  the  last  page 
of  the  story  first,  and  have  it  set  up  and 
paged,  to  insure  the  extent  to  which  the  mat 
ter  would  run. 

About  the  period  of  the  establishment  of 
the  American  Bible  House,  a  number  of 
firms  commenced  business,  some  of  which 
have  reached  great  eminence  in  the  trade, 
such  as  Harper  Bros.,  and  Appleton  &  Co. 

In  the  publication  of  books,  the  expenses 
arc  of  various  kinds,  and  may  be  classed  un 
der  general  heads  as  follows :  First,  as  in  the 
case  of  Mrs.  Glass's  recipe  for  cooking, 
catch  your  fish.  This  is  done  in  various 
ways.  Among  the  American  publishers, 
until  lately,  the  works  to  be  printed  were 
supplied  from  abroad,  without  cost,  and  the 
publisher  only  selected  and  printed  accord 
ing  to  his  judgment.  To  decide  upon  these, 
readers  are  employed  to  read  manuscripts, 
as  well  as  books;  but  the  difficulty  of  de 
ciding  what  will  "  take"  with  the  public  is 
very  great.  At  other  times  the  written 
matter  is  purchased  for  a  sum  of  money  of 
the  author,  who  offers  it  for  sale.  Again, 
an  author  may  have  the  publishing  done  at 
his  own  risk  and  expense.  Sometimes  this 
is  done  only  to  the  extent  of  a  few  copies  to 
present  to  his  friends.  At  another  time  the 
work  is  printed  at  the  expense  of  the  pub 
lisher,  who  allows  the  author  a  certain  sum 
for  every  copy  sold — the  author  retaining 
the  copyright.  At  other  times  a  work  may 
be  gotten  up  by  the  publisher,  employing  a 
number  of  writers,  and  paying  them  by  the 
page  for  their  labor.  After  any  or  all  these 
plans  have  been  adopted,  and  the  "matter" 
is  in  hand,  the  expenses  are,  first,  "compo 
sition,"  or  setting  up  the  types,  from  which 
proofs  are  taken  to  be  read  by  the  author. 
When  all  corrections  are  made,  the  type  is 
sent  to  the  stereotyper,  who  casts  therefrom 
plates,  each  one  containing  a  page  of  the 


BOOK    TRADE PUBLISHING JOBBING — RETAILING. 


265 


"book.  These  plates  are  sent  to  the  press 
room,  where  they  are  "  worked  off',"  gener 
ally  on  an  "Adams  press."  The  paper  is 
purchased  according  to  the  size  of  the  pro 
posed  book ;  sent  to  the  press-room ;  and 
"  wet  down,"  by  being  opened  and  sprinkled 
with  clean  water.  Standing  in  piles  for  a 
number  of  hours,  the  dampness  diffuses  it 
self  through  the  paper,  and  it  is  ready  for 
the  press,  whence  it  goes  to  the  binder, 
leaving  his  hands  ready  for  sale.  Thus  the 
composition  and  stereotyping,  the  press- 
work,  the  paper,  and  the  binding,  are  the 
chief  expenditures,  requiring  large  capital.  If 
•.he  work  is  illustrated,  the  expense  of  de 
signs,  of  engraving  and  printing,  swells  the 
anount  considerably.  When  in  the  hands 
of  the  publisher,  there  are  a  number — per- 
liaps  from  100  to  200 — appropriated  to  the 
press,  a  copy  to  each  editor.  Two  copies 
are  deposited  with  the  copyright  clerk,  with 
Ms  fee.  The  expense  of  advertising  is  then 
added,  and  this  is  according  to  circumstances. 
Sometimes  large  sums  are  so  spent,  particu 
larly  when  the  author  is  himself  interested, 
and  has  not  the  means  of  spreading  the  book 
possessed  by  the  large  publishers.  There 
arc  two  distinct  prices  to  all  books.  These 
are  the  trade  price,  charged  to  those  who 
sell  again,  and  the  retail  price,  charged  to 
the  public.  This,  however,  sometimes  de 
pends  upon  circumstances.  The  city  pub 
lishers  have  correspondence  with  all  the 
booksellers  throughout  the  Union,  and  to 
them  they  send  numbers  of  the  books  pub 
lished  to  sell,  and  with  them  show-bills,  and 
means  of  making  the  work  known.  In  such 
cases,  the  works,  if  not  sold,  are  returned  in 
a  certain  time  at  the  expense  of  the  pub 
lisher  ;  but,  if  sold,  the  trade  price  is  charged. 
The  number  of  book  publishers  in  the 
United  States  is  about  400.  There  were 
385  in  1857,  mostly  in  New  York,  Boston, 
and  Philadelphia.  About  thirty  years  since, 
a  practice  sprung  up  of  holding  semi-annual 
sales  by  auction,  calle.d  trade  sales,  which 
arc  now  regularly  held  in  the  cities  of  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  and  Cincinnati.  These 
sales  are  made  up  by  contribution  from  all 
the  leading  publishers,  and  are  attended 
by  retailers  as  well  as  wholesale  buyers. 
That  opened  in  New  York,  September  4, 
for  the  fall  sales  this  year  (I860),  was 
very  full.  The  catalogue  comprised  522 
pages,  and  probably  cost  $1,500  to  get  out. 
The  sales  reached  over  $500,000.  It  did 
not  comprise,  however,  the  books  of  Harp 


er  &  Brothers,  that  firm  holding  a  sale  on 
their  own  account.  This  mode  of  selling 
diffuses  the  publications  through  all  branches 
of  the  regular  trade.  This  is  divided  into 
publishers,  jobbers,  and  retailers.  The  num 
ber  of  regular  booksellers  who  distribute 
the  productions  of  the  publishers  is  about 
6,500 ;  but  the  number  of  those  who  keep 
books  as  one  item  of  a  general  assortment  of 
goods  is  very  large,  and  cannot  be  ascer 
tained  exactly.  The  jobbers  buy  in  quan 
tities  of  the  publishers,  and  consequently 
obtain  them  at  rates  which  allow  them  to 
supply  retailers  at  the  publisher's,  or  trade 
price,  and  still  realize  a  profit.  The  re 
tailers  arc  to  be  found  in  every  town  and 
hamlet  of  the  country;  almost  every  country 
store  has  some  books  among  its  wrares. 
Through  these  regular  channels  the  books 
descend,  from  the  great  reservoir  of  the  pub 
lishers  to  the  little  lots  that  are  brought  to 
the  view  of  the  reader.  Although  the  large 
publishing  houses  issue  any  description  of 
work  that  will  pay,  yet  the  increasing  extent 
of  the  trade  has  led  to  subdivision  in  book 
selling;  such  as  those  who  keep  foreign 
books  only,  and  import  any  work  in  any 
language  to  order.  These  are,  again,  divided 
into  French,  German,  and  English.  There 
are  also  sellers  of  medical  books,  of  law 
books,  of  religious  books,  of  scientific  works, 
and  miscellaneous  productions. 

It  is  obvious  that  this  "  regular  trade"  de 
pends  upon  the  demand  from  the  public ; 
that  the  readers  shall  come  to  the  book. 
To  do  this,  it  is  necessary  that  the  public 
shall  know,  first,  that  the  book  exists,  and 
second,  that  it  is  one  in  which  they  have  an 
interest.  To  spread  this  information  is  the 
most  difficult  problem ;  and  it  is  done  by 
the  regular  trade  through  advertising  in  the 
papers,  by  means  of  the  editorial  notices  in 
exchange  for  the  presentation  copy,  and  by 
means  of  placards  spread  plentifully  in  public 
places,  particularly  in  all  the  stores  where 
the  books  are  for  sale.  These  are  means 
which  are  applicable  only  to  the  first  ap 
pearance  of  the  book,  since  the  notices 
and  placards  are  promptly  succeeded  by 
others,  and  the  announcement  forgotten  by 
the  public.  If  the  work  takes,  and  creates 
a  sensation,  the  sale  continues  large.  This 
sensation  is  sometimes  artfully  brought  about 
by  means  of  political  or  other  organization, 
according  to  the  nature  of  the  work.  Some 
times  an  immense  number  of  copies  of  most 
worthless  matter  is  thus  put  upon  the  public. 


266 


BOOKS. 


The  enormous  difficulty  of  making  any 
•work  known  to  the  public,  can  be  appre 
ciated  only  by  those  who  have  tried  it ;  and 
this  difficulty  increases  in  proportion  to  the 
number  of  people  and  the  extent  of  the 
country.  The  fame  of  a  really  good  work 
spreads  among  those  only  who  are  interested 
in  the  matter  of  which  it  treats,  and  not  at 
all  among  those  who  are  either  not  interest 
ed  or  opposed  to  its  teaching.  Hence  re 
ligious,  scientific,  and  political  publications 
form,  as  it  were,  parishes  within  which  the 
work  may  circulate.  From  these  circum 
stances  arise  the  thousand  and  one  modes 
adopted  by  publishers  to  arouse  public  curi 
osity,  and  sometimes  with  very  great  success. 
The  publication  of  school  books  has  at 
times  assumed  an  extraordinary  character. 
The  object  of  the  publishers  is,  of  course,  to 
create  for  them  a  popularity  with  the  schools, 
and  to  have  them  introduced  by  any  means. 
This  desire  has  induced  many  to  send  agents 
to  various  schools,  and  substitute  new  books 
for  the  old,  without  charging  for  the  differ 
ence  in  value.  A  system  so  ruinous  cannot, 
of  course,  last  long.  The  competition  in 
school  books  by  many  ways,  direct  and 
indirect,  greatly  enhances  the  cost  of  edu 
cation,  by  causing  children,  who  cannot 
always  afford  it,  to  buy  new  sets  frequently. 

Another  mode  of  selling,  recently  intro 
duced  with  some  success,  is  the  "  gift-book" 
system.  By  this  plan,  the  books  are  sold 
at  the  regular  retail  price ;  but  with  each 
and  every  book  sold,  some  article  of  jewelry 
is  presented  to  the  buyer.  Every  book  in 
the  store  being  numbered  when  the  buyer 
selects,  he  receives  the  jewelry  which  bears  a 
corresponding  number.  This  numbering,  6f 
course,  takes  place  preparatory  to  the  sales, 
and  is  so  arranged  that  the  jewelry  is  ap 
parently  of  greater  or  less  value,  according 
to  the  work.  The  actual  value  of  the  jewel 
ry  is  really  very  small,  not  so  much  as  if  a 
small  sum  were  deducted  from  the  price  of 
the  book,  as  a  commission  on  its  sale.  There 
seems  to  be  nothing  objectionable  in  the 
mode  of  selling  beyond  the  sort  of  chance 
which  the  buyer  is  led  to  suppose  he  plays 
for  jewelry  in  making  a  purchase.  The 
book  is  generally  worth  the  money.  It 
has  in  a  few  cases  been  very  successful,  so 
much  so  as  to  have  broken  down  the  old- 
fashioned  barriers  of  legitimacy,  and  taken 
rank  with  the  elder  magnates  of  the  trade ; 
Prof.  Ingraham's  "  Pillar  of  Fire,"  "  Throne 
of  David,"  etc.,  which  were  thus  introduced 


to  the  world,  being  among  the  largest  selling 
books  of  the  day. 

The  sale  of  old  or  second-hand  books  is 
also  a  very  extensive  branch  of  business  in 
the  great  cities.  It  is  obvious,  that  where 
book-buying  and  book-reading  are  so  prev 
alent,  as  is  the  case  among  all  classes  of  the 
people  here  in  the  United  States,  there 
must  exist  a  large  number  both  of  public  and 
private  libraries,  and  that  these,  through 
death,  and  the  continual  vicissitudes  that 
attend  families,  are  being  constantly  broken 
up.  If  every  family  has  a  library  of  greater 
or  less  magnitude,  sooner  or  later  there  is  a 
sale,  and  it  generally  comes  to  the  hammer 
in  one  or  more  of  the  large  book  auctions 
that  are  held  almost  nightly.  These  auctions 
are  attended  by  the  public,  but  mostly  by 
the  second-hand  booksellers.  Of  these  there 
are  numbers  in  those  parts  of  the  city  frej 
qucnted  most  by  strangers.  They  are  the 
same  as  the  "  book-stalls,"  so  familiar  a 
feature  in  the  literature  of  England  and  the 
countries  of  western  Europe,  as  they  are 
in  fact  a  necessity  everywhere.  In  New 
York,  the  stall-keeper  generally  procures,  for 
a  rent  of  $50  to  $150  per  annum,  according 
to  circumstances,  the  privilege  of  putting  up 
a  set  of  shelves  against  the  outside  of  some 
store  corner.  These  shelves  shut  up  at 
night,  like  a  large  window,  and  the  shutters 
are  fastened  by  iron  bars  that  have  padlocks. 
These  shelves  contain  a  small  stock,  from 
$300  to  8400  value,  of  the  most  saleable 
books  that  can  be  picked  up  cheap  at  the 
auctions  of  books,  or  of  household  furniture 
of  families  breaking  up,  or  purchased  of 
needy  persons  who  offer  them.  It  follows 
that  the  stalls,  or  stands,  become  the  re 
ceptacles  of  all  old  books,  and  sometimes 
very  rare  and  valuable  ones  that  have  gone 
out  of  print,  and  can  be  found  nowhere  else. 
A  great  many  valuable  foreign  books  are 
found  here,  having  been  disposed  of  by 
immigrants  who  become  necessitous.  A 
large  number  of  books  are  sold  from  these 
stalls,  which  also  keep  much  of  the  current 
new  literature.  The  keepers — some  of  them 
— soon  become  possessed  of  sufficient  cap 
ital  to  open  whole  stores ;  and  there  are 
now  in  New  York,  and  most  cities,  some 
quite  large  stores  that  have  rare  collections 
of  old  books.  This  business  has  also  ex 
tended  across  the  water,  so  that  persons  of 
more  scholarly  tastes  have,  through  these 
agencies,  access  to  the  reservoirs  of  old 
books  to  be  found  in  the  cities  of  Europe. 


BOOK    TRADE PUBLISHING JOBBING RETAILING. 


267 


A  distinct  class  of  publishers  are  those 
who  issue  books  by  subscription,  or  send 
the  books  to  the  reader,  instead  of  waiting 
for  him  to  come  to  the  book.  These  are  of 
two  classes — those  who  issue  books  in  num 
bers,  and  those  who  issue  complete  works. 
We  have  spoken  of  the  great  difficulty  in 
bringing  the  existence  of  a  work  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  individual  reader.  The 
regular  trade  seek  to  do  this  by  general  ap 
peals  through  the  public  press.  The  pub 
lishers  by  subscription  take  the  more  direct 
and  energetic  method  of  appealing  personally 
to  each  individual,  showing  him  the  work, 
stating  its  merits,  and  enlisting  his  judgment. 
Harper's  "  Illustrated  Bible  "  was  published 
in  this  way,  the  number  of  issues  being 
known  in  advance,  and  the  edition  reached 
25,000  copies,  at  $20  each,  or  $500,000.  The 
mode  of  publishing  by  numbers  involves  the 
employment  of  a  great  number  of  agents,  and 
the  success  of  the  enterprise  depends  in  a 
great  measure  upon  these.  Much  dissatisfac 
tion  has  grown  out  of  this  plan  of  sales, 
arising  from  the  nature  of  it.  The  numbers 
will  sometimes  far  exceed  what  the  agent 
promised  to  complete  the  work;  and  many 
other  contingencies  arise,  not  anticipated  by 
the  buyer.  The  contracts  made  with  the 
agents  are  various,  according  to  the  expense 
of  the  publisher.  The  numbers  are  delivered 
at  uncertain  times;  and,  when  completed,  the 
expense  is  generally  much  more  than  was 
looked  for  by  the  subscriber.  The  numbers, 
if  then  all  preserved,  are  to  be  bound  at 
greater  outlay  of  trouble  and  expense.  It 
not  unfrequently  happens  in  this  class  of 
publications,  that  the  subscribers  drop  otf 
so  fast,  from  disappointment  and  dissatisfac 
tion,  that  the  work  is  abandoned,  unfinished, 
by  the  publisher. 

The  plan  of  combining  the  two  systems  is 
now  coming  into  favor.  It  is  to  publish  a 
complete  work  of  a  high  character,  and  sell 
it  by  agents.  This  is  found  to  be  far  the 
most  satisfactory.  The  agent  accosts  the 
individual  reader  with  the  complete  work  in 
his  hand  ;  the  buyer  inspects  it,  and  pays 
the  price,  at  once  completing  the  transaction 
on  the  spot.  A  well-organized  system  of  can 
vassers  will  thus  gradually  bring  a  deserving 
work  to  the  notice  of  the  whole  people  by 
personal  appeal.  The  work  does  not  fall  still 
born  because  the  first  notices  have  failed  to 
attract  readers  ;  but  its  sale  grows  steadily 
with  its  increasing  reputation,  since  the  pub 
lisher,  looking  to  a  continued  sale,  takes  care 


that  it  shall  be  of  such  a  character  that  its 
reputation  will  grow  as  the  work  spreads.  This 
plan  is  so  obviously  useful  and  proper,  that 
many  important  works,  published  originally 
on  the  trade  plan,  are  now  being  withdrawn 
and  placed  in  the  hands  of  agents,  who, 
being  responsible  and  intelligent  men,  bring 
the  book  to  the  notice  of  the  reader  directly. 
This  system,  which  had  met  with  considerbale 
success,  previous  to  the  war,  has,  since  that 
time,  been  pushed  with  great  energy,  and 
the  amount  of  sales  of  popular  works  -has 
been  enormous.  Of  histories  of  the  war, 
sold  by  subscription,  the  sales  of  three  con 
siderably  exceeded  one  hundred  thousand 
copies  each,  and  three  others  approached  that 
figure,  while  several  others  sold  30,000, 
40,000,  or  50,000  copies.  Of  other  books, 
The  Nurse  and  Spy"  sold  over  160,000 
copies;  "  Life  and  Death  in  Rebel  Prisons" 
about  75,000  ;  "Raymond's  Life  of  Lincoln" 
70,000  ;  Richardson's  "  Field,  Dungeon,  and 
Escape,"  over  100,000  ;  and  Junius  Browne's 
"Four  Years  in  Secessia,"  above  60,000. 
Many  other  books,  having  a  more  or  less 
direct  connection  with  the  war,  sold  very 
largely. 

In  the  period  from  1848  to  1857,  works  of 
fiction,  both  from  known  and  unknown  au 
thors,  had  an  immense  sale.  Mrs.  II.  B. 
Stowe  led  the  way  in  this  matter,  her  "  Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin "  selling  to  the  extent  of 
310,000  copies  here,  and  nearly  a  million  and 
a  half  copies  in  England;  of  "The  Lamp 
lighter,"  by  Miss  Cummins,  90,000  copies 
were  sold;  of  "Fern  Leaves,"  70,000; 
"  Alone,"  by  "Marion  Harland,"  over  50,000  ; 
"  Fashion  and  Famine,"  by  Mrs.  Ann  S.  Ste 
phens,  30,000  ;  "  Wide,  Wide  World,"  and 
"  Queechy,"  by  Miss  Warner,  nearly  100,000 
each,  &.c.,  &c. 

The  circulation  attained  at  times  by  ster 
ling  and  standard  works  is  very  large,  as 
follows  : — 

Irving's  Works 1,100.000  copies. 

Irving's  Sketch  Book 9S.OOO 

Longfellow's  Hiawatha 43,000       " 

Hugh  Millers  Works 50.000 

Grace  Ajzuilur's  Works  157.000 

Amer.  Cyclopiedia,  Appleton's,  16vols.,  8vo.  38.000  sets. 

Benton's  Thirty  Years^  View,  2  vols.,  8vo..  98,500  copies. 

Kane's  Arctic  Voyages.  2  vols.,  Svo 65.00 

Harper's  Pictorial  Bible,  $20 25.000 

Goodrich's  History  of  all  Nations,  $7 30,000 

Dana's  Household  Book  of  Poetry 100,000 

Kane's  Voyages  paid  $65,000  copy 
right.  The  sale  of  Prescott's  Histories  was 
very  large,  giving,  it  is  said,  50  cts.  copy 
right.  The  sales  of  school  books  surpass 
in  quantity  those  of  all  other  books. 


268 


BOOKS. 


We  have  referred  to  the  very  large  sales 
of  Webster's  Spelling-books  and  Dictionaries. 
The  aggregate  of  these  to  the  close  of  1865 
exceeds  fifty  millions  of  volumes.  For  seve 
ral  years  before  Messrs.  Cooledgc  &  Brother 
relinquished  the  business  (in  1857),  their 
sales  of  Webster's  Speller  were  very  nearly 
one  million  copies  per  annum.  Messrs.  Ap- 
pletou  became  the  publishers  in  1857,  and 
though  for  several  reasons  their  sales  have,  a 
portion  of  the  time,  been  smaller  than 
Cooledge's,  yet  their  aggregate  sales,  to  the 
close  of  1805,  were  6,390,000  copies,  and 
their  present  rate  of  issue  is  about  1,300,000 
per  annum.  This  house  have  also  sold  about 
one  and  a  half  millions  of  Cornell's  Geo 
graphies,  and  nearly  700,000  copies  of 
Quackeribos'  Series  of  Text-books. 

Messrs.  E.  H.  Butler  &  Co.,  of  Phila 
delphia,  the  present  publishers  of  Mitchell's 
Geographies,  sell  about  half  a  million  copies 
annually,  and  the  aggregate  sale  in  the  twenty- 
five  years  since  their  first  publication  has 
been  about  7,500,000  copies.  Smith's  Gram 
mar,  also  published  by  this  house,  sells  at 
the  rate  of  100,000  copies  a  year.  Two  and 
a  half  millions  of  copies  of  it  have  been 
sold. 

Messrs.  Ivison,  Phinney,  Blakeman  &  Co., 
one  of  the  largest  houses  in  the  school-book 
trade,  sell  annually  of  their  Sanders'  Readers 
and  Spellers  over  one  million  copies,  and  of 
their  other  text-books  about  1,300,000  more. 
The  Sanders'  Spellers  and  Readers  had  been 
sold  up  to  the  close  of  1865  to  the  extent  of 
more  than  twenty  millions  of  copies  ;  Robin 
son's  Mathematics,  two  millions  of  copies ; 
Colton's  Geographies,  over  one  million  ;  Fas- 
quelle's  French,  and  Woodbury's  German 
Series,  half  a  million  copies. 

Messrs.  A.  S.  Barnes  &  Co.,  also  largely 
engaged  in  the  school-book  trade,  have  sold 
over  five  millions  of  volumes  of  Davies' 
Mathematical  works,  one  work  (the  old 
"  School  Arithmetic  ")  having  sold  to  the  ex 
tent  of  1,250,000  copies.  They  have  sold 
of  Mrs.  Willard's  Histories  350,000  volumes, 
and  over  400,000  of  Clark's  Grammars,  a 
still  larger  number  of  Parker  and  Wat 
son's  Readers  and  Spellers,  and  of  Mon- 
teith  and  McNally's  Series  of  Geographies ; 
and  the  entire  annual  sales  of  text-books  by 
this  house  reach  nearly  two  millions  of  vol 
umes. 

Messrs.  Sargent,  Wilson  &  Hinkle,  of  Cin 
cinnati,  the  publishers  of  McGufFey's  Readers 
and  the  Eclectic  Educational  Series,  sell  an 


nually  about  2,000,000  volumes  of  these 
books. 

The  sales  of  Comstock's  text-books  of 
Philosophy,  Chemistry,  &c.,  Olney's  Geo 
graphies,  and  Bullions'  Latin  and  Greek  text 
books,  now  published  by  Messrs.  Sheldon 
<fe  Co.,  has  been  very  large.  Of  Comstock's 
Philosophy  over  1,100,000  copies  have  been 
sold,  and  about  2,200,000  of  Olney's  Geo 
graphies. 

Messrs.  Harper  <k  Brothers  have  combined 
with  the  largest  list  of  miscellaneous  pub 
lications  in  the  country  a  very  extensive  issue 
of  school  text-books  of  all  kinds,  to  which 
they  are  constantly  making  additions.  They 
also  publish  two  of  the  most  widely-circu 
lating  periodicals  in  the  United  States. 
They  employ  an  active  capital  of  about  one 
million  dollars  in  stock  and  machinery,  ex 
pending  more  than  $600,000  per  annum  for 
paper  alone.  They  run  forty-one  power 
presses,  thirty-five  of  them  Adams  presses, 
and  many  of  them  night  and  day.  They 
have  published  2,200  works,  in  over  three 
thousand  volumes,  about  equally  divided  be 
tween  original  works  and  reprints.  Their 
issues  of  bound  books  amount  to  more 
than  three  millions  of  volumes  per  an 
num. 

Messrs.  Lippincott  &  Co.,  of  Philadelphia, 
publish  a  large  list  of  books,  but  their  most 
important  business  is  the  jobbing  of  books 
to  booksellers  throughout  the  country.  Their 
business  in  favorable  years  amounts  to  from 
five  to  seven  millions  of  dollars.  It  is  esti 
mated  that,  on  an  average,  ten  tons  of  books 
are  sent  out  of  their  establishment  daily. 

The  sale  of  music  books  is  very  large. 
Some  of  the  smaller  music  books  for  schools 
and  Sunday-schools  have  sold  to  the  extent 
of  more  than  a  million  of  copies,  and  the 
"  Carmina  Sacra,"  a  popular  collection  of 
church  music,  has  had  a  sale  of  over  500,- 
000  copies.  A  single  house,  Messrs.  Mason 
Brothers,  with  whom  the  sale  of  music 
books  is  but  one  department  of  their 
business,  sell  over  300,000  volumes  per 
annum. 

The  publication  of  agricultural  books  has 
been  made  a  specialty  by  one  or  two  houses, 
and  one  of  these,  Messrs.  Orange  Judd  & 
Co.,  who  are  also  the  publishers  of  the  agri 
cultural  paper  of  largest  circulation,  sell 
very  large  quantities. 

The  following  table  gives  the  number  of 
works  of  the  different  classes  specified,  pub 
lished  in  each  year  or  period  mentioned. 


BOOK-BINDING. 


269 


Jan.,  1856, 
to  Mar., 

1855.  1858.  1864.  1865. 

Works.  Works.  Works.  Works. 

Educational 139  748  47  6T 

Natural    History,    Agricul 
ture,  and  Science 65  160  241  189 

Biography .* 124  213  104  150 

Essays,    Poetry,    and    Fic 
tion 776  1,66T  407  465 

Theolosry  and  Keligioh 581  842  165  129 

History. 76  231  143  191 

Juveniles. 92  11T  428  312 

Music 42  154  65  87 

Voyages  and  Travels 29  157  30  25 

Medicine 29  138  54  55 

Drama 29  28 


Classics 

Mechanical  Sciences. . 
Miscellaneous 


19 
U 
H 


2,162 
Of  which  were  Reprints . .      C49 


4,886 
1,492 


112 


2,023 
801 


10 
42 
116 

1,802 
276 


Mr.  S.  G.  Goodrich  (Peter  Parley),  in  his 
"  Recollections  of  a  Life-time,"  gave  a  table 
of  the  value  of  books  manufactured  and  sold 
at  different  periods  in  the  United  States. 
We  add  to  that  table  an  estimate  of  the 
values  of  each  class  of  books  sold  in  1860, 
based  upon  the  census  returns  for  that  year : — 


School  Books  

1820. 
.  .    $750,000 

-830.             18-10. 
1,100  000     2  000  000 

Classical  Text-Books  

250,000 

350  000        550  000 

Theological  and  Eeligious.  .  . 
Law     

..      150,000 
200  000 

250,000        300,000 
300  000        400  000 

Medical  

150,000 

200  000        250  000 

All  others  

.  .    1,000,000 

1  300  000     2  000  000 

1850. 

1856. 

I860. 

5,500,000 

7,500,000 

10,100,000 

1,000,000 

1,600,000 

2,000,000 

500,000 

650,000 

1,000,000 

700,000 

800,000 

900,000 

400,000 

550,000 

700,000 

4,400,000 

4,900,000 

6,500,000 

2,500,000     3,500,000     5,500,000     12,500,000     16,000,000     21,200,000 


The  aggregate  of  1865  was  probably  four 
or  five  millions  of  dollars  beyond  this,  not 
because  there  had  been  any  very  considerable 
increase  in  the  number  of  books  manufactured 
and  sold,  but  that,  owing  to  the  expansion 
of  the  currency  and  the  consequent  advance 
in  the  cost  of  labor  and  material,  the  cost  of 
production  and  the  market  price  of  books 
was  from  33  to  50  per  cent,  higher  than  in 
I860. 

The  reading  portion  of  the  population  of 
the  country  is  increasing  at  present  in  a  ratio 
somewhat  more  rapid  than  the  general  growth 
of  numbers  in  the  nation.  According  to  the 
census  of  1860,  there  were  1,126,575  whites 
and  91,736  free  colored  persons  over  twenty 
years  of  age  who  could  not  read  or  write. 


There  were  also  probably  not  less  than  3,500,- 
000  slaves  who  could  not  read  or  write.  Since 
the  emancipation  proclamation  of  January, 
1863,  large  numbers  of  the  freedmen  have 
been  earnestly  engaged  in  acquiring  a  rudi 
mentary  education,  and  before  1870  it  may 
safely  be  calculated  that  nearly  two  millions 
of  this  class  will  be  able  to  read.  Great  efforts 
are  making  all  over  the  country  to  bring  into 
the  schools  the  very  large  class  of  children 
who  have  hitherto  not  received  instruction ; 
and  the  census  of  1870  will  doubtless  show 
full  thirty  millions  of  people  in  the  United 
States  capable  of  reading  intelligently.  All 
this  creates  a  larger  demand  for  books,  and 
makes  a  market  for  instructive  reading  proba 
bly  unequalled  in  any  country  on  the  globe. 


BOOK-BINDING. 


CHAPTER  I. 

BOOK-BINDING. 

THE  binding  of  books  is  an  art  probably 
older  than  the  art  of  book  printing  itself, 
since  there  existed  a  necessity  for  confining 
the  manuscripts  and  scrolls  that  were  the 
medium  of  preserving  thought  in  ancient 
days.  Even  that  was  a  progress,  however ; 
since  the  slabs  of  stone  that  bore  the  divine 


commandments  could  not  have  needed  bind 
ing,  nor  could  the  rocks  and  bricks,  on  which 
the  Babylonians  traced  their  ideas,  have  well 
been  bound.  The  different  modes  of  con 
veying  and  preserving  ideas,  that  were  adopt 
ed  in  different  ages  and  nations,  caused  re 
course  to  be  had  to  almost  all  materials  ac 
cording  to  exigencies,  and  these  were  pre 
served  according  to  the  exigency. 

The  books  of  wood,  or  metal,  were  bound 


PATENT  BOOK  AND  PAPER  TRIMMING  MACHINB. 


272 


BOOK-BINDING. 


by  fastening  the  sheets  of  which  they  were 
composed  at  the  backs  by  hinges.  When 
parchment  and  paper  succeeded,  the  backs 
of  the  sheets  were  sewed  together,  and  the 
covering  varied  as  the  arts  progressed  and 
materials  were  adopted.  The  art  itself  has 
made  material  progress  only  of  recent  years. 
It  came  to  be  a  separate  art  only  when  the 
discovery  of  printing,  by  multiplying  books, 
made  the  binding  of  them  too  laborious  for 
those  who  did  it  when  years  were  spent  in 
copying  one  book.  In  778,  Alcuin,  a  monk, 
native  of  England,  commenced  to  copy  the 
Bible,  and  finished  it  800,  for  the  Emperor 
Charlemagne.  When  twenty-two  years  was 
required  to  make  one  copy,  there  was  not 
much  business  for  the  binder,  whose  labors 
commenced  with  those  of  the  printing  press. 
While  books  were  still  comparatively  dear, 
the  binding  bore  a  small  proportion  to  the 
cost.  Of  late  years,  the  tendency  has  been 
toward  neatness  and  durability.  The  req 
uisites  of  a  well-bound  book  are  solidity, 
elasticity,  and  elegance.  Among  the  nations 
of  Europe,  the  French  take  the  lead  in  ar 
tistic  taste,  but  the  English  excel  in  the  ex 
pensive  finish  of  the  more  costly  editions. 
In  the  United  States,  machinery  is  employed, 
more  than  elsewhere,  to  attain  the  desirable 
result  at  less  cost. 

Books  are  printed  upon  paper  of  various 
sizes,  which  formerly  were  three,  called  royal, 
demy,  and  crown.  The  book  took  the  size 
indicated  by  the  paper  used.  The  demy 
size  was  mostly  used,  and  the  sheets  were 
folded  a  greater  or  less  number  of  times. 
Thus,  folded  once  in  the  middle,  gives  two 
leaves,  or  four  pages,  and  is  called  folio. 
When  the  sheet  is  again  folded,  it  gives  four 
leaves,  or  eight  pages,  and  is  called  quarto ; 
folded  again,  the  result  is  eight  leaves,  or 
sixteen  pages,  and  is  octavo.  By  folding 
into  twelve  leaves,  or  twenty-four  pages,  we 
make  a  duodecimo ;  and  if  into  eighteen 
leaves,  or  thirty-six  pages,  it  forms  octo 
decimo.  Of  a  size  less  than  this,  the  books 
are  pocket  editions.  The  sizes  of  books  thus 
formed  are  generally  designated  as  4to,  8vo, 
12rno,  18mo,  24mo,  32mo,  48mo,  etc.  The 
size  of  the  printed  page  corresponds  with  the 
size  of  this  fold.  Thus,  the  size  of  this 
volume  is  royal  octavo,  being  printed  on 
paper  a  size  larger  than  demy,  or  ordinary 
octavo.  Each  sheet  of  paper  contains  eight 
leaves,  or  sixteen  pages ;  and  there  are  fifty 
of  these  sheets  in  the  book.  Thus,  the  type 
is  composed  of  sixteen  pages  in  one  "form," 


and  one  side  of  a  double  sheet  receives  the 
impression  of  those  sixteen  pages  by  one 
movement  of  the  press,  and  then,  being  re 
versed,  receives  an  impression  on  the  other 
side  from  the  same  type.  As  the  sheets  leave 
the  press  they  arc  hung  up  to  dry,  when  they 
are  placed  under  a  hydraulic  press  of  great 
power.  They  are  then  counted  out  into 
quires  of  twenty-four  sheets  each,  and  sent  to 
the  binders.  There,  in  the  folding  room,  the 
sheets  are  folded  by  girls.  The  object  is  to 
fold  down  the  pages,  so  as  to  fall  one  upon 
the  other  with  perfect  accuracy,  since  upon 
this  the  proper  binding  of  the  book  depends. 
The  whole  edition  of  sheets  is  folded  with 
great  rapidity  by  one  girl.  Some  of  these 
will  fold  400  in  an  hour,  but  the  average 
may  be  300.  A  folding  machine  has  lately 
been  introduced,  by  which,  it  is  said,  two 
girls  will  do  as  much  as  eighteen  by  hand. 
Each  sheet  folded  is  a  signature,  and  gen 
erally  these  are  designated  by  some  figure 
at  the  bottom  of  the  first  page  of  each  sheet. 
The  folded  sheets  are  laid  in  piles,  in  the 
order  of  these  signatures.  The  "  gatherer" 
then,  with  the  right  hand,  takes  them,  one 
by  one,  and  places  them  in  the  left,  until  a 
complete  set,  or  full  book,  is  collected.  This 
is  performed  so  rapidly,  that  it  is  said  an 
active  girl  will  gather  25,000  in  a  day. 
After  this,  the  sheets  are  "  knocked  up" 
evenly,  and  pressed  in  a  hydraulic  press; 
but  recently,  a  machine  has  been  introduced, 
by  which  time  is  economized.  The  en 
graving,  on  another  page,  shows  the  figure 
of  that  by  Hoe  &  Company,  which  is  the 
favorite  for  embossing,  as  well  as  compress 
ing.  The  machine  runs  slower  for  smashing. 
The  size,  15  by  17,  weighs  half  a  ton,  and  is 
sold  at  $400.  The  book  is  now  examined 
by  the  collector,  in  order  to  detect  any  error 
of  arrangement  in  the  signatures.  The  books 
then  go  to  the  sawing  machine,  where,  being 
properly  arranged,  fine  circular  saws  cut  fine 
indentations  in  the  books,  to  admit  as  many 
pieces  of  twine,  to  each  of  which  each  sheet 
is  sewed.  This  is  performed  by  girls,  at  a 
table  appropriated  for  that  purpose.  When 
the  sewing  is  complete,  the  "endpapers" 
are  pasted  on  the  book. 

The  books  next  are  trimmed  by  having 
the  edges  cut  by  a  machine.  To  effect  this 
they  are  piled  upon  a  platform,  under  a  large 
knife,  which,  being  worked  by  a  crank, 
descends,  like  a  guillotine,  cutting  a  large 
number  at  once.  The  figure  of  the  trimming 
machine  is  given  on  another  page.  The 


BOOK-BINDING. 


273 


knife  used  in  this  machine  is  21  inches  long, 
and  has  a  short,  vibratory  movement ;  thus 
combining  the  advantages  of  the  long  sta 
tionary  knife  -with  those  of  the  ordinary 
plough.  The  work  to  be  trimmed  is  placed 
against  the  adjustable  guide  on  the  bed  of 
the  press,  in  front  of  the  knife,  and  is  com 
pressed  by  the  wheel  and  screw.  The  table, 
on  which  the  press  stands,  is  adjustable  in 
all  directions,  and  is  also  self-acting,  so  that, 
when  thrown  into  gear,  it  rises  to  the  re 
quired  height  and  disengages  itself — thus 
preventing  injury  to  the  knife — and  then 
drops  down  to  its  original  position.  Three 
sides  of  the  work  can  be  successively  pre 
sented  to  the  action  of  the  knife,  by  simply 
turning  the  press  to  the  quarter  and  half- 
turn  stops.  The  machine  can  be  worked 
either  by  hand  or  steam  power,  and  can  be 
easily  adjusted  to  cut  any  size  from  3  to  18 
inches  long,  and  from  1  to  15  inches  wide. 
This  machine  has  been  in  operation  some 
twenty-five  years.  The  backs  now  receive 
a  coat  of  glue,  to  impart  firmness.  They 
are  then,  by  the  "backing  machine" — which 
is  an  improvement  of  some  ten  years'  stand 
ing — rounded  on  the  back,  and  receive  a 
groove  for  the  boards.  They  are  then  cut 
on  the  ends.  A  piece  of  muslin,  nearly  as 
long  as  the  book,  and  extending  an  inch 
over  the  sides,  is  then  pasted  on,  and  the 
book  is  ready  to  receive  the  boards,  or  cases. 
These  consist  of  mill-boards  cut  a  little  larger 
than  the  book,  and  cloth  cut  large  enough 
to  turn  over  all.  The  cloth  is  glued,  and 
one  board  is  placed  upon  it.  The  corners 
of  the  cloth  are  then  cut,  and  the  edges 
turned  down  and  rolled  smooth.  It  is  then 
dressed,  when  it  goes  into  the  hands  of  the 
stamper.  The  stamping,  or  embossing,  is 
done  in  a  press,  from  dies  previously  pre 
pared.  When  the  sides  arc  lettered,  the 
letters  arc  engraved  in  metal,  and  impressed 
upon  the  cloth.  Gold  leaf  is  placed  upon 
the  cloth,  and  the  heat  of  the  stamp  causes 
it  to  adhere  in  the  desired  places.  The 
book  is  then  pasted  on  the  sides,  placed  in 
the  covers,  and  pressed,  Avhen  it  is  a  book 
bound  in  cloth.  The  stamping,  or,  as  it  is 
sometimes  called,  the  arming  press,  will  per 
form,  almost  instantaneously,  what  formerly 
would  have  required  a  week.  This  has  been 
brought  about  by  a  combination  of  the  arts 
—designing,  die-sinking,  and  application  of 
machinery.  When  a  particular  design  is 
required  upon  a  book,  the  artist  draws  it 


upon  paper;  it  is  then  cut  in  brass,  or  steel, 
and  this  block  in  the  press  embosses  a  great 
many  covers  at  a  blow. 

With  books  bound  in  leather,  the  process 
is  not  so  expeditious.  In  order  to  insure 
solidity,  the  books  Avere  formerly  beaten* 
upon  a  stone  with  a  broad-faced  hammer. 
They  are  now  squeezed  between  steel  rollers, 
to  effect  the  same  object.  The  engraving 
of  the  rolling  machine,  in  another  column, 
will  give  a  good  idea  of  the  one  that  is  now 
used  by  bookbinders,  in  place  of  screw  and 
hydraulic  presses,  for  pressing  folded  sheets. 
The  work  is  placed  on  an  iron  table  in  front 
of  the  rollers,  between  plates  of  iron,  paste 
board,  or  leather,  and  passed  through  the 
machine  as  often  as  necessary.  The  adjust 
ing  screws  are  geared  together,  so  that  the 
rollers  are  always  parallel  to  each  other.  It 
is  strongly  geared,  and  may  be  run  by  either 
hand  or  steam  power.  The  sewing  is  done 
in  a  more  substantial  manner.  The  volume, 
placed  in  the  laying  press,  has  its  back  ham 
mered  very  carefully,  so  as  to  spread  the 
sheets  on  each  side  of  the  boards  without 
wrinkling  the  inside,  and  the  work  proceeds 
until  it  leaves  the  hands  of  the  finisher  a 
perfect  model.  It  opens  easily,  and  lies  flat 
out  without  any  strain,  and  its  hinges  are 
without  crease. 

In  gilding  the  edges  of  a  book,  they  are 
scraped  smooth  and  covered  with  a  prepara 
tion  of  red  chalk,  as  a  groundwork  for  the 
size,  which  is  formed  of  one  egg  to  half  a 
pint  of  water.  The  gold  is  laid  on  the  size, 
and  then  burnished  with  a  bloodstone. 

The  embellishment  of  book  covers  is  called 
"  tooling,"  and,  when  plain,  blind  tooling. 
By  this  latter,  sometimes  glossy  black  in 
dentations  are  made  to  contrast  tastefully 
with  the  rich  color  of  the  morocco.  This 
is  performed  by  wetting  the  morocco,  and 
applying  the  tool  in  a  heated  state. 

There  has  been  a  method  invented  by 
which  the  leaves  of  a  book  are  fixed  together 
with  India-rubber  instead  of  sewing.  The 
sheets  being  cut  evenly,  receive  a  solution 
of  the  material ;  as  each  leaf  is  held  only 
by  the  rubber,  the  book  is  made  to  lie  very 
flat.  This  docs  not  appear  to  have  come 
into  much  favor.  The  fashion  of  imitating 
antique  styles  of  binding  has  led  to  the  use 
of  wood  instead  of  pasteboard,  in  some  fancy 
styles  of  costly  books.  It  is  only  a  passing 
caprice,  since  wood  cannot  supplant  the 
pasteboard. 


WRITERS  OF  AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THEOLOGIANS— STATESMEN— NOVELISTS 
—HISTORIANS. 

WITH  the  settlement  of  the  colonies,  there 
were  necessarily  but  few  attempts  at  literary 
productions.  The  Pilgrim  Fathers  brought 
with  them  many  books  from  their  native 
land,  but  these  were  mostly  bibles  and  theo 
logical  works.  They  were  persons  whose 
minds  bore  the  strongest  religious  impres 
sions.  In  them  the  sentiment  of  piety  ap 
proached  austerity ;  and  they  were  not  un- 
frequently  charged  with  fanaticism.  The 
time  they  had  to  devote  to  literature  was 
wholly  absorbed  in  the  perusal  of  those  de 
votional  works  that  sustained  and  illustrated 
that  faith  which  they  had  made  their  rule 
of  action  under  all  circumstances,  and  which 
they  lived  up  to  with  all  the  sternness  of 
their  bold  and  decided  characters.  They 
had  encountered  the  perils  of  the  wilder 
ness  to  rear  free  homes ;  and  they  were  de 
termined,  also,  to  make  them  temples  to  the 
Lord.  It  is  not  to  be  inferred  that  literature 
and  the  finer  arts  of  life  were,  even  at  that 
remote  period,  foreign  to  the  people  of  the 
country.  The  founders  of  all  the  colonies 
were  among  the  most  elegant  writers  and 
accomplished  scholars  of  the  time.  Such 
men  as  Raleigh,  Baltimore,  Penn,  Ogle- 
thorpe,  Smith,  AVinthrop,  and  a  crowd  of 
others,  would  have  been  ornaments  to  the 
most  brilliant  circles  of  any  country :  with 
them  and  their  successors,  education  and  rc- 
Rgion  were  the  foremost  objects  of  atten 
tion.  But  among  men  so  busy  with  the 
work  in  hand,  as  to  declare  "  that  the  laws 
of  God  should  govern  until  they  had  time  to 
make  others,"  much  general  literature  could 
not  find  cultivation.  Theological  works  were 
the  staple,  and  these  were  produced  with  an 
independence  of  thought  and  a  vigor  of  ar- 
jument  which  enchained  their  adherents  and 
astonished  the  opponents  they  had  left  at 
iiome.  As  the  laws  of  God  were  the  models 


of  government,  so  were  the  inspired  writers 
the  only  guides  for  the  faith  of  that  stead 
fast  people.  Those  original  and  strong 
thinkers  were  also  powerful  and  prolific 
writers;  and  some  of  them  won  the  first 
place,  in  the  estimation  of  the  learned,  as 
theologians.  Cotton  Mather,  who  had  no 
equal  as  a  scholar,  wrote  382  works,  of  one 
of  which,  "  Essays  to  do  Good,"  Dr.  Frank 
lin  remarks  :  "  It  perhaps  gave  me  a  tone  of 
thinking  that  had  an  influence  upon  some 
of  the  principal  future  events  of  my  life." 
Thus  was  one  of  the  most  powerful  minds 
of  the  eighteenth,  or,  indeed,  any  century, 
impressed  with  the  vigorous  style  of  a  colo 
nial  author.  The  simple  missionary,  Jona 
than  Edwards,  a  large  portion  of  whose  use 
ful  life  was  spent  on  the  confines  of  civiliza 
tion,  produced  works  which,  according  to 
Dr.  Chalmers,  a  century  afterward,  stamped 
him  as  "the  greatest  of  theologians,"  and 
called  from  Sir  James  Mackintosh  the  remark 
that,  "  in  power  of  subtle  reasoning  he  was, 
perhaps,  unmatched  among  men."  Mr.  Ed 
wards  succeeded  to  the  presidency  of  the 
New  Jersey  College,  and  died  in  1758.  He 
was  the  type  of  the  theological  age  of  the 
country.  His  work  became  the  standard 
of  orthodoxy  for  enlightened  Protestant  Eu 
rope.  That  voice,  which  was  indeed  "  one 
crying  in  the  wilderness,"  became  the  text 
book  of  the  most  learned  divines  of  the  old 
world. 

As  the  colonies  advanced  in  wealth  and 
numbers,  more  diversified  views  naturally 
sprung  up,  but  the  books  of  amusement  and 
instruction  were  mostly  imported  from  Eng 
land.  There  was  little  in  the  rude  struggle 
with  the  wilderness  to  foster  an  independent 
school  of  literature,  which  flourished  much 
better  in  England,  where  existed  all  the  re 
sources  of  libraries  and  information.  That 
bold  and  strong  natural  intellects,  like  that 
of  Dr.  Franklin,  should  grow  up,  was  almost 
a  necessity  of  the  vigorous  race  that  pro 
duced  him ;  and  his  works  were  at  once  ap- 


THEOLOGIANS — STATESMAN — NOVELISTS HISTORIANS. 


275 


predated,  because  they  reflected  the  genius 
of  the  people.  The  clear,  strong  sense  of 
"  Poor  Richard  "struck  a  responsive  chord 
in  every  heart,  and  there  was  little  reason  to 
be  surprised  that  the  almanac  reached  a  cir 
culation  of  10,000  in  1735.  The  school 
system  that  had  been  early  established  by 
the  colonists,  laid  a  broad  foundation  for 
future  literature.  To  make  all  classes  of 
persons  readers,  was  to  create  a  demand  for 
books  that  must  sooner  or  later  be  gratified ; 
and  writers  and  speakers  were  sure  to  find 
the  avenue  to  the  public  mind  when  the  oc 
casion  offered.  This  presented  itself  when 
the  disputes  with  the  mother  country  began 
to  take  a  serious  form.  Those  events  stirred 
the  depths  of  feeling  in  all  ranks  and  classes, 
and  an  army  of  orators  rose  into  public 
view  at  once,  to  fan  the  flames  of  discontent 
into  a  conflagration  that  ultimately  consumed 
the  loyalty  of  the  colonists,  and  left  their 
original  sturdy  independence  of  character  to 
assert  itself  in  political  separation.  The 
eloquence  of  Otis,  of  John  Adams,  Patrick 
Henry,  Samuel  Adams,  of  Pinckncy,  of  Rut- 
ledge,  and  others,  live  for  us  only  in  the  ef 
fects  they  produced,  and  of  which  our  insti 
tutions  are  the  manifestation.  Unhappily 
there  were  then  no  means  of  reporting  by 
which  those  soul-stirring  speeches  could  be 
preserved,  and  we  have  but  a  few  sketches 
of  Fisher  Ames  and  Patrick  Henry.  While 
those  illustrious  men  roused  the  nation  with 
their  voices,  numbers  aided  with  their  pens  ; 
among  these,  Thomas  Paine's  pamphlet, 
"  Common  Sense,"  and  his  scries  of  tracts 
entitled  "The  Crisis,"  produced  a  marvellous 
effect.  The  papers  in  themselves,  at  the  pres 
ent  day,  give  no  evidence  of  great  ability,  but 
they  were  fitted  to  the  epoch  with  extraordi 
nary  aptness ;  and  tradition  assures  us  that 
each,  on  its  appearance,  produced  a  furore 
difficult  to  conceive.  The  epoch  was  one  of 
intense  excitement ;  and  those  papers  held  up 
clearly  the  dark  side  of  kingcraft  to  a  people 
in  whose  minds  republicanism  was  making 
rapid  growth.  The  pamphlets  and  papers 
that  circulated  at  that  period  were,  some  of 
them,  marked  with  great  learning  and  power. 
The  correspondence  then  carried  on  among 
public  men,  and  which  has  since  been  col 
lected  and  given  to  the  public,  surpasses  in 
learning,  political  sagacity,  grace  of  diction, 
vigor  of  thought,  and  power  of  expression, 
any  thing  of  the  kind  that  ever  before  ap 
peared  in  any  country.  We,  that  read  those 
papers  by  the  light  of  seventy  years  of  sub- 
17* 


sequent  history,  are  better  able  to  appreciate 
the  extraordinary  ability  they  evince.  The 
letters  of  Franklin,  Jefferson,  Jay,  Adams, 
Washington,  Morris,  and  others,  will,  while 
the  nation  lasts,  be  preserved  as  models  of 
literary  excellence.  The  publication  of  the 
"  Federalist "  was  an  era  in  political  writing ; 
the  work  was  the  joint  production  of  Alexan 
der  Hamilton,  James  Madison,  and  John  Jay. 
The  papers  were  signed  "  Publius,"  and  their 
object  was  to  urge  the  importance  of  union 
in  the  adoption  of  the  constitution.  The 
statesmen  of  Europe  regarded  the  work  with 
admiration  ;  and  the  Edinburgh  Review  re 
marked  :  "  It  exhibits  an  extent  and  pre 
cision  of  information,  a  profundity  of  re 
search,  and  an  acutcness  of  understanding 
which  would  have  done  honor  to  the  most 
illustrious  statesmen  of  ancient  or  modern 
times."  In  his  work  on  "  Democracy  in 
America,"  De  Tocquevillc  remarks  that  "  it 
ought  to  be  familiar  to  the  statesmen  of 
every  nation."  If  the  reader  of  the  present 
day  is  struck  with  the  clear-sighted  sagacity 
that  the  papers  evince,  how  much  greater 
is  our  admiration  when  we  reflect  that  those 
statesmen  were  reared  in  our  colonial  state, 
without  any  of  that  experience  which  has 
shed  its  light  upon  us.  The  wisdom  they 
displayed  was  the  result  of  their  own  pro 
found  deliberation.  The  writings  were  an 
interchange  of  views  between  a  race  of  in 
tellectual  giants  who  were  giving  birth  to  a 
nation.  The  works  of  James  Madison  com 
prise  fifteen  octavo  volumes  of  GOO  pages 
each,  and  arc  distinguished  for  sound 
ness  of  reasoning,  and  great  sagacity.  The 
report  of  Hamilton,  as  secretary  of  the 
treasury,  on  banks  and  manufactures,  was  of 
great  celebrity  ;  and,  as  far  as  it  described 
the  existing  state  of  affairs,  was  valuable. 
It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  he  was  one  of 
a  race  of  Titans  who  were  organizing  a  na 
tion  of  a  kind  that  never  before  existed  ;  and 
if  the  views  he  advocated  have  not  been 
justified  by  the  experience  that  the  nation 
has  wrought  out  in  the  last  seventy  years,  it 
is  not  surprising ;  nor  can  his  great  wisdom 
be  taxed  on  that  account  any  more  than  the 
vast  ability  of  Patrick  Henry  be  questioned 
because  he  opposed  the  new  constitution. 
The  writings  of  Jefferson,  the  statesman  and 
patriot,  were  of  a  nature  more  durable  and 
statesmanlike  than  the  effusions  of  Hamilton, 
which  were  more  the  products  of  a  subor 
dinate  executive  officer  than  a  directing 
head.  The  pen  which  wrote  the  Declaration 


276 


WRITERS  OF  A.MERICA. 


of  Independence  and  the  state  papers,  wrote, 
also,  the  "  Notes  on  Virginia,"  the  autobiog 
raphy,  correspondence,  and  Anas,  included 
in  the  four  volumes  of  his  works  published 
after  his  death  by  Mr.  Randolph.  Of  the  same 
age  as  these  eminent  statesmen,  was  John  Mar 
shall,  the  celebrated  chief  justice  of  the  Uni 
ted  States.  Judge  Marshall  appeared  as  an 
author  in  1805,  when  he  published  his  "Life 
of  Washington."  The  introductory  volume, 
being  a  "  History  of  the  Colonies  planted  by 
the  English  on  the  Continent  of  North  Amer 
ica,"  was  published  separately  in  1824.  In 
1832  an  abridgment  of  his  "  Life  of  Wash 
ington"  appeared.  Mr.  Marshall  occupied  the 
posts  of  minister  to  France  and  secretary  of 
state,  and  his  state  papers  commanded  admi 
ration  as  of  the  very  highest  order.  His  ap 
pointment  and  career  as  chief  justice  seems  to 
have  been  one  of  those  special  providences 
that  have  so  often  manifested  themselves  on 
behalf  of  the  United  States  as  a  nation.  The 
powers  of  the  Supreme  Court  are  such  as 
were  never  before,  by  any  people,  confided  to 
a  judicial  tribunal.  It  determines,  without 
appeal,  its  own  jurisdiction,  and  that  of  the 
legislature  and  the  executive.  It  is  not  mere 
ly  the  highest  court  in  the  whole  country,  but 
the  constitution  of  the  country  is  in  its  hands. 
This  tribunal  was  to  decide  upon  every 
question  that  should  arise  under  the  new 
constitution,  in  relation  to  all  the  rights  and 
powers  of  each  department  of  government, 
and  also  those  of  all  the  states.  A  want  of 
ability  or  of  integrity  upon  the  part  of  the 
court,  possessed  of  such  power,  might, 
by  vicious  interpretation,  have  destroyed 
the  whole  fair  fabric  that  had  been  raised 
with  so  much  care  and  wisdom.  This  im 
mense  responsibility  devolved  upon  John 
Marshall,  and  nobly  did  his  great  capacity 
and  sterling  integrity  meet  the  occasion. 
During  thirty-four  years,  that  great  man  de 
cided  every  question  that  arose ;  and,  so  to 
speak,  fairly  launched  the  constitution  and 
government  upon  the  stream  of  time. 

Cotemporary  with  Judge  Marshall,  upon 
the  supreme  bench,  was  Joseph  Story,  who, 
born  in  Massachusetts  in  1779,  was  appoint 
ed  in  181 1,  and  held  the  office  until  his  death 
in  1 845,  a  period  of  thirty-four  years,  during 
twenty-four  of  which  he  was  associated  with 
Judge  Marshall,  and  displayed  talents  worthy 
of  such  a  colleague.  His  literary  writings 
were  published  in  1835,  comprising  sketches 
of  eminent  men,  and  other  papers. 
^  The  eminent  statesmen  who  have  adorned 


the  literature  of  their  country,  have  been 
many.  Henry  Wheaton,  Esq.,  who  was  born 
in  17  85,  served  the  country  in  many  capacities. 
He  published  the  most  complete  work  on 
international  law,  in  1835.  John  Quincy 
Adams,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  of 
the  country,  was  born  in  Braintree,  July, 
1  767,  while  his  great-grandfather,  who  was 
born  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II,  yet  lived.  Mr. 
Adams  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in 
1787,  just  100  years  after  the  birth  of  his 
great-grandfather.  He  chose  the  law  as  a 
profession,  and  began  to  write  for  publication 
over  the  signature  of  "Publicola."  He  re 
plied  to  some  portions  of  Painc's  "Rights  of 
Man."  Washington  appointed  him  minister 
to  the  Netherlands  from  1794  to  1801.  He 
had,  also,  appointed  him  to  Portugal,  but 
while  on  his  way,  his  destination  was 
changed  to  Berlin  by  the  accession  of  his 
father  to  the  presidential  chair.  While  in 
Berlin,  Mr.  Adams  became  acquainted  with 
German  literature.  A  series  of  letters  at 
this  period  to  his  brother  in  Philadelphia, 
was  afterward  published.  They  were  of 
high  interest.  Subsequently7,  he  was  a 
member  of  the  Massachusetts  legislature, 
and  professor  of  oratory  at  Harvard  Univer 
sity.  He  was  appointed  minister  to  Russia 
by  President  Madison.  From  thence  he  \vfes 
transferred  to  Ghent,  to  negotiate  peace  in 
company  with  Messrs.  Bayard,  Clay,  and 
Gallatin.  Afterward,  he  was  appointed  min 
ister  to  St.  James.  He  was  eight  years  in 
the  cabinet,  and  four  years  president.  In 
1831,  he  was  sent  to  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  where  he  remained  until  his 
death,  in  1848.  He  filled  more  of  the  high 
offices  of  government,  than  any  other  man 
in  the  country.  The  largest  portion  of  his 
published  writings  consists  of  orations  and 
miscellaneous  discourses  of  a  high  charac 
ter.  He  gave  to  the  world  some  essays 
upon  Shakspeare ;  also,  translations  from 
the  German  of  Wieland.  In  1832  he  pub 
lished  "  Dermot  Mac  Morrogh ;  A  Talc  of  the 
Twelfth  Century,"  with  some  shorter  poems, 
chiefly  lyrical.  All  the  writings  of  Mr. 
Adams  display  the  most  mature  scholarship, 
but  the  statesman  seems  to  have  overshad 
owed  the  man,  since  it  is  probable  that  from 
a  less  eminent  person  they  would  have  been 
more  highly  considered. 

William  Wirt  was  born  in  1772,  at  Bla- 
densburg,  Maryland,  and  became  a  lawyer 
in  1792,  in  which  profession  he  Avas  emi 
nently  successful.  In  1802,  he  wrote  the 


THEOLOGIANS STATESMEN NOVELISTS HISTORIANS. 


277 


"British  Spy,"  which  had  a  great  success.  In 
1807,  he  earned  a  great  reputation  by  his 
famous  speech  in  favor  of  Blennerhasset. 
lie  produced  many  works  before  he  gave  to 
the  world  his  extraordinary  "Life  of  Patrick 
Henry"  in  1817.  That  work  has  an  endur 
ing  reputation. 

Daniel  Webster,  that  type  of  New  England 
intellect,  was  born  in  1782,  in  the  same  year 
with  Audubon,  the  great  American  naturalist, 
lie  was  a  New  England  farmer's  son,  of 
Salisbury,  N.  II.,  and  pursued  learning  with 
the  indomitable  energy  of  his  race — teach 
ing  school  as  he  himself  acquired  learning — 
forcing  his  way  to  notice,  until  he  acquired 
a  world-wide  reputation.  His  earliest  liter 
ary  performance  was  in  1800,  when  24  years 
of  age,  being  a  Fourth  of  July  oration.  He 
was  a  contributor  to  the  North  American 
Jti'i'icu',  and  his  orations  on  different  occa 
sions  were  eagerly  read  in  every  section  of 
the  country.  No  speeches  were  more 
fraught  with  wisdom  and  eloquence,  or  had 
greater  influence  upon  the  public  mind, 
since,  being  models  of  their  kind,  many  are 
daily  read  in  the  public  schools.  He  is  so 
thoroughly  American,  and  so  in  earnest  in  his 
expositions  of  the  constitution,  that  his  name, 
to  use  his  own  expression,  must  ever  have  an 
"  odor  of  nationality."  He  speaks  always  to 
the  understanding,  and  always  with  effect. 

In  the  same  year  in  which  Webster 
was  born,  South  Carolina  gave  birth  to  her 
great  statesman,  John  C.  Calhoun.  He  was 
born  in  Abbeville  district,  in  March,  1782. 
He  graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1804, 
and  began  the  study  of  law,  in  which  he 
attained  great  success.  In  1809,  he  was 
elected  to  the  state  legislature.  In  1811, 
he  was  elected  to  the  House  of  Representa 
tives,  immediately  taking  a  foremost  post, 
until  1817,  when  he  became  secretary  of 
war  under  Mr.  Madison,  and  so  continued 
eight  years.  Subsequently,  he  was  twice 
elected  vice-president,  the  last  time  in 
1828.  He  soon  resigned  for  the  Senate, 
where  he  continued  until  his  death,  in  1850. 
Mr.  Calhoun  was  one  of  the  most  extraor 
dinary  men  of  the  country,  and  one  of 
those  whose  works  will  live  far  into  poster 
ity.  His  eloquence  was  of  a  most  refined 
cast,  and  distinguished  for  its  compact  rea 
soning.  He  was  possessed  of  that  quick 
ness  of  perception  and  subtleness  of  argu 
ment,  which  made  Jonathan  Edwards  the 
first  of  theologians.  His  works  have  been 
collected  since  his  death,  in  six  volumes. 


Cotemporary  with  Webster  and  Calhoun, 
were  the  great  orators,  Clay,  Mangum,  and 
others,  whose  speeches  belong  to  the  stand 
ard  literature  of  the  country,  but  who  have 
not  contributed  to  it  directly  by  writing. 
Thomas  II.  Benton,  the  great  Missouri  sena 
tor,  was  born  in  North  Carolina  in  1782,  and 
pursued  the  study  of  law.  In  his  "  Thirty 
Years'  View"  of  the  American  government, 
he  has  contributed  a  work  of  great  value  to 
the  historical  literature  of  the  country.  That 
great  work  is  not  only  a  faithful  record  of 
the  political  history  of  the  country  for  the 
thirty  years,  but  the  clear  Saxon  style  in 
which  it  is  composed,  gives  it  a  charm  sel 
dom  found  in  similar  productions.  When 
this  work  was  completed,  he  commenced  the 
task  of  condensing,  reviewing,  and  abridg 
ing  the  debates  of  Congress,  from  the  foun 
dation  of  the  government,  which  he  lived  to 
bring  down  to  the  compromise  measures  of 
1850.  With  a  strong  intellect  and  bold 
character,  Col.  Benton  was  well  calculated  to 
dominate  in  the  western  states.  In  Mis 
souri,  at  one  time,  his  power  was  boundless. 

The  brothers  Everett  have  deservedly  oc 
cupied  a  high  place  among  the  literary  .men 
of  the  country.  The  elder,  Alexander,  was 
born  in  1790,  in  Boston.  He  graduated  at 
Harvard  in  1806,  and  pursued  the  profes 
sion  of  law,  but  filled  many  offices  of  public 
trust,  being  minister  to  China  at  the  time  of 
his  death,  in  1847.  During  his  life,  his  at 
tention  was  never  long  diverted  from  litera 
ture,  and  his  writings  were  numerous  in  the 
North  American  Review,  of  which  his 
brother,  Edward,  was  editor,  and  elsewhere. 
Edward  Everett  was  born  in  1794,  and  grad 
uated  at  Harvard  in  1811.  He  began  the 
study  of  law,  but  adopted  theology,  and  at 
19  years  was  called  to  the  Brattle  street 
church,  Boston,  to  fill  the  vacancy  caused 
by  the  death  of  Mr.  Buckminster,  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  orators  of  modern 
times.  He  soon  after  was  elected  Greek 
professor  at  Harvard.  While  filling  that 
office,  he  published  some  school  books. 
In  1820,  he  became  the  editor  of  the 
Nor ih  American  Review,  to  which  he  large 
ly  contributed.  He  became  member  of 
Congress,  and  afterward  governor  of  Massa 
chusetts.  He  was  minister  to  p]ngland, 
president  of  Harvard  College,  and  United 
States  senator.  Like  his  brother  of  opposite 
politics,  he  has  enjoyed  a  succession  of  offices, 
and  was,  in  1860,  the  candidate  of  a  large 
party  for  the  vice-presidency.  When  Lord 


278 


WRITERS    OF    AMERICA. 


Macaulay,  from  over  occupation,  declined  to 
add  a  memoir  of  AVashington  to  the  many 
brilliant  biographical  papers  he  prepared  for 
the  new  edition  of  the  "  Encyclopedia  Brit- 
annica,"  he  suggested  to  the  publishers  of 
that  work,  that  his  friend  Edward  Everett 
would  be  the  very  man  to  execute  the  task  ; 
the  counsel  was  adopted,  and  Sheldon  & 
Co.,  of  New  York,  obtained  permission  to 
bring  out  this  memoir  in  a  separate  volume, 
which  has  just  been  accomplished.  It  may 
be  said  of  Mr.  Everett,  that  he  has  been  per 
fectly  successful  in  every  thing  he  has  un 
dertaken,  and  his  reputation  is  world  wide. 

John  P.  Kennedy,  of  Baltimore,  was  born 
in  1795.  He  pursued  the  law  as  a  pro 
fession,  until  he  entered  Congress.  He 
is  one  of  the  most  genial  and  popular  of 
writers.  He  is,  perhaps,  best  known  as  the  au 
thor  of  "Horse  Shoe  Robinson,"  in  1835,  and 
"  Rob  of  the  Bowl,"  published  in  1838,  fol 
io  wed  by  "  Annals  of  Quodlibet,"  in  1840.  His 
delineations  of  nature  are  truthful,  and  his 
character  drawing  marked  with  great  delicacy 
and  freedom. 

Hugh  S.  Legare  was  born  in  South  Car 
olina,  in  1797,  and  graduated  at  the 
South  Carolina  College,  following  the  law 
as  a  profession.  In  1820,  he  was  sent 
to  the  state  legislature,  and  subsequently 
was  appointed  attorney-general  of  the  state, 
was  made  charge  d'affaires  at  Brussels,  and 
chosen  to  Congress  in  1836.  His  contribu 
tions  to  the  New  York  Review  gave  him  a 
high  literary  reputation.  In  1846,  a  collec 
tion  of  his  writings  was  published  in 
Charleston,  establishing  his  high  reputation 
as  of  the  first  class  of  intellects. 

There  are  a  number  of  others  of  our  states 
men  and  political  men,  who  have  contribu 
ted  by  their  writings  to  the  literary  capital 
of  the  country,  but  we  have  here  selected 
only  the  most  prominent  of  them. 

Of  those  who  have  made  literature  a  pro 
fession,  Charles  B.  Brown  seems  to  have 
been  the  first.  He  was  born  in  1771,  in 
Philadelphia,  and  was  of  very  early  promise. 
In  New  York,  in  1793,  he  was  introduced  to 
a  literary  society,  which  numbered  among  its 
members  James  Kent,  afterward  chancellor, 
Dr.  Mitchill,  Dunlap,  Bleecker,  and  others. 
In  1797,  he  published  a  work  on  the  rights 
of  women,  which  then  found  less  favor  than 
some  writers  on  the  same  subject  have  more 
recently  experienced.  He  published,  subse 
quently,  a  number  of  works  that  met  with 
no  very  great  success. 


A  year  younger  than  Daniel  Webster 
was  Washington  Irving,  he  having  been 
born  in  1783.  Mr.  Irving,  "the  prince  of 
story  tellers,"  is  the  admitted  leader  of 
American  literature.  His  first  publications 
were  in  1802,  over  the  signature  of  Jona 
than  Oldstyle,  Gent.,  in  the  Mornlntj  Chroni-* 
cle,  of  which  his  brother  was  editor.  In 
1806,  in  connection  with  James  K.  Paul- 
ding,  he  began  writing  "Salmagundi."  This 
created  a  great  sensation.  It  attacked,  with 
amusing  ridicule,  the  ignorance,  presumption, 
and  vulgarity  of  the  British  tourists,  and  sat 
irized  pretenders  at  home  and  abroad  in  a 
most  effective  manner.  He  soon  after  com 
menced  the  "History  of  New  York,  by  Died- 
rich  Knickerbocker,"  which  must  ever  remain 
the  finest  monument  of  his  genius.  He 
was  connected  in  business  with  his  brothers, 
and  upon  the  failure  of  the  firm,  he  was, 
happily  for  the  public,  forced  to  depend  up 
on  literature  for  support.  His  next  produc 
tion  was  the  "  Sketch  Book,"  published  in 
New  York  and  in  London,  in  1819-20.  Its 
success  was  great  at  home  and  abroad,  fully 
establishing  the  fame  of  the  author.  From 
that  date,  his  works  appeared  at  pretty  reg 
ular  intervals,  although  he  was  absent  from 
the  country  seventeen  years,  up  to  1832. 
Soon  after,  he  purchased  the  old  mansion  of 
the  Van  Tassels,  on  the  Hudson,  near 
"Sleepy  Hollow."  He  then  resumed  his  lit 
erary  labors  until  his  appointment  as  minis 
ter  to  Spain,  in  1841.  He  returned,  in 
1846,  to  his  residence,  and  remained  there 
until  his  death,  still  continuing,  at  times,  to 
add  to  the  list  of  his  productions,  the  last 
of  which  was  the  "Life  of  Washington," 
which  has  had  a  sale  probably  as  extensive 
as  all  the  rest  of  his  works,  and  the  aggre 
gate  of  which  will  exceed  half  a  million  vol 
umes.  It  may  be  said  that  he  has  been  one 
of  the  most  successful  of  authors. 

James  K.  Paulding,  the  colleague  of  Ir 
ving  in  "  Salmagundi,"  was  four  years  his  sen 
ior,  having  been  born  in  1779,  in  the  town 
of  PaAvling,  on  the  Hudson.  Notwith 
standing  the  great  success  of  "  Salmagundi," 
the  publisher  refused  to  remunerate  the 
waiters,  and  it  was  brought  suddenly  to  a 
close.  In  1813,  Mr.  Paulding  published  a 
satirical  poem,  called  "  The  Lay  of  a  Scotch 
Fiddle,"  and  in  1816  the  most  humorous  of 
his  satires,  "  The  Diverting  History  of  John 
Bull  and  Brother  Jonathan,"  was  published. 
His  works  were  numerous  up  to  1831,  when 
the  "Dutchman's  Fireside"  appeared,  meeting 


THEOLOGIANS — STATESMEN^ — NOVELISTS HISTORIANS. 


279 


•with  great  success.  It  is  called  the  best  of 
his  novels.  This  was  followed  by  "  West 
ward,  Ho !"  in  which  his  characters  arc 
drawn  with  great  truth  and  vigor.  His 
sketch  of  the  Kentucky  hunter  in  his  com 
edy  of  "Nimrod  Wildfire,"  has  met  with  great 
popularity.  In  1837,  Mr.  Paulding  became 
secretary  of  the  navy  under  Mr.  Van  Bu- 
ren.  On  his  retirement  he  resumed  his  pen, 
and  some  of  his  later  productions  were  con 
tributions  to  the  Democratic  Review.  All 
the  works  of  Mr.  Paulding  would  probably 
reach  some  thirty  volumes.  His  Avorks 
evince  great  descriptive  power,  skill  in  char 
acter  drawing,  with  much  humor  and  a 
strono-  natural  feeling  running  through  them 
all. 

James  Fcnimore  Cooper,  the  most  widely 
known  of  American  novelists,  as  well  as  the 
most  distinguished,  was  born  in  1789,  at 
Burlington,  New  Jersey.  He  became  a  stu 
dent  in  Yale  College  in  1802,  in  the  same 
year  with  John  C.  Calhoun.  On  quitting 
college,  in  1805,  he  entered  the  navy  as  a 
midshipman,  for  which  position  his  daring 
and  open-hearted  nature  seemed  to  fit  him. 
He  was  very  popular  in  the  service,  and  a 
most  promising  ofiicer,  when,  after  six  years 
of  sea  service — more  than  many  old  officers 
see  in  a  whole  life-time — he  resigned,  mar 
ried,  and  finally  retired  to  Cooperstown,  N.  Y. 
His  first  work  was  "  Precaution,"  which  had 
success,  but  not  that  eminent  success  that 
attended  his  subsequent  works.  His  next 
work  was  the  "  Spy."  This  was  decidedly 
the  best  historical  romance  ever  written  by 
an  American,  and  its  success  was  immense. 
Notwithstanding  many  attempts  of  the  press 
to  speak  slightly  of  it,  it  created  a  furore  in 
the  public  mind,  and  imparted  an  immense 
impulse  to  literature.  The  work  was  imme 
diately  republishcd  in  all  parts  of  Europe, 
and  it  demonstrated  the  fact  that  everybody 
read  "  an  American  book,"  since  even  in 
England  it  rivalled  the  Waverley  Novels  in 
popularity.  A  few  years  before  his  death, 
Mr.  Cooper  received  information  that  it  had 
been  translated  into  the  Persian,  Arabic, 
and  some  other  oriental  languages.  When 
it  is  remembered  that  this  story  was  a  life 
picture  of  the  struggle  for  independence,  the 
effect  of  such  a  wide-spread  circulation 
among  readers  under  every  form  of  govern 
ment,  may  be  estimated. 

In  1823,  the  "Pioneers"  made  its  appear 
ance,  commencing  that  series  of  Leather- 
stockinf  tales  that  will  last  while  the  coun 


try  stands.  The  next  work  of  Mr.  Coop 
er's  opened  the  series  of  his  sea  tales,  in 
which  he  stands  confessedly  without  a 
rival.  Those  two  lines  of  romance,  the 
American  forest  and  the  domain  of  Nep 
tune,  Mr.  Cooper  made  peculiarly  his  own, 
and  they  both  illustrate  scenes  peculiarly 
American.  The  "Pilot,"  it  is  said,  originated 
in  the  fact  that  the  "  Pirate"  of  Sir  Walter 
Scott  having  recently  appeared,  the  conver 
sation  turned  upon  the  faultiness  of  the  sea 
delineation,  and  Cooper  undertook  to  write 
a  sea  story  in  which  the  seamanship  could 
not  be  criticised,  and  the  "  Pilot"  resulted. 
Its  success  was  unbounded.  The  next  work 
was  "Lionel  Lincoln,"  a  story  of  the  war  dur 
ing  the  British  occupation  of  Boston,  and 
although  it  was  quite  equal  to  the  "Spy,"  yet 
for  some  reason  did  not  take  with  the  public 
in  so  great  a  degree.  In  1826,  the  "Last  of 
the  Mohicans"  Avas  produced,  and  it  had  a 
success  from  the  first,  greater  than  any  novel 
had  ever  before  had.  It  Avas  purely  orig 
inal,  introducing  for  the  first  time  upon  the 
field  of  literature,  that  race  of  men  of  whom 
but  a  few  years  will  leave  only  the  tradi 
tion.  In  the  "  Pilot,"a  real  seaman  for  the 
first  time  came  upon  the  stage,  in  the  person 
of  Paul  Jones ;  and  in  the  "Mohicans,"  the 
red  man  made  his  debut  in  the  person  of 
Uncas.  Mr.  Cooper  immediately  took  rank 
in  England  as  one  of  the  first  romance  Avrit- 
crs  of  this,  or  any  other  age.  Like  the 
"Spy,"  it  Avas  reproduced  in  every  language  of 
Europe.  The  "Prairie"  appeared  next,  while 
Mr.  Cooper  was  in  Europe,  and  it  carried 
the  reputation  of  the  Avriter  to  a  still  higher 
point.  That  Avork  Avas  succeeded  by  the 
"  Red  Rover,"  which  was  followed  by  the 
"  Water  Witch."  The  labors  of  Mr.  Coop 
er  continued  up  to  1839,  when  his  "  History 
of  the  American  Navy"  appeared.  It  had  a 
great  and  deserved  success.  It  is  a  noble 
monument  to  the  gallant  service  which, 
springing  from  the  bosom  of  a  ne\vly  formed 
country,  successfully  grappled  with  the  ty 
rant  of  the  seas,  and  demonstrated  to  the 
Avorld  that  a  HCAV  power  had  arisen  to  re 
dress  the  balance  of  the  old  upon  the  ocean. 
There  followed  this  Avork  a  continuation  of 
the  Leather-stocking  tales,  in  the  "Pathfinder" 
and  the  "Deerslaycr,"  both  of  Avhich  sustained 
the  high  reputation  of  the  series.  The  com 
plete  works  of  Mr.  Cooper  embrace  a  great 
number  of  volumes.  Not  all  of  them  are 
of  the  high  grade  of  those  Avhich  have  given 
him  a  Avorld-Avide  character.  There  is  not 


280 


WRITERS    OF    AMERICA. 


a  language  in  Europe  into  which  they  were 
not  all  translated  as  soon  as  they  appeared 
in  London.  The  readers  of  books  in  South 
America,  in  India,  throughout  England,  and 
in  Russia,  are  familiar  with  the  name  of 
Cooper,  even  where  America  is  only  known 
as  his  home.  The  world  has  no  author 
whose  fame,  while  living,  was  so  universal  as 
Cooper's.  This  fact  is  the  conclusive  answer 
to  the  sneering  English  critic,  who  asked, 
"  Who  reads  an  American  book  ?" 

James  Hall,  born  in  Philadelphia  in  1793, 
has  made  many  contributions  to  the  na 
tional  literature.  He  is  the  author  of 
"Legends  of  the  West,"  "A  History  of  the 
Indian  Tribes  of  North  America,"  "The 
Wilderness  and  the  War  Path."  The  works 
are  creditable. 

The  years  1804  to  1810  were  prolific  in 
the  production  of  authors.  No  less  than  ten 
distinguished  writers  were  born  in  those 
years :  Theodore  S.  Fay,  Geo.  B.  Cheever, 
Chas.  F.  Hoffman,  C.  M.  Kirkland,  Nathaniel 
Hawthorne,  N.  P.  Willis,  II.  W.  Longfellow, 
W.  G.  Simms,  Joseph  C.  Neal,  S.  M.  Fuller. 
Mr.  Fay  was  educated  for  the  New  York  bar, 
and  published  first,  in  1832,  "Dreams  and 
Reveries  of  a  Quiet  Man,"  and  essays  written 
for  the  Neiv  York  Mirror,  in  which  he 
was  associated  with  Willis,  Gen.  Morris, 
Rufus  Dawes,  etc.  His  novel  of  "  Norman 
Leslie"  is  better  known.  In  1837  he  pro 
duced  the  "  Countess  Ida ;"  subsequently, 
"  Hoboken  ;  a  Tale  of  New  York."  He  has 
spent  most  of  his  life  abroad,  under  govern 
ment  appointments. 

Rev.  Dr.  Cheever  was  born  in  Maine,  and 
now  presides  over  a  Congregational  church  in 
New  York.  He  lias  twice  visited  Europe,  and 
on  each  occasion  has  published  some  works, 
and  made  other  contributions  to  literature. 

Charles  F.Hoffman  was  born  in  New  York, 
where  he  graduated  at  Columbia  College, 
and  commenced  the  study  bf  the  law.  He 
began  his  literary  career  as  editor  of  the 
Neiv  York  American,  associated  with  Charles 
King,  Esq.,  since  president  of  Columbia 
College;  and  in  1835  he  published  "A 
Winter  in  the  West,"  which  met  great 
success,  as  well  in  London,  where  it  was  pub 
lished,  as  in  New  York.  This  was  followed 
by  "Wild  Scenes  in  the  Forest  and  the 
Prairie,"  and  subsequently  by  "  Greyslaer." 

Mr.  Hoffman  was  the  first  editor  of  the 
Knickerbocker.  In  1 843  he  published  "  The 
Vigil  of  Faith ;"  and  many  songs  and  es 
says  appeared  afterward. 


Nathaniel  Hawthorne  was  born  in  Salem, 
and  graduated  at  Bowdoin  College,  in  Maine, 
in  the  class  with  Longfellow,  in  1 825.  Frank 
lin  Pierce  graduated  a  year  before  him.  In 
1837  he  published  "Twice  Told  Tales," 
that  had  previously  appeared  in  periodicals, 
in  book  form.  In  1846  a  new  collection  of 
his  magazine  papers  was  published,  under 
the  name  of  "  Mosses  from  an  Old  Manse." 
He  had  a  custom-house  appointment  in  Bos 
ton,  under  Collector  Bancroft ;  and  subse 
quently  joined  the  Fourierite  community  at 
"  Brook  Farm,"  Roxbury.  Afterward  ap 
peared  "The  Scarlet  Letter,"  and  "The 
House  of  Seven  Gables,"  which  confirmed 
his  rank  as  one  of  the  great  masters  of  ro 
mance.  He  is  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
of  American  writers ;  and  was  appointed 
consul  to  Liverpool  by  President  Pierce. 
In  1851  he  published  "True  Stories  from 
History  and  Biography;"  in  1852,  "The 
Snow  Image;"  in  1853,  "The  Wonder 
Book;"  and  in  1859  "The  Marble  Faun." 

N.  P.  Willis  is  a  native  of  Portland,  but 
went  early  to  Boston ;  whence  he  went  to 
Yale  College,  where  he  graduated  in  1827. 
He  was  then  engaged  by  S.  G.  Goodrich, 
since  known  as  "  Peter  Parley,"  to  edit 
"The  Token."  About  the  year  1830  he 
was  appointed  attache  of  the  American  le 
gation  at  Paris ;  in  which  capacity  he  col 
lected  the  materials  for  "  Pencilling^  by  the 
Way,"  which  was  first  published  in  the  Neio 
York  Mirror.  In  1839  he  Avas  one  of  the 
editors  of  the  Corsair,  which  was  short 
lived.  In  1840  an  illustrated  edition  of  his 
poems  was  published,  and  his  "  Letters  from 
under  a  Bridge."  In  1843,  he,  in  connection 
with  Geo.  P.  Morris,  revived  the  Mirror,  which 
lived  but  a  few  months.  In  1846,  he,  with 
Mr.  Morris,  commenced  the  Home  Journal, 
which  continues  to  flourish.  Mr.  Willis  has 
a  wide  reputation  at  home  and  abroad. 
While  he  wins  the  admiration  of  the  most 
refined  taste,  he  enjoys  the  widest  popu 
larity.  He  commands  more  of  the  public 
sympathy  than,  perhaps,  any  other  writer. 

Henry  W.  Longfellow  is  also  a  native  of 
Portland.  He  graduated  at  Bowdoin  Col 
lege,  and  commenced  the  study  of  the  law; 
but  abandoned  it  for  a  professorship  of 
modern  languages  in  Bowdoin  College, 
which  office  he  assumed  in  1829.  lie 
speedily  won  the  reputation  of  a  most  grace 
ful  poet,  as  well  as  of  an  accomplished 
scholar.  In  1836  he  was  called  to  the  pro 
fessorship  of  modern  languages  at  Harvard 


THEOLOGIANS STATESMEN NOVELISTS HISTORIANS. 


281 


College,  which  he  has  since  retained.  In 
1833  he  published  his  translation  from  the 
Spanish  of  the  Coplas  of  Don  Jorge  Man- 
riquc.  In  1835  he  published  "  Outre-Mer," 
and  in  1838  "  Hyperion  ;  a  Romance,"  fol 
lowed  by  other  poems.  The  merits  of  Mr. 
Longfellow  as  a  poet  are  of  the  highest  order. 
Some  of  his  poems  have  had  an  unusual  suc 
cess.  "  Hiawatha  "  circulated  to  the  extent 
of  45,000  copies,  and  the  "Courtship  of 
Miles  Standish  "  acquired  great  popularity. 

"William  G.  Simms  is  a  native  of  Charles 
ton,  South  Carolina,  and  became  a  lawyer  in 
that  city.  When  only  eighteen  years  of  a^c, 
he  published  his  first  poems,  lyrical  and 
others.  These'  were  followed,  successively, 
by  "  Early  Lays,"  "  The  Vision  of  Cortes," 
and,  in  1830,  by  the  "  Tri-color."  In  1832, 
\vhile  travelling  at  the  north,  he  wrote,  at 
Hingham,  Massachusetts,  his  chief  poem — 
"  Atalantis;  a  Story  of  the  Sea."  This  was 
followed  by  the  stones  of  "Martin  Faber;" 
"  Guy  Rivers ;  A  Tale  of  Georgia ;"  «  The 
Yemassce  ;  A  Tale  of  South  Carolina  ;"  and 
these  by  a  great  number  of  poems,  historical 
romances,  revolutionary  stories,  histories  and 
biographies,  essays,  and  reviews — making  in 
all  fifty  volumes  in  twenty  years. 

John  Greenleaf  Whittier  was  born  in 
Ilaverhill,  Mass.,  in  1807,  His  parents  were 
members  of  the  Society  of  Friends.  Re 
ceiving  a  very  thorough  English  education, 
at  the  age  of  twenty-two  he  became  editor 
of  the  American  Manufacturer  at  Boston, 
and  in  1830  succeeded  George  D.  Prentice 
in  the  New  England  Weekly  Review  at 
Hartford.  In  1831  he  published  "Legends 
of  New  England,"  and  in  1833  returned  to 
his  early  home,  where  he  published  an  essay 
entitled  "Justice  and  Expediency;  or,  Sla 
very  Considered  with  a  View  to  its  Aboli 
tion."  In  1836,  he  became  secretary  of  the 
American  Anti-Slavery  Society,  and  soon 
after  removed  to  Philadelphia,  where  he 
edited  for  some  years  the  Pennsylvania 
Freeman.  Meantime  he  had  been  writing 
some  stirring  poems,  afterward  collected 
under  the  title  of  "  Voices  of  Freedom."  In 
1840  he  settled  at  Amesbury,  Mass.,  and 
since  that  time  he  has  been  a  prolific  writer 
of  both  prose  and  poetry.  His  poems  have 
been  collected  in  several  forms,  and  entitle 
him  to  rank  among  the  best  of  American 
poets. 

Joseph  C.  Neal,  born  in  Greenland,  N.  II., 
in  1807,  became  editor  of  the  Philadelphia 
Pennsylvania/I  in  1831,  and,  after  ten  years' 


collection  with  it,  started  the  Saturday  Ga- 
z"tte.  He  is  best  known  by  a  humorous  vol 
ume — "Charcoal  Sketches."  He  'died  in 
1848. 

Fitz-Greene  Halleck  (born  1795)  belongs 
rather  to  the  period  of  Cooper  and  Irving 
than  to  the  more  recent  class  of  poetical 
writers.  He  has  written  but  little,  but  his 
"  Marco  Bozzaris  "  and  "  Alnwick  Castle  " 
will  live. 

Edgar  A.  Poe  (born  1811 — died  1849) 
was,  both  as  a  poet  and  prose  writer,  a  man 
of  extraordinary  genius. 

James  Russell  Lowell  (born  1819),  editor 
of  Atlantic  Monthly,  and  later  of  North 
American  Review,  is,  perhaps,  the  ablest  of 
our  younger  poets,  possessing  both  humor 
and  pathos.  He  is  also  a  vigorous  prose 
writer. 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  (born  1809)  has 
distinguished  himself  both  in  prose  and 
poetry.  His  humor  is  both  delicate  and 
pungent,  and  his  pathetic  pieces  full  of  feel 
ing.  J.  G.  Saxe  (born  1816)  has  a  high 
reputation  as  a  humorous  poet.  Alfred  B. 
Street  (born  1811)  is  a  poet  of  great  descrip 
tive  power.  Of  the  younger  literary  men, 
Bayard  Taylor,  as  traveller,  poet,  and  novel 
ist,  occupies  the  foremost  rank.  T.  B.  Aid- 
rich,  J.  R.  Thompson,  G.  II.  Boker,  T.  B. 
Read,  R.  H.  Stoddard,  W.  Allen  Butler,  and 
E.  C.  Stedrnan,  have  all  won  a  high  reputa 
tion. 

Among  the  clerical  contributors  to  general 
literature,  Rev.  Timothy  D  wight,  D.  D.  (born 
1753 — died  1817),  deserves  the  first  place. 
In  1774  he  published  an  epic  poem,  "The 
Conquest  of  Canaan,"  which  was  followed  by 
numerous  lyric  pieces.  After  his  accession 
to  the  presidency  of  Yale  College  in  1795, 
he  published  "  Travels  in  New  England  and 
New  York  "  in  four  volumes,  the  best  picture 
of  the  life  and  manners  of  those  times  now 
extant. 

Timothy  Flint  was  born  in  Reading,  Mass., 
in  1780,  and  graduated  at  Harvard  College, 
after  which  he  was  settled  as  a  minister,  but 
soon  departed  for  the  west,  where  he  col 
lected  the  materials  for  his  "  Recollections 
of  Ten  Years  in  the  Valley  of  the  Missis 
sippi,"  which  were  published  in  1826.  The 
success  of  this  work  was  so  great  as  to  in 
duce  him  to  make  literature  his  profession. 
His  next  work  was  "  Francis  Berrian  ;  or,  The 
Mexican  Patriot,"  followed  by  the  "  Geo 
graphy  and  History  of  the  Mississippi,"  in 
1827.  These  works  were  followed  by  many 


WRITERS    OF   AMERICA. 


others,  and,  in  1833,  Mr.  Flint  had  charge  of 
the  Knickerbocker  Magazine  for  some  time, 
after  which  he  removed  to  Cincinnati,  and 
continued  there  until  his  death. 

"William  E.  Charming  was  born  at  New 
port  in  1780.  He  graduated  at  Harvard  in 
1798,  Judge  Story  being  his  classmate. 
On  leaving  college,  he  became  a  tutor  in  a 
family  of  Virginia.  He  was  ordained  pastor 
of  the  Federal  street  church  in  Boston  in 
1803,  and  he  continued  there  until  his  death 
in  1842.  His  earliest  publications  were 
theological,  particularly  one  on  the  "  Uni 
tarian  Belief,"  in  1819,  which  excited  great 
attention.  In  1823,  he  published  an  essay 
upon  "  National  Literature."  This  was  fol 
lowed  by  "  Remarks  on  the  Life  and  Charac 
ter  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte."  The  address 
delivered  in  Boston,  on  "  Self-Culture,"  in 
1838,  was  regarded  as  one  of  his  best  efforts. 
These  were  followed  by  many  others. 

Joseph  S.  Buckminster  was  born  at  Ports 
mouth  in  1784.  He  graduated  at  Harvard 
in  1800,  and  became  the  pastor  of  Brattle 
street  church  in  1805,  and,  after  much  ill 
ness,  died  in  1812,  with  a  great  reputation 
for  eloquence  and  literary  genius. 

Andrews  Norton  was  born  in  Hingham  in 
1786,  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1804,  and 
became  a  tutor  in  Bowdoin  College.  He 
published  many  able  works,  with  some 
poems. 

Horace  Bushnell  was  born  in  Connecticut 
in  1802,  and  graduated  at  Yale  College  in 
1824.  At  one  time,  he  was  literary  editor 
of  the  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce  ; 
from  1833  to  1856  he  was  pastor  of  a  Con 
gregational  church  in  Hartford.  The  first  of 
his  theological  works  was  published  in  1847, 
and  he  has  since  written  many  others,  which 
have  attracted  great  attention. 

Orville  Dewey  was  born  in  1794,  in  Shef 
field,  Mass.  He  graduated  at  Williams  Col 
lege  in  1814.  He  supplied  the  pulpit  of  Dr. 
Channing  when  that  gentleman  went  to  Eng 
land.  After  being  settled  ten  years  in  New 
Bedford,  he  became  pastor  of  the  Church  of 
the  Messiah  in  New  York,  but  has  for  some 
years  past  resided  in  Boston.  He  has  pub 
lished  many  volumes  at  different  times  on 
various  subjects;  among  others,  in  1836, 
"The  Old  World  and  the  New;"  in  1838, 
"  Moral  Views  of  Commerce,  Society,  and 
Politics."  He  is  one  of  the  most  popu 
lar  pulpit  orators  that  the  country  has  pro 
duced. 

Among  the  other  clergymen  who  have  at 


tained  a  high  reputation  for  scholarship  and 
literary  ability,  we  should  name  George 
Bush,  a  critical  Hebrew  scholar,  Moses  Stu 
art,  Thomas  J.  Conant,  Horatio  B.  Hackctt, 
all  eminent  Hebraists ;  Bennct  Tyler,  Na 
thaniel  W.  Taylor,  Lyrnan  Beccher,  Edward 
Bcecher,  Mark  Hopkins,  Leonard  Woods, 
George  P.  Fisher,  theological  writers;  T.  C. 
Upham,  J.  Torrey,  W.  G.  T.  Shedd,  Leonard 
Bacon,  Henry  B.  Smith,  Bishop  C.  P. 
Mcllvaine,  W.  B.  Spraguc,  J.  W.  and  J.  A. 
Alexander,  G.  W.  Bethune,  S.  II.  Tyng,  Francis 
Wayland  and  Bishop  Browncll,  as  religious 
and  ecclesiastical  writers ;  and  Nehemiah  and 
Wm.  Adams,  Richard  S.  Storrs,  Jr.,  George 
B.  Cheevcr,  Joseph  P.  Thompson,  R.  D. 
Hitchcock,  II.  W.  Beeehcr,  A.  L.  Stone, 
Bishops  Potter,  Burgess,  Coxe,  Doane,  and. 
Kip,  Richard  Fuller,  William  II.  Williams, 
William  Hague,  Robert  Turnbull,  Abel 
Stevens,  J.  P.  Durbin,  W.  P.  Strickland, 
Daniel  Curry,  Stephen  Olin,  and  James  Floy, 
as  eloquent  preachers  and  writers.  The  two 
Roman  Catholic  Archbishops  Kenrick,  Arch 
bishop  Hughes,  Archbishop  McCloskey,  and 
Bishops  Fitzpatrick  and  Rosecrans,  have  all 
acquired  distinction  as  preachers  and  authors, 
mostly  on  controversial  topics. 

Francis  Wayland  was  born  in  the  city  of 
New  York  in  1796,  and  graduated  at  Union 
College.  He  was  first  settled  over  a  Baptist 
church  in  Boston,  but  ultimately  succeeded 
to  the  presidency  of  Brown  University,  in 
1827.  His  publications  have  been  numerous 
on  moral  and  scientific  subjects,  and  he  has 
contributed  largely  to  the  periodical  press. 
The  editions  of  some  of  his  works  have  been ' 
very  large  :  12,000  were  sold  of  his  "  Politi 
cal  Economy,"  and  nearly  30,000  of  his 
Moral  Science." 

William  Ware  was  born  in  1797,  at  Hing 
ham,  Mass.,  and  graduated  at  Harvard  in 
1816.  He  was  soon  after  settled  in  a  Uni 
tarian  church  in  New  York.  He  commenced, 
in  the  Knickerbocker  Mayazinc,  in  1836,  a 
series  of  papers,  which  were  subsequently 
published  together,  .as  "Zenobia;  or,  The 
Fall  of  Palmyra :  an  historical  romance." 
Then  followed  "  Probus ;  or,  Rome  in  the 
Third  Century;"  "Julian;  or,  Scenes  in 
Judea,"  appeared  in  1841.  The  writings  of 
Mr.  Ware  are  graceful,  pure,  and  brilliant  in 
style. 

Herman  Hooker  was  born  in  Poultney,  Vt., 
in  1807.  Graduating  at  Middlebury  College, 
be  took  orders  in  the  Episcopal  church,  but, 
abandoning  the  pulpit,  he  removed  to  Phila- 


THEOLOGIANS STATESMEN NOVELISTS HISTORIANS. 


283 


delphia.  He  lias  given  several  works  to  the 
public,  which  have  met  with  great  success. 

Orestes  A.  Brownson  was  born  in  Ver 
mont  in  1802.  The  early  life  of  Mr.  Brown- 
son  was  obscure.  He  seems,  however,  to 
have  been  very  erratic,  but  published  several 
works,  until,  in  1838,  he  began  the  Boston 
Quarterly,  and  in  1840  he  published  a 
metaphysical  novel  called  "Charles  Ell- 
wood."  He  continued  to  write  for  many 
reviews,  until,  in  1844,  he  began  Browu- 
Aon'f  Quarterly  Review,  after  having  united 
with  the  Roman  Catholic  church.  Since 
then  he  has  met  with  success. 

John  James  Audubon,  the  great  ornitholo 
gist,  was  born  in  Louisiana  in  1782.  He 
was  educated  in  Paris.  On  his  return  he 
immediately  commenced  the  series  of  draw 
ings,  which,  with  the  lapse  of  time,  grew 
into  "The  Birds  of  America" — of  which 
work  Baron  Cuvier  remarked  :  "  If  ever  it  be 
completed  it  will  have  to  be  confessed  that,  in 
magnificence  of  execution,  the  old  world  is 
surpassed  by  the  new."  After  encountering 
many  vexations  and  disappointments,  he  suc 
ceeded  in  publishing,  in  1830,  his  first  vol 
ume,  containing  one  hundred  plates,  repre 
senting  ninety-nine  species  of  birds ;  every 
figure  of  the  size  and  color  of  life.  The 
kings  of  France  and  England  headed  the 
subscription  list ;  he  was  made  a  member  of 
the  Royal  Societies  of  London,  Edinburgh, 
and  Paris,  and  the  scientific  world  were  en 
thusiastic  in  his  praise.  The  second  volume 
was  published  in  1834;  in  1840  the  fourth 
and  last  volume  was  completed.  The  whole 
comprises  435  plates,  containing  1065  figures, 
from  the  bird  of  Washington  to  the  hum 
ming-bird,  of  the  size  of  life,  and  a  great  va 
riety  of  land  and  marine  views,  carefully 
drawn  and  colored  from  nature.  He  had 
spent  half  a  century  in  completing  this  mar 
vellous  work,  and  well  might  he  say :  "  I 
look  up  with  gratitude  to  the  Supreme 
Being,  and  feel  that  I  am  happy." 

After  the  completion  of  this  work,  he  be 
gan  the  "Quadrupeds  of  America,"  which 
was  also  a  marvellous  production.  His  draw 
ings  exhibit  a  perfection  never  before  at 
tempted,  and  his  pen  is  scarcely  inferior  to 
his  pencil.  When  Buffon  had  completed 
the  ornithological  portion  of  his  history,  he 
supposed  that  he  had  described  all  the  birds  in 
the  world,  and  remarked  that  the  list  "  would 
admit  of  no  material  augmentation  !"  Yet  his 
list  comprised  but  one-sixteenth  of  those  now 
known  to  exist.  Mr.  Audubon  died  in  1851. 


Gulian  C.  Verplanck  was  born  in  1785,  in 
New  York — a  true  representative  of  the 
Knickerbocker  race.  He  graduated  at  Co 
lumbia  College,  and  soon  after  obtained  ad 
mission  to  the  bar.  In  1818  he  came  before 
the  public  in  a  literary  character,  in  an  ad 
dress  before  the  New  York  Historical  So 
ciety.  He  became  professor  of  the  evi 
dences  of  Christianity  in  the  theological 
seminary  of  the  Episcopal  church,  in  1820. 
Subsequently  Mr.  Verplanck,  in  connection 
with  Mr.  Bryant  and  others,  formed  a  liter 
ary  confederacy,  contributing  to  the  literary 
magazines  and  daily  journals.  At  this  time 
was  published  "  The  Talisman,"  mostly  by 
Mr.  Verplanck.  He  was  for  some  years  a 
member  of  Congress.  In  1844-46,  he  edited 
a  pictorial  edition  of  Shakspearc,  in  which 
he  fully  sustained  his  high  reputation. 

Henry  R.  Schoolcraft  was  born  in  1793, 
near  Albany,  and  was  early  distinguished  for 
his  literary  and  scientific  acquirements.  He 
has  contributed  largely  to  the  preservation 
of  the  history  of  the  fast  disappearing  red 
races  of  the  continent,  and  is  a  high  author 
ity  on  all  that  concerns  their  customs. 

In  the  range  of  history,  American  writers 
have  won  the  foremost  position  among  his 
torians  of  the  present  century  ;  and  Euro 
peans  admit  the  high  reputation  of  American 
histories. 

Jared  Sparks  was  born  in  1797,  and  grad 
uated  at  Harvard  College  in  1815.  He  be 
came  then  a  tutor,  and  was  subsequently  or 
dained  in  the  Unitarian  church  in  Balti 
more.  His  first  historical  work  AVUS  the  "  Life 
of  John  Ledyard,  the  American  Traveller." 
This  met  with  some  success,  and  in  1831,  he 
published,  under  an  order  of  Congress,  the 
"Diplomatic  Correspondence  of  the  American 
Revolution,"  in  twelve  volumes.  In  1 832,  he 
published  the  "  Life  of  Gouverneur  Morris," 
who  was  the  American  minister  to  France 
during  the  reign  of  terror.  Between  the 
years  1833  and  1840,  he  published  in  twelve 
octavo  volumes  the  "  Life  and  Writings  of 
Washington."  The  memoir,  by  Mr.  Sparks, 
contained  in  the  first  volume,  was  translated 
into  French  by  Guizot,  the  minister  of  Louis 
Philippe.  The  whole  work  was  translated  into 
German,  and  published  at  Leipsic.  In  1835, 
he  published  the  complete  works  of  Frank 
lin.  In  this  the  autobiography  of  Franklin 
is  continued  to  his  death.  Mr.  Sparks  also 
published  two  series  in  10  and  12  volumes  of 
the  "  Library  of  American  Biography."  In 
the  preparation  of  these  he  was  aided  by  the 


284 


WRITERS    OF    AMERICA. 


brothers  Everett,  Prescott,  Wheaton,  and 
others.  He  also  published  a  history  of  the 
American  Revolution.  In  1849,  he  succeeded 
Mr.  Everett  as  president  of  Harvard  College, 
but  resigned  in  1853. 

William  II.  Prescott  was  born  in  1796,  at 
Salern.  He  was  grandson  of  that  Prescott 
who  commanded  at  Bunker  Hill.  In  1814, 
he  graduated  at  Harvard  College,  and  entered 
upon  the  study  of  the  law.  At  college,  by 
an  accident,  one  of  his  eyes  was  destroyed, 
and  the  sight  of  the  other  much  injured. 
He  was  possessed  of  a  handsome  income, 
§12,000  per  annum,  and  he  devoted  himself 
to  the  study  of  the  languages  and  literature 
of  Europe,  and  contributed  largely  to  the 
North  American  Review,  Ten  years  thus 
passed  in  a  kind  of  preparation  for  historical 
studies ;  ten  years  more  were  occupied  with 
investigation,  and  then  his  "  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella"  was  published.  The  materials  for 
this  had  been  sent  him  by  Alexander  Everett, 
when  minister  to  Spain.  The  work  of  acquir 
ing  the  contents  of  books  and  writing  without 
the  use  of  eyes  was  a  severe  labor,  but  was 
overcome  by  ingenuity  and  patience.  The 
work  was  everywhere  hailed  with  enthusiasm. 
Mr.  Prescott  was  made  a  member  of  the 
Royal  Academy  of  Madrid,  and  its  rich  col 
lections,  with  those  of  the  archives  of  Seville, 
placed  at  his  disposal,  and  every  reservoir  of 
Spanish  history  laid  open  to  him.  The  "  His 
tory  of  the  Conquest  of  Mexico  "  followed, 
and  was  succeeded  by  the  "  Conquest  of 
Peru,"  and  the  "  History  of  Philip  the  Sec 
ond,"  which  appeared  successively,  added 
to  the  high  fame  of  Mr.  Prescott.  He  died 
in  the  midst  of  his  honors  and  usefulness. 

George  Bancroft  was  born  in  Worcester  in 
1800,  and  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1817. 
He  commenced  the  study  of  divinity,  but 
adopted  literature  as  a  profession.  In  1834, 
he  published  the  first  volume  of  the  "  History 
of  Colonization  in  the  United  States."  He 
was  subsequently  appointed  collector  of 
Boston,  and  in  1844  secretary  of  the  navy, 
which  post  he  resigned  to  represent  this 
country  at  the  Court  of  St.  James.  During 
more  than  thirty  years  his  great  "  History 
of  the  United  States"  has  been  in  progress, 
and  the  tenth  volume  has  appeared  the 
present  year  (1867). 

William  C.  Bryant  was  born  in  Massa 
chusetts  in  1794.  He  contributed  lines  to 
the  county  gazette  when  ten  years  old,  and 
four  years  later  he  published  two  poems ; 
when  nineteen  years  old,  he  wrote  his 


"  Thanatopsis."  He  graduated  at  Williams 
College,  and  studied  law.  In  1825  he  edited 
the  Neiv  York  Review,  and  in  1826  he  be 
came  editor  of  the  Evening  Post,  with  which 
he  is  still  connected.  His  works  have  been 
many,  in  both  poetry  and  prose.  His  prose 
is  remarkable  for  the  purity  and  elegance 
of  its  style. 

John  Lothrop  Motley,  who  at  once  took 
rank  with  Prescott  and  Bancroft  as  a  his 
torian,  was  born  in  Dorchester,  Mass.,  in 
1814,  educated  at  Harvard  University,  and 
subsequently  at  Gottingen  and  Berlin,  studied 
law,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1836, 
but  did  not  practice.  He  wrote  two  histori 
cal  novels,  published  in  1839  and  1849,  was 
secretary  of  legation  to  Russia  in  1S40,  be 
came  interested  in  the  history  of  Holland  in. 
1845,  and  after  collecting  material  for  a  his 
tory  here,  went  to  Europe  in  1851,  and  spent 
five  years  at  Berlin,  Dresden,  and  the  Hague 
.in  investigations,  and  the  composition  of  his 
"  Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic,"  published  in 
1856.  This  was  followed,  in  1860,  by  three 
volumes  of  a  history  of  "  The  United  Neth 
erlands,"  and  in  1866  he  published  two  more 
volumes  of  this  history.  In  1861  he  was 
appointed  U.  S.  minister  to  Austria. 

.  Richard  Hildreth  (born  at  Deerfield,  Mass., 
1807 — died  1865)  was  an  able  political 
writer,  novelist,  and  historian.  He  will  be 
longest  remembered  for  his  valuable  "  His- 
|  tory  of  the  United  States,"  in  six  volumes, 
lie  was  also  author  of  a  work  on  Japan. 
He  was,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  U.  S.  Con 
sul  at  Trieste. 

Benson  J.  Lossing  (born  in  Beekman,  N. 
Y.,  in  1813)  has  attained  a  high  reputation 
as  a  historian  and  historical  biographer.  His 
"Pictorial  Field  Book  of  the  ^Revolution," 
his  works  on  Washington  and  Mount  Ver- 
non,  his  life  of  "  Philip  Schuyler,"  his  "  His 
tory  of  the  United  States,"  his  "  War  of 
1812,"  and  his  "Pictorial  History  of  the 
Rebellion,"  are  all  works  of  interest  and 
value,  and  their  illustrations  are  from  his 
own  skilful  pencil. 

James  T.  Headley,  Jacob  and  John  S.  C. 
Abbott,  John  Foster  Kirk,  Francis  Parkrnan, 
John  G.  Palfrey,  J.  Romeyn  Brodhcad,  E. 
B.  O'Callagban,  Parke  Godwin,  Charles 
Gayarre,  Francis  L.  Hawks,  have  all  pub 
lished  historical  works  of  some  reputa 
tion. 

The  female  writers  of  America  have  been 
numerous,  and  many  of  them  have  achieved 
great  distinction.  Mrs.  Emma  Willard  has 


THEOLOGIANS STATESMEN NOVELISTS HISTORIANS. 


285 


written  extensively  on  history  and  educa 
tional  topics,  and  her  sister,  Mrs.  Almira  II. 
Phelps,  has  not  only  contributed  several 
text-books  to  physical  science,  but  has  a  fair 
reputation  as  a  novelist.  Hannah  Adams, 
the  pioneer  of  female  writers  in  America, 
born  1756,  wrote  a  "  History  of  New  Eng 
land,"  "  Vienna,"  &c.  Mrs.  Eliza  Leslie  (1787 
-1857)  wrote  several  excellent  novels,  and 
some  works  of  great  value,  in  the  domain  of 
the  culinary  art.  Mrs.  Lydia  II.  Sigourney 
(1791—1865)  was  alike  remarkable  for  her 
poetical  and  her  prose  works ;  many  of  the 
latter  were  prepared  for  the  young.  Miss 
Catharine  M.  Sedgwick,  one  of  our  oldest 
living  female  writers,  is  the  author  of  "  The 
Linwoods,"  "  Redwood,"  "  Hope  Leslie,"  &c., 
novels  of  great  merit.  Mrs.  Harriet  Beecher 
Stowe  (born  in  1812)  has  been  the  most  suc 
cessful  of  novelists.  Her  "  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin"  sold  to  the  extent  of  about  320,- 
000  copies  in  the  United  States,  and 
over  a  million  and  a  half  in  Great  Britain, 
and  her  subsequent  novels,  "Dred,"  "The 
Minister's  Wooing,"  "  Agnes  of  Sorrento," 
and  "The  Pearl  of  Orr's  Island,"  have  had 
a  very  large  sale.  She  has  also  written 
several  prose  works  of  the  essay  class,  a  vol 
ume  of  "  Travels  in  Europe,"  and  some  oc 
casional  poems  of  great  merit.  Her  sister, 
Miss  Catharine  E.  Beecher,  has  written  nu 
merous  works,  educational  and  controversial, 
which  have  been  very  popular.  Miss  Emily 
Warner  achieved  a  high  reputation  (under 
her  noin  de  plume  of  Elizabeth  Wetherell) 
by  her  novels,  "  The  Wide,  Wide  World," 
"  Quecchy,"  "  The  Hills  of  the  Shatcmuc," 
and  "  Say  and  Seal."  Mrs.  S.  P.  W.  Par- 
ton  (Fanny  Fern)  has  been  very  successful, 
not  only  as  a  novelist,  in  her  "  Ruth  Hall," 
but  as  a  light  essayist,  in  her  "  Fern  Leaves," 
«fec.  Miss  M.  J.  Mackintosh,  the  author  of 
"  Charms  and  Counter-Charms,"  and  numer 
ous  other  novels,  has  a  high  reputation. 
Mrs.  E.  D.  E.  N.  South  worth  (born  in  1818) 
commenced  her  career  as  an  author  in 
1843,  and  since  that  time  has  published  over 
one  hundred  novels,  all  of  them  of  con 
siderable  merit.  Mrs.  Ann  S.  Stephens 
(born  in  1813)  has  attained  distinction  as  a 
novelist,  as  a  writer  of  historical  and  prac 
tical  works,  and  as  editor  of  a  ladies'  maga 
zine.  Mrs.  E.  Oakes  Smith  has  written 
largely  and  well  on  the  most  diverse  sub 
jects — metaphysics,  literature,  household 
matters,  criticism,  the  drama,  poetry,  and 
fiction  have  been  alike  the  topics  of  her  works. 


Mrs.  Lydia  Maria  Child  (born  1802)  has 
been  a  very  popular  writer.  Her  "  Hobo- 
mok  "  and  "The  Rebels"  were  her  earlier 
efforts,  and  brought  her  reputation,  which 
was  increased  by  her  subsequent  works. 
Mrs.  Caroline  M.  Kirkland  (1801-1864) 
was  a  graceful  and  elegant  writer.  Her 
"  New  Home— Who'll  Follow  ?"  first  intro 
duced  her  to  the  public,  and  her  subsequent 
works  enhanced  her  reputation.  Mrs.  Alice 

B.  (Neal)  Haven  (1828-1863)    edited    the 
Saturday  Gazette  after  the  death  of  her  hus 
band  (Joseph  C.  Neal)  for  some  years,  and 
subsequently  published   a  volume  of  poems 
of  great  merit,  and  a  number  of  admirable 
juvenile  books. 

Mrs.  Mary  J.  Holmes,  Mrs.  Virginia  Ter- 
hune  (Marion  Harland),  Mrs.  Anna  C. 
(Mowatt)  Ritchie,  Miss  A.  J.  Evans,  Miss 
Alice  Cary,  Mrs.  E.  F.  fillet,  Mrs.  E.  C.  Em 
bury,  Miss  Maria  Cummins,  Miss  Caroline 
Chesebro,  Miss  II.  E.  Prescott,  Mrs.  E.  Rob 
inson  (Talvi),  Mrs.  Catharine  A.  Warfield, 
Mrs.  Harriet  Stuart  Phelps,  and  her  daugh 
ter,  Miss  E.  Stuart  Phelps,  Mrs.  Elizabeth 
Stoddard,  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Denison,  Mrs.  M. 
A.  Sadlier,  Mrs.  Margaret  C.  Lawrence,  Mrs. 
Madeline  Leslie,  Miss  Caroline  Kelley,  Mrs. 
M.  E.  Hewitt,  Miss  Virginia  F.  Townsend, 
Mrs.  L.  C.  Tuthill,  Mrs.  Emily  C.  Judson 
(Fanny  Forrester,  1817-1854),  Mrs.  Helen 

C.  Knight,  and  Mrs.   Hubbell   (author    of 
"  Shady  Side,"  <fcc.),  have  all  written  works 
of  fiction,  or  light  literature,  which  have  had 
a  very  considerable  and   many   of  them   a 
very  large  sale. 

Miss  S.  Margaret  Fuller,  afterwards  Coun 
tess  D'Ossoli,  one  of  the  most  vigorous 
and  thoughtful  writers  of  any  age  (1810— 
1850)  was  for  some  years  in  charge  of  the 
literary  department  of  the  N.  Y.  Tribune, 
and  published,  beside  some  translations  and 
many  essays,  a  work  entitled  "  Woman  in 
the  Nineteenth  Century." 

Several  of  the  ladies  named  above  have 
distinguished  themselves  as  poets,  particu 
larly  Mrs.  Sigourney,  whose  religious  and 
elegiac  poems  have  given  her  a  high  repu 
tation  ;  Mrs.  Stowe,  Mrs.  E.  Oakes  Smith, 
Mrs.  Alice  B.  Haven,  Mrs.  Emily  C.  Judson, 
Miss  Alice  Cary,  and  her  sister,  Miss  Phojbe 
Cary.  But  there  are  other  American  female 
writers,  whose  poetry  alone  has  won  them 
high  distinction.  Among  these  we  may 
name  Mrs.  Maria  Brooks  (Maria  del  Occi 
dent,  1795-1845),  whose  principal  poem, 
"Zophiel,"  attracted  attention  in  Europe 


286 


PRINTING-PRESS. 


from  its  remarkable  creative  power ;  the 
Davidson  sisters,  remarkable  instances  of 
precocious  talent ;  Mrs.  Frances  Sargent  Os- 
good  (1812-1850),  remarkable  for  her 
playfulness  of  fancy  and  felicity  of  expres 
sion  ;  Miss  Hannah  F.  Gould,  a  poet  of  rare 
ability  and  vigor;  Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe,  per 
haps  the  most  gifted  of  our  living  female  poets ; 
Mrs.  Frances  Anne  Kemble  (born  1811); 
Mrs.  Caroline  Gilman ;  Mrs.  Sarah  J.  Lip- 
pin  cott  (Grace  Greenwood),  whose  "  Ariadne 
a  Naxos  "  attracted  great  attention  from  its 


intensity  of  passion ;  Mrs.  Amelia  B.  Wel- 
by,  remarkable  for  the  exquisite  rhythm  of 
of  her  poetry  ;  Mrs.  Sarah  Helen  Whitman, 
Mrs.  Anne  C.  (Lynch)  Botta,  Mrs.  Estelle 
Anna  Lewis,  Mrs.  Sarah  J.  Hale,  Miss  Caro 
line  May,  Mrs.  Maria  Lowell,  Mrs.  Mary  H. 
C.  Booth,  Miss  Edna  Dean  Proctor,  Mrs. 
Rosa  V.  Johnson,  Miss  Rose  Terry,  and  Mrs. 
M.  S.  B.  Dana.  There  are,  very  possibly, 
yet  others  who  deserve  a  place  in  this  record, 
but  these  have  all  gained  a  prominent  posi 
tion  as  poets. 


PRINTING-PRESS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PRINTING  PRESS— HANDPOWER— 
LIGHTNING. 

IF  a  middle-aged  man  now  visits  the  press 
room  of  a  "  crack "  daily,  and  observes  a 
huge  machine,  some  twenty  feet  high,  driven 
by  a  steam  engine,  delivering  seven  large 
newspapers,  nicely  printed,  at  every  tick  of  a 
clock,  and  watches  the  piles  of  paper  grow 
ing  at  the  rate  of  420  per  minute,  or  at 
that  of  20,500  per  hour,  weighing  over  one 
ton,  and  reflects  that  the  utmost  power  of 
the  best  machines  of  his  youth  would  require 
an  active  man  and  a  boy  two  long  hours 
to  do  what  this  whizzing  monster  does  in 
a  minute,  he  will  form  some  idea  of  the  pro 
gress  made  in  paper  printing,  and  also  of 
what  is  required  to  meet  a  daily  demand. 
In  the  days  of  Franklin,  the  press-work  of  a 
paper  was  a  very  laborious  affair.  The  ma 
chines  of  that  day  were  very  imperfect,  and, 
if  reference  is  had  to  the  illustration  on  an 
other  page,  contrasting  the  actual  machine 
which  Franklin  used,  and  which  is  still  pre 
served  in  the  patent  office  at  Washington, 
with  the  fast  press  now  in  use,  a  good  idea 
will  be  formed  of  the  progress  in  press- 
building.  In  that  press,  it  will  be  observed, 
the  bed  is  a  platform  about  three  feet  high, 
between  two  uprights.  In  the  cross-piece  at 
the  top  is  a  female  screw  in  which  works 
the  screw  attached  to  the  wooden  platen. 
This  screw  being  turned  by  the  pressman, 
causes  the  platen  to  ascend  and  descend. 


There  is,  in  front,  a  table,  which,  slides  over 
the  platform  at  the  will  of  the  operator,  who, 
to  effect  this,  turns  a  crank.  On  this  table 
was  laid  the  type.  Over  the  type  was  a 
frame,  which  encircled  the  type,  or  form,  and 
crossed  it  in  those  places  where  the  white 
margin  appears  in  a  printed  paper.  On  this 
frame  the  paper  of  proper  size  was  laid,  after 
being  "  wet  down ;"  another  fold  of  the 
frame  confined  the  paper ;  the  whole  was 
then  slid  on  to  the  platform.  The  screw 
being  turned,  caused  the  platen  to  descend, 
and  the  finpression  was  made.  The  screw 
was  then  raised,  the  form  slid  back,  the  frame 
raised,  and  the  paper  lifted  and  examined  by 
the  pressman  to  see  if  his  impression  was 
"  good."  If  it  satisfied  him,  he  proceeded 
to  ink  his  types  for  a  new  impression.  The 
ink  employed  in  printing  is  very  different 
from  that  employed  for  writing,  and  much 
skill  is  required  in  the  manufacture.  It 
must  be  soft,  adhesive,  and  easily  trans 
ferred  ;  it  must  dry  quickly,  and  be  durable, 
and  not  liable  to  spread.  The  usual  mate 
rials  are  linseed  oil,  rosin,  and  coloring  mat 
ters,  lamp-black  being  used  for  black  ink. 
The  peculiar  mode  of  the  best  makers  is 
somewhat  of  a  secret.  The  old  mode  of  ap 
plying  it  was  by  two  ink  balls,  about  tho 
size  of  a  man's  hat,  made  of  soft  leather,  and 
stuffed  with  cotton,  the  leather  being  nailed 
round  a  wooden  handle.  The  pressman, 
taking  one  in  each  hand,  daubed  them  with 
ink,  and  worked  them  together  until  he  had 
spread  the  ink.  He  then  applied  them  to 


PRINTING-PRESS HAND       POWER LIGHTNING. 


287 


the  types  as  evenly  as  possible ;  then,  laying 
them  aside,  he  proceeded,  as  before,  to  lay 
his  paper  evenly  upon  the  frames,  slide  it 
up,  work  the  screw,  etc.  By  this  process, 
an  active  man  could  work  fifty  sheets  in  an 
hour ;  by  ten  hours  steady  industry,  he 
could  get  off  an  edition  of  500  copies  for 
the  carriers  in  the  morning.  There  was  lit 
tle  room  for  much  expansion  under  such  a 
state  of  printing.  The  first  great  advance  in 
the  direction  of  speed,  was  when  the  lever 
was  substituted  for  the  screw  in  making  the 
impression.  This  was  introduced  by  Mr.  John 
Clymcr,  and  called  the  Columbian,  or  Clymer 
press,  in  which  there  was  no  screw,  but  the 
head  itself  was  a  large  and  powerful  lever, 
acted  on  by  proportionate  levers,  thus  bring 
ing  to  perfection,  for  presses  of  a  large  size, 
certain  principles  of  leverage  which  had  pre 
viously  been  patented  in  Englanfl,  and  used 
in  presses  of  a  small  size,  such  as  foolscap. 
The  platen  was,  in  fact,  a  fulcrum  for  the 
head,  or  great  lever.  Thus  the  fulcrum  and 
lever  superseded  the  inclined  plane,  or  screw. 
Mr.  Clymcr  Avent  to  England  in  1817,  and, 
at  that  time,  the  famous  "  Cobbctt's  Regis 
ter"  was  printed  on  an  "  American  press,"  a 
circumstance  that  was  regarded  as  a  great 
joke  at  the  time.  By  this  invention,  two 
levers,  one  affixed  at  the  cross-piece  above, 
and  one  to  the  platen,  were  brought  together 
by  a  joint,  like  the  bent  knee  of  a  man's 
leg.  At  this  joint  was  applied  a  lever,  by 
which  the  pressman,  with  one  pull,  brought 
the  joint  into  a  perpendicular  line,  by  so  do 
ing  giving  an  instantaneous  and  powerful 
impression.  The  platen  being  suspended 
by  spiral  springs,  instantly  rose  when  the 
lever  was  released.  The  saving  in  time  was 
immense,  one  pull  of  the  workman  being 
sufficient  for  all  the  old  sere  wing  and  un 
screwing.  Improvements  in  the  Clymer 
press  were  made  by  Peter  Smith  and  Sam 
uel  Rust,  and  these  improvements  are  com 
bined  in  Hoe's  Washington  press,  of  which 
a  cut  will  be  found  on  another  page.  Inven 
tions  of  a  similar  character  were  made  by 
Mr.  John  Wells,  of  Connecticut.  The  prin 
ciple  of  the  lever  has  been  applied  in  various 
ways,  and  contains  the  chief  feature  in  press 
power.  The  form  of  lever  now  generally 
used,  will  be  seen  in  the  engraving  of  Hoe 
and  Smith's  printing  press,  which  is  the  fa 
vorite  for  all  work  where  power  presses  are 
not  required.  Next  to  the  introduction  of 
the  lever,  was  the  substitution  of  the  inking 
machine  for  the  old  ink  balls.  This  was 


constructed  of  a  cylinder  which  revolved,  by 
hand,  against  an  ink  trough,  and,  by  so  do 
ing,  received  evenly  over  its  surface  the  ink. 
The  smaller  rollers  were  constructed  on  a 
light  frame,  to  which  a  handle  was  attached. 
These,  laid  upon  the  ink  roller,  received  from 
it  the  ink,  and  then  being  pushed  forward 
over  the  type,  imparted  it  to  them  with  one 
movement  of  the  hand.  This,  worked  by  a 
boy,  is  seen  in  the  engraving.  The  pressman 
was  now  relieved  of  the  inking,  and,  work 
ing  with  a  lever,  he  could  print,  with  active 
industry,  250  sheets  in  an  hour.  The  next 
movement  was  to  make  this  inking  machine 
self-acting,  by  attaching  it  to  the  press  in 
such  a  manner  that  lifting  the  paper  frame 
would  cause  it  to  act.  The  boy  was  now  dis 
pensed  with. 

In  1839,  the  Rugglcs  Job  press  was  intro 
duced,  and  is  now  extensively  manufactured 
in  Boston,  on  the  site  of  the  house  where 
Franklin  was  born.  The  Combination  press 
was  introduced  in  1854,  and  is  manufactured 
by  the  Power  Press  Co.  on  a  very  large 
scale. 

The  next  important  improvement  in  the 
machines,  was  the  introduction  of  the  cylin 
der,  or  Xapier  press.  In  this  machine,  of 
which  an  engraving  is  presented  in  another 
column,  the  form  of  type  is  locked  upon  a 
strong  iron  table,  which  moves  forward  and 
backward,  passing  in  its  course  under  a  cyl 
inder,  which,  made  of  iron,  is  covered  with 
a  soft  blanket,  and  provided  with  a  set  of 
fingers  to  seize  the  sheet  as  it  is  presented. 
Against  this  is  inclined  the  feeding  bench,  on 
Avhich  is  laid  the  paper.  On  the  bench  is  a 
small  brass  peg,  or  pointer,  against  which 
the  feeder  brings  the  paper  accurately,  in  or 
der  that  the  sheets  may  "  register" — that  is, 
each  receive  the  type  at  the  same  distance 
from  the  margin.  When  the  cylinder  re 
volves,  it  raises  with  its  fingers  the  edge 
of  the  paper,  draws  it  round  itself,  and 
presses  it  against  the  type,  which,  at  the 
same  instant,  passes  under  it.  The  paper 
then  released  by  the  cylinder,  is  carried  by 
ribbons  to  the  rear,  while  the  type  vibrates 
back,  to  return  as  soon  as  the  cylinder  has 
again  drawn  forward  a  sheet  of  paper.  At 
first,  a  boy  was  required  to  fly  the  papers,  or 
catch  them  as  they  were  thrown  back  from 
the  cylinder,  and  pile  them  up.  This,  by  the 
self-acting  flyer,  as  seen'in  the  engraving,  is 
now  dispensed  with.  This  machine  raised 
the  number«  that  might  be  printed  to  be 
tween  2,000  and  3,000  per  hour.  The  bed 


288 


PRINTING-PRESS. 


is  made  of  a  size  to  take  a  paper  from  25x33 
inches,  to  one  40x60,  inches.  The  cost  of 
the  former  size  is  $1,390,  and  of  the  latter, 
$2,600.  An  obvious  improvement  suggested 
itself  SOOTI.  The  type,  in  moving  forward 
and  backward,  made  only  one  impression. 
It  was  easy  to  introduce  another  cylinder,  in 
order  to  take  an  impression  from  the  type 
on  its  return.  This  was  the  double  cylinder, 
which  delivers  a  paper  at  each  end.  The 
cost  of  these  is,  for  the  large  size,  $4,250, 
and  it  will  give  3,500  to  6,400  impressions 
per  hour.  In  this  operation,  the  vibration 
of  the  type  bed  was  the  great  difficulty. 
The  type  and  bed  will  weigh  over  1,000  Ibs. 
This  mass,  moving  backward  and  forward 
with  great  momentum,  produced  a  great 
concussion,  although  it  was  met  by  strong 
springs  which  stopped  its  progress  and  aided 
its  return.  Many  improvements  were  made 
in  these  springs.  The  noise  and  annoyance 
occasioned  by  the  concussion  of  the  bed 
against  the  springs,  which  are  placed  at  each 
end  of  the  machine  to  overcome  the  momen 
tum  of  the  bed,  was  removed  by  means  of 
adjustable  India-rubber  buffers  placed  at  the 
points  of  contact,  which  in  no  way  interfere 
with  the  lively  and  certain  action  of  the  spi 
ral  springs.  The  same  object  is  also  effected 
by  air  springs,  by  which,  the  head  of  the 
bed,  plunging  into  a  receiver,  condenses  the 
air,  causing  it  to  act  as  a  spring. 

It  was  obvious,  however,  that  the  weight 
and  concussion  of  this  bed  were  a  bar  to 
further  progress  in  this  direction,  and  it  was 
felt  that  greater  speed  could  be  attained  only 
by  causing  the  type  itself  to  revolve.  This 
was  no  new  idea.  It  had  been  patented  in 
England  in  1790,  but  the  inventor  could 
not  succeed  in  holding  the  types,  since  the 
rapid  revolution  of  such  a  weight  gives  a 
powerful  centrifugal  motion.  What  they 
could  not  do  in  England,  Richard  M.  Hoe 
did  in  New  York,  in  1847,  after  many  at 
tempts  had  been  made  to  accomplish  the  de 
sired  result.  In  this  machine,  as  will  be 
seen  in  the  illustration,  the  form  of  type  is 
placed  on  the  surface 'of  a  horizontal  revolv 
ing  cylinder  of  about  four  and  a  half  feet  in 
diameter.  The  form  occupies  a  segment  of 
only  about  one-fourth  of  the  surface  of  the 
cylinder,  and  the  remainder  is  used  as  an 
ink-distributing  surface.  Around  this  main 
cylinder,  and  parallel  with  it,  arc  placed 
smaller  impression  cylinders,  varying  in  num 
ber  from  four  to  ten,  according  to  the  size 
of  the  machine.  The  engraving  represents 


three.  The  large  cylinder  being  put  in  mo 
tion,  the  form  of  types  is  carried  successively 
to  all  the  impression  cylinders,  at  each  of 
which  a  sheet  is  introduced,  and  receives  the 
impression  of  the  types  as  the  form  passes. 
Thus,  as  many  sheets  are  printed  at  each  rev 
olution  of  the  main  cylinder,  as  there  are 
impression  cylinders  around  it.  One  person 
is  required  at  each  impression  cylinder  to 
supply  the  sheets  of  paper,  which  are  taken 
at  the  proper  moment  by  fingers  or  grippers, 
and,  after  being  printed,  arc  conveyed  out  by 
tapes  and  laid  in  heaps  by  means  of  self-act 
ing  flyers,  thereby  dispensing  with  the 
hands  required  in  ordinary  machines  to  re 
ceive  and  pile  the  sheets.  The  grippers 
hold  the  sheet  securely,  so  that  the  thinnest 
newspaper  may  be  printed  without  waste. 

The  ink  is  contained  in  a  fountain  placed 
beneath  the  main  cylinder,  and  is  conveyed 
by  means  of  distributing  rollers  to  the  dis 
tributing  surface  on  the  main  cylinder.  This 
surface  being  lower,  or  less  in  diameter  than 
the  form  of  types,  passes  by  the  impression 
cylinder  without  touching.  For  each  im 
pression,  there  are  two  inking  rollers,  which 
receive  their  supply  of  ink  from  the  distrib 
uting  surface  of  the  main  cylinder,  which 
rise  and  ink  the  form  as  it  passes  under 
them,  after  which,  they  again  fall  to  the  dis 
tributing  surface. 

Each  page  of  the  paper  is  locked  up  on  a 
detached  segment  of  the  large  cylinder  which 
constitutes  its  bed  and  chase.  The  column 
rules  run  parallel  with  the  shaft  of  the  cylin 
der,  and  are,  consequently,  straight,  while 
the  head,  advertising,  and  dash  rules, 
are  in  the  form  of  segments  of  a  circle. 
The  column  rules  are  in  the  form  of  a 
wedge,  with  the  thin  part  directed  toward 
the  axis  of  the  cylinder,  so  as  to  bind  the 
types  securely.  These  wedge-shaped  column 
rules  are  held  down  to  the  bed  by  tongues 
projecting  at  intervals  along  their  length, 
which  slide  in  rebated  grooves  cut  crosswise 
in  the  face  of  the  bed.  'The  spaces  in  the 
grooves  between  the  column  rules  are  accu 
rately  fitted  with  sliding  blocks  of  metal 
even  with  the  surface  of  the  bed,  the  ends 
of  which,  blocks  arc  cut  away  underneath  to 
receive  a  projection  on  the  sides  of  the 
tongues  of  the  column  rules.  The  form  of 
type  is  locked  up  in  the  bed  by  means  of 
screws  at  the  foot  and  sides,  by  which  the 
type  is  held  as  securely  as  in  the  ordinary 
manner  upon  a  flat  bed — if  not  even  more 
so.  The  speed  of  these  machines  is  limited 


FRANKLIN  PRESS. 


PATENT  WASHINGTON  PRINTING  PRESS. 


PATENT    i:.\XD-PRESS    STEAM    INKING    MACHINE. 


IMPROVED   INKING   APPARATUS   FOR   THE    HAND-PRESS 


PATENT    RAILROAD   TICKET   MACHINE. 


In  this  machine  the  forms  are  placed  on  a  cylinder  which  enables  it  to  run  with  a  continuous  rotary 
movement.  The  tickets  are  worked  from  a  roll  of  paper,  and  are  printed,  numbered,  cut,  and  deposited 
in  a  receptacle  in  numerical  order  in  a  single  operation.  The  numbering  apparatus  prints  the  number  in 
a  different  color  from  the  body  of  the  ticket,  and  can  be  set  at  0  or  any  required  number  with  great 
facility.  The  machine  will  print  from  10,000  to  12,000  tickets  per  hour,  and  occupies  a  space  of  about 
two  feet  square. 


PRINTING-PRESS HAND       POWER LIGHTNING. 


297 


only  by  the  ability  of  the  feeders  to  supply 
the  sheets.  The  four-cylinder  machine  is 
run  at  a  speed  of  over  10,000  per  hour;  the 
six-cylinder  machine,  15,000  an  hour;  the 
eight-cylinder  machine,  20,000  ;  and  the  ten- 
cylinder  machine,  25,000.  This  system  com 
bines  the  greatest  speed  in  printing,  durabil 
ity  of  the  machinery,  and  economy  of  labor. 
As  we  have  said,  this  great  machine  deliv 
ers  seven  sheets  per  second,  or  420  per  min 
ute.  It  does  in  one  minute  what  Franklin 
required  ten  hours  to  do,  and  the  papers 
contain  ten  times  as  much  matter,  and  arc 
eight  times  as  large.  Thus,  to  print  as  much 
reading  would  have  required  100  hours  in 
the  last  century,  against  one  minute  now. 
In  other  words,  6,000  men  with  6,000  press 
es,  would  have  done  very  badly  what  this 
machine  does  very  well. 

The  next  attempted  improvement  in  the 
speed  of  machines  has  been,  to  do  for  the  re 
volving  cylinder  what  was  done  before  with 
the  Napier  press.  In  the  case  of  the  latter, 
another  cylinder  was  introduced  to  take  the 
type  on  its  return  vibration,  thus  getting  two 
impressions  from  one  movement.  In  the 
case  of  the  revolving  type,  something  simi 
lar  has  been  attempted.  It  has  been  stated 
that  the  form  of  type  occupies  but  a  seg 
ment  of  the  cylinder.  It  was  conceived 
that  by  placing  the  other  form  on  the  va 
cant  space  of  the  cylinder,  that  both  would 
be  printed  with  one  revolution,  thus  doub 
ling  the  amount  of  work  done  by  the  same 
number  of  revolutions.  The  mechanical 
part  the  Messrs.  Hoe  succeeded  in  perfecting, 
but  the  difficulty  encountered  was  in  the  pa 
per.  It  will  be  conceived  that  when  the  pa 
per  is  printed  with  such  inconceivable  rapid 
ity,  that  the  ink  has  no  time  to  "  set."  and 
to  impress  it  on  the  other  side  in  almost  the 
same  instant  of  time  is  more  tlu,n  the  nature 
of  the  operation  will  permit,  and  the  type 
"  takes  off,"  so  to  speak,  or  will  not  pro 
duce  a  perfect  impression.  Some  other  per 
sons  made  the  same  attempt,  with  similar  re 
sults.  Progress  in  that  direction  has,  there 
fore,  been  given  up,  but  the  efforts  of  genius 
are  being  directed  anew,  and  the  experience 
of  the  past  has  warned  us  not  to  be  sur 
prised  at  what  may  yet  be  done.  There 
have  been  attempts  made  to  simplify  the 
process  by  fitting  stereotype  plates  to  cylin 
ders,  and  with  some  success ;  but  the  neces 
sary  delay  in  stereotyping  defeats  the  object 
required,  which  is  to  save  time.  The  adap 
tation  of  electrotype  plates  to  cylinders  in 


printing  presses,  has  also  been  made  with 
success,  but  these  also  require  time  in  per 
fecting,  and  are,  therefore,  not  adapted  to  the 
daily  press. 

The  work  of  the  weeklies  of  large  circu 
lation,  is  done  on  Hoe's  large  single-cyli-nder 
press.  In  these  cases,  where  time  is  not  so 
much  an  object,  the  forms  arc  multiplied  by 
the  electrotypes  and  worked  on  a  large  num 
ber  of  presses.  In  some  cases,  the  circula 
tion  running  up  to  400,000  weekly,  a  press 
running  1,500  per  hour,  or  20,000  in  a  day, 
will  require  10  presses  four  days  to  perfect 
the  edition  on  both  sides,  and  for  this  pur 
pose,  ten  separate  forms  will  be  required. 
These  machines  will  take  a  form  19x23^- 
inches,  and  up  to  40x57  inches.  The  cost 
of  the  former  is  $960,  and  of  the  latter  size, 
$2,650. 

The  press  most  used  for  book  work,  differs 
in  principle  from  either  the  Napier  or  the 
revolving  type.  It  Avas  the  invention  of 
Isaac  Adams,  of  Massachusetts,  and  it  bears 
his  name.  The  type  in  the  press  has  no 
movement  except  slightly  up  and  down.  It 
receives  the  ink  from  a  self-acting  machine, 
and  the  paper  is  fed  to  it  from  an  inclined 
plane,  when,  the  impression  being  made,  it 
is  lifted  off  by  the  fly  and  deposited  in  the 
rear.  It  is  the  most  perfect  of  all  presses. 
The  prices  .of  these  vary  from  $600  to 
$2,980,  according  to  size.  The  engraving 
on  another  page  will  give  a  good  idea  of 
this  machine,  of  which  the  patent  is  secured 
by  the  Messrs.  Hoe. 

The  printing  on  all  the  machines  de 
scribed  admits  of  but  one  colored  ink,  but 
for  fancy  work  of  various  kinds,  more  colors 
are  at  times  desirable,  and  for  this  purpose, 
Hoe  &  Co.  have  devised  a  machine  by 
which  four  colors  can  be  printed.  It  is 
simply  the  ordinary  single  small  cylinder 
press,  having  the  bed  sufficiently  long  to  re 
ceive  four  forms  (when  four  colors  are  to  be 
printed),  and  provided  with  four  ink  foun 
tains,  each  one  of  which  inks  its  appropriate 
form.  The  sheet  is  fed  from  a  feed  board 
and  taken  by  fingers  in  the  usual  manner, 
but  after  receiving  an  impression  from  the 
first  form,  instead  of  being  thrown  oft',  it  is 
held  by  the  fingers  and  continues  to  revolve 
with  the  cylinder,  and  thus  receives  an  im 
pression  from  the  second,  third,  and  fourth 
forms,  as  they  successively  pass  under  it. 
The  fingers  then  open,  and  the  sheet  is 
thrown  off  and  down  by  the  sheet-flyer  in 
the  ordinary  manner.  It  is  thus  seen  that 


298 


TYPES. 


the  sheet  is  printed  in  four  colors  at  one  op 
eration,  and  in  perfect  register,  without  any 
pointing  being  required.  These  machines 


are  made  to  print  two,  three,  or  four  colors, 
as  ordered.  An  idea  of  its  action  may  he 
gathered  from  the  illustration. 


TYPES. 


CHAPTER  I. 

TYPE  FOUNDING— STEREOTYPING— ELEC- 
TROTYPING. 

THERE  has  been  little  change  in  the  gene 
ral  form  of  metal  types  used  in  printing,  but 
much  improvement  in  the  quality  of  the 
metal  used,  in  the  style  of  the  letters,  and  in 
the  process  of  casting.  There  are  many 
sizes  of  type  used,  but  the  ten  following  are 
those  most  used  in  books  and  newspapers. 
They  arc  mentioned  in  the  order  of  the  sizes, 
the  smallest  being  first : — Diamond ;  Pearl ; 
Agate;  Nonpareil;  Minion;  Brevier;  Bour 
geois;  Long  Primer;  Small  Pica;  Pica. 
The  size  of  the  type  employed  in  this  page 
is  Long  Primer. 

There  are  some  combinations  of  these 
sizes ;  but  these  are  the  leading  ones  most 
in  use.  These  have  not  varied  much  for  a 
long  period  of  time,  although  the  compe 
tition  among  the  type  founders  has  led  to 
the  introduction  of  many  styles. 

In  1812,  on  the  publication  of  "The  Co- 
lumbiad,"  by  Joel  Barlow,  a  size  of  type, 
known  as  Columbian,  was  cut  for  the  work, 
which  was  designed  to  be  very  perfect.  It 
was  embellished  by  Robert  Fulton ;  and  it 
was  the  first  ever  printed  upon  Clymer's 
newly  invented  press,  which  press  took  the 
name  of  the  Columbian  in  consequence. 

The  casting  of  the  type  was,  until  Avithin 
fifteen  years,  done  by  hand  for  each  separate 
letter.  The  matrix  of  the  type  is  of  cop 
per,  1^  inches  long,  ^  of  an  inch  deep,  and 
of  the  breadth  of  the  type  to  be  cast.  The 
form  of  the  letter  is  made  in  the  end  of  the 
copper  matrix  by  a  steel  die.  The  copper 
matrix  is  then  inclosed  in  a  wooden  box, 
which  has  a  hopper  to  admit  the  melted 
metal.  There  is  a  spring  attached,  by  which 
the  matrix  may  be  opened  to  release  the  let 
ter  when  cast.  The  caster,  holding  this  in 
his  left  hand,  takes  from  the  furnace,  with  a 
very  small  iron  ladle  or  spoon,  about  as 


much  of  the  metal  as  will  form  one  letter. 
This  he  pours  in,  and  at  the  same  time  gives 
the  matrix  a  smart  upward  jerk,  which  set 
tles  the  metal  into  the  finest  cuts  of  the  let 
ter.  He  then  presses  the  spring,  hooks  out 
the  letter,  closes  the  matrix,  and  proceeds  as 
before.  A  skilful  man  will  in  this  way  cast 
500  types  in  an  hour.  In  1811,  Mr.  David 
Bruce  received  a  patent  for  an  improvement 
in  the  mould,  by  which  25  per  cent,  more 
work  was  done.  This  system  has  changed 
since  the  introduction  of  machinery. 

About  15  years  since,  Mr.  Geo.  Bruce,  Jr., 
of  New  York,  invented  a  Very  beautiful  ma 
chine  for  casting  type,  and  it  is  the  best  in 
the  world.  The  patent  has  been  renewed  at 
the  last  session  of  Congress  for  seven  years, 
and  the  right,  title,  and  interest,  have  been 
purchased  by  Messrs.  J.  Conner  &  Sons.  By 
this  machine  a  man  can  cast  three  times  as 
much  in  a  day  as  by  the  old  plan.  The 
wages  are  less  than  half,  per  thousand,  what 
they  were  before,  but  the  caster,  neverthe 
less,  earns  more.  In  these  machines  the 
type  metal — which  is  a  mixture  of  lead,  tin, 
and  antimony — is  contained  in  a  state  of 
fusion  in  a  small  iron  reservoir,  about  5 
inches  square,  and  into  which  it  is  forced 
with  great  power.  This  is  tapped  by  a 
nipple,  which  holds  as  much  melted  metal 
as  will  cast  a  type.  The  mould  is  of  steel,  in 
a  small  machine  which  is  worked  by  a  crank. 
It  is  simply  for  the  body  of  the  type,  and  is 
so  placed  that  the  lower  end,  by  a  move 
ment  of  the  machine,  will  fit  exactly  over  the 
orifice  of  the  nipple.  Against  the  other  end 
is  applied  a  copper  matrix  of  the  letter,  and 
firmly  held  by  a  spring.  The  operator  then 
causes  the  metal  to  jet  into  the  mould.  Then, 
as  soon  as  it  is  "set,"  he  releases  it,  opens 
the  mould,  and  allows  the  type  to  drop  into 
a  box.  In  this  process,  the  matrix  of  the 
letter  is  separated  from  the  body  of  tho 
type.  It  is  formed  on  a  steel  die,  and  im 
pressed  into  the  copper  previously  prepared, 


TYPE-FOUNDING STEREOTYPING ELECTROTYPING. 


299 


with  great  force.  The  adjustment  of  this 
matrix  to  the  mould  is  a  work  of  great  care 
and  nicety.  After  the  type  is  cast,  by 
whatever  process — whether  by  machinery  or 
the  ancient  spoon  method — it  has  to  under 
go  a  smoothing  operation.  This  is  performed 
by  young  people,  principally  girls ;  three 
or  four  sitting  around  tables  surmounted 
with  properly  prepared  stone  slabs,  and 
by  the  fingers  rubbing  the  roughness  off 
each  individual  type.  At  this  work  they 
earn  from  85  to  $7  per  week.  The  type 
goes  then  into  the  hands  of  the  dresser.  He 
cuts  out  what  is  called  the  jet  end,  by  which 
process  all  the  types  are  made  of  the  exact 
height.  On  the  nicety  of  this  operation  de 
pends  the  ability  to  use  the  type.  It  may 
be  here  remarked  that  American  type  comes 
nearly  always  perfect  into  the  hands  of  the 
dresser,  while  in  England  nearly  one-fourth 
is  rejected  as  imperfect. 

The  types  have  upon  one  side  a  "  nick." 
As  the  types  are  perfected,  a  boy  sets  them 
on  a  "  galley,"  with  all  the  nicks  out.  They 
arc  then  assorted  into  small  "fonts,"  and 
arc  then  ready  for  the  printer.  The  propor 
tions  in  which  the  different  letters  are  cast 
to  a  font  of_  type,  and  in  which  they  occur 
in  print,  are  as  follows:  Letter  e,  1500; 
t,  900  ;  a,  850  ;  n,  o,  s,  i,  800 ;  h,  640 ;  r,  620 ; 
d,  440  ;  1,  400  ;  u,  340  ;  c,  m,  300  ;  f,  250  ; 
w,  y,  200;  g,  p,  170;  b,  1GO;  v,  120;  k,  80 ; 
q,  50 ;  j,  x,  40 ;  z,  20.  Besides  these,  are 
the  combined  letters  :  fi,  50  ;  ff,  40  ;  fl,  20  ; 
ffi, 15;  ffl,  10;  ce,  10;  02,  5.  The  propor 
tion  for  capitals  and  small  capitals  differs 
from  the  small  letters.  In  those,  I  takes  the 
first  place,  then  T,  then  A  and  E,  etc.  The 
"  cases"  in  which  the  types  arc  put  for  use,  are 
arranged  in  the  manner  seen  in  the  engraving 
on  another  page.  The  little  square  boxes 
in  which  the  type  is  laid  are  not  arranged  in 
the  regular  order  of  the  alphabet,  but  in  the 
order  which  experience  has  shown  is  the 
most  convenient  for  the  compositor.  Those 
letters  which  occur  the  oftenest — as  c,  for 
instance — occupy  the  largest  squares  nearest 
his  hand,  and  the  others  in  the  order  of  their 
relative  importance ;  the  capitals,  small 
capitals,  and  marks,  each  in  its  proper  place, 
in  the  upper  case.  The  workman  does  not 
look  at  the  type.  He  reads  his  copy  only, 
and  that  frequently  tasks  his  ingenuity  to 
make  out.  lie  knows  the  types  from  the 
boxes  they  occupy,  and  the  "  nick"  enables 
him  to  place  them  right  side  up  by  sense  of 
feeling  only.  He  is  paid  by  the  thousand 
18* 


ems  when  working  by  the  piece.  An  em  is 
about  the  space  of  a  letter  M,  and  2,200 
cms  go  to  one  of  the  pages  of  this  book.  A 
good  workman  will  set  5,000  to  6,000  ems 
in  a  day.  Sometimes  they  are  paid  by  the 
week,  $12  per  week,  which  is  about  the 
amount  that  an  expert  workman  will  earn 
by  the  thousand.  The  type  he  places  in  a 
small  iron  frame,  held  in  his  left  hand,  and 
called  a  "  stick,"  which  is  adjusted  to  tho 
breadth  of  the  column  or  page.  When  this 
is  full,  it  is  deposited  on  a  "  galley,"  in  a 
long  column.  From  this  galley  a  proof  im 
pression  is  taken  to  be  read  by  the  author 
and  proof-reader.  The  inaccuracies  are 
marked  on  this,  and  when  corrected  in  the 
type,  the  foreman  "  makes  up  his  form."  If 
for  a  daily  paper,  this  is  done  by  screwing 
the  columns  into  the  "turtle,"  which  is  fas 
tened  upon  the  revolving  cylinder  of  the 
press.  When  the  type  has  been  printed 
from  or  worked  off,  it  is  immediately  washed 
in  a  strong  alkali,  to  clear  it  from  the  ink. 
If  this  is  not  done  thoroughly,  it  will  not 
print  clear.  Formerly  this  washing  was 
done  with  urine,  but  of  late  an  alkali  is 
substituted.  The  clean  type  has  now  to  be 
"  distributed,"  or  put  back  into  the  cases. 
For  this  purpose  the  compositor  takes  the 
"  matter"  in  his  left  hand,  reads  a  line,  and 
drops  each  letter  into  its  appropriate  place. 
This  occupies  a  good  deal  of  time. 

Allthistypc-settingand  distributing  is  done, 
letter  by  letter,  by  hand  up  to  the  present 
time,  although  the  greatest  efforts  have  been 
made  to  introduce  machinery.  A  number  of 
type-setting  machines  have  been  invented, 
and  many  of  them  work  well  in  the  setting  of 
the  tvpc — the  operator  working  upon  keys, 
like  those  of  a  piano,  with  the  copy  before 
him.  The  arrangement  is  such  that,  by 
touching  the  proper  key,  the  appropriate 
letter  falls  into  line,  and  the  work  goes  on 
rapidly  and  well,  even  to  the  punctuation. 
The  difficulty  not  yet  overcome,  and  which 
is  an  obstacle  to  its  usefulness,  is  that  no 
means  of  "justifying"  have  been  discov 
ered — that  is,  of  breaking  the  lines  into 
the  suitable  length,  and  "  spacing"  them  out 
so  that  each  line  shall  have  the  exact  length 
of  all  the  rest.  This  is  done  by  the  hand 
compositor,  with  great  nicety,  in  his  iron 
stick,  as  his  work  progresses.  As  this  must 
still  be  done  by  hand,  after  the  machine  has 
set  up  the  type,  no  great  advantage  is  de 
rived  from  its  action.  In  type  distributing 
more  success  has  been  obtained.  The  ma- 


300 


TYPES. 


chine  is  so  constructed  that  it  will  distribute 
12,000  ems  per  hour  with  unerring  accuracy, 
and  one  man  may  tend  three  machines ; 
hence  he  will  distribute,  by  its  aid,  36,000 
ems  per  hour,  while  a  good  workman  by 
hand  will  only  distribute  3,000  ems.  This 
seems  very  desirable,  but  a  new  difficulty 
presents  itself.  The  machine  cannot  read, 
so  as  to  distinguish  one  letter  from  another, 
and  it  is  guided  in  its  selection  by  the 
"nicks."  It  follows,  that  no  two  of  the 
twenty-four  letters  of  the  alphabet  shoulvl 
have  the  same  "nicks;"  consequently,  a 
special  kind  of  type  must  be  cast  for  the 
machine.  They  are  then  put  into  it  in 
a  mass,  and  present  themselves  alternately 
until  the  proper  "  nick"  goes  through.  The 
advantages  of  the  machine  do  not  overcome 
its  disadvantages. 

In  book  work  the  type  is  not  hurried  from 
the  compositor  to  the  pressman,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  daily  papers.  There  is  more  time, 
and  the  type  itself  is,  therefore,  not  usually 
printed  from,  but  it  is  stereotyped.  This 
was  introduced  in  America  about  the  year 
1817,  by  Mr.  Gr.  Bruce,  the  father  of  the  in 
ventor  of  the  type-casting  machine. 

In  this  process,  the  type  being  locked 
up  in  the  form,  which  usually  contains  2  to  6 
pages,  and  carefully  revised  and  corrected,  is 
gent  to  the  stcreotyper. 

Stereotyping  is  the  mode  of  casting  per 
fect  fac-similcs,  in  metal,  of  the  face  of 
movable  types.  The  plan  is  simple.  After 
arranging  the  type  in  pages,  and  getting  it 
perfectly  smooth  and  clean,  it  is  placed  in  a 
frame,  the  surface  being  thoroughly  oiled, 
to  prevent  the  mould  from  adhering,  when 
liquid  gypsum,  or  plaster-of-Paris,  is  poured 
over  the  page.  The  mould,  thus  taken,  if 
found  perfect,  is  dressed  with  a  sharp  in 
strument,  and  is  then  ready  to  receive  the 
metal.  It  is  then  put  into  an  iron  cast 
ing-box,  and  the  whole  immersed  in  liquid 
type  metal.  Twenty  to  thirty  minutes  usu 
ally  suffice  for  casting.  The  box  is  then 
swung  out  of  the  molten  mass  into  a  cool 
ing-trough,  in  which  the  under  side  is  ex 
posed  'to  the  water.  When  hard,  the  caster 
breaks  off  the  superfluous  metal,  and  sepa 
rates  the  plaster  mould  from  the  plate.  It  is 
then  picked,  the  edges  trimmed,  the  back 
shaved  to  a  proper  thickness,  and  made 
ready  for  the  press. 

The  process  of  electrotyping  has,  of  late, 
become  an  important  element,  and  is  gen 
erally  preferred  to  the  old  system  of  stereo 


typing.  It  results  from  the  disposition  of 
copper,  held  in  solution,  to  deposit  itself  on 
a  metal  surface,  when  under  the  influence  of 
magnetism. 

This  art  has  a  very  extended  application, 
since  a  very  small  quantity  of  the  metal  held 
in  solution  will  suffice  to  change  the  ap 
parent  character  of  that  galvanized.  A  cop 
per  pencil,  for  instance,  of  elaborate  orna 
mentation  by  pressure,  will  require  20  cents 
worth  of  gold  galvanized  upon  it,  to  become 
solid  "gold;"  a  thimble  becomes  "gold" 
for  5  cents  worth  of  that  metal ;  and  the 
most  astonishing  jewelry  can,  for  a  few  cents, 
be  made  gold.  The  art  of  the  transmuta 
tion  of  the  metals,  so  long  sought  after  with 
such  assiduity  and  perseverance  by  the  al 
chemists  of  old,  seems  to  have  been  dis 
covered.  It  is  not  altogether  a  seeming,  since 
the  operators  have,  in  many  cases,  realized 
fortunes  at  the  expense  of  the  credulous. 

Stereotyping  by  the  Electrotype  process 
is  conducted  as  follows  :  An  impression  is 
taken  from  the  corrected  forms  or  engraved 
block  upon  a  plate  of  wax,  and  finely  pul 
verized  plumbago  is  then  dusted  thinly  over 
the  surface  of  the  wax.  The  excess  is  blown 
away  in  a  machine  contrived  for  this  pur 
pose,  and  the  fine  dust  remains  uniformly  in 
contact  with  the  wax  in  every  little  depres 
sion  and  line,  without  filling  these  up.  The 
object  of  the  plumbago  is  to  act  as  the  con 
ducting  medium  for  the  galvanic  current, 
until  a  film  of  copper  is  deposited.  But  by 
a  recent  modification  of  the  process,  this 
film  is  also  produced  before  the  article  is 
put  into  the  trough,  by  the  application 
of  a  wash  of  sulphate  of  copper,  (solution 
of  blue  vitriol),  and  dusting  over  it  fine 
iron  filings.  The  solution  is  decomposed 
by  the  iron,  and  metallic  copper  is  immedi 
ately  precipitated,  forming  a  delicate  film 
which  uniformly  covers  the  whole  surface. 
The  wax  plate  retaining  this  film  is  well 
washed,  and  is  then  ready  for  the  galvanic 
trough.  In  this  it  is  left  over  night  under 
the  influence  of  the  electric  current,  and  in 
the  morning  when  taken  out  the  coating  of 
copper  is  found  to  be  sufficiently  thick  for 
handling.  The  wax  is  removed,  and  the 
copper  sheet,  first  tinned  on  the  back,  is 
placed  face  down  in  an  apparatus  in  which 
it  is  covered  with  melted  type  metal.  Thus 
backed  a  plate  is  obtained,  which,  after  being 
dressed  by  planing  and  squaring,  is  screwed 
down  upon  a  mahogany  block,  the  height  of 
the  whole  being  the  same  as  that  of  type. 


NEWSPAPERS DAILIES WEEKLIES PERIODICALS. 


301 


Plates  for  use  upon  the  cylinders  of  print 
ing  machines  are  made  with  the  curve  of  the 
cylinders,  the  forms  themselves  in  which  the 
type  are  paged  having  a  convex  surface, 
which  gives  them  the  name  of  "turtles." 

In   making  copper-faced   type,  ordinary 


types  are  set  in  a  frame  so  arranged  as  to 
let  only  the  letter  end  in  the  copper  solution 
of  the  battery.  The  deposit  of  copper  ad 
heres  to  this  end,  which  it  completely  covers. 
Such  type  are  now  extensively  used  in  large 
establishments,  and  are  very  durable. 


CHAPTER  I. 

.   NEWSPAPERS— DAILIES— WEEKLIES— PE 
RIODICALS. 

THE  power  and  circulation  of  the  daily 
press  are  among  the  marvels  of  the  present 
day,  and  they  are  features  peculiarly  Ameri 
can.  No  country  presents  such  a  number 
of  news  publications,  and  none  such  a  uni 
versal  popular  demand  for  them.  This  re 
sult  has  been  obtained  mostly  in  the  last 
twenty-five  years,  by  a  combination  of 
causes.  The  two  leading  ones,  are  the  intro 
duction  of  the  cheap  press  and  the  inven 
tion  of  the  means  of  so  multiplying  num- 
,  bers,  that  much  interesting  matter  can  be 
sold  for  a  little  money.  Take  a  leading- 
morning  daily.  This  is  equal  to  a  book  of 
more  than  100  solid  octavo  pages,  sold  to 
the  retailer  for  one  and  a  half  cents  every 
morning,  no  profit  being  derived  from  the 
sale.  This  has  become  possible  only  through 
the  ability  to  produce  a  vast  number  on 
one  hand,  and  through  the  immense  re 
ceipts  for  advertising  on  the  other.  By  the 
introduction  of  a  cheap  press,  is  not  to  be 
understood  the  mere  printing  of  a  mass  of 
matter  for  a  small  price,  but  the  introduction 
of  such  matter  as  attracts  the  attention  of 
persons  not  previously  habitual  readers,  and 
exciting  in  them  so  strong  an  interest  as  to 
make  papers  for  the  future  a  necessity.  It  is 
this  which  has  been  done  by  the  cheap  press. 
The  first  newspapers  of  the  country  were 
hardly  worth  the  name.  In  the  colonies 
there  was  little  of  interest  to  draw  public 
attention,  and  such  papers  as  the  Spectator 
and  Tattler  came  across  the  water  to  meet 
the  literary  taste  of  the  more  wealthy,  while 
•the  jealous  care  of  the  mother  country 
watched  over  the  colonial  papers,  lest  they 


should  breed  sedition.  Dr.  Franklin  informs 
us  that  the  first  start  he  got  in  life  was 
through  the  misfortune  of  his  brother,  who 
owned  the  paper  on  which  he  was  an  appren 
tice,  in  incurring  the  displeasure  of  the  gov 
ernment  for  disrespectful  remarks.  The  pa 
per  was  suspended,  ^s  Paris  papers  arc  at  the 
present  day,  and  Benjamin's  indentures  were 
cancelled  in  order  that  he  might  become  the 
nominal  owner.  The  editor  of  the  Boston 
Courant,  in  1732,  made  his  valedictory  to 
the  public,  because  he  found  it  too  vexatious 
to  be  running  with  his  proof  in  his  pocket 
to  the  government  house,  and  the  new  editor 
promised  to  do  the  best  he  could  under  the 
circumstances.  There  were  few  subjects 
then  to  interest  the  general  reader,  and  the 
restricted  state  of  industry  allowed  but  little 
range  for  advertising.  The  paper  was  poor, 
and  mostly  imported  at  a  high  price  from 
England,  while  the  laborious  work  of  a  man 
through  the  live-long  night  on  the  presses  of 
the  day,  gave  but  a  few  hundred  to  circulate 
in  the  morning,  and  these  few  were  to  be 
sold  at  a  rate  that  must  cover  all  the  expen 
ses — that  is  to  say,  for  more  than  they  were 
worth. 

The  first  daily  paper  published  in  the 
United  States,  was  the  Pennsylvania  Packet 
or  General  Advertiser,  started  as  a  weekly,  by 
John  Dunlap,  in  1771,  and  merged  into  a 
daily  in  1784,  at  the  peace.  To  one  of  the 
conductors  of  the  paper,  Washington  gave 
the  manuscript  of  his  "Farewell  Address,  and 
which,  at  a  recent  sale  of  his  executors,  was 
purchased  by  Mr.  Lennox,  of  New  York,  for 
$2,000.  The  first  form  in  which  printed 
news  appeared  in  England  was  that  of  dog 
gerel  ballads,  which  were  issued  as  early  as 
the  reign  of  Queen  Mary.  These  were  fol 
lowed  by  occasional  sheets,  or  pamphlets,  of 


302 


NEWSPAPERS. 


news ;  but  the  first  approach  to  a  regular 
newspaper  was  the  Weekly  Newesfrom  Italy, 
Germanic,  &c.,  May  23,  1622,  which  was  con 
tinued,  with  some  variations  of  title  and  oc 
casional  intermissions,  until  1640.  The  ear 
liest  specimen  of  parliamentary  reporting  is 
entitled,  The  Diurnal  Occurrences  or  Daily 
Proceedings  of  Both  Houses  in  this  Great 
and  Happy  Parliament,  from  3d  November, 
1640,  to  3d  November,  1641.  More  than 
one  hundred  newspapers,  with  different 
titles,  appear  to  have  been  published  between 
this  date  and  the  death  of  Charles!.,  and  up 
ward  of  eighty  others  between  that  event 
and  the  Restoration.  Occasional  papers 
were  issued  after  the  civil  war  began,  limited 
to  local  or  special  occurrences,  as  News  from 
Hull,  Truths  from  York,  Tidings  from  Ire 
land.  The  more  regular  newspapers  were 
published  Aveekly  at  first,  then  twice  or  thrice 
in  a  week.  The  impatience  of  the  people 
soon  led  to  the  publication  of  daily  papers ; 
and  Spalding,  the  Aberdeen  annalist,  men 
tions  that  in  December,  1642,  daily  papers 
came  from  London,  called  Diurnal  Occur 
rences,  declaring  what  was  done  in  Parliament. 
In  the  Scottish  campaign  of  1650,  the  army 
of  Charles  and  that  of  Oliver  Cromwell  each 
carried  its  printer  along  with  it  to  report 
progress,  and,  of  course,  to  exaggerate  suc 
cesses.  It  is  from  this  circumstance  that  the 
first  introduction  of  newspapers  into  Scotland 
has  been  attributed  to  Oliver  Cromwell. 

The  stirring  events  of  the  American  Revo 
lution  in  like  manner  gave  a  great  impulse  to 
printing;  but  that  took  the  form  of  pamph 
lets  and  circulars  more  than  that  of  the  peri 
odical  press.  The  event  made  the  press  free, 
and  it  began  a  new  career ;  but  the  habits  of 
the  people  had  not  been  overcome,  nor  were 
the  means  of  popularizing  the  press  yet  in 
existence.  Nevertheless,  politics  became  the 
staple  of  newspapers,  •which  were  started  in 
most  sections  as  the  organs  of  parties  and  to 
support  candidates  for  office ;  as  a  matter  of 
course  these  were  read  mostly  by  those  who 
were  of  the  same  way  of  thinking.  The  cir 
culation  could  never  reach  a  point  that  would 
make  it  profitable  of  itself,  because  the  limit 
•was  the  power  of  the  press  to  work  the  papers. 
In  the  great  cities  the  chief  support  of  the 
press  was  the  advertising  patronage,  bestow 
ed  in  some  degree  in  the  light  of  political 
support.  The  foreign  news  and  domestic 
items  of  intelligence  made  up  the  general 
interests,  with  ship  news,  that  began  after  the 
war  of  1812  to  have  a  more  extended  char 


acter.  These  papers,  published  at  $10  per 
annum,  did  not  much  interest  the  mass  of 
people,  beyond  whose  reach  the  price  for  the 
most  part  placed  them  ;  advertising  patron 
age  and  government  "pap"  were  therefore 
the  sources  looked  to  for  profit.  These  pa 
pers  were  seldom  left  in  families,  but  were 
carried  home  by  those  who  took  them  at 
their  places  of  business.  The  papers  of  the 
early  part  of  the  century  were  very  meagre 
The  oldest  existing  papers  of  New  York  are 
the  Commercial  Advertiser,  founded  in  1797, 
and  the  Evening  Post,  in  1801.  The  rival 
ry  among  the  papers  of  the  day  was  not  so 
much  to  interest  the  general  reading  public, 
as  to  conciliate  those  commercial  interests  on 
the  patronage  of  which  the  means  of  the  paper 
mostly  depended.  The  Commercial  Gazette, 
of.  New  York,  became  a  leading  journal 
through  the  enterprise  of  its  editor  in  col 
lecting  ship  news.  He  himself  rowed  a  boat, 
boarding  vessels  coming  up  the  bay,  to  col 
lect  reports  with  which  he  enriched  his  col 
umns.  The  other  papers  of  New  York  and 
neighboring  cities  followed  the  example,  and 
competition  was  mostly  in  that  direction.  In 
1827,  the  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce 
was  started,  chiefly  by  Arthur  Tappan,  Esq., 
of  Boston,  and  David  Hale,  then  an  auction 
eer  in  Boston,  was  made  joint  editor  with 
Mr.  Hallock,  of  New  Haven.  About  the 
same  time,  two  papers  were  united  in  the 
New  York  Courier  and  Enquirer,  under 
James  Watson  Webb.  These  two  papers 
employed  news  schooners  to  furnish  ship 
news  at  great  expense.  This  enterprise  was 
promoted  by  the  introduction  of  a  Napier 
press,  which  allowed  of  an  increased  circula 
tion  of  larger  sized  papers,  and  these  became 
filled  with  advertising  as  the  speculative 
years  that  exploded  with  1837  came  on. 
The  success  of  these  two  rival  papers,  how 
ever,  so  absorbed  the  newspaper  business, 
that  it  was  fatal  to  the  other  old  papers. 
The  Mercantile  Advertiser,  by  Butler ;  the 
Daily  Advertiser,  by  Dwight  and  Townsend, 
and  the  Commercial  Gazette,  by  Lane;,  which 
had  long  flourished,  died  out.  There  are 
many  who  still  remember  the  old  gilt  head 
of  Franklin,  which  for  so  many  years  sur 
mounted  the  door  of  the  Gazette  publication 
office,  and  which  still  looks  out  upon  Wall 
street  from  another  office,  with  the  inscrip 
tion,  "  Old  Lang's  Sign."  Several  other 
papers  followed,  among  which  was  the  New 
York  American,  evening  paper,  edited  by 
Charles  King,  Esq.  At  that  period  cheap 


NEWSPAPERS DAILIES — WEEKLIES — PERIODICALS. 


303 


newspapers,  fast  presses,  telegraph  and  ex 
press  companies  made  their  appearance  all 
together,  to  work  out  by  mutual  aid  the 
marvels  that  we  have  since  witnessed.  The 
first  penny  paper  was  published  by  Benjamin 
H.  Day,  in  1833.  It  was  about  ten  inches 
square,  and  sold  for  one  cent,  or  to  the  news 
boys  for  sixty-two  and  a  half  cents  per  hundred. 
It  was  without  editorials,  but  was  filled  with 
news  items.  It  grew  rapidly  to  a  large  cir 
culation,  and  acquiring  advertisements,  swell 
ed  into  a  larger  sheet,  which  got  into  the 
hands  of  Mr.  Beach.  This  was  hardly  known 
out  of  New  York,  and  being  confined  mostly 
to  local  news  and  without  marked  character, 
never  became  an  influential  paper,  although 
its  circulation  ran  up  to  60,000,  and  it  was 
one  of  the  first  to  use  Hoe's  fast  press.  This 
large  circulation  was  obtained  at  first  through 
the  notoriety  that  the  publication  of  the  cele 
brated  Moon  Hoax  imparted  to  it.  A  great 
number  of  other  penny  papers  were  started  as 
the  result  of  the  success  of  the  Sun.  That 
paper,  however,  occupied  the  ground,  and 
none  succeeded,  until  in  1835  the  New 
York  Herald  was  started  by  James  Gordon 
Bennett,  a  veteran  editor. 

From  that  time  really  dates  the  new  era 
of  newspapers.  The  Herald  was  sold  at  one 
cent,  and  Mr.  Bennett,  with  great  industry 
and  genius,  wrote  the  whole  of  it  himself. 
The  first  week's  expenses  were  $56,  and  from 
that  time  they  have  not  ceased  to  increase 
up  to  the  present  time,  when  they  are  several 
thousand  dollars  per  week,  and  the  profits 
probably  $150,000  per  annum.  The  prin 
ciple  of  the  cash  press  was  radically  different 
from  that  of  the  old  papers.  Of  the  latter, 
politics  had  been  the  staple  ;  every  paper 
was  the  organ  of  some  clique,  and  the  com 
mercial  community  the  patrons.  The  new 
press  explored  every  possible  topic  of  in 
terest,  making  politics  secondary.  It  excited 
in  the  public  mind  an  interest  in  topics  that 
had  been  before  dormant,  and  satisfied  that 
interest  by  selling  a  very  cheap  paper.  The 
Herald  began  systematic  reports  of  the 
money  and  commercial  markets,  maintain 
ing  them  with  a  vigor  that  gave  it  a  world 
wide  reputation,  and  soon  made  such  reports 
a  necessity  for  all  papers.  It  sent  efficient 
reporters  to  the  courts,  to  public  meetings, 
to  give  graphic  descriptions  of  what  actual 
ly  occurred,  instead  of  (as  in  the  old  style) 
printing  the  proceedings  from  manuscript 
prepared  before  they  took  place.  It  reported 
religious  anniversaries,  and  opened  every 


avenue  of  interest  with  the  most  persevering 
industry  and  in  a  style  that  attracted  readers. 
The  proprietor  was  ever  on  the  alert  for 
more  efficient  means  of  obtaining  news,  and 
spared  no  expense  to  be  the  first  in  the  field. 
Expresses  by  railroad  were  frequently  run 
at  great  cost,  and  reporters  were  sent  to  any 
part  of  the  country  where  events  were  of  an 
interest  to  justify  it.  The  appearance  of  the 
telegraph  was  the  signal  for  new  enterprises. 
These,  on  the  part  of  the  Herald,  have  done 
more  to  extend  the  telegraph  than  all  other 
means  together.  Its  enterprise  did  for  the 
telegraph  what  before  it  had  done  for  the 
press.  In  1847,  Mr.  Clay  spoke  in  Lexing 
ton,  eighty  miles  from  Cincinnati,  on  the 
Mexican  war.  There  was  no  telegraph  near 
er  than  Cincinnati.  The  Herald  reporters 
took  down  the  speech,  and  by  horses  relayed 
every  ten  miles,  carried  it  to  Cincinnati  in 
eight  hours,  whence  it  was  sent  by  telegraph 
and  issued  in  the  Herald  next  morning,  at 
an  expense  of  $500.  This  is  one  instance  of 
many  by  which  the  Herald  has  impelled  en 
terprise. 

The  Associated  Press,  which  embraces  the 
New  York  papers  and  those  of  the  neigh 
boring  cities,  together  with  many  of  those 
of  the  interior  cities,  pays  $200,000  per  an 
num  for  the  daily  reports.  The  Herald's 
proportion  of  this  forms,  however,  but  a 
small  portion  of  its  outlay  for  telegraph.  In 
two  weeks  in  September,  1860,  wnen  the 
Prince  of  Wales  was  in  Canada,  and  the 
political  events  of  the  presidential  campaign 
to  be  gathered,  it  expended  $2,301  for  extra 
telegraphic  reports,  and  its  wliole  expense 
for  that  item  will  average  $1,000  per  week 
during  the  year.  It  is  such  enterprise  as 
this  that  makes  telegraphs  possible  and  the 
paper  indispensable.  That  the  circulation 
swelled  beyond  the  capacity  of  the  press  is, 
under  such  circumstances,  no  matter  of  sur 
prise.  The  result  was  an  affluence  of  circu 
lation  that  could  have  beea  met  only  by  the 
opportune  appearance  of  the  fast  presses  of 
Hoe  &  Co.  The  first  Heralds  were  printed 
by  hand;  a  single-cylinder  turned  by  hand 
followed,  and  was  succeeded  by  the  double- 
cylinder,  turned  at  first  by  hand  and  then 
by  steam.  In  1848  the  four-cylinder  press 
came  hardly  in  time  to  meet  the  Herald's 
wants.  The  six-cylinder,  the  eight-cylinder, 
and  the  ten-cylinder  succeeded  each  other, 
carrying  the  printing  per  hour  from  250  to 
2,000,  to  3,500,  to  10,000,  to  15,000,  to 
18,000,  and  to  25,000,  even  at  which  last 


304 


NEWSPAPERS. 


figure  the  tardy  press  still  lingers  behind  the 
public  demand  for  Heralds. 

In  all  this  time  other  papers  have  followed 
on  the  same  general  plan.  The  Ledger  of 
Philadelphia  has  as  large  a  circulation  as  any 
in  the  world.  It  employs  two  eight-cylinder 
presses.  Baltimore,  Boston,  and  other  and 
distant  cities  have  seen  the  growth  of  flour 
ishing  papers.  In  1841  the  New  York  Tri 
bune  was  started  by  Horace  Greeley.  The 
paper  soon  reached  a  paying  stage,  since 
•when  it  has  been  highly  successful.  The 
circulation  of  all  its  editions  reaches  nearly 
500,000  copies  per  week. 

The  New  York  Times  was  started  in 
1850,  H.  J.  Raymond,  Esq.,  editor.  He 
had  been  connected  with  the  Ti'ibune  and 
the  New  York  Courier.  The  paper  has  at 
tained  a  great  success,  after  struggling  a  long 
time  to  win  a  paying  position.  In  1860 
the  World  was  started  on  the  same  princi 
ple,  with  a  large  capital,  subscribed  by  a  com 
pany  of  gentlemen.  These  three  papers  are 
joint-stock  concerns.  The  Tribune  was 
divided  into  shares,  which  are  held  by  those 
who  are  connected  with  the  editorial  and 
publishing  departments.  The  Times  is 
owned  in  a  similar  manner,  and  the  shares  of 
both  are  at  a  high  premium.  The  Herald  is 
the  only  one  owned  by  an  individual. 

The  circulation  of  the  New  York  dailies  is 
now  (1866)  about  350,000  against  about 
10,000  in  1835.  The  greater  part  of  this  is 
divided  among  six  papers,  viz.,  the  Tribune, 
Herald,  Times,  Sun,  Staats  Zeitung  and 
Evening  Post.  The  following  items  from 
the  census  of  1860  show  the  extent  of  news 
paper  publishing  in  New  York  city  at  that 
time :  it  has  more  than  doubled  since  in 
value,  and  greatly  increased  in  the  number 
of  issues.  There  were,  in  1860,  in  the  city, 
51  newspaper  establishments,  with  a  capital 
of  $2,941,200,  and  employing  2,486  hands, 
which  printed  newspapers  and  periodicals 
annually  to  the  value  of  $6,182,946.  In 
the  second  ward  of  New  York,  134,116,800 
newspapers  were  printed  annually,  of  an  esti 
mated  value  of  $3,574,493 ;  and  in  the  fourth 
ward,  83,541,960  papers  and  periodicals  were 
printed,  having  an  aggregate  value  of 
$2,143,613.  We  give  elsewhere  the  aggre 
gate  numbers  of  newspapers  and  periodicals 
printed  in  the  United  States  in  1860.  These 
statistics,  like  all  those  of  manufacturing  in 
the  United  States,  are  confessedly  far  below 
the  truth. 

Every  family,  and  almost  every  individual 


has  his  paper,  and  is  interested  in  its  success. 
The  advertising  columns  of  a  morning  paper 
contain,  in  a  remarkable  degree,  the  wants, 
desires,  occupations  of  our  people — a  pho 
tograph,  as  it  were,  of  their  daily  life. 

The  advertisements  of  one  day  in  the  daily 
Herald  numbered  1,191,  a  large  number 
of  them  being  very  short,  341,  for  instance, 
being  comprised  under  the  four  headings,  Situ 
ations  Wanted,  Males  and  Females,  and  Help 
Wanted,  Males  and  Females,  and  308  more 
under  the  heads  of  Houses  and  Rooms 
Wanted,  To  Let  and  For  Sale,  and  Boarding 
and  Lodging,  or  thirteen-twenty-fourths  of 
the  whole  in  these  items.  The  Herald  has 
a  much  larger  number  of  these  advertise 
ments  than  any  other  of  the  dailies,  the 
Tribune  having  in  a  single  issue  only  119  ad 
vertisements  of  these  classes,  while  of  all 
others  it  had  458,  against  542  in  the  Herald, 
and  its  advertisements  being  longer,  occupied 
somewhat  more  space  than  those  of  the 
Herald.  The  Times  is  about  midway  in  the 
number  of  its  advertisements  between  the 
Tribune  and  the  Herald,  having  more  short 
advertisements  than  the  former,  and  more 
long  ones  than  the  latter.  There  is  very 
little  difference  in  the  actual  space  occupied 
by  advertisements  in  the  three  papers. 

The  procuring  these  long  advertisements 
is  now  a  business  of  itself,  employing  nume 
rous  canvassers,  and  making  large  fortunes  for 
the  managers.  Enterprising  men,  publishers 
of  newspapers,  principals  of  business  colleges, 
proprietors  of  sewing  and  other  machines 
adapted  for  general  use,  or  of  popular  arti 
cles  of  food  or  medicine,  have  availed 
themselves  of  the  opportunities  afforded 
by  the  large  circulation  of  these  papers  to 
give  one,  two,  or  even  four  pages  of  adver 
tising  in  a  single  number,  and  this  lavish 
expenditure,  amounting  in  some  instances 
to  $200,000  or  $300,000  per  annum, 
has  proved  immensely  profitable  in  the 
end. 

The  Evening  Post  and  the  Commercial 
Advertiser,  though  printed  as  folios,  and  not 
as  quarto  sheets,  have  a  very  large  advertising 
patronage,  mostly  from  the  shipping  and 
wholesale  merchants,  book  publishers,  &c. 
The  advertisements  in  the  morning  papers 
are,  to  a  large  extent,  fresh  advertisements 
daily,  received  and  paid  for  the  previous 
day.  Those  of  the  evening  papers  are, 
many  of  them,  less  frequently  changed. 
The  advertisements  of  the  morning  pa 
pers  belong  to  the  day  on  which  they 


NEWSPAPERS DAILIES WEEKLIES PERIODICALS. 


•305 


appear,  and  compose  a  part  of  the  life  and 
the  news  thereof,  like  any  other  matter  in 
the  paper — to  many  people  more  interesting 
and  more  important.  No  portion  of  a  great 
metropolitan  journal,  then,  is  dead  matter ; 
even  the  advertising  columns,  which  many 
suppose  to  be  dull  and  tedious,  are  full  of 
life  and  interest,  and  fresh  every  day.  It  is 
amusing  to  contrast  such  a  paper  with  the 
Philadelphia  Gazette  of  175(3,  then  con 
ducted  by  Benjamin  Franklin.  Its  dimen 
sions  arc  about  eight  by  ten.  The  news  and 
reading  matter  which  it  contains,  could  all  be 
put  into  one  of  the  pages  of  this  book.  It  has 
not  a  sinrjle  line  of  editorial.  Its  latest  foreign 
news  was  about  three  or  four  months  old.  Its 
domestic  news  principally  related  to  the 
Indians.  Among  its  advertisements  were 
several  notices  of  the  sale  of  negroes  in 
Pennsylvania.  The  progress  of  the  news 
paper  art  is  well  illustrated  by  comparing 
this  sheet  with  those  issued  in  our  large 
cities  at  the  present  day. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that,  since  the  era 
of  the  cheap  cash  press,  there  have  been  no 
papers  started  on  the  old  or  credit  system. 
The  New  York  Express  was  started  in  1837, 
and  it  has  maintained  its  position  only  by 
adopting  the  cash  plan  for  its  evening  edition. 
By  the  old  system  of  publication,  the  sub 
scription  was  taken  for  the  year  at  gener 
ally  $10,  which  was  collected  at  the  end  of 
six  months  by  the  collector  employed.  These 
were  served  at  the  houses  or  offices  by  car 
riers,  employed  by  the  paper  at  a  weekly  sal 
ary.  The  subscriptions  from  the  country  were 
paid  the  first  year  in  advance,  but  when  the 
papers  are  continued  on  trust,  enormous  sums 
accrue  in  arrcar  subscriptions — from  $10,000 
to  850,000  bad  debts  sometimes  accumula 
ting.  These  being  scattered  in  small  sums  all 
over  the  country,  and  that  at  a  time  when 
communication  was  not  so  prompt  as  now, 
did  not  pay  to  collect.  The  advertising  was 
generally  §40  per  square  per  annum.  A 
square  was  twenty  lines.  This  was  mostly 
commercial  advertising;  the  public  and  re 
tail  trade  did  not  advertise  much.  The 
system  involved  much  expense  in  collecting, 
and  inevitable  losses  in  bad  debts. 

The  system  with  the  cheap  press  is  en 
tirely  different.  The  papers  were  started 
only  by  sales  to  the  newsboys,  who  paid  the 
money  when  they  took  the  papers.  There 
are  no  subscriptions  taken  at  the  office,  and, 
consequently,  no  carriers  employed.  The 
penny  papers  sell  to  the  boys  at  62^  cents 


per  hundred,  and  the  two   cent  papers  at 
$1.50  per  hundred. 

When  the  city  circulation  of  the  papers 
extended  itself,  many  persons  wished  to  get 
them  regularly  at  their  houses  every  morn 
ing.  Thus  some  of  the  newsboys  got  regu 
lar  subscribers,  and  became  carriers  on  their 
own  account.  Although  they  were  obliged 
to  pay  cash  every  morning  for  the  papers 
when  they  took  them,  they  soon  acquired 
as  much  means  as  enabled  them  to  leave  the 
papers  with  their  patrons,  and  collect  the 
twelve  cents  at  the  end  of  the  week.  This 
promoted  circulation,  because  the  customers 
could  not  always  have  the  two  cents  early  in 
the  morning  to  pay  with.  The  carriers  then 
extended  their  routes,  and  became  proprie 
tors  of  them,  independent  of  the  newspapers. 
A  carrier  who  succeeded  in  getting  1,000 
subscribers  to  serve  every  morning,  paid  out 
to  the  office  every  morning  $15  for  the 
papers.  At  the  end  of  the  week  he .  col 
lected  $120  from  the  subscribers,  which 
gave  him  $30  a  week  profit.  This  was  a 
good  business,  and  many  came  to  employ 
boys  to  serve  under  them,  and  serve  several 
different  papers  on  their  routes.  These 
routes  have  been  sold  by  the  carriers,  ac 
cording  to  value,  from  $200  to  $2,000  each. 
There  also  arose  the  publishing  agencies, 
which  took  large  numbers  to  sell  at  stations 
and  small  shops  in  the  city,  and  to  send  to 
other  cities  by  express,  in  bundles  to  be 
served  there. 

The  country  subscriptions  are  taken  for  a 
year  in  advance.  Their  subscriptions  are  all 
written  in  "  mail  books,"  which  are  classified 
North,  East,  South,  West,  according  to  the 
direction  in  which  they  are  to  be  sent.  The 
books  arc  laid  off  into  states,  counties,  and 
towns,  and  the  name  of  the  subscriber  is  writ 
ten  under  the  appropriate  town,  with  the 
date  up  to  which  lie  has  paid.  The  wrap 
ping  paper  being  prepared,  a  number  of 
boys  arc  employed  copying  the  names  upon 
the  wrappers,  which  are  then  laid  in  order 
ready  to  receive  the  papers  when  printed 
and  folded.  When  the  date  to  which  a  sub 
scriber  lias  paid  is  expired,  the  mail  boy 
crosses  it  off,  unless  it  has  been  renewed  by 
a  new  date.  This  simplifies  the  accounts 
very  much,  any  number  of  subscribers  re 
quiring  no  other  account  than  these  simple 
mail  books,  and  no  one  gets  a  paper  that  is  not 
paid  for.  Thus  there  were  grown  up  four 
chief  avenues  for  the  sale  of  papers — the 
mail,  the  carriers,  the  newsboys,  and  the 


306 


XEWSPAPERS. 


agencies.  Each  of  these  wanted  their  papers 
first  in  the  morning,  and  the  rush  of  all  at 
once  made  so  great  a  pressure  that  it  was 
difficult  to  count  the  small  sums  of  money 
that  each  offered,  and  count  the  papers  also. 
Hence  it  became  the  rule  for  all  to  go  the 
evening  before  to  the  office,  pay  in  their 
money,  and  take  a  ticket  for  the  number 
wanted.  The  matter  of  precedence  was  set 
tled  by  the  necessities  of  the  case,  and  the 
decision  of  the  "  cutter,"  like  those  of  a 
chief  justice,  are  open  to  "influences."  It  is 
now  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  50,000  daily 
papers,  and  in  some  cases,  on  the  day  of  pub 
lication,  200,000  weekly  papers  are  to  be 
distributed  to  all  these  persons  at  once.  There 
must  be  no  delay.  The  mail  is  to  swallow 
its  share  ;  the  express  have  its  allowance ;  and 
the  community  must  not  be  disappointed  at 
breakfast  by  either  newsboys  or  carriers. 
Thirteen  tons  weight  of  paper  is  to  be  di 
vided  up  into  quantities  of  from  five  ounces 
to  thousands  of  pounds  without  mistake  or 
delay.  Let  any  one  undertake  to  fold  up  a 
wet  paper  that  has  never  been  folded,  and 
he  will  estimate  the  difficulty  of  getting 
200,000  folded,  wrapped  up,  and  mailed  in 
an  hour's  time.  To  facilitate  the  folding,  a 
machine  has  been  invented,  which  does  the 
work  rapidly  and  well.  A  machine  has  also 
been  invented  to  direct  papers;  this  does 
not  do  so  well.  The  cylinder  machine  is 
flinging  off  the  copies  seven  per  second,  and 
newsboys,  mail  boys,  carriers,  and  agents, 
are  vicing  with  each  other  in  the  rapidity 
and  skill  of  the  operation.  Within  a  short 
time  after  the  huge  machine  begins  to  relax 
its  speed,  the  whole  mass  is  gone,  in  bags 
and  bundles,  in  carts  and  wagons,  while  fifty 
carriers,  with  lots  under  their  arms,  are  on 
their  routes,  and  the  newsboys  are  seeking 
the  ferries  and  landings,  with  their  shrill 
cries.  Contrast  this  with  the  solemn  grunt 
ing  of  a  hand  press  thirty  years  ago,  through 
the  live-long  night,  to  work  off  its  seven 
reams  of  paper  that  were  to  furnish  3,500 
copies,  as  the  immense  edition  of  a  "crack" 
daily,  to  sleepy  carriers  and  a  mail  clerk  ! 

The  operation  of  the  express  companies 
greatly  facilitated  the  sending  of  the  papers 
to  the  publication  agencies  in  other  cities. 
These  are  sent  in  bundles  as  they  come 
from  the  press,  and  are  opened,  folded,  and 
served  after  their  arrival.  There  has  been  a 
growing  demand  in  this  way  for  city  papers, 
and  an  individual  recently  conceived  the 
magnificent  idea  of  extending,  as  it  were,  a 


carrier's  route  300  miles,  and  ensuring  those 
distant  readers  their  paper  at  the  breakfast- 
table.  He  ascertained  by  calculating  time, 
that  if  he  could  procure  all  the  daily  papers 
at  a  certain  time  in  the  morning  of  each  day, 
he  cotild  run  a  special  express  up  the  North 
River  in  time  to  catch  the  early  train  going 
west,  and  by  so  doing  deliver  the  papers  in 
all  the  cities  of  the  North  River  and  on  the 
line  of  the  Central  road,  to  the  readers  at  the 
same  time  the  readers  in  New  York  city  get 
them.  To  do  this,  it  was  necessary  for  the 
daily  papers  to  get  to  press  at  a  certain  hour, 
and  deliver  to  this  express  the  first  num- 
'bers  worked.  This  they  agreed  to  ;  at  the 
stated  hour  the  wagon  receives  the  papers 
in  sheets,  drives  rapidly  to  the  car  waiting 
with  steam  up  at  the  Hudson  River  railroad, 
tosses  in  the  papers,  when  they  are  imme 
diately  seized  by  folders  and  wrappers,  and 
made  up  into  bundles,  in  the  order  of  the 
nearest  towns  first.  The  locomotive  starting 
the  moment  the  papers  reach  it,  whirls  on 
like  a  thunderbolt,  and  as  it  passes  each 
town  and  village,  the  package  that  belongs 
there  is  thrown  out  to  be  picked  up  by  ex 
pectant  hands  for  distribution.  The  first 
towns  reached  get  these  before  they  are 
wanted,  but  even  with  the  terrific  pace  of  the 
iron  horse,  daylight  gradually  breaks  upon 
the  rapid  folding,  wrapping,  and  tossing,  as 
each  successive  town  comes  as  it  were  out 
of  the  gloom  of  night,  to  brighten  into 
gray  and  catch  the  gilding  of  the  rising  sun 
as  well  as  the  intellectual  light  emitted 
from  the  passing  meteor.  The  race  is  sus 
tained  until  the  papers  arc  all  delivered  and 
the  early  morning  spent.  The  limit  to  this 
enterprise  is  the  rate  of  speed  only,  since  if 
that  could  be  doubled,  a  radius  of  600  miles 
around  New  York  might  feel  the  morning's 
rays  of  the  press  as  well  as  one  of  300  miles. 
The  tendency  of  this  is  to  centralize  the 
power  of  the  press,  since,  if  all  the  readers 
of  papers  within  a  circle  of  300  miles  can 
get  the  New  York  papers  as  early  and  as  cheap 
as  in  the  city  itself,  and  these  papers  con 
tain  the  news  of  all  those  cities  conveyed  by 
telegraph  to  be  printed  and  returned,  why 
the  carriers'  routes  of  the  city  press  are 
only  extended,  and  the  papers  so  conveyed 
will  look  down,  or  read  down  all  competition. 
This  enterprise  was  suspended  after  a  few 
weeks'  operation,  as  not  yet  paying  suffi 
ciently. 

The  sale  of  papers  at  the  steamboats  and 
in   the  cars  has  become   a  large  business, 


NEWSPAPERS — DAILIES WEEKLIES PERIODICALS. 


307 


and  the  privilege  of  doing  so  is  now  farmed 
out  by  the  companies.  The  privilege  is 
paid  for  at  rates  sometimes  as  high  as  $5,000 
per  annum  on  good  routes,  say  some  of  the 
best  travelled  into  New  York.  The  con 
ductor  employs  boys  who  start  with  th6  out- 
trains  in  the  morning,  supplying  all  who  go. 
These  trains  meet  others,  in  an  hour's  ride, 
coming  in,  filled  not  only  with  passengers 
from  a  distance,  but  with  persons  who,  doing 
business  in  the  city,  commute  on  the  road, 
and  come  in  every  day ;  all  of  them  are 
anxious  for  the  papers,  and  they  are  sold  at 
50  per  cent,  advance,  say  3  cents  for  the  2 
cent  papers ;  a  sale  of  2,000  papers  at  this 
rate  gives  a  profit  of  $30  per  day,  or  $8,000 
per  annum. 

The  Sunday  press  has  become  a  feature  in 
.New  York  within  twenty  years.  The  first 
Sunday  paper  was  the  Sunday  Morning 
N~ews,  published  in  1835,  by  Samuel  Jenks 
Smith.  It  had  a  considerable  success,  but 
stopped  on  the  death  of  Mr.  Smith.  In 
1840,  the  Atlas  was  started  by  Herrick, 
Ropes  &  West.  The  last-named  had  been  a 
reporter  on  the  Herald.  The  paper  had  a 
great  success,  and  is  still  flourishing.  The 
Sunday  Mercury  was  next  started,  and  re 
ceived  a  great  impulse  from  the  "  Patent 
Sermons"  of  Dow,  jr.  Then  followed  the 
Sunday  Times,  the  Dispatch,  and  others, 
which  have  attained  much  success. 

The  illustrated  weekly  papers  have  also  be 
come  successful  in  the  last  ten  years.  The 
first  was  started  with  a  good  deal  of  capital 
and  spirit  in  1845,  but  lived  only  a  short  time. 
Then  followed  many  which  did  not  succeed, 
until  Mr.  Barnum  and  others  started  the 
Illustrated  News  in  1853,  which  failed  in  a 
year,  although  Mr.  Barnum  had  declared 
that  he  would  carry  it  on  if  he  had  "  but 
one  subscription,  and  paid  that  himself." 
A  number  of  papers  were  started  in  imita 
tion  of  the  London  Punch,  but  without 
success.  The  vein  of  American  humor 
could  not  be  reached  until  the  Yankee 
Notions,  a  collection  of  grotesque  wood- 
engravings,  cheaply  got  up,  had  a  success 
that  has  earned  a  fortune  for  the  proprietor. 
The  New  York  Journal,  a  literary  paper 
•without  much  circulation,  introduced  a  few 
pictures.  It  was  purchased  by  Frank  Leslie, 
who,  after  Barnum's  failure,  started  his  suc 
cessful  Illustrated  Newspaper,  having  of  late 
a  rival  in  the  New  York  Illustrated  News. 
The  Messrs.  Harper  started,  in  January,  1857, 
Harper's  Weekly,  which  was  at  first  partially 


illustrated.  It  gradually,  however,  acquired 
the  pictorial  character,  and  attained  an  im 
mense  circulation,  supported,  as  it  is,  by  the 
highest  talent  at  home  and  abroad.  Stories 
by  Dickens,  Bulwer,  Wilkie  Colling,  and 
original  tales  by  American  authors  appear  in 
it.  Hence  it  is  a  work  of  a  high  character, 
of  which  the  illustrations  are  a  feature,  and 
not  the  sole  dependence.  There  were  issued  in 
1865  over  6,000,000  copies  of  the  Weekly.  The 
largest  circulation  of  the  secular  weeklies  is 
perhaps  the  Ledger,  which  is  partly  illus 
trated,  and  is  an  instance  of  singular  success. 
It  was,  at  first,  as  its  name  indicates,  a  com 
mercial  paper,  struggling  to  live.  During  the 
popularity  of  Fanny  Fern  as  a  writer,  it  sud 
denly  changed  character,  gave  that  lady  $  100 
per  week  to  write  for  it  exclusively,  adver 
tised  freely,  and  obtained  a  circulation  of 
about  400,000  copies  weekly,  which  it  still 
maintains. 

We  have  spoken  mostly  of  the  city  press, 
the  general  features  of  which  apply  to  the 
press  of  most  large  cities,  numerous  examples 
being  found  in  the  papers  of  western  and 
southern  cities.  The  papers  which  have  the 
most  enduring  influence  upon  the  public 
mind  are,  probably,  the  country  weeklies. 
These  are,  from  the  circumstances  of  the  case, 
not  endowed  with  the  flash  and  energy  of 
city  papers,  but  their  enterprise  being  con 
fined  to  their  localities,  their  teachings  are 
concentrated  in  a  manner  that  is  read  and 
makes  an  abiding  impression  upon  the  under 
standing  of  the  readers.  The  number  of 
these  precludes  any  attempt  at  particular 
description,  and  some  idea  of  their  extent 
may  be  formed  from  the  aggregate  number 
as  reported  by  the  census  of  1860. 


Daily ,..  387 

Tri-  weekly 8G 

Semi-weekly 79 

Weekly 3,173 

Monthly 280 

Quarterly 30 

Annual 16 


Number  of  copies. 
1,478,435 
107,170 
175,165 
7,581,930 
3,411,959 
101,000 
807,750 


Total 4,051       13,663,409 

The  census  of  1860  omitted  all  notice  of 
semi-monthly,  or  fortnightly  periodicals,  of 
which  there  are  a  considerable  number,  and 
some  of  them  of  large  circulation. 

The  aggregate  annual  circulation  of  these 
newspapers  and  periodicals  was  927,951,548 
copies,  an  increase  of  1 1 8  per  cent,  over  1850, 
when  it  was  426,409,000. 


TELEGRAPHS— THEIR  ORIGIN  AND  PROGRESS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

TELEGRAPHS— THEIR   ORIGIN  AND   PROG 
RESS. 

"Canst  thou  send  lightnings, that  they  may  go,  and  say 
unto  thee,  'Hero  we  are"?" — Jon. 

THE  invention  and  use  of  electric  tele 
graphs  are  among  the  most  important  of 
modern  improvements ;  and  it  is  somewhat 
remarkable  that  the  invention  justifies  the 
trite  observation,  that  great  inventions  are 
made  always  at  the  moment  they  are  wanted. 
Telegraphs  have  been  used  from  the  re 
motest  antiquity,  by  signals  of  various  kinds  ; 
and  one  by  flags,  to  signal  the  arrival  of 
vessels  below,  has  been  used  during  the  pres 
ent  century  in  Boston  ;  and,  in  New  York, 
one  operating  by  arms  has  been  used  for 
the  same  purpose  from  the  Narrows  to  the 
roof  of  the  Merchants'  Exchange  in  New 
York.  The  electric  telegraph  applied  light 
ning  to  intelligence  as  steam  was  applied  to 
motion,  and  came  into  being  to  exceed,  by 
its  rapidity  of  intelligence,  the  means  just 
invented  to  convey  more  rapidly  by  rail. 
Indeed,  its  action  is  necessary  to  the  latter, 
since  it  would  be  very  difficult  to  operate 
long  lines  of  railroad,  like  the  New  York 
Erie  and  Central,  without  the  aid  of  the 
electric  telegraph.  The  patent  of  Morse,  who 
was  the  originator  of  the  modern  telegraph, 
was  taken  out  in  the  year  1840  ;  since  then, 
numerous  modes  of  recording  have  been  in 
vented,  and  improvements  adopted,  and 
there  arc  now  three  instruments  in  use — 
House,  Hughes,  and  Morse — with  a  fourth, 
which  is  a  combination  of  the  two  former. 

It  is  curious,  that  just  ninety  years  after 
Dr.  Franklin  identified  lightning  with  elec 
tricity,  by  means  of  his  kite,  Morse  should 
have  schooled  electricity  to  do  messages 
instantaneously,  over  wire,  at  limitless  dis 
tances.  We  say  instantaneously,  because  the 
ascertained  speed  is  288,000  miles  per  sec 
ond,  which  is  scarcely  perceptible,  although, 
at  that  rate,  it  would  take  six  minutes  to 
send  a  despatch  to  the  sun. 


This  all-pervading  element  manifests  it 
self  in  countless  ways — in  the  sparkling  of 
animal  hair;  in  the  rustling  of  silk,  which 
"  betrays  your  poor  heart  to  woman  ;"  in  the 
aurora  that  illumines  the  north ;  in  the 
meteor  that  startles  the  astonished  observer ; 
it  Hashes  in  the  lightning-bolt  that  rives  the 
oak,  without,  while  it  gently  penetrates  into 
the  lady's  parlor  and  fills  her  form,  as  she 
glides  over  her  warm,  thick  carpet,  until  the 
metal  tube  of  the  gas  burner  will  attract 
enough  from  her  finger  to  ignite  the  gas,  or 
from  her  lips  to  startle  a  newly-entered 
friend.  It  will  also  convey  to  her  the 
thoughts  of  distant  minds  with  more  than 
the  assiduity  of  Puck,  by  means  of  the  in 
vention  of  Morse. 

Morse  was  by  no  means  the  discoverer  of  the 
analogy  between  magnetism  and  electricity, 
but  he  was  the  first  who  made  practicable 
all  former  discoveries  and  improvements. 
The  three  leading  properties  of  electricity 
that  make  telegraphs  possible,  are,  first,  its 
constant  desire  to  seek  an  equilibrium,  al 
ways  going  where  there  is  less ;  second,  that 
the  production  of  electricity  is  always  in 
two  currents,  one  positive  and  the  other  neg 
ative,  having  different  tendencies ;  third, 
that  different  substances  have  very  different 
conducting  powers — over  some  it  passes 
with  the  utmost  freedom,  while  over  others 
it  will  not  pass  at  all.  On  this  depends  the 
possibility  of  telegraphing,  since  by  it  the 
current  of  electricity  may  be  arrested  or 
conveyed  at  the  will  of  the  operator.  It 
was  known  that  a  current  of  electricity 
would  render  steel  magnetic,  and  that  to 
wind  wire,  in  a  certain  way,  round  the  steel, 
would  greatly  increase  the  effect.  This 
magnet  would  then  attract  soft  iron,  and 
would  remain  magnetic  as  long  as  the  cur 
rent  of  electricity  ran  on  it.  The  telegraph, 
then,  consisted  in  connecting  two  of  these 
magnets  by  a  wire  of  any  number  of  miles  in 
length,  and  directing  through  it  a  current 
from  an  electric  battery.  By  cutting  off 


gssffa* 

!Tp  S  "   C'* 

^  ^  ,5  »•  ^.  * 


HOUSE  PRINTING  APPARATUS. 


BAIN'S   ELECTRO-CHEMICAL   XELEtUtAPH. 


TELEGRAPHS THEIR     ORIGIN     AND     PROGRESS. 


311 


the  current,  the  steel  becomes  alternately 
charged  and  at  rest  with  great  rapidity.  To 
form  the  current,  it  is  necessary  that  each 
end  of  the  wire  should  communicate  with 
the  ground.  The  interruption  is  caused  by 
stopping  this  communication.  The  first  in 
vention  of  Morse  was  to  place  a  small,  soft 
iron  bar  across  the  end  of  a  rod  supported 
on  pivots,  in  such  a  manner  that  the  iron  bar 
should  be  near  the  magnet.  The  moment 
the  electricity  excites  the  latter  it  attracts 
the  iron,  and,  by  bringing  it  down,  causes 
the  other  end  of  the  rod  on  which  it  rests 
to  rise.  That  end  is  armed  with  a  pen, 
which,  as  it  rises,  is  pressed  against  a  slip  of 
paper,  making  a  dot  upon  it.  The  distant 
operator,  by  making  his  connections  longer 
or  shorter,  causes  the  pen  to  make  marks 
more  or  less  long,  and  these  marks  convey 
words  or  ideas.  This  instrument  is  called 
the  register.  This  was  improved  by  a  clock 
work  accompaniment,  by  which  the  slip  of 
paper  is  moved  from  a  spool  steadily  under 
the  pen  in  operation,  thus  receiving  the  im 
pression  conveyed. 

The  transmitting  apparatus  is  very  simple, 
being  designed  only  for  the  opening  and 
closing  of  the  circuit  in  a  manner  more  easy 
than  by  holding  the  ends  of  the  wire  in  the 
hands,  as  is  done  where  there  is  no  appa 
ratus.  The  two  ends  of  wire  are  separated 
by  two  pieces  of  metal,  on  one  of  which  is  an 
ivory  button,  and  on  the  other  piece  a  steel 
knob,  or  "  anvil."  The  operator,  by  depress 
ing  the  button,  brings  the  two  together, 
completing  the  circuit,  which  is  instantly 
broken  by  releasing  the  button  ;  this  may  be 
done  with  great  rapidity.  To  this  system, 
at  a  later  period,  was  added  the  "  sounder," 
a  simple  contrivance,  by  which  signals  are 
conveyed  by  sound  at  the  will  of  the  oper 
ator,  when  the  electric  current  is  weak.  Up 
to  1842  the  operator  read  the  despatch  from 
slips  of  paper  to  the  copyist,  who  wrote  it 
down.  It  was  soon  found,  however,  that  the 
despatch  could  be  read  by  the  "  click"  of  the 
instruments,  and  the  operator  now  copies,  him 
self,  from  the  sound.  If  a  line  is  well  insu 
lated,  a  despatch  may  be  sent  1,000  miles 
with  as  much  ease  as  a  shorter  one ;  but  vari 
able  weather,  and  other  causes,  prevent  proper 
insulation,  and  "repeaters"  are  used.  By 
this,  the  breaks  and  connections  of  one  cir 
cuit  are  transmitted  to  another  for  the  pur 
pose  of  renewing  the  power.  These  are  the 
chief  features  of  Morse's  system. 

In  1846,  a  patent  for  a  printing  telegraph 


was  applied  for  by  Mr.  House.  By  this, 
seventy  strokes,  or  breaks,  may  be  made  in  a 
second.  A  key-board,  similar  to  that  of  the 
piano,  has  the  twenty-six  letters  of  the  alpha 
bet,  and  a  dot  or  a  dash  painted  over  them. 
Under  the  key-board  there  is  a  wheel  with 
fourteen  cogs  and  as  many  spaces.  Over  all 
is  a  spring,  which,  when  it  presses  against  a 
cog,  closes  the  circuit,  and  when  over  a  space, 
opens  it ;  a  man  turning  a  crank  causes  this 
to  revolve,  and  at  each  revolution  the  circuit 
is  opened  and  closed  twenty-eight  times. 
The  paper  receives  its  impression  from  the 
steel  type  cut  in  the  surface  of  the  type- 
wheel,  by  a  press,  which  forces,  by  an  in 
genious  contrivance,  a  blackened  silk  ribbon 
upon  the  type-wheel  with  sufficient  force  to 
make  an  impression.  The  type-wheel  can 
make  just  as  many  revolutions  as  the  circuit- 
wheel,  and  no  more,  and  it  has  equally  as 
many  cogs.  The  press  can  only  work  when 
the  type-wheel  is  at  rest,  and  that  is  con 
trolled  by  the  keys.  These  are  leading  fea 
tures  of  the  House  system.  The  first  line 
that  used  this  was  the  New  York  and  Phila 
delphia,  in  1849,  and  in  the  same  year  it 
was  adopted  on  the  New  York  and  Boston, 
and  others  have  since  adopted  it. 

The  system  of  Hughes  was  thb  most  ex 
traordinary  of  all  in  point  of  mechanism, 
and,  in  fact,  was  proved  to  be  too  perfect  for 
the  state  of  the  other  apparatus  used.  The  in 
strument  is  not  worked  by  a  crank,  like  that 
of  House,  but  by  clock-work,  with  weights. 
Inasmuch,  however,  as  the  ordinary  pendu 
lum  would  be  far  too  slow  in  its  movements, 
he  invented  a  vibrating  spring  called  the 
"  governor."  This  depends  upon  a  law  of 
acoustics,  by  which  a  certain  number  of 
vibrations  per  second  produces  a  certain 
musical  tone,  and,  per  contra,  two  springs 
at  the  same  tone  will  give  the  same  number 
of  vibrations.  These  springs  control  the 
speed  of  the  instrument;  hence,  if  all  the 
instruments  on  aline  of  telegraphs  arc  set  to 
the  same  tone,  they  will  run  with  the  utmost 
accuracy.  So  great  is  this,  that  Mr.  Hughes 
has  run  his  instruments  140  revolutions  per 
minute,  through  an  entire  day,  without  a 
perceptible  variation — a  result  of  the  most 
surprising  character,  enabling  the  type-wheel 
to  present  the  same  letter  in  the  same  place 
all  along  the  line  at  the  same  moment.  The 
type-wheel  of  Mr.  Hughes'  system  is  the 
same  nearly  as  that  of  House,  with  the  im 
portant  difference,  that  it  docs  not  stop  to 
print,  but  imparts  an  impression  with  ink  on 


S12 


TELEGRAPHS — THEIR     ORIGIN     AND     PROGRESS. 


the  paper  itself  while  revolving  at  the  rate 
of  130  revolutions  per  minute,  or,  it  prints  a 
letter  at  every  pulsation  of  the  telegraph ; 
while  that  of  House  requires  seven,  and 
Morse  three  and  a  half.  The  sensibility  of 
the  combination  of  Hughes  is  so  great,  that 
the  simple  contact  of  zinc  with  copper  wire 
gives  sufficient  power  to  work  it.  The  oper 
ating  of  the  type-wheel  is  very  simple  and 
effective.  The  key-board  contains  twenty- 
eight  keys,  and  is  operated  like  that  of 
House.  Suppose  there  are  twenty-eight 
spaces  on  the  circumference  of  a  cylinder, 
at  equal  distances,  and  a  peg  upon  the  end 
of  each  key,  so  arranged  that,  upon  being 
depressed,  it  enters  into  an  allotted  space 
once  during  each  revolution ;  upon  entering 
the  space  it  completes  the  circuit ;  by  so 
doing  it  causes  the  type-wheel  to  make  the 
impression  of  a  letter;  nothing  could  be 
more  perfect.  In  practical  operation,  how 
ever,  the  movement  by  weights  required 
such  a  complication  as  to  lead  to  continual 
breakage.  It  was  also  found  that  the  high 
degree  of  sensitiveness,  which  was  to  cause 
the  machine  to  operate  longer  distances 
without  relays,  was  a  serious  objection,  since 
no  insulation  being  perfect,  ,any  change  in 
the  weather  disconcerted  it.  To  obviate 
these  difficulties,  a  combination  of  the 
Hughes  and  House  has  been  perfected,  and 
is  now  used  by  the  American  Telegraph 
Company.  The  combination  is  so  perfect, 
that  six  letters  may  be  printed  at  every  rev 
olution,  and  as  the  machine  runs  140  revolu 
tions  per  minute,  it  gives  the  enormous 
result  of  50,400  letters,  or  10,080  words,  per 
hour.  This  number  is,  however,  far  beyond 
practicability,  since  no  operator  could  man 
ipulate  with  such  rapidity.  The  ordinary 
speed  with  the  electro-magnetic  governor  of 
Mr.  Phelps  is  2,000  words  per  hour.  The 
usual  rate  on  the  Morse  line  is  1,000  per 
hour,  and  on  the  House,  1,800  per  hour. 

These  are  the  principal  inventions  that 
have  brought  the  telegraph  system  to  its 
present  perfection.  It  is  but  fifteen  years 
since  the  first  line  was  constructed,  and 
there  are  now  50,000  miles  in  operation 
on  this  continent,  having  1,400  stations,  and 
employing  10,000  operators  and  clerks. 
The  messages  are  estimated  at  5,000,000 
per  annum,  paying  $2,000,000 ;  in  addition 
to  which,  the  press  pays  $200,000  for  de 
spatches. 

The  wire  used  for  the  telegraph  is  of  iron, 
No.  9.  This  metal  conducts  only  about  one- 


seventh  as  well  as  if  of  copper;  but  it  is 
preferred  for  its  superior  strength  and  cheap 
ness.  The  best  prepared  is  coated  with 
zinc.  Without  such  coating,  especially  near 
the  sea,  it  would  rust  off  in  a  very  few  years. 
With  the  coating,  it  may  have  been  in  use 
ten  years,  and  will  still  be  in  good  preserva 
tion.  When  the  distance  between  the  sup 
ports  is  necessarily  great,  as  river  crossings, 
and  the  like,  steel  wire  is  used.  The  most 
important  point  in  the  construction  of  the 
lines  is  insulation  ;  and  this  is  very  defective. 
The  materials  mostly  used  are  glass;  glass 
protected  by  iron ;  glass  inserted  in  pine- 
wood,  soaked  with  shellac  ;  baked  clay ;  white 
flint ;  and  bone-rubber.  All  these  are  very 
imperfect;  and  yet,  upon  every  500  miles 
of  wire,  there  are  15,000  of  these  imperfect 
insulators  mostly  affixed  to  chestnut  posts, 
that  are  green.  There  is  little  matter  of 
surprise,  therefore,  that  constant  interrup 
tions  occur,  and  that  in  wet  weather  most 
lines  are  unmanageable.  The  cost  of  a  line 
is  $61  per  mile.  The  stations,  or  relays, 
are  at  certain  distances  from  each  other; 
and  when  a  break  occurs  in  the  line,  the 
operator  ascertains  on  which  side  of  him  it 
has  occurred,  east  or  west.  If  east,  he  sends 
out  a  repairer  to  search  until  he  comes  to 
the  next  station.  The  operator  there,  mean 
while,  has  ascertained  that  the  break  is  west 
of  him,  and  he  sends  out  a  repairer  to  search 
until  he  meets  the  other  repairer  coming 
cast,  and  the  two  repair  the  broken  wire  in 
a  very  simple  manner. 

The  Bain  system  was  completed  in  1849, 
and  is  one  of  the  simplest  construction. 
There  is  no  magnetism  used ;  only  the  chem 
ical  effects  of  the  current  arc  necessary.  A 
metallic  disc,  moved  by  clock-work,  receives 
a  sheet  of  prepared  paper.  Upon  the  paper 
rests  a  screw-plate,  which  serves  to  guide  a 
pen  in  regular  spiral  lines  from  the  inner  to 
the  outer  edge  of  the  disc.  The  current 
passes  through  this  paper  to  the  earth,  and 
a  very  small  battery  will  cause  the*  pen  to 
leave  a  blue  mark  upon  the  paper  at  250 
miles  distant.  This  system  was  set  up  on 
the  Boston  line,  and  was  afterward  united 
with  the  Morse  system.  This  adoption  of 
the  chemical  effects  of  electricity  has  led  to 
various  modes,  by  which  fac-similes  of  hand 
writing  may  be  transmitted  to  long  distances 
with  the  greatest  rapidity,  say  19,500  words 
per  hour ! 

This  system  it  is  which  excited  much  inter 
est  in  the  public  mind  some  time  since,  from 


TELEGRAPHS — THEIR    ORIGIN    AND    PROGRESS. 


313 


the  idea  that  it  could  transmit  signatures; 
that  a  person  in  New  York  might,  supposing 
the  Atlantic  cable  in  operation,  sign  his 
name  to  a  bill  in  London.  This  was  invent 
ed  by  M.  Caselli,  of  Florence.  The  despatch 
is  written  upon  tin-foil,  and  the  copy  is  blue, 
upon  white  ground.  The  ingenuity  of  the 
system  consists  in  the  fact  that  the  resistance 
of  the  ink  to  the  passage  of  the  electricity 
reverses  the  polarity  in  the  point  of  the  re 
ceiver.  From  negative  it  becomes  positive, 
producing  upon  paper  a  colored  and  perfect 
image  of  the  original  despatch.  The  chem 
ical  effect  is  so  delicate,  that  the  minutest 
traces  of  writing  or  drawing  are  accurately 
reproduced.  The  method  by  which  this  is 
done  remains  a  secret  with  M.  Caselli.  The 
commercial  world  were  much  interested  in 
the  idea  of  Avriting  to  any  distance  by  tele 
graph,  but  it  is  not  likely  to  come  speedily 
into  general  use. 

The  first  line  constructed  in  the  United 
States  was  from  Washington  to  Baltimore, 
in  May,  1844,  a  distance  of  forty  miles.  It 
was  th£h  extended  to  New  York,  a  distance 
of  250  miles.  In  1845  it  reached  Boston. 
From  this  great  northern  line  branched  one 
of  1,000  miles,  from  Philadelphia  to  St.  Louis ; 
another,  of  1,300  miles,  via  Albany  and  the 
lake  cities,  to  Milwaukee  ;  a  fourth,  of  1,395 
miles,  from  Buffalo  to  Halifax.  A  line  was 
constructed  of  1,200  miles,  from  Cleveland 
to  New  Orleans;  and  one  of  1,700  miles, 
from  Washington  via  Charleston,  S.  C.,  and 
Savannah,  Georgia.  In  1851  there  were 
seven  Bain  lines  in  operation,  over  2,000 
miles ;  eight  House  lines,  having  3,000  miles 
of  wire;  and  67  Morse  lines,  having  20,000 
miles.  In  the  autumn  of  that  year,  the  Mag 
netic  Telegraph  Company,  having  lines  ex 
tending  from  New  York  to  Washington, 
and  the  Bain  Company,  having  lines  over 
the  same  route,  were  consolidated.  In  the 
following  spring,  the  Morse  and  Bain  lines, 
Boston  and  New  York,  were  united  under* 
one  company.  This  was  followed  by  the 
union  of  the  Morse,  Bain,  and  House  lines, 
New  York  to  Buffalo.  The  Rhode  Island 
Telegraph  Company,  having  lines  between 
Worcester,  Providence,  Fall  River,  Taunton, 
New  Bedford,  Warren,  and  Bristol,  were 
sold  in  1853  to  the  Morse  and  Bain  line, 
called  the  New  York  and  New  England,  for 
$5,000.  Their  cost  was  $10,000.  In  the 
fall  of  that  year,  all  the  leading  lines  west, 
south,  and  north-west,  were  united  in  in 
terest.  There  then,  remained  in  that  year 


only  the  House  lines  between  New  York  and 
Washington,  and  New  York  and  Boston  ; 
all  others  having  been  sold  out  to  rival  lines. 
The  receipts  of  the  Magnetic  Telegraph  Com 
pany,  which  was  the  first  organized,  were 
in  1847,  $32,810;  in  1848,"$52,252 ;  in 
1849,  $63,367;  in  1850,  $61,383  ;  in  1851, 
$67,737;  in  1852,  $103,232.  The  most  profit 
able  of  all  lines  was  the  Maine  Telegraph 
Company,  from  Portland  to  Calais,  Maine, 
306  miles.  This  company  paid  about  20 
per  cent,  per  annum  up  to  1855,  when  it 
was  leased  to  the  American  Company.  In 
1853  it  bought  the  Portland  and  Boston 
lines  out  of  its  earnings,  and  divided  50  per 
cent,  in  stock.  In  1855  the  American  Tel 
egraph  Company  leased  that  line  at  a  rate 
that  gives  10  per  cent,  on  the  stock.  It 
leased  many  other  lines,  until,  in  the  begin 
ning  of  the  present  year,  it  had  consolidated 
all  the  lines  from  New  Brunswick  to  New 
Orleans ;  thus  acquiring  the  exclusive  use 
of  all  the  patents  of  the  various  telegraphic 
apparatus  in  use.  The  company  has  25,000 
miles  of  wire  in  operation,  and  a  capital  of 
$1,500,000.  The  receipts  of  the  company 
for  the  six  months  ending  May,  1860,  Avere 
$485,395,  giving  net  profits  of  $123,400. 
This  process  of  consolidation,  however, 
marks  an  immense  loss  of  money  on  the 
part  of  those  who  have  subscribed  for  tel 
egraph  lines,  mostly  arising  from  the  severity 
of  the  competition.  The  use  of  the  telegraph 
by  the  daily  press  is  such,  that  the  Asso 
ciated  Press  pay  to  the  various  lines  $200,- 
000  per  annum,  a  sum  sufficient  to  maintain 
a  line  from  New  Orleans  to  Halifax ;  and  it 
may  at  any  time  become  the  sole  director  of 
the  whole.  The  New  York  press  pays  one- 
half  this  amount,  and  the  remainder  is 
divided  among  the  papers  of  other  sections  ; 
the  country  papers  paying  about  $30  to  $40 
per  month.  The  great  impulse  to  telegraph 
ing  west  was  given  by  the  Herald,  in  1847. 
In  that  year  Mr.  Clay  was  to  speak  in  Lex 
ington,  eighty  miles  from  Cincinnati,  on  the 
Mexican  war.  Horses  were  relayed  every 
ten  miles.  When  the  speech  was  taken 
down  by  the  short-hand  writers,  it  was  car 
ried  to  Cincinnati  in  eight  hours,  and  was 
issued  by  the  Herald  next  morning.  The 
expense  was  $500. 

At  the  commencement  of  1848  there  were 
3,000  miles  in  operation  in  the  United 
States;  in  1850,  22,000;  in  1853,  they  had 
increased  to  26,375 ;  and  at  the  present 
time  there  are  50,000  miles  on  the  continent. 


314 


TELEGRAPHS THEIR    ORIGIN    AND    PROGRESS. 


The  number  of  messages  sent  each  year  is 
estimated  at  5,000,000  ;  giving  a  revenue  of 
$2,000,000,  and  employing  10,000  operatives 
and  clerks. 

A  message  throughout  the  United  States 
and  British  provinces  is  scaled  to  ten  words  ; 
beyond  which,  the  price  for  each  word  is 
generally  about  20  per  cent.  less.  On  the 
line  from  Savannah  to  New  Orleans  it  is  50 
per  cent,  less  for  each  added  word ;  from 
Boston  to  New  York,  25  per  cent,  less ;  and 
from  St.  Louis,  westward,  16  per  cent.  less. 
The  average  may  be  considered  at  20  per 
cent,  discount  on  all  words  over  the  first 
ten.  No  charge  is  made  for  signature  or 
address.  Thus,  a  message  may  be  trans 
mitted  : — 

"  Tremont  House,  Boston,  Massachusetts, 

January  1st,  1859. 

"  To  John  James  Doe,  Esq.,  No.  500  Wil 
liam  street,  3rd  story,  room  No.  25,  New 
York  city. 

"  Purchase  for  me  1,000  bbls.  of  flour, 
and  ship  to  me  at  New  Orleans,  immediately. 
44.33. 

"  WILLIAM  RICHARD  ROE." 

The  above  is  the  form  of  a  message,  usual 
on  the  American  lines.  There  are  fifteen 
words.  According  to  the  tariff  hereinbefore 
mentioned,  for  the  first  ten  words  the  charge 
is  40  cents,  and  the  five  added  words  3  cents 
each,  or  15  cents:  total,  55  cents.  The 
figures  44  mean,  "  Answer  immediately  by 
telegraph,"  and  the  figures  33  mean,  "  An 
swer  paid  here."  These  figures  are  free. 
Each  number  is  counted  as  a  word.  The 
telegraph  companies  in  the  United  States 
and  the  British  provinces  solicit  particulars 
as  to  address,  and  the  policy  is  good.  In 
Europe,  many  men  locate  and  remain  a  life 
time  in  the  same  building  and  in  the  same 
business.  Like  cases  rarely  occur  in  America. 
In  the  former  country,  a  brief  address  is 
sufficient;  but  in  the  latter,  particulars  are 
necessary.  In  the  regular  form,  forty-four 
words  are  transmitted  in  one  despatch  for 
55  cents.  There  is  no  charge  for  delivery. 

ATLANTIC    TELEGRAPH. 

Prof.  Morse  had,  in  1843,  predicted  that 
there  would  be,  within  a  few  years,  an  Atlan 
tic  telegraph,  and  Mr.  F.  N.  Gisborne,  a 
practical  telegraphic  engineer,  conceived  the 
project  of  uniting  St.  John's,  Newfoundland, 
with  the  main  continent  in  New  Brunswick, 


by  telegraph  wires.  In  1851  he  obtained  an 
appropriation  from  the  Colonial  Legislature, 
and  having  made  a  survey  for  350  miles 
through  the  forest,  attempted  the  prosecu 
tion  of  his  work,  but  met  with  misfortunes 
and  financial  disaster,  which  ruined  him,  and 
postponed  the  completion  of  his  project. 
Early  in  1854  he  came  to  New  York,  and 
attempted  to  find  parties  who  would  renew 
the  enterprise  ;  and,  in  so  doing,  was  brought 
into  the  company  of  Cyrus  W.  Field.  This 
gentleman,  though  willing  to  hear  what  he 
had  to  say,  was  not  in  favor  of  his  enterprise, 
but  in  conversation  with  him  conceived  the 
possibility  of  laying  a  submarine  cable  across 
the  Atlantic,  and  the  next  day  wrote  to 
Lieutenant  Maury,  to  enquire  in  regard  to 
the  possibility  of  laying  such  a  cable,  and  to 
Prof.  Morse,  to  ascertain  whether  it  would 
serve  the  purpose  designed,  if  it  were  laid. 
Encouraged  by  cordial  and  satisfactory  let 
ters  from  both  of  these  gentlemen  in  reply, 
Mr.  Field  resolved  to  make  the  effort  to  form 
a  telegraph  company,  which  should  unite 
New  York,  by  way  of  Newfoundland,  with 
London.  He  enlisted  four  gentlemen  of 
large  wealth  with  him  in  the  enterprise,  and 
obtained  from  the  Colonial  Government  of 
Newfoundland  a  new  charter,  securing  to 
them,  as  the  New  York,  Newfoundland,  and 
London  Telegraph  Co.,  for  fifty  years,  the 
exclusive  right  of  laying  cables  across  the 
Atlantic,  which  should  terminate  in  the 
colony  or  its  dependencies ;  and  also  to 
connect  St.  John's,  Newfoundland,  with  the 
lines  in  the  United  States.  This  line  was 
completed  after  two  years,  and  at  an  expendi 
ture  of  about  a  million  dollars.  Meantime 
Mr.  Field  and  his  associates  had  been  busily 
making  preparations  for  their  greater  enter 
prise.  The  United  States  Government,  and 
that  of  Great  Britain,  at  their  request,  sent, 
in  1856  and  1857,  vessels  to  make  soundings 
anew  over  the  proposed  route.  Both  guar 
anteed  the  use  of  their  ships  of  war  to  aid 
in  laying  the  cable,  and  a  subsidy  of  $70,000 
premium  was  granted  by  each,  to  cover  the 
cost  of  transmitting  their  own  messages. 
The  Atlantic  Telegraph  Company  was  formed 
near  the  close  of  1856,  in  England,  with  a 
capital  of  £350,000  ($1,750,000),  of  which 
Mr.  Field  took  for  American  stockholders, 
£88,000  ($440,000).  This  company  had  a 
submarine  cable  prepared,  which  was  to  be 
laid  by  the  Niagara,  an  American  steam 
frigate  of  the  largest  size,  andihe  Agamemnon, 
anEnglish  steamship  of  the  line ;  the  Niagara 


TELEGRAPHS THEIK    ORIGIN    AND    PROGRESS. 


315 


beginning  at  Valentia  Bay,  on  the  Irish 
coast,  and  laying  it  to  mid-ocean,  where  the 
Agamemnon,  uniting  the  end  of  the  Niagara's 
coil  to  her  own,  should  proceed  with  it  to 
ward  the  coast  of  Newfoundland.  Partly 
by  the  fault  of  the  engineer,  and  partly  for 
the  want  of  proper  machinery  for  paying  out 
the  cable,  it  was  broken  on  board  the  Ni 
agara  when  about  three  hundred  miles  from 
Valentia.  The  season  was  so  far  advanced, 
that  it  was  deemed  inexpedient  to  make 
another  attempt  to  lay  it  that  year.  About 
six  hundred  miles  of  new  cable  was  made  to 
replace  that  lost,  and  the  portion  remaining 
on  the  Niagara,  and  that  on  the  Agamemnon, 
having  been  landed,  were  kept  in  coil  on 
shore. 

In  1858  the  experiment  of  laying  the 
cable  was  again  made,  beginning  this  time 
in  mid-ocean.  After  three  failures,  from  the 
breaking  of  the  cable,  the  last  of  which 
caused  the  return  of  the  two  war  ships  to 
England,  they  again  set  sail,  and,  though  not 
without  several  alarms  from  the  cessation  of 
continuity,  the  cable  was  at  length  laid,  arid 
messages  sent  through  its  whole  extent  on 
the  5th  of  August,  1858.  Owing  to  delay 
in  the  completion  of  the  connections,  Queen 
Victoria's  congratulation  to  the  President 
was  not  received  till  August  16,  and  Presi 
dent  Buchanan's  reply  was  returned  the  same 
day.  Great  was  the  rejoicing  throughout 
the  United  States  at  this  wonderful  success. 
In  the  midst  of  this  universal  rejoicing,  and 
on  the  very  day  when  hundreds  of  thousands 
were  assembled  in  New  York,  to  do  Mr.  Field 
honor,  the  public  were  stunned  by  the  intel 
ligence  that  the  ATLANTIC  CABLE  WAS  DEAD; 
that  there  was  an  absolute  cessation  of  all 
transmission  of  telegraphic  signals  through  it. 
For  a  time  it  was  hoped  that  this  cessation 
might  be  temporary,  as  several  previous  ones 
had  been,  but  no  efforts  were  availing  to  re 
suscitate  it.  Prostrated  for  the  time,  but 
not  utterly  overwhelmed,  by  this  sudden 
wreck  of  four  years  of  intense  labor,  Mr. 
Field  a^ain  crossed  the  Atlantic,  and  for  two 
or  three  years  he  and  his  associates,  together 
with  a  commission  appointed  by  Parliament, 
were  engaged  in  experiments  upon  the  best 
modes  of  construction  and  insulation  of  elec 
tric  cables,  the  most  effective  means  of  oper 
ating  them  without  destroying  them,  and  the 
best  methods  of  laying  them.  On  all  these 
points  much  valuable  light  was  gained.  His 
next  effort  was  to  obtain  the  necessary  capi 
tal  and  guarantees  for  the  construction  and 
19  * 


laying  of  a  new  and  better  cable.  After  al 
most  superhuman  efforts,  he  succeeded  in 
obtaining  from  both  Governments  fresh  guar 
antees,  and  from  English  capitalists  (Thomas 
Brassey,  Esq.,  a  merchant  of  immense  wealth, 
taking  the  lead)  the  needed  resources  to  en 
able  him  to  procure  a  new  cable,  the  manu 
facturers,  Messrs.  Glass,  Elliot  &  Co.,  taking 
one-half  the  stock  for  the  new  enterprise, 
and  the  Great  Eastern  being  purchased  by 
the  Telegraph  Construction  and  Maintenance 
Company,  to  lay  it.  On  the  15th  of  July, 
1865,  the  Great  Eastern  set  sail  with  her  vast 
cargo  on  board,  paying  out  from  Valentia, 
where  the  shore-end  had  been  landed  and 
secured.  They  paid  out  over  twelve  hundred 
miles  of  the  cable,  and,  though  they  had  met 
with  two  or  three  mishaps,  were  proceeding 
well,  when,  in  consequence  of  an  accident, 
it  suddenly  broke,  at  a  point  where  the  water 
was  about  two  and  a  half  miles  deep.  The 
attempt  was  made  to  grapple  for  it,  and 
three  times  it  was  caught  and  raised  nearly 
a  mile ;  but  the  grappling  apparatus  broke 
each  time,  and  they  were  compelled  to  return 
to  England.  In  1866,  a  new  cable  having 
been  manufactured,  and  the  external  protect 
ing  wire  galvanized,  and  the  remainder  of 
the  cable  of  1865  also  taken  on  board,  the 
attempt  was  repeated,  the  Great  Eastern 
leaving  Valentia  on  the  13th  of  July,  and 
landing  the  western  end  of  the  cable  without 
mishap  at  Heart's  Content,  Trinity  Bay, 
Newfoundland,  on  the  27th  of  July.  The 
great  work  was  at  last  completely  success 
ful.  All  the  details  being  completed,  the 
Great  Eastern  next  proceeded  to  the  point 
where  the  cable  of  1865  was  broken,  and, 
after  some  grappling,  secured  and  spliced 
that  cable,  and,  steaming  slowly,  laid  the  re 
mainder  of  that  also.  The  cables  have  now 
been  for  more  than  four  months  (Dec.,  1866) 
in  operation,  and  their  power  of  transmitting 
signals  has  constantly  improved. 

Another  telegraphic  line  is  now  in  course 
of  construction,  from  St.  Petersburg,  cast, 
through  Siberia,  to  the  mouth  of  the  Amoor 
(and  with  a  branch  connecting  with  the  prin 
cipal  cities  of  China),  and  thence  through 
Kamtchatka,  across  Behring's  Straits,  and 
down  the  interior  of  Russian  America,  to 
British  Columbia,  Washington  Territory,  and 
Oregon,  where  it  connects  with  the  telegraph 
from  San  Francisco,  across  the  continent  to 
New  York ;  and  a  company  has  been  formed 
to  lay  a  cable  by  way  of  the  West  Indies  and 
Azores  to  Spain. 


THE  ARTS  OF  DESIGN  IN  AMERICA, 

FROM   1780  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAINTING,  SCULPTURE,  AND  ENGRAVING. 

HORACE  WALPOLE  says,  in  his  "  Anec 
dotes  of  Painting  in  England"  (writing  in 
1762):  "  As  our  disputes  and  politics  have 
travelled  to  America,  is  it  not  probable  that 
poetry  and  painting,  too,  will  revive  amidst 
those  extensive  tracts,  as  they  increase  in 
opulence  and  empire,  and  where  the  stores 
of  nature  are  so  various,  so  magnificent,  and 
so  new?" 

These  lines  were  penned,  perchance,  in 
grave  prophetic  faith,  but  it  may  be  that 
they  were  only  idle  speculations — a  play  of 
fancy,  meaning  nothing.  Certain  it  is,  that 
were  the  critic  ever  so  much  in  earnest,  very 
little  could  he  have  expected  the  full  and 
noble  response  which  so  short  a  period  would 
make  to  his  query. 

Little  could  he  or  any  one  have  foreseen 
the  rapid  growth  of  these  "  extensive  tracts" 
in  population  and  in  every  phase  of  material 
life ;  still  less  the  wonderful  strides  which 
they  have  made  in  all  branches  of  mechani 
cal  and  industrial  art ;  and  least  of  all,  their 
achievements  in  the  higher  and  aesthetic  arts 
of  design.  Little  could  he  have  dreamed 
that  within  a  period  seemingly  insufficient 
for  the  construction  even  of  the  rude  foun 
dations  of  empire,  our  country  would  have 
reached  that  point  of  refinement  and  intellect 
ual  development  which  gives  it,  in  ample  store, 
its  own  literature  and  its  own  arts — both 
with  a  strong  and  peculiar  individuality  of 
character  and  life. 

The  only  artists  in  America  in  Walpole's 
time  were  a  few  strangers — Englishmen  for 
the  most  part — who  had  wandered  hither  in 
quest  of  a  fortune  which  their  very  humble 
talents  had  failed  to  win  at  home.  They  did 
little  or  nothing  toward  the  development  of 
the  public  taste,  and  left  no  works  to  honor 
the  future ;  though  they  may,  perhaps,  have 
served,  in  some  measure,  to  open  the  path 
for  the  distinguished  group  of  native  paint 


ers  who,  quickly  succeeding  them,  fairly  and 
surely  lighted  the  lamp  of  art  which  now 
burns  with  such  pure  and  ever-growing 
brightness. 

The  earliest  of  these  pioneers,  whose  name 
has  been  preserved,  was  John  Watson,  a 
native  of  Scotland.  He  crossed  the  seas 
and  set  up  his  easel  in  Perth  Amboy,  in  New 
Jersey,  in  the  year  1715.  In  this  little  port, 
which  was  then  thought  destined  to  be  what 
the  city  of  New  York  is  now — the  commer 
cial  emporium  of  the  country  —  Watson 
painted  portraits,  such  as  they  were,  through 
a  long  life.  He  appears  to  have  had  plenty 
of  "  sitters,"  and  to  have  grown  rich  upon 
the  fruits  of  well-employed  industry ;  but 
we  can  gather  no  intimations  of  the  state  of 
the  popular  taste  at  that  time  through  the 
medium  of  his  works,  inasmuch  as  none  of 
them  now  remain  for  our  inspection.  Wat 
son  was  buried  about  the  22d  of  August, 
1768,  in  the  old  church-yard  of  his  adopted 
village,  at  the  venerable  age  of  eighty-three 
years. 

Our  next  pioneer  was  John  Smybert,  a 
stronger  man,  much,  than  Watson,  and  one 
who,  though  he  painted  no  pictures  to  be 
treasured  in  our  galleries,  yet  left  foot 
prints  of  good  incentive  and  example, 
which  we  may  clearly  trace  beneath  the  sub 
sequent  march  of  greater  gifts.  Copley, 
though  but  thirteen  years  of  age  at  the 
time  of  Smybert's  death,  confesses  indebted 
ness  to  him  and  his  works.  So  also  does 
Trumbull,  who  at  one  time  painted  in  the 
apartments  he  had  occupied,  and  in  which 
many  of  his  pictures  still  remained ;  while 
Allston  is  thankful  for  the  advantage  he  en 
joyed  in  the  permission  to  copy  a  head 
which  Smybert  had  executed  after  Vandyke. 
Smybert  accompanied  Bishop  Berkeley  to 
America  in  the  year  1728,  at  the  age  of 
forty-two.  Like  Watson,  he  was  a  Scotch 
man,  and  like  him,  again,  he  pursued  his 
craft  in  the  colonies  with  gratifying  financial 
success.  He  lived  in  Boston  in  high  public 


PAINTING,    SCULPTURE,    AND    ENGRAVING. 


317 


favor  until  1751,  leaving  behind  him  many 
portraits  of  the  distinguished  characters  of 
his  time. 

Nathaniel  Smybert,  a  son  of  John  Smybert, 
followed  his  father's  profession  worthily  in 
Boston  for  a  short  time,  and,  according  to 
the  opinion  of  cotemporary  critics,  gave 
promise  of  more  than  ordinary  talents.  No 
record  of  him  remains  beyond  the  meagre 
facts  here  mentioned,  and  the  additional  one 
that  he  died  early. 

While  the  Smyberts  were  planting  the 
seeds  of  art  in  Boston,  there  was  in  Phila 
delphia  a  Mr.  Williams,  an  Englishman,  re 
membered  gratefully  by  West  as  the  man 
who  awakened  his  love  of  pictures  by  lend 
ing  him  books  and  by  showing  him  the  first 
works  in  oil  which  he  had  ever  looked  upon. 
During  the  same  period,  Woolaston  and 
Taylor  were  also  in  Philadelphia ;  a  Mr. 
Ilesselius  was  at  Annapolis  in  Maryland  ;  a 
Mr.  Theus  in  Charleston,  and  other  laborers 
were  in  Virginia. 

Besides  the  foreign  adventurers  here 
spoken  of,  there  were  a  few  native  artists 
scattered  over  the  country  during  the  ante- 
revolutionary  period  of  our  history.  It  is 
hardly  desirable  to  recall  even  their  names, 
or  to  add  to  our  list  of  the  yet  earlier 
strangers ;  since,  despite  the  service  their 
little  light  may  have  done,  in  the  then  deep 
darkness,  not  one  of  them  all  possessed 
more  than  the  most  moderate  talent,  and 
not  one  will  be  remembered  excepting  in  the 
way  in  which  they  arc  now  so  briefly  re 
ferred  to — that  is,  in  consideration  of  the 
initial  times  in  which  they  chanced  to  live. 

The  birth  of  American  art  was  not  in  any 
portion  of  our  colonial  epoch,  but  singularly 
and  felicitously  enough,  was  in  that  day  of 
happy  augury  when  our  country  itself  sprang 
into  life,  and  started  upon  its  conquering 
course  of  national  development  and  power ; 
and  with  equal  strangeness  and  equal  felicity, 
the  very  beginning  of  our  individual  exis 
tence  as  a  people  produced,  on  a  sudden,  full- 
grown  artists  of  first-rate  genius,  as  it  did 
Minerva-born  statesmen,  soldiers,  and  phil 
osophers. 

During  the  progress  of  our  great  revo 
lutionary  struggle  with  the  mother  land,  and 
at  the  time  of  our  successful  emergence  from 
that  trial,  Benjamin  West,  born  in  the  forests 
of  Pennsylvania,  was  reaching  the  highest 
honors  in  the  art  world  of  London,  sur 
passing  all  native  competitors,  becoming  the 
successor  of  Reynolds  in  the  prcsidental 


chair  of  the  English  Academy,  and  enjoy 
ing  the  most  distinguished  consideration, 
the  patronage,  and  the  personal  friendship  of 
the  very  monarch  against  whom  his  country 
men  were  waging  angry  war. 

It  is,  then,  with  Benjamin  West,  and  with 
the  birth  of  our  country  as  an  independent 
nation — about  eighty  years  ago,  as  we  now 
write — that  our  story  of  American  art  prop 
erly  and  prosperously  begins.  We  shall, 
however,  say  but  little  of  West,  since  the 
space  that  has  been  allotted  to  this  subject 
does  not  afford  room  for  an  extended  notice 
of  any  one.  Though  we  may  rightfully  honor 
him  as  the  father  of  American  painters,  and 
may  write  his  name  first  on  the  long  cata 
logue  of  eminent  laborers  in  the  noble  field 
of  art  which  we  now  possess,  yet,  the  fact 
that  the  greater  part  of  his  professional  life 
was  spent  in  England,  and  that  his  chief 
success  was  won  there,  places  him,  in  one 
sense,  among  the  painters  of  that  country, 
rather  than  of  this  ;  just  as  the  life-long 
residence  among  us  of  a  foreign-born  artist 
may  make  him  ours,  instead  of  his  own 
countrymen's. 

West  was  born  in  1738,  in  Pennsylvania, 
as  we  have  already  said,  near  Springfield, 
Chester  county.  His  parents  were  Quakers, 
and  their  habits  of  life,  together  with  all 
surrounding  circumstances,  were  such  as  to 
discourage  rather  than  foster  a  predisposi 
tion  toward  the  study  of  art.  The  bent  of 
the  boy's  rnind  was,  nevertheless,  early  and 
powerfully  manifested.  The  sight  of  Wil 
liams'  pictures  inflamed  his  youthful  pre 
dilections  to  such  a  degree  that,  in  want  of 
better  pencils,  he  manufactured  a  supply 
from  the  stolen  fur  of  his  mother's  favorite 
cat ;  in  want  of  subjects,  he,  while  yet  a 
child,  seized  upon  his  infant  sister  sleeping, 
all  unconscious,  in  her  cradle  ;  and  in  want 
of  pigments,  he  borrowed  ochres  of  the  Del 
aware  and  Mohawk  Indians,  and  indigo 
from  the  maternal  laundry !  He  studied 
after  a  while  in  Philadelphia,  and  subse 
quently  painted  portraits  in  New  York.  At 
the  age  of  twenty-one  he  went  abroad,  and 
after  a  tour  through  the  art  cities  of  the 
continent,  he  established  himself  in  London, 
where  he  afterward  chiefly  resided,  rising 
rapidly  into  popular  favor,  until,  upon  the 
death  of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  the  first 
president  of  the  Royal  Academy,  his  posi 
tion  as  the  head  of  the  English  school  was 
affirmed  by  the  high  honor  of  his  election  to 
the  vacant  chair.  This  distinguished  position 


318 


THE    ARTS    OF    DESIGN    IN    AMERICA. 


he  filled  with  great  dignity  until  his  death, 
on  the  llth  of  March,  1820,  at  the  advanced 
age  of  nearly  eighty-two  years. 

West's  fame  was  won  chiefly  in  the  noble 
field  of  historical  painting — a  department 
which  his  brother  artists  of  America  have 
not  continued  fittingly  to  cultivate  ;  though 
one  in  which  they  cannot,  in  due  time,  yet 
fail  to  distinguish  themselves  no  less  honor 
ably  than  they  have  already  done  in  land 
scape  and  portraiture ;  so  rich  and  bound 
less  are  the  themes  at  their  command,  and 
growing  with  every  passing  year  yet  more 
beautiful  and  noble  in  aspect. 

Among  the  chief  productions  of  his  skil 
ful  and  most  industrious  pencil,  we  may  men 
tion  the  Battles  of  the  Hague  and  the 
Boync  ;  the  Death  of  General  Wolfe ;  the 
Return  of  Rcgulus  to  Carthage ;  Agrippina 
Bearing  the  Ashes  of  Germanicus;  the  Young 
Hannibal  Swearing  Eternal  Enmity  to  the 
Romans ;  the  Death  of  Epaminondas ;  the 
Death  of  Chevalier  Bayard ;  Perm's  Treaty 
with  the  Indians  ;  Death  on  the  Pale  Horse  ; 
and  Christ  Healing  the  Sick.  Many  of  his 
works  are  now  in  America ;  among  others, 
Death  on  the  Pale  Horse,  which  is  in  the 
galleries  of  the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of 
Fine  Arts  in  Philadelphia ;  and  Christ  Heal 
ing  the  Sick,  also  in  Philadelphia,  in  the 
Pennsylvania  Hospital,  to  which  it  was  given 
with  noble  generosity  by  the  artist  himself. 

In  the  same  year  in  which  West  was  born 
in  Pennsylvania,  John  Singleton  Copley,  an 
other  distinguished  man  in  the  earlier  days 
of  American  art,  appeared  in  the  city  of 
Boston.  The  one,  like  the  other,  after  follow 
ing  his  profession  at  home  for  some  time, 
went  to  London,  and  there  continued  to  live 
and  labor  for  the  rest  of  his  days.  The  simul 
taneous  appearance  of  these  two  gifted  men, 
at  this  early  period  of  our  country's  progress, 
and  in  sections  of  the  Union  then  so  far  sep 
arated,  was,  as  Cunningham  says,  when  al 
luding  to  the  circumstance — most  "  note 
worthy."  Copley  was  occupied  for  the  most 
part  with  portraits,  though  he  made  success 
ful  incursions  at  intervals  into  the  domains 
of  history.  One  of  his  best  works  in  this 
department  of  the  art,  and  that  to  which  he 
first  owed  his  fame,  was  the  large  canvas 
representing  the  Death  of  the  Earl  of  Chat 
ham.  Copley  died  in  1 815,  five  years  earlier 
than  his  confrere,  Benjamin  West.  Many 
of  his  pictures  are  now  treasured  in  the  gal 
leries  and  in  the  private  collections  of  Boston, 
and  in  other  parts  of  the  Union.  Lord 


Lyndhurst,  of  England,  was  a  son  of  this 
artist. 

In  1754,  just  sixteen  years  after  the  birth  , 
of  West  and  Copley,  Gilbert  Stuart,  of 
Rhode  Island,  came  upon  the  stage,  the  ear 
liest  of  that  gifted  line  of  portrait  painters 
whose  works  have  placed  this  branch  of  the 
art  as  high  in  America  as  in  any  part  of  the 
old  world.  Stuart,  with  Trumbull  as  a 
companion,  studied  under  West  in  London, 
where  he  afterward  painted  successfully,  and 
in  due  time  rose  to  great  eminence.  Unlike 
his  distinguished  predecessors,  W'est  and 
Copley,  he  returned  after  a  time,  to  his  na 
tive  land,  and  after  some  years  practice  of 
his  art  in  Philadelphia,  Washington,  and 
Boston,  he  died  in  the  latter  city  in  July, 
1828,  in  his  seventy-fifth  year.  His  name  is 
familiar  to  the  public  at  large,  through  his 
great  picture  of  Washington,  which  he  re 
peated  for  various  societies  and  state  legisla 
tures,  and  which  is  spread  over  our  land  in 
every  style  of  the  graver's  art.  He  painted 
noble  portraits  of  many  other  of  the  distin 
guished  people  of  his  time — from  presidents 
to  private  gentlemen.  His  works  are  cher 
ished  among  us  as  master-pieces  and  models, 
exerting  still,  as  they  have  ever  done,  a  mark 
ed  influence  upon  the  character  of  American 
portraiture.  The  especial  characteristics  of  • 
his  style  were  a  marvellous  freedom  and  bold 
ness  of  touch,  a  wonderful  freshness  and  ful 
ness  of  color,  and  a  truth  of  character  which 
placed  the  very  soul  of  his  sitter  before  you  j 
in  the  most  striking  individuality.  "  He 
seemed,"  says  a  cotemporary  writer,  "  to 
dive  into  the  thoughts  of  men — for  they  are 
made  to  rise  and  speak  on  the  surface ;" 
and  Sully  is  reported  to  have  remarked  of 
one  of  his  portraits :  "  It  is  a  living  man 
looking  directly  at  you  /" 

Stuart  was  a  man  of  eminent  social  dis 
position  and  abilities,  a  famous  wag  and  hu 
morist,  fond  of  a  jest,  and  overflowing  with 
anecdote.  Innumerable  amusing  illustra 
tions  of  this  trait  in  his  character,  sprinkle 
and  enliven  the  recorded  and  remembered 
records  of  his  life. 

Another  pupil  of  West's,  at  this  period, 
was  Robert  Fulton,  who  was  born  in  Little  '. 
Britain,  in  the  county  of  Lancaster,  Pa.,  in 
1765.  Fulton  commenced  the  practice  of 
art  in  1782,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  but 
continued  it  only  a  few  years,  being  more 
powerfully  led  toward  those  scientific  studies 
to  which  his  genius  was,  as  the  end  proved, 
better  adapted  ;  and  from  which  sprang  that 


PAINTING,    SCULPTURE,    AND     ENGRAVING. 


319 


glory  of  our  time,  the  practical  and  perma 
nent  application  of  steam  to  navigation. 
Fulton's  short  career  as  an  artist  left  no 
legible  mark;  what  might  have  been  his 
achievements  had  he  continued  in  the  guild, 
we  cannot  say,  and  are,  indeed,  careless 
to  inquire,  in  view  of  his  immortal  labors 
otherwise.  American  art  is  willing  to  spare 
him,  as  it  has  since  spared  the  illustrious 
Morse,  to  its  graver  sister,  Science ;  and  is 
no  less  proud  of  the  practical  blessings  he 
has  bestowed  upon  his  country,  than  it 
would  be  of  the  highest  aesthetic  success. 
Fulton  died  upon  the  24th  of  February, 
1815. 

Next  among  the  men  of  service  and  influence 
in  the  cause  of  art  in  America  was  William 
Dunlap,  who  was  born  in  Perth  Amboy,  N.J., 
February  19th,  1766,  and  who  commenced 
the  profession  of  portrait  painter  about  1782. 
Dunlap  Avill  be  remembered  as  an  artist  more 
for  his  long  life  of  reverent  and  persistent  de 
votion  to  the  craft,  and  for  the  respect  and 
estimation  which  his  character  gained  for  it, 
than  for  his  success  at  the  easel ;  though  he 
both  attempted  and  achieved  works  which 
were  commended  at  a  less  brilliant  period 
than  the  present.  He  was  also  an  author  of 
considerable  ability.  Among  his  works  is  a 
"History  of  the  American  Theatre,"  publish 
ed  in  1832,  and  another  of  the  New  Nether 
lands,  which  appeared  in  1840  ;  a  memoir 
of  Charles  Brockden  Brown,  and  various 
plays  of  considerable  interest.  But  the 
most  important  of  his  literary  labors  is  the 
only  record  we  possess  of  the  early  story  of 
American  art,  an  invaluable  work  under  the 
circumstances,  and  one  for  which  he  will  be 
ever  remembered,  although  clumsily  con 
structed  and  injured  by  a  most  wearisome 
medley  of  irrelevant  matter.  In  this  "  His 
tory  of  the  Arts  of  Design,"  Dunlap  gives  us 
his  own  biography  with  great  discursiveness 
and  fulness,  though  with  humble  and  char 
acteristic  reverence,  exhibiting  his  own  career 
as  one  to  be  shunned  rather  than  followed. 
'  I  look  back,"  he  says  in  mournful  reflecT 
tion,  "  upon  a  long  life,  with  the  persuasion 
that  what  is  called  misfortune  in  common 
parlance  is  caused  generally  by  our  own 
folly,  ignorance,  mistakes,  or  vices."  To  read 
his  story  as  recorded  in  his  "History  of  the 
Arts  of  Design,"  is  to  read  a  sad  record  of 
untoward  circumstances,  varied  effort,  and 
ever-following  failure ;  but,  withal,  a  praise 
worthy  and  even  exalted  longing  to  be  of  use 
to  his  fellows  and  his  country.  His  pictures 


were  generally  of  a  very  ambitious  character, 
scriptural  themes  on  canvas  twenty  feet  long. 
Among  these  productions  of  high  art  were 
Christ  Rejected ;  Bearing  the  Cross ;  Cal 
vary  ;  and  Death  on  the  Pale  Horse ;  the 
first  of  which  was  made  up  in  part,  and  the 
last  wholly,  from  West's  pictures  of  the  same 
names. 

Besides  thus  remembering  Dunlap  for  the 
art  records  which  he  has  preserved  with  so 
much  honesty  and  industry,  and  for  what  he 
would  have  done,  and  sought  to  lead  others 
to  do  at  the  easel,  he  must  be  honored  as 
one  of  the  founders  and  the  first  vice-presi 
dent  of  our  leading  art  society,  the  National 
Academy  of  Design  in  New  York.  Dunlap 
died  on  the  28th  of  September,  1839. 

To  the  life  and  works  of  Colonel  John 
Trumbull  our  early  art  owes  great  obliga 
tions,  though  it  is  much  the  fashion  at  this 
day  to  disparage  and  deny  his  genius.  Trum- 
bull's  name  is  familiar  to  the  people  through, 
his  grand  pictures  of  revolutionary  story 
which  decorate  the  walls  of  the  national 
capitol.  He  was  the  son  of  the  first  gov 
ernor  Trumbnll  of  Connecticut,  and  was 
born  at  Lebanon  on  the  6th  of  June,  1756. 
To  high  birth  he  added,  through  life,  high 
character  and  learning,  and  great  culture 
and  dignity  of  manners.  His  early  studies 
were,  as  was  the  case  with  all  the  Artists 
of  his  time,  pursued  abroad  and  under  Ben 
jamin  West.  He  entered  the  American 
army  at  the  commencement  of  the  Revolu 
tion,  and  was  an  eye-witness  of,  and  partici 
pant  in,  some  of  its  most  stirring  scenes,  of 
which  the  subsequent  delineation  won  for 
him  his  fame  as  a  painter.  The  four  large 
works  executed  for  the  government,  are : 
the  Declaration  of  Independence ;  the  Sur 
render  of  Cornwallis ;  the  Surrender  of 
Burgoyne ;  and  Washington's  Resignation. 
An  appropriation  of  thirty-two  thousand 
dollars  was  made  for  these  pictures,  be 
sides  which,  the  artist  received  considerable 
emolument  from  their  public  exhibition 
through  the  country.  Among  his  other  his 
torical  works  may  be  mentioned  the  Battle 
of  Bunker  Hill ;  the  Death  of  General  Mont 
gomery  ;  Capture  of  the  Hessians  at  Trenton  ; 
and  the  Death  of  General  Mercer  at  the 
Battle  of  Princeton.  In  addition,  he  exe 
cuted  various  scriptural  subjects,  and  many 
portraits,  among  which  was  a  full-length  of 
Washington,  painted  in  1792,  in  the  artist's 
best  days.  A  few  years  before  his  death, 
he  presented  his  collected  works  to  Yale 


320 


THE    ARTS    OF    DESIGN    IX    AMERICA. 


College,  upon  the  condition  that  they  should 
be  suitably  housed,  and  that  lie  should  re 
ceive  an  annuity  of  one  thousand  dollars. 
The  college  erected  a  gallery  on  its  grounds 
in  New  Haven,  where  the  pictures  were 
placed,  and  where  they  now  may  be  seen. 

Colonel  Trumbull  was  president  of  the 
American  Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  in  New 
York,  until  that  effete  organization  was  su 
perseded  in  1820  by  the  establishment  of 
the  National  Academy  of  Design.  Trum 
bull  did  not,  at  any  period  of  his  life,  pos 
sess  much  of  that  genial  fellowship  and  social 
habit  so  characteristic  of  artists,  and  so  es 
sential  to  personal  popularity  in  the  profes 
sion.  He  died  in  1843,  at  the  venerable  age 
of  eighty-seven  years,  leaving  behind  him  a 
name  unspotted,  and  a  claim  to  distinguished 
remembrance  in  the  history  of  art  in  America, 
despite  all  the  faults  of  his  works,  and  how 
ever  much  they  have  since  been  or  yet  may 
be  surpassed. 

Charles  AV.  Peale,  born  at  Chesterton,  on  the 
eastern  shore  of  Maryland,  April  16th,  1741, 
was  an  active  colaborer  with  Trumbull  and 
his  fellows,  but  was  not  eminently  successful 
at  the  easel.  He  was  a  man  of  versatile 
gifts,  and  at  various  times  dabbled  in  all 
sorts  of  crafts.  He  made  his  brothers,  sis 
ters,  sons,  and  daughters  all  artists.  He  died 
in  1827,  at  the  age  of  eighty-five  years. 

John  Vanderlyn  Avas  born  in  Kingston,  in 
the  state  of  New  York,  in  October,  1776, 
where  he  died  at  the  age  of  seventy-six 
years,  in  1852.  Aaron  Burr  was  struck 
with  his  boyish  performances  in  art  while 
he  was  a  blacksmith's  apprentice  in  his  na 
tive  village,  and  befriended  him  at  the  com 
mencement  of  hiS  career.  At  the  age  of 
twenty  he  made  the  foreign  tour,  so  custom 
ary  at  the  time,  studying  in  Paris  and  other 
cities  of  the  continent  of  Europe.  In  the 
year  1817,  the  corporation  of  New  York 
having  given  him  the  lease  of  the  ground, 
he  erected  the  building  in  the  north-east  cor 
ner  of  the  City  Hall  park  in  New  York, 
afterward  used  as  the  Post  Office,  and  always 
known  as  the  Rotunda.  Here  he  exhibited 
in  succession  a  series  of  panoramas,  the  first 
seen  in  this  country,  of  Paris,  Athens,  Mex 
ico,  and  Versailles,  with  his  own  pictures — 
Marius,  Ariadne,  and  other  subjects.  The 
unexpected  cost  of  the  building,  and  the 
resumption  of  the  lease  by  the  city  before 
the  artist  had  fairly  tried  his  speculation, 
made  it  a  matter  of  serious  pecuniary  loss 
to  him.  Among  his  chief  pictures  are  the 


Landing  of  Columbus,  which  fills  one  of  the 
panels  of  the  rotunda  of  the  Capitol  in 
Washington — one  of  the  pendants  of  those 
already  mentioned  by  Trumbull ;  his  fine 
picture  of  Marius  Musing  over  the  Ruins  of 
Carthage,  painted  in  1808;  and  his  superb 
full-length  figure  of  Ariadne,  so  beautifully 
engraved  by  Durand ;  portraits  of  Presidents 
Madison,  Monroe,  and  Jackson ;  of  Calhoun, 
De  Witt  Clinton,  and  other  distinguished 
men.  lie  exerted  a  most  healthy  influence 
upon  his  fellow  artists,  and  his  works  remain 
as  models  for  future  study. 

Edward  G.  Malbone  was  born  in  New 
port,  Rhode  Island,  in  1777,  and  died  in 
Savannah,  in  May,  1807,  in  his  thirty-second 
year.  During  his  short  life  he  won  high 
reputation  as  a  miniature  painter ;  and  his 
works  in  this  department  are  still  preserved 
in  various  parts  of  the  country  as  master 
pieces  of  art.  One  of  his  most  successful 
productions — a  picture  of  three  half-length  fe 
male  figures,  called  The  Hours — is  now  in  the 
possession  of  the  Athenaeum  in  Providence. 

Rembrandt  Pcale,  whose  history  belongs  to 
this  period,  though  but  so  recently  deceased, 
was  born  of  a  family  of  artists  in  Penn 
sylvania,  on  the  22d  of  February,  1778. 
He  was  an  active,  earnest  man  in  his  time, 
and  did  much  in  the  service  of  art,  by  his 
own  works,  and  the  incentive  which  his  ex 
ample  gave  to  others.  His  picture  of  AA^ash- 
ington,  painted  in  the  artist's  boyhood,  and 
afterward  often  repeated  by  him,  is  well 
known ;  as  also  his  grand  work  called  the  Court 
of  Death.  His  long  and  honored  career, 
which  embraced  nearly  the  whole  period  of 
our  art  history,  was  closed  on  the  3d  of  Oc 
tober,  1860. 

John  Wesley  Jarvis,  one  of  the  most  dis 
tinguished  portrait  painters  of  this  era,  was 
born  in  England  in  1780,  and  brought  to 
America  at  the  age  of  five  years.  He 
painted  innumerable  pictures,  many  of  them 
of  great  merit ;  and  did  good  service  as  the 
instructor  of  Henry  Inman,  and  other  dis 
tinguished  artists.  He  Avas  a  man  of  emi 
nently  social  disposition,  with  a  great  turn 
for  humor  —  traits  of  character  pleasant 
enough  Avhen  \vell  employed,  but  which  he 
unhappily  permitted  to  lead  him  into  low  and 
ruinous  dissipation,  Avhich  impaired  his  ar 
tistic  powers,  and  brought  .a  life  begun  under 
the  happiest  promise  to  the  dreariest  end. 

Charles  B.  King,  born  in  Newport,  Rhode 
Island,  1785;  Alvan  Fisher,  born  in  Need- 
ham,  Massachusetts,  1792  ;  William  E. 


PAINTING,    SCULPTURE,    AND    ENGRAVING. 


and  William  James  Bennet,  born  in  London, 
1787,  may  be  mentioned  in  this  part  of  our 
story  as  men  of  mark  and  influence  in  their 
day,  though  they  left  no  works  behind  them 
of  great  excellence.  Mr.  King,  indeed,  still 
lives  at  an  advanced  age  in  the  city  of  Wash 
ington,  -where  he  for  many  years  virtually  filled 
the  fashionable  position  of  court  painter,  pre 
serving  to  posterity  the  likenesses  of  presi 
dents,  ministers,  statesmen,  and  the  chiefs  of 
the  Indian  deputations  who  came  to  see  their 
great  white  father  at  the  capital. 

The  life  of  Thomas  Sully  fills  a  delightful 
page  in  the  history  of  American  art.  Born 
in  England  in  June,  1783,  he  came  hither 
at  the  age  of  nine  years,  struggled  bravely 
through  an  indigent  youth  and  a  laborious 
manhood  to  a  position  of  high  honor  and 
usefulness.  He  is  still  pursuing,  at  his  resi 
dence  in  Philadelphia,  the  profession  which 
he  has  through  many  years  so  effectually 
contributed  to  advance.  His  pictures  are 
characterized  by  grace  and  beauty  of  feeling, 
and  a  daintiness  and  freshness  of  color  well 
deserving  of  most  careful  study.  He  has 
painted  many  full-length  pictures  of  dis 
tinguished  personages,  among  them  one  of 
Queen  Victoria,  which  was  exhibited  with 
great  success  in  all  the  Atlantic  cities,  and 
numerous  fancy  heads  of  great  poetic  beauty. 

Charles  Fraser,  who  was  born  in  Charles 
ton,  South  Carolina,  August  20th,  1782,  was 
an  intimate  and  esteemed  associate  of  the 
best  men  of  the  days  of  which  we  write. 
His  works  have  materially  advanced  the 
standard  of  public  taste  in  his  native  state. 
After  obtaining  a  competency  by  the  indus 
trious  pursuit  of  legal  studies,  he  began  the 
profession  of  artist  in  earnest  at  the  age  of 
thirty-six.  Following  the  successful  lead  of 
his  friend  Malbonc,  he  turned  his  attention 
especially  to  miniature  painting,  in  which 
style  he  executed  a  picture  of  Lafayette, 
and  of  nearly  all  of  the  prominent  men  of 
his  region.  An  exhibition  of  his  collected 
works  in  1857,  included  313  miniatures,  139 
landscapes,  and  other  works  in  oil. 

Chester  Harding,  a  veteran  still  on  the 
stage,  was  born  in  Conway,  Mass.,  Septem 
ber  1st,  1792.  His  humble  parentage  sent 
him  at  first  to  farm  work  and  chair-making. 
After  the  war  of  1812,  in  which  he  served, 
lie  engaged  in  cabinet-making  in  Caledonia, 
New  York.  He  subsequently  went  to  the 
head  waters  of  the  Alleghany,  and  thence 
on  a  raft  to  Pittsburg,  where  he  worked  at 
house-painting ;  he  returned  home  through 


the  forest,  two  hundred  miles,  on  foot,  with 
no  guide  but  blazed  trees.  Again  visiting 
the  west  with  his  family,  he  worked  from 
sign  painting  into  portraiture ;  thenceforth 
gradually  rising  in  his  profession,  until  he 
numbered  among  his  sitters  such  men  as 
Madison,  Monroe,  Marshall,  Wirt,  Clay, 
Webster,  Calhoun,  and  Allston,  in  America ; 
and  the  dukes  of  Norfolk,  Hamilton,  and 
Sussex,  Lord  Aberdeen,  and  Samuel  Rogers, 
in  England. 

Washington  Allston,  one  of  the  most  il 
lustrious  of  our  artists,  was  a  native  of  South 
Carolina,  having  been  born  on  his  father's 
plantation  at  W  accamaw,  in  that  state,  on  the 
5th  of  November,  1779.  He  was  a  high- 
toned  man,  of  poetic  temperament  and  schol 
arly  tastes,  and  was  eminent  as  a  poet  as 
well  as  an  artist.  He  was  a  student  of  the 
Royal  Academy  in  London  in  1801,  and  an 
exhibitor  on  the  walls  of  that  institution  the 
following  year.  At  this  early  period  of  his 
life  he  became  an  intimate  friend  of  Cole 
ridge  and  Thorwaldsen,  West  and  Fuseli, 
and  other  distinguished  men.  In  a  second 
visit  to  Europe,  about  1810,  he  exhibited 
his  famous  picture  of  the  Dead  Man  Re 
vived,  which  is  now  in  the  Pennsylvania 
Academy  at  Philadelphia.  For  this  Avork  a 
prize  of  200  guineas  was  awarded  to  him  by 
the  British  Institution.  His  next  consider 
able  works  were:  St.  Peter  Liberated  by 
the  Angel ;  Uriel  in  the  Sun,  which  was 
painted  for  the  duke  of  Sutherland ;  and 
Jacob's  Dream.  In  1818  he  returned 
home,  with  his  picture  of  Elijah  in  the 
Wilderness,  which  afterward  went  back  to 
England.  Within  the  next  twelve  years  he 
produced  in  Boston  his  Prophet  Jeremiah, 
now  in  the  possession  of  Miss  Gibbs,  of  New 
port  ;  Saul  and  the  Witch  of  Endor  ;  Mir 
iam  Singing  the  Song  of  Triumph,  and 
other  justly  celebrated  works.  Among  his 
smaller  pictures,  •  the  Valentine  and  Be 
atrice,  female  ideal  heads,  are  remarkable 
for  their  power  of  expression  and  strength 
of  color.  In  the  studio  in  which  he  finally 
settled  himself  at  Cambridge,  he  painted 
Spalatro's  Vision  of  the  Bloody  Hand; 
Rosalie ;  and  his  grand  unfinished  subject, 
Belshaz/.ar's  Feast.  In  his  early  life  he  was 
an  intimate  friend  of  Washington  Irving, 
whom  he  almost  won  over  to  his  own  studies, 
as  the  author's  profession  may  have  attracted 
him,  for  during  his  life  he  made  frequent  in 
cursions  into  the  literary  arena,  publishing 
in  London,  in  1813,  a  poem  entitled  "The 


322 


THE    ARTS    OF    DESIGN    IN*    AMERICA. 


Sylphs  of  the  Season,"  and  afterward  the 
metrical  satire  entitled,  "  The  Two  Painters," 
the  weird  story  of  the  "  Paint  King,"  "  Mo- 
naldi,  a  Tale  of  Passion  in  Italy,"  followed 
after  his  death  by  a  volume  of  "  Lectures  on 
Art."  He  was  twice  married,  first  in  1809 
to  a  sister  of  Dr.  Channing,  and  again  in 
1830.  lie  died  at  Cambridge  on  the  9th  of 
July,  1843. 

Thomas  Birch,  a  marine  painter,  and 
Joshua  Shaw,  a  landscape  painter,  were  born 
in  England  about  the  time  of  the  Revolution, 
the  latter  in  the  year  of  the  Declaration  of 
our  Independence.  They  became  residents 
of  the  United  States  in  childhood,  and 
gained  a  reputation  in  their  respective  de 
partments. 

Among  the  popular  painters  of  this  time 
were  Samuel  L.  Waldo  and  William  Jewett. 
These  gentlemen  painted  an  immense  num 
ber  of  portraits  together,  under  the  famous 
firm  of  Waldo  &  Jewett. 

Our  narrative  now  passes  the  line,  as  nearly 
as  such  a  line  may  be  drawn,  between  the 
artists  of  the  revolutionary  and  immediately 
following  years,  and  the  earlier  part  of  tho 
present  century.  Already  have  we  seen  the 
arts  firmly  rooted  in  the  love  of  the  people 
and  the  genius  of  their  professors ;  seen  na 
tive  artists  grow  up,  and  by  their  labors  re 
flect  high  and  imperishable  honor  on  their 
country.  In  the  continuation  and  the  sequel 
of  our  history  it  will  be  our  pleasure  to  sec 
this  glory  ever  brightening,  and  the  public 
taste  and  artistic  skill  still  more  rapidly  ad 
vancing  hand  in  hand.  This  progress  can 
not,  however,  be  better  understood  than  by 
following,  step  by  step,  the  lives  of  those 
from  whose  genius  and  works  it  alone  springs. 
We  therefore  continue  as  we  have  begun, 
the  chronological  mention  of  the  men  to 
whom  we  are  the  most  indebted  for  it. 

We  have  already  seen  how  our  country 
had  no  sooner  come  of  age  than  its  early  in 
debtedness  to  the  mother-land  for  the  hum 
ble  aid  of  her  Smybert  and  others,  was 
promptly  and  nobly  repaid  by  the  fame 
which  we  sent  her  of  a  West  and  a  Copley. 
Not  content  with  this  ample  acknowledg 
ment,  we  added  to  these  high  names  at  a 
later  day  those  of  Leslie  and  Newton,  which 
she  has  inscribed  upon  the  brightest  tablet 
of  her  art  achievement.  Both  these  emi 
nent  artists  were  Americans  by  their  parent 
age,  though,  through  the  chances  of  the  mo 
ment,  the  former  first  saw  the  light  in  Lon 
don.  The  latter  was  born  in  Halifax,  in 


Nova  Scotia,  during  a  temporary  visit  of  his 
parents  thither  from  Boston.  They  estab 
lished  themselves  in  London,  where  they 
passed  their  lives  in  such  successful  labors 
as  to  leave  a  name  and  fame  cherished  zeal 
ously  both  by  their  native  and  their  adopted 
homes. 

The  men  most  distinguished  and  the  most 
serviceable  in  the  cause  of  art  in  America, 
who  came  upon  the  stage  at  or  near  the  be 
ginning  of  the  present  century,  are  nearly 
all  yet  living  to  see  the  happy  fruits  of  their 
toil,  in  the  general  diffusion  of  an  apprecia 
tive  and  enduring  love  of  art  throughout  the 
land,  in  the  growing  up  of  a  community  of 
artists,  large  and  influential  enough  to  have 
become  an  acknowledged  and  revered  power 
in  society,  and  in  the  firm  foundation  of  a 
strongly  individualized  and  healthful  national 
school. 

Among  these  great  men,  we  should,  per 
haps,  first  of  all,  mention  Samuel  Findlcy 
Breesc  Morse,  to  whom  (though  he  was  drawn 
out  of  the  profession  as  Fulton  was  before 
him,  by  the  allurements  of  science)  we  owe 
much  for  the  excellent  labors  of  his  pencil 
and  the  yet  more  excellent  effects  of  his 
earnest  sympathy  with  his  art  brethren 
throughout  his  long  and  illustrious  life.  It 
is  to  this  strong  and  indefatigable  love  that 
we  are,  more  than  to  any  other  agency,  in 
debted  for  the  foundation  and  success  of  our 
chief  art  society,  the  National-  Academy  of 
Design.  Morse  was  the  leading  spirit  in 
this  great  enterprise.  He  was  its  first  presi 
dent;  an  office  which  he  continued  to  fill 
with  high  honor  for  a  score  of  years,  and 
which,  only  that  other  duties  required  him 
to  resign,  he  would  have  filled  to  this  day. 
Prof.  Morse  was  born  in  Charlestown,  Mass., 
April  29th,  1791.  His  father  was  the  fa 
mous  geographer,  the  Rev.  Jcdidiah  Morse. 
He  was  educated  at  Yale  College  under  Dr. 
D wight.  In  his  twentieth  year  he  went  to 
England,  and  yet  two  years  later  successfully 
exhibited  a  large  picture  of  the  Dying 
Hercules  at  the  Royal  Academy.  He  had 
previously  executed  a  plaster  model  of  the 
Hercules,  which  he  also  displayed,  and  for 
which,  greatly  to  his  own  surprise,  he  re 
ceived  the  gold  medal  from  the  Society  of 
Arts.  From  this  happy  commencement  of 
his  life  as  an  artist,  and  from  the  portraits 
and  other  works  which  he  subsequently  pro 
duced,  until  other  studies  drew  his  mind 
away  from  the  easel,  we  may  fairly  suppose 
that  he  would  have  reached  the  highest  posi- 


PAINTING,    SCULPTURE,    AND    ENGRAVING. 


323 


tion  as  a  painter  had  lie  continued  to  seek 
it,  and  some  regret  at  liis  loss  to  the  arts 
may  be  permitted,  even  in  view  of  what  the 
world  at  large  owes  to  his  scientific  studies 
in  the  priceless  gift  of  the  Magnetic  Tele 
graph. 

Charles  C.  Ingham,  born  in  Dublin,  1796, 
is  one  of  the  bright  lights  of  this  epoch  yet 
shining  brightly  among  us.  He  was  an  ear 
nest  coljiborer  with  Morse  in  the  establish 
ment  of  our  National  Academy,  which  has 
always  owed  and  still  owes  much  in  its  ex 
hibitions  to  the  productions  of  his  easel — 
his  exquisite  pictures  of  fair  women  and 
brave  men.  lie  at  this  time  fills  the  office 
of  vice-president  of  the  academy. 

Robert  W.  Weir,  who  has  been  for  many 
years,  as  now,  professor  of  drawing  at  the 
Military  Academy  at  West  Point,  holds  a 
distinguished  place  among  the  older  of  our 
living  artists.  He  was  born  on  the  1 8th  of 
January,  1803,  at  New  Rochelle,  in  the  state 
of  New  York.  It  is  to  his  pencil  that  we 
owe  that  best  of  the  pictures  in  the  Capitol 
at  Washington,  the  Embarkation  of  the 
Pilgrims,  a  work  eminently  illustrative  of 
the  thoughtfulness  and  conscientiousness  of 
his  genius.  He  has  painted  numerous  his 
torical  compositions,  genre  subjects,  land 
scapes,  and  portraits  of  great  excellence. 

Thomas  S.  Cummings,  another  of  the 
founders  of  the  academy,  and  always  one 
of  its  officers,  held  high  rank  at  this  period 
in  the  department  of  miniature  painting. 
Mr.  Cummings  was  born  in  Bath,  England, 
in  1 804,  and  became  a  resident  of  the  United 
States  in  early  childhood. 

John  G.  Chapman,  born  in  Alexandria, 
Virginia,  on  the  llth  of  August,  1808,  now 
residing  in  Italy,  is  well  known  as  the  paint 
er  of  the  Baptism  of  Pocahontas,  in  the 
Capitol  at  Washington,  and  as  the  author  of 
innumerable  designs  in  our  illustrated  books. 
William  S.  Mount,  born  in  Setauket, 
L.  I.,  November,  1807,  was  the  first  Ameri 
can  artist  who  achieved  high  success  in  sub 
jects  of  a  purely  national  character,  in  a  se 
ries  of  happy  pictures  of  the  humbler  fea 
tures  of  our  country  life.  His  Bargaining 
for  a  Horse,  Haymaker's  Dance,  the 
Power  of  Music,  and  other  light  themes, 
have  been  often  engraved,  and  are  familiar  to 
everybody. 

Francis  W.  Edmonds  has  produced  many 
pleasant  pictures  in  the  same  vein  of  quiet 
humor  with  Mount. 

William  Page,  born  in  Albany,  January, 


1811,  has  distinguished  himself,  at  home  and 
abroad,  in  the  field  of  portraiture.  He  has 
painted,  also,  many  excellent  classic  themes, 
among  them  the  Venus,  recently  exhibit 
ed  through  the  Union  with  so  much  applause. 

Henry  Inman,  born  in  Utica,  N.  Y.,  Octo 
ber  20th,  1801,  was  one  of  the  most  eminent 
artists  of  the  time.  He  was  a  pupil  of  Jar- 
vis,  whom  he  soon  surpassed,  excellent  as 
Jarvis  was.  He  was  a  man  of  remarkable 
versatility,  and  worked  with  equal  facility  in 
portraiture,  landscape,  and  history.  He  was 
the  guest  of  Wordsworth,  during  a  visit  to 
England  in  1844,  at  which  time  he  painted 
a  characteristic  picture  of  the  great  poet,  and 
that  charming  illustration  of  the  scenery  of 
his  region,  the  Rydal  Water.  While  in 
England,  he  painted,  also,  portraits  of  Dr. 
Chalmers,  Macaulay,  and  other  eminent  peo 
ple.  The  exhibition  which  was  made,  after 
his  death,  of  his  works,  was  one  of  the  most 
interesting  and  varied  ever  seen  in  New 
York.  Inman  died  on  the  1 7th  of  January, 
1846. 

In  coming  now  to  the  life  and  works  of 
Asher  B.  Durand,  we  enter  the  great  field 
of  landscape  art,  in  which  our  painters  are 
so  pre-eminently  distinguishing  themselves — 
that  field  first  explored  with  such  brilliant 
success  by  Durand,  and  his  fellow-laborers 
Cole  and  Doughty,  and  which  is  now  being 
brought  to  such  high  culture  by  the  present 
host  of  younger  men.  Durand  was  the  first 
of  our  landscapists  to  pursue  that  course  of 
severe  and  earnest  study  of  Nature  herself, 
in  all  her  details  of  form,  character,  and  col 
or,  which  is  now  universal  among  us,  and  to 
which  (following  the  richness  and  variety 
of  our  scenery)  our  wonderful  progress  in 
this  department  of  the  art  may,  in  a  great 
measure,  be  ascribed. 

Mr.  Durand  is  president  of  the  National 
Academy,  in  which  ofrice  he  succeeded 
Prof.  Morse.  Though  now  in  the  autumn 
of  life  (having  been  born  as  long  ago  as 
1796),  he  is  still  as  active  and  as  efficient  a 
worker,  in  his  special  field,  as  he  was  when 
he  first  entered  its  untrodden  paths  long 
years  ago.  Everybody  loves  Durand's  land 
scapes,  for  they  appeal  to  and  satisfy  the 
dearest  emotions  of  the  soul,  in  their  deep- 
thoughtedness,  their  quiet  and  serene  beau 
ty,  and  their  sweet  poetic  suggestion.  No 
artist  has  more  truly  rendered  the  character 
istics  of  our  American  scenery,  or  under  a 
greater  variety  of  aspects.  Besides  innu 
merable  landscapes,  many  of  them  of  great 


324 


THE    ARTS    OF    DESIGN    IN    AMERICA. 


size,  lie  has  painted  a  large  number  of  ex 
cellent  portraits,  and  various  successful  figure 
pieces.  He  was,  too,  before  lie  became  a 
landscape  painter  professionally,  perhaps  the 
best  of  our  engravers  upon  steel ;  in  which 
art,  his  skill  is  well  attested  by  the  fine  print 
of  Ariadne,  after  Vanderlyn.  He  is  a  native 
of  Jefferson,  in  New  Jersey. 

Side  by  side  with  Durand — for  they  work 
ed  together  through  many  fruitful  years — 
was  Thomas  Cole,  born  on  the  1st  of  Febru 
ary,  1801.  He  was  a  native  of  Bolton-le- 
Moor,  in  England,  and  was  eighteen  years 
-of  age  when  his  father  emigrated  to  Ameri 
ca  ;  yet  so  thoroughly  did  he  acquire  the 
spirit  of  American  landscape,  in  all  its  most 
peculiar  idioms,  that  never  would  he,  of  all 
our  artists,  be  thought  of  foreign  origin. 
While  Durand  painted  our  hills,  and  valleys, 
and  waters  in  their  more  calm  and  contem 
plative  mood,  and  in  the  bright,  yet  quiet 
garb  of  summer  green,  Cole  loved  to  watch 
their  more  stirring  and  active  humors,  and 
to  depict  them  in  the  gorgeous  parti-colored 
vesture  of  varied  autumn.  The  one,  with 
delicate  and  dainty  touch,  records  the  gentle 
whisperings  of  the  meadows,  and  lakes,  and 
rivulets,  while  the  other,  with  his  freer  and 
bolder  pencil,  transcribes  the  grander  lan 
guage  of  the  cloud,  or  the  snow-capped 
mountain  crest,  and  of  the  turbulent  and 
roaring  torrent. 

Cole's  curlier  professional  life  was  passed 
among  scenes  of  hardship,  trials,and  poverty, 
which  only  the  most  persistent  spirit  and 
the  truest  genius  could  have  conquered.  It 
is  a  pleasant  thing  to  record  that  the  first 
real  encouragement  which  he  met  with,  the 
first  recognition  of  his  great  merit,  came 
from  brother  artists,  when  Durand,  Trum- 
bull,  and  Dunlap  took  him  generously  by  the 
hand,  and  led  his  steps  into  the  pathway  of 
success  and  fame.  His  later  years  sped  hap 
pily,  in  a  beautiful  home  on  the  Hudson,  in 
the  midst  of  that  charming  mountain  and 
river  scenery,  which  his  pencil  has  done  so 
much  to  endear  to  us.  His  earnest,  poetic 
temperament  did  not  permit  him  to  rest 
content  with  the  literal  delineations  of  nat 
ural  beauty,  but  led  him  to  embody  them  in 
imaginative  conceptions,  with  high  moral 
meanings.  To  this  noble  ambition,  we  owe 
that  great  series  of  works  representing  the 
rise,  progress,  and  fall  of  Empire,  now  in  the 

fillery   of  the   Historical    Society  in   New 
ork;  that  famous  epic,  in  four  parts,  famil 
iar  to  the  world  under  the  name  of  the  Voy 


age  of  Life,  in  the  possession  of  the  Rev.  G. 
D.  Abbott,  of  New  York ;  and  the  third 
group,  left  unfinished  at  his  death,  and  now, 
we  think,  in  the  possession  of  his  family,  at 
Catskill,  called  the  Cross  and  the  World. 
\part  from  these  great  serials,  his  principal 
productions  are  the  Allegro  and  the  Pen- 
seroso,  the  Home  in  the  Woods,  the  Moun 
tain  Ford,  the  Hunter's  Return,  the  Mount 
Etna,  the  Dream  of  Arcadia,  the  Cross  in 
the  Wilderness,  and  the  Departure  and  the 
Return. 

Cole  died  at  his  home,  in  Catskill,  on  the 
llth  of  February,  1848,  universally  lament 
ed,  scarcely  less  as  an  artist  than  as  a  man 
of  exalted  principle,  singular  kindness  of 
heart,  and  rare  literary  tastes  and  ability. 

With  the  name  of  Thomas  Doughty,  we 
end  our  mention  of  the  trio  of  which  we 
have  spoken,  as  the  founders  of  our  Ameri 
can  school  of  landscape  art.  If  his  works, 
with  all  their  poetical  beauty,  were,  even  in 
his  best  days,  behind  those  of  his  confreres, 
and  do  not  preserve  the  place  they  once  had 
in  the  public  esteem,  it  may  be  set  down, 
probably,  to  the  fact  that,  at  the  earlier  pe 
riod  at  which  he  commenced  his  studies,  it 
was  not  the  custom,  as  it  soon  after  came  to 
be,  to  go  directly  and  implicitly  to  Nature 
for  instruction.  Doughty  was  born  in  Phil 
adelphia,  July  19th,  1793,  and  died  in  New 
York,  July  24th,  1 856.  In  his  youth,  he  was 
apprenticed  to  a  leather  manufacturer,  and 
afterward  became  a  leather  dealer  on  his  own 
account.  It  was  not  until  he  w7as  nearly 
twenty-eight  years  of  age  that  he  turned 
painter,  and  then  against  the  counsels  of  good 
friends.  He  practised  his  art  for  many  years 
in  New  York,  and  also  in  London  and  Paris. 

Daniel  Iluntington  was  born  in  New 
York,  October  1 4th,  1816.  No  pencil  has  con 
tributed  more  to  the  healthful  progress  of 
our  art,  in  elevation  of  theme,  and  refine 
ment  of  treatment,  than  that  of  Iluntington. 
Every  thing  he  does  is,  in  all  the  higher 
esthetic  qualities  of  art,  a  lesson  to  both  ar 
tists  and  the  public.  His  genius  is  of  the 
greatest  versatility,  being  equally  at  home  in 
portrait,  landscape,  or  history,  sacred  and 
profane. 

Charles  L.  Elliott,  born  in  Scipio,  N.  Y., 
in  1812,  and  now  pursuing  his  art  in  the  city 
of  New  York,  sustains,  in  his  vigorous  style 
of  portraiture,  the  fame  early  reflected  upon 
this  department  of  American  art  by  Stuart 
and  his  cotemporaries.  He  is  pre-eminent 
for  the  bold  execution  of  male  heads. 


PAINTING,    SCULPTURE,    AND    ENGRAVING. 


George  A.  Baker,  of  Xew  York,  is  equally 
distinguished  for  his  heads  of  women  and 
children.  Henry  Peters  Gray,  also  of  New 
York,  holds  a  high  position  as  a  painter  of 
portraits,  and  of  small  pictures  of  genre  and 
history.  Of  the  latter  class  of  works,  his 
Pride  of  the  Village,  from  Irving,  is  a  most 
charming  example.  Thomas  P.  Rossiter  is 
familiarly  known  by  numerous  large  works, 
chiefly  from  scripture  history,  which  have 
been  exhibited  to  admiring  throngs  through 
out  the  country.  He  has  recently  establish 
ed  himself  in  a  pleasant  home,  at  Cold 
Spring,  on  the  Hudson.  Arthur  F.  Tait  is 
particularly  happy  in  pictures  of  game  and 
sporting  life,  a  branch  successfully  followed 
by  the  late  William  Ranncy.  Thomas  Ilicks 
is  among  the  most  popular  of  the  present 
group  of  portrait  painters  in  New  York. 
Ilicks  is  now  engaged  upon  a  large  picture 
of  the  living  authors  of  America.  Edwin 
White's  great  picture  of  Washington  Resign 
ing  his  Commission,  painted  for  the  legisla 
ture  of  Maryland,  is  a  fair  example  of  this 
artist's  style  and  class  of  subjects. 

Emanuel  Leutze  stands  at  the  head  of  the 
living  historical  painters  of  the  country. 
Much  of  his  life  has  been  passed  in  Dussel- 
dorf,  but  he  has  lately  returned  home,  and  is 
pursuing  his  art  in  New  York.  A  large  pic 
ture  of  Washington  Crossing  the  Delaware, 
is  an  excellent  example  of  his  vigorous  and 
effective  style. 

P.  F.  Rothermel  is  one  of  the  leading  artists 
of  Philadelphia,  in  historical  subjects.  The 
Lambdins,  of  Philadelphia,  father  and  son, 
hold  a  distinguished  place  in  the  art,  the  el 
der  as  portrait  painter,  and  the  latter  as 
painter  of  poetical  and  dramatic  scenes. 

F.  0.  C.  Darley  has  achieved  a  world-wide 
fame,  by  his  designs  and  book  illustrations. 
Nothing  can  surpass,  in  beauty  of  concep 
tion,  his  charming  outline  drawings  from 
Irving's  "Rip  Van  Winkle"  and  "Sleepy 
Hollow,"  or  his  compositions  from  Judd's 
novel,  "  Margaret."  He  is  now  illustrating 
an  edition  of  Cooper's  works  in  thirty-two 
volumes,  containing  upward  of  live  hundred 
designs.  John  W.  Ehningcr  has  been  most 
successful  in  the  same  walk  with  Darley,  be 
sides  which  he  has  made  many  happy  ycnre 
pictures  in  oil.  E.  D.  E.  Greene  is  justly 
famous  for  the  classic  beauty  of  his  female 
heads;  J.  T.  Peele  for  his  dainty  pictures 
of  childhood;  Rowsc  and  Colyer  for  their 
charming  heads  in  crayon  ;  W.  J.  Hays  for 
his  animal  subjects;  Eastman  Johnson  for 


his  domestic  passages  of  negro  and  other 
humble  life ;  Healy  and  Lang  for  bril 
liant  portraiture ;  Wenzler  and  Stone  for 
their  female  heads,  and  May  in  historical 
subjects. 

Nearly  all  our  landscape  painters,  after 
the  trio  already  mentioned  as  the  first  who 
entered  the  field,  are  young  men,  many  of 
them  giving  promise  of  a  success  even  be 
yond  that  of  their  gifted  fathers  in  art.  The 
pictures  of  Church,  who  has  not  yet  reached^ 
the  middle  of  man's  three-score  years  and 
ten,  are  famous  the  world  over.  Everybody 
has  seen  his  wonderful  picture  of  Niagara, 
and  his  still  more  popular  Heart  of  the 
Andes.  No  works  have  done  so  much  as 
those  of  Church  to  increase  the  foreign  esti 
mate  of  American  art.  Cropsey  is  now  ex 
tending  in  London  a  fame  fairly  won  at 
home.  Kensett's  pictures  of  our  forest  scene 
ry  are  admired  and  loved  by  all.  Mignot 
and  the  brothers  Hart  are  among  the  best 
landscapists  of  this  or  any  land,  which  may 
be  said  also  in  brief  of  Casilear,  Gignoux, 
Giffbrd,  Hubbard,  Weber,  Gay,  Bicrstadt, 
Brown,  Shattuck,  Colman,  and  Inness. 

Our  catalogue  of  bright  names  might  run 
on  almost  forever,  now  that  we  have  fully 
entered  among  the  artists  of  our  own  day  ; 
but  of  them,  great  as  is  their  genius — greater, 
indeed,  in  many  instances,  than  that  of  any 
of  their  predecessors  of  whom  we  have  said 
so  much — it  was  not  our  intention  to  speak 
at  length.  Their  name  and  fame  is  still  ris 
ing;  we  meet  them  in  our  daily  life,  and 
gain  of  them  that  cotemporary  knowledge 
which  is  better  than  all  historic  record  ;  be 
sides,  our  only  desire  was  to  gather  up  the 
fast  fading  mementoes  of  the  early  condition 
of  art  among  us,  and  of  the  steps  by  which 
it  has  risen  to  its  present  noble  state.  This 
present  is  before  us  all,  to  delight  our  eyes, 
and  encourage  our  hearts  for  the  future. 

We  pass  now  to  a  brief  glance  at  the  re 
markable  performance  of  our  young  land  in 
the  noble  art  of  Sculpture,  a  performance 
confessedly  surpassed  by  no  modern  school. 

Sculpture,  as  the  more  costly  art,  and  as 
the  less  intelligible  to  the  popular  eye,  of 
course  followed  painting  in  its  progress 
among  us  as  elsewhere.  The  surprise  is 
that  it  should  have  followed  so  speedily  and 
with  such  grand  strides.  It  is  possible  that 
this  happy  result  may  have  sprung  in  a  meas 
ure  from  the  circumstance  that  our  first  for 
eign  visitors  and  instructors  in  marble  art 
were  men  of  the  highest  genius,  instead  of 


826 


THE    ARTS    OF    DESIGN    IJf    AMERICA. 


the  third-rate  talent  only  which  our  early 
painicrs  brought  to  us.  It  is  seldom  amiss 
to  make  a  good  start,  and  much  is  saved 
where  there  is  nothing  left  to  be  unlearned. 

One  of  our  first  heralds  of  the  chisel  ap 
peared  in  1791,  when  Ceracchi,  an  eminent 
Italian  sculptor,  arrived  at  Philadelphia.  lie 
was  scarcely  less  celebrated  as  a  revolution 
ist  than  as  an  artist,  and  leaving  France  when 
the  dangers  there  grew  too  thick  around 
him,  he  marched  over  to  the  New  World, 
with  a  scheme  for  building  us  a  grand  mar 
ble  monument  to  Liberty.  His  project  was 
submitted  to  Congress,  which  was  then  in 
session,  but  that  body  supposed  that  the 
public  funds  could  be  employed,  at  the  mo 
ment,  more  advantageously  in  the  cause  of 
Liberty,  than  in  honoring  her  with  sculptured 
shrines.  Washington,  however,  gave  his 
personal  assent  to  the  idea,  and  headed  a 
private  subscription,  by  means  of  which  it 
was  hoped  the  required  thirty  thousand  dol 
lars  could  be  procured.  Not  an  inch,  though, 
of  the  proposed  hundred  feet  of  stone  ever 
rose  from  the  ground.  Instead  of  the  mon 
ument,  the  sculptor  employed  his  chisel  upon 
busts ;  and,  among  others,  executed  fine  por 
traits  of  the  commandcr-in-chief,  of  Alex 
ander  Hamilton,  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  Gco. 
Clinton,  John  Jay,  and  Paul  Jones. 

On  returning  to  France,  Ceracchi's  red 
republicanism  reappeared  in  a  madder  form 
than  ever,  and  he  plotted  to  take  the  hated 
life  of  Napoleon,  then  first  consul,  even  in 
the  sanctity  of  his  own  studio,  and  while  he 
should  be  sitting  for  his  bust.  He  was  after 
ward  guillotined  on  a  charge  of  complicity 
in  the  famous  scheme  of  the  "  infernal  ma 
chine." 

Yet  earlier  than  the  time  of  Ceracchi's 
residence  in  the  United  States,  Iloudon,  a 
celebrated  French  sculptor,  was  invited  to 
visit  this  country  for  the  express  purpose  of 
perpetuating  in  marble  the  form  and  features 
of  Washington.  The  result  of  his  visit  was 
the  full-length  statue  which  now  adorns  the 
vestibule  of  the  Capitol  at  Richmond,  in 
Virginia.  The  sculptor's  legend  on  this 
work  reads  thus  :  "  fait  par  Iloudon,  Gilo- 
yen  Francais,  1788."  The  Father  of  his 
country  is  here  represented  of  life  size,  and 
in  the  military  style  of  the  Revolution.  The 
figure  stands,  resting  on  the  right  foot,  hav 
ing  the  left  somewhat  advanced,  with  the 
knee  bent.  The  left  hand  rests  on  a  bundle 
of  fasces,  on  which  hang  a  military  cloak  and 
a  small  sword,  a  plough  leaning  near. 


Another  noble  statue  of  Washington,  by 
Canova,  adorned  the  Capitol  of  North  Car 
olina,  at  Raleigh,  until  that  edifice  was  un 
happily  destroyed,  and  the  statue  with  it, 
by  fire,  in  1831. 

Of  our  native  sculptors,  perhaps  the  first 
who  gave  indications  of  talent  above  the 
humblest  mediocrity,  was  John  Frasec,  born 
in  Rockaway,  in  New  Jersey,  July  18th,  1790. 
A  bust  which  he  executed  in  1824  of  John 
Wells,  now  in  Grace  Church,  in  New  York, 
was,  says  Dunlap  in  his  "  Arts  of  Design," 
the  first  portrait  in  marble  ever  attempted  in 
the  United  States.  Ceracchi's  works  were 
probably  only  modelled  here,  and  were  after 
ward  put  into  stone  at  home.  Frasee  made 
excellent  busts  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  of 
Daniel  Webster,  and  others.  "He  had  ad 
vanced,"  adds  Dunlap  in  1834,  "to  a  per 
fection  which  leaves  him  without  a  rival  at 
present  in  this  country."  To  those  who 
know  any  thing  of  our  sculptors  of  this  day 
we  hardly  need  say,  that  Dunlap  lived  too 
long  ago  to  witness  the  real  beginning  of  its 
brilliant  history,  and  that  the  talent  of  Frasee, 
excellent  as  it  was,  did  not  even  indicate  the 
high  rank  the  art  now  holds. 

Shobal  Vail  Clcvcnger,  who  was  born  at 
Middleton,  Ohio,  in  1812,  and  died  at  sea  in 
1843,  left  behind  him  admirable  busts  of 
Webster,  Clay,  Allston,  Van  Buren,  and  oth 
ers.  His  early  death  interrupted  a  progress 
which  might  have  extended  far  toward  the 
point  which  our  sculptors  have  since  reached. 

In  the  year  1805,  on  the  6th  of  September, 
Horatio  Grcenough  was  born  in  Boston,  to 
fill  a  distinguished  place  in  the  annals  of 
American  sculpture.  He  received  his  earliest 
instruction  from  a  resident  French  artist 
named  Binon,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty  went 
abroad.  After  modelling  busts  of  John 
Quincy  Adams,  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  and 
many  others,  lie  executed,  at  the  order  of 
Fenimorc  Cooper,  the  novelist,  his  Chant 
ing  Cherubs,  which  was  the  first  original 
group  from  the  chisel  of  an  American  artist. 
This  work  was  made  in  Florence,  where  he 
had  permanently  established  his  studio  at 
this  time.  In  1831  he  went  to  Paris  to 
model  the  bust  of  Lafayette,  and  thencefor 
ward  received  liberal  commissions,  especially 
from  his  countrymen  abroad. 

Through  the  influence  of  his  generous 
friend,  Cooper,  he  received  a  commission 
from  Congress  for  the  colossal  statue  of 
Washington,  which  now  stands  so  grandly 
on  the  great  lawn  opposite  the  east  front  of 


PAINTING,    SCULPTURE,    AND    ENGRAVING. 


the  national  Capitol.  This  work  was  com 
pleted  in  1843,  after  many  years  of  indus 
trious  toil.  Among  others  of  Greenough's 
works  at  this  period,  were  the  Mcdora, 
commissioned  by  Mr.  Robert  Gilmor,  of 
Baltimore  ;  the  Venus  Victrix,  in  the  Boston 
Athenamm  ;  and  the  Angel  Abdicl.  In  1856 
he  returned  to  the  United  States  to  superin 
tend  the  placing  at  Washington  of  his  group 
of  the  Rescue,  symbolizing  the  triumph  of 
civilization,  which  he  had  executed  in  fulfil 
ment  of  an  order  from  Congress.  It  is  sup 
posed  that  the  vexatious  delays  in  the  arri 
val  of  this  work  from  Italy,  together  with 
the  hurly-burly  of  American  life,  to  which 
his  long  residence  abroad  had  unaccustomed 
him,  contributed  to  induce  the  attack  of 
train  fever,  from  the  effects  of  which  he 
died,  December  18th,  1852. 

Grcenough  was  educated  at  Harvard,  and 
was  a  man  of  elegant  attainments  and  accom 
plished  manners.  He  was  engaged  in  the 
delivery  of  a  course  of  art  lectures  in  Boston 
at  the  time  of  his  last  illness.  An  interest 
ing  memorial  of  Greenough  was  published 
by  the  poet  Tuckerman  in  1853. 

The  first  general  and  popular  acknowledg 
ment,  at  home  and  abroad,  of  our  success  in 
sculpture,  was  won  for  us  by  the  genius  of 
Hiram  Powers,  and  dated  from  the  time 
of  the  exhibition  of  his  Greek  Slave.  Not 
that  this  is  by  any  means  the  best  per 
formance  our  artists  have  reached — for  other 
men  have  followed  with  yet  greater  works; 
and  among  these  others,  one,  of  whom  we 
shall  speak,  who  has  cast  oft'  the  convention 
alities  of  old  art,  and  has,  upon  his  own 
native  soil,  not  that  of  Europe,  gone  beyond 
mere  classic  beauty,  to  the  higher  attainment 
of  individual  and  national  character  and 
truth.  Yet,  as  we  have  said,  it  was  from 
the  popular  success  of  this  statue  of  the 
Greek  Slave  that  the  world  picked  up  and 
recognized  the  fact  of  the  genius  of  Ameri 
can  sculptors. 

Powers  is  a  native  of  Vermont;  but,  like 
most  of  our  men  of  marble,  resides  and 
works  abroad.  He  established  himself  long 
years  ago  in  Florence,  since  which  time  we 
do  not  know  that  he  has  even  visited  his 
native  land.  He  is  an  industrious  worker, 
and  has  made  innumerable  busts,  in  addition 
to  his  more  ambitious  ventures  into  the  h'eld 
of  poetry  and  the  imagination.  It  is,  in 
deed,  in  portraiture  that  his  strength  lies — 
with  a  temperament  more  practical  than 
fanciful,  and  with  a  sympathy  more  with 


the  real  than  with  the  ideal.  His  colossal 
figure  of  Eve,  and  his  full-length  statue 
of  Calhoun,  are  preserved  in  Soiith  Carolina. 
In  the  lamented  Crawford,  who  was  born 
in  New  York,  March  22d,  1814,  and  who 
died  in  London,  October  10th,  185Y,  we  pos 
sessed  a  man  of  stronger  and  nobler  grasp 
than  any  of  his  predecessors ;  a  man,  who 
not  only  could  have  done  great  things  had  he 
lived,  but  who  did  them  even  without  living 
to  the  full  years  of  ripe  experience.  Craw 
ford  was  a  poor  boy,  and  began  his  art  life 
in  the  humble  occupation  of  a  wood-carver. 
At  the  age  of  nineteen  he  was  promoted  to 
a  place  in  the  studio  of  Frasee  and  Launitz, 
in  New  York ;  and,  when  about  twenty-one, 
he  went  to  Rome,  and  became  a  pupil  of  the 
Danish  sculptor  Thorwaldsen.  Here  he 
toiled  so  unremittingly  that  he  is  said  to 
have  modelled  no  fewer  than  seventeen  busts 
in  the  space  of  ten  weeks,  besides  copying,  in 
marble,  the  figure  of  Demosthenes  in  the 
Vatican.  In  1839,  when  in  his  twenty-fifth 
year,  he  exhibited  his  Orpheus,  with  the 
warm  congratulations  of  his  master,  Thor 
waldsen,  and  other  sculptors,  and  with  the 
hearty  approval  of  the  public.  From  that 
period  his  fame  continued  to  increase  up  to 
the  hour  of  his  untimely  death.  The  Or 
pheus — which  is  now  in  the  Athenanim  in 
Boston — was  followed  by  numerous  admira 
ble  subjects  from  classical  and  scriptural 
history.  Among  his  greater  and  later  works, 
was  the  remarkable  statue,  in  bronze,  of 
Beethoven,  executed  for  the  Boston  Music 
Hall ;  and  the  completion  of  which,  at  the 
foundry  in  Munich,  was  celebrated  by  a,  mu 
sical  festival,  at  which  the  royal  family  of 
Bavaria,  and  a  grand  concourse  of  people, 
assisted.  Afterward  came  the  equestrian 
statue  of  Washington,  which  now  adorns 
the  Capitol  hill  at  Richmond ;  where  it  was 
placed  by  the  patriotism  and  liberality  of 
the  people  of  Virginia.  This  great  work 
was  cast  in  bronze  in  Munich,  and  sent  home 
in  1857.  Its  pedestal  rests  upon  a  star- 
shaped  elevation,  with  six  points,  upon 
which  statues  of  Jefferson,  Henry,  Lee,  and 
other  illustrious  sons  of  Virginia  are  to  be 
placed.  He  executed  orders  from  Congress 
for  various  works  for  the  new  Capitol,  some 
of  the  most  successful  of  which  were  his 
designs  for  the  pediment  and  the  great 
bronze  doors.  His  grandest  effort  is,  per 
haps,  the  model  for  the  colossal  statue  of  the 
Genius  of  America,  which  is  to  be  cast  in 
bronze,  and  placed  upon  the  pinnacle  of  the 


328 


THE    ARTS    OF    DESIGN 


AMERICA. 


Capitol  dome.  This  statue  represents  a  fe 
male  figure,  fully  draped,  and  posed  with 
marvellous  grace  and  dignity.  During  his 
brief  career,  Crawford  finished  more  than 
sixty  works,  many  of  them  of  the  grand  size  ; 
besides  which,  he  left  nearly  as  many 
sketches  in  plaster,  and  numerous  designs, 
which  his  assistants  are  to  complete.  In 
1844,  he  married  Miss  Louisa  Ward,  daugh 
ter  of  the  late  Samuel  Ward,  of  New  York. 
Soon  after  his  return  from  his  last  visit  to 
his  native  land,  in  1856,  he  was  afflicted  with 
a  cancerous  tumor  on  the  brain,  from  the  ef 
fects  of  which  he  died,  after  many  months 
of  acute  suffering,  borne  with  heroic  pa 
tience. 

Henry  Kirke  Brown,  another  of  the  most 
eminent  of  our  American  sculptors,  was  born 
at  Leyden,  Massachusetts,  in  1814.  He 
began  the  study  of  portrait  painting  in 
Boston,  when  eighteen  years  of  age ;  and 
afterward  he  became  a  railroad  engineer  in 
Illinois,  much  to  the  injury  of  his  health, 
and  at  length  repaired  to  Italy  to  pursue  the 
grave  art  of  the  statuary.  Among  his  more 
famous  works,  are  the  well-known  marbles 
of  Hope;  the  Pleiades;  the  Four  Seasons; 
the  bronze  statue  of  De  Witt  Clinton 
at  Greenwood  Cemetery,  '  and  the  noble 
equestrian  statue  of  Washington,  which 
stands  in  Union  square  in  the  city  of  New 
York.  Most,  if  not  all  of  these  works,  were 
executed  in  Brooklyn,  New  York ;  though, 
of  late  years,  the  artist  has  established  him 
self  in  a  pleasant  cottage  at  Newburgh,  on 
the  Hudson.  Brown's  Washington  was  the 
first  statue  ever  cast  in  bronze  in  this 
country. 

Palmer,  who  is,  perhaps,  the  most  popu 
lar  of  American  sculptors  at  the  present 
day,  was  born  in  the  interior  of  the  state  of 
New  York.  His  noble  character — no  less 
personal  than  professional — is  seen  in  all  the 
interesting  incidents  of  his  career,  from  the 
humblest  boyhood  to  his  present  high  po 
sition,  social  and  artistic.  In  his  younger 
days  he  toiled  hard  at  the  carpenter's  craft ; 
afterward  he  rose  to  the  dignity  of  a  carver 
in  wood,  of  models  and  moulds  for  stove 
and  other  iron  castings ;  and  at  length  he 
became  a  cutter  of  cameos.  He  was  a  mar 
ried  man,  with  a  young  family  growing  up 
around  him,  before  he  finally  made  that  ven 
ture  in  marble  which  has  brought  such 
high  honor  to  himself  and  his  country. 
His  works  are  marked  with  singular  sim 
plicity,  truth,  and  naturalness  of  treatment, 


and  with  a  finish  and  delicacy  of  execution 
rarely  obtained  in  obdurate  stone.  Among 
his  chief  and  best  known  productions,  are 
the  full-length,  life-like  figures  of  the  In 
dian  Girl,  and  the  White  Captive ;  the 
Moses,  and  many  beautiful  bas-reliefs  and 
female  heads,  both  portrait  and  ideal.  An 
exhibition  of  his  collected  works  was  made 
a  few  years  ago,  with  great  advantage  to  his 
own  fame  and  fortune,  and  to  the  public 
pleasure  and  profit. 

Launt  Thompson,  a  young  pupil  of  the 
eminent  sculptor  above  named,  is  pursuing 
his  art  in  New  York  with  a  success  which 
promises  the  most  enviable  results. 

Clark  Mills,  a  self-educated  man,  in  the 
proper  sense  of  the  phrase,  is  known  by  his 
popular  equestrian  statues  of  Jackson  and 
Washington,  executed  by  the  order  of 
Congress,  for  the  embellishment  of  the  na 
tional  Capitol. 

Harriet  Hosmer,  of  Watertown,  Massa 
chusetts,  is  achieving  a  fair  fame  in  this  diffi 
cult  field  of  art  as  we  now  write.  She  is 
scarcely  thirty  years  of  age,  yet  is  already 
intrusted  with  important  public  commissions. 
The  approval  which  followed  her  first  origi 
nal  work — a  bust  of  Hcspcr — induced  her 
father  to  send  her  to  Rome,  where  she  at 
present  resides.  She  began  her  studies  in 
the  eternal  city,  as  a  pupil  of  Gibson,  in 
1852.  Her  first  works  abroad  were  the 
busts  of  Daphne  and  Medusa,  and  a  statue 
of  (Enonc.  Afterward  came  the  well-known 
reclining  figure  of  Beatrice  Cenci ;  and, 
in  1855,  the  charming  statue  of  Puck, 
and  a  pendant  thereto,  entitled  Will-o'-the- 
Wisp.  In  1859,  she  completed  her  statue 
of  Zcnobia  in  Chains,  which  is  of  colos 
sal  size,  and  is  said  to  be,  thus  far,  her  best 
work. 

Mosier,  Rogers,  Story,  Akers,  Bartholo 
mew,  Ball,  Hart,  Ball  Hughes,  and  Stone, 
with  many  others  whom  it  would  be  pleasant 
and  profitable  for  us  to  name,  did  our  op 
portunity  allow,  have  each  won  most  honor 
able  distinction  by  their  admirable  creations 
in  the  sculptor's  art.  They  are  all  well  em 
ployed  either  with  public  or  private  orders. 
Such  orders,  from  states  and  from  individu 
als,  are  now,  happily,  no  longer  things  of 
rare  occurrence.  They  come  numerously 
and  generously  from  all  quarters,  and  al 
ways,  by  preference,  to  our  native  artists ; 
not  at  rare  intervals,  and  then  to  foreign 
ateliers,  as  at  the  commencement  of  the 
period  of  which  we  are  writing — a  com- 


The  above  engravings,  representing  the  Seasons,  are  from  the  Farmer's  Almanac,  showing  the  An 
derson  style  of  engraving;  the  opposite  page,  engraved  from  sketches  about  Newport  R  I  by  \  IL 
Jocelyn,  illustrates  the  improvement  in  the  art. 


332 


PAINTING,    SCULPTURE,    AND    ENGRAVING. 


mencement  lying  back,  by  our  rapid  reckon 
ing,  eighty  long  years  in  the  remote  past. 

The  love  of  pictures,  so  general  among  our 
people  of  all  grades,  has  been  greatly  fos 
tered  and  cultivated,  of  late  years,  by  the 
universal  diffusion  of  engravings.  Besides 
the  best  of  this  class  of  works,  more  acces 
sible  examples,  in  the  form  of  book  illustra 
tions,  and  especially  in  illustrated  magazines 
and  newspapers,  have  been  scattered,  through 
a  cheap  press,  broadcast  over  the  land,  and 
have  penetrated  its  remotest  corners,  doing 
the  labors  of  the  missionary  in  the  great 
cause  of  art.  It  is  true  that  these  heralds — 
the  pictorial  papers,  at  least — are  not  always 
the  best  possible  teachers ;  yet  have  they 
cleared  the  way  for  greater  things  to  fol 
low,  and  it  is  gratifying  to  know  that  they 
are  themselves  every  day  reaching  toward  a 
higher  standard.  It  would,  indeed,  be  quite 
beyond  the  power  of  our  mathematics,  to 
cipher  out  the  good  effect  upon  the  art 
progress  of  the  nation,  of  even  one  of  our 
best  pictorial  magazines,  with  the  immense 
audience  which  they  are  wont  to  address; 
such  a  magazine,  for  example,  as  that  of  the 
Harpers — read,  or  at  least  seen,  every  month, 
by  millions  of  people. 

This  grand  aggregate  of  the  good  influ 
ence  of  the  graver,  is  gained  through  the 
agency,  not  of  the  ambitious  steel-plate,  but 
the  humble  wood-cut.  The  art  of  work 
ing  on  wood — which  has  thus  of  late  be 
come  the  chief  medium  of  the  engraver,  and 
has  almost  superseded  all  other  mediums — 
has,  though  an  old  art,  so  greatly  improved 
during  the  eighty  years  life  of  our  republic, 
that  it  may  fairly  be  said  to  have  grown  up 
with  it,  and  in  a  great  degree  from  it. 

The  general  demand  among  us  for  cheap 
art,  and  the  general  ability  to  buy,  at  least, 
such  cheap  art,  obviously  required  the  wood 
cut  ;  and  so  the  wood-cut — which  had  kept 
its  humble  place  from  a  period  even  far 
beyond  the  invention  of  types — was  brought 
from  its  obscurity,  and  made — in  our  own 
hands,  as  much  as  in  those  of  any  people — 
to  fill  its  present  exalted  office. 

The  art  was,  really,  almost  reinvented  in 
America,  and  soon  after  the  great  Revolu 
tion,  when  Dr.  Anderson,  in  1794,  left  his 
materia  medica,  and  set  up  in  New  York  as 
a  wood-engraver.  Anderson's  first  consider 
able  performance  was  the  repetition,  in  a 
work  called  the  "  Looking-Glass,"  of  some 
cuts  by  Bewick.  Some  of  these  pictures  he 
executed  on  type  metal,  and  only  a  portion 


of  them  on  the  wood-block.  For  these  he 
had  to  invent  his  own  tools,  and  then  manu 
facture  them.  lie  continued  to  improve, 
and  all  through  his  professional  career  he 
contributed  greatly  to  develop  the  resour 
ces  of  the  art,  and  to  put  it  upon  the  track 
of  its  present  mature  power.  In  1812,  the 
art  was  introduced  and  successfully  prac 
tised  in  Boston  by  Abel  Brown,  and  in 
Philadelphia  by  William  Mason. 

About  the  year  1826,  Mr.  Adams  entered 
the  profession,  and  by  his  industry  and 
skill  gave  it  a  great  impetus  toward  the  per 
fection  to  which  it  has  since  been  brought. 
The  innumerable  illustrations  which  he  pro 
duced  in  his  superb  pictorial  edition  of  the 
Bible,  published  by  the  Harpers,  called 
forth  all  the  talent  which  the  country  pos 
sessed  in  this  direction,  and  exercised  it  to 
yet  greater  excellence.  This  great  work 
served,  also,  no  doubt,  to  promote  the  popu 
lar  appreciation  of  the  art,  now  so  univer 
sally  manifested  in  the  demand  for  illus 
trated  books  and  pictorial  papers  of  all 
kinds.  From  the  time  of  Mr.  Adams,  the 
number  of  our  engravers  on  wood  has 
steadily  and  rapidly  increased ;  and  so,  too, 
has  the  quality  of  their  work,  until  the 
present  day  shows  us  pictures  on  wood 
which  are,  in  many  respects — as  in  delicacy 
of  finish,  softness  of  texture,  and  vigor  of 
expression — quite  equal,  if  not  superior  to 
the  best  examples  of  work  on  copper  or  steel. 
The  greater  cheapness  of  the  wood-block ; 
its  capacity  of  use,  in  printing  with  the 
type  (which  metal  plates  do  not  possess) ; 
and  the  ease  with  which  it  may  be  dupli 
cated  by  stereotyping  or  by  electrotyping — 
have  caused  it  to  supersede  copper  and  steel- 
plates  in  a  great  measure,  except  for  very 
large  and  costly  subjects,  and  for  bank  note 
engraving.  The  invention,  in  recent  times, 
of  Lowry's  "  ruling  machine ;"  of  improv 
ed  methods  of  printing,  as  in  the  process 
called  "  overlaying,"  by  means  of  which  the 
nearer  parts  of  the  picture  are  made  to  re 
ceive  a  stronger  pressure  than  the  more  dis 
tant  portions ;  and  various  mechanical  aids — 
have  contributed  to  the  present  wonderful 
perfection  of  the  art  among  us.  The  coun 
try  now  possesses  a  host  of  excellent  wood 
engravers,  who  find  full  and  remunerative 
employment. 

For  the  finer  class  of  wood-engravings, 
box-wood  (imported  chiefly  from  Germany) 
is  used ;  while,  for  coarser  and  larger  work, 
that  of  the  pear-tree  will  answer,  and  some- 


THE    ARTS    OF    DESIGN    IN    AMERICA. 


333 


times  even  that  of  the  apple-tree,  beech,  and 
even  mahogany  and  pine.  The  wood  is  cut 
across  the  ends  of  the  fibre,  of  the  thickness 
of  type ;  and  after  being  smoothly  planed, 
a  thin  covering  of  white  is  rubbed  over  the 
surface ;  after  which  the  drawing  to  be  en 
graved  is  made  upon  it  with  a  lead  pen 
cil,  or  with  India-ink,  or  both  combined. 
The  block  is  then  cut  away  with  the  graver, 
in  such  manner  as  to  leave  the  lines  of  the 
drawing  all  in  relief,  like  type.  On  copper 
or  steel,  on  the  contrary,  the  drawing  is  sunk 
into  the  plate,  and  is  necessarily  printed  with 
greater  slowness  and  care,  and  at  a  greater 
cost.  In  engravings  printed  in  colors,  a 
separate  block  is  made  for  each  tint. 

Copper-plate  engraving  is  an  art  as  old, 
almost,  as  xylography  or  wood-cutting.  A 
picture  upon  this  metal  is  preserved  in  Ger 
many  of  as  ancient  a  date  as  1461.  Instead  of 
the  simple  wooden  blocks  of  other  days,  our 
cotton  manufacturers  now  print  their  calicoes 
from  copper  plates  of  cylindrical  form,  by 
which  improvement  the  fabrics  are  made  in 
finitely  more  beautiful  and  greatly  cheaper. 
Host  of  the  larger  print-works  employ  skil 
ful  artists  and  engravers  to  produce  their  de 
signs,  paying  them  large  salaries  for  their 
labors.  In  some  establishments  thousands 
of  dollars  are  thus  profitably  expended  each 
year.  Copper-plate  engraving,  after  reaching 
the  highest  degree  of  excellence,  both  at 
home  and  abroad,  has,  within  the  present 
century,  given  way  in  a  great  measure  to 
the  superior  capacity  of  the  steel  plate,  a 
capacity  revealed  to  the  world  and  developed 
in  the  highest  degree  by  Jacob  Perkins,  of 
Newburyport,  in  Massachusetts.  Mr.  Per 
kins,  who  began  his  experiments  about  1 805, 
may,  indeed,  almost  be  said  to  have  invented 
steel  engraving,  since  the  metal  had  been 
used  only  once  before  his  time,  in  an  English 
print  in  Smith's  "  Topographical  Illustrations 
of  Westminster."  Mr.  Perkins  discovered 
the  present  invaluable  processes  by  which 
the  steel  plate  is  so  hardened  after  being 
engraved,  that  by  the  pressure  upon  it  of 
other  soft  plates,  the  picture  can  be  trans 
ferred  in  relief  and  again  repeated  so  as  to 
duplicate  the  work  to  any  extent.  The  first 
impression  in  relief,  from  which  duplicates 
of  the  original  engraving  are  made,  is  taken 
upon  a  soft  steel  cylinder  by  repeated  roll 
ings  over  the  hardened  plate.  By  this  pro 
cess  any  bank  note  vignettes  can  be  trans 
ferred,  in  combination,  at  will,  from  the  sep 
arate  original  plates  to  the  steel  cylinder,  and  ] 
20* 


from  that  to  other  plates  for  the  printer. 
The  product  is  thus  greatly  cheapened,  inas 
much  as  all  the  pictures,  the  central  vignette, 
the  end  scene  or  portrait,  and  the  bottom  or 
tail  piece,  usually  put  upon  a  bank  note,  can 
be  furnished  for  the  cost  of  a  special  engrav 
ing  of  one  of  them.  Mr.  Perkins'  system 
is  employed  throughout  England  and  the 
continent  of  Europe,  no  less  than  all  over 
the  United  States.  By  it  the  art  of  bank 
note  engraving  has  been  so  perfected  among 
us  that  only  the  highest  skill  and  the  costliest 
machinery  can  now  produce  successful  coun 
terfeits.  Nothing  remains  but  to  insure  the 
bank  note  against  the  wonderful  power  of 
the  art  of  photography,  and  this  security  our 
engravers  will  no  doubt  soon  effectually  pro 
vide.  In  1858-9  the  principal  banknote  en 
gravers  of  the  country  formed  themselves  in 
to  two  associations,  the  American  and  the 
National  Bank  Note  Companies,  and  these 
companies  furnish  nearly  all  the  engraving 
and  printing  required  on  the  western  con 
tinent,  and  thus  give  employment  to  the 
best  talent  of  the  land  in  this  department 
of  art.  Among  the  most  successful  of 
American  steel  engravers  of  bank  notes  and 
other  works,  are  Durand,  Smillie,  Cheney, 
Sartain,  Danforth,  Deck,  Casilear,  and  Alfred 
Jones.  All  these  eminent  men  have  worked 
in  the  greatest  perfection  upon  steel  in  the 
several  styles  of  line,  stipple,  mezzotint, 
aquatint,  etc.  Engraving  on  copper  or  steel 
is  practised  in  its  most  simple  form,  called 
line  engraving,  by  covering  the  face  of  the 
polished  metal  with  a  thin  surface  of  melted 
white  wax ;  on  this  the  sketch  is  transferred  by 
laying,  face  down,  a  tracing  of  the  design  in 
black  lead  pencil  upon  the  wax,  and  subject 
ing  it  to  a  heavy  pressure ;  the  lines  are 
then  seen  distinctly  upon  the  wax  when  the 
paper  is  removed.  The  workman  then  with 
a  fine  graver  makes  thelinep  through  upon  the 
metal ;  after  which  the  wax  is  melted  off  and 
the  engraver  proceeds  to  complete  the  work 
by  cutting  the  lines  to  the  proper  depth  and 
shade.  The  graver,  when  in  use,  is  pressed 
forward,  cutting  a  furrow  and  raising  burrs 
on  each  side.  The  burr,  pushed  up  by  the 
graver  in  its  progress,  is  removed  by  the 
scraper.  Lines  are  softened  by  rubbing  over 
with  a  smoothly  pointed  burnisher.  In 
some  instances  the  burrs  made  by  the  finest 
etching  needles  being  allowed  to  remain, 
produce  a  pleasing  effect,  seen  in  some  of 
IJcmbrandt's  engravings.  The  parallel  lines 
that  are  sometimes  required  in  series  are 


334 


PAINTING,    SCULPTURE,    AND    ENGRAVING. 


cut  by  a  ruling;  machine.  The  fainter  shades, 
too  delicate  for  the  graver,  are  scratched 
in  with  a  needle. 

In  the  stippling  or  dotted  style,  the  effect 
is  produced  by  dots  made  in  curved  lines, 
with  the  graver.  The  more  closely  the  dots 
are  grouped  together,  the  darker  the  shade, 
and  the  whole  effect  is  more  like  painting 
than  the  line  engraving.  In  the  shadows  of 
the  limbs  of  the  human  figure  it  is  much 
used,  and  sometimes  in  portraits  the  line  and 
stipple  are  combined  with  good  effect. 

The  style  called  etching  is  practised  upon 
other  metals,  also  upon  glass.  By  this  pro 
cess  the  coating  of  wax  is  formed  of  white 
wax,  Burgundy  pitch,  and  asphaltum,  and  is 
applied  in  silk  bags,  through  which  the  com 
position  oozes.  When  the  plate  is  covered  it  is 
held  over  a  smoking  lamp  until  the  wax  is  cov 
ered  with  lamp-black.  The  lead  pencil  design 
is  then  laid  upon  this  lamp-black  and  pressed. 
The  lines  are  then  drawn  through  the  wax, 
and  nitric  acid  with  four  parts  water 
is  poured  upon  the  plate.  This  remains 
until  the  fainter  portions  of  the  sketch 
are  corroded.  The  acid  is  then  poured  off 
and  the  plate  washed  with  water.  An  appli 
cation  of  lamp-black  and  turpentine,  called 
stopping,  is  applied  with  a  camel's  hair 
brush  to  those  portions  sufficiently  corroded  ; 
a  reapplication  of  the  acid  eats  deeper  into 
those  parts  that  require  deeper  lines.  This 
process  of  stopping  is  repeated  until  the 
work  is  complete.  Being  then  cleaned  of 
the  wax,  those  portions  of  the  plate  that  re 
quire  it  are  gone  over  with  the  graver,  and 
not  unfrequently  the  shades  are  stippled. 

Aquatinta  is  a  French  invention  of  1662, 
and  takes  its  name  from  the  resemblance  it 
has  to  water  colors  on  India-ink  drawings. 
After  the  design  is  etched  in  outline  and  the 
wax  removed,  a  solution  of  Burgundy  pitch 
in  alcohol  is  poured  over  the  plate  as  it  lies  in 
an  inclined  position.  The  alcohol  evaporat 
ing,  the  pitch  remains.  The  design  is  then 
drawn  with  a  gummy  syrup  called  the  burst 
ing-ground,  which  is  applied  only  wherever  a 
shade  is  wanted.  The  whole  is  then  covered 
with  a  turpentine  varnish  ;  water  being  left 
on  it  for  fifteen  minutes,  the  bursting-ground 
cracks  open  and  exposes  the  copper.  The 
etching  process  is  then  pursued.  Sometimes 
colors  are  applied  and  printed  from  the  plate ; 
but  when  there  are  different  tints,  it  is  cus 
tomary  to  use  a  distinct  plate  for  each  one. 

The  mczzotinto,  or  half-painted  style,  was 
introduced  into  England  by  Prince  Rupert. 


The  invention  has  been  ascribed  to  Sir  Chris 
topher  Wren.  The  plate  is  roughed  up  by 
running  over  its  surface  little  toothed  wheels 
of  different  degrees  of  fineness,  called  cradles, 
which  by  a  rocking  motion  are  caused  to 
raise  little  burrs,  pointing  in  different  direc 
tions.  The  whole  plate  being  thus  made 
rough,  the  burrs  are  rubbed  off  with  scrapers, 
wherever  light  shades  are  required,  and  the 
shades  are  deepened  by  increasing  the  burrs. 
The  effect  is  fine  where  dark  grounds  are 
desired.  This  method  combined  with  etching, 
produces  an  improved  style.  Some  mezzo 
tints  are  now  prepared  for  the  trade  by  a 
machine.  The  prints  wear  much  better  on 
steel  than  on  copper. 

Admirable  examples  of  these  branches  of 
the  art  may  be  seen  in  the  superb  landscape 
works  of  Smillie,  especially  those  from  the 
four  pictures  of  Cole's  Voyage  of  Life,  in 
Durand's  works  after  Yanderlyn's,  in  our 
many  beautiful  illustrated  books,  in  the  pub- 
licationsof  the  late  American  Art  Union,  and, 
as  already  intimated,  in  the  dainty  vignettes 
which  embellish  our  myriad  bank  notes. 

In  the  art  of  die  sinking — a  process  con 
ducted  in  a  similar  manner  to  that  already 
described  of  the  transfer  in  relief  of  the  im 
pression  from  a  hardened  plate  or  plug  of 
steel  to  a  soft  plate,  and  from  that  again, 
when  hardened,  to  yet  another — many  admi 
rable  works  have  been  produced.  Excellent 
examples  may  be  seen  in  the  medals  of  All- 
ston,  Stuart,  and  other  subjects  executed  for 
the  American  Art  Union  by  the  late  C.  C. 
Wright, 

By  the  assistance  of  the  electrotype  pro 
cess,  the  Avork  of  the  engraver  is  now  repeat 
ed,  in  as  many  copies  as  may  be  desired, 
each  of  the  copper  transcripts  thus  produced 
being  an  absolute  duplicate  of  the  original 
plate  or  block.  It  is  these  elcctrotypcd  cop 
ies  which  are  now  used  by  the  printer,  the 
same  picture  sometimes  on  several  presses  at 
once,  while  the  original  wood  block  is  pre 
served  untouched,  except  to  form  the  mould 
for  other  copies  in  metal  when  they  may  be 
required.  The  effect  of  this  power  of  per 
fect  and  inexpensive  repetition  of  engraved 
blocks  has  been  to  reduce  the  cost  of  picto 
rial  illustrations  to  a  point  within  the  com 
pass  of  the  most  unpretending  purse,  and 
thus  to  send  good  examples  of  the  engraver's 
art  to  the  remotest  and  humblest  corners  of 
the  land. 

What  may  be  the  consequences  of  the 
many  processes,  now  more  or  less  perfected, 


THE    ARTS    OF    DESIGN    IN    AMERICA. 


335 


for  the  mechanical  production  of  engraving ! 
by  the  aid  of  photography,  it  is  hardly  pos 
sible  to  imagine  :  not  other  than  advantage 
ous,  however,  even  to  the  engravers  them 
selves,  since  their  field  of  labor  will  be  high 
er,  if  not  broader,  when  their  pictures  shall 
be,  as  they  promise  to  be,  not  only  drawn 
for  them  on  their  plates  and  blocks  by  pho 
tography,  but  even  etched  and  engraved  be 
sides  ! 

In  the  art  of  lithography,  or  drawing  upon 
stone,  a  steady  advance  may  be  witnessed; 
though  our  works  of  this  class  cannot  yet 
claim  comparison  with  those  of  the  conti 
nent  of  Europe. 

The  introduction  of  the  daguerreotype,  the 
perfection  to  which  the  art  has  been  brought 
in  the  skilful  hands  of  American  operators, 
and  the  immense  extent  to  which  it  is  used 
among  us  (apart  from  its  share  in  the  work 
of  other  arts),  have  had,  no  doubt,  a  most 
wonderful  influence  upon  our  art  progress. 
Furnishing  pictures  which  are,  through  their 
cheapness,  accessible  to  all  classes,  it  has 
worked,  like  the  engraving,  as  an  elementary 
instructor,  while  its  truthfulness  has  been  a 
constant  lesson  to  the  artist  himself.  Better 
pictures  have,  unquestionably,  been  painted 
through  the  hints  of  the  daguerreotype  and 
photograph  ;  and  many  people  who,  but  for 
them,  would  never  have  dreamed  of  pictures, 
have  become  intelligent  lovers  and  liberal 
patrons  of  the  arts. 

We  must  not,  in  ever  so-  cursory  a  glance 
at  the  history  of  the  arts,  forget  the  service 
of  our  academies  and  schools  of  painting, 
little  as  some  affect  to  think  of  art  acade 
mics — so  far,  at  least,  as  their  honorary  char 
acter  is  concerned. 

The  first  attempt  to  found  an  institution 
of  this  nature  in  the  United  States,  was 
made  in  Philadelphia,  in  1791,  by  Charles 
Wilson  Pealc,  the  father  of  the  painter 
llembrandt  Pcalc.  The  elder  Pcale  was  a 
very  energetic  laborer  in  the  cause  of  art,  all 
through  his  long  life.  This  first  attempt  of  his 
to  found  an  academy,  was  seconded  by  the 
Italian  sculptor  Ceracchi,  who  was  in  the 
country  at  the  time.  The  attempt  failed, 
however,  from  some  cause  or  other,  and  a 
second  and  rather  more  fortunate  venture 
was  made  in  1794,  when  the  Columbianum 
•was  established.  This  society  lived  a  year, 
held  one  exhibition,  and  was  forgotten. 

In  1802,  some  art-loving  citizens  of  New 
York,  headed  by  Edward  Livingston,  founded 
the  New  York,  afterward  the  American  Acad 


emy  of  Fine  Arts.  There  were  so  few  artists 
in  this  society,  and  the  governing  influence 
was  so  little  of  a  professional  character,  that 
it  was  an  academy  of  art  only  in  name,  and 
quite  failed  in  its  office  of  an  academy. 
The  necessary  result  was  an  inefficient  life, 
until  it  was,  in  due  time,  superseded  by  a 
better  organized  establishment.  This  result 
followed  in  1826,  in  the  institution  of  the 
present  National  Academy  of  Design. 

The  National  Academy,  thus  founded  by 
Morse,  and  his  brother  artists  of  the  period, 
has  steadily  advanced  to  this  day  in  position 
and  usefulness,  and  now  numbers  among  its 
academicians  and  associates  nearly  all  the 
leading  painters  of  the  land.  Its  annual  ex 
hibitions  have  been  prepared,  without  inter 
ruption,  from  1826  until  now,  with  a  cata 
logue  of  works  extended  gradually  from  less 
than  two  hundred,  .to  over  eight  hundred, 
and  with  an  aggregate  of  receipts  from  less 
than  nothing  up  to  six  or  seven  thousand 
dollars  annually.  The  academy  has  always 
supported  free  (evening)  schools  for  the  study 
of  the  antique  statuary,  and  the  living  model- 
schools,  to  which  any  student  has  access, 
when  coming  with  the  required  preparatory 
knowledge  of  the  use  of  the  crayon.  Mem 
bership  in  the  academy,  except  in  the  grade 
of  "  student,"  is  awarded  only  to  professional 
artists,  and  then  by  ballot,  as  a  mark  of  hon 
orary  distinction.  The  progress  of  art  in 
America  during  the  last  thirty  or  forty  years 
cannot  be  better  seen  than  in  the  continued 
growth  of  the  National  Academy,  and  in 
its  present  large  and  varied  exhibitions  as 
compared  with  those  of  days  gone  by. 

The  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  Fine  Arts 
in  Philadelphia  is  doing  a  good  work,  though 
it  is  not  so  fully  an  association  of  artist* 
only  as  is  the  National  Academy  at  New 
York.  Conducted  in  part  by  laymen,  it 
labors  under  some  of  the  disadvantages  of 
the  old  superseded  American  Academy.  It 
was  founded  as  early  as  1807,  and  is  now  a 
flourishing  and  most  useful  institution,  keep 
ing  a  valuable  permanent  gallery  always  open 
to  the  public  view,  and  providing  besides  an 
annual  display  of  the  current  productions 
of  our  artists.  It  possesses  also  a  fine  col 
lection  of  casts  from  the  antique,  gratuitously 
accessible  to  all  students. 

The  art  gallery  of  the  Athenaeum  in  Bos 
ton,  serves,  in  a  measure,  the  purposes  of  an 
academy  in  that  city.  Of  late  years  Acad 
emies  of  Art  have  sprung  up  in  some  form, 
and  with  more  or  less  success,  in  many  other 


336 


PAINTING,    SCULPTURE,    AND    ENGRAVING. 


of  our  chief  cities,  as  in  Baltimore,  Charles 
ton,  St.  Louis,  Cincinnati,  and  elsewhere, 
giving  us  a  fair  promise  of  picture  galleries 
and  facilities  for  art  study,  as  general  and  as 
liberal  as  our  wants  demand. 

Besides  these  institutions  for  the  use  of  the 
profession  itself,  there  is  happily  a  rapid  ex 
tension  throughout  the  Union  of  drawing 
schools  for  all  classes  of  the  population. 
Professorships  of  drawing  are  being  intro 
duced  into  our  universities  and  colleges,  and 
a  higher  standard  is  being  everywhere  set 
up  in  our  seminaries  of  all  grades.  Schools 
of  Design  for  women  are  springing  up  in  our 
larger  cities,  and  such  an  institution  has 


been  recently  incorporated  with  the  Cooper 
Union  of  New  York,  under  the  highest 
promise  of  successful  result.  When  the 
principles  of  art  become  universally  known 
to  us,  as  we  have  good  cause  to  believe  they 
soon  will  be,  we  shall  realize  the  fact  not 
only  in  the  increased  excellence  and  fame 
of  our  pictures  and  our  sculptures,  but  in 
the  higher  beauty,  utility,  and  value  of  our 
manufactures  and  fabrics  of  all  kinds,  from 
the  rarest  luxury  to  the  simplest  article  of 
necessary  use.  In  another  and  less  material 
sense  we  shall  feel  it  and  enjoy  it,  in  breath 
ing  the  air  of  a  more  refined  and  more  beau 
tiful  social  and  national  life. 


EDUCATION  AND  EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

EDUCATIONAL   DEVELOPMENT  IN  THE 
COLONIAL    PERIOD. 

INTRODUCTION. 

THE  origin,  nomenclature,  and  early  pe 
culiarities  of  the  systems,  institutions,  and 
methods  of  instruction  adopted  in  the  origi 
nal  colonies,  which  now  constitute  a  portion 
of  the  United  States  of  America,  will  be 
found  in  the  educational  institutions  and 
practices  of  the  countries  from  which  these 
colonies  were  settled — modified  by  the  edu 
cation,  character,  motives  of  emigration,  and 
necessities  of  the  settlers  themselves. 

The  earliest  effort  to  establish  an  education 
al  institution  in  the  English  dominions  in 
America,  was  made  under  the  auspices  of 
King  James  I,  and  by  contributions  of  mem 
bers  of  the  Church  of  England  from  1618  to 
1623.  In  a  letter  addressed  to  the  Arch 
bishops,  he  authorizes  them  to  invite  the 
members  of  the  Church  throughout  the  king 
dom  to  assist  "those  undertakers  of  that 
Plantation  [Virginia],  with  the  erecting  of 
some  churches  and  schools  for  the  education 
of  the  children  of  those  barbarians"  [the 
Aborigines]  and  of  the  colonists.  Under 
these  instructions,  a  sum  of  £1500  was  col 
lected  for  the  erection  of  a  building  for  a  col 
lege  at  Ilenrico — a  town  whose  foundations, 
or  site  even,  cannot  now  be  certainly  deter 
mined,  but  which  according  tothebestauthor- 
ities  was  situated  near  Varina  on  Cox's  Island, 
about  fifty  miles  above  Jamestown.  Author 
ity  was  given  by  the  Company  to  the  Gov 
ernor  to  set  apart  10,000  acres  of  land  for 
the  support  of  the  college,  and  one  hun 
dred  colonists  were  sent  from  England  to 
occupy  and  cultivate  the  same,  who  were  to 
receive  a  moiety  of  the  produce  as  the  profit 
of  their  labor,  and  to  pay  the  other  moiety 
toward  the  maintenance  of  the  college.  In 
1620,  George  Thorpe  was  sent  out  as  super 
intendent,  and  300  acres  of  land  was  set 
apart  for  his  sustenance.  Other  donations 


and  legacies  were  made  for  the  endowment 
of  this  institution  of  learning. 

In  1619,  the  Governor  for  the  time  be 
ing  was  instructed  by  the  company  to  see 
"  that  each  town,  borough,  and  hundred 
procured  by  just  means  a  certain  number 
of  their  children  to  be  brought  up  in  the 
first  elements  of  literature;  that  the  most 
towardly  of  them  should  be  fitted  for  college, 
in  the  building  which  they  purposed  to  pro 
ceed  as  soon  as  any  profit  arose  from  the 
estate  appropriated  to  that  use  ;  and  they 
earnestly  required  their  help  in  that  pious 
and  important  work."  In  1621,  Rev.  Mr. 
Copeland,  chaplain  of  the  Royal  James,  on 
her  arrival  from  the  East  Indies,  prevailed 
on  the  ship's  company  to  subscribe  £100 
toward  a  "  free  schoole"  in  the  colony  of 
Virginia,  and  collected  other  donations  in 
money  and  books  for  the  same  purpose. 
The  school  was  located  in  Charles  City,  as 
being  most  central  for  the  colony,  and  was 
called  the  " East  India  School"  The  com 
pany  allotted  one  thousand  acres  of  land,  with 
five  servants  and  an  overseer,  for  the  mainten 
ance  of  the  master  and  usher.  The  inhabitants 
made  a  contribution  of  £l  500  to  build  a  house, 
for  which  workmen  were  sent  out  in  1622. 

The  "college"  and  "free  school"  thus 
projected  and  partially  endowed  were  in  the 
style  of  the  "  college"  and  "  free  school"  and 
the  "  free  grammar  school"  of  England,  and 
were  intended  to  be  of  the  same  character  as 
the  college  afterward  established  at  Cam 
bridge,  and  the  institution  for  which  "the 
richer  inhabitants"  of  Boston  in  1636  sub 
scribed  toward  "the  maintenance  of  a  free 
schoolmaster,"  and  the  same  as,  according  to 
Governor  Winthrop,in  his  journal,  was  erect 
ed  in  Roxbury  in  1645,  and  other  towns,  and 
for  which  every  inhabitant  bound  some 
house  or  land  for  a  yearly  allowance  for 
ever,  and  many  benevolently  disposed  per 
sons  left  legacies  in  their  last  wills,  and  the 
towns  made  "  an  allowance  out  of  the  com 
mon  stock,"  or  set  apart  a  portion  of  land 


338 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


"to  be  improved  forever,  for  the  mainten 
ance  of  a  free  schoole  forever." 

The  same  leading  idea  can  be  traced  in 
the  educational  policy  of  the  Dutch  West 
India  Company — which  bound  itself,  in  re 
ceiving  its  charter  of  colonization,  "  to  main 
tain  good  and  fit  preachers,  schoolmasters, 
and  comforters  of  the  sick."     The  company 
recognized  the  authority  of  the  established 
Church  of  Holland,  and  the  establishment 
of  schools  and  the  appointment  of  school 
masters  rested  conjointly  with  the  company 
and  the  classis  (ecclesiastical  authorities)  of 
Amsterdam.      When  the  company  granted 
a  special  "  Charter  of  Freedom  and  Exemp 
tions"  to  the  "Patroons,"  for  the  purpose 
of  agricultural  colonization,  they  were  not 
only  to   satisfy  the   Indians   for   the  lands 
upon  which  they  should  settle,  but  were  to 
make  prompt  provision  for  the  support  of 
a  minister  and  schoolmaster,  that  thus  the 
service  of  God  and  zeal  for  religion  might  not 
grow  cold,  and  be  neglected  among  them. 
In  1633,  in  the  enifmeration  of  the  compa 
ny's  officials  at  Manhattan,  Adam  Roeland- 
sen  is  mentioned  as  the  schoolmaster,  and 
that  school,  it  is  claimed,  is  still  in  existence 
in   connection   with   the   Reformed   Dutch 
Church  of  New  York.     In  the   projected 
settlement  at  New  Amstel  on  the  Delaware, 
the  first  settlers  were  encouraged  to  proceed 
by  certain  conditions,  one  of  which  was  that 
the  city  of  Amsterdam  should  send  thither 
"  a  proper  person  for  a  schoolmaster ;"    and 
we  find  among  the  colonists  who  embarked, 
"  Evert  Pietersen,  who  had  been  approved, 
after  examination  before  the  classis,  as  school 
master."     In  these  early  efforts  to  establish 
schools,  we  trace  the  educational  policy  of 
the  Reformed  Church  of  Holland  as  indi 
cated  by  the  synod  ofWesel  in  1568,  and 
matured  at  the  synod  of  Dort  in  1618,  by 
which  the  training  of  Christian  youth  was 
to   be   provided  for — "I.  In   the  house,  by 
parents.     II.  In  the  schools,  by  schoolmas 
ters.      III.    In  the  churches,  by  ministers, 
elders,  and  the  catechists  especially  appoint 
ed  for  this  purpose."     Owing  in  part  to  the 
commercial    purposes    entertained    by   the 
companies  having  charge  of  the   coloniza 
tion  of  New  York,  Virginia,  and  some  other 
portions  of  the  country,   and  to  the    edu 
cational   and   religious   institutions  of    the 
colonists  being  not  so  much  a  matter  of  do 
mestic  as  of  foreign   policy,  these   institu 
tions  never  commanded    the   regular  and 


constant  attention  of  the  local  authorities, 
or  of  the  settlers  themselves. 

The  outline  and  most  of  the  essential  feat 
ures  of  the  system  of  common  schools  now 
in  operation  in  the  New  England  states,  and 
the  states  which  have  since  avowedly  aclopt- 
d  the  same  policy,  will  be  found  in  the 
practice  of  the  first  settlers  of  the  several 
towns  which  composed  the  original  colonies 
of  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  New  Ha 
ven.  The  first  law  on  the  subject  did  but 
little  more  than  declare  the  motive,  and  make 
more  widely  obligatory  the  practice  which 
already  existed  in  the  several  neighborhoods 
and  towns,  which  had  grown  up  out  of  the  ed 
ucation  of  these  colonists  at  home,  and  the  cir 
cumstances  in  which  they  were  placed.  They 
did  not  come  here  as  isolated  individuals, 
drawn  together  from  widely  separated  homes, 
entertaining  broad  differences  of  opinion  on 
all  matters  of  civil  and  religious  concernment, 
and  kept  together  by  the  necessity  of  self- 
defence  in  the  eager  prosecution  of  some  tem 
porary  but  profitable  adventure.  They  came 
after  God  had  set  them  in  families,  and  they 
brought  with  them  the  best  pledges  of  good 
behavior,  in  the  relations  which  father  and 
mother,  husband  and  wife,  parents  and  chil 
dren,  neighbors  and  friends,  establish.  They 
came  with  a  foregone  conclusion  of  perma 
nence,  and  with  all  the  elements  of  the  social 
state  combined  in  vigorous  activity — every 
man  expecting  to  find  or  make  occupation 
in  the  way  in  which  he  had  been  already 
trained.  They  came  with  earnest  religious 
convictions,  made  more  earnest  by  the  trials 
of  persecution ;  and  the  enjoyment  of  these 
convictions  was  a  leading  motive  in  their 
emigration  hither.  The  fundamental  articles 
of  their  religious  creed,  that  the  Bible  was 
the  only  authoritative  expression  of  the  di 
vine  will,  and  that  every  man  was  able  to 
judge  for  himself  in  its  interpretation,  made 
schools  necessary,  to  bring  all  persons  "  to  a 
knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,"  and  an  under 
standing  "  of  the  main  grounds  and  princi 
ples  of  the  Christian  religion  necessary  to 
salvation."  The  constitution  of  civil  gov 
ernment  adopted  by  them  from  the  out 
set,  which  declared  all  civil  officers  elective, 
and  gave  to  every  inhabitant  who  would  take 
the  oath  of  allegiance  the  right  to  vote  and 
to  be  voted  for,  and  which  practically  con 
verted  political  society  into  a  partnership,  in 
which  each  member  had  the  right  to  bind 
the  whole  firm,  made  universal  education 


EDUCATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT  IN  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD. 


339 


identical  with  self-preservation.  But  aside 
from  these  considerations,  the  natural  and 
acknowledged  leaders  in  this  enterprise — 
the  men  who,  by  their  religious  character, 
wealth,  social  position,  and  previous  expe 
rience  in  conducting  large  business  oper 
ations,  commanded  public  confidence  in 
church  and  commonwealth,  were  educated 
men — as  highly  and  thoroughly  educated 
as  they  could  be  at  the  best  endowed  free 
and  grammar  schools  in  England  at  that 
period ;  and  not  a  few  of  them  had  en 
joyed  the  advantages  of  her  great  univer 
sities.  These  men  would  naturally  seek  for 
their  own  children  the  best  opportunities 
of  education  which  could  be  provided  ;  and 
it  is  the  crowning  glory  of  these  men,  that, 
instead  of  sending  their  own  children  back 
to  England  to  be  educated  in  grammar 
schools  and  colleges,  these  institutions  were 
established  here  amid  the  stumps  of  the  pri 
meval  forests ;  that,  instead  of  setting  up 
"  family  schools"  and  "  select  schools"  for 
the  ministers'  sons  and  magistrates'  sons,  the 
ministers  and  magistrates  were  found,  not 
only  in  town  meeting,  pleading  for  an  allow 
ance  out  of  the  common  treasury  for  the 
support  of  a  public  or  common  school,  and 
in  some  instances  for  a  "  free  school,"  but 
among  the  families,  entreating  parents  of  all 
classes  to  send  their  children  to  the  same 
school  with  their  own.  All  this  was  done 
in  advance  of  any  legislation  on  the  subject, 
as  will  be  seen  from  the  following  facts 
gleaned  from  the  early  records  of  several  of 
the  towns  first  planted. 

TOWN    ACTION    IN    BEHALF    OF    SCHOOLS. 

The  earliest  records  of  most  of  the  towns 
of  New  England  are  either  obliterated  or 
lost,  but  among  the  oldest  entries  which 
can  now  be  recovered,  the  school  is  men 
tioned  not  as  a  new  thing,  but  as  one  of  the 
established  interests  of  society,  to  be  looked 
after  and  provided  for  as  much  as  roads 
and  bridges  and  protection  from  the  Indians. 
In  the  first  book  of  records  of  the  town  of 
Boston,  under  date  of  April  13,  1G34,  after 
providing  by  ordinance  for  the  keeping  of 
the  cattle  by  "brother  Chcesbrough,"  "it 
was  then  generally  agreed  upon  that  our 
brother  Philemon  Purmont  shall  be  entreat 
ed  to  become  schoolmaster  for  the  teaching 
and  nurturing  of  children  with  us."  This 
was  doubtless  an  elementary  school,  for  in 
1636  we  find  a  subscription  entered  on 
the  records  of  the  town  "by  the  rjcher 


inhabitants,"  "  for  the  maintenance  of  a  free 
schoolmaster,  for  the  youth  with  us — Mr. 
Daniel  Maude  being  now  also  chosen  there 
unto."  Mr.  Maude  was  a  clergyman,  a  title 
at  that  day  and  in  that  community  which 
was  evidence  of  his  being  an  educated  man. 
This  "  free  school"  was,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
writer,  not  necessarily  a  school  of  gratuitous 
instruction  for  all,  but  an  endowed  school 
of  a  higher  grade,  of  the  class  of  the  Eng 
lish  grammar  school,  in  which  many  of  the 
first  settlers  of  New  England  had  received 
their  own  education  at  home.  Toward  the 
maintenance  of  this  school,  the  town,  in 

1642,  in  advance  of  any  legislation  by  the 
General  Court,  ordered  "  Deer  Island  to  be 
improved,"  and  several   persons  made  be 
quests  in  their  last  wills.     Similar  provision 
can  be  cited  from  the  early  records  of  Salem, 
Cambridge,  Dorchester,  and  other  towns  of 
Massachusetts  Bay. 

The  early  records  of  the  town  of  Hartford 
arc  obliterated,  but  within  seven  years  after 
the  first  log-house  was  erected,  thirty  pounds 
are  appropriated  to  the  schools,  and  in  April, 

1643,  it  is  ordered  "that  Mr.  Andrews  shall 
teach  the  children  in  the  school  one  year," 
and  "he  shall  have  for  his  pains  £16,  and 
therefore  the  townsmen  shall  go  and  inquire 
who  will  engage  themselves  to  send  their 
children ;  and  all  that  do  so,  shall  pay  for  one 
quarter,  at  the  least,  and  for  more  if  they  do 
send  them,  after  the  proportion  of  twenty 
shillings  the  year;  and  if  they  go  any  week 
more  than  one  quarter,  they  shall  pay  six 
pence  a  week ;  and  if  any  would  send  their 
children  and  are  not  able  to  pay  for  their 
teaching,  they  shall  give  notice  of  it  to  the 
townsmen,  and  they  shall  pay  it  at  the  town's 
charge."  Mention  is  also  made  of  one  "Goody 
Betts,"  who  kept  a  "  Dame  School"  after  the 
fashion  of  Shenstone's  "  schoolmistress"  at 
Leasower,  in  England.     Similar  entries  are 
found  in  -the  town  records  of  Windsor  and 
Wethersfield  in  advance  of  any  school  code 
by  the  colony  of  Connecticut. 

The  records  of  the  town  of  New  Haven  are 
full  of  evidence  of  the  interest  taken  by  the 
leading  spirits  of  the  colony,  particularly  by 
Governor  Theophilus  Eaton  and  Rev.  John 
Davenport,  in  behalf  of  schools  of  every  grade, 
and  of  the  education  of  every  class,  from  the 
apprentice  boy  to  those  who  filled  the  high 
places  in  church  and  state.  The  first  settle 
ment  of  the  colony  was  in  1638,  and  within  a 
year  a  transaction  is  recorded,  which,  while 
it  proves  the  existence  of  a  school  at  that 


340 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL   INSTITUTIONS. 


early  period,  also  proclaims  the  protection 
which  the  first  settlers  extended  to  the  indi 
gent,  and  their  desire  to  make  elementary  ed 
ucation  universal.  In  1639,  Thomas  Fugill 
is  required  by  the  court  to  keep  Charles 
Higinson,  an  indentured  apprentice,  "  at 
school  one  year ;"  or  else  to  advantage  him 
as  much  in  his  education  as  a  year's  learning 
comes  to.  In  1641,  the  town  orders  "that 
a  Free  School  be  set  up,"  and  "  our  pastor, 
Mr.  Davenport,  together  with  the  magistrates, 
shall  consider  what  yearly  allowance  is  meet 
to  be  given  to  it  out  of  the  common  stock 
of  the  town,  and  also  what  rules  and  orders 
are  meet  to  be  observed  in  and  about  the 
same."  To  this  school  "that  famous  school 
master,"  Ezekiel  Cheever,*  "was  appoint 
ed,"  "  for  the  better  training  up  of  youth  in 
this  town,  that,  through  God's  blessing,  they 
may  be  fitted  for  public  service  hereafter, 
in  church  or  commonwealth."  Not  con 
tent  with  a  Grammar  School,  provision  was 
early  made  for  "  the  relief  of  poor  scholars 
at  the  college  at  Cambridge,"  and  in  1645 
forty  bushels  of  wheat  were  sent  forward  for 
this  purpose,  and  this  was  followed  by  other 
donations,  and  by  a  richer  consignment  of 
young  men  to  enjoy  the  advantages  of  the 
institution.  In  1647,  in  the  distribution  of 
home  lots,  it  was  ordered  in  town  meeting, 
that  the  magistrates  "  consider  and  reserve 
what  lot  they  shall  see  meet,  and  most  com 
modious  for  a  college,  which  they  desire  may 
be  set  up  so  soon  as  their  ability  will  reach 
thereunto."  Among  the  active  promoters 
of  education  and  schools,  the  name  of  Gov 
ernor  Eaton,  in  connection  with  Mr.  Daven 
port,  is  particularly  prominent.  In  1652, 
he  calls  a  meeting  of  the  magistrates  and 
elders  "  to  let  them  know  what  he  has  done 
for  a  schoolmaster ;"  that  he  had  written  a 
letter  to  one  Mr.  Bower,  a  schoolmaster  of 
Plymouth,  and  another  to  Rev.  Mr.  Lan- 
dron,  a  scholar;  and  many  of  the  town 
thought  there  would  be  need  of  two  school 
masters — "one  to  teach  boys  to  read  and 
write,"  as  well  as  the  "Latin  schoolmaster." 
At  another  time  he  reports  his  correspond 
ence  with  a  teacher  in  Wethersfield,  then 
with  one  at  old  Plymouth,  and  again  with 
one  at  Norwalk,  "so  that  the  town  might 
never  be  without  a  sufficient  schoolmaster." 
He  seems  to  have  been  considerate  of  the 
health  of  the  teachers,  and  proposes  to  ex- 


*See  Barnard's  American  TeacJiers  and  Educators. 
Vol.  i.,  art.  "  Ezekiel  Cheever." 


cuse  one  "  whose  health  would  not  allow 
him  to  go  on  with  the  work  of  teaching," 
which  he  seems  to  regard  as  more  laborious 
than  that  of  the  ministry.  On  another  oc 
casion  he  introduces  to  the  committee  a 
schoolmaster  who  has  come  to  treat  about 
the  school.  He  is  allowed  £20  a  year,  and 
30  shillings  for  his  expenses  in  travel,  besides 
his  board  and  lodgings.  He  wished  to  have 
liberty  to  visit  his  friends,  "  which  he  pro 
posed  to  be  in  harvest  time,  and  that  his 
pay  be  such  as  wherewith  lie  may  buy 
books."  These  particulars  show  the  consid 
erate  interest  taken  by  men  in  local  authori 
ty  in  the  school  and  the  teacher,  in  advance 
of  any  directory  or  compulsory  legislation 
of  the  colony  of  New  Haven.  It  was  owing, 
in  part,  to  the  timely  suggestions  of  Rev. 
Mr.  Davenport,  that  Gov.  Edward  Hopkins, 
of  Connecticut,  by  his  will,  dated  London, 
March  7, 1657,  bequeathed  the  residue  of  his 
estate  (after  disposing  of  much  of  his  estate 
in  New  England)  to  trustees  residing  in  New 
Haven  and  Hartford,  "  in  full  assurance  of 
their  trust  and  faithfulness"  in  disposing  of 
it,  "to  give  some  encouragement  in  those 
foreign  plantations  for  the  breeding  up  of 
hopeful  youths  both  at  the  grammar  school 
and  college,  for  the  public  service  of  the 
country  in  future  times."  By  the  final  dis 
position  and  distribution  of  this  estate  three 
grammar  schools  were  established  at  New 
Haven,  Hartford,  and  Hadley,  which  are  in 
existence  at  this  day,  among  the  oldest  insti 
tutions  of  this  class  in  America. 

The  early  records  of  the  several  towns 
which  subsequently  constituted  a  portion  of 
the  colony  of  New  Hampshire,  exhibit  evi 
dence  of  a  different  character  and  spirit  in 
the  first  settlers.  The  plantations  on  the 
Piscataqua  river  were  made  by  proprietors 
from  mere  commercial  motives,  and  the  set 
tlers  were  selected  in  reference  to  immediate 
success  in  that  direction  ;  and  in  these  settle 
ments  we  find  no  trace  of  any  individual  or 
town  action  in  behalf  of  education  until 
after  their  union  with  the  colony  of  Massa 
chusetts,  whose  laws  made  the  establishment 
of  schools  obligatory. 

In  the  early  records  of  the  Rhode  Island 
and  Providence  Plantations,  we  find  traces 
of  the  same  educational  policy  which  mark 
ed  the  early  history  of  towns  in  Massachu 
setts  and  Connecticut.  According  to  Cal- 
lender,  in  Newport,  "so  early  as  1640,  Mr. 
Lenthal  was  by  vote  called  to  keep  a  public 
school  for  the  learning  of  youth,  and  for 


EDUCATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT    IN    THE    COLONIAL    PERIOD. 


341 


his  encouragement  there  were  granted  to 
him  and  his  heirs,  one  hundred  acres  of  land, 
and  four  more  for  a  house  lot.  It  was  also 
voted  that  one  hundred  acres  should  be  ap 
propriated  for  a  school  for  encouragement 
of  the  poorer  sort  to  train  up  their  youth  in 
learning.  And  Mr.  Robert  Lenthal,  while 
he  continues  to  keep  school,  is  to  have  the 
benefit  thereof."  The  proprietors  of  other 
plantations  reserved  a  portion  of  land  for 
the  maintenance  of  schools,  and  generally 
of  a  "  free  schoole ;"  and  "  Mr.  Schoolmas 
ter  Turpin,"  petitions  the  town  of  Provi 
dence,  that  he  and  his  heirs,  so  long  as  any 
of  them  should  maintain  the  worthy  art  of 
learning,  may  be  invested  in  the  lands  set 
apart  for  a  school. 

These  citations  show  the  action  of  the 
towns  independent  of  any  general  legislation 
by  the  several  colonies  of  New  England — 
action  prompted  by  their  own  consciousness 
of  the  advantages  of  education  in  "  Dame 
Schools,"  in  "Free  Schools,"  in  "Grammar 
Schools"  and  in  "Colleges"  at  home — aided 
by  the  presence  among  them  of  "masters" 
and  "ushers,"  and  also  of  "schoolmasters" 
and  "  schoolma'ams"  willing  to  engage  in 
the  same  vocations  in  the  new  townships  and 
villages — stimulated  by  magistrates  and  min 
isters,  who  had  themselves  received  the  best 
education  that  such  schools  could  give  in 
England,  who  inculcated  the  reading  of  the 
Scriptures  as  of  daily  obligation,  and  who 
believed  that  the  foundations  of  the  state 
should  be  laid  in  the  virtue  and  intelligence 
of  the  whole  people. 

COLONIAL    LEGISLATION    AND    ACTION. 

"We  shall  now  notice  briefly  the  legislation 
respecting  children  and  schools  of  each  of 
the  colonies,  in  the  order  of  their  settlement. 

VIRGINIA. — Although  several  attempts 
were  made  to  establish  "  Free  Schools"  and 
a  "  College"  in  Virginia,  by  the  Virginia 
Company  and  benevolent  individuals,  at  an 
earlier  day,  the  first  general  legislation  re 
specting  the  education  of  children  by  the 
Colonial  Assembly  was  in  1631,  when  it  was 
enacted  :  "  It  is  also  thought  fit,  that  upon 
every  Sunday  the  mynister*  shall,  halfe  an 
hour  or  more  before  evening  prayer,  examine, 
catechise,  and  instruct  the  youths  and  igno 
rant  persons  of  his  parish  in  the  ten  com- 


*  Tn  this  and   some  other  quotations  we  have 
followed  the  orthography  of  the  original. 


mandments,  the  articles  of  the  beliefe,  and  in 
the  Lord's  prayer ;  and  shall  diligentlie  heere, 
instruct,  and  teach  the  catechismc,  sett  forth 
in  the  book  of  Common  Prayer.  And  all 
fathers,  mothers,  maysters,  and  mistrisses, 
shall  cause  their  children,  servants,  or  ap 
prentices,  which  have  not  learned  their  cate- 
chisme,  to  come  to  church  at  the  time  ap- 
poynted,  obedientlie  to  heare,  and  to  be 
ordered  by  the  mynister  untill  they  have 
learned  the  same.  And  yf  any  of  sayd 
fathers,  mothers,  maysters  <fe  mistresses, 
children,  servants,  or  apprentices,  shall  neg 
lect  their  duties,  as  the  one  sorte  in  not 
causinge  them  to  come,  and  the  other  in 
refusinge  to  learne  as  aforesayd,  they  shall 
be  censured  by  the  corts  in  these  places 
holden."  To  secure  the  execution  of  this 
last  clause,  it  is  provided  in  the  oath  of  the 
warden,  taken  before  "the  justices  for  the 
monthlie  corts" — "they  shall  present  such 
mastyrs  and  mistresses  as  shall  be  delinquent 
in  the  catechisinge  the  youth  and  ignorant 
persons.  So  help  you  God." 

In  1660  an  attempt  was  made  to  found  a 
college  for  the  supply  of  educated  clergymen. 
"  Whereas  the  want  of  able  and  faithful 
ministers  in  this  country  deprives  us  of  those 
great  blessings  and  mercies  that  always  at 
tend  upon  the  service  of  God  ;  which  want, 
by  reason  of  the  great  distance  from  our 
native  country,  cannot  in  all  probability  be 
always  supplied  from  thence  :  Be  it  enacted, 
that  for  the  advance  of  learning,  education 
of  youth,  supply  of  the  ministry,  and  pro 
motion  of  piety,  there  be  land  taken  for  a 
college  and  free  school  with  as  much  speed  as 
may  be  convenient,  houses  erected  thereon 
for  entertainment  of  students  and  scholars." 
In  the  same  year  it  was  ordered  that  a  peti 
tion  be  drawn  up  by  the  General  Assembly 
to  the  king  for  a  college  and  free  school ;  and 
that  there  be  his  letters  patent  "to  collect 
the  charity  of  well  disposed  persons  in  Eng 
land,  for  the  erecting  of  colledges  &  schools 
in  this  countryc,"  and  also  to  bestow  univer 
sities  "to  furnish  the  church  here  with  min 
isters  for  the  present."  And  this  petition  was 
recommended  to  the  right  honorable  Gov 
ernor,  Sir  William  Berkeley.  Sir  William 
does  not  appear,  in  his  reply  to  the  Lords 
Commissioners  of  Foreign  Plantations,  dated 
1670,  to  have  been  very  kindly  disposed  to 
public  schools  of  high  or  low  d'egree. 

"Question  23.  What  course  is  taken 
about  the  instructing  the  people  within 
your  government  in  the  Christian  religion  ; 


342 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


and  what  provision  is  there  made  for  the  pay 
ment  of  your  ministry  ?" 

"  Answer.  The  same  course  that  is  taken 
in  England  out  of  towns;  every  man  accord 
ing  to  his  ability  instructing  his  children. 
We  have  forty-eight  parishes,  and  our  min 
isters  are  well  paid,  and  by  my  consent  should 
be  better  if  they  would  pray  oftener  and 
preach  less.  But  of  all  other  commodities, 
so  of  this,  the  worst  are  sent  us,  and  we  had 
few  that  we  could  boast  of,  since  the  perse- 
cation  in  Cromwell's  tyranny  drove  divers 
worthy  men  hither.  But  I  thank  God  there 
are  no  free  schools,  nor  printing,  and  I  hope 
•we  shall  not  have  these  hundred  years ;  for 
learning  has  brought  disobedience  and  heresy 
and  sects  into  the  world,  and  printing  has  di 
vulged  them,  and  libels  against  the  best  gov 
ernment.  God  keep  us  from  both  !" 

In  1691,  "the  good  design  of  building  a 
free  school  and  college  for  the  encourage 
ment  of  learning,"  was  recognized,  but  it  was 
not  till  1693  that  an  act  was  passed  locat 
ing  the  college,  for  which  a  royal  charter  had 
been  obtained  April  8,  1692,  with  the  title 
of  William  and  Mary,  at  Middle  Plantation, 
afterward  Williamsburgh.  Toward  its  en 
dowment  the  royal  founders  granted  £2000 
in  money,  land,  and  a  revenue  duty  on  to 
bacco  ;  and  the  Assembly  enacted  an  ex 
port  duty  on  skins  and  furs.  The  money 
grant  of  £2000  did  not  meet  with  much 
encouragement  from  the  English  Attorney 
General  (Seymour)  who  was  instructed  to 
prepare  the  charter,  who  remarked  to  the 
Rev.  James  Blair,  the  agent  of  the  colony 
for  this  purpose,  that  the  money  was  wanted 
for  other  purposes,  and  that  he  did  not  see 
the  slightest  occasion  for  a  college  in  Vir 
ginia.  The  agent  represented  that  the  in 
tention  of  the  colony  was  to  educate  and 
qualify  young  men  to  be  ministers  of  the 
Gospel,  and  begged  Mr.  Attorney  would 
consider  that  the  people  of  Virginia  had 
souls  to  be  saved  as  well  as  the  people  of 
England.  "Souls!"  said  he;  "  damn  your 
souls !  make  tobacco."  The  plan  of  the 
building  was  designed  by  Sir  Christopher 
Wren.  The  first  commencement  was  held 
in  1700,  at  which,  according  to  Oldmixon, 
"  there  was  a  great  concourse  of  people ; 
several  planters  came  thither  in  their  coaches, 
and  several  sloops  from  New  York,  Pennsyl 
vania  and  Maryland  ;  it  being  a  new  thing 
in  America  to  hear  graduates  perform  their 
academical  exercises.  The  Indians  them 
selves  had  the  curiosity  to  come  to  Wil 


liamsburgh  on  this  occasion ;  and  the  whole 
country  rejoiced  as  if  they  had  some  relish 
of  learning."  After  the  English  fashion,  the 
college  had  a  representative  in  the  General 
Assembly.  As  a  quitrent  for  the  land  grant 
ed  by  the  Crown,  the  students  and  professors 
every  year  marched  to  the  residence  of  the 
royal  Governor,  and  presented,  and  some 
times  recited,  some  Latin  verses.  On  the 
breaking  out  of  the  Revolution  the  endow 
ments  of  the  college  were  cut  off,  and  its 
constitution  was  somewhat  changed. 

No  general  school  law  was  established  in 
Virginia  until  1796,  although  a  plan  was 
proposed  by  Mr.  Jefferson  in  1779,  which 
recognized  three  degrees  of  public  instruc 
tion,  viz.:  1.  Elementary  schools  for  all  chil 
dren.  2.  Colleges  for  an  extension  of  in 
struction  suitable  for  the  common  purposes 
of  life.  3.  A  university,  an  extension  of  the 
means  of  higher  culture  on  the  basis  of  the 
college  at  Williamsburgh. 

Scattered  through  the  colony  were  schools 
in  connection  with  churches,  both  Episcopal 
and  Presbyterian,  and  in  many  families 
private  teachers  were  employed,  and  in  some 
cases  sons  were  sent  out  to  England  to  com 
plete  their  education. 

MASSACHUSETTS. — In  1636,  six  years.after 
the  first  settlement  of  Boston,  the  General 
Court  of  the  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 
which  met  in  Boston  on  the  8th  of  Septem 
ber,  passed  an  act  appropriating  £400  to 
ward  the  establishment  of  a  college.  The 
sum  thus  appropriated  was  more  than  the 
whole  tax  levied  on  the  colony  at  that  time 
in  a  single  year,  and  the  population  scattered 
through  ten  or  twelve  villages  did  not  ex 
ceed  five  thousand  persons ;  but  among  them 
were  eminent  graduates  of  the  university  of 
Cambridge,  in  England,  and  all  were  here 
for  purposes  of  permanent  settlement.  In 
1638,  John  Harvard  left  by  will  the  sum  of 
£779  in  money,  and  a  library  of  over  three 
hundred  books.  In  1640  the  General  Court 
granted  to  the  college  the  income  of  the 
Charlestown  ferry;  and  in  1642  the  Gov 
ernor,  with  the  magistrates  and  teachers  and 
elders,  were  empowered  to  establish  statutes 
and  constitutions  for  the  infant  institution, 
and  in  1650  granted  a  charter  which  still 
remains  the  fundamental  law  of  the  oldest 
literary  institution  in  this  country. 

In  1642  the  attention  of  the  General 
Court  was  turned  to  the  subject  of  family 
instruction  in  the  following  enactment: — 


EDUCATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT   IN   THE    COLONIAL    PERIOD. 


343 


"  Forasmuch  as  the  good  education  of 
children  is  of  singular  behoof  and  benefit  to 
any  commonwealth ;  and  whereas  many 
parents  and  masters  are  too  indulgent  and 
negligent  of  their  duty  in  this  kind  : 

"  It  is  therefore  ordered  by  this  Court  and 
the  authority  thereof,  That  the  selectmen  of 
every  town,  in  the  several  precincts  and 
quarters  where  they  dwell,  shall  have  a  vigi 
lant  eye  over  their  brethren  and  neighbors, 
to  see,  first,  that  none  of  them  shall  suffer  so 
much  barbarism  in  any  of  their  families,  as 
not  to  endeavor  to  teach,  by  themselves  or 
others,  their  children  and  apprentices  so 
much  learning  as  may  enable  them  perfectly 
to  read  the  English  tongue,  and  knowledge 
of  the  capital  laws,  upon  penalty  of  twenty 
shillings  for  each  neglect  therein  ;  also,  that 
all  masters  of  families  do,  once  a  week,  at 
least,  catechise  their  children  and  servants 
in  the  grounds  and  principles  of  religion,  and 
if  any  be  unable  to  do  so  much,  that  then, 
at  the  least,  they  procure  such  children  or 
apprentices  to  learn  some  short  orthodox 
catechism,  without  book,  that  they  may  be 
able  to  answer  to  the  questions  that  shall  be 
propounded  to  them  out  of  such  catechisms 
by  their  parents  or  masters,  or  any  of  the 
selectmen,  where  they  shall  call  them  to  a 
trial  of  what  they  have  learned  in  this  kind ; 
and  further,  that  all  parents  and  masters  do 
breed  and  bring  up  their  children  and  ap 
prentices  in  some  honest  lawful  calling,  labor 
or  employment,  either  in  husbandry  or  some 
other  trade  profitable  for  themselves  and  the 
commonwealth,  if.  they  will  not  nor  cannot 
train  them  up  in  learning  to  fit  them  for 
higher  employments;  and  if  any  of  the  select 
men,  after  admonition  by  them  given  to  such 
masters  of  families,  shall  find  them  still  neg 
ligent  of  their  duty  in  the  particulars  afore 
mentioned,  whereby  children  and  servants 
become  rude,  stubborn  and  unruly,  the  said 
selectmen,  with  the  help  of  two  magistrates, 
shall  take  such  children  or  apprentices  from 
them,  and  place  them  with  some  masters  for 
years,  boys  till  they  come  to  twenty-one, 
and  girls  eighteen  years  of  age  complete, 
which  will  more  strictly  look  unto  and  force 
them  to  submit  unto  government,  according 
to  the  rules  of  this  order,  if  by  fair  means 
and  former  instructions  they  will  not  be 
drawn  unto  it." 

In  the  same  year  the  following  general 
school  law  was  enacted: — "It  being  one 
chief  project  of  that  old  deluder,  Satan,  to 
keep  men  from  the  knowledge  of  the  Scrip 


tures,  as  in  former  times,  keeping  them  in 
an  unknown  tongue,  so  in  these  latter  times., 
by  persuading  from  the  use  of  tongues,  so 
that  at  least  the  true  sense  and  meaning  of 
the  original  might  be  clouded  and  corrupted 
with  false  glosses  of  deceivers ;  and  to  the  end 
that  learning  may  not  be  buried  in  the  grave 
of  our  forefathers,  in  church  and  common 
wealth,  the  Lord  assisting  our  endeavors : 

"It  is  therefore  ordered  by  this  Court  and 
authority  thereof,  That  every  township  with 
in  this  jurisdiction,  after  the  Lord  hath  in 
creased  them  to  the  number  of  fifty  house 
holders,  shall  then  forthwith  appoint  one  with 
in  their  town  to  teach  all  such  children,  as 
shall  resort  to  him,  to  write  and  read,  whose 
wages  shall  be  paid,  either  by  the  parents  or 
masters  of  such  children,  or  by  the  inhabi 
tants  in  general,  by  way  of  supply,  as  the 
major  part  of  those  who  order  the  pruden 
tials  of  the  town  shall  appoint;  provided, 
that  those  who  send  their  children  be  not 
oppressed  by  paying  much  more  than  they 
can  have  them  taught  for  in  other  towns. 

"And  it  is  further  ordered,  That  where 
any  town  shall  increase  to  the  number  of 
one  hundred  families  or  householders,  they 
shall  set  up  a  grammar  school,  the  masters 
thereof  being  able  to  instruct  youths  so  far 
as  they  may  be  fitted  for  the  university,  and 
if  any  other  town  neglect  the  performance 
hereof  above  one  year,  then  every  such 
town  shall  pay  five  pounds  per  annum  to 
the  next  such  school,  till  they  shall  perform 
this  order." 

With  various  modifications  as  to  details,  but 
with  the  same  objects  steadily  in  view,  viz.,  the 
exclusion  of  "barbarism"  from  every  family, 
by  preventing  its  having  even  one  untaught 
and  idle  child  or  apprentice,  the  maintenance 
of  an  elementary  school  in  every  neighbor 
hood  where  there  were  children  enough  to 
constitute  a  school,  and  of  a  Latin  school  in 
every  large  town,  and  of  a  college  for  higher 
culture  for  the  whole  colony,  the  colonial 
legislature,  and  the  people  in  the  several 
towns  of  Massachusetts,  maintained  an  edu 
cational  system,  which,  although  not  as  early 
or  as  thorough  as  the  school  code  of  Saxony 
and  Wirtemberg,  has  expanded  with  the 
growth  of  the  community  in  population, 
wealth,  and  industrial  development,  and 
stimulated  and  shaped  the  legislation  and  ef 
forts  of  other  states  in  behalf  of  universal  edu 
cation. 

The  early  records  of  the  colony  of  Ply 
mouth  contain  no  trace  of  the  zeal  for 


344 


EDUCATION"    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


schools  which  characterized  the  colonies  of 
Massachusetts  Bay,  Connecticut,  and  New 
Haven.  In  1662  the  profits  of  the  codfish- 
ery  were  appropriated  to  the  maintenance 
of  grammar  schools  in  such  towns  as  would 
make  arrangements  for  the  same ;  and  in 
1669  towns  having  fifty  families  were  au 
thorized  to  raise  by  rate  on  all  the  inhabi 
tants  the  sum  of  twelve  pounds  for  this 
class  of  schools,  "for  as  much  as  the  mainte 
nance  of  good  literature  doth  much  tend  to 
the  advancement  of  the  weal  and  flourishing 
state  of  societies  and  republics."  After  the 
union  of  the  two  colonies  under  one  charter, 
several  towns  in  the  old  colony  were  fined 
for  not  complying  with  the  provisions  of  the 
law  of  1647  respecting  children  and  schools. 
In  addition  to  the  grammar  school  which 
each  town  having  one  hundred  families  was 
obliged  by  law  to  maintain,  to  enable  young 
men  to  fit  for  college,  in  several  counties 
endowed  schools  were  set  up;  and  in  1763 
the  first  of  that  class  of  institutions,  known 
and  incorporated  as  academies,  was  estab 
lished  in  the  parish  of  Byfield  in  the  town 
of  Newbury,  on  a  legacy  left  by  Gov.  Wil 
liam  Dummer.  Its  objects  were  the  same  as 
those  of  the  town  grammar  school,  but  its 
benefits  were  not  confined  to  one  town,  nor 
was  it  supported  in  any  degree  by  taxation. 

RHODE  ISLAND. — Tn  this  colony  education 
was  left  to  individual  and  parental  care,  no 
trace  of  any  legislation  on  the  subject  being 
found  in  the  proceedings  of  the  General 
Assembly,  except  to  incorporate  in  1747  the 
"  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Knowledge 
and  Virtue,"  which  was  established  in  New 
port  in  1730  by  the  name  of  the  "  Company 
of  the  Redwood  Library ;"  and  in  1764  to 
grant  the  charter  to  the  College  of  Rhode 
Island,  which  was  first  located  in  Warren, 
and  in  1770  removed  to  Providence,  and  in 
1 804  called,  after  its  most  liberal  benefactor, 
Brown  University. 

CONNECTICUT. — In  1646,  Mr.  Roger  Lud- 
low  was  requested  to  compile  "  a  body  of 
laws  for  the  government  of  this  common 
wealth,"  which  was  not  completed  till  May, 
1650,  and  is  known  as  the  code  of  1650. 
The  provisions  for  the  family  instruction 
of  children  and  the  maintenance  of  schools 
are  identically  the  same  as  in  Massachu 
setts,  and  remained  on  the  statute-book, 
with  but  slight  modifications  to  give  them 
more  efficiency,  for  one  hundred  and  fifty 


years.  In  the  chapter  on  "  capital"  of 
fences,  it  is  enacted  that  if  any  child  above 
sixteen  years  of  age,  and  of  sufficient  under 
standing,  shall  curse  or  smite  his  father  or 
mother,  he  shall  be  put  to  death,  "  unless  it 
can  be  sufficiently  testified  that  the  parents 
have  been  unchristianly  negligent  in  the  ed 
ucation  of  such  children."  In  the  chapter 
respecting  schools,  the  proposition  made  by 
the  "Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies," 
that  it  be  commended  to  every  family  which 
"  is  able  and  willing  to  give  yearly  but  the 
fourth  part  of  a  bushel  of  corn,  or  something 
equivalent  thereto,"  "for  the  advancement 
of  learning,"  was  approved,  and  two  men 
were  appointed  in  every  town  to  receive  and 
forward  the  contributions.  This  was  done 
in  the  larger  towns  of  the  colonies  of  Con 
necticut  and  New  Haven,  from  time  to  time, 
until  ten  of  the  principal  ministers,  in  1700, 
at  Branford,  brought  each  a  number  of  books, 
and  as  they  laid  them  on  the  table,  declared — 
"/  give  these  books  for  founding  a  College  in 
Connecticut ;"  and  on  that  foundation  rose 
Yale  College.  To  fit  young  men  for  the 
college  at  Cambridge,  and  subsequently  for 
Yaie,  in  1672  it  was  ordered  by  the  Gen 
eral  Court,  "  that  in  every  county  there  shall 
be  set  up  a  grammar  school  for  the  use  of 
the  county,  the  master  thereof  being  able  to 
instruct  youths  so  far  as  they  may  be  fitted 
for  college  ;"  and  to  aid  the  county  towns  in 
maintaining  their  schools,  six  hundred  acres 
of  land  were  appropriated  by  the  General 
Court  to  each,  "  to  be  improved  in  the  best 
manner  that  may  be  for  the  benefit  of  a 
grammar  school  in  said  towns,  and  to  no 
other, use  or  end  whatsoever;"  and  in  1677 
a  fine  of  ten  pounds  annually  is  imposed  on 
any  county  town  neglecting  to  keep  the 
Latin  school.  In  1690,  the  county  Latin 
schools  of  Hartford  and  New  Haven  are  de 
nominated  "  Free  Schools,"  probably  in  ref 
erence  to  the  partial  endowment  of  schools 
of  this  class  by  the  trustees  of  the  legacy 
of  Governor  Hopkins. 

As  early  as  1700,  the  system  of  public 
instruction  in  Connecticut  embraced  the  fol 
lowing  particulars : 

1.  An  obligation  on  every  parent  and 
guardian  of  children,  "  not  to  suft'er  so  much 
barbarism  in  any  of  their  families  as  to  have 
a  single  child  or  apprentice  unable  to  read 
the  holy  word  of  God,  and  the  good  laws  of 
the  colony ;"  and  also,  "  to  bring  them  up  to 
some  lawful  calling  or  employment,"  under 
a  penalty  for  each  offence-. 


EDUCATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT  IN  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD. 


345 


2.  A  tax  of  forty  shillings  on  every  thou 
sand  pounds  of  the  lists  of  estates,  was  col 
lected  in  every  town  with  the  annual  state 
tax,   and    payable    proportionally  to  those 
towns  only  which  should  keep  their  schools 
according  to  law. 

3.  A  common  school  in  every  town  hav 
ing  over  seventy  families,  kept  for  at  least 
six  months  in  the  year. 

4.  A  grammar  school  in  each  of  the  four 
head  county  towns  to  fit  youth  for  college, 
two  of  which  grammar  schools  were  free  or 
endowed. 

5.  A  collegiate  school,  toward  which  the 
General  Court  made  an  annual  appropriation 
of  £120. 

0.  Provision  for  the  religious  instruction 
of  the  Indians. 

The  system,  therefore,  embraced  every 
family  and  town,  all  classes  of  children  and 
youth,  and  all  the  then  recognized  grades  of 
schools.  There  were  no  select  or  sectarian 
schools  to  classify  society  at  the  roots,  but 
all  children  were  regarded  with  equal  favor, 
and  all  brought  under  the  assimilating  influ 
ence  of  early  associations  and  similar  school 
privileges.  Here  was  the  foundation  laid, 
not  only  for  universal  education,  but  for  a 
practical,  political,  and  social  equality,  which 
has  never  been  surpassed  in  the  history  of 
any  other  community. 

NEW  HAMPSHIRE. — From  1623  to  1641, 
the   early  records   of  the   first   settlements 
within  the  present  limits  of  New  Hampshire 
exhibit  no  trace  of  educational  enactments ; 
from  1641  to  1680,  the  school  laws  of  Mas 
sachusetts  prevailed,   and   the    presence  of 
such  men  as  Philemon  Purmont  and  Daniel 
Maude,  who  were  the  first  schoolmasters  of 
that  colony,  must  have  contributed  to  inaugu 
rate  the  policy  of  local  and  endowed  schools. 
When  the  necessities  of  the  college  at  Cam 
bridge  were    made   known,  the   people  of 
Portsmouth,  in  town  meeting,  made  a  col 
lection  of  sixty  pounds,  with  a  pledge  to  con 
tinue  the  same  amount  for  seven  years,  "  for 
the  perpetuating  of  knowledge  both  religiou 
and  civil  among  us  and  our  posterity  after 
us."     In  the  original  grants  for  towns  one 
lot  was  reserved  for  the  support  of  schools. 
In  1680   New  Hampshire  became  a  sepa 
rate   colony,  and  in  1693  the  Colonial  As 
sernbly  enacted  "  that  for  the  building  anc 
repairing    of     meeting    houses,    ministers 
houses,  and  allowing  a  salary  to  a  school 
master  in  each  town  within  this  province 


he  selectmen  shall  raise  by  an  equal  rate 
\  assessment  upon  the  inhabitants  ;"  and 
n  1719  it  was  ordained  that  every  town 
laving  fifty  householders  should  be  con 
stantly  provided  with  a  schoolmaster  to 
-each  children  to  read  and  write ;  and  those 
laving  one  hundred  should  maintain  a  gram 
mar  school,  to  be  kept  by  some  decent 
jerson,  of  good  conversation,  well  instructed 
n  the  tongues.  In  1721  it  was  ordered  that 
not  only  each  town  but  each  parish  of  one 
lundred  families  should  be  constantly  pro 
vided  with  a  grammar  school,  or  forfeit  the 
sum  of  twenty  pounds  to  the  treasury  of  the 
province.  This  system  of  elementary  and 
secondary  instruction  continued  substantially 
until  the  adoption  of  the  state  constitution 
in  1792. 

In  1770  Dr.  Wheelock  removed  a  school 
which  he  had  established  in  Lebanon,  Con 
necticut,  under  the  name  of  "  Moor's  Indian 
Charity  School,"  to  the  depths  of  the  forests 
in  the  western  part  of  New  Hampshire. 
Here,  side  by  side  with  the  school  for 
Indians,  he  organized  another  institution, 
termed  a  college  in  the  charter  granted  by 
Governor  Wentworth  in  1769,  and  which 
held  its  first  commencement  in  1771,  with 
four  graduates,  one  of  whom  was  John 
Wheelock,  the  second  president  of  the  in 
stitution,  which  was  called  Dartmouth  Col 
lege  after  Lord  Dartmouth,  one  of  the  larg 
est  benefactors  of  the  Charity  School. 

At  the  close  of  the  colonial  period  of  our 
history,  according  to  Noah  Webster,  the 
condition  of  the  educational  system  in  Con 
necticut  and  New  England  was  as  follows : 

"  The  law  of  Connecticut  ordains  that 
every  town  or  parish  containing  seventy 
householders,  shall  keep  an  English  school, 
at  least  eleven  months  in  the  year;  and 
towns  containing  a  less  number,  at  least  six 
months  in  the  year.  Every  town  keeping 
a  public  school  is  entitled  to  draw  from  the 
treasury  of  the  state  a  certain  sum  of  money, 
proportioned  to  its  census  in  the  list  of  prop 
erty  which  furnishes  the  rule  of  taxation. 
This  sum  might  have  been  originally  suf 
ficient  to  support  one  school  in  each  town 
or  garish,  but  in  modern  times  is  divided 
among  a  number,  and  the  deficiency  of 
money  to  support  the  schools  is  raised  upon 
the  estates  of  the  people,  in  the  manner  the 
public  taxes  are  assessed.  To  extend  the 
benefits  of  this  establishment  to  all  the  in 
habitants,  large  towns  and  parishes  are  di- 


346 


EDUCATION   AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


vidcd  into  districts,  each  of  which  is  sup 
posed  able  to  furnish  a  competent  number 
of  scholars  for  one  school.  In  each  district 
a  house  is  erected  for  the  purpose  by  the 
inhabitants  of  that  district,  who  hire  a  mas 
ter,  furnish  wood,  and  tax  themselves  to  pay 
all  expenses  not  provided  for  by  the  public 
money.  The  school  is  kept  during  the  win 
ter  months,  when  every  farmer  can  spare  his 
sons.  In  this  manner,  every  child  in  the 
state  has  access  to  a  school.  In  the  sum 
mer,  a  woman  is  hired  to  teach  small  chil 
dren,  who  are  not  fit  for  any  kind  of  labor. 
In  the  large  towns,  schools,  cither  public  or 
private,  are  kept  the  whole  year ;  and  in 
every  county  town,  a  grammar  school  is 
established  by  law. 

"  The  beneficial  effects  of  these  institutions 
will  be  experienced  for  ages.  Next  to  the 
establishments  in  favor  of  religion,  they  have 
been  the  nurseries  of  well-informed  citizens, 
brave  soldiers  and  wise  legislators.  A  peo 
ple  thus  informed  are  capable  of  understand 
ing  their  rights  and  of  discovering  the  means 
to  secure  them.  In  the  next  place,  our  fore 
fathers  took  measures  to  preserve  the  repu 
tation  of  schools  and  the  morals  of  youth, 
by  making  the  teaching  them  an  honor 
able  employment.  Every  town  or  district 
has  a  committee,  whose  duty  is  to  procure  a 
master  of  talents  and  character ;  and  the 
practice  is  to  procure  a  man  of  the  best 
character  in  the  town  or  neighborhood.  The 
wealthy  towns  apply  to  young  men  of  lib 
eral  education,  who,  after  taking  the  bache 
lor's  degree,  usually  keep  school  a  year  or 
two  before  they  enter  upon  a  profession. 
One  of  the  most  unfortunate  circumstances 
to  education  in  the  Middle  and  Southern 
states,  is  an  opinion  that  school-keeping  is 
a  mean  employment,  fit  only  for  persons  of 
low  character.  The  wretches  who  keep  the 
schools  in  those  states  very  frequently  de 
grade  the  employment ;  but  the  misfortune 
is,  public  opinion  supposes  the  employment 
degrades  the  man :  of  course  no  gentleman 
will  undertake  to  teach  children  while  in 
popular  estimation  he  must  forfeit  his  rank 
and  character  by  the  employment.  Until 
public  opinion  is  corrected  by  some  great 
examples,  the  common  schools,  what  few 
there  are  in  those  states,  must  continue  in 
the  hands  of  such  vagabonds  as  wander 
about  the  country." 

"Nearly  connected  with  the  establishment 
of  schools  is  the  circulation  of  newspapers 
in  New  England.  This  is  both  a  conse 


quence  and  a  cause  of  a  general  diffusion  of 
letters.  In  Connecticut,  almost  every  man 
reads  a  paper  every  week.  In  the  year 
1785,  I  took  some  pains  to  ascertain  the 
number  of  papers  printed  weekly  in  Con 
necticut  and  in  the  Southern  states.  I  found 
the  number  in  Connecticut  to  be  nearly  eight 
thousand  ;  which  was  equal  to  that  published 
in  the  whole  territory  south  of  Pennsylvania. 
By  means  of  this  general  circulation  of  pub 
lic  papers,  the  people  are  informed  of  all 
political  affairs ;  and  their  representatives 
are  often  prepared  to  deliberate  on  proposi 
tions  made  to  the  legislature. 

"Another  institution  favorable  to  knowl 
edge  is  the  establishment  of  parish  libraries. 
These  are  procured  by  subscription,  but  they 
are  numerous,  the  expense  not  being  con 
siderable,  and  the  desire  of  reading  universal. 
One  hundred  volumes  of  books,  selected 
from  the  best  writers,  on  ethics,  divinity, 
and  history,  and  read  by  the  principal  in 
habitants  of  a  town  or  village,  will  have  an 
amazing  influence  in  spreading  knowledge, 
correcting  the  morals,  and  softening  the 
manners  of  a  nation.  I  am  acquainted  with 
parishes  where  almost  every  householder  has 
read  the  works  of  Addison,  Sherlock,  Atter- 
bury,  Watts,  Young,  and  other  similar 
writings  ;  and  will  converse  well  on  the 
subjects  of  which  they  treat." 

NEW  YORK. — In  the  early  history  of  the 
settlements  of  the  New  Netherlands,  the 
school  was  regarded  as  an  appendage  of  the 
church,  and  the  schoolmaster  was  paid  in 
part  out  of  the  funds  of  the  government. 
Down  to  its  organization  as  a  royal  province 
of  England,  a  parochial  school  existed  in 
every  parish.  In  1658  a  petition  of  the 
burgomasters  and  schepens  of  New  Amster 
dam  was  forwarded  to  the  West  India  Com 
pany,  in  which  "  it  is  represented  that  the 
youth  of  this  place  and  the  neighborhood 
are  increasing  in  number  gradually,  and 
that  most  of  them  can  read  and  write,  but 
that  some  of  the  citizens  and  inhabitants 
would  like  to  send  their  children  to  a  school 
the  principal  of  which  understands  Latin, 
but  are  not  able  to  do  so  without  sending 
them  to  New  England ;  furthermore,  they 
have  not  the  means  to  hire  a  Latin  school 
master,  expressly  for  themselves,  from  New 
England,  and  therefore  they  ask  that  the 
West  India  Company  will  send  out  a  fit 
person  as  Latin  schoolmaster,  not  doubting 
that  the  number  of  persons  who  will  send 


EDUCATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT  IN  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD. 


347 


their  children  to  such  teacher  will  from  year 
to  year  increase,  until  an  academy  shall  be 
formed  whereby  this  place  to  great  splendor 
will  have  attained,  for  which,  next  to  God, 
the  honorable  company  which  shall  have 
sent  such  teacher  here  shall  have  laud  and 
praise."  In  compliance  with  this  petition, 
Dr.  Alexander  Caroms  Curtius.  a  Latin 
master  of  Lithuania,  was  sent  out  by  the 
company.  The  burgomasters  proposed  to 
give  him  five  hundred  guilders  annually  out 
of  the  city  treasury,  writh  the  use  of  a  house 
and  garden,  and  the  privilege  of  collecting 
a  tuition  of  six  guilders  per  quarter  of  each 
scholar.  Dr.  Curtius  proved  not  to  be  a 
good  disciplinarian,  and  parents  complained 
to  the  authorities  that  "  his  pupils  beat 
each  other,  and  tore  the  clothes  from  each 
other's  backs."  The  doctor  retorted  that 
he  could  not  interfere,  "  as  his  hands  were 
tied,  as  some  of  the  parents  forbade  him 
punishing  their  children."  lie  accordingly 
gave  up  his  place  and  returned  to  Holland, 
and  was  succeeded  in  the  mastership  by 
Rev.  ^-Egidius  Luyck  in  1662.  His  school 
had  a  high  reputation,  and  was  resorted  to 
by  pupils  from  Virginia,  Fort  Orange,  and 
the  Delaware. 

After  the  establishment  of  the  English 
authority,  the  governor  claimed  the  privilege 
of  licensing  teachers  even  for  the  church 
schools,  but  no  general  school  policy  was 
established.  In  1702  a  free  grammar  school 
was  founded  and  built  on  the  King's  Farm, 
and  in  1732  a  "Free  School,"  for  teaching 
the  Latin  and  Greek  and  practical  branches 
of  mathematics,  was  incorporated  by  law. 
The  preamble  of  the  act  of  incorporation 
opens  as  follows  :  "  Whereas  the  youth  of 
this  colony  are  found  by  manifold  experience 
to  be  not  inferior  in  their  natural  genius  to 
the  youth  of  any  other  country  in  the 
Avorld,  therefore  be  it  enacted,"  etc.  In 
1710,  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts  established  a 
charity  school  in  connection  with  the  Epis 
copal  church,  which  is  still  in  existence,  and 
is  now  known  as  the  Trinity  School.  In 
1750,  Charles  Dutens  announced  to  the 
public  "  that  he  taught  a  school  for  the  use 
of  young  ladies  and  gentlemen,  whoso  love 
of  learning  might  incline  them  to  take 
lessons  from  him  in  French,  at  his  house  on 
Broad  street,  near  the  Long  Bridge,  where 
he  also  makes  and  vends  finger  and  ear  rings, 
solitaires,  stay-hooks  and  lockets,  and  sets 
diamonds,  rubies,  and  other  stones.  Science 


and  virtue  are  two  sisters,  which  the  most 
part  of  the  New  York  ladies  possess,"  etc. 

Judge  Smith,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Prov 
ince  of  New  York,"  when  speaking  of  the 
action  of  the  legislature  for  founding  a  col 
lege  in  1746,  says  :  "  To  the  disgrace  of  our 
first  planters,  who  beyond  comparison  sur 
passed  their  eastern  neighbors  in  opulence, 
Mr.  Delancy,  a  graduate  of  the  University 
of  Cambridge  (England),  and  Mr.  Smith, 
were  for  many  years  the  only  academics  in  t 
this  province,  except  such  as  were  in  holy 
orders;  and  so  late  as  the  period  we  are  now 
examining  (1750),  the  author  did  not  recol 
lect  above  thirteen  men,  the  youngest  of 
whom  had  his  bachelor's  degree  at  the  age 
of  seventeen,  but  two  months  before  the  pass 
ing  of  the  above  law,  the  first  toward  erecting 
a  college  in  this  colony,  though  at  a  distance 
of  above  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  after 
its  discovery  and  settlement  of  the  capital  by 
Dutch  progenitors  from  Amsterdam." 

In  1754  a  royal  charter  was  obtained  for 
a  college  in  New  York,  with  the  style  of 
King's  College,  which  came  into  possession 
of  a  fund  raised  by  a  lottery  authorized  for 
this  purpose  by  the  Assembly  in  1746,  and 
of  a  grant  of  land  conveyed  to  its  governors 
by  Trinity  Church  in  1755.  Out  of  this 
grant,  Columbia  College  is  now  (1860)  re 
alizing  an  income  of  860,000  a  year.  The 
first  commencement  was  celebrated  in  1758. 

"  For  the  advantage  of  our  new  intended 
college"  (King's),  "and  the  use  and  orna 
ment  of  the  city,"  a  number  of  eminent  citi 
zens  of  New  York,  in  1754,  united  in  an 
association  to  form  a  library,  which  in  1772 
was  incorporated  with  the  title  of  the  "New 
York  Society  Library." 

MARYLAND. — The  first  settlement  was 
effected  within  the  present  limits  of  Mary 
land  in  1634;  and  in  the  years  immediately 
following,  we  find  no  record  of  any  marked 
individual  or  legislative  effort  to  establish 
institutions  of  learning.  The  first  act  of  the 
colonial  Assembly  is  entitled  a  "Supplicatory 
Act  to  their  sacred  majesties  for  erecting  of 
schools,"  which  was  passed  in  1694,  and  re 
pealed  or  superseded  by  an  act  entitled  a 
"Petitionary  Act"  for  the  same  purpose. 
Appealing  to  the  royal  liberality,  which  had 
been  extended  to  the  neighboring  colony  of 
Virginia  in  the  institution  of  the  college,  "  a 
place  of  universal  study,"  the  Assembly  ask, 
"  that  for  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel,  and 
the  education  of  the  youth  of  this  province 


348 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


in  good  letters  and  manners,  that  a  certain 
place  or  places  for  a  free  school  or  schools,  or 
place  of  study  of  Latin,  Greek,  writing  and 
the  like,  consisting  of  one  master,  one  usher, 
and  one  writing-master  or  scribe  to  a  school, 
and  100  scholars,"  be  established  in  Arundel 
County,  of  which  the  Archbishop  of  Canter 
bury  should  be  chancellor,  and  to  be  called 
"  King  William's  School;"  and  a  similar  free 
school  is  asked  for  in  each  county,  to  be 
established  from  time  to  time  as  the  re 
sources  of  the  several  counties  may  suffice. 
To  increase  the  educational  resources  of  the 
counties,  in  I7l7  it  was  enacted  that  an  ad 
ditional  duty  of  twenty  shillings  currentmoney 
per  poll  should  be  levied  on  all  Irish  servants, 
being  papists,  to  prevent  the  growth  of  popery 
by  the  importation  of  too  great  a  number  of 
them  into  this  province,  and  also  an  addi 
tional  duty  of  twenty  shillings  current 
money  per  poll  on  all  negroes,  for  raising 
a  fund  for  the  use  of  public  schools.  In 
1723,  "  an  act  for  the  encouragement  of 
learning,  and  erecting  schools  in  the  several 
counties,"  was  passed,  with  a  preamble  set 
ting  forth  that  preceding  Assemblies  have 
had  it  much  at  heart,  "to  provide  for  the 
liberal  and  pious  education  of  the  youth 
r  of  the  province,  and  improving  their  natural 
abilities  and  acuteness  (which  seem  not  to 
be  inferior  to  any),  so  as  to  be  fitted  for  the 
discharge  of  their  duties  in  the  several  sta 
tions  and  employments  in  it,  either  in  re 
gard  to  church  or  state."  By  this  act  seven 
visitors  are  appointed  in  each  county,  with 
corporate  powers  to  receive  and  hold  estate 
to  the  value  of  £100  per  annum;  and  they 
are  authorized  with  all  convenient  speed  to 
purchase,  out  of  funds  realized  from  revenues 
already  set  apart  for  this  purpose,  one  hun 
dred  acres  more  or  less,  one  moiety  of  which 
is  to  serve  for  making  corn,  grain,  and  pas 
turage  for  the  benefit  and  use  of  the  master,' 
who  is  prohibited  growing  tobacco,  or  per 
mitting  it  by  others  on  said  farm.  The 
visitors  are  directed  to  employ  good  school 
masters,  members  of  the  Church  of  England, 
and  of  pious  and  exemplary  lives  and  con 
versation,  and  capable  of  teaching  well  the 
grammar,  good  writing,  and  the  mathemat 
ics,  if  such  can  be  conveniently  got,  on 
a  salary  of  £20  per  annum,  and  the  use  of 
the  plantation.  In  1728  the  master  of  each 
public  school  is  directed  "  to  teach  as  many 
poor  children  gratis  as  the  majority  of  the 
visitors  should  order." 

Up  to  the  establishment  of  the  state  gov 


ernment  in  1777,  there  was  no  system  of 
common  schools  for  elementary  instruction 
in  operation  in  Maryland.  "A  free  school," 
like  the  free  endowed  grammar  school  of 
England,  was  established  in  a  majority  of 
counties,  two  of  which  were  subsequently 
converted  into  colleges,  that  of  Charlestown 
in  Kent  county,  into  Washington  College  in 
1782,  and  the  second  at  Annapolis  into  St. 
John's  College  in  1784 — the  former  "in 
honorable  and  perpetual  memory  of  his 
excellency  General  Washington,  the  illus 
trious  and  virtuous  commander-in-chief  of 
the  armies  of  the  United  States." 

In  1696,  Rev.  Thomas  Bray,  then  residing 
in  the  parish  of  Sheldon,  England,  was  made 
commissary  of  Maryland,  to  establish  the 
Church  of  England  in  the  colony.  His  first 
act  was  to  inaugurate  a  plan  of  parochial 
libraries  for  the  use  of  ministers  in  each 
parish.  Through  his  influence,  Princess 
Anne  made  a  benefaction  for  this  purpose, 
and  in  acknowledgment  of  the  honor  of 
having  the  capital  of  the  province  called 
after  her  name  (Annapolis),  donated  books 
to  the  value  of  four  hundred  pounds  to  the 
parish  library,  which  he  called  "  the  An- 
napolitan  Library."  By  his  influence  in 
England  a  plan  of  "lending-libraries"  was 
projected  in  every  deanery  throughout  the 
kingdom,  and  carried  out. 

NEW  JERSEY. — In  the  history  of  New 
Jersey  as  a  colony  we  find  no  trace  of  any 
general  legislation  or  governmental  action  in 
behalf  of  schools.  Scattered  at  wide  in 
tervals  over  the  state  were  schools  kept 
by  clergymen  in  connection  with  their 
churches. 

In  1748  a  charter  of  incorporation  for  the 
College  of  New  Jersey  was  obtained  from 
George  II.,  during  the  administration  of 
Governor  Belcher,  "  for  the  instruction  of 
youth  in  the  learned  languages  and  liberal 
arts  and  sciences."  During  the  adminis 
tration  of  Governor  Franklin  in  1770,  a 
second  college  was  chartered,  with  the  name 
of  Queen's  (now  Rutger's)  College,  as  a 
school  of  theology  for  the  Reformed  Dutch 
Church.  Neither  of  the  institutions  receiv 
ed  any  aid  from  the  government. 

PENNSYLVANIA. — The  frame  of  govern 
ment  of  the  province  of  Pennsylvania,  dated 
April  25th,  1682,  drawn  up  by  William 
Penn  before  leaving  England,  contains  the 
following  provision  :  "  The  governor  and 


EDUCATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT  IN  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD. 


349 


provincial  council  shall  erect  and  order  all 
public  schools  and  reward  the  authors  of 
useful  sciences  and  laudable  inventions  in 
said  province."  In  the  laws  agreed  upon 
a  few  months  later  in  the  same  year  by  the 
governor  and  divers  freemen  of  the  province 
in  England,  it  is  provided  "  that  all  children 
within  this  province  of  the  age  of  twelve 
years  shall  be  taught  some  useful  trade,  or 
skill,  to  the  end  thai  none  be  idle,  but  that 
the  poor  may  work  to  live,  and  the  rich,  if 
they  become  poor,  may  not  want."  In  1683 
the  governor  and  council  in  Philadelphia, 
"  having  taken  into  their  seri6us  considera 
tion  the  great  necessity  there  is  of  a  school 
master  in  the  town  of  Philadelphia,  sent  for 
Enoch  Flower,  an  inhabitant  of  said  town, 
•who  for  twenty  years  past  hath  been  exer 
cised  in  that  care  and  employment  in  Eng 
land,  to  whom  having  communicated  their 
minds,  he  embraced  it  upon  the  following 
terms :  to  learn  to  read  English,  4s.  by  the 
quarter ;"  to  learn  to  read  and  write,  6s. ; 
read,  write  and  cast  accounts,  8s. ;  for  board 
ing  a  scholar,  £l(J  per  year.  In  1689  the 
Society  of  Friends  established  a  Latin  school 
of  which  George  Keith  was  the  first  teacher. 
In  1725  Rev.  Francis  Alison,  a  native  of 
Ireland,  but  educated  at  Glasgow,  became 
pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  church  in  New 
London,  in  Chester  county,  and  opened  a 
school  there,  which  had  great  reputation. 
He  at  one  time  resided  at  Thunder  Hill,  in 
Maryland,  where  he  educated  many  young 
men  who  were  afterward  distinguished  in 
the  Revolutionary  struggle.  He  was  subse 
quently  Provost  of  the  college  at  Philadel 
phia. 

In  1749  Benjamin  Franklin  published  his 
"  Proposals  rein  ting  to  the  Education  of 
Youth  in  Pennsylvania"  out  of  which  ori 
ginated  subsequently  an  academy  and  char 
ity  school,  and  ultimately  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania.  At  the  head  of  the  English 
department  of  the  academy  in  1751  was  Mr. 
Dove,  who  was  then  engaged  in  giving  pub 
lic  lectures  in  experimental  philosophy  with 
apparatus — an  early  lyceum  or  popular  lec 
turer. 

In  1743  the  American  Philosophical  So 
ciety  originated  in  a  "  Proposal  for  Promot 
ing  Useful  Knowledge,"  published  by  Ben 
jamin  Franklin,  which,  after  various  forms 
of  organization,  took  its  present  name  and 
shape  on  the  2d  of  January,  1769. 

In  1765  the  Medical  School  originated 
with  the  appointment  of  Dr.  Morgan  to  the 
21  * 


professorship  of  the  theory  and  practice  of 
physic;  in  1767  it  was  fully  organized,  and 
in  1768  degrees  in  medicine  were  for  the 
first  time  conferred. 

Among  the  denominational  schools  which 
grew  up  in  the  absence  of  any  general 
legislation  on  the  subject,  Avas  a  Moravian 
school  for  boys  at  Nazareth  in  1747,  and  for 
girls  at  Bethlehem  1749,  both  of  which  are 
still  in  existence,  and  the  latter,  especially, 
since  1789,  has  been  one  of  the  most  flour 
ishing  female  seminaries  in  this  country. 

DELAWARE. — In  the  early  settlements  of 
the  Swedes  and  Dutch  in  Delaware,  the 
policy  of  connecting  a  school  with  the 
church  was  probably  imperfectly  carried 
out,  but  there  is  no  historical  trace  of  its 
existence.  The  only  school  legislation  of 
the  colony  extant,  is  an  act  incorporating 
"  the  Trustees  of  the  Grammar  School  in  the 
borough  of  Wilmington,  and  county  of  New 
Castle,"  dated  April  10,  1773. 

NORTH  CAROLINA. — In  North  Carolina  for 
fifty  years,  the  policy  of  the  provincial  au 
thorities  was  to  discourage  all  forms  of  re 
ligious  and  educational  activity  outside  of 
the  Church  of  England,  to  the  extent  of  for 
bidding  expressly  the  establishment  of  print 
ing  presses.  The  first  act  on  record  relat 
ing  to  schools,  in  1764,  was  "for  the  build 
ing  of  a  house  for  a  school,  and  the  residence 
of  a  schoolmaster  in  the  town  of  Newbern" 
— appropriating  the  half  of  two  lots,  before 
set  apart  for  a  church,  for  this  purpose.  In 
1766  another  act  was  passed  incorporating 
trustees  for  this  school,  with  the  preamble 
"that  a  number  of  well-disposed  persons, 
taking  into  consideration  the  great  necessity 
of  having  a  proper  school,  or  public  seminary 
of  learning  established,  whereby  the  present 
generation  may  be  brought  up  and  instructed 
in  the  principles  of  the  Christian  religion, 
and  fitted  for  the  several  offices  and  purposes 
of  life,  have  at  great  expense  erected  a 
school-house  for  this  purpose  ;"  and  provid 
ing  that  the  master  of  the  school  shall  be 
"of  the  established  Church  of  England,  and 
licensed  by  the  governor. ' '  Similar  acts  were 
passed  in  1770  and  1779  for  schools  at  Edenton 
and  Hillsborough.  In  1770  an  act,  reciting 
that  a  very  promising  experiment  had  been 
made  in  the  town  of  Charlotte  in  the  county 
of  Mecklenburg,  with  a  seminary  of  learning 
"a  number  of  youths  there  taught  making- 
groat  advancement  in  the  knowledge  of  the 


350 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


learned  languages,  and  in  the  rudiments  of 
the  arts  and  sciences,  having  gone  to  various 
colleges  in  distant  parts  of  America,"  incor 
porates  the  same  with  the  name  of  Queen's 
College.  This  act  was  repealed  by  procla 
mation  in  the  next  year,  but  in  1777  it  was 
reincorporated  by  name  of  "Liberty  Hall." 
With  the  downfall  of  the  royal  authority, 
and  the  religious  party  which  had  swayed 
the  colony,  a  new  educational  policy  was 
inaugurated. 

SOUTH  CAROLINA. — In  the  early  history 
of  the  colony  of  South  Carolina,  as  of  several 
other  colonies,  the  first  efforts  to  establish 
schools  were  in  connection  with  the  predom 
inant  church  of  the  settlers,  i.  e.,  of  the 
Church  of  England,  through  the  aid  of  the 
"  Venerable  Society  for  Propagating  the 
Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts."  By  the  mission 
aries  of  that  society  charity  schools  were 
established  in  several  parishes,  some  of  which 
were  afterward  endowed  by  individuals,  and 
incorporated  by  act  of  the  legislature,  and 
called  "Free  Schools."  In  1710  a  free 
school  of  this  character  was  established  at 
Goosecreek,  and  in  1712  in  Charleston;  and 
by  the  general  act  of  February  22,  1722,  the 
justices  of  the  county  courts  were  author 
ized  to  erect  a  free  school  in  each  county 
and  precinct,  to  be  supported  by  assessment 
on  land  and  negroes.  These  schools  were 
bound  to  teach  ten  poor  children  each,  if 
sent  by  said  justices.  In  1724,  a  memorial 
to  the  "  Venerable  Society"  from  the  parish 
of  Dorchester  sets  forth — "  The  chief  source 
of  irreligion  here  is  the  want  of  schools ; 
and  we  may  justly  be  apprehensive,  that  if 
our  children  continue  longer  to  be  deprived 
of  opportunities  of  being  instructed,  Chris 
tianity  will  of  course  decay  insensibly,  and 
we  shall  have  a  generation  of  our  own  as 
ignorant  as  the  native  Indians."  The  so 
ciety  sent  out  schoolmasters  to  this  and 
other  parishes,  and  about  2000  volumes  of 
bound  books.  In  1721  Mr.  Richard  Beres- 
ford  bequeathed  to  the  parish  of  St.  Thomas 
and  St.  Dennis,  in  trust,  for  the  purpose  of 
educating  the  poor,  £6500;  and  in  1732 
Mr.  Richard  Harris,  for  the  same  object, 
£1000.  In  1728  Rev.  Richard  Ludlam  be 
queathed  his  whole  estate  to  the  parish  of 
St.  James,  which  in  1778  amounted  to 
£15,272.  Other  bequests  for  the  same 
objects  were  made  at  different  times  before 
the  Revolution.  In  1743  Rev.  Alexander 
Garden  wrote  to  the  society  that  the  negro 


school  consisted  of  thirty  children,  and  in 
1750  that  it  was  going  on  with  all  desirable 
success.  In  1748  a  library  was  founded  in 
Charleston  by  an  association  of  seventeen 
young  men,  whose  first  object  was  to  collect 
new  pamphlets  and  magazines  published  in 
Great  Britain,  but  in  the  course  of  a  year 
embraced  the  purchase  of  books.  After 
many  delays  and  refusals,  an  act  of  incor 
poration  was  obtained  in  1754.  There  is 
but  one  older  library  in  this  country. 

GEORGIA. — The  earliest  effort  to  establish 
schools  in  Georgia  was  made  by  the  Rev. 
George  Whitefield.  Before  leaving  England 
in  1737,  he  had  projected  an  Orphan  House, 
after  the  plan  of  that  of  Dr.  Franke,  at  Halle, 
of  which  an  account  about  that  time  ap 
peared  in  English.  His  first  visit  to  Savan 
nah  in  1738  satisfied  him  of  the  necessity 
of  a  charity  school  for  poor  and  neglected 
children,  and  in  the  course  of  that  year  he 
returned  to  England  to  obtain  his  ordination 
as  priest  and  collect  funds  for  his  educational 
enterprise.  The  trustees  of  the  colony  gave 
him  five  hundred  acres  of  land  upon  which 
to  erect  his  buildings.  These  were  selected 
about  ten  miles  out  of  Savannah,  and  on  the 
25th  of  March,  1740,  he  laid  the  first  brick 
of  the  house,  which  he  called  Bethesda,  or 
House  of  Mercy,  and  opened  his  school  in 
temporary  shelters  with  forty  children.  In 
the  fall  of  the  same  year  he  made  a  collec 
tion  and  preaching  tour  in  New  England, 
during  which  he  collected  over  £800  for  his 
charity.  After  disasters  by  fire,  etc.,  the 
Orphan  House  property  was  bequeathed  to 
Selina,  Countess  of  Huntingdon,  in  trust  for 
the  purposes  originally  designed,  and  subse 
quently  incorporated  for  this  purpose.  On 
her  death,  and  after  the  Revolution,  the  legis 
lature  transferred  the  property  to  thirteen 
trustees,  to  manage  the  estate  and  make  reg 
ulations  for  an  academy  in  the  county  of 
Chatham.  Schools  were  established  by  the 
missionaries  sent  out  by  the  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel  at  Savannah,  Au 
gusta,  and  Frederica,  and  by  the  Moravians 
and  Huguenots  in  their  respective  settle 
ments. 

RESULTS    AT    THE    CLOSE    OF    OUK    COLONIAL 
HISTORY. 

The  educational  systems  and  provisions 
of  the  colonial  period  of  the  United  States 
were,  especially  in  its  earlier  portion,  closely 
connected  with  the  ecclesiastical  systems  of 


REVOLUTIONARY    AND    TRANSITIONAL    PERIOD. 


351 


the  colonies.  Schools  were  maintained  by 
individual  youth  trained  up  in  very  many 
cases,  because  it  was  a  duty  to  prepare  use 
ful  future  members  of  the  church,  which  in 
some  of  the  colonies  was  also  the  state. 

In  three  states,  Massachusetts,  Connecti 
cut,  and  New  Hampshire,  it  was  very  early 
made  the  legal  duty  of  parents  and  towns 
to  make  provision  for  the  education  of  youth. 
Elsewhere,  such  efforts  as  were  made,  aside 
from  the  natural  desire  of  parents  to  afford 
their  children  such  an  education  as  was  suit 
able  to  their  rank  in  life,  or  such  as  would 
aid  their  subsequent  progress  and  prosperity, 
were,  generally  speaking,  put  forth  by  clergy 
men,  ecclesiastical  bodies,  or  pious  laymen, 
for  colonial  institutions  for  secondary  edu 
cation  were  not  very  numerous,  including 
the  town  grammar  schools  of  New  England, 
and  a  small  number  of  endowed  or  free 
schools.  In  these  two  classes  of  institutions, 
a  small  number  of  pupils  were  prepared  to 
enter  college.  A  far  greater  number  of  col 
lege  students,  more  especially  in  the  middle 
and  southern  states,  were  prepared  by  clergy 
men,  who  received  each  a  small  number  of 
pupils  into  his  family,  as  a  means  of  secur 
ing  some  additional  income.  There  were 
al^o  a  few  private  schools  of  considerable 
reputation  and  value. 

In  connection  with  these  educational  agen 
cies,  the  small  parochial  and  social  libraries, 
and  the  two  or  three  associations  for  the 
increase  and  dissemination  of  science,  should 
also  be  referred  to. 

The  institutions  of  superior  education, 
established  during  the  colonial  period,  were 
seven  in  number ;  namely,  Harvard,  Wil 
liam  and  Mary,  Yale,  Nassau  Hall,  Rutgers, 
Brown,  and  Columbia.  From  these  came 
forth  nearly  all  the  liberally  educated  men 
of  that  day,  though  it  was  a  custom  of  a  few 
of  the  wealthiest  families  of  the  day  to  grad 
uate  their  sons  at  a  European  university, 
Oxford  or  Cambridge  being  commonly  se 
lected.  The  colonial  colleges,  like  the 
schools  preparatory  to  them,  were  substan 
tially  church  institutions,  their  pupils  being 
the  stock  from  which  the  clerical  body  was 
reinforced. 

It  was  not  until  the  very  close  of  the  co 
lonial  period  that  a  few  special  or  profes 
sional  schools  were  established.  A  school 
of  medicine,  sufficiently  entitled  to  the  name, 
gave  degrees  in  New  York  in  1769 ;  a  sort 
of  theological  seminary  was  founded  in  Penn 
sylvania  in  1778;  while  the  first  law  school 


only  arose  the  year  after  the  peace  of  1783. 
Professorships,  however,  in  these  depart 
ments,  had  afforded  a  certain  amount  of  in 
struction  in  all  of  them  as  part  of  the  college 
course,  long  before ;  indeed,  from  the  foun 
dation  of  the  earliest  colleges. 

Female  education  was  comparatively  neg 
lected  in  the  colonial  period.  Girls  were 
taught  housewifely  duties  far  more  assidu 
ously  than  learning,  and  often  depended 
upon  home  instruction  for  whatever  educa 
tion  they  received ;  neither  the  common 
schools  nor  those  for  secondary  education 
affording  or  being  designed  to  afford  accom 
modation  for  them. 

That  special  supplementary  training  which 
at  the  present  day  does  so  much  to  alleviate 
the  misfortunes  of  the  blind,  the  deaf  and 
dumb,  and  the  feeble  minded,  was  quite  un 
known,  nor  was  the  idea  entertained  that 
such  a  training  was  practicable. 


CHAPTER   II. 

REVOLUTIONARY    AND   TRANSITIONAL 
PERIOD. 

THE  immediate  effects  of  the  war  of  the 
Revolution  were  adverse,  and,  in  certain  as 
pects,  disastrous  to  the  interests  of  education. 
Dangers  so  great  and  imminent  almost  en 
grossed  all  thought  and  absorbed  all  exertion 
and  resources.  Children,  indeed,  were  not 
left  without  the  instruction  of  the  family  and 
the  local  elementary  school,  and  they  were, 
thank  God,  everywhere  surrounded  with  the 
most  stirring  exhibitions  of  heroic  patriotism 
and  the  self-sacrificing  virtues.  But  too  gen 
erally  the  elementary  school  and  the  teacher, 
never  properly  appreciated,  gave  way  to 
more  pressing  and  universally-felt  necessities. 
Higher  education  for  a  time  experienced  a 
severe  shock.  The  calls  of  patriotism  with 
drew  many  young  men  from  the  colleges  and 
the  preparatory  schools,  and  prevented  many 
more  from  resorting  thither.  The  impover 
ishment  of  the  country,  and  the  demand  for 
immediate  action,  compelled  others  to  relin 
quish  an  extended  course  of  professional 
study.  In  some  cases  the  presence  of  armies 
caused  a  suspension  of  college  instruction  and 
the  dispersion  of  faculty  and  students,  and 
even  converted  the  college  buildings  into 
barracks.  But  the  action  and  influence  of 
this  period  were  not  wholly  adverse  or  dis 
astrous  to  schools  and  higher  education.  The 


352 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


public  mind  was  stimulated  into  greatly  in 
creased  activity — now,  for  the  first  time,  as 
suming  a  collective  existence  and  national 
characteristics.  The  heart  of  the  people  was 
thoroughly  penetrated  by  the  spirit  of  self- 
sacrifice,  in  cheerfully  bearing  the  burdens  of 
society  with  diminished  resources,  and  in  re 
pairing  the  waste  and  destruction  of  the  war. 
The  examples  of  wisdom  and  eloquence  in 
council,  and  courage  and  heroism  in  the 
field,  and  of  patient  endurance  of  privation 
and  hardship,  and  towering  above  all  and 
outshining  all,  the  colossal  greatness  and 
transparent  purity  of  the  character  of  Wash 
ington — these  were  lessons  for  the  head  and 
the  heart  of  a  young  nation,  which  amply 
compensated  for  the  partial  and  temporary 
suspension  of  schools.  In  the  discussion  and 
reconstruction  of  political  society,  in  framing 
constitutions  and  organic  legislation,  and  in 
the  disposition  of  unsettled  territory,  the  im 
portance  of  the  elementary  school,  the  acad 
emy,  and  the  college,  was  recognized  and  pro 
vided  for. 

Among  the  earliest  to  do  justice  to  this 
great  subject  was  Noah  Webster,  who,  in  a 
series  of  essays,  first  published  in  a  New 
York  paper,  and  copied  extensively  by  the 
press  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  and  after 
ward  embodied  in  a  volume  with  other  fu 
gitive  pieces,  advocated  a  liberal  policy  by 
the  national  and  local  governments  in  favor 
of  a  broad  system  of  education.  "  Here  every 
class  of  people  should  know  and  love  the 
laws.  This  knowledge  should  be  diffused  by 
means  of  schools  and  newspapers ;  and  an  at 
tachment  to  the  laws  may  be  formed  by  early 
impression  upon  the  mind.  Two  regulations 
are  essential  to  the  continuance  of  republican 
governments :  1.  Such  a  distribution  of  lands 
and  such  principles  of  descent  and  alienation 
as  shall  give  every  citizen  a  power  of  acquir 
ing  what  his  industry  merits.  2.  Such  a  sys 
tem  of  education  as  shall  give  every  citizen 
an  opportunity  of  acquiring  knowledge,  and 
fitting  himself  for  places  of  trust."  "  Edu 
cation  should  be  the  first  care  of  a  legisla 
ture  ;  not  merely  the  institution  of  schools, 
but  the  furnishing  them  with  the  best  men 
for  teachers.  A  good  system  of  schools 
should  be  the  first  article  in  a  code  of  politi 
cal  regulations ;  for  it  is  much  easier  -to  in 
troduce  and  establish  an  effectual  system  for 
preserving  morals,  than  to  correct  by  penal 
statutes  the  ill  effects  of  a  bad  system.  I  am 
so  fully  persuaded  of  this,  that  I  should  al 
most  adore  that  great  man  who  shall  change 


our  practice  and  opinions,  and  make  it  re 
spectable  for  the  first  and  best  men  to  super 
intend  the  education  of  youth."  As  speci 
mens  of  the  utterances  of  eminent  public 
men  on  this  subject,  we  cite  the  following : 

"  Promote,  as  an  object  of  primary  import 
ance,  institutions  for  the  general  diffusion  of 
knowledge.  In  proportion  as  the  structure 
of  a  government  gives  force  to  public  opin 
ion,  it  is  essential  that  public  opinion  should 
be  enlightened."  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

"  The  wisdom  and  generosity  of  the  legis 
lature  in  making  liberal  appropriations  in 
money  for  the  benefit  of  schools,  academies 
and  colleges,  is  an  equal  honor  to  them  and 
their  constituents,  a  proof  of  their  veneration 
for  letters  and  science,  and  a  portent  of  great 
and  lasting  good  to  North  and  South  Amer 
ica,  and  to  the  world.  Great  is  truth — great 
is  liberty — great  is  humanity — and  they  must 
and  will  prevail."  JOHN  ADAMS. 

"  I  look  to  the  diffusion  of  light  and  edu 
cation  as  the  resources  most  to  be  relied  on 
for  ameliorating  the  condition,  promoting 
the  virtue,  and  advancing  the  happiness  of 
man.  And  I  do  hope,  in  the  present  spirit 
of  extending  to  the  great  mass  of  mankind 
the  blessings  of  instruction,  I  see  a  prospect 
of  great  advancement  in  the  happiness  of  the 
human  race,  and  this  may  proceed  to  an  in 
definite,  although  not  an  infinite,  degree.  A 
system  of  general  instruction,  which  shall 
reach  every  description  of  our  citizens,  from 
the  richest  to  the  poorest,  as  it  was  the  ear 
liest,  so  ?hall  it  be  the  latest  of  all  the  public 
concerns  in  which  I  shall  permit  myself  to 
take  an  interest.  Give  it  to  us,  in  any  shape, 
and  receive  for  the  inestimable  boon  the 
thanks  of  the  young,  and  the  blessings  of 
the  old,  who  are  past  all  other  services  but 
prayers  for  the  prosperity  of  their  country, 
and  blessings  to  those  who  promote  it." 
THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

"  Learned  institutions  ought  to  be  the  fa 
vorite  objects  with  every  free  people ;  they 
throw  that  light  over  the  public  mind  which 
is  the  best  security  against  crafty  and  dan 
gerous  encroachments  on  the  public  liberty. 
They  multiply  the  educated  individuals,  from 
among  whom  the  people  may  elect  a  due 
portion  of  their  public  agents  of  every  de 
scription,  more  especially  of  those  who  are 
to  frame  the  laws :  by  the  perspicuity,  the 


REVOLUTIONARY    AND    TRANSITIONAL    PERIOD. 


353 


consistency,  and  the  stability,  as  well  as  by 
the  justice  and  equal  spirit  of  which,  the  great 
social  purposes  are  to  be  answered." 

JAMES  MADISON. 

f 

"  Moral,  political  and  intellectual  improve 
ment,  are  duties  assigned  by  the  Author  of 
our  existence  to  social,  no  less  than  to  indi 
vidual  man.  For  the  fulfilment  of  these  du 
ties,  governments  are  invested  with  power, 
arid  to  the  attainment  of  these  ends,  the  ex 
ercise  of  this  power  is  a  duty  sacred  and  in 
dispensable."  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 

"  For  the  purpose  of  promoting  the  happi 
ness  of  the  State,  it  is  absolutely  necessary 
that  our  government,  which  unites  into  one 
all  the  minds  of  the  State,  should  possess  in 
an  eminent  degree  not  only  the  understand 
ing,  the  passions,  and  the  will,  but  above  all, 
the  moral  faculty  and  the  conscience  of  an 
individual.  Nothing  can  be  politically  right 
that  is  morally  wrong ;  and  no  necessity  can 
ever  sanctify  a  law  that  is  contrary  to  equity. 
Virtue  is  the  soul  of  a  Republic.  To  pro 
mote  this,  laws  for  the  suppression  of  vice 
and  immorality  will  be  as  ineffectual  as  the 
increase  and  enlargement  of  jails.  There  is 
but  one  method  of  preventing  crime  and  of 
rendering  a  republican  form  of  government 
durable ;  and  that  is,  by  disseminating  the 
seeds  of  virtue  and  knowledge  through  every 
part  of  the  State,  by  means  of  proper  modes 
and  places  of  education ;  and  this  can  be 
done  effectually  only  by  the  interference  and 
aid  of  the  legislature.  I  am  so  deeply  im 
pressed  with  this  opinion,  that  were  this  the 
last  evening  of  my  life,  I  would  not  only  say  to 
the  asylum  of  my  ancestors  and  my  beloved 
native  country,  with  the  patriot  of  Venice, 
'  Esto  perpetual  but  I  would  add,  as  the  best 
proof  of  my  affection  for  her,  my  parting  ad 
vice  to  the  guardians  of  her  liberties,  establish 
and  support  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  in  every  part  of 
the  State."  BENJAMIN  RUSH. 

"  There  is  one  object  which  I  earnestly  re 
commend  to  your  notice  and  patronage — I 
mean  our  institutions  for  the  education  of 
youth.  The  importance  of  common  schools 
is  best  estimated  by  the  good  effects  of  them 
where  they  most  abound  and  are  best  regu 
lated.  Our  ancestors  have  transmitted  to  us 
many  excellent  institutions,  matured  by  the 
•wisdom  and  experience  of  ages.  Let  them 
descend  to  posterity,  accompanied  with  oth 
ers,  which,  by  promoting  useful  knowledge, 


and  multiplying  the  blessings  of  social  order, 
diffusing  the  influence  of  moral  obligations, 
may  be  reputable  to  us,  and  beneficial  to 
them."  JOHN  JAY. 

"  The  first  duty  of  government,  and  the 
surest  evidence  of  good  government,  is  the 
encouragement  of  education.  A  general  dif 
fusion  of  knowledge  is  the  precursor  and  pro 
tector  of  republican  institutions,  and  in  it  we 
must  confide  as  the  conservative  power  that 
will  watch  over  our  liberties  and  guard  them 
against  fraud,  intrigue,  corruption  and  vio 
lence.  I  consider  the  system  of  our  Com 
mon  Schools  as  the  palladium  of  our  freedom, 
for  no  reasonable  apprehension  can  be  enter 
tained  of  its  subversion,  as  long  as  the  great 
body  of  the  people  are  enlightened  by  educa 
tion.  To  increase  the  funds,  to  extend  the 
benefits,  and  to  remedy  the  defects  of  this 
excellent  system,  is  worthy  of  your  most  de 
liberate  attention.  I  can  not  recommend  in 
terms  too  strong  and  impressive,  as  munifi 
cent  appropriations  as  the  faculties  of  the 
State  will  authorize  for  all  establishments 
connected  with  the  interests  of  education, 
the  exaltation  of  literature  and  science,  and 
the  improvement  of  the  human  mind." 

DE  WITT  CLINTON. 

"  The  parent  who  sends  his  son  into  the 
world  uneducated,  defrauds  the  community 
of  a  lawful  citizen,  and  bequeaths  to  it  a 
nuisance."  CHANCELLOR  KENT. 

In  the  discussions  which  have  taken  place 
in  the  press  and  in  the  halls  of  legislation 
on  the  subject,  the  experience  of  the  New 
England  States  is  constantly  cited  as  an  irre 
futable  argument  in  favor  of  public  schools 
and  universal  education.  The  character  and 
value  of  this  example  are  admirably  set  forth 
by  Daniel  Webster: 

"  In  this  particular,  New  England  may  ba 
allowed  to  claim,  I  think,  a  merit  of  a  pecu 
liar  character.  She  early  adopted  and  has 
constantly  maintained  the  principle,  that  it 
is  the  undoubted  right,  and  the  bounden 
duty  of  government,  to  provide  for  the  in 
struction  of  all  youth.  That  which  is  else 
where  left  to  chance,  or  to  charity,  we  secure 
by  law.  For  the  purpose  of  public  instruc 
tion,  we  hold  every  man  subject  to  taxation 
in  proportion  to  his  property,  and  we  look 
not  to  the  question,  whether  he  himself  have, 
or  have  not,  children  to  be  benefited  by  the 
education  for  which  he  pays.  We  regard  it 


354 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


as  a  wise  and  liberal  system  of  police,  by 
•which  property,  and  life,  and  the  peace  of 
society  are  secured.  We  seek  to  prevent  in 
some  measure  the  extension  of  the  penal 
code,  by  inspiring  a  salutary  and  conserva 
tive  principle  of  virtue  and  of  knowledge  in 
an  early  age.  We  hope  to  excite  a  feeling 
of  respectability,  and  a  sense  of  character,  by 
enlarging  the  capacity,  and  increasing  the 
sphere  of  intellectual  enjoyment.  By  gen 
eral  instruction,  we  seek,  as  far  as  possible, 
to  purify  the  whole  moral  atmosphere;  to 
keep  good  sentiments  uppermost,  and  to  turn 
the  strong  current  of  feeling  and  opinion,  as 
well  as  the  censures  of  the  law,  and  the  de 
nunciations  of  religion,  against  immorality 
and  crime.  We  hope  for  a  security,  beyond 
the  law,  and  above  the  law,  in  the  prevalence 
of  enlightened  and  well-principled  moral  sen 
timent.  We  hope  to  continue  and  prolong 
the  time  when,  in  the  villages  and  farm 
houses  of  New  England,  there  may  be  undis 
turbed  sleep  within  unbarred  doors.  And 
knowing  that  our  government  rests  directly 
on  the  public  will,  that  we  may  preserve  it, 
we  endeavor  to  give  a  safe  and  proper  direc 
tion  to  that  public  will.  We  do  not,  indeed, 
expect  all  men  to  be  philosophers  or  states 
men  ;  but  we  confidently  trust,  and  our  ex 
pectation  of  the  duration  of  our  system  of 
government  rests  on  that  trust,  that  by  the 
diffusion  of  general  knowledge  and  good  and 
virtuous  sentiments,  the  political  fabric  may 
be  secure,  as  well  against  open  violence  and 
overthrow,  as  against  the  slow  but  sure  un 
dermining  of  licentiousness." 

The  action  of  Congress,  and  of  the  early 
constitutional  conventions  of  the  several 
states,  shows  how  nobly  the  public  mind 
responded  to  these  appeals. 

On  the  17th  of  May,  1784,  Mr.  Jefferson, 
as  chairman  of  a  committee  for  that  purpose, 
introduced  into  the  old  Congress  an  ordin 
ance  respecting  the  disposition  of  the  public 
lands;  but  this  contained  no  reference  to 
schools  or  education.  On  the  4th  of  March, 
1785,  another  ordinance  was  introduced — by 
whom  does  not  appear  on  the  journal — and 
on  the  16th  of  the  same  month  was  recom 
mitted  to  a  committee  consisting  of  Pierce 
Long  of  New  Hampshire,  Rums  King  of 
Massachusetts,  David  Howell  of  Rhode  Is 
land,  Win.  S.  Johnson  of  Connecticut,  R.  II. 
Livingston  of  New  York,  Charles  Stewart  of 
New  Jersey,  Joseph  Gardner  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  John  Henry  of  Maryland,  William 
Grayson  of  Virginia,  Hugh  Williamson  of 


North  Carolina,  John  Bull  of  South  Caro 
lina,  and  William  Houston  of  Georgia.  On 
the  14th  of  April  following,  this  committee 
reported  the  ordinance — by  whom  drawn  up 
no  clue  is  given — which,  after  being  perfect 
ed,  was  passed  the  20th  of  May  following, 
and  became  the  foundation  of  the  existing 
land  system  of  the  United  States. 

By  one  of  its  provisions,  the  sixteenth  sec 
tion  of  every  township  was  reserved  "for  the 
maintenance  of  public  schools  ;"  or,  in  other 
words,  one  section  out  of  the  thirty-six 
composing  each  township.  The  same  pro 
vision  was  incorporated  in  the  large  land 
sale,  in  1786,  to  the  Ohio  Company,  and  the 
following  year  in  Judge  Symmes'  purchase. 
The  celebrated  ordinance  of  1787,  for  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  territory  north-west  of  the 
River  Ohio,  and  which  confirmed  the  pro 
visions  of  the  land  ordinance  of  1785,  pro 
vides  further,  that,  "  RELIGION,  MORALITY" 
and  KNOWLEDGE  being  necessary  to  good 
government  and  the  happiness  of  mankind, 
SCHOOLS,  AND  THE  MEANS  OF  EDUCATION, 

SHALL  BE  FOREVER  ENCOURAGED."    From 

that  day  to  the  present,  this  noble  policy 
has  been  confirmed  and  extended,  till  its 
blessings  now  reach  even  the  distant  shores 
of  the  Pacific,  and  FIFTY  MILLIONS  OF  ACRES 
of  the  public  domain  have  been  set  apart  and 
consecrated  to  the  high  and  ennobling  pur 
poses  of  education,  together  with  five  per 
cent,  of  the  net  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  all 
public  lands  in  each  of  the  states  and  terri 
tories  in  which  they  are  situated. 

During  this  period  individual  beneficence 
and  associated  enterprise  began  to  be  direct 
ed  to  the  building  up,  furnishing,  and  main 
taining  libraries,  colleges,  academies,  and 
scientific  institutions.  Societies  for  the  pro 
motion  i>f  science  and  literature,  and  schools 
for  professional  training,  were  founded  and 
incorporated,  and  men  of  even  moderate 
fortune  began  to  feel  the  luxury  of  doing 
good,  and  to  see  that  a  wise  endowment 
for  the  relief  of  suffering,  the  diffusion  of 
knowledge,  the  discovery  of  the  laws  of 
nature,  the  application  of  the  principles  of 
science  to  the  useful  arts,  the  conservation 
of  good  morals,  and  the  spread  of  religious 
truth,  is,  in  the  best  sense  of  the  term, 
a  good  investment — an  investment  produc 
tive  of  the  greatest  amount  of  the  highest 
good  both  to  the  donor  and  his  posterity, 
and  which  makes  the  residue  of  the 
erty  from  which  it  is  taken  both  more 
cure  and  more  valuable. 


PROGRESS    OF    COMMON    OR    ELEMENTARY    SCHOOLS. 


355 


CHAPTER  III. 

PROGRESS  OP  COMMON   OR   ELEMENTARY 
SCHOOLS. 

To  understand  the  real  progress  which  has 
been  made  in  the  organization,  administra 
tion,  and  instruction  of  institutions  of  learn 
ing  in  this  country,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
appreciate  the  importance  of  many  agencies 
and  means  of  popular  education  besides 
schools,  books  and  teachers,  we  must,  as  far 
as  we  can,  look  into  the  schools  themselves, 
as  they  were  fifty  and  sixty  years  ago,  and 
realize  the  circumstances  under  which  some 
of  the  noblest  characters  of  our  history  have 
been  developed.  As  a  contribution  to  our 
knowledge  of  the  early  history  of  education 
in  the  United  States,  we  bring  together  the 
testimony  of  several  eminent  men  who  were 
pupils  or  teachers  in  these  schools,  and  who 
assisted  in  various  ways  in  achieving  their 
improvement. 

LETTER    FROM    NOAH    WEBSTER,    LL.D. 

"NEW  HAVEN,  March  10th,  1840. 

"  MR.  BARNARD  :  Dear  Sir — You  desire 
me  to  give  you  some  information  as  to  the 
mode  of  instruction  in  common  schools  when 
I  was  young,  or  before  the  Revolution.  I  be 
lieve  you  to  be  better  acquainted  with  the 
methods  of  managing  common  schools,  at 
the  present  time,  than  I  am ;  and  I  am  not 
able  to  institute  a  very  exact  comparison 
between  the  old  modes  and  the  present. 
From  what  I  know  of  the  present  schools  in 
the  country,  I  believe  the  principal  difference 
between  the  schools  of  former  times  and  at 
present  consists  in  the  books  and  instruments 
used  in  the  modern  schools. 

"  When  I  was  young,  the  books  used  were 
chiefly  or  wholly  Dilworth's  Spelling  Books, 
the  Psalter,  Testament  and  Bible.  No  ge 
ography  was  studied  before  the  publication 
of  Dr.  Morse's  small  books  on  that  subject, 
about  the  year  1786  or  1787.  No  history 
•was  read,  as  far  as  my  knowledge  extends, 
for  there  was  no  abridged  history  of  the 
United  States.  Except  the  books  above 
mentioned,  no  book  for  reading  was  used 
before  the  publication  of  the  Third  Part  of 
my  Institute,  in  1785.  In  some  of  the  early 
editions  of  that  book,  I  introduced  short 
notices  of  the  geography  and  history  of  the 
United  States,  and  these  led  to  more  en 
larged  descriptions  of  the  country.  In  1788, 
at  the  request  of  Dr.  Morse,  I  wrote  an  ac 


count  of  the  transactions  in  the  United 
States,  after  the  Revolution ;  which  account 
fills  nearly  twenty  pages  in  the  first  volume 
of  his  octavo  editions. 

"  Before  the  Revolution,  and  for  some 
years  after,  no  slates  were  used  in  common 
schools ;  all  writing  and  the  operations  in 
arithmetic  were  on  paper.  The  teacher 
wrote  the  copies  and  gave  the  sums  in 
arithmetic ;  few  or  none  of  the  pupils  having 
any  books  as  a  guide.  Such  was  the  condi 
tion  of  the  schools  in  which  I  received  my 
early  education. 

"  The  introduction  of  my  Spelling  Book, 
first  published  in  1783,  produced  a  great 
change  in  the  department  of  spelling ;  and 
from  the  information  I  can  gain,  spelling  was 
taught  with  more  care  and  accuracy  for 
twenty  years  or  more  after  that  period,  than 
it  has  been  since  the  introduction  of  multi 
plied  books  and  studies.* 

"  No  English  grammar  was  generally 
taught  in  common  schools  when  I  was 
young,  except  that  in  Dilworth,  and  that  to 
no  good  purpose.  In  short,  the  instruction 
in  schools  was  very  imperfect,  in  every 
branch ;  and  if  I  am  not  misinformed,  it  is 
so  to  this  day,  in  many  branches.  Indeed 
there  is  danger  of  running  from  one  extreme 
to  another,  and  instead  of  having  too  few 
books  in  our  schools,  we  shall  have  too 
many. 

"  I  am,  sir,  with  much  respect,  your  friend 
and  obedient  servant,  N.  WEBSTER." 

Dr.  Webster,  in  an  essay  published  in  a 
New  York  paper  in  1788,  "On  the  Educa 
tion  of  Youth  in  America,"  and  in  another 
essay  published  in  Hartford,  Ct.,  in  1790, 
"  On  Property,  Government,  Education,  Re 
ligion,  Agriculture,  etc.,  in  the  United 
States,"f  while  setting  forth  some  of  the 
cardinal  doctrines  of  American  education  as 
now  held,  throws  light  on  the  condition  of 
schools  and  colleges  in  different  parts  of  the 
country  at  that  date. 

"  The  first  error-  that  I  would  mention  is  a 


*  "  The  general  use  of  my  Spelling  Book  in  the 
United  States  has  had  a  most  extensive  effect  in 
correcting  the  pronunciation  of  words,  and  giving 
uniformity  to  the  language.  Of  this  change,  the 
present  generation  can  have  a  very  imperfect  idea." 

•j-  These  essays  were  afterwards  collected  with 
others  in  a  volume  entitled  "A  Collection  of  Es 
says  and  Fugitive  Writings,  etc."  By  Noah  Webster, 
Jr.  Boston:  1790. 


356 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


too  general  attention  to  the  dead  languages, 
with  a  neglect  of  our  own.  .  .  .  This 
neglect  is  so  general  that  there  is  scarcely  an 
institution  to  be  found  in  the  country  where 
the  English  tongue  is  taught  regularly  from 
its  elements  to  its  pure  and  regular  construc 
tion  in  prose  and  verse.  Perhaps  in  most 
schools  boys  are  taught  the  definition  of  the 
parts  of  speech,  and  a  few  hard  names  which 
they  do  not  understand,  and  which  the 
teacher  seldom  attempts  to  explain ;  this  is 
called  learning  grammar.  .  .  .  The  prin 
ciples  of  any  science  afford  pleasure  to  the 
student  who  comprehends  them.  In  order  to 
render  the  study  of  language  agreeable,  the 
distinctions  between  words  should  be  illus 
trated  by  the  difference  in  visible  objects. 
Examples  should  be  presented  to  the  sen 
ses  which  are  the  inlets  of  all  our  knowledge. 
"Another  error  which  is  frequent  in 
America,  is.  that  a  master  undertakes  to 
teach  many  different  branches  in  the  same 
school.  In  new  settlements,  where  the 
people  are  poor,  and  live  in  scattered  situa 
tions,  the  practice  is  often  unavoidable.  But 
in  populous  towns  it  must  be  considered  as  a 
defective  plan  of  education.  For  suppose 
the  teacher  to  be  equally  master  of  all  the 
branches  which  he  attempts  to  teach,  which 
seldom  happens,  yet  his  attention  must  be 
distracted  with  a  multiplicity  of  objects,  and 
consequently  painful  to  himself,  and  not  use 
ful  to  his  pupils.  Add  to  this  the  continual 
interruptions  which  the  students  of  one 
branch  suffer  from  those  of  another,  which 
must  retard  the  progress  of  the  whole  school. 
It  is  a  much  more  eligible  plan  to  appropri 
ate  an  apartment  to  each  branch  of  educa 
tion,  with  a  teacher  who  makes  that  branch 
his  sole  employment.  .  .  .  Indeed  what 
is  now  called  a  liberal  education  disqualifies 
a  man  for  business.  Habits  are  formed  in 
youth  and  by  practice ;  and  as  business  is 
in  some  measure  mechanical,  every  person 
should  be  exercised  in  his  employment  in  an 
early  period  of  life,  that  his  habits  may  be 
formed  by  the  time  his  apprenticeship  ex 
pires.  An  education  in  a  university  inter 
feres  with  the  forming  of  these  habits,  and 
perhaps  forms  opposite  habits;  the  mind 
may  contract  a  fondness  for  ease,  for  plea 
sure,  or  for  books,  which  no  efforts  can  over 
come.  An  academic  education,  which  should 
furnish  the  youth  with  some  ideas  of  men 
and  things,  and  leave  time  for  an  apprentice 
ship  before  the  age  of  twenty-one  years, 


would  be  the  most  eligible  for  young  men 
who  are  designed  for  active  employments. 
*         *         *         *         *    '     * 

"  But  the  principal  defect  in  our  plan  of 
education  in  America  is  the  want  of  good 
teachers  in  the  academies  and  common 
schools.  By  good  teachers  I  mean  men  of 
unblemished  reputation,  and  possessed  of 
abilities  competent  to  their  station.  That  a 
man  should  be  master  of  what  he  undertakes 
to  teach  is  a  point  that  Avill  not  be  disputed  ; 
and  yet  it  is  certain  that  abilities  are  often 
dispensed  with,  either  through  inattention 
or  fear  of  expense.  To  those  who  em 
ploy  ignorant  men  to  instruct  their  children, 
let  me  say,  it  is  better  for  youth  to  have  no 
education  than  to  have  a  bad  one  ;  for  it  is 
more  difficult  to  eradicate  habits  than  to  im 
press  new  ideas.  The  tender  shrub  is  easily 
bent  to  any  figure ;  but  the  tree  which  has 
acquired  its  full  growth  resists  all  impres 
sions.  Yet  abilities  are  not  the  sole  requi 
sites.  The  instructors  of  youth  ought,  of  all 
men,  to  be  the  most  prudent,  accomplished, 
agreeable,  and  respectable.  What  avail  a 
man's  parts,  if,  while  he  is  '  the  wisest  and 
brightest,'  he  is  the  '  meanest  of  mankind  ?' 
The  pernicious  effects  of  bad  example  on  the 
minds  of  youth  will  probably  be  acknowl 
edged;  but,  with  a  view  to  improvement,  it 
is  indispensably  necessary  that  the  teachers 
should  possess  good  breeding  and  agreeable 
manners.  In  order  to  give  full  effect  to  in 
structions  it  is  requisite  that  they  should  pro 
ceed  from  a  man  who  is  loved  and  respected. 
But  a  low-bred  clown  or  morose  tyrant  can 
command  neither  love  nor  respect ;  and  that 
pupil  who  has  no  motive  for  application  to 
books  but  the  fear  of  the  rod,  will  not  make 
a  scholar." 

LETTER    FROM 'REV.    HEMAN    HUMPHREY,    D.D. 
"PiTTSFiELD,  Dec.  12th,  1860. 

"  HON.  HENRY  BARNARD  :  Dear  Sir — I 
am  glad  to  hear  from  you,  still  engaged  in 
the  educational  cause,  and  that  you  are  in 
tending  to  '  give  a  picturesque  survey  of  the 
progress  of  our  common  schools,  their  equip 
ment,  studies  and  character.'  If  my  early 
recollections  and  experience  will  give  you 
any  little  aid,  I  shall  esteem  myself  happy 
in  affording  it. 

"  The  first  school  I  remember  was  kept  a 
few  weeks  by  a  maiden  lady,  called  Miss 
Faithy,  in  a  barn.  I  was  very  young,  as 
were  most  of  the  children.  What  I  learned 


PROGRESS    OF    COMMON    OR    ELEMENTARY    SCHOOLS. 


357 


then,  if  any  thing,  I  have  forgotten.  This 
•was  in  the  summer,  of  course.  The  next  was 
a  school,  so  called,  kept  a  month  or  two  by 
a  neighbor  of  ours,  who  was  the  best  trout 
fisher,  with  his  horse-hair  line,  in  all  those 
parts.  He  wrote  a  fair  hand,  as  I  remem 
ber,  on  birch  bark.  What  he  taught  us,  but  to 
say  tue  and  due,  has  escaped  my  recollection. 
We  had  no  school-house  then  in  our  dis 
trict,  and  we  met  as  much  for  play  as  any 
thing,  where  we  could  find  shelter.  The 
next  winter,  another  neighbor  took  us  a  few 
weeks  into  one  of  the  rooms  of  his  own 
house,  where  every  thing  but  learning  was  go 
ing  on.  His  speech  bewrayed  him  of  Rhode 
Island  origin,  and  whatever  he  knew,  he  cer 
tainly  could  never  have  had  much  if  any 
chance  of  being  whipped  in  school  when  he 
was  a  boy.  I  remember  his  tremendous 
stamp  when  we  got  noisy  in  school-time,  and 
that  is  all.  This,  however,  is  not  a  fair 
sample  of  school  accommodations  in  my 
boyhood ;  and  I  had  a  better  chance  for  two 
or  three  winters  afterward. 

"  SCHOOL  HOUSES. — Most  of  the  other 
districts  in  the  town  had  school-houses,  but 
not  all.  The  first  winter  that  I  kept  school 
myself,  was  in  a  room  next  to  the  kitchen  in 
a  small  private  house.  Some  of  the  school- 
houses  were  better  than  others ;  but  none  of 
them  in  that  or  the  adjoining  towns  wTere 
convenient  or  even  comfortable.  They  were 
rather  juvenile  penitentiaries,  than  attractive 
accommodations  for  study.  They  were  too 
small,  and  low  from  the  ceiling  to  the  floor, 
and  the  calculation  of  the  builders  seemed 
to  have  been,  to  decide  into  how  small  a 
space  the  children  could  be  crowded,  from 
the  fire-place  till  the  room  was  well  packed. 
Not  unirequently  sixty  or  seventy  scholars 
were  daily  shut  up  six  hours,  where  there 
was  hardly  room  for  thirty.  The  school- 
houses  were  square,  with  a  very  narrow  en 
try,  and  a  large  fire-place  on  the  side  near 
the  door.  There  were  no  stoves  then.  They 
were  generally  roughly  clapboarded,  but 
never  painted.  They  had  writing-desks,  or 
rather,  long  boards  for  writing,  on  two  or 
three  sides,  next  to  the  wall.  The  benches 
were  all  loose ;  some  of  them  boards,  with 
slabs  from  the  saw-mill,  standing  on  four 
legs,  two  at  each  end.  Some  were  a  little 
lower  than  the  rest,  but  many  of  the  smaller 
children  had  to  sit  all  day  with  their  legs 
dangling  between  the  bench  and  the  floor. 
Poor  little  things!  nodding  and  trying  to 
keep  their  balance  on  the  slabs,  without  any 


backs  to  lean  against,  how  I  pity  them  to 
this  day.  In  the  coldest  weather,  it  Avas 
hard  to  tell  which  was  the  most  difficult,  to 
keep  from  roasting  or  freezing.  For  those 
nearest  to  the  fire  it  was  sweltering  hot, 
while  the  ink  was  freezing  in  the-  pens  on 
the  back  side  of  the  room.  '  Ufaster,  I  am 
too  hot' — '  Master,  may  I  go  to  the  fire  ?' 
That  was  the  style  of  address  in  those  days, 
and  -we  did  our  best  to  be  masters,  anyhow. 

"  All  the  school-houses  that  I  remember 
stood  close  by  the  travelled  road,  without 
any  play-grounds  or  enclosures  whatever. 
If  there  were  any  shade  trees  planted,  or  left 
of  spontaneous  growth,  I  have  forgotten 
them.  And  in  most  cases,  there  were  no 
outside  accommodations,  even  the  most 
necessary  for  a  moment's  occasion.  I  now 
marvel  at  it,  but  so  it  was.  In  that  respect, 
certainly,  the  days  of  the  children  are  better 
than  the  days  of  their  fathers  Avere. 

"  For  the  most  part,  the  winter  schools 
were  miserably  supplied  with  wood.  I  kept 
school  myself  in  three  towns,  and  in  but  one 
of  the  schools  was  there  any  wood-shed  what 
ever  ;  and  no  wood  was  got  up  and  seasoned 
in  summer  against  winter.  Most  of  what 
we  used  was  standing  in  the  forests  when 
the  school  began,  and  was  cut  and  brought 
sled  length  by  the  fanners  in  proportion  to 
the  number  of  scholars  which  they  sent. 
Not  exactly  that,  either;  for  sometimes, 
when  we  went  to  the  school-house  in  a  cold 
morning,  there  was  no  iv/od  there.  Some 
body  had  neglected  to  bring  his  load,  and 
we  were  obliged  to  adjourn  over  to  the 
next  day.  In  many  cases,  the  understand 
ing  was,  that  the  larger  boys  must  cut  the 
wood  as  it  was  wanted.  It  always  lay  in 
the  snow,  and  sometimes  the  boys  were  sent 
to  dig  it  out  in  school-time,  and  bring  it  in, 
all  wet  and  green  as  it  was,  to  keep  us  from 
freezing.  That  was  the  fuel  to  make  fires 
with  in  the  morning,  when  the  thermometer 
was  below  zero,  and  how  the  little  children 
cried  with  the  cold,  when  they  came  almost 
frozen,  and  found  no  fire  burning ;  nothing 
but  one  or  two  boys  blowing  and  keeping 
themselves  warm  as  well  as  they  could,  by 
exercise,  in  trying  to  kindle  it.  Such  were 
our  school-houses  and  their  disacconunoda- 
tions. 

"  BRANCHES  TAUGHT  IN  THE  SCHOOLS. — 
They  were  reading,  spelling,  and  writing, 
besides  the  A  B  C's  to  children  scarcely  four 
years  old,  who  ought  to  have  been  at  home 
with  their  mothers.  They  were  called  up 


358 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


twice  a  day  by  the  master  pointing  with  his 
penknife  '  What's  that  ?'  'A.'  'What's  that?' 
<D.'  'No,  it's  B.'  'What's  that?'  'N.'  'No, 
you  careless  boy,  it's  C ;'  and  so  down  to 
ezand.  'Go  to  your  seat,  you  will  never  learn 
your  lesson  in  the  world,  at  this  rate.'  Our 
school-books  were  the  Bible,  '  Webster's 
Spelling  Book,'  and  '  Third  Part,'  mainly. 
One  or  two  others  were  found  in  some 
schools  for  the  reading  classes.  Grammar 
was  hardly  taught  at  all  in  any  of  them,  and 
that  little  was  confined  almost  entirely  to 
committing  and  reciting  the  rules.  Parsing 
was  one  of  the  occult  sciences  in  my  day. 
We  had  some  few  lessons  in  geography,  by 
questions  and  answers,  but  no  maps,  no 
globes ;  and  as  for  black-boards,  such  a 
thing  was  never  thought  of  till  long  after. 
Children's  reading  and  picture  books,  we 
had  none ;  the  fables  in  Webster's  Spelling 
Book  came  nearest  to  it.  Arithmetic  was 
hardly  taught  at  all  in  the  day  schools.  As  a 
substitute,  there  were  some  evening  schools 
in  most  of  the  districts.  Spelling  was  one 
of  the  leading  daily  exercises  in  all  the 
classes,  and  it  was  better,  a  good  deal,  I 
think,  than  it  is  now. 

"The  winter  schools  were  commonly  kept 
about  three  months ;  in  some  favored  dis 
tricts  four,  but  rarely  as  long.  As  none  of 
what  are  now  called  the  higher  branches 
were  taught  beyond  the  merest  elements, 
parents  generally  thought  that  three  or  four 
months  was  enough.  There  were  no  winter 
select  schools  for  the  young  above  the  age  of 
sixteen  or  seventeen,  as  I  remember,  till  af 
ter  I  retired  from  the  profession,  such  as  it 
then  was.  There  may  have  been  here  and 
there  an  academy,  in  some  parts  of  the 
state ;  but  not  one  within  the  range  of  my 
acquaintance. 

"OuR  SPRING  EXHIBITIONS. — At  the  close 
of  the  winter  schools  we  had  what  we  used 
to  call  our  Quarter-days,  when  the  schools 
came  together  in  the  meeting-house,  with  a 
large  congregation  of  parents  and  friends. 
The  public  exercises  were  reading,  spelling, 
and  speaking  single  pieces,  and  dialogues. 
Some  of  the  dialogues  we  wrote  ourselves, 
for  our  own  schools.  Most  of  them  were 
certainly  very  flat ;  but  they  brought  down 
the  house,  and  answered  the  purpose  as  well 
as  any  we  could  pick  up.  We  thought 
then,  as  I  think  now,  that  those  quarter- 
days  were  of  great  advantage  to  the-  schools. 
The  anticipation  of  them  kept  up  an  interest 
all  winter,  and  stimulated  both  teachers  and 


scholars  to  do  their  best  in  the  way  of  prep 
aration.  As  the  time  approached,  we  had 
evening  schools  for  reading  and  rehearsing 
the  dialogues,  so  as  to  be  sure  not  to  fall  be 
hind  in  the  exhibitions.  None  of  our  col 
lege  commencements  are  now  looked  forward 
to  with  greater  interest  than  were  those  ver 
nal  anniversaries. 

"Another  thing  that  helped  us  a  good  deal 
was  the  occasional  afternoon  visits  of  the 
parents  and  other  friends  of  the  schools. 
They  came  in  by  invitation,  or  whenever 
they  chose,  and  their  visits  always  did  us 
good. 

"  Still  another  practice  we  found  to  be  quite 
stimulating  and  useful.  We  had  a  mutual 
understanding  that,  without  giving  any  no 
tice,  any  teacher  might  dismiss  his  own 
school  for  an  afternoon,  and,  taking  along 
with  him  some  of  the  older  boys,  call  in  to 
see  how  his  brother  teacher  got  along  in  the 
next  or  some  other  district.  The  arrange 
ment  worked  well.  We  made  speeches, 
complimented  one  another  as  politely  as  cir 
cumstances  would  allow,  and  went  home  re 
solved  not  to  fall  behind  the  best  of  them. 

"In  the  school,  we  made  up  our  minds  to 
be  masters,  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name. 
Though  of  late  years  I  have  not  had  very 
good  advantages  for  making  the  comparison, 
I  believe  the  schools  were  quite  as  well  gov 
erned  sixty  years  ago  as  they  are  now. 
Among  other  things  which  we  did  to  main 
tain  our  authority,  was  to  go  out  now  and 
then  and  have  a  snowball  skirmish  with  the 
boys,  and  though  we  commonly  got  beat, 
nothing  we  could  do  was  more  effectual. 

"  Corporal  punishments,  I  believe,  were 
sparingly  resorted  to  in  most  of  our  schools. 
Though  I  myself  believed  in  Solomon  fully, 
I  never  flogged  but  one  scholar  in  my  life, 
though  I  shook  the  mischief  out  of  a  great 
many.  I  think  Sam  was  of  the  opinion,  in, 
the  premises,  that  the  rod  was  laid  on  rather 
smartly,  for  I  understood  he  promised, 
some  day,  to  pay  me  in  kind,  which,  how 
ever,  I  suppose  he  never  found  it  quite  con 
venient  to  undertake. 

"  WTe  schoolmasters  within  convenient  dis 
tances  used  to  meet  in  the  winter  evenings 
for  mutual  improvement,  which,  to  own  the 
truth,  we  needed  a  good  deal.  Our  regular 
exercises  were  reading  for  criticisms,  report 
ing  how  we  were  getting  along,  and  con 
versing  upon  the  best  method  of  managing 
our  schools.  This  was  very  profitable,  as 
we  thought,  to  us  all. 


PROGRESS    OF    COMMON    OR    ELEMENTARY    SCHOOLS. 


359 


"  In  those  ancient  times,  it  was  an  almosl 
universal  custom  in  the  rural  towns  of  Con 
necticut,  for  the  teachers  to  board  round, 
and  upon  the  whole  I  liked  it.  It  was  a 
good  school  for  us.  By  going  into  all  the 
families  we  learned  a  great  deal.  We  were 
looked  upon  as  having  more  in  our  head 
than  we  could  fairly  claim,  and  they  alvvay 
kept  us  on  the  best  they  had.  It  is  true, 
the  cooking  was  not  always  ,the  best,  nor 
sheets  always  so  clean,  as  to  guard  against 
infection ;  and  if,  perchance,  it  sometimes 
broke  out,  we  knew  how  to  cure  it. 

"  Our  wages  were  generally  screwed  down 
to  the  lowest  notch  by  the  school  commit 
tees,  under  the  instruction  of  the  districts. 
For  my  first  campaign  I  received  seven  dol 
lars  a  month  and  board ;  for  the  next,  nine  ; 
for  the  third,  ten;  and  I  think  I  never  went 
above  thirteen  till  quite  the  last  of  my  teach 
ing  before  I  went  to  college.  As  I  had 
some  reputation  in  that  line,  I  suppose  I  was 
as  well  paid  as  my  brethren. 

"  With  regard  to  the  summer  schools  of 
that  period,  I  have  very  little  to  say.  They 
were  kept  by  females  upon  very  low  wages, 
about  as  much  a  week  as  they  could  earn  in 
families  by  spinning  or  weaving.  They  took 
good  care  of  the  little  children,  and  taught 
them  as  well  as  they  could. 

"  As  we  had  no  grammar  schools  in  which 
the  languages  were  taught,  we  most  of  us 
fitted  for  college  with  our  ministers,  who, 
though  not  very  fresh  from  their  classics, 
did  what  they  could  to  help  us. 

"  Finally,  you  ask  me  whether  there  were 
any  schools  for  young  ladies  in  those  old 
times  ?  There  may  possibly  have  been  in 
two  or  three  of  the  largest  towns,  but  the 
only  one  of  which  I  had  any  knowledge  was 
iu  Litchfield,  kept  by  Miss  Pierce,  and  I  am 
not  quite  sure  that  her  school  was  estab 
lished  as  early  as  your  question  contem 
plates. 

"  These,  dear  sir,  are  some  of  my  old  re 
membrances,  which  you  may  make  such  use 
of  as  you  please. 

"  Respectfully  yours, 

"  H.  HUMPHREY." 

LETTER  FROM  HON.  JOSEPH  T.  BUCKINGHAM. 

"CAMBRIDGE,  Dec.  10th,  1860. 

"  HENRY  BARNARD,  ESQ.  :  My  Dear  Sir 
— I  cheerfully  comply  with  your  request  to 
give  you  some  account  of  the  schools  and 
the  educational  books  that  were  in  use  about 


the  close  of  the  last  century.  I  never  had 
the  privilege  of  attending  any  higher  insti 
tution  of  learning  than  the  common  district 
schools  of  Connecticut,  in  the  town  of  Wind- 
ham  ;  but  I  have  no  doubt  that  those  of  that 
town  were  a  fair  type  of  many  others,  prob 
ably  most  of  them,  except  such  as  were  kept 
in  the  larger  towns  or  thickly  populated  vil 
lages. 

"According  to  the  best  of  my  remem-^ 
brance,  my  school-days  began  in  the  spring  ? 
of  1783.     The  school  to  which  I  was  admit 
ted  was  kept  by  a  lady,  and,  like  most  of  the 
district  schools,  was  kept  only  for  the  younger 
pupils,  and  was  open  for  two  months  during 
the  summer  season.     The  upper  class  in  the 
school  Avas  formed 'entirely  of  females — such 
as  could  read  in  the  Bible.    The  lower  classes 
read  in  spelling  books  and  the  New  England 
Primer.     The  spelling  books,  of  which  there 
were  not,  probably,  more  than  three  or  four 
in  the  school,  I  believe  were  all  by  Dilworth, 
and  were  much  worn  and  defaced,  having 
been  a  sort  of  heir-loom  in  the  families  of 
the  pupils.     The  teacher  of  this  school  was 
the  daughter  of  the  minister  of  the  parish. 
She  kept  a  rod  hanging  on  the  wall  behind 
her  chair  and  a  ferule  on  the  table  by  her 
side ;  but  I  do  not  recollect  that  she  used 
either  of  them.     The  girls  who  constituted 
the  first  class  were  required,  every  Monday 
morning,  to  repeat  the  text  or  texts  of  the 
preceding  day's  discourse,  stating  the  book, 
chapter,  and  verse  whence  it  was  taken.    The 
next  summer,  1784,  the  same  lady,  or  one  of 
her  sisters,  kept  school  in  the  same  district. 
The  same  books  were  in  use,  and  there  was 
the  same  routine  of  exercises.     It  was  kept 
on  the  first  floor  of  the  steeple.     The  lower 
end  of  the  bell-rope  lay  in  a  coil  in  the  centre 
of  the  floor.     The  discipline  was  so  strict, 
that  no  one,  however  mischievously  disposed, 
I  believe  ever  thought  of  taking  hold  of  it, 
though  it  was  something  of  an  incumbrance. 
I  was  then  four  years  and  a  half  old,  and  had 
[earned  by  heart  nearly  all  the  reading  lessons 
in  the  Primer,  and  much  of  the  Westminster 
Catechism,  which  was  taught  as  the  closing 
exercise  every  Saturday.     But  justice  to  one 
of  the  best  of  mothers  requires  that  I  should 
say  that  much  the  greater  part  of  the  im 
provement  I  had  made  was  acquired  from 
her  careful  instruction. 

"In  December,  1784,  the  month  in  which 
I  was  five  years  old,  I  attended,  for  a  few- 
days,  the  school  kept  by  a  master — I  do  not 
remember  his  name.  When  asked  up  for 


360 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


examination,  lie  asked  me  if  I  could  read 
without  spelling  ?  I  said  I  could  read  in  the 
Bible,  lie  hesitated  a  moment,  and  then 
placed  me  on  one  of  the  benches,  opened  a 
Bible  at  the  fifth  chapter  of  Acts,  and  asked 
me  to  read.  I  read  ten  or  a  dozen  verses — 
being  the  account  of  Ananias  and  his  wife 
falling  dead  before  Peter  for  telling  a  lie. 
Whether  he  had  any  suspicion  that  I  had 
told  a  falsehood,  and  took  this  method  to 
reprove  me,  I  know  not ;  but  he  dismissed 
me  with  approbation.  He  used  his  ferule  on 
the  hands  of  some  of  the  elder  boys ;  but 
the  severest  punishment  that  he  inflicted  for 
any  violation  of  order,  was  compelling  a  boy 
who  had  brought  into  the  school  the  breast 
bone  of  a  chicken,  (commonly  called  the 
wishing-bone,}  and  with  which  he  had  excited 
some  noise  among  the  pupils,  to  stand  on 
one  of  the  benches  and  wear  the  bone  on 
his  nose  till  the  school  was  dismissed.  I 
am  strongly  impressed  with  the  belief  that 
Webster's  spelling  book  made  its  first  ap 
pearance  in  the  schools  during  this  winter. 
The  following  summer  I  attended,  but  very 
irregularly,  a  school  kept  as  before  in  the 
steeple  of  the  meeting-house,*  and  had  a 
copy  of  Webster.  Whether  there  were  any 
other  copies  in  the  school  or  not  I  am  not 
able  to  say.  The  next  two  winters,  circum 
stances  which  I  have  no  desire  to  recall,  and 
which  you  would  not  care  to  be  acquainted 
with,  prevented  my  attending  any  school. 
In  the  summer  of  1786,  these  same  circum 
stances  caused  me  to  be  removed  to  another 
district  three  miles  distant  from  the  central 
village.  The  farmer  with  whom  I  lived 
thought  I  could  read  well  enough,  and  as 
the  district  school-house  was  a  mile  or  more 
distant,  he  considered  it  unnecessary  to  send 
me  that  distance  in  the  winter,  merely  to 
read;  and  consequently  for  two  or  three 
winters  I  went  to  school  not  more  than  eight 
or  ten  days  in  each.  At  length,  in  1790  or 
1791,  it  was  thought  I  was  old  enough  to 
learn  to  cipher,  and  accordingly  was  per 
mitted  to  go  to  school  more  constantly.  I 
told  the  master  I  wanted  to  learn  to  cipher. 
He  set  me  a  sum  in  simple  addition — Jive 
columns  of  figures,  and  six  figures  in  each 
column.  All  the  instruction,  he  gave  me 
was — add  the  figures  in  the  first  column, 
carry  one  for  every  ten,  and  set  the  overplus 
down  under  the  column.  I  supposed  he 
meant  by  the  first  column  the  left  hand 


*  This  was  the  last  time  I  went  to  a  summer  school. 


column ;  but  what  he  meant  by  carrying  one 
for  every  ten  was  as  much  a  mystery  as 
Samson's  riddle  was  to  the  Philistines. 
I  worried  my  brains  an  hour  or  two,  and 
showed  the  master  the  figures  I  had  made. 
You  may  judge  what  the  amount  was,  when 
the  columns  were  added  from  left  to  right. 
The  master  frowned  and  repeated  his  former 
instruction — add  up  the  column  on  the  right, 
carry  one  for  every  ten,  and  set  down  the 
remainder.  Two  or  three  afternoons  (I  did 
not  go  to  school  in  the  morning)  were  spent 
in  this  way,  when  I  begged  to  be  excused 
from  learning  to  cipher,  and  the  old  gentle 
man  with  whom  I  lived  thought  it  was  time 
wasted ;  and  if  I  attended  the  school  any 
further  at  that  time,  reading  and  spelling, 
and  a  little  writing  were  all  that  was  taught. 
The  next  winter  there  was  a  teacher  more 
communicative  and  better  fitted  for  his  place, 
and  under  him  some  progress  was  made  in 
arithmetic,  and  I  made  a  tolerable  acquisi 
tion  in  the  first  four  rules,  according  to  Dil- 
worth's  Schoolmaster's  Assistant,  of  which 
the  teacher  and  one  of  the  eldest  boys  had 
each  a  copy.  The  two  following  winters, 
1794  and  1795,  I  mastered  all  the  rules  and 
examples  in  the  first  part  of  Dilworth  ;  that 
is,  through  the  various  chapters  of  Rule  of 
Three,  Practice,  Fellowship,  Interest,  etc. 
etc.,  to  Geometrical  Progression  and  Per 
mutation. 

"  In  our  district,  the  books  were  of  rather 
a  miscellaneous  character,  such  as  had  been 
in  families  perhaps  half  a  century  or  more. 
My  belief  is  that  Webster's  Spelling  Book 
was  not  in  general  use  before  1790  or  1791. 
The  Bible  was  read  by  the  first  class  in  the 
morning,  always,  and  generally  in  the  after 
noon  before  the  closing  exercise,  which  was 
always  a  lesson  in  spelling,  and  this  was  per 
formed  by  all  the  pupils  who  were  sufficient 
ly  advanced  to  pronounce  distinctly  words 
of  more  than  one  syllable.  It  was  the  cus 
tom  for  all  such  pupils  to  stand  together  as 
one  class,  and  with  one  voice  to  read  a  column 
or  two  of  the  tables  for  spelling.  The  mas 
ter  gave  the  signal  to  begin,  and  all  united 
to  read,  letter  by  letter,  pronouncing  each 
syllable  by  itself,  and  adding  it  to  the  pre 
ceding  one  till  the  word  was  complete.  Thus, 
a-d  ad,  m-i  mi,  admi,  r-a  ra,  admira,  t-i-o-n 
shun,  admiration.  This  mode  of  reading 
was  exceedingly  exciting,  and,  in  my  humble 
judgment,  exceedingly  useful ;  as  it  required 
and  taught  deliberate  and  distinct  articula 
tion,  and  inspired  the  youngest  with  a  desire 


PROGRESS    OF    COMMON    OR    ELEMENTARY    SCHOOLS. 


361 


to  equal  the  older  ones.  It  is  true  the  voices 
would  not  all  be  in  perfect  unison ;  but  after 
a  little  practice  they  began  to  assimilate.  I 
have  heard  a  class  of  thirty  or  more  read 
column  after  column  in  this  manner,  with 
scarcely  a  perceptible  variation  from  the 
proper  pitch  of  voice.  When  the  lesson  had 
been  thus  read,  the  books  were  closed,  and 
the  words  given  out  for  spelling.  If  one  was 
misspelt,  it  passed  on  to  the  next,  and  the 
next  pupil  in  order,  and  so  on  till  it  was 
spelt  correctly.  Then  the  pupil  who  had 
spelt  correctly  went  up  in  the  class  above  the 
one  who  had  misspelt.  It  was  also  a  prac 
tice,  when  one  was  absent  from  this  exercise 
in  spelling,  that  he  should  stand  at  the  foot 
of  the  class  when  he  returned.  Another  of 
our  customs  was  to  choose  sides  to  spell  once 
or  twice  a  week.  The  words  to  be  spelt  went 
from  side  to  side  ;  and  at  the  conclusion,  the 
side  which  beat  (spelt  the  most  words)  were 
permitted  to  leave  the  schoolroom,  preceding 
the  other  side,  who  had  to  sweep  the  room 
and  build  the  fires  the  next  morning.  These 
customs  prevalent  sixty  and  seventy  years 
ago  excited  emulation,  and  emulation  pro 
duced  improvement.  A  revival  of  them,  I 
have  no  doubt,  would  be  advantageous  in 
the  common  schools,  especially  where  pupils 
are  required  to  spell  words  given  out  indis 
criminately  from  a  reading  book  or  diction 
ary.  There  was  not,  to  my  knowledge,  any 
reading  book  proper,  except  the  Bible,  till 
Webster's  Third  Book,  so  called,  came  out 
about  1793  or  1794.  A  new  edition  of  his 
spelling  book  furnished  some  new  matter  for 
reading — selections  from  the  New  Testament, 
a  chapter  of  Proverbs,  and  a  set  of  Tables, 
etc. ;  but  none  of  these  operated  to  the  exclu 
sion  of  the  Bible. 

"  In  the  family  in  which  I  lived  there  were 
three  or  four  old  spelling  books,  which  I 
presume  had  been  used  in  schools  before  the 
period  of  my  remembrance.  One  of  these 
was  a  book  of  less  than  a  hundred  pages, 
printed  in  London,  I  think  in  1690.  The 
Avords  were  arranged  in  tables  according  to 
syllables.  The  terminations  tion,  sion,  cial, 
tial,  etc.,  were  all  divided  and  printed  as  two 
distinct  syllables.  (And  I  believe  this  mode 
of  printing  is  still  continued  in  England.  It 
was  in  the  time  of  Lindley  Murray,  as  may 
be  seen  in  his  spelling  book,  printed  about 
forty  years  ago.)  This  spelling  book  con 
tained  a  numeration  table  whichffrom  a  sin 
gular  feature,  early  attracted  my  attention. 


Every  figure  was  9,  and  the  whole  formed  a 
curious  triangle.  Thus : 

9 

99 

999         and  so  on  to 
the  last,  999,999,999 

"  Another  spelling  book  in  our  farmer's 
library  was  by  Daniel  Penning,  printed  in 
London.  It  contained  a  short  treatise  on 
grammar,  on  which  I  sometimes  exercised 
my  memory,  but  understood  not  one  of  its 
principles.  We  had  also  a  Dilworth,  con 
taining  certain  fables — such  as  Jupiter  and 
the  Frogs,  the  Romish  Priest  and  the  Jester, 
Hercules  and  the  Wagoner,  etc.,  etc.  An 
other  still  we  had,  the  author  of  which  I 
never  knew,  as  several  pages  had  been  lost 
from  the  beginning.  It  had  a  page  of  prov 
erbs,  one  of  which — 'a  cat  may  look  upon  a 
king' — occasioned  me  much  thoughtful  ex 
ercise.  It  also  had  an  appropriate  collection 
of  couplets  for  writing-copies,  of  which  the 
only  one  I  recollect  was  this : 

"  '  X  things  a  penman  should  have  near  at  hand — 
Paper,  pounce,  pen,  ink,  knife,  hone,  rule,  plum 
met,  wax,  sand.1 

But  that  which  rendered  the  book  so  mem 
orable  as  never  to  be  forgotten,  was  the  as 
tonishing,  if  not  terrific,  word  of  fourteen 
syllables  — '  Ho-no-ri-fi-ca-bi-li-tu-di-ni-tu-ti- 
bus-que' — asserted  to  be  the  longest  word  in 
the  English  language. 

"In  the  winter  of  1793-4,  we  had  for  a 
teacher  ERASTUS  RIPLEY,  who  was  an  un- 
der-graduate  of  Yale  College.  I  mention  his 
name,  because  I  cannot  look  back  upon  the 
time  when  I  had  the  advantage  of  his  in 
struction  without  a  feeling  of  reverence  for 
the  man  and  respect  for  the  teacher.  I 
learned  more  from  him  than  all  the  school 
masters  I  had  been  under,  lie  took  more 
pains  to  instruct  us  in  reading  than  all  his 
predecessors  within  my  knowledge.  He 
opened  the  school  every  morning  with  pray 
er — which  had  not  been  practised  in  our 
district.  He  was  preparing  for  the  ministry, 
and  was  afterwards  settled  at  Canterbury,  I 
think.  He  was  highly  esteemed  by  all  the 
people  of  the  district,  and  gave  such  an  im 
petus  to  the  ambition  of  the  pupils,  that  a 
subscription  was  made  to  employ  him  an  ex 
tra  month  after  the  usual  term  of  the  school 
had  expired. 

"  Mr.  Ripley  was  succeeded  in  the  winter 
of  1794-5  by  a  young  man  from  Lebanon 
by  the  name  of  Tisdale,  under  whom  my 


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EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


school  days  were  finished ;  and  here  I  may 
bring  this  long  and,  I  fear,  very  uninteresting 
letter  to  a  close.  Hoping  this  may  serve  the 
purpose  for  which  you  suggested  the  writ 
ing  of  it,  and  wishing  you  all  the  success 
you  can  desire  in  the  noble  cause  in  which 
you  are  engaged, 

"  I  am,  very  respectfully 
"  And  truly  yours, 

"JOSEPH  T.  BUCKINGHAM." 

LETTER     PROM     REV.     ELIPHALET     NOTT,     D.D., 
DATED    JAN.,    1861. 

"  When  I  was  a  boy,  seventy-five  or  eighty 
years  ago,  in  good  old  Puritan  Connecticut, 
it  was  felt  as  a  practical  maxim  '  that  to 
spare  the  rod  Avas  to  spoil  the  child ;'  and 
on  this  rnaxim  the  pedagogue  acted  in  the 
school-room,  and  applied  it  for  every  offence, 
real  or  imaginary  ;  and  for  having  been 
whipped  at  school  by  the  relentless  master, 
the  unfortunate  tyro  was  often  whipped  at 
home  by  his  no  less  relentless  father;  so 
that  between  the  two  relentless  executors  of 
justice  among  the  Puritan  fathers,  few 
children,  I  believe,  were  spoiled  by  the  with 
holding  of  this  orthodox  discipline.  For 
myself,  I  can  say  (and  I  do  not  think  I  was 
wayward  beyond  the  average  of  district 
school-boys)  that,  in  addition  to  warnings, 
and  admonitions  daily,  if  I  was  not  whipped 
more  than  three  times  a  week,  I  considered 
myself  for  the  time  peculiarly  fortunate. 

"  Being  of  a  contemplative  and  forbearing 
disposition,  this  discipline  of  the  rod  became 
peculiarly  irksome  to  me,  and,  as  I  thought, 
unjustifiable;  and  I  formed  a  resolution,  if  I 
lived  to  be  a  man,  I  would  not  be  like  other 
men  in  regard  to  their  treatment  of  children. 

"  Through  the  mercy  of  God  I  did  live  to 
be  a  man,  and  when  at  the  age  of  eighteen 
I  became  installed  as  master  of  a  district 
school  in  the  eastern  part  of  Franklin,  Con 
necticut — a  school  where  rebellious  spirits 
had  previously  asserted  their  rights,  and 
been  subdued  or  driven  from  the  school 
by  the  use  of  the  rod — nothing  daunted, 
I  made  up  my  mind  to  substitute  in  my 
school  moral  motives  in  the  place  of  the 
rod ;  and  I  frankly  told  my  assembled  pu 
pils  so,  and  that  if  they  would  have  the 
generosity  to  second  my  efforts,  they  would 
secure  to  themselves  and  furnish  me  and 
their  parents  the  happiness  which  is  the 
heaven-appointed  reward  of  well-doing. 

"  The  school  responded  to  my  appeal,  and 


thereafter,  though  we  played  and  gambolled 
together  as  equals  in  play-hours,  and  on 
Saturday  afternoons,  which  were  also  de 
voted  to  play,  the  moment  we  entered  the 
school-room,  a  subordination  and  application 
to  study  was  observable,  that  became  matter 
of  remark  and  admiration  among  the  in 
habitants  of  the  district,  the  fame  of  which 
success  extended  to  other  districts,  and  even 
to  adjoining  towns,  so  that  the  examination 
and  exhibition  with  which  the  school  closed 
the  ensuing  spring,  called  together  clergymen 
and  other  officials  from  places  quite  remote. 

"  This  success  brought  me  to  the  knowl 
edge  of  the  trustees  of  the  Plainfield  Acad 
emy,  one  of  the  most  important,  if  not  at 
the  time  the  most  important  academy  in  the 
state,  and  I  was  by  a  unanimous  vote  ap 
pointed  principal  of  said  academy — an  in 
stitution  in  which  several  hundred  children 
of  both  sexes  were  in  the  same  building 
successfully  taught  and  governed,  for  years, 
without  the  use  of  the  rod,  it  being  at  that 
time  the  prevailing  usage,  both  in  district 
schools  and  academies,  for  the  two  sexes  to 
be  taught  in  the  same  room,  and  subjected 
to  the  same  form  of  government. 

"  This  successful  experiment  in  the  use  of 
moral  suasion,  and  other  kindred  and  kindly 
influences,  in  place  of  the  rod,  led  to  other 
and  kindred  experiments,  until,  whether  for 
the  better  or  the  worse,  the  rod  at  length 
came  to  occupy  a  very  subordinate  place  in 
the  system  of  school  education. 

"In  those  days,  education  in  common 
schools  was  not  so  diffusive  as  at  the  present 
day ;  but  quite  as  thorough,  if  not  more  so. 
The  same  remark  may  be  applied  to  the 
higher  schools  or  academies — the  whole  field 
of  natural  science  being  at  that  time,  for  the 
most  part,  unexplored  ;  but  mathematics  and 
classics  were  zealously  taught.  In  evidence 
of  this,  though  inferior  in  attainments  to 
some  of  my  classmates,  I  published  success 
fully  myself  an  almanac  when  about  twenty- 
one  years  of  age. 

"  As  the  rod  in  those  days  was  the  prin 
cipal  instrument  in  common  school  edu 
cation,  so  when  I  was  afterward  called  to 
Union  College,  fines,  suspensions,  and  ex 
pulsions  were  the  principal  instruments  of 
collegiate  government.  The  faculty  sat  in 
their  robes  as  a  court,  caused  offenders  to  be 
brought  before  them,  examined  witnesses, 
heard  defences,  and  pronounced  sentences 
with  the  solemnity  of  other  courts  of  justice  ; 
and  though  Union  College  had  on  its  cata- 


PROGRESS  OF  COMMON  OR  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS. 


363 


logue  but  a  very  diminutive  number  of  stu 
dents,  the  sitting  of  the  faculty  as  a  court 
occupied  no  inconsiderable  part  of  the  time 
of  its  president  and  professors. 

"  Soon  after  I  became  connected  with 
the  college  as  its  president,  a  case  of  disci 
pline  occurred  which  led  to  the  trial  and  is 
sued  in  the  expulsion  of  a  student  belong 
ing  to  a  very  respectable  family  in  the  city 
of  Albany.  According  to  the  charter  of 
Union  College,  the  sentence  of  the  faculty  is 
not  final.  An  appeal  can  be  taken  to.  the 
board  of  trustees,  and  in  the  case  in  ques 
tion  an  appeal  was  taken,  and,  after  keeping 
college  in  confusion  for  months,  by  the  dif 
ferent  hearings  of  the  case,  the  board  re 
versed  the  decision  of  the  faculty,  and  re 
stored  the  young  man.  On  the  event  of  this 
restoration,  I  informed  them  that  they  should 
never,  during  my  administration,  have  occa 
sion  to  review  another  case  of  discipline  by 
the  faculty  ;  and  during  the  fifty-six  years 
which  have  since  passed  away,  I  have  kept 
my  word ;  and  though  we  have  been  less 
successful  in  our  system  of  parental  govern 
ment  than  could  be  wished,  we  have  had  no 
rebellions,  and  it  is  conceded,  I  believe  gen 
erally,  that  quite  as  large  a  proportion  of 
our  young  men  have  succeeded  in  after  life 
as  of  any  other  collegiate  institution  in  the 
Union." 

RECOLLECTIONS  OF  PETER  PARLEY. 

The  following  picture  of  the  District 
School  as  it  was  a  few  years  later,  in  the 
town  of  Ridgefield,*  one  of  the  most  ad 
vanced  agricultural  communities  of  Connec- 


*  "Nearly  all  the  inhabitants  of  "Ridgefield  were 
farmers,  with  the  few  mechanics  that  were  neces 
sary  to  carry  on  society  in  a  somewhat  primeval 
state.  Even  the  persons  not  professionally  devotee 
to  agriculture,  had  each  his  farm,  or  at  least  his  gar 
den  and  home  lot,  with  his  pigs,  poultry,  and  cattle 
The  population  might  have  been  1200,  comprising 
200  families.  All  could  read  and  write,  but  in  poini 
of  fact,  beyond  the  Almanac  and  Watts'  Psalms  and 
Hymns,  their  literary  acquirements  had  little  scope 
There  were,  I  think,  four  newspapers,  all  weekly 
published  in  the  state :  one  at  Hartford,  one  at  New 
London,  one  at  New  Haven,  and  one  at  Litchfield. 
There  were,  however,  not  more  than  three  sub 
scribers  to  all  these  in  our  village.  We  had,  how 
ever,  a  public  library  of  some  200  volumes,  and 
what  was  of  equal  consequence — the  town  was  on 
the  road  which  was  then  the  great  thoroughfare 
connecting  Boston  with  New  York,  and  hence  i 
had  means  of  intelligence  from  travellers  constant!} 
passing  through  the  place,  which  kept  it  up  with 
the  march  of  events." 


icut,  is  from  the  pen  of  Peter  Parley,  in  his 
'  Recollections  of  a  Lifetime" 

'  About  three  fourths  of  a  mile  from  my 
ather's  house,  on  the  winding  road  to  Lower 
Salem,  which  bore  the  name  of  West  Lane, 
was  the  school-house  where  I  took  my  first 
essons,  and  received  the  foundations  of  my 
ery  slender  education.  I  have  since  been 
sometimes  asked  where  I  graduated  :  my 
reply  has  always  been, '  At  "West  Lane.'  Gen- 
rally  speaking,  this  has  ended  the  inquiry, 
whether  because  my  interlocutors  have  con- 
bunded  this  venerable  institution  with  '  Lane 
Seminary,'  or  have  not  thought  it  worth  while 
to  risk  an  exposure  of  their  ignorance  as  to 
he  college  in  which  I  was  educated,  I  am 
unable  to  say. 

"  The  site  of  the  school-house  was  a  trian- 
rular  piece  of  land,  measuring  perhaps  a 
rood  in  extent,  and  lying,  according  to  the 
;ustom  of  those  days,  at  the  meeting  of  four 
roads.  The  ground  hereabouts — as  every 
where  else  in  Ridgefield — was  exceedingly 
stony,  and  in  making  the  pathway  the  stones 
bad  been  thrown  out  right  and  left,  and 
there  remained  in  heaps  on  either  side,  from 
generation  to  generation.  All  round  was 
bleak  and  desolate.  Loose,  squat  stone 
walls,  with  innumerable  breaches,  inclosed 
adjacent  fields.  A  few  tufts  of  elder,  with 
here  and  there  a  patch  of  briers  and  poke- 
weed,  flourished  in  the  gravelly  soil.  Not  a 
tree,  however,  remained,  save  an  aged  chest 
nut,  at  the  western  angle  of  the  space.  This 
certainly  had  not  been  spared  for  shade  or 
ornament,  but  probably  because  it  would 
have  cost  too  much  labor  to  cut  it  down,  for 
it  was  of  ample  girth.  At  all  events  it  was 
the  oasis  in  our  desert  during  summer ;  and 
in  autumn,  as  the  burrs  disclosed  its  fruit, 
it  resembled  a  besieged  city.  The  boys, 
like  so  many  catapults,  hurled  at  it  stones 
and  sticks,  until  every  nut  had  capitulated. 

"  Two  houses  only  were  at  hand  :  one,  sur 
rounded  by  an  ample  barn,  a  teeming  or 
chard,  and  an  enormous  wood-pile,  belonged 
to  Granther  Baldwin ;  the  other  was  the 
property  of  'Old  Chich-es-ter,'  an  uncouth, 
unsocial  being,  whom  everybody  for  some 
reason  or  other  seemed  to  despise  and  shun. 
His  house  was  of  stone  and  of  one  story. 
He  had  a  cow,  which  every  year  had  a  calf. 
He  had  a  wife — filthy,  uncombed,  and  vague 
ly  reported  to  have  been  brought  from  the 
old  country.  This  is  about  the  whole  his 
tory  of  the  man,  so  far  as  it  is  written  in 
the  authentic  traditions  of  the  parish.  His 


364 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


premises,  an  acre  in  extent,  consisted  of  a 
tongue  of  land  between  two  of  the  converg 
ing  roads.  No  boy,  that  I  ever  heard  of, 
ventured  to  cast  a  stone  or  to  make  an  in 
cursion  into  this  territory,  though  it  lay 
close  to  the  school-house.  I  have  often,  in 
passing,  peeped  timidly  over  the  walls,  and 
caught  glimpses  of  a  stout  man  with  a  drab 
coat,  drab  breeches,  and  drab  gaiters,  glazed 
with  ancient  grease  and  long  abrasion,  prowl 
ing  about  the  house ;  but  never  did  I  dis 
cover  him  outside  of  his  own  dominion.  I 
know  it  was  darkly  intimated  that  he  had 
been  a  tory,  and  was  tarred  and  feathered  in 
the  revolutionary  war,  but  as  to  the  rest  he 
was  a  perfect  myth.  Granther  Baldwin  was 
a  character  no  less  marked,  but  I  must  re 
serve  his  picture  for  a  subsequent  letter. 

"The  school-house  itself  consisted  of  rough, 
unpainted  clapboards,  upon  a  wooden  frame. 
It  was  plastered  within,  and  contained  two 
apartments — a  little  entry,  taken  out  of  a 
corner  for  a  wardrobe,  and  the  school-room 
proper.  The  chimney  was  of  stone,  and 
pointed  with  mortar,  which,  by  the  way, 
had  been  dug  into  a  honeycomb  by  uneasy 
arid  enterprising  penknives.  The  fireplace 
was  six  feet  wide  and  four  feet  deep.  The 
flue  was  so  ample  and  so  perpendicular,  that 
the  rain,  sleet,  and  snow  fell  direct  to  the 
hearth.  In  winter,  the  battle  for  life  with 
green  fizzling  fuel,  which  was  brought  in 
sled  lengths  and  cut  up  by  the  scholars,  was 
a  stern  one.  Not  unfrcqucntly,  the  wood, 
gushing  with  sap  as  it  was,  chanced  to  be 
out,  and  as  there  was  no  living  without  fire, 
the  thermometer  being  ten  or  twenty  degrees 
below  zero,  the  school  was  dismissed,  where 
at  all  the  scholars  rejoiced  aloud,  not  having 
the  fear  of  the  schoolmaster  before  their 
eyes. 

"  It  was  the  custom  at  this  place  to  have  a 
woman's  school  in  the  summer  months,  and 
this  was  attended  only  by  young  children. 
It  was,  in  fact,  what  we  now  call  a  primary 
or  infant  school.  In  winter,  a  man  was 
employed  as  teacher,  and  then  the  girls  and 
boys  of  the  neighborhood,  up  to  the  age  of 
eighteen,  or  even  twenty,  were  among  the 
pupils.  It  was  not  uncommon,  at  this  sea 
son,  to  have  forty  scholars  crowded  into  this 
little  building. 

"  I  was  about  six  years  old  when  I  first 
went  to  school.  My  teacher  was  Aunt  De 
light,  that  is,  Delight  Benedict,  a  maiden 
lady  of  fifty,  short  and  bent,  of  sallow  com 
plexion  and  solemn  aspect.  I  remember  the 


first  day  with  perfect  distinctness.  I  went 
alone — for  I  was  familiar  with  the  road,  it 
being  that  which  passed  by  our  old  house. 
I  carried  a  little  basket,  with  bread  and 
butter  within,  for  my  dinner,  the  same  being 
covered  over  with  a  white  cloth.  When  I 
had  proceeded  about  half  way,  I  lifted  the 
cover,  and  debated  whether  I  would  not  eat 
my  dinner  then.  I  believe  it  was  a  sense 
of  duty  only  that  prevented  my  doing  so, 
for  in  those  happy  days  I  always  had  a 
keen  appetite.  Bread  and  butter  were  then 
infinitely  superior  to  pate  de  foie  gras  now  ; 
but  still,  thanks  to  my  training,  I  had  also  a 
conscience.  As  my  mother  had  given  me 
the  food  for  dinner,  I  did  not  think  it  right 
to  convert  it  into  lunch,  even  though  I  was 

/  o 

strongly  tempted. 

"  I  think  we  had  seventeen  scholars — boys 
and  girls — mostly  of  my  own  age.  Among 
them  were  some  of  my  after  companions.  I 
have  since  met  several  of  them — one  at 
Savannah,  and  two  at  Mobile,  respectably 
established,  and  with  families  around  them. 
Some  remain,  and  are  now  among  the  gray 
old  men  of  the  town ;  the  names  of  others  I 
have  seen  inscribed  on  the  tombstones  of 
their  native  village.  And  the  rest — where 
are  they  ? 

"  The  school  being  organized,  we  were  all 
seated  upon  benches,  made  of  what  were 
called  slabs — that  is,  boards  having  the  ex 
terior  or  rounded  part  of  the  log  on  one 
side  :  as  they  were  useless  for  other  purposes, 
these  were  converted  into  school-benches, 
the  rounded  part  down.  They  had  each 
four  supports,  consisting  of  straddling  wood 
en  legs,  set  into  auger  holes.  Our  own  legs 
swayed  in  the  air,  for  they  Avere  too  short  to 
touch  the  floor.  Oh,  what  an  awe  fell  over 
me,  when  we  were  all  seated  and  silence 
reigned  around ! 

"  The  children  were  called  up,  one  by  one, 
to  Aunt  Delight,  who  sat  on  a  low  chair, 
and  required  each,  as  a  preliminary,  to  make 
his  manners,  consisting  of  a  small  sudden 
nod  or  jerk  of  the  head.  She  then  placed 
the  spelling-book — which  was  Dilworth's — 
before  the  pupil,  and  with  a  buck-handled 
penknife  pointed,  one  by  one,  to  the  letters 
of  the  alphabet,  saying,  '  What's  that  ?'  If 
the  child  knew  his  letters  the  '  What's  that  ?' 
very  soon  ran  on  thus  : 

"'What's  that?' 

"'A.' 

" '  'Stha-a-t !' 

" '  B.' 


PROGRESS    OF    COMMON    OR    ELEMENTARY    SCHOOLS. 


365 


'  Sna-a-a-t  ?' 
'C.' 

'  Sna-a-a-t  ?' 
'D.' 

'  Sna-a-a-t  ?' 
'  E.'     &c. 

I  looked  upon  these  operations  with  in 
tense  curiosity  and  no  small  respect,  until 
my  own  turn  came.  I  went  up  to  the  school 
mistress  with  some  emotion,  and  when  she 
said,  rather  spitefully,  as  I  thought,  '  Make 
your  obeisance  !'  my  little  intellects  all  fled 
away,  and  I  did  nothing.  Having  waited  a 
second,  gazing  at  me  with  indignation,  she 
laid  her  hand  on  the  top  of  my  head,  and 
gave  it  a  jerk  which  made  my  teeth  clash. 
I  believe  I  bit  my  tongue  a  little ;  at  all 
events,  my  sense  of  dignity  was  offended, 
and  when  she  pointed  to  A,  and  asked  what 
it  was,  it  swam  before  me  dim  and  hazy, 
and  as  big  as  a  full  moon.  She  repeated  the 
question,  but  I  was  doggedly  silent.  Again, 
a  third  time,  she  said,  '  VVhat's  that?'  I 
replied:  'Why  don't  you  tell  me  what  it 
is?  I  didn't  come  here  to  learn  you  your 
letters  !'  I  have  not  the  slightest  remem 
brance  of  this,  for  my  brains  were  all  a-wool- 
gathering ;  but  as  Aunt  Delight  affirmed  it 
to  be  a  fact,  and  it  passed  into  tradition,  I 
put  it  in.  I  may  have  told  this  story  some 
years  ago  in  one  of  my  books,  imputing  it 
to  a  fictitious  hero,  yet  this  is  its  true  origin, 
according  to  my  recollection. 

"What  immediately  followed  I  do  not 
clearly  remember,  but  one  result  is  distinct 
ly  traced  in  my  memory.  In  the  evening 
of  this  eventful  day,  the  school-mistress  paid 
my  parents  a  visit,  and  recounted  to  their 
astonished  ears  this,  my  awful  contempt  of 
authority.  My  father,  after  hearing  the 
story,  got  up  and  went  away;  but  my 
mother,  who  was  a  careful  disciplinarian, 
told  me  not  to  do  so  again !  I  always  had 
a  suspicion  that  both  of  them  smiled  on  one 
side  of  their  faces,  even  while  they  seemec 
to  sympathize  with  the  old  petticoat  auc 
penknife  pedagogue,  on  the  other;  still  ] 
do  not  affirm  it,  for  I  am  bound  to  say,  of 
both  my  parents,  that  I  never  knew  them 
even  in  trifles,  say  one  thing  \vhile  they 
meant  another. 

"I  believe  I  achieved  the  alphabet  tha 
summer,  but  my  after  progress,,  for  a  lonj 
time,  I  do  not  remember.  Two  years  late: 
I  went  to  the  winter-school  at  the  same  place 
kept  by  Lewis  Olmstead — a  man  who  had  a 
call  for  plowing,  mowing,  carting  manure 
22  * 


tc.,  in  summer,  and  for  teaching  school  in  the 
vinter,  with  a  talent  for  music  at  all  seasons, 
vherefore  he  became  chorister  upon  occa- 
ion,  when,  peradventure,  Deacon  llawley 
;ould  not  officiate.  He  was  a  celebrity  in 
ciphering,  and  'Squire  Seymour  declared 
,hat  he  was  the  greatest  '  arithmeticker'  in 
^airfield  county.  All  I  remember  of  his 
>erson  is  his  hand,  which  seemed  to  me  as 
jig  as  Goliah's,  judging  by  the  claps  of 
thunder  it  made  in  my  ears  on  one  or  two 
occasions. 

"  The  next  step  of  my  progress  which  is 
narked  in  my  memory,  is  the  spelling  of 
words  of  two  syllables.  I  did  not  go  very 
egularly  to  school,  but  by  the  time  I  was 
;en  years  old  I  had  learned  to  write,  and 
lad  made  a  little  progress  in  arithmetic. 
There  was  not  a  grammar,  a  geography,  or 

history  of  any  kind  in  the  school.  Read 
ing,  writing,  and  arithmetic  were  the  only 
things  taught,  and  these  very  indifferently — 
not  wholly  from  the  stupidity  of  the  teacher, 
but  because  he  had  forty  scholars,  and  the 
itandards  of  the  age  required  no  more  than, 
be  performed.  I  did  as  well  as  the  other 
scholars,  certainly  no  better.  I  had  excel 
lent  health  and  joyous  spirits;  in  leaping,, 
running,  and  wrestling,  I  had  but  one  su 
perior  of  my  age,  and  that  was  Stephen 
Olmstead,  a  snug-built  fellow,  smaller  than 
myself,  and  who,  despite  our  rivalry,  was 
my  chosen  friend  and  companion.  I  seemed 
to  live  for  play:  alas!  how  the  world  has 
changed  since  1  have  discovered  that  we  live 
to  agonize  over  study,  work,  care,  ambition,, 

disappointment,  and  then ? 

"  As  I  shall  not  have  occasion  again,  for 
mally,  to  introduce  this  seminary  into  my 
narrative,  I  may  as  well  close  my  account 
of  it  now. '  After  I  had  left  my  native  town 
for  some  twenty  years,  I  returned  and  paid 
it  a  visit.  Among  the  monument*;  that 
stood  high  in  my  memory  was  the  West 
Lane  school-house.  Unconsciously  carrying 
with  me  the  measures  of  childhoodv.I  had 
supposed  it  to  be  at  least  thirty  feet  square ; 
how  had  it  dwindled  when  I  came  to. esti 
mate  it  by  the  new  standards.  I  had;  form 
ed  !  It  was  in  all  things  the  same-,, yet 
wholly  changed  to  me.  What  I  had  deem 
ed  a  respectable  edifice,  as  it  now  stood  be 
fore  me  was  only  a  weather-beaten,  little 
shed,  which,  upon  being  measured,,!  found 
to  be  less  than  twenty  feet  square.  It  hap 
pened  to  be  a  warm,  summer  day,  and  I 
ventured  to  enter  the  place*;  I  found  .a  gicL, 


366 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


Borne  eighteen  years  old,  keeping  '  a  ma'am 
school'  for  about  twenty  scholars,  some  of 
whom  were  studying  Parley's  Geography. 
The  mistress  Avas  the  daughter  of  one  of  my 
schoolmates,  and  some  of  the  boys  and  girls 
were  grandchildren  of  the  little  brood  which 
gathered  under  the  wing  of  Aunt  Delight, 
when  I  was  an  a-b-c-darian.  None  of  them, 
not  even  the  school-mistress,  had  ever  heard 
of  me.  The  name  of  my  father,  as  having 
ministered  unto  the  people  of  Ridgefield  in 
some  bygone  age,  was  faintly  traced  in  their 
recollection.  As  to  Peter  Parley,  whose 
Geography  they  were  learning — they  sup 
posed  him  some  decrepit  old  gentleman 
hobbling  about  on  a  crutch,  a  long  way  off, 
for  whom,  nevertheless,  they  had  a  certain 
affection,  inasmuch  as  he  had  made  geogra 
phy  into  a  story-book.  The  frontispiece- 
picture  of  the  old  fellow,  with  his  gouty  foot 
in  a  chair,  threatening  the  boys  that  if  they 
touched  his  tender  toe,  he  would  tell  them 
no  more  stories,  secured  their  respect,  and 
placed  him  among  the  saints  in  the  calendar 
of  their  young  hearts.  Well,  thought  I,  if 
this  goes  on  I  may  yet  rival  Mother  Goose ! 
"  At  the  age  of  ten  years  I  was  sent  to  the 
up-town  school,  the  leading  seminary  of  the 
village,  for  at  this'  period  it  had  not  ar 
rived  at  the  honor  of  an  academy,  the  in 
stitution  being  then,  and  many  years  after, 
under  the  charge  of  Master  Stebbins.  He 
was  a  man  with  a  conciliating  stoop  in  the 
shoulders,  a  long  body,  short  legs,  and  a 
swaying  walk.  He  was,  at  this  period,  some 
fifty  years  old,  his  hair  being  thin  and  sil 
very,  and  always  falling  in  well-combed  rolls 
over  his  coat-collar.  His  eye  was  blue, 
and  his  dress  invariably  of  the  same  color. 
Breeches  and  knee-buckles,  blue-mixed  stock 
ings,  and  shoes  with  bright  buckles,  seemed 
as  much  a  part  of  the  man  as  his  head  and 
shoulders.  On  the  whole,  his  appearance 
was  that  of  the  middle-class  gentleman  of 
the  olden  time,  and  he  was  in  fact  what  he 
seemed. 

"  This  seminary  of  learning  for  the  rising 
aristocracy  of  Ridgefield  was  a  wooden  edi 
fice,  thirty  by  twenty  feet,  covered  with 
brown  clapboards,  and,  except  an  entry,  con 
sisted  of  a  single  room.  Around  and  against 
the  walls  ran  a  continuous  line  of  seats,  front 
ed  by  a  continuous  writing-desk.  Beneath, 
were  depositories  for  books  and  writing  mate 
rials.  The  centre  was  occupied  by  slab  seats, 
Bimilar  to  those  of  West  Lane.  The  larger 
scholars  were  ranged  on  the  outer  sides,  at 


the  desks ;  the  smaller  fry  of  a-b-c-darians 
were  seated  in  the  centre.  The  master  was 
enshrined  on  the  east  side  of  the  room,  con 
trary,  be  it  remembered,  to  the  law  of  the 
French  savans,  which  places  dominion  in 
variably  in  the  Avest.  Regular  as  the  sun, 
Master  Stebbins  was  in  his  seat  at  nine 
o'clock,  and  the  performances  of  the  school 
began. 

"  According  to  the  Catechism — which,  by 
the  way,  we  learned  and  recited  on  Saturday 
— the  chief  end  of  man  was  to  glorify  God 
and  keep  his  commandments :  according  to 
the  routine  of  this  school,  one  would  have 
thought  it  to  be  reading,  writing,  and  arith 
metic,  to  which  we  may  add  spelling.  From 
morning  to  night,  in  all  weathers,  through 
every  season  of  the  year,  these  exercises 
were  carried  on  with  the  energy,  patience, 
and  perseverance  of  a  manufactory. 

"  Master  Stebbins  respected  his  calling : 
his  heart  was  in  his  work  ;  and  so,  what  he 
pretended  to  teach,  he  taught  well.  When 
I  entered  the  school,  I  found  that  a  huge 
stride  had  been  achieved  in  the  march  of 
mind  since  I  had  left  West  Lane.  Webster's 
Spelling  Book  had  taken  the  place  of  Dil- 
worth,  which  was  a  great  improvement. 
The  drill  in  spelling  was  very  thorough,  and 
applied  every  day  to  the  whole  school.  I 
imagine  that  the  exercises  might  have 
been  amusing  to.  a  stranger,  especially  as 
one  scholar  would  sometimes  go  oft'  in  a 
voice  as  grum  as  that  of  a  bull-frog,  while 
another  would  follow  in  tones  as  fine  and 
piping  as  a  peet-weet.  The  blunders,  too, 
were  often  ineffably  ludicrous;  even  we 
children  would  sometimes  have  tittered,  had 
not  such  an  enormity  been  certain  to  have 
brought  out  the  birch.  As  to  rewards  and 
punishments,  the  system  was  this :  who 
ever  missed  went  down ;  so  that  perfection 
mounted  to  the  top.  Here  was  the  begin 
ning  of  the  up  and  down  of  life. 

"  Reading  was  performed  in  classes,  which 
generally  plodded  on  without  a  hint  from 
the  master.  Nevertheless,  when  Zeek  San- 
ford — who  was  said  to  have  a  streak  of 
lightning  in  him — in  his  haste  to  be  smart, 
read  the  37th  verse  of  the  2d  chapter  of  the 
Acts — '  Now  when  they  heard  this,  they 
were  pickled  in  their  heart' — the  birch  stick 
on  Master  Stebbins's  table  seemed  to  quiver 
and  peel  at  the  little  end,  as  if  to  give  warn 
ing  of  the  wrath  to  come.  When  Orry 
Keeler — Orry  was  a  girl,  you  know,  and  not 
a  boy — drawled  out  in  spelling  :  k — o — n, 


PROGRESS    OF    COMMON    OR    ELEMENTARY    SCHOOLS. 


367 


Aw,  s — h — u — n — t — s,  shunts,  konshuuts 
— the  bristles  in  the  master's  eyebrows  fidg 
eted  like  Aunt  Delight's  knitting-needles. 
Occasionally,  when  the  reading  was  insup- 
portably  bad,  he  took  a  book  and  read  him 
self,  as  an  example.  ^ 

"  We  were  taught  arithmetic  in  Daboll, 
then  a  new  book,  and  which,  being  adapted 
to  our  measures  of  length,  weight,  and  cur 
rency,  was  a  prodigious  leap  over  the  head 
of  poor  old  Dilworth,  whose  rules  and  ex 
amples  were  modelled  upon  English  customs. 
In  consequence  of  the  general  use  of  Dil 
worth  in  our  schools,  for  perhaps  a  century 
— pounds,  shillings,  and  pence  were  classi 
cal,  and  dollars  and  cents  vulgar,  for  several 
succeeding  generations.  '  I  would  not  give 
a  penny  for  it,'  was  genteel ;  '  I  would  not 
give  a  cent  for  it,'  was  plebeian.  We  have 
not  yet  got  over  this  :  we  sometimes  say  red 
cent  in  familiar  parlance,  but  it  can  hardly 
be  put  in  print  without  offence. 

"  Master  Stebbins  was  a  great  man  with  a 
slate  and  pencil,  and  I  have  an  idea  that  we 
were  a  generation  after  his  own  heart.  We 
certainly  achieved  wonders  according  to  our 
own  conceptions,  some  of  us  going  even  be 
yond  the  Rule  of  Three,  and  making  forays 
into  the  mysterious  region  of  Vulgar  Frac 
tions.  Several  daring  geniuses  actually  en 
tered  and  took  possession. 

"  But  after  all,  penmanship  was  Master 
Stebbins's  great  accomplishment.  lie  had 
no  magniloquent  system ;  no  pompous  les 
sons  upon  single  lines  and  bifid  lines,  and 
the  like.  The  revelations  of  inspired  copy 
book  makers  had  not  then  been  vouchsafed 
to  man.  He  could  not  cut  an  American 
eagle  with  a  single  flourish  of  a  goose-quill. 
He  was  guided  by  good  taste  and  native 
instinct,  and  wrote  a  smooth  round  hand, 
like  copper-plate.  His  lessons  from  A  to  &, 
all  written  by  himself,  consisted  of  pithy 
proverbs  and  useful  moral  lessons.  On  every 

Eage  of  our  writing-books  he  wrote  the  first 
nc  himself.     The   effect  was  what  might 
have  been  expected — with  such  models,  pa 
tiently   enforced,  nearly   all   became   good 
writers. 

"  Beyond  these  simple  elements,  the  Up 
town  school  made  few  pretensions.  When 
I  was  there,  two  Webster's  Grammars  and 
one  or  two  Dwight's  Geographies  were  in 
use.  The  latter  was  without  maps  or  illus 
trations,  and  was  in  fact  little  more  than  an 
expanded  table  of  contents,  taken  from 
Morse's  Universal  Geography — the  mam 


moth  monument  of  American  learning  and 
genius  of  that  age  and  generation.  The 
grammar  was  a  clever  book ;  but  I  have  an 
idea  that  neither  Master  Stebbins  nor  his 
pupils  ever  fathomed  its  depths.  They  floun 
dered  about  in  it,  as  if  in  a  quagmire,  and 
after  some  time  came  out  pretty  nearly  where 
they  went  in,  though  perhaps  a  little  obfus 
cated  by  the  dim  and  dusky  atmosphere  of 
these  labyrinths. 

"  The  fact  undoubtedly  is,  that  the  art  of 
teaching,  as  now  understood,  beyond  the 
simplest  elements,  was  neither  known  nor 
deemed  necessary  in  our  country  schools  in 
their  day  of  small  things.  Repetition,  drill 
ing,  line  upon  line,  and  precept  upon  pre 
cept,  with  here  and  there  a  little  of  the  birch 
— constituted  the  entire  system. 

"  Let  me  here  repeat  an  anecdote,  which 
I  have  indeed  told  before,  but  which  I  had 
from  the  lips  of  its  hero,  G  .  .  .  II  .  .  .,  a 
clergyman  of  some  note  thirty  years  ago, 
and  which  well  illustrates  this  part  of  my 
story.  At  a  village  school,  not  many  miles 
from  Ridgefield,  he  was  put  into  Webster's 
Grammar.  Here  he  read,  '  A  noun  is  the 
name  of  a  thing — as  horse,  hair,  justice? 
Now  in  his  innocence,  he  read  it  thus :  '  A 
noun  is  the  name  of  a  thing — as  horse-hair 
juxticrS 

"  '  What  then,'  said  he,  ruminating  deeply, 
'  is  a  noun  ?  But  first  I  must  find  out  what 
a  horse-hair  justice  is.' 

"  Upon  this  he  meditated  for  some  days, 
but  still  he  was  as  far  as  ever  from  the  solu 
tion.  Now  his  father  was  a  man  of  authority 
in  those  parts,  and  moreover  he  was  a  justice 
of  the  peace.  Withal,  he  was  of  respectable 
ancestry,  and  so  there  had  descended  to  him 
a  somewhat  stately  high -backed  settee,  cov 
ered  with  horse-hair.  One  day,  as  the  youth 
came  from  school,  pondering  upon  the  great 
grammatical  problem,  he  entered  the  front 
door  of  the  house,  and  there  he  saw  before 
him,  his  father,  officiating  in  his  legal  capa 
city,  and  seated  upon  the  old  horse-hair  set 
tee.  '  I  have  found  it !'  said  the  boy  to 
himself,  as  greatly  delighted  as  was  Archim 
edes  when  he  exclaimed  Eureka — '  my  fa 
ther  is  a  horse-hair  justice,  and  therefore  a 
noun !' 

"Nevertheless,  it  must  be  admitted  that 
the  world  got  on  remarkably  well  in  spite 
of  this  narrowness  of  the  country  schools. 
The  elements  of  an  English  education  were 
pretty  well  taught  throughout  the  village 
seminaries  of  Connecticut,  and  I  may  add, 


368 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


of  New  England.  The  teachers  were  heart 
ily  devoted  to  their  profession :  they  re 
spected  their  calling,  and  were  respected 
and  encouraged  by  the  community.  They 
had  this  merit,  that  while  they  attempted 
but  little,  that,  at  least,  was  thoroughly  per 
formed. 

"  As  to  the  country  at  large,  it  was  a  day 
of  quiet,  though  earnest  action :  Franklin's 
spirit  was  the  great '  schoolmaster  abroad' — 
teaching  industry,  perseverance,  frugality, 
and  thrift,  as  the  end  and  aim  of  ambition. 
The  education  of  youth  was  suited  to  what  was 
expected  of  them.  With  the  simple  lessons 
of  the  country  schools,  they  moved  the 
world  immediately  around  them.  Though 
I  can  recollect  only  a  single  case — that  al 
ready  alluded  to  of  Ezekiel  Sanford — in  which 
one  of  Master  Stebbins's  scholars  attained 
any  degree  of  literary  distinction,  still,  quite 
a  number  of  them,  with  no  school  learning 
beyond  what  he  gave  them,  rose  to  a  certain 
degree  of  eminence.  His  three  sons  obtain 
ed  situations  in  New  York  as  accountants, 
and  became  distinguished  in  their  career. 
At  one  period  there  were  three  graduates 
of  his  school,  who  were  cashiers  of  banks  in 
that  city.  My  mind  adverts  now  with  great 
satisfaction  to  several  names  among  the 
wealthy,  honorable,  and  still  active  mer 
chants  of  the  great  metropolis,  who  were 
my  fellow-students  of  the  tip-town  school, 
and  who  there  began  and  completed  their 
education." 

To  the  advantages,  such  as  they  were,  of 
the  district  school,  Mr.  Goodrich  adds  an 
account  of  his  experience  on  the  farm,  and 
his  juvenile  sports,  as  well  as  his  early  at 
tempts  at  whittling  and  other  mechanical 
arts,  and  adds  the  following  reflections : — 

"  Now  all  these  things  may  seem  trifles, 
yet  in  a  review  of  my  life,  I  deem  them  of 
some  significance.  This  homely  familiarity 
with  the  more  mechanical  arts  was  a  mate 
rial  part  of  my  education;  this  communion 
with  nature  gave  me  instructive  and  impor 
tant  lessons  from  nature's  open  book  of 
knowledge.  My  technical  education,  as  will 
be  seen  hereafter,  was  extremely  narrow  and 
irregular.  This  defect  was  at  last  partially 
supplied  by  the  commonplace  incidents  I 
have  mentioned.  The  teaching,  or  rather 
the  training  of  the  senses,  in  the  country — 
ear  and  eye,  foot  and  hand,  by  running,  leap 
ing,  climbing  over  hill  and  mountain,  by  oc 
casional  labor  in  the  garden  and  on  the  farm, 
and  by  the  use  of  tools — and  all  this  in  youth, 


is  sowing  seed  which  is  repaid  largely  and 
readily  to  the  hand  of  after  cultivation,  how 
ever  unskilful  it  may  be.  This  is  not  so 
much  because  of  the  amount  of  knowledge 
available  in  after-life,  which  is  thus  obtained 
— though  this  is  not  to  be  despised — as  it 
is  that  healthful,  vigorous,  manly  habits  and 
associations — physical,  moral,  and  intellec 
tual — arc  thus  established  and  developed. 

"  It  is  a  riddle  to  many  people  that  the 
emigrants  from  the  country  into  the  city,  in 
all  ages,  outstrip  the  natives,  and  become 
their  masters.  The  reason  is  obvious :  coun 
try  education  and  country  life  are  practical, 
and  invigorating  to  body  and  mind,  and 
hence  those  who  are  thus  qualified  triumph 
in  the  race  of  life.  It  has  always  been,  it 
will  always  be  so ;  the  rustic  Goths  and 
Vandals  will  march  in  and  conquer  Rome, 
in  the  future,  as  they  have  done  in  the  past. 
I  say  this,  by  no  means  insisting  that  my 
own  life  furnishes  any  very  striking  proof 
of  the  truth  of  my  remarks ;  still,  I  may  s.«iy 
that  but  for  the  country  training  and  experi 
ence  I  have  alluded  to,  and  which*  served  as 
a  foothold  for  subsequent  progress,  I  should 
have  lingered  in  my  career  far  behind  the 
humble  advances  I  have  actually  made. 

"  Let  me  illustrate  and  verify  my  meaning 
by  specific  examples.  In  my  youth  I  be 
came  familiar  with  every  bird  common  to 
the  country :  I  knew  his  call,  his  song,  his 
hue,  his  food,  his  habits ;  in  short,  his  natu 
ral  history.  I  could  detect  him  by  his  flight, 
as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach.  I  knew  all 
the  quadrupeds — wild  as  well  as  tame.  I 
was  acquainted  with  almost  every  tree,  shrub, 
bush,  and  flower,  indigenous  to  the  country  ; 
not  botanically,  but  according  to  popular 
ideas.  I  recognized  them  instantly,  wherc- 
ever  I  saw  them ;  I  knew  their  forms, 
hues,  leaves,  blossoms,  and  fruit.  I  could 
tell  their  characteristics,  their  uses,  the 
legends  and  traditions  that  belonged  to 
them.  All  this  I  learned  by  familiarity  with 
these  objects ;  meeting  with  them  in  all  my 
walks  and  rambles,  and  taking  note  of  them 
with  the  emphasis  and  vigor  of  early  experi 
ence  and  observation.  In  after  days.  I  have 
never  had  time  to  make  natural  history  a 
systematic  study;  yet  my  knowledge  as  to 
these  things  has  constantly  accumulated, 
and  that  without  special  effort.  When  I 
have  travelled  in  other  countries,  the  birds, 
the  animals,  the  vegetation,  have  interested 
me  as  well  by  their  resemblances  as  their 
differences,  when  compared  with  our  own. 


PROGRESS    OF    COMMON    OR    ELEMENTARY    SCHOOLS. 


369 


In  looking  over  the  pages  of  scientific  works 
on  natural  history,  I  have  always  read  with 
eagerness  and  intelligence  of  preparation ; 
indeed,  of  vivid  and  pleasing  associations. 
Every  idea  I  had  touching  these  matters 
was  living  and  sympathetic,  and  beckoned 
other  ideas  to  it,  and  these  again  originated 
still  others.  Thus  it  is  that  in  the  race  of  a 
busy  life,  by  means  of  a  homely,  hearty  start 
at  the  beginning,  I  have,  as  to  these  subjects, 
easily  and  naturally  supplied,  in  some  hum 
ble  degree,  the  defects  of  my  irregular  edu 
cation,  and  that  too,  not  by  a  process  of  re 
pulsive  toil,  but  with  a  relish  superior  to  all 
the  seductions  of  romance.  I  am  therefore  a 
believer  in  the  benefits  accruing  from  simple 
country  life  and  simple  country  habits,  as  here 
illustrated,  and  am,  therefore,  on  all  occasions 
anxious  to  recommend  them  to  my  friends  and 
,  countrymen.  To  city  people,  I  would  say, 
educate  your  children,  at  least  partially,  in  the 
country,  so  as  to  imbue  them  with  the  love 
of  nature,  and  that  knowledge  and  training 
which  spring  from  simple  rustic  sports,  ex 
ercises,  and  employments.  To  country  peo 
ple,  I  would  remark,  be  not  envious  of  the 
city,  for  in  the  general  balance  of  good  and 
evil,  you  have  your  full  portion  of  the  first, 
with  a  diminished  share  of  the  last." 

THE     HOMESPUN     ERA     OF    COMMON    SCHOOLS. 
BY    HORACE    BUSHNELL,    D.D. 

"  But  the  schools — we  must  not  pass  by 
these,  if  we  are  to  form  a  truthful  and  suffi 
cient  picture  of  the  homespun  days.  The 
schoolmaster  did  not  exactly  go  round  the 
district  to  fit  out  the  children's  minds  with 
learning,  as  the  shoemaker  often  did  to  fit 
their  feet  with  shoes,  or  the  tailor  to  mea 
sure  and  cut  for  their  bodies  ;  but,  to  come 
as  near  it  as  possible,  he  boarded  round,  (a 
custom  not  yet  gone  by,)  and  the  wood  for 
the  common  fire  was  supplied  in  a  way 
equally  primitive,  viz.,  by  a  contribution  of 
loads  from  the  several  families,  according  to 
their  several  quantities  of  childhood.  The 
children  were  all  clothed  alike  in  home 
spun  ;  and  the  only  signs  of  aristocracy 
were,  that  some  were  clean  and  some  a  de 
gree  less  so,  some  in  fine  white  and  striped 
linen,  some  in  brown  tow  crash ;  and,  in 
particular,  as  I  remember,  with  a  certain 
feeling  of  quality  I  do  not  like  to  express, 
the  good  fathers  of  some  testified  the  opin 
ion  they  had  of  their  children,  by  bringing 
fine  round  loads  of  hickory  wood  to  warm 
them,  while  some  others,  I  regret  to  say, 


brought  only  scanty,  scraggy,  ill-looking 
heaps  of  green  oak,  white  birch,  and  hem 
lock.  Indeed,  about  all  the  bickerings  of 
quality  among  the  children,  centered  in  the 
quality  of  the  wood  pile.  There  was  no 
complaint,  in  those  days,  of  the  want  of 
ventilation ;  for  the  large  open  fire-place 
held  a  considerable  fraction  of  a  cord  of 
wood,  and  the  windows  took  in  just  enough 
air  to  supply  the  combustion.  Besides,  the 
bigger  lads  were  occasionally  ventilated,  by 
being  sent  out  to  cut  wood  enough  to  keep 
the  fire  in  action.  The  seats  were  made  of 
the  outer  slabs  from  the  saw-mill,  supported 
by  slant  legs  driven  into  and  a  proper  dis 
tance  through  auger  holes,  and  planed 
smooth  on  the  top  by  the  rather  tardy 
process  of  friction.  But  the  spelling  went 
on  bravely,  and  we  ciphered  away  again 
and  again,  always  till  we  got  through  Loss 
and  Gain.  The  more  advanced  of  us,  too, 
made  light  work  of  Lindley  Murray,  and 
went  on  to  the  parsing,  finally,  of  extracts 
from  Shakspeare  and  Milton,  till  some  of  us 
began  to  think  we  had  mastered  their  tough 
sentences  in  a  more  consequential  sense  of 
the  term  than  was  exactly  true.  0,  I  re 
member  (about  the  remotest  thing  I  can 
remember)  that  low  seat,  too  high,  never 
theless,  to  allow  the  feet  to  touch  the  floor, 
and  that  friendly  teacher  who  had  the  ad 
dress  to  start  a  first  feeling  of  enthusiasm 
and  awaken  the  first  sense  of  power.  lie  is 
living  still,  and  whenever  I  think  of  him,  he 
rises  up  to  me  in  the  far  background  of 
memory,  as  bright  as  if  he  had  worn  the 
seven  stars  in  his  hair.  (I  said  he  is  living ; 
yes,  he  is  here  to-day,  God  bless  him  !) 
How  many  others  of  you  that  are  here  as 
sembled,  recall  these  little  primitive  univer 
sities  of  homespun,  where  your  mind  was 
born,  with  a  similar  feeling  of  reverence 
and  homely  satisfaction.  Perhaps  you  re 
member,  too,  with  a  pleasure  not  less  genu 
ine,  that  you  received  the  classic  discipline 
of  the  university  proper,  under  a  dress  of 
homespun,  to  be  graduated,  at  the  close, 
in  the  joint  honors  of  broadcloth  and  the 
parchment." 

We  might  add  other  lights  and  shades  to 
the  picture  of  school  life  as  it  was  down  to  a 
very  recent  period  in  New  England  and  New 
York,  but  we  must  refer  our  readers  to  that 
amusing  and  instructive  volume  of  Rev.  War 
ren  Burton,  "  The  District  School  as  it  was." 
We  must  pass  to  the  elementary  schools  of 
Pennsylvania  and  the  Southern  States. 


370 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


LETTER     FROM     WILLIAM     DARLINGTON,     M.D., 
LL.D. 

"  At  your  request,  I  propose  to  attempt  a 
brief  and  hasty  sketch  of  my  acquaintance 
•with,  and  reminiscences  of  the  Country 
Schools,  and  their  condition,  some  sixty-five 
or  seventy  years  since,  in  the  south-eastern 
corner  of  the  state  of  Pennsylvania ;  more 
particularly  the  school  at  Birmingham,  Ches 
ter  county,  where  the  limited  instruction  of 
my  youthful  days  was  chiefly  acquired. 

"  My  earliest  recollections  of  the  school  to 
which  I  was  sent  go  back  to  that  trying  pe 
riod  of  loose  government,  rusticity,  and 
scarcity  experienced  in  the  interval  between 
the  War  of  Independence  and  the  adoption 
of  the  Federal  Constitution;  and  if  it  were 
given  me  to  wield  the  pen  of  Tom  Brown 
of  Rugby,  I  might  perad  venture  furnish  some 
graphic  details  of  our  rural  seminaries  of 
learning  in  those  days  of  general  destitution. 
But,  under  present  circumstances,  I  can  only 
offer  the  imperfect  narrative  of  incidents  and 
observations,  as  retained  in  an  almost  octo 
genarian  memory. 

"At  the  time  when  I  was  first  sent  to 
school — say  in  1787-8 — school-houses  were 
rare;  and  there  was  little  or  no  organization 
for  their  maintenance.  The  country  round, 
having  been  recently  ravaged  by  a  hostile 
army,  was  scantily  supplied  with  teachers, 
who  occasionally  obtained  schools  by  going 
among  the  principal  families  of  the  vicinage, 
and  procuring  subscribers  for  a  quarter's  tui 
tion  of  the  children  on  hand.  Those  who 
were  too  young  to  be  serviceable  on  the 
farm  were  allowed  to  go  to  school  in  the 
summer  season ;  but  the  larger  ones  (cxper- 
tus  loquor)  could  only  be  spared  for  that 
purpose  during  winter.  The  extent  of  rural 
instruction  was  then  considered  to  be  prop 
erly  limited  to  what  a  worthy  London  alder 
man  designated  as  the  three  IPs,  viz.,  'Read 
ing,  Riting,  and  Rithmetic.'  To  cipher 
beyond  the  Rule  of  Three  was  deemed  a 
notable  achievement  and  mere  surplusage 
among  the  average  of  country  scholars. 
The  business  of  teaching,  at  that  day,  was 
disdainfully  regarded  as  among  the  hum 
blest  and  most  unprofitable  of  callings ;  and 
the  teachers — often  low-bred,  intemperate 
adventurers  from  the  old  world — were  gen 
erally  about  on  a  par  with  the  prevalent  es 
timate  of  the  profession.  Whenever  a  thrift 
less  vagabond  was  found  to  be  good  for 
nothing  else,  he  would  resort  to  school-keep 


ing,  and  teaching  young  American  ideas 
liow  to  shoot !  It  was  my  good  fortune, 
however,  to  have  a  teacher  who  was  a  dis 
tinguished  exception  to  the  sorry  rule  re 
ferred  to.  JOHN  FORSYTIIE  was  a  native  of 
the  Emerald  Isle,  born  in  1754,  received  a 
good  English  education  at  home,  and  while 
yet  a  young  man,  migrated  to  the  county  of 
Chester,  in  the  land  of  PENN,  where  he  be 
came  an  excellent  schoolmaster.  When  he 
arrived  in  our  quakerly  settlement,  he  was  a 
gay  young  Presbyterian,  dressed  in  the  fash 
ionable  apparel  of  the  world's  people  ;  and 
being  withal  musical  in  his  taste,  was  an  ex 
pert  performer  on  the  violin.  He  soon,  how 
ever,  adopted  the  views  and  principles  of  the 
'  Friends,'  among  whom  he  remained,  mar 
ried  one  of  the  society,  and  was  ever  recog 
nized  as  an  exemplary  and  valuable  member. 

"  As  the  head  and  master-spirit  of  the 
school,  at  Birmingham  meeting-house,  es 
tablished  under  the  auspices  of  the  Quaker 
society,  he  taught  for  a  number  of  years, 
and  always  applied  himself  con  amore  to  his 
arduous  duties.  He  accomplished  more  in 
exciting  a  taste  for  knowledge  and  develop 
ing  young  intellects,  than  any  teacher  who 
had  theretofore  labored  in  that  hopeful  vine 
yard.  He  effectually  routed  the  lingering 
old  superstitions,  prejudices,  and  benighted 
notions  of  preceding  generations,  and  ever 
took  delight  in  introducing  youthful  genius 
to  the  bright  fields  of  literature  and  science. 
The  young  men  of  his  day,  who  have  since 
figured  in  the  world,  were  deeply  indebted 
to  John  Forsythe  for  the  aid  which  he  af 
forded  them  in  their  studies,  as  well  as  for 
the  sound  doctrines  which  he  inculcated ; 
and  some  few  of  them  yet  survive  to  make 
the  grateful  acknowledgment. 

"  When  the  noble  Quaker  institution  at 
West-town  was  erected,  near  the  close  of  the 
last  century,  the  skill  and  experience  of  John 
Forsythe  were  put  in  requisition,  until  it  was 
fairly  inaugurated ;  after  which  he  retired  to 
his  comfortable  farm,  in  East  Bradford, 
where  he  passed  a  venerable  old  age,  until 
his  87th  year,  in  superintending  agricultural 
employments  and  in  manifesting  a  lively  in 
terest  in  the  progress  of  education  among 
our  people.  No  instructor  has  labored  in 
this  community  more  faithfully,  nor  with 
better  effect.  None  has  left  a  memory  more 
worthy  to  be  kindly  cherished. 

"  The  old  school-house  at  Birmingham  was 
a  one  story  stone  building,  erected  by  men 
who  did  not  understand  the  subject ;  and 


PROGRESS  OF  COMMON  OR  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS. 


371 


was  badly  lighted  and  ventilated.  The  dis 
cipline  of  that  day  (adopted  from  the  mother 
country)  was  pretty  severe.  The  real  birch 
of  the  botanists  not  being  indigenous  in  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  the  school,  an  efficient 
substitute  was  found  in  young  apple  tree 
sprouts,  as  unruly  boys  were  abundantly 
able  to  testify. 

"  The  school  books  of  my  earliest  recollection 
were  a  cheap  English  spelling  book,  the  Bi 
ble  for  the  reading  classes,  and  when  we  got 
to  ciphering,  the  'Schoolmasters'  Assistant.' 
The  '  Spelling  Book'  and  '  Assistant'  were 
by  Thomas  Dilworth,  an  English  school 
master  at  Wapping.  The  '  Assistant'  was  a 
useful  work,  but  has  long  since  disappeared. 
The  'counterfeit  presentment'  of  the  worthy 
author  faced  the  title-page,  and  was  famil 
iarly  known  to  every  schoolboy  of  my  time. 
The  Spelling  Book  contained  a  little  ele 
mentary  grammar,  in  which  the  English  sub 
stantives  were  declined  through  all  the  cases 
(genitive,  dative,  etc.)  of  the  Latin.  But 
grammar  was  then  an  unknown  study  among 
us.  Dilworth's  '  Spelling  Book,'  however, 
was  soon  superseded  by  a  greatly  improved 
one,  compiled  by  John  Pierce,  a  respect 
able  teacher  of  Delaware  county,  Pennsyl 
vania.  This  comprised  a  tolerable  English 
grammar,  for  that  period,  and  John  Forsythe 
introduced  the  study  into  his  school  with 
much  zeal  and  earnestness.  Intelligent  em 
ployers  were  made  to  comprehend  its  advan 
tages,  and  were  pleased  with  the  prospect 
of  a  hopeful  advance  in  that  direction ;  but 
dull  boys  and  illiterate  parents  could  not  ap 
preciate  the  benefit.  Great  boobies  often 
got  permission,  at  home,  to  evade  the  study, 
but  they  could  not  get  round  John  Forsytfce 
in  that  way.  They  would  come  into  school 
with  this  promised  indulgence,  and  loudly 
announce,  'Daddy  says  I  needn't  larn  gram 
mar  ;  it's  no  use  :'  when  the  energetic  re 
sponse  from  the  desk  was,  '  I  don't  care 
what  daddy  says.  He  knows  nothing  about 
it;  and  I  say  thou  shalt  learn  it!'  and  so 
some  general  notion  of  the  subject  was  im 
pressed  upon  the  minds  even  of  the  stupid; 
while  many  of  the  brighter  youths  became 
excellent  grammarians. 

"  In  this  Friendly  seminary  we  were  all  re 
quired  to  use  the  plain  language  in  conver 
sation,  being  assured  that  it  was  wrong,  both 
morally  and  grammatically,  to  say  you  to 
one  person.  Our  teacher  contrived  a  meth 
od  of  his  own  for  mending  our  cacology, 
even  while  at  our  noonday  sports.  He  pre 


pared  a  small  piece  of  board  or  shingle, 
which  he  termed  a  paddle ;  and  whenever  a 
boy  was  heard  uttering  bad  grammar,  he 
had  to  take  the  paddle,  step  aside,  and  re 
frain  from  play,  until  he  detected  some  other 
unlucky  urchin  trespassing  upon  syntax ; 
when  he  Avas  authorized  to  transfer  the 
badge  of  interdiction  to  the  last  offender, 
and  resume  his  amusements.  It  was  really 
curious  to  observe  how  critical  we  soon  be 
came,  and  how  much  improvement  was  ef 
fected  by  this  whimsical  and  simple  device. 

"Pierce's  'Spelling  Book'  kept  its  position 
in  our  school  for  several  years,  but  was  at 
length  superseded,  in  the  grammatical  de 
partment,  by  a  useful  little  volume,  prepared 
by  John  Comly,  of  Bucks  county,  Pennsyl 
vania.  Lindley  Murray  and  others  prepared 
elaborate  grammars,  which  were  successively 
introduced,  as  our  schools  improved  or  cre 
ated  a  demand ;  and  so  rapidly  have  the 
bookmaking  competitors  in  that  department 
multiplied  that  their  name  is  now  legion, 
and  the  respective  value  of  their  works  is 
known  only  to  experts  in  the  art  of  teach 
ing. 

"Excellent  works  in  Reading  and  Elocution 
are  now  so  abundant  and  well  known  in  all 
our  respectable  seminaries,  that  they  need 
not  to  be  here  enumerated.  One  of  the  best 
and  most  popular  of  those  works,  some  half 
century  or  more  since,  was  a  volume  entitled 
'  The  Art  of  Speaking,'  compiled,  I  think, 
by  a  Mr.  Rice,  in  England. 

"  But,  as  we  have  now  reached  the  age  of 
academies,  normal  institutes,  and  schools  for 
the  people,  I  presume  you  will  gladly  forego 
a  further  extension  of  this  prosy  narrative, 
so  little  calculated  to  interest  a  veteran  in 
the  great  cause  of  education.  I  have  ever 
been  a  sincere  friend  and  advocate  of  the 
blessing;  but,  unfortunately,  my  acquaint 
ance  with  it  has  been  mainly  limited  to  a 
humbling  consciousness  of  my  deficiencies 
in  the  ennobling  attainment. 

"  Very  respectfully, 

"  WM.  DARLINGTON. 
"WEST  CHESTER,  PA.,  Dec.  21,  1860." 

SCHOOLS    IN    PHILADELPHIA. 

The  following  picture  of  the  internal  econ 
omy  of  one  of  the  best  schools  of  Phila 
delphia,  is  taken  from  Watson's  "  Annals 
of  Philadelphia  and  Pennsylvania." 

"  My  facetious  friend,  Lang  Syne,  has  pre 
sented  a  lively  picture  of  the  '  schooluias- 


372 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


ters'  in  those  days,  when  '  preceptors,'  and 
'principals,'  and  'professors'  were  yet  un 
named.  What  is  now  known  as  '  Friends' 
Academy,'  in  Fourth  street,  was  at  that  time 
occupied  by  four  different  masters.  The 
best  room  down-stairs  by  Robert  Proud, 
Latin  master ;  the  one  above  him,  by  Wil 
liam  Waring,  teacher  of  astronomy  and  math 
ematics  ;  the  east  room,  up-stairs,  by  Jere 
miah  Paul,  and  the  one  below,  '  last  not 
least'  in  our  remembrance,  by  J.  Todd,  and 
severe  he  was.  The  State  House  clock,  be 
ing  at  the  time  visible  from  the  school  pave 
ment,  gave  to  the  eye  full  notice  when  to 
break  off  marble  and  plug  top,  hastily  col 
lect  the  '  stakes,'  and  bundle  in,  pell-mell, 
to  the  school-room,  where,  until  the  arrival 
of  the  '  master  of  scholars,'  John  Todd, 
they  were  busily  employed,  every  one  in 
finding  his  place,  under  the  control  for  the 
time  of  a  short  Irishman,  usher,  named  Jim 
my  M'Cue.  On  the  entrance  of  the  master, 
all  shuffling  of  the  feet,  '  scrouging,'  hit 
ting  of  elbows,  and  whispering  disputes, 
were  hastily  adjusted,  leaving  a  silence 
which  might  be  felt,  '  not  a  mouse  stir 
ring.'  He,  Todd,  dressed  after  the  plainest 
manner  of  Friends,  but  of  the  richest  ma 
terial,  with  looped  cocked  hat,  was  at  all 
times  remarkably  clean  and  nice  in  his  per 
son,  a  man  of  about  sixty  years,  square 
built,  and  well  sustained  by  bone  and  mus 
cle. 

"After  an   hour,    maybe,   of  quiet  time, 
every  thing  going  smoothly  on — no  sound, 
but  from  the  master's  voice,  while  hearing 
the  one   standing  near  him,  a  dead   calm, 
when  suddenly  a  brisk  slap  on  the  ear  or 
face,   for   something   or   for   nothing,   gave 
*  dreadful  note'  that    an     eruption  of  the 
lava  was  now  about  to  take  place.     Next 
thing  to   be    seen  was  '  strap    in  full  play 
over  the  head  and  shoulders  of  Pilgarlic.' 
The  passion  of   the    master    'growing  by 
what  it  fed  on,'   and  wanting  elbow  room, 
the  chair  would  be  quickly  thrust  on  one 
side,  when,  with  sudden  gripe,  he  was  to  be 
seen  dragging  his  struggling   suppliant  to 
the  flogging  ground,  in  the  centre  of  the 
room ;  having  placed  his  left  foot  upon  the 
end  of  a  bench,  he  then,  with  a  patent  jerk, 
peculiar  to  himself,  would  have  the  boy  com 
pletely  horsed  across  his  knee,  with  his  left 
elbow  on  the  back  of  his  neck,  to  keep  him 
securely  on.     In  the  hurry  of  the  moment 
he  would   bring   his  long   pen  with    him, 
griped  between  his  strong  teeth  (visible  the 


while),  causing  both  ends  to  descend  to 
a  parallel  with  his  chin,  and  adding  much 
to  the  terror  of  the  scene.  His  face  would 
assume  a  deep  claret  color — his  little  bob  of 
hair  would  disengage  itself,  and  stand  out, 
each  '  particular  hair'  as  it  were,  '  up  in 
arms  and  eager  for  the  fray.'  Having  his 
victim  thus  completely  at  command,  and  all 
useless  drapery  drawn  up  to  a  bunch  above 
the  waistband,  and  the  rotundity  and  the 
nankeen  in  the  closest  affinity  possible  for 
them  to  be,  then  once  more  to  the  '  staring 
crew'  would  be  exhibited  the  dexterity  of 
master  and  strap.  By  long  practice  he  had 
arrived  at  such  perfection  in  the  exercise, 
that,  moving  in  quick  time,  the  fifteen  inches 
of  bridle  rein  (alias  strap)  would  be  seen 
after  every  cut,  elevated  to  a  perpendicular 
above  his  head ;  from  whence  it  descended 
like  a  flail  on  the  stretched  nankeen,  leav 
ing  '  on  the  place  beneath'  a  fiery  red 
streak,  at  every  slash.  It  was  customary 
with  him  to  address  the  sufferer  at  intervals, 
as  follows  :  '  Does  it  hurt  ?'  '  Oh  !  yes, 
master ;  oh !  don't,  master.'  '  Then  I'll 
make  it  hurt  thce  more.  I'll  make  thy  flesh 
creep — thou  shan't  want  a  warming  pan  to 
night.  Intolerable  being !  Nothing  in  na 
ture  is  able  to  prevail  upon  thee  but  my 
strap.'  He  had  one  boy  named  George 
Fudge,  who  usually  wore  leather  breeches, 
with  which  he  put  strap  and  its  master  at 
defiance.  He  would  never  acknowledge 
pain — he  would  not  '  sing  out.'  Todd  seiz 
ed  him  one  day,  and  having  gone  through 
the  evolutions  of  strapping  (as  useless,  in 
effect,  as  if  he  had  been  thrashing  a  flour- 
bag),  almost  breathless  Avith  rage,  he  once 
more  appealed  to  the  feelings  of  the  '  repro 
bate,'  by  saying  :  '  Does  it  not  hurt  ?'  The 
astonishment  of  the  school  and  the  mas 
ter  was  completed,  on  hearing  him  sing 
out,  '  No  !  Hurray  for  leather  crackers  !' 
He  was  thrown  oft'  immediately,  sprawling 
on  the  floor,  with  the  benediction  as  follows : 
'  Intolerable  being  !  Get  out  of  my  school. 
Nothing  in  nature  is  able  to  prevail  upon 
thee — not  even  my  strap  !' 

*  'Twas  not  '  his  love  of  learning  was  in 
fault,'  so  much  as  the  old  British  system  of 
introducing  learning  and  discipline  into  the 
brains  of  boys,  and  soldiers  by  dint  of  pun 
ishment.  The  system  of  flogging  on  all 
occasions  in  schools,  for  something  or  for 
nothing,  being  protected  by  law,  gives  free 
play  to  the  passions  of  the  master,  which 
i  he,  for  one,  exercised  with  great  severity. 


PROGRESS  OF  COMMON  OR  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS. 


373 


The  writer  has,  at  this  moment,  in  his  mem 
ory,  a  schoolmaster  then  of  this  city,  who,  a 
few  years  ago,  went  deliberately  out  of  his 
school  to  purchase  a  cow-skin,  with  which, 
on  his  return,  he  extinguished  his  bitter  re 
venge  on  a  boy  who  had  offended  him. 
The  age  of  chivalry  preferred  ignorance  in 
its  sons,  to  having  them  subjected  to  the 
fear  of  a  pedagogue — believing  that  a  boy 
•who  had  quailed  under  the  eye  of  the 
schoolmaster,  would  never  face  the  enemy 
with  boldness  on  the  field  of  battle ;  which 
it  must  be  allowed  is  '  a  swing  of  the  pen 
dulum'  too  far  the  other  way.  A  good 
writer  says  :  '  We  do  not  harden  the  wax 
to  receive  the  impression — wherefore,  the 
teacher  seems  himself  most  in  need  of  cor 
rection — for  he,  unfit  to  teach,  is  making 
them  unfit  to  be  taught !' 

"  I  have  been  told  by  an  aged  gentleman, 
that  in  the  days  of  his  boyhood,  sixty-five 
years  ago,  when  boys  and  girls  were  to 
gether,  it  was  a  common  practice  to  make 
the  boys  strip  off  their  jackets,  and  loose 
their  trowsers'  band,  preparatory  to  hoisting 
them  upon  a  boy's  back  so  as  to  get  his 
whipping,  with  only  the  linen  between  the 
flesh  and  the  strap.  The  girls  too — we 
pity  them — were  obliged  to  take  off  their 
stays  to  receive  their  floggings  with  equal 
sensibility.  He  named  one  distinguished 
lady,  since,  who  was  so  treated  among  oth 
ers,  in  his  school.  All  the  teachers  then 
were  from  England  and  Ireland,  and  brought 
with  them  the  rigorous  principles  which 
had  before  been  whipped  into  themselves  at 
home." 

Robert  Coram,  in  a  pamphlet  devoted  in 
part  to  a  "  Plan  for  the  General  Establish 
ment  of  Schools  throughout  the  United 
States,"  printed  in  Wilmington,  Delaware, 
in  1791,  characterizes  the  state  of  education 
as  follows  :  "  The  country  schools,  through 
most  of  the  United  States,  whether  we  con 
sider  the  buildings,  the  teachers,  or  the  reg 
ulations,  are  in  every  respect  completely  des 
picable,  wretched,  and  contemptible.  The 
buildings  are  in  general  sorry  hovels,  neither 
wind-tight  nor  water-tight ;  a  few  stools 
serving  in  the  double  capacity  of  bench  and 
desk,  and  the  old  leaves  of  copy  books  ma 
king  a  miserable  substitute  for  glass  win 
dows.  The  teachers  are  generally  foreign 
ers,  shamefully  deficient  in  every  qualifica 
tion  necessary  to  convey  instruction  to 
youth,  and  not  seldom  addicted  to  gross 


vices.  Absolute  in  his  own  opinion,  and 
proud  of  introducing  what  he  calls  his  Euro 
pean  method,  one  calls  the  first  letter  of  the 
alphabet,  aw.  The  school  is  modified  upon 
this  plan,  and  the  children  who  are  advanced 
are  beat  and  cuffed  to  forget  the  former 
mode  they  have  been  taught,  which  irritates 
their  minds  and  retards  their  progress.  The 
quarter  being  finished,  the  children  lie  idle 
until  another  master  offers,  few  remaining  in 
one  place  more  than  a  quarter.  When  the 
next  schoolmaster  is  introduced,  he  calls  the 
first  letter  a,  as  in  mat ;  the  school  under 
goes  another  reform,  and  is  equally  vexed 
and  retarded.  At  his  removal  a  third  is  in 
troduced,  who  calls  the  first  letter  hay.  All 
these  blockheads  are  equally  absolute  in 
their  own  notions,  and  will  by  no  means 
suffer  the  children  to  pronounce  the  letter 
as  they  were  first  taught ;  but  every  three 
months  the  school  goes  through  a  reform — 
error  succeeds  error,  and  dunce  the  second 
reigns  like  dunce  the  first.  I  will  venture 
to  pronounce,  that  however  seaport  towns, 
from  local  circumstances,  may  have  good 
schools,  the  country  schools  will  remain  in 
their  present  state  of  despicable  wretched 
ness,  unless  incorporated  with  government. 
*  *  *  The  necessity  of  a  reformation  in 
the  country  schools  is  too  obvious  to  be  in 
sisted  on ;  and  the  first  step  to  such  a  re 
formation  will  be  by  turning  private  schools 
into  public  ones.  The  schools  should  be 
public,  for  several  reasons — 1st.  Because,  as 
has  been  before  said,  every  citizen  has  an 
equal  right  to  subsistence,  and  ought  to  have 
an  equal  opportunity  of  acquiring  knowl 
edge.  2d.  Because  public  schools  are 
easiest  maintained,  as  the  burthen  falls  upon 
all  the  citizens.  The  man  who  is  too 
squeamish  or  lazy  to  get  married,  contrib 
utes  to  the  support  of  public  schools,  as 
well  as  the  man  who  is  burthened  with  a 
large  family.  But  private  schools  arc  sup 
ported  only  by  heads  of  families,  and  by  those 
only  while  they  are  interested  ;  for  as  soon 
as  the  children  are  grown  up,  their  support 
is  withdrawn;  which  makes  the  employ 
ment  so  precarious,  that  men  of  ability  and 
merit  will  not  submit  to  the  trifling  salaries 
allowed  in  most  country  schools,  and  which, 
by  their  partial  support,  cannot  afford  a  bet 
ter." 

SCHOOL   HOLIDAY    IN    GEORGIA. 

We  have  not  been  very  successful  in  gath 
ering  the  printed  testimony  of  the  dead,  or 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


the  vivid  reminiscences  of  the  living,  respect 
ing  the  internal  economy  of  schools,  public 
or  family,  in  any  of  the  Southern  states  prior 
to  1800.  The  following  graphic  sketch  of 
"  the  turn  out"  of  the  schoolmaster,  from 
Judge  Longstreet's  "  Georgia  Scenes,"  is 
said  to  be  "  literally  true  :" 

"  In  the  good  old  days  of  fescues,  abisself- 
as  and  anpersants*  terms  which  used  to  be 
familiar  in  this  country  during  the  Revolu 
tionary  war,  and  which  lingered  in  some  of 
our  country  schools  for  a  few  years  after 
ward,  I  visited  my  friend  Captain  Griffen, 
who  resided  about  seven  miles  to  the  east 
ward  of  Wrightsborough,  then  in  Richmond, 
but  now  in  Columbia  county.  I  reached  the 
captain's  hospitable  home  on  Easter,  and 
was  received  by  him  and  his  good  lady  with 
a  Georgia  welcome  of  1790. 

"The  day  was  consumed  in  the  inter 
change  of  news  between  the  captain  and 
myself  (though,  I  confess,  it  might  have 
been  better  employed),  and  the  night  found 
us  seated  round  a  temporary  fire,  which  the 
captain's  sons  had  kindled  up  for  the  pur 
pose  of  dyeing  eggs.  It  was  a  common  cus 
tom  of  those  days  with  boys  to  dye  and 
peck  eggs  on  Easter  Sunday,  and  for  a  few 
days  afterward.  They  were  colored  accord 
ing  to  the  fancy  of  the  dyer ;  some  yellow, 
some  green,  some  purple,  and  some  with  a 
variety  of  colors,  borrowed  from  a  piece  of 
calico.  They  were  not  unfrequently  beauti 
fied  with  a  taste  and  skill  which  would  have 
extorted  a  compliment  from  Hezekiah  Niles, 
if  he  had  seen  them  a  year  ago,  in  the  hands 
of  the  '  young  operatives?  in  some  of  the 
northern  manufactories.  No  sooner  was  the 
work  of  dyeing  finished,  than  our  '  young 
operatives'  sallied  forth  to  stake  the  whole 
proceeds  of  their  '  domestic  industry'  upon 
a  peck.  Egg  was  struck  against  egg,  point 
to  point,  and  the  egg  that  was  broken  was 


*  The  fescue  was  a  sharpened  wire  or  other  instru 
ment  used  by  the  preceptor  to  point  out  the  letters 
to  the  children. 

Abissdfa  is  a  contraction  of  the  words  "  a  by  it 
self,  a."  It  was  usual,  when  either  of  the  vowels 
constituted  a  syllable  of  a  word,  to  pronounce  it, 
and  denote  its  independent  character  by  the  words 
just  mentioned,  thus :  "  a  by  itself,  a,  c-o-r-n  corn, 
acorn;"  "e  by  itself,  e,  v-i-1,  evil,"  etc. 

The  character  which  stands  for  the  word  "  and  " 
(&)  was  probably  pronounced  with  the  Bame  accom 
paniment,  but  in  terms  borrowed  from  the  Latin  lan 
guage,  thus:  "& perse"  (by itself)  and.  Hence,  "an- 
persant." 


given  up  as  lost  to  the  owner  of  the  one 
which  came  whole  from  the  shock. 

"  While  the  boys  were  busily  employed 
in  the  manner  just  mentioned,  the  captain's 
youngest  son,  George,  gave  us  an  anecdote 
highly  descriptive  of  the  Yankee  and  Geor 
gia  character,  even  in  their  buddings,  and 
at  this  early  date.  '  What  you  think,  pa,* 
said  he,  '  Zeph  Pettibone  went  and  got  his 
uncle  Zach  to  turn  him  a  wooden  egg  ;  and 
he  won  a  whole  hatful  o'  eggs  from  all  us 
boys  'fore  we  found  it  out ;  but,  when  we 
found  it  out,  maybe  John  Brown  didn't 
smoke  him  for  it,  and  took  away  all  his 
eggs,  and  give  'em  back  to  us  boys ;  and 
you  think  he  didn't  go  then  and  git  a  guinea 
egg,  and  win  most  as  many  more,  and  John 
Brown  would  o'  give  it  to  him  agin  if  all  we 
boys  hadn't  said  we  thought  it  was  fair.  I 
never  see  such  a  boy  as  that  Zeph  Pettibone 
in  all  my  life.  He  don't  mind  whipping  no 
more  'an  nothing  at  all,  if  he  can  win  eggs.' 

"  This  anecdote,  however,  only  fell  in  by 
accident,  for  there  was  an  all-absorbing  sub 
ject  which  occupied  the  minds  of  the  boys 
during  the  whole  evening,  of  which  I  could 
occasionally  catch  distant  hints,  in  under 
tones  and  whispers,  but  of  which  I  could 
make  nothing,  until  they  were  afterward  ex 
plained  by  the  captain  himself.  Such  as 
'  I'll  be  bound  Pete  .Tones  and  Bill  Smith 
stretches  him.'  '  By  Jockey,  soon  as  they 
seize  him,  you'll  see  me  down  upon  him  like 
a  duck  upon  a  June-bug.'  '  By  the  time  he 
touches  the  ground,  he'll  think  he's  got  into 
a  hornet's  nest,'  etc. 

" '  The  boys,'  said  the  captain,  as  they  re 
tired,  '  are  going  to  turn  out  the  schoolmas 
ter  to-morrow,  and  you  can  perceive  they 
think  of  nothing  else.  We  must  go  over  to 
the  schoolhouse  and  witness  the  contest,  in 
order  to  prevent  injury  to  preceptor  or  pu 
pils  ;  for,  though  the  master  is  always,  upon 
such  occasions,  glad  to  be  turned  out,  and 
only  struggles  long  enough  to  present  his 
patrons  a  fair  apology  for  giving  the  child 
ren  a  holiday,  which  he  desires  as  much  as 
they  do,  the  boys  always  conceive  a  holiday 
gained  by  a  '  turn  out'  as  the  sole  achieve 
ment  of  their  valor ;  and  in  their  zeal  to  dis 
tinguish  themselves  upon  such  memorable 
occasions,  they  sometimes  become  too  rough, 
provoke  the  master  to  wrath,  and  a  very  se 
rious  conflict  ensues.  To  prevent  these  con 
sequences,  to  bear  witness  that  the  master 
was  forced  to  yield  before  he  would  with 
hold  a  day  of  his  promised  labor  from  his 


PROGRESS  OF  COMMON  OR  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS. 


375 


employers,  and  to  act  as  a  mediator  between 
him  and  the  boys  in  settling  the  articles  of 
peace,  I  always  attend ;  and  you  must  ac 
company  me  to-morrow.'  I  cheerfully  pro 
mised  to  do  so. 

"  The  captain  and  I  rose  before  the  sun, 
but  the  boys  had  risen  and  were  off  to  the 
school-house  before  the  dawn.  After  an  ear 
ly  breakfast,  hurried  by  Mrs.  G.  for  our  ac 
commodation,  my  host  and  myself  took  up 
our  line  of  march  toward  the  school-house. 
We  reached  it  about  half  an  hour  before  the 
master  arrived,  but  not  before  the  boys  had 
completed  its  fortifications.  It  was  a  simple 
log  pen,  about  twenty  feet  square,  with  a 
doorway  cut  out  of  the  logs,  to  which  was 
fitted  a  rude  door,  made  of  clapboards,  and 
swung  on  wooden  hinges.  The  roof  was 
covered  with  clapboards  also,  and  retained 
in  their  places  by  heavy  logs  placed  on  them. 
The  chimney  was  built  of  logs,  diminishing 
in  size  from  the  ground  to  the  top,  and  over 
spread  inside  and  out  with  red  clay  mortar. 
The  classic  hut  occupied  a  lovely  spot,  over 
shadowed  by  majestic  hickories,  towering 
poplars,  and  strong-armed  oaks.  The  little 
plain  on  which  it  stood  was  terminated,  at 
the  distance  of  about  fifty  paces  from  its 
door,  by  the  brow  of  a  hill,  which  descended 
rather  abruptly  to  a  noble  spring  that  gush 
ed  joyously  forth  among  the  roots  of  a  state 
ly  beech  at  its  foot. 

"  The  boys  had  strongly  fortified  the  school- 
house,  of  which  they  had  taken  possession. 
The  door  was  barricaded  with  logs,  which  I 
should  have  supposed  would  have  defied  the 
combined  powers  of  the  whole  school.  The 
chimney,  too,  was  nearly  filled  with  logs  of 
goodly  size ;  and  these  were  the  only  pass- 
ways  to  the  interior.  I  concluded,  if  a  turn 
out  was  all  that  was  necessary  to  decide  the 
contest  in  favor  of  the  boys,  they  had  al 
ready  gained  the  victory.  They  had,  how 
ever,  not  as  much  confidence  in  their  out 
works  as  I  had,  and  therefore  had  armed 
themselves  with  long  sticks,  not  for  the  pur 
pose  of  using  them  upon  the  master  if  the 
battle  should  come  to  close  quarters,  for  this 
was  considered  unlawful  warfare,  but  for  the 
purpose  of  guarding  their  works  from  his  ap 
proaches,  which  it  was  considered  perfectly 
lawful  to  protect  by  all  manner  of  jabs  and 
punches  through  the  cracks.  From  the  ear 
ly  assembling  of  the  girls,  it  was  very  ob 
vious  that  they  had  been  let  into  the  con 
spiracy,  though  they  took  no  part  in  the 
active  operations.  They  would,  however, 


occasionally  drop  a  word  of  encouragement 
to  the  boys,  such  as  '  I  wouldn't  turn  out 
the  master ;  but  if  I  did  turn  him  out,  I'd 
die  before  I'd  give  up.' 

"At  length  Mr.  Michael  St.  John,  the 
schoolmaster  made  his  appearance.  Though 
some  of  the  girls  had  met  him  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  from  the  school-house,  and  told  him 
all  that  had  happened,  he  gave  signs  of  sud 
den  astonishment  and  indignation  when  he 
advanced  to  the  door,  and  was  assailed  by  a 
whole  platoon  of  sticks  from  the  cracks : 
'  Why,  what  does  all  this  mean  ?'  said  he, 
as  he  approached  the  captain  and  myself, 
with  a  countenance  of  two  or  threa  varying 
expressions. 

"  '  Why,'  said  the  captain,  '  the  boys  have 
turned  you  out,  because  you  have  refused  to 
give  them  an  Easter  holiday.' 

"  '  Oh,'  returned  Michael,  '  that's  it,  is  it  ? 
Well,  I'll  see  whether  their  parents  are  to 
pay  me  for  letting  their  children  play  when 
they  please.'  So  saying,  he  advanced  to 
the  school-house,  and  demanded,  in  a  lofty 
tone,  of  its  inmates,  an  unconditional  sur 
render. 

" '  Well,  give  us  a  holiday,  then,'  said 
twenty  little  urchins  within,  '  and  we'll  let 
you  in.' 

"  '  Open  the  door  of  the  academy' — 
(Michael  would  allow  nobody  to  call  it  a 
school-house) — 'Open  the  door  of  the  acad 
emy  this  instant,'  said  Michael, '  or  I'll  break 
it  down.' 

"  '  Break  it  down,'  said  Pete  Jones  and 
Bill  Smith,  '  and  we'll  break  you  down.' 

"  During  this  colloquy  I  took  a  peep  into 
the  fortress,  to  see  how  the  garrison  were 
affected  by  the  parley.  The  little  ones  were 
obviously  panic-struck  at  the  first  words  of 
command ;  but  their  fears  were  all  chased 
away  by  the  bold  determined  reply  of  Pete 
Jones  and  Bill  Smith,  and  they  raised  a 
whoop  of  defiance. 

"  Michael  now  walked  round  the  academy 
three  times,  examining  all  its  weak  points 
with  great  care.  He  then  paused,  reflected 
for  a  moment,  and  wheeled  off  suddenly  to 
ward  the  woods,  as  though  a  bright  thought 
had  just  struck  him.  He  passed  twenty 
things  which  I  supposed  he  might  be  in 
quest  of,  such  as  huge  stones,  fence  rails, 
portable  logs,  and  the  like,  without  bestow 
ing  the  least  attention  upon  them.  lie 
went  to  one  old  log,  searched  it  thoroughly, 
then  to  another,  then  to  a  hollow  stump, 
peeped  into  it  with  great  care,  then  to  a 


376 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


hollow  log,  into  which  he  looked  with  equal 
caution,  and  so  on. 

"  '  What  is  he  after  ?'  inquired  I. 

"'I'm  sure  I  don't  know,'  said  the  cap 
tain,  'but  the  boys  do.  Don't  you  notice 
the  breathless  silence  which  prevails  in  the 
school-house,  and  the  intense  anxiety  with 
•which  they  are  eyeing  him  through  the 
cracks  ?' 

"  At  this  moment  Michael  had  reached  a 
little  excavation  at  the  root  of  a  dogwood, 
and  was  in  the  act  of  putting  his  hand  into 
it,  when  a  voice  from  the  garrison  exclaimed, 
•with  most  touching  pathos,  '  Lo'd  o'  messy, 
he's  found  my  eggs  !  boys,  let's  give  up.' 

" '  I  won't  give  up,'  was  the  reply  from 
many  voices  at  once. 

"'Rot  your  cowardly  skin,  Zeph  Petti- 
bone,  you  wouldn't  give  a  wooden  egg  for 
all  the  holydays  in  the  world.' 

"  If  these  replies  did  not  reconcile  Zeph- 
aniah  to  his  apprehended  loss,  it  at  least  si 
lenced  his  complaints.  In  the  mean  time 
Michael  was  employed  in  relieving  Zeph's 
storehouse  of  its  provisions  ;  and,  truly,  its 
contents  told  well  for  Zeph's  skill  in  egg- 
pecking.  However,  Michael  took  out  the 
eggs  with  great  care,  and  brought  them 
within  a  few  paces  of  the  schoolhouse,  and 
laid  them  down  with  equal  care  in  full  view 
of  the  besieged.  He  revisited  the  places 
which  he  had  searched,  and  to  which  he 
seemed  to  have  been  led  by  intuition ;  for 
from  nearly  all  of  them  did  he  draw  eggs, 
in  greater  or  less  numbers.  These  he  treated 
as  he  had  done  Zeph's,  keeping  each  pile 
separate.  Having  arranged  the  eggs  in 
double  files  before  the  door,  he  marched  be 
tween  them  with  an  air  of  triumph,  and 
once  more  demanded  a  surrender,  under 
pain  of  an  entire  destruction  of  the  garri 
son's  provisions. 

"  '  Break  'em  just  as  quick  as  you  please,' 
said  George  Griffin ;  '  our  mothers  '11  give 
us  a  plenty  more,  won't  they,  pa?' 

"  '  I  can  answer  for  yours,  my  son,'  said 
the  captain ;  '  she  would  rather  give  up 
every  egg  upon  the  farm  than  to  see  you 
play  the  coward  or  traitor  to  save  your  prop 
erty.'  _ 

"  Michael,  finding  that  he  could  make  no  im 
pression  upon  the  fears  or  the  avarice  of  the 
boys,  determined  to  carry  their  fortifications 
"by  storm.  Accordingly  he  procured  a  heavy 
fence-rail,  and  commenced  the  assault  upon 
the  door.  It  soon  came  to  pieces,  and  the 
upper  logs  fell  out,  leaving  a  space  of  about 


three  feet  at  the  top.  Michael  boldly  en 
tered  the  breach,  when,  by  the  articles  of 
war,  sticks  were  thrown  aside  as  no  longer 
lawful  weapons.  He  was  resolutely  met  on 
the  half-demolished  rampart  by  Peter  Jones 
and  William  Smith,  supported  by  James 
Griffin.  These  Avere  the  three  largest  boys 
in  the  school ;  the  first  about  sixteen  years 
of  age,  the  second  about  fifteen,  and  the 
third  just  eleven.  Twice  was  Michael  re 
pulsed  by  these  young  champions ;  but  the 
third  effort  carried  him  fairly  into  the  fort 
ress.  Hostilities  now  ceased  for  a  while, 
and  the  captain  and  I,  having  levelled  the 
remaining  logs  at  the  door,  followed  Michael 
into  the  house.  A  large  three  inch  plank 
(if  it  deserve  that  name,  for  it  was  wrought 
from  the  half  of  a  tree's  trunk  entirely  with 
the  axe),  attached  to  the  logs  by  means  of 
wooden  pins,  served  the  whole  school  for  a 
writing  desk.  At  a  convenient  distance  be 
low  it,  and  on  a  line  with  it,  stretched  a 
smooth  log,  resting  upon  the  logs  of  the 
house,  Avhich  answered  for  the  writers'  seat. 
Michael  took  his  seat  upon  the  desk,  placed 
his  feet  on  the  seat,  and  was  sitting  very 
composedly,  when  with  a  simultaneous  move 
ment,  Pete  and  Bill  seized  each  a  leg,  and 
marched  off  with  it  in  quick  time.  The 
consequence  is  obvious;  Michael's  head  first 
took  the  desk,  then  the  seat,  and  finally  the 
ground  (for  the  house  was  not  floored),  with 
three  sonorous  thumps  of  most  doleful  por 
tent.  No  sooner  did  he  touch  the  ground 
than  he  was  completely  buried  with  boys. 
The  three  elder  laid  themselves  across  his 
head,  neck  and  breast,  the  rest  arranging 
themselves  ad  libitum.  Michael's  equanim 
ity  was  considerably  disturbed  by  the  first 
thump,  became  restive  with  the  second,  and 
took  flight  with  the  third.  His  first  effort 
was  to  disengage  his  legs,  for  without  them 
he  could  not  rise,  and  to  lie  in  his  pres 
ent  position  was  extremely  inconvenient  and 
undignified.  Accordingly  he  drew  up  his 
right,  and  kicked  at  random.  This  move 
ment  laid  out  about  six  in  various  direc 
tions  upon  the  floor.  Two  rose  crying : 
'Ding  his  old  red-headed  skin,'  said  one 
of  them,  '  to  go  and  kick  me  right  in 
my  sore  belly,  where  I  fell  down  and  raked 
it,  running  after  that  fellow  that  cried  "  school 
butter."  '* 


*  "  I  have  never  been  able  to  satisfy  myself  clearly 
as  to  the  literal  meaning  of  these  tonns.    They  were 


PROGRESS    OF    COMMON    Oil    ELEMENTARY    SCHOOLS. 


37Y 


"  '  Drot  his  old  snaggle-tooth  picture,'  said 
the  other,  'to  go  and  hurt  my  sore  toe,  where 
I  knocked  the  nail  off  going  to  the  spring  to 
fetch  a  gourd  of  warier  for  him,  and  not  for 
myself  n'other.' 

"  '  Hut !'  said  Captain  Griffin,  '  young 
"VVashingtons  mind  these  trifles!  At  him 
again.' 

"  The  name  of  Washington  cured  their 
wounds  and  dried  up  their  tears  in  an  in 
stant,  and  they  legged  him  de  novo.  The 
left  leg  treated  six  more  as  unceremoniously 
as  the  right  had  those  just  mentioned ;  but 
the  talismanic  name  had  just  fallen  upon 
their  ears  before  the  kick,  so  they  Avere  in 
vulnerable.  They  therefore  returned  to  the 
attack  without  loss  of  time.  The  struggle 
seemed  to  wax  hotter  and  hotter  for  some 
time  after  Michael  came  to  the  ground,  and 
he  threw  the  children  about  in  all  directions 
and  postures,  giving  some  of  them  thrusts 
which  would  have  placed  the  ruffle-skirted 
little  darlings  of  the  present  day  under  the 
discipline  of  paregoric  and  opodeldoc  for  a 
week ;  but  these  hardy  sons  of  the  south 
seemed  not  to  feel  them.  As  Michael's  head 
grew  easy,  his  limbs,  by  a  natural  sympathy, 
became  more  quiet,  and  he  offered  one  day's 
holiday  as  the  price.  The  boys  demanded 
a  week ;  but  here  the  captain  interposed,  and 
after  the  common  but  often  unjust  custom 
of  arbitrators,  split  the  difference.  In  this 
instance  the  terms  were  equitable  enough, 
and  were  immediately  acceded  to  by  both 
parties.  Michael  rose  in  a  good  humor,  and 
the  boys  were  of  course.  Loud  was  their 
talking  of  their  deeds  of  valor  as  they  re 
tired.  One  little  fellow  about  seven  years 
old,  and  about  three  feet  and  a  half  high, 
jumped  up,  cracked  his  feet  together,  and 
exclaimed,  '  By  jingo,  Pete  Jones,  Bill 
Smith  and  me  can  hold  any  Sinjin  [St.  John] 
that  ever  trod  Georgy  grit.'  " 


considered  an  unpardonable  insult  to  a  country 
school,  and  always  justified  an  attack  by  the  whole 
fraternity  upon  the  person  who  used  them  in  their 
hearing.  I  have  known  the  scholars  pursue  a  trav 
eller  two  miles  to  be  revenged  of  the  insult.  Prob 
ably  they  are  a  corruption  of  '  The  school's  better.' 
1  jSefter'  was  the  term  commonly  used  of  old  to  de 
note  a  superior,  as  it  sometimes  is  in  our  day: 
'Wait  till  your  betters  are  served,'  for  example.  I 
conjecture,  therefore,  the  expression  just  alluded  to 
was  one  of  challenge,  contempt,  and  defiance,  by 
which  the  person  who  used  it  avowed  himself  the 
superior  in  all  respects  of  the  whole  school,  from  the 
preceptor  down.  If  any  one  can  give  a  better  ac 
count  of  it,  I  shall  be  pleased  to  receive  it" 


AN  OLD  FIELD   SCHOOL,   OR  ACADEMY,   IN 
VIRGINIA. 

THE  experience  of  one  of  that  class  of 
teachers,  who  found  temporary  occupation 
in  teaching  the  children  of  one  or  more  fam 
ilies  of  planters  in  Virginia  and  other  south 
ern  states,  will  be  found  in  the  "  Travels  of 
Four  Years  and  a  Half  in  the  United  States 
(in  1798,  1799,  1800,  1801  and  1802),  by 
John  Davis."  Mr.  Davis  was  an'  English 
man  of  more  than  ordinary  education  and 
of  social  address,  and  while  in  this  country 
numbered  among  his  friends  such  men  as 
Aaron  Burr,  President  Jefferson,  and  other 
men  of  high  political  standing.  lie  was  a 
private  tutor  in  New  York,  South  Carolina 
and  Virginia,  and  his  graphic  sketches  of 
men  and  manners  show  some  of  the  defi 
ciencies  in  the  means  of  education  which 
even  wealthy  planters  in  the  southern  states 
experienced.  With  letters  of  introduction 
from  President  Jefferson  he  proceeds  to  the 
plantation  of  a  Mr.  Ball,  and  is  engaged  to 
teach  his  and  his  neighbors'  children : 

"  The  following  day  every  fanner  came 
from  the  neighborhood  to  the  house,  who 
had  any  children  to  send  to  my  Academy, 
for  such  they  did  me  the  honor  to  term  the 
log-hut  in  which  I  was  to  teach.  Each  man 
brought  his  son,  or  his  daughter,  aud  re 
joiced  that  the  day  was  arrived  when  their 
little  ones  could  light  their  tapers  at  the 
torch  of  knowledge !  I  was  confounded  at 
the  encomiums  they  heaped  upon  a  man 
whom  they  had  never  seen  before,  and  was 
at  a  loss  what  construction  to  put  upon 
their  speech.  No  price  was  too  great  for 
the  services  I  was  to  render  their  children  ; 
and  they  all  expressed  an  eagerness  to  ex 
change  perishable  coin  for  lasting  knowl 
edge.  If  I  would  continue  with  them  seven 
years !  only  seven  years !  they  would  erect 
for  me  a  brick  seminary  on  a  hill  not  far  off; 
but  for  the  present  I  was  to  occupy  a  log- 
house,  which,  however  homely,  would  soon 
vie  with  the  sublime  college  of  William  and 
Mary,  and  consign  to  oblivion  the  renowned 
academy  in  the  vicinity  of  Fauquicr  Court- 
House.  I  thought  Englishmen  sanguine; 
but  these  Virginians  were  infatuated. 

"  I  now  opened  what  some  called  an  acad 
emy,*  and  others  an  Old  Field  School ; 

*  "  It  is  worth  the  while  to  describe  the  academy 
I  occupied  on  Mr.  Ball's  plantation.  It  had  one 
room  and  a  half.  It  stood  on  blocks  about  two  feet 


378' 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


and,  however  it  may  be  thought  that  con 
tent  was  never  felt  within  the  walls  of  a 
seminary,  I,  for  my  part,  experienced  an  ex 
emption  from  care,  and  was  not  such  a  fool 
as  to  measure  the  happiness  of  my  condition 
by  what  others  thought  of  it. 

"  It  was  pleasurable  to  behold  my  pupils 
enter  the  school  over  which  I  presided ;  for 
they  were  not  composed  only  of  truant  boys, 
but  some  of  the  fairest  damsels  in  the  coun 
try.  Two  sisters  generally  rode  on  one 
horse  to  the  school-door,  and  I  was  not  so 
great  a  pedagogue  as  to  refuse  them  my  as 
sistance  to  dismount  from  their  steeds.  A 
running-footman  of  the  negro  tribe,  who 
followed  with  their  food  in  a  basket,  took 
care  of  the  beast ;  and  after  being  saluted 
by  the  young  ladies  with  the  courtesies  of 
the  morning,  I  proceeded  to  instruct  them, 
with  gentle  exhortations  to  diligence  of 
study. 

"  Common  books  were  only  designed  for 
common  minds.  The  unconnected  lessons 
of  Scot,  the  tasteless  selections  of  Bingham, 
the  florid  harangues  of  Noah  Webster,  and 
the  somniferous  compilation  of  Alexander, 
were  either  thrown  aside,  or  suffered  to 
gather  dust  on  the  shelf;  while  the  charm 
ing  essays  of  Goldsmith,  and  his  not  less 
delectable  Novel,  together  with  the  impres 
sive  work  of  Defoe,  and  the  mild  produc 
tions  of  Addison,  conspired  to  enchant  the 
fancy,  and  kindle  a  love  of  reading.  The 
thoughts  of  these  writers  became  engrafted 
on  the  minds,  and  the  combinations  of  their 
diction  on  the  language  of  the  pupils. 

"  Of  the  boys  I  cannot  speak  in  very  en 
comiastic  terms ;  but  they  were  perhaps  like 
all  other  school-boys,  that  is,  more  disposed 
to  play  truant  than  enlighten  their  minds. 


and  a  half  above  the  ground,  where  there  was  free 
access  to  the  hogs,  the  dogs,  and  the  poultry.  It 
had  no  ceiling,  nor  was  the  roof  lathed  or  plaster 
ed,  but  covered  with  shingles.  Hence,  when  it 
rained,  like  the  nephew  of  old  Elwes,  I  moved  my 
bed  (for  I  slept  in  my  academy)  to  the  most  com 
fortable  corner.  It  had  one  window,  but  no  glass, 
nor  shutter.  In  the  night,  to  remedy  this,  the  mu 
latto  wench  who  waited  on  me,  contrived  very  in 
geniously  to  place  a  square  board  against  the  win 
dow  with  one  hand,  and  fix  the  rail  of  a  broken 
down  fence  against  it  with  the  other.  In  the  morn 
ing,  when  I  returned  from  breakfasting  in  the 
'great  big  house,'  (my  scholars  being  collected,)  I 
gave  the  rail  a  forcible  kick  with  my  foot,  and  down 
tumbled  the  board  with  an  awful  roar.  '  Is  not  my 
window,'  said  I  to  Virginia,  '  of  a  very  curious  con 
struction?'  'Indeed,  indeed,  sir,'  replied  my  fair 
disciple,  '  I  think  it  is  a  mighty  noisy  one.'  " 


The  most  important  knowledge  to  an  Amer 
ican,  after  that  of  himself,  is  the  geography 
of  his  country.  I,  therefore,  put  into  the 
hands  of  my  boys  a  proper  book,  and  ini 
tiated  them  by  an  attentive  reading  of  the 
discoveries  of  the  Genoese ;  I  was  even  so 
minute  as  to  impress  on  their  minds  the 
man  who  first  descried  land  on  board  the 
ship  of  Columbus.  That  man  was  Roderic 
Triana,  and  on  my  exercising  the  memory 
of  a  boy  by  asking  him  the  name,  he  very 
gravely  made  answer,  Roderic  Random. 

"  Among  my  male  students  was  a  -New 
Jersey  gentleman  of  thirty,  whose  object 
was  to  be  initiated  in  the  language  of  Cicero 
and  Virgil.  He  had  before  studied  the 
Latin  grammar  at  an  academy  school  (I  use 
his  own  words)  in  his  native  state ;  but  the 
academy  school  being  burnt  down,  his  gram 
mar,  alas !  was  lost  in  the  conflagration, 
and  he  had  neglected  the  pursuit  of  litera 
ture  since  the  destruction  of  his  book. 
When  I  asked  him  if  he  did  not  think  it 
was  some  Goth  who  had  set  fire  to  his  acad 
emy  school,  he  made  answer,  '  So,  it  is  like 
enough.' 

"  Mr.  Dye  did  not  study  Latin  to  refine 
his  taste,  direct  his  judgment,  or  enlarge  his 
imagination ;  but  merely  that  he  might  be 
enabled  to  teach  it  when  he  opened  school, 
which  was  his  serious  design.  He  had  been 
bred  a  carpenter,  but  he  panted  for  the  hon 
ors  of  literature." 

Mr.  Davis  accounts  for  his  fidelity  in 
teaching  more  hours  than  he  was  required 
to  do  by  his  contract,  by  his  interest  in  the 
lessons  of  one  of  his  female  pupils  : 

"  Hence  I  frequently  protracted  the  stud 
ies  of  the  children  till  one,  or  half  past  one 
o'clock ;  a  practice  that  did  not  fail  to  call 
forth  the  exclamations  both  of  the  white 
and  the  black  people.  Upon  my  word,  Mr. 
Ball  would  say,  this  gentleman  is  diligent ; 
and  Aunt  Patty  the  negro  cook  would  re 
mark,  '  He  good  cool-mossa  that ;  he  not 
like  old  Hodgkinson  and  old  Harris,  who 
let  the  boys  out  before  twelve.  He  deserve 
good  wages !" 

"Having  sent  the  young  ladies  to  the 
family  mansion,  I  told  the  boys  to  break 
up,  and  in  a  few  minutes  they  who  had 
even  breathed  with  circumspection,  now 
gave  loose  to  the  most  riotous  merriment, 
and  betook  themselves  to  the  woods,  follow 
ed  by  all  the  dogs  on  the  plantation." 

"  There  was  a  carpenter  on  the  planta 
tion,  whom  Mr.  Ball  had  hired  by  the  year. 


PROGRESS  OF  COMMON  OR  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS. 


379 


Ho  had  tools  of  all  kinds,  and  the  recreation 
of  Mr.  Dye,  after  the  labor  of  study,  was  to 
get  tinder  the  shade  of  an  oak,  and  make 
tables,  or  benches,  or  stools  for  the  acade 
my.  So  true  is  the  assertion  of  Horace, 
that  the  cask  will  always  retain  the  flavor 
of  the  liquor  with  which  it  is  first  impreg 
nated. 

"  '  Well,  Mr.  Dye,  what  are  you  doing  ?' 

"  '  I  am  making  a  table  for  the  academy 
school.' 

"  «  What  wood  is  that  ?' 

"  '  It  is  white  oak,  sir.' 

"  '  What,  then  you  are  skilled  in  trees,  you 
can  tell  oak  from  hickory,  and  ash  from  fir  ?' 

"  '  Like  enough,  sir.  (A  broad  grin.)  I 
ought  to  know  those  things ;  I  served  my 
time  to  it.' 

" '  Carpenter. — I  find,  sir,  Mr.  Dye  has  done 
with  his  old  trade ;  he  is  above  employing 
his  hands ;  he  wants  work  for  the  brain. 
Well !  laming  is  a  fine  thing  ;  there's  noth 
ing  like  laming.  I  have  a  son  only  five 
years  old,  that,  with  proper  laming,  I  should 
not  despair  of  seeing  a  member  of  Congress. 
He  is  a  boy  of  genus ;  he  could  play  on  the 
Jews-harp  from  only  seeing  Sambo  tune  it 
once.' 

"  '  Mr.  Dye. — I  guess  that's  Billy ;  he  is  a 
right  clever  child.' 

" '  Carpenter. — How  long,  sir,  will  it  take 
you  to  learn  Mr.  Dye  Latin  ?' 

"  '  Schoolmaster. — How  long,  sir,  would  it 
take  me  to  ride  from  Mr.  Ball's  plantation 
to  the  plantation  of  Mr.  Wormley  Carter  ?' 

"  '  Carpenter. — Why  that,  sir,  I  suppose, 
would  depend  upon  your  horse.' 

"  '  Schoolmaster. — Well,  then,  sir,  you 
solve  your  own  interrogation.  But  here 
comes  Dick.  What  has  he  got  in  his  hand  ?' 

"  '  Mr.  Dye. — A  mole  like  enough.  Who 
are  you  bringing  that  to,  Dick  ?' 

"  '  Dick. — Not  to  you.  You  never  gave 
me  the  taste  of  a  dram  since  I  first  know'd 
you.  Worse  luck  to  me ;  you  New  Jersey 
men  are  close  shavers ;  I  believe  you  would 
skin  a  louse.  This  is  a  mole.  I  have 
brought  it  for  the  gentleman  who  came  from 
beyond  sea.  He  never  refuses  Dick  a  dram; 
I  would  walk  through  the  wilderness  of  Ken 
tucky  to  serve  him.  Lord !  how  quiet  he 
keeps  his  school.  It  is  not  now  as  it  was  ; 
the  boys  don't  go  clack,  clack,  clack,  like 
'Squire  Pendleton's  mill  upon  Catharpin 
Run !' 

"  '  Schoolmaster. — You  have  brought  that 
mole,  Dick,  for  me.' 


"  '  Dick. — Yes,  master,  but  first  let  me  tell 
you  the  history  of  it.  This  mole  was  once 
a  man  ;  see,  master  (Dick  exhibits  the  mole), 
it  has  got  hands  and  feet  just  like  you  and 
me.  It  Avas  once  a  man,  but  so  proud,  so 
lofty,  so  pufFed-up,  that  God,  to  punish  his 
insolence,  condemned  him  to  crawl  under 
the  earth.' 

"  '  Schoolmaster. — A  good  fable,  and  not 
unhappily  moralized.  Did  you  ever  hear  or 
read  of  this  before,  Mr.  Dye  ?' 

"  '  Mr.  Dye. — Nay  (a  broad  grin),  I  am 
right  certain  it  does  not  belong  to  JEsop. 
I  am  certain  sure  Dick  did  not  find  it  there.' 

"  '  Dick. — Find  it  w  here  ?  I  would  not 
wrong  a  man  of  the  value  of  a  grain  of  corn. 
I  came  across  the  mole  as  I  was  hoeing  the 
potato-patch.  Master,  shall  I  take  it  to  the 
school-house  ?  If  you  are  fond  of  birds,  I 
know  now  for  a  mocking-bird's  nest ;  I  am 
only  afeared  those  young  rogues,  the  school 
boys,  will  find  out  the  tree.  They  play  the 
mischief  with  every  thing,  they  be  full  of 
devilment.  I  saw  Jack  Lockliart  throw  a 
stone  at  the  old  bird,  as  she  was  returning 
to  feed  her  young ;  and  if  I  had  not  coaxed 
him  away  to  look  at  my  young  puppies,  he 
would  have  found  out  the  nest.' 

"  I  had  been  three  months  invested  in 
the  first  executive  office  of  pedagogue, 
when  a  cunning  old  fox  of  a  New  Jersey 
planter  (a  Mr.  Lee)  discovered  that  his  eld 
est  boy  wrote  a  better  hand  than  I.  Fame 
is  swift-footed;  vires  arquirit  eundo ;  the 
discovery  spread  far  and  wide  ;  and  whither 
soever  I  went,  I  was  an  object  for  the  hand 
of  scorn  to  point  his  slow  unmoving  finger 
at,  as  a  schoolmaster  that  could  not  write. 
Virginia  gave  me  for  the  persecutions  I 
underwent  a  world  of  sighs,  her  swelling 
heavens  rose  and  fell  with  indignation  at  old 
Lee  and  his  abettors.  But  the  boys  caught 
spirit  from  the  discovery.  I  could  perceive 
a  mutiny  breaking  out  among  them  ;  and 
had  I  not  in  time  broke  down  a  few  branches 
from  an  apple  tree  before  my  door,  it  is 
probable  they  would  have  displayed  their 
gratitude  for  my  instructions  by  throwing 
me  out  of  my  school-window.  But  by  argu 
ing  with  one  over  the  shoulders,  and  another 
over  the  back,  I  maintained  with  dignity  the 
first  executive  office  of  pedagogue. 

"  I  revenged  myself  amply  on  old  Lee. 
It  was  the  custom  of  his  son  (a  lengthy  fel 
low  of  about  twenty)  to  come  to  the  acade 
my  with  a  couple  of  huge  mastiffs  at  his 
heels.  Attached  to  their  master  (par  nob  He 


380 


EDUCATION'    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


fratrum)  they  entered  without  ceremony 
Pohoke  Academy,  bringing  with  them  myr 
iads  of  fleas,  wood-lice,  and  ticks.  Nay, 
they  would  often  annoy  Virginia,  by  throw 
ing"  themselves  at  her  feet,  and  inflaming  the 
clibler  of  a  little  lap-dog,  which  I  had  bought 
because  of  his  diminutive  size,  and  which 
Virginia  delighted  to  nurse  for  me.  I  could 
perceive  the  eye  of  Virginia  rebuke  me  for 
suffering  the  dogs  to  annoy  her ;  and  there 
lay  more  peril  in  her  eye  than  in  the  jaws 
of  all  the  mastiffs  in  Prince  William  County. 

" '  Mr.  Lee,'  said  I,  '  this  is  the  third  time 
I  have  told  you  not  to  convert  the  academy 
into  a  kennel,  and  bring  your  dogs  to  school.' 
Lee  was  mending  his  pen  'judgrnatically.' 
He  made  no  reply,  but  smiled. 

"  I  knew  old  Dick  the  negro  had  a  bitch, 
and  that  his  bitch  was  proud.  I  walked 
down  to  Dick's  log-house.  Dick  was  beat 
ing  flax. 

" '  Dick,'  said  I,  '  old  Farmer  Lee  has 
done  me  much  evil — (I  don't  like  the  old 
man  myself,  master,  said  Dick) — and  his 
son,  repugnant  to  my  express  commands, 
has  brought  his  father's  two  plantation  dogs 
to  the  academy.  Revenge  is  sweet — ' 

"  '  Right,  master,'  said  Dick.  '  I  never 
felt  so  happy  as  when  I  bit  off  Cuffey's 
great  toe  and  swallowed  it — 

" '  Do  you,  Dick,'  said  I,  '  walk  past  the 
school-house  with  your  bitch.  Lee's  dogs 
will  come  out  after  her.  Go  round  with 
them  to  your  log-house;  and  when  you  have 
once  secured  them,  hang  both  of  them  up  by 
the  neck.' 

"  '  Leave  it  to  me,  master,'  said  Dick. 
'  I'll  fix  the  business  for  you  in  a  few  min 
utes.  I  have  a  few  fadoms  of  rope  in  my 
house — that  will  do  it.' 

"  I  returned  to  the  academy.  The  dogs 
were  stretched  at  their  ease  on  the  floor. 
'  Oh !  I  am  glad  you  are  come,'  exclaimed 
Virginia ;  '  those  great  big  dogs  have  quite 
scared  me.' 

"  In  a  few  minutes  Dick  passed  the  door 
with  his  slut.  Quick  from  the  floor  rose 
Mr.  Lee's  two  dogs,  and  followed  the  female. 
The  rest  may  be  supplied  by  the  imagina 
tion,  of  the  reader.  Dick  hung  up  both 
the  dogs  to  the  branch  of  a  pine-tree ;  old 
Lee  lost  the  guards  to  his  plantation ;  the 
negroes  broke  open  his  barn,  pilfered  his 
sacks  of  Indian  corn,  rode  his  horses  in  the 
night — and  thus  was  I  revenged  on  Alexan 
der  the  coppersmith. 

"  Three  months  had  now  elapsed,  and  I 


was  commanded  officially  to  resign  my  sove-  ' 
reigu   authority  to    Mr.   Dye,    who    >.\a^  in    . 
every  respect  better  qualified  to   discharge    ' 
its  sacred  functions.      He   understood    tare 
and  tret,  wrote  a  copper-plate   hand,   and, 
balancing  himself  upon  one  leg,  could  flour-  . 
ish   angels   and    corkscrews.       I,  therefore, 
gave  up  the  '  academy  school'  to  Mr.  Dye, 
to  the  joy  of  the  boys,  but  the  sorrow  of 
Virginia." 

Whilst  schools  were  thus  poorly  equipped 
and  the  instruction  given  was  thus  defective 
in  its  methods  and  meagre  in  its  extent,  it 
becomes  of  interest  to  inquire  whence  such 
a  measure  of  general  intelligence  and  so 
many  individual  cases  of  attaining  to  an  emi 
nent  position  in  society.  This  was  the  re 
sult  of  no  single  cause  alone,  but  of  a  variety 
in  combination. 

The  first  of  these  that  may  be  named,  both 
in  its  influence  upon  childhood  and  upon 
manhood,  was  the  necessity  of  a  hard  fought 
battle  for  existence,  but  relieved  by  the  as 
surance  that  victory  would  be  the  reward  of 
persistent  exertion.  Its  results  were  robust 
ness,  patience  of  toil,  resoluteness  and  per 
severance  in  encountering  difficulties,  and 
fertility  of  resources.  The  rustic  lad, — and 
making  the  necessary  variations,  we  include 
the  female  sex  with  the  representative  male, 
—the  rustic  lad  who  had  been  trained  to 
help  his  parents  from  the  moment  he  had 
acquired  strength  to  steady  his  steps,  to  toil 
on  all  the  same  whether  the  bright  sun 
cheered  him  or  the  chill  air  benumbed  his 
limbs ;  whether  his  tasks  were  varied,  pleas 
ant  and  light,  or,  on  the  contrary,  he  had 
learned  patience,  marching  beside  the  patient 
ox  all  the  long  hours  of  a  long  spring  day, 
the  animals  only  alternating  with  others 
which  served  as  relays ;  and  had  been  no 
stranger  to  such  discipline  as  picking  stones 
in  the  stubble  whilst  the  sad  heavens  distil 
led  a  drizzly  rain,  they  condensing  all  their 
gloom  in  his  soul,  but  withheld  those  large 
and  frequent  drops  which  would  have  been 
the  signal  of  his  release ;  and  among  the 
least  severe  of  whose  lessons  in  acquiring 
hardihood  had  been,  in  gathering  the  fruits 
of  autumn,  to  face  its  frosts  without  mittens 
or  shoes ;  this  lad  found  nothing  in  the  diffi 
culties  of  the  school-room  to  appall  him,  and 
storms  and  deep  drifts  rather  added  zest  to 
his  daily  walks.  No  unintelligible  jargon  of 
the  spelling  book,  no  abstruse  section  in  his 
reader,  was  an  overmatch  for  his  industry. 


PUOGRESS    OF    COMMON    OR    ELEMENTARY    SCHOOLS. 


381 


True,  lie  did  not  understand  all  he  studied, 
but  he  learned  to  spell  and  to  read  and  to 
commit  to  memory  what  was  assigned  him. 
And  when  he  took  his  arithmetic,  which  con 
tained  only  definitions,  rules  and  examples, 
although  his  teacher  vouchsafed  him  little 
explanation,  he  had  perseverance  enough  to 
ponder  every  dark  process  till  light  broke 
through.  And  there  were  instances  of  boys 
who  worked  for  consecutive  hours  and  days 
at  problems  confessedly  some  of  the  most 
knotty  that  could  be  found,  till  at  last  their 
unaided  exertions  were  rewarded  with  suc 
cess,  which  brought  more  exquisite  joy  than 
ever  thrilled  the  finder  of  a  rare  gem.  These 
exceptional  cases  stimulated  the  more  dull, 
and  most  became  possessed  of  at  least  the 
rudiments  of  the  science,  quite  sufficient  for 
practical  life,  or  which  under  the  stimulus  of 
necessity  became  subsequently  enlarged  to 
that  extent.  In  manhood  no  blind  adherence 
to  traditional  methods  was  or  could  be  ob 
served.  Emergencies  were  constantly  arising 
which  taxed  ingenuity  to  the  utmost  in  de 
vising  the  fitting  expedients  to  meet  them. 
It  was  a  daily  study  to  make  the  narrowest 
means  serve  the  same  ends  as  the  amplest. 
Hard  thought  was  expended  without  stint 
upon  labor-saving  processes,  improvements 
and  inventions.  Thus  was  gained  a  disci 
pline  of  mind  beyond  what  the  higher  col 
lege  mathematics  usually  imparts,  and  oft- 
times  a  readiness  in  applying  mechani 
cal  principles,  of  which  many  an  engineer 
trained  in  the  schools  is  utterly  devoid,  how 
ever  prompt  he  may  be  in  the  routine  to 
which  he  is  accustomed. 

The  family  training,  aside  from  the  inuring 
of  children  to  patient  industry,  contributed 
greatly  to  their  profiting  from  their  school 
privileges.  To  do  or  not  to  do  was  not  then 
left  so  generally  to  the  child's  pleasure.  He 
was  made  to  obey  before  he  had  experienced 
the  delight  of  carrying  into  effect  his  own 
will  in  opposition  to  that  of  others ;  and 
thus  was  formed  the  habit  of  unquestioning 
compliance  with  the  requirements  of  parents. 
When  the  child  could  understand  the  sub 
ject,  he  was  taught  that  however  irksome  at 
times  were  the  tasks  imposed  upon  him,  it 
was  only  in  virtue  of  the  allotment  that  man 
was  to  cat  bread  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow, 
and  that  only  by  a  cheerful  performance  of 
what  was  within  his  power  could  he  make  a 
return  for  the  care  he  was  continually  re 
ceiving.  Thus  from  a  sense  of  religious  and 
filial  obligation  the  rigor  of  their  early  disci- 
23'* 


pline  was  the  more  easily  sustained.  Self- 
control  and  a  certain  measure  of  self-reliance 
were  results  of  the  discipline  of  infancy 
even  ;  and  in  advancing  childhood  it  was  in 
culcated  in  the  house  and  in  the  field,  that 
each  must  depend  upon  himself  for  what 
ever  he  was  to  be  and  to  possess  in  life. 
And  knowledge,  knowledge  that  was  not  the 
mere  blind  recipient  of  instruction,  intelli 
gent  knowledge  which  perceived  relations, 
and  reasoning  knowledge  which  could  make 
the  practical  application  as  opportunity 
served,  was  set  forth  as  the  condition  indis 
pensable  to  render  exertion  successful.  Hence 
it  was  a  prized  privilege  to  go  to  school,  as 
well  as  a  pleasant  exchange  for  physical  toil 
for  a  brief  period,  an  exchange  of  work  at 
home  for  another  variety  of  work  in  the 
school-room,  not  of  one  manner  of  busy  idle 
ness  and  mischief  for  another.  Also,  in  many 
cases  the  home  was  itself  a  school,  and  either 
that  knowledge  was  there  gained  which  oth 
ers  acquired  at  school,  or  study  was  farther 
pursued  under  the  guidance  of  parent,  or 
brother  or  sister,  who  by  some  happy  gift 
of  Providence  had  required  little  tuition. 
Often  also,  winter  evenings  or  other  hours, 
when  the  labor  of  one  pair  of  hands  might 
be  spared,  were  passed  in  the  social  reading 
of  instructive  books. 

The  listening  every  seventh  day  to  two 
discourses,  wherein  were  discussed  the  deep 
est  theories  which  can  be  proposed  to  man, 
may  be  named  as  an  additional  item  in  the 
answer  to  our  inquiry.  The  clergymen  of 
that  day  had  received  the  best  education 
that  the  country  afforded,  and  were  daily 
cultivating  intimacy  with  the  profoundost 
theologians.  Thus  they  had  ever  thoughts 
which  they  had  originated  or  had  made  their 
own  to  present.  And  these  thoughts  were 
inwardly  digested  by  a  goodly  number  of 
their  hearers,  and  becoming  a  part  of  their 
being,  they  too 

"  reasoned  high 

Of  Providence,  foreknowledge,  will  and  fate, 
Fixed  fate,  free  will,  foreknowledge  absolute;" 

and  if  they  "  found  no  end,"  they  were  not 
"  in  wandering  mazes  lost,"  for,  unlike  the 
lost  angels,  they  ruled  their  discussions  by 
the  infallible  word  of  inspiration.  It  cannot 
be  said  that  serious  thought  then  bored,  or 
that  the  sparkle  of  the  unsubstantial  poem 
chiefly  drew,  or  that  triviality  was  the  char 
acteristic  of  the  multitude. . 

The  study  of  one  book,  and  that  the  Bibfe, 
simple  enough  in  parts  to  meet  the- 


382 


EDUCATION  AND  EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS. 


standing  of  the  little  child,  and  of  interest 
enough  to  absorb  his  attention,  and  in  other 
parts  of  depths  which  no  finite  intellect  can 
sound,  and  everywhere  wise  above  the  wis 
dom  of  men,  and  without  any  alloy  of  error, 
was  one  of  the  most  efficacious  means  of 
raising  the  mass  of  the  people  in  intelligence, 
and  in  educating  a  few,  who  made  it  their 
constant  meditation,  to  a  nicety  of  discrimi 
nation  and  a  profundity  of  thought  truly 
wonderful.  Take  as  an  example  one  silvery 
haired  man  whose  memory  is  cherished  with 
veneration.  His  school  privileges  had  been 
less  even  than  the  scanty  amount  of  most 
of  his  contemporaries,  hardly  amounting  to 
three  winter  schools  in  all.  Moreover,  weak 
ness  of  the  eyes  almost  cut  him  off  from 
reading  books  and  papers  throughout  his 
life.  But  he  was  able  to  read  daily  a  few 
verses,  sometimes  several  chapters,  in  his 
large  quarto  Bible,  and  when  he  read  aloud, 
all  untaught  as  he  was,  he  read  with  a  natu 
ralness  and  gave  the  sense,  so  that  the  hearer 
marvelled.  Comparing  scripture  with  scrip 
ture,  he  had  attained  to  a  skill  in  interpret 
ing  which  seldom  erred.  His  quickness  in 
detecting  a  fallacy  or  in  observing  a  doc 
trine  which  harmonized  not  with  the  living 
oracles  was  surpassed  by  very  few  of  even 
the  most  highly  educated  of  schoolmen.  He 
was  exceedingly  retiring,  but  to  the  few  who 
knew  him,  his  life  and  his  language  seemed 
as  correct  as  the  words  of  that  book  on 
which  both,  with  perfect  naturalness,  with 
out  any  tinge  of  formality  or  quaintness,  were 
modeled.  Who  will  venture  to  say  that  this 
man's  education  was  not  incomparably  supe 
rior  to  that  of  him  who  has  delved  a  whole 
life  in  conflicting  systems,  who  has  sought 
to  know  the  thoughts  of  all  reported  as 
great,  but  who  has  settled  nothing  for  him 
self? 

The  political  principles  which  found  their 
expression  in  the   declaration   of  independ 
ence,  and  which  were    a  cherished   inheri 
tance  from  the  fathers,  leading  to  a  general 
participation  in  the  government  of  the  coun 
try,  and   producing  the  habit  of  earnestly 
debating  every  question  of  public  concern, 
had  no  small  share  of  influence  in  exciting 
intensity  and  energy  of  mental  action.     By 
the  fireside,  in  the  field,  at  the  corners  of  the 
streets,  in  the  shops  and  stores,  those  pow 
ers  were  developed  which  had  further  exer 
cise  in  the  town  meeting,  and  carried  their 
possessor  to  some  humble  position  of  trust 
or  authority ;   and  when   here  trained    and 


shown  to  be  capable  of  sustaining  higher 
responsibilities,  advanced  him  again,  so  that 
he  who  had  forged  iron  chains,  was  chosen 
to  fashion  the  more  efficacious  restraints  of 
laws;  he  who  had  occupied  the  cobblc-r's 
seat,  was  promoted  to  the  bench  of  justice ; 
and  he  who  had  been  wont  to  rule  oxen  was 
thought  worthy  to  govern  men. 

The  newspaper,  and  the  family,  and  the 
village  library  contributed  largely  to  the 
general  intelligence.  The  weekly  paper  fur 
nished  no  small  part  of  the  topics  of  conver 
sation  in  the  family  and  among  neighbors, 
and,  in  particular,  supplied  the  pabulum  for 
political  discussions.  The  few  books  owned 
or  borrowed  were  carefully  read  again  and 
again.  The  small  proprietary  libraries  fur 
nished  some  of  the  most  valuable  histories 
and  the  choicest  works  in  belles-lettres.  It 
was  not  of  rare  occurrence  to  find  persons 
who  showed  familiarity  with  Rollin,  Fergu 
son,  Gibbon,  Robertson,  and  Hume;  and 
sometimes  one  might  even  be  met,  who 
could  give  an  orderly  account  of  an  entire 
work  of  these  authors  ;  and  there  were  many 
who  could  repeat  favorite  poems,  peradven- 
ture  even  the  entire  Night  Thout/hts  of  Dr. 
Young,  if  that  was  the  chosen  vade  mecum. 
Even  some  children  of  twelve  or  fifteen  years 
of  age, — barefoot  boys  who  had  only  "  noon 
ings"  and  the  time  they  might  gain  by  man 
ual  dexterity  in  accomplishing  their  "  stents," 
— had  perused  several  of  the  voluminous 
historians  named  above.  How  will  such 
lads  compare  in  mental  strength  and  vigor 
with  children  who  willingly  read  nothing  but 
the  most  exciting  tales  or  the  most  intellec 
tual  pap  made  toothsome  ? 

The  observation  of  men  and  of  nature, 
pursued  to  good  advantage  where  no  un 
bending  usages  restrained  free  development 
of  character,  no  wrappings  of  conventionali 
ties  gave  a  uniform  semblance  to  all,  where 
the  woods  and  the  waters  and  the  inhabi 
tants  thereof  had  only  begun  to  recognize 
the  dominion  of  man,  quickened  too  by 
the  necessity  of  turning  to  account  every 
item  of  knowledge  that  could  be  gained,  was 
an  ample  equivalent  for  the  more  compre 
hensive  speculations  of  mental  philosophy 
and  the  scientific  nomenclatures  and  descrip 
tions  of  natural  history  to  be  learned  from 
the  mouth  of  the  lecturer. 

Finally,  those  defective  schools  of  the  past 
generation  did  place  the  key  of  knowledge 
in  the  hands  of  the  inquisitive  ;  which  is 
nearly  all  that  the  schools  of  the  present  day 


PROGRESS    OF    COMMON    OR    ELEMENTARY    SCHOOLS. 


383 


accomplish,  or  at  least  is  their  most  valuable 
result.  AVith  reading,  writing,  and  the  ele 
ments  of  arithmetic,  and  the  stimulus  of 
necessity  and  emulation,  and  perhaps  reli 
gious  principle  added,  he  who  felt  any  of  the 
inspiration  of  genius,  or  who  became  con 
scious  of  a  talent  that  had  been  improved, 
might  advance  with  a  speedier  flight  or  a 
slower  and  more  toilsome  step  up  the  steep 
ascent  to  the  temple  of  knowledge,  and  sit 
a  crowned  king  on  one  of  her  numberless 
thrones.  Books  procured  and  mastered  one 
at  a  time,  moments  of  leisure  seized  and  im 
proved,  oneness  of  aim  and  unfaltering  per 
severance,  wrought  the  result. 

It  is  a  plain  inference  that  school  educa 
tion,  as  the  correlate  of  the  professional 
teacher's  labors,  usually  receives  credit  to 
which  it  is  not  entitled.  As  we  have  else 
where  remarked,  with  all  the  agencies  for 
the  education  and  improvement  of  teachers, 
the  public  schools  of  Europe,  with  their  in 
stitutions  of  government  and  society,  do 
not  turn  out  such  practical  and  efficient 
men  as  our  own  common  schools,  acting  in 
concert  with  our  religious,  social  and  politi 
cal  institutions.  A  boy  educated  in  a  dis 
trict  school  of  New  England,  taught  for  a 
few  months  in  the  winter,  by  a  rough,  half- 
educated,  but  live  teacher,  who  is  earning 
his  way  by  his  winter's  work  in  the  school 
room  out  of  the  profession  into  something 
which  will  pay  better,  and  in  the  summer 
by  a  young  female,  just  out  of  the  eldest 
class  of  the  winter  school,  and  with  no  other 
knowledge  of  teaching  than  what  she  may 
have  gathered  by  observation  of  the  diverse 
practices  of  some  ten  or  twelve  instructors 
who  must  have  taught  the  school  under  the 
intermittent  and  itinerating  system  which 
prevails  universally  in  the  country  districts 
of  New  England — a  boy  thus  taught  through 
his  school-life,  but  subjected  at  home  and 
abroad  to  the  stirring  influences  of  a  free 
press,  of  town  and  school  district  meetings, 
of  constant  intercourse  with  those  who  are 
mingling  in  the  world,  and  in  the  affairs  of 
public  life,  and  beyond  all  these  influences, 
subjected  early  to  the  wholesome  discipline, 
both  moral  and  intellectual,  of  taking  care 
of  himself,  and  the  affairs  of  the  house  and 
the  farm,  will  have  more  capacity  for  busi 
ness,  and  exhibit  more  intellectual  activity 
and  versatility  than  the  best  scholar  who 
ever  graduated  from  a  Prussian  school,  but 
•whose  school-life,  and  especially  the  years 
•which  immediately  follow,  are  subjected  to 


the  depressing  and  repressing  influences  of 
a  despotic  government,  and  to  a  state  of 
society  in  which  every  thing  is  fixed  both 
by  law  and  the  iron  rule  of  custom.  But 
this  superiority  is  not  due  to  the  school, 
but  is  gained  in  spite  of  the  school. 

Now  when  the  causes  which  conduced  to 
this  superiority  are  less  operative  and  less 
general,  the  improvement  of  schools  becomes 
doubly  important.  This  can  be  effected  only 
as  the  moulders  of  educational  institutions 
intelligently  apprehend  their  proper  aim,  or, 
in  other  words,  the  due  relation  of  school 
education  to  education  in  its  enlarged  sense, 
and  as  they  succeed  in  leading  teachers  to  a 
judicious  direction  of  their  efforts,  and  to 
the  employment  of  methods  adapted  to  the 
end  in  view.  Omitting  the  consideration 
of  the  last  topic  suggested  as  not  embraced 
in  the  design  of  this  article,  we  shall  have 
before  us  a  practical  aim,  in  addition  to  sup 
plying  the  criterion  for  estimating  the  ex 
cellences  and  the  defects  of  the  education  of 
the  past  and  the  present,  if  we  consider  as 
well  as  we  may  the  question, 

WHAT    IS    EDUCATION? 

To  facilitate  the  attainment  of  definiteness 
and  accuracy  of  the  conception,  we  shall 
attempt  to  distinguish  the  related  ideas. 
And, 

1.  Formation  of  character,  which  is  the 
most  comprehensive  of  these  related  ideas, 
represents  the  combined  result  of  human, 
natural  and  supernatural  agencies  in  fashion 
ing  every  lineament  of  the  man  in  every  de 
partment  of  his  inner  being.  The  human 
agency  embraces  parent,  brother,  sister, 
nurse,, playmate,  teacher,  chosen  companion, 
casual  acquaintance,  in  short,  all  of  his  kind, 
contemporaries  or  predecessors,  who  have 
directly  or  indirectly  contributed  to  the 
moulding  of  the  man.  The  natural  agency 
is  the  external  world  or  physical  universe, 
which  in  its  influence  upon  persons  similarly 
situated  varies  with  their  susceptibility.  The 
supernatural  agency  comprehends  that  exer 
cise  of  the  sovereign  power  of  the  great 
First  Cause,  which  places  the  individual  in 
the  special  condition  and  relations  that  at 
tend  him  on  his  introduction  into  existence 
and  throughout  his  life,  with  whatever  of 
direct  operations  there,  may  be  upon  the 
mind,experienced  consciously  or  unconscious 
ly,  of  divine,  angelic  or  demoniacal  origin. 
The  estimate  of  this  last  influence  will  de- 


384 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


pend  upon  the  theological  views  entertained. 
Character  is  raised  to  its  highest  elevation 
when  the  prevailing  motive  in  the  conduct 
of  life  is  regard  for  the  perfect  will  of  God ; 
and  it  is  then  called  piety.  Education  view 
ed  actively  is  not  the  correlative  of  forma 
tion  of  character,  neither,  viewed  as  a  result, 
is  it  identical  therewith.  However  we  may 
employ  sensible  objects  or  those  only  con 
ceived  of,  it  proceeds  by  human  agency 
alone.  Whilst  the  disorganization  of  the 
human  constitution  has  proved  beyond  the 
ability  of  mere  education  to  rectify,  on  the 
supposition  that  perfection  of  character  was 
attained,  education  might  go  on  indefinitely. 
Formation  of  character  gives  a  certain  com 
bination  of  features  or  qualities ;  education 
presents  cultivated  susceptibilities  and  stores 
of  gathered  treasures.  Strictly,  education 
is  always  immediate.  We  may  employ  an 
other,  or  assist  in  preparing  him,  to  edu 
cate  a  third  person ;  but  if  this  is  all,  we  are 
not  ourselves  with  him  educators  of  that 
person. 

2.  The  development  of  the  faculties  is  the 
second  related  idea.  Development  is  the  un 
folding  of  something  which  had  existed  only 
in  embryo,  by  exciting  its  dormant  vital 
energy  or  inherent  force  to  activity.  The 
result  of  the  development  of  the  mental  fac 
ulties  is  power,  power,  intellectual,  moral,  and 
voluntary  ;  power  of  instigating  and  power  of 
controlling  action.  When  the  moral  faculty 
or  conscience  controls  action  in  all  the  rela 
tions  of  a  man  to  his  fellow-men,  rectitude 
or  uprightness  is  the  result.  It  is  the  func 
tion  of  education  to  superintend  the  devel 
opment  of  the  faculties,  accelerating  that  of 
some,  circumscribing  or  restraining  that  of 
others,  and  to  regulate  them  in  their  exer 
cise.  Development,  even  when  regulated  by 
education,  must  fail  to  give  to  man  pei-fec- 
tion  of  character,  for  it  neither  gives  nor 
takes  away,  and  hence  original  imperfection 
must  remain,  though  it  may  be  partially  con 
cealed.  In  an  unregulated  but  stimulated 
development  the  proportions  of  what  is  fail 
would  be  outgrown  and  obscured  by  all 
forms  of  ugliness. 

3.  Training,  of  which  the  third  related 
idea  is  the  conception,  is  directed  specifi 
cally  to  the  forming  of  habits.  Thus  from 
the  earliest  mental  training  there  may  pro 
ceed  the  habits  of  obedience,  order,  neat 
ness,  trust,  gentleness,  kindness,  self-denial, 
&c. ;  from  corporeal  training  habits  of  mo 
tion,  and  physical  action  in  general.  Educa 


tion  is  not,  like  training,  directed  exclusively 
to  the  forming  of  habits.  This  is  rather  its 
preliminary  work. 

4.  Instruction  is  the  communication  of 
knowledge  which  may  be  of  value  to  the  re- 
ipient,  either  in  itself  or  as  a  means  to  a  re 
moter  end.  Education  gives  the  discipline 
which  turns  knowledge  to  account.  Instruc 
tion  calls  into  exercise  a  sort  of  passive  ac- , 
tivity,  a  reception  of  facts  and  a  perception 
of  relations  as  presented.  Education  trains 
the  pupil  to  discover  relations,  and  to  make 
deductions  from  facts,  and  thus  excites  an 
independent  activity.  Teachers  and  books 
instruct  when  they  convey  thoughts  and  ex 
plain  processes ;  they  educate  in  so  far  as 
they  lead  the  pupil  or  reader  to  think  for 
himself  and  to  institute  new  processes.  In 
struct  a  man,  and  he  will  become  well  in 
formed  in  regard  to  the  subject  of  the  in 
struction  ;  educate  a  man,  and  his  mind  will 
be  not  only  furnished,  but  also  disciplined 
and  cultivated  in  proportion  to  its  capacity 
and  the  extent  of  the  process.  Precisely  the 
same  process  may  be  instruction  in  one  re 
spect  and  education'in  another.  Often,  how 
ever,  their  methods  are  essentially  different, 
for  instruction  may  simply  labor  to  facili 
tate  to  the  utmost  the  acquisition  of  know 
ledge,  but  education,  whilst  careful  to  adapt 
its  requirements  to  the  strength  of  the 
learner,  introducing  its  severer  methods 
gradually,  and  never  prematurely  assigning 
the  abstruser  branches  of  study,  only  directs 
the  learner  how  to  encounter  the  difficulties 
of  his  path,  and  leaves  him  to  take  every 
step  for  himself,  aiming  to  bring  him  as  soon 
as  possible  to  the  condition  where  he  may 
dispense  with  all  aid.  Thus,  although  in 
struction  and  education  are  inseparable,  there 
may  be  much  instruction  where  there  is  very 
little  education,  and  very  little  instruction 
where  there  is  much  education.  Instruction 
is  limited  to  what  the  teacher  does  ;  educa 
tion  is  measured  by  what  the  pupil  is  ren 
dered  competent  to  perform. 

-  5.  Tuition,  distinctively  regarded,  has  for 
its  end  simply  advancement  in  specific 
branches  of  study.  It  is  related  to  educa 
tion  in  its  restricted  sense  as  a  part  to  a 
whole.  Also,  it  is  objective  only. 

Education,  in  its  enlarged  sense,  is  the  dis 
ciplining,  cultivating,  and  furnishing  of  the 
mind  of  man,  as  a  man,  and  for  the  particu 
lar  position  which  he  is  to  hold.  It  is  thus 
general  and  special ;  general,  so  far  as  it 
seeks  to  advance  man  towards  the  perfection 


PROGRESS  OF  COMMON  OR  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS. 


385 


of  his  being ;  special,  so  far  as  it  is  directed 
to  preparation  for  a  particular  sphere  of  ac 
tivity.  Discipline  gives  trained  strength, 
the  ability  to  exercise  developed  power  at 
will.  Culture  brings  the  mind  into  the  con 
dition,  relative  to  its  capacity,  to  produce 
what  is  useful  and  beautiful  and  good  and 
true.  The  furniture  of  the  mind  is  its 
general  stores.  Incidental  to  the  principal 
objects  of  education  is  physical  culture.  Edu 
cation  regards  the  body  as  a  casket  which 
must  be  guarded  well,  that  the  contents  re 
ceive  no  injury ;  as  a  servant  to  be  kept  in 
good  condition  for  the  master's  benefit. 

Education  in  its  restricted  sense  is  that 
extent  of  mental  discipline,  culture  and  fur 
niture,  to  be  systematically  gained  under  the 
direction  of  a  teacher,  which  is  requisite  to 
the  indefinite  improvement  of  the  pupil  by 
himself,  or  to  his  independent  completion 
of  his  preparation  for  his  business  in  life. 
It  is  thus,  like  education  in  its  enlarged 
sense,  general  and  special. 

This  last  definition  determines  the  sphere 
to  which  the  teacher  is  limited,  and  which 
lie  must  occupy  as  completely  as  possible. 
It  dictates  no  uniform  course  or  method. 
These  must  be  varied  to  suit  the  character 
and  circumstances  of  pupils.  It  prescribes 
for  each  simply  the  text  that  is  practicable, 
not  every  thing  which  is  desirable.  Beyond 
the  mere  fundamental  branches  of  knowl 
edge  it  makes  the  furnishing  of  the  mind  a 
secondary  end.  It  utterly  forbids  the  stri 
ving  to  make  every  pupil  the  recipient  of 
all  the  sciences.  In  the  most  extended  course 
of  study  it  marks  out  the  pupil's  becoming 
an  adequate  self-educator  as  the  limit  of  the 
teacher's  duties,  and  the  aim  for  the  attain 
ment  of  which  he  must  strive.  It  counten 
ances  no  forcing  processes,  which  generate 
mere  hot-bed  developments,  and  prevent  all 
possibility  of  the  solid  growth  requisite  to 
convert  the  tender  plant  into  the  majes 
tic  tree  ;  and  least  of  all,  no  measure  tending 
to  blunt  the  sensibilities  or  sour  the  dispo 
sition.  It  admits  that  the  most  valuable 
part  of  education  is  what  is  superadded  to 
the  labors  of  the  teacher,  or  goes  on  inde 
pendently  of  him,  but  it  requires  of  him  un 
ceasing  watchfulness  over  his  pupils,  and 
consummate  wisdom  and  skill  in  direct 
ing  their  studies  and  guiding  their  efforts. 
Finally,  if  it  permits  time  and  effort  to  be 
devoted  chiefly  to  literary  attainments,  it 
implies  that  all  intellectual  acquisitions  must 
be  made  subordinate  to  moral  culture. 


We  will  close  this  chapter  by  marking 
some  of  the  successive  steps,  agencies,  and 
results,  in  the  development  of  our  present 
system  of  public  elementary  education. 

1.  As  has  been  already  remarked,  in  the 
reconstruction  of  civil  society  which  follow 
ed  the  change  from  colonies  to  independ 
ent  states  in  confederated  and  afterward  na 
tional  union,  the-  necessity  and  wisdom  of 
making  some  provision  for  the  education  of 
children  was  generally  recognized,  and  in 
some  instances  thoroughly  and  liberally  pro 
vided  for  in  the  fundamental  laws. 

The  constitution  of  Massachusetts  adopt 
ed  in  1*780  has  this  provision:  "Wisdom 
and  knowledge  as  well  as  virtue  diffused 
generally  among  the  body  of  the  people, 
being  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  their 
rights  and  liberties,  and  as  these  depend  on 
spreading  the  opportunities  and  advantages 
of  education  in  the  various  parts  of  the 
country,  and  among  the  different  orders  of 
the  people,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  legisla 
tures  and  magistrates  in  all  future  periods 
of  this  commonwealth,  to  cherish  the  in 
terests  of  literature  and  the  sciences,  and 
all  seminaries,  especially  the  University  of 
Cambridge,  public  schools,  and  grammar 
schools  in  the  towns ;  to  encourage  private 
societies  arid  public  institutions,  rewards  and 
immunities  for  the  promotion  of  agriculture, 
arts,  sciences,  commerce,  trades,  manufac 
tures,  and  a  natural  history  of  the  country ; 
to  countenance  and  inculcate  the  principles 
of  humanity  and  general  benevolence,  public 
and  private  charity,  industry  and  frugality, 
honesty  and  punctuality  in  their  dealings ; 
sincerity,  good  humor,  and  all  social  affec 
tions  and  generous  sentiments  among  the 
people."  In  the  revision  of  the  school  laws 
in  1789,  it  is  provided  that  "towns  of  fifty 
families  are  required  to  sustain  schools 
wherein  children  are  taught  to  read  and 
write,  and  instructed  in  the  English  lan 
guage,  arithmetic,  orthography,  and  decent 
behavior,  for  a  term  equal  to  one  school  of 
six  months  in  each  year ;  every  town  of  one 
hundred  families,  twelve  months ;  every  town 
of  one  hundred  and  fifty  families,  eighteen 
months ;  and  every  town  of  two  hundred 
families  twelve  months,  and  in  addition 
thereto  sustain  a  school  wherein  is  taught 
the  Latin,  Greek  and  English  languages  for 
twelve  months  in  each  year."  It  is  also 
"  made  the  duty  of  the  president,  professors 
and  tutors  of  the  University  at  Cambridge, 
preceptors  and  teachers  of  academies,  and 


386 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


all  other  instructors  of  youth,  to  take  dili 
gent  care,  and  to  exert  their  best  endeavors 
to  impress  on  the  minds  of  children  and 
youth  committed  to  their  care  and  instruc 
tion  the  principles  of  piety,  justice  and  a 
sacred  regard  to  truth,  love  to  their  country, 
humanity  and  universal  benevolence,  sobrie 
ty,  industry  and  frugality,  chastity,  modera 
tion  and  temperance,  and  those  other  vir 
tues  which  are  the  ornament  of  human  so 
ciety,  and  the  basis  upon  which  the  republi 
can  constitution  is  structured ;  and  it  shall 
be  the  duty  of  such  instructors  to  endeavor 
to  lead  those  under  their  care  into  a  particu 
lar  understanding  of  the  tendency  of  the 
before-mentioned  virtues  to  preserve  and 
perfect  a  republican  constitution,  and  to  se 
cure  the  blessings  of  liberty  as  well  as  to 
promote  their  future  happiness,  and  the  ten 
dency  of  the  opposite  vices  to  slavery  and 
ruin." 

Vermont  in  the  constitution  adopted  in 
1793  ordains  "that  a  competent  number  of 
schools  shall  be  maintained  in  each  town  for 
the  convenient  instruction  of  youth,  and  one 
or  more  grammar  schools  to  be  incorporated 
and  properly  supported  in  each  county,"  and 
by  subsequent  legislation  imposed  the  neces 
sary  tax  for  their  support. 

New  Hampshire  in  1789  empowers  and 
requires  the  selectmen  of  the  several  towns 
to  assess  an  annual  tax  upon  the  inhabitants 
for  the  support  of  a  school  or  schools  for 
teaching,  reading,  Avriting  and  arithmetic, 
and  in  each  county  town  a  grammar  school 
for  the  purpose  of  teaching  the  Greek  and 
Latin  languages  in  addition  to  the  other 
studies. 

Connecticut  in  1795,  in  addition  to  a 
special  tax  for  the  support  of  common 
schools,  collectable  with  the  other  public 
taxes,  appropriated  the  avails  of  the  sales 
of  three  millions  of  acres  of  land  belonging 
to  the  state  and  situated  in  Ohio — since 
known  as  the  Western  Reserve — as  a  perpe 
tual  fund  for  the  same  object. 

New  York  in  1795  appropriated  $50,000 
annually  for  the  purpose  of  encouraging 
and  maintaining  common  schools  in  the 
several  cities  and  towns,  which  were  required 
to  raise  by  tax  for  the  same  purpose  a  sum 
equal  to  one-half  the  amount  received  from 
the  state. 

Pennsylvania  in  the  constitution  adopted 
in  1790  ordains  "that  the  legislature  shall 
provide  by  law  for  the  establishment  of 
schools  throughout  the  state  in  such  manner 


that  the  poor  may  be  taught  gratis  ;"   "  and 
that  the  arts  and  sciences  shall  be  promoted 
in  one  or  more  seminaries  of  learning."    The 
peculiar  feature  in  the  constitution  and  laws 
if  Pennsylvania  providing  for  the  free  edu- 
ation  of  the  poor  instead  of  common  schools, 
was  unfortunately  adopted  by  New   Jersey, 
Delaware,  Maryland,  and  most  of  the  south- 
rn  states  which  had  not  enjoyed  from  their 
first  beginnings  the  inestimable  advantages 
f  public  schools  "good  enough  for  the  rich 
and  cheap  enough  for  the  poor."     Owing  to 
the  sparseness  of  their  population,  their  "  pe 
culiar  institution,"  and  difficulty  of  establish 
ing  good  school  habits  in  any  community, 
public  schools  have  never  flourished  in  the 
southern  and  south-western  states. 

Virginia  in  1796  passed  a  general  school 
law,  a  portion  of  the  preamble  of  which  is  as 
follows :  "  Whereas,  upon  a  review  of  the 
history  of  mankind,  it  seemeth  that,  however 
favorable  a  republican  government  founded 
on  the  principles  of  equal  liberty,  justice  and 
order  may  be  to  human  happiness,  no  real 
stability  or  lasting  permanency  thereof  can 
be  rationally  hoped  for,  if  the  minds  of  the 
citizens  be  not  rendered  liberal  and  humane, 
and  be  not  full)'  impressed  with  the  im 
portance  of  those  principles  from  whence 
these  blessings  proceed  ;  with  a  view,  there 
fore,  to  lay  the  first  foundations  of  a  sys 
tem  of  education  which  may  tend  to  pro 
duce  those  desirable  purposes,"  etc.  Georgia, 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee  passed  school  laws 
with  aims  as  generous  as  those  of  the  above 
preamble ;  but  the  institutions  established 
were  for  higher  learning  and  the  few,  and 
not  for  the  great  masses  of  the  community. 

Ohio,  Indiana,  and  all  of  the  states  formed 
out  of  the  north-western  and  Louisiana 
territories,  as  they  were  admitted  into  the 
Union,  adopted  in  their  organic  and  early 
laws  proviiions  for  the  appropriation  of  the 
funds  created  out  of  the  educational  land 
grants  of  Congress,  before  spoken  of,  to  the 
support  of  common  schools  and  colleges,  on 
the  plan  of  the  eastern  states.  But  it  was 
soon  found  that  it  was  not  sufficient  to  pass 
laws,  or  even  appropriate  money  liberally  for 
the  support  of  schools ;  those  laws  must  be 
efficiently  and  uniformly  administered,  and 
the  condition  of  the  schools  be  brought  con 
stantly  to  the  attention  of  the  legislature  and 
the  people. 

2.  New  York  was  the  first  state  to  create 
an  officer  to  look  after  the  operations  of  the 
school  law,  and  to  advise  and  assist  local 


PROGRESS  OF  COMMON  OR  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS. 


387 


school  officers  in  its  administration.  The 
appointment  by  the  legislature  in  1813  of 
Gideon  Ilawley  as  superintendent  of  com 
mon  schools,  and  his  annual  reports  to  the 
legislature  on  the  working  of  the  system, 
constitute  an  important  era  in  the  history 
of  public  instruction  in  the  United  States. 
Other  states  created  the  office,  but  devolved 
its  administration  on  some  other  department 
already  burdened  with  other  and  dissimilar 
duties.  In  1826  Massachusetts  required  re 
turns  to  be  made  of  the  condition  of  the 
public  schools  of  each  town,  and  in  1836  in 
stituted  a  state  board  of  education,  with  a 
salaried  secretary  whose  business  it  was  made 
"  to  collect  information  of  the  actual  condi 
tion  and  efficiency  of  the  common  schools 
and  other  means  of  popular  education,  and 
diffuse  as  widely  as  possible  throughout 
every  part  of  the  state  information  of  the 
most  approved  methods  of  conducting  the 
education  of  the  young,  that  they  may  have 
the  best  education  that  common  schools  can 
be  made  to  impart."  This  example  was  fol 
lowed  by  Connecticut  in  1838,  and  in  less 
than  ten  years  this  great  interest  of  public 
instruction,  so  far  as  covered  by  elementary 
schools,  was  recognized  as  a  legitimate  de 
partment  of  the  government,  in  all  the 
northern  and  western  states. 

Under  the  able  and  enthusiastic  leadership 
of  Horace  Mann,  the  first  secretary  of  the 
board  of  education  in  Massachusetts,  the  va 
rious  plans  and  suggestions  which  had  been 
proposed  for  ten  or  fifteen  years  previous,  for 
the  improvement  of  common  schools,  were 
matured  and  applied  in  the  most  efficient 
manner.  Conventions  of  teachers,  parents 
and  friends  of  popular  education  were  held 
for  addresses  and  discussions,  in  every  state, 
and  in  almost  every  county  in  every  state 
which  had  appointed  either  a  single  officer, 
or  a  board  with  a  paid  secretary,  to  look 
after  this  interest.  The  regular  and  punctual 
attendance  of  all  the  children  of  a  suitable 
age  at  school,  the  advantages  of  a  gradation 
of  schools,  of  parental  visits  to  the  schools, 
of  an  association  of  the  teachers  for  mutual 
improvement,  and  the  visiting  of  each  other's 
schools ;  the  evils  arising  from  an  improper 
location,  construction  and  furniture  of  school 
houses,  from  a  diversity  of  text  books  in  the 
paine  study,  from  a  multiplicity  of  studies  in 
the  same  school,  from  the  neglect  of  the 
young  pupils  and  the  primary  studies,  from 
a  constant  change  of  teachers,  from  the  em 
ployment  of  teachers  not  properly  qualified, 


from  severe  and  unnatural  punishments, 
from  the  want  of  suitable  apparatus,  from 
the  mechanical  processes  of  teaching  read 
ing,  arithmetic,  and  other  studies,  from  the 
neglect  of  moral  education,  these  and  other 
subjects  were  discussed  in  official  reports,  in 
the  public  press,  and  in  professional  school 
journals.  Out  of  the  more  enlightened  and 
interested  public  opi-uiou  of  the  country, 
in  neighborhoods,  villages,  and  cities,  have 
resulted  wise  legislation,  efficient  organiza 
tion,  vigorous  administration,  and  liberal  ap 
propriations,  in  respect  to  the  material  outfit 
of  schools;  and  with  these,  but  not  as  rapidly 
or  as  widely,  have  grown  up  better  school  at 
tendance,  more  philosophical  arrangement  of 
studies,  and  improved  methods  of  instruction 
and  discipline. 

3.  Since  1840  the  most  marked  improve 
ment  in  the  organization,  administration  and 
instruction  of  public  schools,  has  been  made 
in    the   larger   cities  of  the  several   states, 
sometimes  under  the  general  school  law  of 
the  state,  but  generally  under  special  legisla 
tion.     With  the  exception  of  Boston  and  a 
few  of  the   other  large  cities  of  Xcw  Eng 
land,  the  system  of  public  schools  was  alto 
gether  inadequate  to  the  educational  wants 
of  large    communities.       Expensive    private 
schools  were  the  main  reliance  for  the  edu 
cation   of  the   children   of  professional  and 
wealthy  families,  while   a  large  number  of 
those  whose  means  were   inadequate,   were 
left  without  provision  for  their  instruction. 
The    establishment  of  schools    of   different 
grades   for   children   of  different   ages    and 
studies,  and  especially  of  primary  schools  for 
young  children  under  female  teachers,  and 
of  a  high  school  for  the  older  boys  and  girls 
in  studies  heretofore  pursued  only  in  expen 
sive  private  schools,  has  greatly  increased  tho 
attendance  and  elevated  the  character  of  the 
public  schools  of  our  cities.     By  means  of 
evening  schools  which  have  been  established 
in  many  of  our  cities,  the  defective  educa 
tion  of  many  young  men  has  been  remedied, 
and   their  various  employments  have  been 
converted  into  more  efficient  instruments  of 
self-culture. 

4.  With  the  improvement  of  schools  in 
cities  and  large  villages,  the  establishment 
of   normal    schools,    teachers'    associations, 
teachers'    institutes,    and    educational    jour 
nals,  and  state    and  local    supervision,   the 
country  schools  throughout  the  northern  and 
western  states  are  now  in  a  good  and  hopeful 
condition. 


388 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

ACADEMIES,  HIGH  SCHOOLS,  AND  OTHER 
INSTITUTIONS  OF  SECONDARY  EDUCA 
TION. 

THE  first  public  schools  of  the  American 
colonies  were  the  free  endowed  grammar 
schools  and  subscription  grammar  schools ; 
schools  for  secondary  education.  Public  pri 
mary  or  elementary  common  schools  were 
of  later  date,  both  in  chronological  order, 
and  as  being  a  logical  result  of  their  prede 
cessors  of  higher  grade. 

The  first  school  laws,  those  of  Connecti 
cut  and  Massachusetts,  which  were  subse 
quent  to  the  establishment  by  individuals  or 
towns  of  the  classes  of  schools  they  referred 
to,  recognized  all  three  grades  of  education 
al  institutions,  both  what  are  at  present 
termed  common  or  elementary,  and  also 
secondary  or  superior ;  that  is  to  say,  com 
mon  or  neighborhood  schools,  grammar 
schools,  and  colleges. 

The  class  of  secondary  schools,  since  the 
very  earliest  period  of  their  establishment, 
has  been  far  less  cherished  and  supported, 
either  by  public  opinion  or  by  legal  provis 
ions,  than  either  of  the  other  two  classes. 
Almost  universally,  the  academy,  the  en 
dowed  school,  the  grammar  school,  has  been 
wholly  left  to  the  support  of  those  wealthier 
or  more  learned  classes  who  have  been  ta 
citly  assumed  to  have  the  only  use  for  them ; 
and  where  any  state  assistance  has  been  ex 
tended  to  them,  it  has  usually  been  in  the  ex 
ceptional  form  of  individual  acts  of  incorpo 
ration  or  individual  grants  of  money  or  land. 
It  may  be  observed  that  such  a  co-equal 
public  recognition,  if  extended  to  the  class 
of  secondary  schools,  would  at  once  produce 
a  definite  and  important  result,  in  throwing 
probably  half  of  Avhat  may  be  termed  the 
present  secondary  course  of  study  back  with 
in  the  course  of  the  elementary  grade  of 
schools,  and  also  in  bringing  back  a  large 
number  of  what  are  termed  colleges  into 
their  appropriate  grade  of  secondary  institu 
tions. 

The  noticeable  and  important  fact  is  more 
over  thus  brought  out,  that  public  opinion 
in  the  United  States  has  never,  up  to  the 
present  time,  demanded  or  recognized  any 
universal  privilege  of  education  beyond  that 
in  the  merest  rudiments  of  it. 

This  neglect  has  of  course  caused  the  ex 
isting  almost  entire  deficiency  of  recorded 
statistics  of  schools  of  this  class.  Such  sta 


tistics  are  not  accessible  at  all,  except  in  the 
single  state  of  New  York,  and  even  there, 
only  from  such  secondary  institutions  as  are 
obliged  to  furnish  them  as  a  condition  of 
their  receipt  of  a  portion  of  the  literature 
fund.  This  remark  is  not  applicable  to  the 
grade  of  schools  known  as  public  high 
schools,  for  boys  or  girls,  or  both,  in  several 
of  our  larger  cities ;  but  these  schools, 
few  in  number  and  of  modern  origin,  are 
not  so  much  the  outgrowth  of  popular  feel- 
ling,  as  the  creations  of  a  few  intelligent 
friends  of  public  education,  in  advance  of 
any  general  demand  for  this  class  of  institu 
tions.  Although  not  recognized  generally 
as  part  of  our  systems  of  public  instruction, 
schools  of  the  former  class  have  increased 
rapidly,  and  now  exist  in  almost  every  village 
in  the  land,  and  their  aggregate  number  in 
1850,  according  to  the  census  of  that  year, 
will  be  seen  in  the  table  on  page  451. 

The  progress  of  this  class  of  schools,  in 
respect  to  studies,  books,  and  equipment 
generally,  and  methods  of  instruction  and 
discipline,  can  be  readily  measured  by  any 
one  who  will  look  into  the  best  academy  or 
public  high  school  in  his  neighborhood,  and 
then  read  the  following  communications — 
the  first  by  the  Hon.  Josiah  Quincy,  respect 
ing  one  of  the  earliest  institutions  of  the  class 
known  as  academies ;  and  the  other  two 
by  eminent  public  men,  respecting  the  pub 
lie  schools,  and  particularly  the  Latin  school 
of  Boston,  as  it  was  prior  to  or  about  the 
beginning  of  the  present  century,  and  at 
that  time  pronounced  "  the  best  on  the 
American  continent." 

"  MR.  BARNARD  :  Dear  Sir — You  ask  brief 
ly  the  position  of  Phillips  Academy  as  to 
studies,  text-books,  methods,  and  discipline. 
That  academy  was  founded  in  the  year  1  778, 
in  the  midst  of  the  war  of  the  Revolution, 
by  the  united  contributions  of  three  broth 
ers — Samuel,  John,  and  William  Phillips — 
all  of  them  men  of  property  according  to 
the  scale  of  that  day,  and  all  of  a  liberal  spirit 
toward  every  object,  religious,  moral,  or  ed 
ucational.  But  the  real  author  and  instiga 
tor  of  that  foundation  was  the  only  son  of 
the  first  of  the  above-named,  who  was  known 
during  the  early  period  of  his  life  by  the 
name  of  Samuel  Phillips,  Junior.  He  was, 
during  his  whole  life,  one  of  the  most  dis 
tinguished,  exemplary,  and  popular  men  in 
Massachusetts ;  active,  spirited,  influential, 
and  ready,  and  a  leader  in  every  good  work ; 


ACADEMIES,  HIGH  SCHOOLS,  ETC. 


38? 


and  he  had  the  control  of  the  hearts  of  his 
father  and  two  uncles,  and  was  undoubtedly 
the  influential  spirit  giving  vitality  to  the 
plan  of  that  institution.  There  was  only 
one  academy  in  the  state  at  that  time — Dum- 
mer  Academy  at  Newbury — which,  although 
it  had  sent  forth  many  good  scholars,  was 
then  going  to  decay  ;  and  the  beautiful  and 
commanding  site  in  the  south  parish  of  An- 
dover  which  that  institution  now  occupies, 
was  unquestionably  one  of  the  causes  of  the 
idea  of  the  institution  as  well  as  of  its  lo 
cality.  Eliphalet  Pearson  had  been  educa 
ted  at  Dummer  Academy,  was  distinguished 
for  his  scholarship  and  zeal  in  the  cause  of 
classical  learning;  Samuel  Phillips,  jr.,  had 
formed  an  intimacy  with  him  at  college,  though 
in  different  classes,  and  entertained  a  high 
opinion  both  of  his  literary  attainments  and 
spirit  of  discipline.  Phillips  Academy  was 
projected  with  reference  to  his  becoming  its 
first  master;  and  his  aid  was  joined  with 
that  of  his  friend  Phillips  in  forming  the  con 
stitution  of  the  academy. 

"  The  time  of  its  foundation  was  unques 
tionably  most  inauspicious  to  its  success, 
but  young  Phillips  was  of  a  spirit  that 
quailed  before  no  obstacles.  It  was  designed 
to  be  a  model  institution  of  the  kind,  and 
no  pains  were  omitted  to  secure  its  success ; 
and  notwithstanding  the  uncertainties  of  the 
political  aspect  of  the  time  and  the  perpetu 
ally  increasing  depreciation  of  paper  money, 
it  was  sustained  in  great  usefulness  and  pros 
perity.  I  was  sent  to  that  academy  within 
a  month  after  its  opening,  in  May,  1778, 
being  the  seventh  admission  on  its  catalogue. 
I  had  just  then  entered  upon  my  seventh 
year,  and  was  thrust  at  once  into  my  Latin 
at  a  period  of  life  when  noun,  pronoun,  and 
participle  were  terms  of  mysterious  mean 
ing  which  all  the  explanations  of  my  gram 
mars  and  my  masters  for  a  long  time  vainly 
attempted  to  make  me  comprehend.  But  the 
laws  of  the  school  were  imperious.  They 
had  no  regard  for  my  age,  and  I  was  for 
years  submitted  to  the  studies  and  discipline 
of  the  seminary,  which,  though  I  could  re 
peat  the  former,  through  want  of  compre 
hension  of  their  meaning,  I  could  not  possi 
bly  understand.  I  was  sent  to  the  academy 
two  years  at  least  before  I  ought  to  have 
been.  But  William  Phillips  was  my  grand 
father  ;  it  was  deemed  desirable  that  the 
founders  of  the  academy  should  show  confi 
dence  in  its  advantages;  I  was,  therefore, 
sent  at  once,  upon  its  first  opening,  and  I 


have  always  regarded  the  severe  discipline 
to  which  1  was  subjected,  in  consequence  of 
the  inadequacy  of  my  years  to  my  studies, 
as  a  humble  contribution  toward  the  success 
of  the  academy. 

"The  course  of  studies  and  text-books  I  do 
not  believe  I  can  from  memory  exactly  re 
capitulate  ;  I  cannot,  however,  be  far  out 
of  the  way  in  stating  that  '  Cheever's  Ac 
cidence'  was  our  first  book  ;  the  second, 
'  Corderius ;'  the  third,  '  Nepos ;'  then;  if 
I  mistake  not,  came  '  Virgil.'  There  may 
have  been  some  intermediate  author  which 
has  escaped  my  memory,  but  besides  Virgil 
I  have  no  recollection  of  any  higher  author. 

"  Our  grammar  was  '  Ward's,'  in  which  all 
the  rules  and  explanations  are  in  Latin,  and 
we  were  drilled  sedulously  in  writing  this 
language  far  enough  to  get  into  the  univer 
sity.  Our  studies  in  Greek  were  very  slight 
and  superficial.  Gloucester's  Greek  Gram 
mar  was  our  guide  in  that  language,  and  a 
thorough  ability  to  construe  the  four  Gos 
pels  was  all  required  of  us  to  enter  the  col 
lege. 

"  These. are  the  best  answers  I  can  give  to 
your  inquiries  on  the  subject  of  '  studies 
and  text-books,'  but  I  am  not  confident  that 
my  memory  serves  me  with  exactness.  Our 
preparation  was  limited  enough,  but  suffi 
cient  for  the  poverty  and  distracted  state  of 
the  period. 

"  Of  '  methods  and  discipline,'  for  which 
you  inquire,  I  can  only  say  that  the  former 
was  strict  and  exact,  and  the  latter  severe. 
Pearson  was  a  convert  to  thorough  disci 
pline  ;  monitors  kept  an  account  of  all  of  a 
student's  failures,  idleness,  inattention,  whis 
pering,  and  like  deviations  from  order,  and 
at  the  end  of  the  week  were  bestowed  sub 
stantial  rewards  for  such  self-indulgences, 
distributed  upon  the  head  and  hand  with  no 
lack  of  strength  or  fidelity. 

"  In  that  day  arithmetic  was  begun  at  the 
university.  The  degree  of  preparation  for  col 
lege  and  the  amount  of  the  studies  within  it 
are  not  worthy  of  remembrance  when  com 
pared  with  the  means  of  acquirement  now 
presented  to  the  aspiring  student. 

"  Your  other  inquiries  I  should  be  happy 
to  make  the  subject  of  reply,  but  long  ces 
sation  of  familiarity  with  the  objects  to  which 
they  relate  makes  me  dubious  of  my  power 
to  add  any  thing  important  to  their  history. 
My  knowledge  of  the  common  schools  of 
Boston  was  obtained  only  during  the  vaca 
tions  of  the  academy,  and  had  chief  refer- 


390 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


ence  to  improvement  in  my  writing.  Their 
advantages  were  few  enough  and  humble 
enough  ;  the  education  of  females  very  slight, 
and  limited  to  reading,  writing,  and  the  ear 
lier  branches  of  arithmetic. 

"The  interests  of  schools  and  of  education 
were,  thirty  years  ago,  subjects  of  my  thought 
and  writing ;  but  the  lapse  of  time  and  the 
interposition  of  other  objects  and  new  du 
ties  deprive  me  of  the  power  of  aiding  your 
researches  on  these  subjects,  which  are,  how 
ever,  easily  and  far  better  satisfied  by  the 
active  men  of  the  day.  Wishing  you  all 
success  in  these  wise  and  noble  pursuits, 
"  I  am,  very  truly, 

"  Your  friend  and  servant, 

"JosiAH  QUINCY." 

"BOSTON,  Dec.  1st,  1860." 

The  following  "Memorandum  of  an  emi 
nent  clergyman,  who  was  educated  in  the 
best  schools  of  Boston  just  before  the  Revo 
lution,"  we  copy  from  a  volume  of  the 
"Massachusetts  Common  School  Journal," 
vol.  xii.,  pp.  311,  312.  The  notes  are  by 
the  editor  of  the  Journal,  Wm.  B.  Fowle : 

"  At  the  age  of  six  and  a  half  years,  I 
was  sent  to  Master  John  Lovell's  Latin 
school.  The  only  requirement  was  reading 
well ;  but,  though  fully  qualified,  I  was  sent 
away  to  Master  Griffith,  a  private  teacher, 
to  learn  to  read,  write  and  spell.  I  learned 
the  English  Grammar  in  Dilworth's  Spelling 
Book  by  heart.  Griffith  traced  letters  with 
a  pencil,  and  the  pupils  inked  them. 

"  Entered  Lovell's  school  at  seven  years. 
Lovell  was  a  tyrant,  and  his  system  one  of 
terror.  Trouncing*  was  common  in  the 


*  "  Trouncing  was  performed  by  stripping  the  boy, 
mounting  him  on  another's  back,  and  whipping  him 
with  birch  rods,  before  the  whole  school.     James 
Lovell,  the  grandson  of  John,  once  related  to  us  the 
following  anecdote,  which  shows  the  utility  of  cor 
poral  punishment !    It  seems  that  a  boy  had  played 
truant,  and  Master  John  had  publicly  declared  that 
the  offender  should  be  trounced.    When  such  a  sen 
tence  was  pronounced,  it  was  understood  that  the 
other  boys  might  seize  the  criminal,  and  take  him 
to  school  by  force.     The  culprit  was  soon  seized  by 
one  party,  and  hurried  to  the  master,  who  inflicted 
the  punishment  without  delay.      On  his  way  home, 
the  culprit  met  another  party,  who  cried  out,  '  Ah, 
John  Brown,'  or  whatever  his  name  was,  'you'll 
get  it  when  you   go  to   school!'     'No,  I  shan't, 
said  the  victorious  boy,  who  felt  that  he  had  got  the 
start  of  them,  '  No,  I  shan't,  for  I've  got  it,'  and,  a 
he  said  this,  he  slapped  his  hand  upon  the  part  that 
liad  paid  the  penalty,  thus,  as  the  poet  says,  '  suit 
ing  the  action  to  the  word.'  " 


school.  Dr.  Cooper  was  one  of  his  early 
scholars,  and  he  told  Dr.  Jackson,  the  min 
ister  of  Brookline,  that  he  had  dreams  of 
school  till  he  died.  The  boys  were  so  afraid 
they  could  not  study.  Sam.  Bradford,  after 
ward  sheriff,  pronounced  the  P  in  Ptolemy, 
and  the  younger  Lovell  rapped  him  over  the 
liead  with  a  heavy  ferule.* 

"  We  studied  Latin  from  8  o'clock  till 
11,  and  from  1  till  dark.  After  one  or  two 
years,  I  went  to  the  town  school,  to  Master 
Holbrook,  at  the  corner  of  West  street,  to 
learn  to  write;  and  to  Master  Proctor,  on 
Pembcrton's  Hill,  in  the  south-east  part  of 
Scollay's  Building.  My  second,  third,  and 
fourth  year,  I  wrote  there,  and  did  nothing 
else.  The  English  boys  alone  were  taught 
to  make  pens.  Griffith  was  gentle,  but  his 
being  a  private  teacher  accounts  for  it. 

"  The  course  of  study  was,  grammar ; 
Esop,  with  a  translation ;  Clarke's  Introduc 
tion  to  writing  Latin ;  Eutropius,  with  a 
translation ;  Corderius ;  Ovid's  Metamor 
phoses  ;  Virgil's  Georgics  ;  ^Encid  ;  Ca-sar; 
Cicero.  In  the  sixth  year  I  began  Greek, 
and  for  the  first  time  attempted  English 
composition,  by  translating  Caesar's  Com 
mentaries.  The  master  allowed  us  to  read 
poetical  translations,  such  as  Trappe's  and 
Dryden's  Virgil.  I  was  half  way  through 
Virgil  when  I  began  Greek  with  Ward's 
Greek  Grammar. 

"  After  Cheever's  Latin  Accidence,  we 
took  Ward's  Lily's  Latin  Grammer.  After 
the  Greek  Grammar,  we  read  the  Greek 
Testament,  and  were  allowed  to  use  Beza's 
Latin  translation.  Then  came  Homer's 
Iliad,  five  or  six  books,  using  Clarke's 
translation  with  notes,  and  this  was  all  my 
Greek  education  at  school.  Then  we  took 
Horace,  and  composed  Latin  verses,  using 
the  Gradus  ad  Parnassum.  Daniel  Jones 
was  the  first  Latin  scholar  in  1771  or  1772, 


*  "  TV'e  saw  this  done  by  another  Boston  teacher, 
about  thirty  years  ago,  and  when  we  remonstrated 
with  him  upon  the  danger  of  inflicting  such  a  blow, 
upon  such  a  spot,  '0,  the  caitiffs,'  said  he,  'it  is 
good  for  them  j'  About  the  same  time,  another 
teacher,  who  used  to  strike  his  pupils  upon  the 
hand  so  that  the  marks  and  bruises  were  visible, 
was  waited  upon  by  a  committee  of  mothers,  who 
lived  near  the  school,  and  had  been  annoyed  by  the 
outcries  of  tho  sufferers.  The  teacher  promised  not 
to  strike  the  boys  any  more  on  the  hand,  and  the 
women  went  away  satisfied.  But,  instead  of  in 
flicting  blows  upon  tho  hand,  he  inflicted  them  upon 
the  soles  of  tho  feet,  and  made  the  punishment  more 
severe." 


ACADEMIES,    HIGH    SCHOOLS,    ETC. 


391 


and  he  was  brother  to  Thomas  Kilby  Jones, 
who  was  no  scholar,  though  a  distinguished 
merchant  afterward. 

"  I  entered  college  at  the  age  of  fourteen 
years  and  three  months,  and  was  equal  in 
Latin  and  Greek  to  the  best  in  the  senior 
class.  Xenophon  and  Sallust  were  the  only 
books  used  in  college  that  I  had  not  stud 
ied.  I  went  to  the  private  school  from  11 
to  12  A.  M.,  and  to  the  public  from  3  to  5 

P.   M. 

"  The  last  two  years  of  my  school  life, 
nobody  taught  English  Grammar  or  Geog 
raphy,  but  Col.  Joseph  Ward  (son  of  Dea 
con  Joseph  Ward,  of  Newton,  West  Parish, 
blacksmith,)  who  was  self-taught,  and  set 
up  a  school  in  Boston.  He  became  aid  to 
General  Ward  when  the  war  commenced, 
and  did  not  teach  after  the  war. 

"  I  never  saw  a  map,  except  in  Caesar's 
Commentaries,  and  did  not  know  what  that 
meant.  Our  class  studied  Lowth's  English 
Grammar  at  college.  At  Master  Proctor's 
school,  reading  and  writing  were  taught  in 
the  same  room,  to  girls  and  boys,  from  7  to 
14  years  of  age,  and  the  Bible  was  the  only 
reading  book.  Dilworth's  Spelling  Book 
was  used,  and  the  New  England  Primer. 
The  master  set  sums  in  our  MSS.  but  did  not 
go  farther  than  the  Rule  of  Three. 

"  Master  Griffith  was  a  thin  man,  and 
wore  a  wig,  as  did  Masters  Lovell  and 
Proctor,  but  they  wore  a  Cap  when  not  in 
full  dress.  James  Lovell  was  so  beaten  by 
his  grandfather  John,  that  James  the  father 
rose  and  said,  '  Sir,  you  have  flogged  that 
boy  enough.'  The  boy  went  off  determined 
to  leave  school,  and  go  to  Master  Proctor's ; 
but  he  met  one  of  Master  Proctor's  boys, 
who  asked  whither  he  was  going,  and  when 
informed,  warned  him  not  to  go,  for  he 
would  fare  worse." 

Hon.  Edward  Everett,  in  an  address  at  the 
Annual  School  Festival  in  Faneuil  Hall  in 
1852,  gives  the  following  account  of  the 
educational  advantages  he  enjoyed  in  early 
life  :— 

"It  was  fifty-two  years  last  April  since  I 
began,  at  the  ago  of  nine  years,  to  attend 
the  reading  and  writing  schools  in  North 
Bennett  street.  The  reading  school  was 
under  Master  Little,  (for  'Young  America' 
had  not  yet  repudiated  that  title,)  and  the 
writing  school  was  kept  by  Master  Tileston. 
Master  Little,  in  spite  of  his  name,  was  a 
giant  in  stature — six  feet  four,  at  least — and 


somewhat  wedded  to  the  past.  He  struggled 
earnestly  against  the  change  then  taking 
place  in  the  pronunciation  of  u,  and  insisted 
on  saying  monoomcnt  and  natur.  But  I  ac 
quired,  under  his  tuition,  what  was  thought 
in  those  days  a  very  tolerable  knowledge  of 
Lindley  Murray's  abridgment  of  English 
grammar,  and  at  the  end  of  the  year  could 
parse  almost  any  sentence  in  the  '  American 
Preceptor.'  Master  Tileston  was  a  writing 
master  of  the  old  school.  He  set  the  copies 
himself,  and  taught  that  beautiful  old  Boston 
handwriting,  which,  if  I  do  not  mistake,  has, 
in  the  march  of  innovation,  (which  is  not 
always  the  same  thing  as  improvement,) 
been  changed  very  little  for  the  better. 
Master  Tileston  was  advanced  in  years,  and 
had  found  a  qualification  for  his  calling  as  a 
writing  master,  in  what  might  have  seemed 
at  first  to  threaten  to  be  an  obstruction. 
The  fingers  of  his  right  hand  had  been  con 
tracted  and  stiffened  in  early  life,  by  a  burn, 
but  were  fixed  in  just  the  position  to  hold  a 
pen  and  a  penknife — and  nothing  else.  As 
they  were  also  considerably  indurated,  they 
served  as  a  convenient  instrument  of  disci 
pline.  A  copy  badly  written,  or  a  blotted 
page,  was  sometimes  visited  with  an  inflic 
tion  which  would  have  done  no  discredit  to 
the  beak  of  a  bald  eagle.  His  long,  deep 
desk  was  a  perfect  curiosity-shop  of  confis 
cated  balls,  tops,  penknives,  marbles  and 
Jews-harps — the  accumulation  of  forty  years. 
I  desire,  however,  to  speak  of  him  with 
gratitude,  for  he  put  me  on  the  track  of  an 
acquisition  which  has  been  extremely  useful 
to  me  in  after  life — that  of  a  plain,  legible 
hand.  I  remained  at  these  schools  about 
sixteen  months,  and  had  the  good  fortune  in 
1804  to  receive  the  Franklin  medal  in  the 
English  department.  After  an  interval  of 
about  a  year,  during  which  I  attended  a 
private  school  kept  by  Mr.  Ezekiel  Webster, 
of  New  Hampshire,  and  on  an  occasion  of 
his  absence,  by  his  ever  memorable  brother, 
Daniel  Webster,  at  that  time  a  student  of 
law  in  Boston,  I  went  to  the  Latin  school, 
then  slowly  emerging  from  a  state  of  extreme 
depression.  It  was  kept  in  School  street, 
where  the  Horticultural  Hall  now  stands. 
The  standard  of  scholastic  attainment  was 
certainly  not  higher  than  that  of  material 
comfort  "in  those  days.  We -read  pretty 
much  the  same  books — or  of  the  same  class 
— in  Latin  and  Greek,  as  are  read  now,  but 
in  a  very  cursory  and  superficial  manner. 
There  was  no  attention  paid  to  the  philoso- 


392 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


phv  of  the  languages — to  the  deduction  of 
words  from  their  radical  elements — to  the 
niceties  of  construction — still  less  to  prosody. 
I  never  made  a  hexameter  or  pentameter 
verse,  till,  years  afterward,  I  had  a  son  at 
school  in  London,  who  occasionally  required 
a  little  aid  in  that  way.  The  subsidiary  and 
illustrative  branches  were  wholly  unknown 
in  the  Latin  school  in  1805.  Such  a  thing 
as  a  school  library,  a  book  of  reference,  a 
critical  edition  of  a  classic,  a  map,  a  black 
board,  an  engraving  of  an  ancient  building, 
or  a  copy  of  a  work  of  ancient  art,  such  as 
now  adorn  the  walls  of  our  schools,  was  as 
little  known  as  the  electric  telegraph.  If 
our  children,  who  possess  all  these  appliances 
and  aids  to  learning,  do  not  greatly  excel 
their  parents,  they  will  be  much  to  blame." 


CHAPTER  V. 

COLLEGES. 

THE  colleges  of  the  United  States  were,  at 
the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  seven  in 
number.     They  had  been  founded  Avith  the 
design  of  providing  for  the  new   common 
wealths   the  means    of  a   training   for   the 
young  men,  substantially  similar  to  that  af 
forded  by  the  universities  at  home.     Their 
course  of  study  was  four  years  in  length,  and 
was  at  first  decidedly  theological  in  charac 
ter,  and  subsequently  more  and  more  secu 
larized.     The  average  age  of  those  entering 
was  somewhat  less  than  now  ;  and  they  con 
ferred,  as  at  present,  degrees  in  arts  in  course, 
and  honorary  ones  in  arts,  law,  and  divinity. 
With  the  growth  of  the  United  States  they 
have  rapidly  increased  in  number,  being  sup 
ported,  beyond  the  receipts  for  tuition,  either 
by  endowments  raised  for  each  among  the  de 
nomination  to  which  it  belongs,  or  by  the 
proceeds  of  state  gifts  of  lands  or  money.  The 
number  of  this  class  of  institutions  incorpo 
rated  with  power  to  confer  academic  honors, 
exceeds  two  hundred.     The  length  of  their 
course  of  study  remains  the   same,  and  in 
deed  this  is  the  case  in  all  their  essential 
characteristics.     Although  there  has  been  a 
gradual  elevation  of  the  standard  of  acquire 
ments  made  requisite  for  entrance,  this  pre 
liminary  examination  has   not    been    suffi 
ciently  exacting  and  uniform.  As  their  funds 
and  the  number  of  their  students  have  en 
larged,  they  have  shown  a  tendency,  not  to 
increase  the  length  and  completeness  of  then 


course  of  study,  but  rather  to  multiply  the 
lumber  of  studies  attempted  to  be  taught, 
by  adding  them  to  the  undergraduate  course; 
and  in  a  few  instances  also  to  annex  special 
schools  in  one  or  another  department,  such 
as  law,  medicine,  theology,  and  the  appli- 
ation  of  science  to  industrial  occupations. 

Mr.  Everett  gives  the  following  picture  of, 
college  life  at  Harvard  as  it  was  fifty  years 
ago  :— 

"  But  short  as  the  time  is  since  I  entered 
college  (only  half  as  long  as  that  which  has 
elapsed  since  the  close  of  the  seven  years' 
war),  it  has  made  me  the  witness  of  wonder 
ful  changes,  both  materially  and  intellec 
tually,  in  all  that  concerns  our  Alma  Mater. 
Let  me  sketch  you  the  outlines  of  the  pic 
ture,  fresh  to  my  mind's  eye  as  the  image  in 
the  camera,  which  the  precincts  of  the  col 
lege  exhibited  in  1807.  The  Common  was 
then  uninclosed.  It  was  not  so  much  trav 
ersed  by  roads  in  all  directions ;  it  was  at 
once  all  road  and  no  road  at  all, — a  waste 
of  mud  and  of  dust,  according  to  the  season, 
without  grass,  trees,  or  fences.  As  to  the 
streets  in  those  days,  the  'Appian  AVay' 
existed  then  as  now ;  and  I  must  allow  that 
it  bore  the  same  resemblance  then  as  now  to 
the  Rcgina  Viarum,  by  which  the  consuls 
and  proconsuls  of  Rome  went  forth  to  the 
conquest  of  Epirus,  Macedonia,  and  the  East. 

"  As  to  public  buildings  in  the  neighbor 
hood  of  the  university,  with  the  exception 
of  the  Episcopal  church,  no  one  of  the 
churches  now  standing  was  then  in  exist 
ence.  The  old  parish  church  has  disap 
peared,  with  its  square  pews,  and  galleries 
from  which  you  might  almost  jump  into  the 
pulpit.  It  occupied  a  portion  of  the  space 
between  Dane  Hall  and  the  old  Presidential 
House.  I  planted  a  row  of  elm  and  oak 
trees  a  few  years  ago  on  the  spot  where  it 
stood,  for  which,  if  for  nothing  else,  I  hope 
to  be  kindly  remembered  by  posterity.  The 
wooden  building  now  used  as  a  gymnasium, 
and,  I  believe,  for  some  other  purposes,  then 
stood  where  Lyceum  Hall  now  stands.  It 
was  the  county  court-house;  and  there  I 
often  heard  the  voice  of  the  venerable  Chief 
Justice  Parsons.  Graduates'  Hall  did  not 
exist;  but  on  a  part  of  the  site,  and  bi'hind 
the  beautiful  linden  trees  still  flourishing, 
was  an  old  black  wooden  house,  the  residence 
of  the  professor  of  mathematics.  A  little  fur 
ther  to  the  north,  and  just  at  the  corner  of 
Church  street,  which  was  not  then  openc'd, 
stood  what  was  dignified  in  the  annual  col- 


393 


lege  catalogue  (which  was  printed  on  one 
side  of  a  sheet  of  paper,  and  was  a  novelty) 
as  '  The  College  House.'  The  cellar  is 
still  visible.  By  the  students  this  edifice 
was  disrespectfully  called  '  Wiswall's  Den,' 
or,  for  brevity,  '  the  Den.'  I  lived  in  it  in 
my  freshman  year.  Whence  the  name  of 
'  Wiswall's  Den'  was  derived,  I  hardly  dare 
say  ;  there  was  something  worse  than  '  old 
fogy'  about  it.  There  was  a  dismal  tradi 
tion  that,  at  some  former  period,  it  had  been 
the  scene  of  a  murder.  A  brutal  husband 
had  dragged  his  wife  by  the  hair  up  and 
down  the  stairs,  and  then  killed  her.  On 
the  anniversary  of  the  murder — and  what  day 
that  was  no  one  knew — there  were  sights  and 
sounds — flitting  garments  draggled  in  blood, 
plaintive  screams,  stridor  fcrri  tractceque 
catcncc — enough  to  appall  the  stoutest  sopho 
more.  But,  for  myself,  I  can  truly  say,  that 
I  got  through  my  freshman  year  without 
having  seen  the  ghost  of  Mr.  Wiswall  or  his 
lamented  lady.  I  was  not,  however,  sorry 
when  the  twelvemonth  was  up,  and  I  was 
transferred  to  the  light,  airy,  well-ventilated 
room,  Xo.  20  Hollis ;  being  the  inner  room, 
ground-floor,  north  entry  of  that  ancient  and 
respectable  edifice." 

The  tables  on  pages  451-3  exhibit  the  num 
ber,  date  of  foundation,  and  statistics  of  our 
American  colleges  in  several  important  par 
ticulars. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

PROFESSIONAL,  SCIENTIFIC,  AND  SPECIAL 
SCHOOLS. 

As  the  body  of  human  knowledge  in 
creased  in  extent,  and  filled  out  in  detail,  it 
subdivided  by  a  natural  process  into  a  great 
er  and  greater  number  of  sciences,  as  did 
the  industrial  side  of  life  into  a  greater  and 
greater  number  of  employments.  A  sub 
division  and  increase  in  the  number  of 
schools,  preparatory  to  the  business  of  life, 
naturally  accompanied  this  process. 

The  colleges  of  the  United  States,  accord 
ing  to  this  law  of  development,  were  in  their 
early  day  designed  primarily  to  train  future 
clergymen,  and  secondarily  to  train  those  in 
tending  to  enter  the  public  service.  For  a 
long  time  college  graduates  had  no  means  of 
enjoying  further  instruction  in  cither  of  the 
then  recognized  learned  professions,  but  by 
residing  near  or  in  the  family  of  some  eminent 


clergyman,  lawyer,  or  physician,  acting  as 
his  assistant  and  receiving  his  instructions. 
Then,  when  they  considered  themselves  fit, 
or  an  invitation  came,  they  took  their  place- 
in  the  ranks  of  their  profession.  Gradually 
the  necessity  of  special  opportunities  of  in 
struction  in  the  principles,  and  their  diverse 
and  complicated  applications,  led  to  the  es 
tablishment  of  schools  of  theology,  medicine, 
and  law ;  and  still  later,  of  special  courses 
of  instruction,  and  finally,  of  special  schools 
for  the  practical  chemist,  geologist,  civil  and 
military  engineer,  agriculturist  and  teacher. 
This  department  of  education  is  not  yet 
aided  systematically  in  any  state,  and  is  hard 
ly  recognized  by  a  majority  of  the  states  in 
their  systems  of  public  instruction.  Most 
of  this  class  of  institutions  have  been  estab 
lished  by  denominational  or  professional  as 
sociations,  or  by  the  liberality  of  individuals 
in  advance  of  or  as  the  inducement  to  legis 
lative  aid. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THEOLOGICAL  SCHOOLS. 

THE  future  clergyman,  in  the  American 
colonies,  had  already  studied  theology  in  las 
college  course.  It  was  probably  common  for 
graduates  to  serve  what  may  be  well  enough 
termed  an  apprenticeship  under  some  emi 
nent  clergyman,  after  leaving  college.  During 
the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the 
custom  grew  up  of  subjecting  the  candidate 
for  the  ministry  to  .examination  by  a  number 
of  ministers,  and  licensing  him  to  preach  as 
candidate.  Dr.  Bellamy  first  introduced  at 
his  house  at  Bethlcrn,  Connecticut,  the  plan 
of  giving  something  like  a  regular  course  of 
instruction  to  students  in  theology.  A  little 
later  the  practice  became  quite  general, 
and  was  confirmed  by  the  gradual  elimina 
tion  of  its  theological  character  from  the 
course  of  study  in  the  colleges. 

The  first  separate  theological  school  in  the 
United  States  was  that  at  Andover,  founded 
and  opened  in  1807.  The  thorough  three 
years'  course  of  study  here  established  soon, 
did  away  with  the  comparatively  inefficient 
and  superficial  apprenticeship  scheme,  which 
afforded  a  professional  training  of  twelve,  six, 
or  even  only  three  months. 

Of  previous  departmental  or  imperfect 
provisions  for  specific  ministerial  training, 
should  be  mentioned  the  academy  known  as 
"  Log  College,"  of  Rev.  William  Tennent,  at 


394 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


Neshaminy,  Bucks  county,  Pa.,  opened  about 
172S  ;  the'preparatory  school  opened  by  Rev. 
John  Smith  in  the  west  of  Pennsylvania  in 
1778,  afterward  under  Rev.  J.  Anderson, 
D.  D. ;  William  and  Mary  College,  which 
included  a  professorship  of  divinity  in  1 693  ; 
the  foundation  of  the  Ilollis  professorship  of 
divinity  at  Harvard  College  in  1721  ;  and 
that  of  the  Livingston  professorship  of  di 
vinity  at  Yale  College  in  1746. 

The  table,  altered  into  chronological  succes 
sion  from  the  American  Almanac,  1861,  gives 
the  growth  of  this  class  of  special  schools. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

LAW   SCHOOLS. 

THE  professional  education  of  colonial  law 
yers  was  equally  unscientific,  with  the  excep 
tion  of  the  few  who  obtained  a  legal  educa 
tion  at  the  Middle  or  Inner  Temple  in  Lon 
don,  those  inns  of  court  being  the  favorite 
resorts  of  American  students.  Law,  indeed, 
was  then  scarcely  considered  a  liberal  science 
in  this  country,  and  the  profession  was  in 
more  than  one  instance  discouraged  or  actu 
ally  forbidden  by  colonial  constitutions  or 
laws.  Thus,  in  1660,  Virginia,  by  her  house 
of  burgesses,  voted  for  "the  total  ejection 
of  mercenary  attorneys ;"  Massachusetts,,  in 
1663,  prohibited  "usual  and  common  attor 
neys  in  any  inferior  court,"  from  being  mem 
bers  of  the  legislature ;  and  Locke's  consti 
tution  for  Carolina  permitted  "  no  one  to 
plead  another  man's  cause."  The  only  pro 
fessional  training  between  the  college  course 
and  actual  practice  was  in  the  office  of  some 
practitioner  already  established,  where  the 
aspirant  served  for  an  indefinite  period  as 
an  attorney's  clerk,  usually  learning  to  draw 
instruments,  and  obtaining  a  desultory  knowl 
edge  of  forms,  technics  and  special  pleading, 
but  very  seldom  pursuing  any  regulated 
course  of  study  or  systematically  mastering 
his  subject. 

The  first  separate  institution  for  legal  in 
struction  was  the  celebrated  law  school  at 
Litchfield,  Connecticut,  established  by  Judge 
Reeve  in  1784,  taught  by  him  alone  until 
1798,  then  together  with  Judge  Gould  until 
a  little  before  Judge  Reeve's  death  in  1823, 
and  afterward  by  Judge  Gould  alone  until 
1827.  Seven  hundred  and  fifty  students  in 
all  studied  law  in  this  school ;  w"ho,  scattered 
over  the  whole  country,  carried  with  them 


and  instilled  into  the  profession  at  large  the 
idea  of  a  special  and  systematic  training  for 
the  practice  of  law. 

We  append  a  table,  altered  from  the 
American  Almanac  for  1861,  of  the  existing 
law  schools  or  collegiate  departments  in  the 
United  States,  in  the  order  of  their  founda 
tion.  It  should,  however,  be  observed  that 
some  legal  studies  were  included  in  the  orig 
inal  scheme  of  William  and  Mary  College, 
founded  1693,  and  the  law  course  became 
of  some  positive  value  by  improvements 
about  1730.  Also,  that  a  law  professorship 
was  founded  in  the  College  of  Philadelphia 
in  1790;  a  professor  of  law  appointed  at 
Yale  College  in  1801;  and  the  Roy  all  Pro 
fessorship  of  Law  at  Harvard,  founded  in 
1815. 


CHAPTER    IX. 
MEDICAL  SCHOOLS. 

MEDICAL  schools  are  of  quite  recent  date  ; 
and  the  training  of  the  young  physician  was 
of  a  very  irregular  character  during  the 
colonial  period.  Degrees  of  Doctor  of  Medi- 
cinft  were  possessed  by  a  very  few  practising 
physicians,  who  had  studied  at  Edinburgh, 
Leyden,  or  other  European  schools.  The 
few  eminent  physicians  who  were  trained 
exclusively  in  the  colonies,  were  to  a  great 
extent  followers  of  a  natural  gift  and  ten 
dency,  which  went  far  to  supply  their  lack 
of  school  learning.  Young  men  proposing 
to  become  physicians,  practised  in  the  offi 
ces  and  under  the  instruction  of  established 
physicians.  Down  to  the  middle  of  the  1 8th 
century,  it  was  the  frequent  practice,  in  Con 
necticut,  at  least,  to  obtain  a  formal  license 
from  the  general  court,  which  was  commonly 
granted  on  petition  of  the  aspirant,  reinforced 
by  testimonials  from  the  freemen  of  his  town, 
the  town  officers,  or  practising  physicians. 
Sometimes  the  only  credentials  of  the  begin 
ner,  were  the  certificate  of  the  physician  with 
whom  he  had  studied.  After  college  courses 
of  medical  lectures  were  established,  a  license 
from  the  faculty  was  given,  which  served  in 
stead  of  the  subsequent  diploma. 

The  earliest  collegiate  medical  department 
in  the  United  States  was  that  of  the  Univer 
sity  of  Pennsylvania  in  1765.  Dr.  Shippen 
had  lectured  on  anatomy  in  1762. 

We  add  a  chronological  table,  altered  from 
the  American  Almanac  for  1861,  of  the  medi 
cal  schools  of  the  United  States. 


MILITARY    AND    NAVAL    SCHOOLS. 


395 


CHAPTER  X. 

MILITARY  AND  NAVAL  SCHOOLS. 

THE  experience  of  the  Revolutionary  war 
occasioned  a  very  general  conviction  among 
the  officers  of  the  American  army,  of  the 
necessity  for  such  a  provision  for  the  military 
education  of  native  officers  as  would  relieve 
the  United  States  from  a  dependence  upon 
professionally  trained  soldiers  of  foreign 
birth.  The  idea  of  a  military  school  of 
some  kind,  to  be  connected  with  each  United 
States  arsenal,  was  entertained  at  the  close 
of  the  war  among  the  officers. 

In  the  spring  of  1783,  General  Washing 
ton  requested  from  a  number  of  leading  offi 
cers,  statements  of  their  views  on  all  subjects 
connected  with  the  peace  establishment  of 
the  United  States  army.  In  reply  to  this 
request,  Colonel  Timothy  Pickering,  then 
quartermaster-general,  drew  up  an  able  and 
interesting  memoir,  which  contains,  it  is  be- 
Ibved,  the  first  suggestion  of  a  single  central 
g  n'crnment  military  academy,  and  he  also 
suggested  West  Point  as  a  proper  location 
for  it. 

President  Washington's  annual  address  to 
Congress  of  December  3,  1793,  asks  "wheth 
er  a  material  feature  in  the  improvement  of  a 
system  of  national  defence  ought  not  to  be 
to  afford  an  opportunity  for  the  study  of 
those  branches  of  the  military  art,  which  can 
scarcely  ever  be  attained  by  practice  alone." 

An  act  of  Congress  of  May  9,  1794,  au 
thorized  a  corps  of  four  battalions  of  artil 
lerists  and  engineers,  to  each  of  which  were 
to  be  attached  eight  cadets.  This  was  the 
first  introduction  into  the  military  service  of 
the  United  States  of  this  term,  which  may 
be  defined  to  signify  a  grade  of  officers  be 
tween  the  highest  non-commissioned  officer, 
a  sergeant,  and  the  lowest  commissioned  one, 
an  ensign.  For  the  use  of  this  corps  and 
cadets,  the  secretary  of  war,  Colonel  Picker 
ing,  was  authorized  to  procure  the  necessary 
books  and  apparatus.  The  secretary,  in 
17 90,  reports  that  this  organization  is  im 
portant,  and  should  be  as  stationary  as  prac 
ticable,  with  a  view  to  instruction. 

President  Washington's  last  annual  speech 
to  Congress,  December,  1796,  again  urged 
strongly  the  establishment  of  a  military 
academy.  In  April,  1798,  the  corps  of  artil 
lerists  and  engineers  was  increased  by  an 
additional  regiment,  and  the  number  of 
cadets  enlarged  to  fifty-six.  In  July  follow 
ing,  four  teachers  were  by  Congress  author 


ized  to  be  employed  in  that  regiment  for  in 
struction  in  science  and  art.  Some  officers 
and  men  were  collected  at  West  Point,  and 
a  sort  of  military  school  opened,  which,  how 
ever,  acted  wi$i  little  efficiency,  owing  to 
the  want  of  preparatory  training,  and  of  or 
ganization. 

Secretary  of  War  Mcllenry,  in  a  report  on 
the  organization  of  the  army,  made  during 
the  expectation  of  a  war  with  France,  dated 
December  24,  1798,  lamented  the  want  of 
engineers  and  artillerists  trained  at  home. 
In  January,  1800,  the  same  officer  laid  be 
fore  the  President,  who  transmitted  it  to 
Congress,  a  plan  for  establishing  a  military 
academy.  After  referring  to  the  imperfect 
steps  already  taken  in  this  direction,  he  pro 
ceeds  to  suggest  that  the  proposed  academy 
shall  consist  of  a  "  fundamental  school,"  to 
instruct  in  such  departments  of  science  as 
are  necessary  in  common  in  all  the  arms  of 
the  military  force ;  and  three  special  schools, 
one  of  engineers  and  artillerists,  one  of 
cavalry  and  infantry,  and  one  of  the  navy. 
The  institution  was  to  be  in  charge  of  a  direc 
tor-general,  four  directors,  twelve  professors, 
and  nine  other  instructors.  This  school,  so 
far  as  Secretary  Mcllenry  recommended  its 
immediate  establishment,  was  to  accommo 
date  annual  classes  of  one  hundred  pupils 
each,  for  courses  of  four  and  five  years. 

The  Military  Academy  at  West  Point,  ac 
cording  to  Colonel  Williams'  report  in  1808, 
was  first  opened  in  1801,  as  a  "mathemati 
cal  school  for  the  few  cadets  that  were  then 
in  service,"  and  under  a  private  citizen.  In 
1802,  an  act  of  Congress  separated  the  artil 
lerists  and  engineers,  distributing  the  cadets 
of  the  former  class  among  the  twenty  com 
panies  of  that  arm,  and  constituted  the  en 
gineers  the  Military  Academy,  making  it 
consist  of  seven  officers  and  ten  cadets. 

The  operations  of  the  school  continued  to 
be  deficient  in  order  and  efficiency  for  some 
years,  still  for  want  of  proper  and  energetic 
administration,  and  a  well  adjusted  course 
of  study.  In  1812,  it  was  much  enlarged, 
and  its  organization  quite  changed.  The 
period  from  1817  to  1824,  however,  during 
which  a  thorough  course  of  theoretical  and 
practical  studies,  properly  adapted  to  the 
military  profession,  was  for  the  first  time  in 
troduced,  marks  the  establishment  of  the 
academy  as  a  military  and  scientific  school 
of  high  grade  and  value. 

The  academy,  in  I860,  was  organized  under 
a  superintendent,  who  is  commandant,  of  the 


396 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


post,  and  a  corps  of  forty-six  instructors  and 
officers.  Its  course  of  study  is  of  five  years, 
and  is  intended  to  train  the  pupils  in  military 
science  and  art  as  applicable  to  all  arms  of 
tlie  service.  The  number, of  pupils  is  by 
law  fixed  at  one  from  eacli  congressional  and 
territorial  representative  district,  together 
with  ten  appointed  at  large  ;  being  at  pres 
ent  a  total  limit  of  252. 

OTHER  MILITARY  SCHOOLS. 

In  1839,  the  state  of  Virginia  established 
in  connection  with  Washington  College,  at 
Lexington,  Va.,  the  "Virginia  Military  In 
stitute,"  intended  to  instruct  young  men  in 
tactics  and  civil  engineering.  There  were  in 
1858  eleven  instructors.  The  pupils  are 
divided  into  state  cadets  and  pay  cadets ; 
the  latter  class  paying  their  expenses,  and 
the  former  supported  out  of  a  state  appro 
priation  of  $6000  a  year,  and  an  additional 
sum  of  $1,500  from  the  literary  fund. 

Two  similar  schools  were  established  by 
South  Carolina  in  1842 — the  Arsenal  Acad 
emy  at  Columbia,  and  the  Citadel  Academy 
at  Charleston.  These  contemplate  a  similar 
course,  and  .are  aided  by  a  state  appropria 
tion,  which  was  in  1859  $30,000.  A  mili 
tary  academy  at  Lexington,  Kentucky,  is  aid 
ed  by  the  state,  and  is  under  a  board  of  nine 
members,  appointed  by  the  state.  Louisiana 
lias  a  military  school  of  the  same  character. 
These  institutions  have  been  found  well  adapt 
ed  to  the  character  of  southern  pupils,  and 
are  flourishing  and  useful. 

Of  the  various  private  schools  which  have 
or  have  had  an  infusion  of  the  military  ele 
ment,  one  of  the  most  prominent  was  that 
of  Captain  Alden  Partridge.  Captain  Part 
ridge  was  a  native  of  Norwich,  Vt.,  where 
he  died,  aged  70,  in  1854.  He  was  a  mili 
tary  instructor  during  nearly  fifty  years,  be 
ing  principal  of  the  West  Point  Academy 
from  1812  to  1816;  and  afterward  conduct 
ing  a  private  military  school,  successively  at 
Norwich,  Vt.,  Middlctown,  Ct.,  Portsmouth, 
Va.,  and  Brandywine  Springs,  Del.,  nearly 
or  quite  down  to  the  time  of  his  death. 

A  number  of  private  schools  and  other 
institutions  in  various  parts  of  the  country 
have  adopted  more  or  less  of  a  military  or 
ganization,  as  a  means  of  securing  physical 
exercise,  amusement,  and  mental  and  moral 
discipline.  A  military  drill,  for  instance,  is 
part  of  the  regular  exercises  of  the  Univer 
sity  of  Nashville,  Tennessee  ;  and  the  pupils 
of  the  well-known  school  of  Professor  Wil 


liam  Russell,  of  New  Haven,  Connecticut,  are 
regularly  and  thoroughly  drilled  as  an  in 
fantry  company. 

THE    NAVAL    ACADEMY. 

The  Naval  Academy  at  Annapolis,  Mary 
land  (in  1861  removed  to  Newport,  R.  I.), 
was  founded  in  October,  1845,  by  the  ef 
forts  of  the  Hon.  George  Bancroft,  then  sec 
retary  of  the  navy.  All  the  efforts  which, 
had  previously  been  made  on  board  of  our 
national  cruisers,  in  the  navy  yards  of  Bos 
ton,  New  York,  and  Norfolk,  and  in  the 
Naval  Asylum  of  Philadelphia,  were  found 
to  be  insufficient  for  the  proper  training  and 
education  of  midshipmen. 

During  the  infancy  of  the  academy,  sever 
al  plans  of  an  experimental  character  were 
tried,  which  led  gradually  to  the  adoption  of 
the  admirable  system  of  education  now  in 
operation.  Midshipmen  who  had  made  a 
cruise  at  sea,  were  first  sent  to  the  academy, 
for  a  term  of  nine  months,  to  prepare  for 
their  final  examination,  which  practice  was 
continued  until  1847.  In  that  year,  a  board 
of  officers  recommended  a  course  of  four 
years  at  the  academy — viz.,  two  years  before 
and  two  years  after  a  cruise  at  sea.  This 
plan  went  into  operation,  but  it  Avas  soon 
abandoned,  owing  to  the  constant  demand  at 
sea  for  midshipmen  during  the  Mexican  war, 
and  it  was  not  until  1851  that  the  present 
uninterrupted  course  of  four  years  at  the 
academy  was  inaugurated. 

Candidates  for  the  Naval  Academy  are  ap 
pointed  upon  the  recommendation  of  mem 
bers  of  Congress,  and  each  state  and  territory 
is  entitled  to  a  number  of  appointments  cor 
responding  with  its  congressional  represent 
atives.  Candidates  are  -admitted  between 
the  20th  of  September  and  the  1st  of  Octo 
ber  of  each  year,  and,  if  successful  in  the 
preliminary  examination,  are  permitted  to 
assume  the  naval  uniform,  and,  in  the  capa 
city  of  acting  midshipmen,  begin  their  career 
on  the  school-ship  "  Constitution."  This 
noble  old  frigate,  lately  become  an  adjunct  to 
the  Naval  Academy,  is  the  home  of  the  fourth 
class,  during  the  first  year  of  the  course. 

The  entire  corps  of  acting  midshipmen 
now  at  the  Naval  Academy  is  about  two 
hundred  strong,  and  is  divided  into  four 
classes,  three  of  which  occupy  the  quarters 
on  shore.  During  the  summer  vacation,  two 
of  the  classes  are  drafted  on  board  the  prac 
tice-ship  to  make  a  cruise  in  the  "Atlantic 
Ocean,  and  they  return  well  versed  in  the 


NORMAL    SCHOOLS,    ETC. 


397 


duties  of  an  officer  and  a  sailor,  and  in  the 
rigging  and  evolutions  of  a  ship.  During 
the  courso  of  four  years  they  are  subjected 
to  eight  severe  examinations,  and,  if  success 
ful  in  all,  they  receive  a  midshipman's  war: 
rant ;  then  they  go  to  sea  for  two  years,  and 
return  once  more  to  the  academy  for  their 
final  examination.  Thus,  the  term  of  a  mid 
shipman's  apprenticeship  is  six  years,  at  the 
expiration  of  which  he  receives  the  warrant 
of  a  passed-midshipman,  and  is  then  left  to 
carve  out  his  own  destiny. 

The  academy  is  governed  by  a  captain  in 
the  navy,  assisted  by  an  executive  officer  and 
several  lieutenants,  who  are  charged  with 
the  discipline  of  the  establishment  and  the 
instruction  of  the  midshipmen  in  strictly 
professional  branches.  The  other  depart 
ments  of  instruction  are  intrusted  to  com 
petent  professors,  and  the  academy  is  sup 
plied  with  a  valuable  library  and  scientific 
apparatus,  which  aid  materially  in  the  educa 
tion  of  the  "  future  hope  of  the  navy." 


CHAPTER  XL 

NORMAL  SCHOOLS  AND  OTHER  INSTITU 
TIONS  AND  AGENCIES  FOR  THE  PROFES 
SIONAL  TRAINING  OF  TEACHERS. 

TEACHING  was  not  recognized  as  a  science 
or  an  art  in  this  country  until  long  after  what 
are  termed  par  excellence,  the  learned  profes 
sions.  Indeed,  it  is  not  by  any  means  yet 
admitted  to  its  proper  dignity  as  such  ;  and 
of  special  schools  of  preparation  for  it,  only 
one  can  date  back  more  than  about  forty 
years,  viz.,  Mr.  Hall's,  established  in  1823. 

During  the  colonial  period  of  the  United 
States,  and  indeed  until  within  cotemporary 
memory,  teachers  were  expected  to  be  sup 
plied  for  many  of  the  more  advanced  village 
or  district  schools,  from  educational  institu 
tions  of  the  higher  grades,  mainly  from  the 
colleges,  many  of  whose  students  were  in  the 
habit  of  teaching  during  the  winter  term. 
The  remaining  public  schools,  in  the  country 
at  least,  were  commonly  kept  by  persons  who 
had  received  no  other  education  than  the 
same  class  of  schools  had  furnished. 

The  principal  agencies  introduced  in  mod 
ern  times  for  the  professional  training  of 
teachers,  setting  apart  the  actual  incidental 
practice  already  mentioned,  by  college  stu 
dents  and  graduates  of  district  schools,  and 
also  systematized  books  on  the  theory  and 
24  * 


practice  of  education,*  may  be  enumerated  as 
1.  Teachers'  Associations  ;  2.  Educational 
Periodicals  ;  3.  Normal  Schools  ;  4.  Teach 
ers'  Institutes ;  which  agencies  respectively 
first  commenced  their  operations  within  the 
United  States,  in  the  order  named  ;  the  two 
latter,  however,  in  the  same  year,  with  an  in 
terval  of  only  about  four  months. 

Of  Teachers'  Associations  for  professional 
improvement,  the  earliest  in  this  country,  so 
far  as  is  known,  was  the  "  Middlesex  County 
Association  for  the  Improvement  of  Common 
Schools,"  formed  at  Middletown,  Connecti 
cut,  in  1799.  The  "Incorporated  Society 
of  Teachers,"  in  the  city  of  New  York,  of 
which  Albert  Picket  was  president,  and  John 
W.  Picket,  his  brother,  corresponding  secre 
tary,  was  incorporated  in  1811.  The  Essex 
County  (Mass.)  Teachers'  Association  was 
established  in  August,  1830,  by  teachers 
from  that  county,  with  a  constitution  and 
officers.  It  is  still  in  existence,  and  has 
maintained  its  series  of  semi-annual  meetings 
and  of  lectures  unbroken  to  the  present  time. 
The  Western  College  of  Teachers,  a  use 
ful  and  influential  body,  was  formed  in  1831, 
by  the  influence  of  the  brothers  Picket, 
Samuel  Lewis,  and  other  early  friends  of 
education  in  Ohio  and  the  West. 

Far  the  most  prominent  and  influential, 
however,  of  all  the  existing  educational  as 
sociations  in  the  country,  is  the  American 
Institute  of  Instruction.  The  formation  of 
this  body  was  the  ultimate  result  of  a  move 
ment  which  commenced  by  a  meeting  of 
teachers  and  friends  of  education  at  Boston, 
March  15th  to  18th,  1830.  This  meeting 
debated  and  resolved  upon  a  "  permanent  as- 


*  The  following  is  a  list  of  some  of  the  earlier 
American  publications  on  the  principles  and  methods 
of  education: — 

ABBOTT,  J.     The  Teacher. 

ALCOTT,  TV.  A.  History  of  First  District  School  of 
Hartford.  Word  to  Primary  School  Teachers.  Confes 
sions  of  a  Schoolmaster.  Slate  and  Blackboard  Exer 
cises. 

BEECHER,  Miss  C.  E.  Suggestions  on  Female 
Education. 

BURTON,  W.     Tlie  District  School  as  it  Was. 

DAVIS,  E.     Manual  for  Teachers. 

EMERSON,  G.  B.     The  Schoolmaster. 

GRISCOM,  J.     Monitorial  Instruction. 

HALL,  S.  Lectures  on  School  Keeping.  Lectures 
to  Female  Teachers. 

PAGE,  D.  P.     TJieory  and  Practice  of  Teaching. 

PALMER,  T.  H.     Prize  Essay  on  Teaching. 

POTTER,  A.     The  School 

RUSSELL,  "W.  Suggestions  on  Education.  Manual 
of  Mutual  Instruction. 


398 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


sociation  of  persons  engaged  and  interested 
in  the  business  of  instruction  ;"  and,  in  pur 
suance  of  its  votes,  an  adjourned  meeting 
was  held  at  Boston  in  August  following,  at 
•which  its  constitution  and  name  were  adopt 
ed,  and  its  first  course  of  lectures  delivered. 
It  was  incorporated  in  1831  by  the  legislature 
of  Massachusetts,  and  has  received  an  annual 
grant  from  that  state.  Its  series  of  annual 
meetings  is  still  continued,  and  its  accom 
panying  series  of  annual  volumes  of  lectures 
has  now  reached  the  31st,  and  includes  a 
valuable  mass  of  useful  theoretical  and 
practical  discussions. 

During  the  period  of  educational  interest 
•which  produced  the  American  Institute  of 
Instruction,  many  conventions  and  meetings 
of  teachers  and  friends  of  education  assem 
bled  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  to  con 
sult  and  debate  upon  means  of  improvement 
for  schools  and  teachers.     Among  the  more 
earnest  and  efficient  of  these  may  be  named 
the  Windham  County  (Conn.)  Convention, 
•which  met  in  1826;  the   Hartford  Society 
for  the   Improvement  of  Common  Schools, 
formed  in  1827,  and  among  whose  members 
•were  Messrs.  Hooker,  Gallaudct,W.  C.  Wood- 
bridge,  and  others  ;  the  Pennsylvania  Society 
for  the  Promotion  of  Public  Schools,  formed 
in  1828  ;  and  the  Convention  of  the  Teach 
ers  of  New  York,  which  met  at  Utica  in 
1832.     These   bodies   frequently  possessed 
scarcely  more,  than  an  annual  existence,  meet 
ing  from  year  to  year  in  pursuance  of  a  new 
call.    Their  efforts,  however,  and  the  evident 
capacities  of  such  organizations  for  useful 
ness,  led  directly  to  the  subsequent  forma 
tion  of  that  class  of  educational   societies 
known  as  "  State  Teachers'   Associations." 
Of  these,  the  Massachusetts  State  Teachers' 
Association,  and  the  Rhode  Island  Institute 
of  Instruction,  were  organized  in  1 845  ;  the 
Ohio  State  Teachers'  Association  in  1847  ; 
and  others  have  followed,  until  at  present 
there  are  no  less  than  twenty-seven  State 
Teachers'  Associations,  some  of  them  acting 
with  remarkable  efficiency  for  the  profession 
al  improvement  of  teachers.     In  connection 
with  these  state  bodies,  county  association 
exist  in  several  states,  some  of  them  enjoying 
state  aid,  and  many  of  them  useful  co-laborers 
in  the  educational  field  with  the  state  asso 
ciations  with  which  they  are  affiliated. 

The  first  proposition  in  this  country  for 
periodical  to  be  devoted  to  education  was 
made  by  Rev.  Samuel  Bacon,  a  native  of 
Sturbridge,  Massachusetts,  who,  in  1812,  is 


sued  the  prospectus  of  a  periodical,  to  be 
inown  as  The  Academical  Herald  and  Jour 
nal  of  Education.  Mr.  Bacon  subscquent- 
>y  resumed  this  idea,  but  gave  it  up  again 
.apon  the  appearance  of  the  first  actual 
American  educational  periodical,  The  Aca 
demician.  This  was  a  large  octavo,  issued 
semi-monthly,  at  New  York,  during  the  years 
1818-19,  and  edited  by  Albert  Picket  and 
John  W.  Picket,  afterward  the  well-known 
early  influential  members  of  the  "Western 
College  of  Teachers." 

This  field  of  labor  now  remained  unoccu 
pied  until  the  appearance  of  the  American 
Journal  of  Education,  commenced  January 
1st,  1825,  at  Boston,  Mr.  T.  B.  Wait  publish 
er,  and  edited  by  Professor  William  Russell. 
With  its  continuation,  the  American  Annals 
of  Education,  this  well-known  and  valuable 
journal  appeared  until  the  end  of  1839, 
completing  an  entire  series  of  fourteen  oc 
tavo  volumes. 

In  January,  1836,  appeared  the  first  num 
ber  of  the  Common  School  Assistant,  a 
quarto  monthly,  edited  by  J.  Orville  Taylor, 
and  which  was  published  at  Albany,  and 
afterward  at  New  York,  during  four  years 
and  four  volumes,  and  part  of  a  fifth,  ending 
in  1840.  This  periodical  was  energetically 
and  usefully  edited,  was  taken  and  read 
throughout  the  country,  and  did  a  good 
work  in  its  day  and  generation  for  the  cause 
of  common  schools. 

Mr.  Taylor  also  did  much  for  the  cause  of 
education  by  publishing  a  Common  School 
Almanac,  and  by  delivering  forcible  and  apt 
addresses  on  educational  subjects  in  many 
states  of  the  Union. 

In  August,  1838,  appeared  at  Hartford, 
Connecticut,  the  first  number  of  the  quarto 
Connecticut  Common  School  Journal,  edit 
ed  by  Henry  Barnard,  Secretary  of  the 
Board  of  Commissioners  of  Common  Schools.  • 
This  periodical  was  published  during  four 
years,  ending  in  consequence  of  the  strange 
reactionary  rally  which  abolished  the  board 
in  1842.  It  contained  the  state  public  edu 
cational  documents  of  its  day,  beside  a  great 
quantity  of  valuable  selections  and  original 
articles.  A  second  series  in  octavo  form  was 
commenced  by  Mr.  Barnard  in  1850,  cover 
ing  substantially  the  same  ground,  and  con 
tinued  by  him  until  January,  1854,  when  he 
surrendered  its  care  to  the  Connecticut  State 
Teachers'  Association,  which  still  publishes 
it.  The  interval  between  1843  and  1850 
was  covered  by  the  publication  of  the  Jour- 


NORMAL    SCHOOLS,    ETC. 


399 


rial  of  the  Rhode  Island  Institute  of  Instruc 
tion,  embodying  the  official  documents  and 
action  of  Mr.  Barnard  in  that  state  as  com 
missioner  of  public  achools. 

In  August,  1855,  Mr.  Barnard  issued  the 
first  number  of  his  American  Journal  of 
Education,  published  at  Hartford,  quarterly, 
in  octavo.  The  plan  contemplated  a  series 
of  at  least  ten  volumes,  of  about  800  pages, 
to  constitute  an  encyclopaedia  of  educational 
materials  of  permanent  value,  illustrative  of 
the  history,  biography,  theory,  and  practice 
of  all  departments  of  education,  both  in  this 
country  and  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  as 
well  as  a  record  of  cotemporary  educational 
facts  and  progress.  In  the  progress  of  this 
plan  hitherto,  the  ten  volumes  already  com 
pleted  have  included  over  300  cuts  on  school 
architecture,  more  than  forty  singularly  fine 
portraits  of  eminent  American  teachers  and 
educators,  a  still  larger  number  of  memoirs, 
and  over  1000  pages  on  the  comparatively 
new  and  most  important  department  of 
methodology. 

Tha  earliest  suggestion  of  institutional 
provision  for  the  specific  professional  train 
ing  of  teachers  seems  to  have  been  that  of 
Elisha  Ticknor,  in  an  article  in  the  Massachu 
setts  Magazine  for  June,  1789,  for  county 
schools  under  able  masters,  to  teach  English 
grammar,  Latin,  Greek,  rhetoric,  geography, 
mathematics,  etc.,  "  in  order  to  fit  young 
gentlemen  for  college  and  school  keeping." 

The  first  proposition  for  a  separate  and 
exclusive  teachers'  seminary  was,  however, 
set  forth  by  the  late  Professor  Denison  Olm- 
sted,  in  an  oration  at  receiving  his  master's 
degree,  at  commencement,  1816,  on  the 
"  State  of  Education  in  Connecticut."  This 
was  to  be  a  state  institution,  to  train  teachers 
for  the  state  public  schools.  Professor  Olm- 
sted's  prosecution  of  his  plan  was  prevented 
by  his  accepting  a  professorship  in  North 
Carolina. 

Seven  years  afterward,  in  March,  1823, 
Rev.  Samuel  Read  Hall  opened  at  Concord, 
Vermont,  the  first  teachers'  seminary  in  the 
United  States ;  an  unpretending  little  school, 
planned  in  consequence  of  his  own  observa 
tions  upon  the  wants  of  teachers,  intended 
for  the  improvement  of  teachers  in  and  near 
his  own  town,  and  including  a  model  class 
of  juvenile  pupils. 

During  the  years  1824-5,  Messrs.  Thomas 
H.Gallaudet  of  Hartford, Connecticut;  James 
G.  Carter  of  Lancaster,  Massachusetts ;  and 
Walter  R.  Johnson  of  Germantown,  Penn 


sylvania,  issued  various  pamphlets  and  n.ews- 
paper  articles,  ably  urging  the  necessity, 
practicability,  and  advantages  of  institutions 
for  the  professional  training  of  teacliers. 

In  February,  1826,  a  committee  was  ap 
pointed  by  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts 
to  report  a  plan  for  an  institution  to  instruct 
in  practical  arts  and  sciences.  This  com 
mittee  included  in  the  plan  recommended  by 
them  a  department  for  the  professional  train 
ing  of  teachers;  This  scheme  was  not,  how 
ever,  carried  into  operation. 

In  the  next  year,  1827,  Governor  Clinton 
recommended  to  the  legislature  of  the  state 
of  New  York  the  establishment  of  a  normal 
school,  and  an  act  was  passed  for  that  pur 
pose.  It  was,  however,  strongly  opposed  by 
Hon.  John  C.  Spencer,  who  succeeded  in 
preventing  it  from  going  into  operation,  and> 
in  causing  the  adoption  instead  of  the  plan 
of  teachers'  departments  in  academies. 

The  earliest  instance  of  a  teachers'  insti 
tute  in  this  country,  though  not  then  so 
named,  was  the  experimental  one  gathered 
at  Hartford,  Connecticut,  in  October,  1839, 
by  the  means  and  at  the  expense  of  the  then 
superintendent  of  common  schools  in  Con 
necticut,  in  order  to  prove  the  practicability 
and  usefulness  of  the  plan.  The  result  was 
entirely  satisfactory.  A  similar  class,  or 
"  temporary  normal  school,"  was  successful 
ly  conducted  during  eight  weeks  by  Mr. 
Stephen  R.  Sweet,  at  Kingsboro,  Fulton 
county,  New  York,  commencing  on  the  6th 
of  September,  1842.  J.  S.  Denman,  Esq., 
school  superintendent  of  Tompkins  county, 
New  York,  urged  a  similar  class  upon  the 
attention  of  the  Tompkins  County  Teachers' 
Association  in  October,  1842,  and  a  teach 
ers'  institute,  supposed  by  him  to  be  the 
first  in  the  state  and  in  the  world — and  prob 
ably  the  first  expressly  so  called — was  open 
ed  under  his  direction  in  that  county  in 
April,  1843,  and  profitably  conducted  during 
two  weeks. 

Institutes  were  held  in  many  places  in 
New  York  during  the  following  five  years, 
under  the  auspices  of  school  officers  and 
teachers ;  and  at  the  end  of  that  time,  in 
November,  1847,  an  act  of  the  legislature 
made  them  part  of  the  legal  school  sys 
tem,  and  provided  a  trifling  annual  appro 
priation  to  aid  in  holding  them  in  each 
county. 

Under  the  influence  of  earnest  efforts  by 
teachers  and  educators  during  1846,  the 
legislature  of  Connecticut,  in  May,  1847, 


400 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


made  an  appropriation  which  enabled  the 
superintendent,  Hon.  S.  P.  Beers,  to  provide 
for  the  holding  of  institutes  in  each  county 
of  the  state  in  the  following  autumn  ;  and 
they  have  since  formed  part  of  the  state  sys 
tem  for  training  teachers. 

Institutes  were  introduced  into  Massachu 
setts  in  the  autumn  of  1846,  as  part  of  the 
comprehensive  school  reform  which  spread 
through  that  state  under  Horace  Mann's 
secretaryship  of  the  Board  of  Education. 
Those  of  1846  were  held  in  consequence  of 
Hon.  Edmund  Dwight's  gift  of  $1000  for 
the  purpose.  In  the  next  year  the  legisla 
ture  appropriated  a  sum  to  continue  the 
plan,  and  they  were  thus  incorporated  into 
the  public  school  system  of  the  state  of 
Massachusetts. 

The  economy  and  efficiency  of  this  agency 
in  training  teachers  were  so  great  and  mani 
fest,  that  they  quickly  spread  into  the  other 
eastern  states,  and  into  many  of  the  middle 
and  western  ones ;  and  at  present  may  be 
considered  a  fixed  feature  of  the  American 
system  of  special  training  for  teachers.  In 
1859,  it  was  estimated  that  upward  of 
20,000  teachers  were  assembled  under  this 
plan  of  organization  for  instruction  in  their 
professional  duties. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

SCHOOLS  OF  SCIENCE  FOR  ENGINEERS, 
GEOLOGISTS,  ETC. 

FOR  many  years  the  government  school 
for  training  army  officers,  founded  in  1802, 
and  known  as  the  United  States  Military 
Academy  at  West  Point,  stood  alone  as  a 
seminary  for  advanced  education,  in  which 
classical  instruction  yielded  its  pre-eminence 
to  mathematical  and  scientific  culture.     In 
1824,  the  Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute 
was  founded  at  Troy,  N  Y.,  and  furnished 
civilians  with   the  means  of   education   in 
some  measure  corresponding  to  but  yet  much 
lower  than  the  military  school  at  West  Point. 
More  than  twenty  years  afterward,  in  1846, 
the  corporation  of  Yale  College  established 
two  professorships,  which  soon  formed  the 
nucleus  of  the  Yale  Scientific  School ;  and 
about  the  same  time  a  gift  of  $50,000,  sub 
sequently  increased  to  double  that  amount, 
by  Abbott  Lawrence,  enabled  the  corpora- 
tign  of  Harvard  University  to  establish  in 
1847  the  Lawrence  Scientific  School.    With 


in  a  short  time  Dartmouth  College  was  en 
abled  to  go  forward  in  the  same  direction,  by 
a  bequest  of  850,000  received  from  Abiel 
Chandler,  at  his  decease  in  1851,  endowing 
the  Chandler  Scientific  School.  As  these 
tliree  institutions  naturally  form  a  group  by 
themselves,  providing  instruction  of  an  ad 
vanced  character  in  several  different  branches 
of  science,  a  brief  sketch  will  be  given  of 
each  one  ;  but  there  are  a  variety  of  less  ad 
vanced  schools,  and  of  schools  devoted  to  a 
single  practical  object,  like  the  agricultural 
schools  at  Lansing,  Mich.,  and  Ovid,  N.  Y , 
which  will  be  noticed  under  their  appropri 
ate  head. 

In  August,  1846,  the  corporation  of  Yale 
College  established  two  professorships,  one 
of  agricultural  chemistry,  the  other  of  chem 
istry  applied  to  the  arts ;  to  the  first  of  which 
was  appointed  John  1'itkin  Norton  ;  to  the 
latter  Benjamin  Silliman,  Jr.  At  the  same 
time  a  committee  was  appointed  to  consider 
the  expediency  of  forming  a  "  Department 
of  Philosophy  and  the  Arts''  in  connection 
with  the  university.  In  August,  1847,  this 
committee  reported  that  it  was  expedient  to 
form  such  a  department,  for  the  instruction 
of  other  than  undergraduate  students.  Ac 
cordingly,  the  department  was  organized  for 
the  purpose  of  providing  instruction  in  philos 
ophy,  philology,  history  and  natural  science, 
etc.  The  branches  of  chemistry  and  engi 
neering  were  embraced  in  one  section,  under 
the  title  of  the  Yale  Scientific  School.  The 
professors,  before  appointed,  entered  on  their 
duties  in  the  autumn  of  1847.  In  1852,  the 
corporation  established  in  this  department 
the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Philosophy,  to  be 
conferred  after  a  two  years'  connection  with 
the  school,  and  a  satisfactory  examination  in 
at  least  three  branches  of  study.  In  Septem-< 
ber,  1852,  the  school  suffered  a  severe  loss  in 
the  death  of  its  devoted  friend,  Professor  J. 
P.  Norton,  who  bequeathed  to  it  his  collec 
tion  of  books  and  apparatus.  New  professor 
ships  ha^ve  from  time  to  time  been  establish 
ed,  and  additional  instructors  appointed,  but 
the  school  has  lacked  until  1860  sufficient 
accommodations  and  the  pecuniary  means 
necessary  for  expansion.  By  the  liberality 
of  Joseph  E.  Sheffield,  Esq.,  of  New  Haven,  it 
is  now  provided  with  a  spacious  building, 
especially  adapted  to  its  purposes,  and  a 
fund  of  $100,000  for  sustaining  its  courses 
of  instruction.  To  the  latter  fund  other  gen 
tlemen  have  contributed.  This  building 
(first  opened  in  September,  1800)  contains, 


SCIENTIFIC    SCHOOLS. 


401 


besides  the  usual  lecture  rooms,  extensive 
analytical  and  metallurgical  laboratories,  and 
halls  for  agricultural  and  technological  muse 
ums.  Opportunity  is  afforded  in  the  school 
for  pursuing  a  general  scientific  course,  ex 
tending  through  three  years,  or  special 
courses  in  physics,  chemistry,  industrial  me 
chanics,  and  engineering,  which  occupy  two 
years  each. 

The  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Philosophy  is 
now  conferred  on  those  who  have  completed 
either  the  general  course  or  one  of  the  spe 
cial  courses  in  the  scientific  school,  and  have 
passed  a  satisfactory  examination.  The  de 
gree  of  Civil  Engineer  is  conferred  on  those 
who  have  completed,  besides  the  special 
course  in  engineering,  a  higher  course  of  one 
year.  It  is  also  proposed  to  confer  a  higher 
degree,  that  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy,  on 
those  who  in  their  residence  and  their  schol 
arship  conform  to  the  requirements  of  the 
department.  In  February,  1860,  a  course 
of  agricultural  lectures  was  given  under  the 
patronage  of  the  school.  The  faculty  of  the 
school  now  consists  of  the  president  of  the 
college,  a  professor  of  civil  engineering,  a 
professor  of  natural  history,  a  professor  of 
general  and  applied  chemistry,  a  professor 
of  industrial  mechanics  and  physics,  a  pro 
fessor  of  organic  chemistry,  a  professor  of 
modern  languages,  a  professor  of  metallurgy, 
and  a  professor  of  analytical  and  agricultural 
chemistry,  besides  certain  assistants. 

In  1846,  the  project  of  a  Scientific  School, 
to  be  connected  with  Harvard  University, 
was  first  publicly  announced,  and  the  plans 
laid  before  Hon.  Abbott  Lawrence  of  Bos 
ton,  a  distinguished  merchant  of  wealth  and 
public  spirit.  In  June,  1847,  he  offered  to 
the  college  the  munificent  sum  of  $50,- 
000,  "  for  the  purpose  of  teaching  the  prac 
tical  sciences."  This  gift  was  to  be  ap 
plied  for  the  erection  of  suitable  buildings, 
and  the  purchase  of  apparatus,  the  residue 
to  form  a  fund  for  the  support  of  profes 
sors. 

On  this  foundation  the  school  was  com 
menced  the  same  year ;  Professor  Ilorsford, 
already  connected  with  the  university,  filling 
the  chair  of  chemistry;  Professor  Agassiz, 
of  Switzerland,  being  called  to  that  of  zoology 
and  geology,  and  Lieut.  Eustis,  of  the  army, 
to  that  of  engineering.  In  1849,  a  labora 
tory,  then  unsurpassed  even  in  Europe  in  its 
conveniences  for  practical  instruction,  was 
erected  and  furnished  ;  and  in  1850  a  build 
ing  was  constructed  for  the  temporary  accom 


modation  of  the  departments  of  zoology, 
geology,  and  engineering.  Besides  the  pro 
fessors  already  mentioned,  instruction  is  given 
by  the  college  professors  in  mathematics, 
physics,  botany,  comparative  anatomy  and 
physiology,  and  mineralogy.  The  school  is 
essentially  a  combination  of  independent  de 
partments,  each  having  exclusive  control  of 
its  own  internal  arrangements,  and  sustain 
ing  a  complete  course  of  instruction  for  it 
self.  At  the  death  of  Mr.  Lawrence,  August 
18,  1855,  the  school  received  by  bequest,  as 
a  second  gift,  the  sum  of  $50,000,  to  increase 
its  facilities  for  instruction  and  research. 
Connection  with  the  school  for  at  least  a 
single  year,  in  attendance  on  the  prescribed 
course  of  studies,  in  one  or  more  depart 
ments,  and  a  satisfactory  public  examination, 
are  essential  to  taking  the  degree  of  Bachelor 
of  Science. 

An  estate  valued  at  $350,000  was  be 
queathed  to  Harvard  College  in  1842  by 
Mr.  Benjamin  Bussey,  of  Roxbury,  Mass,  (to 
be  received  after  the  death  of  certain  rela 
tives),  one  half  of  which,  including  his  man 
sion  and  farm,  was  to  be  appropriated  to  the 
establishment  of  an  agricultural  school  under 
the  direction  of  the  college. 

The  Chandler  Scientific  School,  connected 
with  Dartmouth  College,  at  Hanover,  N.  II., 
was  established  in  1851,  in  acceptance  of  a 
gift  of  $50,000,  bequeathed  to  the  trustees, 
for  this  purpose,  by  Abiel  Chandler.  He 
was  a  wealthy  merchant  of  Boston,  Mass., 
who  was  born  in  1778  in  Concord,  N.  11., 
and  died  in  Walpole,  N.  H.,  March  22d, 
1851.  By  the  will  of  .the  founder,  instruc 
tion  is  to  be  given  in  "  mechanics  and  civil 
engineering,  the  invention  and  manufacture 
of  machinery,  carpentry,  masonry,  archi 
tecture,  and  drawing,  the  investigation  of 
properties  and  uses  of  materials  employed 
in  the  arts,  the  modern  languages,  and 
English  literature,  together  with  bookkeep 
ing."  The  school  was  opened  in  1852, 
and  the  course  of  study  occupies  four  years  ; 
for  the  general  course  in  the  fourth  year, 
may  be  substituted  a  civil  engineering  course 
or  a  commercial  course. 

Those  completing  the  regular  course  of 
four  years,  and  passing  a  satisfactory  exam 
ination,  are  entitled  to  the  degree  of  Bach 
elor  of  Science. 

Resident  graduates  will  be  instructed  in 
the  following  advanced  subjects,  through  an 
additional  course  of  one  or  two  years  :  An 
alytical  chemistry,  analytical  and  celestial 


402 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


mechanics,  application  of  mechanics  to  car 
pentry  and  masonry,  mechanical  agents, 
geodesy,  practical  astronomy,  the  arts  of 
design  "with  reference  to  the  useful  arts. 

The  demand  for  instruction  in  chemistry 
beyond  the  requirements  of  the  general  col 
lege  course,  has  led  to  a  modification  of  the 
requirements  of  many  of  our  colleges  and 
universities.  Among  the  schools  included 
in  the  University  of  Virginia,  is  one  of 
chemistry,  in  which  department  a  systemat 
ic  course  of  practical  instruction  is  given  in 
qualitative  and  quantitative  analysis.  The 
laboratory  is  open,  and  an  instructor  gives 
his  personal  attention  to  the  students  there 
in,  for  eight  hours  daily,  five  days  in  the 
week. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

SCHOOLS  OF  AGRICULTURE. 

THE  first  plan  of  an  agricultural  school  or 
college  in  the  English  language,  which  we 
have  met  with,  was  published  in  1651  by 
"  Master  Samuel  Hartlib,"  to  whom  Milton 
addressed  his  Tractate  on  Education,  and  to 
whom  the  Parliament  of  England  gave  a 
pension  for  his  disinterested  efforts  to  ad 
vance  the  agricultural  and  educational  inter 
ests  of  the  commonwealth.  It  was  nearly 
two  hundred  years  before  an  institution  of 
this  character  was  established  by  individual 
enterprise,  without  the  aid  of  any  public 
grant,  in  the  British  dominions. 

The  Agricultural  College  of  the  State  of 
Michigan  was  established  in  1855,  in  accord 
ance  with  a  provision  of  the  revised  consti 
tution  of  the  state,  adopted  in  1850.  The 
legislature  in  1855,  and  again  in  1857,  pro 
vided  for  the  purchase  of  land  and  the  en 
dowment  and  management  of  the  institution. 
A  tract  of  676  acres,  lying  three  and  a  half 
miles  east  from  Lansing,  the  state  capital, 
was  purchased,  and  a  building  with  accom 
modations  for  80  pupils  was  erected  and 
dedicated  May  13th,  1857.  The  faculty  in 
cludes  a  president,  and  professors  of  mathe 
matics,  chemistry,  physiology  and  entomol 
ogy,  natural  science,  English  literature,  and 
farm  economy  and  horticulture.  The  tui 
tion  is  free  (except  a  matriculation  fee  of 
$5),  and  the  students  are  required  to  labor 
three  hours  a  clay  on  the  farm,  for  which 
they  receive  a  compensation  which  is  allow 
ed  in  payment  of  board.  The  course  of 
professional  instruction  embraces  two  years, 


and  includes — I.  Theory  and    Practice   of 

Agriculture — II.  Agricultural  Chemistry — 
III.  Civil  and  Rural  Engineering — IV.  Bot 
any  and  Vegetable  Physiology — V.  Zoology 
and  Animal  Physiology.  There  is  a  pre 
paratory  course  of  one  year,  designed  for 
candidates  who  have  not  pursued  elsewhere 
the  preliminary  studies  required  in  English 
language,  geography  and  arithmetic,  for 
entrance. 

The  State  University  of  Michigan  at  Ann 
Arbor  provides  a  scientific  course,  occupy 
ing  four  years,  and  embracing  mathematics, 
astronomy,  geology,  zoology,  botany,  chem 
istry,  mineralogy,  philosophy,  rhetoric,  his 
tory  and  modern  languages.  The  School  of 
Engineering,  connected  with  the  institution, 
receives  students  who  have  completed  the 
second  and  third  years  of  the  scientific 
course,  and  devotes  two  years  to  their  in 
struction  in  engineering.  The  only  charge 
to  the  student,  from  whatever  part  of  the 
country  he  may  come,  is  an  admission  fee 
of  ten  dollars. 

The  Maryland  Agricultural  College  was 
established  and  endowed  by  the  state  legis 
lature  in  1856.  The  college  farm  is  about 
two  and  a  half  miles  north  of  Bladensburg, 
in  Prince  George's  county.  The  faculty  in 
cludes  a  president,  and  five  professors,  viz.: 
one  of  the  science  of  agriculture,  includ 
ing  chemistry,  geology,  etc. ;  one  of  the  ex 
act  sciences,  one  of  languages,  one  of  phi 
losophy,  history,  etc.,  and  one  of  natural 
history,  botany,  etc.  The  student,  in  con 
nection  with  his  course,  is  obliged  to  labor 
on  the  farm. 

The  agricultural  college  now  established 
near  Ovid,  Seneca  Co.,  N.  Y.,  took  its  rise 
from  plans  started  as  early  as  1837.  No 
thing  definite  was  accomplished  until,  in 
1844,  a  charter  for  an  agricultural  college 
was  obtained  from  the  legislature ;  after  fur 
ther  delays,  in  1856,  the  sum  of  $40,000 
was  appropriated  to  the  college  by  the  legis 
lature,  on  condition  that  a  like  sum  be  raised 
by  private  subscription.  This  was  speedily 
accomplished,  and  a  tract  of  some  4UO  acres 
purchased.  Preparation  is  making  for  the 
accommodation  of  a  large  number  of  pupils. 

The  Farmers'  High  School  of  Pennsyl 
vania  was  founded  by  the  agricultural  society 
of  the  state,  with  a  fund  of  810,000,  accu 
mulated  from  its  annual  exhibitions  up  to 
the  autumn  of  1854.  The  legislature  passed 
an  act  of  incorporation,  and  a  board  of  trus 
tees  was  organized ;  after  various  private 


COMMERCIAL    SCHOOLS — SCHOOLS    FOR   MECHANICS. 


403 


subscriptions,  the  legislature  appropriated  in 
1858  the  sum  of  $50,000  to  the  school, 
bafc'  of  which  sum  being  dependent  on  the 
raising  of  a  like  amount  by  individual  con 
tribution.  In  1856,  the  suitable  farm-build 
ings  were  erected  on  lands  given  to  the 
school. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

COMMERCIAL  SCHOOLS. 

"  COMMERCIAL  schools,"  which  supply  an 
education  adapted  to  future  business  life,  and 
to  make  up  in  some  measure  for  previous  de 
ficiencies  in  the  studies  of  youths  early  de 
voted  to  trade,  are  a  class  of  schools  of  quite 
recent  date;  none  of  them,  it  is  believed, 
being  of  a  greater  age  than  fifteen  or  twenty 
years.  They  are  naturally  established  in  the 
larger  and  busier  mercantile  cities,  and  their 
course  of  study,  of  course  a  comparatively 
brief  and  confined  one,  usually  includes  but 
little  if  any  of  classics  and  literature,  con 
sisting  principally  of  writing,  book-keeping, 
commercial  arithmetic,  business  proceedings, 
and  sometimes  mercantile  law.  Their  ex 
istence  seems  to  indicate  a  deficiency  in  their 
department,  in  the  higher  public  schools, 
although  those  schools  could  not  afford  a 
similar  course  of  equal  extent  and  thorough 
ness.  But  there  is  no  doubt  that  a  compe 
tent  course  of  studies  preparatory  to  com 
mercial  life,  should  form  part  of  the  course 
of  the  high  schools  of  our  cities  and  large 
business  towns. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

SCHOOLS  FOR  MECHANICS. 

DURING  nearly  half  a  century,  many  in 
dications  may  be  traced  of  a  more  or  less 
distinct  feeling  of  the  need  of  some  system 
atic  instruction  in  mechanic  arts,  although 
this  feeling  has  not  been  so  extensive  and 
decided  as  to  result  in  any  permanent  insti 
tutional  provision  for  the  purpose. 

The  Lyceum  movement,  in  which  Josiah 
Holbrook  was  so  active  a  laborer,  commenc 
ing  about  1823,  was  accompanied  by  the 
institution  of  many  courses  of  lectures  and 
classes  upon  subjects  connected  with  me 
chanics  and  trades.  The  Mechanics'  School 
of  New  York  City,  an  institution  still  exist 


ing,  was  originally  intended  to  afford  instruc 
tion,  among  other  things,  in  mechanical  pro 
cesses  and  the  application  of  mechanical 
principles. 

A  movement  was  made  in  the  legislature 
of  Massachusetts,  in  1825,  for  the  establish 
ment  of  a  state  institution  for  the  professional 
training  of  youth  intending  to  follow  "  mer 
cantile,  manufacturing,  and  mechanical  pur 
suits."  Though  advocated  with  some  earn 
estness  during  several  sessions,  this  plan 
never  reached  a  practical  development. 

The  "  manual  labor  schools,"  of  which  a 
considerable  number  were  established  a  few 
years  later,  frequently  provided  for  the  prac 
tice  of  some  mechanical  trade,  usually  car 
pentry.  Such  was  the  case  at  Lane  Semi 
nary  and  at  the  Oneida  Institute,  both  found 
ed  in  1829,  and  elsewhere. 

Somewhat  more  extensive  was  the  plan  of 
the  Franklin  Institute  of  Philadelphia,  which 
established  in  1826  a  high  school,  of  which 
it  was  a  special  object  to  "  afford  the  indus 
trial  classes  cheap  instruction  in  sciences  and 
arts."  This  institution  flourished  under  the 
energetic  management  of  Professor  W.  R. 
Johnson,  and  until  superseded  by  the  intro 
duction  of  the  present  school  system  of 
Philadelphia,  with  its  high  school,  which 
has  not,  however,  retained  this  practical  de 
partment. 

Brief  courses  of  lectures,  to  apprentices, 
or  to  mechanics,  were  organized  at  various 
points,  as  a  consequence  of  the  Lyceum 
movement.  Where  these  have  been  main 
tained  as  an  annual  institution,  however, 
their  distinctive,  practically  useful  character 
has  invariably  disappeared  in  the  merely 
amusing  dissipation  which  is  the  only  object 
of  the  present  "  lecture  system." 

There  exist  at  present  in  Philadelphia  and 
Brooklyn  schools  known  as  "  Polytechnic 
Schools ;"  but  this  name  seems  to  have  been 
chosen  as  well  adapted  to  catch  the  ear, 
rather  than  as  descriptive  of  any  thing  pecu 
liar  in  their  course  of  study. 

Some  provision  for  systematic  instruction 
in  the  mechanic  arts,  of  a  higher  grade  than 
the  pure  realism  of  the  shop,  is  certainly 
needed.  Departments  of  this  character  at 
tached  to  the  higher  public  schools  of  our 
larger  towns  would  unquestionably  serve  a 
very  useful  purpose,  and  would  command  a 
certain  number  of  pupils.  At  the  same 
time  it  must  be  confessed  that  this  number 
would  not  immediately  be  great ;  a  fact 
readily  accounted  for  by  the  two  considera- 


404 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


tions,  that  the  peculiar  conditions  of  life  in 
the  United  States  strongly  disincline  the 
young  to  apply  themselves  long  or  closely  to 
the  acquirement  of  a  finished  mastery  of  any 
occupation,  and  that  it  would  be  extremel) 
difficult  to  supply  instructors  qualified  to  ex 
plain  and  teach  the  actual  practical  applica 
tion  to  wood,  stone,  metal,  and  other  mate 
rials,  of  true  scientific  principles  in  the  most 
economical  way. 


CHAPTER    XVI. 
FINE  ARTS. 

IN  modern  civilization,  culture  in  fine  arts 
(music,  painting,  sculpture,  architecture)  is 
the  attribute  and  privilege  of  an  advanced 
stage  of  social  organization.  The  people  of 
the  United  States,  hitherto  intensely  oc 
cupied  in  subduing  a  new  country,  and  in  a 
vigorous  and  prosperous  pursuit  of  material 
wealth,  have  at  the  present  day  but  just  be 
gun  those  vast  accretions  of  capital,  which 
must  form  the  basis  of  any  culture  in  fine 
arts  worthy  of  the  name.  To  none  of  these 
arts  has  great  attention  been  given,  and  for 
teaching  them  nothing  like  a  general  public 
provision  has  been  made. 

During  the  last  thirty  years,  the  practice 
has  slowly  gained  ground  among  the  public 
schools,  both  in  city  and  country,  of  afford 
ing  the  pupils  some  instruction  and  training 
in  the  rudiments  of  singing.  In  a  far  small 
er  number  of  schools,  similar  rudimentary 
instruction  has  been  given  in  drawing ;  and 
in  one  or  two  secondary  schools  of  the  high 
er  city  class,  pupils  have  been  afforded  the 
means  of  pursuing  that  study  further,  by 
means  of  collections  of  casts  and  models. 

Generally  speaking,  however,  the  aspirant 
after  a  profound  or  even  competent  knowl 
edge  of  any  fine  art,  has  been  left  to  acquire 
it  either  by  his  own  unassisted  and  solitary 
labor,  by  the  aid  of  some  older  practitioner, 
or  by  study  in  foreign  schools  of  art. 

The  progress  of  the  study  of  music  in  our 
schools,  is  coincident  with  the  career  of  the 
distinguished  teacher,  Lowell  Mason,  who 
was  the  first  to  introduce  into  the  school 
system  an  efficient  mode  of  teaching  singing, 
about  1830.  Of  musical  schools  exclusively, 
it  is  believed  that  there  have  not  been  more 
than  two,  both  of  which  are  in  Connecticut. 
Private  schools  for  girls  usually  afford  their 
pupils  more  or  less  training  in  executing 


music  upon  the  piano-forte,  but  without 
communicating  any  scientitic  knowledge  of 
music. 

Within  a  recent  period,  several  schools 
have  been  opened  in  a  few  of  the  larger 
cities,  for  instruction  in  drawing ;  always 
having  the  practical  side  most  prominent, 
and  leading  their  pupils  as  rapidly  as  possi 
ble  toward  the  production  of  salable  designs 
for  manufacturing  purposes,  or  of  wood  en 
gravings  for  the  use  of  publishers.  A  super 
ficial  practice  in  drawing,  usually  by  the 
senseless  method  of  exclusively  copying 
other  drawings  or  engravings,  is  commonly 
afforded  at  private  schools  for  girls.  Some 
small  advantages  for  those  desiring  more  ad 
vanced  acquirements,  are  afforded  by  the 
various  public  galleries  and  collections  acces 
sible  in  some  large  cities.  The  painter  or 
sculptor,  as  well  as  the  architect,  must  how 
ever  learn  his  art  from  such  sources  as  his 
individual  opportunities  allow  him  to  com 
mand. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 
FEMALE  EDUCATION. 

THE  education  of  girls  is  of  course  not 
properly  a  special  department  any  more  than 
that  of  boys.  Still,  the  history  and  the 
present  condition  of  this  department  of  edu- 

ation  present  many  facts  which  will  suffi- 

iently  justify  its  separate  treatment,  aside 
from  the  intrinsic  differences  which  must  also 
characterize  it. 

Until  a  comparatively  recent  period,  but 
irifling  provision  was  made  for  the  education 
of  girls.  Down  to  the  close  of  the  Revolu 
tion,  although  girls  might  attend  the  public 
schools,  but  a  small  share  of  time  or  labor 
was  devoted  to  them  ;  and  their  attention 
was  supposed  to  be  more  suitably  directed  to 
needle-work  and  housewifery  than  to  intel- 

ectual  training. 

The  first  school  of  eminence  exclusively 
'or  girls  was  the  Moravian  Seminary  at  Beth 
lehem,  Pennsylvania.  This  was  established  as 
early  as  1 749,  but  was  not  opened  as  a  board 
ing-school  until  1785.  It  enjoyed  a  national 
reputation  ;  and  its  catalogue  includes  such 
names  as  Lansing,  Livingston,  Bayard,  Sum- 

,er,  and  many  others  from  the  whole  range 
of  states.  It  was  never  more  flourishing 
than  in  1860. 

It  has  been  claimed  that  President  Dvvight, 
m  his  school  at  Greenfield,  opened  in  1783, 


FEMALE    EDUCATION. 


405 


was  the  first  in  the  country  to  admit  pupils 
of  both  sexes  to  an  entire  equality  of  intel 
lectual  training.  In  any  event,  both  this 
school  and  his  previous  one  at  Northampton 
afforded  to  both  boys  and  girls  an  education 
of  uncommon  value  for  the  period. 

When  that  famous  teacher,  Caleb  Bingham, 
removed  to  Boston,  in  1784,  he  did  so  with 
the  design  of  opening  there  a  school  for  girls, 
Avho  were,  singularly  enough,  at  that  time  ex 
cluded  from  the  public  schools.  Mr.  Bing 
ham'  s  enterprise  was  successful,  and  was  also 
the  means  of  revolutionizing  the  unfair  school 
system  of  the  city,  and  of  introducing  a  plan 
which,  though  variously  imperfect,  at  least 
provided  some  public  instruction  for  girls. 

In  1792,  Miss  Pierce  opened  a  school  for 
girls  at  Litchlield,  Connecticut,  which  con 
tinued  in  operation  for  forty  years,  and  edu 
cated  large  numbers  of  young  ladies  from  all 
parts  of  the  country.  In  the  same  year,  at 
Philadelphia,  was  incorporated  one  of  the 
first,  if  not  the  first,  female  academies  in  this 
country. 

From  about  1797  to  1800,  Rev.  William 
"Woodbridge,  father  of  the  well-known  au 
thor  and  educator  W.  C.  Woodbridge,  taught 
a  young  ladies'  school,  at  first  at  Norwich, 
and  afterward  at  Middletown,  Conn. 

In  1816,  Mrs.  Emma  Willard  commenced 
her  endeavors  to  secure  for  women  the  op 
portunity  of  acquiring  a  grade  of  education 
corresponding  to  that  which  colleges  furnish 
to  the  other  sex.  The  eminent  success  and 
excellence  of  her  celebrated  school  at  Troy 
are  well  known;  and  an  important  conse 
quence  of  her  labors  was,  that  female  semi 
naries  were  admitted  to  receive  aid  from  the 
literature  fund  of  the  state  of  New  York, 
on  the  same  terms  with  the  academies. 

From  1818  to  18.30,  Rev.  Joseph  Emerson 
conducted  a  young  ladies'  school  of  high  rep 
utation  and  efficiency,  successively  at  Byfield 
and  Saugus,  Mass.,  and  Wethersfield,  Conn. 
In  1823,  George  B.  Emerson,  Esq.,  opened 
a  young  ladies'  school  at  Boston,  probably 
with  a  more  complete  and  efficient  outfit  and 
apparatus  than  any  which  had  preceded  it. 

The  well-known  school  of  John  Kingsbury, 
Esq.,  an  institution  of  similar  grade  and  ex 
cellence,  was  opened  at  Providence,  R.  I.,  in 
1828. 

In  1822,  Miss  Catherine  E.  Beechcr  open 
ed  a  school  for  young  ladies  at  Hartford, 
Conn.,  which  she  conducted  with  eminent 
success  for  ten  years.  She  afterward  taught 
for  a  short  period  at  Cincinnati,  but  her  la 


bors  for  female  education  have  subsequently 
consisted  in  various  publications,  and  in  the 
management  of  an  extended  scheme  for  a 
system  of  Christian  female. education,  inclu 
ding  a  national  board,  high  schools,  and  nor 
mal  schools ;  which  has  resulted  in  the  es 
tablishment  of  several  valuable  institutions. 

In  1825,  at  Wilbraham,  Mass.,  was  open 
ed  the  first  of  the  Methodist  Conference 
seminaries ;  institutions  whose  plan  has  sub 
stantially  followed  that  of  the  Wilbraham 
Seminary,  which  was  drawn  up  by  Rev.  Wil 
bur  Fiske,  its  first  principal. 

Miss  Z.  P.  Grant  and  Miss  Mary  Lyon, 
both  pupils  of  Rev.  Joseph  Emerson,  were 
associated  in  the  conduct  of  an  excellent 
school  for  young  ladies  at  Ipswich,  Mass. 
The  energetic  and  persevering  labors  of  Miss 
Lyon,  with  the  purpose  of  establishing  a  per 
manent  Protestant  school  of  high  grade  for 
young  ladies,  resulted  in  the  establishment 
of  the  celebrated  seminary  at  South  lladley, 
which  was  opened  in  1837. 

The  present  era  in  the  history  of  female  edu 
cation  in  the  United  States  is  perhaps  most 
strikingly  characterized  by  the  number  of 
large  and  largely  endowed  institutions  of  a 
high  grade,  which  have  been  established  in 
various  parts  of  the  country.  One  of  them  is 
the  Mount  Holyoke  Female  Seminary,  at 
South  Hadley,  just  mentioned.  The  Packer 
Collegiate  Institute  at  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  an 
other  of  them,  had  previously  existed  as  the 
Brooklyn  Institute  ;  and  received  its  present 
name  in  consequence  of  the  munificent  gift 
of  $85,000  by  Mrs.  Harriet  L.  Packer  of  that 
city.  The  whole  property  represents  a  value 
of  $150,000.  A  still  more  magnificent  en 
dowment  is  that  of  the  Vassar  Female  Col 
lege  at  Poughkecpsie,  N.  Y.,  for  which  the 
vast  sum  of  $408,000  has  been  given  by 
Matthew  Vassar,  Esq.,  of  that  city. 

A  characteristic  of  the  female  education 
of  the  present  period  is  the  practice  of  ad 
mitting  pupils  of  both  sexes  to  institutions 
for  secondary  and  superior  education;  to  the 
high  schools  of  cities,  to  academies,  to  the 
normal  schools,  and  even  in  one  or  two  in 
stitutions  of  the  collegiate  grade.  Another 
one  is  the  increasing  regard  which  is  paid  to 
the  employment  of  female  teachers,  and  to 
their  thorough  preparatory  training  for  that 
duty,  in  institutions  partly  or  wholly  for  that 
purpose.  On  the  whole,  the  department  of 
female  education  is,  at  present,  attracting  as 
fnuch  attention,  and  improving  as  rapidly, 
as  any  other. 


406 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

SCHOOL-HOUSES,  APPARATUS,   AND  TEXT 
BOOKS. 

IN  no  department  of  instruction  has  the 
work  of  improvement  been  so  general,  so 
rapid,  or  so  thorough  as  in  the  material 
outfit  of  the  school.  Within  a  quarter  of 


a  century  a  revolution  lias  been  wrought 
in  public  opinion  and  action  in  respect 
to  the  location,  construction,  ventilation, 
wanning,  furniture,  and  equipment  gener 
ally,  of  school-houses,  and  more  than  thir 
ty-five  millions  of  dollars  have  been  ex 
pended  for  these  objects  within  this  short 
period. 


SCHOOL-HOUSES  AS  THEY  WERE. 


SCHOOL-HOUSES,    APPARATUS,    AND    TEXT-BOOKS. 


407 


SCHOOL-HOUSES  AS  THEY  ARE. 


COUNTRY   DISTRICT   SCHOOL-HOUSE. 


VILLAGE  SCHOOL-HOUSE. 


PACKER   FEMALE    COLLEGIATE    INSTITUTE. 


Fig-  3.    INTERIOR  OF  CHAPEL. 


SCHOOL-HOUSES,    APPARATUS,    AND    TEXT-BOOKS. 


413 


SCHOOL-BOOKS. 

The  improvement  in  the  authorship  and  manufacture  of  text-books,  from  the  Primer 
to  the  Manuals  of  our  colleges  and  scientific  schools,  within  the  last  half  century  is  im 
mense.  We  will  refresh  the  memory  of  some  of  our  readers  by  reproducing  a  few 
of  the  tough  subjects  and  illustrations  with  which  they  or  their  fathers  were  painfully 
familiar. 

The  Horn-book. 

Few  of  us  have  had  the  satisfaction  of  learning  our  letters  after  the  manner  de 
scribed  by  Prior : — 

"To  master  John  the  English  maid 
A  Horn-book  gives  of  gingerbread; 
And  that  the  child  may  learn  the  better, 
As  he  can  name,  he  eats  the  letter." 

To  many,  even  a  picture  of  the  old-fashioned  Horn-book — the  Primer  of  our  ancestors, 
consisting  of  a  single  leaf  pasted  on  a  board,  and  covered  in  some  instances  with  thin 


,  .  •        .       .  ., , 

A  a  V  dgiL&ftii  j  'kl  fan  :o  p 
v  I' s  'La^vTi'  T2  &     a,  e  i  o  vi 
FG  TIIKL3O 0  P Q. 


ib  db  ub    b;i  bis  bi  bo  bit 


ori  id  otl  ud  !  da  clejUi  do  du 


Son.auclof  tlioTJcffyGhrjib  i',iln)f«X 


.kallflwed,  he   lli 
i]iy  BLijiq'doin   come,  Uty 
bevclojiie  oh,  EarOi,  asii  is  in 
Give  .'is  ,.  tliis  dii     oar 


ead  ;  .ami  JXTaivt 


twl    LTefpaf  sVfi.tnJuU  iw  :    xli:rl 
!karl  us  ixot  ijitw  TpwjiiMion,  trtU 


HORN-BOOK  OP   THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 


transparent  horn  to  preserve  it  from  being  torn  or  soiled — will  be  new.  The  following 
description  and  the  accompanying  cut  we  copy  from  Barnard's  American  Journal  of 
Educntion,  for  March,  I860:— 

Shcnstone,  who  was  taught  to  read  at  a  dame  school  near  Halcsowen,  in  Shropshire,  in 


414 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


his  delightfully  quaint  poem  of  the  Schoolmistress,  commemorating  his  venerable  precep 
tress,  thus  records  the  use  of  the  Horn-book  : — 

"  Lo  I  now  with  state  she  utters  her  command ; 

Kftsooua  the  urchins  to  their  tasks  repair; 

Their  books  of  stature  small  they  take  in  hand, 

Which  with  pellucid  horu  secured  are 

To  save  from  finger  wet  the  letters  fair." 

Cowper  thus  describes  the  Horn-book  of  his  time  : — 

"  Neatly  secured  from  being  soiled  or  torn 
Beneath  a  pane  of  thin  translucent  horn, 
A  book  (to  please  us  at  a  tender  age 
'Tis  called  a  book,  though  but  a  single  page), 
Presents  the  prayer  the  Saviour  deigned  to  teach, 
"Which  children  use,  and  parsons — when  they  preach." 

Tirocinium,  or  a  Review  of  Schools,  1784. 

In  "  Specimens  of  West  Country  Dialect"  the  use  of  the  Horn-book  is  thus  shown : — 
"  Commether  Billy  Chubb,  an  breng  the  hornen  book.  Gee  ma  the  vester  in  tha 
winder,  yor  Pal  came! — What !  be  a  sleepid — I'll  wake  ye.  Now,  Billy,  there's  a  good 
bway  !  Ston  still  there,  and  mind  what  I  da  za  to  ye,  an  whaur  I  da  point.  Now  ;  criss 
cross,  girt  a,  little  a — b — c — d.  That's  right,  Billy;  you'll  zoon  lorn  the  criss-cross- 
lain  ;  you'll  zoon  auvergit  Bobby  Jift'ry — you'll  zoon  be  a  scholard.  A's  a  pirty  chubby 
bway — Lord  lov'n  !" 

New  England  Primer. 


Of  the  New  England  Primer  we  can  give 
no  earlier  specimen  than  the  edition  of  1777, 
embellished  with  a  portrait  of  John  Han 
cock,  Esq.,  who  was  at  that  time  President 
of  the  Continental  Congress. 


The  Honorable  JOHN  HANCOCK,  Efq; 

Prefident  of  the  American  CONGRESS. 


We  must  not  omit  the  painfully  interest 
ing  group  of  John  Rogers  in  the  burning 
faggots,  with  his  wife  and  nine  or  ten  chil 
dren —  including  the  one  at  the  breast — a 
problem  which  has  puzzled  many  a  school 
boy's  brain :  • 


MR.  JoHNRoo  E'R  s  ,  minifterof  the 
gofpel  in  London,  was  the  firlt  mar 
tyr  in  Queen  MARY'S  reign,  and  was 
burnt  at  Smiihfield,  February  14, 1554. — His 
wife  with  nine  small  children,  ard  one  at 
her  breast  following  him  to  the  (lake;  with 
which  forrowful  fight  he  WPS  not  in  the 
leaft  daunted,  but  with  wonderful  patience 
died  courageoufly  for  the  gofpel  of  J  E  s  u  s 
CHRIST. 


SCHOOL-HOUSES,    APPARATUS,    AND    TEXT-BOOKS. 


415 


We  are  fortunate  in  being  able  to  present  our  readers  with  an  exact  transcript  of  the 
four  pages  of  the  first  illustrated  alphabet  printed  in  this  country.  Some  of  our  readers 
may  recognize  their  old  friends  of  the  later  editions  of  the  Primer,  in  which  "Young 
Timothy"  and  uZaccheus  he"  were  drawn  to  nature  less  severely  true.  The  whole 
belono-s  to  that  department  of  literature  which  "  he  who  runs  may  read,  and  he  who  reads 
will  run." 


E 


In  ADAM'S  Fall 
We  finned  all. 


Heaven  to  find, 
The  Bible  Mind. 


Chrift  crucify'd 
For  finners  dy'd. 


The  Deluge  drown'd 
The  Earth  around. 


ELIJAH  hid 
By  Ravens  fed. 


The  judgment  made 
FELIX  afraid. 


Q 


NOAH  did  view 
The  old  world  &  new 

Young  OBADIAS, 
D  A  v  i  D,  J  o  ,s  i  A  s 
All  were  pious. 

PETER  deny'd 
His  Lord  and  cry'd. 


Queen  ESTHER  lues 
And  faves  the  Jervs. 


Young  pious  RUTH 
Left  all  lor  Truth. 


Young  S  A  M  '  L  dear 
The  Lord  did  fear. 


G 


As  runs  the  Glass, 
Our  Life  doth  pass. 


M 


JOB  feels  the  Rod, — 
Yet  bleffes  GOD. 


Proud  Korali's  troop 
Was  fwallowed  up 

LOT  fled  to  Zoar, 
Saw  fiery  Shower 
On  Sodom  pour. 

MOSES  was  he 
Who  Israels  Hoft 
Led  thro'  the  Sea. 


u 


vv 


X 


Young  T  i  M  o  T  H  v 
Learnt  fin  to  fly. 


V  A  s  T  H  i  for  Pride, 
Was  fet  afide. 


Whales  in  the  Sea, 
GOD's  Voice  obey. 


XERXES  did  die. 
And  fo  muft  I. 

While  youth  do  cheat 
Death  may  be  near. 

Z  A  c  c  H  E  u  s  ha 
Did  climb  the  Tree 
Our  Lord  to  fee. 


416  EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


WEBSTER'S     SPELLING    BOOK. 

books  have  done  more  to  give  uniformity  to  the  orthography  of  the  language  or 
to  fill  the  memory  of  successive  generations  with  wholesome  truths  than  Webster's  Spell- 
in«r  Book.  Who  can  forget  his  first  introduction  to  those  four-and-twenty  characters, 
standing  in  stiff  upright  columns,  in  their  roman  and  italic  dress,  beginning  with  little  o, 
and  ending  with  that  nondescript  "and per  se ;"  or  his  first  lesson  in  combining  letters, 
• 

ba  be  bi  bo  bu  by 

Or  his  joy  in  reaching  words  of  two  syllables, 

ba     ker  bri     er  ci     der 

Or  his  exultation  in  learning  to  "know  his  duty"  in  those  "  Lessons  of  Easy  Words"  be 
ginning, 

No  man  may  put  off  the  law  of  God  : 

Or  the  more  advanced  steps,  both  in  length  of  words  and  stubborn  morality,  in  pursuit  of 

The  wick-ed  flee 
And  closing  his  spelling  career  with, 

Om        pom        pa        noo        sue 
Mich        il        li        mack        a        nack 

And  9 

Ail  to  be  troubled 

Ale  malt  liquor 

In  this  hasty  glance  at  this  famous  text  book,  we  have  designedly  passed  over  the  fa 
bles  commencing  with  the  Rude  Boy  and  ending  with  Poor  Tray,  that  we  might  intro 
duce  them  all  unabridged  with  their  unique  illustrations. 

Of  the  Boy  tkatjlok  Apples. 

AN  old  man  found  a  rude  boy  upon 
one  of  his  trees  ftealing  Apples,  and  de- 
fired  him  to  come  down;  but  the  young 
Sauce-box  told  him  plainly  he  would 
not.  Won't  you  ?  faid  the  old  Man, 
then  I  will  fetch  you  down;  fo  he  pulled 
up  fome  tufts  of  Grafs,  and  threw  at 
him ;  but  this  only  made  the  Youngfter 
laugh,  to  think  the  old  Man  mould  pre 
tend  to  beat  him  down  from  the  tree 
with  grafs  only. 

Well,  well,  faid  the  old  Man,  if  nei 
ther  words  nor  grafs  will  do,  I  muft  try 
what  virtue  there  is  in  Stones ;  fo  the 
old  Man  pelted  him  heartily  with  ftones; 
which  foon  made  the  young  Chap  haften  down  from  the  tree  and  beg  the  old  Man's  pardon. 

MORAL. 

If  good  words  and  gentle  means  will  not  reclaim  the  wicked,  they  muft  be  dealt  with  in  a 
more  fevere  manner. 


WEBSTER,  S    SPELLING    BOOK. 


417 


The  Country  Maid  and  her  Milk  Pail. 

WHEN  men  fuffer  their  imagination 
to  amufe  them,  with  the  profpect  of  dif- 
tant  and  uncertain  improvements  of  their 
condition,  they  frequently  fuftain  real 
lofles,  by  their  inattention  to  thofe  affairs 
in  which  they  are  immediately  concern 
ed. 

A  country  Maid  was  walking  very  de 
liberately  with  a  pail  of  milk  upon  her 
head,  when  {he  fell  into  the  following 
train  of  reflections :  The  money  for 
which  I  mall  fell  this  milk  will  enable 
me  to  increafe  my  flock  of  eggs  to  three 
hundred.  Thefe  eggs,  allowing  for  what 
may  prove  addle,  and  what  may  be  de- 
ftroyed  by  vermin,  will  produce  at  leaft 
•  two  hundred  and  fifty  chickens.  The 

chickens  will  oe  fit  to  carry  to  market  about  Chriftmas,  when  poultry  always  bears  a  good 
price ;  fo  that  by  May  Day  I  cannot  fail  of  having  money  enough  to  purchafe  a  new  Gown. 
Green — let  me  confider — yes,  green  becomes  my  complexion  beft,  and  green  it  {ball  be.  In 
this  drefs  I  will  go  to  the  fair,  where  all  the  young  fellows  will  ftrive  to  have  me  for  a  part 
ner;  but  I  mall  perhaps  refufe  every  one  of  them,  and  with  an  air  of  difdain,  tofs  from 
them.  Tranfported  with  this  triumphant  thought,  me  could  not  forbear  afting  with  her  head 
what  thus  pafled  in  her  imagination,  when  down  came  the  pail  of  milk,  and  with  it  all  her 
imaginary  happinefs. 

The  Cat  and  the  Rat. 

A  CERTAIN  Cat  had  made  fuch 
unmerciful  havoc  among  the  vermin  of 
her  neighbourhood,  that  not  a  fmgle  Rat 
or  Moufe  ventured  to  appear  abroad. 
Pufs  was  foon  convinced,  that  if  affairs 
remained  in  their  prefent  fituation,  me 
muft  be  totally  unfupplied  with  provif- 
ions.  After  mature  deliberation,  there 
fore,  me  refolved  to  have  recourfe  to 
ftratagem.  For  this  purpofe  {he  fuf- 
pended  herfelf  to  a  hook  with  her  head 
downwards,  pretending  to  be  dead. 
The  Rats  and  Mice,  as  they  peeped 
from  their  holes,  obferving  her  in  this 
dangling  attitude,  concluded  me  was 
hanging  for  fome  mifdemeanour ;  and 
with  great  joy  immediately  fallied  forth  in  queft  of  their  prey.^  Pufs,  as  foon  as  a  fufficient 
number  were  collefted  together,  quitting  her  hold,  dropped  into  the  midft  of  them;  and 
very  few  had  the  fortune  to  make  good  their  retreat.  This  artifice  having  fucceeded  fo  well, 
me  was  encouraged  to  try  the  event  of  a  fecond.  Accordingly  me  whitened  her  coat  all 
over,  by  rolling  herfelf  in  a  heap  of  flour,  and  in  this  difguife  lay  concealed  in  the  bottom  of 
a  me'al  tub.  This  ftratagem  was  executed  in  general  with  the  same  effed  as  the  former.  But 
an  old  experienced  Rat,  altogether  as  cunning  as  his  adverfary,  was  not  fo  eafily  enfnared.  I 
don't  much  like,  faid  he,  that  white  heap  yonder :  Something  whifpers  me  there  is  mifchief 
concealed  under  it.  'Tis  true  it  may  be  meal ;  but  it  may  likewife  be  fomething  that  I  mould 
not  relifh  quite  fo  well.  There  can  be  no  harm  at  leaft  in  keeping  at  a  proper  diftance ;  for 
caution,  I  am  fure,  is  the  parent  of  fafety. 


418 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


The  Fox  and  the  Swallow. 

ARISTOTLE  informs  us,  that  the 
following  Fable  was  spoken  by  Eiopto 
the  Samians,  on  a  debate  upon  chang 
ing  their  miniilers,  who  were  accufed 
of  plundering  the  commonwealth. 

A  Fox  fwimming  acrofs  a  river, 
happened  to  be  entangled  in  fome 
weeds  that  grew  near  the  bank,  from 
which  he  was  unable  to  extricate  him- 
felf.  As  he  lay  thus  expofed  to  whole 
fwarms  of  flies,  which  were  galling  him 
and  fucking  his  blood,  a  fwallow,  ob- 
ferving  his  diftrefs,  kindly  offered  to  ' 
drive  them  away.  By  no  means,  faid 
the  Fox ;  for  if  thefe  mould  be  chafed 
away,  which  are  already  fufficiently 
gorged,  another  more  hungry  fwarm  would  fucceed,  and  I  mould  be  robbed  of  every  re 
maining  drop  of  blood  in  my  veins. 

The  Fox  and  the  Bramble. 

A  FOX,  clofely  purfued  by  a  pack 
of  Dogs,  took  fhelter  under  the  covert 
of  a  Bramble.  He  rejoiced  in  this 
afylum;  and  for  a  while,  was  very 
happy ;  but  foon  found  that  if  he  at 
tempted  to  ftir,  he  was  wounded  by 
thorns  and  prickles  on  every  fide. 
However,  making  a  virtue  of  neceflity, 
he  forbore  to  complain ;  and  com 
forted  himfelf  with  reflecting  that  no 
blifs  is  perfect ;  that  good  and  evil  are 
mixed,  and  flow  from  the  fame  foun 
tain.  Thefe  Briers,  indeed,  faid  he, 
will  tear  my  fkin  a  little,  yet  they  keep 
off  the  dogs.  For  the  fake  of  the  good 
then  let  me  bear  the  evil  with  patience ; 

each  bitter  has  its  fweet;  and  thefe  Brambles,  though  they  wound  my  flefh,  preferve  my  life 

from  danger. 

The  Partial  Judge. 

A  FARMER  came  to  a  neighbour 
ing  Lawyer,  exprefling  great  concern 
for  an  accident  which  he  faid  had  juft 
happened.  One  of  your  Oxen,  coji- 
tinued  he,  has  been  gored  by  an  un 
lucky  Bull  of  mine,  and  I  mould  be 
glad  to  know  how  I  am  to  make  you 
reparation.  Thou  art  a  very  honeft 
fellow,  replied  the  lawyer,  and  wilt 
not  think  it  unreafonable  that  I  ex- 
pecl:  one  of  thy  Oxen  in  return.  It 
is  no  more  than  juftice,  quoth  the  Far 
mer,  to  be  fure ;  but  what  did  I  fay  ? 
— I  miftake — It  is  your  Bull  that  has 
killed  one  of  my  Oxen.  Indeed  !  fays 
the  Lawyer,  that  alters  the  cafe ;  I 


WEBSTER'S  SPELLING  BOOK. 


419 


muft  inquire  into  the  affair ;  and  if— And  if!  faid  the  Farmer— the  bufmefs  I  find  would 
have  been  concluded  without  an  if,  had  you  been  as  ready  to  do  juftice  to  others,  as  to  exact 
it  from  them. 

.  The  Bear  and  the  two  Friends. 

TWO  Friends,  fetting  out  togeth 
er  upon  a  journey,  which  led  through 
a  dangerous  foreft,  mutually  promifed 
to  aflift  each  other  if  they  mould  hap 
pen  to  be  aflaulted.  They  had  not 
proceeded  far,  before  they  perceived 
a  Bear  making  towards  them  with 
great  rage. 

There  were  no  hopes  in  flight;  but 
one  of  them,  being  very  adive,  fprung 
up  into  a  tree;  upon  which  the  other, 
throwing  himfelf  flat  on  the  ground, 
held  his  breath  and  pretended  to  be 
dead ;  remembering  to  have  heard  it 
aflerted,  that  this  creature  will  not 
prey  upon  a  dead  carcafs.  The  bear 
came  up,  and  after  fmelling  to  him  fome  time,  left  him  and  went  on.  When  he  was  fairly 
out  of  fight  and  hearing,  the  hero  from  the  tree  called  out — Well,  my  friend,  what  faid  the 
bear  ?  he  feemed  to  whifper  you  very  clofely.  He  did  fo,  replied  the  other,  and  gave  me  this 
good  piece  of  advice,  never  to  aflbciate  with  a  wretch,  who  in  the  hour  of  danger,  will  defert 
his  friend. 


The    Two  Dogs. 

HASTY  and  inconfiderate  con 
nections  are  generally  attended  with 
great  difadvantages ;  and  much  of 
every  man's  good  or  ill  fortune,  de 
pends  upon  the  choice  he  makes  of 
his  friends. 

A  good-natured  Spaniel  overtook  a 
furly  Maftiff,  as  he  was  travelling  up 
on  the  high  road.  Tray,  although 
an  entire  ftranger  to  Tiger,  very  civ 
illy  accofted  him;  and  if  it  would  be 
no  interruption,  he  faid,  he  mould  be 
glad  to  bear  him  company  on  his  way. 
Tiger,  who  happened  not  to  be  alto 
gether  in  fo  growling  a  mood  as  ufual, 
accepted  the  propofal;  and  they  very 
amicably  purfued  their  journey  together.  -In  the  midft  of  their  converfation,  they  arrived  at 
the  next  village,  where  Tiger  began  to  difplay  his  malignant  difpofition,  by  an  unprovoked 
attack  upon  every  dog  he  met.  The  villagers  immediately  fallied  forth  with  great  indig 
nation,  to  refcue  their  refpeftive  favourites;  and  falling  upon  our  two  friends,  without  dif- 
tinftion  or  mercy,  poor  Tray  was  moft  cruelly  treated,  for  no  other  reafon,  but  his  being 
found  in  bad  company. 


420 


EDUCATION   AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


The  following  cuts,  sketched  from  WILLSON'S  Scries  of  "  School  and  Family  Readers,"  \v:t1i  the  ac 
companying  explanations,  show  the  great  degree  of  advancement  made,  not  only  in  the  arti.-tic  beauty 
of  the  Illustrations  contained  in  the  latest  published  of  our  Reading-Books,  but,  more  especially,  in  the 
successful  attempt  to  combine  instruction  in  reading  with  advancement  in  usefu.1  knowledge. 

From  the  First  Reader. 


Eye,  Nose,  Ear,  Mouth,  Face. 


Ann, 


,  Boot,  Foot,  Shoe. 


The  Fagle's  Nest. 


The  le-iding  principle  developed  in  the  SECOND  HEADKH  i  PART  I.,  "Stories  from  the  Bible,"  beautifully  and  bountifully 


(but  which  also  runs  throughout  the  entire  Series)  is  the  early 
cultivation  of  the  P-rc>'p!ire  Faculties  l>y  lessons  drawn  from 
a  great  variety  of  objects  and  scenes  which  are  represented  10 
the  eye  of  the  pupil. 

The  THIRD  KKADER  of  the  Series,  after  a  brief  synopsis  of 
the  "Elements  of  Elocution,"  is  divided  into  Four  Parts: 


lllntsrated PART  II.,  "Moral  Lessons."— Purl  II!.,  "First 

Division  of  Animal  Life,"  embracing  the  Mammalia;  and 
PA;:T  IV.,  "Miscellaneous."  The  following  four  illustra  ions 
give  the  pupil  a  general  idea  of  the  four  great  divisions  of  the 
Animal  Kingdom. 


ANIMALS  OP 
aiiM.     3. 


I"!  f.EAL  5!NI)— V  Common  So!ll<  P'»>™  ri/u'in«.    2.  Sen-Bear,  Pltocn  w- 
bea-Lwn,  Ptioca  jubata.    4.  Walrus,  or  Sea-llowe,  Tric/iechu*  rosmanu. 


The  subject  of  the  Mimmn- 
?j«,  in  the  THIRD  HEADER,  is 
illustrated  by  more  than  two 
hundred  figures  of  Animals, 
many  of  them  i  i  groups,  with 
Rrales  of  Meus'ti-i'iitent  show 
ing  their  comparative  tizrs,  as 
in  the  Animals  of  the  Seal  kind 
in  the  annexed  tngraving. 
This  we  believe  to  be  a  new 
feature,  even  in  zoological 
works,  and  it  is  one  that  is  em 
inently  useful. 

An  attempt  has  been  made — 
and,  it  is  believed,  successfully 
— to  invest  the  subject  of  ani 
mal  life  with  a  great  degrej  of 
interest  for  children;  \opojni- 
Inrize.  it  to  their  capacities;  to 
give  all  desi  able  variety  to  the 
lessons,  :is  exercises  in  reading; 
and  to  convey  as  much  positive 
inf'irmat  on  as  would  b;-  com 
patible  with  these  requisites  for 
a  pood  Re.ading-IJ  >ok.  Numer 
ous  interesting  incidents  of  ani 
mal  life,  illustrating  fruits  of 
character,  habits,  &c  ,  and  both 
poetical  and  prose  selections, 
effectually  relieve  the  descrip 
tions  of  that  Ham.'  n<'8$  of  style 
and  matter  which  is  found  in 
most  zoological  works. 


ACADEMIES,    HIGH    SCHOOLS,    ETC. 


421 


Cretaneous. 

Oolitic. 

fiafr/eront. 

ffrr&oni/eroii 

Devonian.. 


The  FOURTH  READEK,  in  ad 
dition  to  Miscellaneous  Selec 
tions,  has  divisions  or  "  Parts" 
appropriated  to  "  Human  Phys 
iology  and  Health,"  "Orni 
thology,  or  Birds,"  "  Vegetable 
Physiology,  or  Botany,"  "  Nat 
ural  Philosophy,"  and  ''Sacred 
History,"  in  all  which  there  i.i 
great  literary  variety,  well 
adapted  for  reading  lessons ; 
and,  moreover,  the  beautiful 
illustrations  teach  uxeful  facts. 
One  of  the  cuts  f :  om  "Ornithol 
ogy,"  showing  the  forms,  rela 
tive  sizes,  &c.,  of  the  "Climb 
ing  Birds,"  is  here  given. 

The  FIFTH  READEK,  which  is 
the  highest  in  the  Series  thus 
fur  published,  has,  in  addition 
to  the  Miscellaneous  Divisions 
embracing  a  variety  of  the  best 
literary  selections,  the  eleven 
following  "Parts." 

1.  "Elocutionary;"  2.  "Her- 
petology,  or  Reptiles ;"  3.  "  Sec 
ond  Division  of  Human  Physi 
ology  and  Health;"  4th,  "Sec- 
ond  Division  of  Vegetable  Phys 
iology,  or  Botany ;  5.  "  Ichthy 
ology,  or  1'ishes;"  6.  "Civil 
Architecture ;"  1.  "  Second  Di 
vision  of  Natural  Philosophy; 
8.  "Physical  Geography;"  9. 
"Chemistry;"  10.  "Geology;" 
11.  "Ancient  History."  We 
have  room  to  introduce  only 
one  illustration  from  each  of 
two  of  these  divisions. 

The  Botanical  Illustration 
here  given  represents  the 
Trumpet-Flower  and  Labiate 
Families ;  another  cut  shows 
the  features  which  specially 
characterize  these  families,  but 
for  which  we  have  not  room 
here.  The  Classification  of 
Plants,  in  accordance  with  the 
Na/ural  System,  is  shown 
chiefly  by  such  interesting  il- 
lust  ations  as  these,  which  cer 
tainly  accomplish  far  more  than 
pnges  of  desc:iplion.  More 
over,  the  economical  uses  of 
plants  are  not  overlooked,  and 
the  entire1  treatment  of  the  sul>- 
ject  is  well  calculated  to  culti 
vate,  in  early  life,  a  taste  for 
the  successful  study  of  Natu  e. 
In  the  di  partment  of  Ichthyol 
ogy,  1'25  species  of  fish  are'  f  g- 
ured.  Physical  Geography, 
Architecture,  Geology,  &c., 
have  their  appropriate  illust  ra 
tions,  all  teaching  us.  ful  ftu-U 
i'l  science,  but  without  the  dry- 
n  W  which  usually  accompanica 
t^i.-ntific  detail. 

Of  the  very  BUCC  ssfnl  man 
ner  in  which  the  above  subjects 
have  beeu  made  to  combine  the 
Kt'rary  rarittii  required  in 
Rradlng-Booki  for  youth,  with 
instru  lion  in  imcjul  knowl- 
e<l"e,  we  have  not  room  to  spenlc 
here;  but  we  commend  a  crit 
ical  examination  of  the  books 
themselves  —  in  their  dusijrn, 
plan,  and  ex-cution — to  every 
one  interested  in  the  subject  of 
Kducitional  Progress. 

What  a  c  mtrnst  between 
these  and  our  earlier  Reading- 
Books  !  The  simple  fact  that 
publishers  can  now  a/urd  to  il 
lustrate,  so  elaborately,  books 
designed  for  use  in  our  Common 
Sfhoobii,  speaks  volumes  for  the 
cause  of  Popular  Education,. 


422 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


SCHOOL  APPARATU& 


APPARATUS  AND  EQUIPMENT  OF  THE  DISTRICT   SCHOOL   AS  IT   WAS. 


flPECIHENS  OF  APPARATUS  OF  THE  SCHOOL  AS  IT  IS, 


LIBRARIES. 


423 


CHAFFER  XIX. 
LIBRARIES. 

AT  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  there 
were  very  few  public  libraries  in  the  coun 
try  ;  hardly  any,  indeed,  away  from  the  col 
leges  and  large  towns,  and  even  these,  few 
and  small  as  they  were,  were  not  generally 
accessible.  The  oldest  of  them  all  was  that 
of  Harvard  University,  which  commenced 
with  the  bequest  of  Harvard's  books  in  1638, 
but  had  been  completely  destroyed  by  fire 
in  1764.  Great  efforts  were  made  to  restore 
it,  and  before  the  commencement  of  the 
Revolution  about  820,000  and  considerable 
quantities  of  books  had  been  contributed 
for  that  purpose.  It  could,  however,  hardly 
have  had  more  than  10,000  or  12,000  vol 
umes  at  that  period.  The  only  other  col 
lege  libraries  then  in  existence  (all  of  them 
small,  but  two  or  three  of  them  containing 
many  valuable  works,)  were  the  library  of 
Yale  College,  founded  in  1700,  which  had 
received  important  additions  from  Bishop 
Berkeley  and  other  English  gentlemen ;  the 
very  small  library  of  William  and  Mary,  at 
Williamsburg,  Va.,  founded,  perhaps,  'two 
or  three  years  earlier;  that  of  the  Univer 
sity  of  Pennsylvania,  founded  in  1749,  also 
small,  but  valuable  ;  that  of  New  Jersey  Col 
lege,  at  Princeton,  founded  in  1746;  that 
of  King's,  now  Columbia,  College,  founded 
in  1757,  and  containing  at  the  close  of  the 
Revolution  not  more  than  2000  volumes ; 
and  the  few  hundred  volumes  which  had 
been  collected,  as  nuclei  of  libraries,  in 
Brown  University  from  and  after  1768, 
Dartmouth  College  from  1769,  and  Rutgers 
College  from  1770  to  the  close  of  the  war. 
Of  proprietary  libraries,  the  oldest  and 
best  was  the  Philadelphia  Library  Company 
and  Loganian  Collection,  founded  by  Ben 
jamin  Franklin  in  1731,  which  in  1783  con 
tained  about  5000  volumes.  The  Redwood 
Library  at  Newport,  R.  I.,  incorporated  in 
1747,  though  not  a  large  collection,  possessed 
considerable  value  to  the  classical  and  theo 
logical  student.  The  New  York  Society  Li 
brary,  founded  in  1754,  had  attained  to  con 
siderable  size  prior  to  the  war,  but  suffered 
much  from  the  vandalism  of  the  British  sol 
diers,  its  books  being  carried  oft'  by  the 
knapsackful  and  bartered  for  grog.  In  1795 
it  had  only  5000  volumes.  The  Charleston 
Library  Society  was  founded  a  year  or  two 
earlier  than  the  New  York  Society,  and  at 
the  commencement  of  the  war  had  between 


five  and  six  thousand  volumes,  aside  from 
the  library  of  Mr.  Mackenzie,  bequeathed  to 
it  about  the  same  time.  In  1778,  however, 
this  fine  collection  was  almost  entirely  de 
stroyed  by  fire,  a  small  portion  of  the  books 
only  being  rescued  from  the  flames,  and  of 
these  many  being  broken  sets.  The  Provi 
dence  Athenaeum,  founded  in  1753,  the 
Salem  Athenaeum  in  1760,  and  the  Port 
land  Athenaeum  in  1765,  small  collections, 
but  well  selected,  the  special  library  of  the 
American  Philosophical  Society  at  Philadel 
phia,  and  a  state  library  of  three  or  four 
hundred  volumes,  at  Concord,  New  Hamp 
shire,  complete  the  catalogue  of  public  li 
braries  of  any  considerable  importance  at 
the  close  of  the  war  of  the  Revolution. 

The  period  immediately  subsequent  to  the 
war  was  not  favorable  to  the  multiplication 
or  growth  of  libraries ;  for,  being  among 
the  outgrowths  of  an  opulent  and  luxurious 
civilization,  we  could  hardly  look  for  their 
increase  amid  the  poverty  and  financial  re 
vulsions  which  continued  till  nearly  the 
close  of  the  last  century.  Between  1783 
and  1800,  ten  colleges  and  one  theological 
seminary  were  founded,  and  some  of  them 
— as,  for  instance,  Bowdoin,  Georgetown, 
D.  C.,  Williams,  Dickinson,  Transylvania, 
and  the  University  of  North  Carolina — now 
possess  respectable  libraries,  but  they  have 
been  mainly  accumulated  within  the  last 
forty  years.  Of  other  libraries,  we  can  find 
no  record  of  even  one,  of  any  importance, 
founded  in  this  period. 

In  the  period  between  1800  and  the  close 
of  the  Avar  of  1812,  there  were  five  colleges 
and  two  theological  seminaries  organized,  all 
of  which  now  have  libraries  of  considerable 
importance.  To  this  period  also  belong  the 
beginnings  of  the  Boston  Athenaeum,  now  the 
fourth  library  in  the  country  in  the  number 
of  its  volumes,  the  first  library  of  Congress, 
which  was  destroyed  by  the  British  in  1814, 
the  noble  collection  of  the  New  York  His 
torical  Society,  and  the  commencement  of 
the  special  libraries  of  the  American  An 
tiquarian  Society  at  Worcester,  and  the 
American  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  at 
Philadelphia. 

The  war  of  1812  was  followed  by  a  period 
of  severe  financial  distress,  and  it  was  not 
till  about  1818  that  any  considerable  efforts 
were  made  for  the  establishment  of  libraries. 
Between  1818  and  the  present  time,  not 
only  have  more  than  one  hundred  colleges 
been  organized,  each  of  which  has  a  library 


424 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


of  some  size,  and  many  of  them  from  10,- 
000  to  25,000  volumes,  but  there  have  also 
been  established  more  than  twenty  theo 
logical  seminaries,  with  considerable  collec 
tions  of  books  ;  most  of  the  state  libraries, 
beginning  with  the  valuable  State  Library  at 
Albany,  of  over  50,000  volumes,  the  Con 
gressional,  Astor,  Smithsonian,  Boston  Pub 
lic  Library,  and  other  free  libraries ;  most 
of  the  libraries  of  the  learned  societies,  and 
the  extensive  collections  of  the  historical 
societies,  three  or  four  proprietary  libraries 
of  some  note,  all  of  the  subscription  libra 
ries,  known  as  mercantile,  institute,  mechan 
ics',  or  apprentices'  libraries,  and  those  con 
nected  with  young  men's  Christian  associa 
tions  and  with  churches.  Within  the  same 
period  also,  and  mainly  within  twenty  years 
past,  great  numbers  of  special  libraries — 
scientific,  commercial,  agricultural,  mining, 
humanitarian,  or  devoted  to  the  promotion 
of  particular  departments  of  art  or  literature 
— have  been  founded,  while  in  all  the  states 
Sunday  School  libraries,  and  in  many  of 
them  school-district,  town,  and  academical 
libraries  have  been  formed.  Prior  to  1840, 
there  were  many  instances  in  which  writers 
who  desired  to  investigate  certain  periods 
of  history,  or  certain  sciences  or  arts,  were 
compelled  to  visit  Europe  in  order  to  pro 
cure  from  the  great  libraries  of  England  or 
the  continent  the  necessary  facts.  The  ne 
cessity  for  this  is  now  nearly  obviated.  The 
great  libraries  of  Cambridge,  Boston,  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  and  Washington,  though 
neither  of  them  so  complete  as  they  should 
be,  yet  together  furnish  material  for  the  prep 
aration  of  works  in  most  departments  of  sci 
ence,  literature,  or  art,  and  they  are  every 
year  becoming  more  and  more  full  in  the 
topics  heretofore  deficient. 

The  best  free  library  in  this  country,  and 
the  largest,  is  the  Astor  Library  of  New 
York.  It  was  founded  by  the  bequest  of 
$400,000  by  John  Jacob  Astor,  of  which 
$75,000  was  to  be  appropriated  for  the  build 
ing,  $120,000  for  the  first  purchase  of  books, 
and  the  remainder  invested,  and  the  interest 
applied  to  the  management  and  increase  of 
the  library.  The  original  building,  with  its 
furniture  and  shelving,  opened  in  1854,  cost 
about  $120,000,  the  excess  over  $75,000  be 
ing  from  accrued  interest.  The  $120,000 
expended  for  books  purchased  about  80,000 
volumes.  The  shelf-room  (13,000  feet)  be 
ing  likely  to  prove  insufficient  for  the  wants 
of  the  library,  William  B.  Astor,  Esq.,  the  son 


of  the  founder  of  the  library,  purchased  a 
lot  adjoining  the  north  side  of  the  library, 
80  by  120  feet,  and  erected  an  additional 
building,  somewhat  larger  than  the  original 
one,  which  he  presented  to  the  trustees. 
Mr.  Astor  has  also,  at  different  times,  made 
considerable  donations  for  the  purchase  of 
books.  The  present  number  of  volumes 
in  the  library  is  somewhat  more  than  120,- 
000,  nearly  all  acquired  by  purchase.  In 
his  long  and  careful  bibliographical  prepara 
tion  for  purchasing  this  library,  in  his  judi 
cious  selections,  and  careful  expenditures,  Dr. 
Cogswell,  the  librarian-in-chief.  has  establish 
ed  a  claim  to  the  gratitude  of  all  scholars. 

The  library  of  Harvard  University  has 
grown  up  since  1764,  when  the  original  li 
brary  was  destroyed  by  fire,  by  numerous 
donations  of  books,  and,  in  quite  a  number 
of  instances,  of  entire  libraries,  as  well  as  by 
donations  and  bequests  of  money  from  friends. 
These  donations  and  bequests  cannot  fall 
much  short  of  $150,000,  and  it  has  now  a 
fund  of  $26,000,  the  interest  of  which  is  ap 
plicable  to  the  purchase  of  books,  and  the 
sum  of  $'5000  per  year,  for  five  years  from 
1859,  pledged  by  William  Gray,  Esq.,  to  be 
applied  to  the  same  purpose.  The  various 
collections  of  books  in  Gore  Hall  (the  libra 
ry  building)  include  not  only  the  college  li 
brary  proper,  but  also  the  society  libraries, 
and  the  libraries  of  the  divinity,  law,  and 
medical  schools.  The  whole  number  of  vol 
umes  is  about  125,000,  but  the  library  is 
very  miscellaneous  in  character,  and  incom 
plete  in  certain  departments.  The  consid 
erable  sums  it  now  has  at  command  for  pur 
chases  are  applied  to  make  good  its  deficien 
cies  as  far  and  as  fast  as  possible. 

The  Boston  City  Library,  a  free  public  li 
brary,  now  ranks  third  in  this  country.  It 
was  founded  in  1848,  in  accordance  with  a 
law  of  Massachusetts  providing  for  the  es 
tablishment  of  town  libraries.  Hon.  Josiah 
Quincy,  jr.,  then  mayor  of  the  city,  gave 
$5000  toward  it;  Mr.  Bigelow  gave  $1000; 
Mr.  Everett  and  Mr.  Winthrop,  large  dona 
tions  of  books ;  Mr.  Joshua  Bates,  of  Lon 
don,  $50,000,  besides  several  thousand  vol 
umes  ;  Mr.  Jonathan  Phillips,  $10,000  ;  and 
others,  smaller  sums.  The  building,  erected 
at  a  cost  of  $363,000  by  the  city  of  Boston, 
is  one  of  the  finest  library  rooms  in  the 
world.  The  present  number  of  volumes  is  a 
little  more  than  100,000,  and  is  increasing 
at  the  rate  of  8000  volumes  per  annum. 
During  the  present  year  (1861)  also,  it  will 


BOSTON    CITY    LIBRARY.       INTKKIOU. 


LIBRARIES. 


427 


receive  the  fine  library  bequeathed  to  it  by 
the  late  Theodore  Parker,  consisting  of  near 
ly  18,000  volumes. 

The  Boston  Athenaeum  ranks  fourth  in 
the  number  of  its  volumes,  is  peculiarly  rich 
in  the  transactions  of  learned  societies,  and 
has  a  considerable  portion  of  General  Wash 
ington's  library.  It  has  now  about  75,000 
volumes,  and  has  cost  for  its  building  and 
books  full  $300,000.  Though  a  proprietary 
library,  it  is  practically  free  to  the  public  for 
consultation.  It  -was  founded  in  1806,  but 
its  principal  growth  has  been  within  the  last 
twenty-five  years. 

The  library  of  Congress,  which  was  nearly 
destroyed  by  fire  in  1851,  has  since  been  re 
stored  and  largely  increased.  The  purchases 
being  made  under  the  direction  of  a  com 
mittee  of  the  two  Houses,  comprising  their 
most  eminent  scholars,  are  judicious,  and  the 
library,  which  contains  about  65,000  vol 
umes,  is  one  of  the  best  for  reference  and 
consultation  in  the  country.  The  library  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  also  in  the 
Capitol,  contains  about  40,000  volumes. 

The  Philadelphia  Library  Company  and 
Loganian  Collection  is  another  of  the  pro 
prietary  libraries  which  are  accessible  to  the 
public  for  consulting  purposes  free  of  charge. 
Though  founded  130  years  ago,  its  growth 
has  been  mainly  achieved  during  the  present 
century.  In  1800,  it  contained  only  7000 
or  8000  volumes,  Avhile  its  present  number  is 
about  70,000. 

The  New  York  Mercantile  Library  is  the 
largest  of  the  subscription  and  lending  libra 
ries  which  are  found  in  most  of  the  consid 
erable  towns  of  the  United  States.  It  pos 
sesses  a  fine  edifice  in  Astor  Place,  which  cost 
nearly  $240,000,  and  the  rent  of  that  portion 
of  the  building  not  occupied  for  library  pur 
poses  and  reading-rooms,  will  give  it,  when 
its  debt  is  liquidated,  a  considerable  annual 
fund  in  addition  to  its  receipts  for  member 
ship.  Its  reading-room  is  the  largest  in  the 
country,  though  the  free  reading-room  of  the 
Cooper  Institute  very  nearly  approaches  it. 
Its  library,  though  intended  mainly  for  popu 
lar  readers  rather  than  scholars,  contains  a 
very  considerable  collection  of  valuable  works 
of  reference.  Its  present  number  of  volumes 
is  about  60,000. 

The  New  York  State  Library  at  Albany 
is  by  far  the  largest  of  all  the  state  libraries, 
and  is  especially  valuable  for  its  fine  collec 
tion  of  works  on  American  history  and  on 
the  natural  sciences.  It  was  founded  in 


1818,  but  its  principal  increase  has  been 
since  1845,  at  which  time  the  Warden  col 
lection  of  works  on  America  was  purchased 
and  incorporated  in  the  library.  The  late  Dr. 
T.  Romeyn  Beck  superintended  it  for  many 
years,  and  to  his  judicious  purchases  it  is  in 
debted  for  rmich  of  its  value.  Its  present 
number  of  volumes  is  not  far  from  55,000. 

The  library  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution 
at  Washington,  though  not  so  large  as  some 
others,  numbering  little  more  than  35,000 
volumes,  is  a  very  valuable  collection.  The 
aim  of  Dr.  Henry,  the  secretary  of  the  in 
stitution,  has  been  to  make  it  particularly 
full  in  those  departments  in  which  other  li 
braries  are  deficient.  Its  books  are  loaned 
to  eminent  scholars  at  a  distance,  when 
needed  for  the  preparation  of  works  of  im 
portance.  For  some  years  it  received  a  copy 
of  all  copyrio-ht  books  in  the  country. 

The  American  Antiquarian  Society  at 
Worcester  has  an  exceedingly  valuable  col 
lection  on  American  antiquities.  Founded  in 
1812,  by  the  late  Isaiah  Thomas,  who  was  for 
twenty  years  its  president,  and  who  gave  it 
about  9000  volumes,  it  has  now  about  26,000 
volumes,  many  of  them  unique  in  this  country. 

The  NCAV  York  Historical  Society,  found 
ed  in  1 804,  has  a  very  valuable  library  of 
about  30,000  volumes,  mainly  confined  to 
American  history  and  literature  ;  a  museum 
of  American  relics  and  antiquities  ;  a  large 
picture  gallery  ;  and  has  recently  purchased 
the  fine  collection  of  Egyptian  antiquities 
procured  by  the  late  Dr.  Abbott. 

The  American  Academy  of  Natural  Sci 
ences  at  Philadelphia  has  a  museum  of  nat 
ural  history  of  nearly  30,000  specimens,  and 
a  library  of  about  27,000  volumes,  more 
complete  in  natural  history  than  any  other, 
and  also  containing  a  very  full  collection  of 
the  revolutionary  literature  of  France,  pre 
sented  them  by  Mr.  William  Maclure. 

Two  other  foundations  for  libraries  are  de 
serving  of  notice:  that  of  George  Peabody, 
Esq.,  for  the  Peabody  Institute  at  Baltimore, 
which  contemplates  a  library  in  connection 
with  a  gallery  of  the  fine  arts,  a  musical 
conservatory,  etc.,  the  entire  endowment 
amounting  to  $600,000  ;  and  that  of  the  late 
David  Watkinson,  of  Hartford,  Connecticut, 
who  left,  in  1857,  the  sum  of  $100,000  to 
found  a  library  of  reference  in  connection 
with  the  Connecticut  Historical  Society,  and 
also  made  that  library  his  residuary  legatee. 

These  are  the  most  remarkable  public  li 
braries  of  the  country.  There  are,  according 


428 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


to  the  latest  returns,  3  libraries  containing 
over  100,000  volumes  each;  9  containing  over 
50, 000 volumes  each;  19  containing  30,000 
volumes  or  more;  26  containing  25,000  vol 
umes  or  more ;  41  containing  over  20,000; 
and  120  containing  10,000  or  more. 

The  total  aggregate  of  volumes  in  college, 
state,  national,  proprietary,  subscription,  free, 
and  town  libraries,  is  not  far  from  3,800,000, 
and  is  increasing  with  great  rapidity. 

There  are,  besides  these,  in  many  of  the 
states,  school-district  and  academic  libraries, 
containing  a  very  large  aggregate  amount  of 
books.  In  the  state  of  New  York,  the  num 
ber  of  volumes  in  the  academic  libraries  re 
porting  to  the  Board  of  Regents  exceeds 
125,000  ;  and  the  number  of  volumes  in  the 
common-school  libraries  exceeds  1,500,000. 
Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  Connecti 
cut,  Ohio,  Michigan,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Wis 
consin,  and  Iowa,  also  make  provision  for 
such  libraries,  and  have  large  numbers  of 
them.  The  latest  school  returns  indicate 
that  the  number  of  volumes  in  this  class  of 
libraries  is  not  far  from  4,000,000. 

Another  class  of  libraries,  containing  in 
the  aggregate  a  vast  number  of  volumes,  and 
in  many  cases  works  of  considerable  size  and 
value,  are  the  Sunday  School  libraries.  Few 
of  these  contain  less  than  200  volumes,  and 
many  of  them  have  1000  or  more.  More 
than  4000  different  works  have  been  pub 
lished  for  these  libraries  within  a  few  years 
past  by  the  publishing  societies  and  private 
publishers,  and  large  drafts  are  also  made  by 
the  larger  schools  on  English  publications 
and  those  intended  for  adults.  Estimating 
the  number  of  these  schools  at  35,000,  or 
about  two  thirds  the  number  of  churches  (an 
estimate  considerably  below  the  truth),  and 
the  volumes  in  each  library  at  200,  we  have 
an  aggregate  of  7,000,000  volumes  collected 
in  these  humble  libraries. 

As  might  be  expected,  the  rapid  growth 
of  public  libraries  has  stimulated  gentlemen 
of  wealth  and  intellectual  tastes  to  collect 
private  libraries  of  considerable  extent,  and 
in  many  cases  devoted  to  some  specialty. 
Perhaps  the  largest  of  these  private  collec 
tions  is  that  of  James  Lenox,  Esq.,  of  New 
York,  which  is  especially  rich  in  early  works 
and  in  Bibles. 

One  of  the  most  singular  is  that  of  John 
Allan,  Esq.,  of  the  same  city,  which  con 
tains  a  very  considerable  collection  of  books 
which  have  been  interleaved  and  illustrated 
by  the  collector,  with  choice  engravings  of 


the  persons  or  events  describes],  often  to  the 
number  of  some  hundreds  in  each  volume. 

There  are  in  the  city  of  New  York  alone  not 
less  than  25  private  libraries  containing  more 
than  10,000  volumes  each,  and  in  Boston  a 
still  larger  number.  Philadelphia  has  also 
many  very  choice  private  libraries. 

Some  of  these  private  collections  are  very 
complete  on  American  local  history.  No 
ticeable  among  these  are  the  libraries  of 
Peter  Force,  Esq.,  of  Washington,  D.  C.  ; 
George  Brinley,  Esq.,  of  Hartford,  Connec 
ticut  ;  George  W.  Greene,  of  Providence,  R. 
I. ;  and  Messrs.  George  Bancroft,  J.  C.  Bre- 
voort,  W.  J.  Davis,  H.  C.  Murphy,  William 
Menzies,  and  J.  R.  Brodhead,  of  New  York. 
The  library  of  Hon.  Henry  Barnard,  at 
Hartford,  Connecticut,  is  more  complete  on 
the  subject  of  education  than  any  other  in 
the  country ;  that  of  W.  Parker  Foulke, 
Esq.,  of  Philadelphia,  is  very  full  on  prisons 
and  prison  discipline,  and  that  of  S.  Austin 
Allibone,  Esq.,  of  the  same  city,  on  English 
literature  and  criticism ;  that  of  David  N. 
Lord,  of  New  York,  on  ecclesiastical  and 
polemic  literature  ;  that  of  Professor  Charles 
Anthon,  of  the  same  city,  contains  a  fine  col 
lection  of  classics  and  woi'ks  on  classical  liter 
ature  ;  that  of  G.  W.  Pratt,  also  of  New  York, 
on  Oriental  languages  and  literature;  that  of 
C.  L.  Bushnell,  on  numismatics;  that  of  J.  A. 
Stevens,  jr.,  on  the  literature  of  the  Middle 
Ages ;  those  of  Messrs.  W.  P.  Chapman  and 
R.  G.  White,  on  dramatic  and  especially 
Shakspearian  literature;  that  of  D.  W.  Fiske, 
on  Scandinavian  literature ;  that  of  George 
Folsom,  on  history  and  geography  ;  that  of 
R.  M.  Hunt,  on  architecture ;  and  those  of 
Archbishop  Hughes,  Rev.  Dr.  Forbes,  Rev. 
Dr.  Hatfield,  and  Rev.  Dr.  Bethune,  on 
theology,  ecclesiastical  biography,  and  pa 
tristic  literature. 

There  arc  in  connection  with  many  of  our 
benevolent  and  humane  institutions  special 
libraries  containing  a  few  hundred  or  thou 
sand  volumes  devoted  to  the  particular  work 
of  those  institutions.  Thus,  the  American 
Asylum  for  the  Deaf  and  Dumb,  at  Hart 
ford,  and  the  New  York  Institution  for  the 
Deaf  and  Dumb,  have  each  a  very  consider 
able  collection  of  works  on  deaf  mute  in 
struction  ;  the  American  Bible  Society  has  a 
fine  collection  of  Bibles  in  all  languages ; 
and  the  American  Bible  Union,  a  valuable 
collection  of  works  on  biblical  criticism  and 
exegesis,  procured  for  the  use  of  its  transla 
tors.  The  collection  of  books  of  reference 


LIBRARIES. 


429 


procured  for  the  use  of  the  editors  of  the 
New  American  Cyclopedia  is  very  extensive 
and  complete,  surpassing,  in  these  particu 
lars,  any  library  in  the  country. 


The  following  table  gives  the  name  of 
every  considerable  public  library  in  the 
United  States,  and  its  number  of  volumes, 
according  to  the  latest  reports  : — 


PRINCIPAL  PUBLIC  LIBRARIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES,  WITH  THE  NUMBER  OF  VOLUMES 
IX  EACH  IN  1860,  AS  NEARLY  AS  CAN  BE  ASCERTAINED. 


When 
founded. 
1638, 
1692, 
1700, 
1746, 
1749, 
1757, 
1768, 
1769, 
1770, 
1781, 
1783, 
1784, 
1785, 
1785, 
1789, 
1789, 
1791, 
1792, 
1793, 
1794, 
1795, 
1798, 
1800, 
1801, 
1802, 
1804, 
1806, 
1806, 
1809, 
1812, 
1817, 
1819, 
1819, 
1820, 
1821, 
1821, 
1823, 
1825, 
1825, 
1826, 
1826, 
1830, 
1831, 
1831, 
1831, 
1832, 
1832, 
1832, 
1832, 
1832, 
1833, 
1833, 
1835, 
1835, 
1836, 
1837, 


I. — LIBRARIES    OF    COLLEGES,     THEOLOGICAL     SEMINAUIES,     ETC. 

Colleges.* 
Name.  Location. 

Harvard  College Cambridge,  Mass 

William  and  Mary Williamsburg,  Va. . . 

Yale  College New  Haven,  Conn. . . 

College  of  New  Jersey Princeton,  N.  J 


No.  of 
volumes. 

125,000 

53,000 

67,000 

24,000 

University  of  Pennsylvania Philadelphia,  Penn 5,100 

Columbia  College New  York  City,  N.  Y. 

Brown  University Providence,  R.  I 

Dartmouth  College Hanover,  N.  H 

Rutgers  College New  Brunswick,  N.  J. 

Washington  College Lexington,  Va 

Dickinson  College Carlisle,  Penn 

St.  John's  College.  , Annapolis,  Md 

Charleston  College Charleston,  S.  C 

Franklin  College Athens,  Ga. 


20,000 
37,000 
34,000 
12,000 
6,500 
24,000 
8,000 
5,200 
18,500 

Hampden  Sidney  College Prince  Edward's  Co.,  Va 7,200 

University  of  North  Carolina Chapel  Hill,  N.  C 21,000 

University \>f  Vermont Burlington,  Vt 13,000 

Georgetown  College Georgetown,  D.  C 30,000 

Williams  College Williamstown,  Mass 20,000 

Bowdoin  College Brunswick,  Me 27,500 

Union  College Schenectady,  N.  Y 16,000 

Transylvania  University Lexington,  Ky  14,000 

Middlebury  College Middlebury,  Vt 14,000 

University  of  South  Carolina Columbia,  S.  C 24,000 

Jefferson  College Cannonsburg.  Perm 10,000 

Ohio  University Athens,  Ohio 5,300 

University  of  East  Tennessee Knoxville,  Tenn 8.500 

University  of  Nashville Nashville,  Tenn 10,000 

Miami  University Oxford,  Ohio 8,500 

Hamilton  College Clinton,  N.  Y 13,000 

Alleghany  College Meadville,  Penn 10.000 

University  of  Virginia Charlottesville,  Va 30,000 

St.  Joseph's  College Bardstovvn,  Ky '. .     9,000 

Waterville  College Waterville,  Me 10,000 

Columbian  College Washington,  D.  C 8,000 

Amherst  College Amherst,  Mass 26,000 

Centre  College Danville,  Ky 6,000 

Trinity  College Hartford,  Conn 14,000 

Hobart  Free'College Geneva,  N.  Y 14,000 

Kenyon  College Gambier,  Ohio 14,000 

Western  Reserve  College Hudson,  Ohio 9.000 

Spring  Hill  College Spring  Hill  (near  Mobile),  Ala 7.500 

University  of  Alabama Tuscaloosa,  Ala 12,000 

University  of  New  York New  York,  N.  Y 5,000 

Wesleyau  University Middletown,  Conn 13,000 

Pennsylvania  College Gettysburg,  Penu 11,000 

Denison  University Granville,  Ohio 5,200 

llandolph-Macon  College Boydon,  Va 8,000 

Hanover  College South  Hanover,  Ind 5,600 

St.  Louis  University St.  Louis,  Mo 22,000 

Wabash  College Crawfordsville,  lud 10,000 

Delaware  College Newark,  Del 10,000 

Marietta  College Marietta,  Ohio 16,000 

McKendree  College Lebanon,  111 5,800 

Fninklin  and  Marshall  College Lancaster,  Penn l<),000 

University  of  Michigan Ana  Arbor,  Mich 10,000 


*  Those  containing  less  than  5000  volumes  are  not  noticed. 


430  EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 

When  Name<  Location.  J^Vn°« 

founded.  volumes. 

1837,  Indiana  Asbury  LTniversity Greencastle,  Ind 10,000 

1838,  Wake  Forest  College    Forestville,  N.  C 5,200 

1838,  Emory  and  Henry  College Washington  Co.,  Va 9,000 

1840,  Davidson  College Mecklenburg  Co.,  N.  C 6,000 

1840,  St.  John's  College Fordham,  N.  Y 16.000 

1840,  Mercer  University Penfield,  Ga 9,000 

1840,  Georgetown  College Georgetown,  Ky 7,000 

1842,  St.  James's  College Washington  Co.,  Md 10,000 

1842,  Ohio  Wesleyan  University Delaware  Co.,  Ohio 10,500 

1843,  Holy  Cross Worcester,  Mass 6,500 

1845,  Centenary  College Jackson,  La 6,500 

1845,  Wittenberg  University Springfield,  Ohio 6,500 

1846,  Madison  University Hamilton,  N.  Y 8,000 

1847,  St.  Mary's  College Wilmington,  Del 6,000 

1848,  Free  Academy New  York 15,000 

1848,  State  NormafSchool Albany,  N.  Y 8,000 

1848,  University  of  Mississippi Oxford,  Miss 5,000 

1849,  Lawrence  University Appleton,  Wis 15,000 

1850,  Rochester  University Rochester,  N.  Y 5,500 

1854,  Tufts'  College Mildford,  Mass 8,000 

1857,  Loyola  College Baltimore,  Md 20,000 

Santa  Clara  College Santa  Clara,  C.al   10,000 

Theological  Seminaries. 

1784,  Theological  Seminary  Reformed  Dutch  Church. .  .New  Brunswick,  N.  J 7,000 

1791,  St.  Mary's  Theological  Seminary Baltimore,  Md 10,000 

1808,  Andover  Theological  Seminary Aridover,  Mass  21,500 

1812,  Princeton  Theological  Seminary Princeton,  N.  J 11,000 

1816,  Divinity  School  Cambridge,  Mass 8,700 

1816,  Bangor  Theological  Seminary Bangor,  Me 10,500 

1817,  Episcopal  General  Theological  Seminary New  York 12,000 

1820,  Hamilton  Theological  Seminary Hamilton,  N.  Y 8,000 

1821,  Auburn  Theological  Seminary Auburn,  N.  Y 6,000 

1821,  South-Western  Theological  Seminary Marysrille,  Tenn 6,000 

1822,  Episcopal  Theological  School Fairfax  Co.,  Va 7,500 

1825,  Newton  Theological  Institution Newton,  Mass.    5,500 

1825,  Wittenberg  Theological  Seminary Gettysburg,  Penn 10,000 

1825,  German  Reformed  Theological  Seminary Mercersburg,  Penn 6,000 

1827,  Theological  Department  Kenyon  College Gambier,  Ohio 6,500 

1828,  Western  Theological  Seminary Allegh  any  town,  Penn 10,000 

1828,  Theological  Seminary  Columbia,  S.  C 17,500 

1829,  Lane  Seminary .Cincinnati,  Ohio 11,000 

1832,  New  Albany  Theological  Seminary New  Albany,  Ind 4,000 

1834,  Theological  Institute'. East  Windsor,  Conn 5,000 

1836,  Union  Theological  Seminary New  York 18,000 

1844,  Western  Theological  School Meadville,  Penn 8,000 

1850,  Rochester  Theological  Seminary Rochester,  N.  Y 6,000 

Medical  Schools   and  Hospitals. 

1755,  Pennsylvania  Hospital  Library Philadelphia,  Pa 11,000 

1765,  Medical  Department  Pennsylvania  University. ...           "             " s'oOO 

1791,  New  York  Hospital  Library New  York 7.' 000 

1807,  New  York  College  of  Physicians  arid  Surgeons.  ..          "         1,'sOO 

1831,  University  Medical  School "         4J500 

Law  Schools  and  Libraries. 

1817,  Dane  Law  School Cambridge,  Mass 14,000 

1845,  New  York  State  and  National  Law  School Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y 3,000 

New  York  Law  Library New  York 6,500 

S°Cial  LaW  Library Boston 6,000 

184l',  \  Law  Association. Philadelphia 5,000 

II. — STATE     LIBRARIES. 

1770,  New  Hampshire  State  Library Concord  6  500 

ISlf  ?"f  nMylvania                      '       Harrisburg' .  -  ..•*...  '. '. '. ' '.  '.  '.  '.  '. '. '.  '. .' .'  1I?W8 

i»i»  £°,r,                            '       Columbus. 18,500 

iSJ  gewT°rk                           '         Albany 55000 

1825'  ?eHwJersey                         '       Trenton 9000 

1825,  Indiana                                 <      Indianapolis 20  000 


LIBRARIES. 


431 


•XrtSl.  Name'  L«-«--  votnl 

1826,         Maryland        State  Library Annapolis 22,000 

1826,         Massachusetts  "           "  Boston 13,000 

1828,  Virginia  "  Richmond 18,000 

1829,  Missouri  "  Jefferson  City 8.000 

1884,         Kentucky  "  Frankfort 10,000 

1836,         Maine     '  "  Augusta 17,000 

1836,         Wisconsin  "           "  Madison 7,500 

1848,  Connecticut  "           "  Hartford 7,500 

Tennessee  "  Nashville 9,000 

Mississippi  "           "  Jackson 8,000 

Louisiana  "  Baton  Rouge 10,000 

North  Carolina  "           "  Raleigh 7,000 

California  "  Sacramento 14,000 

III. — PUBLIC    OR    ENDOWED    LIBRARIES. 

1747,  Redwood  Library Newport,  R.  1 4,500 

1800,  7 

1815,  £      Library  of  Congress Washington,  D.  C 65,000 

1851,  } 

Library  of  House  of  Representatives 40,000 

Library  of  State  Department 18,000 

Library  of  War  Department 10,000 

Copyright  Library 13,500 

Library  of  Patent  Office 10,000 

1839,         Astor  Library New  York 120,000 

1852   1      City  Public  Library Boston 100,000 

1849,  Smithsonian  Institution Washington,  D.  C 35,000 

1838,         National  Institute "  "    5,000 

1852,  Free  Library New  Bedford,  Mass 13,000 

1857,        City  Library Springfield 7,000 

Bowditch  Library Boston 3,000 

United  States  Mint Philadelphia 2,500 

Graham  Institute  Library Brooklyn,  N.  Y 10,000 

IV. — LIBRARIES     OF    LEARNED    SOCI  KITES. 

1742,         American  Philosophical  Society Philadelphia,  Penn 26,000 

1812,         American  Antiquarian  Society Worcester,  Mass 26.000 

1812,         American  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences Philadelphia 27,000 

American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences Boston 9,500 

American  Oriental  Society New  Haven 2,000 

American  Geographical  and  Statistical  Society. .  .New  York 3,000 

American  Natural  History  Society Boston 6,500 

1824,         Franklin  Institute Philadelphia 6.000 

American  Institute New  "¥  ork 8.000 

New  England  Genealogical  Society Boston 14,000 

Lyceum  of  Natural  History New  York 3,000 

V. — LIBRARIES     OF     HISTORICAL     SOCIETIES. 

1804,         New  York  Historical  Society New  York 30.000 

Maryland  "      .Annapolis 20.000 

Massachusetts  "  "      Boston   8,000 

Connecticut       "  "      Hartford 11,000 

Georgia              "  "      Milledgeville 8,000 

New  Jersey       "  "      Newark 2,500 

Ohio  "      Columbus 2,000 

Wisconsin          "  "      Madison 4.500 

Chicago  "      Chicago 7,500 

VI. — PROPRIETARY     LIBRARIES. 

1731,         Library  Company  and  Loganian  Collection Philadelphia 70,000 

1748,  Charleston  Library  Society Charleston,  S.  C 25,000 

1753,  ) 

183 1,  >•  Athenaeum Providence,  R.  1 23,000 

1836,  ) 

1754,  Society  Library New  York 44,000 

1760,  Athenaeum Salem,  Mass 14,000 

1765,  Athenaeum ! Portland,  Me 10,000 

1806,  Athenaeum Boston,  Mass 75,000 


432 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


TV  lien 
founded. 
1813, 
1817, 


1820, 
1820, 

1819, 
1821, 
1835, 

1838, 


1846, 
1858, 


1860, 


1839, 
1853, 


1817, 
1818, 
1815, 
1850, 
1838, 
1822, 


Name.  Location.  volumea. 

Athenesum Philadelphia,  Penn 15,000 

Athenaeum Portsmouth,  N.  H 9,000 

Library  Company Baltimore,  Md 17,500 

Library  Society Boston,  Mass 16,000 

VII.  —MERCANTILE,     INSTITUTE,     LYCEUM,     ETC.,     LIBRARIES. 

Membership  and  library  privileges  secured  by  a  small  annual,  semi-annual,  or  quarterly  subscription. 

Mercantile  Library New  York 

Mercantile  Library Boston,  Mass 

Apprentices'  Library New  York 

Apprentices'  Library Philadelphia,  Pa 

Mercantile  Library * " 

Mercantile  Library Cincinnati,  0 

Young  Men's  Institute Hartford,  Ct 

Young  Men's  Institute ...  , New  Haven 

Mercantile  Library Baltimore,  Md 

Mercantile  Library St.  Louis,  Mo 

Mercantile  Library Portland,  Me 

Mercantile  Library Brooklyn,  N.  Y 

Mercantile  Library San  Francisco,  Cal 

Apprentices'  Library Boston,  Mass 

Apprentices'  Library Charleston,  S.  C 

Mechanics'  Institute New  York 

Mechanics'  Institute Chicago,  111 

Mechanics'  Institute Cincinnati 

'Women's  Library New  York 


60,000 
22,500 
30,000 
18,000 
16,000 
24,000 
15,500 
12,000 
16.000 
15,000 

2,500 
16,500 
12,000 

6,000 
14,000 

4.000 

5,000 
13,000 

6,000 


VIII. — PUBLIC    AND    HIGH    SCHOOL    AND     SEMINARY    LIBRARIES. 


High  School  Library Providence 2,000 

Public  School  Library New  Orleans ]1,000 

Central  High  School Philadelphia 2,000 

Central  High  School Cincinnati 14,000 

United  States  Military  Academy West  Point,  N.  Y 17,500 

United  States  Naval  Academy Annapolis,  Md 8,000 

Spingler  Institute New  York 3,000 

Rutgers  Institute "         " 3,500 

IX. — MISCELLANEOUS     LIBRARIES. 

American  Asylum  for  Deaf  and  Dumb Hartford,  Ct 1,800 

New  York  Institution  for  Deaf  and  Dumb New  York 4,500 

American  Bible  Society "       "     2,000 

American  Bible  Union "       "     5,000 

American  and  Foreign  Bible  Society "       "     1  600 

American  Board  C.  F.  Missions Boston 6,000 

German  Society Philadelphia 12,000 

Orthodox  Friends'  Library "          '6.000 

Hicksite  Friends'  Library "          5,000 

Boston  Library Boston 16.0,00 

Washington  Library Washington,  D.  C 13,000 

Southwark  Library  Company Philadelphia,  Penn 10.000 

Wagner  Free  Institute "               "     8,000 

American  Sunday  School  Union "               " 7,000 

Maryland  Institute Baltimore 12,000 

Congregational  Library  Association Boston 4,500 


CHAPTER  XX. 

LYCEUMS,  MECHANICS' INSTITUTES,  YOUNG 
MEN'S  INSTITUTES,  ART  UNIONS,  ETC. 

THE  name  of  Lyceum  is  one  of  ancient 
origin,  having  been  first  bestowed  on  the 
place  where  Aristotle  gave  his  instructions, 
from  its  connection  witli  the  temple  of 
Apollo  Lycius.  In  more  modern  times  it 


has  been  applied  to  schools  where  the  phi 
losophy  of  Aristotle  was  taught,  and  to  in 
stitutions  in  which  the  instruction  was  given 
mainly  by  lectures.  In  1786  it  was  given, 
in  France,  to  an  institution  of  the  nature  of 
a  museum,  at  which  daily  lectures  were  de 
livered  by  La  Harpe.  This  was  discontinued 
in  1V§4,  in  consequence  of  the  French  Rev 
olution.  During  the  present  century  the 


LYCEUMS,  MECHANICS'  INSTITUTES,  YOUNG  MEN'S  INSTITUTES,  ART  UNIONS,  ETC.    433 


name  has  been  applied  in  France  to  collegi 
ate  schools  answering  very  nearly  to  our  col 
leges  or  public  high  schools. 

The  Conservatory  of  Arts  and  Trades  at 
Paris,  organized  in  1796,  by  Vaucanson,  is 
an  example  of  the  higher  class  of  lyceum  in 
its  more  extended  sense.  It  has  thirteen 
galleries  of  materials  and  machines,  and 
courses  of  lectures,  scientific  and  practical, 
which  are  largely  attended  during  the  win 
ter  by  the  working  classes. 

The  origination  of  the  lyceum  as  a  means 
of  mutual  instruction  in  this  country  is  due, 
in  the  first  instance,  to  Benjamin  Franklin. 
His  "  club  for  mutual  improvement"  was 
founded  in  Philadelphia  in  1727,  and  after 
forty  years'  existence  became  the  basis  of 
the  American  Philosophical  Society,  one  of 
the  highest  scientific  societies  on  this  conti 
nent.  There  may  have  been,  and  probably 
were,  other  societies  for  mutual,  improve 
ment  organized  in  different  towns  and  cities 
of  the  country,  during  the  hundred  years 
that  followed  the  organization  of  Franklin's 
club ;  but  there  are  no  records  of  any  such 
in  the  possession  of  the  public,  previous  to 
1824,  when  Timothy  Claxton,  an  English 
mechanic,  succeeded  in  founding  one,  or 
rather  in  modifying  a  reading  society,  which 
had  been  in  existence  for  five  years,  into 
Avhat  was  really  a  lyceum,  in  the  village  of 
Methuen,  Mass.  Its  exercises  were  weekly, 
and  in  the  following  order:  the  first  week, 
reading  by  all  the  members ;  the  second 
week,  reading  by  one  member  selected  for 
the  purpose;  the  third  week,  an  original 
lecture ;  the  fourth  week,  discussion.  In 
1826,  Mr.  Josiah  Ilolbrook,  then  of  Derby, 
Conn.,  communicated  to  the  American  Jour 
nal  of  Education,  then  conducted  by  Mr. 
William  Russell,  his  views  on  the  subject  of 
"  Associations  of  Adults  for  the  Purpose  of 
Mutual  Education"  in  which  were  contain 
ed  the  germs  of  the  plan  of  the  Lyceum,  as 
subsequently  developed  by  him  in  his  lect 
ures  and  publications.  From  the  first,  his 
views  were  of  wider  scope  than  the  organiza 
tion  of  a  mere  -local  association ;  they  com 
prehended  the  establishment  of  such  associ 
ations  in  every  town  and  village,  and  their 
union,  by  representation,  in  county,  state, 
and  national  organizations.  They  contem 
plated  also,  not  only  mutual  instruction  in 
the  sciences,  but  the  establishment  of  insti 
tutions  for  the  education  of  youth  in  science, 
art,  and  morals;  the  collection  of -libraries, 
and  of  cabinets  of.  minerals  and  other  arti- 
26  * 


cles  of  natural  or  artificial  production,  to  be 
increased  and  enlarged  by  mutual  exchanges, 
by  the  different  associations.  Lectures  and 
practical  agricultural  occupation,  the  results 
of  which,  it  was  supposed,  would  materially 
diminish  the  cost  of  instruction,  also  formed 
a  part  of  his  programing. 

The;  first  association  formed  in  accordance 
with  this  plan  was  organized  at  Millbury, 
Mass.,  by  Mr.  Ilolbrook  himself,  in  Novem 
ber  of  the  same  year,  and  was  called  "Mill- 
bury  Lyceum,  No.  1,  Branch  of  the  Amer 
ican  Lyceum."  Other  towns  soon  after  or 
ganized  lyceums,  and  these  were  combined  a 
few  months  later  into  the  Worcester  County 
Lyceum.  Not  long  after,  the  Windham 
County,  Conn.,  Lyceum,  with  its  constituent 
town  lyceums,  was  established  ;  Rev.  Samuel 
J.  May,  then  of  Brooklyn,  Conn.,  rendering 
valuable  assistance  in  the  work. 

From  this  time  onward  to  his  death  in 
1854,  Mr.  Ilolbrook  devoted  his  whole  ener 
gies  in  one  way  and  another  to  the  promo 
tion  of  these  institutions,  and  .to  such  meas 
ures  in  connection  with  the  cause  of  educa 
tion  as  should  promote  mutual  instruction 
in  children  as  well  as  adults.  By  scientific 
tracts,  by  newspapers  and  other  publications, 
by  the  manufacture  of  school  apparatus,  and 
by  the  collection  of  small  cabinets  of  miner 
als,  to  serve  as  nuclei  for  larger  cabinets,  by 
scholars'  fairs,  by  lectures,  and  long  journeys, 
and 'by  appeals  to  the  members  of  Congress 
and  of  the  state  legislatures,  he  succeeded  in 
rousing  a  powerful  and  continued  interest  in 
the  subject  of  mutual  instruction,  which,  if 
it  did  not  accomplish  all  his  own  plans,  at 
least  gave  a  wonderful  impulse  to  the  general 
intellectual  culture  of  the  nation.  The  ly 
ceums  he  founded  have  passed  away,  at  least 
in  their  original  form,  but  in  their  places,  and 
in  a  great  measure  as  an  indirect  result  of  his 
labors,  we  have  in  every  considerable  town 
or  village  debating  societies,  young  men's  in 
stitutes,  mechanics'  institutes,  library  associ 
ations — the  three  latter  often  with  circulat 
ing  libraries,  courses  of  lectures,  and  classes1 
for  instruction  in  science,  art,  and  languages, 
and  often  with  schools  attached  for  the  in 
struction  of  the  children  of  the  members. 
We  have  also  lecture  foundations,  cither 
connected  with  our  colleges  or  professional 
.schools,  or  independent,  in  which  courses  of 
instruction  in  physical  science,  history,  liter 
ature,  or  the  laws  of  language,  are  commuci- 
cated  to  popular  audiences. 

In  rendering  the  scientific  lecture  a  popu- 


434 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


lar  institution,  our  country  is  greatly  indebt 
ed  to  the  late  John  Griscom,  LL.D.,  Prof.  B. 
Silliman,  Sri,  and  Rev.  Henry  Wilbur.  Dr. 
Griscom  delivered  his  first  course  of  popular 
lectures  on  chemistry  in  New  York  city  in 
the  winter  of  1808;  they  were  largely  at 
tended,  and  were  continued  for  a  long  series 
of  years.  Prof.  Silliman  commenced  popu 
lar  lecturing  on  the  same  subject  in  New 
Haven  about  the  same  time,  in  connection 
with  his  professional  courses.  He  subse 
quently  delivered  popular  courses  of  lectures 
on  chemistry  and  on  geology  in  most  of  the 
large  cities  of  the  country.  Within  the  last 
fifteen1  or  twenty  years,  Prof.  Edward  Hitch 
cock,  pf  Amherst  College,  and  several  other 
eminent  geologists,  have  given  courses  on 
geology  to  popular  audiences.  Prof.  Guyot 
has  lectured  on  physical  geography;  Messrs. 
Mann,  Barnard,  Page  and  others,  on  educa 
tional  topics;  Hon.  George  P.  Marsh  on 
language ;  Professor  Lieber  and  others  on 
commerce,  and  other  prominent  scholars 
on  other  subjects.  The  Lowell  Institute  at 
Boston,  founded  by  the  munificence  of  the 
Hon.  J.  A.  Lowell,  gives  annually  free  courses 
of  lectures  to  large  audiences  on  the  most 
important  branches  of  moral,  intellectual,  and 
physical  science,  and  from  the  liberality  of 
its  compensation  to  the  lecturers,  induces 
elaborate  and  conscientious  preparation  on 
their  part,  and  the  benefit  of  this  preparation 
inures  also  to  other  audiences,  to  which  these 
lectures  are  .repeated.  It  has  unfortunately 
been  tne  custom  for  a  few  years  past  of  the 
young  men's  institutes,  mercantile  library 
associations,  arid  other  institutions  giving 
courses  of  lectures  through  the  winter  sea 
son,  to  select  lecturers  who  would  amuse 
rather  than  instruct  their  audiences,  and 
hence  this  mode  of  public  instruction  has 
become  gradually  less  and  less  efficient,  and 
the  chief  advantages  resulting  from  these  in 
stitutions  have  been  the  use  of  their  circu 
lating  libraries,  and  their  classes  of  instruc 
tion  and  debate..  A  revolution,  however,  is 
now  gradually  taking  place  in  this  respect ; 
lectures  on  physical  science  are  more  fre 
quently  incorporated  in  the  courses,  and  the 
highest  talent  is  employed  in  the  illustration 
of  these  sciences.  The  lectures  of  Profes 
sors  .Doremus,  Draper,  and  Silliman,  jr.,  on 
chemistry;  of  Mitchel,  Youmans,  and  Loom- 
is  on  astronomy,  and  of  Agassiz,  Henry,  and 
ethers  on  geology,  have  uniformly  attracted 
large  audiences,  and  have  led  to  the  study 
•  of  these  sciences. 


The  Smithsonian  Institution,  which  com 
bines  some  of  the  features  of  the  lyceum,  in 
its  public  lectures,  classes,  and  museum,  with 
its  other  objects,  will  be  spoken  of  at  length 
in  another  place.  Its  influence  in  promoting 
scientific  research  has  been  widely  felt. 

One  of  the  noblest  enterprises  connected 
with  this  class  of  institutions  is  the  Cooper 
Union  of  New  York  city.  The  founder  with 
princely  liberality  has  erected  an  immense 
building,  occupying  an  entire  block,  of  the 
most  substantial  character.  A  portion  of 
this  building  is  rented,  and  the  proceeds  of 
the  rental  go  to  sustain  a  free  reading-room 
as  extensive  as  any  in  the  country,  a  picture 
gallery,  a  library,  schools  of  design  for  male 
and  female  pupils,  and  classes  for  instruction 
in  sciences,  the  mechanic  arts,  and  languages, 
all  of  which  have  rooms  and  instruction  free, 
under  the  most  competent  teachers.  Courses 
of  lectures  on  scientific  subjects  for  the  work 
ing  classes  also  form  a  part  of  the  plan  of  Mr. 
Cooper. 

Mr.  George  Peabody  has  also  made  a  most 
liberal  endowment,  amounting  in  all  to  about 
$600,000,  for  an  institution  at  Baltimore,  to 
include  a  public  library,  courses  of  lectures 
on  science,  art,  and  literature,  prizes  for  schol 
arship  in  the  high  schools,  an  academy  of 
music,  and  a  gallery  of  art. 

The  number  of  institutions /coming  under 
the  general  head  of  lyceums  in  the  United 
States,  is  very  great ;  throughout  the  North 
ern  states  every  city  and  every  considerable 
town  has  some  organization  of  the  kind,  all 
of  them  having  their  courses  of  lectures,  and 
most  of  them  debates,  essays,  readings,  or 
classes  of  instruction.  To  them  is  attribu 
table  in  no  inconsiderable  degree  the  very 
general  prevalence  of  oratorical  talent  in  our 
country,  and  that  ability  for  impromptu  argu 
ment  and  discussion,  the  faculty  of  "  thinking 
on  our  legs,"  as  an  English  writer  not  inapt 
ly  terms  it.  While  much  of  the  instruction 
communicated  by  lectures  must  necessarily 
be  superficial,  and  is  often  wanting  in  accu 
racy,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  they  have  con 
tributed  much  to  the  diffusion  of  general  in 
formation  and  culture. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

INSTITUTIONS   FOR  THE  INSTRUCTION  OF 
THE  DEAF  AND  DUMB. 

THE-  capacity  of  the  deaf-mute  to  receive 
instruction  was  not  geperally  acknowledged 


INSTITUTIONS    FOIl   THE    INSTRUCTION    OF   THE    DEAF    AND    DUMB. 


435 


anywhere  till  the  latter  part  of  the  last  cen 
tury.  Individual  instances  of  education  of 
those  laboring  under  this  infirmity  had  in 
deed  occurred  as  early  as  the  mid'dle  of  the 
16th  century,  and  perhaps  even  at  a  still 
earlier  date,  but  no  considerable  attempts 
had  been  made  to  instruct  them  previous 
to  the  efforts  of  Pereira,  Ilcinicke,  DC 
1'Epec,  and  Braidwood,  all  of  whom  taught 
deaf  and  dumb,  pupils,  between  1742  and 
1760.  Of  these,  Heinicke  and  DC  1'Epee 
alone  are  deserving  of  the  honor  of  being 
reckoned  the  founders  of  a  great  philan 
thropic  movement.  The  former  attempted 
the  instruction  of  deaf-mutes  by  teaching 
them  to  articulate ;  the  latter  by  the  manual 
alphabet,  and  a  development  of  the  natural 
language  of  signs.  De  1'Epee's  processes 
were  greatly  improved  by  the  Abbe  Sicard, 
and  Bebian,  a  pupil  of  Sicard. 

Deaf-mute  instruction  was  not  attempted 
in  this  country  till  about  the  year  1816. 
In  a  few  instances  children  of  wealthy 
parents,  suffering  under  this  infirmity,  had 
been  sent  to  England  for  instruction  by  the 
Braidwoods,  father  and  sons,  who  held  in 
their  own  family  the  monopoly  of  deaf- 
mute  teaching,  though  adopting  substan 
tially  the  processes  of  Heinicke,  and  who 
charged  a  very  high  price  for  the  education 
of  each  pupil.  The  father  of  one  of  these 
American  pupils,  in  a  work  entitled  "  Vox 
oculis  subjecta" .published  in  1783,  lauded 
in  high  terms  the  instruction  of  the  Messrs. 
Braidwood. 

In  1814,  Rev.  Thomas  H.  Gallaudet,  a 
young  clergyman  of  Hartford,  Conn.,  be 
came  deeply  interested  in  the  case  of  Alice 
Cogswell,  the  little  daughter  of  Dr.  M.  F. 
Cogswell,  a  neighbor  of  his,  who  had  lost 
her  hearing  in  infancy,  and  having  devoted 
much  thought  and  investigation  to  the  sub 
ject  of  the  number  and  condition  of  the 
deaf-mutes  of  that  state,  was  desirous  of 
doing  something  for  their  education.  Dr. 
Cogswell  and  other  benevolent  gentlemen 
in  llartford  furnished  the  means  of  send 
ing  him  to  England,  to  learn  the  art  of 
teaching  deaf-rnutes,  and  he  sailed  from 
New  York  for  Liverpool,  May  25,  1815. 
Arrived  in  England  he  found  the  elder 
Braidwood  dead,  and  the  mother,  sons,  and 
other  relatives,  .who  had  now  established 
three  schools,  unwilling  to  enlighten  him  as 
to  their  processes,  unless  he  would  pay 
1500  dollars,  remain  a  year  as  an  assistant 
in  one  of  their  schools,  and  take  the  grand 


son  of  the  first  Braidwood,  a  drunken  vaga 
bond,  as  a  partner  in  the  institution  to  be 
established  in  America.  Rejecting  these 
terms,  as  unworthy  of  the  pioneers  in  a 
great  benevolent  enterprise,  Mr.  Gallaudet 
had  almost  determined  to  return  home, 
when  he  met  the  Abbe  Sicard  in  London, 
and  was  most  cordially  invited  by  him  to 
come  to  Paris  and  acquire  his  methods  of 
teaching,  receiving  from  him  the  necessary 
private  instructions  to  enable  him  to  accom 
plish  this  object  more  rapidly.  This  gen 
erous  offer  was  promptly  accepted  by  Mr. 
Gallaudet,  and  after  three  months  of  close 
application  he  returned  to  America,  bring 
ing  with  him  M.  Laurent  Clerc,  an  educated 
deaf-mute,  and  one  of  Sicard's  most  success 
ful  teachers.  It  was  now  determined  to  es 
tablish  a  school  for  deaf-mute  instruction,  as 
soon  as  the  necessary  funds  could  be  obtain 
ed.  For  this  purpose,  Messrs.  Gallaudet  and 
Clerc  travelled  extensively  through  the  East 
ern  and  Middle  states,  everywhere  receiving  a 
warm  welcome.  In  the  spring  of  1817,  about 
$12,000  had  been  contributed  and  pledged, 
to  which  the  Connecticut  legislature  subse 
quently  added  $5000  more.* 

The  school  was  opened  in  rented  buildings, 
April  15,  1817,  having  been  chartered  in 
May,  1816,  by  the  legislature  under  the  name 
of  "  The  Connecticut  Asylum  for  the  Deaf 
and  Dumb."  An  application  was  made  to 
Congress  for  a  grant,  as  it  was  supposed,  in 
the  general  ignorance  concerning  the  num 
ber  of  deaf-mutes,  that  one  asylum  would  be 
sufficient  for  the  whole  country,  and  that 
body  donated  a  township  of  land  in  Ala 
bama,  w.hich,  under  wise  and  careful  man- 
ao-ement,  has  produced  a  fund  of  over  $300,- 
000,  the  interest  of  which  is  applied  to  the 
reduction  of  the  annual  expenses  of  the  in 
stitution,  and  enables  the  directors  to  fur 
nish  board  and  tuition  to  their  pupils  at  the 
low  price  of  $100  per  annum.  After  the 
reception  of  this  grant,  the  name  of  the' in 
stitution  was  changed  to  "  The  American 
Asylum  for  the  Deaf  and  Dumb." 

Thomas  Braidwood,  the  grandson  of  the 
founder  of  the  first  English  school  for  deaf- 
mutes,  to  whom  we  have  already  referred, 
had  come  to  Virginia  as  early  as  1811,  and 
had  attempted  to  establish  there  a  school 
for  the  deaf  and  dumb,  but  his  habits  were 


*  This  sum  was  a  few  years  later  expended  by 
the  Asylum  in  the  education  of  indigent  deaf-mutes 
Datives  of  Connecticut. 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


such  that  all  the  assistance  offered  him  was 
of  no  avail,  and  after  a  time  he  returned  to 
England  ;  Mr.  Gallaudet's  efforts  incited  the 
family  to  make  another  trial,  but  he  was  so 
thoroughly  a  vagabond,  that  it  again  proved 
unsuccessful.  M.  Gard,  a  teacher  of  deaf- 
mutes  at  Bordeaux,  and  himself  a  deaf-mute, 
also  offered  to  come  to  New  York,  in  1816, 
and  establish  an  institution  there,  on  the 
plan  of  Sicard,  but  the  project  fell  through. 

Meantime,  philanthropic  persons -in  New 
York  city  were  desirous  of  establishing  an 
institution  for  the  benefit  of  the  deaf-mutes 
of  the  city  and  state,  and  an  act  of  incor 
poration  for  such  an  institution  was  passed 
on  the  15th  of  April,  1817,  the  same  day 
that  the  school  at  Hartford  was  opened. 
Among  the  most  active  promoters  of  this 
enterprise  were  Dr.  Samuel  Akerly,  Dr. 
Samuel  L.  Mitchill,  De  Witt 'Clinton,  Sil- 
vanus  Miller,  Peter  Sharpe,  and  Rev.  James 
Milnor,  D.D. 

The  course  of  the  American  Asylum  at 
Hartford  was  prosperous  from  the  first.  Mr. 
Gallaudet  was  a  man  of  genius,  and  pos 
sessed  the  ability  to  originate  and  carry  into 
effect  new  methods  of  instruction,  and  to 
modify  the  processes  in  use  in  the  French 
schools.  In  these  measures  he  was  efficient 
ly  seconded  by  M.  Clerc,  and  by  a  corps  of 
young  but  able  teachers  whom  he  had  gath 
ered  around  him,  and  imbued  with  his  spirit 
Prominent  among  these  teachers  were  Messrs 
William  C.  Woodbridge,  Lewis  Weld,  Har> 
vcy  P.  Pcct,  Isaac  Orr,  and  William  W, 
Turner 

The  New  York  Asylum  had  adverse  for 

tunes  to  contend  with  at  first.     It  was  open 

ed  in  May,   1818.     Its  "first  principal   wa 

"Rev.  A.  6.  Stansbury,  who  had  been  for  i 

few   months    previous   the    steward    of  th( 

American  Asylum,  and  was  but  imperfectl) 

qualified  for  his  duties ;  the  greater  part  01 

the  pupils  were  day  scholars,  and  attendee 

irregularly  ;  the  assistant  teachers  were  hall 

educated  deaf-mutes  ;  an  attempt  was  mad 

to  teach  articulation,  but  it  proved  a  fail  arc 

Mr.  Loofborrow,  who  succeeded  Mr.  Stans 

bury  in  1821,  possessed  intelligence  and  en 

ergy,  but  he  had  few  competent  assistants 

and  the  state  legislature  which  had  made  ap 

propriations  for  the    support   of  deaf-mut 

pupils,  was  becoming  dissatisfied  with   th 

condition  of  the   institution,    as    comparec 

with  those  at  Hartford   and   Philadelphia 

In  1830,  an  entire  change  was  effected.   Th 

asylum  was  located  on  Fiftieth  street,  wher 


>uildings  were  erected  for  it ;  day  scholars 
vere  no  longer  admitted ;  the  inefficient 
eachers  were  dismissed,  and  Mr.  Harvey  P. 
eet,  then  one  of  the  ablest  of  the  teachers 
n  the  American  Asylum,  elected  principal. 
VIr.  Pcet  entered  upon  his  duties  in  Febru- 
,ry,  1831,  and  though  at  first  compelled  to 
perform  all  classes  of  duties,  his  genius, 
act,  and  indefatigable  labor  soon  brought 
rder  out  of  chaos,  and  enabled  him  to 
place  the  institution  in  the  very  first  rank. 
n  1853,  the  property  of  the  institution  on 
"iftieth  street  was  sold,  the  buildings  being 
,00  small  for  the  accommodation  of  their 
nipils,  and  being  subject  to  encroachment  " 
"rom  the  rapid  increase  of  population  in 
;heir  vicinity.  A  new  location,  comprising 
37  acres,  was  purchased  on  Washington 
[leights,  about  nine  miles  from  the  City 
flail,  and  overlooking  the  Hudson  river. 
On  this  site  a  magnificent  building  has  been 
rected,  much  the  finest  and  most  perfect  in 
its  •  arrangements  of  any  asylum  for  deaf- 
mutes  in  the  world.  It  has  cost,  including 
the  grounds,  nearly  $600,000,  and  will  ac 
commodate  about  500  pupils.  Mr.  (now 
Dr.)  Peet  is  still  at  the  head  of  it,  and  his 
eldest  son,  Mr.  Isaac  Lewis  Peet,  is  the  effi 
cient  vice  principal. 

The  Pennsylvania  Institution  was  founded 
at  Philadelphia  in  1820,  by  David  Seixas 
and  Mr.  Lewis  Weld,  one  of  the  teachers  at 
the  American  Asylum,' became  its  principal 
in  1822.  In  1830,  Mr.  Gallaudet  resigned 
the  charge  of  the  American  Asylum,  and  Mr. 
Weld  was  elected  his  successor,  and  was  fol 
lowed  at  Philadelphia  by  Mr.  Abraham  B. 
Hutton,  who  had  been  one  of  the  teachers  of 
the  institution.  This  school  has  enjoyed 
continuous  prosperity.  The  Kentucky  School 
is  located  at  Danville,  arid  was  founded  in 
1823.  Mr.  J.  A.  Jacobs,  who  is  still,  at  its 
head,  was  its  first,  and  has  been  its  only  prin 
cipal.  He,  too,  had  previously  been  a 
teacher  at  the  American  Asylum.  It  has 
a  moderate  endowment  arising  from  the  sale 
of  lands  granted  to  it  by  Congress.  The 
Ohio  Institution  was  established  in  1829, 
and  has  had  three  principals; — Messrs.  Hub- 
bell,  Cary,  and  Stone.  The  first  and  last 
were  from  Hartford,  the  second  from  the 
New  York  Institution.  The  Virginia  Insti 
tution,  organized  at  Staunton,  was  the  first 
in  this  country  which  combined  the  instruc 
tion  of  deaf-mutes  and  the  blind  in  one  in 
stitution.  Such  a  combination  is  not  un 
common  in  Europe,  and  five  other  asylums 


INSTITUTIONS    FOR   THE    INSTRUCTION    OF    THE    DEAF    AND    DUMB. 


437 


AMERICAN  ASYLUM   FOB  DEAF   AND  DUMB,    HARTFORD,    CONN. 


have  followed  the  example  in  this  country. 
The  best  authorities,  however,  regard  the 
plan  as  objectionable  in  many  respects. 

The  -other  institutions  for  the  instruction 
of  deaf-mutes  (there  are  in  all  twenty-three) 
have  been  organized  since  1844.  Most  of 
them  are  state  institutions,  and  though  gen 
erally  well  managed,  partisan  politics  have, 
in  some  instances,  materially  impaired  their 
efficiency  and  usefulness. 

Provision  has  been  made,  in  nearly  all  the 
states,  for  the  education  of  the  indigent  deaf 
and  dumb,  so  that  no  person  of  suitable 
age,  suffering  from  this  infirmity,  need  go 
uninstructed,  if  they,  or  their  friends,  will 
apply  to  the  state  authorities ;  yet  of  the 
nearly  3000  deaf-mutes  of  school  age  in  the 
United  States,  but  about  2000  are  under 
instruction.  The  greatest  deficiency,  how 
ever,  is  in  the  new  states,  and  will  be  reme 
died  in  the  course  of  a  few  years. 

The  term  of  instruction  varies  from  six  to 
ten  years.  Seven  years  is  the  usual  term  in 
most  of  the  states;  but  in  the  American 
Asylum,  the  New  York  Institution,  and,  we 
believe,  the  Pennsylvania  Institution,  a  high 
class  has  been  established,  into  which  those 
who  give  evidence  of  superior  abilities,  and 
desire  for  higher  scholarship,  are  .admitted 
by  examination,  and  pursue  an  additional 
course  of  three  years.  The  course  of  study, 
including  this  period  of  three  years,  em 


braces  the  topics  of  a  very  thorough  Eng 
lish  and  mathematical  education.  Other  lan 
guages  than  English  are  not  usually  taught. 
From  these  classes  most  of  the  deaf-mute 
teachers  are  now  drawn. 

The  intellectual  and  moral  condition  of 
uninstructed  deaf-mutes  is  one  of  extreme, 
almost  rayless  ignorance.  Careful  inquiry  in 
some  thousands  of  cases  has  demonstrated 
that,  unless  communicated  by  friends  versed 
to  some  extent  in  the  language  of  signs, 
they  have  no  idea  of  a  Supreme  Being,  of 
the  origin  of  the  objects  of  nature,  of  their 
own  possession  of  a  soul,  of  death,  or  a 
future  existence.  The  mind  is  almost  a 
blank,  and  the  few  thoughts  they  possess 
are  merely  such  as  concern  their  food,  drink, 
and  rest,  and  the  objects  with  which  they 
are  constantly  brought  in  contact.  It  is  ob 
vious,  then,  that  the  mental  condition  of  a 
child  of  ten  or  twelve  years  of  age,  deaf  from 
birth,  and  consequently  dumb,  is  below  that 
of  a  child  of  three  years  who  can  hear  and 
speak.  The  child  who  possesses  all  its  fac 
ulties  has,  before  entering  school,  acquired 
a  very  considerable  fund  of  ideas,  and  the 
words  for  their  intelligent  expression  ;  so 
that  the  teacher  has  comparatively  little  oc 
casion  to  communicate  ideas  to  him,  except 
on  topics  connected  with  his  studies,  and 
these  he  can  clothe  in  words  which  the  child 
already  understands. 


438 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


In  the  case  of  tlie  deaf-mute,  on  the  other 
hand  ideas,  even  on  many  common  and 
simple  subjects,  must  be  first  communicated 
to  him,  and  that  not  in  words,  for  as  yet 
these  are  entirely  incomprehensible,  but  in 
the  language  of  pantomime  and  gesture. 
He  is  next  to  be  made  to  comprehend  the 
laws  of .  construction  and  connect  words, 
either  written,  or  spelled  by  the  manual  al 
phabet,  with  the  ideas  already  acquired  (a 
long  and  painful  process,)  and  then,  through 
the  two  media  of  words  and  signs,  to  be 
taught  the  elements  of  science. 

The  system  of  Heinicke  and  the  Braid- 
woods,  a  system  still,  with  some  modifica 
tions,  taught  in  Germany  and  some  other 
European  countries,  had  for  its  basis  the 
dogma  that  ideas  could  only  be  expressed 
or  communicated  by  means  of  words;  and 
hence  with  great  difficulty  and  pains,  even 
in  the  flexible  German  tongue,  the  deaf-mute 
was  taught  to  articulate  words,  whose. mean 
ings  he  did  not  understand,  and  then,  as  step 
by  step  he  connected  ideas  with  the  simplest 
of  them,  these  were  made  the  means  of  con 
veying  to  him  the  meaning  of  those  more 
abstract  and  difficult.  In  this  way  three  or 
four  years  were  consumed  before  the  pupil 
was  prepared  to  acquire  the  facts  of  sci 
ence,  or  the  knowledge  of  his  moral  obli 
gations. 

The  plan  of  De  1'Epee,  modified  by  Si- 
card  and  Bebian,  had  little  in  common  with 
that  of  Heinicke.  Their  fundamental  prin 
ciple  was,  that  "words  have  no  natural  or 
necessary  connection  with  the  ideas  of  which 
they  are  the  signs,  and  that  in  the  natural 
language  of  signs  or  pantomime,  improved 
and  enlarged  as  it  can  be,  there  is  a  com 
plete  substitute  for  them."  No  attempt  was 
made  at  teaching  articulation,  but  words 
were  taught  by  means  of  signs,,  and  these 
once  acquired,  were  made  the  medium  of 
further  instruction  by  ordinary  text-books. 
In  order  to  teach  words  more  readily,  M. 
Sicard  introduced  what  he  denominated 
•methodical  signs,  that  is,  a  peculiar  gesture 
for  each  word,  which  the  pupil  was  taught. 
It  is  obvious  that  if  the  vocabulary  of  the 
deaf-mute  was  to  be  as  large  as  that  of  ordi 
nary  intelligent  speaking  persons,  the  num 
ber  of  these  arbitrary  signs  (for  it  is  to  be  un 
derstood  that  these  differed  almost  as  much 
from  the  ordinary  signs  as  the  latter  from 
words,  the  natural  signs  representing  ideas, 
and  the  methodical  signs  single  words)  must 
be  very  great,  some  thousands  at  least,  and 


to  retain  them  in  memory  was  a  very  fa 
tiguing  task  for  both  pupil  and  teacher. 

The  American  system  of  instruction  of 
deaf-mutes  differs  materially  from  both-  the 
preceding,  and  this  difference  originated 
partly  with  Mr.  Gallaudet  and  the  teachers 
trained  up  under'  him,  and  is  partly  the  re 
sult  of  the  experience  and  observation  of  the 
eminent  teachers  who  have  been,  and  still 
arc,  engaged  in  deaf-mute  instruction. 

In  establishing  the  American  Asylum, 
Mr.  Gallaudet  combined  the  principle  of 
Heinicke,  of  the  connection  of  ideas  with 
words,  with  that  of  De  1'iipee,  that  the  nat- 
ural  language  of  signs  must  be  elevated  to  as 
high  a  degree  of  excellence  as  possible  in  or 
der  to  serve  as  the  medium  for  giving  the 
ideas  clearly  and  explaining  them  accurately; 
but  he  added  to  these  another  which  had  nev 
er  before  been  applied  to  deaf-mute  instruc 
tion,  viz.,  that  the  process  of  learning  words 
might  be  greatly  facilitated  by  leading  the 
pupils  to  reflect  on  their  own  sensations, 
ideas,  and  mental  processes.  With  the  earli 
est  lessons  he  imparted  in  the  names  of  sensi 
ble  objects,  he  was  accustomed  to  endeavor  to 
open  communication  with  them,  by  means  of 
the  sign-language,  in  regard  to  the  fee-lings  and 
emotions  excited  by  these  objectSj  and,  if 
possible,  to  connect  them  with  something  in 
the  pupil's  past  experience.  From  this,  the 
deaf-mute  was  naturally  led  on  to  think  of 
the  feelings  and  emotions  of  others,  thence, 
by  a  natural  transition,  to  the  idea  of  God  as 
a  Creator  and  benefactor,  and  finally  to  a 
knowledge  of  his  law,  and  the  final  destiny 
of  man.  The  result  of  this  has  been  that 
pupils  in  this  country  (for  this  plan  has  been 
generally  adopted  in  our  American  institu 
tions)  are  made  acquainted  with  the  simple 
truths  of  religion  and  morality  in  one  year,  a 
period  in  Avhich,  in  the  European  institutions, 
they  have  scarcely  advanced  beyond  the 
knowledge  of  sounds  and  the  names  of  sen 
sible  objects,  qualities,  and  actions,  or  the 
most  common  phrases.  Apart  from  the  high 
religious  importance  of  thi-s  process,  it  brings 
moral  motives  to  bear'  earlier,  and  renders 
the  government  of  the  pupils  easier,  while  it 
aids  them  in  the  formation  of  correct  habits. 
The  conducting  of  the  daily  and  weekly  de 
votional  exercises  in  the  sign-language  was 
another  peculiarity  introduced  by  Mr.  Gallau 
det. 

Methodical  signs  were  used  to  a  consider 
able  extent  by  Mr.  Gallaudet  and. the  earlier 
instructors  of  American  institutions,  but  were 


INSTITUTIONS    FOR    THE    INSTRUCTION    OF    THE    BLIND. 


439 


not- regarded  as  so  indispensable  fry  them  as 
by  the  French  teachers.  Of  late  years  they 
are  less  employed  than  formerly,  and  are 
made  to  indicate  phrases  rather  than  words, 
while  the  manual  alphabet  is  regarded  as  of 
more  value  in  teaching  than  it  was  thirty 
years  ago.  An  advance  has  also  been  made, 
of  great  importance,  by  the  introduction, 
by  Mr.  I.  Lewis  Peet,  of  the  New  York 
Institution,  of  manual  and  written  symbols 
for  those  ultimate  constituents  of  the  sen 
tence  which  form  so  considerable  a  portion 
of  spoken  and  written  language.  By  this 
means  written  language  is  taught  with  much 
greater  facility  than  formerly.  The  establish 
ment  of  high  classes  has  also  been  an  impor 
tant  step  in  the  progress  of  deaf-mute  educa 
tion,  furnishing,  as  it  does,  the  deaf  and  dumb 
the  opportunity  of  attaining  to  as  high  intel 
lectual  culture  as  those  enjoy  who  are  in  the 
possession  of  all  their  faculties. 

In  1850,  the  number  of  deaf-mutes  in  the 
United  States  was  9803,  or  one  in  2345. 

Some  of  the  educated  deaf  and  dumb  in 
this  country  have  attained  to  considerable 
distinction.  Laurent  Clerc,  the  companion 
of  Gallaudet,  belongs  by  his  birth  and  educa 
tion  rather  to  France  than  America,  yet  he 
has  passed  more  than  forty  years  in  this 
country,  and  though  now  retired  in  a  health 
ful  and  happy  old  age,  from  active  duty,  is 
deservedly  esteemed  and  honored.  Thomas 
Brown,  the  President  of  the  American  Asso 
ciation  of  Deaf-Mutes,  is  a  vigorous  and  able 
writer,  as  are  also  John  T.  Burnett  and  James 
Nack.  The  latter  has  distinguished  himself 
as  a  poet  of  no  mean  ability,  and  the  former 
has  been  a  frequent  and  welcome  contributor 
to  several  of  our  ablest  reviews.  Mrs.  Mary 
Tqles  Peet,  the  wife  of  the  accomplished 
vice  principal  of  the  New  York  Institution, 
though  young,  is  entitled  to  a  very  high  rank 
among  the  most  gifted  of  our  female  poets. 
Colonel  David  M.  Phillips,  of  New  Orleans, 
in  spite  of  his  infirmity,  was  for  many  years 
one  of  the  most  accomplished  military  officers 
of  the  South.  John  Carlin,  as  an  artist,  and 
Albert  Newsam,  as  an  engraver,  have  few  su 
periors  in  their  respective  professions.  The 
monument  to  Mr.  Gallaudet,  designed  by  the 
former  and  engraved  by  the  latter,  is  one  of 
the  most  admirable  and  appropriate  monu 
mental  structures.  Mr.  Levi  S.  Backus  was 
for  several  years  the  able  and  successful  man 
ager  of  a  periodical  in  central  New  York. 

We  present  a  table  of  the-  deaf  and  dumb 
institutions  of  the  country,  with  their  statis 


tics  to  the  present  year  (1860).  There  is 
also  a  deaf-mute  institution  in  California, 
and  one  erecting  at  Faribault,  Minnesota. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

INSTITUTIONS  FOR  THE  INSTRUCTION  OP 
THE  BLIND. 

THE  instruction  of  the.  blind  had  never 
been  attempted  on  any  considerable  scale,  in 
any  part  of  the  world,  till  Valentin  Haiiy,  in 
1  784,  commenced  in  Paris,  France,  his  school 
for  blind  pupils.  Individuals  who  were  blind 
had  indeed  educated  themselves  by  the  as 
sistance  of  friends ;  but  the  great  majority  of 
those  who  suffered  from  this  affliction  were 
left  to  a  life  of  dependence  and  depression, 
and  often  became  beggars.  The  efforts  of 
Haiiy,  and  his  invention  of  an  embossed  al 
phabet,  to  enable  the  blind  to  read,  led  to 
the  foundation  of  a  school  for  the  blind,  sup 
ported  by  the  French  government,  in  1791, 
and  to  the  organization  of  similar  schools  in 
England,  Prussia,  Austria,  and  Russia  about 
the  same  period.  In  these  schools,  reading 
and  music,  and  some  of  the  simpler  mechanic 
arts,  such  as  knitting,  mat-weaving,  basket- 
making,  etc.,  were  taught. 

The  first  attempts  to  establish  schools  for 
the  blind  in  this  country  were  made  about 
1830.  Dr.  J.  D.  Fisher,  in  1829,  obtained 
an  act  of  incorporation  for  an  institution  for 
the  instruction  of  the  blind  from  the  Massa 
chusetts  legislature,  and  in  1831  Dr.  Samuel 
Akerlcy  and  Mr.  Samuel  Wood,  a  benevo 
lent  merchant  in  New  York,  in  conjunction 
with  some  other  gentlemen,  made  an  appli 
cation  to  the  New  York  legislature  for  a  sim 
ilar  act,  which  was  granted.  Soon  after  this 
movement  was  made,  Dr.  John  D.  Russ,  who 
had  just  returned  from  a  mission  to  Greece, 
whither  he  had  borne  the  contributions  of 
American  citizens  to  the  suffering  Greeks, 
and  who  on  his  way  home  had  visited  some 
of  the  .European  blind  institutions,  identified 
himself  with  it,  and  eventually  became  the 
principal  of  the  school  for  the  blind  in  New 
York  city,  which  was  established  in  1832, 
under  the  charter  already  named.  . 

In  Boston,  Dr.  Samuel  G.  Howe,  who  had 
also  been  actively  engaged  in  the  cause  of 
the  Greeks,  and  who,  like  Dr.  Russ,  had 
visited  the  European  institutions  for  the 
blind,  entered  with  great  zeal  upon  the  work 
of  establishing  a  school  for  their  instruction, 


440 


EDUCATION-    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


PENNSYLVANIA    ASTLUM     FOB    THE     BLIND. 


and  made  a  beginning,  -\ve  believe,  under  Dr. 
Fisher's  charter,  in  1832.  The  liberal  gift, 
by  Colonel  T.  II.  Perkins,  of  his  valuable 
mansion  hou.se  in ,  Pearl  street,  Boston,  to 
this  school,  on  condition  of  the  raising  of 
$50,000  by  the  public,  soon  secured  to  the 
institution  a  liberal  endowment. 

The  year  succeeding,  an  institution  for  the 
blind  was  established  in  Philadelphia  through 
the  efforts  of  Messrs.  Roberts,  Vaux,  and 
others,  at  the  head  of  which  was  placed  an 
intelligent  and  philanthropic  Prussian,  Mr. 
Julius  Friedlander,  who  had  been  engaged 
in  teaching  the  blind  at  Berlin,  under  the 
celebrated  Zeune. 

The  first  efforts  of  the  American  instruct 
ors  of  the  blind  were  devoted  to  the  improve 
ment  of  the  alphabet  of  raised  letters,  used  in 
printing  .for  the  blind,  with  a  view  to  the  prep 
aration  of  books  for  them.  There  were  con 
siderable  difficulties  to  be  overcome  in  the 
accomplishment  of  this  work;  the  letters 
must  have  salient  angles;  each  letter  must 
differ  sufficiently  from  every  other  to  be 
easily  recognized  by  the  touch ;  yet  the  size 
of  ^  the  letters  must  be  small,  or  the  books 
printed  for  the  blind  would  be  too  cumbrous 
and  expensive.  The  forms  of  letters  used  in 
Europe  did  not  answer  these  requirements 
satisfactorily.  Ilatiy's  type,  if  well  embossed, 
could  be  read  with  tolerable  facility,  but  it 


was  much  too  large,  and  its  size  could  not 
be  reduced  without  impairing  its  legibility ; 
Guillie's  was  not  legible  at  all ;  Gall's  varied 
too  much  from  the  ordinary  form  of  letter  to 
be  desirable,  and  the  other  attempts  at  unit 
ing  the  requisite  qualities  failed.  Each  of  the 
three  American  superintendents  devoted  his 
leisure  to  the  work.  Mr.  Friedlander  devised 
an  alphabet,  known  in  England  as  the  Allston 
or  Sans-serif  Alphabet,  neat  in  form  and  eas 
ily  read,  but  somewhat  too  large.  Dr.  Russ 
invented  one  combining  the  advantages  of 
Gall's  triangular  alphabet  'with  the  lllyrian 
letter,  and  with  characters  to  make  it  pho 
netic,  but  it  was  somewhat  defective  in  legi 
bility  ;  and  Dr.  Howe,  after  repeated  trials, 
constructed  what  is  now  known  as  the  Bos 
ton  letter,  which  in  size,  distinctness,  and  leg 
ibility  so  far  surpassed  every  previous  effort, 
that  it  has  now  come  into  general  use  in  Eu 
rope  and  America.  Two  other  subjects  in 
terested  these  American  pioneers  in  the  work 
of  instructing  the  blind :  the  recognition  by 
the  state  legislatures  of  the  right  of  blind 
youth  to  the  advantages  of  an  education,  and 
the  extension  of  the  course  of  study  so  far  as 
to  give  their  pupils  a  good  English  education, 
instructing  them,  at  the  same  time,  in  such, 
mechanic  arts  as  might  enable  them  to  sup 
port  themselves  after  leaving  the  institution. 
At  the  time  of  the  organization  of  these 


INSTITUTIONS    FOR    THE    INSTRUCTION    OF    THE    BLIND. 


441 


schools,  the  institutions  for  the  blind  in 
Great  Britain,  and  most  of  those  on  the  con 
tinent  of  Europe,  taught  nothing  but  reading 
and  the  mechanic,  arts,  except  in  the  case  of 
those  who  possessed  musical  talents,  who  re 
ceived  such  instructions  in  music  as  would 
enable  them  to  play  upon  the  piano  or  organ, 
and  to  sing;  but  the  ordinary  branches  of 
elementary  education  were  entirely  neglected. 
The  American  superintendents  determined 
that  their  pupils'  should  receive  a  good  com 
mon-school  education,  and  if  possible  some 
thing  beyond  this,  and  they  have  succeeded. 
The  period  of  instruction  varies  in  the  insti 
tutions  for  the  blind  in  the  United  States 
from  five  to  eight  years.  In  the  larger  and 
older  institutions  it  is  usually  eight  years, 
and  includes  a  course  of  mathematics  and 
belles-lettres  as  extensive  as  that  in  most  of 
the  colleges  in  the  country,  and  a  thorough 
course  of  musical  training,  both  vocal  and 
instrumental.  The  languages  are  not  usual 
ly  taught.  There  are  now  twenty-four  of 
these  institutions  in  the  United  States.  The 
Ohio  Institution  at  Columbus  was  founded 
in  1837,  and  that  of  Virginia  at  Staunton  in 
1839;  the  others  have  all  been  organized  since 
1842.  To  allthcse  establishments  there  are 
attached  work-rooms,  in  which  the  pupils  are 
employed  in  the  manufacture  of  mattresses, 
mats,  baskets,  paper  boxes,  brooms,  brushes, 
or  the  simpler  articles  of  cabinet  work. 

To  many  of  the  blind,  music  furnishes 
not  only  a  recreation  but  a  means  of  sup 
port.  Their  ear,  long  trained  to  the  dis 
crimination  of  sounds,  and  their  touch,  ren 
dered  delicate  by  the  acquisition  of  the  art 
of  reading,  give  them  peculiar  facilities  for 
the  attainment  of  musical  skill ;  and  the  con 
centration  of  their  minds  upon  it,  undis 
turbed  by  observation  of  what  is  passing 
around  them,  adds  to  their  advantages.  It 
is  not,  therefore,  remarkable,  that  many  of 
them  should  have  attained  to  great  eminence 
in  musical  science.  The  Pennsylvania  In 
stitution  has  been  specially  remarkable  for 
the  musical  attainments  of  its  pupils.  Its 
weekly  concerts  are  attended  by  from  1200 
to  1500  of  the  music-loving  inhabitants  of 
that  city,  and  the  receipts  from  these  con 
certs  furnish  a  liberal  fund  to  aid  the  poorer 
graduates  in  commencing  an  independent 
life.  Many  of  these  pupils  find  speedy  and 
remunerative  employment  as  organists,  choir 
singers,  members  of  orchestras  or  bands,  or 
piano-teachers  and  tuners. 

The  great  cost  of  printing  books  for  the 


blind  has  rendered  the  supply  scanty  and 
the  number  of  books  small.  The  American 
Bible  Society  has  printed  an  edition  of  the 
Scriptures  in  the  Boston  letter,  and  grants 
are  made  from  time  to  time  to  institutions 
for  the  blind.  The  American  Tract  Society 
has '  also  printed  a  few  of  its  smaller  books 
in  the  same  letter.  Aside  from  these,  there 
are  not  more  than  fifty  works  printed  for 
the -blind  in  England  and  America,  except  a 
few  in  arbitrary  characters,  which  of  course 
are  of  no  general  value.  Among  these  fifty 
is  a  cyclopedia  to  be  completed  in  twenty 
volumes,  but  of  which  only  eight  or  nine 
have  yet  been  issued.  Repeated  applica 
tions  have  been  made  to  the  general  govdrn- 
ment  to  make  an  appropriation  either  of 
money  or  lands,  to  furnish  a  fund  for  the  es 
tablishment  of  a  press  for  the  blind,  but  the 
bills  reported  have  always  been  defeated. 
Within  the  past  year  a  "  Printing  House  for 
the  Blind"  has  been  established  at  Louis 
ville,  Kentucky,  endowed  in  part  by  pri 
vate  benefactions,  and  in  part  by  appropria 
tions  from  the  several  states.  Its  managers 
propose  to  go  on  in  the  manufacture  of 
books  for  the  blind,  using  the  Boston  letter, 
and  making  grants  to  the  blind  of  each  state 
in  a  ratio  corresponding  to  the  amount  con 
tributed  by  that  state. 

Owing  in  part  to  this  paucity  of  books 
the  educated  blind  seldom  use  the  books 
in- the  raised  letter  subsequent  to  their  grad 
uation,  except  the  Scriptures,  but  depend 
mostly  upon  the  reading  aloud  of  others  for 
their  information  and  instruction. 

Writing  has  always  been  a  difficult  and 
irksome  task  to  the  blind;  and  various  de 
vices  have  been  proposed  to  facilitate  this 
labor,  but  hardly  any  of  them  have  proved 
satisfactory.  The  plan  adopted  by  the  late 
William  H.  Prescott  of  using  a  frame  of 
wires  over  the  paper,  enabled  them  to 
write  in  straight  lines,  but  no  corrections 
could  be  made,  nor  could  the  scribe  read 
what  he  had  .written.  The  use  of  inks 
which  would  leave,  an  elevated  surface  has 
been  tried,  but  without  much  satisfaction  ; 
small  printing  machines  have  also  been  used, 
but  are  not  convenient. 

Within  a  few  years  past  another  process 
has  been  introduced,  -which,  despite  the  ap 
parent  objections  to  it,  proves  far  more 
serviceable  and  convenient  than  any  other 
yet  devised.  By  this  invention,  'known 
as  "Braille's  system,"  from  its  inventor,  M. 
Louis  Braille,  a  French  teacher  of'  the  blind, 


442 


BDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


they  are  soon  enabled  to  read  and  write 
•with  grea_t  facility,  and  by  the  addition  of  a 
single  character,  music  can  be  printed  or 
copied  by  the  blind  far  more  readily  than  a 
seeing  person  can  do  it  ia  the  ordinary  way. 
The  plan  is  based  upon  a  series  of  funda 
mental  signs,  comprising  the  first  ten  letters 
of  the  alphabet;  none  of  these  consist  of 
less  than  two  nor  more  than  four  dots.  A 
second  series  is  formed  by  placing  one  dot 
at  the  left  of  each  fundamental  sign  ;  a  third 
by  placing  two  dots  under  each  sign ;  a  fourth 
by  placing  one  dot  under  the  right  of  each. 
These  signs  designate,  besides  the  alphabet, 
the  double  vowels,  peculiar  compound  sounds 
like  th,  arid  the  marks  of  punctuation.  By 
prefixing  a  sign  consisting  of  three  clots,  the 
fundamental  signs  are  used  as  numerals;  by 
prefixing  another  the  last  seven  represent 
musical  characters,  and  by  a  sign  peculiar  to 
each  octave  the  necessity  of  designating  the 
key  to  each  musical  sentence  is  avoided. 

The  apparatus  consists  of  a  board,  in  a 
frame  like  that  of  a  double  slate,  the  surface 
of  which  is  grooved  horizontally  and  verti 
cally  by  lines  one  eighth  of  an  inch  apart ;  on 
this  the  paper  is  fastened  by  shutting  down 
the  upper  half  of  the  frame,  and  the  points 
are  made  with  an  awl  or  bodkin,  through  a 
piece  of  tin  perforated  with  six  holes,  an 
eighth  of  an  inch  apart.  The  perforations 
are  made  from  right  to  left,  in  order  that  the 
•writing  when  reversed  may  read  from  left  to 
right.  Books  and  music  are  now  printed  for 
the  blind  on  this  system.  Five  or  six  of  our 
larger  institutions  have  adopted  it. 

Some  of  the  blind  institutions  in  this  coun 
try  have  attached  to  them  workshops  for 
the  adult  blind,  especially  those  who  have 
graduated  at  these  institutions,  where  certain 
advantages  of  shop-rent,  machinery,  material 
at  wholesale  prices,  and  in  some  instances 
board  at  a  reduced  rate,  or  a  moderate  pen 
sion,  are  allowed,  by  way  of  equalizing  the 
difference  between  them  and  the  working 
classes  who  possess  all  their  faculties.  In 
one  instance,  in  Philadelphia,  an  asylum  has 
been  provided  for  the  aged  and  infirm  blind, 
where,  beguiling  the  weariness  of  the  passing 
hours  by  such  light  toil  as  they  can  readily 
accomplish,  they  may  pass  the  evening  of 
life  in  comfort  and  happiness. 

The  ratio  of  the  blind  to  the  entire  popu 
lation  was,  according  to  the  last  census,  1  to 
2328,  which  would  give  not  far  from  13,000 
as  the  present  number  in  the  country.  Es 
timating  one  fifth  of  these  as  of  school  &SQ, 


there  should  be  2  GOO  in  the  different  insti 
tutions.  The  number  actually  connected 
with  them  docs  not  exceed  1300.  As  most 
of  the  states  have  made  provision  for  sup 
porting  poor  blind  children  at  these  institu 
tions,  a  provision  available  on  application  to 
the  governor  or  secretary  of  state,  this  num 
ber  should  be  largely -increased. 

We  have  the  testimony  of  some  of  the 
most  eminent  European  teachers  of  the  blind, 
that  our  larger  institutions  are  superior  to 
any  of  those  in  Europe  in  the  thoroughness 
and  extent  of  their  teaching,  and  in  the 
spirit  of  self-dependence  with  which  they  in 
spire  their  pupils.  We  insert  a  table  giv 
ing  a  view  of  the  present  condition  of  the 
blind  institutions  in  this  country  so  far  as 
can'  be  ascertained.  There  is  also  an  insti 
tution  for  the  blind  incorporated  in  California. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

INSTITUTIONS  FOR   THE  TRAINING   OF 
IDIOTS. 

THESE  belong  to  the  class  of  humanitarian 
efforts  which  have  become  so  numerous  dur 
ing  the  past  hundred  years,  and  which  have 
embraced  in  their  scope  the  infirm,  the  or 
phan,  the  unfortunate,  the  vicious,  and  those 
who,  from  deprivation  of  one  or  more  of  their 
faculties,  or  feebleness  of  all  of  them,  have 
become  dependent  upon  others. 

An  effort  is  said  to  have  been  made  by 
Vincent  cle  Paul,  one  of  the  noblest  and 
purest  men  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
more  than  two  hundred  years  ago,  to  instruct 
a  few  adult  imbeciles  at  the  priory  of  St. 
Lazarus,  in  Paris,  but  with  very  slight  suc 
cess.  The  attempt  was  not  repeated  till 
1818,  when  an  idiot  child,  dumb  from  idiocy, 
was  admitted  as  a  pupil  at  the  American 
Asylum  for  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  at  Hartford. 
He  was  considerably  improved  during  a  res 
idence  of  a  year  there  ;  but  not  being  prop 
erly  a  deaf-mute,  and  not  being  capable  of 
going  on  with  their  classes,  he  was  dismissed. 
He  had,  however,  learned  the  sign-language 
sufficiently  to  be  able  to  communicate  his 
wants  by  it.  Other  imbeciles  were  subse 
quently,  at  various  times,  admitted  to  that 
and  some  other  institutions  for  the  blind  and 
for  deaf-mutes  in  this  country  prior  to  1840. 
Most  of  these  received  some  benefit  from  in 
cidental  instruction  and  intercourse  with  the 
pupils  of  these  institutions.  In  Great  Brit- 


INSTITUTIONS    FOR    THE    TRAINING    OF   IDIOTS. 


443 


ain,  as  early  as  1819,  Dr.  Richard  Poole,  of 
Edinburgh,  published  art  Essay  on  Educa 
tion,  in  which  he  urged  the  importance  of 
attempting  to  educate  and  improve  idiot 
children,  and  called  for  the  organization  of 
an  institution  for  imbeciles.  Efforts  were 
made  in  France,  from  1824  to  1838,  by  sev 
eral  eminent  men,  to  instruct  a  few  of  these 
unfortunates,  but  with  comparatively  slight 
success.  They  were  taught  to  imitate  others 
in  a  few  motions,  and  to  repeat  a  few  words 
by  rote,  but,  left  to  themselves,  soon  relapsed 
into  their  previous  hopeless  condition.  In 
1838,  Dr.  Edward  Seguin,  a  friend  and  pupil 
of  the  celebrated  surgeon  Itard,  who  had 
himself  long  contemplated  the  possibility  of 
idiot  instruction,  commenced  teaching  a  few 
idiot  children  in  Paris.  Unlike  those  -who 
preceded  him  in  this  work,  he  had  studied 
carefully,  in  all  its  bearings  and  relations,  the 
subject  of  idiocy  ;  and  having  become  satis 
fied  that  it  was  only  a  prolonged  infancy,  in 
which  the  infantile  grace  and  intelligence 
having  passed  away,  there  remained  only 
the  feeble  muscular  development  and  mental 
weakness  of  that  stage  of  growth,  he  sought 
to  follow  nature  in  his,  processes  for  the  de 
velopment  of  the  enfeebled  body  and  mind. 
In  these  efforts  he  was  far  more  successful 
than  his  predecessors.  In  1846,  he  publish 
ed  his  treatise  on  the  Treatment  of  Idiocy, 
which  is  still  the  text-book  of  all  teachers  of 
imbeciles. 

About  the  same  time  that  Dr.  Seguin  com 
menced  his  school  in  Paris,  a  young  Swiss 
physician  of  Zurich,  Dr.  Louis  Guggcnbiihl, 
attempted  with  success  the  training  of  some 
Cretin*  children,  on  the  Abendberg,  above 
Intcrlachen.  The  success  of  these  two  phi 
lanthropists  led  others  in  Prussia,  Austria, 
the  smaller  German  states,  Sardinia,  and 
England,  to  establish  similar  schools  for  the 
training  of  these  hitherto  neglected  children. 

The  first  movements  for  idiot  training  in 
this  country  were  made  almost  simultaneous 
ly  in  New  York  and  Massachusetts ;  that  in 
New  York  having  slightly  the  precedence, 
though  the  first  schools  were  organized  in 
Massachusetts.  Dr.  F.  F.  Backus  of  Roch 
ester,  elected  to  the  state  Senate  of  New 
York  in  the  autumn  of  1845,  had  become 

*  The  Cretin  is  an  imbecile  whose  physical  de 
generation  is  greater,  though  his  mental  condition  is 
more  hopeful,  than  that  of  the  idiot.  The  disease, 
Cretinism,  is  supposed  to  be  caused  by  the  impreg 
nation  of  the  springs  ivith  magnosian  salts,  aiid  is 
very  common  in  mountainous  districts. 


interested  in  the  accounts  of  the  schools  of 
Seguin  and  Guggenbiihl,  and  informing  him 
self  as  fully  as  possible  in  regard  to  them, 
made  a  report  to  the  Senate,  in  the  session 
of  1846,  accompanying  it  with  resolutions 
providing  for  the  establishment  of  a  train 
ing  school.  These  passed  the  two  Houses, 
but  were  reconsidered  and  lost  in  the  low 
er  House.  During  the  same  winter,  on  the 
motion  of  Judge  Byington,  in  the  Massa 
chusetts  legislature,  a  commission  was  ap-^ 
pointed,  consisting  of  the  mover,  and  Dr.  S. 
G.  Howe  and  Gilman  Kimball,  Esq.,  to  in 
vestigate  the  condition  of  the  idiots  and  im 
beciles  of  the  state.  In  1848,  as  a  result  of 
the  reports  of  this  commission,  the  Massa 
chusetts  School  for  Imbecile  and  Feeble 
minded  Youth  was  chartered,  but  was  not 
organized  till  October  of  that  year.  It  is 
under  the  general  superintendence  of  Dr.  S. 
G.  Howe.  Meantime,  in  July,  1848,  Dr.  II. 
B.  Wilbur,  a  young  physician  of  Barrc,  Mass., 
had  opened  a  private  school  for  imbecile  and 
backward  children  in  that  town.  In  1851  an 
experimental  Asylum  for  Idiots  was  estab 
lished  at  Albany,  N.  Y.,  and  Dr.  AVilbur  was 
appointed  its  superintendent.  Three  years 
later,  this  gave  place  to  the  New  York  State 
Asylum  for  Idiots  at  Syracuse,  for  which  the 
state  erected  a  noble  edifice,  and  provided 
for  the  training  of  the  indigent  imbecile  chil 
dren,  of  the  state.  In  1852,  the  Pennsylva 
nia  Training  School  for  Idiots  and  Imbeciles 
was  organized  at  Germantown,  Penn. ;  but  in1 
1859  it  was  removed  to  Media,  Pcnn.,  where 
a  large  and  well-provided  asylum  has  been 
erected  for  it.  It  is  under  the  care  of  Dr. 
Joseph  Parish.  In  1857,  the  Ohio  State 
School  for  Idiots  was  established  at  Colum 
bus,  and  Dr.  R.  J.  Patterson  took  charge  of 
it.  The  original  school  at  Barre  passed  into 
the  hands  of  Dr.  George  Brown  when  Dr. 
Wilbur  removed  to  Albany,  and  still  main 
tains  its  early  efficiency.  Besides  this,  there 
arc  two  other  private  schools  for  imbeciles : 
one  in  New  York,  under  the  charge  of  Mr. 
J.  B.  Richards,  who  was  formerly  connected 
with  the  Massachusetts  and  Pennsylvania  in 
stitutions,  and  one  in  Lakeville,  Litchfield 
county,  Conn.,  under  the  care  Of  Dr.  II.  M. 
Knight,  established  in  1858. 

Several  of  the  other  state  legislatures  have 
agitated  the  subject,  and  will,  probably, 
eventually  establish  schools. 

Of  those  already  in  existence,  the  asylum 
in  Syracuse,  of  the  state  institutions,  and  that 
at  Barre,  of  the  private  ones,  have  been  the 


444 


EDUCATION   AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


ASTLUM  FOR  IDIOTS,   SYRACUSE. 


most  successful,  and,  in  the  opinion  of  com 
petent  and  unprejudiced  judges,  are  superior 
to  any  of  the  European  institutions.  Dr. 
Seguin,  the  founder  of  the  Paris  school,  has 
been  in  this  country  much  of  the  time  for 
twelve  years  past,  and  has  rendered  efficient 
service  in  the  introduction  of  the  best  meth 
ods  of  instruction. 

The  processes  employed  in  the  training 
of  idiots  in   our  American  institutions  all 
grew  out  of  Seguin's  fundamental  theory, 
"that  idiocy  is  a  prolonged  infancy;"  and 
the  course  pursued  by  nature  in  developing 
the  infant  into  the  healthy,  robust,  intelli 
gent  •  child,   is  closely  followed.      In  many 
cases,  the  muscular  system  is  feeble,  and  un 
equally  and  imperfectly  developed;    this  is 
carefully"  invigorated   by  attention  to   diet, 
frequent  bathing,  and  such  exercise  as  shall 
strengthen,  the  muscles,  while  subordinating 
them  to  the  control  of  the  will.     The  atten 
tion  is  fixed,  and  taught  to  distinguish  form, 
size,  and  color  by  the  presentation  of  objects 
of  bright  colors,  and  of  varied  form  "and  bulk. 
The  irregular  muscular  movements,  often  the 
result  of  habit,  are  controlled  by  gymnastic 


exercises  with'  dumb-bells,  ladders,  etc.,  and 
by  military  exercises,  which  exact  the  atten 
tion  and  careful  action  of  the  hands,  feet, 
head,  and  eye.  Numbers  are  taught  by  the 
object  method,  and  reading  by  the  word  sys 
tem  and  the  use  of  pictures.  As  in  deaf-mute 
instruction,  the  effort  is  made,  at  the  earliest 
possible  moment,  to  direct  the  thoughts  in 
ward,  to  lead  the  child  to  watch  and  express 
his  own  feelings  and  emotions,  and  then  to 
guide  him  to  observe  the  emotions  of  others, 
and  soon  to  learn  something  of  his  Creator, 
and  his  own  moral  nature  and  destiny.  It 
is  remarkable  with  what  facility  the  simple 
truths  of  morality  and  religion  are  perceived, 
even  by  very  weak  intellects.  Their  progress 
in  these  is  much  more  rapid  than  in  intellect 
ual  studies ;  yet  many  of  the  pupils  in  the 
best  institutions  learn  to  read  passably  well, 
to  write  a  good  hand,  and  generally  to  spell 
correctly  ;  become  familiar  with  the  principal 
facts  of  geography,  with  the  elements  of  gram 
mar,  and  arithmetic  as  far,  perhaps,  .as  com 
pound  numbers.  A  few  make  still  greater 
progress,  but  these  are  the  exceptions,  not 
the  rule. 


INSTITUTIONS    FOR   THE    EDUCATION    AND    TRAINING    OF    ORPHANS. 


445 


It  is,  perhaps,  too  soon  to  decide  very  con 
fidently  what  will  be  the  results  of  idiot  in 
struction  ;  but  this  much  is  tolerably  certain, 
that  a  proportion  not  exceeding  one  fourth, 
and  these  often  apparently  the  worst  cases 
when  admitted,  will  become  so  far  improved 
as  to  perform  the  ordinary  duties  of  life  and 
citizenship  nearly  as  well  as  the  masses  gen 
erally  ;  another  fourth  will  improve  so  much 
as  to  be  capable  of  working  intelligently,  un 
der  the  supervision  of  others,  but  not  of  any 
considerable  independent  action — these  will, 
under  favorable  circumstances,  nearly  or  quite 
support  themselves ;  another  fourth  will  be 
greatly  improved  in  their  habits,  and  will  re 
quire  but  little  attention,  though  unable  to 
do  much  toward  their  own  support ;  while 
the  remainder,  though  often,  perhaps,  as 
promising  as  any  at  first,  will  be  little,  if  at 
all,  improved. 

The  number  of  idiots  and  imbeciles  in  the 
country  lias  never  been  satisfactorily  ascer 
tained,  and  in  the  nature  of  the  case  cannot 
be,  from  the  reluctance  of  friends,  in  many 
cases,  to  admit  their  condition.  Careful  in 
vestigations  made  in  some  of  the  states,  and 
in  single  counties  in  others,  would  indicate 
that  here,  as  in  Europe,  the  number  is  but 
little  less  than  that  of  the  insane,  or,  in 
round  numbers,,  one  in  600. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

INSTITUTIONS   FOR  THE  EDUCATION  AND 
TRAININQ  OF  ORPHANS. 

SOME  of  the  Roman  emperors  and  many 
of  the  bishops  and  pastors  of  the  early  Chris 
tian  Church  interested  themselves  in  the  care 
of  orphans,  but  during  the  dark  ages  this  as 
well  as  other  charities  was  neglected  and  for 
gotten,  and  it  was  not  till  the  sixteenth  cen 
tury  that  any  attempts  were  made  to  estab 
lish  orphan  asylums.  During  the  seventeenth 
century  they  became  quite  numerous  both 
among  Protestants  and  Roman  Catholics, 
and  few  large  towns  were  without  one  or 
more  orphan  houses.  The  Moravians  in  par 
ticular  were  specially  tender  of  the  father 
less,  and  in  all  their  settlements  of  consider 
able  size  established  houses  for  them.  In  the 
last  years  of  the  seventeenth  century,  August 
Hermann  Franke  established  his  orphan  house 
at  Halle,  which  still  exists,  and  is  one  of  the 
largest  orphan  asylums  in  the  world. 

In  this  country  orphan  houses  were  estab 


lished  by  the  Moravians  in  Pennsylvania  and 
Georgia,  early  in  the  eighteenth  century.  In 
1740  the  celebrated  George  Whitefield  laid 
the  foundation  of  his  orphan  house  at  Be- 
thesda,  about  ten  miles  from  Savannah,  Geor 
gia.  After  many  pecuniary  difficulties  it 
finally  attained  to  a  prosperous  condition 
during  his  life,  and  he  added  to  it  an  acade 
my,  and  purposed,  could  a  charter  have  been 
obtained,  to  establish  a  college  in  connection 
with  it. 

The  number  of  orphan  asylums  established 
previous  to  the  commencement  of  the  pres 
ent  century  was,  however,  very  small.  There 
were  no  very  large  cities,  and  it  was  only  in 
the  large  cities  that  orphans  unfriended  were 
so  numerous  as  to  require  considerable  build 
ings  for  their  shelter  and  domicile.  _  In  New 
York  city  the  first  orphan  asylum  grew  out 
of  the  "  Society  for  the  Relief  of  Widows 
with  Small  Children,"  and  owes  its  origin  to 
the  zeal  and  energy  of  the  late  Mrs.  Joanna 
Bethune.  It  was  founded  in  1806,  and  at 
first  it  was  attempted  to  place,  the  children 
in  families,  but  their  number  soon  rendered 
this  difficult,  and  after  renting  premises  for 
a  time  they  erected  an  asylum  in  Bank  street, 
and  in  1840  removed  to  their  new  edifice  on 
the  banks  of  the  Hudson,  between  Seventy- 
third  and  Seventy-fourth  streets.  It  is  large 
ly  endowed. 

Subsequently  other  institutions  for  orphans 
have  been  established  in  that  city,  some  of 
them  amply  endowed  cither  by  legacies,  or  by 
the  increased  value  of  the  property  on  which 
they  were  originally  erected,  while  others 
are  dependent,  in  part,  on  annual  contribu 
tions,  or  on  grants  from  the  city  treasury  or 
Board  of  Education.  There  are  now  ten  of 
these  institutions  in  New  York  city  and  four 
in  the  adjacent  city  of  Brooklyn,  aside  from 
the  Home  for  the  Friendless  and  other  pre 
ventive  and  reformatory  institutions,  a  large 
part  of  whose  inmates  are  orphans;  and 
aside,  also,  from  the  Randall's  Island  Nurs 
ery,  where  the  last  year  about  1200  children 
— orphans,  half  orphans,  or  children  of  in 
temperate  and  criminal  parents — were  cared 
for.  In  all  these  institutions  in  the  city  of 
New  York  not  less  than  4000  children  are 
domiciled. 

There  are  now  asylums  for  orphans  in 
nearly  every  town  of  10,000  inhabitants  in 
the  country,  and  in  the  larger  cities  there  are 
usually  several.  Thus  there  are  nine  or  ten 
in  Philadelphia,  three  in  Baltimore,  and  five 
m  Boston.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  of 


446 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


these,  both  on  account  of  the  magnificence 
of  its  edifice  and  the  largeness  of  its  endow 
ment,  is  the  Girard  College  for  orphans  at 
Philadelphia.  It  was  founded  by  the  be 
quest  of  a  tract  of  land  and  two  millions  of 
dollars  by  Stephen  Girard,  a  wealthy  banker 
of  that  city.  Mr.  Girard  left  minute  direc 
tions  in  his  will  in  regard  to  the  buifding 
and  management  of  the  charity.  It  is  lo 
cated  on  a  lot  comprising  forty-one  acres  of 
land,  surrounded  by  a  wall  ten  feet  in  height. 
The  grounds  are  laid  out  as  play-grounds, 
gardens,  grass-plots,  etc.  The  buildings  are 
all  of  marble.  The  principal  one  is  in  the 
form  of  a  Corinthian,  temple,  169  feet  long, 
111  wide,  and  97  high,  and  has  a  portico  of 
thirty-four  marble  columns  each  55  feet  high. 
One  of  the  smaller  buildings  is  used  as  a 
laboratory,  bakery,  etc.  The  other  four  are 
each  125  feet  long,  52  feet  wide,  and  two 
stories  in  height.  The  whole  cost  of  the 
buildings  was.  $1,930,000.  the  officers  are 
a  president,  secretary,  two  professors,  five 
male  and  twelve  female  teachers,  a  physician, 
matron,  assistant  matron,  and  steward.  The 
college  was  opened  in  January,  1848.  As 
many  poor  white  male  orphans  as  the  en 
dowment  can  support  are  admitted,  between 
the  ages  of  six  and  ten  years,  fed,  clothed, 
and  educated,  and  between  the  ages  of  four 
teen  and  eighteen  bound  out  to  mechanical, 
agricultural,  or  commercial  occupations.  No 
ecclesiastic,  missionary,  or  minister  of  any 
sect  whatever^  is  to  hold  any  connection 
with  the  college  or  be  admitted  to  the  prem 
ises  even  as  a  visitor.  The  number  of  pupils 
on  the  foundation  is  a  little  over  350,  and 
the  annual  expenditure  about  $60,000. 

This  is  but  one  of  several  munificent 
foundations  for  orphans  in  that  city.  The 
Burd  Orphan  Asylum  recently  founded  there 
for  orphans  between  four  and  eight  years  of 
age,  and  primarily  those  of  Episcopal  parent 
age,  has  an  endowment  of  about  half  a  mill 
ion  dollars. 

At  Zelienople,  Butler  county,  in  western 
Pennsylvania,  a  farm  school  for  orphans  from 
Lutheran  families,  was  established  in  1854, 
and  is  under  the  charge  of  a  superintend 
ent  trained  to  his  work  in  the  Institute  of 
Brothers  connected  with  the  Rough  House, 
Dr.  Wichcrn's  reformatory  at  Horn,  near 
Hamburg.  This  is,  so  far  as  we  are  aware, 
the  first  distinct  effort  in  this  country  to 
train  orphan  children  distinctively  to  agri 
cultural  or  horticultural  pursuits. 

The  ordinary  course  of  instruction  in  most 


of  these  institutions  embraces  the  common 
branches  of  English  education,  and  in  many 
of  them  some  mechanical  pursuit  is  taught 
and  practised  for  four  or  five  hours  each  day. 
There  is  reason  to  believe  that,  in  many 
cases,  the  mode  of  life  and  the  regularity  and 
formality  of  the  course  of  training,  has  too 
much  tendency  to  render  the  children  autom 
ata,  and  unfit  them  to  some  extent  for  the 
hardships,  the  frequent  changes,  and  the 
sudden  temptations  to  which  they  arc  ex 
posed  after  leaving  the  institutions.  Where 
they  arc  placed  in  private  families  while  yet 
quite  young,  this  evil  is  not  so  likely  to  follow 
as  where  they  are  retained,  as  they  are  in 
some  asylums,  to  the  age  of  sixteen. 

No  estimate,  either  of  the  amount  perma 
nently  invested  or  of  the  annual  current  ex 
penses  of  these  institutions  in  this  country, 
can  be  given,  nor  even  any  near  approxima 
tion  to  an  estimate.  The  permanent  invest 
ment  is  to  be  reckoned  by  millions,  and 
possibly  by  tens  of  millions;  the  annual 
expenditure  in  New  York  city  alone,  reaches 
nearly  or  quite  half  a  million  of  dollars. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

PREVENTIVE  AND   REFORMATORY  INSTI 
TUTIONS. 

ALTHOUGH  there  are  occasional  indications 
that  individual  philanthropists,  like  the  be 
nevolent  Cardinal  Odescalchi  at' Rome,  and 
Sir  Matthew  Hale  in  England,  had  clear  per 
ceptions  of  the  evil  of  leaving  vagrant  and 
morally  endangered  children  as  well  as  ju 
venile  delinquents,  exposed  to  the  tempta 
tions  to  a  vicious  life,  yet  apart  from  a  school 
established  partially  for  them  by  the  former 
in  1586,  there  seems  to  have  been  no  serious 
movement  in  their  behalf  prior  to  the  estab 
lishment  of  the  school  and  home  for  vagrant 
and  vicious  boys  at  Rome,  by  Giovanni 
Borgi,  (better  known  as  Tata  Giovanni,  or 
Papa  John,)  in  1786  or  1787,  and  the  organ 
ization  of  the  "  Philanthropic  Society  for  the 
Prevention  of  Crime"  at  London  in  1788. 
This  last,  originally  established  on  the  fami 
ly  plan,  soon  became  a  large  establishment, 
in  which  a  great  number  of  boys  were  con 
gregated  and  employed  in  different  branches 
of  manufacture,  having  also  a  probationary 
school  of  reform  for  the  more  vicious  and 
criminal  of  its  inmates.  In  1846,  the  loca 
tion  was  changed  and  the  whole  system 


PREVENTIVE    AND    REFORMATORY    INSTITUTIONS. 


447 


modified.  A  large  farm  was  purchased  at 
Red  Hill,  near  Keigate,  Surrey,  agriculture 
and  horticulture  substituted  for  mechanical 
and  manufacturing  pursuits,  and  the  family 
system  for  the  congregated.  Since  that  pe 
riod  the  number  of  family  reformatories,  as 
they  are  called,  has  greatly  increased  in 
Great  Britain.  On  the  continent  the  emi 
nent  success  of  the  agricultural  and  horticul 
tural  reformatories  of  Mettray,  Horn,  Ruysse- 
lede,  and  many  others  of  more  recent  origin, 
has  attracted  general  attention. 

In  this  country  the  first  institution  in 
tended  for  the  reformation  of  vicious  and 
criminal  children,  was  the  "New  York  House 
of  Refuge  for  Juvenile  Delinquents,"  incor 
porated  in  1824  and  opened  January  1, 1825. 
Its  founders  were  John  Griscom,  Isaac  Col 
lins,  James  W.  Gerard,  and  Hugh  Maxwell, 
all  at  the  time  members  of  a  "  Society  for 
the  Prevention  of  Pauperism  and  Crime," 
which  had  been  formed  in  1818.  These 
gentlemen  were  aided  and  encouraged  by 
others  whose  names  appear  on  the  list  of 
corporators,  and  who  were  through  life  note 
worthy  for  their  hearty  participation  in  works 
of  philanthropy.  The  institution  thus  found 
ed  has  had  a  steady  growth,  as  the  rapiti  in 
crease  of  population  in  the  city  has  been 
attended  by  a  more  than  corresponding  aug 
mentation  of  the  number  of  juvenile  delin 
quents.  At  the  end  of  thirty-six  years  from 
its  first  opening  it  occupies  a  tract  of  be 
tween  thirty  and  forty  acres  on  the  southern 
end  of  Randall's  Island,  in  the  East  River, 
and  its  colossal  buildings,  erected  at  an  ex 
pense  of  not  far  from  $450,000,  furnish  am 
ple  accommodations  for  school-rooms,  lodg 
ing-rooms,  dining-rooms,  and  workshops  for 
750  children,  arid  actually  hold  in  durance 
nearly  700. 

In  1826  a  "House  of  Reformation,"  on  a 
similar  plan,  was  established  in  Boston,  and, 
in  1828,  a  "House  of  Refuge"  in  Philadel 
phia.  Similar  institutions  have  since  been 
organized  in  New  Orleans,  Rochester,  N.  Y., 
Westboro',  Mass.,  Cincinnati,  Providence, 
Pittsburg,  West  Meriden,  Conn.,  St.  Louis, 
Baltimore,  and  perhaps  some  other  cities. 

The  distinguishing  characteristics  of  these 
institutions  are,  that  those  committed  to 
them  have  generally  been  arrested  for  crime, 
and  have  either  been  sentenced  to  the  House 
of  Refuge,  in  lieu  of  a  sentence  to  jail  or 
state  prison,  or  have  been  sent  to  these  in 
stitutions  without  sentence,  in  the  hope  of 
their  reformation.  They  are  supported,  di 


rectly  or  indirectly,  from  the  public,  treasury 
(the  New  York  house,  besides  an  appropria 
tion  of  $40  per  h,ead  from  the  state  comp 
troller,  received  last  year  $8000  from  the 
city  treasury,  over  $5000  from  the  Board 
of  Education  for  its  •  schools,  and  about 
$7500  from  theatre  licenses).  In  most,  or 
all  of  them,  the  children  are  employed  in 
some  branch  of  manufacture,  or  some  me 
chanic  art,  for  from  five  to  eight  hours  per 
day,  and  receive  from  three  to  five  hours'  in 
struction  in  school.  In  all  there  is  more  or 
less  religious  and  moral  instruction  imparted, 
having  in  view  their  permanent  reformation 
from  evil  habits  and  practices.  In  all,  or 
nearly  all,  they  are  confined  at  night  in  cell- 
like  dormitories,  into  which  they  are  secure 
ly  locked,  and  their  labor,  during  the  day, 
is  under  strict  supervision,  and  is  generally 
farmed  out  to  contractors.  High  walls  and 
a  strict  police  are  mainly  relied  on  to  pre 
vent  escape,  and  the  attempt  to  do  so,  or 
any.  act  of  insubordination,  is  usually  pun 
ished  with  considerable  though  not  perhaps 
unmerited  severity.  The  managers  generally 
possess  and  exercise  the  power  of  indentur 
ing  those  children  who,  after  a  longer  or 
shorter  stay,  seem  to  be  reformed,  even 
though  the  period  of  their  sentence  has  not 
been  completed.  A  considerable  number 
who  have  been  sent  to  the  House  of  Refuge 
on  complaint  of  their  parents  are,  after  a 
time,  delivered  to  them  on  application ;  but 
a  large  proportion  of  these  do  not  do  well. 
Of  the  others,  it  is  believed  that  from  fifty 
to  seventy-five  per  cent,  reform,  at  least  so  far 
as  to  become  quiet  and  law-abiding  citizens. 
Of  those  who  do  not  reform,  some,  after  dis 
charge  at  the  end  of  their  term,  are  soon  re 
committed  ;  others  are  sent  to  sea,  and  per 
haps  amid  the  hardships  of  a  sailor's  life 
become  reformed  ;  others  return  to  the  vi- 
cioais  associations  from  which  they  were  orig 
inally  taken,  and  after  a  few  months  or  years 
of  ci  irne,  find  their  place  among  the  inmates 
of  the  county  or  convict  prisons,  meet  a 
violent  death,  or  fill  a  drunkard's  grave. 

These  institutions  necessarily  combine 
something  of  the  character  of  a  prison  with 
that  of  the  school,  and  while  their  main  ob 
ject  is  the  reformation  rather  than  the  pun 
ishment  of  the  young  offender,  they  retain 
so  many  penal  features  that  they  are  objects 
of  dread  and  dislike  to  many  parents  and 
guardians  whose  children  or  wards  would  be 
materially  benefited  by  their  discipline. 

This  feature  of  their  management  has  led 


443 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


to  the  establishment  of  another  class  of  re 
formatories  which,  though  sometimes  assum- 
ino-  similar  names,  are  essentially  different 
bo°th  in  the  character  of  their  inmates  and 
in  the  methods  adopted  for  their  reforma 
tion.  These  methods  are  indeed  quite  di 
verse  in  the  institutions  coming  under  this 
general  head,  and  are  to  some  extent  the 
reflection  of  the  differing  views  of  those  who 
have  charge  of  them. 

The  subjects  taken  in  charge  by  these  re 
formatories  are  somewhat  younger  on  the 
average  than  those  of  the  houses  of  refuge ; 
they  "are  for  the  most  part  only  guilty  of 
vagrancy  and  the  vicious  habits  of  a  street 
life,  or  at  the  worst,  of  petty  pilferings  and 
thefts ;  they  have  not  been,  in  most  in 
stances,  tried  for  any  crime  against  the  laws, 
or  if  they  have,  their  tender  age  lias  justified 
the  magistrate  in  withholding  a  sentence. 

When  admitted  to  the  reformatory,  which 
is  usually  done  on  a  magistrate's  warrant, 
they  undergo  a  thorough  ablution,  and  are 
clothed  in  plain,  neat  garments  having  no 
distinguishing  mark,  are  well  fed,  and  care 
fully  taught  and  watched  over,  and  the  ut 
most  pains  are  taken  to  eradicate  their  evil 
habits,  and  to  make  them  feel  that  their 
teachers  and  those  who  have  them  in  charge 
are  their  best  friends  and  seek  their  good. 
Their  past  history  is  never  alluded  to,  and  is 
generally  known  only  to  the  superintendent. 
In  these  establishments  there  are  no  dormi 
tory  cells,  and  severe  punishment  is  seldom 
found  necessary.  The  labor  of  the  pupils  is 
seldom  regarded  as  a  matter  of  much  im 
portance,  though  in  some  instances  three, 
four,  or  five  hours  a  day  arc  spent  in  some 
light  employment.  From  these  institutions 
escapes  are  unfrequent,  and  in  most  cases 
the  children  form  a  strong  attachment  for 
their  teachers.  In  some  instances  they  are 
broken  up  into  groups  or  families  of  twenty 
or  thirty  persons,  each  having  its  "  house 
father"  and  mother,  and  its  "  elder  brother," 
if  the  pupils  are  boys,  and  its  matron  or 
"  mother,"  and  elder  sister  or  aunt,  if  they 
are  girk  These  officers  teach  them  and  per 
form  the  duties  indicated  by  their  titles  in 
such  a  way  as  to  supply,  as  far  as  possible, 
the  place  of  those  natural  relations  of  whose 
judicious  influence  they  are  deprived.  One 
of  these  reformatories  is  a  ship,  and  the 
pupils  are  taught  all  the  duties  required  of 
an  able-bodied  seaman,  and  the  order  and 
discipline  are  similar  to  those  of  the  naval 
school  ships.  They  are  taught,  in  addition 


to  ordinary  common-school  studies,  naviga 
tion,  and  after  a  few  months'  instruction  are 
in  demand  for  the  mercantile  marine,  where 
they  not  unfrcquently  are  rapidly  promoted. 

In  most  of  these  institutions  the  pupils 
remain  in  the  reformatory  a  shorter  average 
period  than  those  who  are  inmates  of  the 
houses  of  refuge.  In  the  Xew  York  Juve 
nile  Asylum,  one  of  the  most  successful  of 
these  reformatories,  they  are  usually  inden 
tured  or  discharged  in  six  or  twelve  months. 
In  the  State  Industrial  School  for  Girls  at 
Lancaster,  Mass.,  comparatively  few  remain 
over  a  year.  These  institutions  are  usually 
supported  by  the  large  cities,  though  in  a 
few  instances  they  are  state  institutions. 
The  labor  of  the  children  being  of  but  little 
account,  the  expense  per  head  per  annum  is 
somewhat  greater  than  in  the  houses  of 
refuge,  but  the  number  of  reformations  is 
also  greater,  and  may  with  considerable  cer 
tainty  be  estimated  at  from*  seventy-five  to 
eighty-five  per  cent.  Among  these  institu 
tions  we  may  name  the  "  New  York  Juvenile 
Asylum,"  the  "  State  Industrial  School  for 
Girls"  at  Lancaster,  Mass.,  the  "Massachu 
setts  School  Ship,"  the  "Asylum  and  Farm 
School"  at  Thompson's  Island,  Boston,  the 
"  State  Reform  School"  at  Cape  Elizabeth, 
Maine,  the  "  Reform  School"  at  Chicago, 
and  the  "  State  Reform  Farm"  at  Lancaster, 
Ohio.  In  the  last,  which  is  the  first  attempt 
at  the  introduction  of  the  family  or  group 
system  for  boys  in  this  coimtry,  fruit  culture 
is  to  be  the  principal  employment  of  the  in 
mates,  and  the  term  of  residence  will  be 
longer  than  at  most  of  the  others. 

In  our  large  cities  there  is  still  another 
class  of  children  for  whom  a  preventive  edu 
cation  is  necessary  ;  they  are  not  criminal, 
they  have  not  generally  acquired  vicious 
habits,  but  they  are  morally  endan'/ered. 
They  are  often  orphans  or  half  orphans,  and 
frequently  homeless ;  many  of  them  are  chil 
dren  of  foreign  parents  of  the  lower  classes, 
and  have  had  no  opportunities  of  education  ; 
some  are  tho  offspring  of  vicious  or  intemper 
ate  parents.  The  greater  part  of  them  obtain 
a  precarious  livelihood  by  begging,  sweeping 
crossings,  boot  blacking,  selling  newspapers, 
statuettes,  fruit,  or  small  wares,  or  organ- 
grinding.  They  are  all  exposed  to  strong 
temptations  to  evil,  and  have  acquired  a 
kind  of  defiant  independence  from  being 
driven  so  early  to  take  care  of  themselves. 

For  these  children  it  has  been  felt  that 
some  provision  must  be  made  to  prevent 


PREVENTIVE    AND    REFORMATORY    INSTITUTIONS. 


449 


them  from  falling  into  vicious  and  criminal 
courses,  and  becoming  depredators  upon 
society,  and  to  give  them  the  opportunity 
of  becoming  good  and  intelligent  citizens. 
The  measures  necessary  to  accomplish  these 
results  have  been  the  subject  of  much  dis 
cussion  ;  and  amid  the  experimenting  which 
has  been  the  result  of  this  discussion,  much 
good  and  some  evil  have  been  done.  Indus 
trial  schools  have  been  established,  mainly 
for  girls,  in  which  reading  and  the  elements 
of  geography  and  arithmetic,  vocal  music, 
and  the  use  of  the  needle  in  plain  work,  are 
taught ;  and  the  furnishing  of  one  or  two 
meals  a  day  and  plain  clothing  when  need 
ed,  are  made  the  inducements  to  attendance. 
For  the  newsboys  and  other  young  vendors 
of  petty  wares,  a  lodging  house  has  been 
opened  in  New  York  city,  and  evening  in 
struction  given,  the  boys  paying  six  cents 
each  for  their  lodging.  On  the  Sabbath  a 
free  dinner  is  provided  for  those  who  will 
attend  and  receive  religious  instructions ; 
evening  schools  are  also  established,  where 
those  who  are  engaged  in  their  little  em 
ployments  during  the  day,  may  receive  in 
tellectual  and  moral  training. 

In  the  worst  quarters  of  New  York  and 
Philadelphia,  missions  and  houses  of  indus 
try  have  been  founded,  in  which  schools  are 
kept  through  the  week,  much  after  the  plan 
of  the  industrial  schools  already  described, 
and  where  homeless  forsaken  children,  and 
those  whose  parents  are  vicious  and  degrad 
ed,  are  clothed,  boarded,  instructed,  and 
made  to  know  the  comforts  of  a  home.  It 
is  obvious,  however,  that  the  greatest  kind 
ness  which  can  be  done  to  these  children  is 
to  remove  them  from  the  influence  of  the 
temptations  to  which  they  have  been  ex 
posed,  and  hence,  most  of  these  institutions 
send  their  children  to  homes  in  the  country, 
after  more  or  less  preparatory  training,  as 
fast  as  good  places  can  be  found  for  them. 
In  many  cases,  they  arc  adopted  by  those  in 
whose  charge  they  are  placed,  and  find  in 
their  foster  parents  more  tender  affection 
and  care  than  they  have  ever  known  before. 
In  other  cases,  they  meet  with  less  sympathy 
and  love,  and  return  to  the  great  city  and  its 
temptations  again. 

In  1853,  a  "  Children's  Aid  Society"  was 
organized  in  New  York  city,  mainly  through 
the  efforts  of  Mr.  Charles  L.  Brace,  one  of 
whose  principal  objects  is  the  location  of 
this  class  of  children  in  good  homes  at  the 
West  and  elsewhere.  Several  of  these  so- 
27* 


cieties  have  since  been  formed  in  other  large 
cities.  The  original  society  at  New  York 
has  the  oversight  of  industrial  schools,  boys' 
meetings,  the  newsboys'  lodging  house,  etc., 
and  gathers  from  all  quarters  these  morally 
endangered  children,  and  sends  them  into 
the  country  in  companies  of  forty  or  fifty ; 
its  agents  having  secured  situations  for 
them.  About  800  are  thus  sent  out  an 
nually. 

Still  another  class  of  organizations  intend 
ed  for  the  benefit  of  these  hapless  children, 
though  devoting  its  attention  mainly  to  two 
classes  of  them,  the  very  young  children, 
infants  and  children  under  ten  years,  and 
girls  of  thirteen  years  and  over,  who  are 
homeless  and  out  of  employment,  are  the 
Homes  for  the  Friendless,  of  which  there 
are  now  twelve  in  the  United  States.  The 
first  of  these  originated  with  the  American 
Female  Guardian  Society,  in  New  York, 
and  was  the  result  of  the  efforts  of  the  di 
rectors  of  that  society  to  rescue  these  class 
es  from  ruin.  It  assumed  its  present  form 
in  1847,  and  has  had  nearly  10,000  in 
mates  ;  683  were  received  as  members  of  its 
schools  and  workrooms  in  1859,  and  674 
were  employed  in  the  home  workrooms, 
and  furnished  with  situations ;  640  girls 
were  taught  in  its  industrial  schools,  and 
560  families  aided. 

These  institutions  are  all  of  them  main 
tained  principally  by  private  contributions, 
though  most  of  them,  in  the  large  cities,  re 
ceive  school  moneys,  to  aid  in  sustaining 
their  schools,  from  the  city  or  state,  and 
some  of  them  receive  occasional  grants  from 
the  state  or  city  treasuries. 

It  is  impossible  to  ascertain,  with  any  con 
siderable  certainty,  the  exact  percentage  of 
children  from  these  institutions,  who  event 
ually  turn  out  well.  In  most  of  them,  the 
failures  are  the  exceptions,  and  the  number 
of  these  is  not  large.  The  Home  for  the 
Friendless  in  New  York  city  keeps  up  a 
correspondence  relative  to  each  child  sent 
out,  until  their  majority,  unless  they  die  be 
fore  that  time.  This  correspondence  dem 
onstrates  that  full  90  per  cent,  grow  up 
virtuous  and  well  behaved.  This  percent 
age  is  larger  than  can  safely  be  predicated  of 
the  other  institutions,  inasmuch  as  the  chil 
dren  are  for  the  most  part  received  into  the 
home  at  a  very  early  age,  and  have  not  ac 
quired  the  evil  habits  of  those  who  are 
older,  before  coming  under  the  influence  of 
these  charities.  In  the  Children's  Aid  So- 


450 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


cieties,  Houses  of  Industry,  etc.,  the  per 
centage  reformed  is  large,  but  not  definitely 
ascertainable. 

There  is  still  another  class  of  reformatory 
institutions  not  intended  for  children,  but 
for  that  unfortunate  class  of  women  who, 
having  led  lives  of  unchastity,  have  become 
penitent  for  their  sins  and  desire  to  return 
to  the  paths  of  virtue.  This  department  of 
reform  has  been  less  actively  promoted  here 
than  in  Europe,  and  especially  in  Great  Brit 
ain,  but  there  are  in  most  of  our  large  cities 
Magdalen  Asylums,  or  institutions  otherwise 
designated,  but  intended  for  this  class.  New 
York  has  one  of  these  asylums,  Boston  two, 
and  Philadelphia  three,  one  of  which,  the  Ro- 
sine  Asylum,  founded  in  1847,  is  a  very  act 
ive  and  useful  organization. 

The  number  of  Houses  of  Refuge,  or  in 
stitutions  of  that  class,  is  fourteen.  The 
cost  of  their  buildings  and  grounds  is  about 
$2,050,000,  and  the  annual  cost  of  their 
maintenance  not  far  from  $340,000. 

Of  the  Juvenile  Asylums,  <fec.,  there  are 
seven  ,  the  cost  of  buildings  and  grounds  is 
not  far  from  $450,000,  and  the  annual  ex 
penses  of  maintenance  about  $130,000. 

The  number  of  institutions  of  the  third 
class  cannot  be  definitely  ascertained.  Few 
or  none  of  them  are  established  or  entirely 
maintained  by  the  state  or  city  governments, 
and  some  are  altogether  private  enterprises. 


There  are  fifteen  of  them  in  the  city  of  New 
York  alone,  and  two  or  three  in  Brooklyn, 
five  or  six  in  Philadelphia,  and  a  consider 
able  number  in  smaller  cities  and  towns. 
Some  of  these  occupy  leased  buildings,  oth 
ers  own  their  edifices. 

The  buildings  and  grounds  of  the  New 
York  Home  for  the  Friendless  cost  nearly 
$60,000,  and  of  the  Five  Points  House  of 
Industry,  about  $40,000.  The  annual  ex 
penses  of  seven  of  the  more  important  of 
the  preventive  and  reformatory  institutions 
in  New  York  city,  were  about  $114,000.  It 
would  probably  be  safe  to  estimate  the  total 
permanent  investment  of  all  these  organi 
zations  at  not  less  than  three  millions  of 
dollars,  which  we  are  satisfied  is  below  the 
reality,  and  the  current  annual  expenditure 
at  not  less  than  $750,000. 

That  these  institutions  have  not  vet  at 
tained  to  their  highest  degree  of  efficiency, 
and  that  they  are  not  fully  adequate  to  the 
reformation  and  preventive  education  of  the 
vast  number  of  morally  endangered, vagrant, 
and  criminal  children  of  the  country,  is  un 
doubtedly  true;  but  among  the  evidences  of 
national  progress  in  our  country  since  the 
commencement  of  its  independent  existence, 
there  is  none  which  reflects  greater  credit 
upon  its  philanthropy  than  the  establishment 
and  maintenance  of  so  many  institutions  of 
reformation  and  preventive  education. 


EDUCATIONAL    STATISTICS. 


451 


^  x  — ,*,frv«q  oo  5*  o  >/:,-  S  S»  • 
n  to  >n  i-T^-  •*  m  —"  o'  o'oo"  <c  -^  t 


OC  O  *r  Ct  10  ~  1/5  — 
-  ->  -r  /  -i  •:•  nr>  d  «  • 
- 


—  «  —  son  iri^  oo  t-  to 
or-too     <-it~"     J- 


QD  LO  o  -r  T  i-  r 


/q  paujniw  «« 
|ooq;>s  S.ipuauv 


^  * 

ei  jf    •flT^'VtCsfiisi  Q"<N  "^Qfifrf  op'o"a?»fr«o>fltfgtfe>»"ait»"afw 
oM         ifci-i     Coo  «  rf  R  «  55  ®  «  O  •*  aSSS  80  to  o  -5  »  «  *  *SS  S  S 

1    *-"  G*      -^      >-i      cl  »-«  co  '^  to  ^r          •—          FN 


—  —  —  i      -T  .    -  -  — 

o  c«  i-  o  -<  —  c»  •«•  i»  i-  ca  o  t-  o  o  «  c»  ";  n  i»  IN  •«•  oo  o  9  o 


<s 


— 

»-*:  o  OG  (•-  t- 

c»i.o-«n  ao 


T  —  •  ^- 

JWi'^SM'S'  (it  cxi-*—  -o  —  •T—"-oootc3—  i-iJS'T'n'cSc:  •*!-  —  — 
B  c»         S  n  co     ctrt«c<2iSc<i-i«c»'>>,-n^c^^c<^-     «n« 


S-  i? 

S  M    I  in 


5i'<rtO'^c^oi^'^—  "^-r  —  C5  —  o 
-'ODi^'i<^cc  >cotc  —  ^'  oc  -rnr-. 
t-  1-  1^  rt  T  iS  -i  to  o  •»  t-  2  «  i-  c-. 


c*  o  o  oc  c*  cf>  ao  o  o  t~  co  o  rt  -~c*3  <?»  rs  —  c»  *  >o  i-'  —  c*:  ^i  ^  ct  o  r^« 

=5  ^?  c)  £  •»  ^  fc  -1-  oc  c  =  2  oc  c<  L-5cb  o  c-.  -T-  -r  —  i~  =  o)  x  -:>  c-s  ..~  o 
fto—  i-^i-oooci  —  B?s9»ow55:i-'»i'ne»(»«DOiCTiio»«-'"Oo 


o  s» 
<M 


oo  e»"     ctoc<  —  <cs*r<o  ^  cf  «  to  o  «»!  -^t 


§ctot-c«>o-«i<=5co  — 
S      •voter:  —  oom 


'•*        I-T       --"  «"—"  P-J  o 


3^    .otDto 
—i    -MOi-i 


ES 
RI 


452 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE  OF  AMERICAN  COLLEGES. 


Corporate  name. 

Location. 

Date. 

o 

c  j» 

II 

c  3 

fcoa 

Vols.  in 
Library. 

Cambridge,  Mass  
Williamsburg,  Va  

1636 
1693 
1700 
1746 
1749 
1754 
1764 
1769 
1770 
1781 
1783 
1783 
1784 
1785 
1785 
1789 
1789 
1791 
1792 
1792 
1793 
1795 
1795 
1796 
1798 
1800 
1801 
1802 
1804 
1806 
1806 
1806 
1809 
1812 
1817 
1819 
1819 
1820 
1821 
1821 
1823 
1823 
1824 
1825 
1826 
1826 
1829 
1830 
1830 
1830 
1830 
1831 
1831 
1831 
1832 
1832 
1832 
1832 
1832 
1832 
1833 
1833 

24 

6 
21 
19 
12 
12 
10 
16 
6 
8 
8 
5 
6 
10 
6 
15 
5 
7 
9 
25 
11 
3 
15 
2 
8 
6 
8 
10 
6 

8 
6 
8 
9 
6 
15 
14 
6 
15 
8 
9 
5 
4 
7 
7 
10 
8 
6 
5 
24 
7 
7 
9 
16 
6 
5 
10 
6 
18 
7 
6 
7 

420 
GO 
523 
314 
129 
173 
212 
304 
110 
75 
134 
70 
115 
113 
37 
450 
128 
104 
219 
260 
240 
22 
320 
20 

103 
202 
215 
154 

104 
103 
121 
1B1 
104 
60 
417 
117 
242 
66 
56 
180 
85 
108 
48 
129 
17i 
115 
112 
126 
70 
140 
120 
138 
100 
45 
375 
130 
134 
73 
50 
40 

125.000 
53JOOO 
67,000 
24.000 
5,100 
14.000 
35,000 
33.699 
12.000 
6,200 
23,493 
1,200 
8,000 
18,250 
5,000 
21,000 
7,000 
13,000 
27,043 
36,000 
19,700 
1,800 
15,500 
3,500 
14,000 
13.500 
24,000 
10.000 
5,000 
8,000 
9,666 
3,900 
8.100 
12,500 
9,600 
8,600 
30,000 
10,000 
26.000 
7,500 
13,500 
5,600 
2,000 
13,550 
8,451 
13,384 
7,000 
2,200 
2,000 
4,000 
3,660 
13,000 
12,000 
4,300 
4,000 
5,400 

8,000 
22,000 
5,000 
10,000 
9,600 

Ynln                                                              

New  Haven,  Ct   

Princeton,  N.  J  

Philadelphia  Pa  

New  York,  N.  Y  

Providence,  R.  I  

Hanover,  N.  H  

New  Brunswick,  N.  J.  .  .  . 
Lexington,  Va  

Carlisle,  Pa  

Chestertown,  Md  

Annapolis,  Md  

Athens  Ga             

Charleston,  S.  C  

University  of  North  Carolina  

Chapel  Hill,  N.  C  

Prince  Edward  Co.,  Va  
Burlington   Vt  

University  of  Vermont     

Bowdoin     

Brunswick,  Me  

Georgetown,  D.  C  
Williamstowii.  Mass  
Washington  Co.,  La  

Williams     

Washington  

Union   ...      .  '.  

Schenectady  N  Y 

Greenville  

Greenville,  Tenn 

Transylvania  

Lexington  Ky 

Middlebury  

Middlebury  Vt 

South  Carolina  

Columbia  S  C 

Jefferson  

Canonsburo'   Pa 

Ohio  University  

Athens,  Ohio 

East  Ten  nessee  

TTnowillfi    Tpnn 

University  of  Nashville  

Nashville  Term 

Washington  Pa 

Miami  University  

Oxford   Ohio 

Hamilton  

Clinton,  N  Y 

Alleghanv  

Meadville  Pa 

St.  Joseph'8  

Bardstown   Ky 

University  of  Virginia  

Charlottesville   Va 

Waterville  

Waterville    Me 

Amlierst  

Columbian  

Washington   D  C 

Trinity  

Hartford  Ct 

Centre  

Danville   KV 

Franklin  

Hobart  Free  College  

Geneva   N   Y 

Western  Reserve  

Hudson  Ohio 

Kenyon  

Georgetown  

Indiana  State  University  

Georgetown,  Ky  
Bloomington    Ind 

Florence  Wesleyan  

Florence  Ala. 

Mount  St.  Mary's  

Emmetsburg  Md 

Illinois  

Wesleyan  University  

Middletown   Ct 

University  of  Alabama  

Tuscaloosa  Ala 

University  of  City  of  New  York  

New  York  N  Y 

Lafayette  

Easton  Pa 

Hanover.  .  .  . 

Dolbear'a  Commercial 

New  Orleans  La 

Randolph-Macon.  . 

Boydon  Va 

St.  Louis  University.  . 
Denison  

St.  Louis,  Mo  ,  . 
Granville,  0  

Wabash  

Newark,  Del  
Crawfordsville,  Ind.  

EDUCATIONAL    STATISTICS/ 


453 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE  OF  AMERICAN  COLLEGES.— Continued. 


Corporate  name. 

Location. 

Date. 

No.  of 
Professors. 

No.  of 

Students. 

Vols 
Librt 

Jackson  

Columbia.  Tenn  

1833 

5 

84 

4 

Oberlin  

Oberlin,  Ohio  

1834 

g 

110 

4 

Norwich  University  

Norwich,  Vt  

1834 

4 

80 

1 

Pennsylvania  .         .         .... 

Gettysburg,  Pa  .  .  . 

1834 

7 

154 

]} 

Shurtleff  

Upper  Alton,  111  

1835 

g 

40 

1 

McKendree  

Lebanon,  111  

1835 

6 

99 

5 

Marietta  

Marietta,  Ohio  

1835 

6 

56 

16 

Franklin  atid  Marshall  

Lancaster,  Pa  

1836 

6 

96 

19 

University  of  Michigan  

Ann  Arbor,  Mich  

1837 

17 

282 

10 

St.  Charles  

St  Charles  Mo     

1837 

6 

50 

Y 

Knox  

Galesburg   111  

1837 

7 

56 

3 

Emory  

Oxford    Ga  

1837 

6 

126 

] 

Emorv  and  Henry  

Washington  Co.,  Va  

1838 

5 

54 

8 

Oglethorpe  .      ... 

Milledgeville  Ga  

1838 

5 

100 

4 

Wake  Forest  

Forestville  N.  C  

1838 

5 

76 

5 

University  of  State  of  Missouri  

Columbia,  Mo  

1839 

10 

102 

3 

Mercer  University  

Penfield,  Ga  

1839 

7 

140 

8 

Wesleyan  Female  

Macon,  Ga  

1839 

11 

188 

2 

Virginia  Military  Institute  

Lexington,  Va  

1839 

13 

150 

4 

Richmond  

Richmond  Va     .       

1840 

7 

93 

1 

Davidson  

Mecklenburg  Co  ,  N.  C.  .  .  . 

1840 

7 

112 

5 

Bethany  

Bethany  Va 

1841 

10 

124 

1 

St.  James's  
Holy  Cross  

Washington  Co.,  Md.  .  .  . 
Worcester  Mass  ...      .    • 

1842 
1843 

14 

8 

52 
75 

9 
6 

Masonic  

Lexington,  Mo       

1844 

3 

28 

1 

Franklin  

Near  Nashville  Tenn 

1844 

6 

106 

3 

Cumberland  University  

Lebanon,  Tenn  

1844 

11 

165 

4 

Centenary  

Jackson  La  

1845 

11 

103 

5 

Wittenberg  

Springfield,  Ohio  

1845 

5 

59 

6 

Madison  University  

Hamilton   N"  Y 

1846 

9 

145 

7 

St.  John's  

Fordham   N  Y 

1846 

19 

43 

15 

Kentucky  Military  Institute  

Franklin  Springs  Ky 

1846 

9 

154 

3 

Beloit  

Beloit   Wis 

1847 

g 

60 

3 

St  Mary's  

Wilmington  Del 

1847 

7 

5 

St.  Charles's  

Ellicott's  Mills  Md 

1848 

8 

104 

Union  

1848 

6 

150 

4 

University  of  Mississippi  

Oxford  Miss 

1848 

9 

175 

5 

Howard  

Marion   Ala               

1848 

6 

83 

3 

Lawrence  University  

Appleton   Wis    

1849 

10 

100 

15 

University  of  Louisiana  

New  Orleans,  La     

1849 

7 

University,  at  Lewisburg  

1850 

6 

55 

4 

Urbana  University  

Urbana   Ohio       

1850 

8 

21 

3 

Carroll  

W^aukesha   Wis  

1850 

5 

20 

University  of  Rochester  

Rochester  N  Y     

1850 

8 

165 

5 

Madison  

1851 

5 

102 

Mississippi  College  

Clinton  Miss  

1851 

7 

50 

3 

Wisconsin  University  

1851 

7 

30 

1 

Aranama  

Goliad  Tex        

1852 

3 

75 

] 

Racine  

Racine   Wis     

1852 

6 

17 

1 

Milwaukee  Female  

1852 

4 

36 

Polytechnic  

Philadelphia,  Pa.  

1853 

8 

58 

Antioch  

Yellow  Springs,  Ohio  

1853 

12 

98 

4 

Tufts  

1854 

5 

54 

g 

Ohio  Wesleyan  University 

Delaware,  Ohio  

1854 

8 

147 

10 

Santa  Clara  . 

Near  San  Jose,  Cal  

1855 

Iowa  State  University  

Iowa  Citv,  Iowa  

1855 

4 

Iowa  Weslevan  University  

Mount  Pleasant,  Iowa  

1855. 

9 

Semple  Broaddus                          

Centre  Hill,  Miss  

1856 

4 

75 

Indiana  Asbury  University  

Greencastle,  Ind  

1857 

8 

100 

10 

Kentucky                                      

Harrodsburg,  Kv  

1858 

g 

156 

i 

University  of  Chicaeo.  .  ,            

Chicago,  111.  ... 

1860 

9 

20 

? 

454 


EDUCATION   AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 


THEOLOGICAL  SCHOOLS. 


Name. 

Place. 

Denomination. 

Commenced 
operations. 

No.  Professors. 

Students  near 
1859-1860. 

Number 
educated. 

Volumes  in 
Library. 

Th.  Sem.  Dutch  Ref.  Church  
St  Mary's  Seminary  

N.  Brunswick,  N.  J.  . 
Baltimore,  Md  

Dutch  Ref  
Rom.  Catholic. 
Asso.  Church. 
Congregation.  . 
Presbyterian.  . 
Congregation,  . 
Cong.  Unit.  .  .  . 
Lutheran  

1784 
1791 
1792 
1807 
1812 
1816 
1816 
1816 
1816 
1817 
1820 
1821 
1821 
1822 
1822 
1824 
1825 
1825 
1825 
1825 
1826 
1827 
1828 
1828 
1828 
1829 
1829 
1830 
1832 
1832 
1832 
1834 
1835 
1835 
1835 
1835 
1836 
1836 
1839 
1841 
1844 
1845 
1845 
1846 
1847 
1848 
1849 
1850 
1853 
1855 

1  SRK 

3 

6 
2 
6 
6 
4 
2 

a 

3 
6 
3 
4 
2 
6 
4 
3 
2 
4 

3 
2 
2 
4 
3 
4 
5 
4 
8 
3 
3 
2 
8 
3 
3 
2 
8 

6 
I 
1 

B 
4 

2 
1 
2 
3 

i 

1 

3 

4 
2 
'> 

50 
27 
33 
110 
153 
40 
17 
5 
12 
58 
24 
30 
24 
27 
47 
20 
36 
33 
25 
18 
30 
23 
35 
42 
140 
14 
36 
14 
67 
8 
15 
17 
23 
10 
24 

106 
11 
12 
49 
17 
12 
6 
13 
40 
6 
11 
36 
52 
12 

179 

147 
1.206 
1,626 
330 
295 
52 

430 
262 
580 
90 
680 
356 
175 

201 
250 
121 
30 
91 
85 
249 
537 
86 
257 

156 
151 
69 
20 
157 

211 
143 
31 
46 
60 
180 
49 

50 
115 
20 

7,000 
10,000 
2,000 
21,259 
11,000 
10,500 
8,700 
1,250 
2,000 
11,963 
7,500 
6^000 
6,000 

7,500 
4,000 
2,000 
5,500 
10,000 
6.000 
1^000 
6,500 
1,500 
17,260 
10,000 
4,000 
10,500 
79 
1,000 
500 
4,000 
5,000 
4,300 
1,800 
500 

18.000 
3^00 
1,500 
3.000 
8,000 
500 

2,200 
2,000 
1,000 

5,500 

Theological  School                 .    .  . 

Canonsburg,  Pa  

Theological  Seminary  

Andover,  Mass  
Princeton,  N.  J  

Theol.  Sem.  Presby  t.  Church  .... 
Bangor  Theological  Seminary  .  .  . 
Divinity  School,  Harv.  Univ.  .  .  . 
Hartwick  Seminary  

Bangor,  Me  

Cambridge,  Mass.  .  .  . 
Hartwick,  N.  Y  

Georgetown  College  

Georgetown,  D.  C.  .  . 
New  York,  N.  Y  
Hamilton,  N.  Y  

Rom.  Catholic. 
Prot.  Episcop. 
Baptist  

Theol.  Inst.  Episc.  Church  

Hamilton  Theol.  Seminary  

Theol.  Sem.  of  Auburn  

Auburn,  N.  Y  

Presbyterian.  . 
Presbyterian.  . 
Congregation.  . 
Prot.  Episcop. 
Presbyterian.  . 
Baptist  

Southwest  Theol.  Seminary  
Theol.  Dep.  Yale  College  

Mary  ville,  Tenn  

New  Haven,  Conn.  .  . 
Fairfax  Co.,  Va  

Epis.  Theol.  School  of  Virginia.  . 
Union  Theological  Seminary.  .  .  . 
N.  Hampton  Theol.  Seminary.  .  . 
Theological  Institution  

Prince  Ed.  Co.,  Va.  .  . 
New  Hampton,  N.  H  . 
Newton,  Mass  

Baptist  .  . 

Wittenberg  Theol.  Seminary.  .  .  . 
German  Reformed  

Gettysburg.  Pa  

Evang.  Luth  .  . 
Germ.  Ref.  Ch. 
Baptist 

Mercersburg,  Pa  
Fairfield  Dist.,  S.  C.. 
Gambier,  Ohio  

Furman  Theol.  Seminary  

Theol.  Dep.  Kenyon  College  
Theological  Seminary  

Prot.  Episcop. 
Asso  Ref 

Pittsburg,  Pa  

Theological  Seminary  

Columbia  S  C 

Presbyterian.  . 
Presbyterian.  . 
Rom.  Catholic. 
Presbyterian.  . 
Presbyterian.  . 
Baptist 

Western  Theol.  Seminary  

AUeghany,  Pa.  . 

Theol.  Dep.  St.  Louis  Univ  

St.  Louis,  Mo 

Lane  Seminary  

Cincinnati,  Ohio  
Hudson,  Ohio  

Theol.  Dep.  West.  Res.  College.  . 
Virginia  Baptist  Seminary  

Richmond,  Va.  .  . 

Granville  Theol.  Department.... 
New  Albany  Theol.  Seminary..  . 
Theol.  Inst.  of  Connecticut.  .  .  . 

Granville,  Ohio  
Hanover,  Ind  

Baptist  

Presbyterian.  . 
Congregation.  . 
Congregation.  . 

East  Windsor,  Conn.  . 
Gilmanton,  N.  H  
Lexington,  S.  C 

Gilmanton  Theol.  Seminary  
Theological  Seminary  

Oberlin  Theol.  Department  
Alton  Theol.  Seminary.  .  .  . 

Oberlin,  Ohio.  .  . 

Congregation  . 

Upper  Alton,  111  
New  York,  N.  Y  
Newburg,  N.  Y  
Oxford,  Ohio  
Nashotah,  Wise  
Meadville,  Pa  
Georgetown,  Ky  
Springfield,  Ohio  
Peufield,  Ga  

Union  Theological  Seminary.  .  .  . 
Theol.  Sem.  Ass.  Ref.  Church.  .  . 
Theol.  Sem.  Ass.  Ref.  Church.  .  . 
Nashotah  Theol.  Seminary 

Presbyterian.  . 
Ass.  Ref.  Ch.  . 
Asso.  Ref.  .  .  . 
Prot.  Episcop. 
Cong.  Unit.  .  . 
Baptist  

Western  Theol.  School  

Western  Bapt.  Theol.  Institution. 
Wittenberg 

Theol.  Sem.  of  Mercer  Univ  
Meth.  Gen.  Bib.  Institute 

W.  Lutheran.. 
Baptist 

Concord,  N.  H  
Marion,  Ala.  .  . 

Methodist.  ..  . 
Baptist 

Howard  Theol.  Institution  
Bibl.  Dep't  Ohio  Wesl.  Univ.  .  .  ! 
Rochester  Theol.  Seminary.  .4.. 
Danville  Theol.  Seminary. 

Delaware,  Ohio  
Rochester,  N.  Y  
Danville  Ky 

Methodist.  .  .  . 
Baptist  

Presbyterian.  . 
Baptist 

Theol.  Dep.  Lewisburg  Univ. 
Theol.  School,  Cumb.  Univ  

Lewisburg,  Pa  .... 

Lebanon,  Tenn.  . 

Cumb.  Prfishv 

EDUCATIONAL    STATISTICS. 


455 


LAW    SCHOOLS. 


Name. 

Place. 

Founded. 

Pro- 

fess'rs. 

Students 
1859-60. 

Graduates. 

Vols.  in 
Library. 

William  and  Mary  College     

Williamsburg,  Va  

1730 

1 

Dane  Law  School,  H.  Univ  

Cambridge,  Mass.  .  .  . 

1817 

3 

150 

1  005 

14  500 

New  Haven,  Conn.  .  .  . 

1820 

2 

28 

122 

2  200 

Law  School,  Univ.  of  Virginia.  .  .  . 
Law  School,  Cincinnati  College  .... 

Charlottesville,  Va.  .  .  . 
Cincinnati.  Ohio  

1825 
1833 

2 
3 

109 

85 

247 
512 

2,000 
3  000 

Indiana  State  University  

Bloomington,  Ind  

1840 

1 

18 

78 

North  Carolina  University  

Chapel  Hill,  N.  C  

1845 

2 

23 

"       j 

N.  Y.  State  and  National  L.  S  
Cumberland  University  

Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y.  . 
Lebanon,  Tenn  

1845 

1847 

4 
3 

119 

188 

79 

3,000 
500 

University  of  Pennsylvania  

Philadelphia,  Pa  

1850 

3 

60 

80 

University  of  Albany  

Albqny,  N.  Y  

1851 

3 

129 

85 

State  lib 

Indiana  Asbury  University  

Green  castle,  Ind  

1853 

1 

1C 

50 

Maynard  L.  S.  Hamilton  College.  .  . 

Clinton,  N.  Y  

1853 

1 

9 

36 

500 

University  of  Mississippi  

Oxford,  Miss.  .  .  . 

1857 

1 

35 

33 

1  000 

Kentucky  Military  Inst  

Franklin  Springs.    . 

1858 

1 

20 

New  York,  N.  Y  

1859 

3 

30 

2  000 

University  of  Michigan   ......... 

Ann  Arbor  

1859 

3 

90 

24 

1  000 

University  of  Louisiana  

New  Orleans,  La  

3 

University  of  Louisville.  . 

Louisville,  Kv.  . 

3 

MEDICAL  SCHOOLS. 


Name. 

Place. 

Founded. 

Prof. 

Stud'ts. 

Graduates. 

Lectures  commence. 

Med.  Dep.  Univ.  Penn  

Philadelphia,  Pa. 

1765 

9 

453 

7  100 

Earlv  in  October 

Medical  School,  Harv.  Univ.  .  . 
N.  H.  Medical  School  

Boston,  Mass.  .  . 
Hanover  N  H 

1782 
1797 

6 
6 

104 
50 

1,125 
928 

1st  Wedn.  in  Nov. 

Coll.  Phys.  &  Surg.,  N.  Y  ... 
Med.  School,  Univ.  Md  

New  York,  N.  Y. 
Baltimore,  Md 

1807 
1807 

6 
6 

219 
100 

852 
909 

1st  Mon.  in  Nov. 
October  31st 

Medical  Inst.  Yale  College.  .  . 
Castleton  Medical  College.  .  .  . 
Med.  Dep.  Transylv.  Univ.  .  .  . 
Medical  College  of  Ohio  

New  Haven,  Ct. 
Castleton,  Vt... 
Lexington,  Ky.  . 
Cincinnati  Ohio 

1813 
1818 
1818 
1819 

6 

7 

8 

45 

104 

130 

709 
555 
1,351 
331 

September. 
4th  Thurs.  in  Aug. 

1  st  Mon  in  Nov 

Medical  School  of  Maine  

Brunswick  Me. 

1820 

7 

50 

880 

Early  in  February 

Med.  Dep.  Univ.  Vt  

Burlington,  Vt 

1821 

6 

49 

163 

Last  of  February 

Nat.  Med.  Col.,  Columbia  Col. 
Berkshire  Medical  School  
Jefferson  Medical  College  
Washington  Med.  College.  .  .  . 
Med.  School,  Univ.  Va  

Wash'gton,  D.  C. 
Pittsfield,  Mass.  . 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Baltimore,  Md  .  . 
Charlottesville 

1821 
1823 
1824 
1827 
1827 

8 
5 
7 
6 
5 

17 
103 
514 
25 

99 

86 
473 
2,036 

35 

4th  Mon.  in  Oct. 
1st  Th.  in  Sept. 
1st  Mon.  in  Nov. 
1st  Mon.  in  Nov. 
1st  October. 

Med.  College  of  Georgia  
Med.  Faculty,  Univ.  N.  Y..  .  . 
Med.  Coll.  State  of  S.  C  

Augusta,  Ga.  ..  . 
New  York,  N.  Y. 
Charleston,  S.  C 

1830 
1831 
1833 

7 
9 
8 

115 
300 
158 

124 

1,715 

2d  Mori,  in  Nov. 
3d  Mon.  in  Oct. 
2d  Mon.  in  Nov. 

Geneva  Medical  College  

Geneva,  N.  Y.  . 

1834 

9 

22 

935 

1st  Wednes.  in  Oct. 

Ve'rmont  Medical  College  
Med.  Dep.  Univ.  Louisiana.  .  . 
St.  Louis  Medical  College  
Med.  Dep.  Univ.  Louisville.  .  . 
Med.  Dep.  Hamp.  Sid.  Coll.  .  . 
Albany  Medical  College  

Woodstock,  Vt.  . 
N.  Orleans,  La.  . 
St.  Louis,  Mo  .  .  . 
Louisville,  Ky.  .  . 
Richmond,  Va.  . 
Albany  N  Y 

1835 
1835 
1836 
1837 
1838 
1839 

8 
9 
10 

7 
8 

91 
333 

128 

90 
114 

350 

53 

40 
58 

1st  Th.  in  March. 
3d  Mon.  in  Nov. 
1st  Thurs.  in  Nov. 

October  13. 
1st  Tues.  in  Oct. 

Med.  Dep.  Penn.  College  
Rush  Medical  College  

Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Chicago,  111 

1839 
1842 

8 
6 

150 

70 

35 
16 

2d  Tues.  in  Oct. 
1st  Mon.  in  Nov. 

Med.  Dep.  West.  Reserve  Coll. 
Med.  Dep.  of  Missouri  Univ.  .  . 
Starling  Medical  College  
Med.  Dep.  State  Univ.  ....... 

Cleveland,  Ohio. 
Columbia,  Mo..  . 
Columbus,  Ohio. 
Keokuk,  Iowa.  .  . 

1844 
1846 
1847 
1849 

8 
7 
8 
6 

67 
103 
124 

80 

640 
13 
53 

64 

1st  Wed.  in  Nov. 
1st  Mon.  in  Nov. 
1st  Mon.  in  Nov. 
1st  Mon.  in  Nov. 

Med.  Dep.  Univ.  Nashville.  .  . 
West.  Coll.  Homcepath.  Med.  . 
University  of  Michigan  

Nashville,  Tenn. 
Cleveland,  Ohio. 
Ann  Arbor  

1850 
1850 
1850 

8 
8 
9 

436 
62 
164 

669 
17 
305 

1st  Mon.  in  Oct. 
1st  Mon.  in  Nov. 
1st  Mon.  in  Oct. 

Med.  Dep.  Georgetown  Coll..  . 
Med.  Dep.  E.  Tenn.  Univ  
Med.  Dep.  State  Univ  

Wash'gton,  D.  C. 
Knoxville,  Tenn. 
Madison,  Wise.  . 

1851 
1856 
1856 

8 
8 
6 

36 

10 

4th  Mon.  in  Oct. 
October. 

Philadelphia  Coll.  of  Med  
Winchester  Med.  Coll.  .  . 

Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Winchester,  Va. 

7 
5 

75 

250 

1st  Mon.  in  Oct. 

45( 

I                                      3 

IDUCATION    AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS. 

j 

| 
M 

$3                     * 
II                     I 

Pi 

l-li                    a 

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INDEX 


ACCIDENT  insurance  companies,  227. 

"Academician,"  the  first  educational  periodical, 893. 

Academies  and  high  schools,  388. 

"Academy,"  an,  in  Virginia.  377. 

Adams,  Hannah,  works  of,  285. 

Adams,  Mr.,  designer  and  wood  engraver,  382. 

Adams,  John,  extract  from,  upon  education,  352. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  works  and  career  of,  276;  extract 
from,  upon  education,  353. 

Adams  press,  the.  29T ;  illustration  of,  295. 

Adirondac  iron  mines,  25. 

Adventure  copper  mine,  the,  54. 

Advertising,  newspaper,  304. 

^Etna  Insurance  Company,  222. 

Agricultural  machines,  use  of,  at  the  "West,  175. 

Agriculture,  schools  of,  402. 

Alabama,  iron  mines  and  furnaces  of,  28;  banks  and  banking 
in,  208. 

Albany,  iron  foundries  of,  36. 

Albion  coal  mines,  Nova  Scotia,  129. 

Alcuin,  Bible  copied  by,  in  22  years,  264,  272. 

Alfred,  King,  price  for  a  b<x>k  paid  by,  262. 

Alison,  Kev.  Francis,  349. 

Alieghany  mountain,  iron  ores  of  the,  28. 

Allston,  Washington,  career  of,  as  a  painter  and  author,  321. 

Almaden  quicksilver  mines,  Spain,  111. 

Alphabets  for  the  blind,  440. 

Aluminum,  discovery  and  uses  of,  251. 

Amalgamation  for  extraction  of  gold,  74 ;  Eaton's  improve 
ment  in,  76. 

Amalzams,  uses  of,  114, 115. 

America,  discovery  of.  22S ;  colonization  of,  229,  234. 

American  Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  820,  335. 

American  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  museum  and  library 
of  the,  427. 

"American  Annals  of  Education,"  398. 

American  Asylum  for  the  l>eaf  and  Dumb,  435, 436 :  view  of 
437. 

American  Bible  Society,  formation  and  issues  of  the,  264. 

American  Biblo  Union,  organization  and  publications  of  the, 

American  Institute  of  Instruction,  897. 

"American  Journal  of  Education,"1  898,  899. 

American  Female  Guardian  Society,  449. 

American  Philosophical  Society,  origin  of  the,  349. 

American  Telegraph  Company,  313. 

Ames,  Messrs.,  foundry  of,  63. 

Ancram  lead  mine,  New  York,  82. 

Anaesthesia,  discovery  and  use  of,  261. 

Anderson.  Dr.,  early  enirraving  by,  332. 

Andover  Theological  School,  393. 

Aniline,  origin  and  value  of,  149. 

Annapolis,  Md.,  Naval  Academy  at,  896. 

Anthracite  <ft>al,  use  of,  in  iron-making,  23;  first  successful 


Appalachian  coal-basin,  124 
Appalachian  mountains,  gold  mines  of  the,  64. 
WiWU  MS*  C°''  8lllos  of  Wet>8ter's  Spelling- 


g-book,  &c., 


Aqua  regia,  107. 

Aquatint  engraving,  334. 

Architecture,  domestic,  245 ;  modern  improvements  in,  247. 

Argentiferous  lead  ores,  methods  of  working,  90. 

Arizona,  rich  gold  deposits  of,  71 ;  silver  mines  of,  115. 

Arkansas,  magnetic  iron  in,  82;  zinc  in,  98;  banks  iii,  207. 

Arks,  transportation  of  coal  by,  136. 

Arrastre,  the,  description  and  illustration  of,  75. 

Arsenic  associated  with  zinc,  100. 

Arts  of  design  in  America,  816. 

Assay  office,  New  York,  gold  deposits  at  the,  79 ;  establish 
ment  of  the,  215. 

Associated  Press,  the,  303 ;  use  of  the  telegraph  by,  313. 

Astor  Library,  424. 

Atlantic  cities,  account  of  the,  181 ;  table  of  exports  of  the, 
187 ;  of  imports,  192. 


Bachus,  Elijah,  manufacture  of  cannon  by,  19. 

Backus,  Lev!  S.,  deaf-mute  editor,  439. 

Backus,  Senator  F.  F.,  report  of,  upon  the  instruction  of 
idiots,  443. 

Bacon,  Kev.  Samuel,  proposal  of,  for  an  educational  journal, 
398. 

Bain's  electro-chemical  telegraph,  810  (illustration),  312. 

Baldface  Mountain,  N.  H.,  iron  ores  of,  24. 

Baltimore,  iron  mines  near,  22;  the  charcoal  iron  of,  23; 
copper  smelting  at,  59;  chrome  at,  118;  receipts  of  coal 
at,  139;  origin,  growth,  and  commerce  of,  183;  orphan 
asylums  in,  445. 

Baltimore  Company's  open  coal  mines,  Wilkesbarre,  Pa., 
picture  of,  opposite  137 ;  account  of,  144. 

Baker,  George  A.,  painter,  325. 

Bakoo,  the  petroleum  of,  161. 

Bancroft,  George,  284. 

Bank  note  engraving,  333. 

Bank  of  the  United  States,  the,  charter  of,  200-201 ;  winding 
up  and  recharter  of,  201  ;  operations  of,  201-2;  removal 
of  the  deposits  from,  202 ;  State  charter  and  failure  of, 
203. 

Banking,  method  of,  in  New  York,  193;  Suffolk  system  of, 
203;  safety -fund  and  free,  204;  National  and  private, 
211. 

Banks,  disastrous  speculations  of,  170, 172;  State,  establish 
ment  and  operations  of,  199 ;  over-issues  of,  200 ;  oppo 
sition  of,  to  the  United  States  Bank,  201  ^  suspension  of, 
in  1814  201;  increase  and  expansion  of,  202;  failure  of, 
in  1S37,  203 ;  history  of,  203-9  ;  table  of,  1791-1860,  209 ; 
method  of  transacting  business  by,  210 ;  settling  of  bal 
ances  by,  210-11.  (See  National  banks.) 

Bare  Hill  copper  mine,  Maryland.  49 ;  chromium  at,  118. 

Barnard,  Henry,  educational  journals  edited  by,  39S-9. 

Barnes,  A.  S,  &  Co.,  sales  of  school  books  by,  268. 

Bars,  iron,  how  made,  39. 

Bartlett,  J.  R.,  illustration  of  the  New  Almaden  quicksilver 
mine  by,  114 

Barytes.  sulphate  of,  used  in  adulterating  white  lead,  95. 

Beaumont's  method  of  arresting  lead  fumes,  90, 

Bedsteads  and  bedding  formerly  used,  250. 


INDEX 


459 


Beecher,  Miss  Catharine  E.,  285 ;  efforts  of,  for  female  educa 
tion,  405. 

Belgium,  zinc  manufacture  In,  101. 
Belleville,  N.  J.,  copper  mine  at,  49. 
Bell-metal,  composition  and  use  of,  63, 120. 
Bells,  production  of,  63. 
Bennet,  William  James,  painter,  820. 
Bennett,  James  Gordon,  803. 
Benton,  Thomas  II.,  works  of,  277. 
Benzole,  character  and  use  of,  148. 
Berkeley,  Sir  William,  report  of,  upon  education  In  Virginia, 

841." 

Berks  county,  Pa.,  iron  mines  of,  26. 
Berkshire,  Mass.,  iron  mines  and  furnaces  of,  24. 
Bethlehem,  Pa.,  manufacture  of  zinc  at,  99,  104 ;  Moravian 

female  seminary  at,  349,  404. 
Beuthen,  Silesia,  zinc  mines  at,  102. 

Bible,  the,  early  printing  of,  263 ;  issues  and  low  price  of,  by 
the   Bible   Society,   264;    Charlemagne's,  264;  272;   the 
educational  influences  of,  881-2. 
Bible  Societies,  formation  of,  264. 
Bills  of  credit,  State,  constitutional  prohibition  of,  199. 
Bingham,  Caleb,  girls'  school  of,  405. 
Birch,  Thomas,  marine  painter,  322. 
Birmingham,  Eng.,  manufacture  of  nails  at,  41. 
Bishop  sleeves,  253. 

Bituminous  coal,  first  trade  In,  121 ;  geological  position  of, 
12"2 ;  character  and  kinds  of,  122 ;  spontaneous  combus 
tion  of,  124;  beds  of,  129 ;  mining  of,  141.    (See  Gas,  and 
Coal  oils.) 
Black  jack,  96. 

Black  river.  Wis.,  iron  mines  of,  80. 
Blanc  de  neige,  104. 

Blast  furnaces  in  the  colonies,  17 ;  construction  and  working 
of,  82 ;  American,  superior  economy  of,  33 ;  illustrations 
of,  34,  35 ;  tables  of  production  and  distribution  of,  46. 
Bleaching  powder,  manufacture  of,  from  manganese,  119. 
Blende,  zinc  ore,  96. 

Blind,  the,  institutions  for  the  instruction  of,  439;  alphabets 
for,  440;  course  of  instruction  of,  441;  printing  for,  and 
writing  by,  441 ;  statistics  of,  457. 
Block-tin  lining  of  lead  pipe,  92. 

Bloodgood  it  Ambler,  silver-lead  smelting  works  of,  91. 
Bloomaries,  description  and  working  of,  36;  localities  of,  37. 
Blooms,  iron,  how  made,  89. 
Blue  mass,  preparation  of,  115. 

Blue  Ridge,  the,  copper  ores  of,  49-50;  lead  mines  of,  S3. 
Boghead  cannel  coal,  123;  composition  of,  147. 
Bog  ores,  iron,  22. 
Boiler-plate  iron,  production  of,  41. 
Boise  Basin  gold  mines.  Idaho,  71. 
Bonnets,  fashions  of,  254,  257,  258,  259. 
Book-binding,  269;  illustrations  of  machines  for,  270,  271; 

origin  of,  272 ;  processes  of,  272. 

Books,  ancient  cost  of,  262;  effect  of  the  discovery  of  print- 
Ing  upon,  263 ;  early  market  for,  in  New  England,  263 ; 
religious,  cheapening  of,  264 ;  process  of  the  manufacture 
of,  264 ;  methods  of  the  sale  of,  265 ;  old,  the  trade  in,  266 ; 
subscription,  publication  of,  267 ;  srreat  sales  of,  267 ;  sta 
tistics  of,  209 ;  increased  cost  and  use  of,  269 ;  sizes  of, 
272. 
Booksellers,  American  Company  of,  263,  264 ;  number  and 

classes  of,  265. 

Book  stalls,  the  business  of,  266. 
Book  trade,  the,  262;  competition  in,  264 ;  number  engaged 

in,  and  operations  of,  265;  the  statistics  of,  269. 
Book  trade  sales,  265. 
Borneo,  platinum  from,  107. 

Boston,  origin,  growth,  and  commerce  of,  185 ;  banking  sys 
tem  of,  203-4;  early  bookselling  at,  263 ;  early  town  pro 
vision  for  schools  in.  339;  past  experiences  in  the  nigh 
schools  of,  390,  391 ;  orphan  asylums  in,  445. 
Boston  Athenaeum,  art  gallery  of  the,  335 ;  library  of  the,  423, 

427. 

Boston  City  Library,  424,  425-6  (illustrations). 
"  Boston  Courant,"  the,  301. 
Braidwood,  Thomas,  in  Virginia,  435. 
Braidwoods,  the,  deaf-mute  instructors,  435,  438. 
Braille's  system  of  writing  and  printing  for  the  blind,  441. 
Bramah's  pump  for  making  lead  pipe,  92. 
Brass,  manufacture  and  uses  of,  62. 

Bray,  Rev.  Thomas,  libraries  in  Maryland  established  by,  343. 
Bread,  kinds  of,  formerly  most  used,  252. 
Breckenridge  Coal  Oil  Works,  Kentucky,  154. 
Bremen,  regulations  for  emigrants  at,  233. 
Brick,  invention  of  machines  for,  244. 
Bridgewater,  Vt,  gold  at,  64. 
Bridgewater  copper  mine,  New  Jersey,  49. 
Bristol,  Conn.,  Coppermine  at,  49. 
British  coal-fields,  the,  133. 
British  immigration  into  the  United  States,  234-5. 


Brokers,  board  of,  New  T"ork,  195. 

Bronze,  composition  of,  62,  68,  120. 

Brooklyn,  manufacture  of  white  lead  in,  940 ;  orphan  asyluma 
in,  445. 

Brooks,  Mrs.  Maria,  285. 

Brown,  Charles  B.,  works  of,  278. 

Brown,  Henry  Kirke,  sculptor,  works  of,  328. 

Brown,  Thomas,  deaf-mute,  439. 

Brown.  William,  process  of,  for  dry  distillation  of  coal  oil,  158. 

Brown  coal,  beds  of,  122. 

Brown  University,  origin  of,  844. 

Brownson,  Orestes  A.,  writings  of,  282. 

Bruce,  George,  Jr.,  type-casting  machine  invented  by,  298. 

Bruce,  George,  Sr.,  stereotyping  introduced  by,  300. 

Bryant,  William  C.,  284. 

Buckingham,  Joseph  T.,  letter  of,  upon  his  early  school  ex 
perience,  859. 

Buckminster,  Joseph  S.,  282. 

Buffalo,  origin,  growth,  and  trade  of,  176. 

Buhrstone  iron  ore,  22. 

Building  associations,  fallacy  of,  225. 

Buildings,  ventilation  of,  249.     (See  Houses.) 

Bulls  and  bears,  in  stock  operations,  195. 

Burden,  Henry,  rotary  squeezer  invented  by,  39 ;  machines 
of,  for  spikes  and  horse-shoes,  43. 

Bureaus,  former  style  of,  250. 

Burke  rocker,  the,  illustration  and  description  of,  74. 

Burmah,  the  petroleum  of,  161. 

Burnett,  John  T.,  deaf-mute  writer,  439. 

Burning-fluid,  use  of,  for  light,  253. 

Burr,  Thomas,  process  of,  for  making  lead  pipe,  91. 

Burra  Burra  Mining  Company,  50,  61. 

Bushnell,  Horace,  282 ;  extract  from,  upon  the  homespun  era 
of  common  schools,  369. 

Bushnell's  anthracite  stove,  248. 

Bussey,  Benjamin,  bequest  of,  to  Harvard  College,  401. 

Bustle,  use  and  construction  of  the,  258. 

Butler,  E.  H.,  <fc  Co.,  sales  of  school  books  by,  26& 

Butler,  W.  Allen,  281. 

Calamine,  silicate  of  zinc,  96,  97. 

Calash,  the,  for  the  head,  254,  258. 

Calhoun,  John  C.,  career  and  works  of,  277. 

California,  history,  methods,  and  yield  of  gold-mining  in,  71-3 ; 
quicksilver  mines  of,  111-12 ;  silver  mines  of,  116 ;  petro 
leum  in,  167. 

California  Quicksilver  Mining  Association,  112. 

Camphene,  introduction  and  use  of,  253. 

Canada,  railroads  of,  173;  public  improvements  and  trade  of, 
179;  effect  of  the  reciprocity  treaty  with,  179. 

Canada  East,  gold  mines  of,  64. 

Canada  West,  oil  region  of,  167. 

Canals,  in  California,  for  gold-mining,  72  ;  built  for  coal  trans 
portation,  139, 140  (table);  opening  of,  171,  172;  effect  of, 
upon  Western  trade  and  settlemi'nt,  172. 

Candles,  paraffine,  manufacture  of,  159 ;  use  and  varieties  of, 
253. 

Cannel  coals,  use  of,  in  manufacturing  gas,  150. 

Cannon,  manufacture  of,  in  the  revolution,  19. 

Cape  Breton,  coal-field  of,  129. 

Carbonate  of  iron,  ores  and  mines  of,  21. 

Carlin,  John,  deaf-mute  artist,  439. 

Carlisle  tables,  the,  of  average  duration  of  life,  224;  inaccura 
cy  of,  226. 

Carpets,  early  use  of,  250. 

Castillero,  Andres,  working  of  cinnabar  by,  112. 

Cast  iron,  manufacture  of,  82;  uses  of,  30;  decarbonizing  o£ 
36;  manufacture  of  steel  from,  44. 

Castle  Garden,  New  Tork,  emigrant  depot,  240. 

Central  Park,  the,  of  New  York,  190. 

Ceracchi,  sculptor,  career  of,  326. 

Chairs,  old  and  new  varieties  of,  250. 

Champlain  canal,  opening  of,  171. 

Chandler,  Abiel,  401. 

Chandler  Scientific  School,  400. 

Channing,  William  E.,  writings  of,  231. 

Chapman,  John  G.,  painter  and  designer,  828, 

Character,  formation  of,  383. 

Charcoal,  use  of,  in  iron-making,  22. 

Charlemagne's  Bible,  264,  272. 

Charleston,  origin,  growth,  and  commerce  of,  188. 

Charleston  Library  Society,  423.        • 

Charlotte,  N.  C.,  branch  mint  at,  64 ;  gold  deposits  at,  19. 

Chatham,  Conn.,  cobalt  mine  at,  18;  nickel  at,  117. 

Chaudiere  river,  gold  mines  of,  64. 

Cheever,  Rev.  George  B.,  D.  D.,  2SO. 

Cheever,  Ezekiel,  schoolmaster,  840. 

Cherokee  lands,  the.  of  Georgia,  69. 

Chesapeake,  iron  mines  on  the,  22. 

Chesapeake  and  Ohio  canal,  charter  for,  171, 

Chester  county,  Pa.,  lead  mines  of,  83. 


4(50 


INDEX 


Chestnut  Hill  iron  mine.  Pa.,  20;  account  of,  27. 

CW«g£  trade  ami  railroad  system  of,  177 ;  shipments  of  flour 
and  grain  from,  176. 

Chirac  City  University,  view  of  412 

Child   Mrs.  Lydia  Maria,  works  of,  285. 

Children's  Aid  Society,  New  York,  449. 

Chilian  mill,  the.  75. 

Chillicothe,  Ohio,  first  land  office  opened  at,  10». 

Chinm  quicksilver  mines  o£  111. 

Chinese  immigration  into  California,  Ml. 

Chlorine,  manufacture  of.  from  manganese,  119. 

Chrome,  composition  and  sources  of,  113 ;  uses  and  treatment 
of,  118. 

Chrome  Iron  in  Maryland,  2T,  23. 

Chrysocolla,  48. 

Church,  landscape  paintings  of,  825. 

Cinnabar,  111 ;  early  knowledge  of, in  California,  112;  metal- 
lurgic  treatment  of,  114 

Cincinnati,  origin,  growth,  and  trade  of,  IbO. 

Circular  saw,  invention  of  the,  247. 

Cities  lake,  account  of,  176;  recapitulation,  178;  river,  180; 
recapitulation.  1S1 ;  Atlantic,  181. 

Clausthal,  lead-melting  at,  89 ;  treatment  of  argentiferous 
ores  at,  116. 

Clay,  Henry,  277. 

Clay's  plan  for  making  wrought  Iron,  87. 

Clearing  house  system,  the,  210. 

Clcrc,  Laurent,  {leaf-mute,  435,  489. 

Clergymen,  distinguished,  list  of,  282. 

Cleveland,  origin  and  trade  of,  176J;  direct  trade  of,  with  Eu 
rope,  177. 

Clevengcr,  Shobal  Vail,  sculptor,  826. 

Cliff  copper  mine,  the,  53. 

Clinton,  D"  Witt,  extract  from,  upon  education,  858. 

Clinton  county,  New  York,  iron  works  of,  25;  bloomaries 
In,  37. 

Clocks,  former  styles  of,  251. 

Clymer  press,  the,  287. 

Coal,  early  neglect  and  first  use  of,  120;  varieties  of,  121 ;  the 
ash  of,  123;  composition  of  different  kinds  of,  122,  123 
(table) ;  qualities  of,  123 ;  relative  values  of,  124  (table) ; 
geological  and  geographical  distribution  of,  124;  strata 
of,  illustrated,  129,  130 ;  amount  of,  available,  133 ;  rela 
tive  amount  of,  in  Europe  and  America,  134  (table);  pro 
duction  of,  in  eastern  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland, 
1820-18GO,  134-5  (table);  transportation  of,  to  market, 
135;  table  of  public  works  for,  140;  mining,  general 
account  of,  140;  useful  applications  of,  144.  (See  An 
thracite,  Bituminous,  &c.) 

Coal  Hill  lead  mine,  New  York,  83. 

Coal  mining,  early,  on  James  river,  18.    (See  Coal.) 

Coal  oils,  manufacture  of,  155;  table  of  American  factories  of, 
155;  history  and  method  of  the  manufacture  of,  156; 
coals  used  for,  157;  retorts  for,  157;  kilns  and  pits  for, 
15S;  process  of  refinins,  158;  uses  of,  160;  use  of,  for 
light,  160,  252.  (See  Petroleum.) 

Coal  tar, production  and  composition  of.  148. 

Coats,  fashions  of,  253,  257,  258. 

Cobalt,  mine  of,  at  Chatham,  Conn.,  18 ;  use  of,  116 ;  ores  and 
mines  of,  1 17 ;  treatment  of,  117. 

Coinage,  colonial,  212-13;  adoption  of  Jefferson's  plan  of, 
213;  modifications  of,  214,  215;  table  of,  1793-1860,  214; 
of  silver,  number  of  pieces,  216;  process  of,  217 ;  of  pla 
tinum,  107. 

Coins,  foreign,  In  the  colonies,  213. 

Coke,  production  of,  150;  from  coal-oil  works,  159. 

Cole.  Thomas,  career  aad  paintings  of,  824. 

Colleze  of  New  Jersey,  charter  of,  348. 

Colleges  in  the  United  States,  392 ;  table  of,  452-S. 

Colliery  slope  and  breaker  at  Tuscarora,  Pa.,  picture,  oppo 
site  139 ;  description  of,  142,  144. 

Colonies,  the,  Issue  of  paper  money  by,  198;   coinage  In, 

212-13;  literature  in,  274;  education  in,  337. 
Colorado,  gold  mines  of,  71. 
Columbia  College,  New  York,  origin  of,  347. 
Columbian  or  Clymer  press,  the,  287. 
Columbite  and  columbium,  discovery  of,  18. 
Combination  press,  the,  2S7. 
"  Commercial  Advertiser,"  New  York,  802. 
Commercial  schools,  403. 
"Common  School  Almanac,"  898. 
"Common  School  Assistant,"  398. 

Common  Rohools.  accounts  of  the  early  state  of,  355-80-  State 
provisionsjor  the.  maintenance  of,  3S5-6;  present  condi- 
tlon  of,  8bt. 

"  Common  Sense,"  Paine's,  275. 
Communipaw,  N.  J.,  zinc  manufacture  at  104 
(xmsn.**,  school  laws  of,  354 ;  library  of,  423,  427. 
Connecticut,  cr.rly  mining  In,  17 ;  Iron  mines  and  furnaces  of 

of  ''t!nTeiomlneS  °f'  48;  leafl  mines  of'  82 1  manufacture 
'  in,  120;  town  action  for  schools  in,  889;  colonial 


legislation  of,  upon  education,  344 ;  provisions  of,  for  the 

support  of  schools,  886. 
Connecticut  Common  School  Journal,"  898. 
Continental  money,  Issues  and  depreciation  of,  199,  245. 
Cooking,  former  method  of,  253. 
Cooking  range,  the,  253. 
Cooper  "James  Fenimore,  difficulty  experienced  by,  in  getting 

a  book  printed,  264;  works  of,  279. 
Cooper  Union,  New  York,  434. 
Copley,  John  Singleton,  818. 
Copper,  ores  of,  48;  mines  of,  48  et  geq. ;  process  of  mining, 

on  Lake  Superior,  52  ;  statistics  of,  56-8 ;  ancient  uses  of, 

60;  modern  uses  of,  61 ;  sheet,  manufacture  of,  61 ;  alloys 

of, '61,62-3;  mines  of,  116. 
Copper  mining  in  the  colonies,  18. 
Copper-plate  engraving,  333. 
Copper-smelting,  58 ;  processes  of,  59. 
Coram,  Robert,  account  of  country  schools  by,  in  1791,  373. 
Cornell's  lead-pipe  machine.  92. 
Cornwall,  Pa.,  iron  mines  of,  26. 
Costume,  changes  in,  illustrated.  253. 
"Courier  and  Enquirer,"  New  York,  302. 
Crawford,  sculptor,  career  and  works  of,  827. 
Credit  system,  of  New  York,  191-2. 
Cretins,  Dr.  Guggenbuhl's  school  for,  443. 
Crockery,  former  style  of,  251. 
Croton  aqueduct,  the.  249. 
Crucibles  for  steel-making,  44,  45.      •   . 
Cuba,  the  bitumen  of,  161. 
Cnmmlngs,  Thomas  S.,  miniature  painter,  328. 
Cupellation  of  argentiferous  lead,  90. 
Cupola  furnaces  for  copper  slags,  60. 

Currency,  national  issues  of.  211.    (See  Banks,  Paper  money.) 
Curtius,  Dr.  Alexander  Carolus,  847. 
Cut  nails,  invention  of,  41,  246. 

Daguerreotyping,  introduction  of,  261;  American  use  and 
improvement  of,  335. 

Dahlonega,  Ga.,  branch  mint  at,  64;  gold-mining  at,  70 ;  gold 
deposits  at,  79. 

Damascus  Steel  Company,  44. 

Danville,  Pa.,  iron  furnaces  at,  24. 

Darley,  F.  O.  C.,  designer,  325. 

Darlington,  William,  letter  of,  upon  country  schools,  3iO. 

Dartmouth  College,  origin  of,  345. 

Davenport,  Rev.  John,  &39,  S40. 

Davidson  county,  N.  C..  gold  in,  69  ;  lead  in,  84. 

Davidson  sisters,  the,  286. 

Davis,  John,  account  of  an  old  Held  school  in  Virginia  by,  8i7. 

Davy,  Sir  Humphry,  improvement  in  copper  sheathing  by,  61. 

Day,  Benjamin  H.,  first  penny  paper  published  by,  303. 

Deaf  and  dumb,  the  institutions  for  the  instruction  of,  484; 
natural  condition  of,  437;  methods  of  instructing,  488; 
distinguished  individuals  among,  439;  statistics  of,  456 
(table). 

Deep  River  coal-beds,  North  Carolina,  129. 

Delaware,  banks  in,  205 ;  colonial  school  legislation  of,  849. 

Delaware  and  Hudson  canal,  coal  transportation  of.  139. 

De  1'Epee's  method  of  deaf-mute  instruction,  435,  438. 

Demand  notes  issued  by  Government,  211. 

Dentistry,  use  of  platinum  in,  109. 

Detmold,  C.  E.,  report  of,  104. 

Detroit,  copper-smelting  at,  60";  origin  and  railroad  connec 
tions  of,  177. 

Dewey,  Orville,  works  of,  282. 

Die  sinking,  884. 

Discounts  by  banks,  199,  200. 

District  of  Columbia,  banks  in,  209. 

Dollar,  the  Spanish,  213. 

Dorn  gold  mine,  South  Carolina,  69. 

Doughty,  Thomas,  painter,  324. 

Drake,  Col.  E.  L.,  petroleum  production  developed  by,  168. 

Dress,  styles  of,  by  periods,  253 ;  illustrations  of,  255-6. 

Drummers  for  New  York  jobbing  houses,  188. 

Dry  diggings,  gold,  72. 

Dubuque,  discovery  of  lead  mines  at,  18. 

Dubuque,  Julien,  lead  mines  worked  by,  84. 

Dummer,  Gov.  William,  educational  legacy  of,  844. 

Dunlap,  William,  painter  and  author,  319. 

Durand,  Asher  B.,  landscape  and  portrait  painter,  328. 

Dutch  colonization  in  America,  229. 

Dutch  gold-leaf,  80. 

Dutch  West  India  Company,  educational  policy  of  the,  888.    i 

Dutchess  county,  N.  Y.,  lead  mines  of,  82. 

Dwight,  Hon.  Edmund,  400. 

Dwight,  Timothy,  D.  I).,  works  of,  281 ;  school  of,  at  Green 
field,  405.  ' 

Dyestone  iron  ore  in  Tennessee,  28. 

East  India  School,  the,  at  Charles  City,  Va.,  837. 

Eaton,  A.  K.,  inventions  of,  for  decarbonizing  cast  iron,  86 ; 


INDEX 


461 


for  making  steel,  44;  Improvement  of,  in  amalgamation, 
76;  compounds  of  chromium  obtained  by,  119. 

Eaton,  Governor,  of  New  Haven,  promotion  of  education  by 
340. 

Eaton,  N.  H.,  lead  mine  at,  82. 

Eaton  copper  mine,  Pennsylvania,  49. 

Edmonds,  Francis  W.,  painter,  323. 

Education  in  the  colonies,  887  ;  revolutionary  and  transitional 
period  of,  351 ;  extracts  upon  the  benefits  of,  352;  action 
of  Congress  upon,  854 ;  social  influences  favorable  to,  880 ; 
considerations  upon  the  nature  of,  383 ;  upon  the  present 
system  of,  885;  works  on  the  principles  and  methods  of, 
897 ;  journals  of,  398. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  274. 

Ehninger,  John  W.,  painter  and  designer,  825. 

Electrotyping,  process  of,  300. 

Eliot  and  Storer,  analysis  of  zinc  by,  100. 

Ellenville,  N.  Y.,  lend  and  copper  mines  at,  82. 

Elliott,  Charles  L.,  portrait  painter.  825. 

Emancipation  proclamation,  effect  of  the,  upon  the  book 
trade,  2fi9. 

Embossing  machine,  for  books,  '271  (illustration),  272. 

Emerson,  George  15.,  young  ladies'  school  of,  405. 

Emerson,  Rev.  Joseph,  young  ladies'  school  of,  405. 

Emigration,  early,  to  America,  229 ;  from  Germany,  232 ;  from 
Great  Britain,  234;  from  Ireland,  235;  English  law  for 
the  regulation  of,  236;  Commission  of,  at'New  York, 
operations  of,  240 ;  statistics  of,  240. 

Emigrants,  treatment  of,  at  Liverpool,  286;  care  of,  at  New 
York,  240;  table  of  location  of,  242;  expenses  and  capital 
of,  243;  remittances  of,  248. 

England,  introduction  of  illuminating  gas  into,  145;  origin  of 
newspapers  in,  801-2. 

English,  the,  colonization  of  America  by,  229. 

English  basement  houses,  247. 

Engraving  in  the  United  States,  present  and  past  state  of, 
illustrated,  829,  331 ;  wood,  improvements  in,  332 ;  cop 
perplate  and  steel,  833. 

Enrequita  quicksilver  mine,  California,  112. 

Equitable  Life  Insurance  Company,  London,  225. 

Erie  canal,  construction  of,  171 ;  effect  of,  upon  western  trade 
and  settlement,  172. 

Erie,  Pa.,  building  of  Perry's  fleet  at,  169-70. 

Erie  railroad,  172. 

"Essays  to  do  Good,"  by  Cotton  Mather,  274. 

Essex  county,  N.  Y.,  iron  mines  of,  25;  bloomaries  in,  87. 

Etching,  process  of,  834. 

Eureka  copper  mine,  Tennessee,  50. 

Eveleth  and  Bissell.  petroleum  operations  of,  162. 

"Evening  Post,"  New  York,  802. 

Everett,  Alexander,  career  of.  277. 

Everett,  Kdward,  career  of,  277;  account  of  former  school  life 
in  Boston  by,  891 ;  at  Harvard  College,  892. 

Exchange,  course  of,  at  New  York,  198-4 ;  par  of,  how  ascer 
tained,  212. 

Exports  of  the  Atlantic  cities,  table  of,  187. 

Express,  transmission  of  newspapers  by,  306. 

Expresses,  origin  and  extension  of,  188. 

Extension  tables,  invention  of,  250.    ' 

Faculties,  development  of  the,  8S4. 

Fairmount  Water  Works,  249. 

Falling  Creek,  Va.,  iron  works  at,  17. 

Family  instruction,  colonial  law  for,  in  Massachusetts,  848. 

Family  training,  educational  influence  of,  881. 

Fanny  Fern,  28* 

Fanners'  High  School  of  Pennsylvania,  402. 

Fashions,  changes  in,  illustrated,  253. 

Fay,  Theodore  8.,  works  of,  280. 

"Federalist,"  the,  275. 

Felt  hats,  introduction  of,  258. 

Female  education,  404. 

Fcinnle  writers,  list  of,  2S5. 

Fiction,  great  sales  of  books  of,  267 ;  writers  of,  278. 

Field,  Cyrus  W.,  establishment  of  the  Atlantic  telegraph  by 

the  efforts  of,  814. 

Fine  arts,  instruction  in  the,  404.    (See  Arts  of  design.) 
Fire,  losses  by,  223. 

Fire  insurance  companies,  220;  statistics  of,  222,  223. 
Fire-places,  old-fashioned,  246. 
Fisher,  Alvan,  painter,  820. 
Fiske,  Rev.  Wilbur,  405. 
Flemington  copper  mine,  New  Jersey,  49. 
Flint,  Timothy,  works  of,  281. 
Flint  glass  made  with  oxide-  of  zinc,  107. 
Florida,  ccasion  of,  171:  banks  in,  209. 
Folding  machine,  the,  for  books,  272 ;  for  newspapers,  806. 
Food,  former  kinds  and  preparation  of,  252. 
Foreigners  in  the  United  States,  228. 
Forks,  kinds  of,  251. 
Foundries,  Iron,  86. 


Four-color  printing  press,  the,  297;  illustration  of,  294. 

Fowle,  William  B.,  account  of  the  early  Boston  schools  by, 
390. 

Fractional  currency,  national,  211. 

Franconia,  N.  H.,  iron  mines  and  works  of,  24. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  bequest  of,  to  the  city  of  Boston.  199; 
works  of,  275;  the  press  used  by,  2S6,  2S9  (illustration); 
first  editorial  experience  of,  301 ;  the  "Philadelphia  Ga 
zette  "  of,  305 ;  educational  proposals  of,  349 ;  ly ceurns 
originated  by,  433. 

Franklin,  Pa.,  petrolenm  at,  103. 

Franklin  copper  mine,  New  Jersey,  49. 

Franklin  copper  mine,  the,  of  Michigan,  54 ;  production  of,  68. 

Franklin  Institute,  the,  403. 

Frank  Unite  iron  ore,  25. 

Franklinite,  manufacture  of,  from  zinc  ores,  105-6. 

Frasee,  John,  sculptor,  326.  » 

Fraser,  Charles,  miniature  painter,  821. 

Fremont,  Col.,  the  mining  operations  of,  78. 

French  indemnity,  payment  of  the,  215. 

French  Revolution,  fashions  during  the,  254. 

Friedlander's  alphabet  for  the  blind,  440. 

Frock  coat,  introduction  of  the,  257. 

Fry,  Richard,  bookseller,  advertisement  of,  263. 

Fuel,  use  of  gas  for,  158. 

Fuels  used  in  iron-smelting,  20;  for  puddling,  38. 

Fuller,  8.  Margaret,  285. 

Fulton,  Robert,  as  an  artist,  818. 

Furnaces,  iron,  construction  of,  for  anthracite,  23;  location 
and  working  of,  23 ;  for  copper-smelting.  58,  59;  for  lead- 
smelting,  S8;  for  zinc,  99,  104;  for  quicksilver,  114;  hot- 
air  for  heatinpr,  248.  (See  Blast  furnaces.) 

Furniture,  manufacture  and  varieties  of,  249. 

Galena,  lead  ore,  81. 

Galena  and  Chicago  railroad,  173. 

Gallaudet,  Rev.  Thomas  H.,  labors  of,  for  the  instruction  of 
the  deaf  and  dumb,  435 ;  system  of,  438. 

Galvanized  iron,  invention,  manufacture,  and  uses  of,  40. 

Game,  former  use  of,  for  food,  252-3. 

Gap  copper  mine,  the,  18. 

Gas,  illuminating,  history  of,  145;  cost  of,  146;  table  of  com 
panies  for,  146;  table  of  works  for,  by  states,  147;  con 
stituents  of,  147;  combustion  of,  148;  construction  of 
works  for,  and  process  of  manufacturing,  149;  coals  used 
for,  150;  the  measurement  of,  150;  economy  in  the  usa 
of,  151 ;  mode  of  testing  the  quality  of,  152 ;  from  other 
materials  than  coal,  152;  for  steamboats  and  railroad 
cars,  153 ;  use  of,  for  fuel,  153 ;  introduction  of,  for  light- 
Ing  streets  and  houses,  249. 

Gas-holders,  construction  of,  151. 

George  IV.,  fashions  introduced  by,  257. 

Georgia,  iron  mines  and  furnaces  of,  28 ;  copper  mines  of,  50 ; 
gold  mines  of.  63,  69 ;  banks  in,  20S;  early  schools  of,  350 ; 
school  holiday  in,  373. 

German  immigration  into  the  United  States,  232;  motives  of, 
233 ;  home  efforts  to  check,  234 ;  causes  of,  234. 

German  silver,  composition  of,  63, 117. 

Gift-book  system,  the.  266. 

Girard,  Stephen,  purchase  of  the  United  States  Bank  by,  201. 

Girard  College,  view  of,  408;  organization  of,  446. 

Gisborne,  F.  N.,  ti-lcgraph  engineer,  814. 

Glass  made  with  oxide  of  zinc,  107. 

Gleason's  "  A  rnerican  gas-burner,"  152. 

Gold,  imitations  of,  62;  localities  and  mining  of,  in  the  Ap 
palachian  range,  63-70;  in  the  Rocky  Mountains,  70  ;  in 
California,  71  f  production  of,  1S48-1S52,  73;  natural  dis 
tribution  of,  73 ;  variation  in  the  value  of  native,  77 ;  mint 
deposits  of,  77-79  (tables);  uses  made  of,  SO;  platinum 
associated  with,  107;  indium.  110;  course  of  tho  trade  in, 
193-  coinage  oi;  214;  coins  of,  215;  mint  deposit!  of, 216. 

Gold  Hill,  N.  C.,  gold-mining  at,  69. 

Gold-leaf,  manufacture  and  uses  of,  80. 

Gold-mining,  illustrations  of,  65-8;  processes  of,  72-77. 

Gong  Chinese,  American  manufacture  of  the,  63. 

Gordon,  J.  W.  W.,  115. 

Gotha  Life  Insurance  Company,  Germany,  225. 

Gould,  Miss  Hannah  F.,  286. 

Grafton,  Ohio,  the  petroleum  of,  167. 

Graham,  Augustus,  process  of,  for  making  white  lead,  94. 

Grain,  tables'  of  Western  shipments  of,  178. 

Grand  Trunk  railway,  the,  of  Canada,  179. 

Graphite,  geological  position  of,  122. 

Grates,  use  of,  for  anthracite,  248. 

Gravel  walls,  246. 

Gray,  Henry  Peters,  painter,  825. 

Great  Britain,  development  of  the  iron  manufacture  of,  19; 
lead  mines  of,  87  process  of  zinc  manufacture  in,  99; 
thickness  of  the  coal-beds  of,  183;  succession  of  races  in, 
228;  emigration  from,  229. 

Green  Mountains,  the,  iron  mines  of,  24, 


462 


INDEX 


Greenbacks,  211. 

Greene,  E.  I).  K,  painter,  325. 

Greenough,  Horatio,  sculptor,  career  of,  826. 

Greenwood  furnace,  the,  25. 

Griirirstown,  N.  J.,  copper  mine  near,  49. 

Gtiadiilupe  quicksilver  mine,  California,  112. 

Guggenbiihl,  Dr.  Louis,  institution  of,  for  cretins,  443. 

Gun  metal,  composition  and  uses  of,  62-3,  120. 

Guyton  de  Morveau,  zinc  paint  first  recommended  by,  108. 

Habersham  county,  Ga.,  gold  mines  of,  63. 

Hall,  James,  works  of,  280. 

Hall,  Rev.  Samuel  Head,  first  teachers'  seminary  opened  by, 

899. 

Halleck,  no-Greene,  poems  of,  281. 
Hamilton's  report,  275. 
Hanging  Rock  iron  district,  the,  29. 
Hardinir,  Chester,  portrait  painter,  321. 
Hare,  Robert,  fusion  of  platinum  by,  109. 
Harnden,  W.  F.,  express  business  originated  by,  188. 
Harper  &  Brothers,  publishers,  264,  265;  the  operations  of, 

268. 

"  Harper's  Weekly,"  307. 
Hartford  Society  for  the  Improvement  of  Common  Schools, 

898. 

Harvard,  John,  bequest  of,  to  Harvard  College,  342. 
Harvard  College,  foundation  of,  342;  Everett's  account  of  life 

at,  fifty  years  ago,  392. 

Harvard  University,  Scientific  School  of,  401  ;  library  of,  424. 
Harvey's  or  Salt.er's  plan  for  making  wrought  iron,  37. 
Hats,  fashions  of,  253.  257,  258. 
Hauy,  Valentin,  labors  of,  for  the  blind,  439. 
Havre,  German  emigration  by  way  of,  233. 
Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  career  and  works  of,  280. 
Hays,  W.  J.,  animal  painter.  325. 
Head-dresses.  old  styles  of,  254.  258. 
Heinicke's  method  of  deaf-mute  instruction,  435,  43S. 
Hematite  iron  ores  and  mines,  20  ;  distribution  of,  24. 
Henry,  Alexander,  copper  mining  by,  51. 
Henry,  Patrick,  275. 

Hewitt,  A  brain  S.,  on  iron  production,  19. 
Hicks,  Thomas,  portrait  painter,  825. 
Highlanders,  emigration  of,  to  the  United  States  229 
Hildn-Ui,  Richard,  2S4. 
Historians,  minor.  list  of,  284. 
Hitz,  John,  first  American  maker  of  zinc.  99. 
Hoe,  Richard  M.,  inventor  of  the  type-revolving  press,  288. 
Hoffman,  Charles  F.,  works  of,  280. 
Holbrook,  Josiah.  labors  of,  in  founding  lyceums  433 
Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  281. 
Homes  for  the  Friendless,  449. 
Homoeopathy,  introduction  of,  260-61. 
Hoofstecter,  attempts  of,  to  manufacture  zinc  99 
Hooker,  Herman,  282. 
Hoop  skirts,  use  and  construction  of.  2,58. 
Hopkins,  Gov.  Edward,  grammar  schools  founded  under  the 

will  of,  340. 
Horn-book,  the,  413. 

Horse-shoe  nails  and  horse-shoes,  machines  for  43 
Hose-washing  in  California,  72. 
Hosmer,  Harriet,  sculptress,  works  of,  828. 
Hotel,  the  modern  American,  261 
Hotels  of  New  York,  196. 
Houdon,  statue  of  Washington  by.  326. 

mines'  bvr'51)OUglaSS'  cxPloration  of  the  Michigan  copper 
Houses,  earl}-  style  of  building,  245  ;  improvements  in,  246-7  • 

248?]iSroV24ltll247;  lmPr°VementS  1U  WarmlD^ 
How:;'^^^^^810  (^ration),  811. 
Howe,  Dr.  Samuel  G.,  439  443 
Huancavelica  quicksilver  mines,  Peru  111 
Jlubbard,  Wis.,  immense  iron  bed  of  30 
iudson  river,  iron  furnaces  on  the,  23;  early  trade  of  the, 

Hughes'  s  system  of  telegraphing,  311 

^TSs&iisaSS^  of;  upon  the  ear*  state  <* 

Huntington,  Daniel,  painter.  825 
tUran  copper  mine,  production  of,  58. 
Hydraulic  gold-mining.  65 
Hydraulic  works  of  California  72 

ass:  r.a$r  Sit 

Hydropathy,  introduction  of,  261 


152- 


'achin^"9  f"r  tho  *--«  *  the 
Idria  quicksilver  mines.  Carniola  111 
Illinois,  lead  mine,  of,  84;  coaling;  ban 


*  the,  442;   modes  of 


ks  in,  20C. 


Illinois  Central  railroad,  173. 

"  Illustrated  News,"  the,  307. 

Immigration  into  the  United  States,  230;  laws  regulating 
231;  table  of,  1820-1856,  231;  sources  of,  232  "e«  ««/.; 
statistics  of,  241. 

Imports  and  exports  of  Canada,  179;  of  Cincinnati,  180;  of 
New  Orleans,  182;  of  Charleston,  183;  of  Baltimore,  1&3- 
of  Philadelphia,  184;  of  Boston,  185;  of  New  York,  187. 

Indiana,  banks  and  banking  system  of,  205. 

Indian  corn,  Western  crops  of,  174;  importance  of,  175. 

Industrial  schools,  449. 

Ingham,  Charles  C.,  painter,  322. 

Ink  balls,  use  of,  in  printing,  287. 

Inking  machine,  hand.  2S7,  290  (illustration);  patent  hand- 
press  steam,  290  (illustration). 

Inman,  Henry,  painter.  323. 

Inoculation,  vaccine,  introduction  of,  2CO. 

Insurance,  principles  of.  219;  companies,  classes  of,  220,  22L 
(See  Accident,  Fire,  Life,  Marine.) 

Intelligence,  general,  causes  of.  380. 

Intercourse,  social,  importance  of  means  of,  260. 

Interest,  fallacious  idea  of,  225. 

Iowa,  lead  mines  of.  84;  banks  in.  206. 

Ireland,  emigration  from,  235 ;  effects  of  misgovernment  and 
the  famine  in,  235;  reformatory  measures  in,  236. 

Iridium  and  osmium,  use  and  sources  of,  110. 

Iridosmium,  110. 

Irish  emigrants,  impositions  upon,  at  Liverpool,  236;  tricks 
of,  288 ;  th«  passage  of,  239. 

Irish  emigration  to  the  colonies,  229. 

Iron,  early  exportation  of  pig,  18;  production  of,  1828-1855, 
20;  principal  ores  of,  20;  comparative  cost  of  tho  pro 
duction  of,  23 ;  distribution  of  the  ores  of,  24;  kinds  of, 
82;  production  and  importations  of,  46;  domestic,  amount 
and  value  of,  47  ;  chromate  of.  118. 

Iron  manufacture,  historical  sketch  of,  18;  advantages  of  the 
United  States  for,  19;  materials  employed  in,  20;  fuels 
used  in,  22;  furnaces  for,  23;  processes"  of,  82  (see  Cast 
iron,  Wrought  iron,  Sheet  iron,  Puddling,  &c.);  statistics 
of,  45;  effect  of  the  war  upon,  and  prospects  of,  47. 

Iron  Manufacturers,  Association  of,  45. 

Iron  mines,  distribution  of,  24  et  seq. 

Iron  mountain,  Mo.,  31. 

Iron  works,  early,  in  the  colonies,  17 ;  table  of,  in  1858,  45. 

Irving,  Washington,  works  of,  278. 

Isle  Koyale,  copper  mines  of.  52,  58. 

Ivison,  Phiuney,  Blakeman  &  Co.,  sales  of  school  books  by. 
263. 

Jackson,  N.  H.,  oxide  of  tin  at,  120. 

James  River  coal  mines,  first  working  of,  18, 121. 

Japanese  ambassadors,  bill  for  the  entertainment  of  the, 
197. 

Jarvis,  John  Wesley,  painter,  820. 

Jay,  John,  extract  from,  upon  education,  853. 

Jay,  Vt.,  chrome  mines  in,  118. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  plan  of  coinage  by,  213;  writings  of,  275  ; 
plan  of  a  school  law  by,  342 ;  extract  from,  upon  educa 
tion,  352. 

Jewelry  used  in  gift-book  sales,  quality  of,  266. 

Johnson,  Eastman,  painter,  825. 

Jones,  Richard,  process  of,  for  making  white  oxide  of  zino 
from  the  ore,  104. 

"  Journal  of  Commerce,"  New  York,  302. 

"  Journal  of  the  Rhode  Island  Institute  of  Instruction,"  898. 

Juvenile  Asylums,  449,  450.  • 

Kansas,  coal-beds  of,  124. 

Keeseville,  N.  Y.,  nail  factories  of,  25. 

Kemble,  Mrs.  Frances  Anne,  286. 

Kennedy,  John  P.,  works  of,  278. 

Kent,  Chancellor,  extract  from,  upon  education,  353. 

Kent  ore  bed,  Conn.,  24. 

Kentucky,  iron  mines  and  furnaces  of,  29 ;  thickness  of  the 

coal-beds  of,  1£3;  banks  in,  207. 
Kerosene  Oil  Works,  Newtown.  L.  I.,  154, 158. 
Keweenaw  Point  copper  mines,  51,  52 ;  production  of,  57. 
Kidder's  gas-regulator,  151. 
King,  Chas.  B.,  painter,  320. 
King's  College,  New  York,  foundation  of,  847. 
Kirkland,  Mrs.  Caroline  M.,  285. 
Knife-handles,  balanced,  251. 
Kdnigshiltte,  Silesia,  zinc  works  at,  101, 102. 
Kossuth  hat,  introduction  of  the,  258. 

Lakes,  cities  of  the,  176;  aggregate  trade  of  the,  17& 

Lambdins,  the,  painters,  325. 

La  Motte  lead  mines,  Missouri,  85,  86. 

Lamps,  varieties  of,  251-2. 

Lancaster,  Pa.,  zinc  mine  near  97. 

Lancaster  county,  Pa,,  nickel  mine  In,  117. 


INDEX 


463 


Land,  railroad  grants  of,  173;  sales  of,  1821-1860,  174;  war- 
runts  and  donations  of,  174;  amount  of,  unsold,  175. 

Land  offices,  opening  of,  169,  170. 

Land  sales,  government  system  of,  169 ;  amount  of,  1790-1820, 
171 ;  increase  of,  from  speculation  and  public  works,  172. 

Land  speculation,  evil  effects  of,  171, 172. 

Land  States,  increase  of  population  in,  175. 

Landscape  painters,  825. 

Lapis  oalaminaris,  98. 

Lard  oil,  154. 

Lawrence,  Abbott.  400,  401. 

Lawrence  Scientific  School,  400. 

Law  schools,  394 ;  table  of,  455. 

Lead,  ores  of,  81;  localities  of,  82-6;  shipments  of,  from  8. 
W.Virginia,  84;  from  the  upper  Mississippi,  85;  dimin 
ished  production  of,  86;  table  of  production  and  imports 
of,  1832-185S,  87;  smelting,  methods  of,  87;  fumes  of, 
methods  of  arresting,  90 ;  manufactures  of,  91 ;  separa 
tion  of  silver  from,  116. 

Lead  mining  in  the  colonies,  18. 

Lead  pipe,  manufacture  of,  91 ;  use  and  danger  of,  92. 

Leclaire,  process  of,  for  making  zinc  paint,  103. 

Lectures  and  lecturers,  433-4. 

Legal-tender  notes,  national  issue  of,  211. 

Legare,  Hugh  S.,  career  and  writings  of,  278. 

Leg-of-mutton  sleeves,  258. 

Lehigh  Coal  and  Navigation  Company,  186. 

Lehigh  Coal  Mine  Company,  121. 

Lehigh  county,  Pa.,  zinc  mines  of,  97. 

Lehigh  region,  the,  coal  produced  in,  1820-1860, 135. 

Lehigh  river,  slack- water  navigation  of,  186;  railroad,  139. 

Lehigh  valley,  iron  furnaces  in  the,  23 ;  iron  ores  of,  26. 

Leslie,  Mrs.  Eliza,  285. 

Leslie's  "  Illustrated  Newspaper,"  807. 

Le  Sueur,  discovery  of  lead  mines  by,  18,  84. 

Letter-writers  of  the  Revolution,  275. 

Leutze,  Emanuel,  historical  painter,  325. 

Liberty,  Md.,  copper  mines  near,  49. 

Libraries  in  the  United  States,  428 ;  principal,  table  of, 
429-32. 

Life  insurance,  statistics  and  principles  of,  224 ;  in  different 
countries,  225;  table  of  comparative  rates  of,  226;  ten 
years'  non-forfeitable  plan  of,  227. 

Light,  materials  used  for,  249,  251-2.    (See  Gas,  Coal  oils.) 

Lignite,  formation  and  beds  of,  122. 

Limestone  as  a  flux  for  iron  ores,  20. 

Line  engraving,  process  of,  833. 

Lippincott,  Mrs.  Sarah  J.,  286. 

Lippincott  &  Co.,  publishers,  transactions  of,  268. 

Liquors,  former  universal  use  of,  253. 

Litchfield,  Conn.,  girls'  school  at,  405. 

Literature,  American,  274. 

Lithography,  835. 

Liverpool,  ileeeing  of  Irish  emigrants  at,  288. 

Live-stock  insurance  companies,  227. 

Lloyd's,  marine  insurance,  223. 

Loadstone,  the,  21. 

Locust  Mountain  coal-measure,  section  of,  132. 

Log  houses,  construction  of,  247. 

Looking-glass  plates,  preparation  of,  114. 

London,  marine  insurance  at,  223. 

Longfellow,  Henry  W.,  works  of,  2SO. 

Longstreet's  •'  Georgia  Scenes,"  extract  from,  874. 

Lossing,  Benson  J.,  works  of,  284. 

Louisa  county,  Va.,  gold  mines  of,  64. 

Louisiana,  purchase  of,  170;  banks  in,  208. 

Louisville,  origin  and  growth  of,  180. 

Lovell's  Latin  School,  Boston,  account  of,  890. 

Lowell,  James  Russell,  281. 

Lowell  Institute,  Boston,  434. 

Lubricating  oils  from  coal,  161. 

Lucesco  oil  works,  157. 

Lurnpkin  county,  Ga.,  gold  mines  of,  70. 

Luyck,  Rev.  Dr.  ^Egidius,  347. 

Lyceum  movement,  the.  403. 

Lyceums,  432 ;  for  mutual  instruction,  history  of,  433. 

Lyon,  Miss  Mary,  Mount  Holyoke  Female  Seminary  estab 
lished  by,  405. 

Mackintosh,  Miss  M.  J.,  285. 
McCormack  gold  mine,  Georgia,  70. 
McDowell  county,  N.  C.,  gold-mining  in,  69. 
McLean,  J.  8.,  first  American  pianoforte  patentee,  260. 
Madison,  James,  works  of,  275;  extract  from,  upon  education, 

353. 

Magdalen  Asylums,  450. 
Magnetic  iron  ores,  21 ;  localities  of,  24. 
Magnetic  Telegraph  Company,  813. 
Maine,  lead  mines  of,  82. 
Maine  law,  the,  260. 
Maine  Telegraph  Company,  813. 


Malachite,  green,  48. 

Malbone,  Edward  G.,  miniature  painter,  820. 

Mallet's  method  of  making  galvanized  iron,  40. 

Manassaa  Gap,  Va.,  copper  ores  at,  49. 

Man-catchers  of  Liverpool,  236-7 ;  tricks  of,  238. 

Manganese,  use,  sources,  and  treatment  of,  119. 

Manhattan  Gas  Light  Company,  145. 

Mann,  Horace,  387. 

Manual  labor  schools,  403. 

Maricopa  Mining  Company  (silver),  116. 

Marine  insurance,  223  ;  table  of,  in  New  Tork,  224. 

Mariposa  county,  Cal.,  quartz-mining  in,  73. 

Marshall,  John,  works  and  character  of,  276. 

Maryland,  iron  mines  and  furnaces  of,  28 ;  copper  mines  of, 
49  ;  gold  in,  64 ;  cobalt  in,  117 ;  chromium  in,  118;  coal- 
fleld'of,  124,  185 ;  banks  in,  205 ;  colonial  legislation  of, 
upon  education,  347. 

Maryland  Agricultural  College,  402. 

Massachusetts,  early  iron  works  in,  17;  lead  mines  of,  82; 
manganese  in,  119 ;  coal  in,  12!) ;  colonial  issues  of  paper 
money  in,  198;  colonial  coinage  of.  212;  marine  in 
surance  in,  224;  life  insurance  in,  225;  colonial  legisla 
tion  of,  npon  education,  342;  the  constitution  and  laws 
of,  upon  education,  885. 

Massachusetts  Hospital  and  Life  Insurance  Company,  224 

Massachusetts  School  for  Imbecile  and  Feeble-minded  Youth, 
443. 

Mather,  Cotton,  works  of,  274. 

Mauch  Chunk  railroad  and  coal  business,  136. 

Mauch  Chunk  Summit  mine,  section  of,  132. 

Mecca,  Ohio,  the  petroleum  of,  167. 

Mechanics,  schools  for,  403. 

Medical  schools,  894 ;  table  of,  455. 

Melville,  David,  efforts  of,  to  establish  tho  use  ol  gas,  145. 

Meneely,  Messrs.,  bell  foundry  of,  63. 

Mercurial  medicines,  preparation  of,  115. 

Mercury,  use  of,  in  gold-mining,  74,  76;  uses  of.  110;  ores  of, 
111;  mines  and  yield  of,  111;  mining  of,  in  California, 
112;  total  production  of,  112;  inetallurgic  treatment  of, 
114;  useful  applications  of,  114. 

Mezzotint  engraving,  334. 

Michigan,  iron  mines  and  furnaces  of,  29  ;  copper  mines  of, 
61;  coal-field  of,  129;  banks  in,  206;  Agricultural  Col 
lege  of,  402 ;  University  of,  scientific  course  of,  402. 

Middletown,  Conn.,  argentiferous  lead  mine  at,  18,  82. 

Migration,  universality  of,  228. 

Military  Academy,  the,  895. 

Military  schools  in  Virginia,  South  Carolina,  &c.,  396. 

Mills,  Clark,  sculptor,  828. 

Milson,  Mr.,  Carlisle  tables  constructed  by,  224. 

Milwaukee,  origin,  growth,  and  trade  of,  178. 

Mimbres  copper  mines,  116. 

Mine  Hill,  N.  J.,  zinc  mines  at,  97. 

Mine  la  Motte  lead  mine,  86;  cobalt  at,  117;  nickel  at,  117, 
118, 

Mineral  paints,  247. 

Minesota  copper  mine,  the,  ancient  and  modern  working  of, 
54 ;  production  of,  56. 

Mining,  the  earliest  American  charter  for,  18. 

Mining  industry  of  the  United  States,  history  of,  17. 

Minnesota,  banks  in,  206. 

Mint,  the  United  States,  establishment  of,  213;  operations  of^ 
214  et  geq.  (See  Coinage.) 

Mints,  table  of  gold  deposits  at  the,  78-9. 

Mirrors,  silvering  of,  114. 

Mississippi,  banks  and  banking  in,  207. 

Mississippi  basin,  settlement  of  the,  170. 

Mississippi  valley,  the,  early  style  of  house  furniture  In,  251. 

Missouri  iron  mines  of,  81;  lead  mines  of,  S5;  cobalt  and 
nickel  in,  117, 118;  banks  in,  208. 

Money,  origin  and  nature  of,  212. 

Monroe,  N.  Y.,  iron  beds  of,  25. 

Montana,  gold  and  silver  mines  of,  71. 

Montour's  ridge.  Pa.,  iron  mines  of,  27. 

Moor's  Indian  Charity  School,  845. 

Moravian  schools  in  Pennsylvania,  849,  404. 

Moresnet,  Belgium,  zinc  mine  at,  101. 

Morse,  8.  F.  B.,  career  of,  as  a  painter,  822. 

Morse's  telegraph  apparatus,  808,  809  (illustration). 

Morris,  Robert,  report  of,  upon  coinage,  218. 

Moselem  iron  bed,  the,  26. 

Motley,  John  Lothrop,  works  of,  284. 

Mount,  William  S.,  paintings  of,  323. 

Mount  Pisgah  coal  mines,  136 ;  railroad  plane,  description  and 
illustrations  of,  186, 187, 139. 

Muntz's  yellow  metal,  61. 

Music  books,  sales  of,  268. 

Nack,  James,  deaf-mute  poet,  439. 

Nacoochee  valley  gold  mines,  Georgia,  68,  70. 

Nails,  manufacture  of,  and  American  improvements  in,  41; 


INDEX 


,Ie  -f  factories  and  production  of,  42 ;  process  of  making, 
•v  *'*•  )ress°the"  description  of,  287 ;  improvements  in,  288, 
NatS  Academy  of  Design,  establishment  of  the,  319,  828; 

origin  and  progress  ol  the,  ewX 
National  Bank.'    sl-e  Bank  of  the  United  States. 
National  banks,  system  of,  211. 
Naturalization  laws,  the,  230. 
Naval  Academy,  the,  896.  _.- 

Nazareth,  Pa.,  Moravian  school  at,34». 
Nickel  uses  and  mines  of,  117 ;  ores  of,  118. 
Neal,  Joseph  C.,  writings  of,  281. 
Neal,  Mrs.  Alice  B.  (Haven),  285. 
New^A^mVden'^qu'icksiiver  mice,  California,  112;  picture  of, 

Tfpwurk  N  J    manufacture  of  zinc  at,  104. 

Newberry,  Dr.  J.  8.,  opinion  of,  upon  the  gource  of  petro- 
letim,  164. 

New  Brunswick,  N.  J.,  copper  mine  at,  49. 

New  EivM'ind  early  iron  works  in.  17;  iron  mines  and  fur- 
nieM  ot  24  •  use  of  peat  in,  122;  decline  of  the  whaling 
business  of,'lM;  banks  in,'203;  fire  insurance  in  222; 
origin  and  progress  of  the  book  trade  in,  263;  colonial 
school  system  of,  838.  ,,,,.,, 

New  England  Primer,  specimen  of  the,  414. 

Newfane,  Vt,  gold  found  at,  64. 

Newfoundland;  ancient  Norse  colony  in,  223. 

New  Hampshire,  iron  mines  of,  24;  copper  in,  49;  lead  in  82, 
tin  mine  in,  120;  colonial  legislation  of,  upon  education, 
345;  State  law  for  education  in,  386. 

New  Haven,  early  town  action  for  schools  in,  33S. 

New  Jersey,  early  copper  mining  in,  IS;  iron  mines  and  fur 
naces  of,  25;  copper  mines  of,  49;  zinc  mines  of,  97; 
banks  in,  205 ;  early  schools  in,  348. 


,  , 

New  Jersey  Franklinite  Company,  106. 

New  Jersey  Zinc  Company,  104. 

New  Ork-ahs,  gold  deposits  at  the  branch  mint  of,  18;  acqui 
sition  and  early  commerce  of,  170;  origin,  growth,  and 
commerce  of.  181 ;  trade  and  valuation  of,  1S04-1S59, 182 
course  of  trade  and  exchange  at,  182;  competition  i 
other  places  with,  1S3. 

Newsam,  Albert,  deaf-mute  sculptor,  439. 

Newspapers,  establishment  of.  in  England,  801 ;  in  the  Unite< 
States,  302;  in  New  York,  statistics  of,  304;  advertising 
in,  304;  daily,  former  and  present  business  management 
o£  305 ;  other  classes  of,  307 ;  aggregate  number  and  cir 
culation  of,  807. 

New  York,  iron  mines  and  furnaces  of,  24 ;  copper  in,  49 ;  lead 
mines  of,  82;  petroleum  in,  167;  the  canals  of,  171;  the 
railroads  of,  172;  issues  of  paper  money  by,  199 ;  banks 
and  banking  systems  of,  204;  fire  insurance  in,  221 ;  ma 
rine  insurance  in,  223;  life  insurance  in,  224;  number  of 
foreigners  in,  242;  Dutch  colonial  school  system  in,  338; 
colonial  legislation  of,  upon  education,  346;  State  school 
law  of,  in  1795,  3S6;  school  superintendent  appointed  in, 
8S6-7 ;  State  Library  of,  427. 

New  York  Asylum  for  the  Deaf  and  Dumb,  43C. 

New  York  Central  railroad,  172. 

New  York  Children's  Aid  Society,  449. 

New  York  city,  shot  towers  in,  94 ;  introduction  of  gas  into, 
145;  extent  of  gas  pipes  in,  146;  early  trade  of,  185;  trade 
and  finance  centred  at,  180;  course  of  trade  at,  186;  pop 
ulation,  commerce,  and  valuation  of,  1684-1860,  187; 
speculation  at,  1S7;  mode  of  business  in,  188;  effects  of 
discoveries  and  public  improvements  upon,  188 ;  move 
ment  of  business  and  population  in,  190;  railroads  and 
telegraphs  in,  190;  subdivisions  and  methods  of  business 
in,  191;  exports  and  imports  of,  187, 192;  trade  in  gold 


zio;  insurance  in,  2-Z-4;  newspapers  or, 3112;  circulation 
of  the,  303;  Sunday  press  of,  307;  Mechanics' School  of, 
403 ;  orphan  asylums  in,  445. 
"New  York  Express,"  the,  805. 
New  York  Gas  Light  Company,  145. 
"New  York  Herald,"  the,  803. 
New  York  Home  for  the  Friendless,  449,  450, 
"New  York  Illustrated  News,"  the,  307. 
"New  York  Journal."  the,  307. 
New  York  Juvenile  Asylum.  44a 
"New  York  Ledger,"  the,  807. 

New  York  Society  Library,  foundation  of,  847, 

New  York  Life  and  Trust  Company,  224 

New  York  Mercantile  Library  427 

New  York  Society  Library.  428. 

New  York  State  Asylum  for  Idiots,  448;  view  of,  444. 

*  New  York  Times,"  the,  304 

«  New  York  Tribune,"  the,  304, 

iiormiil  schools,  897, 399, 


Norsemen,  discovery  of  America  by,  228. 
*orth  Carolina  iron  mines  and  furnaces  of,  28;  copper  mines 
of  50-    "old  mines  of,  63,  69;  lead  in,  84;  cobalt  in,  117, 
nickel  in,  118;  coal-beds  of,  129 ;  banks  in,  203 ;  colonial 
legislation  of,  upon  education,  849. 
Northeast,  N.  Y.,  lead  mine  at,  82. 
Norton,  Andrews,  282. 

Norwich  Free  Academy,  Conn.,  view  or,  411. 
•Notes  on  Virginia,"  Jefferson's,  276. 
Nott,  Eliphalet,  D.D.,  letter  of,  upon  school- teaching,  362; 

the  anthrarite  stove  of,  248. 
Nova  Scotia,  coal-field  of,  129. 

Ohio  iron  mines  and  furnaces  of,  29 ;  petroleum  in,  162, 167; 
government  land  sales  in,  169, 170;   banks  and  banking 
system  of,  205. 
Ohio 'Institution  for  the  Deaf  and  Dumb,  430. 
Ohio  State  School  for  Idiots,  443. 
Oil  whale,  diminished  production  of,  154 ;  lubricating,  from 

coal,  160.     (Sec  Coal  oil,  Petroleum.) 
Oil  Creek,  Pennsylvania,  petroleum  on,  162. 
Old  field  school  in  Virginia,  account  of  an,  377. 
Olefiant  gas,  composition  of,  147. 
Olmsted,  Prof.  Denison,  899. 
Ohnsted's  anthracite  stove,  248. 
Oneida  Lake,  lion  mines  near,  25. 
Ontonaaon  copper  mines.  52,  54;  production  of,  Si. 

Orators,  celebrated  American,  275. 

Oregon,  platinum  in,  107;  iridiuin  in,  110. 

Oreide,  discovery  of,  251. 

Orphans,  institutions  for  the  education  and  training  of,  440. 

Orr,  Hugh,  manufacture  of  cannon  by,  19. 

Orr,  Isaac,  inventor  of  the  air-tight  wood  stove,  248. 

Osgood,  Mrs.  Frances,  286. 

Osmium,  110. 

Oswego,  origin,  growth,  and  trade  of,  176. 

Ovens,  construction  of,  in  old-fashioned  houses,  246. 

Ovid,  N.  Y.,  agricultural  college  at.  402. 

Oxide  of  cobalt,  117 ;  of  manganese,  119 ;  of  zinc,  see  Zino 
paint. 

Oxy -hydrogen  blowpipe,  fusion  of  platinum  by  the,  109. 

Owen,  D.  D.,  survey  of  the  lead  region  by,  84. 

Owyhee  gold  and  silver  mines,  Idaho,  71. 


Packer  Collegiate  Institute,  the,  405,  409-10  (illustrations). 

Page,  William,  painter,  823. 

Paine,  Thomas,  revolutionary  writings  of,  275. 

Painting,  academies  and  schools  of,  385. 

Painting  and  painters  in  the  United  States,  816. 

Paints,  new  kinds  of,  247.     (See  White  lead,  Zinc  paint.) 

Paletot,  introduction  of  the,  258. 

Palmer,  sculptor,  works  of.  828. 

Pantaloon,  definition  of.  257. 

Paper,  printing,  sizes  of,  272. 

Paper  money,  origin,  kinds,  and  use  of,  198;  comparative  de 
preciation  of/in  the  colonies,  213. 

Paralfme,  preparation  and  use  of,  159. 

Parley,  Peter,  school  recollections  of,  363. 

Parton,  Mrs.  S.  P.  W.  (Fanny  Fern),  285. 

Partridge,  Captain  Alden,  military  schools  of,  39(5. 

PaSMic  Mining  and  Manufacturing  Company,  104,106. 

Passengers,  arrivals  of  foreign,  1820-1859,  240 ;  of  native,  from 
abroad,  244. 

Patents,  number  of,  issued,  259. 

Pattinson's  method  of  treating  argentiferous  lead,  90. 

Patilding,  James  K.,  works  of,  278. 

Pawnbrokers,  the  business  of,  197. 

Peabody,  George,  427.  484. 

Pcabody  Institute,  Baltimore,  427. 

Peale,  Charles  Wilson,  320 ;  art  academy  founded  by,  885. 

Peale,  Rembrandt,  career  and  paintings  of,  820. 

Peat,  formation  and  beds  of,  122. 

Peele,  J.  T.,  painter,  325. 

Peet,  Harvey  P.,  436. 

Feet,  Mrs.  Mary  Toles,  deaf-mute  poetess,  489. 

Pennsylvania,  iron  mines  and  works  of,  26;  copper  mines  o£ 
49;  lead  mines  of,  83;  zinc  mines  of,  97;  chromium  in, 
118;  manganese  in,  119;  first  use  of  the  coal  of,  120;  chart 
of  the  anthracite  region  of,  126-7;  coal  strata  of,  129; 
thickness  of  the  coal-beds  of,  135;  production  of  coal  in, 
1820-1860,  134-5 ;  public  improvements  of,  for  coal  trans 
portation,  135 ;  history  and  production  of  petroleum  in, 
162-3;  banks  in,  205;  early  educational  laws  and  institu 
tions  of,  849. 

Pennsylvania  Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  835. 
Pennsylvania  and  Lehlgh  Zinc  Company,  104. 
Pennsylvania  Asylum  for  the  Blind,  view  of,  441. 
Pennsylvania  canal,  opening  of,  171. 
Pennsylvania  Institution  for  the  Deaf  and  Dumb,  486. 
"  Pennsylvania  Packet"  the,  first  American  daily  newspapa^ 
301. 


INDEX 


405 


Pennsylvania  Rock  Oil  Company,  163. 

Pennsylvania  Society  for  the  promotion  of  public  schools,  398. 

Pennsylvania  Training  School  for  Idiots,  443. 

Penokio  range,  Wis.,  iron  mines  of,  30. 

Perkiomen  copper  mine,  Pennsylvania,  49. 

Perkins,  Jacob,  invention  of,  in  steel  engraving,  888. 

Perry's  load  mine,  Missouri,  86. 

Peru,  quicksilver  mines  of,  111. 

Petroleum,  foreign  sources  of,  161 ;  Burmese,  products  of  the 
distillation  of,  161  ;  in  the  United  States,  localities  and 
history  of,  162,  167;  the  question  of  the  source  of,  164; 
boring  wells  for,  164-5:  flow  of,  166;  qualities  of,  167; 
works  for  refining,  168  (table). 

Pewabic  copper  inine^  the,  54  ;  production  of,  58. 

Pewter,  composition  of,  120. 

Phelps.  Mrs.  Almira  H.,  285. 

Phelps's  electro-magnetic  governor,  312. 

Philadelphia,  resources,  origin,  and  business  of,  1S4;  manage 
ment  of  a  model  store  at,  184 ;  account  of  early  school- 
teaching  in,  871 ;  orphan  asylums  in,  445,  446. 

"Philadelphia  Gazette,"  Franklin's,  305. 

•'  Philadelphia  Ledger,"  the,  804. 

Philadelphia  Library  Company,  428,  427. 

Phillips,  Col.  David  M..  deaf-mute.  439. 

Phillips  Academy,  account  of,  by  Josiah  Quincy,  388. 

Phoonixville  lead  mines.  Pennsylvania,  81. 

Photography,  introduction  and  use  of,  261. 

Photometer,  the,  152. 

Phrenology,  introduction  of  the  study  of,  260. 

Pianofortes,  American  manufacture  of,  260. 

Pictou  coal  mines,  Nova  Scotia,  129. 

Piermont,  N.  H.,  iron  ore  of,  24. 

Piasott,  A.  Snowden,  on  copper-smelting,  59. 

Pig  iron,  manufacture  of,  82;  classification  of,  86;  table  of 
production  of,  46. 

Pilot  Knob,  Mo.,  iron  at,  81;  works  at,  82. 

Pine-tree  shilling,  the,  212. 

Pins,  manufacture  of,  62. 

Pittsburg,  copper-smelting  at,  59,  60;  coal  mines  at,  131 ;  cost 
of  mining  at,  141 ;  origin,  growth,  and  business  of,  180. 

Pittsburg  and  Boston  copper  mine,  production  of,  58. 

Planing  machine,  invention  of  the,  247. 

Platinum,  localities,  character,  and  working  of,  107;  appara 
tus  for  working,  illustration  and  description  of,  108, 109 ; 
American  consumption  of,  110. 

Plumbago,  geological  position  of.  122. 

Plymouth  colony,  appropriation  for  schools  in,  348-4. 

Pole.  Edsar  A.,  281. 

Politics,  educational  influence  of,  382. 

Polk  county,  Tenn.,  copper  mines  of,  50. 

Polk  County  Mining  Company,  50,  51. 

Polytechnic  schools,  403. 

Pony  expresses  in  California,  188. 

"Poor  Richard,"  275. 

Population,  progress  of,  in  the  Western  States,  171, 174 ;  de 
crease  of,  in  Ireland,  235. 

Porcupine  mountains,  copper  mines  of,  52. 

Portage  lake  copper  mines,  52,  53-4 ;  smelting  works,  and 
production  of,  57. 

Port  Henry,  N.  T.,  iron  mines  of,  25. 

Portland  canal,  the,  around  the  falls  of  the  Ohio,  180. 

Portsmouth,  K.  I.,  coal  mine  at,  129. 

Post,  Edwin,  first  successful  use  of  anthracite  by,  25. 

Postage,  cheap,  establishment  of,  261. 

Potato  crop,  the,  dependence  of  Ireland  upon,  285. 

Pot  ore,  iron,  28-9  (note). 

Powers,  Hiram,  sculptor,  career  and  works  of,  827. 

Preaching,  educational  effects  of,  381. 

Prescott,  William  H.,  works  of,  284. 

Press,  the,  of  Franklin  ( Ramace  press),  mode  of  working,  286 ; 
picture  of,  289.  (See  Printing  press.) 

Preventive  and  reformatory  institutions,  446. 

Printing,  introduction  of,  in  England,  263;  processes  of,  299; 
for  the  blind,  441. 

Printing  ink,  qualities  and  composition  of,  286. 

Printing-press,  the,  286;  improvements  in,  287;  lllustratkkis 
of,  289-97. 

Professional  schools,  898;  tables  of,  454,  455. 

Pi-ovidencla  quicksilver  mine,  California,  112. 

Prussia,  attempts  of,  to  check  emigration,  284 

Publishers,  book,  number  and  classes  of,  265.  (See  Book 
trade.)  • 

Puddling,  the  process  of,  37. 

Putnam  county,  N.  Y.,  iron  mines  of,  25. 

Pyrites,  freeing  of  gold  from,  76. 

Pyritous  copper  ore,  48. 

Pyrolusite,  ore  of  manganese,  119. 

Pyromorphite  lead  ore,  81. 

Quart/  mining,  78. 

Queen's  College,  New  Jersey,  foundation  of,  848. 

28* 


Quicksilver.     See  Mercury. 

Quincy,  Josiah,  account  of  Phillips  Academy  by,  888. 

Railroad  iron,  table  of  production  of,  40,  imports  of,  178. 


York,  190. 

Railroad  ticket  machine,  illustration  nnd  operation  of,  296. 

Rainanghong,  Btirrnah,  petroleum  at,  161. 

Randall's  Island  Nursery,  445. 

Readers,  large  proportion  of,  in  the  United  States,  262 ;  in 
crease  of,  269. 

Reading-  railroad,  construction  and  operation  of  the,  135. 

Reciprocity  treaty,  trade  under  the,  179. 

Redwood  Library,  the,  423. 

Reed's  gold  mine.  North  Carolina,  63. 

Reformatory  institutions,  management  of,  447. 

Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute.  400. 

Renton's  plan  for  making  wrought  iron,  87. 

Retorts  in  gas  works,  149 ;  in  coal-oil  works,  157. 

Reverberatory  furnaces,  88;  for  lead-melting,  89. 

Revere,  John  W.,  invention  of  galvanized  iron  by,  40. 

Revere  Copper  Company,  the,  58. 

Revolution,  orators  and  writers  of  the,  275;  influence  of  the, 
upon  education,  851. 

Reynolds,  L.  G.,  inventor  of  horse-shoe  nail  machine,  48. 

Rhine,  valley  of  the,  emigration  from,  to  the  United  States, 
232 ;  destitution  in,  234. 

Rhode  Island,  coal-field  of,  129 ;  early  town  action  for  schools 
in,  340  ;  colonial  legislation  of,  upon  education,  844. 

Roberts,  Dr.  K.  A.  L.,  apparatus  and  process  of,  for  manufac 
turing  platinum  plate,  108, 109. 

Rocker,  gold-washing,  picture  and  description  of,  67. 

Rockers,  use  of.  in  gold-mining,  74. 

Rocky  Mountains,  gold  mines  of  the,  70. 

Rogers,  Prof.  H.  D.,  estimate  of  the  extent  of  American  coal 
fields  by,  183;  of  the  amount  of  coal  in  Europe  and 
America,  134. 

Rolling  machine,  the,  for  books,  271  (illustration),  273. 

Rolling  mills  in  the  United  States,  table  of,  40. 

Roofing,  use  of  zinc  for,  103. 

Roosevelt  <fc  Sons,  manufacture  of  mirrors  by,  114. 

Rosin  oil,  manufacture  of  gas  from,  152. 

Rossie  lead  mines,  New  York,  83. 

Rossiter,  Thomas  P.,  paintings  of,  825. 

Rothermel,  P.  F.,  historical  painter,  825. 

Ruggles  job  press,  the,  287. 

Rush,  Benjamin,  extract  from,  upon  education,  353 ;  on  ardent 
spirits',  260. 

Russ,  Dr.  John  D.,  43. 

Russia,  platinum  found  in,  107. 

Russian-American  telegraph,  the,  315. 

Russian  sheet  iron,  40. 

Rust,  Samuel,  press  invented  by,  287. 

Rutgers  College,  New  Jersey,  origin  of,  848. 

Sack  coat,  introduction  of  the,  258. 

Safety  Fund  banks,  204. 

Saflor,  ore  of  cobalt,  117. 

St.  John's  College,  Annapolis,  origin  of,  343. 

St.  Lawrence  county,  N.  Y.,  iron  mines  of,  25;  lead  mines 
of,  83. 

St.  Lawrence  river,  navigation  of  the,  179. 

St.  Louis,  origin,  growth,  and  trade  of,  181. 

Salisbury,  Conn.,  iron  mines  of,  20,  24. 

San  Francisco,  gold  deposits  at  the  branch  mint  of,  78;  gold- 
dealing  at,  193 ;  branch  mint  at,  215. 

Sans-serif  alphabet,  the,  for  the  blind,  440. 

Santa  Barbara  quicksilver  mine,  Peru,  111. 

Santa  Clara  Mining  Company  (quicksilver),  112. 

Santa  F6,  New  Mexico,  iron  at,  32. 

Santa  Rita  del  Cobre  mines  (copper),  116. 

Sargent,  Wilson  &  Hinkle,  sales  of  school  books  by,  268. 

Saucon  zinc  mines,  Pennsylvania,  97 ;  analyses  of  ores  from, 
98.  £  . 

Sawing  machine,  the,  for  books,  272. 

Saxe,  J.  G.,  281. 

School  apparatus,  past  and  present,  illustrated,  422. 

School-books,  early  manufacture  of,  263 ;  mode  of  introducing, 
266  ;  great  sales  of,  268;  improvements  in,  illustrated  by 
specimens,  413-21. 

School  holiday  in  Georgia,  378. 

School-houses,  early,  character  of,  857 ;  past  and  present,  illus 
trated,  406-7. 

Schoolcraft,  Henry  R.,  283. 

Schools,  town  action  in  behalf  of,  in  the  New  England  colo 
nies.  889;  colonial  legislation  for,  841 ;  effect  of  the  Rev 
olution  upon,  351  ;  laws  of  Congress  upon,  854  ;  true  use 
of,  882-8;  secondary  or  higher,  legislative  neglect  of,  388} 
professional,  scientific,  and  special,  392. 


468 


INDEX 


Schools  of  design  for  women,  836. 

Schuyler  copper  mine,  New  Jersey,  IS,  49. 

Schuylkill,  iron  mines  and  furnaces  on  the,  26,  27. 

Schuylkill  region,  coal  produced  in  the,  1820-1860, 134. 

Scientific  schools,  400. 

Scotch  emigration  to  the  colonies,  229. 

Scotch  hearth,  the,  description  and  illustration  of,  S3. 

Sculpture  and  sculptors  in  the  United  States,  325. 

Sedzwick,  Miss  Catharine  M.,  works  of,  285. 

Seguin,  Dr.  Edward,  labors  of,  for  the  instruction  of  idiots, 

443,444 

Selligue,  manufacture  of  coal  oil  bv,  156. 
Seneca  Indians,  use  of  petroleum  by,  162. 
Seneca  oil,  162. 

Sewing  machines,  introduction  and  benefits  of,  261. 
Shaking  tables,  in  gold  mining,  75. 
Sharp  Mountain,  section  of  the  coal-measure  of,  182. 
Shawangunk  Mountain,  lead  mines  of,  82. 
Shaw,  Joshua,  landscape  painter,  822. 
Shear-steel,  manufacture  of,  44. 
Sheathing,  use  of  copper  for,  61. 

Sheet  iron,  manufacture  and  uses  of,  40 ;  production  of,  41. 
Sheet  lead,  manufacture  of,  91. 
Shelburne,  N.  H.,  lead  mine  at,  82. 
Shepherd  mountain,  Mo.,  iron  at,  82. 
Shingles,  use  of,  246. 
Shoes,  fashions  of,  253,  254,  257. 
Shot,  manufacture  of,  92-3 ;  towers  for,  94, 
Siberia,  platinum  in,  107. 

Sicard,  Abbe,  435;  method  of,  for  deaf-mute  instruction,  438. 
Sideboard,  use  of  the,  250. 
Siegenite,  nickel  ore,  118. 
Sierra  Nevada,  the,  gold  mines  of,  71,  72. 
Sigourney,  Mrs.  Lydia  H.,  285. 

Silesia,  Upper,  zinc  works  of,  101 ;  their  production,  102. 
Silver,  in  the  Lake  Superior  copper  mines,  53;  in  Idaho,  71 ; 

in  lead  ores,  81 ;  methods  of  separating  from  lead,  90 ; 

American  mines  of,  115;  ores  of,  and  their  treatment, 

116;  coinage  of,  214;  circulation  of  foreign,  215;  pieces 

of,  216. 

Silvering  of  mirrors,  114-15. 
Silver-ware  and  forks,  251. 
Simsbury,  Conn.,  copper  mine  at,  18,  43. 
Simms,  William  G.,  works  of,  280 
Skirts,  fashions  of,  254,  253. 
Sleeves,  fashions  of,  253. 
Sluice-washing  for  gold,  72. 
Smalt,  preparation  and  use  of,  117. 
Smelting.     See  Copper,  Iron,  Lead,  &c. 
Smith,  Uavid,  shot-making  process  of,  93. 
Smith,  Mrs.  E.  Oakes,  285. 
Smith,  Peter,  287. 
Smithsonian  Institute,  library  of  the,  427;  lectures,  &c.,  of 

Smithsonite,  zinc  ore,  96. 

Sinyb«rt,  John,  portrait  painter,  816;  Nathaniel,  317. 

Snow-hill,  Md.,  bog  iron  of,  22. 

Social  and  domestic  life,  245. 

Social  distinctions,  former,  254. 

Society,  general  progress  of,  259. 

Soda  and  its  carbonates,  use  of,  in  making  steel  44 

bolder,  soft,  composition  of,  120. 

Sumerville,  N.  J..  copper  mine  near,  49 

bonora  Company's  silver  mine,  Arizona,  115 

uthampton,  Mass.,  lead  mine  at,  82 

South  Carolina,  iron  mines  of,  28;  gold  mines  of,  63,  ft4   69- 
«1=ffi 


bpain,  quicksilver  mines  of  111 
Spanish  colonization  in  America,  229 
Sparks,  Jared,  works  of,  283. 
Specie,  amount  of,  217. 
Specie  circular,  the,  202. 

SpoculumTn"  taT  ^  ""^  ^  '"  localltles  of-  24- 

m,krth  7r"u?ht-lron,  machines  for,  43. 
Squibb,'^:  £\  it"  pre^ratUmof  W  ^  26°' 


Stamping 


«  ,       . 

,  effect  of  land  speculation  upon  the  Increase  of, 


Steamers,  ocean,  introduction  of,  188. 

Stedman,  E.  C.,  281. 

Steel,  qualities  and  manufacture  of,  48;  American  methods  of 

making,  44. 

Steel  engraving  and  engravers,  333. 
Stephens,  Mrs.  Ann  S.,  285. 
Stereotyping,  process  of,  300. 
Stewart  &  Co.,  New  York,  the  business  of,  190. 
Stipplinff,  process  of,  334 
Stirling  Hill,  N.  J.,  zinc  mine  at,  97. 
Stirling's  gas-regulator,  151. 
Stocks,  origin  of  the  trade  in,  194 ;  method  and  amount  ot 

195,  196. 

Stores  in  New  York,  190. 
Story,  Joseph,  works  of,  276. 
Stoves,  manufacture  of,  at  Albany,  36;  use  and  kinds  of,  243; 

for  cooking,  253. 

Stowe,  Mrs.  Harriet  Beecher,  works  of,  285. 
Street,  Alfred  B.,  281. 
Street  railroads  in  New  York,  190. 
Stuart,  Gilbert,  portrait  painter,  318. 
Subscription  books,  publication  and  sale  of,  267. 
Suffolk  Bank  system,  203. 
Sully,  Thomas,  career  and  paintings  of,  821. 
Summit  coal  mine,  open  quarry,  picture  of,  138;  account  of, 

143. 

Sunday  press,  the,  of  New  York,  307. 
Superior,  Lake,  iron  mines  of,  29 ;   copper  mines  of,  history, 

extent,  working,  and  production  of  the,  51-58;  shipments 

of  iron  from,  57. 

Susquehanna,  iron  mines  on  the,  26. 
Sutler's  mill,  discovery  of  gold  at,  71. 
Swansea,  copper-smelting  at,  58;  zinc  works  at,  96. 
Sydney  coal-mines,  Cape  Breton,  129. 
Sykesville,  Md.,  iron  and  copper  mine  at,  28, 49. 

Table  furniture,  varieties  of,  251. 

Tables,  old  and  new  styles  of,  250. 

Tait,  Arthur  F.,  painter,  325. 

Tar  Lake,  Trinidad,  161. 

Tarentum,  Pa.,  petroleum  wells  at,  162. 

Taylor,  Bayard,  281. 

Taylor,  Orville  J.,  393. 

Teachers,  training  of,  897 ;  associations  of,  897 ;  conventions 

of,  398. 

Teachers'  institutes,  899. 
Teaching,  works  on,  397. 
Telegraph,  the,  introduction  and  extension  of,  183;  use  of,  by 

newspapers,  303;  principles  of,  and  apparatus  for,  803  et 

seq, ;  lines  of,  313 ;  the  Atlantic,  history  of,  314. 
Telegraphing,  charges  for,  314. 
Temperance  reform,  the,  260. 
Tennessee,  iron  mines  and  furnaces  of,  28;  copper  mines  of, 

50;  gold  mines  of,  70;  zinc  in,  97;  banks  in,  207. 
Territories,  the,  surveys  and  sales  of  land  in,  169. 
Theologians,  colonial,  274 
Theological  schools,  893 ;  table  of,  454. 
Thevenet,  Dr.,  account  of  iridium  gathering  by,  110. 
Thomas  Iron  Company,  description  of  the  furnaces  of,  84 
Thompson,  Launt,  sculptor,  328. 
Ticknor,  Elisha,  899. 
Tidioute  Island  Oil  Company,  163. 
Tight-lacing,  258. 
Tin,  alloys  of,  with  copper,  63;  sources  and  uses  of,  119-20; 

alloys  with,  120 ;  sheet,  preparation  of,  120. 
Titusville,  Pennsylvania,  petroleum  at,  162;   operations  at, 

Tomatoes,  introduction  of,  252. 

Torrey,  Prof.  John,  analysis  of  zinc  ores  by,  98. 

lotal  abstinence  societies,  origin  of,  260. 

Trade,  progress  of,  between  the  East  and  West,  170 ;  con 
struction  of  lines  of  communication  for,  171 ;  course  of, 
175;  of  the  lakes,  178. 

Trade  sales  of  books,  265. 

Training,  mental  and  corporeal,  384 

Travel,  importance  of  facilities  for,  260. 

Iravelers'  Insurance  Company  of  Hartford,  227. 

Irexler,  R.,  anthracite  stoves  made  by,  248. 

Trimming  machine,  book  and  paper,  270  (illustration),  272. 

Irimdad.  petroleum  and  asphaltum  in,  161. 

Trinity  School,  New  York,  origin  of  the,  847. 

Trouncing  in  school,  how  performed,  890. 

Trowsers,  introduction  of,  by  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  257. 

Troy,  iron  foundries  of,  86. 

Truinbull  Colonel  John,  career  and  paintings  of,  319. 

I  uoraey,  M.,  on  iron  ore  in  South  Carolina,  28. 

luscarora,  Pa.,  colliery  slope  and  breaker  at,  picture  of,  oppo 
site  139 ;  account  of,  142  144 

Type-founding,  process  of,  298;  machine  for,  298. 

S"0oev?i,      "  Pres8'  tht'<  construction  and  operation  oi; 
288 ;  illustrations  of,  292-8. 


INDEX 


467 


Types,  sizes  of,  29S ;  proportions  of.  In  fonts,  299 ;  cases  for, 

and  setting;  of,  299 ;  oopper-facing  of,  801. 
Type-setting  machines,  299. 

Ulster  lead  mine,  copper  from  the,  49. 

Ulster  county,  N.  Y.,  lead  mines  of,  82. 

Union  Consolidated  Mining  Company,  60,  51. 

United  States,  the,  ad  vantages  of,  for  iron  manufacture,  19; 
coal-fields  of,  124;  table  of  gasworks  in,  147;  table  of 
coal-oil  works  in,  154;  total  imports  of,  192;  immigra 
tion  into,  230 ;  comparative  number  of  readers  in,  262. 

United  States  Bank.    See  Bank. 

United  States  Military  Academy,  460. 

United  States  Zinc  Company,  106. 

Universal  Life  Insurance  Company,  227. 

University  of  Pennsylvania,  origin  of,  849. 

Usher,  Hezekiah  and  John,  early  booksellers  of  Boston,  263. 

Valle's  lead  mine,  Missouri,  86. 

Vanderlyn,  John,  career  and  paintings  of,  820. 

Van  Dyke,  Dr.  II.  M.,  gold-mining  of,  in  Georgia,  70. 

Vassar  Female  College,  405. 

Venango  county,  Pa.,  petroleum  In,  162. 

Ventilation  of  buildings,  24S-9. 

Vermont,  iron  mine*  and  furnaces  of,  24;  copper  mines  of, 

49;  gold  mines  of,  64;  chromium  in,  118;  manganese  in, 

119  ;  constitutional  provision  of,  for  education,  886. 
Verplanck,  Oulian  C.,  2S3. 
Victoria,  Queen,  zinc  statue  of,  103. 
Vieille  Montagno  zinc  mines  and  works,  100. 
Vincent  de  Paul,  instruction  of  idiots  by,  44-3. 
Virginia,  early  mining  industry  in,  17  ;  iron  ores  and  furnaces 

of,  28 ;  copper  mines  of,  49 ;  shipments  of  ores  from,  50 ; 

gold  mines  of,  63,  64;  lead  mines  of,  83 ;  bituminous  coal- 
^      field  of,  129;   petroleum  in,  167;   banks  in,  208;  early 

schools  in,  337;  colonial  legislation  of,  upon  schools,  341 ; 

first  general  school  law  in,  842;  account  of  an  old  field 

school  in,  377. 
Virginia  Institution  for  the  Deaf  and  Dumb,  436. 
Vitreous  copper  ore,  43. 

Waldo  &  Jewett,  portrait  painters,  822. 

Walker,  Parker  &  Co.'s  product  of  silver  from  lead,  91. 

"War  books,  great  sales  of,  267. 

"Ware,  William,  works  of.  282. 

Warner,  Miss  Emily,  works  of,  285. 

Warwick  or  Jones'  iron  mine,  the,  26. 

Washington,  Houdon's  statue  of,  326 ;  extract  from,  upon  ed 
ucation,  352. 

Washington  College,  Maryland,  origin  of,  348. 

Washington  county.  Mo.,  iron-smelting  in,  31. 

Washington  gold  mine,  .North  Carolina,  69,  84,115. 

Washington  press,  the,  2S7 ;  picture  of,  289. 

Washington's  Farewell  Address,  manuscript  of,  801. 

Washoe  silver  mines,  115, 116. 

Washstands,  movable  and  fixed,  251. 

Waterbury,  Conn.,  brass  manufacture  at,  62. 

Water-cure,  introduction  of  the,  261. 

Water  gas,  manufacture  end  introduction  of,  152. 

Waterhouse,  Dr.,  vaccine  inoculation  introduced  by,  260. 

Water-works  in  cities,  introduction  of,  249. 

Watkinson,  David,  library  founded  by,  421. 

WTatson,  John,  portrait  painter,  816. 

Waverley  novels,  effect  of  the.  upon  the  book  trade,  264. 

Wayland,  Francis,  works  of,  282. 

Wealth,  what  constitutes,  260. 

Webster,  Daniel,  speeches  of,  277 ;  extract  from,  upon  educa 
tion  in  New  England,  353. 

Webster.  Noah,  account  of  schools  and  education  in  New 
England  by,  345;  observations  of,  upon  a  liberal  policy 
of  education,  852 ;  upon  the  early  state  of  common  schools 
(letter),  355;  upon  errors  in  education,  355-6. 

Webster's  Elementary  Spelling-book  and  Dictionary,  publi 


cation  and  influence  of,  263,  264 ;  aggregate  sale  of,  267 ; 
Spelling  Book,  specimens  of,  416-19. 

Weir,  Robert  W.,  painter,  823. 

Welby,  Mrs.  Amelia  B.,  286. 

Welland  canal,  construction  of  the,  179 ;  and  railway,  effect 
of,  upon  the  trade  of  Buffalo,  Oswego,  and  Cleveland.  176. 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  trowsers,  frock-coats,  and  boots  Intro 
duced  by,  257-8. 

Wells,  petroleum,  the  boring  of,  164-5;  pipes  for,  166. 

Wells,  John,  printing-press  inventor,  287. 

West,  the,  coal-fields  of,  124,  133;  surveys  and  sales  of  land 
in,  169;  early  trade  and  settlement  of,  170;  eifects  of 
speculation  in,  172;  canals  in,  172;  railroads  in,  178; 
railroads,  population,  and  corn  crop  of,  1850  and  1857,  174 
(table);  importance  of  corn  to,  175;  use  of  agricultural 
machinery  in,  175. 

West,  Benjamin,  career  of,  317;  chief  pictures  of,  318. 

West,  William  E.,  painter,  820. 

West  Point,  Military  Academy  at,  895. 

Whaling  business,  decline  of  the,  154. 

Wetherill,  Samuel,  manufacture  of  zinc  by,  99, 104. 

White,  Edwin,  painter,  825. 

Whitefleld,  George,  Orphan  House  in  Georgia  founded  by, 
350,445. 

Wharton,  Joseph,  manufacture  of  zinc  by,  99. 

Wheatley  lead  mine,  Pennsylvania,  88. 

Wheaton,  Henry,  work  of,  on  international  law,  276. 

Wheelock,  Dr.,  first  president  of  Dartmouth  College,  345. 

White  lead,  manufacture  and  uses  of,  94  Adulteration  of,  95; 
works,  table  of,  96. 

Whittier,  John  Greenleaf,  career  and  works  of,  281. 

Wigs,  former  use  of,  257. 

Wilbraham,  Mass.,  Methodist  Conference  Seminary  at,  405. 

Wilbur,  Dr.  II.  B.,  443. 

Wilkesharre,  open  coal-mines  at,  picture,  opposite  137 ;  ac 
count  of,  144. 

Willard,  Mrs.  Emma,works  of,  284 ;  the  female  seminary  of,  405. 

William  and  Mary  College,  foundation  of,  842. 

Williams,  Mr.,  painter,  317. 

Willis,  N.  P.,  career  and  works  of,  280. 

Willson's  "School  and  Family  Headers,"  specimens  of,  420-21, 

Windham  County  Teachers'  Convention,  898. 

Windows,  weights  and  catches  for,  247. 

Winthrop,  Governor,  mining  grant  to,  17. 

Winthrop,  John,  mineral  specimens  collected  by,  18. 

Wire,  iron,  manufacture  and  uses  of,  41;  brass,  62. 

Wirt,  William,  works  of,  276. 

Wisconsin,  iron  mines  and  furnaces  of,  30;  lead  mines  of,  84; 
banks  in,  206. 

Wood,  manufacture  of  gas  from,  152;  for  engraving,  382. 

Wood's  chrome  mine,  118. 

Woodworth,  William,  planing  machine  introduced  by,  247. 

Worcester,  Mass.,  wire  made  at,  41. 

Writers,  American,  274;  female,  list  of,  285. 

Wrought  iron,  manufacture  of,  86;  plans  for  the  direct  pjp- 
duction  of.  87. 

Wyoming  region,  the  coal  produced  in,  1829-1860,  134. 

Wythe  lead  mine,  Virginia,  88. 

Tale  College,  foundation  of,  844;  Scientific  School  of,  400. 

Yankee  curiosity,  useful  results  of,  262. 

"  Yankee  Notions,"  the,  307. 

Yellow  metal,  Muntz's,  61. 

Young,  James,  manufacture  of  coal  oil  by,  154. 

Zaffre,  ore  of  cobalt,  117. 

Zinc,  use  of,  in  coating  iron,  40 ;  in  brass-making,  62 ;  ores  of, 
96;  mines  of,  97;  metallurgical  treatment  of,  99;  impu 
rities  of,  99-100;  European  manufacture  of,  101;  total 
production  anil  consumption  of,  102;  uses  of,  103;  manu 
facture  of  white  oxide  of,  108. 

Zinc  paint,  manufacture  of.  103 ;  American  process  of  mak 
ing,  104-5 ;  cost  of,  106 ;  importance  of,  106. 


INDEX  TO  COMMENDATIONS. 


No.  1. 
Hon.  Josiah  Quincy. 

No.  2. 
President  E.  Hitchcock,  Amherst  College. 

No.  3. 
President  J.  Cummings,  Wesleyan  University. 

No.  4. 
President  Girard  College. 

No.  5. 

President  Genesee  College. 
No.  6. 
President  Cambridge  University. 

No.  7. 
President  of  Marietta  College. 

No.  8. 
President  University  of  Rochester. 

No.  9. 
President  of  Brown  University. 

No.  10. 
President  University  of  Wisconsin. 

No.  11. 
President  Columbia  College,  New  York. 

No.  12. 

President  of  Tufts  College. 
No.  13. 
President  of  Dartmouth  College. 

No.  14. 
Chancellor  Tappan,  Michigan  University. 

No.  15. 
President  Yermont  University. 

No.  16. 
President  of  Williams'  College. 

No.  17. 
President  Trinity  College. 


No.   18. 
President  Woolsey,  Yale  College. 

No.  19. 
John  McLean.  Princeton  College. 

No.  20. 
Professor  Johnson,  Yale  College.. 

No.   21. 
Professor  H.  Smith,  Lane  Theological  Seminary. 

No.   22. 
Professor  W.  C.  Fowler,  Amherst  College. 

No.  23. 
Professor  B.  Silliman,  Yale  College. 

No.  24. 
New  York  Times. 

No.  25. 
New  York  Examiner. 

No.  26. 
New  York  Observer. 

No.   27. 
Hunt's  Merchants'  Magazine. 

No.   28. 
Secretary  Board  of  Trade,  Philadelphia. 

No.   29. 
Secretary  Board  of  Trade,  Boston. 

No.   30. 
New  Englauder. 

No.  31. 
Philadelphia  Inquirer. 

No.   32. 
Boston  Transcript. 

No.  33. 
New  York  Herald. 

No.  34, 
Boston  Post. 


INDEX   TO    COMMENDATIONS. 


No.   35. 
Principal  American  Asylum. 

No.   36. 

John  D.  Philbrick,  Superintendent  Massachusetts 
Schools. 

No.  37. 
Boston  Journal. 

No.   38. 
Philadelphia  Evening  Journal 

No.   39. 
The  Homestead. 

No.  40. 
Phila.  Daily  Evening  Bulletin. 

No.  41. 

Secretary  Board  of  Education,  Boston,   Massa 
chusetts. 

No.  42. 
S.  S.  Randall,  Superintendent,  New  York. 

No.  43. 
New  England  Farmer. 

No.  44 
Frank  Leslie. 

No.  45. 
E.  G.  Dana,  Mercantile  Agency,  New  York. 

No.  46. 
Evening  Post,  New  York. 


No.  47. 


Benson  J.  Lossing. 

No.  48. 

New  York  Journal  of  Commerce. 

No.  49. 
W.  H.  Wells,  Chicago. 

No.  50. 
Harvey  P.  Peet,  Superintendent,  New  York. 

No.  51. 
Boston  Cultivator. 

No.  52. 
American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts. 

No.  53. 
Springfield  Republican. 

No.   54. 

Isaac  Ferns,  Chancellor  University,  New  York. 

No.  55. 

J.   M.    Mathews,    Chancellor    University,   Ne\tf 
York. 

No.  56. 
Professor  E.  "W.  Horsford,  Cambridge  University. 

No.  57. 
President  Hobart  College,  Geneva. 

No.  58. 
President  Indiana  State  Imivereity 


EXTRACTS  FROM  COMMENDATIONS, 


No.  1. 

From  HON.  JOSIAH  QUINCY,  former  President  of  Cambridg 
University. 

L.  STEBBINS,  ESQ.  :  Sir, — I  have  received  th 
"  Eighty  Years'  Progress  of  the  United  States,"  an 
have  examined  it,  not  with  that  attention  which  it 
nature,  novelty,  curiosity,  and  general  apparent  ac 
curacy  naturally  claim,  but  with  that  degree  of  ex 
amination,  which  at  the  age  of  ninety,  was  compati 
ble  with  an  eyesight  dimmed  by  years,  and  system 
atically  avoiding  all  labors  of  supererogation 
With  this  deduction  from  the  value  of  my  judgment 
I  readily  express  to  you  my  opinion  of  the  work 
It  seems  to  me  of  extraordinary  merit,  and  consider 
ing  the  number,  variety,  and  importance  of  the  sub 
jects  it  embraces,  of  surprising  accuracy  and  reliable 
ness  for  information.  The  names  of  the  authors  of 
the  respective  subjects  being  given,  and  their 
established  adequacy  and  talent  being  known,  gives 
uncommon  accuracy  to  their  statements,  and  an 
authenticity  to  the  work  seldom  attained  in  publica 
tions  of  such  a  general  character.  No  expense 
apparently,  lias  been  spared  to  render  it  worthy  of 
public  confidence  and  patronage,  which  I  cordially 
wish  you :  both  of  which  I  regard  it  as  eminently 
deserving. 

Respectfully,  I  am  yours, 

JOSIAH  QUINCY. 
BOSTON, 


No.  2. 
From  Pres.  HITCHCOCK,  late  of  Amherst  College. 

I  have  examined  the  work  entitled  "Eighty  Years' 
Progress  of  the  United  States,"  sufficiently  to  satisfy 
myself  that  it  is  a  work  of  superior  merit.  Acquaint 
ed  as  I  am  with  several  of  the  authors,  I  know  that 
they  would  never  suffer  productions  of  this  sort  to 
go  forth  over  their  names,  unless  they  possess  high 
merit.  The  work  contains  a  vast  amount  of  infor 
mation,  which  every  intelligent  man  can  hardly  do 
without,  and  which,  by  the  aid  of  numerous  draw 
ings,  is  here  presented  in  an  attractive  form.  With 
the  aid  of  this  work,  any  one  can  well  understand 
the  present  advanced  state  of  all  the  great  industrial 
and  economical  arts  in  our  country,  and  be  able  to 
see  how  they  have  grown  up  from  their  early  and 
rude  beginnings.  I  know  not  where  else,  save  bv 
almost  mfinite  labor,  this  knowledge  can  be  obtained. 
EDWARD  HITCHCOCK. 


No.  3. 

From  the,  President  of  the  Wesleyan  University,  Middletown 

vonn. 

I  have  examined,  with  much  pleasure  and  profit 
the  work   entitled  "Eighty  Tears' Progress!''    It 


contains  a  great  amount  and  variety  of  information, 
printed  in  an  attractive  style,  on  subjects  of  the 
highest  importance.  It  is  eminently  a  practical  work, 
and  brings  within  the  reach  of  all,  stores  of  knowl 
edge  heretofore  inaccessible  to  most  readers.  The 
novelty  of  the  title,  the  great  truths  illustrated  and 
established,  give  it  increased  attractiveness  and 
usefulness.  The  patriot  and  the  philanthropist  will 
be  encouraged  by  its  perusal  and  stimulated  to 
greater  exertions  to  secure  further  progress  in  all 
good  things  hi  our  country  and  throughout  the 
world. 

The  enterprising  publisher  has  not  spared  expense 
in  the  manufacture  of  the  work.  The  printing  and 
the  abundant  illustrations  are  in  the  highest  style 
of  rt.  One  of  the  best  illustrations  of  "  Eighty 
Years'  Progress,"  would  be  found  in  the  comparison 
of  the  mechanical  execution  of  this  work  with  that 
of  any  work  issued  eighty  years  ago. 

JOSEPH  CUMMINGS, 
President  of  Wesleyan  University. 


No.  4. 

From  President  of  Girard  College,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Dear  Sir,— I  have  been  interested  and  instructed 
sy  the  perusal  of  your  national  work,  entitled  "Eighty 
Years'  Progress"  for  a  copy  of  which  I  am  indebted 
to  your  courtesy. 

An  illustrated  history  of  the  various  branches  of 
ndustry  and  art  in  the  United  States,  prepared  with 
he  ability  and  truthfulness  which  characterizes  this 
vork,  will  be  highly  acceptable  to  all  classes  of 
eaders.  In  its  artistic  and  mechanical  execution 
tothmg  has  been  left  to  be  desired.  I  am  not  ac 
quainted  with  any  work  in  which  so  much  reliable 
nformation  on  so  great  variety  of  subjects  may  be 
ound  in  so  small  a  compass.  It  is  emphaticallv  a 
sook  for  the  people. 

Yours  respectfully, 

WILLIAM  H.  ALLEN. 


No.  5. 

From  the  President  of  Genegee  College. 
LIMA,  November  6, 

With  as  much  care  as  my  time  would  allow  I 
aye  examined  the  work  of  Mr.  Stebbins,  entitled 
Eighty  Years'  Progress."  It  contains  a  large 
mount  of  valuable  information,  in  just  the  form  to 
e  circulated  widely  among  the  people.  It  is  in  fact 
brief  and  interesting  history  of  our  progress  as  a 
ation,  m  both  science  and  the  arts.  I  am  willing 


COMMENDATIONS. 


that    my  name    and  influence    should  aid  in  its 


circulation. 


J.  MORRISON  REED. 


I  fully  concur  in  the  above. 

JAMES  L.  ALVISON, 
Professor  in  Gencseo  College. 


No.  G. 
From  the  President  of  Cambridge  University. 

CAMBRIDGE,  Oct.  31, 

Dear  Sir, — I  have  examined  the  work  called 
"Eighty  Years1  Progress,"  with  such  attention  as  I 
could  give  it.  I  am  not  competent  to  verify  the 
statements  of  many  parts,  but  the  names  of  the 
gentlemen  who  contributed  some  of  the  most  im 
portant  portions  seems  to  be  a  sufficient  guaranty 
of  their  accuracy.  I  have  no  doubt  the  volumes 
contain  much  valuable  information  on  the  practical 
arts  and  industrial  interests  of  the  country. 

C.  C.  FELTON. 


No.  7. 

From  the  President  of  Marietta  College,  Ohio. 

Dear  Sir, — The  work  on  the  "  Eighty  Years'  Pro 
gress  of  the  United  States"  was  received  by  mail  a  few 
days  since.  I  have  given  what  attention  I  could  to 
it,  and  write  you  now,  as  I  am  expecting  to  be  ab 
sent  from  home  for  some  days. 

The  examination  of  this  work  has  given  me  much 
pleasure.  The  idea  of  furnishing  this  most  valuable 
knowledge  in  a  comparatively  small  compass,  was 
a  most  happy  one.  As  a  people  we  want  informa 
tion — reliable  information.  We  need  to  know  our 
own  history,  in  art  and  science,  as  well  as  in  govern 
ment.  The  people  of  one  section  should  know  how 
those  of  others  live — the  progress  of  one  should  be 
made  known  to  all. 

The  idea  of  the  work  you  have  undertaken  seems 
to  have  been  well  carried  out,  as  well  as  happily 
conceived.  On  a  great  variety  of  topics,  in  which 
all  the  people  are  interested,  you  have  furnished  a 
large  amount  of  valuable  information.  All,  except 
those  of  the  lowest  grade  of  intelligence,  will  avail 
themselves  of  the  opportunity  to  secure  this  vol 
ume,  and,  unlike  many  books,  the  more  it  is  exam 
ined  the  more  valuable  will  it  seem.  I  anticipate 
for  it  a  wide  circulation. 

I  feel  great  interest  in  the  character  of  the  books 
distributed  through  the  country.  AVe  teach  our 
young  people,  at  great  cost,  to  read.  Many,  having 
acquired  the  art,  have  no  disposition  to  use  it ;  and 
others  read  nothing  that  has  any  value.  Good 
books,  books — not  newspapers,  they  will  take  care 
of  themselves — should  be  in  every  house.  Hence, 
I  favor  school  libraries,  as  an  easy  and  cheap  method 
of  putting  good  books  into  the  hands  of  the  young. 
For  a  like  reason  I  rejoice  in  the  purchase,  by  fami 
lies,  of  all  good  works. 

This  work  on  the  Progress  of  the  United  States, 
\vill  serve  a  most  excellent  purpose  in  two  ways. 


It  may  be  taken  up  at  any  time  to  employ  a  few 
leisure  moments,  and  it  serves  as  an  encyclopaedia 
for  reference. 

Please  accept  my  thanks  for  the   volume,  and 
my  best  wishes  for  its  wide-spread  distribution. 
Yours  truly,  J.  W.  ANDREWS. 

L.  STEBBINS,  Esq.,  Worcester,  Mass. 


No.  8. 
From  the  President  of  the  University  of  Rochester,  N.  Y. 

I  have  looked  over,  somewhat  hastily,  the  work 
entitled  "  Eighty  Years'  Progress."  The  plan  seems 
to  me  excellent,  the  idea  of  presenting  in  a  short 
compilation  the  present  state  and  rate  of  progress 
of  the  various  industrial  arts  is  one  which  can  not 
fail  to  be  thought  worthy.  In  general,  the  work 
seems  to  be  successfully  and  correctly  done.  In 
such  a  work  it  is  impossible  to  avoid  errors,  and 
the  prejudices  and  interests  of  the  diiferent  com 
pilers  may  be  occasionally  seen.  Notwithstanding 
this,  the  work  seems  to  me  well  worthy  the  patron 
age  of  the  public, 

M.  B.  ANDERSON, 
Pres.  University  of  Rochester. 


No.  9. 

From  the  President  of  Brown  University,  Providence,  E.  I. 

I  have  examined  those  parts  of  the  "  Eighty  Years' 
Progress  of  the  United  States"  on  which  my  studies 
and  observation  have  enabled  me  to  form  an  intelli 
gent  judgment,  and  find,  compressed  within  a  small 
compass,  a  vast  amount  of  valuable  information, 
well  selected  and  well  arranged.  It  furnishes  am 
ple  means  of  comparison  on  the  subjects  of  which 
it  treats,  and  will,  I  think,  prove  to  be  a  valuable 
book  of  reference. 

Very  respectfully,  your  ob't  serv't, 

B.  SEARS. 


No.  10. 
From  President  EEAD,  University  of  Wisconsin. 

I  have  examined,  with  a  pleasure  I  can  hardly 
express  in  too  strong  terms,  your  "  Eighty  Years' 
Progress  of  the  United  States."  During  the  few 
days  the  work  has  been  on  my  table  it  has  saved 
me,  in  the  examination  of  facts,  labor  worth  many 
times  the  cost  of  the  volume.  For  the  school  library 
the  business  man,  the  scholar,  or  the  intelligent 
family,  it  will  be  found  a  cyclopaedia  presenting,  in 
a  most  interesting  form,  the  progress  of  the  various 
arts  of  civilized  life  during  the  period  of  our  nation 
al  existence.  I  most  heartily  recommend  the  work. 
Very  truly  yours, 

DANIEL  READ. 


No.  11. 

From  the  President  of  Columbia  College,  N.  T. 

Sir, —  I  thank  you  for  the  copy  of  "Eighty 
Years'  Progress  of  the  United  States,"  published 
by  you. 


COMMENDATIONS. 


It  seems  to  me  of  great  value  as  containing  in 
formation  of  interest,  more  or  less,  to  all,  and  not 
easily  accessible,  except  to  varied  labor  and  re 
search. 

The  idea,  too,  of  illustrating  national  progress, 
not  by  war,  nor  annexation,  nor  diplomatic  legerde 
main,  but  by  the  advance  in  the  institutions  of 
learning,  in  useful  inventions,  in  the  growth  of 
manufactures,  agriculture,  and  commerce,  in  all  the 
arts  of  peace,  in  morals  and  civilization,  in  the 
inner  life,  so  to  speak,  of  the  people  themselves, 
seems  to  me  both  original  and  founded  in  the  true 
notion  of  progress. 

I  trust  you  will  derive  abundant  reward  for  your 
praiseworthy  adventure. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

CH.  KING, 
Pres.  of  Columbia  College. 

Mr.  STEBBINS. 


No.  12. 
From  the  President  of  Tufts  College. 

January  27, 

MR.  STEBBINS  :  Dear  Sir, —  I  was  led  to  expect 
much  from  the  title  of  your  work,  called  "  Eighty 
Years'  Progress,"  and  resolved  to  give  it  a  careful 
examination.  I  have  been  richly  repaid  for  the 
time  thus  spent,  in  the  great  pleasure  and  profit  I 
have  derived  from  its  perusal.  Heartily  thankin 
you  for  this  generous  contribution  to  generous 
knowledge,  I  trust  you  may  reap  a  rich  reward  for 
your  efforts.  JOHN  P.  MARSHALL. 


No.  13. 
From  the  President  of  Dartmouth  College. 

January  20, 

L.  STEBBINS,  ESQ.  :  Dear  Sir, — I  received  some 
days  ago  your  very  handsome  work,  "Eighty 
Years'  Progress  of  the  United  States,"  but  have 
found  leisure  only  within  a  day  or  two  to  examine 
its  contents.  Those  persons  who  have  been  long 
est  on  the  stage  can  best  appreciate  the  amazing 
contrasts  in  the  state  of  the  country  which  you 
describe,  but  one  who,  like  myself,  can  recognize 
the  history  of  half  the  period,  can  testify  to  the 
faithfulness  and  fullness  of  your  exhibition  of  the 
growth  and  power  of  this  great  country. 

Accept  my  sincere  thanks  for  the  work,  and  the 

opinion  that  on  the   subjects  treated  it  will  be 

found  an  invaluable  authority  by  all  who  study  its 

pages.    I  trust  it  may  have  an  extensive  distribu- 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

0.  P.  HUBBARD. 


No.  14. 
From  Chancellor  TAPPAN,  State  University  of  Michigan. 

January  25, 

MR.   STEBBINS:  Sir,— I  have  the  honor  to  ac 
knowledge  the  receipt  of  a  copy  of  the  work  re 


cently  published  by  you,  entitled  "Eighty  Years' 
Progress,"  for  which  please  accept  my  hearty 
thanks. 

It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  this  work  could  be 
made  to  contain  an  adequate  view  of  the  progress 
of  our  country  during  eighty  years.     But  you  have 
presented   the  public  with  this  large  work,  filled 
with  interesting  and  valuable  matter  on  this  sub 
ject,  as  much,  perhaps,  as  could  be  compressed  into 
it.     I  hope  this  work  will  find  a  wide  circulation, 
and  thus  become  a  public  benefit  in  a  literal  sense. 
I  am  very  respectfully  yours,  etc., 
HENRY  P.  TAPPAN. 


No.  15. 

From  the  President  of  the  Vermont  University,  Burlington. 

I  have  only  had  time  to  dip  into  your  "Eighty 
Years'  Progress"  here  and  there.  But  I  have  been 
pleased  and  instructed,  and  am  sure  the  book  must 
be  very  valuable.  My  children  are  very  much  in 
terested  in  it.  Yours  very  truly, 

CALVIN  PEASE. 


No.  1C. 
Fi-om  the  President  of  Williams1  College. 

Dear  Sir. — I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that 
the  work  proposed  to  be  done  in  the  "Eighty 
Years'  Progress"  has  been  well  done.  For  those 
who  wish  a  book  of  the  kind,  yours  cannot  fail  to 
be  the  book.  Respectfully  yours, 

MARK  HOPKINS. 

Mr.  L.  STEBBINS. 


No.    17. 

From  President  of  Trinity  College,  Hartford,  Conn. 
Dear  Sir, — I  have  to  thank  you  for  a  copy  of  your 
work  on  the  Progress  of  the  United  States.  It 
treats  of  some  matters  with  which  I  am  familiar, 
and  of  some  with  which  I  am  not  familiar ;  but  I  think 
I  can  honestly  say,  with  regard  to  both,  that  they  are 
so  presented  as  to  be  at  once  interesting  and  instruct 
ive  to  the  general  reader. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

SAMUEL  ELIOT. 
HARTFORD,  October  4, 


No.  18. 

From  Pres.  WOOLSEY,  Yale  College,  New  Haven,  Conn. 

YALE  COLLEGE,  Nov.  15, 

MR.  L.  STEBBINS:  Dear  Sir, — Your  book  is  a 
good  and  useful  one,  but  it  is  not  my  practice  to 
recommend  books. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

T.  D.  WOOLSEY. 


COMMENDATIONS. 


No.  19. 

COLLEGE  OF  NEW  JERSEY,  ) 
PRINCETON,  Jan.  28,  f 

Dear  Sir, —  Your  "  Eighty  Years'  Progress  of 
the  United  States."  I  regard  as  a  valuable  publica 
tion,  richly  meriting  the  attention  of  the  general 
reader,  as  well  as  the  more  careful  examination  of 
the  student  interested  in  observing  the  advance 
ment  of  our  country  in  the  useful  arts  and  learning. 
Very  respectfully  yours, 

JOHN  MCLEAN. 
L.  STEBBINS,  Esq. 


No.  20. 
From  Prof.  JOHNSON,  Tale  College,  New  Haven,  Conn. 

L.  STEBBINS,  ESQ.  :  Dear  Sir, — I  have  examined 
"Eighty  Years'  Progress,"  with  interest,  especially 
the  excellent  chapter  on  agriculture.  In  my  opinion, 
the  work  is  one  of  much  value,  and  deserves  a 
wide  circulation.  Yours,  etc., 

S.  W.  JOHNSON, 

Prof,  of  Analytical  and  Agricultural 
Chemistry  in  the  Sheffield  Scientific 
School  of  Yale  College. 


No.  21. 

From  Eev.  Dr.  SMITH,  Lane  Theological  Seminary,  Ohio. 
MR.  L.  STEBBINS  :  My  Dear  Sir, — I  have  run  my 
eyes  with  great  interest  over  your  beautiful  work, 
" Eighty  Years'  Progress."  It  contains,  in  a  condensed 
yet  attractive  form,  a  mass  of  information  touching 
the  progress  and  present  condition  of  our  country. 
It  is,  moreover,  information  of  which  every  man, 
at  some  time,  feels  the  need ;  and  it  would  be  a 
grand  contribution  both  to  the  intelligence  and 
patriotism  of  our  whole  population,  if  you  could 
succeed  in  placing  a  copy  of  it  in  every  family  of 
the  land.  I  shall  place  your  book  on  my  table  for 
constant  reference. 

Wishing  you  all  success  in  your  enterprise, 
I  am  very  truly  yours, 

HENRY  SMITH, 
Prof.  Ch.,  Hist,  and  Sac.  Rhetoric. 


From  Professor  FOWLT.R,  of  Amherst  College,  Editor  of  the 
University  Edition  of  Webster's  Dictionary,  Series  of  Clas 
sical  Books,  etc. 

The  work  which  you  placed  in  my  hands,  entitled 
"  Eighty  Years'  Progress  of  the  United  States,"  I 
have  taken  time  to  examine,  in  order  that  I  might 
learn  ita  intrinsic  value.  I  find  that  the  subjects 
selected  are  such,  and  the  manner  of  treatment  such, 
as  to  supply  a  felt  want  in  the  public  mind,  which, 
in  its  own  progress,  was  demanding  higher  and 
better  help  than  it  enjoyed  before  the  publication 
of  your  work.  This  might  be  inferred  from  the 
bare  mention  of  the  subjects  and  the  authors.  These 
subjects  are  treated  by  these  writers  with  that  cor 
rectness  of  the  statement  of  the  general  principles, 


and  with  that  fullness  of  detail  which  make  the  work 
just  what  it  ought  to  be  as  a  guide  to  the  people. 
Every  young  man  who  wishes  to  elevate  his  mind 
by  self-culture,  ought  to  read  this  work  carefully. 
Yours  respectfully, 

WILLIAM  C.  FOWLER. 


No.  23. 

From  Prof.  B.  SILLIMAN,  Tale  College,  New  Haven,  Ct. 

I  have  carefully  looked  through  your  rich  and 
faithful  work,  observing  the  copious  tables  of  con 
tents,  glancing  at  every  page  of  the  work,  and  at  all 
the  numerous  illustrations,  with  occasional  reading 
of  paragraphs.  A  more  thorough  examination  it 
has  not  been  hitherto  in  my  power  to  make  ;  but 
even  this  general  survey  has  left  on  my  mind  the 
decided  conviction  that  you  have  performed  an  im- 
portaut  service  to  your  country  iu  thus  mapping 
out  and  condensing  and  explaining  the  wonderful 
progress  made  in  this  country,  during  four-fifths  of 
a  century,  in  all  the  most  important  arts  of  life.  My 
own  recollections — my  years  having  been  coeval 
with  the  entire  period  covered  by  your  work — sus 
tain  your  statements  regarding  the  extreme  simpli 
city  of  our  early  domestic  arts — cheap  in  mechanical 
aids  but  prodigal  of  time.  Now  productive  industry, 
aided  by  successful  inventions,  fills  all  our  regions 
where  free  labor  has  full  scope  for  action,  with  in 
numerable  results  which  are  fully  equal  to  our  wants, 
even  in  the  present  crisis,  leaving  also  a  large  redun 
dancy  of  articles  for  export,  especially  in  the  depart 
ment  of  agriculture,  and  in  not  a  few  important  me 
chanical  arts. 

Your  work  of  closely  printed  pages  of  double  col 
umns,  with  a  fair  paper  and  a  clear  and  distinct  type, 
with  its  numerous  engravings,  defended  also  by  a 
strong  and  neat  binding,  presents  a  valuable  book 
of  reference  ;  a  manual  to  be  consulted  by  the  agri 
culturist  and  artist,  as  well  as  by  the  man  of  science 
and  the  historian  of  progress.  Wishing  to  yourself 
and  your  worthy  coadjutors  full  success, 

I  remain,  dear  sir,  yours  very  respectfully 

B.  SILLIMAN. 

NEW  HAVEN,  October  8, 


No.  24. 

From  the  New  Tork  Times. 

"Eighty  Tears'  Progress  of  the  United  States." — If 
at  all  inclined  to  doubt  that  a  great  deal  of  useful  in 
formation  may  be  bound  up  in  a  comparatively  small 
compass  by  a  judicious  compiler,  in  the  very  hand 
some  work  before  us,  we  should  find  sufficient  logic 
to  make  us  devout  believers.  The  writers  have 
ranged  through  the  wild  fields  of  agriculture,  com 
merce,  and  trade ;  very  little  that  develops  the  ma 
terial  prosperity  of  a  country,  and  marks  its  growth, 
has  escaped  their  industrious  research.  Undoubt 
edly,  minute  criticism  might  detect  slight  errors,  but 
in  a  work  of  so  comprehensive  a  character,  strict 
accuracy  would  seem  almost  unattainable.  The 
statistics  given  are  full  and  clearly  arranged ;  the 
grouping  of  the  subjects,  and  the  evident  method 
which  the  authors  have  observed  in  the  accomplish* 


COMMENDATIONS. 


nient  of  their  not  inconsiderable  task,  are  worthy 
of  all  praise.  The  work  is  one  which  we  particu 
larly  need,  as  it  is  a  lamentable  fact  that  few  people 
are  "so  deficient  in  general  knowledge  of  facts  rela 
tive  to  growth  and  development  of  their  native 
country,  as  ours.  The  Englishman  generally  has 
an  arsenal  of  statistics  at  his  fingers'  ends ;  he  can 
tell  you  when  the  first  shaft  was  sunk  in  the  first 
mine ;  when  the  first  loom  was  erected  in  Manches 
ter.  The  panoply  of  facts  in  which  he  is  arrayed 
makes  him  rather  a  ponderous  and  far  from  spright 
ly  companion,  at  times ;  but  then  he  always  prove 
formidable  as  an  adversary.  Germans,  too,  have 
nearly  every  thing  by  rote  that  relates  to  their  own 
country.  Frenchmen  are  quick  to  learn,  but  they 
have  not  very  retentive  memories  generally,  and 
are  very  apt  to  forget  all,  and  more,  than  they  once 
knew.  It  may  be  urged  in  extenuation  of  our  na 
tional  delinquency,  as  regards  a  knowledge  of  our 
own  country,  that  our  country  grows  too  fast  for 
our  memories  to  keep  pace  with  it,  and  that  a  Yan 
kee  can  arrive  by  guessing  at  what  others,  less  fa 
vored  in  this  respect,  can  only  reach  by  delving  in 
authorities ;  but,  on  the  whole,  it  is  better  to  trust  to 
actual  knowledge  of  facts,  and  under  any  circum 
stances  such  books  as  these  are  good  things  to  have 
in  the  library. 


No.  25. 
From  the  New  York  Examiner. 

"  Eighty  Years'  Progress  of  the  United  States,"  by 
emineub  literary  men,  who  have  made  the  subjects 
of  which  they  have  written  their  special  study. 

The  citizen  who  desires  to  comprehend  fully  how 
the  country  in  which  we  live  has,  under  the  foster 
ing  influences  of  a  good  government,  the  enterprise 
of  an  energetic  people,  and  above  all,  the  blessing 
of  God,  grown  from  a  handful  of  people  to  one  of 
the  leading  powers  in  the  world,  should  purchase 
and  read  carefully  this  work.  It  is  no  catchpenny 
affair.  The  men  who  have  prepared  the  narratives 
of  progress  in  the  various  departments  of  agricul 
ture  and  horticulture,  commerce,  manufactures, 
banking,  education,  science,  art,  and  the  matters 
which  go  to  make  "  home"  so  emphatically  an 
American  word,  are  not  novices,  penny-a-liners,  who 
write  on  any  or  all  subjects,  with  or  without  an  un 
derstanding  of  them,  for  the  sake  of  their  daily  bread 
— but  men  of  high  reputation,  who  have  made  the 
subjects  they  discuss  the  topics  of  a  life's  study. 
Every  subject  which  will  admit  of  it  is 'finely  illus 
trated,  and  tables  of  statistics,  carefully  prepared 
from  the  latest  sources,  show  the  present  condition 
of  each  department,  and  demonstrate,  as  only  figures 
can,  how  great  the  advance  which  has  been  made 
in  each.  As  a  work  of  reference,  not  less  than  as  a 
deeply  interesting  book  for  family  reading  it  will 
be  a  treasure  to  any  household  that  may  obtain  it 


No.  2G. 

From  the  New  York  Observer. 
"Eighty  Years'  Progress  of  the  United  States  "—the 
above  rather  formidable  title-page  is  quite  a  full  ex 
position  of  the  contents  of  this  large  work,  which 


contain  a  vast  amount  of  scientific,  historical,  and 
statistical  matter,  and  which  constitute  a  valuable 
encyclopaedia,  as  well  as  history  of  the  progress  of 
the  country,  during  the  last  eighty  years.  Many 
of  the  most  extended  articles  are  by  eminent  scien 
tific  and  practical  men,  who  have  devoted  themselves 
largely  to  the  subjects  on  which  they  have  written. 
The  subjects  are  not  treated  briefly,  but  in  detail, 
rendering  the  work  valuable  as  a  book  of  reference 
as  well  as  for  general  reading.  Such  a  review  as 
we  have  in  this  work  may  well  excite  wonder, 
gratitude,  and  hope.  The  history  of  no  other  coun 
try  can  furnish  a  parallel. 


No.  27. 

From  Hunt's  Merchants'  Magazine,  edited  by  I.  SMITH  Ho- 
MAXS,  Secretary  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  the  State 
of  New  York. 

"Eighty  Years1  Progress  of  the  United  States." — The 
first  eighty  years  of  the  national  existence  were 
illustrated  by  no  brilliant  military  exploits,  such  as 
for  the  most  part  make  up  the  history  of  most  coun 
tries  of  the  Old  World,  but  the  American  people  did 
not  the  less  on  that  account  assume  a  marked 
character,  and  a  first  rank  among  the  nations  of  the 
earth.  Their  success  in  ship-building  and  commerce 
at  once  placed  them  on  a  level  with  the  greatest 
maritime  nations.  The  inventive  genius  and  untir 
ing  industry  of  the  people  soon  revolutionized  the 
manufacturing  industiy  of  the  world,  by  the  ready 
application  of  new  mechanical  powers  to  industrial 
arts ;  and  if  the  extent  and  cheapness  of  land  for  a 
time  supplied  the  scarcity  of  labor  in  agricultural 
departments,  it  did  not  prevent  the  multiplication 
of  inventions,  which  have  not  only  added  immensely 
to  home  production,  but  have  greatly  aided  that  of 
European  countries.  The  development  of  these  in 
dustries  forms  the  true  history  of  American  great 
ness,  and  the  work  of  Mr.  Stebbins  has  given  a 
world  of  information  upon  each  branch  of  the  sub 
ject,  in  a  most  authentic  and  attractive  form.  The 
chapters  on  ship-building,  commerce,  and  internal 
transportation,  present  to  the  reader  a  mass  of  val 
uable  information  as  astonishing  for  the  magnitude 
of  the  results  produced  as  interesting  in  the  narra 
tive.  "We  know  of  no  other  work  which,  in  the 
compass  of  two  handsome  volumes,  contains  such 
varied  and  comprehensive  instruction  of  a  perfectly 
reliable  character.  They  form  almost  a  complete 
library  in  themselves. 


No.  28. 

From  the  Secretary  of  Board  of  Trade,  Philadelphia. 
L.  STEBBIXS,  ESQ.  :  Dear  Sir, — I  examined  with 
interest  the  volumes  published  by  you,  entitled 
''Eighty  Years'  Progr&s,"  and  found  them  partic 
ularly  valuable.  The  design  struck  me  very  favor 
ably,  and  the  execution  of  the  several  parts  could 
not  have  been  intrusted  to  more  competent  hands. 
The  last  eighty  years  of  the  history  of  the  United 
States  has  been  one  of  unexampled  progress,  and  it 
:S  now  more  than  ever  important  to  bring  in  review 
aefore  the  people  of  every  section  the  leading  facts 
of  this  marvellous  progress. 

Yery  respectfully  yours, 

LORIN  BLODGET. 


COMMENDATIONS. 


No.  29. 
From  the  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  Boston. 

My  Dear  Sir, — My  many  cares  just  now  have 
prevented  me  from  a  comparison  of  the  statistical 
matter  contained  in  the  "  Eighty  Years'  Progress," 
with  official  tables  in  my  possession,  as  well 
as  an  examination  of  some  other  things,  concerning 
which  authorities  differ,  but  I  have  found  time  to 
acquaint  myself  with  the  general  topics  and  objects 
of  the  work,  and  do  not  hesitate  to  declare  that  I 
have  not  read  more  interesting  pages  for  years.  In 
deed,  the  best  informed  among  us,  cannot,  as  it 
Beems  to  me,  fail  to  find  much  that  is  new,  while  to 
the  young  and  to  those  who  lack  the  means  of  re 
search,  so  authentic  and  well-digested  account  of 
our  country's  "  Progress,"  will  be  of  immense  ser 
vice.  We  all  boast  of  our  wonderful  march  in  com 
merce,  in  manufactures,  in  mechanics,  and  in  the 
arts ;  and  here  we  have  it,  step  by  step,  in  "  facts 
and  figures,"  and  in  brief  and  pithy  narrative. 

With  all  my  heart,  I  hope  that  the  sale  will  be 
extensive,  and  that  you  may  be  well  rewarded  for 
your  outlay  of  time  and  capital. 

Very  truly,  your  friend, 

LORENZO  SABINE. 

L.  STEBBINS,  Esq.,  Hartford,  Conn. 


No.  30. 
From  the  New  Englander,  New  Haven,  Conn. 

"Eighty  Years' Progress  of  the.  United  States." — In 
this  very  large  octavo  work  there  is  presented  in  a 
compact  and  easily  accessible  form  an  amount  of 
valuable  information  with  regard  to  the  progress 
which  the  people  of  the  United  States  have  made 
in  all  the  various  channels  of  industry  since  the 
days  when  they  were  British  colonists,  which  is  not 
to  be  found  in  any  other  single  work  with  which 
we  are  acquainted.  Each  one  of  these  subjects  is 
amply  illustrated  with  engravings.  The  different 
chapters  have  been  prepared  by  well-known  liter 
ary  men  who  have  each  made  the  subjects  about 
which  they  have  written  the  study  of  years.  We 
have  examined  the  work  repeatedly  and  with  much 
care  during  the  past  three  months,  and  each  time 
have  been  impressed  anew  with  its  value.  There 
is  not  an  intelligent  family  in  the  nation  who  would 
not  be  interested  and  instructed  by  it,  and  find  it  a 
most  convenient  book  of  reference  with  regard  to 
every  thing  pertaining  to  the  industrial  interests  of 
the  country. 


No.  31. 

From  the  Philadelphia  Inquirer. 

"Eighty  Years1  Progress  of  the  United  States." — To 
any  one  desiring  at  a  glance  a  comprehensive  view 
of  the  various  channels  of  educational  industry  in 
commerce,  manufactures,  agriculture,  statistics,  etc., 
they  are  invaluable.  They  are  profusely  illus 
trated  with  elegant  engravings  in  the  highest  style 
of  artistic  merit.  The  volumes  redound  with  sta 
tistical  and  miscellaneous  information  of  a  standard 
character  and  permanent  value.  The  expense  of 
publisliing  a  work  of  this  character  must  have  been 


very  large,  but  we  feel  confident  ihat  a  discrimi 
nating  public  have  not  been  overestimated. 

There  are  among  the  peculiar  characteristics  of 
our  people,  wide- spread  opinions  prevailing,  that 
books  sold  by  subscription  are  of  a  necessity  more 
expensive  than  when  purchased  in  a  general  way 
at  the  counter  of  a  publishing  house.  This  is  evi 
dently  an  error  that  could  easily  be  subverted  by 
a  little  demonstration,  and  the  publishers'  remarks 
in  the  preface  are  to  the  point,  and  effective.  We 
know  of  hardly  any  book  or  books  which  are  with 
in  the  reach  of  every-day  life,  that  we  would  sooner 
advise  a  friend  to  purchase.  Its  value  will  be  un 
impaired  for  a  lifetime. 


No.  32. 
From  the  Boston  Transcript 

"Eighty  Years1  Progress  of  the  United  States." — 
This  work  is  the  result  of  much  careful  research, 
exercised  by  many  minds  on  a  variety  of  important 
subjects.  They  show  the  industrial  and  educational 
steps  by  which  the  people  of  the  United  States 
have  risen  from  their  colonial  condition  to  their 
present  position  among  the  nations  of  the  world. 
They  give,  in  a  historical  form,  the  progress  of  the 
country  in  agriculture,  commerce,  trade,  banking, 
manufactures,  machinery,  modes  of  travel  and  trans 
portation,  and  the  work  is  intended  to  be  sold  by 
subscription,  and  will  doubtless  have  a  large  circu 
lation.  It  ought  to  be  in  every  house  in  the  land. 
It  is  more  important  than  ordinary  histories  of  the 
country,  as  it  exhibits  all  the  triumphs  of  the  prac 
tical  mind  and  energy  of  the  nation,  in  every  de 
partment  of  science,  art,  and  benevolence.  It  is  a 
storehouse  of  important  and  stimulating  facts,  and 
its  interest  can  hardly  be  exhausted  by  the  most 
persistent  reader. 


No.  33. 

From  the  N.  Y.  Herald. 

"  Eighty  Years1  Progress  of  the  United  States,"  by 
eminent  literary  men. — The  object  of  this  work, 
as  set  forth  in  its  preface,  is  to  show  the  various 
channels  of  industry  through  which  the  people  of 
the  United  States  have  arisen  from  a  British  colony 
to  their  present  national  importance.  This  is  done 
by  treating  separately  the  improvements  effected  in 
agriculture,  commerce,  trade,  manufactures,  ma 
chinery,  modes  of  travel,  transportation,  etc.  The 
preparation  of  these  different  articles  has  been  in 
trusted  to  writers  whose  pursuits  qualified  them 
to  handle  them  exhaustively,  and  the  result  is  the 
assemblage  of  a  vast  amount  of  statistical  and 
other  information  which  is  not  to  bo  found  in  the 
same  collective  and  condensed  form  in -any  other 
work  extant. 


No.  34. 
From  the  Boston  Post. 

"Eighty    Years1   Progress  of    the    United   States, 
showing  the  various  channels  of  industry  through 


COMMENDATIONS. 


which  the  people  of  the  United  States  have  arisen 
from  a  British  colony  to  their  present  National 
Importance,"  is  the  title  of  a  new  and  exceedingly 
valuable  work.  The  work  gives  in  a  historical  form 
the  vast  improvements  made  in  agriculture,  com 
merce,  trade,  manufacturing,  etc.,  together  with  a 
large  amount  of  statistical  and  other  information. 
It  is  illustrated  with  numerous  engravings,  and  al 
together  forms  a  most  valuable  and  instructive  com 
panion  to  the  writer,  the  business  man,  or  the 
student. 


No.  35. 

From  WM.  "VV.  TITRNER,  Principal  of  the  American  Asylum 
for  Deuf  and  Dumb,  Hartford,  Conn. 

I  have  examined  your  new  national  work  entitled 
"Eighty  Years'  Progress  of  the  United  States," 
and  mid  that  the  information  it  contains  on  the  wide 
range  of  subjects  treated  of  must  make  it  exceeding 
ly  valuable  as  a  standard  book  of  reference.  The 
names  of  the  writers  of  the  different  articles  afford 
a  sufficient  guaranty  that  the  facts  and  statements 
may  be  relied  on  as  correct.  I  consider  the  work  a 
very  important  accession  to  this  department  of 
literature,  and  have  no  doubt  that  it  will  flnd  its  way 
into  the  library  of  every  private  gentleman  and 
every  public  institution. 

Very  truly  yours, 

WM.  W.  TURNER. 


No.  36. 

From    JOHN    D.     PHII.BRICK,     Superintendent    Common 
Schools,  Massachusetts. 

I  have  examined  the  "Eighty  Years'  Progress"  with 
great  satisfaction.  I  consider  it  a  work  of  great 
value,  and  it  is  one  which  I  should  be  very  unwill 
ing  to  spare  from  my  library.  It  is  not  only  such 
a  book  as  the  literary  or  professional  man  would 
like  to  possess,  but  it  is  a  book  for  every  household, 
and  for  every  school  library. 

Very  truly  yours, 

JOHN  D.  PHILBRICK. 


No.  37. 

From  the  Boston  Journal. 

/     "Eighty  Tears'  Progress  of  the  United  States."~In 
this  elaborate  and  valuable  work  the  progress  of  the 
United  States  is  illustrated  by  historical  sketches 
ot  the  rise  and  development  of  agriculture,  commerce 
trade,  manufactures,  modes  of  travel  and  transporta 
tion.     The  authors  will  be  recognized  as  fully  corn- 
tent  to  treat  upon  the  above  subjects,  and  their 
sketches  have  great  interest  and  value,  as  well  for  the 
ts  which  they  present,  as  in  illustrating  the  rapid 
progress  of  the  United  States  in  all  that  conduces 
material  wealth  and  national  prosperity.     The 
work  abounds  in  valuable  statistical  information 
and  is  interesting  for  perusal,  and  useful  for  refer- 
on  co . 


No.  38. 

From  the  Philadelphia  Evening  Journal. 
"Eighty  Years'  Progress  of  the  United  States,'1  by 
eminent  literary  men. — The  work  treats  of  the  va 
rious  channels  of  industry  through  which  the  people 
of  the  United  States  have  arisen  from  a  British 
colony  to  their  present  national  importance.  It 
treats  of  the  vast  improvements  made  in  agriculture, 
commerce,  trade,  manufacturing,  machinery,  modes 
of  travel  and  transportation,  etc.,  etc. 


No.  39. 

From  the  Homestead,  Agricultural  Journal,  Hartford,  Ct 
"Eighty  Years'  Progress  of  the  United  Slates." — The 
title  conveys  but  a  faint  idea  of  the  great  amount 
of  information  contained  in  these  volumes,  and  no 
cursory  gjance  can  more  than  convince  the  reader 
that  they  possess  great  value  as  an  encyclopaedia 
of  arts  and  progress  in  civilization.  The  names 
of  the  authors  of  the  more  important  articles,  sev 
eral  of  whom  are  known  to  us  personally  and  high 
ly  respected,  are  a  guaranty  that  their  work  is  well 
done,  and  statements  reliable.  Our  limited  space 
forbids  an  extended  notice,  but  before  noticing  es 
pecially  the  agricultural  departments,  we  must  add, 
that  to  every  one  who  takes  it  up  it  is  one  of  the 
most  fascinating  of  books,  a  most  remarkable  qual 
ity  in  a  book  so  statistical  in  its  character. 

The  article  of  progress  in  Agriculture  is  by  Chas. 
L.  Flint,  Secretary  of  the  Massachusetts  Board  of 
Agriculture,  and  is  a  most  able  and  interesting  col 
lection  of  facts  in  regard  to  the  remarkable  pro 
gress  of  this  country  since  the  Revolution. 


No.  40. 

From  the  Philadelphia  Daily  Evening  Bulletin. 
MR.  L.  STEBBINS, — After  carefully  examining  your 
valuable  publication,  "  Eighty  Years'  Progress  of 
the  United  States,"  and  having  on  various  occasions, 
in  our  professional  business,  tested  its  accuracy  as 
a  work  of  reference,  we  are  able  to  bear  testimony  to 
its  character.  No  work  that  we  have  ever  seen  gives 
such  spirited,  comprehensive,  and  correct  views  of 
the  progress  of  our  country  in  political  strength,  in 
commerce,  agriculture,  manufactures,  and  all  branch 
es  of  industry  and  art.  The  work  has  been  pre 
pared  with  extreme  care ;  the  various  subjects  are 
treated  with  intelligence,  and  the  style  of  composi 
tion  proves  that  the  writers  are  men  of  education, 
who  have  thoroughly  informed  themselves  on  the 
subjects  they  discuss.  The  illustrations  and  the 
typography  add  much  to  the  attractions  of  a  work 
that  should  be  in  the  hands  of  all  who  take  an  in 
terest  in  the  growth  of  our  country,  and  feel  a 
patriotic  pride  in  its  prosperity. 

We  are  very  respectfully,  your  ob't  serv'ts, 
PEACOCK,  CHAMBERS  &  Co. 


No.  41. 

From  the  Secretary  of  Board  of  Education. 

BOSTON,  MASS.,  Sept.  6, 

Dear  Sir, — I  beg  leave  to  thank  you  for  your  no 
ble  work  entitled  "Eighty  Years'  Progress." 


COMMENDATIONS. 


After  such  an  examination  as  I  have  been  able  to 
give,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  pronounce  it  a  work  of 
unusual  interest  and  value. 

As  a  depository  of  facts  illustrative  of  the  pro 
gress  of  our  country  in  the  departments  of  industry, 
it  is  invaluable. 

Its  wide  circulation,  at  this  eventful  period,  can 
not  fail  to  arouse  and  deepen  that  patriotic  love  of 
our  institutions  which  is  the  pressing  demand  of 
the  hour.  Respectfully  yours, 

J.  WHITE. 

L.  STEBBINS,  Esq. 


No.  42. 

From  S.  S.  KANPALL,  City  Superintendent  Public  Schools, 
New  York. 

MR.  L.  STEBBINS:  Dear  Sir, — The  great  pressure 
of  official  engagements  has  hitherto  prevented  my 
acknowledgment  of  the  receipt  of  the  very  beauti 
ful  and  interesting  work  published  by  you — "  Eighty 
Years'  Progress  of  the  United  States."  I  have  not 
had  time  to  peruse  them  thoroughly,  but  take  great 
pleasure  in  stating  that,  so  far  as  1  have  looked  into 
them,  the  plan  and  general  execution  of  the  work 
seem  to  me  to  be  admirable,  and  well  adapted  to 
the  wants,  as  well  of  the  rising  generation,  as  of 
our  fellow-citizens  generally.  I  cheerfully  recom 
mend  it  to  the  favorable  regard  of  school  officers, 
parents,  teachers,  and  others,  as  a  very  valuable 
compend  of  scientific  and  historical  knowledge,  and 
as  a  work  well  worthy  of  a  place  hi  every  school 
or  private  library. 


No.  43. 
From  the  New  England  Farmer,  Boston. 

"Eighty  Years'  Progress  of  the  United  States." — 
This  volume  contains  an  immense  amount  of  valuable 
and  interesting  information  concerning  the  rise  and 
development  of  agriculture,  commerce,  trade,  man 
ufactures,  travel  and  transportation,  the  arts,  and 
other  prominent  interests  of  this  country.  This 
information  is  contained  in  a  series  of  essays  by 
gentlemen,  either  and  all  of  whom  will  be  recog 
nized  as  competent  to  illustrate  the  subject  upon 
which  he  writes. 


No.  44. 
From  Frank  Leslie. 

After  copying  the  entire  title-page,  the  notice  pro 
ceeds  thus: 

Such  is  the  comprehensive  title  of  an  elegantly 
printed  work  which  covers  a  very  wide  range  of 
subjects  of  special  American  interest.  The  work 
is,  in  fact,  an  industrial  and  statistical  history  of 
the  country  since  its  independence,  encyclopasdic 
in  character  and  arrangement,  but  yet  suffi 
ciently  complete  for  every  practical  purpose.  It 
may  be  regarded  as  an  epitome  of  the  publication 
of  the  Census  and  the  Patent  Office,  and  of  the 
proceedings  of  our  Industrial  Societies,  compact  in 
form,  convenient  for  reference,  and  deserving  a 
place  in  the  hands  of  every  reading  and  reflecting 
man  in  the  country. 


No.  45. 

From  E.  G-.  DANA,  Mercantile  Agency,  New  York. 
From  a  cursory  glance  at  its  contents  I  feel  war 
ranted  in  saying  it  possesses  information  of  much 
value  and  usefulness  to  all  classes. 

Very  respectfully,        R.  G.  DANA. 


No.  46. 
From  the  Evening  Post,  New  York. 

"Eighty  Tears'1  Progress  of  the  United  States." — The 
range  of  subjects  treated  in  this  work  is  very  full ; 
the  writers  upon  them  are  well  selected  with  regard 
to  specialties,  and  their  manner  of  handling  is  al 
ways  interesting,  frequently  thorough.  The  sys 
tem  pursued  is  not  encyclopaedic,  but  historical, 
and,  so  far  as  possible,  exhaustive.  The  growth  of 
our  agricultural  prosperity,  with  particular  regard 
to  improvements  made  in  breeds  and  machinery, 
and  the  dissemination  of  scientific  knowledge  among 
farmers,  is  well  recited,  and  this  department  forma 
one  of  the  most  attractive  features  of  the  book. 


No.  47. 
From  B.  J.  LOSSING,  the  Historian. 

Sir, — I  have  examined,  with  great  satisfaction, 
your  work  entitled  "Eighty  Years'1  Progress  of  the 
United  States."  It  is  a  work  of  inestimable  value  to 
those  who  desire  to  know,  in  minute  detail,  some 
thing  more  of  the  history  of  the  country  than  the 
events  of  its  political  and  industrial  life  as  exhibit 
ed  in  the  politician's  manual,  and  the  bold  state 
ments  of  the  census  ;  especially  at  this  time,  when 
the  civilized  world  is  eagerly  asking  what  we  are 
and  what  we  have  been,  that  the  old  governments 
may  attempt  to  solve  the  more  important  question, 
to  them,  what  we  will  be.  Your  work,  in  fact  and 
logical  prophecy,  furnishes  an  answer  of  which  any 
people  may  be  justly  proud.  Surely,  no  nation  of 
the  earth  has  ever  experienced  such  bounding 
progress  as  this ;  and  in  the  last  eighty  years,  as 
exhibited  in  your  work,  we  see  ample  prophecies 
of  the  future,  of  strength,  influence,  leadership 
among  the  nations,  such  as  the  eye  of  faith  employ 
ed  by  the  fathers,  dimly  saw.  No  American  can 
peruse  your  pages  without  feeling  grateful  for  the 
privilege  of  being  an  American  citizen. 

I  will  use  a  very  trite  phrase  and  say,  with  all 
sincerity,  I  wish  your  work  could  go  "into  every 
family  in  our  land,"  to  increase  their  knowledge 
and  to  strengthen  their  patriotism. 

Yours  respectfully, 

BENSON  J.  LOSSING. 


•*  No.  48. 

From  the  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce. 
"  Eighty  Fears'  Progress  of  the  United  States." — 
The  plan  is  extensive,  and  appears  to  be  judiciously 
carried  out.  The  work  is  divided  into  departments, 
to  each  of  which  has  been  devoted  his  laborious 
attention,  producing  a  readable,  and  at  the  same 
time  valuable  and  instructive,  summary  of  the  ad 
vances  made.  This  plan  necessarily  comprises  a 


COMMENDATIONS. 


very  complete  history  of  the  arts  and  sciences  for 
the'past  century.  In  many  of  them  it  covers  the 
whole  period  from  the  earliest  time  at  which  they 
were  known  to  man,  for  the  century  has  been  pro 
ductive  of  new  arts,  and  has  furnished  mankind 
with  not  a  few  totally  new  inventions.  To  digest 
the  contents  of  the  book  so  as  to  give  a  reader  even 
a  hint  of  its  comprehensiveness  would  be  impos 
sible. 

The  book  is  well  fitted  for  the  family  reading, 
and  valuable  as  a  source  of  interest  and  instruction 
to  the  young,  while  in  the  business  office  and 
counting-room  of  every  merchant,  banker,  and  pro 
fessional  man  it  would  answer  a  thousand  daily 
questions. 


No.  49. 

Office  of  Superintendent  of  Public  Schools,  Chicago. 
"Eighty  Years'  Progress." — The  work  which  you 
have  prepared  with  so  much  care  and  labor,  pre 
senting  the  progress  of  our  country  during  the  last 
eighty  years,  is  peculiarly  adapted  to  gratify  and 
instruct  all  classes  of  citizens.     No  work  could  be 
offered  to  the  public  at  the  present  time  more  wor 
thy  of  a  place  in  family  libraries,  and  school  libra 
ries,  than  the  one  which  you  now  present. 
Yours  truly, 

W.  H.  WELLS, 

Sup.  of  Public  Schools. 


No.  50. 

From  the  Superintendent  of  the  Institution  of  the  Deaf  and 
Dumb,  New  York. 

It  is  only  recently  that  I  could  find  time,  from 
the  pressure  of  official  duties,  to  examine  the  splen 
did  national  work,  "Eighty  Years'  Progress."  By 
the  way,  I  observe  that,  as  you  give  much  infor 
mation  concerning  early  colonial  times,  you  have  in 
fact  given  over  two  and  a  half  centuries  of  progress. 
The  work  strikes  me  as  a  production  of  great  valuo 
and  universal  interest.  "While  the  statesman  will 
find  a  mass  of  statistical  information,  which,  by  its 
arrangement  and  the  ahje  commentary  accompany 
ing  it,  will  assist  very  materially  in  the  correct  so 
lution  of  many  politico-economical  problems,  men 
actively  engaged  in  almost  any  pursuit,  agricultural, 
commercial,  mining,  education,  the  arts  of  design, 
the  mechanic  arts,  etc.,  will  each  find  much  infor 
mation,  both  curious  and  useful. 

Hoping  for  your  undertaking  all  the  success  it 
deserves,  I  remain,  very  respectfully  yours, 

HARVEY  P.  PEET. 


No.  51. 

From  the  Boston  Cultivator. 

"  Eighty  I  ears'  Progress."— There  is  a  work  which 
has  been  published  recently,  having  the  above  title 
and  which,  because  of  these  magnificent  words  of 
course,  arrests  the  attention  of  every  wise  man 
Eighty  years'  progress  ?  Eighty  years  of  process 
i  the  life  of  an  individual  would  make  a  rare  rec 
ord,  pregnant  with  the  most  practical  and  important 
considerations;  but  the  eighty  years'  progress  of 


which  we  speak,  are  the  years  of  a  nation,  or  the 
progress  of  many  millions  of  individuals,  and  hence 
how  widely  shall  we  have  to  open  our  eyes,  if  it  be 
faithfully  written,  and  we  would  take  it  all  in  so  as 
to  recognize  the  details  of  advancement  made  by  a 
mighty  people.  The  people,  whose  brilliant  destiny 
is  indicated  in  the  above  title,  are  those  of  the  Uni 
ted  States,  and  though  we  are  among  and  of  them, 
unless  by  long  and  constant  and  vigorous  pursuit 
of  the  special  end,  we,  ourselves,  can  have  no  ade 
quate  idea  of  the  real  extent  of  our  progress,  unless 
it  be  summed  up  from  the  material,  as  well  as  the 
political  history  of  the  period  about  which  we  in 
quire,  in  some  work  or  works  combining  the  knowl 
edge  of  many  whose  observation  and  reading  are 
large  in  opportunities  and  in  improvement. 

We,  as  a  people,  are  noted  in  Christendom  as  hav 
ing  an  undue  proportion  of  self-esteem,  and  an  im 
modest  desire  to  express  it  as  often  as  we  may  find 
an  audience.  The  Americans,  we  confess,  are,  in 
much,  superficial,  and  their  real  and  unparalleled 
rapidity  of  progress  is  too  much  and  too  frequently 
taken  for  granted  as  the  basis  of  adulatory  discourse ; 
and  because  of  this,  the  old  European,  familiar  from 
his  youth  with  the  fixed  sources  of  his  power,  and 
with  ease  and  grace  weighing  or  rejecting  questions 
he  knows  from  the  outset  are  or  are  not  detennin- 
able,  naturally  looks  with  discredit  upon  the  live 
Yankee  who  "  guesses"  everything,  and  when  urged 
to  state  the  real  ground  of  his  boasting,  only  covers 
his  superficial  knowledge  of  his  own  country  and 
history  by  his  agility  in  bombast  and  fleeing  the 
point  in  new  gratulation  and  a  keen  thrust  which 
forces  an  adverse  judgment.  And  the  ignorance 
which  leads  Americans  to  a  substitution  of  their 
wit,  also  leads  those  of  other  nations  to  suspect  the 
foundation  of  their  boasted  power  and  national  re 
sources  and  importance. 

There  is  but  one  way  to  cure  this,  and  that  is 
eminently  practical  and  desirable.  It  is  for  the 
people  of  our  country  to  study  their  own  history 
more  thoroughly,  and  not  their  political  history 
only,  but  the  history  of  their  material  progress. 
There  are  few  good  books  in  which  to  find  this ;  but 
there  is  one  which  has  been  put  forth  by  L.  Steb- 
bius,  which  is  especially  adapted  to  this  object ;  and 
a  more  instructive,  interesting,  and  popular  work 
is  rarely  found. 


No.  52. 

From  the  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  New 
Haven,  Conn. 

"Eighty  Years'  Progress  of  the  United  States"  by 
eminent  literary  men. — This  compendium  of  nation 
al  statistics  forms  a  valuable  handbook  of  reference, 
*o  which  all  who  possess  it  will  have  frequent  oc 
casion  to  turn  for  information  in  respect  to  the  pro 
gress  and  condition  of  the  great  elements  of  growth 
and  development  in  the  history  of  the  United  States 
during  eighty  years  past.  The  value  of  the  book  as 
a  work  of  reference  would  have  been  much  enhan 
ced  by  a  more  frequent  reference  to  authorities  and 
original  sources  of  information.  But  taken  as  it  is, 
it  supplies  a  great  desideratum,  and  its  pains-taking 
publisher,  Mr.  Stebbins,  deserves  our  thanks  for  so 
valuable  a  contribution  to  our  resources  in  this  de 
partment  of  statistics. 


COMMENDATIONS. 


No.  53. 

From  the  Springfield  Republican. 
Our  citizens  are  offered  a  large  arid  expensive 
•work,  giving  the  industrial  progress  of  the  United 
States  during  the  eighty  years  of  their  national  ex 
istence.  It  is  embellished  by  numerous  engrav 
ings,  and  the  letter-press  is  prepared  by  writers  of 
eminence  in  the  various  departments  of  which  it 
treats.  It  is  sold  to  subscribers  only. 


No.  54. 

From  ISAAC  FEREIS,  D.  P.,  Chancellor  of  the  University  in 
New  York. 

I  have  looked  into  the  work  entitled  "  Eighty 
Years'  Progress  of  the  United  States,"  and  am 
happy  to  unite  with  the  worthy  men  who  have  ex 
amined  it,  in  commending  it  to  my  friends. 

NEW  YORK.  ISAAC  FERRIS. 


No.  55. 

From  J.  M.  MATHEWS,  D.  D.,  Ex-Chancellor  of  the  Univer 
sity  in  New  York. 

The  object  of  the  work  is  highly  commendable  ; 
and,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  examine  it,  has  been 
executed  with  ability  and  fidelity.  I  freely  com 
mend  it  'to  public  patronage. 

YORK.  J.  M.  MATHEWS. 


From  Prof.  E.  \V.  Ilosror.n,  of  Cambridge  University. 

It  is  a  work  of  very  great  value  for  popular  ref 
erence.  The  articles  having  been  prepared  by 
writers  who  have  made  specialties  of  the  subjects 
upon  which  they  have  written,  are,  as  a  con 
sequence,  eminently  attractive.  I  find  them  an 
unfailing  source  of  valuable  information  and  im 
portant  suggestion. 

In  the  way  of  illustrations  what  could  be  more 
significant  than  the  group  of  agricultural  imple 
ments  of  1790,  contrasted  with  the  mowing,  reap- 
iag,  raking,  and  threshing  machines  of  1860;  or 


than  the  Franklin  printing  press  as  compared  with 
the  Hoe  printing  press? 

The  author  of  the  article  on  Steam  and  Steanr 
boats,  renders  a  most  acceptable  service,  in  placing 
on  record  the  just  claims  of  John  Fitch  and  Oliver 
Evans. 

Let  me  congratulate  you  on  having  found  so 
many  able  contributors,  and  in  having  procured  so 
valuable  a  work. 


No.  57. 

From  A.  JACKSON,  D.  D.,  President  Hobart  College,  Geneva. 
I  have  examined,  as  far  as  time  would  allow,  your 
new  work,  entitled  '•  Eighty  Years  of  Progress." 
I  think  it  a  very  convenient  book  of  reference,  and 
a  valuable  addition  to  our  statistical  knowledge.  I 
have  already  found  it  a  very  useful  work  to  con 
sult,  and  I  gladly  add  it  to  our  College  Library, 
where  it  well  deserves  a  place. 


No.  58. 

From   C.  NUTT,  D.  I).,  President  of  the  Indiana  State  Uni 
versity,  Bloomington,  I  ml. 

I  have  examined  your  recently  published  work 
entitled  "  Eighty  Years'  Progress;"  and  from  the 
examination  I  have  been  able  to  give  it,  I  believe 
that  it  merits  richly  the  highest  commendation. 
The  great  variety  and  importance  of  the  subjects, 
the  felicitous  style  in  which  they  are  clothed,  and 
their  numerous  and  beautiful  illustrations,  render 
this  work  peculiarly  attractive.  They  embrace 
subjects  of  great  and  universal  utility,  and  deeply 
interesting  to  all  classes  of  community.  Every 
profession  and  calling  in  life  is  here  exhibited,  with 
the  latest  improvements  in  every  department  of 
industry  and  art.  The  advancement  made  during 
eighty  years,  in  the  American  republic,  is  unparal 
leled  in  the  history  of  the  world ;  and  will  remain 
a  proof  to  all  coming  generations,  of  the  blessings 
of  free  institutions,  and  the  capability  of  man,  un 
der  a  system  of  self-government,  for  an  almost  in 
definite  progress  in  civilization.  This  work  should 
be  in  every  library,  public  and  private,  and  in  the 
hands  of  every  citizen. 


AGENTS   WANTED 

To  sell  this  valuable  Standard  National  work  in  every  unoccupied 
Town,  City,  and  Village  in  the  United  States.  Every  family,  every 
young  man  should  have  a  copy.  It  is  a  perfect  storehouse  of  in 
formation,  a  library  in  itself,  every  page  containing  valuable  infor 
mation  for  all  classes.  It  is  the  only  work  of  the  kind  published  in 
the  country.  Treats  of  subjects  which  all  are  inclined  to  boast  of, 
and  of  which  we  may  be  proud  of  having  historically  described 
and  embodied  in  a  permanent  form.  Its  value  as  a  family  book  can 
not  be  over-estimated.  It  will  take  a  place  among  the  standard 
works  of  the  country  like  Webster's  Dictionary,  Bancroft's  History, 
and  the  New  American  Encyclopedia.  The  second  canvass  will,  in 
many  cases,  be  more  profitable  than  the  first,  as  there  are  but  few 
books  of  any  kind  sold  the  first  time  over  the  ground  in  proportion 
to  the  population ;  only  just  enough  to  give  valuable  works  a  good 
reputation,  and  create  a  desire  to  buy  them.  We  hope  some  resi 
dent  of  each  place  where  the  book  has  been  sold,  will  take  up  the 
second  canvass  and  supply  every  family  who  was  not  furnished  the 
first  time  over  the  ground.  Our  terms  are  extra  liberal.  For  partic 
ulars,  territory,  &c., 

Address  L.  STEBBINS, 

Hartford,  Ct. 


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